NEW LISTINGS, OCTOBER-NOVEMBER, 2007

CONDUCTORS

Taylor: "Peter Ibbetson", Overture to. w/ CBS Radio Symphony [An unpublished recording, made just after this Deems Taylor opera played 16 performances at the Met.]

Atterberg: Symphony No. 6, C Major, Op. 31; Royal Philharmonic;recorded August 1`2, 1928 [28:02] [For the one hundredth anniversary of the death of Beethoven (or Schubert, since both composers died within a year of one another) – I forget exactly who sponsored it, but the prize was a very large sum plus a guaranteed recording. All you had to do was submit the score of a finished symphony – in any style – and have it dissected by a rather impressive panel of heavyweight critics, performers, and musicologists. To win, it had to be a damned good symphony.

Bernstein: Candide Overture. w/ Boston Symphony, live; 1980.

Bernstein: "On the Waterfront" Suite. w/ Boston Symphony; live, 1980 [Honestly, the sound is a problem here; my FM set was acting up, and there’s static and wavering signals through about five minutes of this performance; ordinarily I wouldn’t list it, but in this case, the performance is so electrifying and the orchestral playing so glorious I figured what-the-hell? I’ve always thought of this suite as "The Pines of Manhattan", due to its phenomenally dramatic closing section – sunrise over the skyscrapers and an electric feeling of potential Destinies in the air. There WERE days like that in New York, and when I was lucky enough to experience one it made me dizzy to be alive, It’s all here in this 17-minute suite, and this live reading blows away the Columbia studio recording, much as I cherish that, BTW, the static and such clears up tossed mid-performance, so the full-throated glory of the whooping brass and crashing tam-tam is all THERE.]

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 9, E Flat, K. 271. w/ Dame Myra Hess, piano. [An incredibly rare early LP, and the Source copy in this case is remarkably unblemished, virtually new-looking. This is also the most eloquent and revelatory interpretation I’ve ever heard; with musicianship this exalted, the dated mono sound simply doesn’y matter.]]

Prokofiev: "Romeo & Juliet", Selections from. w/ Stuttgart Radio Symphony; live, 1977 {As you might expect, it’s Cosmic, very big and grand. Note, however, that my FM receiver was acting up the night I taped this concert, and I was only able to bring in a mono signal, with occasional spatters of static. Not many, but enough so I feel obliged to inform you that the sound is less than I would wish.]

Schumann: Symphony No. 1, "Spring". w/. Stuttgart Radio Symphony; live, 1977

Beethoven: Symphony No. 1. w/ Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live, date unknown. [A very dramatic, meaty reading, superbly played by a mighty orchestra. Alas, the Amsterdam critics, for unfathomable reasons, "had it in" for Furtwangler and gave him lukewarm-to-indifferent reviews; he left town in a huff, vowing never to conduct in Amsterdam again – and he didn’t. So this is a unique one-time concert; decent sound]

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3, "Eroica". w/ RIA Orchestra of Rome, c. 1953. [Furtwangler never recorded a "bad" Eroica, although some are less majestic than others. This one is in the "Hmmm; for an Italian orchestra, that ain’t bad" category and it has moments of genuine eloquence. Mediocre sound, of course – the Italians still hadn’t got THAT right by 1953, but still worthy of inclusion in any Furtwangler collection.]

Furtwangler: Symphony No. 2. w/ Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. [See grotesquely expansive comments under "Composers"]

Bruckner: Symphony No. 8. w/ Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; live, 1984. [Giulini made some of his greatest recordings during the Eighties – richly colored, deeply felt, seasoned, wise, and majestic. When old age caught up with him a decade later, he settled mostly for just being "slow". This live Vienna performance is just stunning – there are many moments when Giulini even surpasses Furtwangler. The fade-out ending of the Adagio, for instance, is paced to slowly, so nobly, that few conductors could sustain that tempo without losing coherence. Time becomes suspended here, and the astounding brass playing, at very soft volumes yet very intensely articulated, will take your breath away. Likewise the symphony’s final glorious peroration, which just builds and builds and builds. Cosmic Bruckner! Obviously, the Vienna Phil loved playing under this man and he loved conducting them – such rapturous playing over so long a time-span could not be sustained if it were not so. Sonics are warm and detailed, and have ample power and head-room.]

Gould: Dance Symphony. Composer; Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

" : Spirituals for Orchestra " " " "

Sousa: "Sousa Forever!" [Spectacular sonics and rip-snorting conductorial work from Mortie Gould, who obviously shares my belief that John Philip Sousa was, in his way, a really great composer. If the Austrians can make room for Johann Strauss next to Beethoven on their Olympus, we should as readily find a comparable throne for JPS. And while these readings are a tad more "symphonic" sounding than high-stepping, the scoring has so many felicities that everything falls into proportion with the first down-beat. And as I said, the engineering is terrific.]

"GREAT CONDUCTORS IN REHEARSAL" [This very interesting program was produced and aired on the Chapel Hill FM station, WUNC, back about 1985, before that station betrayed a huge segment of its audience and dropped classical music in favor of a trendy, despicable all-chit-chat, all day and all night format that left Triad listeners with only ONE decently audible station to serve their needs! Sad, to be sure, but irrelevant to this top-notch program. Selections range from the reasonably familiar to the weird and relatively unknown. Pride of Place goes of course to Sir Thomas Beecham, who always spoke – to ANY audience – as though there was an invisible microphone recording every bon mot for Posterity’s amusement. And Posterity IS amused! For instance, Sir Thomas and the gentlemen of the Royal Philharmonic have just started to record Haydn’s Symphony No. 1o1 (whatever), when an unusually wild thunderstorm cuts loose over the studio, generating such a background racket that the producers halts the session and does everything but BEG Sir Thomas to hang around, in the hope that this tempest will quickly head out to sea. It doesn’t. If anything, the more Beecham tries to bend Nature to his will, the louder and more obnoxious the intrusive the sound becomes. Finally, Beecham snarls at the sky: "Y’know, I can’t hear a damned thing except for that racket over our heads! It sounds like two skeletons copulating on a tin roof!" The selections include a true rarity: Toscanini cracking a JOKE with the usually terrified men of the NBC Symphony! As it happens, I knew and had worked with the assistant manager of the station – the bloke who put this program together, and he was a kindred spirit: huge record collection, inordinately obsessed with conductors’ and their contrasting styles, and in general a fellow who Knew His Shit. He chose vivid excerpts and brisk, insightful commentary to bridge the intervals between musical examples. Which include::

LISZT: Les Preludes. w/ Boston Symphony Orch. [This is an O-O-O-L-D record and it was second-hand when I bought it, so it’s picked up some scratches over the years, but not enoughof them to hide the excellence of the performance. And, what’s this? Ol’ Pierre was in a frisky mood when he recorded this one, because he punches-up the heavy beats in the climax with (wait for it!) a tam-tam! Just like Stokowski might have done…only when Stokie recorded Les Preludes, he didn’t! In fact, Stokie’s performance is disappointingly straight at that point in the score!! Go figure. Anyway, this is one of the better Les Preludes out there, if not quite in the same class as Mengelberg’s (but then, nobody’s is, really).]

Scriabin: Poem of Ecstasy, Op. 54. w/ Boston Symphony Orchestra. [Same goes for this reading – it doesn’t have the ripe tumescence of Stokowski’s, but it has an equal amount of drama and builds to a splendid climax, pumped along by Roger Voisin’s incomparable trumpet playing.]

Scriabin: Poem of Ecstasy, Op. 54. w/ Leningrad Philharmonic. [I read somewhere that this remarkable performance had been transferred to CD on the "Sterling Classics" label, an enterprise that seems to have vanished before I became aware it existed, and specializing in "classic recordings from the Soviet archives". Had I but known… Be that as it may, this Melodiya LP is another one of those treasures I picked up IN Leningrad, c. 1964, and as such has NO discographical data on the flimsy album covers or the toilet-paper inner sleeve. From the coarse but earthy sonics, I’d estimate late Forties. The brass section, of course, sports that ursine vibrato endemic to Russians orchestras until the Eighties, but in this piece, somehow, that’s an asset. The interpretation is feverishly over-the-top (at this point, Mravinsky hadn’t yet calcified his style into that "Mr. Iceman" starkness so characteristic of his stereo-era recordings – he is still young enough to respond to the flamboyance and eroticism of the work, and whips up a wild climax. The players have to scramble like mad to stay together, but that only adds to the visceral impact excitement – any brass player who screwed the pooch on this one-and-only take was probably taken out behind the studio and shot…]. Given the crude engineering and mono-only format, I suspect this entry will appeal strictly to Mravinsky collectors, but in view of how hard it is, and apparently always was, to find that Sterling iteration, and in view of the fact that even the Russians never saw fit to remaster this, I strongly suspect this web site is the ONLY place you can easily find it; and it’s a revelation from the poorly documented years of Mravinsky’s middle-career. Naturally, there’s no timing on the original label, but it has to be about 20 minutes, give or take. Buy it here or forget about ever seeing it again!]

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6, Op.54. Leningrad Philharmoinc, live, 1971.

" : The Swan of Tuonela, Op. Op. 22, No. 3. " : " " [A lot of critics dismiss Mravinsky’s 7^th because of the interpretive quirks and the huge, vibrato-laden Russian brass. Bullshit! That raw, barbaric sonority only adds to the elemental power of this magnificently conceived reading, one of the finest since Koussevitzky’s. Is there another conductor who builds the surging brass-heavy climax to a more cathartic intensity? I haven’t heard it if there is, And the sense of lifetime relinquishment that pervades the closing pages is just heart-breaking. A towering performance. Just listen to the gruff, raw intensity of the first few pages, and you’ll be transfixed.]

Berlioz: Les Nuits d’Ete, Op. 7. Victoria de los Angeles, soprano. w/ Boston Symphony

Debussy: La Damozel Elie " " " " " " " "

Brahms: Symphony No. 1, C Minor, )p. w/ Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra [One of my favorite "obscure" conductors, and one who never made a bad recording, even if they were all released on grocery store labels. His style: Hmmmm. Adrian Boult, perhaps, only with a touch more flair.]

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Op w/ Berlin Philharmonic, live, 1980. [Quite sensational, in a Karajan-ish sort of way. Almost TOO refined in some places, but also hugely dramatic. Why he never recorded this interpretation, I can’t imagine, but anyway, here’s a rip-snorting air-check for your pleasure. One minor problem – the first five minutes of the broadcast are missing, so my dub begins in media res. Sorry about that..]

Hindemith: "Cardillac". Joseph Keilberth; Fischer-Dieskau, title role; Orchestra & Chorus of Cologne Radio; live, date unknown. [I know it’s silly, but every time my eyes graze across the title of this fierce and un-loved opera, it scrambles the letters into "CADILLAC" AND I get this mind-movie image of Fischer-Dieskau in the back seat (upholstered in leopard skin), dressed like the richest pimp in Harlem, disdainfully making paper gliders out of $100 bills and sailing them into a horde of ragged but worshipful street urchins. Is it just ME, or did Hindemith really want some kind sleazoid gestalt to seethe in the audience’s collective brain? Well, it does in MINE anyway, and I’m the one doing the rant – hell, I don’t even know what this opera is ABOUT, but it comes on strong at the beginning, with the composer turning counterpoint into a deadly weapon and piling on abrasive brass as in the E-Flat Symphony. If this, in fact, a recording of the premier, then it’s memorable for two reasons: Keilberth’s rock-solid conducting and the penetrating intelligence and intensity of Fisher-Dieskau’s characterization. He seems to inhabit the part, not just portray. If his voice isn’t as seasoned as it would become by the advent of stereo, it has a youthful glow, like the muscle-tone of an athlete who’s just discovering he can do more than even HE thought he could do. What artistry! I’m no timing on the Source tape, but because of where the turn-over is on the cassette, I’d estimate 75 minutes. Bottom line: I was prepared to dislike this opera, which I’d never heard until yesterday (September 21, 2007), and yet I found it instantly appealing and suffused with such vigor that it’s starting to obsess me! I’ll at least have to find a libretto or a batch of reviews so I can find out what the plot’s about and who Cardillac actually WAS. So, while I do THAT, why don’t all you Hindemith fans order a batch of dubs???]

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, "Pathetique". w/ Philharmonia Orchestra, stereo. [One of the better ones – taut and fiery, with bright, almost aggressive sonics. When he was "on", Paul Kletzki was a splendid conductor, and he was definitely "on" when this was taped, c. 1963]

Strauss: Don Juan, Op. 20. w/ Boston Symphony. [A truly wild, swashbuckling, ardent reading in the best Koussie style; handsome mono sound, too.]

Wagner: Siegfried Idyll. w/ Boston Symphony. [Touchingly gentle and flowing; exquisite string playing from the BSO.]

Tchaikovsky:: Suite No. 3, Op. 55. w/ Vienna Philharmonic; date unknown. [A rousing, handsomely-played rendition of this fine work, one too-seldom heard. Maazel really tears into the stirring "Polonaise" that brings it to a close and, usually, the audience to its feet.]

Verdi: "Simon Boccenegra", complete. Live broadcast, Metropolitan Opera, 4/2/1960. Frank Guarra; Giorgio Tozzi; Ezio Flagello; Zinka Milanov; Carlo Bergonai; Norman Scott; Robert Nagy; Martnie Janger; Morchestra & Chorus of the Metropilitan Opera. [Requires 2.5 CDs]

Debussy: "Pelleas & Melisande", Suite from. w/ Boston Symphony, live, 1955.

Ravel: Daphnis & Chloe, complete. w/ Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, live, 1955

Verdi: Requiem. w/ Philadelphia Orchestra; Temple U. Chorus; Singing City Choir; Carol Van Ness, soprano; Diane Curry, mezzo; Louis Linn, tenor; Paul Plishka, bass. Live, 5/12/ 1985. [A very special performance, given In Memoriam for Eugene Ormandy, who died eleven days earlier. It’s one of the best things by Muti I have – intensely vital, fiery, terror-stricken, and awe-filled. Simply tremendous!]

Brahms: Symphony No. 4, E Minor, Op. 98. "Vienna Tonkunstler Orchestra"; no conductor listed. [Of all the "mystery" labels, "Royale" was the cruddiest in terms of quality – pressed on cheap, brittle, "Not Vinyl", its pressings were guaranteed to wear out in a dozen or so playings, no matter how good your equipment was or how carefully you treated them. This specimen is actually in remarkably clean condition, although as usual, the sonics are shallow and …odd. Whoever, and however it got issued, it’s a good, solid, Middle-European Fourth that could have originated in twenty cities over a span of just as many years. You’ve heard worse; you’ve heard better. The allure of the mystery remains, but that of the music also come through.]

Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor. NO PIANIST LISTED! "Rostov Festival Orchestra"; Stanislaw Klimsky, conductor. [This is one of the oddest damned performances of anything I have on records! It’s on the "Springboard Classics" label, and I would have to guess it dates from the mid-Sixties – not because there’s any dates given anywhere, for performance, recording, or issuance, but because the "Springboard" logo is printed in Sixties "Head Poster" squishy type-face. That’s just the start of the weirdness/ First of all, NO SOLOIST is listed – just the "Rostov Festival Orchestra" under "Maestro Klinsky". Now, for all I know, there might have BEEN a festival in Rostov – a fairly provincial city, by all accounts – back then, and someone named "Klinsky" might well have been its music director. If so, it must have been a pretty dreary affair, not to want its soloists given credit. The recorded sound is just…weird. It sounds "fuzzy". As though there were, well, fuzz on the stylus (there wasn’t), OR as though the whole thing had been recorded almost, but not quite, a quaurter-tone sharp! The Orchestra sounds both small and brass-heavy (in a coarse, blatty sort of way), although it has moments of spirited playing; the pianist, whoever he, she, or it may be, phrases with such choppy, frenetic skittery nervousness that the music HAS no repose whatever…but, oddly, not much excitement, either. Like it’s being sight-read by someone who’s never heard a recording of it before!

Beethoven: Violin Concerto w/ Francesscatti, violin; Philadelphia Orchestra [The Navy blue label mono version, in excellent condition and with remarkably silent surfaces – if you’re a Francescatti fan, this is one you should hear.]

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 ("Winter Dreams"). w/ Philadelphia Orchestra live, 1978. [One of the best Ormandy/Tchaikovsky performances I’ve ever heard. Ol’ YEW-GENE had taken his Adderall that morning, for sure, and the combination of fat, sleek, tone and tautly-sprung balletic rhythms brings the sometime-snoozer dynamically to life (this late in his career, Ormandy tended to function on automatic pilot on some nights, and his hearing was starting to go by 1980, but on this night, at least, you can hear a suggestion of the bounding nervous energy possessed by the YOUNG Ormandy, when he was fresh off-the-boat from Budapest – and what a change it is!]

Faure: Pavane for Orchestra. w/ Orchestre Philharmonique de l’ORTF; live, 1972..

Paray: Symphony No. 1. " " " " ". " "

Pierne: "Cydalise et le Chevre-pied", Suite No. 1. " " " " " " [Paul Paray was 93 years old when these final recordings were taped; he shows no sign of diminishing powers! Like Stokowski, the mere act of stepping on a podium seemed to energize this conductor beyond scientific reason! The Faure and the Pierne readings have as much vitality, clarity, and rhythmic snap as the finest of his Detroit Symphony records of the early Sixties. As for Paray’s music, it has always been appreciated by a small handful of collectors, who discovered it – as I did – from the sole LP Mercury released over here, Paray’s stunning "Mass for Joan of Arc". The conductor composed three symphonies altogether, and as you might expect, they’re beholden to no one else. But in their not-quite-Modernist / not-quite-late-romantic way, they’re accessible, often melodious, deeply expressive works, Like the symphonies of Bruno Walter or Felix Weingartner, they deserve an occasional live performance…but aren’t likely to get it as conductors’ repertoires keep getting narrower and orchestra boards, in their pointless and asinine quest for larger audiences, keep forcing their musicians to play only the familiar and the tried-and-true; it’s a formula for aesthetic stagnation and it’s never, ever worked in the long term. I’m serious about this, folks: if it were not for the die-hard record collectors, 80% of the music written since 1600 AD would never have been played at all. I do what I can to point out the hundreds of terrific pieces you’ve NEVER heard before, and once in a while, one of you will take a flier on my advice…and most of the time, you like what I steered you towards. That’s all one person can do, but I’ll keep on doing it until they pry the baton from my cold dead hand!]

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4. w/ Chicago Symphony, live, 1981. [What a colossal reading! What a devastating piece this is; how slow it was to catch on; how radical it must have seemed when it was composed! No wonder Stalin’s hacks loathed it and machinated against the young composer! Rozhdestvensky is on a mission here – to convince the Chicago audience of this stark magnificence of this symphony (it’s obvious he’s already convinced the orchestra, which plays it with almost savage concentration – what brass-playing!), and to judge from the wild applause after the last grim orchestral heartbeat fades away, he succeeded fully.]

N.B. Separately available: A very illuminating 25-minute-long discussion of this symphony, given by Rozhdestvensky to the audience in Chicago, most of whose members were about to hear this sprawling, ferocious work for the first time. Please note that it is not possible to include both the performance and the lecture on the same blank CD; but if you ask for it, I’ll throw it in for free (or you can use the remaining 55 minutes for additional musical selections, in which case – sorry – I will have to charge for two CDs.]

Bruckner: Symphony No. 7. w/ Danish National Radio Symphony; live, 1977 [Sanderling is one of the few conductors whose Bruckner interpretations approached the same level of exaltation as those of Furtwangler and Celibidache. Briefly available in the late Seventies on the short-lived Unicorn label, this live (before an astoundingly quiet audience) Copenhagen reading typifies Sanderling’s broad but not slow-sounding approach; the ensemble plays so well for him it’s hard to believe this was his first engagement with this orchestra!]

Bliss: Piano Concerto ("Dedicated to the People of the United States"). w/ Trevor Barnard, piano; Philharmonia Orchestra. [See comments under "Composers"]

SPECIAL LISTING: His COMPLETE RECORDINGS OF Liszt – Taken from a late box set of Westminster Gold pressings, in near-mint, and much more on-pitch than their original, separate issues. His unique flair for this kind of music – his ability to take it seriously, on one hand, yet revel in its sheer flash and showmanship on the other, makes these very special and exciting performances. The recordings are in genuine stereo, from faiely late in his career, and have been out-of-print for thirty years]

Liszt: Battle of the Huns. w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra [12:39]

Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. I, F Minor. w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra. [12:14]

" : " " No. 2, S Minor " " " " " [12:02]

" : " " No. 3, D Major. " " " " " [8:31]

" : " " No. 4, D Minor. " " " " " [12:07]

" : " " No. 5, E Minor. " " " " " [12:47]

" : " " No. 6, D Major. " " " " " [13:42]

" : Les Preludes. w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra [15:30]

" : Mephisto Waltz. w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra [13:06]

" : Piano Concerto No. 2, A Major. e/ Edith Farnadi, piano; Vienna State Opera Orch. [18:30]

Two Greek Dances. Vienna State Radio Symphony [

Ben-Haim: Concerto for Strings, Op. 40. MGM String Orchestra

Chavez: Symphony No. 5 for String Orchestra. MGM String Orchestra

Canning: Fantasy on a Hymn Tune by Justin Morgan. w/ Houston Symphony Orchestra

Chopin (Orch. by Stokowski): Mazurka, A Minor, Op. 17/ No. 4; Prelude D Minor, Op. 28/ No. 24; Waltz, C Sharp Minor, Op. 64/ No. 2. w/ Houston Symphony Orchestra. [I’m a deep=dyed fan of Stokie’s orchestrations, but even I have to draw the line at these bloated, monstrous indulgences – what was he ON when he chose to assault poor Chopin with such vulgarity and trashy excess? Doesn’t mean they aren’t FUN to wallow in, but how could he conduct them with a straight face? That he COULD transcribe Chopin with taste and sensitivity is proven by his noble, relatively restrained treatment of the Funeral March (which I haven’t listed because all extent recordings of it are still in copyright), but these three transcriptions are just dreadful. So…how many copies would you like?]

Copland: Symphony No. 2. w/ NBC Symphony Orchestra; live, 1943

Hovhaness: October Mountain. w/ Percussion Ensemble, Manhattan School of Music; live, 3/12/1958 [8:22]

McPhee: Nocturne for Chamber Orchestra. w/ His Symphony Orchestra; live, 3/12/1958

Miller, Malloy (1918-1961): Prelude for Percussion Instruments. w/ Percussion Ensemble, Manhattan School of Music. [5:15]

Mitsukuri Shukichi: Ten Haiku by Bashio. w/ His Symphony Orchestra; live, 12/3/1958 [8:06]

Partos, Odon: "Yiskor" for Vioila & Chamber Orchestra. w/ His Symphony Orchestra [See comments under "Composers"]

Piston: Concertino for Orchestra. w/ American Symphony; live, 1967

Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3, Op. 44. w/ National Philharmonic of London, 1971 [38:58] [Stokie’s next-to-last recording, made when he was 91! You’d never guess it. Vivid, sweeping and ultra-romantic, in sumptuous sound]

Rachmaninoff: Vocaliase, Op. 34/ 14. w/ National Philharmonic [6:56]

Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals. w/ Jeanne Behraud & Sylvan Levine, pianos; Philadelphia Orchestra. [Not only the first recording, but still unsurpassed for wit, verve, and color! On the original 78s, the two pianos didn’t sound good – rather harsh and steely of tone; but I’ve dubbed the Master from a Camden LP, on which they sound much warmer and less aggressive. There is not, thank God, any narration, which makes the music sounbd much more vital and brilliant.]

Wagner: "Gotterdammerung" – Final Scene. w/ New York Philharmonic, live, 1947 -

Wen-Chung, Chou: To A Wayfarer. w/ His Symphony Orchestra; live, 3/12/1958 [8:56]

Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2. w/ Bolshoi Theater Orchestra. [48:21] [Early Soviet stereo is a little … um…floppy sounding; as in the bass is BIG but loose, if you know what I mean. However, Svetlanov tears into this score like a starving bear – about as Slavic an interpretation as you can find, including those big, fat, wobbly horns that are both atrocious and awfully "right" for this score. Red blood flows from your woofers!]

Mahler: Symphony No. 5. w/ New York Philharmonic; live, 1978 [See rave comments under "Composers"]

Brahms: Symphony No. 4, E Minor, Op. 98. w/ BBC Symphony Orchestra; recorded May, 1934.

Gould: Concertette for Viola & Symphonic Band. w/ Emmanuel Vardi, viola; MGM Band

Nielsen: Hymnus Amoris, Op. 12. w/ Danish Radio Symphony & Chorus [ 22:54] [Deeply committed, authoritative performances of two obscure, early, but surprisingly important works. This is their ONLY recording; the sound is splendid, and unlike many Woldike recordings, it’s in stereo. See my raving commentary under "Choral Music" below.]

Nielsen: "Sleep" for Chorus & Orchestra, Op. 18. Danish Radio Symphony & Chorus. [18:05]

D’ALBERT, Eugen (1864-1932): [No, actually he was born in Glasgow! He first studied with Sir Arthur Sullivan, then went east and studied with Liszt, who seems to have been quite fond of him (he compared his musical gifts to those of…Tausig; one assumes that was intended as a compliment in Liszt’s day!) and eventually enjoyed great acclaim as a virtuoso pianist. The only one of his many works that survives in the active repertoire – just barely – is the opera "Tiefland", which as a kid I used to think must surely be about Atlantis! I’ve got a recording of the overture allegedly conducted by Furtwangler, and its…sort of like Tausig, I guess. Anyway, this quartet is the nicest piece I’ve heard by d’Albert, handsomely performed, and NOT available on any commercial label. Oh, before I forget – d’Albert evidently wasn’t only a virtuoso in the music room, since the man had no less than SIX wives… It’s a wonder he ever composed a note!]

String Quartet No. 2. Op. 11. Kruetzberger String Quartet; live, 1977 [A work of charm and warm spirited tunes by yet another fascinating but abysmally neglected composer.

Ballad and Passacaglia, Op. 38 Stockholm Radio Symphony; composer conducting {10:17]

Concerto for Violin & Orchestra. Date, performers, and venue unknown. A Swedish friend (who owned a great little record store in the Old City heart of Stockholm, just sent the tape to me with a note attached that simply said: "I think you will love this piece!" and no info about who was performing or when. There was a Swedish announcer, so I must assume it was one of the first performances, probably the Stockholm Philharmonic, which means it could have been conducted by Sixten Erhling, Antal Dorati, Stig Westerberg – whoever it is, both orchestra and soloist did a magnificent job, and ever since I’ve turned people on to it most of them respond to its cascading melodies, ranging from soaring passion to melancholy and longing within a desolate burned-out backdrop. I’ll be damned if it isn’t one of the finest Violin Concertos composed since Bartok’s that stood a real chance of penetrating into the Basic Repertory.

Concertino for Viola and Small Orchestra, Op. 28. Composer; Swedish Radio Symphony; recorded in 4/23/ 1946] [7:27] [Soloist not named; this is a short, entertaining "Pops" concert fare, quite charming actually, but not to confused with the mighty violin concerto listed above, which is so beautiful I almost cried several times.]

Rhapsody on a Swedish Folk Tune, Op. 17. Composer; Stockholm Radio Symphony; recorded August 21, 1950.

Symphony No. 6, C Major, Op. 31. Beecham; Royal Philharmonic; rec. August 12, 1928, [For God’s sweet sake, turn to the sidebar rant under "Conductors"}

Varmlands Rhapsody, Op/ 39. Composer; Swedish Radio Philharmonic [Reconstituted and renamed Orchestra; Atterberg was a very good conductor, coaxing exquisitely sensitive playing from that ensemble.. The Swedish title, by the way, means what you think it means. A delightful Home OnThe Range kind of piece.]

Sonata for Flute, B Minor. [This rock-bottom-budget cassette came from the Mace/Sceptre label, which produced some very fine European recordings on license, but never got much credit for their virtuous products (I suspect because their records and tapes just "looked cheap" and hence never got the attention they deserved…well, sometimes deserved!). Take this prerecorded cassette of four excellent sonatas: it’s a Dolby-ized tape, very quiet with almost no hiss; the performers (who are only cryptically identified as "Zoller", "Ruf", and "Boettcher") have the baroque style down pat, yet don’t sound fussy and academic. The sound is very clean and attractive, the flute well forward but every ornament and decoration from the cello and harpsichord is perfectly audible. I’ve owned this tape for neigh-on-to forty years and it still sounds great – not a trace of wobble, as you so often get from older cassettes that have been in storage too long (I suspect the North Carolina humidity contributes to that "stretching" effect as well). Mace labeled this "Volume 1" and I’ve always kept an eye out for Volume 2, assuming there WAS one, but have never spotted a copy. Total timing is 41:34. Lovely music, expressive and technically polished performances, top-notch sound – and when this sucker was NEW, I only paid $2.97 for it at Sam Goody’s in Manhattan!]

6 Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm. Michel Beroff, piano

Deux Images, Op. 10. Tibor Paul; Vienna Symphony Orchestra

15 Hungarian Peasant Dances. Michel Beroff, piano

"Out of Doors" Suite. Michel Beroff, piano

Sonata for Piano. Michel Beroff, piano

"Fidelio" Overture. Melik-Pashaev; Bolshoi Theater Orchestra; live, 1957 [6:25]

"Fidelio": Leonore’s Aria "Abscheulicher, wo ellst duh in" Act 1; Floristan’s Aria, Act 2 and Final Chorus, Act 3. Galina Vishnevskaya, *sop; Alexei Ivanov, baritone; Georgi Neljepp, tenor;

Piano Concerto No. 1, C Major, Op. 15. Robert Casadseus. Piano; van Beinum; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam. [31:13]

Piano Concerto No. 4, G Major, Op. 56. Robert Casadseus. Piano; Van Beinum; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam. [19:38]

String Quartet No. 2, G Major, Op. 18 / No. 2. Pascal String Quartet

String Quartet No. 3, D Major, Op. 18/ No. 3. Pascal String Quartet

String Quartet No. 5, A Major, Op. 18/ No. 5. Pascal String Quartet

Symphony No. 1. Furtwangler; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live, date unknown. [See comments under "Conductors"]

Symphony No. 3, "Eroica". Furtwangler; RIA Orchestra, Rome, 1953. [See comments under "Conductors"]

Violin Concerto, D Major, Op. 61. Francescatti, violin; Ormandy; Philadelphia Orchestra (mono iteration)

Concerto for Strings, Op. 40. Izler Solomon; MGM String Orchestra. [An appealing blend of Classical restraint and Neo-Romantic Near-Eastern lushness. Solomon conducts it sympathetically; the sonics are typical of MGM: rather dry and unreverberent, but very clean.]

Les Nuits d"Ete, Op. 7. De Los Angeles, soprano; Munch; Boston Symphony Orchestra

Piano Concerto ("Dedicated to the People of the United States"). Trevor Barnard, piano; Sir Malcolm Sargent; Philharmonia Orchestra. [Mix one cup of Rachmaninoff, one cup of Walton, and stir well. A catchy concerto; why hasn’t it caught on?]

"Things to Come", from the OST. Composer ; London Symphony Orchestra.

Welcome, the Queen! Composer; London Symphony Orchestra [In honor of Her Majesty’s Commonwealth Tour, which officially began on May 15, 1954! An appropriately jaunty and high-spirited little tone-poem, well worth an occasional hearing on its own.merits!]

"Israel" Symphony". [How sad it is that recent events in the Middle East have all but erased the memory of Israel’s "Heroic Years; it is NOT demonstrably true "both sides are equally to blame" for the bloody impasse, nor is it true that Israel "stole" the Palestinian Homeland. But this is not a forum for such an irresolvable debate. When Bloch composed this red-hot paean to the new Jewish state, it didn’t look like the Israelis had much of a chance. And yet, in conflict after conflict, the out-manned and out-gunned settlers prevailed. For those who still feel a tingle when the soundtrack from "Exodus" is played, this work will have strong, instant appeal. And whoever the hell Franz Litschauer was, he does a damn fine job holding this sprawling epic together. The mono only sound holds up surprisingly well, although it tends to get rather grainy in the heavily-scored passages. Highest recommendation!]

La Sylphide, comptete Ballet. David Garforth; Royan Danish Orchestra. [71:37] [No, this is not the wimpy music we usually hear for this title; it’s a totally different and utterly charming score by Herr Bournonville, the Master of Ballet in Copenhagen through the mid-19^th Century. This revival contains much music never before recorded, and is a sparkling joy from start to finish.]

Ballades, Op. 10/ Nos. 1-4 (D Minor, D Major, B Minor, B Major). Geon Petri, piano [See "Chamber Ensembles & Solo Virtuosi"]

Intermezzi, , Op. 117. Nos. 1-3 (E Flat Major, B Flat Minor, and C Sharp Minor). Geon Petri, piano. [See Chamber Ensembles & Solo Virtuosi"]

Rhapsodies, Op. 79/ Nos. 1 & 2. Egon Petri, piano. [See comments under "Chamber Ensembles & Solo Virtuosi"]

Hungarian Dances Nose 1-3, 5--7. 10. Tabor Paul; Vienna Symphony Orchestra

Piano Concerto No. 2, B Flat Major, Op. 83. Solomon, piano; Issay Dobrowen; Philharmonia Orchestra

Symphony No. 1. Grunner-Hegge; Oslo Philharmonic Orch. [See comments under "Conductors"]

Symphony No. 4, E Minor, Op. 98. Bruno Walter; BBC Symphony Orchestra, rec. May, 1934 [40:09] [See comments under "Conductors"]

Symphony No. 4, E Minor, Op. 98. "Vienna Tonkunstker Orchestra" [See under "Mystery Maestri"]

Serenade for Horn, Tenor & Strings. Gunther Herbig; Peter Schreier, tenor; Phillip Jones, horn; New York Philharmonic, live; mid-Eighties. [Herbig’s NY debut appearance; see comments under "Bruckner", ‘cause they all apply to this totally different piece as well…]

Overture to "The Loreley" Wolfgang Balzer; Rheinland Philharmonic Orchestra

Romance for Viola & Orchestra, Op. 85. " " " "

Suite for Large Orchestra, Op. 79-B. " " " "

Symphony No. 1, in E, Op. 28. " " " " [At last, something by Max Bruch that ISN’T his Violin Concerto! So how are these four substantial orchestral pieces? First rate, if not quite as enduring as Brahms or as fresh as Dvorak (whose influence, rightly or wrongly, I hear sometimes). There’s an abundance of ardent melody, depth of feeling, and fine orchestration here (check out the Funeral March in the Suite, not to mention the concluding "allegro energico", which is a rousing set of variations on the "Volga Boatmen" song!) The Rhineland Philharmonic wasn’t quite a stellar outfit when this imported LP was recorded 30 years ago (it was established in the summer of 1945, in the war-ravaged city of Koblenz and has gone from strength to strength ever since; its best-known music director is probably the indefatigable Lief Segerstam) but if these performances are not luxury-class, they are very committed and vigorous. In any case, there are no other recordings…]

Symphony No. 7. Sanderling; Danish State Radio Orchestra, live; 1977

Symphony No. 8. Giulini; Vienna Philharmonic; live, 1984 [A flat-out incredibly performance! See detailed remarks under "Conductors"]

Symphony No. 9. Gunther Herbig; New York Philharmonic; live, mid-Eighties. [Herbig’s NYPO debut, and one hell of a fine rendition of this elusive masterpiece -- ferocious brass playing, exceptional balances but overall with a generally "forward" sound, and some exceptionally imaginative voicing of the counterpoint and secondary lines. Alas, the FM reception that night really sucked and my archival copy has Overhead Airplane Syndrome – not enough to spoil the dub, but enough to be irritating as hell. Still, this IS Herbig’s first time with the NY Phil, and he goes exceptionally well with a very tough piece, keeping the leash taut and throwing the woodwinds into stark relief at many points where other conductors mostly choose to keep them in the background; it gives the symphony a surprisingly sharp profile and makes it sound, overall, less gloomy and shrouded than usual. I think it’s a very skillful interpretation, and it made a very positive impression (as did Herbig’s thoughtful, articulate, very idiomatic English during the intermission Q & A segment of the broadcast. More, please!]

Sources IV. David & Lois Burge, pianos [5:40]

"Ercole Amante" Michel Corboz; English Bach Festival Chorus & Bach Festival Orchestra; Felicity Palmer; Colette Alliot-Lugaz; Yvonne Minton; Ulrik Cold; Patricia Miller. Premiere Enregistrement Mondial! Cavalli’s super-spectacular opera tells about the marriage between Hercules and Juno – actually less a "marriage" than an erotic frenzy, as putatively described in a letter from "Telemachus" to the Dauphine, whose coronation is the reason why this extravaganza is being staged. Each act is being staged with the aid of "great dramatic engines": Act One: A lavish courtyard in the Greek style; Act Two: an idealized palace constructed by Vulcan; Act Three: A magical flower garden; Act Four: A Tower, overlooking the raging sea; Act Five: A Descent Into Hell (what classical opera would be complete without one?). In the Grand Finale, all the real-life members of the Royal Family were present, in the form of great choruses and sub-choruses, performing rituals and chorybantic responses, both choral and instrumental – according to accounts left by eyewitnesses, these choruses numbered as many as 300 performers! The "ballet" numbers – according to tradition – were mostly composed by Lully, while his arch-rival Cavalli composed the instrumental sections, each striving to out-do the other in the lavishness and exotic colours of their contributions. The composer(S) present one grand, ceremonial, hieratic effect after another, music both grave and ardent, grandiosely "public" and sensually private. I’m not generally speaking a huge fan of baroque opera, but hearing this work for the first time, and finding in it so much that is beautiful and moving, may cause me to rethink my priorities!

Symphony No. 5 for String Orchestra. Izler Solomon; MGM String Orchestra

Ballade No. 1, G Minor, Op. 23. Ivan Moravec, piano

Barcarolle, F Sharp major, Op. 60. " " "

Etude, C Sharp Minor, Op. 25/ No. 7." " "

Etudes, Op. 25, complete. George Garand, piano

Fantasie Impromptu, C Sharo Minor, Op. 66. George Garand, piano

Maruka, C Sharp Minor, Op. 50/ No. 3 " " "

" , C Sharp Minor, Op. 63/ No. 3 " " "

Mazurka, A Minor, Op. 17/ No. 4 (Orch. by Stokowski). Stokowski; Houston Symphony. [O wretched excess! O, vulgarity sublime!]

Polonaise, A Major, Op. 40/ No. 1, George Garand, piano

Polonaise, E Flat Major, Op. 53. George Garand, piano

Prelude, D Minor, Op. 28/ No. 4 (Orch. by Stokowski). Stokowski; Houston Symphony Orchestra.

Scherzo No. 1, B Minor, Op. 20. Leonard Pennario, Piano.

Scherzo No. 2, B Flat Minor, Op. 31 " " "

" " 3, C Sharp Minor, Op. 39 " " "

" " " " " " " " . George Garand, piano

" No. 4, in E, Op. 54. Leonard Pennario, piano

Waltz, C sharp Minor, Op. 64/ No. 2 (Orch. by Stokowski). Stokowski; Houston Symphony. [Abominations from the Pit! See comments under "Conductors"]

Appalachian Spring, suite. Robert Irving; Concert Arts Orchestra (mostly L.A. Philharmonic personnel + some excellent freelancers. Cognoscenti have long treasured Irvng’s few recordings. Primarily music director of the American Ballet Theater for many years, he knew Copland’s scores inside out, and you hear nuances in his recordings you don’t hear in any others, except Koussevitzky’s. These Copland recordings are fairly old, but the sound remains vibrant and detailed, with terrific impact.]

"Rodeo" Dance Episodes. Irving; Concert Arts Orchestra

Symphony No. 2. Stokowski; NBC Symphony; live, 1943 [????]

Sinfonia Concertante for Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon, 2 Violins, Viola, Cello, Bass, Flute, Winds & Timpani, Op. 3. Dieter Klocker, clarinet, Nikolaus Gruger, Karl-Otto Hartmann, Bassoon; Consortium Musicum

Three Etudes for Two Pianos. David & Lois Burge, pianists [9:00]

Variations for Viola & Four Drums. Emmanuel Vardi, viola; Composer, percussion. [This show-stopper has entered the repertoire, and for good reason: it’s novel, exciting, clever, and musically satisfying. This rare MGM LP is, I believe, its first recording, and still sounds fabulous]

Rhapsodies. David & Lois Burge, pianists [14:35]

"Russalka, Act I" – The Miller’s Aria. Boris Shtokolov, bass; w/ Mansurov; Bolshoi Theater Orchestra [3:59]

DEBUSSY:

La Damoiselle Elue. De los Angeles; Munch; Boston Symphony Orchestra

"Pelleas & Melisande", Suite. Monteux; Boston Symphony, live, 1955

"Discreet Music". Composer at the synthesizer.

Music for Films. " " " "

Three Variations on Pachelbel’s "Canon". [Look, if John Cage belongs under "classical", so does Brian Eno – who’s as serious a composer and far more interesting to listen to. Definitely trance-music, but always done with restraint, taste, and an exquisite sense of color. Just to cover all my bases, however, I’ll also list this under "Rock and Pop"…]

Pavane for Orchestra. Paray; Orchestre de l’ORTF; live, 1972

Symphony No. 3, E Minor, Op. 53. Belolavek; Brno State Philharmonic [37:14]

Shakespeare Suite for Orchestra, Op. 42. Joseph Hrncir (???); Prague Radio Symphony [Why is it that some countries just seem to produce terrific composers even if they’re second-rate? All the Scandinavian countries do, and the U.K. used to, and the Czechs have a tradition of it! Include Foerster in that honorable category, too, for everything I’ve heard by him (which is all of four compositions!) has been engaging, colorful, and confident-sounding). This is a very nice piece, with shifting moods that you can almost pin a play’s name to. Good performance and sound.]

"Orpheum", Night Music I. David & Lois Burge, pianos [7:45]

String Quartet. The Cohen String Quartet. [Well, it’s attributed to Ben Franklin and may really have been composed by him. The score calls for "open tuning" by the four stringed instruments – which makes the piece much easier to play, and gives their sound much the same timbre as that of vocalists working from a "shaped-note" score. The music is light, tuneful, and relatively simplistic, but it has value, I think, just as a historical curio. I doubt if the skills of the Cohen Quartet were severely challenged, but they play it with as much panache and gusto as the rather frail music can sustain. Fascinating and decidedly rare!]

Symphony No. 2 in C Minor. Composer; Ber;in Philharmonic Orchestra. [God knows it’s taken long enough, but both this titanic work and the equally mammoth Piano Concertoare at last, some half-century after their composition, being slowly recognized as gigantic and singular late-Romantic masterpieces. This symphony has everything (including brilliant if eccentric architectural integrity): noble themes, huge grand perorations, long adagio melodies, and a scherzo that’s an absolute joy, if only because it sounds exactly like one composed by…Dvorak! Yes, it’s long, yes it taxes you to pay attention, or even remain awake, the first few times you hear it, but once it HITS YOU, it can turn you inside out. It is a very great, towering work, fiercely upholding the ideals of a bygone age and reaffirming its composers essential nobility of spirit in the face of (marginally justified) attacks on his behavior during the Third Reich nightmare (see the wonderful film "Taking Sides" for a commendably lucid explication of the ambiguities and contradictions of the maestro’s tormented character. Leaving those issues aside, this is the first, and only studio recording he left us, taped, in rather dull, diffuse sound, in 1951 and never commercially issued in the U.S., where at that time Furtwangler’s reputation was covered with dung hurl;ed at him by influential musicians who either didn’t know better or who had personal agendas (primarily jealouisy!) for wanting to keep him persona non grata in this country. Had sanity prevailed, he would gratefully have accepted leadership of the Chicago Symphony, leaving us God-only-knows what recorded treasures! There are three extant composer-led versions: this one, a fiery but not-very-well plaid live radio concert with the Hessian Radio Symphony, and best of all, a Vienna Philharmonic Salzburg performance from very late in his too-shoirt life. Quite honestly, none of them can hold a candle to Daniel Barenboim’s messianic CSO recording, where this JEWISH conductor, makes an emotionally overwhelming case for this huge, ungainly work by a supposedly NAZI conductor. While you’re chewing on that, here’s the skinny on this first recording. I have already alluded to the rather dull and distant sounds, but what’s most interesting about this version is how bloody CAUTIOUS it sounds – as if Furtwangler the conductor had not yet developed much confidence in what Furtwangler the composer had wrought. Don’t misunderstand me, this is not a BAD performance; it just doesn’t convey half the visceral power and stunning intellectual rigor contained in the score. For 20 years, though, it was the only version extant, and very tough to find in the U.S. (I bought my copy in Copenhagen, in 1964), so the symphony was much more talked about than heard. That began to change when the radio concert version and the blazing Salzburg interpretation (which both sounded like they were led by different and much more energized conductors) became available, and there was a tectonic shift in perceptions when Barenboim’s incandescent (and spectacularly recorded) version appear – it was as if all the grim and dust had been suddenly removed from a little-known painting by Rafael! I urge you to buy the Barenboim, on Teldec, but if you find the Hessian or Salzburg readings in a cut-out bin (and that’s where I found mine). Go ahead and snarf them up; they’re a lot better than nothing. But then so is this, for aside from what it tells us about Furtwangler, it has a curious, almost touching, archival value. For an artist of titanic ego, he sounds here almost pathetically tentative and self-effacing, not wanting to shove the work in anyone’s face. By God, it NEEDED shoving, and if you’re partial to the late, late Romantics (Scmidtt, for instance, or Brian or Pettersson) you MUST hear, and repeatedly hear until you "get it", this towering tonal edifice. True, it may indeed be the last dinosaur of its kind, but how it roars, how it seduces with ineffable tenderness, how it redefines, in craggy defiance, the moribund verities of both tonality and the sonata form, as though rational music lover could never possibly doubt those truths! Requires 2 CDs and damned well worth it!]

Symphony No. 1 for Organ & Orchestra, D Minor. Igor Buketoff; Butler U. Symphony Orchestra; live, 1977 [A swashbuckling corker, this, about 22 minutes long, full of grand gestures and attractive themes, including one beauty that’s initially played only by the organ pedals! Koussevtzky performed this piece in the Thirties, but that was the last time anyone gave it until Igor Buketoff resurrected it for a Romantic Music festival concert at Butler University, where, to judge from the wild applause, the audience ate it up. If you enjoy, for instance, the Saint-Saens’ Third, you will too.]

"A Life for the Tsar, Act IV" – Susanin’s Aria Boris Shtokolov, bass; w/ Sergei Eltsin; Orchestra of the Kirov Theater, Leningrad [5:20]

Sonata for Violin & Piano. Bert Senopfsky, violin; Ellen Mack, piano [14:20]

Sonatina for Two Clarinets. Theodore Cole & Thomas Falcone, clarinets. [6:05]

Concertette for Viola & Symphonic Band. Emannuel Vardi, viola; Arthur Winograd; MGM Band [Here’s another wonderfully entertaining off-beat piece by Mortie Gould, God bless him, who never failed to deliver the goods and suffered enormous condescension from the sniffy critics of the Forties and Fifties because he never lost faith in his audience. Vardi plays the be-jeezus out of the solo part; and I do believe this is the ONLY recording, which seems odd indeed. But it could hardly be better and the sound isn’t as dry and airless as many that heard on so many MGM records. What treasures that little label offered; the master tapes must still exist and could easily be made warmer with a touch of digital…intervention. Surely they’re worth resurrecting! Until then, you’ll find fifty or more in these listings, and probably nowhere else on line.]

"Faust", Act III – "Le Roi de Thule". Elisabeth Retherberg, soprano [See comments under "Vocalists, solo collections of"]

"GREAT CONDUCTORS IN REHEARSAL" [See details under…um…"Conductors"…]

"Landkjenning" ("Land-fall"). Cantata, Op. 31. Per Dreier; London Symphony Orchestra & Oslo Philharmonic Chorus [7:47]

"Olav Trygvason", Operatic Fragments, Op. 50. Per Dreier; London Symphony Orchestra & Oslo Philharmonic Chorus [31:48] [Grieg was the one who kept insisting that Grieg couldn’t write to an epic subject, and then proceeded to prove himself wrong by writing a half-hour’s worth of fantastic, epic music, the mighty surviving torso of his planned-but-uncompleted grand opera about the struggle between Odin and Christ (how’s THAT for an epic subject?)! If memory serves, this sizzling, (and beautifully sung) account by Maestro Dreier was the FIRST recording, on the late, lamented Unicorn label, and it was an audiophile’s wet-dream, until the label went belly-up (largely due to poor U.S. distribution) around 1980. Was Grieg not cut out to tackle an "epic subject"? Just see if you can sit still through the foot-stomping virility of the final choral dance, which I find the equal to anything composed by Borodin or Mussorgsky!]

Violin Concerto. Szerying, violin; Enrique Batiz; London Symphony Orchestra

"As You Like It" – Serenade from. Oivind Bergh; Oslo Opera Orchestra [3:54]

"Askeladden" – Incidental Music; March. " " ; " " " [6:52]

"The King", Symphonic Intermezzo from. Oivind Bergh; Oslo Opera Orchestra [8:03]

"Cyrano de Bergerac" – March of the Knights. " " " " " [4:16]

"Gurre" – Evening Landscape. " " " " " [6:54]

"Queen Tamara" – Dance Scene from. " " " " " [5:02]

"Raisen til Julestjernen" – "Journey to the Christmas Star" Ballet, Excerpt. " " " [2:35]

"Tordenskjold" – Admiral Tordenskjold’s Battle " " " " [4:15]

"Vasantasensena" – "Old Indian Dance". " " " " " [5:50] [Halvorsen’s music is tuneful, vigorous, and inventive; evidently, he composed a prodigious amount of it for the stage – this well-played and recorded anthology gives us tasty nibbles, but the selections are too short and the subject matter too obscure, for most non-Norwegian listeners anyhow. One leaves the turntable still hungry, although the individual bites are certainly pleasing enough.]

"Merry Mount". Composer; Eastman School of Music forces; fully staged production, 1955, captured in amazingly vivid STEREO sound. See more details under "Opera, Choral, and Vocal"]

Symphony On G. Gerhardt Samuels; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. [39:30] [Note: that’s "Symphony ON G" not "Symphony IN G". The composer, in his usual urbane and witty manner, explains the reasons behind this odd choice of nomenclature, to an extent I have neither the time nor the space to reproduce verbatim; if you order a dub, I’ll copy the notes and tuck them inside the case. Suffice it to say, this is one of Harrison’s grandest and most emotionally rich orchestral works, a shimmering tapestry of lush tones and ripe melodies (this, despite the fact that the piece is in fact serially composed ((you see? It doesn’t HAVE to all sound like Rusty-Gate music!)), and I doubt that 90% of any representative audience would even notice. In fact, here’s another "modern" piece that audiences would like very much, if they but had a chance to hear it! Maestro Samuels, one of his generation’s most talented conductors, coaxes a suave, transparent, loving performance from the RPO, which probably had ninety minutes’ rehearsal time before the tape rolled, and the sonics are fine.]

Five Songs and Dances. The King’s Singers & an unnamed ensemble; live, c. 1977 [This is the only music by Hassler I have, or have ever heard, and it’s quite joyous and attractive. The set in total lasts about 12 minutes.]

Suite D Major, "Turkish" (for Voltaire’s "Zaire"). Mackerras; English Chamber Orchestra [20:20] [It’s taken over a century, but at long last Michael is beginning to emerge from under the shadow of his older brother, Franz Joseph. My feeling is that if there had NOT been a Franz Joseph, we would have treasured Michael’s music almost as much and for almost as long. I’m not even sure how many symphonies he wrote, but there were a lot of them, and unfortunately these two aren’t numbered. But they’re brimful of good tunes, vitality, clever orchestration, and – yes! – even a few "surprises" of the same sort of theatricality so endearing in the works of the older brother. The D Minor symphony is especially charming and ebullient, and, as the subtitle implies, the "Turkish" suite is loaded with cymbals, drums, and rattling-crunchy-things that add vigor and color. I’ve collected rather a lot of Michael’s work over the years – he’s a taste easily acquired! – and eventually will be listing at least thirty works. These three, given rousing performances in excellent sound, are an ideal place to start exploring this unjustly neglected master.]

Symphony D Minor. Mackerras; English Chamber Orchestra [17:47]

Symphony G Major. Mackerras; English Chamber Orchestra [13:44]

Arias of Orpheus. Composer; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; live, 1981

Barcarolle for Large Orchestra. Composer; Chicago Symphony; live, 1981

Los Caprichos. Composer; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; live, 1981.

Il Vittolino Raddoppiato—Chaconne for Violin & Small Orchestra. Composer; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; live, 1981. [Based freely but fondly on the beloved Chaconne by Tomasini (about whom we know next to nothing, except that he enjoyed signing the margins of his scores with the nickname "Vittolino"), this is an ingenious piece that evokes the 16^th Century even as it gleefully slithers around in post-modernism. Henze’s one of the few composers who can pull off this kind of thing without it sounding arch and unspeakably bogus. And so it goes throughout this exceedingly interesting and zestfully played program. Mostly, the music is quite accessible and Henze’s intent, if not all of his technical means, is always crystal clear. He is still very active today (September, 2007) and his catalogue has become very large and varied; we will be many years yet taking his measure, but it’s safe to say he is emerging as one of the most significant post-war composers, and one whose more conventional, less-ideological works have found an enthusiastic audience. He’s also a very good conductor, too, and I recall a guest-conducted "Eroica" under his baton that was dynamite (alas, I was far from home when I caught the broadcast, so I cannot – yet – offer it in these lists. But the CSO plays with enormous gusto for him in this 1981 concert, and the selections are well-chosen to provide a balanced cross-section of his main styles and formats. Henze CAN be overtly, ridiculous Marxist in his choice of texts, subject matter, and sub-musical "agenda", but he can also spin intricate, brilliant webs of sound, caress a lyric passage of remarkable beauty, or beat you half to death with climaxes of nerve-rasping intensity. In other words, he’s the Real Thing.]

"The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad" soundtrack. Composer conducting a studio orchestra. [See more comment under "Films and Theater" below]

"Cardillac". Joseph Keilberth; Fischer-Dieskau; live broadcast; Orchestra of the Cologne Radio. [Date and venue unknown] [See detailed comments under "Conductors"]

Hymnus Paradisi. David Willcocks; Heather Harper, soprano; Robert Tear, tenor; Choir of Kinds College, Cambridge; Philharmonia Orchestra [See comments under "Chorale Wrks"]

October Mountain. Stokowski; Percussion Ensemble, Manhattan School of Music; live, Museum of Modern Art, 12/ 3/ 1958 [6:22]

Reflexes, for Piano and Tape. [4:40]

Folk Songs of Kallo. Arpad Joo; Budapest Philharmonic; Hungarian Radio Choir. [8:02] [Source is a like-new Sefel LP. Never heard of them, right? Never mind "Arpad Joo". Well, Joseph Sefel was a successful and very wealthy business man, who happened to passionately love Hungarian music, and who "discovered" Maestro Joo, greatly admired his work, and decided to form his own record label. Sefel Records, in the mid-Seventies. No expense was spared; the albums were recorded in state-of-the-art digital sound, attractively designed, and well distributed. Yet the public’s response was lukewarm, and after four or five years of admirable persistence. Mr. Sefel couldn’t afford the enterprise and Sefel Records quietly stopped operations…and Arpad Joo faded from sight, back – I presume – into academia, or conducting posts in places like Knoxville or Calgary, whose music lovers were damned lucky to have him. Joo was no flash-in-the-pan, folks. He’d taught at Julliard, guest conducted all over the hemisphere, and, most importantly, had been a star pupil of Zoltan Kodaly during that great composer’s final years. He know Kodaly’s music inside-out, shaped his interpretations from the master’s own guidance, and by means of that contact gained unique insights into the music of Bartok as well. So these are authoritative, red-blooded performances, recorded in spacious, brilliant clear sound. Why they never caught on, and why most critics gave them such mediocre reviews, I simply don’t know, for I’ve never heard a BAD or even middling-decent performance by Joo. He comes to this not-so-easy-to-do music armed with great authority and dedication. S o if you find a Sefel LP in the cut-out bins, don’t hesitate to buy it; there must be individual interpretations here and there, especially by the Czech conductors, that strike more fire, but on the whole, over the course of his dozens and dozens of recordings, Arpad Joo maintained a very high standard indeed. I’m happy to offer the Kodaly works listed here. This is, I think, the ONLY recording of this delightful suit of folksong-inspired themes, brightly and vivaciously performed. As it happens, the songs deal with betrothal, courtship, and marriage, and as Maestro Joo said in his program notes "When I hear this music, it makes me want to run out and find some nice woman to propose to!"}
"Hary Janos" Suite. Adam Fisher; Chicago Symphony; live, 1977 [Fisher’s Chicago debut concert, and it must have gone swimmingly to judge from the prolonged applause. Outstanding reading of this suite, too, with very idiomatic phrasing and rip-roaring brass.]

Marosszek Dances. Arpad Joo; Budapest Philharmonc Orchestra [14:08]

Summer Evening. Joo; Budapest Philharmonic. [17:34] [This was Kodaly’s first published orchestral work, a languorous, dreamy impressionistic tone poem, quite unlike his nationalistic folk-song inspired works, and the influence of Debussy (!!) sounds clear to me, always in a good way. It’s very warm, sensual music, and Joo conducts it as such – there aren’t many recordings of this early work, and for my money this is the best. Gorgeous sound!]

Hiroshima Requiem for Orchestra. Ozawa; Boston Symphony Orchestra; live, 1977. [Ms. Kojiba grew up in Hiroshima and no doubt this is deeply sincere music. That said, it treads the same stylistic ground as Penderecki’s Threnody, but to my ears lacks the searing immediacy that make the earlier work a post-war musical icon. This is one of the few Ozawa performances in my holdings, because he was such an awful conductor of the basic repertoire I never heard him do a Beethoven or Haydn or Mozart piece that was worth preserving. Here, he seems less somnolent than usual and besides, I figured I was unlikely to find an alternative version of this rarity – which has proven true over the past 30 years. I suppose that somewhere Out There, a collector probably specializes in "Threnodies to World War Two Events", and that person will want to add this to his/her collection. Timing is about 13-14 minutes; good sound. It’s yours if you want it…]

Interplay, for Percussion & Orchestra. w/ Slatkin; St. Louis Symphony; live, 1977 [About what you’d expect. Kraft writes (wrote?) very skillfully for percussion, but if you’ve heard one of his pieces, basically you’ve heard them all.]

Symphonie Espagnole, Op. 21. David Oistrakh; Kondrashin; Moscow State Philharmonic. [This particular performance, whjich originated in the USSR in the mid-Fifties, MUST have been issued on six different labels, including some dirt-cheap bootlegs. The sound is and always was mediocre, and of the four incarnations I’ve heard, there’s not a kopek’s worth of difference between them. Of the stature and brilliance of the performance, though, there is general agreement – it captures something ardent and youthful in Oistrakh’s playing that eluded the engineers, and to a slight extent, the violinist as well, in his later, much better sounding recordings.]

Matona Mia Cara. De Nobel; Netherlands Chamber Choir.

From the Apocalypse. Buketoff; Butler U. Symphony Orchestra; live, 1977 [If all you know of Liadov’s music are his Russian folk song arrangements, you’ll be surprised at this dark, brooding, highly effective piece. Makes you wonder what ELSE he composed that we never get to hear…]

A Birthday Offering. Sir William Southgate; New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. [12:15]

Drysdale Overture. " " " " " " " [9:37]

Festival Overture. " " " " " " " [8:26]

A Song of the Islands. " " " " " " " [16:15]

Suite for Orchestra.. " " " " " " " [16:15] [As I’ve mentioned before, Douglas Lilburn IS New Zealand’s greatest composer, living or dead. A Late Romantic by temperament, yet a thoroughly cosmopolitan, omnivorous intellect, a man perfectly capable of writing in ANY Twentieth Century musical idiom, and within his core spiritual inclination, he can deploy impeccable specimens of Modernity, so subtly and brilliantly that the audience has NO idea it’s hearing a serialist interlude, an extended passage of a-tonality, etc. A consummate musician, in other words. But his music has such warmth, and at its best such a sense of timelessness, that few listeners (unless they are VERY sophisticated regarding matters of sheer technique) are simply unaware when the big gear-shifts occur. His style is, well, POLY-STYLISTIC, WITHOUT OVERTLY SPOTLIGHTING those telling moments when Lilburn’s fundamental Romanticism expresses itself through very advanced Late Twentieth Century tropes, devices, and concepts. This cannot have been an easy path for him to take, especially considering how remote New Zealand is, geographically and culturally, from the Central European theater of aesthetic warfare. Fortunately, even though hardly anyone outside of New Zealans, has ever HEARD of Sir William Southgate or John Hopkins, they are both conductors of the first rank, and in the past twenty years (thanks to nationalistic support from the overwhelming majority of taxpayers – even an uneducated bloke running a mutton-factory who’s never knowingly heard a note of Beethoven in his life, but who instinctively KNOWS it’s a Good Thing for his nation to boast an orchestra of international caliber (*), the New Zealand Symphony has in fact become a stellar ensemble in every department.]

Well, what goes around comes around, Chaz ol’ buddy; you also stole the subject of your second book from my Civil War trilogy, and you made an artsy-fartsy mess out of it by trying too fucking hard to write Literature when the subject and characters cried out for a page-turning adventure. But authors of page-turning adventures don’t get the big prizes; and so what if the second novel sucked and half the people who bought it couldn’t slog past page 60 through the molasses thick metaphors and that GODDAMNED SILLY AFFECTATION OF NO QUOTATION MARKS (only living writer who can get away with that, Chaz, is Cormack MacCarthy, who is ten times greater than you and I put together); so what, then, if your second novel was YEARS late getting to its publisher (we mid-list stiffs don’t rate the luxury of missing our deadlines by two years; our publishers don’t have enough invested in us to cut us that much slack and would just as soon shit-can our work and eat the loss, which in my case was a princely five grand, rather than treat us like human beings. I know about that, Chaz. because I was being hounded mercilessly by Carroll & Graf about being late even thought they KNEW I was spending twelve hours a day at the bedside of my son who was undergoing surgery and treatment for Stage Two testicular cancer…and when I got home from one of those vigils, with the same excruciating knot of fear in my bowels that I’d woken up with, and found another pissy little voice mail asking when they could expect to see the next batch of chapters and I would fix a pot of coffee, slug down a half-dozen Ritalin (along with a few Oxycontins to knock out the occipital neuralgia that makes four days out of every seven a foretaste of Hell, and somehow I would hammer out another 3-5000 word, before I collapsed on to the keyboard, writing on auto-pilot. It went like that for three months; seven days a week; never more than four consecutive hours of sleep out of every twenty-four; living on a diet of caffeine, speed, bourbon, and nicotine. Until we learned my son was in complete remission, that was my life, Chaz.

Les Preludes. Monteux; Boston Symphony Orchestra. [See comments under Conductors"]

Battle of the Huns. w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra [12:39]

Hungarian Rhapsody No. I, F Minor. w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra. [12:14]

" " No. 2, S Minor " " " " " [12:02]

" " No. 3, D Major. " " " " " [8:31]

" " No. 4, D Minor. " " " " " [12:07]

" " No. 5, E Minor. " " " " " [12:47]

" " No. 6, D Major. " " " " " [13:42]

Les Preludes. w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra [15:30]

Mephisto Waltz. w/ Vienna State Opera Orchestra [13:06]

Piano Concerto No. 2, A Major. w/ Edith Farnadi, piano; Vienna State Opera Orch. [18:30]

Quartet Movement in A Minor. The Ivaldi Quartet. [12:25] [What’s this??? A piece of chamber music by Mahler?? Yes, and one of his earliest surviving pieces. Does it sound like the Malher we know and love? Not one bit, but it surely sounds like the work of an extremely talented young composer. Splendid rendition by this quartet (of which I’d never heard until I discovered this record). A novelty, to be sure, but a most beguiling one.]

Symphony No. 5. Klauss Tennstedt; New York Philharmonic; live, 1978 [Hi, there, Klauss-kateers! Here’s another of those splendid live tapes of K.T.’s early American guest gigs, which consolidated his legend in this country and made the management of every major orchestra from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles long to get this affable German refugee under contract! He was usually much hotter and vibrant in a live concert setting than he was in the studio, and as good as his commercial Mahler Fifth truly is, this one knocks the sox off of it.]

Symphony No. 9. Von Karajan; Berlin Philharmonic; live, 1984. [N.B. This is not the same version as the DG boxed set (with the rainbow on the cover), but a different and I think more intense performance that was issued experimentally on CD only, at a time when only about 2 % of consumers owned a CD deck; far as I know, it’s been unavailable for more than twenty years (otherwise I wouldn’t list it, dig?) . Like the handful of other von Karajan /Mahler recordings, it makes you wish he’d gotten interested in this composer much sooner, and left us a complete cycle; the combination of raw power and sleek, Mercedes-Benz orchestral playing is a unique approach to this most anguished of symphonies and his broad, don’t-rush-me tempo in the final big climax is, I think, just perfect. Barbirolli’s Berlin Philharmonic reading would be one of my favorites EXCEPT for the head-long rush of that climax – when it’s over so quickly, it just ain’t much of a catharsis.]

MASEK, VAVCLAV (1755-1831): [Influenced heavily by the Mannheim School, numerous Czech composers began dabbling in "symphonies" at about the time Masek composed his (i.e., around 1789…), and it shows the hand of a true professional. Masek had been a traveling virtuoso (piano) before settling down as headmaster and Director of the St. Nicolas Choir in Prague, where the cross-currents and intense musical experimentation from the Mannheim School had found fertile ground. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable little symphony, without ever aspiring to profundity, it achieves a high level of polish and contains appealing moments of self-expression that might be considered as pre-Romantic, or even Early Romantic. Excellent performance and sound, too.]

Nocturne for Chamber Orchestra. Stokowski; His Symphony Orchestra; live, Museum of Modern Art; 12/ 3/ 1958 [6:42]

Prelude for Percussion Instruments. Stokowski; Percussion Ensemble, Manhattan School of Music [5:15] [From a December 3, 1958 concert of the Contemporary Music Society. The reviewer from "Musical America" called this work "a real knock-out; the most imaginative piece on the entire concert program…"

Symphony No. 1, "Sinfonia Macedonia". Max Heridr; Vienna Radio Symphony [Another "unknown" composer who wrote some dynamite pieces. Including this one. Nornm in Vienna in 1922, he studied with Hans Pfitzner, Joseph Mark, and Hermann Schneidel, He rejected a-tonality and serialism, defending the traditional styles and using them to create such powerful statements as the "Macedonian Symphony", which gains potency and color from the composer’s skillful use of Greek rhythms and cadences. The orchestral playing is rough as a cob, but the orchestra also presents the score with such tremendous earthy vigor that you don’t much miss refinement and nuance. In short, here is yet another work that would knock the sox off an audience, IF an audience ever got to hear it! Ditto for the two Greek dances listed below.]

Two Greek Dances for Orchestra. Swarowsky; Vienna Radio Symphony

"Boris Gudonov", Act II – Scene at the Palace. Boris Shtokolov, bass, as Boris G; / Karina Slovtsova as Xenia; Taisia Kuznetsova as Feodor; Ludmilla Grudina as The Nurse; Vladimir Ulyanov as Shuisky; Sergei Matveyev as the Boyar; Sergei Eltsin; Orchestra of the Kirov Theater, Leningrad [27:41]

Hymnus Amoris, Op. 12. Woldike; Danish Radio Symphony & Chorus [22:54] [See extensive comments under "Choral Music" below]

"Sleep" for Chorus & Orchestra, Op. 18. [Well, I’ll bet THAT title got your attention! C heck out my explanation down at "Choral Music", just scroll throught the "Opera" neighborhood and you can’t miss it.]

Parce, Domine. De Nobel; Netherlands Chamber Choir

Kyrie et Gloria. De Nobel; Netherlands Chamber Choir.

Symphony No. 1. Composer; Orchestre Philharmonique de l’ORTF; live, 1972. [See comments under "Conductors"]

"Yizkor" for Chamber Orchestra. Stokowski; His Symphony Orchestra; live, 3/12/ 1958 [10:19] [A "yitzkor", for those who didn’t know, is a Yiddish (?)/Hebrew lament combining qualities of a dirge and a slow dance (Oi Vey!) Partos’ spins an eloquent mood and themes, but even at ten minutes, the pieces are too loosely constructed to achieve maximum power. The extended viola part is splendidly played here by Harry Zaratzian.]

Parable for Bassoon. Arthur Weissberg, bassoon [5:35]

"Psydalise et la Chevre-Pied" Suite No. 1. Paray; Orchestre de l’ORTF; live, 1972

Concerto for Orchestra. Stokowski; American Symphony; live, c. 1967 [Sheer life-affirming delight from first to last, and here given the kind of drop-dead bravura reading that can – but in this case obviously did not – put a composition on the map. A perfect "token Contemporary" work for any harassed conductor who wants to assuage his conscience without pissing off his Board of Directors!]

Ave Maria. De Nobel; Netherlands Chamber Choir.

"Romeo & Juliet", Selections from. Celibidache; Stuttgart Radio Symphony; live, 1977 [See comments under "Conductors"]

"Madama Butterfly". w/ Lorin Maazel, Philharmonia Orxhestra; Rrenata Scotto; Placido Domingo; Ingvar Wizell; Gillian Knight. [131:55 – requires 3 CDs] [Well, my favorite "Flutter-Bye" is Karajan and Mirella Freni – a glowing, resplendent interpretation; Karajan rarely lets the reigns down and asks for an all-out fortissimo, so when he DOES, the impact is earth-cracking. Ms. Freni does a fantastic job of character-development; from adolescent sweetness ands innocence to the stature of a noble victim of implacable tragedy. And Pavarotti, in one of his finest roles, gives depth and three dimensions to \the clueless Pinkerton, so that when full understanding of what he has done – which hits him like a lightning bolt even as Butterfly kneels over the samurai blade that will disembowel her, his desperation to stop this acr, and his growing knowledge that he is too late, all take place in about three of the most searing moments in all of recorded opera. Karajan’s pacing and control of dynamics is superb throughout; the orchestral playing is majestic; the recorded sound is radiant. OK, Bill, but you/re reviewing this Maaze; recording, so shuddup about von Karajan and tell us if we should buy this one.,

PURCELL: {I decided early on that the finest of Purcell’s music could be found, like buried gems, inside the often turgid lengths of his stage works, or which only a handful are overall sufficiently lively to hold a modern audience’s attention. I therefore focused my collecting on the theatrical suites and pastiches committed to disc bby such Early Music stalwarts as Hogwood, whose integral set was so poorly distributed in North American that most of what I have was obtained second-ahdn during trips to major cities, or by mail order purchases from big cut-out catalogues. Starting this issue, I’ll be listings selected chunks of this music, all of it wrothy and some amazingly beautiful and/or atmospheric. Most of Hogwood’s fine recordings vanished, possibly forever, when L’Oiseau-Lyre went under, during the early 80s; since they were so badly distributed to begin with, your chances of finding any specimens in area thrift stores are slim to none. If there’s any particular stage work that interests you, ley me know – I probably have it, even if it’s not been listed. Well, one has to start somewhere, so how about the following?]

"The Double-Dealer", Suite from (Overture—Hornpipe—Mineut—Air—Hornpipe—Song: "Cynthia Frowns" – 2 Minuets—Air). Hogwood; Academy of Ancient Music [14:05]

"Henry The Second"-- Song: "In Vain I Strove". Hogwood; Academy of Ancient Music [1:55]

"The Richmond Heiress" – Song: "Behold The Man". Hoogwood; Academy of Ancient Music. [8:32]

"Aleko" – Aleko’s Cavatina. Boris Shtokolov, bass; w/ Mansurov; Bolshoi Theater Orchestra [6:07]

Moment Musicale, Op. 16/ No. 3. Jean-Phillippe Collard, piano

Prelude Op. 3/ No. 2. " " " "

Prelude, Op. 32/ No. 12. " " " "

Preludes Op. 23/ Nos 4, 2, 1. " " " "

Piano Concerto No. 2, C Minor, Op. 18. Kjell Baekkelund, piano; Oivin Fjeldstad; Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. [It’s fascinating to see the resurgence of interest in the super-bargain "A & P" labels, with their curious assortment of "Mystery Maestri" and wildly erratic quality of both sound and interpretation – I mean, come ON, weren’t YOU curious to know who those nameless (or grotesquely bogus) "master musicians" really were? Well, thanks to my colleagues at www.rediscovery.org, we now know – sort of and mostly (and by all means, DO visit their web site and prepare to be amazed at what they’ve resurrected!). Strange to say, one of the most legitimate and straightforward of those labels, still remains one of the least documented – an outfit marketed under the strange appellation ""Symphonic Quality Recordings" and supposedly pressed by a subsidiary plant of RCA Victor. Among that label’s mainstays was the Oslo Philharmonic. Under its two best-known music directors, Odd Grunne-Hegge and Oivin Fjeldstad, conductors of outstanding credentials and excellent, wide-ranging tastes. The soloist here, young Maestro Baekkelund, was no flash-in-the-pan, either. He debuted with the Oslo orchestra at age eight (and, according to the charmingly naïve program notes "immediately made a lasting impression"), but had the rare good sense not to permit himself to be marketed as a child prodigy, but instead chose a broad, steady musical education that led to his winning First Prize in the Piano Competition at the Trondheim Festival (1953) and, about a year later, he won the highly prestigious "Harriet Cohen Medal" in London. Concluding in that same endearingly middle-brow style, the program annotator for "Symphonic Quality" (who, perhaps wisely, chose not to identify himself) assures us that Baekkelund "finished" his formal studies with "Professor Boon of Stockholm" (would that be Richard, Pat, or Daniel?). The rhetoric takes one final weird flourish by informing us that: "There are many young pianists in our time" and that "amongst the pianists in the world there are always some who distinguish themselves". (And then again, there are always some who don’t…) As heard via the honest but undistinguished mono sound, this young artist had very nice, pearly tone, and a fine sense of phrasing. Both he and Fjeldstad tend to down-play the melodrama (at least until the third movement, when they both seem to catch fire), giving this Romantic warhorse a rather sober overall mood, but not by any means dull; you’ve heard much less satisfying accounts, I’m sure, by much more famous virtuosi! One hopes this young artist went on to enjoy a satisfying career, although – obviously – he was never picked up and promoted by a major label; if any reader can provide more information, I’d enjoy learning what happened to him. My Source copy has some minor scratches, but no major defects. Considering that this label routinely sold for .99 cents, the consumer certainly got a decent bargain! And any new acquisition that expands our knowledge of Maestro Fjeldstad’s work is welcomed – his ancient Camden "Eroica" remains one of my favorite versions, and is already listed in the Cumulative Catalogues.]

Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 40. Jean-Phillippe Collard; Michel Plasson; Orchestre du Capitole de Toulousse [28:1`5] [Collard was a rising comet in the Seventies, when his Rachmaninoff concerto cycle was taped, and although I shouldn’t much care for his French-fried way of playing the big droopy Russian’s music, I still like these readings very much. Collard’s playing is beautifully crisp and elegant, rather like the conducting style of Monteux in Russian music, but he never slights the emotional content, either. I also like the complimentary sound of the Toullouse ensemble, and the engineers recorded all four concertos in magnificently full-bodied, "ringing" sonics. There’s plenty of competition in the more extroverted early three concerti, sure, but this combination works exceedingly well for the more inward and enigmatic Fourth. Indeed, this version is the only one I know (excluding the composer’s own historic reading with Ormandy) that measures up to the legendary Michelangeli recording.]

Symphony No. 2. Svetlanov; Bolshoi Theater Orchestra [48:21] [See comments under "Conductors"]

Symphony No. 3, Op. 44.. Stokowski; Ntl. Philharmonic of London [38:59]

Vocalaise, Op. 32, No. 14. Stokowski; Ntl. Philharmonic of London [6:56] [How Stokie loved this piece! And the unaffected sweetness, tenderness of this reading indicates he knew, must have known, that this was his final performance of it!]

Daphnis & Chloe, complete. Monteux; Concertgebouw of Amsterdam; live, 1955

RIESS, Ferdinand: [He was a good friend and pupil of Beethoven, wrote a ton of music heavily influenced by Beethoven, and at his best came close TO Beethoven, yet virtually no one programs anything! It’s inexplicable, as one listen to this sunny, melodic, quite charming violin concerto will demonstrate. Outstanding effort here by Rosand and Buketoff, and the very able student orchestra.]

Violin Concerto No. 1 in E Minor. Aaron Rosand; Igor Buketoff; Butler U. Symphony Orchestra; live, 1977.

"Sadko" – Scene IV – Song of the Viking Guest. Boris Shtokolov, bass; Sergei Eltsin; Orchestra of the Kirov Theater, Leningrad [2:51]

"Semiramide" Overture. Adam Fischer; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; live, 1984 [From this talented Hungarian conductor’s debut with the CSO – a big, broad, ballsy, very "symphonic" reading that I find extremely potent, if lacking in the mercurial qualities Beecham or Toscanini brought to this music. Excellent air-check sonics and, O boy, that Chicago brass section!]

Bacchus & Ariane, Suite No. 2, Op. 43.. Serge Baudo; Orchestre de Paris [20: 05] [The best version since Munch, but in much finer, near-audiophile, sound.]

Psalm 80, for tenor, Chorus & Orchestyra, Op. 37. Baudo; John Mitchinson, tenor; Stephen Caillat Chorus; Orchestre de Paris. [22:47] [Only recording! A startling work of elemental power, even rapture! Quite unlike anything else you’ve likely heard by Roussel. Spectacular sonics, from a "real time" Connoisseur Society chrome tape. Thrilling piece, devoted performance.]

Symphony No. 4. Rohzdestvensky; Chicago Symphony, live; 1981 [See comments under "Conductors"]

Symphony No. 6, Op. 54. Mravinsky; Leningrad Philharmonic; live, 1971. [Unsurpassed!]

Quintet A Major, Op. 114, "The Trout". Alexander Schnieder Chamber Ensemble. [See rave comments under "Chamber Ensembles & Solo Virtuosi"]

Die Winterreise, complete cycle. Gerard Souzay, baritone; Dalton Baldwin, piano. [74:09] [Superlative! See comments under "Opera and Chorale"]:

Piano Concerto A Minor, Op. 54. Solomon, piano; Herbert Menges; Philharmonia Orchestra

Symphony No. 1, "Spring". Celibidache; Stuttgart Radio Symphony; live, 1977. [Tremendous reading, although there’s a bit of static in the reception here and there.]

St. Matthew Passion, SWV. 479. Hilliard Ensemble. [54:35] [I don’t think this was issued in the U.S., probably because EMI’s marketing analysts figured it would sell maybe 46 copies and those 46 customers would be willing to order the pricier import. They were probably right. Despite a superlative performance and just-right sound, blending clarity and reverb, the same thing applies to this work as applies to Bach’s of the same name: the choruses are sublime, but the predictable cadences of the strictly narrative lines are of interest only if you’re an illiterate who’s never read the original, or a zealous parishioner who still finds the tale interesting and hasn’t got anything better to do all afternoon. Even I must admit, sometimes a piece of music can be masterful and beautiful and still be a crashing bore, at least throughout much of its duration. At least Schutz knew when to shut up (Bach could have taken lessons…that endless little tinkly squiggle on the harpsichord drives me nuts!). On the other hand, Schutz’s setting has nothing comparable in its radiant glory to the great choruses Bach fashioned. Now, if you could combine Schutz’s brevity with Bach’s sense of theatrical grandeur…you’d have a Passion!]

O Leyda Gratiosa. De Nobel; Netherlands Chamber Choir [A rare secular work from this period, and a real charmer. Schuyt was organist and choir master at St. Peters Church in Leyden, Holland, and composed this ebullient little motet in praise of the town ("O, Beautious Leyden") – quite irresistible, and revealing that these composers did not always have their sights on Heaven, but were fully sensible to the natural allures of their earthly surroundings as well. The transparency and purity of the singing is almost beyond belief!]

Ten Haiku By Basho. Stokowski; His Symphony Orchestra; live, 3/ 12/ 1958

Etudes, Op. 42, complete. Ruth Ladredo, piano

Poem of Ecstasy, Op. 54. Monteux; Boston Symphony Orchestra

" " " " " . Mravinsky; Leningrad Philharmonic [See remarks under "Conductors"]

Sonata No. 5, F-Sharp Minor, Op. 53, "Poem of Ecstasy". Ruth L:aredo, piano

Sonata No. 7, F-Sharp Major, Op. 64, "White Mass". " " "

Sonata No. 9, F Major, Op. 68, "Black Mass:. " " "

Symphony No. 7, C Major, op. 105. Mravinsky; Leningrad Philharmonic, live, 1971, [A magnificent, if hugely unorthodox, interpretation. See comments under "Conductors"]

Swan of Tuonela, Op. 22/ No. 3. Mravinsky; Leningrad Philharmonic; live, 1971.

Rondo Infinito, Op. 42. Buketoff; Butler U. Symphony; live, 1977

"Sousa Forever" Collection. Morton Gould; His Symphonic Band. [See comments and full list of the marches under "Conductors". (I’m certainly not going to type it out twice, when you can probably guess what most of the titles are as well as I can.]

"Die Fledermaus", Act II; "Czardas" Elisabeth Rethberg, soprano [See comments under "Solo Vocalists"]

Don Juan, Op. 20. Koussevitzky; Boston Symphony Orchestra. [Fabulous!]

Piano Quartet in C Minor, Op. 13. The Ivaldi String Quartet. [13:42] [Like the Mahler Quartetsatz list above, a youthful, fledgling composition, but also like the Mahler, clearly the work of a young man on his way up.]

"Bocacchio" -- Act 1 ; "Hab Ich nur Deine Liebe". Elisabeth Rethberg, soprano [See comments under "Vocalists, solo collections of"]

Madonna con Quest’ Occhi. De Nobel; Netherlands Chamber Choir. [Very interesting, the ambiguity here. He COULD have been composing a hymn to the Virgin Mary – but if so, it seems odd that he would have focused on the beauty of her EYES, when not even the most disputatious of clerics bothered to wrangle about whether the Virgin had eyes like Sophia Lauren or eyes like Anita Eckberg! I mean, in a sacred context, who CARES, right?) My guess is that the composer was in fact serenading a local Amsterdam beauty but was also shrewd enough to compose a work that could, by those so inclined, be performed in a sacred setting as well. One hopes the "Madonna" referred to heard this piece – she ought to have given her hearts to Sweelinck, considering the exquisite beauty of his compliment. In all fairness, of course, the spirit of the Virgin ought to have been flattered, too!]

Danse de la Sorciere from the ballet Le Jardin du Paradis. Beata Halska, violin [5:11]

Rhapsodie Polonaise. Beata Halska, violin [13:26]

"Peter Ibbetson", Overture to. Howard Barlow; CBS Radio Symphony

"Eugene Oneigin", Act III – Gremin’s Aria. Boris Shtokolov, bass; Mansurov; Bolshoi Theater Orchestra [6:00]

Piano Concerto No. 1, B flat Minor, Op. 23. Solomon, piano; Issay Dobrowen; Philharmonia Orchestra

Suite for Orchestra No. 3, Op. 55. Maazel; Vienna Philharmonic; date unknown [See comments under "Conductors"]

Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70. The Borodin String Quartet, w/ Rostropovich sitting in one the cello, and the fabulous but little-known Genrik Talalyana playing the second viola, this is a reading for the Gods. See more rave comments under "Chamber Music Groups" below. ]

Symphony No. 4, F Minor, Op.36. Joseph Kreutzer; Royal Danish Symphony Orch. [More weirdness, IS this in fact, the "Danish National Orchestrra"? Is it in fact conducted by Joseph Kreutzer ( about whom I know NOTHING) Welcome to the mysterious world of "Summit" records, which had bunch of fair to excellent oddball recordings, some of them by Swarowsky, many of them by blokes you’ve never heard of. Whoever, whatever, this is a rowdy, better-than-fair performance, although the sound leaves much to be desired; there’s a layer of low-frequency grunge under the music – I suspect it derives from vinyl that’s been re-cycled a dozen times; you tune it out eventually and concentrate on the performance, which is very good.

Symphony No. 6, "Pathetique". Paul Kletzki; Philharmonia Orchestra, stereo. [See comments under "Conductors"]

Symphony No. 3. Performing forces unknown (but they sound Czech to me; perhaps the Prague Symphony). Anyway, exuberant, sassy, wise-ass music in the Tischenko manner, assuming I’m even spelling his name right. Think Shostakovich but without the same degree of angst. Good stuff.]

Della Veloce Sona. De Nobel; Netherlands Chamber Choir.

Symphony No. 8. Otakar Trhlik; Ostrava-Janacek Philharmonic.

Symphony No. 9. " " " " "

"Un Ballo in Mascara" Act II – "Ma Dall’ Arido Stelo". Elisabeth Rethberg, soprano

" : " " " " ", Act iii – "Morro ma Prima in Grazia". " " "

"Don Carlo" – High Lights. w/ Bjoerling; Thebom; Merrill, etc.[See comments under "Opera & Choral"]

"Otello" – Act IV; "Salse, Salse". Elisabeth Rethberg, soprano

Requiem. Muti; Philadelphia Orchestra; Singing City Chour & Temple U. Chorus; Soloists; live, may 12, 1987 – In memory of Eugene Ormandy. [A stunning performance; see comments under "Conductors" or "Opera and Choral"]

"Simon Boccenegra", complete. Mitropoulos; live, 4/2/1960. [See detailed comments under "Opera & Choral"]

"Flying Dutchman", Act II; "Traft Ihr das Schiff". Elisabeth Rethberg, soprano

"Gotterdammerung", closing scene. Stokowski; New York Philharmonic, live, 1947

Siegfried Idyll. Koussevitzky; Boston Symphony Orchestra

To A Wayfarer. Stokowski; His Symphony Orchestra; live, 3/12/1958

Piano Sonata , C Major, Op. 25 Vladimir Pleshakov, piano.

Piano Sonata, E Major, Op. 33/ No. 3. " " "

Piano Sonata, D Major, Op. 33/ No. 2. " " " [A contributor to the first edition of Groves Encyclopedia of Music (*) – generally regarded as the Last Word in musical research and often used for settling arguments – summed up Herr Woelfe"s career with remarkable cruelty and egregious poor-mouthing (some authorities think the screed was instigated by Hummel, but personally I doubt that; Hummel was not a contentious or malicious man):; in any case, the first edition of Grove’s came out in 2879, long after Hummel had crumbled in the coffin. The puffed-up "authority" who wrote this was Prof. Edward Dannreuther: "He was endowed with curiopusly little inventive power, rarely warm, and quite incapable of humour or of passion…he seems expressly cut out to be a [paradigm] of respectable mediocrity…} ("Hey, please tell me what you REALLY THINK of my music, and be honest!) When numerous scholars, musicians, and ordinary folk complained about this gratuitously brutal description it was replaced by a much more balanced appraisal in the next edition. But the damage had been done, and it caused poor Woelfl’s music to sink into oblivion, as no other pianist was interested in the works of such an utter "mediocrity".

Psychogram. Rosemary Catanese, piano [11:15]

Humoresque for Wind Quintet. Aspen Wind Quintet [A slight but charming work, in the sort of bubbly vein shared by the Strauss wind serenades; not what you’d think of as typical of Zemlinsky, but very nice.]

CHAMBER ENSEMBLES &

Rachmainoff: Piano Concerto No. 2, C Minor, Op. 18. w/ Fjeldstad & Oslo Philharmonic [See extensive commentary under "Composers"]

Bliss: Piano Concerto ("Dedicated to the People of the United States"). w/ Sir Malcolm Sargent; Philharmonia Orchestra

Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70. ["But how much beauty of another kind is he

re, when on a fair morning, we look, from the summit of a hill, on fair Florence! See where it lies before us, in a sun-lighted valley, bright with the winding Arno, and shut in by swelling hills; its dome and towers and palaces, rising from the verdant countryside in a glittering heap, are shining in the sun like gold!" – Charles Dickens. Tchaikovsly, who was given the use of a regal apartment on the city’s edge (thanks to the generosity of his never-met but deeply beloved friend and ever-generous patroness, the wealthy Madam von Meck (good thing Tchaikovsky was gay – every extant photo of her reveals a grim old battleaxe, frowning in disgust at…who knows what? The super-rich are often offended by many things we ordinary mortals take for granted!) In any case, the composer found unequalled relaxation and peace of mind in Florence, which accounts for the sunny, life-affirming tone of the wonderful sextet. The first two moments DO have "Italianate" lyricism, but the concluding two are as Russian as anything he wrote: (the songful and sad III movement, containing one of the most luminous-but-melancholy themes he ever devised, and the last movement is a high-spirited "Allegro Vivace" that sounds about as Russian as you can get. A great piece of chamber music, here given its ultimate rendition, with Rostropovish’s rich cello provided a glorious foundation for the other five strings.]

Sources IV. [5:40]

Three Etudes for Two Pianos. [9:00]

Rhapsodies. David & Lois Burge, pianists [14:35]

Reflexes, for Piano and Tape. [4:40]

Wylie, Ruth Shaw: Psychogram. [11:15]

Franklin: String Quartet. [See comments under "Composers"]

Goldman: Sonatina for Two Clarinets. w/ Thomas Falcone, clarinet [6:05]

" : Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 40. w/ Michel Plasson; Orchestre du Capitole de Toullousse [28:15]

Goldman: Sonatina for Two Clarinets. w/ Theodore Cole, clarinet [6:05]

Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 2, A Major. w/ Scherchenn; Vienna State Opera [18:30]

Beethoven: Violin Concerto. W/ Ormandy; Philadelphia Orch., early mono version

" : Polonaise, E Flat Major, Op. 53.

" Scherzo, C Sharp Minor, Op. 39 [A real pianist, with a real reputation, although a fairly dim one by now, Garand was born in Aix-la-Chapelle in 1927 and graduated with honors from the Lyon Conservatoire. His recorded career, such as it was, evidently began and ended with a handful of LPs for "Paris" Records., of which this is the first. His playing is bright, sonorous, energized; the sound is actually quite good.]

Tansman: Danse de la Sorciere from the ballet Le Jardin du Paradis. [5:11]

Tansman: Rhapsodie Polonaise [13:26]

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 9, E Flat, K. 271. w/ Pablo Casals; Perpignon Festival Orchestra. [An incredibly rare item, from a Source copy in remarkably fine condition!]

Mahler: Quartet Movement in A Minor. [12:25] {See comment under "Composers"]

Strauss: Piano Quartet in C Minor, Op. 13. [13:42] [See comment under "Composers"]

D’Albert: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 11 [See comments under "Composers"]

" : Sonata No. 7, F-Sharp Major, Op. 64, "White Mass".

Goldman: S sonata For Violin & Piano. w/ Berl Senofsky, vioplin [14:20]

Chopin: Etude, C Sharp Minor, Op. 25/ No. 7.

Chopin: Mazurka in C Sharp Minor, Op. 63/ No. 3.

" : Mazurka, A Minor, Op. 7/ No. 2.

" : Mazurka, A Minor, Op. 17/ No. 4. [For my money, the greatest pianist since Richter died…]

Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole, Op. 25. w/ Kondrashin; Moscow State Symphony Orch. [See comments under "Composer"]

PETRI, Egon (piano): [Egon Petri was born in Hanover in 1881, into a deeply musical family. Among the visitors to his home when Petri was growing up were: Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Clara Schumann, Nikisch, Joachim, D’Albert, and Anton Rubenstein! His talent was recognized early, and at age 11 he began studying with Teresa Carreno, the foremost woman pianist of her day, and then, at age 20, he became a pupil of the great Busoni, and began giving rapturously received concerts at age 21. After moving to the United States to escape Hitler, he enjoyed a respectable but less-than-stellar career, recording mostly for small labels such as Royale, which issued this fabulous (and quite decently recorded)Brahms collection in 1955. Copies of this LP in playable condition are very scarce today, and one wonders why Petri hasn’t been "rediscovered", for he was a great interpreter, especially of Brahms and Liszt, both of whom he had known personally. Well, WE rediscovered him and will be offering several more albums of his sublime artistry in the months to come!]

" Rhapsodies, Op. 79/ Nos. 1 & 2.

Chopin: The Four Scherzos, complete. [An outstanding set of performances, compromised by a somewhat abused Source LP, with some pops and minor Skippies, but the music still comes through, and the performances are impeccable.]

Riess: Violin Concerto No. 1, E Minor. w/ Buketoff; Butler U. Symphony Orchestra; live, 1977 [See comments under "Composers"]

Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70. [A performance to die for! See comments under "Borodin Quartet".]

Schubert: Quintet A Major, Op. 114, "The Trout". [It’s hard to think of a BAD performance of this gem, at least one that’s made it to recordings (I’ve heard some that were perfectly awful, but fortunately they weren’t recorded!). But it’s hard to think of many that equal this mid-Seventies version, which included not only the formidable Maestro Schneider, but Michael Tree (viola), and Peter Serkin, piano. Originally issued mid-70s on Vanguard, I cannot find it in print, but as stated in the FAQS, if I do find it’s back in circulation, I’ll gladly drop it until it vanishes again – we try to play by the rules here, folks, even if the record companies don’t (always) extend the same courtesy to the consumer]

Goldman: Sonata for Violin and Piano.. w/ Ellen Mack, piano [14:20]

SOLOMON (piano): [SPECIAL LISTING: THE GREAT MONO RECORDINGS – Solomon Cutler – one of the very few performing artists I know of who could carry off that "only-one-name" gimmick and get away with it – was one of the more remarkable of the post-war virtuosi; perhaps THE first pianist whose reputation was made BY the long-playing record. I’m pleased to offer these nearly immaculate import pressings of the basic concerto repertoire by which he became a legend (and to cognoscenti of fine pianism, remains one to this day). Not for him the fevered melodrama of Horowitz, the icy jeweled aloofness of Michelangeli, or the earthy virility of Serkin and Rubenstein.In him were joined heart and intellect in such perfect proportion that the immaculate finish of his interpretations was, in one writer’s perfect phrase, "so obvious as not to be noticeable". Clarity and utter poise, yes, but also drama wit. He was, to a greater extent than his colleague, "a pianists’ pianist". Forced by illness to retire from performing in 1956 (at age 54 and at the absolute summit of his powers), be continued to teach, write, and lecture, with undiminished courage and without a word of bitterness, for another twenty years. You have to be in a certain mood to fully dig Solomon’s style, because he never smacks you with a hammer or weeps in your beer – he just projects, almost magically, the full gamut of emotions behind such extremes. I especially admire his legato playing, which somehow manages to combine diamond-like clarity with warmth and lyricism second-to-none. My wife, curiously enough, serendipitously learned something of Solomon’s secrets when she was studying piano (at Manhattans legendary/notorious High School of the Performing Arts) under a lady who had been one of Solomon’s star pupils during the late Thirties-early Forties. He obtained his unique legato sound, according to this woman, "by ‘attacking’ the notes as though each key were a stick of butter and your job was to press completely through that stick without smearing any of against the two adjoining sticks."

BRAHMS: Piano Concerto No. 1, D Minor, Op. 15. w/ Rafael Kubelik; Philharmonia Orchestra; recorded September, 1952;

GRIEG: Piano Concerto , A Minor, Op. 16. w/ Herbert Menges; Philharmonia Orchestra ; recorded September, 1956;

LISZT: Hungarian Fantasia. w/ Walter S usskind; Philharmonia Orchestra; recorded April, 1948.

SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op.

Haelfter: Violin Concerto. w/ Batiz; London Symphony Orchestra

Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70 [See ecstatic comments under "Borodin Quartet"]

Colgrass: Variations for Viola & Four Drums. w/ Composer on Percussion

Gould: Concertette for Viola & Symphonic Band. w/ Winograd; MGM Symphonic Band

Persichetti: Parable for Bassoon. [5:35]

Partos: "Yiskor" for Chamber Orchestra. w/ Stokowski; His Symphony [See under "Composers"]

RETHBERG, Elizabeth (soprano): [I can’t tell you anything about this obviously very fine singer, because this old Camden contained no program notes or biographical information. It must be pretty rare, though, as this is the only copy I’ve ever seen in forty years of record collecting. Nor are the dates of the recordings, or the identity of the orchestras and conductors listed. I DID find these Victor discs listed in the 1948 edition of The International Record Book, but all the additional information those entries gave was "with Orchestra" and ("Deleted"), which tells me only that Ms. Rethberg (who was really very pretty) was never considered a star of the first rank; that RCA used a cheap pick-up band to accompany her; and that these recordings probably date from the mid to late Twenties. The Camden remasterings are satisfactory, for their age and the anteluvian age of the originals, and my Source copy is in very good condition, so, for all you Elisbaeth Rethberg fans who’ve been a-begging for decades, here you go…]

Schubert: Die Winterreise (complete cycle). w/ Dalton Baldwin, piano [74:09] [A great recording of one of the greatest song-cycles ever composed. Souzay was a noted Schubert interpreter, and he brought to this glorious music the keen intelligence and creative phrasing of Fischer-Dieskau, along with a voice that, while not quite as agile as F-D’s, was every bit as powerful and resonant. In his low registers, Sousay edges into bass territory, and his high registers never show any strain whatever; across his range, he projects both the sense and the sonority of these songs with elegance and smoothness; Baldwin’s piano work augments him perfectly, and the recorded sound – drawn from a long unavailable Connoisseur Society tape – is crystalline and miraculously present in-the-room. If you’re a fan of Schubert’s Lieder, and you haven’t heard this cycle, do yourself a favor – it all fits on ONE CD, so a dub will only cost you half of the original list price!]

Dargomyzhsky: "Russalka", Act I – The Miller’s Aria. w/ Mansurov; Bolshoi Theater Orchestra [3:59]

Glinka: "A Life for the Tsar, Act IV" – Susanin’s Aria w/ Sergei Eltsin; Orchestra of the Kirov Theater, Leningrad [5:20]

Mussorgsky: "Boris Gudonov", Act II – Scene at the Palace. w/ Karina Slovtsova as Xenia; Taisia Kuznetsova as Feodor; Ludmilla Grudina as The Nurse; Vladimir Ulyanov as Shuisky; Sergei Matveyev as the Boyar; Sergei Eltsin; Orchestra of the Kirov Theater, Lenindgrad [27:41]

Rachmaninoff: "Aleko" – Aleko’s Cavatina. w/ Mansurov; Bolshoi Theater Orchestra [6:07[

Rimsky-Korsakov: "Mlada" – Song of the Viking Guest. w/ Sergei Eltsin; Orchestra of the Kirov Theater, Leningrad [2:51]

Tchaikovsky: "Eugene Onegin", Act III – Gremin’s Aria. w/ Mansurov; Bolshoi Theater Orchestra [6:00]

SOLO VOCALISTS IN MAJOR ROLES

Verdi: "Don Carlo" – Act I: "Io L’Ho Periduta". w/ Blanche Thebom; Robert Merrill; E. Markow; Renato Cellini; RCA Symphony; rec. 1951

Verdi: Requiem. Muti; Philadelphia Orchestra; Singing City & Temple University Choruses; live, 5/12/ 1985 – In memory of Eugene Ormandy [See rave comments under "Conductors"]

Berlioz: Les Nuits d’Etet, Op. 7. w/ Munch; Boston Symphony Orchestra

Debussy: La Damoiselle Elue. w/ Munch; Boston Symphony Orchestra

Puccini: "Madama Butterfly" w/ Maazel; Renato Scotto, soprano; Philharmonia Orchestra & Chorus.

Beethoven: "Fidelio" -- Floristan’s Aria, Act 2. w/ Alexander Melik-Pashaev; Bolshoi Theater Orchestra & Chorus; live, 1957.

Mozart: "Abduction from the Seraglio", Act III. Rehearsal, with Sir Thomas Beecham & the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [See "Great Conductors in Rehearsal"]

Verdi: Requiem. Muti; Philadelphia Orchestra; Singing City & Temple University Choruses; live, 5/12/ 1985 – In memory of Eugene Ormandy [See rave comments under "Conductors"]

Verdi: Don Carlo – Act I: "Io L’Ho Periduta". w/ Blanchje Thebom; E. Markow; Renato Cellini; RCA Symphony Orchestra; rec. 1951

Verdi: Don Carlo – Act III; "Per me Giunto, E Il Di Supremo." w/ Renato Cellini; RCA Symphony Orchestra; rec. 1951

Verdi: Requiem. Muti; Philadelphia Orchestra; Singing City & Temple University Choruses; live, 5/12/ 1985 – In memory of Eugene Ormandy [See rave comments under "Conductors"]

Britten: Serenade for Horn, Tenor, and Orchestra. w/ Gunther Herbig; New York Philharmonic; live, c. mid-Eighties. [Vibrant and colorful and Schreier’s Engl;ish is admirably clear and understandable.]

Puccini: Madama Butterfly. w/ Maazel; Placido Domingo; Philharmonia Orchestra.

Verdi: Don Carlo – Act III: Recitative: "Ella Giammi M’amo" & Aria "Dprmiro Sol del Manto". w/ Jean Morel; RCA Victor Symphony; rec. 1951

Verdi: Don Carlo – Act I: "Canzone de Velo". w/ Warwick Braithwaite; London Symphony Orchestra; rec. 1952

Verdi: "Don Carlo" – Act III: "O Don Fatale". " " " " "

Beethoven: "Fidelio" -- Leonore’s Aria "Abscheulicher, wo ellst duh in" Act 1. w/ Alexander Melik-Pashaev; Bolshoi Theater Orchestra & Chorus; live, 1957.

COMPLETE OPERAS

"Norma". Bonynge; Joan Sutherland (Norma); Marilyn Horne (mezzo) as Adalgisa; John Alexander (tenor); Richard Cross (bass); Yvonne Minton (soprano); Joseph Ward (tenor); London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus. [I’ve never developed a taste for this kind of florid, posturing style, but for those who like it, here’s a touchstone recording from near-mint Source]

"Merry Mount". Composer conducting; Eastman School of Music Orchestra, Soloists & Chorus. [A criminally under-rated American opera, with a juicy "Scarlet Letter-ish" libretto full of Puritan guilt, lust, pagan dances around a VERY symbolic May Pole, witch-trails, and a corker of an immolation scene in the last act. Hanson wrote some of his best music for this, his most ambitious composition – especially the dark yet moving hymn-tune that runs like a leitmotif through Act One. There’s never been a complete recording issued commercially, and this staged production was archived by the Eastman School using experimental, and quite vivid, stereo technology, in 1955. Not until 25 years later were the original tapes re-discovered, refurbished, and broadcast – ONCE – over NPR. I was lucky enough to have my recorder cued-up for that event, and except for three very brief turn-over interruptions, was able to capture the entire event in excellent sound. I think this is one hell of an opera, and cannot comprehend its neglect; it has passion, memorable characters, grand choral/orchestral set-pieces (think: if Mussorgsky had come from Nebraska!) and if moves right along with few dead spots. Note: requires two full CDs, and damned well worth every penny; the chances of a more up-to-date studio recording, given the parlous economics of opera recording these days, are slim and none.]

"Cardillac". Keilberth; Fischer-Dieskau; Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra. [See comments under "Keilberth", who does a simply smashing job on the podium]

"<Madama Butterfly". Renata Scotto and Butterfly; Placido Domingo as Pinkerton; Laur,aqsse so he doulcp antresasdt pf the cometirtionm Then, a school in yjr mnriohhborhoof hasd to be evacuated because of diuseaae-carrying reats. And pooyr Naazek began unaguibnunbg he saw rgew xc=crutterd evertywhdre (there was onme esoecially arrogan=t eiught0inmhc hsghg

"Simon Boccenegra", complete. Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting; Frank Guarra; Giogio Tozzi; Ezio Flagello; Zinka Milanov; Carlo Bergonzi; Norman Scott; Robert Nagy; Marnie Janger. [Not my favorite Verdi opera, although Dimitri puts so much zip into this production that it held my interest completely, as it will yours, if you’re a fan of great singing – just look at that cast! ]It’s most interesting archival document, too, as it was recorded just a few months before Dimitri’s tragic and untimely death – certainly not audible diminishing of powers here; the climaxes are electrifying.]

NETHERLANDS CHAMBER CHOIR, Felix DeNobel, conductor. [Since I discovered this exquisite anthology, in the Charlotte Public Library in 1956, I have considered it one of my ten all-time favorite records. No school of composers, before or since, brought the expressive power of counterpoint to a higher or more glorious peak – and if you would study that most recondite of musical elements, THIS is the period you should focus on. And THIS is the record you should start with. The choir was (and I assume still is) one of Europe’s glories, the vocal equivalent of the Concertgebouw (and its long time conductor, the great Felix DeNobel, also prepared Mengelberg’s choruses for that conductor’s annual performances of Beethoven’s Ninth and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. I have elsewhere recounted how privileged I was to discuss the Dutch music scene with Maestro De Nobel, in 1963, when he brought the choir to Davidson and I was in charge of hosting the guests who participated in the "Concert and Lecture Series" (this was one of the three most memorable events I helped put on – the other two were Hal Holbrook’s one-man Mark Twain show, and the incomparable Prague Chamber Orchestra – which played the most sparkling and vivacious rendition of Prokofiev’s "Classical" Symphony I ever expect to hear this side of Paradise. The selections listed below are on the flip side of Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli, and whoever the previous owner of this LP was, he or she evidently never bothered played the B side, since the sound and surfaces on it are quite pristine, while the Palestrina suffers from a taxing patch of scratches on the first inch of the disc; the choir’s tone, so pure, so impeccable, yet so utterly lacking in academic prissiness, poured through the auditorium like sunlight through a stained glass window. Never before or since have I heard human voices – and the ensemble numbered only about forty – produce sounds of such ethereal radiance combined with such expressive warmth and nuance. If you’re curious about the music of the 15^th-16^th Centuries, I know of no better place to start. If this album doesn’t move you deeply, you’d better check into a clinic to see if you still have a pulse. Oh, one other work to check out in this context, De Machaut’s Missa de Nostre Dame a late-Gothic work that has episodes of such craggy harmonic spareness that they could well have been composed by Stravinsky!]

Matona Mia Cara. De Nobel; Netherlands Chamber Choir.

Parce, Domine. De Nobel; Netherlands Chamber Choir

Kyrie et Gloria. De Nobel; Netherlands Chamber Choir.

Ave Maria. De Nobel; Netherlands Chamber Choir.

Madonna con Quest’ Occhi. De Nobel; Netherlands Chamber Choir. [Very interesting, the ambiguity here. He COULD have been composing a hymn to the Virgin Mary – but if so, it seems odd that he would have focused on the beauty of her EYES, when not even the most disputatious of clerics bothered to wrangle about whether the Virgin had eyes like Sophia Lauren or eyes like Anita Eckberg! I mean, in a sacred context, who CARES, right?) My guess is that the composer was in fact serenading a local Amsterdam beauty but was also shrewd enough to compose a work that could, by those so inclined, be performed in a sacred setting as well. One hopes the "Madonna" referred to heard this piece – she ought to have given her heart to Sweelinck, considering the exquisite beauty of his compliment. In all fairness, of course, the spirit of the Virgin ought to have been flattered, too!]

Della Veloce Sona. De Nobel; Netherlands Chamber Choir.

Hymnus Paradisi. Sir David Willcocks; Heather Harper, soprano; Robert Tear, tenor; Kings College Choir, `Cambridge; Philharmonia Orchestra [A radiant and deeply contemplative work in the great English Choral tradition; why it isn’t better known, I don’t know, except perhaps that it’s considered too Church-of-England to be appealing to American audiences. Funny reasoning, that, but it may be so.]

Folk Dances from Kallo. Arpad Joo; Budapest Philharmonc & Hungarian Radio Chorus. [8:02] [A brief but irresistible suite of "wedding songs" inspired by folk music Kodaly collected in a fairly remote district of Hungary. Charming and catchy; as Maestro Joo quipped "Every time I conduct this piece, it makes me want to run out and find some attractive woman to marry!"]

Hymnus Amoris, Op.12, for Soloists, Organ, and Large Orchestra. Mogens Woldike; Danish Radio Symphony & Chorus.18:05] [The title says it all: a "hymn to Love", by the romantic young Nielsen, ambitiously set for large forces (which is why you never hear it performed, and why this is its only recording), and this was his first attempt to compose for such an ensemble. His…um…"inspiration" was his honeymoon experience with his new bride, Anne Marie; it must have been a pretty hot interlude, to judge from the sensuousness of the music. Oddly and interestingly, though, you’ll hear only a few suggestions of the harmonically daring mature Nielsaen – here, he deploys his vocal forces in a manner hearkening back to Palestrina, and, at times, the big choral numbers in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (what a contrast in subject matter!). It’s a lovely piece, quite attractive and engaging, even if you don’t understand a word of Danish (the libretto, written by a male friend of the composer, is mawkish enough so that understanding Danish is not necessarily going to increase your enjoyment of the music! Pretend it’s the Song of Solomon or something from Catullus…), Anyway, it’s a simply marvelous work, and Woldike was the perfect conductor. (I know, you’ve never heard of him, but in the early days of LPs, he was a major figure, conducting strong, authoritative Haydn, Bach, and Mozart readings that are still treasured by collectors) The 1976 Danish EMI recording is splendidly clear and well balanced; it makes for a warm, romantic wallow.]

Sleep ["Soeven" in Danish, or "Soven" with one of those funky slanted lines through the "O", which means something like an umlaut, neither of which I k now how to type in Word, so…oh, never mind.], for Chorus & Orchestra, Op. 18 Morgens Woldike; Danish Radio Symphony and chorus; 18:05] [What a curious title for a choral work! Don’t expect lulling soothing washes of sound, though; this IS Nielsen! About eight minutes of the piece consists of a musical description of a King Hell nightmare, the kind that gives you cramps in your leg muscles and makes you flail your arms until you manage to smack your wife in the chops, and when she wakes up ready to kill you, you can mumble "I’m sorry, darling – I was having the worst nightmare!" And she has no choice but to believe you! Aren’t nightmares convenient? Well, no, they’re terrifying harbingers of death and/or Hell (well, occasionally I have one that visions Heaven, and if the place is THAT sexually liberated, and I’ll get to pork all the cheerleaders I lusted after in high school, I’m going to live an even more virtuous life. Jesus wept, how did I get off on THAT topic? ANYWAY, back to Nielsen’s piece: it’s surprising and very revealing about the young composer’s psyche; in fact, having it publicly performed was close to an appearance naked in mind and body. Very odd, yet very compelling music.]

Missa Papae Marcelli. De Nobel; Netherlands Chamber Choir. [There used to be c charming tale about this origin of this sublime a cappella Mass…but since modern scholarship has all-but-utterly discredited it, I shan’t waste time recounting it. Suffice it to say this is one of the noblest works of its time. I have always loved this recordings almost to the point of fetishism – not only is this one of the great choirs of modern times, but if memory serves, this was the first recording of the Mass in which the annotated pitches were sung the scrupulous accuracy (more commonly, the choirs of the15th and 16^th Centuries sang the minor, or even a major third below annotated pitch – making the music easier for semi-trained ensembles, and giving the overall music a more mellow (presumably more agreeable) timbre. In this recording, the annotated pitches are nailed, giving the music a bright, more transparent, more ascendant quality that I, at least, find very beautiful

Psalm 80, for tenor, Chorus & Orchestra [See details under "Composers"]

Requiem. Muti; Philadelphia Orchestra; Temple University Choir & Singing City Chorus [See comments under "Conductors"]

JAZZ AND BLUES

Elenore;

Bucky Pizzarelli’ Ralph Casale; Rhythm Guitars;

Al Casamenti – Electric Guitar

Romeo Pewnque – Woodwinds

Paul Krays – Percussion

Donald MacDonald – Drums

HAYWARD, Lawrence (and His Quartet, which comprises Percy France, tenor sax; Bill Pemberton, bass; Clarence "Tootie" Bean, drums, and Mr. Hayward coaxing those Ravelian cascades from the piano):

"Live at Eddie Condon’s" [If this album were any mellower, it could be used for a general anaesthetic. Very, very mellow – and not a harsh or ugly note to be heard. Smokey late-night-in-your-favorite-bar mellow. When I’m in that kind of mood, it’s a soothing as a warm milk bath. Superlative sonics, too.]

Don’t Blame Me [8:27]

Willow Weep [5:45]

Hello Dolly [5:42]

Blues in F [9:40]

That’s All [4:50]

On A Clear Day [7:32]

You’ve Changed [7:34]

Sweet Georgia Brown [8:18]

"Supernova". [Every hardcore record collector’s library would be greatly impoverished if it didn’t contain a smattering of gut-instinct "impulse" buys – records you run into, usually under such odd circumstances that you simply KNOW you’ll never see that LP again if you don’t buy it NOW (and although there is often NO logical reason why your hand reaches, trembling, for THAT particular disc – any more than there’s a scientific explanation for why some people can make a dowsing rod work reliably and some cannot – you’re usually well-advised to go with the impulse). I haven’t the slightest idea, for instance, when, where or why I encountered and purchased this German import. (Well, the pressing is German, but the fragmentary album notes are in Italian; go figure). "Ibliss" IS/was a German group; they dressed like Heavy Metal head-bangers, played only instrumental cuts, and I guess could be classified as a "jazz" outfit. Well, closer to "Jazz" than anything else, I reckon. The opening cut is full-bore percussion madness (imagine a Puerto Rican Salsa band slagged on Pulque during the final hours of a three-day street festival), after which comes a longer, much more complex musical statement that sounds like Egberto Gismonte and his group hopelessly lost in the depths of the Amazonian rain forest and signaling for help by playing mellow ECM-style riffs while grunting prehistoric lizards, vermillion-colored poison toads, insane macaws, and rutting giant tree sloths cavort and vocalize all around. You know what I mean, of course. And the third cut is yet again quite different; undsoweiter all the way through the album. The musicianship is inspired; the energy level volcanic; the engineering spectacular. I don’t know if it all makes sense no matter WHAT genre you bale it under, but certainly isn’t formulaic! I’ve decided to waive my usual practice of listing the titles of all the cuts, since even if you read German they have no discernable connection to what’s going on in your ears. And I’ve never seen another LP by them, or read one word about them before or since the day (some time in the mid-Seventies) when I stumbled across this discarded review copy in…some place or other.]

"Nothin’ But the Blues". [Proof that White Guys CAN sing the Blues, IF they are, like Winter, so VERY white they’re Albinos! And as usual, Johnny’s back-up band is a Blues’ collector’s dream come true: Muddy Waters, James Cotton, "Pine Top" Perkins, Bob Margolin, Charlie Calmese, and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith. What more need be said?]

Tired of Tryin’ [3:40]

TV Mama [3:11]

Sweet Love and Evil Women [2:50]

Everybody’s Blues [5:30]

Drinkin’ Blues [3:41]

Mad Blues 4:17]

It Was Rainin’ [5:53]

Bladie Mae [3:30]

Walkin’ Through the Park [4:07]

CAROLAN, Music of… [A friend who was keen on Celtic music, knowing I was of the same persuasion, sent me this tape about 25 years ago. It’s just a basic anthology of Carolan’s best-loved tunes, performed by someone on the hammer dulcimer and a back-up ensemble with guitar, fiddle, penny whistle, the usual instruments. Unfortunately for cataloguing purposes, there was no other information on the tape box, so I can’t tell you who the performers were or when the album was recorded; but as I said, it was at least a quarter-century old when I received it, so there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s long out of print an**d can be listed without violating anyone’s right to a royalty. Back then, micro-labels of Celtic music came and went with the lifespan of nocturnal moths. I wish I could also list the song titles, but that information was missing as well. Total time is about 48-40 minutes, and it goes by very pleasantly. And whoever the dulcimer-ist may be, he or she plays very beautifully.]

STEELEYE SPAN, THE BEST OF: [They were, incontestably, the greatest folk-rock band of all time. Such power, such romantic sweep, such intensity! They were in their genre what Richard and Linda Thompson were in theirs. This compilation (1.5 CDs) truly gathers their greatest hits – not a dud song in the whole collection.]

"Ten of Songs" – [All supposedly original songs, in various Celtic/Welsh styles. R.W. sings and plays the guitar, harp, cittern, keyboards and penny whistle; Back-up band includes drums, electric guitar, electric bass, and a good lady singer named Elaine Morgan.]

Departure

"The Cross of Iron". [Sam Peckinpah’s last great movie – all his biographers and friends recount that he was starting to lose his marbles by the time this magnificent war movie wrapped – this is surely the greatest film ever made about the horrific war on the Russian Front (astonishing that it was conceived, produced, written, and directed by a maverick American, and utilized a fair-sized portion of the then-Yugoslav Army as extras. A bizarre script that went from Shakesperian eloquence to windy balderdash, often in the same scenes!, the usual virtuoso editing and slow-motion carnage, ABSOLUTE historical authenticity with regard to weapons, tanks, tactics, uniforms, etc, and brilliant, lacerating performances by James Coburn, James Mason, and Maximillian Schell as the truly odious Prussian aristocrat, Col, Stransky. In keeping with the cock-eyed weirdness of the film, Gold turned in a brilliantly eccentric score, a bitter yet moving mélange of Hitler Youth anthems and epic "movie music" passages, like the improbable musical bastard child of Kurt Weill and John Williams. The LP is today VERY rare and much sought after by the largish cult or wargamers and film buffs who worship this movie (and I am one), so this may be your only chance to acquire a dub. My Source is without cut-titles or credits, other than the one for Gold, but if you know what this blurb is about, you won’t much care!]

"Chinatown". [Wonderfully moody noir score for…mmmm, the last movie Roman Polanski was allowed to make before the U.S. government decided he was corrupting all of our underage daughters…]

The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. Composer conducting; orchestra unidentified; no date or venue given. [However, so great was the demand for this Ultimate Arabian Nights fantasy, so catchy, so exotic, so masterfully orchestrated, that an early LP lt LP, of very dubious provenance, offered the soundtrack bits FROM THE MOVIE ITSELF, which make Herrmann’s careful structure into a nearly incoherent mess; worse, that recording suffered from cramped, grungy, strip-of-film sonics that made it painful to listen to. This version is authorized, recorded in decent sound by a fine, if anonymous, orchestra (my guess if a mixture of L.A. Philharmonic players, moonlight for quick cash, and the rest were crack Hollywood freelancers, able to play from one sight-reading, almost anything set before them. Herrmann was a terrific conductor, he was working with first-class musicians, and the results, if not a "sonic spectacular", are surely definitive. It’s grand music, folks; every cliché in the book about magic carpets, people wearing turbans, and giant Negro eunuchs with enormous half-moon swords and gold loop earrings…also, if I remember correctly, a gorgeous spell-bound princess reduced to the size of Thumbellina and kept in a tightly guarded glass jar! And, of course, there are some wonderful Harry Harryhausen monsters that dramatically interrupt the story from time to time. It’s a film that SHOULD seem horribly dated in 2007, but it’s still hugely entertaining, and Herrmann’s wondrous music is one of the main reasons for that.]

"Cyrano de Bergerac". Sir Ralph Richardson plays Cyrano; Anna Massey portrays Roxane…and the other 20-odd speaking roles are carried by actors who enjoyed, and in some cases still enjoy, distinguished careers in both film and on the stage. John Simon contributed to the revised translation, and the crisp, adroit direction by Howard Sackler permits no slack stretches caused by the shift from stage to recording formats. Altogether a sterling adaptation, and dubbed from a Source copy that barely has a tick or a smudge, and NOT one single Skippy! A great realization of a wonderful play. N.B., requires 2.5 CDs, so don’t neglect to pick about 35 minutes’ worth of bonus material.]

ROCK AND POP

Safe European Home

Greatest Hits. The all-time classiest doo-wop band, with Baby Ruth harmonies, crew-cut preppy outfits, and immaculately shined shoes! Can anybody forget the angst of "The Wanderer"? ( MAO. Ir turned our rhar mnt frioyou’re under forty-five, can you remember it?). Oodelly-oodelley-oop!nd, the cklassucakl D.J,. and racontoures. Long John would

"Discreet Music". Composer at keyboards [See under "Composers" – yes, I have arbitrarily decided to induct Brian Eno into the Classical genre, and he bloody well deserves it]

Music for Films. Composer at keyboards

"Three Variations on Pachelbel’s Canon". Composer at keyboards

Element of Light. [Another cult-fave album from this eccentric and wildly talented song writer/musician and his superb back-up band. He was just too out-of-left-field to have a mass audience, but he has all the qualities I look for in a non-classical songsmith: literate, witty, sardonic, grown-up lyrics with tasty, highly original instrumental treatments supporting them. I doubt that these song titles will mean anything to 99 % of you, as none of them got much airplay except on obscure college radio stations, but they do give you some idea of Hitchcock’s off-center genius --

THE ORCHIDS: Eponymous first (and if there is any justice, ONLY) album by this generic all-chick mid-Seventies quintet, who needed three times as much make-up to look HALF as unattractive as the Roches. But no amount of Pop Art clothes or make-up or 1000-dollar hair styles could compensate for their chronic intonation problems or for the bland, formulaic vapidity of their songs. Some Suit at MCA Recorded decided these girls could sell a lot of albums if only the Star-Making Machinery cranked out their P.R. with every trick in the book, but this time the public wasn’t buying the B.S. (the appalling thing is that TODAY, the Public just might – whence came Britney Spears, after all? The cumulative effect of Cultural Dumm-Down hasn’t just affected classical, you know; after Disco, the only possible way for Pop Music to sink any lower was into the pathetic troglodyte posturing of Hip-Hop and even THAT is hanging on by life support and the brute ignorance of those who consume it (No, that is NOT intended to be a racist slur, since Hip-Hop has arguably done more to set back the cause of racial equality in this nation than anything since the murder of Martin Luther King, Black people ought to be the first demographic category to be out there burning the CDs, not Bible-thumping primitives from Navel Lynt, South Carolina -- but when it’s considered socially acceptable to pull up next to someone else at a stoplight, with all your windows down and this week’s biggest hit in the Yard Ape category blasting into the ears of somehow who plainly does NOT want to hear it, and a sub-sub-woofer volume level that not only goes "to Eleven" but is loud enough to overpower a broadside from the main turret armament of the Graf Spee, a great deal more than the simple right to self-expression is being traduced. There WILL inevitably be justice of course (no one who subjects his ear drums to such decibel levels can possibly escape premature nerve-deafness, and a bad case of that is more than just a minor affliction; the only problem with that remedy is that it takes too damned long to affect the barbarians who cause the noise pollution in the first place…) and what does this rant have to do with "The Orchids" (poor girls; it isn’t their fault!)? Nothing, probably, I’m just sick and tired of keeping my mouth shut about odious bad taste for fear of being judged politically incorrect. I’m 63 and Great Music has probably added ten years to my life that I willingly subtracted through a number of vile long-time habits; I will not apologize for having good taste, 95 % of which was self-instilled. Don’t pull that all-musics-are-fundamentally-equal horseshit on me; I won’t even pretend to take that kind of sophistry seriously any more, and if you do, you’re a bigger fool than that tasteless baboon who pulls up beside you and inflicts Fifty Cent’s latest hit on your eardrums; personally, I believe that as a matter of self-defense, the hearing-assaulted driver has a perfect moral right to pull a street-sweeper shotgun from under his dash and, if not blow the skull off of his tormentor, at least blow out his right front tire.

"Kitsch". {Well, here’s another one – two minutes into dibbing a Master copy of this LP. I simply couldn’t remember WHY I ever thought it was worth keeping. Within certain limits, I think the very notion of "soft rock" is kind of ridiculous, and these guys sound positively invertebrate. I mean, the best I can say now, after dubbing it (someone else might love it, you never know) is that they remind me a less-interesting version of Steely Dan, a group that for some reason (maybe the pretentious obscurantism of their lyrics) always made my skin crawl.. As on several other occasions, why waste time and energy typing the titles of the cuts? As far as I’m concerned, they all suck equally. Except, of course, if you want to buy a dub, in which case they become at least marginally worthy!]

ETHNIC, NON-CELTIC

Sharona Aron Sings Israeli Songs. [In 1954, when this Angel LP came out, this is how the Israelis saw themselves and how most Americans saw them as well: heroic, vital, youthful people, emerging from the ashes of the Holocaust to reclaim their Biblical homeland and capable of defeating half-a-dozen scruffy Arab armies to do it. There was just enough truth in that image for it to persist half-a-century, until the corrupting squalor of the region rotted it out of the Israeli soul as it had the souls of those who could have been their peaceful neighbors. All that’s left a legends, now, and old songs that new voices can’t sing with the quiet fervor of Ms. Aron, a Sabra (who oddly enough began folk-singing when she was getting a degree in Sociology at NYU in 1951!!) Three or four of these songs used to make me weep; not because I was a Zionist, but because my first True Love (we were both, God help us, seventeen) was a doe-eyed, adobe-skinned, lissome young creature with long soft hair the color of a raven’s wing who could sing Hebrew LIKE a Sabra and used to serenade me with folk songs like this. Never mind that she was really half-Mexican – she WANTED to have been an Sabra during the War of Independence and no doubt – judging from the icy cruelty with which she finally ended our year-long affair – she could have wielded a Sten gun with the best of them. For more than a decade afterwards, on certain autumn nights when the memories of our sweet ravenous hours of mutual discovery came flooding back, and I’d had too many snorts of bourbon, I’d put on this record and drift away again into the kind of memories Life only gives you one banquet of. Other loves might be more intense, more erotically charged and sophisticated, and God knows longer-lasting, but none would ever carry the same charge of poignancy. I even had to steel myself in advance before I dubbed the Master of this ancient souvenir…and still a few tears fell by the end. And you know what? I’m glad. I no longer give a rat’s ass what happens to ANYBODY in that cursed part of the world – they can learn to live together or slaughter each other, it’s all one to me. But once upon a time, there was an ideal that shone clear and sweet over the hills of Hebron, and for a time it probably WAS worth dying for. Religious fanaticism poisons everything it touches. Everything. But still I offer this dusty relic of 1954 as a reminder that it was not always thus, need not always be thus. And to honor the sweetest hours of love I ever knew in all my youth; and to thank God or Allah (it doesn’t matter to me which) that I had that all-too-brief taste of Paradise.

"Russian and Gipsy(SIC!) Melodies". [This APPEARS to be a one-off home recording job, intended to be a family keepsake or heirloom recording of somebody-or-other’s happy-looking "babushka". I say "appears" to be, because aside from a snap-shot (of "Granny Mayantz" in traditional Ukrainian costume), there’s NO information on either the album or the label, and the Nice Old Woman’s voice gets noticeably raspier and more ragged as she plows relentlessly through 35 "melodies" that all sound pretty much alike – and LOOK pretty much alike, since their titles are all listed in Cyrillic and the only one I recognize by sight is "Dark Eyes" (which is, of course, the one I don’t NEED to recognize by sight…) . All of them last between 2-3 minutes and there aren’t any with even a daub of instrumental color – just Granny’s gradually fading vocals. As fond as I am of Slavic folk music, about ten minutes’ worth of this stuff made me want to run screaming out of the room, but I’m listing it because it might actually BE somebody’s Little-Old-Granny-Lady’s-anthology of Little-Ol’-Granny-Lady-Songs; you just never know about those things…]

"Roumania and their (SIC!) Gypsies". Ionel Budisteanu, violin; Boita Sanescu (Pan pipes); Dumitru Marinescu (cymbalum); Maria Lataretu, soprano. w/ "Roumanian National Folk Ensembles of Bucharest". [And how jolly life was during the Caucheschu regime! I adore their music and I’m fascinated by their history and folklore, but I wish THESE PEOPLE WOULD MAKE UP THEIR MINDS! Do they want to be known as "RO-manians"? Or "RU-manians"? Or (my favorite, since it covers all the bases) "ROU-manians"?? Whatever, these recordings are the real thing, originally from the legendary "Bruno HI FI Records" which was your guarantee that they would be in some of the LOWest "FI" to be found on any label, even though the performances were sometimes wonderful (as they are here – each cut sounds like it was taped in a different smoke-filled bar in the skuzziest back alleys of Bucharest! And this soprano just SOUNDS like she has two older brothers who make their living smuggling Pall Malls across the Czech border and who would happily cut your balls off if you looked at her the wrong way! Which is, I think, exactly how a Gypsy soprano ought to sound!)]

Songs and Dances from. Turkish Dances,, Marches, folk-music –inspired numbers from the one major geo-political Islamic state to gain NATO-membership. And, yes, what the Turks did to the Armenians WAS f**king GENOCIDE, BUT THAT DOESN’T PREVENT ME FROM ENJOYING MUCH OF THIS WILDLY VITAL MUSIC!]

SPOKEN WORD, COMEDY, DOCUMENTARY

CBS News: "An Ear to the Sounds of Our History" [Briefly issued in 1973, in conjunction with a 30-part documentary about CBS news – an event which, although nobody realized it at the time – also marked the beginning of that network’s decline as the premier broadcast journalism organization of all time. Narrated smoothly by Eric Sevareid, this album comprises a montage-like assembly of highlights:

Sevareid describing Paris on the eve of the Germans’ arrival (spring, 1940)…Robert Trput reporting on the evacuation of London’s working class children (Sept. 1, 1939)…Ed Murrow reporting on the Blitz, while under bombardment on his hotel roof (September 22, 1940)…Murrow describing (as "orchestrated Hell") a bombing raid he’d flown on over Germany (Dec. 3, 1943)…and Murrow again, giving his spontaneous reactions upon being with the first Allied journalists permitted inside Buchenwald…Harry Reasoner’s obituary for Ernest Hemingway (what chutzpah to report the event in a note-perfect PARODY Hemingway’s style: "The writer was old now, and he was not the writer he had once been…"…the JFK assassination…Apollo Eleven…they’re all here. Every quaffed and white-toothed glamour boy "anchor man" ought to hear this stuff and cringe in shame – these men were JOURNALISTS by God!]

Poetry of the Beat Generation. Jack Kerouac, speaker; Steve Allen, piano. [A classic! Kerouac was allowed to take his time and get a bit drunk before the tape rolled, and so sounds relaxed and spontaneous – unlike his TV appearance with Allen, where he looked terrified and read stiffly. The cadences roll, the words gush, and Steve contributes some nice, low-key jazz improvs as background. The surprising quality here is…charm. This record presents an author so desperate to be loved that he all but implores the listener’s good will. Jack made a couple more discs, but none of them come close to this one in effect or in literary value. I don’t suppose any great purpose is served by listing the selections, but they do make for tasty reading and give you an idea of the loose-as-a-goose informality of the sets.]

October in the Railroad Earth [7:10];

Deadbelly [1:03];

Charlie Parker [3:42];

Sounds of the Universe Coming in My Window [3:16];

One Mother [0:48];

Goofing at the Table [1:42];

Bowery Blues [3:54]

Abraham [1:14];

Dave B rubeck [0:29];

I Had a Slouch Hat too, One Time [6:15]

The Wheel of the Quivering Meat Conception [1:53];

McDougal Street Blues [3:21];

The Moon, Her Majesty [1:34];

I’d Rather be Thin Than Famous [0:34]

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