Latest Music Reviews
Colin Tilney’s Leisurely Bach Partitas
by Jed Distler
Colin Tilney’s tempos in Bach’s music have considerably slowed down with age (the harpsichordist is 87 at this writing), and he never was a sprinter to begin with. As a consequence, his Six Partitas rarely reflect the music’s dance roots. Indeed, movements dependent on rhythmic... Continue Reading
Aurora
by David Vernier
You will want at least six minutes of quiet, uninterrupted listening time and space in order to fully appreciate the highlight of this program: James Jordan and Jeremy Powell’s Interpolations on Sicut cervus disiderat. And then you will need another six minutes because you will... Continue Reading
Big Boxes: Fritz Reiner’s Columbia Recordings
by Jed Distler
Because Fritz Reiner’s reputation primarily rests with his “golden age” recorded legacy as the Chicago Symphony’s music director, it’s easy to overlook his 1938-1948 stint in Pittsburgh. Reiner essentially rebuilt the Pittsburgh Symphony from scratch, raising its standards to a level worthy of the so-called... Continue Reading
Ethel Smyth’s The Prison: A Work To Be Reckoned With
by Robert Levine
The works of Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) are rarely played despite the fact that she was the first woman to have an opera, Der Wald, performed at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1903. Her works tended to be overlooked in her native England mostly due... Continue Reading
Pierre Henry’s Epigonic La Dixième Symphonie
by Jens F. Laurson
Pierre Henry’s La Dixième Symphonie – Hommage à Beethoven is a work of the genre where a modern composer takes an ancient model and weaves a modern cloth around familiar and loved structures, hoping thereby to benefit from the soothing sense of the familiar and–ideally,... Continue Reading
Rosbaud’s Astonishing Mahler Symphonies (Video Review)
by David Hurwitz
The Bottom Line: Buy this. Rosbaud was a very great conductor whose legacy is precious; and his Mahler is as fresh, insightful and gripping as anyone has left us. The mono broadcast quality sound and occasionally stressed orchestral playing detract very little from the overall... Continue Reading
Hans-Jürg Strub’s Schubert
by Jed Distler
Although I’ve known about Hans-Jürg Strub’s highly regarded reputation as a piano pedagogue, I actually had not heard him play until the present release crossed my reviewer’s desk. Schubert’s A major D. 959 sonata attests to this pianist’s powers of projection, legato mastery, and all-around... Continue Reading
Blomstedt’s Boring Brahms First Symphony (Video Review)
by David Hurwitz
The bottom line: This new release is a snooze, plain and simple. I wish it were otherwise; Blomstedt is such a fine conductor, but here he turns in a “sensitive” performance strong on nuance but fatally weak in fire and passion.... Continue Reading
Leinsdorf in Mahler, Wagner, and Strauss
by David Hurwitz
It’s good to see this material reappearing for avid collectors, even if not all of it is the best. Leinsdorf’s Mahler First is a generally brisk, direct, unfussy performance that would have been more notable several decades ago than it is today, Such is the... Continue Reading
Schubert Gone Wild
by Jens F. Laurson
Here’s a recording the success of which depends entirely on how you approach it. If you think of it as a classical Lied recital that experiments, you’ll likely regard it as an experiment gone wrong. Come to it as a folk-blues-country-jazz-crooner album (or whatever genre... Continue Reading
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