title: TRACK LISTING:

text: 1. Thunder Ode 2. Another Morning 3. Licht 4. She Brings The Rain 5. On The Open Polar Sea 6. Dif For The Sky 7. Every Hollow Plow 8. Avian Blues 9. Borealis 10. In Blood


title: Track listing and info

text:
BLIND ORCHID - solo works for percussion and electtronics.
1. i/inside (no exit)
2. 17 stone park stutter/breath
3. micohole
4. wisdom of not knowing II (for Stomu Yamash'ta)
5. blind orchid
6. circle within a circle (for Max Neuhas)
7. witchball
8. close to the margin


title: Track Listing

text:
1. Do U Damage
2. Hot Stuff
3. Move Like That
4. Do ya Think I'm Sexy?
5. Trigger A Bomb
6. A Kick In The Teeth


title: Track Listing

text: 1. Mascarada 2. Es Mi Mujer 3. Mientete 4. Margarita 5. Una Mujer Como Tu 6. Mi Amor Amor 7. Bandolera 8. Yo Quiero Ser Tu Amor 9. Piel De Azucar 10. Denudate 11. Sin Saber 12. Delia


title: Track listing

text: Artist: The Art Of All Title: Morgan<br />1. Meet At The Helm 2. Along Our Arms 3. The Medium 4. The Ones Among The Rest That Are 5. So Much More 6. Morgan's Jam 7. Burn The Bridge 8. Patiently Waiting


title: Track Listing

text:
1. Prelude/Primer
2. Culture Jammer
3. A Vague Notion of Nothing Much
4. Little Love Affairs
5. Gaslight Girl
6. Centaurea
7. N.E. Breeze
8. Faulkner's South
9. 388 Hate House
10. The Love I Fake
11. Aubade
12. Archipelago No. 12


title: Track Listing

text:
1. 24PS
2. This Winter
3. Chiaroscuro
4. Necromance
5. Papillon
6. Memento Mori
7. The Reformation
8. Cardiac Thanatosis
9. Dust
10. The Grand Imperial Cirque De L'Enfer
11. The Wicked One


title: Track Listing

text:
1. I've Found A New Baby
2. Hey Mr. Pelican
3. Czardas
4. love Song Without Words
5. After You've Gone
6. Gymnopeie No. 1
7. Dark Eyes
8. Blue Room
9. Tango Por Una Cabeza
10. Meditation
11. Moonlight In Vermont
12. El Relicario
13. The Swan From Carnival Of The Animals
14. How Can It Be?


title: Music from Liberia - Track Listing

text: 1. Nahn hay 2. Wada-wada 3. I'm With The C.O. 4. Come Back To Me, Baby 5. Monkey Work Bamboo Draw 6. Zan-kwan7. Wada-wada


title: Track Listing

text:
1. Yes!
2. Curious The Cat Killer
3. All On Your Own
4. Redressing
5. Close Robot
6. Dream
7. Delay


title: Track Listing

text:
1. Follow The Directions
2. Ma I'm Tryin'
3. Control Freak
4. Visiting Hours (at the Federal Penitentiary)
5. Spit
6. I Quit You
7. #8
8. Self-Medication
9. Three Sizes Too Small
10. Drinkin' Days


title: Track listing

text:
1. Nuestro Amor
2. Sin Ti
3. Contigo
4. No Me Quieras Tanto
5. Los Dos
6. Caminemos
7. Rayito De Luna
8. No Trates De Mentir
9. Amorcito Corazon
10. Un Siglo De Ausencia
11. Una Copa Mas
12. Sin Un Amor


title: Track Listing

text:
1. Amarrao con fe
2. Dolorita
3. Mujer de cabaret
4. La cotorrita de Rosa
5. Te la dejo toda
6. Baracoa
7. Santiago
8. Jala leva
9. Los piratas
10. Sabor de engano
11. La comelona


title: Track Listing

text:
1. On The Ropes
2. Professional Disturber Of The Peace
3. Hank and John
4. Whites


title: Track Listing

text:
1. Good As Gold (Stupid As Mud)
2. Love Adjourned
3. Minicorrect (Demo Version)


title: TRACK LISTING

text:
1. Just A Simple Love Song

2. Strawberries For Breakfast

3. Reverie

4. Imaginary Landscapes

5. Only Then

6. Main Theme: (Hoofdthema) Een Vlucht Regenwulpen

7. All By Myself

8. A Summer Story

9. Friendship

10. Flowers For A Lady

11. Reflections

12. Song For Mary


title: TRACK LISTING

text:
1. Why Should I Pretend

2. My Rainbow

3. Air Dancing

4. Magic Samba

5. Something More

6. Nomads

7. All Of You

8. My Funny Valentine

9. Someday My Prince Will Come

10. Someone To Watch Over Me

attachment_type: IMAGE


title: Awesome but incomplete

text: God how I wish this was a double album. Very hard to find. So get it.


title: Great for hard core fans.  Alternate takes, etc.

text: 6 cd’s for 20 bucks is a no brainer for any serious Heepster. I’ve been one since 1970!  Out-takes from the 1st 3 albums!  Cd’s 4 & 5 are great sounding live sets!  However you can tell sometimes that alcohol was getting in David’s way. Interesting because when David is weak Thain and Kerslake play in an “angry” manner. 3 interesting live tracks from the Fillmore East.  Cd 6 is a let down, obviously an audience bootleg in mono.


title: Doug Ingle had TALENT

text: I must disagree with Mark.  He writes very well.<br />But he has no point of reference. No knowledge of the time or it's music.  He's also obviously not a musician.  I was there and we all heard the 17 minute song played live at dances for a month BEFORE we ALL bought the album.  It was a musical atom bomb.  It split the earth.  Doug Ingle just happened to be a very fine singer and organist.  He probably hated the song in the same way classical composer Rachmaninov hated his c# minor prelude.


title: Though some of the performances are not the best the sound of these discs is actually very good ...

text: Though some of the performances are not the best the sound of these discs is actually very good - with 41 discs on offer it is good value for money and the 7.1 is better than 5.1.


title: Fantastic duo

text: Fantastic duo


title: Five Stars

text: Great music.


title: Came with a lot

text: I was honestly surprised how much came with this. I was just expecting the CD, but it came with a picture book/journal, and quite a few photo cards. I got this as a gift for my aunt and she loved it!


title: Les Elgart's Best, Perhaps?

text: Les Elgart's first two LPs for Columbia Records, Sophisticated Swing, and Just One Last Dance, were issued as both 10" and 12" LPs during 1953-54. Prom Date, however, was issued only as a 10" Lp. The album starts off with "Alexander's Ragtime Band", and you can hear drummer Ed Shaughnessy, long before his Johnny Carson Tonight Show days, dusting off his drum kit a little bit. "Charlie's Tune", is a beautiful tune which was written by brother Larry Elgart, also features him on alto sax. "Josephine", also released as a single, is probably the best version of this tune ever recorded, finishes side one. "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" was a milestone. It was one of several demo records that was recorded by Elgart in 1953, and when record producer George Avakian heard the demos, he liked them so much that he signed the Les Elgart band to Columbia Records right away. Because the demos were recorded flawlessly at the Ansonia Hotel, Avakian decided not to re-record them in a Columbia studio, that is why the studio sound is a little different than the rest. "Easy Pickin'", and  "Night Train", both also issued as singles, finishes side two. Interesting to note that Les Elgart's LPs sold better than his singles did, indicating that as early as 1954, record buyers were already divided between buying singles or buying Long-Playing Albums.


title: one of the very few Les Brown Coral reissues

text: In 1975, MCA(a.k.a. Decca Records) came out with a series of memorable 2-LP sets. Some of Les Brown's best Coral records from 1951-1955 are included here, not all of them have made their way to CD, thus making this LP collectable.


title: A little shuffle here and there

text: Les Elgarts' third LP from the 1960s involves his experiment with shuffle rhythms, something that bandleader Jan Savitt and his Top-Hatters specialized in, going all the way back to the 1930s. Actually, that band was long gone and nobody else was doing it at the time, so why not? The band sounds great, of course.


title: Yep

text: Despite the very cheap looking, un-imaginative album cover art, the music is quite the opposite. Les Elgart always had a trick up his sleeve. In this case, He swings on ballads, and plays ballads on tunes that usually swing...Very Clever.


This is an excellent compilation of Big Band music.  It really shines on a good system.  I love the natural "not over processed" sound  of each piece.  The entire compilation is wonderful.


title: Five Stars

text: As always another great cd


title: WaitaMinim!

text: I have a mint copy and used copy of this album and also saw the show at least twice in the theatre. This copy made me so happy as I am no able to acess and other copies. Condition very good!


title: Great Album

text: Yes, indeed, this needs to be out on CD and/or MP3. Can't someone do something? This is a great album.


title: Terrific big band jazz

text: Putting trombones at the center of this music is great. Power of the Big Band, but doesn't seem overly slick. Has heart as well as power.


title: Five Stars

text: Makes me want to go back to college.


title: one of his very best solo piano recordings

text: Powerful playing...delicacy  then strength...rhythmically alive...the chords wonderful...exhilarating.  And a great interview in the middle where he makes clear the African nature of his music and of jazz itself.  Beautiful, awesome!<br />Not only beautiful but intelligently adventurous.


title: This is the issue with 4 LPs not the Fresh Sound

text: This 1996 issue is the only one that has all four LPs on its 2 CDs.  The Fresh Sound issue listed first on Amazon only has 2 LPs on a single CD: Konitz meets Giuffre and You and Lee.  The 5 star review of the Fresh Sound CD is in error and is really describing this recorded issue.  A SHAME!<br />The above mentioned review does a nice job describing the quality of music.  The tune Cork and Bib has some adventurous playing including a simultaneous improv from Konitz and Warne Marsh.  Konitz fluency and original choice of notes beautiful as always in that time frame.


title: sameness

text: I found it to have a sameness of dynamics, texture, etc. throughout.  Not particularly melodic.


title: He and Lanny morgan were my favorite lead alto players in the Kenton and Ferguson big ...

text: Gabe Baltazar was one of my first inspirations on alto saxophone. He and Lanny morgan were my favorite lead alto players in the Kenton and Ferguson big bands. A fantastic  recording with great tunes and improvizations. Sound quality is very good as well


title: Bad rermix

text: The original song is very good.<br />I didn't like the remix version, because it is slow and you can't dance.


title: ) sur Sweet Georgia Brown

text: sonny criss joue du ténor, et non de l'alto ( 13 chorus formidables ! ) sur Sweet Georgia Brown . ça pourrait être Lester ! J'ai cherché longtemps le nom de ce musicien....merci de me l'avoir donné..


title: Three Stars

text: Just 2 and half stars.


title: Great recording ! musicians hitting the grooves hard.

text: Dolphy's genius on full display here. Bonus of young Tony Williams on fire!


title: A Bit Pricy!

text: I wonder why this cd is so expensive? Is it out of print? Is it signed by Joe? The guy is a great artist, but it's only a single cd...


title: All of the wonderful performances on the Fleischmann shows

text: As other reviewers have said, these are extraordinary performances.  The sound is reasonably good.  I haven't listened to the second CD, from the tapes Armstrong made.  Contrary to another reviewer, the first CD contains all the Armstrong performances from the six shows (according to the notes, these were half hour shows, with a number of performers; the Armstrong band did four numbers on each show, and all 24 are on the disk).


title: Five Stars

text: Good prodact.

user_id: AEGOTCJMLWSXSDNQCTZAHLVJAOXA


title: They were reasonably easy to light but were also easily extinguished by a ...

text: I have tried other fuel disks from various suppliers only to discover most are made by one manufacturer and private labeled for others. They all performed basically the same. They were reasonably easy to light but were also easily extinguished by a gust of wind. Most of the firestarter disks burn for 25 to 30 minutes, however, they produce less heat and flame than the RedFuel in the last 5-10 min. of burn time. The RedFuel disk actually burned hotter and longer and maintained an incredibly high temp. over 500F 15 minutes after it went out. I believe that was due to the magnesium content. I was concerned about the magnesium until I researched to find it is not toxic and is the reason for the hotter temperatures and residual heat. The RedFuel disc flickered out after 30min. and still recorded a temp of 889F 3 min. later and the ashes were still at 400F 15 min. after the flames ceased.  It actually provided cooking temperatures for 1 full hour. I actually tried to blow it out and couldn't, in fact, it actually got hotter. I discovered that it will light easily if you gouge and rough up a spot on the edge of the disk first. I'm sold on this product!


title: Five Stars

text: Used for VBS service and everyone enjoyed.


title: Great Album!

text: Great album of Rock and Roll!


title: One of the best!

text: A great blues album!


title: Definitely Worth a Spin

text: Quite an interesting little volume here, to say the least.


title: Really a lovely way to spend an evening

text: Loved every song done in engelbert Humperdinck fantastic style.  Beautiful music for anyone who appreciates wonderful songs and an even more wonderful voice


title: My band merch!

text: I love it !


title: Five Stars

text: One of the top 3 best U2 albums ever!  It plays nicely and arrived safely.


title: Best Comedy Album EVER!

text: The title pretty much says it all. I used to have this album, but the hole kept healing up.  Ye, verily.


title: The best meditation CD of all time

text: This CD, in many ways, saved my life. It actually has melodies, and evokes lots of emotions. The instrumentation is very diverse, and not limited to "eastern" sounding instruments.Buy it now!


title: a few more missing details

text: This is a great performance from Bley's "vaudeville" period, in which she not only played organ, but also acted as emcee and wrangler for her band of supposedly rambunctious musicians. It was originally broadcast as part of NPR's "Jazz Alive!" series, produced by Tim Owens and probably Rolando Arrieta and Wylie Rollins, none of whom receive credit in the CD notes. It was obviously released without permission from NPR and without compensation to the musicians, so caveat emptor. The complete audio of Bley's Armadillo set is on the CD, including her comments and introductions, which hold up surprisingly well. The music is excellent, with Gary Windo and Gary Valente leading the way and hamming it up exactly as Bley wanted. Despite the fun, the music is well-rehearsed and precisely played. The performance of "Wrong Key Donkey" (identified on the CD only as an encore with unknown title) is particularly good. The notes credit WBUR in Boston because the audio was apparently recorded off their air. It's an excellent transfer, with only one very minor glitch in "Jesus Maria.".  However, Hi Hat should have at least given credit to NPR and to series host  Billy Taylor, whose intro and outro are included. The recording should bring back great memories for those who saw Bley in the late 1970s, and demonstrate once again how much great music "Jazz Alive!" brought to American ears.


title: Worth It !

text: These four recordings is Steve Lacy's early work before he want off the free jazz track.<br />Worth having in one's CD collection


title: This CD Is Great!!!!

text:
I saw this tour. I own this disk. The opening song appeared on the b-side of the After The War single in the late 80's.
The sound quality is excellent. If you listen to the fool that wrote the previous review, you will be missing out
on a great disk. If you have any questions, contact me personally. You would love this disk. The Moore site does diss the
disk. It must be a licensing issue and they aren't getting money from the sale. However, the disk sounds fine and I'm very glad to have it.


title: Alleluia! Album

text:
I have been looking for this item for a long time.
The record played very well, but the cover was not like new as the ad said.
I would tell my Christian friends about this.


title: Why isn't this woman a household name?

text: "Spin Like a Top" knocked me out when I heard it on satellite radio, so I bought the album hoping I'd like a few other songs.  What a wonderful surprise to find a such rich collection of songs!  The lyrics for every one create a sense of inhabiting a particular experience, with the emotions and personalities intact. The tunes are great, and the band really captures the heart of each one. I don't remember being this impressed with a new songwriter's album since the first Simon & Garfunkel came out.


title: Fun to listen to cuz is a fun live performance ...

text: Highly collectible.  Cheap price.  Fun to listen to cuz is a fun live performance Miles sounds great on it and 1961 was a good sounding year for him.  Very happy w purchase for the reasons above.


title: Five Stars

text: Great album, America's introduction to the kinks that's very historical. Good. Condition.  Very happy with purchase.


title: I've been eagerly waiting for MJ's return to this kind of music

text: I've been eagerly waiting for Marc Jordan to return to doing this type of music. It's not exactly like Blue Desert or Mannequin, but it sure does let me know that he hasn't lost it at all! This is a deeply wonderful piece of work and I'm completely thrilled to be able to hear it after not being so thrilled about the past few CD's he's released. They were all legitimate CD's, don't get me wrong... just not my style of music. I love the Nashville studio musician influence here and his voice is as good as ever! Give us more, MJ!!!! and thanks for this one!


title: Missing parts

text: did not have the The fitting machined turbo adapter plate with built in 1mm oil restrictor thats in the description and was the reason for buying this product


title: Covered key

text: Thorough, easy to follow tables, and organizes content in a way that helps you remember things. This book summarize everything, but I recommend to use this book if you have the basic knowledge! If not, you would have hard time to understand. And I would recommend to study Saunder first! But over all! Is good!


title: Great

text: Really recommended


title: Five Stars

text: Very good buy


title: ... me that this lp / vinyl was in very good condition (cover and disc)

text: The seller told me that this lp / vinyl was in very good condition (cover and disc), but this disc with 2 large scratches impossible to hear it. Big disappointment.


title: Five Stars

text: Such great friendship


title: Excellent

text: Andrea is superb as always.  Beautiful accompaniment.


title: Funky and rare.

text: Funky sounds from the mode era. Liked it so much, I bought two.


title: Great Overview of Five Decades of Music

text:
Recently I have become fond of collection of the output of various record companies. When looking at Capitol Records, you have the choice of the six CD collection of 1942-2002 or the eight CD collection of 1942-1992.  I decided on this collection for the following reasons:
1.  There is a lot more music in the 50th anniversary collection - over 160 songs vs. 94 songs
2.  The 50th anniversary collection offers lot of one shot hits - like the Japanese version of "Sukiyaki", "Willie and the Hand Jive", "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette", "Georgy Girl", "I'm not Lisa" - that are not included in the 60th anniversary collection.
3.  Some artists overlooked in the 60th anniversary collection are included here - like Anne Murray.
4.  Sorting songs by general categories makes more sense than sorting them by decades.  Besides, I feel that omitting the decade 1992 -2002 is not that much of a loss.

But no collection is perfect.  I feel that the most glaring omission is the Beach Boys.  They are represented only by one early song ("I Get Around"), while rock groups like the Steve Miller Band and Bob Seger are represented by three songs each.  The influence and standing of the Beach Boys certainly merits more than this.  One other omission is any significant written essay or song information - they have only the title, the performer and the composer.  It would have been nice to have at least the date of release and hit ranking.  Also, I found that the electronic information on a couple of the discs was incorrect, although the information on the back of the CD case  was accurate.

Still, this is a great overview of five decades of music and worth the purchase.


title: For the Prince fan

text: My father love it!


title: It De- Stigmatizes Nudity and sex in a theatrical delivery!!

text: Think of listening to your favorite Broadway musical number in the nude....... now think of the topic would be the most popular and there you have "Let my people COME!" a 1974 authentic reference to the evolution and inclusion into what most people today look at as diversity of LOVE. Listening to it you'll laugh, find it trite, but always know it is rare to even hear this recording..


title: Gloria/Miami Sound Machine's around awhile but with this HIT, "Hotel Naccional", makes them#1 again!

text: I rated this product based solely on the fact that I couldn't find any extended versions because I love to dance. While I was shopping for another CD, I ran across DJ Michelangelo's disc offering me not one re-mix in addition to the original version, he has three more on it that blows your socks off!! Trustworthy, quality conscious!


title: "Not Your Daddy's Big Band Music"

text:
I am assuming that approaching this phenomenal album, one has had some exposure to jazz and big band music.  I'm not saying one has had to have had extensive listening experience with the likes of Be-Bop or "Progressive Jazz" (it helps, to be sure) but at the very least have demonstrated an ability to just sit down and listen.  If you can do that with this album, you will be truly blown away as well as richly rewarded.

An album like this comes along only once in a great while.  I think of Count Basie's "Atomic Basie", Duke Ellington's "And His Mother Called Him Bill" (featuring some of the best charts of Billy Strayhorn) Maynard Ferguson's "A Message From Newport", NYJO's "Full Score" (unfortunately never released on CD) and Illinois Jacquet's "Jacquet's Got It", to name a few.  These are the kind of big band albums one returns to time and time again to listen without ever tiring. Such is the case with this fabulous album!

I was first drawn to this album after hearing Aurora, the first track on this tremendous album.  That track alone would have been worth the price of the CD!  But there are seven other tracks no less compelling.  All eight tracks were deftly and masterfully composed, orchestrated, and conducted by Patrick Williams.  Moreover, he has assembled a veritable "Who's Who" of performers and top-drawer sidemen.  You will have to buy the album to see who I am talking about, but trust me, your jaw will drop!

The solo improvisations on each chart are absolutely galvanizing!  The interplay of soloist and band had me saying time and again, "I can't believe what I am hearing!"  Nothing is predictable and everything makes perfect musical sense!

I purchased this CD from Artist Share via Amazon.  The 19.95 price tag, as far as I'm concerned, is a real bargain!  The folks at Artist Share are very friendly and offer an online access to the artist's creative process.  While I have not taken advantage of that as of this writing, I expect to do so.  If you love jazz and big band music, this album featuring The Big Band of Patrick Williams is a "must-have" addition to your library.  The album may not be your daddy's big band music, but it sure should become that for your kids and everyone else who loves jazz.


title: Nice and interesting job.

text: Nice and interesting job. Simple and powerful solutions. A Clear and an open talk. Tony keeps on trying to help everyone who want to be helped, using all the resources that he has, including the help of other people that he surrounds himself with.


title: Very rare CD and good underrated band

text: Very rare CD and good underrated band. You probably best know "Friend From Quebec" from the John Candy movie "Canadian Bacon".


title: Very energetic

text: I really enjoy the music of El trio de hoy. The energy that fills the room helps me get through the day. Very AWESOME!


title: Great service, well packaged & sent immediately.  CD in new condition.

text: Great service from seller, CD in new condition.  Sent immediately and well protected package.


title: Naomi Striemer - Images

text: Sweet, sultry and soulful, Naomi's thoughtful lyrics and breathtaking artistry make this cd a must have for anyone in love or anyone who wants to be.


title: Haunting

text:
J Davis, YES!  Listen to that
VOICE of Richard Shindell!
It's transfixing.  And I would
like to give you another musician who is haunting:
Dick Gaughan=> Workers Song.  It's Irish.  It's SPECTACULAR!


title: great CD ... was able to get before it reached stores in my area

text: wonderful CD from an iconic artist


title: Their single, Television Romance, is AMAZING

text: Great 80's retro sound, but with a modern take. Highly recommend.


title: Uplifting Christian Music

text: Smooth-listening harmonies. Nice arrangements on a few old songs, and four new songs I hadn't heard before. Recommended.


title: Petra,s comeback cd!

text:
This cd is a great collection of remastered work
and also two new songs.

Greg is back with the oringial men
Personally i feel he sounds better
then in the 80's.

If you are a die hard Petra fan like myself
this is a must.


title: An interesting release of live material.

text: I had seen this collection at a recent record show, and the dealer was asking much more for it. When I read that this had been included in the limited box set of UK material some years ago, I had to check it out. The music is a great representation of what UK did at the end of the seventies, but the recording quality also reflects the time period. As it included a Blu-ray disc, I was expecting something visual in the content, but it was only the music that was represented on the two accompanying CDs, and not a true surround mix. Good for dedicated fans of Jobson, Wetton and Bozzio.


title: Five Stars

text: Excellent bed that is very comfortable.


title: katchafire rules

text: my cd came all the way from new zealand and arrived early...the company was great at keeping me up to date on where it was and the music rules


title: Five Stars

text: Thanks


title: Omas schonste Schlaflieder

text: Unfortunately there is not enough information provided for the CD entitled Omas schonste Schlaflieder.  No listing of songs.  Is this instrumental only?  Are words included?


title: Five Stars

text: Great! Fast shipping. Thank You...


title: Would love to find this cd.

text: I have the cassette of this record looking for the cd. Love this album


title: Wrong version in Amazon description and photo.

text: Warning. This description and photo would have you believe you are getting a Classic records SV-P 200gram version of this classic masterpiece from Led Zeppelin. Wrong. The vendor sent me a 180gram original version. Buyer beware you can get this version for $20-$25 elsewhere on Amazon.


title: Perfect

text: Perfect condition


title: M & B Rule!!

text: C'mon.  Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps are as big a staple in So. Calif. as are the Lakers and Angels. Mark and Brian do the "wacky radio" D.J. thing better than anyone. And they do it nicely. That's not to say thay can't get a little edgy and, sometimes, blue, they do it with such humor you find yourself laughing right along with Mark's very distinctive laugh.


title: Five Stars

text: Good music for meditation or yoga.


title: Five Stars

text: Music from my day - always good


title: Sound

text: sound quality is good


title: Five Stars

text: The sound quality is great. Im happy with the purchase, specially with all the songs ot contains.


title: Best album ever

text: Great cd


title: Item came as described

text: Item came as described


title: ME ENCANTA!

text: Es de mis albums favoritos y llegó justo como esperaba y en perfectas condiciones!!!


title: Album

text: The best !


title: Adore it

text: It is everything I’ve ever wanted and more. This artist I hold so dearly in my heart as she and this album helped me thru my darkest times, made me cry and smile <33 10/10 !


title: ARMY

text: amazing worth the money


title: Perfect

text: Awesome picture and sound quality!


title: Love at first sight

text: Amazing album. Early work, you can see how the formation of their style was coming together. With each consecutive album they got better and better. Love at first sight is the highlight on this album which doesn't have 1 bad song.


title: Awesomesauce

text: Every album these guys put out is consistent great music. Another great work!!!


title: Undiscovered Treasure

text: Roger Tillison was one of the great Tulsa singer-songwriters, who, sadly, was never commercially appreciated in this country.  Interestingly, this was not the case in Japan, where his heartfelt, simple, and earthy music achieved cult status, until his recent, untimely death at age 72.  Roger's first album, produced by Jesse Ed Davis in the early '70s is a classic Americana gem.  "Mamble Jamble"  was only released in Japan, I believe, in 2003. It has Roger playing with a fine group of Tulsa musicians.  The production is simpler, but Roger's strong voice and  acoustic guitar are more up front, and songs like "Jukebox Poet," "Callin" on You," and "Southwest Wind" will be in your heart and mind for weeks.  One of Roger's earliest songs, "Rock 'n Roll Gypsies" is included as a bonus track, and given an anthem-like treatment . It's a fitting tribute to a great Okie singer, performer, and writer.  Pay whatever you have to to own this album.  The likes of Roger Tillison will not be seen again.


title: The  hero of this set is, of course, Charles Schlueter. It is difficult to imagine a finer tribute.

text:
This is not just a fine tribute to Illinois-born trumpeter Charles Schlueter; it also acts as an adjunct to his book Indirection: On Becoming a Better Musician and Trumpet Player as a Conceptual Process (Combray House, 2021). Some of the performances will be familiar to Fanfare readers, but to have them all in one place is a reminder that brass playing can be an art. Remember Schlueter was principal trumpet of the Boston Symphony for a quarter of a century. This anthology presents recordings put down between 2001 and 2010. Schlueter retired from the BSO at the end of its 2006 Tanglewood season.

We hear that straightaway in Ketting’s Intrada for trumpet in C (1958), a soulful study in legato. It’s fascinating how Schlueter maintains such a legato line, not just by means of smooth slurs but also notable soft note attacks; it’s nice, too, to hear another Intrada (Honegger, 1948) immediately after, where Schlueter is joined by Deborah DeWolf Emery; on the original Vox release, Bravura Trumpet (Fanfare 19:3), the Ketting Intrada was followed by the Suderburg piece, here heard later on the disc.

A real treat is provided by Jean Hubeau’s 1944 Trumpet Sonata, which opens with the most splendidly dignified Sarabande; a brief, scampering “Intermède” offers opportunities for wonderful virtuosity from Schlueter (and we hear how developed his low range is, too) before a rather restrained “Spiritual” finale comes as a rather nice surprise. Even more fascinating is Robert Suderburg’s Chamber Music VIII: A Sonata, with its Japanese koto influences. What characterizes this performance is the sheer delicacy of Schlueter’s playing. Anyone who ever thought the trumpet to be a loud, ungainly instrument needs to hear this. The harmonic language is fascinating, often modal/post-modal or (unsurprisingly) pentatonic in the opening “ballade,” more Western and disjunct in the ensuing “invocation” and “procession.” (The booklet, like the Theodore Presser score, give the movement titles as lower case throughout.) The “procession” movement is slinky at times, and certainly raised a smile from this jaded old reviewer. The piece is a tribute to Suberburg’s teacher, Persichetti, and there is certainly a notable sophistication to “departure”; those high notes really ring out like bells in Suderburg’s finale (“departure”).

Things get a little more relaxed with Norman Bolter’s Marsha’s Gift, supremely well written for both instruments. The brass expertise comes as no surprise, as Botler was second trombone with the BSO for over 30 years. It is a lovely piece, fairly wide-ranging emotionally, and precedes Eric Ewazen’s tender retirement piece A Song from the Heart (2007). Ewazen is no stranger to Fanfare’s pages; his music is always engaging and expert, and this is no exception. The only piece with organ, Tomáš Svoboda’s 1997 Duo Concerto, closes disc one. The sonic imagination in this quarter hour-plus piece is remarkable, with the trumpet and organ meeting in timbral terms on numerous occasions. The piece is an in memoriam to another trumpeter, Richard Thornburg of the Oregon Symphony, and so its dramatic, almost Gothic, way with the organ is perhaps less surprising; there is even a passage that sounds like a hymn on the organ, over which the trumpet sounds a lament. It is perhaps quite right that the first disc ends not with a piece of blazing virtuosity, but one of introspective strength.

The second disc presents chamber music, beginning with the intriguing combination of trumpet and cello (though the booklet track listing erroneously states that Yves Chardon’s 1958 Sonata is for trumpet and piano). Chardon’s piece is deliciously Stravinskian Neoclassicism; the composer was a cellist with various orchestras, including the BSO. There is a lot of Petrushka here, it strikes me, plus some Mahler later on. But it is the combination that fascinates, and what Chardon does with it, fully utilizing the expressive potentialities of the cello (unsurprising) and the trumpet (more of a feat). The lines are sometimes remarkably tricky (the third movement, an Andante), and both Schlueter and the cellist here, Joel Merschel, triumph. The only caveat is that the recording feels a bit airless.

We heard one Suderburg piece on the first disc; here is a companion piece, Chamber Music VII: Ceremonies, where once more those Eastern influences are clearly in evidence. Schlueter clearly resonates completely with this music; he certainly offers it the best possible case. The way he dispatches the long upward “calls” of the second movement is remarkable, while the finale (“procession”) is a modernist whirligig of virtuosity. I have no complaints as to the recording here.

Certainly, Hindemith is more familiar territory, and the many sonatas he wrote for solo instrument and piano are an integral part of the repertoire. It is also true that the piano parts are often of equivalent, if not greater, difficulty than the solo parts; it certainly feels as if that is the case here, and Deborah DeWolf Emery is entirely up to the job. This performance positively bristles with energy. The sonata contains a fast second movement, beautifully articulated, before ending with a Hindemith favorite, a “Trauermarsch” that includes a version of Bach’s chorale, Alle Menschen müssen sterben. This performance is as poignant as can be; Hindemith’s open and lonely textures are eminently (and rightly) disturbing.

It’s rare to hear Stravinsky’s Fanfare for a New Theater performed with such gusto (Schlueter being joined by James Tinsley); it’s likewise rare to hear Poulenc’s trio performed with such subtlety (the central Andante is particularly touching). This is the true spirit of chamber music, with each player intently acute to the other two. Dissonances count, each and every time, adding that Poulenc spice to the harmonic field, while the concluding Rondeau is witty without being crass. Britten’s rarely performed Fanfare for St. Edmunsbury is given a positively regal performance here. The withheld entrances of the second and third trumpets makes maximal impact; and in terms of musical language, this could be by nobody else but Britten. The results are magical.

The Septet of Saint-Saëns is a delightful work, as Gallic as they come and full of thrilling prestidigitation from DeWolf Emery. This is a life-enhancing performance, thrillingly playful. The trumpet part is important in this piece, a vital part of the sound-color, and is expertly dispatched, of course. The finale is a particular delight; again, the recording could take just a touch more focus.

The final disc is devoted to trumpet with orchestra and wind ensemble, beginning with a delightful Hummel Concerto from Kyushu, Japan. The Kyusha Symphony Orchestra is well drilled, and seems to be having fun, but it is the playing of Schlueter that enables the performance to shine. Akiyama finds much delicacy in the orchestral contribution to all three movements, but it is Schlueter that provides the magic in the central Andante (not least in a perfect trill and absolutely vocal line—this is an aria for trumpet). The famous finale is taken at a fairly moderate pace allowing every note to speak, and it does not sound slow because of the accuracy of the performance. This is full of character, as Hummel’s ornaments are seen as a chance for post-Mozartian wit. Alan Hovhaness’s Prayer of St. Gregory seems just the right balm after that: The strings (the Berkshire CO) are radiant, while Schlueter delivers the Aeolian chant with a focus few can manage.

The name of the Montreal-born composer Ruth Lomon is new to me, though not to the Fanfare Archive. The piece is called Odyssey but is a trumpet concerto, beautifully written, evocative with fine use of expressive harmony. The composition was, she says, an odyssey in itself, although the title also refers to Nikos Kazantsakis’s epic poem “The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel.” The first movement, “Turning Point,” is certainly dramatic: The solo line is often declamatory, and Lomon skirts the filmic perilously without ever quite going there. The central “Dancing on the Abyss” is a showcase for Schlueter’s talents; the line is angular and flutter-tonguing is a frequent effect, here often sounding like a kind of mini-growl. This is a fine performance from the Berkshire orchestra, too. The finale, “Shifting Currents,” has a blues-like tinge with trumpet as “singer,” surrounded by chords that occasionally would not sound out of place in Hovhaness. This is a thrilling piece by a composer clearly worthy of investigation.

It’s nice to hear an orchestral piece by Norman Bolter: On the Cusp is for solo trumpet and brass ensemble with percussion. The title refers to Schlueter’s birthday; astrologically he is on the cusp of Aries and Taurus. The ruling planets are that old couple, Mars and Venus, and Bolter attempts elements of both in his piece (there is certainly an ongoing trudge of Mars that is clear). This is ten highly diverting minutes, brilliantly scored and showcasing Schlueter brilliantly, both as solo and, at one point, in collaboration with the ensemble’s own trumpets. The piece is involving, certainly, if a touch superficial.

James Stephenson’s Duo Fantastique clearly sets out to entertain and does so magnificently. There is, deliberately, less pyrotechical display than one might expect, and it has to be said that Eric Berlin is a fabulous, and equal, trumpet partner. Listen for the sudden waltz; it is a lovely moment.

Finally, Albert Tiberio’s Statements was written for Schlueter in anticipation of the great trumpeter’s retirement from Boston. This is a serious work; the opening Prologue is darkly primitive and culminating in a remarkable, but brief, trumpet cadenza. There follow four movements: a more lyrical (but still dark) “Soliloquy,” fully immersed in the tradition of Americana; a more carefree Scherzo (it is easy to miss the mastery of Schlueter’s phrasing here, but there are subtleties everywhere), and once again the Berkshire CO is in terrific form in the rhythmically taxing passages; a “Cantilena” as lyrical as its title implies, in which Schlueter rises to that challenge magnificently; and a finale merely entitled “Bravura” which just about says it all. This is also a fascinating piece of music in that just when you think you know where you are, Tiberio confounds you.

Tiberio is, I see, another Fanfare Archive debutant, and I should certainly like to hear more of his music. But the real hero of this set is, of course, Charles Schlueter. It is difficult to imagine a finer tribute.  Colin Clarke


Colin Clarke

I enjoyed both of the two discs by Mia Brentano (the alternative persona of Klaus Martin Kopitz; see the interview by Jacqueline Kharouf in 43:1) that came my way: Hidden Sea (Fanfare 42:1, which I branded at the time as “Easy Listening for advanced students”) and River of Memories (Fanfare 43:1). Brentano’s music remains unclassifiable apart from in misleadingly broad-brush terms. Here is a sequence of some 20 tracks plus two “bonus tracks,” one for each of the pianists. The main body of the disc is collectively titled Summerhouse, and is split into four groups of five movements each (so four “metamovements,” perhaps). What keeps one listening is not just Brentano’s variety, or her ability to compel through the slow but natural unfolding of her pieces; it also results from the sheer excellence of the playing and the recording.

Many of the tracks are for two pianos, but each pianist gets his moment. The very first movement, The Letter, is a solo for Billy Test, for example; Desert Island features Benyamin Nuss alone, this last of more advanced demeanor, notably sophisticated. Each of the first three “metamovements” has one solo number, while the final panel has both pianists playing together throughout. Mia Brentano is a mistress of atmosphere, but she needs performers that understand her music to create that atmosphere: the track Dreaming Mathilda seems to sum that up perfectly.

Of the more open, jazzy movements, Funky Fox (inspired by the animal) offers light relief and is supremely well written, while the performance is full of definition and rhythmic verve. At the other end of the spectrum is Nightlounge, the penultimate song of the third grouping. With the first movement of the last panel, Alone at the Lakeside, virtuosity meets Minimalism in a compelling marriage. The very last movement of Summerhouse, Walking in Starlight, is arguably the most beautiful.

Finally, there come two “bonus tracks,” one for each pianist. Nuss plays Henry Mancini’s Days of Wine and Roses in his own sparkling arrangement, highly individual and compositionally virtuosic, raking in a huge variety of styles within a short space of time. It fizzes with exploratory spirit; moments when everything seems to collide together are moments of magic. Test’s arrangement of Moon River is swimmy: he creates a slow vortex of sound out of which emerges that famous melody. A beautiful arrangement, and both “encores” (bonus tracks) seem the perfect way to close.

A memorable disc again comes from Mia Brentano, and again is produced with the highest of values. A superb release


title: A fascinating disc defined by a wonderfully human sense of sensitivity and compassion

text:
Colin Clarke

This is an all-electronic disc of dance music (in one form or another). It is highly atmospheric, but avoids the term “ambient” (thank the gods and goddesses). It is carefully crafted both on a micro level (from moment to moment), in the structure of each piece (the nicely contrasted panels of the first track, Mossy, for example) and in terms of a composite whole. Four of the pieces result from a collaboration between de Kenessey and choreographer Arial Grosmann; we also hear the shadows of Bulgarian and Hungarian folksongs experienced during de Kenessey’s childhood, plus klezmer in the catchy second piece, Unorthodox (inspired by the Deborah Feldman book and the Netflix show Unorthodox). Premiered in a video version in 2020, the piece progresses from that light opening via a carefully calibrated, extended crescendo to a place of joy.

It is remarkable to think this is electronically generated, and that there is such variety. The next four tracks comprise one unit, In Her Words, from which the album takes its name. The words we hear are from communications received by the composer from dancers who, in the spirit almost of a confessional, talk of their fears, anguish, and darkest moments. Hence each number is followed by a forename in brackets; the dancers are all from Ariel Grossman’s group, Ariel Rivka Dance. This “suite” is the core of the disc, and it feels musically as if this is where de Kenessey’s heart truly lies, telling stories that will surely resonate with many if not all listeners. There is hope here, certainly, in the vibrant underpinning of “All Together (Kirsten),” but the movement’s sudden halt suggests that that hope might itself be an illusion; certainly “With You (Hana),” the very next movement, is shot through with sadness, here at the enforced separation from the speaker’s newborns due to a hospital outbreak of Covid. The unstated malice in “On Our Own (Caitlyn)” speaks of attempts to “un-hear” or “un-remember” childhood experiences. This is powerful, really powerful music; I wonder if with dance it might not verge on the overwhelming.

The final Lead Me Alone is a gentle electronic song without words. It takes the music of a lockdown composition, composed as part of a virtual residency with Dance Lab New York NEXUS Lab. This is a fascinating disc defined by a wonderfully human sense of sensitivity and compassion, and superbly recorded. Recommended.


title: A mandatory purchase for all pianophiles: two major works, in performances of utter power

text:
Colin Clarke

What a great coupling this is: two works formed at times when the world was in turmoil (and how they reflect the current dynamics). Not only that, but Sally Pinkas brings together two unjustly neglected masterworks, both incredibly powerful.

Shostakovich wrote his Second Piano Sonata in war-torn 1943. It is a masterwork, but rarely appears on concert programs for some reason (exactly the same could be said of the Bridge). Its major exponent to date has been Emil Gilels, whose granitic RCA reading has always been a reference point. Pinkas’s reading is more rounded in that she finds pathos in delicacy in the first movement, which then appears full force in the central Largo. That Largo is spell-binding, a post-Bergian space where loneliness is emphasized by Shostakovich’s characteristically bare textures. Pinkas’s ideal melding of strength and emotional pliancy finds its perfect outlet in the final Moderato con moto, her staccato pecking beautifully formed, a sense of concentrated Pointillism (again, in Shostakovich’s terms) brilliantly done. The finale’s later sense of near-total darkness is vividly projected.

Of all the performances of Shostakovich’s Second Piano Sonata I have heard (both on disc and, on rare occasions, live), this is the finest. The recording, too, is fabulous, with just the right amount of space around the piano sound and just the right amount of depth. Basically, neutral but with presence; and within that neutrality, Pinkas paints her sonic pictures beautifully.

The Bridge Piano Sonata dates form the period in the aftermath of the First World War (1921–24). Pinkas’s performance is of the same exalted standard as her Shostakovich, and the way she has attuned herself to Bridge’s different harmonic language is remarkable. The space she gives to the opening Lento ma non troppo is superbly judged. The first movement accelerates through its tempo markings, from that to Andante ben moderato and on to Allegro energico; there is almost a sense of improvisation to some passages. This is no English Pastoral School outing: Bridge’s sonata is muscular, finely wrought, and intense. What is particularly impressive in Pinkas’s reading is her linear awareness: She draws the ear in all the right directions and highlights all the right melodic strands. Her structural awareness too is magnificent: The dark grandeur of the tortured first movement is remarkable, as is Pinkas’s awareness that Bridge’s passages of “consolation” are often qualified by poignant dissonance, as if true consolation is, at that point, outside of reach. The internal battle of the first movement is heart-wrenching in this performance.

The song of the central Andante ben moderato is laden with sadness here; one almost feels the weight on the composer’s back, and how cathartic it must have been for him to pen this, including the shards of light that come through like sunlight through leaves in a forest. The excellent recording seems to make itself known here just as much as in the violent movements: the beauty of Pinkas’s tone glows with a myriad of autumnal colors. The finale is downright unsettling, the bass rumbles foreboding. Pinkas’s technique has consistently revealed itself as incredibly strong, but it is here that she really comes into her own, unstoppable in momentum and with fingers clearly forged with steel.

For the Bridge, it is a close thing as to whether Pinkas or Ashley Wass emerges triumphant (Naxos 8.557921; at Naxos’s price, perhaps owning both is the solution). But the coupling for me is what would make this a mandatory purchase for all pianophiles: two major, and majorly unappreciated works, in performances of utter power.


title: A disc of well-constructed music that introduces a major guitarist

text:
Colin Clarke

Winner of the 2008 “Alhambra” International Guitar Competition, Russian guitarist Irina Kulikova has been featured in a number of releases, including a fascinating program on Naxos as a result of that win of Bach (Cello Suite No. 1, arranged for guitar by Kulikova herself), Sor (the Fantasy, op. 7), Castelnuovo-Tedesco (Sonata, op. 77, “Ommaggio a Boccherini”), Gallardo Del Rey (California Suite) and Tárrega; there is also a second Naxos Laureate disc (after winning the Michele Pittaluga competition, also in 2008). Her actual debut album was released in 2005 on Naxos. In 2014 Naxos released her fourth album, Reminiscences of Russia, featuring music by Konstantin Vassiliev, Sergei Rudnev, and Victor Kozlov. Most recently, in 2020, she released the album It’s About the Touch.

On those previous releases, Kulikova exhibited a rare intelligence and sensitivity. Her own transcription of the Bach C-Major Cello Suite, BWV 1007, for solo guitar is absolutely magical, while she offers a real sense of stylistic awareness in Sor’s op. 7 Fantasy without quite eclipsing memories of Sor expert Lou Marinoff (Phoenix: see my interview in Fanfare 40:1). Kulikova’s stylistic range does indeed seem to be notably broad: Her performance of Leo Brouwer’s Variations sur un thème de Django Reinhardt on the 2008 Laureate Naxos disc (the Pittaluga win) is both utterly beautiful and possessed of a real grasp of Brouwer’s sophisticated processes.

Born in Chelyabinsk, Russia, Irina Kulikova is something of a Wunderkind. She was touring Russia by the age of 12. She studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum University and the Gnessin Academy, Moscow, plus the University of Maastricht; she has been based in the Netherlands since 2007, and has won First Prize in six major competitions.

On the current album, Kulikova plays music by the Belgian composer Mark Van Overmeire (who currently resides in Las Vegas). Van Overmeire studied guitar, percussion, and classical harmony in his home town Bruges and jazz harmony at the University of Ghent. Here we have world premiere recordings of his two highly atmospheric and refined guitar suites. The first, La Forêt, begins with a gentle evocation of the scene with “Sous les arbres” (Underneath the trees) before populating the forest with creatures in the charming “Le cri et bruit des animaux” (The calls and sounds of the animals). Kulikova’s delicacy and sensitivity is a thing of beauty in itself, as is her awareness of the power of carefully considered articulation. The intimate recording supports the gentle aura of the music; the idea of a “waterfall cascade” (“Courant de cascade,” the third movement) is purpose-built for the guitar, of course, and indeed sings sweetly here under Kulikova’s fingers; a more Impressionistic breeze wafts through “Le son du vent et des feuilles” (The sound of wind and leaves), while birds sing cheerfully in dotted rhythms in “Les oiseaux chantent tôt le matin” (Birds sing early in the morning). The more reflective “Les belles couleurs de l’automne” (The beautiful colors of fall) brings this nicely balanced suite to a thoughtful close.

The neighboring Suite consists of three (longer) movements: in Dutch, it is entitled Drie Rivieren (it means what you think it does, Three Rivers). The title, and the individual movement titles, are all given in Dutch this time. The first, which translates as “Winding through the jungle,” is certainly (presumably deliberately, given the title) circuitous in its thought-processes. Kulikova sustains the argument well, as she does in “Passing by the Valley of the Kings” with its beautiful, held-breath silences, absolutely a vital part of the music itself. The final “Through the city of light” (I assume that’s referring to Paris, and the river is the Seine) has a most jaunty gait—yes, somewhat Gallic in demeanor, and certainly carefree, even if the ending feels just a touch sudden.

One wonders if Kulikova herself has a resonance with Nature; after all, she chose Konstantin Vassiliev’s Three Forest Paintings on her Reminiscences of Russia Naxos disc, and they are not a million miles away from the atmospherics of the present recording. Given her Naxos presence, it is quite a surprise that this is the first listing Kulikova will enjoy in the Fanfare Archive; but I, for one, would enjoy hearing more of her. Perhaps she could fill some of the gaps in the Sor discography? Just a thought.

This is a disc of well-constructed music that introduces a major guitarist; the recordings (Florida for La Forêt, Belgium for Drie Rivieren) are equally excellent.


title: An A-list Iberia, among the best to be had

text:
Jerry Dubins, Fanfare magazine

Chilean-born pianist Pola Baytelman is not new to these pages. A number of her albums have been well received in earlier issues of the magazine, though the one at hand is not among those previously reviewed. I would not have been surprised to find it in the Fanfare Archive, however, because technically speaking, it is not new. Originally recorded in 1995 and issued on this same Elan label, it is here reissued in this 2019 24-bit remastering.

While Baytelman’s repertoire is diverse, covering a wide range of musical periods and styles, it’s not unfair to say that she has devoted much of her time, energy, and talent to performing and promoting the piano music of Latin American and Spanish composers. Of the latter, Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909) is one of late 19th-century giants, his works comparable in their brilliance and technical difficulty to the works of other grand masters of the period, though perhaps in a different way than their virtuosity for its own sake.

Albéniz’s almost exact contemporary was Debussy (1862–1918), and in a vein similar to Debussy, Albéniz put virtuosity in service to Impressionist ends, writing pieces that attempted, in Albéniz’s case, to capture and crystallize the essence of Spain’s Andalusia through its native folk song and dance idioms—jota, fandango, flamenco, and zapateado, for example—the regional flavors of its cities and towns, and the region’s national ceremonies and celebrations. That, in sum, is what the composer’s Iberia is about, a work, by the way, that was simultaneously admired and disparaged by Debussy, who remarked of Albéniz, “He fairly throws music out the window.” Or Dukas, who accused Albéniz of “handling his colors as lavishly as his money.” Does one detect traces of envy there?

Iberia is comprised of 12 pieces, divided into four books of three pieces each. A number of them are of terrifying difficulty, and of such keyboard complexity that Albéniz had to resort to writing the parts out on three staves. In some cases, he also made unrealistic demands of the piano itself, for example, in the third piece of book 1, “Fête-dieu à Seville” (aka “El Corpus Christi en Sevilla”), asking the instrument to produce five fffffs, something it was probably not capable of, no matter how hard the pianist pounded the keys. Is there a refuge or shelter for battered and bruised pianos? As widely read critic Donal Henahan wrote of the work, “There is really nothing in Isaac Albeniz’s Iberia that a good three-handed pianist could not master, given unlimited years of practice and permission to play at half tempo. But there are few pianists thus endowed.” It’s true that few “big-name” pianists have taken on the complete work. Most famously, perhaps, has been Alicia de Larrocha—at least three times in fact (1962, 1973, and 1988)—and in more recent times Marc-André Hamelin, which I reviewed in 29:1, and Artur Pizarro, reviewed by James Miller in 34:1.

With her recording of Iberia, Pola Baytelman joins the illustrious group of few that have taken on this daunting work. Her recording from 1995 was made around the same time that Martin Jones made his recording for Nimbus, also reviewed by me in 28:6. I have to admit that until hearing this performance by Pola Baytelman my go-to recording of Iberia was Larrocha’s 1973 Decca version. But Baytelman brings to her readings something extra in the expressive and lyrical moments of the music. While she’s every bit in control of the most technically harrowing passages, matching Larrocha, Hamelin, and Pizarro at every turn, there’s a singing quality and sweetness to Baytelman’s legato and softer utterances that remind us of just how Romantic a composer Albéniz was.

As extravagant and extreme as Albéniz’s approach to the piano could be, he was not out of touch with the late, late 19th-century and early, early 20th century musical styles and practices of his contemporaries. It’s worth noting, I think, that Albéniz’s album of picture postcards from Spain was not written in Spain. The images were largely shot through a French lens. Composed between 1905 and 1909, the year of the composer’s death, Iberia, his greatest masterpiece, was written in Paris, where Albéniz had been living since the 1890s. There’s as much of the French milieu of the time in this music, especially that of Fauré, Chausson, Debussy, and d’Indy, as there is of the Spanish milieu of Granados, Manuel de Falla, and Turina. And that is what Baytelman brings to the fore in her readings of Iberia’s pieces. Take, for example, her performance of “Évocation,” the first number in the collection, which fills the air with the fragrance of a Fauré nocturne. Even the frightful “El Corpus Christi en Sevilla” that makes pianists go pale isn’t all a battering, bruising assault on the instrument. There are moments of exquisite, poetic beauty, played by Baytelman with the most limpid, loving touch, which makes her on-fire delivery in the conflagration to come all the more exciting for the contrast. Baytelman’s Iberia is an A-list performance, easily competitive with the very best.

To fill out the second disc in this set, Baytelman gives us a selection of some of Alberto Ginastera’s most popular piano pieces. Though of a later generation than Albéniz, and Argentinian, Ginastera could write music, when he wanted to, that exuded an even earlier Romantic style than does the music of Albéniz. Even though Ginastera’s Milonga is a slow dance related to the tango, who does not hear in its haunting melody the opening phrases of Schubert’s Fantasia in F Minor for Piano Four Hands, D 940? No one, however, would associate Ginastera’s pieces that follow—Malambo and the three Danzas argentinas—with Schubert. These are energetic, propulsive numbers in a more Modernistic, 20th-century idiom—not surprising, given that they were composed between 1937 and 1940.

I have not heard the original 1995 release of this album, but I can definitely say that the sound of Pola Baytelman’s Steinway on this 2019, 24-bit remastered reissue is startlingly crisp, clear, and alive, providing a you-are-there experience. Definitely not to be missed.


title: World premieres of two magnificent horn sonatas; exquisite performances all around

text:
James A. Altena, Fanfare magazine

This disc offers three world premiere recordings: the two horn sonatas by Bax and Vaughan Williams, plus RVW’s Household Music in the first recording to include the obbligato horn part. (The disc modestly states “first digital recording” for the last-named piece, but I find no trace of any prior recording that includes the horn.) That much alone should set a good many musical pulses racing in delighted anticipation, and those hopes are if anything over-fulfilled here. The Bax Sonata that opens the disc (though it is placed last in the headnote so as to give RVW the well-deserved pole position) is a one-movement work (Allegro molto moderato, 11:25 in duration here), penned when Bax was only 17 for a fellow student, Allaby Alder. Alder’s older sister was a violin pupil of Elgar, and the booklet notes recount Bax’s charming reminiscence 50 years later of a visit the two young men paid to the eminent composer. (When Bax told Elgar that he too wanted to be a composer, Elgar responded, “God help him!”) The Horn Sonata manuscript has only recently been published. Although the booklet notes by Lewis Foreman refer to the piano part as “flamboyantly overwritten,” I find much of it quite apropos. The score has Brahms’s stylistic fingerprints all over it—and very good imitation Brahms, I might add, drawing its melodic and harmonic vocabulary from the German master’s lighter side of the two orchestral Serenades and the Liebeslieder Waltzes.

The Vaughan Williams Horn Sonata dates from 1903. The surviving unpublished manuscript, dated to 1903, consisted of a fully written out horn part plus seven pages of additional sketches. The solo part has some inserted piano cues; the other pages provide fragments in various states of completion. Martin Yates, who uncovered the sketches in the RVW manuscripts at the British Library, realized the piano part, using the small amount of original material to guide him. The result, slightly less than 20 minutes in duration, comprises four movements: Andante sostenuto – Allegro moderato; Romanza: Andante sostenuto; Scherzo: Allegro – Trio: Poco agitato; Finale: Allegro – quasi cadenza. What is interesting is that, though an influence of Brahms is likewise clearly present here, how much RVW’s own mature melodic and harmonic voice is evident; it would be impossible to mistake this music as being by anyone else. The first movement has a typically spacious, broad, somewhat pensive opening that soon turns to a faster main section with an energetic, muscular first theme and more reflective lyrical second subject. The succeeding Romanza, employing a variant of the thematic material from the slow introduction of the previous movement, is quintessential RVW in its yearning longing, a simple folk tune that takes a somewhat unsettled, dark turn partway through. Rapid-fire triplets, like a repeating rifle or military alarum, open the Scherzo, though as the movement progresses a certain impishness sometimes furtively pokes its nose in; the Brahmsian influence makes itself felt in the trio section, but the composer’s voice remains his own. The finale offers a jaunty, high-spirited hike down a village main street, broadening out at the end for an exuberant, triumphant close. Yates’s creation of the piano part is perfection itself, and the resulting whole is a masterpiece that immediately vaults itself to the very front ranks of hornists’ repertoire.

The Quintet dates from 1898. While it is a thoroughly delightful work, it is less mature and distinctive, with the influences of Brahms and especially Dvořák (the latter’s op. 44 Serenade) being far more in evidence, though veins of RVW’s own style do make appearances. Here there are two preceding recordings, by the Nash Ensemble for Hyperion in 2002 and the London Soloists Ensemble for Naxos in 2014. All three are superb, and a choice between them will turn on subjective tastes. The Nash version is one of lush, ripe Romanticism, cushioned in Hyperion’s velvety acoustic; the London Soloists utilize a lighter, more transparent touch; this new version falls in between those, but leans roughly 80 percent to the Nash side of the spectrum. I personally would give the edge to the Nash version and this one over the London group, particularly in capturing the bottled lightning of the finale. Between my two finalists it’s a much tougher call: I think that this group manages the tricky tempo changes in the second movement significantly better, and I also prefer their slightly more transparent texture in the finale, but every time I hit the gorgeous Andantino third movement in the Nash version I curl up in a ball of ecstatic bliss, though this rendition comes very close to that. On balance, though, I’d give the palm to this new version as being better integrated and more clearly recorded.

The Household Music: Three Preludes on Welsh Hymn Tunes is the one mature work here, dating from 1940–41; RVW specified that it could be played by any combination of available instruments, and it also exists in a version for string orchestra. The orchestral version was recorded by Richard Hickox and the Northern Sinfonia for Chandos, and by Béla Bánfalvi and the Budapest Strings for Capriccio; the string quartet original has only one prior outing on disc, again by the Nash Ensemble on Hyperion. The horn part is mostly very discreet and adds color by doubling the lines of the cello or viola; only in the fifth and eighth variations of “Aberystwyth” is its presence momentarily more prominent. That extra bit of instrumental color is lovely, but not a deal-maker or -breaker. I do find this new version to have just an extra touch more loveliness to it, and Dutton also scores a slight advantage over Hyperion in providing separate tracks for the theme and all eight variations in that tune.

The playing here throughout is simply beyond praise. Hornist Peter Francomb has a magnificently opulent tone, seamless breathing technique, and an incredibly fine command of dynamic shadings; one would never know upon hearing him how treacherous an instrument he plays. Victor Sangiorgio is a sterling accompanist, and all the other instrumentalists are veritable picks of their respective litters. As usual, Dutton provides a first-class production in top-notch recorded sound, exemplary booklet notes, artist bios, photos, and overall layout. This is yet another item screaming “Want List 2020” to me in an already overcrowded field of worthy candidates. But please, don’t just want this disc—stop whatever else you’re doing and order this magnificent treasure right now. Highest recommendation.


title: A mature artist playing with sobriety, care, and feeling

text:
Fanfare magazine, Huntley Dent

Schubert undertook a long, winding journey to compose piano sonatas that might equal Beethoven’s, and his ascent to success forms the arc of a story. No such story exists when it comes to his most famous short piano pieces, however, because the six Moments musicaux and eight impromptus are each as perfect as his greatest Lieder, culminating in the heartbreaking beauty of the three Klavierstücke, D 946. The term “miniature” barely hints at the condensed inspiration of these self-contained masterpieces. It hardly matters if he uses sonata form, rondo, or theme and variations for the structure. Nowhere is Schubert more himself, free to catch a single idea on the wing and soar with it.

Unlike Beethoven, Schubert often expressed his genius with relaxed ease, and a handful of his miniatures became popular melodies, even ditties, like Impromptu No. 3 in B♭in the second set. You can barely remember when you first heard it, because it feels like something that’s always been there, like Three Blind Mice or Mary Had a Little Lamb. Yet Schubert’s melodies have a mysterious ability to stir deep emotions; it’s no surprise that the impromptus, coming late in the composer’s life, are associated with Winterreise. Schubert’s poignancy doesn’t come about because something sad has happened. It comes about from being alive.

The Armenian-born pianist Marina Chamasyan has done a lovely job coming to terms with Schubert’s imagination in the two sets of impromptus. She captures the expansiveness of his unique style of development, especially the way he repeats simple figures over and over. This was assumed to be an amateurish tick in the past and occasionally ridiculed (a prime example being the endless syncopated accompaniment in the finale of the “Great” C Major Symphony). But others appreciated that Schubert wasn’t simply chugging along. As in Bruckner, or Philip Glass for that matter, repetition serves to highlight the small modulations when they occur—moving a half step up or down the scale turns into a major event.

Chamasyan, who was awarded degrees in the U.S. and the Netherlands as well as in Yerevan, Armenia, also won a Gilmore Music Festival fellowship and studied with the late Claude Frank. Here she employs a forthright technique, letting a clean, unadorned line speak for itself, much as Annie Fischer did. She’s more grave where Fischer is more aggressive, but the results are similar, a kind of assured plain speaking that appeals to me. Any sense of preciousness or miniaturization has been removed. The piano is recorded naturally and close up—the microphone is almost inside the lid—giving us a direct connection with Chamasyan’s touch. If you sample the most moving Impromptu, No. 1 in C Minor from the first set, it’s evident that the pianist is balancing romance and classicism, using detached objectivity in the clipped repeated passages against the flow of the dream-like main theme. This shows, I think, her appreciation that Schubert’s piano miniatures sit midway between Beethoven and Chopin.

The impromptus are among the first piano pieces of Schubert’s that most of us heard, but they retain immeasurable depth and grow more profound with time. Chamasyan’s set represents a mature artist playing with sobriety, care, and feeling. It was a pleasure to encounter. Slimline cardboard packaging; no notes.


title: A Lovely Hour's Listening

text:
Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine

The impetus for this disc was the lifelong love of traditional hymns of the horn player Lisa Bontrager; she dedicates the disc, touchingly, to her father. Her idea was to impart a new breath of life to music that is increasingly seen as fusty, old-fashioned, and dated. The first hymn, Crown Him with many Crowns, certainly attempts to set those ideas aright in a stirring setting by Marc Guy that begins with Brittenish fanfares for horn. Throughout this piece, the horn counterpoint adds an extra layer to the experience while Sarah Shafer’s luminous soprano sings with real belief in the text. We hit familiar territory with Abide with Me, in a setting by Paul Basler for horn and piano. Bontrager’s noble tone enabling the music to speak truthfully, while Timothy Shafer’s sensitive harmonic awareness adding extra layers of depth to the experience. Bontrager plays fluently and confidently, with an undercurrent of boldness, which is heard to great effect in James Naigus’s arrangement of the famous Danny Boy tune. The addition of a second horn part, via the equally excellent Grace Salyards, in Come Thou fount of every blessing and Jesus Loves Me (the two hymns paired together), works beautifully.

It’s interesting how more interior regions are explored in When I survey the wondrous Cross, with the two horns of Bontrager and the equally confident Salyards working in tandem to elevate the experience. Departing from the beaten track, James Naigus offers an appealing fantasy for horn and piano on the Welsh hymn tune Hyfrydol, stunningly played by Bontrager, whose legato is to die for. She continues to prove this in Brooke Hopkins’s arrangement of the Philip Bliss hymn It is well with my soul, which rises to surprising heights of emotional turmoil. The traditional spiritual Were you there?, in a powerful arrangement for soprano, two horns, and piano by Jeremy Strong, offers consolation, its ending at held-breath low dynamic levels. Another Spiritual, Deep River, has a similar emotional impact; only in retrospect does one notice the smoothness of Bontrager’s slurs.

It is easy to hear how Bontrager finds this music to be of comfort, particularly when enveloped in the warm blanket of the traditional Irish hymn Be Thou my vision and Paul Jones’s arrangement of Philip Bliss’s When Peace like a River, where the late entrance of the second horn part adds an extra layer of beauty. On another strand of expression entirely is “The Old Hundredth,” Praise the Holy Trinity, heard here in a strong, gritty arrangement for soprano, two horns, and piano, which even at its lower dynamic levels holds a complexity hitherto unheard in this recital. Shafer seems particularly attuned to the sentiments of this hymn; every word drips with feeling.

The program works towards the positively aspirational in Brooke Hopkins’s medley of two hymns (Before the Throne of God Above and Great is Thy Faithfulness); yet a passage for two horns and piano that leads into the second hymn adds just the level of sophistication that enables this disc to rise above the status of mere “hymn arrangement”; the writing for the horns, too, is perfectly judged, with echoes of hunting calls. It is only left to the crepuscular My Shepherd will supply my need to round off a lovely hour’s listening. The disc is stunningly recorded by Richard Price at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, New York.


title: Totally Beguiling

text:
Dave Saemann, Fanfare Magazine

The day I started working on this review, I learned that 21-year-old model Kylie Jenner was a self-made billionaire, aided by 128 million followers on Instagram. No wonder I feel terribly isolated writing about piano music from Romantic Manila. After all, the chief artistic artifact from the Philippines known to most Americans was Imelda Marcos’s shoe collection. Still, we here at Fanfare soldier on, shedding what light we can on the beautiful, secluded byways of our culture. We owe To a Camia to the fact that pianist Sally Pinkas is on the faculty at Dartmouth. One of her colleagues there, along with other scholars from the U.S. and the Philippines, presented symposia on the fine arts in colonial Manila. Over a number of years, professors in this field introduced Pinkas to the music on this CD, and invited her to perform it. In addition to being a superb pianist with a big sound, Pinkas has a natural feel for the Latin-tinged music of Manila, aided perhaps by her having been born in that rich melting pot known as Israel. Musical composition in Manila owes its existence to the rise of the middle class there during the 19th century. The piano became as essential part of the bourgeois lifestyle, and music publishing flourished. Cultural “at home” gatherings in Manila featured music, dance, and poetry. To a Camia demonstrates that music in Manila had very much its own world, blending indigenous, colonial, and European influences into an art form that is as expressive as it seems natural.

The music on this CD was created between the 1870s and 1960. The youngest composer here is Antonio Molina, who died in 1980. Some of his piano music is designed to accompany recitations of verse. A work like Camia is richly evocative nature poetry, while Malikmata seems to bridge the gap between late Debussy and early Messiaen. The composer most frequently represented on To a Camia is Francisco Buencamino, Sr. His Harana clings to the tradition of serenades to one’s beloved. It is in the form of the Danzas Filipinas, otherwise known as habaneras. This is not the habanera you know from Bizet’s Carmen, but rather a more delicate and insinuating dance that originated in Cuba. Another habanera by Buencamino, Sr. is Sonrisa, which mixes Latin graciousness with the colorations of the great international pianist-composers. Buencamino, Sr. also composed waltzes. The waltz in Manila was not influenced by the Viennese variety, but rather owns a piquant slinkiness. Buencamino, Sr.’s waltz Gratitud anticipates the sweeping gestures of the Brazilian Luis Bonfa’s music. Another notable waltz on the album is Francisco Santiago’s In the Orient, a delightful mixture of Latinisms and chinoiserie. Santiago’s Nocturne in E♭ Minor possesses the rich chromaticism of a Philippine Liszt. His 1908 two-step Purita seems to find in the dance music of the new colonial masters from the U.S. an agreeable import.

Julio Nakpil, who composed works in ardent support of the rebels against the previous Spanish regime, also wrote Recuerdos de Capiz, a delightfully easygoing habanera. I could cite further pleasures from To a Camia at great length. The fine recorded sound hails from the excellent Fraser Studio at WGBH in Boston. The waltzes and habaneras on this CD insinuate that women in Manila’s golden age were much more beautiful than Kylie Jenner. I guess I won’t become a billionaire writing about To a Camia, but I hope you find it as beguiling as I do. Highly recommended.


title: Remarkable Depth and Versatility

text:
Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine

At a time when presidential matters seem continually to dominate the news headlines, it is salutary to look back at previous incumbents of the American Presidency who are considered to be game-changers. Composer Victoria Bond has stepped up to the plate with this fascinating concept: In conjunction with librettist Myles Lee, MD, she has produced a set of four works, all with narrator and each spotlighting a solo instrument, to honor four presidents who played decisive roles in American history. Jefferson (Soul of a Nation) embodied the soul of our nation in the Declaration of Independence. Franklin Roosevelt (The Indispensable Man) saved our Republic and the free world from despotism in World War II. Theodore Roosevelt (The Crowded Hours) enabled us to become a world power. George Washington (Pater Patriae), despite fighting more battles lost than won, made independence possible.

To be clear, these four pieces are not political portraits. As Dr. Lee puts it, “Each piece focuses on a single aspect of each man’s character (Washington’s moral clarity manifested by his prescience and, on two occasions, the renunciation of great power; Jefferson as a reluctant warrior; Theodore Roosevelt’s exuberant, ultimately self-destructive drive; and Franklin Roosevelt’s indomitable courage) to illustrate not just their accomplishments but the inner turmoil and conflict each man faced on his journey to immortality.”

Victoria Bond is director of Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival in New York (which she founded in 1998) and frequently lectures at the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic. She is a conductor as well as a hugely talented, sensitive composer. It is difficult to imagine tighter performances than these; the recording, too, is top drawer.

The first piece, Soul of a Nation, A Portrait of Thomas Jefferson, takes its title from positing that independence, religious freedom, and education are indeed constituents of the soul of a nation. The music is tender, a sighing phrase providing a thread throughout. The solo violin of the beautifully sweet-toned Frank Almond acts as the perfect foil for narrator Henry Fogel, recently retired dean of the Chicago College of the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. There is a sense of yearning to the violin lines; Almond’s expressivity comes into his own in the brief cadenza before the frenziedly determined moto perpetuo passage that transforms that sighing gesture. Over the space of some 20 minutes, a huge emotional journey is traversed. Fogel delivers the text with authority; the violin seems to translate the words and sentiments into a soliloquy of its own. Fabulous!

The second president to be honored here is Franklin Roosevelt in The Indispensible Man. In this piece, a clarinet is the instrumental protagonist. The sense of joy at the opening, with the jazz-inflected dotted rhythms veering sometimes towards big band territory and sometimes threatening to head into Ives’s thickets, is completely distinct from Jefferson’s piece. Clarinetist John Bruce Yeh, who has come my way a couple of times before in Fanfare, is clearly blessed with a perfect technique, so confident is his delivery. The narrator, opera singer David Holloway, delivers the text with inspirational uplift. Franklin Roosevelt’s personal battle against polio became a metaphor for his battles against the Great Depression and the threats to the free world posed by Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan. The title refers to his statement that “there is no indispensable man,” and yet he became one. The invocation of jazz here is brilliantly done; a special word of praise is in order for the accuracy of the trombones of the Chicago College of Performing Arts Wind Ensemble.

On, now, to Theodore Roosevelt in The Crowded Hours, wherein narrator Ray Frewen is joined by trumpeter Mark Ridenour. Optimism characterized him until he faced the death of his son Quentin in World War I. There is a Stravinskian circus tinge to some of the writing, which is delightfully deft. Chicago-based actor and director Ray Frewen has just the right lilt in his voice to convey the positivity portrayed here; trumpeter Mark Ridenour is a clarion-clear co-soloist. What characterizes Bond’s music is its sonic clarity: She knows exactly what she wants to say, and has the ability to create that sound. As the music becomes more conflicted, one senses Roosevelt’s anguish about his loss; that Stravinskian edge is blunted, fragmented, and deconstructed. All credit to Ridenour for his confidence in the final flourish.

Finally, there comes Pater Patriae and Washington. Bond pays tribute to that president’s courage and moral clarity, foregrounding the flute (the brilliant Gabriela Vargas) as a solo instrument. Tunes such as Yankee Doodle surface before the music thins to a thread. Narrator Adrian Dunn, a pupil of David Holloway’s (Dunn has also composed a hip-hop opera, HOPERA) has a fairly light voice, enabling contrasts between the narrators’ voice types. There was also an element to Washington of the reluctant hero, and indeed the music does repeatedly interiorize a reduction in lines, giving the music a pensive quality. The close has an element of enigma about it, as if to usher in another portrait that is yet to come.

Four beautifully contrasted pieces, then, with four contrasted narrators and four equally brilliant soloists. A previous all-Bond disc on Albany was well received in these pages in Fanfare 33:5. Soul of a Nation takes things to an altogether different level in the sheer scope of its ambition. That ambition is a testament to Bond’s remarkable depth and versatility. The primary impression left is of a composer of dignity who has all the elements at her disposal to realize her visions.


title: An Exemplary Production

text:
Fanfare Magazine, Richard A. Kaplan

This recital neatly bisects into a trio of mainstream 20th-century compositions and a group of more recent, ethnically flavored works. Bernstein’s early sonata has become a clarinet repertoire staple; Jonathan Cohler’s and Rasa Vitkauskaite’s reading is a little fast in its first movement but fluent, with an easily flowing 5/8 meter in the second movement. Victor Babin is best known as half of the duo-piano team of Vronsky and Babin, but shows himself in the 1947 Hillandale Waltzes to be an able composer as well. The Waltzes are actually a set of character variations on a theme from a four-hand piano work by Johann Nepomuk Hummel. The nine variations show a great deal of, well, variety, and require considerable technical prowess on the part of the clarinetist. Robert Muczynski’s Time Pieces, written in 1984, are conservative, jazzy, and well crafted.

The remainder of the program consists of music written in the last 20 years. It’s all pretty tame stuff, however—none of what in my wind quintet days we used to call bleep-squawk music. Simon Sargon’s KlezMusik, written in 1995 and dedicated to Jonathan Cohler, calls for great flexibility; it is, literally, tailor-made for Cohler’s supple sound and formidable technique. Dana Wilson’s 2003 Liquid Ebony is similarly ethnic, reflecting not only klezmer tradition but more general Eastern-European folk music as well. It calls for such “extended techniques” as glissandos and flutter-tonguing. The works by Paquito D’Rivera show the dual influences of Latin music and jazz; Cohler tosses off the jazzy flourishes of Invitación al Danzón with seemingly casual ease.

Indeed, throughout the recital Cohler displays a complete command of his instrument and of the various musical languages called for here. One never feels a sense of strain, either in his finger technique or in his sound. Further, he plays with a real sense of style, whether in the klezmer licks of the Sargon and Wilson or the jazzy ones of the Bernstein and D’Rivera. Few classical artists are as much at home in all these musical worlds, but Cohler seems to revel in them.

Production, as usual for Ongaku, is exemplary: The booklet essays by the performers are highly informative, and the recorded sound is ideal. This is one of the best clarinet CDs to come along in some time. Highly recommended!


title: A Most Lovely Disc

text:
Fanfare Magazine, Colin Clarke

The program of this disc was selected with the help of the performer’s wife, Janice Notland, hence the title. Booklet notes are available online only (that is, not on the physical product) at alanrinehart.com/albums/soliloquies-and-dreams/. The disc is an intelligent mix of composers, from those very much associated with the instrument (Tárrega, Ponce, Barrios) to contemporary composers (Smith Brindle, Duke). It plays beautifully and satisfyingly. Rinehart’s achievement is to give us a selection of generally relaxing works in a consistently fascinating order and in performances of the highest sensitivity and technical expertise. The terrific recording (the guitar is not too close, which is a boon) is the icing on the cake. Rinehart uses two guitars during the course of the recital: a 1975 Masaru Kohno and a 2013 Fritz Mueller, mainly concentrating on the 1975 instrument.

The Paganini Romance that kicks the album off is beautifully recorded and performed. Rinehart’s way is truly expressive. It is followed by a set of three pieces grouped under the heading, “Fin de siècle Spain.” The piece by José Broca (1805–1882), Pensamiento Español, is beautifully easy listening, its delight to the ear masking the mastery of its construction. The resonant opening to Tárrega’s Prelude No. 5, a piece subtitled “A Vision from the Devil’s Tower,” leads into a piece that implies the Devil’s Tower is a great place to go and chill; it is followed by a Tárrega transcription of a piece by Joaquin Malais (1872–1912) whose gentle rhythms flow beautifully here.

Moving to Paraguay, Agustín Barrios (1885–1944) provides three laid-back pieces. The first, Julia Florida, is a barcarolle, while the composer’s native folk music saturates the beautifully reflective Caazaapa. Finally, Oracion, a song without words of touching simplicity.

The sequence of four Ponce pieces is actually three of a suite of four dances, but with Ponce’s arrangement of the popular song Por ti, mi Corazón instead of the Mazurka. The Waltz includes some beautiful soft chords; Rinehart’s phrasing is a delight throughout, while the song transcription takes us to a very interior, ruminative space, a space for which the ensuing Tròpico acts as a prolongation. The brief Rumba is one of the livelier pieces on the album, its upper-mid frequencies glistening in the Mexican sunshine.

Reginald Smith Brindle is known not only for his book The New Music (Oxford UP), but also for his compositions, many of which featured the guitar. There’s a semi-amusing (I suppose) personal story I have about him: I actually applied to the University of Surrey to study with Smith Brindle on the basis of reading that book, only to find on arrival that he had taken a sabbatical—and one he didn’t return from. (Ah, well, I had fun there anyway.) Smith Brindle’s Do not go gentle (1974) acts as a meditation on Dylan Thomas, its harmonies deliciously spiced. The final chords are an absolutely beautiful way to close.

The Haitian guitarist-composer Franz Casseus (1917–1993) contributes his Haitian Suite. Again, as in the case of the Ponce, a substitution is made, with the stand-alone piece Serenade lointaine inserted instead of the original “Mascarón.” Of particular beauty is the second movement, “Yanvalloux.” All the movements are short (between two and three minutes each) but make their point superbly within that timeframe; the finale has a sense of a muted dance, like watching dancers through a heat-haze.

There is one world premiere recording here, the Soliloquies and Dreams by David Gordon Duke (b. 1950). A sequence of seven delicious morceaux, these are, by the composer’s own admission, pared down to the absolute minimum. They deserve to be heard in the concert hall, and often: The last piece, in particular, has a haunting quality about it. It is followed by music by another Mexican, Máximo Diego Pujol (b. 1957), two of four Crystalline Pieces. In the tradition of Piazzolla, they again are hugely atmospheric.

Stanley Myers (1930–1993) is most famous for this Cavatina, which many people know via The Deer Hunter. It is a predictably lovely performance. Finally, we have another well-known piece, Jorge Cardoso’s Milonga, an appropriately poignant way to close a most lovely disc.


title: An Unqualified Success

text:
Fanfare Magazine, Paul Orgel

The Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda, known for his elegant Mendelssohn, is recording the Mozart piano sonatas in chronological order.The first installment of his new cycle presents Mozart’s first six sonatas, which were composed as a set over the course of a few months in 1774 through 1775. I find it an unqualified success, not only interpretatively, but in showcasing a splendid piano with recorded sound that provides the perfect clarity and ambiance.

Prosseda considered recording the Mozart sonatas on a fortepiano but, like many present-day pianists, decided to apply as much as possible of what he learned playing historical instruments to playing a modern one, in this case, a 2015 Fazioli, tuned with “Vallotti unequal temperament.” The Fazioli’s ability subtly to realize dynamic gradations, along with its bell-like clarity and purity of tone in all registers, make it an ideally responsive vehicle for Prosseda’s highly nuanced Mozart. It’s easy to imagine the sound of Mozart’s beloved wind instruments in the contrasting character of this piano’s registers.

The Vallotti tuning system, in common use in Mozart’s time, divides the octave into 12 unequal semitones, and, according to Prosseda, enhances contrasts and changes in emotional changes of character that occur with the changing of tonalities. He’s referring to subtle changes in volume and brightness that he no doubt hears, and that I have also experienced while playing fortepianos. But here, I can’t honestly say that I perceived any difference from the norm in tuning or timbre, and I suspect that most listeners will hear only a fabulously well-tuned piano.

Mozart’s early piano sonatas aren’t juvenile works by any means, but the first two in particular (K 279 and K 280) tend to be passed over by pianists. Contemporaneous with the opera La finta giardiniera, a notable early accomplishment, their quirky humor and abrupt changes of mood already reflect Mozart the opera composer. While there are compelling slow movements in the early sonatas—the grave F-Minor Adagio in K 280, whose seriousness Prosseda well conveys, and the opening, church-like Adagio of the Fourth Sonata, K 282—they are most notable for their extreme energy. What they lack, to some extent, is the memorable melodic writing characteristic of Mozart’s more mature music. It comes in his subsequent piano sonatas composed not too much later, and is certainly forecast in the Andante of the Fifth Sonata, K 283.

In all of these performances, I’m immediately struck by the wealth of musical detail that emerges, thanks to Prosseda’s varied palette of dynamics, careful shaping of motives and phrases, delicacy of touch, and quicksilver articulation. He brings out the music’s edginess, and quirky energy, but it comes across con amore, and with a coherent structural overview of each movement. It’s music making that’s far removed from Glenn Gould’s unkind jabs at these same pieces. One of Prosseda’s accomplishments is to make the repeats—and he observes all of them, not just in exposition sections—hold interest. He achieves this not only through convincing tempo choices that make one want to keep listening, but by adding sometimes elaborate ornamentation, and by varying his pacing the second time around.

The most ambitious work among the first six sonatas is No. 6, K 284, in Mozart’s festive, ceremonial key of D Major, a piece of larger formal dimensions than the others, with more orchestrally conceived keyboard writing. Most likely because of the considerable length of its final movement, it’s not often heard in concert. Prosseda’s joyous performance of the finale, in which his wonderful variety of characterization of its variations is particularly scintillating, reminded me what a strong work it is. Of additional interest is his bonus performance of a discarded first draft of part of the opening Allegro that differs significantly from the final product.

Of course, Prosseda is in recorded competition with many other great Mozart pianists. Marc-André Hamelin, whose approach and response to the Classical style is comparable to Prosseda’s, has recently recorded a collection of Mozart sonatas, but not a complete cycle. For Mozart played on the fortepiano, I recommend Ronald Brautigam’s cycle, and also individual sonatas played by the agile, imaginative fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout. Mitsuko Uchida’s cycle has long been a reliable recommendation, but, unbelievably, it is now over 40 years old, and Decca’s sound for Prosseda is far better. If his next installments are of comparable quality, Prosseda’s smart, savored Mozart piano sonatas will be a worthy reference recording.


title: Finesse and Poise

text:
Fanfare Magazine, Huntley Dent

The theory that history is shaped by heroes is so antiquated that it’s grown moss on the north side. But we cling to it when describing musical history, and for me, a Beethoven symphony cycle rises or falls on the “Eroica” and the Ninth Symphony, at the apex of his ambition and achievement. A new cycle of the violin sonatas makes me turn to the “Kreutzer” Sonata first—it’s the equivalent of an “Eroica” for violin and piano, which immediately raises issues. When the work was premiered in 1803 (at a concert that began at 8:00 in the morning!), the gentler sound of historic pianos was reasonably balanced with the violin. But a trap lay in waiting for the future. In his sketchbook Beethoven makes clear that the “Kreutzer” is “very much in concertante form, like a concerto” and goes so far as to describe it as a “sonata for pianoforte and violin obbligato,” implying that the piano comes first.

When two virtuosos perform it (e.g., Itzhak Perlman and Martha Argerich on EMI/Warner), the trap is sprung, and the “Kreutzer” becomes a thrilling competition. But even when the pianist assumes the usual secondary role expected of an accompanist (e.g., Jascha Heifetz and Emmanuel Bay on RCA), the performance must rise imaginatively to meet Beethoven’s unprecedented conception, especially in the tempestuous first movement. Purely as a practicality, the violinist can’t be swamped by the piano, an issue that isn’t so pressing on recordings and the magic worked by twiddling knobs in the control room.

Having laid out my criteria, which aren’t everyone’s, naturally, I found the “Kreutzer” Sonata played by the Elan Duo very satisfying. British violinist Andrew Smith and Bulgarian pianist Elina Christova evoke the strength and power I associate with middle-period Beethoven (my hero), voicing their parts in concertante style rather than solo and accompaniment. The piano’s cadenza-like flourishes in the first movement introduction are delivered with assurance and sure musical instinct. As recorded, Smith’s violin tone is slim and silvery, closer to Grumiaux than to Oistrakh, shall we say, but with close-up miking both instruments are balanced to bring out inner details without the piano dominating.

Such a deeply considered interpretation takes time to mature, and so it’s no surprise that the Elan Duo has regularly performed the complete cycle of Beethoven’s 10 violin sonatas in concert. One such event, covering three evenings, took place in November 2012; these studio recordings from Radford University in Virginia were made that summer and are the culmination of the duo’s Beethoven Project begun in 2010, the year their partnership was formed. I can think of duet partners where the pianist was unequal to the challenge of the later sonatas (Heifetz and Bay again, but also the much-praised 2010 set from Renaud Capuçon and Frank Braley on Virgin), but that doesn’t happen here. The Elan Duo are so well matched musically that they rival any number of famous performers in this repertoire. Since the 10 sonatas span from 1797 to 1812, there’s a range of stylistic differences, which Smith and Christova handle with finesse.

Finesse and poise are hallmarks of this cycle, in fact. Innately neither performer “plays big,” but that’s not a hindrance given their polish and empathy for each other. Their account of the “Spring” Sonata is especially lively and buoyant, and nowhere do they approach Beethoven as a monument, which allows for plenty of freshness in their interpretations. Personally I prefer a style in early Beethoven that looks ahead to his later development rather than backward to Haydn, and the Elan Duo seem to agree, as in their sinewy reading of the first movement of Sonata No. 4 in A Minor from 1801—after all, we’re only two years before the inception of the “Eroica.” The Elan is capable of a Mozartean cheerfulness that shifts into the self-reflective eloquence of Sonata No. 10 in G, one of Beethoven’s most quietly beautiful chamber works.

As for reservations, the recorded sound is listed as up-to-date 96 Hz/24 bit, but on my system the violin’s upper register was thin and the piano somewhat tinkly, which required damping down the treble and boosting the midrange. The acoustical ambience is also dry and tight. No doubt the response from other listeners will vary from one playback system to another. In order to present the sonatas chronologically without splitting any, four CDs were required where some sets take only three. These aren’t serious drawbacks, considering the musical rewards to be relished here, which are considerable.