Classical
VOICES Notes and news on Classical releases
Organ Spectaculars
01 JUL 09 JASON SERINUS
If anything defined the Telarc sound early on in the digital age, it was its engineers' mastery of full-range orchestral recording. A case in point is Jongen: Symphonie Concertante & Franck: Fantaisie In A & Pastorale, a disc of three organ works, featuring organist Michael Murray and the San Francisco Symphony under the baton of Edo de Waart. Recorded in 1984 on the Ruffatti organ, which had recently been installed in Davies Symphony Hall, the recording became an instant classic.
The major work on the program, Joseph Jongen's 35-minute Symphonie Concertante for Organ and Orchestra, Op. 81, was written in Belgium in 1926. An unabashedly romantic, tonal work that more than hints at the sometimes unsettling transition from the lush harmonies of the 19th century to the new, less complacent textures of the post World War I 20th, it begins with a room-shaking fugue. Some passages whisper, while others shimmer with an ungraspable air of mystery.
Prepare yourself for the final movement, with its pull-out-all-the-stops Toccata that may send your beloved puddy cat scrambling for cover. Dark, churning, and ominous, and complete with trumpet blasts and percussive thwacks, it's one of those organistic exclamations that are all an organ lover and a power-crazed organist could ask for.
Rounding out the program are two solo works by César Franck, the Fantasie in A major and Pastorale in E major, Op. 19. If the former is a little heavy on bombast, the latter provides a quite lovely landing after Jongen's knockout tour-de-force.
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Jongen: Symphonie Concertante for Organ and ...
Edo de Waart, San Francisco Symphony, ...
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Saint-Saens: Maestoso from Symphony No. 3 in ...
Michael Murray, from An Organ Blaster: ...
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Scenes de Ballet: VII. Valse
Edo de Waart & Minnesota Orchestra, from G ...
in this playlist.
Stunning Dramatic Mezzo
20 JUN 09 JASON SERINUS
When the great American mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick first sang for veteran mezzo Fedora Barbieri, who had shared stages with Callas, Barbieri exclaimed, "What a voice!" That voice is captured on the Telarc release The Art Of Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano.
In a joint interview with Barbieri in Opera News, Zajick acknowledged that the imposing nature of her instrument made for a rough start. She chose singing over studies to be a physician, won Third Prize in the 1982 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music. She said, "It was a frustrating experience, because like many conservatories today, they did not know how to deal with big voices."
Telarc's engineers had no such problem when Zajick, one of the richest and grandest mezzo sopranos currently on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera, stepped before the microphones in the year 2000. In her only solo recital of operatic arias, she is captured in prime form as she rips through arias by Verdi, Gluck, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Cilea, Rossini and Saint-Saens with extraordinary mastery. Defying categorization for someone with such a huge, rafter-shaking instrument, Zajick handles the coloratura hurdles of "Ah! Quel giorno ognor rammento," from Rossini's Semiramide, with aplomb. Her high notes, especially, would leave many a soprano quivering in envy.
Especially noteworthy are the arias from Verdi's Il Trovatore, Don Carlo and Macbeth. Again showing off her high extension, the artist famed for her portrayals of Verdi dramatic mezzo roles switches to soprano for two of Lady Macbeth's bone-chilling arias. It's an extraordinary tour-de-force that all opera lovers will want to hear.
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Saint-Saens: Samson et Dalila: "Mon coeur ...
Dolora Zajick, from The Art of Dramatic ...
American Celebration
29 MAY 09 JASON SERINUS
As Memorial Day rolls around each year, thoughts often turn to America's enduring impact on the rest of the world. While any attempt at far-reaching political analysis is beyond the scope of this blog, thank God, we do have American Jubilee, a classic Telarc recording as a reference point for assessing America's musical heritage.
A most colorful orchestral spectacular from Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, it includes everything from arrangements of "Yankee Doodle," "Dixie," "America the Beautiful," and "God Bless America" to Ives' hilarious Variations on "America" and Copland's Variations on a Shaker Melody from Appalachian Spring.
Beyond the inevitable Stars & Stripes Forever and "Battle Hymn of the Republic" we find such less frequently encountered titles as three selections from Gottschalk's Cakewalk, Chadwick's Jubilee from Symphonic Sketches, Gould's American Salute, and Williams' Liberty Fanfare. Everywhere Kunzel and crew invest their performances with a care and delight that lifts them far above the commonplace. The grace that surfaces in the middle of Chadwick's Jubilee from Symphonic Sketches, and the conviction of the May Festival Chorus, are cases in point.
David Loebel's six pages of well-researched liner notes are a special bonus. I can't be the only person on the planet who had no idea that the Confederacy's official battle song, "Dixie," was composed by famed blackface performer and Union-sympathizer Dan Emmett, or that "Yankee Doodle" was once sung by the British to poke fun at the colonists who soon stole the New World away from them. Great stuff.
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Ward: America the Beautiful
Erich Kunzel & Cincinnati Pops Orchestra ...
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Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring (excerpt)
Various Artists, from The Nature Of ...
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God Bless America
Rosemary Clooney, from The Best Of The ...
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Battle Hymn of the Republic
Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Craig Jessop, ...
in this playlist.
Classically Affordable
15 MAY 09 JASON SERINUS
I've been spending many joyful hours enjoying Telarc's Everybody's Classics series, and I'm quite impressed. The first 10 titles, all costing under $10, contain some of the greatest music that Beethoven, Brahms, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and Vaughan Williams wrote. Not only is the sound often demonstration class, but the artists and performances are quite fine.
In a recent survey of American orchestras, the U.K.'s Gramophone Magazine ranked the Cleveland Orchestra as seventh best in the world, and second best in the United States. Prominent in the series are Cleveland performances of Beethoven's Symphonies Nos. 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, as well as the Choral Fantasy and Leonore Overture No. 3, conducted by Christoph von Dohnanyi.
No less than the celebrated André Previn conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on the Brahms and Vaughan Williams sets. His rich Brahms compilation includes the Haydn Variations and both great piano concertos.
This opera queen is especially excited by the generous excerpts from Mozart's great Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, The Magic Flute, and Così fan tutte, all performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Charles Mackerras. Mackerras' encourages his singers to embellish, making for compelling performances from such top-tier artists as Christine Brewer, Bo Skovhus, Nuccia Focile, Alessandro Corbelli, Alastair Miles, Barbara Hendricks, Thomas Allen and Suzanne Mentzer. Check out all the titles here. I expect you, too, will want to listen and applaud.
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Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat, Op. 55, ...
Christoph von Dohnanyi & The Cleveland ...
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Mozart: Cosi fan tutte: N. 14: Aria: "Come ...
Sir Charles Mackerras & Scottish Chamber ...
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Brahms: Six Pieces, Op. 118: III. Ballade ...
Andre Previn, Royal Philharmonic, from ...
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Rachmaninoff: Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor: ...
Various Artists, from Everybody's ...
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Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 "Classical:" IV. ...
Various Artists, from Everybody's ...
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Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 2 "London:" ...
Andre Previn & Royal Philharmonic, from ...
in this playlist.
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