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AGGIORNATO AL: 18 AGOSTO 2007
CATALOGO MERCURY 180GR.
AUTUNNO 2007
Janos Starker, whose elegant style and impeccable musicianship are the delight of audiences the world over, performs the Schumann, Lalo and Saint-Saens Cello Concertos on 35mm film.
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Stravinsky - Song of the Nightingale / Fireworks (SR-90387) - 1 LP
That art cannot be mechanized, but demands freedom and belongs to all mankind is a lesson that had to be learned by the emperor of China in Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale. The emperor imprisoned a nightingale in a golden cage so that he alone could enjoy its song. An inventor's attempt to imitate the nightingale's song by means of a mechanical bird brought the emperor only a short-lived pleasure: the cogwheels wore down, and the bird's music became a farce. But it was not only the birdsong, which suffered. The emperor became ill and took to his bed. Only the song of the real nightingale can bring him back from death's door. Stravinsky set the fairytale to music in a symphonic poem which is filled with colorful sound of the Far East. Characteristic for the powerful musical language of this early work are reminiscences of stylistic elements from The Rite Of Spring and The Firebird. The repertoire on this LP is enhanced by a sonorous Scherzo, the mock tango, and the dramatic and far too rarely performed Etudes for Orchestra.
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Copland - Appalachian Spring / Billy the Kid (SR-90246) - 1 LP
A great record by a great American composer recorded long before record companies discovered that American music sells. Dorati is world renowned for his interpretations of both symphonic and ballet scores. This ballet tells the dramatic story of Billy's life and death as unfolded in Dorati's compelling performance.
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Respighi - Ancient Dances and Airs for Lute (SR-90246) - 1LP
The common practice in concert houses today of performing early music on modern orchestral instruments is owed largely to the endeavors of Ottorino Respighi. His free transcription of Renaissance works for the lute (1932) opened the way to the rediscovery of forgotten rhythms and timbres. Although Respighi altered the structure of the music by dissecting phrases right down to their basic elements, re-ordering them and redefining their sonority by the use of heavy brass and timpani, the art of the ancient maestri remained unscathed. Cadences and harmonic idioms are given a modern coloring at the most, but are never destroyed. Antal Dorati and his famous Philharmonia Hungarica have all that is needed to bring the score to life. Even in opulent passages the individual instruments can be heard distinctly. This works particularly well in the first two suites in which each movement is treated to a process of refinement by means of differing orchestration. That the third suite, written purely for stringed instruments, soars away, just like the proverbial Aeolian harp is only to be expected from this orchestra.
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The Romeros - World of Flamenco (SR-2-9120) - 1 LP
The Royal Family of the Guitar…The Romeros are a veritable institution in the world of classical music, a group that has dazzled countless audiences and won the raves of reviewers worldwide. Celedonio Romero, founder and creator of The Romeros guitar dynasty, died in 1996. As the family says, "the spirit of the quartet is him"; his sons and grandsons continue Celedonio's legacy. This Mercury Living Presence record captures the quartet in its prime.
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Brahms - Sonatas For Cello & Piano (SR-90392) - 1 LP
Brahms' Cello Sonatas could well be described as "romantic expression dressed in classical garb," filled as they are with the same musical philosophy that is to be found in many of his instrumental works. Although 21 years lay between the two compositions, Brahms remained true to the formal musical language of the Viennese masters, and this brought him – and other composers of his time – the reproach of imitating Beethoven.
The unmistakable personal style of Brahms is reflected in the sweeping first movement which is in the manner of a serious song and calls for sensitive but by no means feeble bowing. Starker's wiry, austere playing keeps a check on any excessive emotion and instead brings the music to life in great detail.
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Béla Bartók - Dance Suite (SR-90183) - 1 LP
Bartok composed his Dance Suite as the result of a commission from the city fathers of Budapest to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the union of the two towns Pest and Buda. While on his travels, Bartok liked to collect old folksongs, and he used this opportunity to express the act of fraternity in his music in the manner of a hidden program. As he himself stated, he made use of Arabian, Hungarian and Romanian influences in the Suite, whose dances are linked together by means of ritornello-like interludes. Glossiness in order to achieve romantic tonal magnificence is uncalled for here. Dorati's conducting is oriented towards the archaic strength, and the dry and at times rustic nature of the Suite. He allows the orchestra to seethe, whistle and stamp, driven on by ever-changing rhythms which lend the work its impulsive urge. Together with the highly expressive Portraits, Op. 5 and the two excerpts from Mikrokosmos, originally composed for the piano and heard here in an arrangement for orchestra by Tibor Serly, this compilation offers an excellent insight into Bartok's musical thoughts and works.
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Richard Wagner - Wagner for Band (SR-90276) - 1 LP
The history of the Mercury Living Presence label is full of innovations and remarkable events. One of these was a trip in June 1962 to the Soviet Union to record, on location, Russian and American artists and orchestras. What makes this so outstanding is the fact that Mercury shipped its own recording truck and staff from the U.S. to Moscow – right at the height of the Cold War. Nobody had achieved this before, and actually, nobody did after. The records made from those recordings are all well known and have become classics. This box set bundles all five of the resulting LPs.
The packaging for this set is the most sumptuous one Speakers Corner has ever published. It includes a wooden box with a transparent sliding top. The enclosed booklet features photographs never printed before and interviews with participants of the tour: Bob Eberenz (vice president of Fine Recordings), Harold Lawrence (musical director of Mercury Living Presence) and Brice Somers (international director of Mercury Living Presence). This set will, and we are very confident of this, become a collector's item.
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Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5, Opus 47 (SR-90060) - 1 LP - One of the most fascinating aspects of Dmitri Shostakovich’s music was and still remains his aesthetic ambiguity, the likes of which is almost impossible to find in modern music. The Fifth Symphony in particular is regarded as an excellent example of how, during Stalin’s regime, Shostakovich outwardly remained true to the regulations concerning art while still managing not to forfeit his own artistic freedom and identity. Conceived in a classical vein, the work is filled with powerful motion and Russian song, even going almost as far as late-Romantic transfiguration. But this idyll is deceptive. Again and again the apparent harmony is disrupted by biting sarcasm: the spirited main theme of the first movement soon stiffens into a march-like farce, while in the untroubled second movement a shrill motif in the winds tears apart the cheerful mood.
Skrowacziewski amalgamates the contrasting tender sweetness of the violins and the violence of the attacking wind instruments in his precise and sparing interpretation, which is free of sugary expression and forced dynamics. His well-balanced conducting, combined with the wonderfully transparent recorded sound creates an ideal basis for identifying all the details which Shostakovich composed 'between the lines of the staff'.
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Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3; Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.1 (SR-90300) - 1 LP - In contrast to his tremendously popular Second and Third Piano Concertos, Rachmaninov’s First could be likened to a rare orchid in that it is seldom found on a concert programme. Why is that? Is it that it lacks the sweet sultriness of the later works? Or could it be that no one is aware of the 17-year-old composer’s talents? Or can he be accused of walking in Tchaikovsky’s harmonic footsteps? This recording has an answer to all these questions. In spite of reaching back to such genial examples as Schumann, Beethoven and Grieg, Rachmaninov reveals his own personality in his early work. The thematic ideas are extremely impressive, they are developed skillfully, and are treated to such a masterly orchestration that one is tempted to dub this work “The Underestimated”.
Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto was spared such a fate. Its folklike character, coupled with amazing virtuosity, guarantee that the work remains immensely popular – but it also places the highest demands upon the performers. It remains a matter of speculation as to whether the presence of the American recording team spurred on the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and the pianist Byron Janis to newer and greater heights, such as are heard here. We are happy to be able to include this valuable recording in our Russian Edition.s
This title is part of the 5LP-Set "Mercury Living Presence | The Russian Recordings" and is therefore not available separately.
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Franz Liszt: Piano Concertos No. 1 in E flat major and No. 2 in A major - Byron Janis (SR-90329) - 1 LP - Liszt’s Piano Concertos occupy a special position in the genre for several reasons. Firstly they mirror the amazing keyboard virtuosity of the composer, and secondly they point the way to modern music through their daring harmonies and free treatment of traditional compositional forms. Any pianist who tackles the mighty E flat major Concerto, which was premiered by Liszt himself under the baton of Berlioz in 1855, soon realises that he has taken on a mammoth task. Instead of an over-dimensional, weighty performance, Byron Janis and the Moscow Philharmonic present a compact reading of this tightly-knit composition. Janis, a pupil of Horowitz, displays his bravura in the appropriate places, but also knows how to use his technical prowess – perfected in his early years – to produce finely-chiselled keyboard poetry, freeing the work from its often-cited bulkiness. This is particularly effective in the intoxicating Finale, where the pianist’s brilliance amalgamates with triumphal orchestral playing.
In the Second Concerto, too, it is clear that great care has been taken with the score. Beginning with the elegiac entry, via the pulsating Agitato up to the expressive melodic playing, Byron Janis and Gennadi Rozhdestvensky fill this visionary symphonic poem with wonderful timbral colouring which is brought to a climax in the sparkling Finale. When music from the New German School sounds like it does here by means of Russian hands, then it certainly deserves a place in our Russian Edition.
This title is part of the 5LP-Set "Mercury Living Presence | The Russian Recordings" and is therefore not available separately.
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Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartets No. 4 op. 83 and No. 8 op. 110 (SR-90309) - 1 LP - The stony path towards artistic freedom which led through the thicket of the Soviet dictatorship appeared to have become somewhat smoother for Shostakovich with this recording. It was something of a small sensation that a recording team from the West was permitted to travel to Moscow to tape and thus preserve music by a contemporary composer for the western market. And that the Mercury team brought back a recording (along with other tapes) that would stand on an exalted platform even in times of a political thaw is a stroke of luck.
The Borodin String Quartet approaches Shostakovich’s modernistic, personal style methodically and with great expression, bedded as it is in romantic musical tradition. Although it isn’t done to draw attention to the performance of one player over the remaining three, one really must mention the cellist Berlinski who plays his part in the Quartet No. 4 with breathtaking cantabile and assurance.The Quartet No. 8 is special for a quite different reason: Shostakovich dedicated this piece to himself as a sort of personal requiem by working his initials DSCH (D, E flat, C, B natural in German notation) into the score and also included numerous citations from earlier works such as the First Symphony and Clarinet Trio op. 67. In this way both the music and the recording guarantee a very personal confrontation with the composer.
This title is part of the 5LP-Set "Mercury Living Presence | The Russian Recordings" and is therefore not available separately.
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Balalaika Favorites" (SR-90310) - 1 LP - The balalaika is not a difficult instrument to describe: it has a triangular body, three strings and a fretted neck. It is far more difficult to describe the inherent values of this national instrument, of which there is a whole family with sizes ranging from the piccolo and alto to the bass and double bass. Accordingly a wide variety of timbral colouring can be achieved, which – together with a broad repertoire – is exploited to the full by a traditional ensemble such as the Osipov Orchestra.
With their performances of arrangements of well-known, romantic Russian pieces, popular adaptations and waltzes, this professional orchestra gives us an insight into the spirited and highly entertaining world of a living musical culture. No different from a classical orchestra, the arrangements are rich in soloistic interludes. Alongside the domra, an instrument with three or four strings, we hear a xylophone, ancient wind instruments and the sonorous, rippling bajan (button accordion). This recording goes back to the roots of Russian music and rightly occupies an important position in our Russian Edition.
This title is part of the 5LP-Set "Mercury Living Presence | The Russian Recordings" and is therefore not available separately.
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Byron Janis - Encore! (SR-90305) - 1 LP - It is an unwritten rule of concert life, signalised by the continuous applause of an enthusiastic audience, that no good soloist is allowed to leave the platform before he has given at least one encore. Whether the virtuoso pulls a contemplative, lyrical or thrilling piece out of his hat is entirely up to him or her to decide. But one thing is absolutely imperative: an encore must be short and popular.
Twelve such little gems, all of them different in their own way, have been chosen by Byron Janis for this coupling. They are all well-loved – from the technically demanding Sixth Rhapsody and the frisky "Valse oubliée" by Liszt, to Schumann’s seemingly weightless Romance in F sharp major and his energetic Novelette with its cascades of chords. Byron Janis displays his deft finger technique in Prokofiev’s furious "Toccata", while tender sentimentality pervades Mendelssohn’s "Lied ohne Worte". Pinto’s three sparkling "Scenes from Childhood" are played with humour and nicely round off this musical pot-pourri.
This title is part of the 5LP-Set "Mercury Living Presence | The Russian Recordings" and is therefore not available separately.
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Claude Debussy: Nocturnes "Nuages", "Fêtes" und "Sirènes" / Maurice Ravel: "Daphnis et Chloé" Suite No. 2 (SR-90281) - 1 LP - With his Nocturnes, Debussy’s vision of music inspired by Nature enters a new sphere. His first multi-part orchestral work – the composition was originally conceived for violin but was published as a vocal-symphonic work – offers a wealth of subtleties as regards melody and sound colouring, the likes of which had never been heard before in Debussy’s oeuvre. Unlike traditional orchestral writing, the woodwinds here provide motivic vitality with a wide spectrum of tonal colouring while the strings unroll a dynamically finely graded carpet of sound. Absolutely innovative is the wordless female chorus in the third movement whose voices combine with the instruments to produce a mysterious tonal concoction.
Debussy’s compatriot, Ravel, went to even greater lengths in his "Daphnis and Chloé" Suites. As the instrumental distribution leads one to suspect – full orchestra plus 15 percussion instruments, chorus and wind machine –, the work is a fully-fledged modern-age French choreographic symphony and one of the greatest compositions of its time. It is almost superfluous to mention that a thrilling performance of both works can only be achieved by the very best of symphony orchestras.
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Richard Wagner - Wagner for Band (SR-90276) - 1 LP
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Modest Moussorgsky - Pictures At An Exhibition (orginal and orchestral version) (SR-90217) - 2 LP
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Brahms - Horn Trio, Sonata No. 2 (SR-90210) - 1 LP
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Enesco - Roumanian Rhapsodies Nos. 1 & 2 / Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies Nos. 2 & 3 (SR-90235) - 1 LP
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Dvorak - Concerto for Cello & Orchestra in B Minor (SR-90303) - 1 LP
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Marcel Dupre - Organ Recital (SR-90169) - 1 LP
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British Band Classic - Vol.2 (SR-90197) - 1 LP
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Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet (SR-90315) - 1 LP
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The Black Maskers (SR-90103) - 1LP
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Winds in hi-fi (SR-90173) - 1LP
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Bach - Suites1-6 for solo Cello - Janos Starker (SR3-9016)
3 LP IN COFANETTO - € 85,00
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Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto no-3 - Byron Janis/Dorati (SR-90283) - 1 LP
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Respighi - Gli uccelli (SR-90153) - 1 LP
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Claude Debussy: Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune (SR-90213) - 1 LP
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SR-90316, SR-90278 & SR-90282
3 LP IN COFANETTO - € 85,00
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Berg - Wozzeck - Lulu (SR-90278) - 1 LP
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Schuller - Seven Studies On Themes Of Paul Klee (SR-90282) - 1 LP
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Schoenberg - Five Pieces for Orchestra / Webern - Five Pieces for Orchestra / Berg - Three Pieces for Orchestra (SR-90316) - 1 LP
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