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During the 2020 pandemic lockdowns, I often followed pianist Jean Muller’s impressive weekly online series devoted to all 32 Beethoven sonatas (available on YouTube). Later
Berlioz’s original intentions for his only song cycle, Les nuits d’été, specified a mezzo or tenor and piano. When he orchestrated the songs, he transposed
[In memory of soprano Virginia Zeani (October 21, 1925-March 20, 2023) we offer this re-post from our archives.] This historical reissue is, by my count,
I decided to review Tim Brady’s symphony for solo electric guitar without referring to the booklet notes, nor reading the titles for each of its
David Bernard and the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony have tackled big orchestral warhorses for years, and their Galahad-like persistence in face of formidable catalog competition
Reviews
[Note: As Easter, 2023 approaches, it’s time to remember–and revisit–this
You simply have to hear this. Alfredo Casella’s Suite, Op. […]
Jascha Heifetz was not only one of the greatest, if […]
Conductor, pianist, and above all, world-renowned cellist, Mstislav Rostropovich was […]
The 18-year-old Andrei Gavrilov burst upon the international scene when […]
This first complete reissue of Wilhelm Kempff’s acoustical recordings sheds […]
During the 2020 pandemic lockdowns, I often followed pianist Jean Muller’s impressive weekly online series devoted to all 32 Beethoven sonatas (available on YouTube). Later
Berlioz’s original intentions for his only song cycle, Les nuits d’été, specified a mezzo or tenor and piano. When he orchestrated the songs, he transposed
[In memory of soprano Virginia Zeani (October 21, 1925-March 20, 2023) we offer this re-post from our archives.] This historical reissue is, by my count,
I decided to review Tim Brady’s symphony for solo electric guitar without referring to the booklet notes, nor reading the titles for each of its
David Bernard and the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony have tackled big orchestral warhorses for years, and their Galahad-like persistence in face of formidable catalog competition
The stories in question here are wide-ranging, often concerned with issues of social justice and racial intolerance which, however noble in concept, can’t really be
Review: Mäkelä's Stravinsky--Naked and Afraid
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring; The Firebird. Orchestre de Paris, Klaus Mäkelä (cond.) Decca
If I Could Choose Only One Work By...SZYMANOWSKI
It Would Have To Be...Violin Concerto No. 1
An extraordinarily lush, searching, poetic work utterly typical of the composer's maturity, and one of the great 20th-century violin concertos.
The List So Far...
1. Ravel: Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Ballet)
2. Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
3. Schubert: String Quintet in C major
4. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
5. Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”
6. Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
7. Debussy: Preludes for Piano (Books 1 & 2)
8: Handel: Saul
9. Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
10. Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G major
11. Vaughan Williams: Job
12. Bach: Goldberg Variations
13. R. Strauss: Four Last Songs
14. Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust
15. Haydn: “Paris” Symphonies (Nos. 82-87)
16. Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
17. Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor
18. Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor
19. Chopin: Preludes
20. Verdi: Rigoletto
21. Roussel: Symphony No. 2
22. Copland: Appalachian Spring (complete original ballet)
23. Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 and 2
24. Bartók: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
25. Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2
26. Rimsky-Korsakov: Opera Suites (Scottish National Orchestra/Järvi) Chandos
27. Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire
28. Smetana: Ma Vlást
29. Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain
30. Bizet: Carmen
31. Elgar: In the South
32. Sullivan: The Mikado
33. Dvořák: Symphony No. 8; Cello Concerto (Piatigorsky/Munch/Boston Symphony) RCA
34. Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies
35. Monteverdi: Orfeo
36. Scarlatti: Sonatas
37. Schumann: Fantasie in C, Op. 17
38. Berg: Wozzeck
39. Hermann: Psycho (film score)
40. Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini
41. Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
42. Holst: Suites for Military Band
43. Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex
44. Respighi: Three Botticelli Pictures
45. Sibelius: Symphony No. 5; Pohjola’s Daughter (Bernstein, New York Philharmonic) Sony
46. Britten: The Turn of the Screw
47. Borodin: String Quartet No. 2
48. Janácek: The Cunning Little Vixen
49. Korngold: Violin Concerto
50. Tallis: Spem in Alium
51. Nielsen: Symphony No. 5
52. Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915
53. Hindemith: Symphony in E-flat
54. Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
55. Franck: Violin Sonata
56. Rossini: La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie)
57. Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5 “Egyptian”
58. Weill: The Seven Deadly Sins
59. Pergolesi: Stabat Mater
60. Albeniz: Iberia
61. Bernstein: Mass
62. Schreker: Chamber Symphony
63. Walton: Variations on a Theme by Hindemith
64. Dukas: Piano Sonata
65. Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
66. Tippett: Piano Concerto
67. Poulenc: Songs (ATMA, 5 discs)
Review: Klien and Skrowaczewski Ace Mozart on Vox
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 27. Walter Klien (piano), Minnesota Orchestra, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski (cond.) Vox
Review: Gavrilov's Hit and (Sometimes) Miss DG Recordings
Andrei Gavrilov's DG legacy was cut short by his retirement from active concertizing, and that makes what we have all the more interesting. This DG Eloquence box contains 10 CDs and some splendid performances--Bach, Grieg, Ravel--and some less so, but if you're a piano maven there's a lot to be said for listening to an undeniable talent struggling to define itself.
If I Could Choose Only One Work By...POULENC
It Would Have To Be...The Complete Songs (5 CDs) ATMA Classique
Because Poulenc's feeling for matching words to music was second to none, and the songs express the very essence of his art.
The List So Far:
1. Ravel: Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Ballet)
2. Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
3. Schubert: String Quintet in C major
4. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
5. Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”
6. Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
7. Debussy: Preludes for Piano (Books 1 & 2)
8: Handel: Saul
9. Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
10. Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G major
11. Vaughan Williams: Job
12. Bach: Goldberg Variations
13. R. Strauss: Four Last Songs
14. Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust
15. Haydn: “Paris” Symphonies (Nos. 82-87)
16. Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
17. Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor
18. Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor
19. Chopin: Preludes
20. Verdi: Rigoletto
21. Roussel: Symphony No. 2
22. Copland: Appalachian Spring (complete original ballet)
23. Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 and 2
24. Bartók: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
25. Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2
26. Rimsky-Korsakov: Opera Suites (Scottish National Orchestra/Järvi) Chandos
27. Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire
28. Smetana: Ma Vlást
29. Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain
30. Bizet: Carmen
31. Elgar: In the South
32. Sullivan: The Mikado
33. Dvořák: Symphony No. 8; Cello Concerto (Piatigorsky/Munch/Boston Symphony) RCA
34. Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies
35. Monteverdi: Orfeo
36. Scarlatti: Sonatas
37. Schumann: Fantasie in C, Op. 17
38. Berg: Wozzeck
39. Hermann: Psycho (film score)
40. Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini
41. Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
42. Holst: Suites for Military Band
43. Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex
44. Respighi: Three Botticelli Pictures
45. Sibelius: Symphony No. 5; Pohjola’s Daughter (Bernstein, New York Philharmonic) Sony
46. Britten: The Turn of the Screw
47. Borodin: String Quartet No. 2
48. Janácek: The Cunning Little Vixen
49. Korngold: Violin Concerto
50. Tallis: Spem in Alium
51. Nielsen: Symphony No. 5
52. Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915
53. Hindemith: Symphony in E-flat
54. Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
55. Franck: Violin Sonata
56. Rossini: La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie)
57. Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5 “Egyptian”
58. Weill: The Seven Deadly Sins
59. Pergolesi: Stabat Mater
60. Albeniz: Iberia
61. Bernstein: Mass
62. Schreker: Chamber Symphony
63. Walton: Variations on a Theme by Hindemith
64. Dukas: Piano Sonata
65. Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
66. Tippett: Piano Concerto
Review: Amazing Beethoven Overtures from Skrowaczewski on Vox
Beethoven: Leonore Overtures Nos. 1-3; Fidelio Overture; The Ruins of Athens (excerpts). Minnesota Orchestra, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski (cond.) Vox
In the first couple of decades following the advent of the CD in the mid-1980s, new recordings of
Before we focus attention on some of the newer Christmas releases–beginning later this week–we thought it would be
Chicago, IL; November 14, 2022—WFMT classical radio will premiere a new 60-minute weekly series, SOUNDS CLASSICAL, beginning Friday,
