Misterioso [Live]

1. Nutty [Live]

2. Blues Five Spot [Live]

3. Let's Cool One [Live]

4. In Walked Bud [Live]

5. Just a Gigolo [Live]

6. Misterioso [Live]

7. 'Round Midnight [Live][*]

8. Evidence [Live][*]

Misterioso,Thelonious Monk,Riverside/OJC,Bop,Post-Bop

Jazz

Music

jazz

Tracks:

Gaite Parisienne: Ouverture - Herbert von Karajan_
Gaite Parisienne: 1. Allegro brillante - Herbert von Karajan_
Gaite Parisienne: 2. Polka - Herbert von Karajan_
Gaite Parisienne: 6. Allegro - Herbert von Karajan_
Gaite Parisienne: 8. Valse: Lento - Herbert von Karajan_
Gaite Parisienne: 9. Marche (Without Tempo Indication) - Herbert von Karajan_
Gaite Parisienne: 10. Valse: Moderato - Herbert von Karajan_
Gaite Parisienne: 11. Allegro vivo - Herbert von Karajan_
Gaite Parisienne: 12. Valse - Herbert von Karajan_
Gaite Parisienne: 13. Allegro vivace - Misterioso - Lento - Herbert von Karajan_
Gaite Parisienne: 14. Valse: Moderato - Herbert von Karajan_
Gaite Parisienne: 15. Allegro vivo - Herbert von Karajan_
Gaite Parisienne: 16. Cancan: Allegro - Herbert von Karajan_
Gaite Parisienne: 17. Polka - Herbert von Karajan_
Gaite Parisienne: 18. (Without Tempo Indication) - Herbert von Karajan_
Gaite Parisienne: 22. Vivo - Herbert von Karajan_
Gaite Parisienne: 23. Barcarolle: Allegro moderato - Herbert von Karajan_
Faust: 1. Allegretto: Tempo de valse - Herbert von Karajan_
Faust: 2. Adagio (Helene et les jeune Troyennes - Cleopatre et les jeunes Nubiennes) - Herbert von Karajan_
Faust: 3. Allegretto (Entree des jeunes Nubiennes) - Herbert von Karajan_
Faust: 4. Moderato maestoso (Variation de Cleopatre) - Herbert von Karajan_
Faust: 5. Moderato con moto (Entree des jeunes Troyennes) - Herbert von Karajan_
Faust: 6. Allegretto (Variation d'Helene) - Herbert von Karajan_
Faust: 7. Allegro vivo (Final - Entree de Phryne) - Herbert von Karajan_
Faust: Valse - Waltz: Tempo di valse - Herbert von Karajan_
The Sleeping Beauty: Suite From The Ballet Op. 66 - I. Introduction. La Fee des lilas - Allegro vivo - Andantino - Andante sostenuto - Herbert von Karajan_
The Sleeping Beauty: II. Adagio. Pas d'action - Andante - Adagio maestoso - Tempo I - Molto sostenuto, quasi piu andante - Tempo I - Herbert von Karajan_
The Sleeping Beauty: III. Pas de caractere. Le Chat Botte et La Chatte Blanche - Allegro moderato - Herbert von Karajan_
The Sleeping Beauty: IV. Panorama - Andantino - Herbert von Karajan_
The Sleeping Beauty: V. Valse - Allegro (Tempo di Valse) - Herbert von Karajan_

Tracks:

Coppelia: Ballet Suite: 1. Prelude et Mazurka - Various Artists
Coppelia: Ballet Suite: 2. Scene et Valse de Swanhilde - Various Artists
Coppelia: Ballet Suite: 3. Csardas - Various Artists
Coppelia: Ballet Suite: 4. Scene et Valse de la Poupee - Various Artists
Coppelia: Ballet Suite: 5. Ballade - Various Artists
Coppelia: Ballet Suite: 6. Variation sur un theme slave - Various Artists
Les Sylphides: 1. Prelude - Various Artists
Les Sylphides: 2. Nocturne - Various Artists
Les Sylphides: 3. Valse - Various Artists
Les Sylphides: 4. Mazurka - Various Artists
Les Sylphides: 5. Mazurka - Various Artists
Les Sylphides: 6. Prelude - Various Artists
Les Sylphides: 7. Valse - Various Artists
Les Sylphides: 8. Valse - Various Artists
La Gioconda: Dance Of The Hours - Various Artists

Customer Reviews:

Ballet .......2007-07-01

I was away for a long time. I feel very better now. I love this music and I am grateful to it.

Masterful recording of masterful compositions.......2007-01-19

This recording has become rare to find (in Europe), which surprises me, for I find both the compositions and the performance excellent. Especially the Sylphides, which are orchestral arrangements of some of Chopin's finest piano pieces - are heavenly. Highly recommended.

Ballet bon bons German style.......2004-06-26

Herbert von Karajan was the most recorded conductor in history. For that reason, he made a lot of records (that turned into CDs) like this one -- collections of well-known music that the public wants to hear over and over again. This group of ballet music is good, done in Karajan's typical highly chiseled style with a minimum of sentimentality. I once read a critic who called the style Karajan and Szell popularized the "school of industrial perfection", meaning every note in its place every time. That's true here, too. My favorite among these bon bons is the Tchaikovsky music from "Sleeping Beauty". Karajan is still hailed today for his later stereo version of the final Tchaikovsky troika of symphonies. Many critics put him up there with the best Tchaikovksy recordings ever. You can tell why critics were so persuaded by listening to his bleeding chuncks from "Sleeping Beauty". Not only does it contain the essential Berlin Philharmonic perfection and polish, it goes a little further than everything else on this set in terms of emotional attachment. The first two sections of the music, "Introduction. La Fee da Lilas" and "Adagio. Pas d'action" pack an enormous wallop. The final section is monumentally done by Karajan and the Berliners, surging forward in waves of sound and emotion until the listener is swept away during the crescendo in almost unconscious grandeur. I urge you to listen to this magnificent music-making and try not to develop goose flesh at the peak. This connection between perfection, music and emotion is what set Karajan apart from every other conductor in the 20th Century, and the reason he is as vivid and a larger than life figure today, 15 years after his death.

First-Rate Ballet Music.......2003-11-14

This collection of "Famous Ballet Music" from DG's mid-priced "2CD" series is truly first-rate. A lot of the credit for that goes to the man in charge of this set, Herbert von Karajan. The great conductor leads the Berlin Philharmonic through glowing highlights and suites from Offenbach's "Gaite Parisienne," Gounod's "Faust," Tchaikovsky's "Sleeping Beauty" and Delibes' "Coppelia," and the complete Chopin's "Les Sylphides" and "Dance of the Hours" from Ponchielli's "La Gioconda." Of course, the pieces featured here are the types of orchestral nuggets that someone like Karajan and the Berliners could eat for breakfast while reading the paper. But Karajan really prided himself in being one of the stereo-age's best Tchaikovsky conductors, and he made several recordings of each of the three ballet suites in addition to his many Symphonic Cycles. Also, his early 1960s accounts of the Chopin and Delibes in particular (the remainder of the works were recorded in the early 1970s), are as good, if not better, than any performance I have heard. In all, this is a collection that will appeal to the casual fan and serious collector alike.

Average customer rating:

Johnny Griffin at his Best
Spontaneous Monk at his best !!!
Misterioso is amazing
Huzzah to Monk & Griffin!
Pretty good

Misterioso
Thelonious Monk Quartet
Manufacturer: Ojc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Thelonious in Action: Recorded at the Five Spot Cafe
Straight, No Chaser
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Criss-Cross
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ASIN: B000000YBI
Release Date: 1991-07-01

Tracks:

Nutty
Blues Five Spot
Let's Cool One
In Walked Bud
Just A Gigolo
Misterioso
'Round Midnight
Evidence

Amazon.com

After he was denied club work in New York for years because a marijuana conviction kept him from holding a "cabaret card," Thelonious Monk's late-'50s stays at the Five Spot provided him with a forum through which he could reach an audience and also acted as an intense musical laboratory. Misterioso and its companion disc, Thelonious in Action, were Monk's first professionally recorded live dates, and they feature the excellent 1958 quartet with tenorist Johnny Griffin stretching out on Monk tunes like "In Walked Bud" and "Evidence." Monk could not only find new dissonances, but he could also find new meanings for dissonance, imbuing his sometimes elliptical, even minimalist, compositions with a joyous playfulness. Griffin adds a strong blues flavor and some unlikely quotations that leaven his intense focus. If this nugget tickles the ear enough to drive you toward the completist's deep end, check out Monk's Complete Riverside Recordings mega-box. --Stuart Broomer

Customer Reviews:

Johnny Griffin at his Best.......2005-07-14

I won't review this CD as a whole since many others have already. But in all these reviews I note scant mention of Johnny Griffin. In this live session from that now defunct little hole-in-the-wall, the Five Spot, Grif shows why he is considered the 'fastest tenor alive.' He's also the most passionate. His solos on this session are consistently amazing in their dexterity, imagination, and sheer emotional charge. He often moans ecstatically as he blows flourish after flourish of blue fire, yet never takes himself too seriously. He truly GETS Thelonious: the wry twinkle of Monkish humor. The second cut, 'Blues Five Spot,' is one of the greatest tenor solos of all time (See my Listmania, "Great Tenor Sax Solos.") Astonishing speed and melodic invention with the trio are followed by an un-accompanied cadenza of clean blues logic, topped off by the theme from Popeye the Sailor Man. Sonny Rollins was more magisterial and conscious of his greatness when he played with Monk; Trane was more esoteric and, well, heavy; but no one played Monk with more understanding than Johnny Griffin: they were friends for life. Grif knew the secret of Monk. The Master wasn't avant garde and he wasn't heavy: he was funky, blue, and full of laughter. Despite the primitive quality of the recording, and the idiots at the bar who keep dropping their glasses, this sizzling July evening in 1958, in the hippest of New York bars, at the heart of a by-gone era, is captured for all time here in one of the GREAT live jazz recordings.

Spontaneous Monk at his best !!!.......2005-05-12

These five-spot dates, along with 'In Action' belong in every collection. What live recordings should be, but rarely are.

Misterioso is amazing.......2004-09-16

Misterioso, the title track on this album, is absolutely my favorite Monk song. I'm not a musician but it sounds so atonal yet perfectly melodic I can't think of another artist that can pull that off. I wish I could have seen him play and heard a 20 minute version!

Huzzah to Monk & Griffin!.......2004-07-29

This one is a humdinger! Unlike Monk's work with later accompaniest Charlie Rouse (who, although a superb musician, at times seems willing to bend over backwards to keep from stepping on Monk's musical toes), this stuff has an incredible asset in the way of sax man Griffin, who stretches out further and gets a bit wilder. Probably my desert island Monk recording. No need to say more, I suppose.

Pretty good.......2003-06-30

I normally listen to darker, more experimental or more avant-garde jazz, but at times I listen to more accessible jazz, I pop Misterioso into my CD player.

Thelonious Monk and his band provide very upbeat songs, usually filled with incredible solos (especially the drummer, Roy Haynes, and saxophonist Johnny Griffin), proving that Monk was a great bandleader, and a jazz legend.

Mahler: Symphonies 1-10; Das Lied von der Erde
Average customer rating:

Good -- but not great

Outstanding, yet Affordable Mahler Set

Ignore the name(s): Listen to the Music!

An exceptionally fine bargain

best overall cycle

Mahler: Symphonies 1-10; Das Lied von der Erde

Manufacturer: EMI Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Mahler - The Symphonies plus Das Lied von der Erde Boxset / Leonard Bernstein, Wiener Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

ASIN: B000BQ7BX2
Release Date: 2006-01-10

Tracks:

I. Langsam, Schleppend, Wie Ein Naturlaut - Im Anfang Sehr Gemachlich - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
II. Kraftig Bewegt, Doch NIcht Zu Schnell - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
III. Feirlich Und Gemessen, Ohne Zu Schleppen - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
IV. Sturmisch Bewegt - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
I. Allegro Maestoso. Mit Durchaus Ernstem Und Feierlichem Ausdruck - Krisztina Laki

Tracks:

II. Andante Moderato. Sehr Gemachlich - Krisztina Laki
II. In Ruhig Fliessender Bewegung - Krisztina Laki
IV. Urlicht: Sehr Feierlich, Aber Schlicht - Krisztina Laki
V. Im Tempo Des Scherzo. Wild Herausfahrend - Krisztina Laki
Wieder Sehr Breit - Krisztina Laki
Ritardando...Maestoso. Sehr Zuruckhaltend - Krisztina Laki
Wieder Zuruckhaltend - Krisztina Laki
Langsam, Misterioso - Krisztina Laki
Etwas Bewegter - Krisztina Laki
Mit Aufschwung, Aber Nicht Eilen - Krisztina Laki

Tracks:

I. Kraftig. Entschieden - Gwendolyn Killebrew
II. Tempo Di Menuetto - Gwendolyn Killebrew
III. Comodo. Scherzando - Gwendolyn Killebrew
IV. Sehr Langsam - Gwendolyn Killebrew

Tracks:

V. Lustig IM Tempo UNd Keck Im Ausdruck - Gwendolyn Killebrew
VI. Sehr Langsam - Ruhevoll - Empfunden - Gwendolyn Killebrew
I. Bed Achtig. Nicht Eilen - Lucia Popp
II. In Gemachlicher Bewegung. Ohne Hast - Lucia Popp
III. Ruhevoll - Lucia Popp

Tracks:

IV. Sehr Behaglich - Lucia Popp
I. Trauermarsch (Im Gemessenem Schritt - Streng - Wie Ein Kondukt) - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
II. Sturmisch Bewegt, Mit Grosster Vehemenz - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
III. Scherzo (Kraftig, Nicht Zu Schnell) - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
IV. Adagietto (Sehr Langsam) - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
V. Rondo - Finale (Allegro) - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester

Tracks:

I. Langsam - Allegro - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
II. Nachtmusik I - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
III. Scherzo: Schattenhaft - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
IV. Nachtmusik II. Andante Amoroso - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
V. Rondo - Finale - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester

Tracks:

I. Allegro Energico, Ma Non Troppo - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
II. Scherzo. Wuchtig - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
III. Andante Moderato - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester

Tracks:

IV. Finale: Sostenuto - Allegro Moderato - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
I. Andante Comodo - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
II. Im Tempo Eines Gemachlichen Landlers - Etwas Tappisch Und Sehr Derb - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester

Tracks:

III. Rondo Burleske: Allegro Assai. Sehr Trotzig - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
IV. Adagio: Sehr Langsam Und Noch Zuruckhaltend - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
I. Adagio - Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester

Tracks:

Veni, Creator Spiritus - Maria Venuti
Imple Superna Gratia - Maria Venuti
Infirma Nostri Corporis - Maria Venuti
Accende Lumen Sensibus - Maria Venuti
Veni, Creator Spiritus - Maria Venuti
Gloria Patri Domino - Maria Venuti
Poco Adagio: Waldung, Sie Schwankt Heran - Maria Venuti
Ewiger Wonnebrand - Maria Venuti
Wie Felsenabgrund Mir Zu Fussen - Maria Venuti
Gerettet Ist Das Edle Glied - Maria Venuti
Uns Bleibt Ein Erdenrest - Maria Venuti
Hier Ist Die Aussicht Frei - Maria Venuti
Hochste Herrscherin Der Welt - Maria Venuti
Dir, Der Unberuhrbaren - Maria Venuti
Bei Der Liebe, Die Den Fussen - Maria Venuti
Neige, Neige, Du Ohnegleiche - Maria Venuti
Blicket Suf Zum Retterblick - Maria Venuti
Alles Vergangliche - Maria Venuti

Tracks:

I. Das Trinklied Vom Jammer Der Erde - Marjana Lipovsek
II. Der Einsame Im Herbst - Marjana Lipovsek
III. Von Der Jugend - Marjana Lipovsek
IV. Von Der Schonheit - Marjana Lipovsek
V. Der Trunkene Im Fruhling - Marjana Lipovsek
VI. Der Abschied - Marjana Lipovsek

Customer Reviews:

Good -- but not great.......2007-07-07

Having listened intently to this set two times now, once with scores in hand, once without, I have to give this set less than a 5 star rating. The sound is adequate, compressed at times, muddy at others. The later symphonies fare better than 1 & 2. Conducting is fine: very straightfoward and unfussy. Plays it straight. And maybe that's a problem. The sixth in particular never really scales the heights or depths. Same story with 8. Layout is weird, but economical. My biggest beef is the orchestral execution. There are a LOT of bloopers that should have been fixed. In a live concert you can accept, even expect, some error in music this difficult. But on recordings they become very irritating. I grant that most people would never notice any, but if you have a good ear and really know this music there are some problems. The worst is an abundance of wrong notes in the 4th movement of the 7th, which otherwise is a superb version -- one of the best. Another easy to spot example occurs at the end of the 6th: why did the cellos leave the bass clarinet to fend for itself just a few bars before the end? Why didn't someone fix this?
I'm glad I heard this set, but there are better, albeit more expensive. As a complete set there isn't any that is altogether perfect, but Solti/Decca, Haitink/Philips, Kubelik/DG and deWaart/RCA come closer.

Outstanding, yet Affordable Mahler Set.......2007-06-10

If you are looking for a great Mahler set that doesn't give you the Walletdämmerung syndrome, yet you also want excellent musicians and soloists and a conductor with a most refreshing and philosophically true understanding of Mahler's music, I would recommend that you purchase this box set of Mahler symphonies with Gary Bertini. Although Gary Bertini was not a big name in the recording industry, he was deemed as a highly esteemable conductor in Europe. His Mahler offers a completely different sound from what you would hear from Bernstein, Abbado, Walter, and Klemperer, much closer to what Rafael Kubelik did with his Mahler, but Bertini offers a degree of transparency in his music that you cannot hear in any other conductor. Despite the transparency, his Mahler does not lack passion. If you want to know what I mean, you must listen to his Symphonies no. 1,2,4,5,6,7,8, and 9. These renditions are ranked with the very best Mahlerians in a very competitive field. Bertini is also supported by an ensemble of an extremely high calibre--the WDR or the Kölner Rundfunks Orchester. They play with a finesse and a grace that rivals the very best Mahler orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony, and the Concertgebouw. In terms of virtuosity and beauty, the orchestra offers some of the most glorious playing and a crystalline sound balance that you would want in a world-class German orchestra.

The soloists are all excellent too. You have Florence Quivar, Paul Frey, Lucia Popp, Julia Varady, Julia Hamari, and Alan Titus, among others. You must simply hear the alto part that Quivar sings in the Resurrection Symphony!

Included in this already sparkling box set is a Das Lied von der Erde with Marjana Lipovsek and Ben Heppner. While I will always love Klemperer, Ludwig, and Wunderlich, I think this Das Lied von der Erde comes close to being one of the very best recordings of the work. Heppner sings with his usual golden tone and security, and sings the tenor's songs with an abandon and an elan that makes his interpretation very attractive. Lipovsek sings the mezzo parts with a tragically imbued tone that improved over her recording with Solti years earlier. You must listen to what she does in the Abschied. I have never heard a more resentful and reflective understanding of this very complex movement other than Christa Ludwig, Janet Baker, and Kathleen Ferrier.

All in all, a Mahler box set that everyone should get along with Haitink, Chailly, and Kubelik.

Ignore the name(s): Listen to the Music!.......2007-05-07

Gary Bertini and the Cologne Radio Symphony? The Mahler symphonies have been recorded in toto by many of the "biggest" names in music Leonard Bernstein (three times), Solti, Kubelik, Haitink and so on with the best known orchestras in the world ---- Vienna Philharmonic, Concertgebouw, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, and so on and so on. I've given away my bias by those I've chosen to list and the sequence I've put them in.
And along comes a little known conductor, now deceased, with an orchestra I would not rank with those above; and by virtue of their sheer musicianship they belong alongside all the above. Mr. Bertini's performances hew closer to Mr. Kubelik and Mr. Haitink in being moderate in both tempo and phrasing. At the same time, Mr. Bertini still beings a far greater feeling of intensity and passion than either. Mr. Bertini's performances have a sweep and a grandeur that places them on the same plane as Mr. Bernstein's performances without entirely going "over the top" as Mr. B. was inclined to do.
No: Bertini's recording of the Sixth Symphony does not take us emotionally to the depth of Mr. Bernstein's last recording (DG digital). Nor has Mr. Solti's magnificent performance of the Eighth been surpassed. But I were asked to choose one cycle to live with for the rest of my life, it would be this one.

An exceptionally fine bargain.......2007-03-26

Gary Bertini's EMI Mahler cycle is more or less contemporary with Tennstedt's Mahler cycle on the same label. But, according to the gossip, the company decided to keep Bertini in the vaults since the former and LPO where more publicly known. In my view, however, Bertini's set is clearly superior. The orchestra - Kölner Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester - is outstanding, far better than LPO, and so are most of Bertini's interpretations as well.

Considering that Bertini and the orchestra are not among the obvious "stars", it is an exceptional sleeper. In fact, Bertini was virtually unknown before this cycle made him famous, post mortem.

The cycle combines both live and studio recordings. The live ones were recorded in Japan where the audience knows how to behave. Excellent stereo sound adds to the pleasure.

But one could note that some of Bertini's tempi are among the slowest on record. The final movement of symphony no. 9 stops at 28:34, which is ten minutes more than Walter's 1939 classic. It's even a few seconds slower than Chailly's very slow account on Decca. The finale of the third is six minutes longer than Tennstedt's on EMI. But the adagietto in the fifth stops at just above 10 minutes, so Bertini is not consistently very slow when Mahler's music may invite sentimental conductors to drag. Unlike such conductors, however, Bertini has the ability to keep tension during a long breath, bringing forth interesting details in contextual balance.

Thus the performances of symphonies 1, 5, 7, 8, 9 and Das Lied von der Erde are outstanding, challenging almost every recording in the current catalogue. The remaining symphonies are also convincingly presented, in perfectly consistent performances.

However, one irritating thing with this set is that the fourth symphony is divided over two discs. That EMI decision was not necessary. The cycle could still fit on 11 CDs with a different editing. The policy for all record companies should be to avoid unnecessary splitting.

At a super-bargain price, this is of course the first choice among boxed sets, especially the contemporary ones. All the recordings in this box have something that attracts repeated listening. This is true of Gielen's outstanding cycle too (Hänssler), but it requires you to pay four times the price. Still, Kubelik (DG) remains my favourite cycle. But Bertini's is better recorded.

Warmly recommended!

best overall cycle.......2006-12-09

There's little that I could add to the testimonials that have already been written here . While none of these performances would be an absolute first choice for me, save Bertini's Mahler 8th (which IS extraordinary), all of them have an amazing consistantcy in style, sound quality, and orchestral execution. The inclusion of a really fine "Das Lied von der Erde", expertly sung by Ben Heppner and Marjana Lipovsek, makes this a clear front runner. While Bertini didn't record a complete Mahler 10th symphony (finished by Deryck Cooke and others), his M10 Adagio is outstanding - giving the feeling of completeness on to itself. In fact, other than Leonard Bernstein, I can think of no other conductor who has been so satisfying in capturing the complete emotional range of Mahler's symphonies; going from the fresh and youthful first symphony (and Bertini is truly fresh and youthful); working on up to the cosmic orgasm that is the 8th symphony (and Bertini is cosmically orgasmic here), and still making the drastic shift to the zen-like, other-worldliness of the so-called farewell trilogy: "DLvdE", 9th symphony, and 10th symphony adagio. He runs the entire gamut, Janet.

Much positive has been written about Gielen's fine Mahler cycle. But his box set doesn't include his recording of the Cooke 10th (Chailly's does!), which is really a very good 10th. It's also more expensive. In addition, getting Gielen's Mahler 6th separately also gives you a really fine performance of Alban Berg's "Three Pieces For Orchestra" - a very natural coupling for that dark work. Better to pick and choose with Gielen, I think. If you want a box, get the Bertini.

Average customer rating:

Unique and Provocative

Misterioso

Manufacturer: Ecm Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Release Date: 2006-09-26

Amazon.com

Lubimov's exploration for ECM of contemporary music from Eastern Europe continues with this fascinating disc featuring chamber works by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov and Galina Ustvolskaya, the most interesting and inventive of Shostakovich's protégés. An effective clarinet-piano arrangement of Arvo Pärt's popular, brief "Spiegel im Spiegel" separates the main events. Silvestrov's Misterioso is for solo clarinet with assistance from piano bass rumblings. Part nostalgia, part dark despair, it's a moving work that also serves as a test of the clarinet's possibilities and the player's technical prowess. Post Scriptum is a sonata for violin and piano with an attractive melody that, as in much of Silvestrov's music, splinters and fades away. A pair of Ustvolskaya's early works is powerful, especially in such vivid performances and sonics. Her Trio is one of the finest chamber works of the past half-century, melodically seductive and harmonically adventurous. Her Violin Sonata has a reputation as a difficult piece, but in this lucid, expressive performance it, too, emerges as a major work. A disc to treasure. -- Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

Unique and Provocative.......2007-02-17

A fine, sometimes stunning and haunting, performance which satisfies more after several listenings.

Average customer rating:

One of the best scores
An Underwater Masterpiece...
Classic (al ) Badelt
Music the masters would be proud to claim!
Another great Klaus Badelt score

K-19 the Widowmaker (Score)
Klaus Badelt
Manufacturer: Hollywood Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Release Date: 2002-07-16

Tracks:

Suite For Orchestra And Chorus In G Minor: I. Fear - Largo
Suite For Orchestra And Chorus In G Minor: II. Fate - Adagio
Suite For Orchestra And Chorus In G Minor: III. War - Allegro
Suite For Orchestra And Chorus In G Minor: IV. Soul - Misterioso
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Reactor - Selections From 'Voices Of Light': 'Victory At Orleans', 'Interrogation', 'Abjuration', 'Relapse', 'Karitas', 'The Final Walk'
Reunion

Amazon.com

Given the film's fevered, rooted-in-cold-war-history nuclear tensions and claustrophobic, intensely Russian settings, promising newcomer/Hans Zimmer protégé Klaus Badelt (The Time Machine and contributions to Gladiator and Pearl Harbor) was saddled with more than a few expectations in scoring director Kathryn Bigelow's Soviet sub thriller. But Badelt has admirably risen to the occasion, conjuring up an orchestral score (masterfully performed by the Kirov Orchestra and Chorus under Valery Giergiev) rooted in moody Russian classicism--and a dash of Zimmer's favorite Holstian drama as well. The centerpiece here is the neo-classical Suite for Orchestra and Chorus in G Minor, its four movements ("Fear," "Fate," "War," "Soul") powerfully underscoring the film's unrelenting pressure cooker of drama and emotion. Badelt's use of excerpts from Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light suite ("Reactor") is equally inspired, its haunting choral touches and spare, evocative arrangements imparting some compelling gravitas to the story's dark sense of impending doom. A score as noble, if emotionally ominous, as the 20th-century Russian masters who inspired it. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews:

One of the best scores .......2006-06-09

Klaus Badelt is another wonderful artist who can make the music be the movie. Rich with themes that fit the russian genre. The last track 'reunion' brings tears to my eyes picturing scenes from the movie. This music grabs you emotionally! Wonderful score.

An Underwater Masterpiece..........2004-02-01

My favorite one in my movie soundtrack collection! The music of K-19 made the movie even more moving. If you are looking for great music pieces for a "every goes wrong" russian submarine, and I mean the feel of the waves, tensions on board and the heroic efforts, this is "the" soundtrack. I have to admit, even thought I loved the movie, it`s wouldn`t been as great without the real struggling russian submarine music effect that Klaus Badelt created. The music moves me everytime I hear it...I close my eyes and I can see myself on board of this boat peeking out of the waves with the cold winds on my cheeks.

Classic (al ) Badelt.......2003-07-16

For decades there has been a fine line between classical based orchestral film score music and the true classical masters. Well for K-19 Klaus Badelt has become Tchaikovsky reincarnated. This is the most classical based score I have heard for many years (Horner does a fine Ralph Vaughn -Williams) and this is one the Russian master would be proud of. The first four tracks are even called "Suites for Orchestra and Chorus". Badelt has again shown that his first hit "Time Machine" was no one hit wonder story. Klaus Badelt has proven to be the new "wunderkind" of film scores and his music for the forthcoming "Ned Kelly" again proves that.But for now enjoy this one if you love both submarine scores "Hunt for Red October" and "Crimson Tide". K-19 makes it a fine trio.

Music the masters would be proud to claim!.......2003-03-21

This album is filled with music that the early master composers would be proud to claim as their own. The first six tracks are pure, sweet, pasionate Russian classical orchestra music, befitting any of the symphonic works of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and even more so, Rachmaniov. Klaus Badelt has written music which would please the Gods. My heartfelt thanks as a simple listener, for this musical treat.

Another great Klaus Badelt score.......2002-12-01

After his tremendous success with The Time Machine, Klaus Badelt returns once again with another great score to K-19: The Widowmaker. With an outstanding performance by The Kirov Orchestra and Chorus under the direction of conductor Valery Gergiev, Badelt proves that once again, he is one of the hottest new composers out there. Badelt starts with "Suite for Orchestra and Chorus in G Minor" which is a classical piece that he wrote which the score's main themes were developed. "Fear - Largo" contains a militaristic theme that reoccurs throughout the score several times. "Fate - Adagio" contains a dark string crescendo that resorts to a lovely piece of music. "War - Allegro" is an action cue that contains some excellent and difficult horn parts. "Soul - Mysterioso" is the best of the 4 with the themes occurring again in full force with the orchestra and chorus. The rest of the score is derived from these first 4 tracks and contains different versions of those themes each time you hear them, so they never get boring. "Home" is a waltz version of the theme heard in "Fear - Largo" and "Heroes" gives us the theme again in full force. "Journey" contains a male chorus chanting the main theme in Russian, much like Basil Poledouris used a chorus in The Hunt For Red October. "Missile Launch - The Rescue" is a long action cue that sounds a lot like "War - Allegro" with the difficult horn parts. "Reunion" ends the score in an excellent fashion with the main themes occurring one more time sending the listener off with great melodies. "Reactor - Selections from Voices of Light" is a low key piece composed by Richard Einhorn that fits in nicely with the score, but is nowhere near as good. I was hoping to give this score 5 stars, but for me, it just lacked that one little thing that makes it an outstanding score that you want to hear over and over again. It is a great score with a wonderful sound and great themes, however, and Klaus Badelt impresses me once again.

Average customer rating:

Amazing debut!

Misterioso

Manufacturer: Natural Elements Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Intimo
Seduction
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Illumination

ASIN: B0007U478E
Release Date: 2005-03-15

Tracks:

Misterioso
Festival De Luces
Emerald Sea
Jaco Y Paco
Gardens Of Stone
Espiritu
Empezar
St. Margaret's Tears
Luna
Chadari
El Palenque

Album Description

This album is a re-release of Incendio's debut recording "Misterioso". The music of Incendio is not solely flamenco, classical, Middle-Eastern, Celtic, jazz, rock, trance or pop, but an amalgamation of all of the above. By showcasing the timeless sound of the Spanish guitar in a variety of settings, Incendio takes the listener on a global musical experience while continuing to break new ground.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing debut!.......2006-01-11

This band is amazing. Although some may lump these guys in with other "nuevo flamenco" artists, the astute listener will notice that this band is much more progessive than their counterparts. They use more complex harmonic structures in many of their compositions and they experiment with other music forms like Celtic, middle-eastern, and even trance.

Average customer rating:

Mahler Symphony No.3
A triumph, musically and sonically
Maybe the best recording, not the best performance
One of my all-time favorites
The Definitive Mahler 3rd Symphony recording

Mahler: Symphony No.3

Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Mahler: Symphony No6; Rückert Lieder
Mahler: Symphony No. 3
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Mahler: Symphony No. 5

ASIN: B000001G4T
Release Date: 1984-06-11

Tracks:

Symphonie No. 3: Part I: 1st Movement: Kraftig. Entschieden
Symphonie No. 3: Part I: 1st Movement: Langsam. Schwer
Symphonie No. 3: Part I: 1st Movement: Tempo I
Symphonie No. 3: Part I: 1st Movement: A Tempo
Symphonie No. 3: Part I: 1st Movement: Immer Dasselbe Tempo (Marsch)
Symphonie No. 3: Part I: 1st Movement: (Allegro Moderato)
Symphonie No. 3: Part I: 1st Movement: Tempo I
Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 2nd Movement: Tempo Di Menuetto. Sehr Massig
Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 2nd Movement: A Tempo
Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 2nd Movement: Ganz Plotzlich Gemachlich. Tempo Di Menuetto
Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 3rd Movement: Comodo. Scherzando. Ohne Hast
Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 3rd Movement: Wieder Sehr Gemachlich, Wie Zu Anfang
Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 3rd Movement: Sehr Gemachlich (Posthorn)
Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 3rd Movement: Tempo I
Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 3rd Movement: Wieder Sehr Gemachlich, Beinahe Langsam

Tracks:

Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 4th Movement: Sehr Langsam. Misterioso. Durchaus PPP
Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 4th Movement: Piu Mosso Subito
Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 5th Movement: Lustig Im Tempo Und Keck Im Ausdruck
Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 6th Movement: Langsam. Ruhevoll. Empfunden
Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 6th Movement: Nicht Mehr So Breit
Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 6th Movement: Tempo I. Ruhevoll
Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 6th Movement: A Tempo (Etwas Bewegter)
Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 6th Movement: Tempo I
Symphonie No. 3: Part II: 6th Movement: Langsam. Tempo I

Amazon.com

Claudio Abbado plumbs the depths of Mahler's most sprawling opus, aided by the Vienna Philharmonic on their most flexible, responsive form. The terrifying first movement trombone snarls and tangy oboe solos elsewhere are worth the price of these discs, and so are Jessye Norman's haunting contributions in the fourth and fifth movements. --Jed Distler

Customer Reviews:

Mahler Symphony No.3.......2006-02-22

Very well presented Work superb Conducting,& Orchestral playing the Solist & Choir great.

Thomas M Shanks

A triumph, musically and sonically.......2005-10-28

Great musicians can excel even themselves, and that's the case with this 1982 recording of the Mahler Third under Abbado. I had carelessly assumed that Abbado's superb live recording with the Berlin Phil. from 1999, despite some sketchiness in the sonics (it was engineered on the spot in London by the BBC), showed that this conductor had grown as a Mahler interpreter.

I was wrong--Abbado didn't need to grow. This is a stupendous performance in terms of musicality and insight. We are inside Mahler's sound world from the first bar, and there is magic and mystery, tears from childhood and rollicking joy, that only Bernstein's first recording from New York could hope to match. But Bernstein didn't have the Vienna Phil., playing so superbly it defies description, and he didn't have the miraculous sonics that DG somehow contrived so early in the digital era. Abbado, like Karajan, favors extremely hushed pianissimos and thunderously loud fortissimos, both caught here to amazing effect. In fact, the one flaw for many listeners will be how to find a single volume level that can capture the polar extremes in dynamics. Other reviewers have already extolled Jessye Norman, a mesmerizing soloist in the Nietzsche poem from the fourth movement. My only reservation is htat the extremely slow last movement is a bit cool and detached compared to Bernstein.

I want to apologize silently to Abbado for overlooking this accomplishment. He can be a variable condcutor, but on this occasion he reaches the very heights of Mahler interpretation.

Maybe the best recording, not the best performance.......2003-07-10

Although this Abbado may be the best recording, it is not the best performance. That credit will likely always go to the old Horenstein performance with the London Symphony. IT is one of those things so rare, no one will even discount it!

One of my all-time favorites.......2002-11-10

Abbado is a great conductor who has a not-entirely-undeserved reputation as an unsteady Mahlerian. But he has always shown a real knack for Mahler's 3rd, and this earlier digital recording with the VPO, Norman, et al. is a case in point. It is one of my favorite Mahler recordings, in spite of having one of the *ugliest* cover designs in existence.

Apart from keeping an audience awake for a 100-plus minute symphony, I think the biggest challenge for anyone interpreting this piece is finding the right balance between its musical and emotional depth and its thrilling showmanship; lean too much one way and the piece becomes too heavy and ponderous, too much the other way and it's a pretty good movie soundtrack but a mediocre symphony. Abbado and the VPO find just the right balance, especially in the first movement, which they manage to present as thrillingly dramatic without being just flashy.
Norman is wonderful, especially in the fourth movement; I can't think of a better performance of this movement on any level.

My only two complaints (besides the horrid color-scheme of the cover art) are about the 3rd and last movements: the posthorn solos in the former have little presence at all. It sounds as though the trumpet soloist, not content with going offstage, decided to keep going down the street to a nearby Vienna cafe and play his solos from there. The last movement, although lovingly and intensely played, is taken a bit more slowly than I would like, something that Abbado doesn't do to me very often.

Still, that isn't a lot to complain about in a piece of this length and size. This is quite simply the best Mahler 3rd in my opinion, and the answer to anyone who says Abbado doesn't get Mahler.

The Definitive Mahler 3rd Symphony recording.......2002-03-26

Claudio Abbado draws the right dose of drama and lyrical playing from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in this stunning interpretation of Mahler's 3rd Symphony. Undoubtedly this is one of Abbado's finest Mahler recordings, surpassed in quality only by his legendary Mahler 7th with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and perhaps by his relatively recent recording of Mahler's 2nd Symphony, also with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Jessye Norman is splendid during the fourth and fifth movements. The fine sound quality is undoubtedly helped by the Musikverein's warm acoustics. Others may prefer Bernstein's or perhaps Haitink's recordings, but I suspect most will agree that Abbado's account of Mahler's 3rd Symphony remains the finest contemporary recorded version.

Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 (with the Documentation of the Finale Fragment) [Hybrid SACD]

Average customer rating:

Harnoncourt's Bruckner, a viable alternative to Karajan?
Depends what you consider good
Terrific performance!
Unconvincing performance; interesting commentary
Harnoncourt roars, but Wildner rages

Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 (with the Documentation of the Finale Fragment) [Hybrid SACD]

Manufacturer: RCA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 5 (with Excerpts from the Rehearsals) [Hybrid SACD]
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Great Orchestral Highlights from The Ring of the Nibelungs / Szell, Cleveland Orchestra (SACD)

ASIN: B0000AF1IG
Release Date: 2003-10-21

Tracks:

Warum Hat Man Eigentlich 100 Jahre Lang Gedacht, E - Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Finale. T. 1-278 - Wiener Philharmoniker
Gegen Ende Eine Extreme Dissonanz In Den Trompeten - Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Nach Dem Ende Der Durchfuhrung Folgt Eine Wilde Fu - Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Finale. T. 279-342 - Wiener Philharmoniker
Quasi En Schreckensbild Des Todes - Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Finale. T. 343-478 - Wiener Philharmoniker
Danach Fehlen 16 Takte; Dazu Ist Nichts Zu Erklare - Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Finale. T. 479-510 - Lucke/Fehlender Partiturbog - Wiener Philharmoniker
Why Did We Think For Over Hundred Years That Nothing... - Nikolaus Harnoncourt
WAB 109: Finale. MM. 1-278 - Wiener Philharmoniker
Extreme Dissonances In The Trumpets Towards The End - Nikolaus Harnoncourt
At The End Of The Development A Wild Fugue Begins - Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Finale. MM. 279-342 - Wiener Philharmoniker
A Sudden Vision Of Death - Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Finale. MM. 343-478 - Wiener Philharmoniker
Then There Are Sixteen Bars Missing. We Will Just... - Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Finale. MM. 479-510 - Gap/Missing Score Bifolio - Wiener Philharmoniker

Tracks:

I. Satz. Feierlich; Misterioso - Wiener Philharmoniker
Scherzo. Bewegt; Lebhaft - Trio. Schnell - Scherzo - Wiener Philharmoniker
Adagio. Langsam; Feierlich - Wiener Philharmoniker

Customer Reviews:

Harnoncourt's Bruckner, a viable alternative to Karajan?.......2006-03-19

Even Karajan's detractors, except for the most severe, generally concede that he was supreme in Bruckner. His various performances of the Ninth Sym. with the Berlin Phil. are commanding in their huge scope, yet Karajan was also capable of delicate phrasing and had an intuitive grasp of how to organize these gigantic, sprawling movements. No one has quite reached that magistreial level since. To his credit, Harnoncourt doesn't try to. This is, for him, a straightforward performance that relies on some qualities Karajan's Bruckner doesn't possess.

First of all, Harnoncourt has his own instincts about phrasing and organizing the music. Contrary to a reviewer below, he doesn't exploit extreme rubato or sudden tempo changes. There are some quirky moments where the tempo speeds up unexpectedly, but overall, Harnoncourt's timing of 58 min. is dead center among various recordings (as much as I admire Giulini, his 68 min. traversal drags). Harnoncourt favors brash outbursts from the brass, particularly in the Scherzo, my least favorite movement here. But his main intent is to keep Bruckner simple, to impose himself far less than Karajan did with his ultra-control. This Bruckner Ninth is a bit plain at times, but it always breathes.

As to the recorded sound, I have only heard the regular two-channel CD, which is quite clear; the Vienna Pphil. is placed a bit far back on a wide soundstage. I would have liked to hear the solo winds up closer, but that's a quibble. This Bruckner Ninth satisfied me as much as the great accounts by Walter, Klemperer, Giulini, and Boulez. I sitll feel more thrills from Karajan's analog reading from the Sixties, yet Harnoncourt provides a viable alternative in itnerpretation.

In theory it was an exciting notion to provide a free bonus CD containing Harnoncourt's defense of Bruckner's surviving sketches for a fourth movement, never completed. Could it really be that his ocntemporaries were wrong and that Bruckner left us pages of great music begging to be revived? Harnoncourt's talk is highly persuasive, but when the Vienna Phil. actually plays what survives of the finale, it proves as sorely disappointing as its reputation would lead one to believe.

Depends what you consider good.......2004-06-14

Harnoncourt has done some great things for music in his career, but I would not consider this one of them. He achieves an "authentic" performing style from the Vienna Philharmonic with a thin string sound and little or no vibrato. So anyone expecting that sweet Vienna sound will be disappointed. But his conducting does not meet that goal of authenticity, because he varies tempos too much. It draws attention to itself and weakens the cohesiveness of the work as a whole.
There are other versions, many of which are mentioned by the other reviewers below (Giulini, Karajan, et al.), which communicate this great work more simply and effectively. They are also unique and full of interesting details (some attention to detail is good). In light of them, Harnoncourt's view is radically different. Experience has taught me that subtle differences in interpretation give pleasure with repeated listening. Radical differences are OK in a live performance (which this is), but do not stand the test of time. So I do not recommend this as a first recording to have of Bruckner's 9th.

Terrific performance!.......2004-02-25

The symphony recording is damn good, and the extras are very interesting (to hear Harnoncourt speaking German and English, to hear the sketches of the last movement). In my mind, this ranks among the very best -- with Celibidache on EMI, Giulini on DG, Bernstein on DG, and don't forget the second movement of the Jochum on EMI.

Unconvincing performance; interesting commentary.......2004-01-15

First off, I do not like the performance. Harnoncourt's tempi are erratic, particularly in the adagio (where he speeds up the second theme-group to the point he cheapens it).

Secondly, I found his commentary on the 4th movement "chunks" informative. They could easily have been printed in liner notes; instead, we have each of the chunks played twice, followed first by commentary German, then in English.

Thirdly, I see no reason why he should not have recorded the full movement as completed by someone -- by William Carragan (Chandos: Yoav Talmi, Oslo Philharmonic); by Nicola Samale & Giuseppe Mazzuca (Teldec: Inbal, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orch [with the 5th Symphony]); or by Samale, Mazzuca, and John A Phillips (Camerata: Eichhorn, Linz Bruckner Orch). My first choice is the Carragan: though the Oslo band takes third place among those in these recordings, it is good enough and I find Carragan's completion the most convincing.*

(In January 1984 I went to New York and Carnegie Hall to hear the American Symphony Orchestra perform the premier of the 9th with Carragan's finale. The performance was reviewed the next day in the Times. I immediately wrote Joel Flegel, editor of Fanfare, asking if he knew whether a recording was planned. Joel was dubious and dismissive: "If that college professor really....")

As Carragan noted in his program notes for the ASO "premier," the finale includes the greatest of Bruckner's chorales. That magnificent theme cannot be understood or appreciated by hearing it only in Harnoncourt's chunks. It needs to be heard in context -- and that context can only be provided in a "performing version."

In my opinion, Harnoncourt does a disservice to Bruckner and to listeners by not offering a completed finale. There is certainly room for one in this two-disk set.

* But Carragan will either produce a new version or be superseded as pages not available to him have since been found -- and as still more come to light.

Harnoncourt roars, but Wildner rages.......2004-01-05

As the other reviewers note, this release is essential for anyone interested in this work, for the workshop and documentation of the currently surviving material from the final movement of the symphony. Another important aspect of the release is the use of a new "critical edition" of the initial three movements of Bruckner's 9th, which contains a number of very evident modifications, particularly in orchestration. All the same, it is a concert recording, and, at least in the usual CD format, balances aren't always optimal, trumpets and trombones often too forward, at the expense of the Vienna Phil's strings and (especially) glorious horn section, and timpani are somewhat reticent, especially in the first movement. Harnoncourt also tends to push a bit hard, lacking the natural plasticity in tempo that marks the greatest performances of the first three movements of this work. The impression is one of roaring power, building and receding throughout. Of the 4th movement sketches, Harnoncourt plays exactly what survives, except he omits the 50-odd bars of three coda fragments that have turned up.

Just a few months ago, a recording of the 9th including a reconstruction/completion of the 4th movement, based on the same body of fragments and sketches (including the coda) and prepared by the same editors, was released on Naxos(8.555933-34). The orchestra is the New Philharmonia of Westphalia (Germany) and the conductor is Johannes Wildner. Now, finally, we can hear this work in a form tantalizingly close to the way Bruckner intended. Furthermore, unlike Harnoncourt's Vienna Phil performance, Wildner and his astonishiingly capable Westphalians present what I can only describe as a ferocious performance, with horns and timpani cutting through the fabric of the orchestra at key points, and effectively flexible tempos. It's a performance unlike any I've heard since Furtwangler's furious and terrifying recording made in Berlin during the darkest days of World War II. If you've gotten the Harnoncourt (or even if you haven't), you have to get the Wildner, too.

As an aside, these recordings render superfluous the 1986 Chandos recording by Yoav Talmi and the Oslo Phil of a 4-movement version of Bruckner's 9th. That documented a brave effort by William Carragan to reconstruct a finale. Unfortunately he had barely 3/4 of the body of sketches to work with that we have now, and nothing of the coda at all.

Kurt Weill: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2; Lady in the Dark - Symphonic Nocturne
Average customer rating:

weilling away hours to sweet sounds

5 Stars for the Weill 1st sym

Three Wondrous Weill Works Given Star Treatment by Alsop's Supremely Assured Direction

The Other Kurt Weill

REVERSE THRUST

Kurt Weill: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2; Lady in the Dark - Symphonic Nocturne

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras (Complete)

ASIN: B000A17GFQ
Release Date: 2005-08-16

Tracks:

Sostenuto - Allegro Molto - Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Largo - Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Allegro Vivace - Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Symphony No.1 - Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Andante Misterioso 'My Ship' - Robert Russell Bennett
'Girl Of The Moment' - Robert Russell Bennett
Bolero 'This Is New' - Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Allegro Alla Marcia - Robert Russell Bennett
'Dance Of The Tumblers' - Robert Russell Bennett
'The Saga Of Jenny' - Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Amazon.com

About nine minutes into the second track of this disc, you seem to hear the composer reminding himself: "Hey, I'm Kurt Weill! This is what my music sounds like!" Most of us know only Weill's theater music, but he began his career writing concert pieces. The First Symphony was written under the tutelage of the great composer and pianist Ferruccio Busoni. Both symphonies belong to the European mainstream of the early 1920s, but Weill's characteristic style infiltrates only the Second (placed first on the CD), his last pure concert work, composed after the famous Threepenny Opera. These symphonies may not compete with Stravinsky and Bartók in their importance, but they are both satisfying pieces and will interest both lovers of 20th-century symphonies and fans of Weill's later music--of which we get a nice chunk as an encore. The Weill Symphonies have been scarce on recordings. Here they are performed with great energy and purpose by an excellent conductor and orchestra, vividly recorded, at a price which encourages exploration. --Leslie Gerber

Customer Reviews:

weilling away hours to sweet sounds.......2007-05-11

the symphonies are comprised of themes from other weill works such as 'seven deadly sins' and 'rise and fall of the city of mahagonny' and weill has turned his themes out to symphony legth admirably.

the interpretation by martin alsop and the bso, however, leaves something to be desired. it's very much by the book and lacking in texture and dynamic.

i'm sure that there is a better performance out there in the world, maybe even one conducted by a contemporary of weill's like maurice abravanel(sp?). that okay; i needed to start this collection weill's orchestral stuffs somewhere.

5 Stars for the Weill 1st sym.......2006-04-09

I'm only here to discuss the Weill incredible poetic and beautiful toned 1st sym.
My first choice might be the Prausnitz/New Philharmonia/EMI which is OOP, but worth the looking for.
Next choice might be the Baden/Kracow/Koch, OOP
3rd choice maight be the Swierczewski/Gulbenkian SO/Nimbus , still in print.
Next comes the Alsop/Bournemouth, as David Bryson wrote, "while not spectacular, still a worthy recording"
But then David goes on to write "Superbly realized".
Now here I have to diasgree. As the other 3 recordings mentioned deliver a greater depth and tonal phrasing.

Still hats off to Miss Alsop for recording a neglected masterpiece. She is still young in her caree and we expect other good things as well in the near future.
I can just hear the ol George Szell fans right now,
But she's no where as great as was our glorious Szell:.
Well I don't own any szell recordings, I've always found Szell to be good, but never excellent.
Except in the Strauss last 4 songs with Schwartkopf with the BERLIN RADIO SO.
Szell's Cleveland recordings were always average as far as I'm concerned.
I'm just comming around to Weill's 2nd sym, and good as it is, his 1st is superior. The 2nd seems to borrow too many ideas from the 1st, thus the 1st is more original.
The Lady in the dark work are a series of light broadway style music.

Three Wondrous Weill Works Given Star Treatment by Alsop's Supremely Assured Direction.......2006-01-04

Influenced by the likes of Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg in his youth, German composer and later musical theater wunderkind Kurt Weill wrote his first symphony when he was 21 and full of precocious fervor. It is presented here under the masterful baton of Marin Alsop leading the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and the work is a bold, often dissonant single-movement piece. Over the course of its twenty-seven vibrant minutes, you can feel Weill's innate sense of lyricism in the work, but there is also an adolescent angst that makes the work fascinating within the Weill canon. Symphony #2, which opens the disc, is a more accomplished work in three distinct movements. He had written it in 1933, twelve years after the first, when he was living as an expatriate in Paris to escape Nazi Germany. His urgent passion is on full display throughout as if a major disaster is looming, and the music is particularly tinged with a bittersweet poignancy in the middle Largo movement.

Yet, it is really the Symphonic Nocturne for his Broadway classic, "Lady in the Dark", that provides the most vivid impression. Arranged by Robert Russell Bennett, it's an elegant suite of six movements, each familiar melody highlighting a different dramatic element of the show. It begins with the touching Andante misterioso "My Ship", which builds gradually into a swooning work, and then lights into the splendidly evocative "Girl of the Moment", the boldly colored bolero, "This Is New", and the all-out dramatic pizzazz of "Dance of the Tumblers". The work ends with a sassy, insinuating and ultimately stentorian version of "The Saga of Jenny". It's a wondrous work given its due by Alsop, who seems to understand Weill's Tin Pan Alley sensibilities as much as his earlier orchestral ones. This is yet another of Naxos's bargain-priced CDs, and like her recent interpretations of John Adams and Philip Glass, it is beautifully recorded at the Concert Hall, Lighthouse in Dorset, UK. This recording verifies Weill's versatility and Alsop's talent in bringing them to the fore in all their glorious purity.

The Other Kurt Weill.......2005-12-01

First off, let me say that I'm not a fan of Kurt Weill, at least what I knew by him prior to an acquaintance with the symphonies. His Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, based on the "Threepenny Opera" is the kind of twenties modernism from Germany that doesn't really send me--strident, cheeky, bumptious about mixing pop and classical music in a way that doesn't redound to the glory of either. Hence my great surprise at hearing Weill's Symphony No. 2. Here is a work that doesn't comprise on the composer's sardonic musical language yet doesn't pander either. It's a bit of hard-as-nails modernism that predictably didn't go down well with its earliest audiences. Maybe they wanted bread and circuses. Instead, Weill gave them weltschmerz 1930s style.

This is austere music, stripped to the bare essentials, employing a relatively small orchestra without percussion save for timpani. It does have a restless energy in the outer movements, both of which are well argued and very listenable, the last movement bustling along to sardonic march tempo that's strangely infectious. Does Weill foresee a mania for marching in Germany's future? (By the time of the Symphony's completion, he was in exile in Paris.) But the most remarkable movement is the long central Largo. It manages at once to be mordant and melancholy--not an easy proposition--reminding me of the slow movements from Suk's Asrael Symphony and Barber's Symphony No. 2 of a decade later. All these slow movements have the same oddly chilly dignity.

Weill's Symphony No. 1 could almost be considered an apprentice work. Written in 1921 when the composer was 21, it is in a single movement but falls into three distinct sections: fast, slow, fast. The fast sections are spiky and somewhat amorphous, the slow movement troubled and anxious, with a marching ground bass and a weird, discordant canon that leads to a semi-sweet solo for the violin, the orchestra still rumbling and grumbling underneath. Things are hardly leavened by the finale, which unfolds like a series of angular variations on a chorale theme. The work ends with a percussion-heavy bang, then a whimper. Odd music this--not entirely successful but definitely interesting; you want to hear it again just to see if you can dope it all out.

After this hard-bitten modernism, the "Symphonic Nocturne" based on Weill's 1940 Broadway musical "Lady in the Dark" seems a weird choice. Since there isn't very much purely orchestral Weill, I guess the producers were hard-pressed for filler, but even the ubiquitous Dreigroschenmusik would have been better than this fluff. Orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett, it sounds like Gershwin without the moxie--or the melodies. Oh well, you can choose not to come back for more. But you will want to return to the symphonies, especially the fascinating Second.

Marin Alsop is proving herself a force to be reckoned with in modern music. She and the Bournemouth Symphony give Weill their all, and Naxos contributes fine, full sound with lots of color and presence. I may be cool about the "Nocturne," but the rest of this CD is decidedly hot.

REVERSE THRUST.......2005-11-11

This disc has been very thoughtfully edited. For one thing, the six pieces comprising the Lady in the Dark suite are played without intervening pauses (although there are separate tracks), which is as it should be, like a band playing half a dozen numbers in succession on a bandstand. What is far more important, and very intelligent too, is sequencing the second symphony before the first. The first symphony dates from 1921, the second from 1933/4, and the `symphonic nocturne' (what's one of them?) Lady in the Dark from 1940. If the works had been presented in straight order of composition it would have been very easy to form the impression that Weill's musical idiom was a backward-running process. The first symphony was a work he never acknowledged by that title. It comes from early in his course in composition with Busoni, and I read with great interest that he was the youngest member to be accepted, at age 20 in the year 1920, into that class, when in the very same year Busoni had refused to take on the 17-year-old Serkin as a piano pupil on the grounds that he was too old. In style this first symphony is very assured, its idiom hovering somewhere in the region of Honegger and Hindemith. It is in one movement, and a good deal longer than the most famous contemporary 1-movement symphony, the 7th of Sibelius. The second symphony is in a more normal 3-movement format, and it makes odd listening to the extent that its idiom seems to become more conservative as it goes along. The opening movement is not too far removed in style from the first symphony, but we have not got far into the long central slow movement before we hear a bassoon solo that is the Weill we know, followed later by some familiar-sounding brass writing and leading to a placid tonal conclusion. As for the Lady in the Dark, a collaboration with Ira Gershwin is not where one would expect to find modern harmonisation, and the Weill of the Threepenny Opera is with us once more.

I found the whole experience utterly intriguing. Weill's second symphony was composed in Paris to commission after he fled the new regime of gangsters in Germany. It seems to have had a dim reception and then to have been palely loitering unperformed for several decades. I for one had never heard it until I bought this disc, and I think it is something that would get me to bestir myself out to a concert if I saw it scheduled. Indeed I think the first symphony might well do that too. What its composer really thought of it I don't know, but it doesn't have any apprentice feel to it, and its single fantasia-like movement is nearly as long as the three movements of the second added up. Weill in his symphonic guise, particularly his early symphonic guise, is not entirely the man we might expect from the familiar stuff, but the genius and originality are still there. His second symphony is a far more serious bit of work than are the symphonies of Weber, but I felt all the same that it stands in some similar relation to the heavier masterpieces of its period, the symphonies of Mahler, Sibelius and Elgar, as Weber's do to Beethoven's.

If the symphonies are a journey of discovery, the Lady in the Dark (about psychoanalysis apparently) is definitely for Weill's fans, of whom I am one. The performances here strike me as just right, with the proper (or improper) seedy tone to them. The Bournemouth Symphony have been a fine orchestra for quite a long time now, at least since Silvestri's day, and Marin Alsop has been steadily advancing in recognition for a number of years too. The recording is very recent, just last year, and while it's not spectacular it is perfectly good by any rational standard. We are given here an hour and a quarter of absolutely fascinating music superbly realised, and even the liner-note, which comes with a German translation, is far better than many I see from the more traditional recording concerns. My notices of Naxos productions tend to finish, or begin, or both, with a panegyric to that fine company and its collaborators, and this one follows the tradition. Long may things be this way.

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what's new: early 21st century

Monk to Bach

Manufacturer: Winter & Winter
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Trios | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Avant Garde & Free Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

Bebop General | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

Hard Bop | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Vocal Jazz General | Vocal Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Compilations | Jazz | Styles | Music

Bebop & Post-Bop | Compilations | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music

Classical | Indie Music | Stores | Music

General | Jazz | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Bebop | Jazz | Indie Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000007RYO
Release Date: 1998-06-09

Tracks:

Blue Room - Paul Motian And The Electric Bebop Band
Oblivion - Ensemble Of The Gran Caffe Lavena, Plazza San Marco
Description Du Tunnel - Big Satan
Sym No.2 'Resurrection', Primal Light - Uri Caine And Urlight
Misterioso - The Paul Motian Trio
Violoncello Solo Ste lll in C: Prld - Paolo Beschi
Songs OF The Death Of Children: I Often Think They Have Merely Gone Out! - Uri Caine And Urlight
Trio in E flat, Op.100 - La Gaia Scienza
Ma Plus Belle Histoire D'amour - Marc Ducret
The Eternal Present - Gary Thomas And Exile's Gate

Customer Reviews:

what's new: early 21st century.......2005-10-12

this is an anthology, a sampler, of what's current in jazz and classical music played by jazz artists. it serves the purpose of familiarizing. however, nothing leaped out and pushed me to want to listen to any of the cd's these selections were first recorded.

Jazz Music:

Jazz Music

jazz music