|
|
|
Orff - Carmina Burana / Oelze, Keenlyside, Kuebler; Thielemann
: :Every concert-season programmer can depend on Carmina Burana to bring down the house. Since its premiere in 1937, Carl Orff's theatrically vivid, earthy cantata setting of the medieval poetry of wandering minstrels has kept its extraordinarily popular status. Christian Thielemann's new recording by no means displaces the classic accounts by Jochum or Ormandy, but it dusts off many of the clichés that have gathered around Carmina and conveys an overarching, coherent vision that is frequently lacking in performance. Thielemann brings this triptych of scenes to life--springtime, the tavern, and the court ...
|
|
|
György Ligeti Edition 4: Vocal Works (Madrigals, Mysteries, Aventures, Songs) - The King's Singers / Philharmonia Orchestra / Esa-Pekka Salonen
: :Rejoice! The world-premiere recordings of six Ligeti works are cause for celebration. Three of the pieces are recent (1988-93), and three were written during Ligeti's youth in Hungary. In the liner notes, Ligeti movingly describes the artistic climate under the Communist regime. One of the highlights, the third of six Nonsense Madrigals is a beautiful setting of the English alphabet. The other premieres are Mysteries of the Macabre sung by the brilliant Sibylle Ehlert, and a Hölderlin poem arranged for soprano and piano. The earlier premieres are settings of Hungarian poets, ...
|
|
|
Complete Webern
: :Pierre Boulez's Complete Webern Edition appears just over two decades after his last traversal. Well, it's not literally complete, but does have enough early works to set the mature ones in the right context. These days, Webern is no longer seen so much as a new music guru as he is a major composer, pure and simple--his expression as concise as it is intense. Performancewise, there's a quality of musicianship here that few previous recordings have matched; familiarity with the idiom certainly plays its part, but so does Boulez's belief that ...
|
|
|
Brahms: Requiem [Hybrid SACD]
from: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
: :Pierre Boulez's Complete Webern Edition appears just over two decades after his last traversal. Well, it's not literally complete, but does have enough early works to set the mature ones in the right context. These days, Webern is no longer seen so much as a new music guru as he is a major composer, pure and simple--his expression as concise as it is intense. Performancewise, there's a quality of musicianship here that few previous recordings have matched; familiarity with the idiom certainly plays its part, but so does Boulez's belief that ...
|
|
|
Schmidt: Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln
from: EMI Classics
: :Pierre Boulez's Complete Webern Edition appears just over two decades after his last traversal. Well, it's not literally complete, but does have enough early works to set the mature ones in the right context. These days, Webern is no longer seen so much as a new music guru as he is a major composer, pure and simple--his expression as concise as it is intense. Performancewise, there's a quality of musicianship here that few previous recordings have matched; familiarity with the idiom certainly plays its part, but so does Boulez's belief that ...
|
|
|
Mozart - Die Zauberflöte / Oelze, Schade, Sieden, Finley, Peeters, English Baroque Soloists, Gardiner
: :Pierre Boulez's Complete Webern Edition appears just over two decades after his last traversal. Well, it's not literally complete, but does have enough early works to set the mature ones in the right context. These days, Webern is no longer seen so much as a new music guru as he is a major composer, pure and simple--his expression as concise as it is intense. Performancewise, there's a quality of musicianship here that few previous recordings have matched; familiarity with the idiom certainly plays its part, but so does Boulez's belief that ...
|
|
|
Viktor Ullmann: Der Kaiser von Atlantis/Hölderlin-Lieder
from: Polygram Records
: :Ullmann's opera has got to be one of the most terrifying and moving works in the history of the form. It was composed in 1943 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, though never performed there. That the music survived at all is something of a miracle, as Ullmann himself was later taken to Auschwitz and gassed. The story is an allegory: the emperor (a thinly disguised parody of Hitler) decides to wage total war, and so offends Death by seeming to take over his job that Death goes on strike, and people ...
|
|
|
Bach: St. Matthew Passion
from: Hanssler Classics
: :Ullmann's opera has got to be one of the most terrifying and moving works in the history of the form. It was composed in 1943 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, though never performed there. That the music survived at all is something of a miracle, as Ullmann himself was later taken to Auschwitz and gassed. The story is an allegory: the emperor (a thinly disguised parody of Hitler) decides to wage total war, and so offends Death by seeming to take over his job that Death goes on strike, and people ...
|
|
|
Berg: Complete String Quartets
: :Ullmann's opera has got to be one of the most terrifying and moving works in the history of the form. It was composed in 1943 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, though never performed there. That the music survived at all is something of a miracle, as Ullmann himself was later taken to Auschwitz and gassed. The story is an allegory: the emperor (a thinly disguised parody of Hitler) decides to wage total war, and so offends Death by seeming to take over his job that Death goes on strike, and people ...
|
|
|
Evening Star: German Opera Arias
: :Ullmann's opera has got to be one of the most terrifying and moving works in the history of the form. It was composed in 1943 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, though never performed there. That the music survived at all is something of a miracle, as Ullmann himself was later taken to Auschwitz and gassed. The story is an allegory: the emperor (a thinly disguised parody of Hitler) decides to wage total war, and so offends Death by seeming to take over his job that Death goes on strike, and people ...
|
|