Smetana: Ma Vlast (CD review)

Also, Dvorak: In Nature's Realm. Antal Dorati, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Newton Classics 8802073 (2-disc set).



Czech composer Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884), an intense nationalist, wrote the six symphonic poems known collectively as Ma Vlast (My Country or My Fatherland) between 1874 and 1879, ironically, following his having a nervous breakdown and going deaf. He dedicated the cycle of works to the city of Prague, the first two movements dealing with the sights and sounds of the city.



With Hungarian conductor Antal Dorati leading the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Newton Classics' current reissued Philips recording, we get spirited, red-blooded accounts of all six episodes of the score, with plenty of color and characterization. The performances perhaps lack something of the subtlety and stylishness of several rival versions, like those from Neumann (Berlin Classics), Kubelik (Supraphon), Berglund (EMI), Pesek (Virgin), and Wit (Naxos), but Dorati's energy, vivaciousness, animation, and warmth more than make up for any minor concerns.



The cycle begins with Vysehrad (1874), named after the venerable castle of Bohemian kings in Prague. Under Dorati, the music sounds beautifully smooth, lyrical, and Romantic yet well sprung, too, with finely articulated tensions and releases. Dorati perfectly judges the tempos throughout this segment, even if they are a tad faster than we usually hear. Still, the conductor works up a passionate response in the process.



Next up we hear Vltava (1874), which describes the river called in German the Moldau, and uses an old Czech folk tune as its principal theme. Smetana's original program notes tell us that the music traces the countryside the river runs through: meadows, forests, even conjuring up water nymphs along the way. This is the most-famous section of the work, and conductors often play it by itself; thus, you'll find quite a few more separate recordings of Vltava (or The Moldau) than of the complete Ma Vlast, my own favorite Moldau being one recorded long ago by Leopold Stokowski, available in an RCA collection of rhapsodies. In any case, here Dorati again seems brisker than other conductors, yet his timing is actually slower than four other recordings I had on hand for comparison. It's a trick Dorati employs, seeming to be quickening the tempo when he is really slowing it.



After that we get Sarka (1875), which refers to a female warrior in Czech legend who exacts a bloody revenge on the male sex. This portion of Ma Vlast ties in with the final two sections in describing Bohemia's fierce struggle for independence. Dorati succeeds in capturing its excitement and mystery.



From Bohemia's Woods and Fields (1875) is pretty much self-explanatory. In this segment we're back to the pastoral pleasures of the countryside. Dorati is properly lilting and melodic, the music's lively ebbs and flows harking back to the conductor's handling of the Vltava section.



The second disc opens with the two concluding symphonic poems: Tabor (1878), which introduces us to a Hussite war tune (the Hussites were followers of John Huss, who initiated a nationalistic movement in Bohemia in the late fourteenth century); and Blanik (1879), the mountain where the Hussites retreated before their ultimate fight for liberation. I always think of these final portions of the cycle as the battle sequences. Like other people, I'm sure, though, I have never found these pieces as satisfying as Smetana's preceding music; it's a little long and more than a little repetitious. Nevertheless, Dorati plays up the drama for all it's worth and makes one sit up and take notice as much as or more than other interpreters have done. Perhaps only in the concluding section, Blanik, does Dorati seem a touch hesitant or tardy, but without a direct comparison to other recordings, he seems right on. Besides which, the more relaxed pace lends a greater weight and dignity to the final chapter.



The companion filler piece, the symphonic poem In Nature's Realm by Smetana's countryman, Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904), makes an appropriate choice. Dvorak wrote it as the first in a trio of independent overtures connected by a related musical theme. Dvorak's idea was to show Man in the face of Nature and how nature can affect one in a positive way if we let it into our lives. Dorati conducts it delicately yet powerfully and allows us to take pleasure in the music's sweet harmonies.



Originally recorded by Philips in 1986 and issued by them on a single CD, the 2011 reissued Newton Classics edition spreads Ma Vlast over two discs to good effect. As we might expect from a Philips recording of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, it's quite realistic, capturing the spacious hall acoustic without sacrificing too much detail or definition. The sound is wide, deep, and expansive, with fine dynamics, adequate bass and highs, and a midrange well balanced with the extremes. While the sound is not completely transparent, with a slightly reverberant overall effect, it is quite natural and welcome.



JJP

Stravinsky: L'Histoire du Soldat (HQCD review)

Also, Respighi: Rossiniana. Robert Mandell, Ars Nova (Stravinsky); Robert Zeller, Vienna State Opera Orchestra (Respighi). HDTT.



First, a word: If you are a music listener who appreciates the sound of a recording as well as the performance, or if you are an audiophile who appreciates the sound above all, you might want to audition this disc. Indeed, if you are an audiophile by virtue of the megabucks you've spent on your playback system, you'll need to get this disc, if you don't already own it. Not to have it in your collection is reason enough to turn in your audiophile badge and go back to music listening on earbuds. Sonically, this is one of the handful of best recordings I've ever heard on CD. More on the sound in a moment.



Let's talk music.  Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) wrote the music for C.F. Ramuz's parable L'Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier's Tale) in 1918. The composer meant for the theatrical work "to be read, played or danced" by a small company of performers, but it actually works best as conductor Robert Mandell and the Ars Nova ensemble play it, instrumentally without dance or dialogue. The story it tells concerns a soldier trading his fiddle to the devil for a book that can predict the future and provide him his fortune. If you know the Faust legends, you can guess where that gets him.



Stravinsky scored the work for seven players, and here the Ars Nova septet features Stanley Drucker, clarinet; Cyrus Degal, bassoon; David Jandorf, trumpet; James Thompson, trombone; Morris Lanz, percussion; Herbert Sorkin, violin; and Reuben James, double bass. The music itself is more than a tad on the jazzy, raucous, Raggedy Annie side, typical of so many "modern" compositions of the early twentieth century. However, there is an infectious forward pulse to the music and some scintillating rhythms that the Ars Nova group are quick to exploit with their own slightly raucous, Raggedy Annie jazz style.



In addition to the Stravinsky piece, which lasts a little under half an hour, we get Rossiniana by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936). As the title suggests, Rossiniana is an orchestral adaptation of works by Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868), Respighi basing his four-movement suite on a number of fairly obscure Rossini piano pieces. The lushly Romantic compilation for orchestra is in stark contrast to the jazzy, small-scale Stravinsky piece. Although Rossiniana is not great music, and despite its being occasionally dark and somber, it can also be quite radiant and easy to digest; and with Robert Zeller and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, the performance sounds smoothly polished and richly rendered.



Now, about the sound, particularly in L'Histoire du Soldat. When you listen to music recorded as well as this is, you probably don't figure its engineers recorded it over half a century ago. But HDTT transferred the music to HQCD from a 2-track Westminster Sonotape originally made in 1956. Yes, 1956. It makes a person wonder if there have been any significant advances in sound reproduction in the last fifty years, digital 5.1 this or lossless 7.1 that notwithstanding. But back in 1956 the home-stereo industry was in its infancy, and audio engineers were doing their best to capture everything the new medium had to offer. As things went on, record companies would begin cutting corners, using far more microphones, limiting the dynamic range and frequency extremes, and editing the final sound of their recordings after the fact on mixing consoles. What a joy to go back to a sound that actually approximates a live occasion in every way.



What we get in the Stravinsky piece is excellent in every way, particularly in the localization of instruments. Is it fair, though, to compare a recording of only seven instruments to one of a complete orchestra? Maybe not, but that doesn't discount the fact that the recording provides a reach-out-and-touch-it realism that is hard to resist. Every instrument is well defined, the highs extended, the bass going through the floor, the midrange as revealing as possible, with no sign of edge, distortion, or strain anywhere. However, it's the transient response that handily wins the day, and if your speakers can reproduce the notes without too much overhang, you'll hear some of the most crisply articulated sound from any disc around. All the instruments have such a sense of lifelike accuracy about them, you'll be hard pressed to tell them from the real thing. The violin tone, the trumpet, and the percussion are especially thrilling.



The Respighi/Rossini music, recorded in 1964 and transferred to disc from a Westminster 4-track tape, is likewise good, the orchestral sound refined and expansive, among the best of its kind, if not quite so drop-dead gorgeous as the Stravinsky. Defects or drawbacks in either transfer? One might notice an occasional small pop here or there and a touch of momentary pre-echo, yet they are so minor as to be practically inconsequential. The Stravinsky and the Respighi tracks reflect audio quality of the highest order, a disc for all seasons...or all listeners as the case may be.



For further information on the various formats, configurations, and prices of HDTT products, you can visit their Web site at http://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/storefront.php.



JJP

Classical Music News of the Week: August 28, 2011

Successful Summer Festival Tour Kicks Off 2011-2012 Season for Music Director Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale



San Francisco, CA, August 23, 2011--Music Director Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale began the 2011-2012 Season in August of 2011 with a prestigious Summer Festival Tour including performances of Handel's Orlando at the Ravinia Festival, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival (a sold-out show), and Tanglewood to critical acclaim in all venues. Audiences gave standing ovations each night, and critics raved. The New York Times called the Orchestra "superb" and praised the "invigorating performance," while the Boston Globe said "their playing laced precision with a heady dose of abandon."



In advance of the Ensemble's first Bay Area performances, Philharmonia Baroque will return to the local radio airwaves on Sunday, September 11, at 9 p.m. with the first broadcast of a new series of monthly programs on KDFC. The first broadcast features the music of Mozart, with performances and interviews recorded last season with pianist Robert Levin and Music Director Nicholas McGegan. And on September 13, Philharmonia Baroque Productions will release an all-Vivaldi disc featuring Philharmonia Baroque Concertmaster Elizabeth Blumenstock, the third disc in the new project marking the institution's return to commercial recording.



Conducted by Mark Morris, the Orchestra and Chorale's first performances in the Bay Area take place September 16, 17, and 18 at Zellerbach Hall with the Mark Morris Dance Group in of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas featuring mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe and baritone Philip Cutlip.



Music Director Nicholas McGegan, who begins his twenty-sixth season as Music Director, leads the Orchestra in five of the seven concert sets in addition performances of Handel's Messiah in Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall and at Disney Hall in Los Angeles. Five artists make their debuts in the 2011-2012 season including internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe in Dido and Aeneas; Italian conductor Ottavio Dantone, music director of Ravenna's Accademia Bizantina; British conductor and harpsichordist Richard Egarr, who serves as music director of the Academy of Ancient Music; mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux in a program featuring arias written for famed castrato Farinelli; and Houston tenor James Taylor, currently one of the most sought after tenors for Baroque music.



Nicholas McGegan is known for innovative programming and a passionate commitment to discovering new and rarely performed works from the Baroque repertoire. Of the forty works scheduled for performance during the 2011-2012 season, more than half will be first performances by the ensemble.  Musical highlights of the season include a newly completed Mozart Horn Concerto featuring Principal Horn player R.J. Kelley; an orchestral suite from Rameau's La Guirlande, a one-act ballet that spurred the current Rameau revival when performed in 1903; the return of internationally acclaimed recorder specialist Marion Verbruggen in concertos by Vivaldi and Sammartini for alto and soprano recorder, respectively;  Bach's monumental B Minor Mass, conducted by Nicholas McGegan for the first time with Philharmonia Baroque; an English Baroque program featuring theater music of native sons Matthew Locke, Henry Purcell, Thomas Arne, and William Lawes in addition to England's beloved imported son, George Frideric Handel; and the return of acclaimed cellist Steven Isserlis in a musical program that confirms Philharmonia Baroque's embrace of music beyond the confines of the 17th and 18th centuries, including Schumann's Cello Concerto, Mendelssohn's The Fair Melusine, and Brahms' Serenade No. 2. The season will end with Handel's rarely performed masterpiece Alexander's Feast, also known as "The Power of Music," conducted by Nicholas McGegan and featuring the Philharmonia Baroque Chorale and soloists Dominique LaBelle, James Taylor, and Philip Cutlip.



Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra has a presence throughout the Bay Area with regular season performances at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre, Berkeley's First Congregational Church, and at two venues on the Peninsula: The Menlo/Atherton Performing Arts Center in Atherton, and the First United Methodist Church in Palo Alto.  Single tickets to Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra are now on sale through City Box Office: www.cityboxoffice.com, (415) 392-4400.



To subscribe to Philharmonia Baroque or to request a season brochure, call 415-252-1288 or e-mail brochure@philharmonia.org.



--Karen Ames, Philharmonia Baroque



Paul McCartney Announces Ocean's Kingdom, His First Orchestral Score for Dance to be Released October 4, 2011



Marking his first foray into the world of dance, Paul McCartney has announced the general release of Ocean's Kingdom, commissioned by the New York City Ballet. The recording will be released by Hear Music/Telarc in US on Oct. 4 and by Decca in UK on Oct. 3, and is conducted by John Wilson, produced by John Fraser and performed by the London Classical Orchestra.



Ocean's Kingdom is the first time Paul has written an original orchestral score or any kind of music for dance and is the result of a collaboration between Paul and New York City Ballet's Master in Chief Peter Martins, who have worked together to present the world premiere of a new ballet for the company's 2011/2012 season this September.



Though the work is Paul's first ballet, he approached the project in the same way he writes all other music, driven by his heart rather than his head and inspired by feeling rather than specific technical knowledge. While this may have been another new turn for his staggeringly varied career to take, Paul knew it had to be influenced by his own personal experience and that he needed to create a story the audience would find equally compelling and moving.



An hour-long score featuring four stunning movements--"Ocean's Kingdom," "Hall of Dance," "Imprisonment," and "Moonrise"--the ballet tells of a love story within the story of an underwater world whose people are threatened by the humans of Earth. A potently expressive and richly varied work, the score is Paul's most challenging and emotionally complex yet. As he explains: "What was interesting was writing music that meant something expressively rather than just writing a song. Trying to write something that expressed an emotion--so you have fear, love, anger, sadness to play with--and I found that exciting and challenging."



The premiere of the ballet Ocean's Kingdom will take place at NYCB's Fall Gala on Thursday, September 22, 2011, while the release of the orchestral score will follow on October 4, available digitally, on CD, and on vinyl. It was recorded in June in London.



--Amanda Sweet, Concord Music Group

Mozart: Requiem (CD review)

Choir of New College Oxford; Edward Higginbottom, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Novum NCR1383.



The key word here is "authentic."  As the program notes are quick to point out, this recording of Mozart's Requiem is unique in several ways: It uses "soloists drawn from the chorus, as in Mozart's day, including young male singers for the soprano and alto solos" (the New College Choir made up of youngsters twelve to twenty-two), and it uses a period ensemble, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The result is a performance on the scale of those in Mozart's day. Although, of course, Mozart would never have heard his own Requiem, given that he left it uncompleted at his death. The version we get here is the customary one completed by Franz Xavier Sussmayr, Mozart's assistant and copyist.



Despite the use of period instruments and the determination of correct size and makeup of the choir and ensemble, Maestro Edward Higginbottom's new realization of the Requiem may or may not be entirely "authentic," since no one can go back through the centuries to hear what the earliest performances sounded like. In the instance of Higginbottom, his performance may follow all the earmarks of authentic performance practice, phrasing and tuning, but that doesn't mean that traditionalists should dismiss it. Overall, I like this new interpretation very much.



It is in the beginning of the piece, the Introitus, that Higginbottom seems most conventional and respectful. In effect, he doesn't tip his hand to the excitement to come until the succeeding segments.



Then, in the Squenz, the Dies irae is properly fiery, powerful, and wrathful, a foreshadowing of more good things to follow. Then, in the Tuba mirum, Recordare, and later Benedictus sections, where we hear the solo quartet of voices sung by children in the soprano and alto parts, the performance becomes particularly effective, the young male voices, crisply articulated, quite affecting in their innocence. Here, Higginbottom moves along a little more briskly than many other conductors in the work. Indeed, as the performance proceeds, it actually appears to pick up energy and distinguish itself from its seemingly more timid rivals.



The Offertorium movements are spirited yet always gracious and graceful, the conductor and his forces doing their utmost to present the music in a new light. Still, new light or no, the music seems fresher and more illuminating than ever. It's a revelatory new version of an old warhorse. Although it may not tickle the fancy of every Mozart fan the way it did me, I look forward to hearing many times over.



Novum recorded the music at the Church of St. Michel and All Angels, Summertown, Oxford, England, in July of 2010. It exhibits a good sense of depth in instrumentation and voices, with a reasonably well balanced response. While there is a slightly forward quality to the upper midrange that makes voices a little brighter than I'd like, it is hardly a concern, and it may, in fact, help to clarify the vocals. All around, the sound is clear and clean, with enough ambient hall bloom to ensure realism and an appropriate perception of acoustic space.



As a footnote, I should add that Higgenbottom's extensive booklet notes on the composition of the Requiem make a fascinating and enlightening read. If you buy the disc, don't miss them. I even like the cover design.



JJP

Essential Liszt (CD review)

Various works performed by various artists. EMI 50999 0 27175 2 4 (2-disc set).



The folks at EMI continue their series of compilations with this two-disc set of works by Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886). However, you won't find any of Liszt's longer works here, no complete piano concertos or sonatas or Faust or Dante symphonies. Instead, what we get are smaller pieces, tone poems and rhapsodies, and movements from lengthier works. The set's value is twofold: For the novice collector of classical music it provides an introduction to the composer, a place to start; for the experienced collector it provides a way to sample quite a few recordings one might not have heard before and which one might want to explore further. Either way we get high-class performances from big-name artists in typically good EMI sound.



Oddly, EMI say on the cover that the set contains "over 2 hours of Romantic Masterpieces." Actually, there are over two-and-a-half hours of music on the two discs. You'd think they'd want to brag about that a little more.



I won't attempt to cover everything on the two discs since there are twenty-five separate items involved. Instead, I'll just highlight a few of the best or most-important things the discs contain. First up on disc one we get the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C minor, arranged for orchestra by Karl Muller-Berghaus and performed by Willi Boskovsky and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded in 1978. Just in case the listener is somehow unfamiliar with the music, EMI provide a hint in the form of a parenthesis with the name of a famous movie that featured the music, in this case Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Remember the dueling pianos? People may forever remember Boskovsky for his recordings of Johann Strauss, but he was also one of the best conductors in the orchestral arrangements of the Rhapsodies, so I found his interpretation most welcome, an exhilarating way to open the show in excellent, dynamic sound.



Speaking of piano solos, as Liszt was, after all, a pianist and wrote much of his material for himself as soloist. Accordingly, we find here La campanella with Cecile Ousset, piano, from 1985. It's lovely, if a tad distant in sound. Un sospiro with Francois-Rene Duchable, from 1996, is longing and wistful. The Transcendental Etudes No. 5, Feux follets, with Dimitris Sgouros (1985) and No. 4, Mazeppa, with Vladimir Ovchinikov (1989) also sound good; as do about ten minutes from the Piano Sonata in B minor with Cecile Ousset again (1985).



Needless to say, there are a few shorter orchestral works here as well, like Les Preludes played by Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra, from 1983, that closes disc one. Oddly, with movie names everywhere in the booklet, EMI make no mention of Les Preludes featuring prominently in the old Flash Gordon serials with Buster Crabbe. Anyway, Muti whips up a storm, although the sound is a bit softer than I'd like.



Disc two begins with the opening movement of the Piano Concerto No. 1 and later we get the closing movements of the Piano Concerto No. 2 with Michel Beroff, piano, and Kurt Masur and the Gewandhaus Orchestra from 1980. They are very big and very grand, with a clean, clear, if slightly up-close piano sound and excellent accompaniment from the one of the oldest ensembles in the world. The same team also do the Mephisto Waltz No. 1, recorded in 1981, and the Totentanz or "Dance Macabre," recorded in 1980. The latter is among the best interpretations you'll find anywhere, the Dies Irae variations downright scary.



On disc two you'll also find the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 with Andrea Lucchesini, piano, recorded in 1984, and the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15 with Georges Sziffra, piano, recorded in 1968, Sziffra's rendition one of the best available.



In all, the performances do justice to the music, although in many cases I would have personal favorites beyond the ones included here. You can reference my "Basic Classical Collection on Compact Disc" for further recommendations. Still, you could not really ask for better versions than these in interpretation or sound.



JJP

Faure: Requiem (CD review)

Also, Cantique de Jean Racine; Tu es Petrus; Tantum ergo. Rolf Beck, Schleswig-Holstein Festival Chor Lubek; Ensemble orchestral de Paris. Hanssler Classic CD 98.628.



People probably know the influential French organist, pianist, teacher, and composer Gabriel Faure (1845-1924) best for his Pavane in F-sharp minor, Op. 50 (1887) for orchestra and optional chorus, and his Requiem, Op. 48 (1887, revised 1893-1900) for choir, soloists, and orchestra. This is not to suggest that his many nocturnes and songs or his orchestral music for Pelléas et Mélisande aren't important or popular; they just tend to take a backseat to the Pavane and Requiem. The present disc gives us yet another performance of the Requiem, along with several other choral numbers.



People have, of course, been writing Requiem Masses--musical services, hymns, or dirges celebrating the repose of souls of the dead--for many years, and they have, understandably, been mostly somber, weighty, solemn affairs. Not so with Faure's version. As Faure himself remarked of it, "It has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of death, and someone has called it a lullaby of death.  But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration toward happiness above, rather than as a painful experience. My Requiem was composed...for pleasure." For this reason, Faure's Requiem has become one of the most celebrated settings of the mass, perhaps almost as famous as Mozart's. So we should welcome any new interpretation of the work, like this one from Rolf Beck and his Schleswig-Holstein Festival Choir of Lubek, supported by the Ensemble orchestral de Paris.



After writing the work for chamber orchestra and choir, Faure had second thoughts and revamped it in 1898-1900 for full orchestra and apparently was happy with that arrangement for the rest of his days. So that's the way folks played it until the 1980's, when British composer, conductor, editor, arranger, and all-around musicologist John Rutter found Faure's original manuscript for chamber orchestra, which Beck follows here. It's a little more intimate a setting, and it allows the chorus more room to shine.  (You can find Rutter's own, very fine performance, incidentally, on a Collegium CD.)



Anyway, Beck and his singers and players are serene and tranquil in the opening Intuit et Kyrie, and then they continue the mood with a sweet and leisurely Offertoire. Under Beck, the Sanctus displays a Schubertian grace, followed by soprano soloist Chiyuki Okamura floating her voice above the notes in the Pie Jesus segment. The Agnus Dei is a dramatic high point in the piece; and after that, baritone David Wilson gets his turn in the sun with Libera me. Beck closes the work with an appropriately innocent and heavenly In Paradisum, which may be the best part of the show.



Of the three additional couplings on the disc, the lovely Cantique de Jean Racine stands out. Although Faure wrote it as a student presentation when he was nineteen, there is nothing immature about it at all. The two other, brief sacred pieces, Tu es Petrus and Tantum egro, seem more ordinary by comparison, but Beck's singers perform the Tantum ergo so beautifully, it doesn't matter.



Hanssler Classics recorded the performances live at Christkirche zu Rendsburg (Requiem) and Dom zu Meldorf in July and August of 2010. There is a slight edge on the massed voices, not much, nothing of any real concern. Otherwise, the sound is not quite as lucid as my favorite recording with David Willcocks (EMI), but it's nicely expansive, perhaps owing to the live acoustic. The three accompanying pieces sound a bit bigger and more spacious, with greater depth to the chorus and a fuller bloom on the instrumentation. For that matter, however, nothing about the recordings sound live, and if the back of the jewel box hadn't said so, I wouldn't have guessed. So, despite my general disdain for live recordings, this one at least doesn't call attention to the fact.



JJP

Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4 (CD review)

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Warner Classics 2564 67391-0.



For a lot of classical music fans, conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt is not exactly the first name that would spring to mind when thinking of the music of Felix Mendelssohn (1809-47). Harnoncourt may seem more entrenched in the Baroque and Classical periods and a little too straightlaced tackling the lighter, Romantic charms of Mendelssohn. Not so, as this 2011 Warner Classics reissue of a 1991 Teldec recording demonstrates. Leading the excellent Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Harnoncourt turns in spruce and tidy performances of Mendelssohn's two most-popular symphonies.



The disc begins with the Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56, "Scottish," 1842, the last of five symphonies Mendelssohn wrote, despite the numbering. He called it his "Scottish" symphony because he started writing it over a dozen years earlier after a visit to Scotland. It doesn't actually sound all that Scottish, though; it's more like a brief, musical impression the composer got of the country, an impression he expanded over the years.



Anyway, Harnoncourt takes his time in the first movement, creating tension without hurrying the music. Counting the repeat, this is one of the longer renditions of the opening segment I've heard.  Nevertheless, it's among of the more delightful. Then, in the Scherzo, the conductor zips along quicker than I can remember anyone doing and offers up a zesty bit of highland festivity. In the Adagio, unfortunately, Harnoncourt misses some of the work's radiant beauty, never quite moving one the way several other conductors do. He seems a little too fussy and precise. Happily, he makes up for it with a brilliantly intense finale, where he shows a good deal of passion for the music, closing the show in high style.



Now, here's the "however." While Harnoncourt's performance is genial and efficient, it does not displace my own personal favorites:  Peter Maag (Decca), Claudio Abbado (Decca or DG), Bernard Haitink (Philips), Riccardo Muti (EMI), Andre Previn (EMI), and Herbert Blomstedt (Decca).



It was in 1831, when Mendelssohn was just twenty-one, that he visited Italy and became so enthusiastic about it he began to compose his Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, "Italian," which he completed several years later. However, he never did get around to publishing his revised version of the score, which didn't see a performance until two years after his death. Yet it comes down to us as one of his most endearing and enduring works.



In the Fourth Symphony Maestro Harnoncourt goes full-bore in the beginning, generating a good deal of excitement, yet with a lovely lilt. The rest of the reading seems a bit more mundane by comparison, yet it remains impressive, especially the Presto conclusion. Still, there's always a "however," and here it's that I don't consider it superior in any way to Otto Klemperer's sunnier, more agreeable realization (EMI) or Abbado's (Decca or DG), Blomstedt's (Decca), Previn's (EMI), Charles Munch's (RCA), George Szell's (Sony), or Giuseppe Sinopoli's (DG).



Teldec recorded the performances in October of 1991 at the eighteenth-century opera house Teatro Comunale in Ferrara, Italy. The recording comes up sounding smooth and well balanced, if not too spectacular in a given department. That is, everything is neatly in its place without being outstanding in any one area. The midrange is fluid but not particularly transparent. The bass is adequate, if a touch thin and not really too deep. The highs are fine but not too sparkling or extended. The dynamic range and transient attack are OK but won't set an audiophile's heart to racing. The overall sonic impression one comes away with is that of pleasant competence at the expense of much daring.



JJP

Classical Music News of the Week: August 21, 2011

Deutsche Grammophon and Decca Classics U.S. in Partnership with L4 Mobile Present iClassics

New iPad Application Dedicated To Discovering The Best In Classical Music



August 15, 2011, New York, NY:  iClassics is a new classical music discovery application developed exclusively for Apple's iPad.  Created by Deutsche Grammophon and Decca Classics U.S. in partnership with L4 Mobile, the app allows consumers to explore the recordings from these labels' vast and prestigious catalogues in a new and interactive way.  Deutsche Grammophon and Decca labels are home to such lauded artists such as Luciano Pavarotti, Cecilia Bartoli, Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, Leonard Bernstein, Anna Netrebko, Renée Fleming and many more.



Utilizing a unique tagging interface, iClassics offers the ability to search, mix and match composers, instruments and even moods, successfully catering to classical music beginners and established fans alike. iClassics also includes an interactive composer timeline featuring over 100 composers ranging from the Medieval time period through the present.



In addition, users have the ability to share their classical music discoveries with friends on Facebook and Twitter. Free updates will include new recordings along with new features as they roll out.



iClassics is free to download and can be accessed with the following link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iclassics/id433799067?ls=1&mt=8



It includes the following features:

* Interactive Tagging Interface

* Free Streaming Deutsche Grammophon & Decca Classics Radio

* Streaming Audio Samples

* Integration directly with the iTunes Music Store

* Facebook integration

* Twitter Integration

*Apple AirPlay Enabled



"Classical music is an incredibly rich experience, but the sheer variety of composers, performers and interpretations can be daunting for some," said Max Hole, Chief Operating Officer, Universal Music Group International, who is responsible for UMG's market-leading classical music labels worldwide.  "This new, exciting iClassics app simplifies this complex world and guides music lovers to the finest recordings of the masterpieces performed by the world's top performers in an enjoyable, user-friendly way. Our goal is to help more people discover this extraordinary world."



--Olga Makrias, VP, Publicity

Deutsche Grammophon & Decca Classics, U.S.



Elza van den Heever Makes Her First Appearances of the 2011-12 Season with Chicago Lyric Opera, Hamburgische Staatsoper, and the Berlin Philharmonic

August 17, 2011 - South African soprano Elza van den Heever's 2011-2012 performance schedule begins with her Hamburgische Staatsoper debut as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, the role that launched her professional career in 2007 in San Francisco, and which she has repeated to critical acclaim in Frankfurt, Arizona and Santa Fe.



At Oper Frankfurt, where she has been a member of the resident company since 2008, Ms. van den Heever sings her role debut as Desdemona in Johannes Erath's new production of Otello and reprises the role of Antonia in Dale Duesing's production of Les contes d'Hoffman.



With recent successes in operas by romantics Strauss, Offenbach, Wagner and Verdi, 2011-2012 sees the soprano taking on the baroque era with two Handel role debuts, both under the baton of leading baroque maestro Harry Bicket.  For her Lyric Opera debut, she sings Armida in the company's all-star cast of Rinaldo, which also includes renowned countertenor David Daniels in the title role, Julie Kleiter as Almirena, and Luca Pisaroni as Argante. With Opéra National de Bordeaux Ms. van den Heever assumes the title role in Alcina in a new production by David Alden featuring Isabel Leonard as Ruggiero.



Building on an acclaimed concert season in which she performed Strauss's Four Last Songs in San Francisco and the Verdi Requiem in Frankfurt, Ms. van den Heever makes her Berlin Philharmonic debut in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis conducted by Herbert Blomstedt.



In coming seasons, Ms. van den Heever will make her debut at the Metropolitan Opera and expand her repertoire to include Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda and Hélène in Les Vêpres siciliennes. Winner of the 2008 Seattle Opera Wagner Competition, Ms. van den Heever was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa and studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. A graduate of both the Merola Opera Program and San Francisco Opera's Adler Fellowship (where she created the role of Mary Custis Lee in the world première of Philip Glass's Appomattox), she continues to study with Sheri Greenawald. When not performing in Frankfurt, Ms. van den Heever makes her home in Bordeaux, France.



Mexican Tenor David Lomeli's 2011-2012 Performance Season Includes Glyndebourne Festival, Houston Grand Opera, Hollywood Bowl, and Others

August 19, 2011 - Mexican tenor David Lomelí's 2011-12 season takes the talented young performer to stages in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Germany. Proclaimed "the vocal discovery of the season" by the The Washington Post's Charles Downey for his performances as Rodolfo in La bohème at Santa Fe Opera, Lomelí will make his Glyndebourne Festival debut in June in the same role, which he also performs in concert with the Pacific Symphony.  Lomelí begins his season as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto for Canadian Opera Company, a role he will also perform under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel in an August concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and with the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.  He makes his Houston Grand Opera debut as Alfredo in La Traviata under the baton of Music Director Patrick Summers; Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Deutsche Oper Berlin; a professional recital debut with the Birmingham Music Club at the Wright Center in Birmingham, Alabama; and performances of Verdi's Requiem with Sinfonieorchester Basel.



Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the New Century Chamber Orchestra Celebrate 20th Anniversary

August 19, 2011 - Music Director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the New Century Chamber Orchestra celebrate the ensemble's 20th anniversary season with a five-concert East Coast tour featuring appearances in New York, Albany, Worcester, Amherst and Wayne, return appearances of former Music Directors Stuart Canin and Krista Bennion Feeney and a world premiere from Featured Composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Repertoire for the 2011 East Coast tour includes Rossini's Sonata in G Major, Mendelssohn's Octet in E-flat Major, the East Coast Premiere of Bolcom's Romanza for Violin and String Orchestra, commissioned by New Century, with Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg as soloist and Barber's Adagio for Strings, featured on the orchestra's most recent CD release Live: Barber, Strauss and Mahler.



Joining the New Century for their 20th Anniversary Season celebrations in the Bay Area will be Pulitzer Prize winner Ellen Taaffe Zwilich as featured composer, mandolinists Mike Marshall and Caterina Lichtenberg, and special showcase performances by former music directors Stuart Canin and Krista Bennion Feeney.



The season opens September 22. In addition to the tour, sixteen San Francisco Bay Area performances, and a world premiere, the Ensemble will hold a special 20th Anniversary Gala on November 5 to celebrate the important anniversary and send the orchestra off on their East Coast tour.



--Karen Ames, International Press Representation

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra (CD review)

Also, Music for strings, percussion and Celesta; Viola Concerto; Concerto for two pianos, percussion and orchestra; Sonata for two pianos and percussion. Tabea Zimmermann, viola; Katia and Marielle Labeque, pianos; Sir Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra; David Shallon, Symphonie Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. EMI 50999 0 94627 2 4 (2-disc set).



If you are a fan of Hungarian composer Bela Bartok (1881-1945) and you don't already have the performances in this two-disc EMI set, this might be the easiest and cheapest way to get them. Or, if you are largely unfamiliar with Bartok's work, this might also be the easiest and cheapest way to sample some of his more-popular of pieces. In either case, you'll get fine readings in good sound, a solid bargain all the way around.



The first disc opens with what is probably Bartok's most celebrated music, the Concerto for Orchestra, Sz116, his last completed orchestral work, written just a year before his death. It's a little ironic that after a lifetime of composition, his final piece of music might be his most-lasting contribution to the classical repertoire. Bartok noted in his program for the piece that the "concerto" of the title referred to the work's "tendency to treat the single orchestral instruments in a concertante or soloistic manner." As an overview, the composer suggested the work makes a transition from the stark grimness of the opening movements to the "death song of the third, to the life-assertion of the last one."



One could not want a better interpretation of the piece than Sir Simon Rattle's with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He's graceful when he needs to be graceful, as in the second movement; he's mysterious when he needs to be, as in the third movement; he's eccentrically romantic when he needs to be, as in the fourth movement; and he's exciting when he needs to be, as in the Finale.



If I still have a preference for Fritz Reiner's performance (RCA) or either of Georg Solti's (Decca), it's not by a wide margin and only because I think RCA and Decca more vividly recorded them. EMI made Rattle's disc live in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, England, in 1992, and it sounds a bit too close-up yet soft to my ears. In addition to which we have to live with a final, attention-breaking applause.



The second item on disc one is Bartok's Music for strings, percussion and Celesta, Sz106, from 1936, with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. OK, admittedly, this performance doesn't have quite as much fire in its belly as Solti's, but I've always enjoyed it and thought it was by far the best recorded of the bunch. Like most of Bartok's music, this one is also in concertante form, that is, with orchestral support for extended solo parts, although we really don't hear the solo instruments until the second of the four movements. With Ormandy, the emphasis is on the fluidity of the instrumentation and the smoothness and eloquence of the rhythms. He makes what can sometimes be a rather noisy series of unrelated segments into a beautifully unified (and beautifully performed) whole, with an especially zesty final movement. The sound, recorded by EMI at the Old Met, Philadelphia, in 1978, is just as close as it is in the Rattle performance that precedes it, yet it has greater depth and clarity, and it comes without an audience and its attendant applause.



Disc two provides three works. The first is the Viola Concerto, Sz120, with Tabea Zimmermann playing the viola and David Shallon leading the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Bartok left the work unfinished at his death, and a pupil, Tibor Sirly, completed it. I've never cared much for it, but certainly Zimmermann plays it as well as anybody, and EMI's recording from 1989 is as clear and natural as one could want.



Finally, we get Bartok's Sonata for two pianos and percussion, Sz110, 1937, and the Concerto for two pianos, percussion and orchestra, Sz115, 1941, the latter a rewrite of the former with added orchestral accompaniment. In the first two movements, you would probably not even notice the presence or absence of the orchestra, and it's only in the final movement that the orchestra comes into its own in the Concerto. Yet, even here you have to ask yourself if it's necessary. In any case, the playing by the Labeques, with Rattle and the CBSO in the Concerto, and the recording, made in 1985, are all exemplary.



JJP

Mahler: Symphony No. 5 (CD review)

Sakari Oramo, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Warner Classics 2564 62055-2.



What is with this sudden proliferation of live recordings over the past decade or two? It seems as though every other classical album I audition from a record company was recorded live. Is it just that all the conductors in the world suddenly feel they can only do their best work in long, live takes, their spontaneity only ignited by the presence of a live audience? Or is it a financial thing? Are live recordings so much less expensive to produce than those in studios or empty concert halls that it's all companies can afford to do anymore? Are audiences in effect subsidizing the cost of producing records?



In any case, with Sakari Oramo and his City of Birmingham players doing the Mahler Fifth in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 2004, the sound is typically "live," meaning it has plenty of air but doesn't have the definition or focus one would normally hear in a good studio production. Indeed, here the sound is slightly "off," appearing at times harsh, at times murky, at times strident, but never seeming absolutely right. Then, there's the audience, who are very quiet yet whose presence is always felt through subtle wheezes and paper rattlings. And, really, when any music ends, I like to take a breath and relax and think about it for a moment; I do not need 800 people clapping in my ears. It reminds me of the canned laughter in a television sitcom.



Insofar as the interpretation is concerned, Mahler's scores are so diverse and often so bizarre, they admit practically any reading. So Oramo's performance is no better and no worse than most of those I've heard, although it is perhaps a little less cohesive than some others. The conductor, displaying a youthful freshness and bounce, comes into his own in the big, central Scherzo, and he follows it with a traditionally sweet-toned if long-winded Adagietto. But then he's back to a more divergent playing style in the Finale. Oh, well....



In this last analysis, this is not a recording I would recommend as a first choice in the repertoire, not with conductors like Barbirolli, Haitink, Solti, Rattle, Karajan, Abbado, Bernstein, and Mackerras so readily available on disc.



JJP

Energetic Life at Koh Samui, Thailand


Koh Samui Thailand has an excellent sightseeing that includes all the aquatic features like white sandy beaches, delicious fresh seafood’s, hotels and tourist spots. Samui has the super entertaining nightlife which everybody will definitely enjoy. From the difficult epicurean restaurants to the well known full moon parties, the island has a quality of the finest in Thailand. Night time entertainment includes discos, club, music venues, bar beers, classical Thai dancing, mud wrestling, and Thai lady boxing are alive and set to amuse everyone.
 
This island is an ideal place for vacation to round within one or two days. The Na Muang waterfall is a very attractive because of its staircase going directly to a large pool at the base of the waterfall. There, you can go for swimming and diving too but be careful at the shallow part, some sharp rocks are hidden. The Hin Ta and Hin Yai are the stones that represent the male and female genitalia.

 


It is one of the favorite destinations of every vacationer in Samui. Just near this attraction, gift shops are accessible where you can buy beautiful bowls and vases. Another cool place and enjoyable is the Hin Lad Waterfall. A swimming pool under this waterfall is made just to add the beauty of the place. You can also see the Hin Lad monastery at the foot of this waterfall. If you have an idea to visit Thailand, you can easily look for beach vacation rentals in this islands.

Day and night, Koh Samui, Thailand is such a great place to wander. A reward for your self will become easier to achieve even if you have hectic schedule through the availability of this wonderful place.

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 (SACD review)

Also Capriccio italien. Mikhail Pletnev, Russian National Orchestra. PentaTone Classics PTC 5186 386.



When I saw a while back that Russian pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev was re-recording the Tchaikovsky symphonies, I said to myself, "Huh?" I mean, he had already recorded them twice since forming the Russian National Orchestra in 1990, the Sixth for Virgin and whole cycle for DG. Now he was doing them all over again for PentaTone? Was it a matter if at first you don't succeed...? I don't think so, as his earlier performances are still among the finest, most-intense you can buy. Was it a matter of his wanting to record them all in the best-possible sound with some of the latest audio technology, Super Audio CD? Perhaps, although his earlier discs already sounded pretty good, and the market for SACD's is pretty slim. Anyway, here we have another Tchaikovsky entry from the man, his third recording of the Sixth Symphony.



Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) premiered his Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, in 1893, only a few years after his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, ended their odd personal and financial association and the very year the composer died of cholera. Compounding the enigma, the composer spoke of the work as a "programme symphony; however, its programme is to remain a mystery to all... It is drenched with my innermost essence; while composing it in my mind, I was constantly shedding bitter tears." Tchaikovsky's allusions to fate and his brother's suggestion that he subtitle the piece "Pathetique" (evoking sadness, sorrow, pity, or touching the emotions in general) only add to the tragic mystery.



Anyway, compared to Pletnev's 1991 Virgin recording, which I had on hand, the conductor takes the great, sweeping Adagio that opens the work at a slightly less brisk gait than he did before. This time, it has a more regal demeanor, with a more rhapsodic central theme than ever. Then Pletnev makes up in melancholy what he loses in intensity.



In the ensuing Allegro con grazia, there is little difference in how Pletnev approaches the waltz, once more demonstrating a lively and flowing pace, with only the Trio section providing a momentary contrast to the mood.



Following that, we get the Scherzo, the Allegro molto vivace, where Pletnev rouses us with his lead-in to the big march tune, becoming more vigorous and thrilling as it goes along, although, again, perhaps not exactly to the same extent of his 1991 account.



Lastly, rather than wow us with a huge, splashy, Technicolor finish, Tchaikovsky ends with a lament, an Adagio lamentosa, which begins in despair and concludes in recognition and a final calm. As he did in the first movement, Pletnev slows down his reading somewhat from before, taking more time with the tragedy and resignation and closing more peacefully. While I can't say I liked Pletnev's new interpretation any better or any worse than his first recorded performance, it definitely shows differences, and the first one did move me a tad more, which counts for a lot.



The coupling is Tchaikovsky's Capriccio italien, Op. 45, from 1880, a far lighter, more festive piece of music. Pletnev doesn't generate as much outright excitement or the set the blood to racing as several other conductors do (Kondrashin, for instance), but Polyhymnia certainly records him well.



The sound, which Polyhymnia recorded for PentaTone at DZZ Studio 5, Moscow, in June of 2010, comes in conventional stereo and multichannel on a hybrid SACD. If you have the playback capability for the SACD format, you can listen that way; if you have only a regular CD player, you can play it back in regular stereo. I listened in two channels to both the standard CD and SACD renderings, noting that the SACD version has small but clearly distinct advantages in frequency response, dynamic range, and impact.



The midrange is warm and smooth, with good definition. The bass is strong, with a decent wallop from time to time. The treble appears well extended, seldom being edgy or forward. There is a solid punch all the way around, especially at the low end; a wide stereo spread; good instrument separation; and satisfactory orchestral depth. Like other installments in this Pletnev/Tchaikovsky PentaTone cycle, the sound is of near-audiophile quality, acquitting itself nicely and never failing to rise to the occasion when the music calls for grand, clear, undistorted crescendos.



Compared to the sonics of the earlier Virgin release, by the way, this new SACD sounds a touch fuller, weightier, and sometimes brighter, but for that matter neither recording will disappoint.



JJP

Krenek: Symphony No. 4 (CD review)

Also, Concerto grosso No. 2. Alun Francis, NDR Radiophilharmonie. CPO 777 210-2.



Ernst Krenek (1900-1991) was an Austrian-born American composer who may have been more famous for his short-lived marriage to the daughter of Gustav Mahler than for anything he ever wrote. He earned a living largely by teaching, lecturing, and completing the unfinished material of other composers, despite his producing over 240 of his own works in his lifetime. Throughout his career, he adopted a variety of compositional forms, from late-Romantic to atonality, from neoclassicism to experimental jazz, and from modal counterpoint to twelve-tone writing, serial techniques, and electronic music, making him truly a man for all seasons. However, I wonder if he had settled down to one particular style, if his music would have been more popular today? Who knows.



The new CPO album under review begins with a world-première recording of Krenek's Symphony No. 4, Op. 113, from 1949. It's a three-movement symphony that starts out with a tranquil Andante and goes in all directions from there. The booklet note tells us that Krenek composed the piece in "free atonality with some tone elements in design." The music appears fairly complex, with alternating themes and rhythms, yet it's reasonably accessible, too, at least under Maestro Alun Francis and the NDR Radiophilharmonie (North German Radio Broadcasting Philharmonic), who seem to know their way around the score.



Perhaps it's the constant variations of tone and mood that keep one involved. Things get a little hectic toward the end of the opening movement, leading to a quiet Adagio and then on to a moderately intense Allegro pesante (fast and lively, but with weight). This concluding segment clearly shows the influence of Stravinsky on Krenek's music making, and for a moment you'd think the composer had strayed off into The Rite of Spring. We hear primarily percussion and strings from that point on, fascinating to be sure, but not exactly earthshaking. Still, it surprises me that no one has recorded the work before now; it has enough going on in it to qualify for multiple interpretations.



The coupling is Krenek's Concerto Grosso No. 2, Op. 25, a five-movement piece completed in 1924.  The term "concerto grosso" ("big concerto") refers to a musical form that originated in the Baroque period in which the full orchestra and a small group of soloists play contrasting sections. Needless to say, Krenek embroiders the format in his own unique way, combining elements of the Baroque, neoclassicism, and German expressionism, supplemented by healthy doses of Stravinsky again as well as Bach. There is an especially engaging Allegro at the center of it all containing slightly melancholic dance passages that Francis brings out with admirable color and panache. Although I can't say I was quite as taken by the dark fourth-movement Andante as I was with the minuets, things close out with a buoyant Allegro encompassing some abrupt changes in temper.



CPO recorded the album in 2006 at the Grosser Sendesaal des NDR Landesfunkhaus Niedersachen with pleasing results. A wide dynamic range comes into play, with strong impact from the timpani and bass. While the strings get a tad edgy on a few occasions, the sonics probably come pretty close to what the NDR Radiophilharmonie actually sounds like and what Krenek had in mind. There is also a welcome sense of orchestral depth and a natural acoustic bloom to provide a realistic setting for the music. In all, it's a performance and sound worth investigating.



JJP

Classical Music News of the Week: August 14, 2011

Cleveland International Piano Competition Announces 2011 Winner of $50,000 Grand Prize



Sunday, August 7, 2011, Cleveland, OH: Alexander Schimpf, 29, of Germany was named the winner of the 2011 Cleveland International Piano Competition. The distinguished jury selected Mr. Schimpf from a field of 26 candidates who performed over a ten-day period.



By the close of Friday and Saturday's final performances, the competition's jurors were faced with a difficult task, as all four finalists delivered exceptional performances of their respective concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra under Christopher Wilkins. While The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Zachary Lewis noted the outstanding musicality of all the finalists, he especially commended Schimpf in his performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4: "...the finest of the four, secure interaction with the orchestra and complete mastery of the score's technical and emotional dimensions. By turns, the pianist whipped up storms, spun out golden filigree, and plumbed philosophical depths."



In addition to a cash prize of $50,000 presented by Mr. and Mrs. A. Malachi Mixon III--one of the largest cash prizes of its kind--Alexander Schimpf receives more than fifty worldwide engagements, including a New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall on Monday, December 5, 2011.



Additional Awards:

- Second Prize: Alexey Chernov - award of $25,000 presented by Jim and Dede Storer of the George B. Storer Foundation.

- Third Prize: Eric Zuber - award of $15,000 presented by Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Manuel.

- Fourth Prize: Kyu Yeon Kim - award of $10,000 presented by Dr. and Mrs. Richard S. Kaufman

- Baroque Prize:  $2,500 for the best performance of a Baroque composition, presented by Art of Beauty, Inc. to Mr. Younjie Chen for the best performance of a Baroque composition.

- Beethoven Prize:  $2,000 for the best performance of a work by Beethoven, presented by Barbara Evenchik in memory of Marvin Evenchik to Mr. Alexey Chernov.

- Cairns Family American prize:  $1,500 for an American work composed after 1944, presented by The Cairns Family Foundation to Ms. Fei Fei Dong.

- Chopin Prize:  $2,000 for the best performance of a Chopin composition, presented by the William O. and Gertrude Lewis Frohring Foundation in memory of Gertrude Lewis Frohring to Mr. Eric Zuber.

- Contemporary Prize:  $2,500 for the best performance of a contemporary work, presented by Art of Beauty, Inc. to Mr. Mateusz Borowiak.

- Mozart Prize:  $1,500 for the best performance of a Mozart composition, presented by Dr. and Mrs. Richard Kaufman to Ms. Kyu Yeon Kim.

- Russian Prize:  $1,500 for the best performance of a composition by a Russian composer, presented by Dr. Boris Vinogradsky to Jae-Won Huh.



About Alexander Schimpf:

Alexander Schimpf, age 29, is a citizen of Germany. He graduated from the University of Music in Dresden, and received Artist Diploma from the University of Music in Würzburg. He won first prize at the 2009 Beethoven Competition (Vienna), was a semi­finalist at the 2009 Leeds Competition (UK) and the 2008 Concours de Genève (Switzerland), and won second prize at the 2008 Città di Cantù Competition (Italy). In 2011 he performed with orchestras in Göttingen and Lübeck (Germany) and Vienna. In 2009 and 2010 he gave recitals in Munich, Nürnberg, Heidelberg and Hannover, Leeds (UK), and La Paz and Santa Cruz (Bolivia); and performed with orchestras in Augsburg



About the Cleveland International Piano Competition:

Now in its 36th year, the Cleveland International Piano Competition possesses an eminent list of alumni, and winners benefit from an array of professional opportunities following the competition.  Martina Filjak, the Competition's 2009 winner, has enjoyed a hugely successful career since her victory, performing nearly 100 solo and orchestral engagements worldwide over the past two years. Additional winners from past years include such notable artists as Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Angela Hewitt, and Sergei Babayan.



During the competition's ten days of performances, solo rounds are held twice daily for the first eight days.  Candidates are eliminated over this period by vote of the jury until four finalists remain. Finalists perform with The Cleveland Orchestra over a two-night period and the winner is announced at the conclusion of the last performance. A celebration gala is traditionally held on the last night of the Competition in honor of the four finalists.



--Kirshbaum Demler & Associates

Gilbert and Sullivan: HMS Pinafore (CD review)

Also, Trial by Jury. George Baker, John Cameron, Richard Lewis, Elsie Morison, Marjorie Thomas, Monica Sinclair. Sir Malcolm Sargent, Pro Arte Orchestra and Glyndebourne Festival Chorus. EMI 50999 0 95087 2 9 (2-disc set).



When you're one of the oldest record companies in the world, you ought to trot out some of your best material for rerelease from time to time. People expect it, especially people who haven't heard of it before or couldn't afford it the first time(s) around. Such is the case with this 2011 two-disc reissue from EMI of Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore and Trial by Jury, originally recorded in 1958 and 1960 respectively. They've been around on LP, tape, and CD before, and I suspect we still haven't heard the last of them.



The show horse, naturally, is HMS Pinafore, the comic opera that librettist Sir W.S. Gilbert (1836-1911) and composer Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) premiered in 1878. It is, of course, the satiric tale of a poor seaman who falls in love with a sea captain's daughter, but they cannot marry because he is low born and she is of the upper classes. The plot allowed the composers to poke fun at the British aristocratic caste system of the late nineteenth century as well as lampoon various character types. Tenor Richard Lewis sings the part of the fresh-faced able seaman Ralph Rackstraw; baritone George Baker is the pompous Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Porter, KCB (First Lord of the Admiralty); bass Owen Brannigan is the nefarious able seaman Dick Deadeye; baritone John Cameron is the commander of the Pinafore, Captain Corcoran; and soprano Elsie Morison is the captain's daughter, Josephine. They and the rest of the cast are a pleasure as well.



Sir Malcolm Sargent's EMI recording came around at about the same time as Decca's stereo recording with conductor Isidore Godfrey, the New Symphony Orchestra of London, and the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, which, with its zest and enthusiasm, tended to overshadow Sargent's version. Alongside Godfrey's reading, Sargent's interpretation does take the music a tad more seriously, yet it manages to convey most of the humorous, deadpan liveliness the music requires, too. Not that Sargent presents the tunes in any high-handed or weighty style, you understand; he simply presents them as genuinely thoughtful, entertaining melodies, not just lightweight music-hall ditties. In fact, the knock I've heard against Sargent's presentation of the work has sometimes been that he offers it in too operatic, too somber, a manner. Maybe so, at least measured against Godfrey's more rollicking, freewheeling presentation. Nevertheless, while Sargent's reading may not project all the vitality of Godfrey's performance, his rendering still bubbles over with joy and enthusiasm.



The coupling on disc two is Gilbert's and Sullivan's first major success, Trial by Jury, from 1875.  It's a brief, tidy piece spoofing the British legal system. Here, Sargent uses essentially the same singers, with the addition of baritone Bernard Turgeon as the foreman of the jury. George Baker is a delight as a wholly corrupt judge, and the entire cast seem to be having a good time. If you've never heard it before, just don't expect another Pinafore. It's good, but it's not that good.



The sound in both operettas, recorded over fifty years ago, defies its age, appearing every bit as good as almost anything recorded today. It has an excellent sense of presence, with a realistic acoustic of moderate breadth and superior depth. The frequency response remains well balanced, the high end sparkling and the bass at least sufficient. The transient response is quick and vital, impact is modest, and voices are perfectly natural. One can understand every word of the soloists and chorus, without their being too bright or too forward. Compared to Decca's Godfrey recording of the same vintage, EMI's sound is a tad more veiled; still, if you didn't directly compare them, you wouldn't notice.



The two EMI discs come housed in a Digipak container, with downloadable synopses and librettos in a PDF format on disc two.



JJP

Vivaldi: Flute Concertos (CD review)

Emmanuel Pahud, flute; Richard Tognetti, Australian Chamber Orchestra. EMI 0946 3 47212 2.



Emmanuel Pahud proves his worth as a world-class flautist in these flute concertos by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). As always, the composer wrote too many such pieces for a single album to cover, so this disc contains just the six concertos in Op. 10 and two more miscellaneous ones, RV440 and RV429.



If some of the music seems familiar even though you have never heard the flute concertos, remember that Vivaldi notoriously borrowed from his own earlier material. In any case, Pahud presents the concertos in a most sprightly, animated style, with a good number of trills and flourishes. It makes for a pleasant, enlivening experience, but it may also leave the listener a bit exhausted if taken all at once. Each three-movement concerto lasts from six to nine minutes, so picking and choosing a favorite or two makes for the easiest listening.



Now, the "howevers." I said that Pahud adopts a lively manner in his presentation, and to these ears the tempos can sometimes be too quick. I prefer the more relaxed approach taken by Janet See and the period-instruments group Philharmonia Baroque, lead by Nicholas McGegan. Maybe it's because I can listen to more of the music without tiring of the pace so quickly. A second matter is EMI's sound, which is on the slightly bright, light, hard side. It tends to add to the fatigue factor when attending to such spirited performances.



Finally, I noticed two possible discrepancies in the program booklet. The note writer, Michael Talbot, tells us that the "last track on this CD is the slow movement of the D major concerto RV 226, originally written for violin. The lyrical character of its slow movement, however, with pizzicato accompaniment, makes it particularly effective on the flute." All well and good and something to look forward to, except that I couldn't find it on the disc. The album seems to end with the third and final movement of the Concerto in D, RV 429, and there isn't any more. Maybe I just wasn't looking or listening hard enough, or perhaps Mr. Talbot got his information wrong, but I wonder why EMI left it in the notes. Moreover, the booklet tells us that "This is the ACO's first disc for EMI." Well, as I recall, Stephen Kovacevich did the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Australian Chamber Orchestra on EMI Eminence back in 1995. OK, maybe the mid-price Eminence label somehow doesn't count, but it's still EMI. Oh, well....  I quibble about nothing.



JJP

Ferrara: Fantasia tragica (CD review)

Also, Notte di tempesta; Burlesca; Preludio. Francesco La Vecchia, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma. Naxos 8.572410.



Italian conductor, composer, lecturer, and teacher Franco Ferrara (1911-1985) maintained a conservative attitude toward music-making at a time when most other composers were venturing out into more modern waters. Not to worry. Ferrara did his best to keep up with the times, working in cinema a good deal of his later life and counting among his over 600 students the likes of Roberto Abbado, Eduardo Alvarez, Maurizio Arena, Gürer Aykal, Riccardo Chailly, Myung-whun Chung, Franco Collura, Sir Andrew Davis, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Mario Lamberto, Francesco Lentini, Antoine Mitchell, Riccardo Muti, Daniel Oren, and Reinhard Schwarz.



The Naxos album begins with Preludio, a brief piece as the title would indicate. It starts out slowly in an almost meandering manner most of the way and then proceeds into a full-blown rhapsody before it's over. Maestro Francesco La Vecchia caresses it delicately and provides a sweet reading, which because of its rather traditional nature makes a suitable introduction to the rest of the music on the disc.



Next, we get the more-substantive work on the program, the Fantasia tragica, a homage to Dimitri Shostakovich, a piece Ferrara based on the third movement of his Russian colleague's Symphony No. 11. It opens with a slow, enigmatic introduction, builds through a series of conflicts and crescendos, and evolves into a tragic climax. The music is not particularly memorable, nor does La Vecchia try to make it into anything more than it is. It sounds a lot like the background score for a movie, not surprising given Ferrara's long association with the cinema.



After Fantasia comes Notte di tempesta ("Stormy Night"), the longest piece on the disc at almost fifteen minutes. Here we find another moderate, relatively traditional score, although it is one filled with heightened emotional passages that vary from one moment to the next. The music reminded me of English composer Arnold Bax's tone poems, actually, with colorful, pictorial writing abounding in every line. La Vecchia seems to be enjoying this one best, a kind of dramatic romp for him, ending again in a fairly exultant cinematic fashion.



The program concludes with Ferrara's most playful music of all, the youthful Burlesca from 1932. With this one, both Ferrara and La Vecchia are having fun. It provides a joyful end to an album that began on a far more serious note. The music has all the lightness of a popular song and might be describing a sunny stroll around the streets, fountains, and parks of Rome.



Recorded at the OSR Studios and the Auditorium Conciliazione, Rome, in 2008, the sound is round, soft, and ultrasmooth, with an adequate but not distinguished breadth, depth, and dynamic range. In fact, it sounds like much of the work the Naxos folks do, always agreeable but seldom quite in the audiophile class. While I cannot imagine many listeners being disappointed, I can't imagine too many audiophiles jumping for joy and using it as demo material. Let's just say it suits the mood of the music.



JJP

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto (CD review)

Also, Clarinet Quintet. Sharon Kam, basset clarinet. Osterreichisch-Ungarische Haydn Philharmonie. Berlin Classics 0016672BC.



If Classical Candor gave out awards for Best Recordings of the Year, this release of late-Mozart clarinet works would surely be high on the list of contenders. It is an almost perfect realization of the composer's music in equally felicitous recorded sound. I haven't listened to anything so charming in quite some time.



In the first number on the disc, Mozart's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in A major, K622, virtuoso clarinetist Sharon Kam plays the solo part and leads the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic. Written in 1791, the year Mozart died, the Clarinet Concerto was probably his last completed work. Needless to say, it is a mature composition, displaying all of the man's talents for melody, harmony, versatility, meditation, merriment, and delight. An advantage to Ms. Kam's realization, besides being one of the most well-thought-out and appealing versions available, is that she plays it on a basset clarinet, the instrument for which Mozart wrote the piece. At the time Mozart composed the work, the clarinet was just coming into its own, a relatively new instrument in the orchestra, and the basset clarinet was an early example of same. It is a period instrument capable of a lower register than the modern clarinet, and Ms. Kam demonstrates its rich, mellow sonority to the fullest. As the Clarinet Concerto contains any number of plush, fluid passages, the basset clarinet pays them due respect.



With Ms. Kam the Clarinet Concerto sings. From the rhapsodic tranquility of the first movement through the sweet, wistful, melancholic flow of the second movement to the energetic playfulness of the finale, Ms. Kam and the Haydn Philharmonic are in complete accord with the material, producing a warm, elegant, refined, and moving interpretation. This performance is in every way the equal of several other notable recordings, like the classic one from Jack Brymer (EMI) or more-recent ones on basset clarinet from Richard Hosford (ASV), Thea King (Hyperion), and Michael Collins (DG). Yes, Ms. Kam more than holds her own.



In the accompanying work, the Quintet for Clarinet, Two Violins, Viola and Violoncello in A major, KV581 (1789), four other distinguished players join Ms. Kam: Isabelle van Keulen, violin; Ulrike-Anima Mathe, violin; Volker Jackobsen, viola; and Gustav Rivinius, violoncello. Their execution is wonderfully lyrical and relaxed and their playing ideal, with the resonant sound of the basset clarinet lending an agreeably vibrant sonority to the proceedings. Like everything else in the performance, the final variations are a joy.



The two recordings, made in 2009 and 2010, and thankfully done without the distractions of a live audience, could hardly sound better. We get sonics of a smooth, melted-butter variety that entirely befit the kind of music presented, the clarinet well integrated into the two ensembles rather than standing apart. While we do not find the clarity or presence of some audiophile recordings, we do hear the natural reproduction of the instruments in a pleasantly ambient acoustic. The clarinet, especially, radiates a mellifluous tone that is never at odds with the other players, a calming, reassuring tone that complements Ms. Kam's virtuosic yet wholly warmhearted performances. This is a welcome album from start to finish, among the best I've heard this year.



JJP

Classical Music News of the Week: August 7, 2011

Most Beloved Tenor Andrea Bocelli Gifts New York City With a Once in a Lifetime Musical Event

Free concert with the New York Philharmonic at Central Park's Great Lawn, Thursday, September 15.  Free ticket distribution announced.



Internationally acclaimed tenor Andrea Bocelli will perform a free concert on Central Park's Great Lawn, Thursday, September 15 with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by its music director Alan Gilbert, as a special gift to New York City. This spectacular evening, sure to be a once in a lifetime musical event will be recorded in high definition by THIRTEEN for WNET for national PBS broadcast on GREAT PERFORMANCES in late fall. Andrea Bocelli Live in Central Park will also be released on CD and DVD by Sugar/Decca this November.



Free ticket distribution will begin at 9AM, Thursday, August 4. Tickets are required for admittance to this event and can be picked up in person at the following locations: Borough of Brooklyn: Brooklyn Academy Of Music, 30 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217. Borough of the Bronx: Paradise Theatre, 2413 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10468. Borough of Manhattan: Best Buy Theater, 1515 Broadway, 44th & Broadway, New York, NY 10036. Borough of Queens: Queens Theatre in the Park, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Flushing, NY 11368. Borough of Staten Island: St. George Theatre, 35 Hyatt St., Staten Island, NY 10301.



Limit four tickets per household while supplies last. For more ticket information, please log onto BocelliCentralPark.com.



Bocelli is widely regarded as the most popular Italian tenor in the world with more than 70 million albums sold.  He will present a varied repertoire including his best known and loved songs that have become fan favorites. Andrea will also be joined by special guest artists to make it a truly memorable evening.  Barilla is the main sponsor of the concert event



New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said "This free concert will be a memorable cultural moment for the thousands of New Yorkers and visitors that will watch the event live in the park, and many, many more through the broadcast by WNET." New York City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said "I join the Mayor and all New Yorkers in thanking Andrea Bocelli and all involved in making a beautiful autumn evening full of splendor and world-class music possible, in one of the most cherished outdoor places in New York City!"



Andrea Bocelli comments, "I cannot help but smile when thinking about the upcoming concert in Central Park. It was my father's dream, and my father was right, because my artistic path would have been entirely different without the strong and sincere embrace of this extraordinary city where everything is possible, even when it seems impossible."



--Olga Makrias, Universal Music



Violist Eliesha Nelson & Pianist Glen Inanga Make Strong Case for Varvara Gaigerova, Alexander Winkler & Paul Juon

Retired Adminstrative Law Judge Bill Zick writes a companion site to AfriClassical.com, and offers fascinating glimpses into the work of, as he says at his blog, "African heritage in classical music," where you can "meet 52 black composer and musicians, take a black history quiz, and hear over 100 audio samples." You can find out more about Mr. Zick and Africlassical music at  http://africlassical.blogspot.com/2011/07/violist-eliesha-nelson-pianist-glen.html and http://chevalierdesaintgeorges.homestead.com/index.html.



--JJP



Avie Records Unveils Releases for 2011-12

September

The voice is common to Avie's three September releases. This month sees the arrival on Avie of rising star American tenor Nicholas Phan with Winter Words, a collection of songs by Benjamin Britten.

Massed male voices, from boy soprano to bass baritone, combine to create a glorious sound on Treasures of Christ Church. Rounding out Avie's September releases is a vivid, live recording of Schoenberg's chamber arrangement of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, by Manchester Camerata conducted by Douglas Boyd and joined by mezzo-soprano Jane Irwin and tenor Peter Wedd.



October and November

The Cleveland-based baroque orchestra Apollo's Fire, under founder and director Jeannette Sorrell, can be counted on for creative programming. The group's October release, Vivaldi & Friends, returns the group to its baroque roots. October also sees the commercial debut release by Korean-born, New York City-resident pianist Joyce Yang, the youngest ever medalist of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2005, and winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2010. A second solo piano recording in October comes from South African-born, London-resident Daniel-Ben Pienaar. Manchester Camerata returns in October with two offerings: One is the penultimate release in the orchestra's acclaimed Beethoven cycle featuring Symphonies Nos. 6 "Pastoral" and 8 under Douglas Boyd. Three other British orchestras figure into Avie's November releases: the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic for Made in Britain; Andrew Parrott leads the Taverner Consort and Players, the ensemble he founded in 1973, in the first recording of his own reconstruction of J. S. Bach's Trauer-Music: Music to Mourn Prince Leopold. Finally, ringing in the season is Rejoice: A Christmas Celebration by Northern Sinfonia conducted by Simon Halsey and joined by the amassed Newcastle-based choirs Northern Sinfonia Chorus, the youth choir Quay Voices, and Quay Lads and Lasses.



2012

Avie will continue to champion the works of Austrian émigré composer Hans Gál, with American conductor Kenneth Woods returning this spring with the Stratford-upon-Avon-based Orchestra of the Swan in the world-premiere recording of Gál's Fourth Symphony. Also in the spring, Avie plans its 10th release with leading Vivaldi interpreter Adrian Chandler and his period-instrument orchestra La Serenissima.



Music Institute of Chicago Chorale Celebrates its 25th Season in 2011-12

Auditions 8/30–31; Three Concert Season December, March, June

The Music Institute of Chicago announces the 25th season of its community chorus, the Music Institute of Chicago Chorale, featuring three concerts in 2011-12 at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston.



"A Celebration of Britten" Sunday, December 18, 3 p.m.: Including Britten's popular Ceremony of Carols and Hymns to Saint Cecilia

"A Choral Festival" Saturday, March 31, 7:30 p.m.: Featuring music for multiple choirs and brass including music by Gabrieli and Schütz

"25 Great Years" Sunday, June 10, 3 p.m.: Highlighting audience favorites from the Chorale's history



Daniel Wallenberg, conductor of the Chorale since 1987, noted, "Although our Chorale is Evanston-based, participants come from as far south as Chicago and far north as Zion and everything in between. Several members have been in the Chorale for more than 15 years, and a few have been members since its inception in 1986."



Tickets to concerts by the Music Institute of Chicago Chorale are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors, and $7 for students and are available at 847-905-1500, ext. 108, or at musicinst.org.



Auditions for the season take place Tuesday and Wednesday, August 30 and 31 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Music Institute of Chicago, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston. To schedule an audition, call 847.905.1500 ext. 100 or email Andrea Musolf at amusolf@musicinst.org.



--Melanne Mueller

Elgar: Enigma Variations (CD review)

Also, In the South; Introduction and Allegro. Roger Norrington, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. Hanssler Classics CD 93.191.



A lot of Americans will probably forever know English composer Edward Elgar (1857-1934) as that guy who wrote the graduation march. He definitely got the most from his Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, but it may have been at the expense of people neglecting his main body of work, like his other Pomp and Circumstance marches, his two symphonies, his violin concerto, his cello concerto, and the three pieces of music on the present disc. Certainly, British conductor Sir Roger Norrington isn't about to let people forget him, though.



The concert overture In the South (Allasio), Op. 50, which Elgar premiered in 1904, makes a suitable opening number with its big, bold statements along the lines of Richard Strauss's Don Juan from a decade or so earlier. Nevertheless, Elgar claimed the music represented a holiday he spent in Italy. That may be so, but it sounds more heroic than it does balmy, sunny, or Italian. At any rate, Norrington and his Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra play up the Strauss angle pretty thoroughly, which in this case is not a bad thing to do.



Next, we get Elgar's Introduction and Allegro for String Quartet and String Orchestra, Op. 47, premiered in 1905. The intriguing thing here is the interaction between the quartet and the orchestra, with Norrington taking his time with it and letting it play out in a leisurely yet cogent manner. It is interesting that Norrington made a splash some years ago with his London Classical Players, a period-instruments group that would often move along at quite zippy speeds. However, in the Introduction and Allegro, as I say, Norrington seems entirely relaxed and easygoing. It's an enjoyable approach.



Of the works on the disc, the Enigma Variations are no doubt the most well known. Premiered in 1899, it was Elgar's first really big success. These fourteen Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36, began life as an improvisation that Elgar continued to toy with, bringing in all sorts of clever, hidden, and not-so-hidden meanings. Norrington seems less interested in the esoteric significance of the movements as he does simply in making each one of them as charming as possible. Here, he succeeds well, making this Enigma set one of the most comfortable, picturesque, colorful, and entertaining you'll find. Perhaps they're not in the same exalted league as the classic accounts by Sir Adrian Boult (EMI) or Sir John Barbirolli (EMI), but at least they come close.



Hanssler Classics recorded two of the works in live performances in Liederhalle Stuttgart, 2007 and 2010, and the other one (Introduction and Allegro) in Funkstudio des SWR in 2010. There is no question the live performances sound live: They appear moderately miked, slightly veiled, and very spacious. They also have an unfortunate eruption of applause at the end of each of them, disturbing one's final appreciation. Those concerns aside, the sound is fine, with plenty of dynamic punch in addition to the ambient bloom of the acoustic. Although ultimate transparency suffers, to be sure, in favor of a more natural sonic environment, the compromise seems reasonable. Of the three recordings, the Enigma Variations come up best, with the cleanest textures and some especially realistic timpani whacks.



JJP