Dvorak: Cello Concerto; Tchaikovskij: Rococo Variations - Rostropovich, Karajan, Berliner Phil.

Antonin Dvorak: Cello Concerto;
Petr Tchaikovskij: Rococo Variations
Mstislav Rostropovich, Herbert Von Karajan,
Berliner Philharmoniker
Deutsche Grammophon CD

.ape + .cue + .log

Another great classic, with my favorite cello concerto. I'm sure there's plenty of reviews around, but I'll try to check later if I can found one. For the time being: just the music and the cover. I doubt you'd rather have it the other way around...

Musorgskij: Pictures at an Exhibition, Night on the Bald Mountain,... - Abbado, Berliner Phil.

Modest Musorgskij
Pictures at an Exhibition, Night on the Bald Mountain,
Sennacherib (Sankerib), Salamnbo, Oedipus, Joshua
Claudio Abbado, Berliner Philharmoniker
Deutsche Grammophon CD

.ape + .cue + .log

This recording was recently chosen by BBC Radio 3 as the chosen version for a library of classical recordings. The program is aptly called "Building a Library", and the few times I listened to it, I found their choices agreeable. There's even a piece dedicated to our beloved MIMIC's founder by Musorgskij the visionary, who must have had a premonition while on one of his zapoj's (запой).

Muffat: Armonico Tributo - Ensemble 415, Banchini, Christensen

Georg Muffat
Armonico Tributo
Ensemble 415, Chiara Banchini, Jesper Christensen
HMC901581

Excellent take on Armonico Tributo, the highlight of Georg Muffats composing career performed by baroque superstar Chiara Banchini and with always solid Jesper Christensen on Harpsichord. Enjoy!

Zavateri: Concerti da Chiesa e da Camera - Freiburger BO, Goltz

Lorenzo Gaetano Zavateri
Concerti da Chiesa e da Camera
Freiburger Barockorchester, Gottfried von der Goltz
DHM 05472 77352 2

Music with a well-refined intelligence
from a forgotten Baroque master.

Now here is a name that will almost certainly be new to every collector of baroque music on CD. Lorenzo Zavateri was a Bolognese composer and one-time pupil of Giuseppe Torelli. Zavateri became elected a member of the famous Accademia Filarmonica in 1717 and joined the almost equally esteemed orchestra of San Petronio in Bologna during the mid 1720s. Little of his music was published, but among that which was is his set of 12 Concerti da chiesa e da camera, Op. 1. The set was issued in 1735 and was praised by the celebrated Padre Martini for “a well-refined intelligence”.

There is less differentiation here between ‘church’ and ‘chamber’ styles than occurs in Corelli’s Op. 6, for instance, though several of Zavateri’s concertos contain illustrative or quasi-illustrative titles. Concertos Nos. 7 and 9, for example, are termed “Teatrale” – his almost exact contemporary, Locatelli, published six Introduttioni Teatrali in the same year, which are, like Zavateri’s pieces, concerti grossi in the three-movement form of the Italian opera sinfonia – while the tenth Concerto is “a Pastorale” and the twelfth “a Tempesta di mare”; the first work is perhaps rather unnecessarily subtitled “Introducione”, though via the heading Zavateri declares a cohesive purpose.

Dedicated to his pupil and patron, Count Cornelio Pepoli Musotti, the 12 concertos contain enough individual gestures and a sufficient diversity of ideas to hold our attention without difficulty. But perhaps it is those readers with a taste for stylistic pluralism, whose ears savour that Janus-like stance characteristic of vocabulary which draws upon the obsolescent and the new, who will derive the most constant pleasure from the music. There is little in the way of set formulae.

Four of the works are ripieno concertos while two others, as I have mentioned, are opera sinfonias in character and layout. The remaining six occupy a middle ground between concerto grosso and solo violin concerto – one of them, No. 10, is for two violins – and it is these which, on balance, make a deeper impression. There is frequently a contrapuntal interest in Zavateri’s concertos, sometimes an element of dazzling, if short-winded virtuosity, and at other times an affecting expressive intimacy. Like so many Italian composers of his generation and earlier, Zavateri embraces a tradition of including a 12/8 “Pastorale” movement within the set. Perhaps the tradition began with his teacher Torelli who included such a movement among the concertos of his Op. 8 (1709). Yet though not at that time published, it may have been Corelli’s well-known Christmas Concerto (Op. 6 No. 8) which set the trend. Zavateri’s “Pastorale” is an altogether more galant affair than those of his fellow Italians, airier in character, with trio episodes for two solo violins and continuo, and containing some striking key shifts. Of a completely different character is the splendidly vibrant Tempesta di mare which concludes the set. There are some telling contrasts here with rhythmically undulating passages juxtaposed with thrashing waves depicted chordally. Following a lyrical binary Adagio – the boat in calm waters – the tempest is unleashed with only modest ferocity.

Almost all is played with imagination and finesse by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra under their leader and solo violinist Gottfried von der Goltz. A fascinating release and one to which I am eager to return.

Nicholas Anderson, Gramophone

Mahler: Symphony No.1 - Abbado, Berliner Philharmoniker

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No.1
Claudio Abbado, Berliner Philharmoniker
Deutsche Grammophon CD

.flac + .cue + .log

No Bubba Hurwitz ain't ever gonna have me believe the BPO and Abbado ain't worth my buck on Mahler. Sorry Bubba.

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde - Jerusalem, Norman, Levine (1998)

Gustav Mahler
"Das Lied von der Erde"
Siegfried Jerusalem
Jessye Norman
Berliner Philharmoniker
James Levine
DGG 439 948-2

FLACs & Covers


"Die liebe Erde allüberall
blüht auf im Lenz und grünt
Aufs neu! Allüberall und ewig
blauen licht die Fernen!
Ewig... ewig...".

... what could we add to those last lines? Mahler's sublime vocal farewell to life (the symphonic only being of course His 9th) is here presented in a rare DG output, generally thought to be one of the best in our libraries. How many "Lied von der Erde" would I love to share? More than a few... I'll make sure the Giulini BP (and WP for Orfeo), the old Davis (Vickers & Norman), the Maazel in Munich and a very rare one in Venice I've got (with singers Richard Lewis and Kerstine Meyer), the Oue Minnesota and the Salonen, the Sinopoli of course will find some day pride of place on these friendly pages.

But now it's Jimmy Levine and the Berlin Philharmonic, with our beloved Siegfried Jerusalem's most inspired singing, and Jessye Norman, adding her glorious vocal art to those peonies redolent, wistful otherworldly chant of Love which "Der Abschied" is.

Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit, Sonatine, Valses Nobles... - Argerich

Maurice Ravel
Gaspard de la Nuit, Sonatine, Valses Nobles et Sentimentales
Martha Argerich
I Grandi Interpreti della Musica Classica - DeAgostini (out of print)

I picked this one up during my last trip back home. It's part of the first classical collection on CD I ever purchased (my first classical recordings were on LP). DeAgostini made a terrific job back then, assembling a collection of not-so-obvious masterpieces by first-rate performers. Their being not-so-obvious made me look at the collection with some suspicion back then. My appreciation of Ravel's piano works has only blossomed now, approximately 20 years after purchasing the CD in question. And together with it, I have come to a better appreciation of that wonderful collection.
This is a milestone of Ravel's and Martha Argerich's discography, with the Argentinian still at the apex of her virtuosity, so there's no need for an endorsement review.