Classical music reviews

Anyone who has lived within the sacred San Luis Valley of Coloraodo/New Mexico and treked thru the desert - alpine lands there, particularly around the Sacred Peak of Blanca and the Sangre's will hear the resonance of the land within the soul-full sound of Nakai's flute and chants.

In listening to this CD, I feel in a New Mexico canyon and hear the whispers of the ancestors beckoning. I love the mystical quality of this CD. The sacred chants and flute have a peaceful quality that transforms us to the dimension of the sacred. Good meditation/contemplation music. I have never heard less than excellent from Carlos Naki.

This album epitomizes peace of spirit. It is a wonderful piece to play when it is dark and cold and there's a fire in the fire place and you want to be alone with your own thoughts or with someone very special.

How could someone like the late opera diva Lucia Popp take kiddy folk tunes from Germany and make them sound so divinely simple, yet utterly charming? Well, that happened to be one of Popp's unique abilities. She sang the Fourth Movement of Mahler's Fourth Symphony with the same child-like tone that the song, a child's view of heavenly delights, requires. Popp takes that same deceptively simple ability to sing in a childlike way with great clarity and puts it to use here in these ever-popular German folk tunes.

"Alle Voegel Sind Schon Da" is a classic that many kids who study German as a second language learn to sing. If your kids are taking German in school, this is a great tool to assist in studying the language. And by the way, may I point out that Spanish, though a beautiful language, is not necessarily the easiest one. A local German teacher in our town here in Delaware laments the fact that most students won't consider anything but Spanish. She thinks German has a lot to offer students of a second language and they are missing a lot if they don't give it a try.

How could someone like the late opera diva Lucia Popp take kiddy folk tunes from Germany and make them sound so divinely simple, yet utterly charming? Well, that happened to be one of Popp's unique abilities. She sang the Fourth Movement of Mahler's Fourth Symphony with the same child-like tone that the song, a child's view of heavenly delights, requires. Popp takes that same deceptively simple ability to sing in a childlike way with great clarity and puts it to use here in these ever-popular German folk tunes.

"Alle Voegel Sind Schon Da" is a classic that many kids who study German as a second language learn to sing. If your kids are taking German in school, this is a great tool to assist in studying the language. And by the way, may I point out that Spanish, though a beautiful language, is not necessarily the easiest one. A local German teacher in our town here in Delaware laments the fact that most students won't consider anything but Spanish. She thinks German has a lot to offer students of a second language and they are missing a lot if they don't give it a try.

How refreshing it is to hear an operatic diva sing these songs with such simple sincerity! The children's songs she enjoys with such gusto and glee; the lullabies are so tender and moving (I particularly liked the echo of 'schlafe' in 'Sandmunchen'). Her diction should make many an opera 'star' take note. Wouldn't it be lovely if all children's songs were presented to them by such an artist, and not trotted out in pianola style?

The other reviews describe the music fairly - these are generally pleasant, familiar chamber favorites, well played in a quality recording. Played low, it's perfect background music for Sunday brunch, weekday lunch, or any venue where the conversation (and gossip) takes center stage over the food.

The only thing I'd add to this recording is some muted sounds of silverware on plates, coffee being poured, and catty remarks. Just kidding.

But...the real attraction for this CD is the liner notes...written by the now-notorious Martha Stewart! ("Brunch is fast becoming America's favorite informal way to entertain family and friends.") Along with a suggested menu, including three recipes! These are:

Pecan Waffles With Maple Butter
Red Caviar and Sour Cream Omelettes
Sticky Buns

Well! This is certainly something that other classical recordings can't claim! Furtwangler or von Karajan never thought of *this*! Zubin Mehta, eat your heart out, if you will pardon the expression!

The music is fine. In fact, Tommasini's music from The Good Humored Ladies can be enjoyed guilt-free, secure in the knowledge that "The batter will keep for about 2 days if stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator."

Further comment seems superfluous. For the entertainer, it absolutely lives up to its billing. For the classical music aficionado, it's fine...if I could just stop thinking about kneading the dough for the sticky buns until it's smooth and satiny. Four stars.

Like the other Sunday Brunch CD, I located excellent reissued recordings of Scarlatti's 'Good Humored Ladies'.
Both Sunday Brunch CDs are worth purchasing.

They contain high quality recordings of familiar classical music.

I find this recording to be quite enjoyable. I find it is well suited for use when company comes for dinner. It sounds very nice when played in the background, as it adds a dimension to a wide variety of gatherings.

Don't let the album's title fool you! It is versitile. Don't use it just for brunch! Try it any time of day. The collection is exquisite and the compilation maintains the listener's interest.

This CD should be a part of everyone's collection!

Shri Anandi Ma, voice of youth and passion, devotion and wisdom. This music conjures exotic images. A colorful procession, flags blowing in the wind. Silhouettes high up along a deep blue skyline, each barefoot step deliberately placed along the holy path. Tala bells and dholak drums keep time. Rhythms which reverberate through the heart, songs of the soul in the ancient language of the divine.

Buy this cd now! The soothing sounds of this CD will relax your entire body and releave the stress after a long day... even though I don't understand what she is saying.. it sounds "beautiful"!

The beauty of this recording lies in its simplicity and grace. Few recordings communicate such a tender and compassionate space. One's heart expands and more of life enters. The recording quality is great, it just gets out of way and lets the music come forth.

The first song you should play on this album is "Dark Eyes." Hvorostovsky sings it like a man being driven insane. I think I would buy the album just to hear that piece. After playing it a half dozen times, I moved on to the Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and the terrific "Figaro" -- all outstanding, sung with feeling and wonderful shading. The other Italian pieces are good too, I'm just not sure they're the best choices as some of them are rather staid set pieces. After a lifetime of tenors, I am hooked on Hvorostovsky!

This exserts from various CDs that previously released came out in 97'. This collection includes the most favorite Hvorostovsky repertories. If you are starter as his fan, this is a good introduction for you. You can taste his great flexibility and beautiful, high artistic quality of his voice. Who else could handle Verdi, Bell Cantos, Tchaikovsky and Russian traditional folks so well. And he can do whole lot more. He has good deal of recital discography, I recomend those individual recital CDs. Dmitri Hvorostovsky is one of the best and most appreciated baritone now. He'll take you to Heaven while you listening to him.

Rene Pape has said that tenors have "ruined the landscape" for the other voices. If that is so then Dmitri Hvorostovsky is rapidly restoring the baritone area! This is one of his eary CD's-he set a high standard for himself and lives up to it. Here he does beautiful, touching and fun baritone arias from Verdi, Rossini and of course Tchaikovsky's especially beautiful "Yevgany Onegin" with cool precision, never sacrificing accuracy for emotion. A perfect technition. But my favorites are the Russian folk songs where he gives us a taste of his passion and fire and a hint of maddness! He is not afraid to let us hear him sweat! You detect an ache or throb in his voice. I love how he tosses off the last note of "Karabejniki" makes me smile every time! I also love the delicate, complex beauty of the Ossipov Russian Folk Orchestra.

This review is totally influenced by the fact I got to hear Dmitri in recital (you know you have been sung to!) He is a consumate professional-handsome, poised, bringing the audience along to warm to him. After a particularily arduous Verdi aria, he leaned back against the piano in mock exhaustion and blew his hair off his forehead. The audience was his!

Also recommended is "Credo", his disc of Russian sacred music where he affirms that "beauty will save the world". Amen.

The Fourth Symphony is by far the most mahlerian symphony of this notable composer.
Ormandy in this sense walked through the musical forest with splendid approach giving the essential insights demanded for this crucial and challenging work to play.
Listening the powerful strings of the Philadelphia in their golden years, you can consider this reading as unbeatable in any front you wish .
To Shostakovich the relationship of the composer in the Western World to his national community is haphazard and unpredictable. To those who feel their freedom , in the Western sense , the status of Shostakovich is that of a kept nightingale.
Does a relationship cease to be free when it becomes legalized ?
The relationship of the artist to the Soviet state might be compared to that a child to an authoritarian parent within strict limits.
The Shostakovich tenth is a macabre Symphony because the fate and the oppression in such state of things in which the Stalinist cage worked out as horror way of living . That is why it is not sufficiently melodius ; some others glorified in being compared to the etchings of Goya , the symphonies of Tchaikovsky and the canvasses of Delacroix .
The Russian soul lived ten centuries under the Zarist Domain . It says easy but please and stop and think just a moment . Ten centuries perhaps are not enough to build a special mood and even behavior patterns?
And , without pause came the Red Governement , and now in the name of the people you killed all those who are not with the Supreme voice : the enormous eye capable to go through the world and murder in Mexico to Leon Trostky ; so beware of terror means in these conditions , specially in the case of Shostakovich to whom his best friends were executed as a synchronized mechanism of intimidation .
To reconciliate the intolerance for the tragic in Soviet art , its guiding lights have invented a new form - optimistic tragedy - wherein the individual does indeed suffer a tragic end but it is seen somehow to be for the good of all .
Beware the difference with the purest expression of the Western World ; in which the individuality prevails above any ideology or natural principle . That is why it is difficult for you to find the term hero in the Western World sense - I insist - in the Russian history.
The essential facets given in this case for Ormandy are fundamental . He caught this existential anguish and knew paint it in tonal pulsations and melodic accents. The only recording which matchs with this one is the famous Mitropoulus - New York Philarmonic from the fifties.
Try to listen the tenth after you have walked for the previous symphonies , if not it will be very difficult for you to engage adequately with the real intentions of this work.
Excellent choice and best buy!
The quality sound is A-1

Critics worldwide have hailed these recordings for 40 years as among the best available in these two very dramatic Shostakovich symphonies. Ormandy was a collaborator with the composer and specialized in his music during the 1950s, releasing the first commercial recording of the Cello Conceto No. 1 with Rostropovich in a disk with Oistrakh's Violin Concerto that is still considered one of the best after all these years.

The Shostakovich 10th Symphony is not his most popular but is probably his greatest masterpiece in the form. Its description of national Russian anguish under the Stalin regime probably makes it less accessible for casual listeners, especially those that enjoy his less dramatic work in the 1st and 9th Symphonies.

The famous second movement of the 10th symphony is the searing portrait of Stalin the assassin, the national leader that destroyed many Russians and liquidated one of the composers closest friends during the purge of the 1930s, when it was said around the world that every family in Russia had at least one member in a Gulag.

While the symphony closes with optimism for a new post-Stalinist era, it otherwise projects the horrors of the Reign of Terror. Ormandy, along with a few other conductors, perfectly projects this sense of terror and anguish in this wonderful CD.

The Shostakovich 4th Symphony is often called his first Mahlerian symphony because it lacks a musical program and its musical ideas grow to garganutan proportions. Ormandy does the best work in this symphony -- which is among my favorite Shostakovich works -- I have ever heard in a recording. He is clearly preferable to Haitink, Previn and Rattle, all of whom lead the loud, bombastic secitons most unmusically. In addition, Ormandy's closing pages have an almost ethereal, New Age feeling, where lesser interpreters merely end the music.

It is difficult to overstate the greatness of this set, which has everything going for it. The cost is extremely modest, the Philadelphia Orchestra was in its glory during the period of these recordings, and the recording itself is in warm ADD sound the captures every nuance of Shostakovich's two dramatic creations.

I used to have an old lp recording of the fourth symphony with Ormandy and the PHO. But this copy that I got of the 4th and the 10th on cd are beyond description. I listen to all of my recordings with my earphones so I get all of the sounds and rythms very clearly.

I had always realized Shostakovich's homage to Mahler, but I heard others as well and the way that Shostakovich weaves them all in along with his own distinct sounds works absolutely wonderful.

For example, in the Fourth Symphony there was this unmistakable horn passage that no one could miss that was as if the horn had found the melody from Mahler's 7th Sym. and the 'song of the night tune' seems to be soaring out over the orchestra. To my surprise was Bartok and Stravinsky. I kept hearing passages similar to Bartok's 'Concerto for Orchestra' or his 'Orchestral Suites. And I swore that I was hearing little 'Rites of Spring' pop up hear and there. I am not saying that any of this was plageristic. I felt that it was all a sense of homage and so ingeniously inserted into his own music.

This was my first experience of hearing the tenth. So awesome and beautiful, and again these periods of homage that were so beautifully inserted into the music and help to fulfill Shostakovich's ideas. I also loved the cyclic style of the 10th and how that idea from the first movement kept showing up in ever new and creative ways.

Now for Ormandy and the PHO. Astounding! I have his recording of Shostakovich's fifth. I know that he recorded some others for RCA. I did once have no.13, 'Babi Yar', but have it no more. The brass was so clean and pure. The string section non pariel. as usual, was stunning in the fourth sym. and the 10th.
I would say that these recordings should be on any list for building an overall classical library, getting the true taste of non twelve-tone-row music that is considered contemporary and listen to the wonderful way the Shostakovich resolves some of the dissonances into wonderful tonic chords.

Can someone at Amazon put some pressure on Sony and RCA to re-release all of his great recordings. I am always wonderfully surprised by the quality of sound by these thirty and forty and nearly fifty year old recordings.

Janos Starker is spoken of in hushed and fervent tones in cello circles. I grew up in Bloomington, IN and was closely associated with the School of Music at Indiana University. He is certainly only one of many esteemed and legendary performers teaching at the university, but he is one with an ability to change the lives of those who study with him. Listening to him perform gives me increasing respect for this big brother of the string family. Being a bassoonist, I thought I could do anything a cellist could do (and better! except double-stops, of course) but Mr. Starker's performance on this recording made the world aware of a rising star! He was in his early 30's at the time - 36 years prior to his Grammy award winning recording of the Bach Cello Suites. (That recording is an essential 2-CD cello collection.) Only 5 years into his tenure at Indiana, you can experience first-hand one of the talents that has made the Indiana University School of Music number one in the country throughout the 80's and 90's.

If Janos Starker had been a Mayor of a town I am quite certain his title would have been Mayor Sassy of Sassyville. Had he commanded a fleet of War Vessels from this town his title would have been Admiral Sassy of the Sassyville Armada. For the record, Tchaikovsky was pretty Sassy in his own right.

There is a rival to this recording out of Berlin, with Rostropovich playing the cello and von Karajan playing the conductor. Actually, I have the Tschaikovsky part of that disc on a DG twofer that features Slava in a number of works, including the Shostakovich No.2.

But Starker and Dorati are so fine in the Dvorak -- and the Mercury recording is a marvel of clarity and body -- I've been able to pass on to other things, never feeling the need for an alternate view. This disk seems to project Dvorak's view itself, what need for another?

What a joy! A shining example of great singing. This is dramatic singing at its finest. The voice is a phenomenon - I only wish I heard her live in the opera house. A voice of breadth, power and beauty, like a doric column - even from top to bottom, a true soprano dramitica agilita. (This is a woman that sang Bach cantata arias constantly as a member of the famous Bach Aria Group as well as the great dramatic parts).

I feel there are several definitive interpretations here, 'Ozean der Ungerheur' - the cantilena and coloratura are mind boggling for a voice of this size - Nilsson cannot even compare in this regard. Also the Menotti aria, what drama, what sound, what DICTION!

This recording is a document against which every serious, professional singer should test their 'mettle'. The collaboration with Thomas Schippers is very fine.

Eileen Farrell sings amazingly on this CD. She is superb in the opera arias; I especially like her in "Suicidio!", "Adieu, for�ts!", Il est doux, il est bon", and "L'ann�e en vain-Aza�l! pourquoi mas-tu quitt�e". In the "La Gioconda", she sings with much passion and pours out glorious torrents of sound. Her singing of the phrase "un d� leggiadre volavan l'ore" is exquisite. She shows remarkable delicacy in the French opera arias, as well as her huge sound during the climaxes. I really am not as impressed with her "Ozean, du Ungeheuer". She doesn't do it for me in this aria the way Birgit Nilsson does. Also, the engineers scale back the sound during the cabaletta. This lessens the impact of Farrell's immense voice, which is really an incredible instrument. I love her singing of the aria from "The Consul", "To this we've come". She displays extraordinary emotion and fire in this aria, all the while singing in very clear English.

In the English-language songs, she sings with emotional warmth, sincerity, and great restraint. Her voice displays a timeless beauty in the song "Down by the Sally Gardens". Her rendition of "Danny Boy" is heartfelt and very touching. Her English diction is exemplary, every word clearly enunciated with care and clarity.

One thing I admire tremendously about Eileen Farrell is her seemingly natural way with any type of music she sings. She always adapts her voice to the demands of the piece. Also, her sincerity and utter guilelessness is very refreshing to hear. She never fakes emotions, overemotes, or wallows in her own sound. Listen up, Ren�e Fleming!

Farrell demonstrates on this CD why she is such a legendary singer.

This recital is a great tribute to a sadly underrated singer. Some of the less familiar items are stunningly sung (e.g. the Debussy and Massenet arias), but the highlight for me is the "Suicidio." This just might be the best recording of this area ever (with nods to Ponselle, Callas, Tebaldi, et al). I think it blows the sox off the competition, much the same way the "In questa reggia" from the Puccini album does. Hopefully, Columbia will see fit to reissue the Puccini someday.

Many of the tracks heard on this CD demonstrate the best attributes of a singer who had a phenomenal voice but not a phenomenal success with critics. Erna Sack (1898-1972) had a vocal comfort zone somewhere around high C. The notes she could produce in that area were quite beautiful, and were wonderfully well caught on her Telefuncun recordings of the 1930s. When associated with eminent conductors like Dr Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt (Tracks 2 & 3) and eminent singers like Marcel Wittrisch (Tracks 4 & 5) she produced her best work; elsewhere there were sometimes pitch problems, vocal roughnesses, and crude chortling. No singer to make records ever seemed to be enjoying herself as much as Frau Sack did, however, and this is another remarkable attribute that is well worth hearing. Accompanying orchestras included the Berlin Philharmonic, and there was often a chorus.

Her career in opera and in concert was never as secure or as successful as reported by her manager, promoter and husband, Hermann Sack, whom she married in 1921. At her concert in Melbourne, Australia, I walked out a half time.

You'll not feel like abandoning this CD however, which provides very good value. I hope for more Erna Sack reissues together with other treasures from the Telefuncun vaults.

Erna Sack was known by various nicknames, most of which included the word "Nightingale." Hence, she was at various times "The German Nightingale," "The European Nightingale" and "The International Nightingale." My first introduction to Erna Sack was by way of a Decca/London 10" LP containing selections she had recorded in 1949. Some were good; others, such as "Estrellita," where she goes spectacularly flat on the last note, less so. Even so, this album quickly became one of my favorites, just for Madame Sack's sheer joy in singing, which is obvious throughout the album.

Later I met a German woman named Brunnhilde who gave me her two-LP set of Madame Sack on Telefunken to keep just because I enjoyed the singer so much. Unlike a lot of Erna Sack LPs that I have run across, this one was actually in good condition. Nobody can say that her fans did not enjoy her records, many of which were rather beaten up by the time I found them.

Well, after a period where the art of Erna Sack was largely forgotten, she is enjoying a renaissance of sorts. At the front of that renaissance is the release by Telefunken of this CD which is both more and less than the two-LP set. It is less in that it does not contain all the selections on the LPs, and more in that it does include some items that are not on there, and is better engineered.

These are, by and large, her most famous recordings, and the ones that turned up over and over again on various LP repackagings of her 78s that turned up during the 1950s. And with good reason: these recordings, made in the late 1930s, represent her in top form. Her joy in singing is certainly there, but she was in overall better vocal estate than she was for the Decca/London sessions, and whenever I put this CD or the other CDs of Madame Sack that I have in my car CD player, I am loathe to remove them. I can see how people wore out her records.

My favorite selection here is whichever one I'm listening to at the moment, but if I had to single one out, I would choose the "Gluhwurmchen-Idyll" from the operetta "Lysistrata." This number is more commonly known to English-speaking audiences as "Glow Worm." I can't give a real reason why I like this selection the best, other than possibly that her charm is even more apparent here than elsewhere, and I love the "ah" phrases she sings over the chorus. The end of the piece also contains the cadenza that she was most fond of using, as well as her favorite concluding phrase.

I don't care for the title track that much, mostly because I think it's a rather silly piece of music, but Erna does sing it well, and this is the one with the famous "violin effect." I find the following selection, Arditi's "Parla-Walzer," to be much more enjoyable. She would later record the same composer's "Il bacio" for Decca/London. And the Strauss waltzes are pretty much irresistible, especially the "Kaiser-Walzer" (which we know as the "Emperor Waltz") which is pretty darn near perfect, especially the beautiful cadenza near the end. The effect is spoilt a bit by the final note which is about an eighth-tone flat, but overall it's one of her better records.

Erna Sack recorded a fair amount of opera as well, but those were not among her better-known records. We do get the nice aria from "Martha" here, as well as a couple of selections from "Die Fledermaus," technically an operetta but often performed by opera houses.

A very interesting item, which is new to this CD and not on the corresponding LP, is the potpourri called "Die deutsche Nachtigall." This recording obviously took two 78rpm sides and is a medley of seven or eight tunes. The "Bravour Variationen uber ein Thema von Mozart," which is essentially variations on "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" is another that I also enjoy quite a bit. And the engineers have improved this item from the LP issue, where the engineer started turning the sound down at the end a little too early.

Anyway, this is overall a very nice CD and a wonderful introduction to Erna Sack. Those who are interested in investigating Madame Sack a little more might go to amazon.de and get the three separate CDs on Dante called "Un rossignol allemand." They contain some of the same selections as here, but also a number of her opera recordings--including a rarely heard "Bell Song" from "Lakme"--and some live radio broadcasts as well. A very nice essay about her is contained in volume 3 of that set as well. And the two Decca/London 10" LPs (or both together on a single 12" record, lacking only "Estrellita") turn up on eBay fairly regularly. But this CD is definitely the place to start listening to Erna Sack.

Of the three sopranos whom I have personally heard whose voices extend beyond the G in alt (the others being Mado Robin and Natalie Dessay), Erna Sack had the widest range and the prettiest voice. Her technique was also very impressive, far exceeding Robin's, but falling a little short of the phenomenal virtuosity of Dessay. And as an old school coloratura, she wasn't as emotionally involved in the music as, say, a Callas or Sutherland. But she was definitely more than just a factory for producing high notes, although there are plenty of them on this album. She had a very playful voice and sounds like she's having a lot of fun recording these selections, mostly from operettas. And some of her techincal feats are astounding; on the title track, she hits a high note so quietly that I didn't even realize that she was singing until she came down. She sounds like a violin.

As for the sound quality, I am extremely impressed with Teldec's restoration techniques. Some of these were recorded in 1936, but the sound quality is so high, you would think it was recorded 50 years later.

The Emerson String Quartet, no matter what some believe, is technically and artistically one of the best quartets in the world. This album, however, is not one of their best. The playing is somewhat lethargic, and the quartets themselves, while being somewhat popular (particularly the Borodin), are not masterpieces within the genre.

The Dvorak is fine, a 4 star effort. The Tchaikovsky is only average. The Borodin is, well, something else. The Emerson plays it to appeal to a crowd who can only appreciate "pops classical styling."

When listening to the Borodin all I hear is the advertisement for the World's Most Beautiful Music" collection, (just send in your $ for some CD's containing classical music played by various studio orchestras.) This, I find, is perhaps the most distracting aspect of the music. I don't hear the quartet. I hear the advertisement instead. So perhaps I am being unfair to the Emerson String Quartet on this one. It might be the same as thinking about "A Clockwise Orange" when listening to Beethoven's ninth.

But even barring the Borodin, the other two quartets just don't quite measure up to what I expect to hear from this wonderful quartet.

Though I'd heard of Borodin before, I hadn't realized what a wonderful composer he truly was. The second movement of his second quartet is revelatory, and this recording of it (compared to others I've heard since) is definitive for its clarity, tenderness, and directness of expression.

Most people viewing this item probably haven't heard of Borodin before, and I must assure such people that the Borodin quartet on this recording is more than worth listening to! The star of these three compositions is, of course, the American quartet, which is legendary. Though I haven't listened to any other performers playing the quartet, the Emerson Quartet's sound is exquisite, with each detail executed to perfection. You can't expect much else - the Emerson Quartet is always great.

I usually don't like Tchaikovsky, but the quartet on this recording is wonderfully melodic. And together, these three quartets on one CD make for one great purchase.

Great sound, great performance, great music - at a great price. What else could you ask for?