Sid James

09.04.11

MOZART
Serenade No. 10 in B minor, KV 361 (370a) "Gran Partita"
Wiener Mozart-Blaser/Nikolaus Harnoncourt, director
Teldec (friend's disc)

SCHOENBERG
Pierrot Lunaire, melodrama for voice and ensemble Op. 21
Jane Manning, sprechstimme
Nash Ensemble/Simon Rattle
Chandos (Library disc)

J. STRAUSS JNR
Emperor Waltz
Berlin PO/Harnoncourt
Teldec (Library disc)

Barry CONYNGHAM
Water...Footsteps...Time, for amplified percussion & orchestra
Melbourne SO/John Hopkins (recorded 1972)
From ABC Classics release "100 Years - Melbourne Symphony Orchestra - A Celebration in Music - Volume 4 - Australian Composers" 2 cd set.
(My disc, no image)

TAKEMITSU
Solitude Sonore for orchestra (1958)
Waltz (from "Face of Another") from Three Film Scores for string orchestra (1994/95)
Bournemouth SO/Marin Alsop
Naxos (My disc)

Mozart's Gran Partita is a light and quite relaxing work, beautifully scored. Then two other sides of the musical city of Vienna, Schoenberg's hallucinatory song cycle Pierrot Lunaire and J. Strauss Jnr. (the waltz king's) ever popular Emperor Waltz. Jane Manning's classic 1978 rendition of the Schoenberg can be very intense, one minute she's maniacal and crazy, the other she's as vulnerable as a child. & despite Strauss' waltzes all having the same structure (introduction, five variations, coda) he always does something interesting, especially in terms of melody. Then we listened to Australian composer Barry Conyngham, a work that reminded me of Takemitsu & my friend of Ligeti. I later learned that Conyngham studied with Takemitsu as well as fellow Australian Peter Sculthorpe. To finish, two short pieces by Takemitsu, showing his mastery of the orchestra...

You've taken up a bloody blog, too!

Originally Posted by HarpsichordConcerto

You've taken up a bloody blog, too!

Well feel free to visit here, especially if you want to know a bit of what's going down in this town (the concerts). Maybe you'd be interested in coming to see some of these fine ensembles strut their stuff at some stage later...

23.04.11

HOLST - Suite No. 1 in E flat Op. 28, No.1; Suite No. 2 in F Op. 28, No.2
J.S. BACH - Fantasia in G major - Gravement (trans. Robert Franko Goldman & Robert Leist)
HANDEL - Music for the Royal Fireworks (ed. Anthony Baines, Charles Mackerras)

The Cleveland Symphonic Wind Band
Frederick Fennell, conductor
Telarc CD-80038
(Friend's disc)

BOULEZ
Le Marteau sans Maitre (The Hammer without a Master) (1953-55) (Words by Rene Char)
Margery Mackay, alto
Ensemble cond. by Robert Craft (rec. Los Angeles, 1958)
EI Records (My disc)

BEETHOVEN
String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132
LaSalle Quartet
Brilliant Classics (My disc)

BERIO
"Chamber Music" - song-cycle for voice, harp, clarinet & cello (Words James Joyce)
Cathy Berberian, voice
Members of Julliard Ensemble
Luciano Berio, direction
Philips (Library disc)

This week we listened to a variety of music as usual. To start of, his recording of wind band classics on a Telarc disc with excellent sound as usual. I had never heard the Holst suites before, although I've heard about them. There was a movement in the second suite which was a wind band version of the same movement in the St Paul's Suite for string orchestra, called the Dargason. It has a jig like melody intertwined with Greensleeves. The J. S. Bach was great as well & you simply can't beat Handel's Fireworks Music, a classic of this repertoire.

My friend liked both the Boulez and Berio song-cycles we listened to. He agreed that the rich percussion and use of the flute in the Boulez sounded very lush, despite the rhythmic complexities of this piece (beat changes in every bar!). & the Berio, written in the same decade (the 1950's) was of course completely different. Here, the use of the harp gave the music a decidedly Celtic feel, which is probably related to the fact that the words by Irish man of letters James Joyce. We both marvelled at Cathy Berberian's vocal dexterity and virtuoso technique (she was married to the composer, who wrote many pieces especially for her huge vocal range). It was interesting to hear these song-cycles, which kind of came off the back of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, which we both saw live the last week after listening to a number of recordings of it.

In between those two, we heard Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 132, one of the late quartets. Interesting how we had heard Mozart's Gran Partita a few weeks before, as the suite like structure of this work by Beethoven was a direct development of what Mozart had done in works like that. There are many highlights in this string quartet, not least the pivotal third movement "Hymn of Thanksgiving" which combines a slow movement with a march. & just like Beethoven's 9th symphony, the last two movements are linked, one an introduction to the other. There is a viola solo which connects these two movements, very similar to the tenor (or is it baritone?) solo announcing the "Ode to Joy" theme of the 9th symphony. The way Beethoven brings back the somewhat tragic theme from the first movement in Op. 132 in its final movement, but modifies it to speak to hope and joy, grabs me every time (& it also grabbed my friend, so to speak). In fact, the theme from the final movement of this string quartet was originally sketched as a possible instrumental conclusion to the 9th symphony, but then put aside for the choral ending we have now (but subsequently taken off the shelf and recycled for the string quartet). I really like the LaSalle Quartet's interpretation, which is full on, no holds barred, quite gutsy and raw.

Just haven't had time to update my blog re the friend & I's listening nights, but here are the last two -

21.05.11

VILLA-LOBOS - works for solo guitar
Etude No. 1; Prelude No. 3; Etude No. 7
Tom Ward, guitar - from album "Tom Ward Guitar Recital" (CD/DVD)
(Self published)

This was the first time we both heard any of Villa-Lobos' solo guitar works, and it was amazing how with just one instrument, this music had the same richness as his larger scale works, but more intimate. My friend saw the guitarist, Tom Ward, busking in town and got this disc. A very fine young guitarist who hails from Tasmania, and I think he is still based there.

& we also listened to these two magnificent works in preparation for concert performances of them in following weeks (reviews on "latest concerts" thread). We both thought that the South Korean soprano in the Haydn recording really "stole the show" with her wonderful tones, and us two guys kind of agreed that she also sounded very sexy!!! -

HAYDN
The Creation (2 discs)
Sung in German
(Naxos)

MAHLER
Symphony No. 4
(Channel Classics)

04.06.11

This night my friend and I talked a lot about music and life things, so we didn't get through that much music, but that's okay. Life is music, music is life, all that jazz. I really liked Isaac Stern's violin concertos album, I could really hear how all of the musicians played these pieces sensitively paying attention to the different composer's styles. We had just heard the Bach double violin concerto live in concert the previous week, so this was a great "catch up" on that masterpiece. The middle movement of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante goes so deep, this is one of the things people should listen to if they think he's all cheery and all that. Then a long bit from Stanford's Requiem, which I had been getting into a lot during the past week. My friend, who had heard it for the first time, was quite moved by it...

Album - "Isaac Stern 60th Anniversary Celebration" (live recording)
Isaac Stern, violin (all works) with New York Phil./Zubin Mehta, cond.
J.S. Bach - Concerto for two violins, BWV 1043 (with Itzhak Perlman, vln.)
Vivaldi - Concerto for three violins, F.1 No. 34 (F major) (with Pinchas Zuckerman, Itzhad Perlman, vlns.)
Mozart - Sinfonia Concertante for violin & viola, K.364 (with Pinchas Zuckerman, viola)

STANFORD
From Requiem - IV. Sequence - Dies Irae (Allegro moderato ma energico)
(Naxos, 2 discs for whole work, coupled with orchestral/vocal suite from opera)

18.06.11

This week, my friend and I first listened to a Vienna New Year's Day Concert from 1983 (a DGG disc of his) which was great. I love Strauss' imaginative use of the orchestra, the operetta overtures where my favourites. Great atmosphere on this recording as well, which was put down live. Then my friend's first listen to the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 which he loved equally as me. This is a work that simply "has it all" - not only choral, but also operatic, song, chamber, concerto elements are strongly there. Such passion and feeling of life, far from the rarified atmosphere that some usually associate with church music...

Album: Wiener Bonbons
New Year's Day Concert Vienna, 1983 (VPO/Lorin Maazel, cond.)
Music of the Strauss family
DGG

MONTEVERDI
Vespers of 1610 (Vespro della beata vergine)
Pro Cantione Antiqua UK/Collegium Aureum & Musica Fiata (Germany)/Hannover Boy's Choir/Heinz Hennig, cond. (Recorded 1979)
Alto label (2 disc set, coupled with other works by Monteverdi, Allegri, Schutz, Palestrina)

25.06.11

CHOPIN
19 Waltzes
Cyprien Katsaris, piano
Teldec
(Friend's disc)

COPLAND
Old American Songs (Sets I & II)
William Warfield, baritone
Columbia SO/Aaron Copland, cond.
CBS LP SBKG 72218 (MS 6497) - coupled with Clarinet Concerto (with Benny Goodman)
(My LP)

J. STRAUSS JNR
Jabuka (The Apple Festival) - Operetta in 3 Acts
cond. Prof. Christian Pollack (Naxos 2 disc set)
Highlights from Act 2 - "Es war einmal" (Duet) & Second Finale
(My cd)

HAYDN
Concerto for Harpsichord & Orchestra in D major
Trevor Pinnock, harpsichord & his English Concert
(Archiv Produktion) (My cd)

Some great music in this set, both my friend & I enjoyed it. This was my second time listening to the Katsaris Chopin disc, and I really got in touch with the Polish flavoured melodies here. My friend & I both agreed that these waltzes were a bit like variations on the same (or similar) theme. Then both our first time listening to this Copland LP, and we both recognised some of the songs here (they're very famous and have a homely feel - as American as apple pie!). Then a long section of Strauss' operetta Jabuka, which we both agreed was lushly scored and the vocals were great. To finish, Haydn's most famous keyboard concerto, which my friend didn't remember hearing before. I have had a tape of Alfred Brendel playing it on pianoforte, so I knew the work well. This work was highly innovative, from the near-atonal harmonies in the middle slow movement, to the famous "Hungarian Rondo" ending - in the final cadenza, the harpsichord accompanied by plucked strings, sounded exactly like a cimbalom! We'll return to this magnificent Pinnock disc in future weeks, no doubt...

09.07.11

This music listening session was (for the most part) an exploration of the use of block chords, primarily by Rachmaninov & Copland, who made this technique their "trademark," but it also appears in the earliest surviving work by Varese, his song of 1906. Rachmaninov's use of this technique always reminds me of bells, which no doubt inspired him, & Copland's use of it was very versatile - to provide big dynamic contrasts and highlights in his "open air" orchestral works, to the imaging of solitude in a big city, replete with jazzy rhythms in the second movement of his only Piano Sonata. To finish up, we enjoyed Bernstein's On the Town in all it's guises - from the original musical to the dances arranged from it, a piano duo medley arrangement & also some of the ballet from which most of it's material came, Fancy Free. The highlight here for me was the ballet music from "On the Town" which included the subsequently discarded Dream Sequence - which I'd describe as jazz meets Schoenberg - in a fully pumped up performance conducted by a 27 year old Bernstein. All in all, we had a great night...

COPLAND
Fanfare for the Common Man
Rodeo
Appalachian Spring (Suite)
Atlanta SO/Louis Lane, cond.
Telarc CO-80078 (publ. 1982)

RACHMANINOV
Prelude in C sharp minor, Op.3 #2 (Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano)
"Paques" from Suite No. 1 for two pianos, Op. 5 (Vladimir Ashkenazy & Andre Previn, pianos)
Prelude in G minor, Op. 23 #5 (Rafael Orozco, piano)
Liebesfreud (composed by Kreisler, arr. Rachmaninov) (Sergey Rachmaninov, recorded from a 1926 Ampico piano roll)
All above from "The number one Rachmaninov album" compilation (Decca, 2 discs) 476 5900

VARESE
"Un grand Sommeil noir" song for soprano & piano (1906) (words: Paul Verlaine)
Elizabeth Watts, soprano/Christopher Lyndon-Gee, piano
Naxos - Varese Orchestral Works Vol. 2

COPLAND
Piano Sonata (1938)
Peter Lawson, piano
From "American Piano Sonatas - Vol. 1" (EMI)

BERNSTEIN
"On the Town" - highlights from the musical (Original stage cast, rec. 1945)
"On the Town" - medley trans. MacGregor (Howard 'Rack' Godwin-Eadie Griffith piano duo, rec. 1945)
"On the Town" - Ballet Music, incl. Three Dance Episodes & Dream Sequence (cond. Bernstein, rec. 1945)
"Joan Crawford Fan Club" musical comedy skit (composed & sung by "The Revuers" group, with Bernstein on piano, rec. 1940)
"Fancy Free" ballet - Three Dances (Boston Pops/Arthur Fiedler, rec. 1946)
From album "On the Town" (Naxos Musicals label)

Last image is here:


(Copland on Telarc is freind's disc, the rest are mine)

23.07.11

We listened to some interesting things this time. On my friend's "Spirituals" disc, I esp. enjoyed "Scandalize my name," a duet between the two sopranos with a big dollop of humour (the audience couldn't help but laugh at their antics, & we were the same). "Cavalry/They Crucified My Lord" was suitably dramatic, with accompaniment including a gong, string quartet & more percussion. The arrangements varied from full orchestra with choir to small chamber groupings.

As for my discs, my friend enjoyed these, from the colourful Walton overture - reminiscent of Chabrier's Espana & also modern techniques of guys like Stravinsky & Prokofiev - to the strong rhythmic undertow & perfect sensitivity to the lyrics of the Weill songs & the drama of the Bernstein symphony, which spoke to similar issues during wartime (listen out for the mechanical, very mimialistic rhythms in the middle intense movement, at the end there is a maracca hitting the drum-skins, creating a strangely synchronised effect - I don't doubt guys like Philip Glass would admire this score?). To finish, an encore with many tricky bits, by "the Spanish Paganini," Pablo Sarasate. The young Itzhak Perlman was "on fire" when he put this down...

Album: Spirituals in Concert - with Kathleen Battle & Jessye Norman (sopranos)
James Levine, cond.
Nancy Allen, harp
Hubert Laws, flute
Sylvia Olden Lee, piano
Evelyn Simpson-Currenton, organ
Robert de Cormier, choral director
Recorded live at Carnegie Hall, NYC, 1990
DGG label - various arrangers

WALTON
Portsmouth Point - concert overture
LPO/Adrian Boult, cond. (rec. 1955)
Decca Eloquence

From album: Mack the Knife, the songs of Kurt Weill (historic recordings 1929-1956)
(Naxos Nostalgia label)
- Mack the Knife, performed by: Louis Armstrong (rec. 1955) - Bertolt Brecht (rec. 1929) - Jascha Heifetz (rec. 1945)
- Speak Low, performed by: Kurt Weill (rec. 1942) - Mary Martin & Kenny Baker / Maurice Abravanel, cond. (rec. 1945)
- Alabama Song - Lotte Lenya (rec. 1930)
- Pirate Jenny - Lotte Lenya (rec. 1954)

BERNSTEIN
Symphony #1 "Jeremiah"
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
Israel PO/Bernstein
Recorded live in Berlin, 1978
DGG label

SARASATE
Zapateado op. 23
Itzhak Perlman, violin / Samuel Sanders, piano
(rec. 1972) - EMI label

(All my discs except spirituals concert which is my friends')

Final image from that last set is here -

From this week's stuff, the Beethoven, Schubert & Bruckner choral works stand out as less known (even though they're fairly "mainstream" composers otherwise). I have always loved these works.

Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, from 1808, is a very adventurous piece of the time. It's like a combination piano sonata, piano concerto, symphonic, choral & operatic work. This blurring of the boundaries of different genres sounds quite fresh even today.

Schubert's Deutsche Messe (German Mass) is much simpler than his 6 numbered masses (in Latin). This was composed in 1826, it's with wind accompaniment, and is said to be still sung in churches in German speaking countries today (it's "easy" enough to be sung along to by the congregation, apparently). There is a kind of "solidity" here, a pared down feeling, which is a bit like that found in his Symphony #9 "The Great."

If Schubert was on the way to somewhere, bringing together traditions old & new, by the end of the century, Bruckner had kind of "arrived." His motets, written throughout his career, show many innovations beneath all that emotion, eg. in terms of dynamics and incorporating whole-tone harmonies. With these & other things, he wasn't very far off the young Schoenberg. Bruckner's Te Deum has always struck me as a very rhythmic piece & a summing up of his knowledge of church musics throughout the ages. The tenor soloist gets all the juicy solos, but the short baritone solo really packs a punch, going right down to what sounds very bassy & kind of out of this world - & this part esp. illustrates the text in a very unexpected & original way.

To "wind down," some shorter sonatas a few hundred years apart, both by masters of their art - Weiss & Boulez.

GRIEG
Holberg Suite for string orch.
BPO / Karajan
DGG

BEETHOVEN
Fantasia in C for piano, chorus & orch. Op. 80
Rudolf Serkin, piano
Faye Robinson, sop. / Mary Burgess, sop. / Lili Chookasian, cont. / Kenneth Riegel, tenor / David Gordon, bar. / Julien Robbins, bass
Tanglewood Festival Chorus / John Oliver
Boston SO / Seiji Ozawa
Telarc

SCHUBERT
Deutsche Messe (German Mass) D.872
Vienna SO / Vienna Chamber Choir / Hans Gillesberger, cond.
Turnabout vinyl LP (TVS 34282)

BRUCKNER
Motets: Ave Maria - Pange Lingua - Vexilla Regis - Ecce Sacerdos Magnus
Prelude in C major (Marck Quarmby, organ)
Te Deum
Elsa Wilson, sop. / Anne Fisch, mezzo-sop. / Jamie Allen, tenor / Stephen Bennett, baritone
Sydney Univ. Musical Society Choir / Sydney Youth Orch. / Ben Macpherson, cond.
Recorded 1995-6 (Self published by SUMS)

Silvius Leopold WEISS
Sonata #20 in D minor for lute & mandolin
Birgit Schwab, baroque lute
Daniel Ahlert, mandolin
Naxos

BOULEZ
Piano Sonata #1 (Premiere Sonate)
Idil Biret, piano
Naxos

Basically "traditional" composers this week, with a focus on classicism & a kind of prototype of neo-classicism in the delightful Bizet symphony.

Grieg's Holberg Suite mixes Norwegian vibes with traditional forms (it includes a gavotte).

Schubert's Symphony #5 mixes influences of earlier composers with his own brand of song-like lyricism.

So too the Bizet symphony, one of two he composed early on, and that gorgeous oboe solo in the slow movt. just "hits the spot" for me every time. Same for my friend, it's basically like opera without words. Then his L'Arlessiene Suite #1, drawn from the incidental music he did for Daudet's play. This was the first orchestral work to employ the then newly invented saxophone, which again brings to mind the human voice. The final movt., Carillon, starts with the rhythms of bells which the town of Arles is famous for. The middle lyrical section in this movt. is simply "to die for," speaking to the tragic ending of this play. I must mention the recording here, the original chamber orchestra version under French conductor Mark Minkowski, who knows what he's doing to the max with this score.

Then the Brahms String Sextet #1, which I've been familiar with for yonks, but my friend had never heard it. A work written in his twenties under the guidance of Hungarian violinist and life long friend Joseph Joachim, the middle two movements encapsulate the essence of Hungarian music perfectly.

To finish, the J.S. Bach Prelude & Fugue in F minor, which member Air here on TC talked about this week as being (or almost being?) whole-tone.

A good listening session all-round, and we enjoyed it a lot...

GRIEG
Holberg Suite for string orch.
BPO / Karajan
DGG

SCHUBERT
Symphony #5 in B flat major, D.485
Staatskapelle Berlin / Otmar Suitner, cond.
(Denon)

BIZET
Symphony in C major, Op. 88
London Festival Orch. / Alfred Scholz, cond.
Point Classics

BIZET
L'Arlesienne - Suite #1
Les Musiciens du Louvre, Grenoble / Mark Minkowski, cond.
Naive

BRAHMS
String Sextet #1 in B flat, Op. 18
Principals of the London Philharmonic Orch.
Music for Pleasure LP

J.S. BACH
Prelude & Fugue #12 in F minor, BWV.857 (from Well-Tempered Clavier)
Wanda Landowska, harpsichord
Stereo tape CC-697



(Grieg & Schubert are my friend's discs)

This week, a mix of things -

George Gershwin
- Rhapsody in Blue*
- An American in Paris
*Eugene List, piano
Cincinnati SO / Erich Kunzel, cond.
(Telarc)

- Rhapsody in Blue*
- Three Preludes for piano solo
The composer on piano
*Paul Whiteman & his Concert Orch.
(The Ultimate Nostalgia Collection Vol. 2 on Naxos - double disc set)

Both Eugene List's more recent recording (1980's) & the composer's own vintage one (1920's) were done with restraint and economy rather than romanticism & flamboyance on steroids which is how some pianists tend to do the Rhapsody in Blue. The former was about 16 minutes, the latter 9 minutes. They both played all of the solo cadenzas, as far as I could tell. Gershwin's rendition of the solo preludes is also a delight, although the repeat is cut from the last one.

From Francesco Tristano - bachCage album
John Cage - In a Landscape (1948) (ed. Peters)
J.S. Bach - Four Duets BWV.802-805
Francesco Tristano, piano
Moritz von Oswald, live electronics
Rashad Becker, mix electronics
(DGG)

A very recent album, which I think actually lives up to it's hype. Mr Tristano is certainly a talented pianist, and though quite young his style is nothing but unique. We listened to my favourite two works on the album, Cage's In a Landscape, which can be anything you want, landscape or not, and Bach's duets with both parts played by Mr Tristano, he gives them a kind of bouncy and jazzy groove.

Steve Reich
2 x 5 (2008)
for 2 electric guitars, electric bass, piano, drums doubled with recording technology
Bang on a Can ensemble
(Nonesuch)

My friend & I both enjoyed how Reich blends instruments usually found in a rock band with his brand of modern counterpoint. As in the Tristano album, here the wizardry of recording technology is as much part of this performance as the playing of the musicians themselves. I like this music as it's good for chilling out, but also has substance & verve.

Saint-Saens
Excerpts from The Carnival of the Animals (Le Carnival des animaux), zoological fantasy (orchestral version)
- Fossils
- The Swan
- Finale
Suddeutsche Philharmonie / Hanspeter Gmur, cond.
(Point Classics)

A fun piece, either in it's original chamber form or in the orchestral version, as here. The Fossils is my favourite part, blending the xylophone with twinkle twinkle little star on the pianos and Rosina's aria Una Voce Poco Fa from Rossini's Barber of Seville played on clarinet. The Swan is very moving, known to many through Ana Pavlova's still remembered choreography, and the finale brings back all the animals in the piece as if part of a grand zoological parade. This is one work were Saint-Saens kind of let his hair down a bit. Delightful.

Michael Hurst - Swagman's Promenade
West Australian SO / David Measham, cond.
Colin Brumby - Scena for Cor Anglais & Strings
Barry Davis, cor anglais / Strings of Queensland SO / Richard Mills, cond.
(from 2 disc set of Australian Light Classics on ABC Classics)

Hurst's piece is a medley of Aussie tunes, such as Waltzing Matilda (our defacto national anthem) & Botany Bay. Brumby's piece was one that was played often on radio about 20 years ago, I remember this very recording. The cor anglais sounds much like a singing human voice, the work is like opera without words, a mix of the pastoral with spritely bits reminiscent of Stravinsky. Richard Mills' conducting is, as ever, very sensitive to the rhythmic changes of the piece.

Album covers continued...

lots of good stuff

This session, we concentrated on guitar music as well as some orchestral & finishing up with chamber music by Brahms.

Album: John Williams - Echoes of Spain
Solo guitar music by Isaac Albeniz
(CBS, rec. 1981, now reissued on Sony)

- Granada
- Asturias
- Sevilla
- Majorca
- Cordoba
- Torre Bermeja
- Cadiz
- Zambra Granadina
- Tango

A travelogue around Spain in music. Very warm sound & playing of great clarity and beauty. Some rarer & seldom heard works of Albeniz here (the only famous one is the quite vigorous Sevilla, with a strong hint of flamenco style playing).

Album: Tom Ward Guitar Recital
(self-published CD & DVD set)

H. Villa-Lobos
- Etude #1
- Prelude #3
- Etude #7

Some very accomplished playing here from a young Australian guitarist hailing from Tasmania. Very evocative pieces, lush textures & unique harmonies of this great Brazilian composer. Bits of these reminded me of Villa-Lobos' Guitar Concerto, which we listened to next. He didn't compose all that much music for guitar, but what I've heard of his music for this instrument has been excellent.

H. Villa-Lobos
Concerto for guitar and small orch.
Angel Romero, guitar
Members of the London PO
Jesus Lopez-Cobos, cond.
(on EMI 2 disc set)

Villa-Lobos wrote this work for the guitarist Andres Segovia, who comissioned it. Originally it was in the form of a fantasia, but Segovia sent back the draft score saying he wanted a cadenza. So Villa-Lobos changed it into a concerto. The cadenza, bridging the slow second movement and faster very rhythmic final movement, is my favourite part of this work. It's also good how he uses a small orchestra which doesn't smother the delicate colours of the guitar. Mr Romero's performance is full bodied and full of warmth.

Paul Hindemith
Mathis der Maler Symphony
Austrian Radio PO
Milan Horvat, cond.
(Pilz label)

Anyone who thinks "atonal" or modern music is all technical and without soul should listen to this. But of course, at first, they should maybe stop prejudging things. Anyway, this work speaks to the strong influence of Bach on Hindemith, but far from being a dry exercise in counterpoint, etc. it really has the goods in terms of emotion. Many repetitive - ostinato- passages here, there is a spiritual feel, esp. in terms of the final chorale played by the brass, which is one of the most exciting endings in the symphonic repertoire. With this, Hindemith was laying down a kind of political gauntlet to the Nazis, and it was banned shortly after it's premiere. Hindemith went into exile to the USA and forever remained bitter about how poorly he had been treated not only by the Nazi government but by the musical establishment there as a whole, esp. in Berlin (his only supporter there was Wilhelm Furtwangler, who objected to the banning of this work to no avail). But the symphony stands today as a testament of hope and faith in the good German humanistic values, not the bad militaristic ones that the Nazis were espousing.

J. Brahms
Piano Quartet #1 in G minor, Op. 25
Claire Desert, piano with members of Quatour Kandinsky
Aria Music, France (1993)

A strong Hungarian feel throughout this whole work, esp. in the final movement, marked Rondo alla Zingarese (Gypsy Rondo). The piano does dominate throughout, but in this recording this work is played in the right chamber way, not the wrong way as a defacto concerto. The piano part is the glue that holds this work together, esp. tricky are the quick cadenza passages in the last movement in which the piano imitates the cimbalom. Five stars for this recording that's sadly now out of print.

This week it was some solo instrumental - guitar, harp - as well as a rarer concerto by Schumann & Messiaen's finest chamber work, the Quartet for the End of Time.

Album: John Williams (guitar) - The Seville Concert
From the Royal Alcazar Palace
- Guitar Concertos by Vivaldi, Rodrigo
- Solo guitar works by Albeniz, J.S. Bach, D. Scarlatti, Yuquijiro Yocoh, Augustin Barrios Mangore, Nikita Koshkin

John Williams, guitar
Concerto tracks with Orquestra Sinfonica de Sevilla / Jose Buenagu, cond.
(Sony)

Great recital, sensitive and emotional playing, great sound, excellent range of repertoire. The Guitar Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo really hit the spot. yes, it may be cliche, but what other music can describe the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War as eloquently as the slow movement. Added to that, Rodrigo's orchestration is as good as that of guys like Ravel, imo.

From Album: Recital de harpe by Isabella Moretti (solo harp)
Hindemith - Sonate fur harfe
J.L. Dussek - Sonate pour harpe
G. Tailleferre - Sonate pour harpe
(French harmonia Mundi)

These are my favourite sonatas on this album. We both agreed that the recording and playing is superb. From the Classical but Romantically leaning Dussek, to the Baroque & jazz influence (very bassy) Hindemith, to the whimsical and playful Tailleferre, this album showcases the contrasts between these works and the development of harp technique from Baroque era to more recent times. We didn't listen to the C.P.E. Bach or Casella sonatas on the disc, maybe next time.

From Album: Concertos for four horns
Schumann - Konzertstuck for four horns and orch., Op. 86
Handel - Concerto in F major

American Horn Quartet
Sinfonia Varsovia / Dariusz Wisniewski, cond.
(Naxos)

One of Schumann's excellent concertos, this one is often overlooked. It's a pity because it's very lyrical & was the first work (or one of them) written for the new valved horn. The opening of the Handel concerto is almost the same as that of The Royal Fireworks Music, they come from the same period. All of the works on this disc are worth hearing and well played, incl. the Telemann and Haydn which we'll get back to next time.

Messiaen - Quatour pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the end of time)
Erich Gruenberg, violin
Gervaise de Peyer, clarinet
William Pleeth, cello
Michel Beroff, piano

(From EMI 2 disc set of music of Messiaen)

This very profound and moving work needs little introduction. Written in the time of the composer's time as a Prisoner of War during World War Two, it tells of how he got through that experience through connecting with his spirituality, love for nature (the birdsongs throughout), and of course music itself. This recording has a more optimistic and conversational feel compared to more darker and angsty renditions. But like all of them, there is an unearthly feel here, a feeling of internal emotions being expressed in music.

We finished the listening session with -
Peter Sculthorpe - Djilile (arr. Wingfield for guitar)
Aleksandr Tsiboulski, guitar
(Naxos - recital of Australian guitar music)

Australian guitarist John Williams who we were listening to earlier is a huge admirer of the guitar music of his countryman, Mr Sculthorpe. Djilile is one of his best works, it has been arranged for many instruments, but I think it started out as a work for string orchestra. I know there's a version for percussion, but this was the version for guitar. Mr Tsiboulski's playing is superb, he manages to give the impression of a big sound - eg. like Sculthorpe's orchestral works, that type of sound or vibe - with just one instrument, the guitar. The melody of this work was based on an Aboriginal song Sculthorpe heard in Northern Australia. It is a very emotionally arresting piece.