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Content by J Scott Morrison
Reviewer Rank: 26
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Reviews Written by
J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA)
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The Best Budget 'Rake', 21 Nov 2009
I fell in love with Stravinsky's 'The Rake's Progress' in the 1950s via the composer's 1953 recording of the opera with the cast, chorus and orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera. Igor Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress [1953 New York Studio Recording Made for Columbia Masterworks; Hilde Gueden, Eugene Conley, Mack Harrell, Blanche Thebom, Norman Scott, Martha Lipton, Paul Franke, Lawrence Davidson; Igor Stravinsky, Cond.] (It was his second of three recordings of the opera. The first was of the original 1951 Venice production and the last was the 1964 Sadler's Wells [the latter only available in the 22 CD Stravinsky set). It starred Eugene Conley as Tom Rakewell, Hilde Gueden as Anne Trulove, Mack Harrell as Nick Shadow, and the inimitable Blanche Thebom as Baba the Turk. That recording remains for me the one I love the most, but to some extent I think it may be because it was my first love. I have also very much admired the more recent recording conducted by Kent Nagano, with Dawn Upshaw, Jerry Hadley and Samuel Ramey Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress / Upshaw, Hadley, Ramey, Bumbry; Nagano. And let us not forget the simply smashing DVD of the opera from Glyndebourne, the one that features the Hogarthian sets by David Hockney Stravinsky - The Rake's Progress / Lott, Goeke, Ramey, Elias, van Allan, Haitink, Glyndebourne Opera; THAT is the one to have on DVD.
So what about this budget-priced set from Naxos? Well, it was originally issued in 1993 on Music Masters and is really excellent sound for that time. The conductor is, of course, the leading Stravinsky conductor of our time. Robert Craft, as it happens, met Stravinsky for the first time in 1948 on the very day that W. H. Auden delivered the Rake libretto to the composer. And indeed Craft helped Stravinsky with his setting of English text as at the time Stravinsky's English was not fluent. He has led a number of productions of the opera. This one was recorded at SUNY Purchase with a cast of young American singers, most of whom are not well-known, the exception being John Cheek as Nick Shadow. But the young, unknown cast is not a problem. Each of them is quite good. Jayne West has a rich, creamy soprano and she makes a lovely, innocent, loving Anne. Her lullaby, 'Gently little boat', is as moving as one is likely to hear. Jon Garrison's Tom Rakewell is finely sung but a little undercharacterized, I feel. His insouciance in Act I and his desperation in Act III is less convincing than one might want. As Nick Shadow, John Cheek's voice is as rich as I've ever heard it. He certainly has command of the part and his character has command of the situation. He could perhaps be a little more sly, but that's a small complaint. Wendy White's Baba the Turk is funny without being a caricature. The other minor parts and the chorus are first-rate.
But the real star of this recording is Robert Craft. His molding of the score is more pointed than that of the composer himself. He moves the performance right along, which is absolutely appropriate for this score, and actually takes about ten minutes less than Stravinsky. Other conductors of the score -- Haitink, Nagano -- are a bit more rounded. I've always felt that the score requires an almost expressionistic edge and Craft does that better than anyone but the composer. I would not be without other recorded performances, but for someone with a limited budget this set will more than do.
I will point out, however, for those who have a DVD player they might want to consider getting the Glyndebourne performance because it is only slightly more costly than this Naxos 2CD set and it is unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon.
Scott Morrison
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My wait is over!, 20 Nov 2009
I'd been waiting for this one! In my college freshman English composition class, for our first essay, we were asked to write five pages on something we knew very well. It took me one nanosecond to decide to write on the Felix Weingartner recording of Beethoven's Third Symphony. I'd first heard it on a 78rpm set (as I recall it was twelve discs!) that belonged to my aunt. Then I bought my own LP of it in the early 1950s. I remember I wrote fifteen pages and even then had to pare it down somewhat. I remember my comp teacher wrote in the margins, 'Whoa, boy!' I wrote two pages alone on the 'false' horn entry against shimmering string tremolos ushering in the first movement recapitulation.
You get my drift. This is a great performance of the 'Eroica.' It is not idiosyncratic like some, and it is not stodgy or self-aggrandizing like others. There is great subtlety - for instance, those initial E flat chords don't hit you upside the head; rather, they announce that something of great import is to follow. And it does. The funeral march is not played as a pompous dirge, but as a heartfelt song of mourning and consolation. The scherzo is fleet but also full, partly because of those wonderful wide-bore Viennese horns. The finale variations have an overall line that doesn't fall apart into the individual variations, but builds to a stupendous climax. Weingartner was one of the most amazing moulders of orchestral sound. His sforzandi, for instance, are always gauged exactly to match the surrounding orchestral dynamic; they don't punch you, they energize you.
The Fourth, called a 'slender Greek maiden between two giants' by Schumann, is gentle, dancing, full of genuine but slightly hesitant feeling. Listen to how the ending of the first movement reaches an almost transcendant intensity. And I dare you to try to keep still during the lively third and fourth movements. Ah, yes.
The sound in both these performances is simply amazing for recordings from the 1930s. Mark-Obert Thorn, the producing engineer, has done it again. And then there is Naxos's budget price!
Scott Morrison
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A Marvelous Violin Concerto and a Completion of Schubert's 7th Symphony, 20 Nov 2009
Felix Weingartner (1863-1942) was of course primarily known as a very fine conductor -- his recording of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony was my first, way back in the 1940s, and I still love it immeasurably Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 3 "Eroica" & 4 -- but he was also a fine composer whose music has languished mostly unheard for decades. The enterprising cpo label has unearthed and recorded several of his orchestral works to almost universal praise: e.g., Felix Weingartner: Symphony No. 5 [Hybrid SACD], Felix Weingartner: Symphony No. 1; König Lear [Hybrid SACD]. Now comes his violin concerto, a work I'd never even heard of. It was premiered in 1912 with Fritz Kreisler as soloist and Weingartner conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. Apparently it was played a few more times by Kreisler but not taken up by others although its premiere got a rave review in the Viennese Neue Freie Presse by a critic often dismissive of Weingartner's music, Julius Korngold (doyen of Viennese critics and father of composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold). The concerto is in the usual three movements and is written in a lushly romantic vein whose harmonies are an interesting mix of Brahms and Wagner. The first movement is lyrical, rapt, pastoral. The second is a fine set of variations that ranges far afield harmonically. The third is based on folkdance rhythms and tunes of the French Alps. Indeed its subtitle is 'Caprice savoyard.' The violin part is virtuosic but not in the most showy fashion. Aside from the cadenzas and some of the flashy passagework in the long first movement, the violinist is primarily taken up with long melodic lines that are meltingly memorable. The soloist here is Laurent Albrecht Breuninger, a violinist of whom I'd never heard but who is clearly a very fine player, and the SWR Rundfunkorchester Kaiserslautern is conducted by Alun Francis. This ensemble and conductor have appeared on some of the other cpo releases, always creditably.
The other find here is Weingartner's orchestration of Schubert's sketches for what has come to considered his Symphony No. 7 in E Major, D 729. Schubert sketched but never finished it in 1821. The structure of the work is complete but much of it is a single line, or a melodic line with counterpoint or bass line indicated. Weingartner completed it in 1934 and although it was played at the time, as far as I know it has never been recorded. There is, however, at least one other completion by Brian Newbould which has been recorded twice, most prominently by Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, which is included in their box set of all the Schubert symphonies (which also includes Newbould's completion of the 'Unfinished' Symphony and the so-called Tenth Symphony) Schubert: The 10 Symphonies. Weingartner's completion sounds almost but not quite like Schubert. His orchestration and harmonic filling-out sound a bit more late 19th-century to me. The whole thing is very nicely played but I must admit I like Newbould's version better. Still, it's good to hear this arrangement, if only for comparison.
Scott Morrison
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A Great Strauss Conductor and a Great Strauss Orchestra, 17 Nov 2009
There was no greater conductor of Richard Strauss's orchestral tone poems than Rudolf Kempe and of course the Staatskapelle Dresden was an orchestra with a long and distinguished tradition of Strauss performances going back to those with the composer himself many of whose operas, including Der Rosenkavalier, were premiered with this orchestra in the pit. And it is no surprise that this performance of the Ein Heldenleben, taken from a live radio broadcast concert on March 15, 1974, is superb. Aside from slightly smudged sonics which sometimes obscure Strauss's always engaging counterpoint, the performance is well-nigh ideal. Particular applause goes to the orchestra's concertmaster, Peter Mirring, for his playing of the lusciously romantic solo violin passages. The studio recording of this piece by Kempe and the Dresden orchestra was made a couple of years earlier and for those familiar with that recording, this one is very similar in its structure, thrust and opulent tonal ambience.
This CD is of a full concert and sandwiched in between the Strauss and the Schumann Piano Concerto is a luscious, ephemeral, beautifully rendered Debussy 'Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune'. There are those who might wonder whether an east German orchestra could make the switch from the full-out romantic echt-Deutsch sound of the Strauss to the delicacy of the Debussy. Have no fear: this is a terrific performance.
The final pièce de résistance is a scintillating performance of the Schumann Piano Concerto with the great American pianist, Malcolm Frager. Frager is not as well-remembered today as he should be, at least partly because of his early death at 56. In his day, though, he was one of America's pianistic mainliners, part of that generation that gave us Gary Graffmann, John Browning and Leon Fleisher. He always had a particular affinity for the Schumann concerto, possibly because his long-time teacher, Carl Friedberg, had studied with Clara Schumann. His performance is, to use James Oestreich's phrase, 'full of bright lights.' Although the Schumann is not really a show-offy virtuoso work, it has plenty of passages in which the pianist can shine gloriously, and Frager does that. His handling of the tricky meters in the final movement is as fine as I've ever heard. I like his recording of the concerto with Jascha Horenstein perhaps a slight bit better, but the fact that this one is a live performance gives it special élan. The sound on this disc is actually better in the concerto, possibly because the orchestration is not as thick as in the Strauss.
These performances are probably not suitable for someone who will have only one recording of each of these pieces, but for those who love the Strauss and have multiple recordings, this one is recommendable. And for those who, like me, adore the playing of Frager, this is a must-have. One must add, however, that for the total timing of these two discs -- 87 minutes -- Profil's price is a bit high.
Scott Morrison
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A Fine Symphonia Domestica; A Second-Tier Metamorphosen, 17 Nov 2009
Antoni Wit is a much under-rated conductor and the Weimar Staatskapelle an overlooked orchestra, for all its historical connection with Richard Strauss who was its assistant conductor early in his professional life. The performance here of what many consider to be Strauss's schmaltziest (but wonderful!) composition, Symphonia Domestica, is really quite good. They treat the sentimentality of the score with warmth and tenderness, avoiding any maudlin feelings that might arise. They bring out the tartness of Strauss's delineation of his wife, soprano Pauline de Ahana, a true-to-life portrait of this formidable woman. And there is humor aplenty. Still, my preferred versions of this gargantuan tone-poem are those of Rudolf Kempe and the Staatskapelle Dresden, available now, I believe, only in a large box set, and the surprisingly good version by Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony Richard Strauss: Josephslegende Suite/Symphonia Domestica, the latter available here currently at a pittance and coupled with the underestimated Josephslegende.
For me, there is one reading of Metamorphosen that stands above the rest. That is by Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker Strauss: Four Last Songs / Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra which also includes Tod und Verklärung in a searing performance and Gundula Janowitz singing the Four Last Songs, all at mid-price. The Weimar Staatskapelle Metamorphosen is adequate but not incandescent, which is precisely what this late work of Strauss needs.
Scott Morrison
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American-Style New York Times Crosswords at a Real Bargain, 16 Nov 2009
This huge book contains 500 American-style Sunday Times crossword puzzles from the Shortz and Maleska eras, but most of them are from the wittier Shortz group. And think of it: this contains ten years worth of Sunday New York Times crossword puzzles! Ought to take you at least a couple of weeks to finish, right?
The book is well-made, with good quality paper -- much better than the slick glossy Times Sunday magazine paper that doesn't take pencil or ink marks very well -- and for those like me who tear the pages out and then use a clipboard, they tear out easily with no ragged edges.
As for the puzzles, well -- is there anyone, anywhere who makes better big Sunday-style puzzles? I've done puzzles from papers all over the USA and the Times are easily the most fun and most challenging to work.
Consider the price: less than three cents per puzzle. Can't beat that.
Heartily recommended to puzzle fanatics and casual solvers alike.
Scott Morrison
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300 American-Style Crosswords from Simon & Schuster, 16 Nov 2009
This book, the fifth in the series published by Simon & Schuster, is a joy. First, you get three hundred puzzles for roughly thirty cents apiece, a real bargain. Second, the puzzles are printed on good paper stock that takes pencil marks a lot better than the glossy New York Times Sunday puzzles. Each page has a perforated inner edge, making it easy to remove the puzzle if, like me, you're one who prefers to tear out the pages and work the puzzles on a clipboard. Third, there is a variety of puzzles, from moderately difficult 15 x 15 to harder 21 X 21 puzzles. All the puzzles have an overriding theme. And the constructors are by and large not those you run into with the New York Times puzzles, so you get their fresh perspectives.
An easy recommendation.
Scott Morrison
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'The Creation' at Esterhazy on the 200th Anniversary of Haydn's Death, 14 Nov 2009
The sense of occasion is palpable in this DVD of a performance of Haydn's 'The Creation' that took place on May 31, 2009, the 200th anniversary of Haydn's death. It occurred before a formally dressed capacity audience at the opulently rococo Schloss Esterhazy in Eisenstadt, Austria, where Haydn spent forty years of his life as Kapellmeister and court musician. The performance itself is an uneven affair in spite of its starry participants. Adam Fischer conducts his own Austrian-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic, the orchestra he founded whose members are from the Vienna Philharmonic and various Budapest orchestras, and they are fine. The singers are bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, soprano Annette Dasch, and tenor Christoph Strehl. Quasthoff's voice sounds a little shopworn and underpowered; he sounds best in the softer passages but when a forte is called for the voice becomes breathy. Dasch sounds more 19th-century operatic than classical oratorio and her rich voice is unfortunately under pitch a disturbing amount of the time. Strehl, on the other hand, is not only in good voice, he clearly has mastered the Haydn vocal style. The chorus is the Vienna Chamber Choir (Wiener Kammerchor) and they are in fine fettle. Their 'The heavens are telling' ('Die Himmel erzählt die Ehre Gottes') is glorious. Fischer is a good Haydn conductor; his recordings of the complete Haydn symphonies with this orchestra have been lauded far and wide. Here he does a fine job of keeping things moving and obviously trusts his musicians, often simply smiling beatifically and nodding in time with arms folded. Tempi are crisp and nicely articulated. Thus I would love to recommend this DVD and could do so except for the contributions of two of the soloists. I haven't seen other DVDs of 'The Creation' and thus cannot make a recommendation for an alternative.
Scott Morrison
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Four Schubert Symphonies Played with Grace and Spirit, 14 Nov 2009
This is a budget-priced reissue of two CDs originally put out in the mid-1990s on the Capriccio label. I don't know if it has been remastered or re-engineered, but it is in sparkling sound which perfectly matches the performances by this chamber orchestra under one of the great violinists of the twentieth century, Sándor Végh. Végh spent many years in Salzburg as the conductor of the Camerata Academica des Mozarteums Salzburg and molded it into a masterful ensemble whose sound, he said, was intended to be that of an 'enlarged string quartet'. During his time -- 1978-1997 - they almost exclusively played music from the Viennese classics and were virtually unmatched. Their recordings of Mozart, early Beethoven and Schubert are jewels. Their rehearsal procedure was lengthy and rigorous, something one can hear in their playing. Other recordings in their catalog are the wonderful Mozart piano concertos with András Schiff are not to be missed, e.g., Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 12 (K414) & 14 (K449), Mozart: Concertos K242, K365, K466.
Schubert's Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, D. 485, never ceases to delight and amaze me. It was written when Schubert was only nineteen and is one of his sunniest works. If one ever had any doubts about Schubert as an inventor of instantly memorable melodies, one has only to hear this work. Strangely, like the Great C Major Symphony, the Fifth Symphony was never given a public performance during Schubert's lifetime, although there was a private, amateur run-through under Schubert's watchful eye. Végh and the orchestra present us with a spirited, graceful, infectious reading. Symphony No. 6 in C Major, D.589, was the one chosen for a memorial concert two weeks after Schubert's death in 1828. It is a work that is often overlooked and not counted among the 'great' symphonies by Schubert, but it has many felicities, including a charming Scherzo with humorous alternation of sforzando chords followed by legato wind interjections.
Little needs be said about the Symphony No. 8, the 'Unfinished', which has been recorded hundreds of times. Nonetheless, this performance is one of the more graceful and nuanced ones. The Ninth, 'Great C Major', is one of the absolute peaks of the classical symphony, in spite of its having been called 'unplayable' by musicians of Schubert's time. The story is well-known of Schumann discovering the manuscript in 1839 while visiting Schubert's brother and shivering with joy at its beauty. Although this performance is not the equal of the great Solti recording Schubert: Symphony No 9; Wagner / Solti, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, it is a spirited yet refined reading. Kudos go to the violin section's tireless and precise playing of those killer triplets in the symphony's finale.
Scott Morrison
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Bach and Shostakovich Paired in Excellent Performances, 12 Nov 2009
Bernd Glemser is not the first, nor will he likely be the last, to release a disc or set pairing preludes and fugues from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and Shostakovich's Op. 87 Preludes and Fugues. (For instance, see Olli Mustonen's releases: Bach, Shostakovich: Preludes & Fugues [Germany], Bach & Shostakovich: Preludes & Fugues, Vol. 2). Shostakovich, after all, wrote his set to honor the 200th anniversary of Bach's death and followed Bach's format of a prelude and fugue in each of the major and minor keys. Thus the two sets have much in common. Indeed, Shostakovich quotes or alludes to Bach in a number of places, e.g., the head-theme of the E flat minor fugue by each contains the same four notes (albeit in somewhat different order). Glemser has ordered his recital by more or less pairing Bach and Shostakovich preludes and fugues, sometimes in the same key (or semi-enharmonic in the case of Bach's G sharp minor and Shostakovich's A flat major) and sometimes in the relative minor.
As to Glemser's performances, they are beautifully clear and crystalline without being soulless. He uses little pedal and his articulation is absolutely precise. Still, there is emotion, particularly in the slower, more lyrical pieces, cf. the Bach E Flat Minor Prelude, which sings mournfully. One might argue occasionally with his tempi, as in the first track, Bach's G Major Prelude. When I first heard it I thought, 'Uh oh, we're in for flashy fingers at the expense of harmonic clarity.' But I was wrong. It's more that the Prelude is a true prelude, one that raises the curtain and gets one's attention. Glemser's choice of Shostakovich pieces does not shy away from some of the composer's more avant garde examples in his set. For instance, his Fugue in D Flat Major is worlds away from the corresponding Bach Fugue in the relative minor, B Flat Minor. It surely must have startled even Shostakovich's contemporaries. Glemser plays it with the appropriate fury and thus the next track, Bach's Prelude in B Flat Minor comes as balm to a wound.
Glemser has recorded a lot but is not terribly well known in the US. I have heard a number of his discs and have had a mixed reaction -- for instance, I didn't like his Rachmaninoff recital Sergei Rachmaninov: Corelli Variations, Op.42 / Piano Sonata No.2 in b-flat minor, -- but his playing here is marvelous and worth a strong recommendation.
Scott Morrison
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![Haydn: The Creation (Dasch/Strehl/Quasthoff/Vienna Chamber Choir/Fischer) [Region 0] [DVD] [2009] [NTSC]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31rS78ZDpoL._SL110_.jpg)
