ionarts

2010-05-10T15:33:00.000-04:00

Prologue & Epilogue
"ARIA"
Aria from Goldberg Variations
Glenn Gould (1981)
Sony
.com .co.uk .de .fr Multiplicity.
No.1
"AEOLUS"
"Zerreisset, zersprenget, zertrümmert die Gruft"
opening chorus from "Aeolus Propitiated", BWV 205
Harnoncourt / CMW
Teldec
.com .co.uk .de .fr Multiplicity.
No.2
"PRELUDE"
Prelude from Cello Suite No.1, BWV 1007
Anner Bylsma
Sony
.com .co.uk .de .fr

Multiplicity.
No.3 & 5
"PER MOTUM CONTRARIUM", "VIOLINI IN UNISONO"
from A Musical Offering
Davitt Moroney et al.
Harmonia Mundi
.com .co.uk .de .fr Multiplicity.
No.4
"POLONAISE"
Polonaise from Orchestral Suite No.2, BWV 1067
Kuijken / LPB
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi
.com .co.uk .de .fr Multiplicity.
No.6
"BRANDENBURG"
Allegro from Brandenburg Concerto No.3, BWV 1048
Goebel / MAK
Archiv
.com .co.uk .de .fr Multiplicity.
No.7 & 14
"ALLEGRO - ADAGIO", "SONATA"
Allegro & Adagio from Violin Sonata BWV 1023, Adagio from Violin Sonata fBWV 1018
Elizabeth Wallfisch & Paul Nicholson
Hyperion
.com .co.uk .de .fr

Multiplicity.
No.12
"MINUET"
Minuet in g from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, BWV 114/115
Gustav Leonhardt
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi
.com .co.uk .de .fr Multiplicity.
No.13
"WEICHET NUR, BETRÜBTE SCHATTEN"
Aria No.1 for Soprano from the "Wedding" Cantata, BWV 202
Ton Koopman, Lisa Larsson / ABO
Challenge Classics
.com .co.uk .de .fr

2010-02-19T12:40:00.001-05:00

J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concertos, Chailly / LGO
Decca 001392302

F.Mendelssohn-B.,“Mendelssohn Discoveries”(Symphony No.3, Piano Concerto No.3, Hebrides Ovt.), Prosseda / Chailly / LGO
Decca 001328002

J.Brahms, Violin Concerto, Double Concerto, Repin, Mørk / Chailly / LGO
DG 001264802

R.Schumann, The Symphonies (Ed. G.Mahler), Chailly / LGO
Decca 001068902

Mendelssohn & Bruch, Violin Concertos, Jansen / Chailly / LGO
Decca 000726002

J.Brahms, Piano Concertos, Freire / Chailly / LGO
Decca 000658802

F.Mendelssohn-B., “Lobgesang” Symphony, Chailly / LGO
Decca 000550602

Mahler Test

2009-12-18T22:45:00.013-05:00

Over on WETA, I have published a few articles on Mahler's Symphonies (links below) and my favorite recordings. This condenses the list my top-two choices of each symphony and my top-choice SACD recording, wherever it isn't covered by one of the first two. Each title features "Mahler" written in a font roughly Mahler's time or bit thereafter.

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.1 (Part 1) The font used in the title is “ITC Stoclet Light”	Kubelik, BRSO, Audite .com .co.uk .de .fr	Boulez / ??? / DG .com .co.uk .de .fr	Haitink, CSO, Resound .com .co.uk .de .fr
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.1 (Part 2) The font used in the title is “Arnold Boecklin Regular”	Mahler, Symphony No.1, Kubelik / Danish RSO EMI .com .co.uk .de .fr	Mahler, Symphony No.1, Kubelik / Danish RSO EMI .com .co.uk .de .fr	Mahler, Symphony No.1, Kubelik / Danish RSO EMI .com .co.uk .de .fr
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.2 (Part 1) The font used in the title is “Galadriel Regular”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.2 (Part 2) The font used in the title is “Serlio Regular”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.3 (Part 1) The font used in the title is “Windsor Light”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.3 (Part 2) The font used in the title is “Hobo Medium”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.4 (Part 1) The font used in the title is “Windsor Elongated”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.4 (Part 2) The font used in the title is “ITC Souvenier Light”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.4 (Part 3) The font used in the title is “Eckmann Regular”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.5 (Part 1) The font used in the title is “Vienna Extended Regular”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.5 (Part 2) The font used in the title is “Victorian Plain”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.6 (Part 1) The font used in the title is “P22 Vienna Regular”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.6 (Part 2) The font used in the title is “Bernhard Fashion Roman”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.6 (Part 3) The font used in the title is “Bernhard Bold Condensed”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.7 (Part 1) The font used in the title is “Brighton Medium”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.7 (Part 2) The font used in the title is “Fashion Engraved”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.8 (Part 1) The font used in the title is “Samba Bold”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.8 (Part 2) The font used in the title is “Grafiko Regular”

Gustav Mahler – Das Lied von der Erde (Part 1) The font used in the title is “ITC Rennie Mackintosh Light”

Gustav Mahler – Das Lied von der Erde (Part 2) The font used in the title is “ITC Korinna Regular”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.9 (Part 1) The font used in the title is “ITC Souvenier Greek Demi”

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.9 (Part 2) The font used in the title is “ITC Stocklet Bold”

Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete Cycles Part 7, 2006/07

2009-07-01T10:27:00.001-04:00

Gerhard Oppitz
2004 - 2006 - Hänssler

Oppitz' Beethoven cycle flew under the radar, compared to those of Schiff and Lewis, but it is, along with those two, one of the most notable to have been produced in this decade. I've not come across anything fancy in this cycle, but some astonishingly fine playing.

Availability (previously in eight individual volumes, now also as a box):

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Hänssler	Yes Box	Yes Box	Yes Box	Yes Box

Garrick Ohlsson
1992 - 2007 - Bridge (Arabesque)

Availability (in eight individual volumes):

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Bridge	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Idil Biret
1994 - 2005 - IBA

This sonata cycle is part of a Beethoven Edition that launched Idil Biret's own label, Idil Biret Archive. It's practically a sub-label of Naxos, the company that has brought her from relative obscurity to becoming a household name. The Beethoven Edition will include not only the sonatas and concertos but also Liszt's Symphony transcriptions which are being re-released on CD for the first time since Biret took them down on LP for EMI in the mid-eighties.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
IBA	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

András Schiff
2004 - 2007 - ECM

Schiff used a Boesendorfer and a Steinway Grand for these recordings, taped live (except for the last three sonatas) and played in sequence. A review of volume one exists here. Charles has reviewed a few other volumes as they came out.

Availability (in eight individual volumes):

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
ECM	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Paul Lewis
2004 - 2007 - Harmonia Mundi

Availability (in vour volumes):

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Harmonia Mundi	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Kun-Woo Paik
2005 - 2007 - Decca (Korea)

Perhaps Decca sent up a test-balloon in the West when they released one volume of this cycle world wide. After that it was back to releases for the Asian (Korean?) market only.

Availability of Sonatas 16-26 (complete set only in Asia):

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Decca	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial

Below follow those cycles that I have overlooked. Many of them were only ever distributed on the Asian market. Any further information about these would be much appreciated. The same goes fo anyone who can confirm the existence of an alleged cycle by a Michael Steinberg (apparently on Elysium LPs, possibly recorded in Germany). Eventually these will all be moved to the appropriate parts of this series of posts.

Shoko Sugitani
???? - 2007? - IDC Classic

Not available as far as I know. (Volume 11 found on HMV.co.jp)

Kazune Shimizu
1995 - 1997 - Sony (Japan)

Live recordings.

Out of print as a set with individual copies hard to find at HMV.co.jp.

Daniela Varinska
???? - 2009? - Diskant

Available (9 of 11? volumes) from Slovakia or in Japan:

Ikuyo Nakamichi
2002? - BMG Japan

Ikuyo Nakamichi studied under Mitsuko Kinpara, Phyllis Rappaport (Michigan), Kazuhiko Nakajima and Prof. Klaus Schilde at the Hochschule fur Musik in Munich on a scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Cultural Affairs. In 1982 Nakamichi won first and the Masuzawa Prize at the 51st Annual Japan Music Competition.

Available from Japan.

Akiyoshi Sako
2003 - 2005 - Camerata

Available (partially?) from Japan.

Takahiro Sonoda I
????- ???? - Denon

Apparently one of the grand figures in Japanese music and someone of whom I hitherto, somehow, knew nothing. He is to have recorded the complete Beethoven sonatas three (!) times, as only Barenboim and Brendel have. I cannot track down the third (there may be confusion on this point, as he also issued an edition of the Beethoven sonatas as scores), but this one on Denon can still befound.

Available from Japan, Germany, and France.

Takahiro Sonoda II
1993 - 1996- Evica

Available in 12 individual volumes from Japan:

This concludes the listing of all Beethoven Sonata Cycles that are currently complete* and finished‡. There are, however, 14 (or more!) cycles under way, of which Ronald Bräutigam's will most likely be the next complete one (and one of the most important, at that). I will list all cycles that are under way--as well as a selection of historically important attempted cycles that were never finished but include >20 sonatas.

* If you count, as I did, Backhaus II and Arrau II as complete, despite one and two (respectively) missing sonatas.

‡ This includes Idil Biret's cycle which has been all recorded but won't have been issued in its entirety until later this year or early 2010.

Part 1: 1935 - 1969
Part 2: 1967 - 1974
Part 3: 1977 - 1989
Part 4: 1990 - 1996
Part 5: 1996 - 1999
Part 6: 1996 - 1999

If you have additional information about recording dates, availability, cover art -- or corrections and additions -- your input is much appreciated.

This survey is meant to list all complete sets of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas and their availability in different markets, not to review them.

Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete Cycles Part 6, 2000 - 2005

2009-06-23T04:28:00.002-04:00

Gerard Willems
1997 - 2000? - ABC

The piano used was an Australian Stuart & Sons which differs from a standard grand piano in a few salient points and promises, among other factors, greater dynamics and increased sustain. (And, Nigel Tufnel would exclaim: This piano's number of pedals goes to four!)

Availability - directly from Australia.

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
ABC	No	No	(Import)	Import

Anne Øland
1995 - 2002? - T.I.M.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
T.I.M.	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Stephen Kovacevich
1992 - 2003 - EMI

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
EMI	Yes	Yes	(Yes)	Yes

David Allen Wehr
1998 - 2004 - Connoisseur Society

Piano used was a Yamaha CF111S.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Connoisseur	Yes	1 - 2 - 3 - 4	1 - 2 - 3 - 4	1 - 2 - 3 - 4

Andrea Lucchesini
1999? - 2004 - Stradivarius

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Stradivarius	(No)	(No)	No	No

Seymour Lipkin
2002 - 2004 - Newport Classics

Recorded at the Curtis Institute where Lipkin is on the piano and chamber music faculty. (He also teaches at Juilliard.) The cycle is available on CD as three sets of three discs or on one CD ROM as mp3 which comes with the complete score, as well.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Newport Classics	1 - 2 - 3 mp3	1 - 2 - 3 mp3	1 - 2 - 3 mp3	1 - 2 - 3 mp3

Craig Sheppard
2003 - 2004 - Romeo Records

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Romeo Records	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Daniel Barenboim III
2005 - EMI (DVD)

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
EMI DVD	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Part 1: 1935 - 1969
Part 2: 1967 - 1974
Part 3: 1977 - 1989
Part 4: 1990 - 1996
Part 5: 1996 - 1999

If you have additional information about recording dates, availability, cover art -- or corrections and additions -- your input is much appreciated.

This survey is meant to list all complete sets of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas and their availability in different markets, not to review them.

Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete CyclesPart 5, 1996 - 1999

2009-06-11T19:02:00.001-04:00

Michael Houstoun
1994 - 1996 - Morrison Music Trust

Kiwi-Beethoven on a Steinway D. Still available in four volumes from the Music Trust itself and sources in New Zealand (Triton Music Ltd.) Available internationally through digital distribution via iTunes music store, emusic.com and the Naxos digital music library.

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Trust CDs	No	No	No	No

Jean-Bernard Pommier
1991 - 1997 - Erato

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Erato	Partly & Used	Yes	(Yes)	Yes

Russell Sherman
1993 - 1997 - GM Recordings

Availability: Most of the five volumes are still available; the complete set isn't. Available used or imported outside the US.

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
GM R	1 - 2 - 3 4 - 5	1 - 2 - 3 4 - 5	1 - 2 - 3 4 - 5	1 - 2 - 3 4 - 5

Robert Taub
1994 - 1997 - Vox

Availability: In five volumes, spottily available. Volume four seems completely oop.

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Vox	partly	1 - 2 - 3 4 - 5	No	No

Georges Pludermacher
1998 - Transart live

Live recordings from the National Music Conservatory Reims on a Steinway with a fourth, "harmonic", pedal.

Availability: Pricey on CDs but incredibly cheap ($16 for the 10 CD set) as mp3 downloads.

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Transart	Yes mp3	Yes	Yes	Yes

Aldo Ciccolini
1985 - 1999 - Bongiovanni / Cascavelle

Availability: Looks like it has already been discontinued outside Germany and France, just two years after re-issue.

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Cascavelle	No	No	Yes	Yes

Gotthard Kladetzky
19?? - 1998 - Koch Schwann

Only in the UK do seem (some of) the individual volumes still available on the used CD market.

André DeGroote
1998 - Naxos (BeNeLux), Solal

Availability: Originally recorded (at the Brussels Royal Conservatoire) for Naxos, but deleted when they closed their Benelux branch. Just now re-issued by Solal.

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Solal	No	No	Yes	Yes

Yukio Yokoyama
1998- 1999 - Sony (Japan)

Availability: Made for--and sold on--the Japanese market. Available used and as imports, though.

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Sony	(Yes)	(Yes)	(Yes)	Yes

Robert Silverman
1999 - Orpheum Masters

Recorded 'into' and then reproduced from a Bösendorfer Reproducing Piano. Read about the process here.

No longer availabile.

Part 1: 1935 - 1969
Part 2: 1967 - 1974
Part 3: 1977 - 1989
Part 4: 1990 - 1996

If you have additional information about recording dates, availability, cover art -- or corrections and additions -- your input is much appreciated.

This survey is meant to list all complete sets of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas and their availability in different markets, not to review them.

Sibelius, Symphony Cycles (Test)

2009-05-30T07:08:00.010-04:00


V. Ashkenazy I, Philharmonia Decca ~$40,-	L. Segerstam II, Helsinki PO Ondine ~$54,-	O. Vanska, Lahti SO BIS ~$65,-	H. Blomstedt, S.F.SO Decca ~$31,-

C. Davis I, Boston SO Philips v.1 ~$18,-	C. Davis I, Boston SO Philips v.2 ~$18,-	L. Maazel, Vienna Phil. Decca ~$24,-	P. Sakari, Iceland SO Naxos ~$36,- (oop)

A. Gibson, Royal ScO Chandos (oop)	H.v. Karajan / Kamu, Berlin Phil DG ~$24,-	K. Sanderling, Berlin Berlin Cl. ~$33,-	N. Järvi II, Gothenburg SO DG ~$56,-

L. Segerstam I, Danish NSO Chandos/Brilliant ~$46,- (oop)	L. Bernstein, NY Phil Sony ~$50,-	Sir J. Barbirolli, Hallé Orchestra EMI ~$35,- (sale)	P. Rattle, Birmingh.SO EMI ~$34,-

N. Jaervi I, Gothenburg SO BIS ~$62,-	P. Berglund I, Birmingh.SO Royal Classics (oop)	P. Berglund II, Helsinki PO EMI ~$35,-	P. Berglund III, Chamber OoE Finlandia ~$40,- (Germany only)

A. Collins, LSO Decca (Japan) ~$44,-	J.P. Saraste, Finnish RSO Finlandia (oop) ~$60,-	C. Davis III, LSO v.1-v.2-v.3-v.4 LSO live (4 à ~$16,-)	C. Davis II, LSO RCA ~$41,-

L. Maazel II, Pittsburgh SO Sony ~$25,-	G. Rozhdestvensky, Moscow RSO Russian Ed. ~$26,- (Japan only)	S. Oramo, CoBirmO Erato ~£30,- (Europe only)	A. Wanatabe, Japan PhilO Denon ~$31,- (Japan only)

Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete CyclesPart 3, 1977 - 1989

2009-05-29T13:34:00.001-04:00

Alfred Brendel II
1970 - 1977 - Philips (analog)

Not long after Brendel had finished these recordings, digital became the new thing in the recording industry and so he would go about it for a third time shortly thereafter, recording what is--at least on CD--his most prevalent cycle.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Philips	(Yes)	Yes	Yes	Yes

Malcolm Binns
19?? - 1977 (?) - L'Oiseau-Lyre

Played on different period instruments.

Never issued on CD.
Availability of last 5 Sonatas:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Explore Records	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Annie Fischer
1976 - 1978* - Hungaroton

These performances were recorded phrase by phrase with retakes, cutting, pasting, and editing taking place as late as 1992 and even beyond Fischer's death. Has its (cult?) following.

Availability:
(Also available on individual discs)

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
EMI	Yes	(Yes)	(Yes)	Yes

John Lill
1975 - 1980 - ASV (Brilliant, Sanctuary)

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Sanctuary	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Vladimir Ashkenazy
1971 - 1981 - Decca

My first Beethoven Piano Sonata cycle of which especially the early sonatas hold up very well while I've become rather indifferent to much of the rest.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
EMI	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Rudolf Buchbinder
1979 - 1981 - Telefunken / Telarc

Live? Buchbinder is one of the worlds most avid Beethoven sonata edition collectors with over 18 complete editions in his library.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Dynamic	No	No	No	No

Daniel Barenboim II
1981 - 1984 - Deutsche Grammophon

Barenboim, Take Two. Now for Deutsche Grammophon.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
DG	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Tatiana Nikolayeva
1984 - Melodyia (Olympia (UK), DS Berlin, Scribendium)

What little I've heard about (but not of) this cycle, it must be uncompetitive in every regard. Recorded during a series of Moscow recitals over a few months in very early 1984.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Scribendium	(Yes)	(Yes)	No	Yes

Bernard Roberts
1981 - 1984 - Nimbus

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Music & Arts	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Jenő Jandó
1987 - 1989 - Naxos

Naxos' pianist for all seasons seems to have recorded the complete-anything. Some Haydn I have of his is very amiable stuff, but the little I've heard of his Beethoven too bland from making me explore it further.

Availability:
On individual discs. (Two 5-disc sets containing the cycle have since been discontinued.)

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Gramola	List	(Yes) mp3	(Yes)	Yes

Part 1: 1935 - 1969
Part 2: 1967 - 1974

If you have additional information about recording dates, availability, cover art -- or corrections and additions -- your input is much appreciated.

This survey is meant to list all complete sets of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas and their availability in different markets, not to review them.

Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete CyclesPart 2, 1967 - 1975

2009-05-24T19:37:00.002-04:00

Maria Grinberg
1964 - 1967 - Melodiya

Availability (as individual volumes and spottily)

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Melodiya	1-2-3-4-5 -6-7-8-9	1-2-3-4-5- 6-7-8-9	1-2-3-4-5- 6-7-8-9	1-2-3-4-5- 6-7-8-9

Dieter Zechlin
1960 - 1969 (?) - Eterna / Berlin Classics

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Edel	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Daniel Barenboim I
1965 - 1969 - EMI

Another of these early, "great" cycles. Mono again, difficult to get, and (therefore?) much hailed.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
EMI	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Robert Riefling
1960 - 1970 (?) - Valois

Robert Riefling, 1938 Queen Elizabeth Competition winner, studied with Kempff and Edwin Fischer, among others.

Not currently available.

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
EMI	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Claude Frank
1967 - 1969 - RCA Victrola

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Music & Arts	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Paul Badura-Skoda I
1969 - 1970 - Gramola

Paul Badura-Skoda's "Viennese" Beethoven cycle on a Boesendorfer Grand. Overshadowed at the time by the more famous to have come just before him and those who would come just after him, but a connoisseur's Echt-Austrian cycle.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Gramola	No	Yes	Yes	Yes

Dino Ciani
196? - 1970 - Dynamic

Live, and notably so.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Dynamic	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Eric Heidiseck
1967 - 1973 - EMI

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
EMI	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Anton Kuerti
1967 - 1973 - Analekta

One of the first complete sets of the Sonatas I had, and ever declining in my estimation. Wherever Kuerti is very slow (which he is very often), the speed does not seem to be justified by an equivalent increase in musicality, lyricism, or other notable facet. And where Kuerti isn't very slow, he does not impress with the polished technique that many of the competitors display. Interesting, but hardly essential.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
EMI	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete CyclesPart 1, 1935 - 1969

2009-05-12T07:27:00.002-04:00

Artur Schnabel (mono)
1932 - 1935 - HMV

Artur Schnabel, the first pianist to record all 32 Beethoven sonatas, is still held in the highest esteem by many piano aficionados and his recordings much sought after. You will know if or when you want Schnabel's complete set - which, to some, is key to understanding Schnabel and even Beethoven. It is not recommended for those who are just beginning to explore these works in depth as neither the recording quality nor the technical accuracy is up to modern standards.

The sound is hampered either by high levels of noise or, when those were carelessly removed, a flat, thin, and tinny sound. Pearl leaves in the most noise but also the most piano sound. You ears do the filtering which, for small listening sessions, yields the best results. Dante (oop) does the opposite, but at least they do it well. EMI, too, overfilters. Naxos offers a good compromise and is recommended ahead of EMI. I don't know the Regis re-mastering. Various other labels have received scathing reviews for their re-mastering efforts and are probably best avoided.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
EMI	Yes	Yes	No (used)	Yes
Naxos	No (used:) 1-2-3-4-5 6-7-8-9-10	Yes 1-2-3-4-5 6-7-8-9-10	Yes 1-2-3-4-5 6-7-8-9-10	Yes 1-2-3-4-5 6-7-8-9-10
Regis	No (used)	No	No	No (used)
Pearl	No	No	No	No
other	Forum (=Regis?) Documents D'Oro	Forum Documents	Forum Documents	Forum (=Regis?) Documents

Wilhelm Backhaus I (mono)
1950 - 1954 - Decca

This first Beethoven cycle (mono) of Wilhelm Backhaus has long been a classic, and as is typical for mono cycles that are out of print, it is often regarded as superior to his later stereo cycle. Whether this is actually true or not I cannot tell, as I have yet to track a copy down. Last seen in an Italian edition, not even HMV-Japan has been able to furnish me a copy. If or when I know of a new availability, I'll be happy to share it here, though.

Not currently available apart from (illegal) torrent downloads.

Yves Nat (mono)
1953 - 1955 - EMI

There were always great "German" Beethoven-cycles around so that a listener outside of France never really had to seriously consider a French sonata cycle. And while the French could not avoid the marvel that is Gieseking's Debussy, no French pianist ever championed Beethoven with such compelling excellence that anyone outside of France was forced to take note. None of this is to say that Yves Nat's cycle was not a great accomplishment (though in some way, every such cycle is), or that it isn't rewarding to seek this one out. Nat's very casual playing (a musical stroll, no climbing of looming mountains - most lovely in the op.14 sonatas) does have its attractions and followers. In an interview with Colin Clarke (Fanfare Magazine) Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, a student-of-a-student of Nat, extols the virtues of Nat's Beethoven, and Clarke agrees. De gustibus...

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
EMI	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Wilhelm Kempff I (mono)
1951 - 1956 - Deutsche Grammophon

Another of these early, great cycles. Mono again, difficult to get, and ([not just] therefore?) much hailed.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
DG	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Friedrich Gulda I (mono/stereo)
1954 - 1958 - Decca

Gulda's first cycle would probably be extolled as "even better" than his much and highly regarded second one if only it were out of print. But it isn't and while it is unarguably a very interesting set that Decca has brought back to life, there are spots of less fortunate sound quality and all in all it doesn't quite sound as liberated as his second traversal a good decade later.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
DECCA	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Alfred Brendel I (stereo)
1961 - 1964 - Vox-Turnabout

When Brendel set our to record Beethoven for Vox-Turnabout, it wasn't just the complete sonatas but indeed the (more or less) complete solo works for piano that he put on record. Brendel wasn't always proud of his early recordings and he went on to record the sonatas twice more for Philips... though what I've heard of this set (some of which is also in the Brilliant Beethoven box) holds up quite nicely, actually.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
VOX	1-2-3-4	1-2-3-4	1-2-3-4	1-2-3-4

Wilhelm Kempff II (stereo)
1964/65 - Deutsche Grammophon

Wilhelm Kempff "II" is the classic among Beethoven sonta cycles. Why exactly that is the case is difficult to say, because Kempff convinces through subtlety and superb accounts of all the lesser known and 'little' sonatas. In the bigguns, he is rarely outright impressive. Kempff is not as perpetually understated as Backhaus and he can even be quite playful. Solid, in the best, most empathetically positive sense of the word.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
DG	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Claudio Arrau I
1962 - 1966 - Philips

To ears reared on Pollini, Arrau's Beethoven can take some time getting used to, in good part due to the deliberate tempos he often chooses. But it's incredibly musical stuff worth all that effort, even if some of the last five sonatas don't appear as grand as elsewhere. To many of its owners, the original Philips pressings set a new standard in piano reproduction.

Availability: Just deleted.

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
Philips	No (mp3)	No	No	No

Wilhelm Backhaus II (stereo*)
1958* - 1969 - Decca

To paraphrase myself (referring to a Beethoven Concerto DVD): There is purpose behind every note; purpose at the service of the music, not Backhaus' own ego. No unnecessary tone or emotion comes from this outwardly impassive man; there is no smudging to 'improve' individual instances. Like less-than-refined brush strokes in great painting, an almost barren tone with Backhaus emerges as an essential part of the unadulterated whole.

Backhaus is “nobility but not ‘power’, seriousness without pompousness, devotion with no show of ‘piety’” and although it may be 'too little' for some, it amounts to 'everything' I ask of Beethoven.

Availability:

Country / Label	USA	UK	France	Germany
DECCA	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Part 2: 1967 - 1975
Part 3: 1977 - 1989

If you have additional information about recording dates, availability, cover art -- or corrections and additions -- your input is much appreciated.

This survey is meant to list all complete sets of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas and their availability in different markets, not to review them.

My "Almost Best of 2008" List

2008-12-12T12:10:00.001-05:00

I was too late for MusicWeb with my "End of the Year" or "Best of" list - and several albums I could not find extant reviews for, anyway. But I'll get around to do a list for Washington's Classical Radio Station. Still, there are a few recordings I just couldn't not include in my "Best of 2008" register, but having limiting myself to ten new releases on the 'official list' I have to outsource them to this list. Cheating? Yes, but in the name of good music.

Ryelandt, Piano Quintet, String Quartet et al., Spiegel String Quartet et al. - Phaedra 92055

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Joseph Ryelandt (1870-1965) was born and died in Bruges where he studied law until Edgar Tinel took him in has his sole student of composition. I knew absolutely nothing of his music before I came across this CD of his chamber music, but apparently he was one of Belgium's eminent post-romantic composers whose grand oratorios and five symphonies were once well known and admired. Volume 55 of Phaedra's indefatigable "In Flanders' Fields" edition, discovering little known and lost Belgian music, brings us some chamber music (1901 Piano Quintet in a-minor and the 1903 String Quartet No.2 in f-minor) that, like volume 51 (Jef van Hoof) makes me want to hear much more of this composer. The music here really doesn't sound as much late-romantic in the 20th century vain as it does classical-romantic in the Beethoven-Brahms-Mendelssohn vain, but when has that ever kept listeners from enjoying chamber music? The works are not derivative nor do they sound like Ryelandt's craftsmanship was not up to the task: the CD means a worthy discovery for me and is a winner all-around.

Sibelius, Kullervo, Segerstam / Helsinki PO / Isokoski, Hakala - Ondine 1122-5

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There isn't a (really) bad recording of Kullervo op.7, Sibelius' most wonderful 'failed' composition. It was first put on vinyl in 1971 by Paavo Berglund and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (just re-re-released by EMI) who also re-recorded it in 1985 with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (also EMI). Esa-Pekka Salonen recorded it in 1992 for Sony (oop), Leif Segerstam for Chandos (the first time around) and Neeme Järvi for BIS in 1994, his son Paavo in 1996 (?) for Virgin, the same year Jorma Panula recorded the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra for Naxos and Jukka-Pekka Saraste the Finnish RSO for Finlandia (oop).

In 1997 Colin Davis recorded his first Kullervo for his second Sibelius symphony cycle (on RCA), in 2006 his second (better, but still overrated) Kullervo for his third Sibelius Symphony cycle (on LSO live). Osmo Vänskä's most transparent Kullervo with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra came out in 2001 (BIS). Then, in the last two years, companies discovered the potential for this dark choral symphony to showcase SACD (surround) sound: Said Colin Davis' recording made the start in February, Ari Rasilainen on cpo followed in November, released on the same date as Robert Spano's Atlanta performance on Telarc (regular / SACD). Which brings us to May of 2008 and Leif Segerstam's second recording of Kullervo, again with Soile Isokoski who is absolutely terrific as is the YL Male Voice Choir, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and Ondine's sound. I've heard Segerstam live only in Tristan & Isolde (Vienna), which was second rate, at best. But in Sibelius he knows what he is doing, he's evidently in his element. His new soft-lit symphony cycle on Ondine is superb (except for the included Violin Concerto), and this Kullervo is, too. Less dark and harsh than this piece about orphans separated at birth finding each other (in incestuous rape, alas) years later, leading to suicide (her) and post-heroic battle-field-action suicide (him) is usually portrayed. Segerstam draws this out to 78 minutes (only Vänskä takes longer while keeping it cohesive), lets Kullervo go to war in most mirthful manner and lets him fade softly into dead grass on his sister's grave.

Bach, "Christ is my Life" et al., Herreweghe / Collegium Vocale Gent / Mields, White et al. - HMC 901969

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Herreweghe's Bach is always something I look forward to - more so even than Gardiner's. Christus, der ist mein Leben with cantatas BWV 95 that gives the disc its name, 27 ("Wer weiss, wie nahe mir mein Ende"), 84 ("Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke"), and 161 ("Komm, du süsse Todesstunde") is the latest installment in his unofficial (complete?) Bach traversal and was worth waiting for. If it isn't included in the Top 10, then only because the earlier release "Weinen, Klagen..." with Carolyn Sampson was so good that even consequent excellence pales a little in comparison. Dorothee Mields' soprano is particularly pleasant in the aria "Ich esse mit Freuden mein weniges Brot" (BWV 84), tenor Thomas Bauer in "Ach, schlage doch bald, sel'ge Stunde" (BWV 95). But Matthew White's "Komm, du süsse Todesstunde", although faultless, somehow doesn't doesn't gel with me.

Berg, 3 Pieces for Orchestra op.6, Lulu Suite, RCO / Gatti - RCO live 08004

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Since the Concertgebouw has founded its own label, I have always looked eagerly looked forward the the newest "RCO Live" release. But that anticipation often stood in stark contrast to the bland, unexciting, and sometimes even dull results that Jansons and his super-orchestra achieved. Strauss' "Heldenleben", the first release, sounded great but was too flabby - Thielemann/Vienna (DG) do this better. Dvořák’s Ninth was pretty good, but Bruckner’s Eighth (with Haitink) too soft-edged. Beethoven’s and Brahms’ Second Symphonies very nice, Stravinsky (Petrushka) I skipped, and Sibelius’ Second (my favorite Sibelius Symphony, no less) was a lukewarm flop. Mahler’s Sixth too soft and polite again, like Jansons’ earlier recording on LSO live. But since late 2007, there’s been one hit after another.

Mahler’s Fourth (Haitink) and Stravinsky’s Firebird (with Le Sacre) made it both unto my upcoming “Best of 2008” list. Debussy’s La Mer is a colorful, sonic dream, Jansons’ Alpine Symphony I don’t have yet, and Daniele Gatti’s disc with orchestral works by Alban Berg, too, is marvelous – and it’s that disc that I must include on this “Almost Best of” list. The Three Pieces for Orchestra here rival the Berlin Philharmonic’s sumptuous recording with Karajan (DG Originals), coming very close to how the latter makes the music sound like molten romanticism. The Lulu Suite (also found in good hands with Abbado, DG Originals) benefits equally from the Concertgebouw’s gorgeous sound and Gatti’s sensuous inflection, but suffers from being less suited to letting phrases glide into another: a bit more rhythmic precision might have allowed it to shine even more.

Berg, Schoenberg, Webern, Lyric Suite (Largo), String Quartet No.2, Langsamer Satz, Petersen Quartet, Christine Schäfer - Phoenix Edition 133

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Mozart, Symphonies 38-41, Mackerras / Scottish Chamber Orchestra - Linn CKD308

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Weingartner, String Quartets vol.1, Sarastro Quartett - cpo 7772512

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The Peterson Quartet’s Berg - Schoenberg - Webern disc would be more than just “your Second Viennese School CD of the year” if it included all of Berg’s Lyric Suite and not just the movement with the ‘hidden’ vocal part. Christine Schäfer sings it and the part in Schoenberg’s Second Quartet; Webern’s Langsamer Satz caps this recital off. I wrote more about it on WETA.

MusicWeb Review

Felix Weingartner’s String Quartets are a high-romantic delight to listen to – and I’m so glad that cpo is giving his music so much attention. (Chamber Music You Didn’t Know You Love – 4)

MusicWeb Review

Sir Charles Mackerras doesn’t tire, and he seems only to get better. I liked his English Cosí fan tutte (although a bit too out of the way to include here) and re-recording Mozart Symphonies 38-41 for Linn with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra he strikes gold, too. Lively, sprightly, intimate, joyous throughout… Mackerras makes Mozart’s ‘big’ Symphonies sound a little more compact in size without the idea that something might be missing ever entering the listener’s mind.

Bach, Matthew Passion (1742 version), Butt / Dunedin Consort et al. - Linn CKD313

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Also from Linn comes a new recording of the Matthew Passion with John Butt and the Dunedin Consort. It’s the first recording of the 1742 performing version (not much different from what we know) and it’s strictly in accordance with the latest “One Voice per Part” dogma. At first I was enthralled, ready to put this far up on my “Best of 2008” list. I’ve become weary of some of the voices, though, and the lacking balance during tutti passages of the singers. But it’s still a terrifically exciting performance and surely the most invigorating of its (radical) kind.

Schumann, Violin Sonatas, C.Widmann & D.Várjon - ECM New Series 2047

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Bach, Cello Suites, Sebastian Klinger - Oehms OC718

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This just in: ECM’s disc of the three Schumann Violin Sonatas. I’d almost forgotten how wonderful these works are: Carolin Widmann (sister to the clarinetist/composer Jörg Widmann) reminds me vividly and energetically. There is no dearth of recordings, but not glut, either. You really want a complete set of them – including the Third Sonata, (new Grove says WoO27, the Bärenreiter and Schott Urtext scores say WoO2) , not just opp. 105 and 121. The last work Schumann composed before he decomposed three years later, it’s a sonata spotted with inspired, echt-Schumann moments. It was created when Schumann added two movements to the “FAE-Sonata” that he (second and fourth movement), Brahms (third), and Albert Dietrich (first) co-wrote for the birthday of Joseph Joachim.

Widmann really digs into these works, making sure that Schumann isn’t mistaken for Brahms. It’s more like Isabelle Faust plays it (cpo), and less like Anthony Marwood (with Susan Tomes, Hyperion, and in any case not including Sonata #3) does, the latter being on the mellifluous side. Widmann isn’t afraid of letting some of the labor shine through, but a labor of love. Jennifer Koh released the three sonatas on Cedille last year (with Reiko Uchida) and Ara Malikian’s well regarded recording on Hänssler Classic is another choice, too but I’ve heard neither of them. Based on what I’ve heard on this disc (including the sensitive playing of Dénes Várjon that balances the strident vigor of Widmann a good deal), though, I’d be surprised if they are more recommendable than this marvel.

Oehms’ recording of the Bach Suites with the young is not superior to Queyras and Lipkind, but it is very, very good and a worthy addition to anyone who doesn’t mind having a half dozen or more performances of the Suites.

Musicweb Review

Conductor Defends Russia, to Strains of Prokofiev

2008-11-08T10:41:00.002-05:00

The scene at the concert, witnesses said, was surreal. The area was awash in light amid the blacked-out city. Foreign reporters were hustled in for a quick glimpse. The smoke from burning Georgian villages, set upon by militiamen or possibly Russian troops, rose nearby. The concert was broadcast across Russia, and it evoked the suffering of Russians in World War II through a performance of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, completed during the epic German siege of Leningrad and steeped in nationalist sentiment.
“The message is clear,” the commentators Jens F. Laurson and George A. Pieler wrote on Forbes.com. “South Ossetians are innocent victims; the Russian army, their knight in shining armor; and Georgia’s president Mikheil Saakashvili has a metaphorical toothbrush mustache not unlike Adolf Hitler’s.” In response to similar indictments, the London Symphony issued a statement reaffirming its support of Mr. Gergiev.

--> for full article, go to NYT

German Musicians May Strike

2008-10-10T14:02:00.000-04:00

MUNICH -- If it were up to the German Orchestra Organization (DOV), Germany would be a land without classical music these days, because it has called upon its 13,400 members – the municipal and state orchestras’ musicians – to strike.

This could affect almost a hundred opera and symphony orchestras across Germany, where most orchestral bodies and theaters are either employed by the city or the state. The strike does not concern independently organized orchestras like the Berlin Philharmonic, or any of the broadcasting stations’ orchestras like the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra or the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

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Schreker - Krenek - Bürger: As the 20th Century Might Have Sounded

2008-09-29T11:00:00.000-04:00

Schreker (1878—1934) might have become the epitome of daring 20^th century romanticism – combining the lush sounds of late Richard Strauss with a more modern harmonic language (not unlike an offshoot of Debussy’s style) – had it not first been for the Third Reich, then the reaction to the Third Reich, crushing his reputation...

--> WETA

The NSO’s Future With Christoph Eschenbach

2008-09-27T11:00:00.001-04:00

The choice for the former Philadelphia Orchestra music director Eschenbach is bound to be controversial, but it is also inspired. Controversial, because Eschenbach’s reputation has suffered from alleged and actual scuffles with the musicians in Philadelphia – who never warmed to a conductor who had been imposed upon them on short notice and with little or no consultation of them. Reports of personality differences were common, as were denials that claimed that the only differences are musical (making the matter not much better, possibly worse), all mixed with voices now that say things had become rather more amiable in the last year.

Nor is the critical reception of his conducting unanimously positive...

--> WETA

From Desperate to Ideal - The NSO Has a New Music Director

2008-09-26T09:16:00.001-04:00

The NSO has found itself a new music director – and the choice is Christoph Eschenbach. Eschenbach (many years ago an ARD competition prize winner as a pianist) has just been replaced by Charles Dutoit as music director with the Philadelphia Orchestra… a departure not devoid of some less than pleasant noises coming from disgruntled players. It turns out that the problems that led to Mr. Eschenbach’s relatively early departure in Philadelphia – some of which are said to have been much less acute in his last year – are a blessing for Washington. Without them, it might have been impossible to get Eschenbach to move to DC and an orchestra that, to put it kindly, has better potential than a reputation.

Not only is the choice of Eschenbach most welcome for those who desperately want to see the NSO reach the next level and patrons become excited and proud of the capital’s orchestral body again, it is downright inspired. And to think that before Eschenbach’s first season as MD there will be two years of the wonderful Iván Fischer, still, the situation at the helm of the NSO turns from worrisome to exciting. After Rostropovich brought name recognition to the NSO, and Slatkin proper standards, the NSO should be ready for Eschenbach to bring the music.

Eschenbach will also bring attention to the NSO which it hadn’t received in a while. Able to get Philadelphia a recording contract (with Ondine, and very fair results), he might be able to do something similar for the ‘Nats’. And if he could bring himself to sleep in the same hotel as the musicians, even the planned tours of the orchestra should go very well.

Eschenbach won’t likely fulfill his new job without courting at least some controversy, but he will also court many old and new supporters of –and for– the NSO and the Kennedy Center. (Meaning a slight expansion of the NSO job, he will officially be music director of the Kennedy Center – including responsibilities of programming for the entire arts complex, not just the symphony orchestra.) Eschenbach will start as music director designate of the NSO in 2009-10, and according to Anne Midgette’s article in the Washington Post today, he will start holding auditions for the orchestra’s vacancies as soon as November.

Winners from the ARD Music Competition (Viola)

2008-09-25T11:00:00.000-04:00

The ARD Music Competition isn’t the most famous, but perhaps the most important international music competition. It is so, not just for the breadth of music it covers (over 20 categories are regularly featured), but also for the talents it discovers. Christoph Eschenbach, Maurice André, Jessye Norman, Sharon Isbin, Francisco Araiza, Anne Sofie von Otter, Christian Tetzlaff, Thomas Quasthoff, Sol Gabetta, the Trio Wanderer, and Measha Bruggergosman have all started or boosted their careers with stellar performances in Munich, where the Bavarian Broadcasting Service hosts this annual event.

So did clarinetists Karl Leister, David Shifrin, Nicolas Baldeyrou, violists Yuri Bashmet, Kim Kashkashian, Nabuko Imai, the bassoonist Klaus Thunemann, and the Tokyo-, Eder-, Auryn-, Petersen-, Mandelring-, Leipzig-, Artemis-, and Ébène string quartets. These four instrumental categories were the featured ones at the 57th ARD Music Competition this year, which lasted from September 1st until September 19th, when the top prize winners made their final appearance in a radio broadcast and televised concert with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

--> WETA

Maurizio Kagel (1931 - 2008) - Mourned by More Than Will Miss His Music

2008-09-21T11:00:00.001-04:00

The Argentinean-German composer Mauricio Raúl Kagel died last Thursday, September 18th, and with him, you might say, the ‘60s that for so long defined modern music. With Stockhausen’s death last December and now Kagel’s, Cologne – and indeed the entire musical scene – has lost one of the last remaining “Darmstadt” composers. Nono (1990), Xenakis (2001), Berio (2003), Ligeti (2006) are dead already, only Henri Pousseur, Hans Werner Henze, and Pierre Boulez remain alive.

--> WETA

Saxon State Opera Names Intendant

2008-09-18T10:39:00.001-04:00

MUNICH -- For the first time in its 169 year history, the Saxon State Opera Dresden, Sächsische Staatsoper, home to premiere performances of most Richard Strauss and several Wagner operas, has appointed a woman intendant. Today Saxony's Secretary of Science and Arts, Eva-Maria Stange, announced that Ulrike Hessler will lead the house starting 2010, succeeding current Intendant Gerd Uecker.

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Ionarts at Large: Berlin Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festval

2008-09-18T06:59:00.001-04:00

The concert of the Berlin Philharmonic on Sunday, August 31st, concluded the Salzburg Festival 2008 – and it concluded it in style. Simon Rattle presented his band with Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan & Isolde followed by Olivier Messiaen massive Tristan-inspired spectacle of color and sound, the Turangalîla Symphony for Solo Piano, ondes Martinot, and large orchestra.

Love was the theme, in either case, and there was plenty love in the Berliner’s playing: Absolute evenness in the continuous build-up of the Tristan Prelude was achieved with tension and volume being increased at such a minimal gradient and with such consistency that it wasn’t noticeable — only felt. This was perfection in conceptualization and execution, scarcely doable with but a handful of orchestras.

--> Full article on ClassicalWETA.org

Chamber Music You Didn’t Know You Love (4)

2008-09-10T10:40:00.003-04:00

F.Weingartner, String Quartets 1 & 3 (vol.1), Sarastro String Quartet

How lucky then, that we are finally able to discover the composer Weinberger. It is one of the many great, laudable achievements of that enterprising record label cpo that they are unearthing Weinberger’s music piece by piece, CD by CD. For every disc I hear of his chamber or symphonic output, I become more willing to chuck all records of “Weinberger the conductor” and embrace “Weinberger the composer”. A hypothetical that is fortunately not necessary to enact, but telling: Who would ever say the same thing about Furtwängler?

WETA: Vienna Philharmonic under Salonen in Mahler

2008-09-03T19:01:00.004-04:00

The first four of the Vienna Philharmonic’s five concerts at this year’s Salzburg Festival were conducted by Pierre Boulez, Jonathan Nott, Riccardo Muti, and Mariss Jansons, featured works by Ravel, Stravinsky, Bartók (Boulez), Bach, Mahler, Ives, Schubert (Nott), Brahms (Muti), Webern, Berlioz, and Brahms again (Jansons). The fifth program on the prepenultimate and penultimate days of the festival was conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and featured Mahler’s most Mahlerian Symphony – the overstuffed, intense, and exhilarating Third Symphony.

--> WETA

International Affairs Forum: Tress vs. Tusks

2008-09-03T18:46:00.004-04:00

WETA: Bayreuthean War of Succession Ends

2008-09-02T14:00:00.003-04:00

Bayreuth seemed in troubled waters for the last few years with squabbles between the Festival Director “for life” Wolfgang Wagner and the Bayreuth Trust over the future leadership of the Festival. Wolfgang Wagner wanted to anoint his daughter of second marriage as the new director.But that daughter, Katharina, was eyed with suspicion as too young, too inexperienced. Her niece Nike Wagner – daughter of Wolfgang’s genial and more artistic brother Wieland – bickered loudly in all the German Feuilletons about revolutionizing post-Wolfgang Bayreuth.

Wagner might have supported revolutionary activities when in Dresden, but his successors in Bayreuth shiver at the very idea. Nike Wagner became a persona non grata at the festival. Wolfgang Wagner clung to the directorship and life and vetoed his daughter (from his first marriage), Eva Wagner-Pasquier, from becoming his successor -- to keep the chances alive for Katharina. The curtain-raiser for the convoluted end-game of the Bayreuth ascension was to be Kathrina Wagner’s direction of Die Meistersinger at last year’s festival – by all accounts an impressive and intelligent feat.

All in all it was a terrific plot of brothers, step-daughters and –mothers, changing alliances and broken contracts, and all in a battle over the ascendancy of the Wagnerian throne. Operatic stuff, you might say, and it has happily filled the cultural sections of newspapers for some time.

--> WETA

WETA: The Cleveland Orchestra in Salzburg

2008-08-30T13:37:00.000-04:00

The Cleveland Orchestra in Salzburg

WETA: Krenek Beyond 'Jonny'

2008-08-28T08:59:00.002-04:00

The Cleveland Orchestra in Salzburg

Forbes: Artistic Propaganda In Ossetia

2008-08-27T08:25:00.004-04:00

Apart from the regular bullets and tanks, the South Ossetian war between Georgia and Russia has brought forth some alternative methods of warfare. There was an alleged cyber-attack on Georgian Web sites that served as a premonition to the military action. More significant, though, were the harshly harmonious sounds of Dmitri Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, performed in South Ossetia's capital last Thursday.

--> continue reading the full article at Forbes.com

WETA: The Quatuor Ébène Between Salzburg and Washington

2008-08-23T08:52:00.000-04:00

The Quatuor Ébène Between Salzburg and Washington

Holy German Art: Wagnerian Games on the "Green Hill"

2007-07-28T06:29:00.000-04:00

The 25th of July 2007 will be a notable date in the history of the Bayreuth Festival, since it marks the premiere of Katharina Wagner's production of Die Meistersinger. In and of itself it might not be that remarkable that a Wagner descendant stages an opera on the "Green Hill" - not even at the tender age of 29. Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner, the grandsons of Richard, were 33 and 31 respectively, when they took over the Festival in 1951 and most Wagner scions are in the business of directing operas. But ever since Wolfgang Wagner's elder daughter Eva Wagner-Pasquier (*1945 - from Wolfgang Wagner's first marriage) was chosen to succeed Wolfgang Wagner as the Festival director in 2002, which led the stubborn father to refuse the board's choice and insist on his appointment for life, his younger daughter has been built up as the new Festival Director. This anointment is supposed to take place this year; her Bayreuth Meistersinger the "trial shot". It's all jolly good theater, even if viewed from as far away as Munich.

Young Miss Wagner has not directed much, so far: a debutante Flying Dutchman in Würzburg (2002), Lohengrin in Budapest (2004), Lortzing's Der Waffenschmied at the Gärtnerplatz Theater in Munich (2005) and Il Trittico in Berlin - a path that now leads to a potential coronation-production of the most difficult to stage of Wagner's Operas - the "Comedy" that is "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg". It is in many ways a fine coincidence (?) that it should be the Die Meistersinger that may or may not give her the last necessary push unto the Wagner-throne.

The work about "holy German art", about tradition for its own sake, about revolting against tradition, about renovating it, and finally adapting to it is chock-full of analogies that will necessarily play into the story around Katharina Wagner's treatment of the subject and her own projected ascension to become Festival Director. The latter is a cultural throne that highlights the balancing act between preserving a tradition, not to say 'cult', and creating new things. With a repertory of only 10 works (Dutchman - since 1901, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Meistersinger, Tristan, Parsifal, and the Ring), burdened by a world of always specific, yet widely varying, expectations and traditions, and with increasing competition from other festivals, the position isn't an easy one. Under Wolfgang Wagner's direction, Bayreuth has proven innovative at times, but largely stagnating in its artistic ambitions (especially as regards his own, rather conservative productions that may have lacked the deeper and more novel artistry of his brother Wieland with whom he was co-director from 1951 until Wieland's death in 1966 ), and as of late seemingly of a wilful radicalism in the choices of directors such as Schlingensief (Parsifal, 2004), Marthaler (Tristan & Isolde, 2005), and Lars von Trier (Ring, 2006 - eventually replaced by Tankred Dorst). It was as if Wolfgang Wagner had been bent to disprove the accusation of having become a conservative flame-keeper, draining Bayreuth of all innovative impulses.

R. Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Sawallisch / Weikl, Studer, Heppner, Moll et al.

R. Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Kubelik / Stewart, Konya, Janowitz, Fassbaender, Crass et al.

Perhaps he was already setting the stage for his daughter's work in Bayreuth. Katharina Wagner's work is closer to the "Regietheater" school of directing than tradition - and with three fairly wild premieres preceding her debut, her updated Meistersinger might not seem as radical or even sacrilegious as otherwise. Strategy or not, Die Meistersinger is by far the most difficult opera to update - because it is much more literal and concrete than Wagner's other works. No monsters, gods, or myths that can be transformed or replaced at will to represent abstract ideas in other shapes. But the Meistersinger takes place in a very identifiable (if strangely Lutheran) Nuremberg, with very real people and every-day props. A demi-godly, dwarf-raised hero may smith his sword any which way he wants to, one is tempted to admit, but a humble medieval cobbler must always fix a shoe with his little hammer, no? Little wonder that the opera has usually been left in its somber and quaint origins - when challenging the expected, here more than elsewhere, bears so many risks.

Over the last years some notable attempts at pushing Die Meistersinger out of its perfectly cliché-laden medieval picture-frame have been made. Not the least Peter Konwitschny's Hamburg production from 2002. (Konwitschny is also responsible for a stunning Dutchman that premiered at the Munich Staatsoper this season. Reviewed for WETA here.) And Kathrina Wagner, too, takes risks and 'updates' the opera. And she can do without shoes and hammers, for that matter. (A typewriter serves the purpose here - one of the many superficial changes in the production. Just like the Meistersingers themselves don't just sing but paint and play instruments. "Gesamtkunstwerk" - get it?.) Conformity amid breaking with tradition, conservatism in a modern guise spotted with provocation (that seems to be the public verdict so far): if that were indeed her skill and talent, she will have done much for her chances of being nominated Festival Director.

[continue reading this post at WETA's blog]

A Flash and a Bang: Staatsoper Munich with a Spectacular Dutchman

2007-05-12T10:28:00.000-04:00

Wagner in Munich is something special. Together with Richard Strauss and, perhaps less exclusively, Handel, this composer is a house-god... treated with love - but never stale reverence. With directors like David Alden and especially Peter Konwitschny, the audience can expect that productions will be well thought out, but hardly cater to the expected. The results are, especially with Wagner, that the operas appear as alive, exciting, invigorating, and provocative. The ratio of failure to success is heavily skewed to the latter, something that can't be said of all productions that might be derided as "Regietheater".

The opera's website brags, coy and frank, that "Peter Konwitschny has already provoked audiences to delight and disgust with his spectacular Parsifal and Tristan und Isolde productions. This Munich Holländer is something you just "have" to see. A sea and see journey on the waves of the orchestra."

I have been solidly in the camp of those who have been delighted. I saw both productions some six years ago - with casts that included Kurt Moll, Waltraud Meier, Bernd Weikl, Marianna Lipovsek etc.. The Tristan performance, available on DVD, still ranks as the finest operatic experience I have ever had. The current Dutchman is bound to rival that.

R. Wagner, Tristan & Isolde, Mehta/Konwitschny/Staatsoper

Kurt Rydl's rock-solid performance made for a sturdy and authoritative Daland, selling his daughter to the Dutchman with all the earnestness one can muster after five minutes of barter with a stranger. Said Dutchman (with touches of Pirates of the Caribbean), however, remained... erm... rather pale. Having heard Wolfgang Brendl much worse (La Traviata and Die Fledermaus from Washington still linger in my memory), I was very much positively surprised about the capable Dutchman he delivered... a role far more challenging than Altair, which he handled just fine at the Met a few months ago. In any case, the 'kids' in this opera were the highlight: Anja Kampe's Senta was no surprise for being exquisitely sung, or acted. Anyone who has seen one of her two and a half Washington Sieglindes (WNO 2003, 2007, NSO 2006) knows of her talents. Proving herself again to be one of the finest Wagnerian singers of her generation, her Senta was just right in her mix of sincere passion, otherworldly youthful naivete, and insanity. Her hopeful and eventually disappointed boyfriend in spe Erik was the other stand out in a fine cast: Klaus Florian Vogt, who I recently admired in his excellent, mildly controversial Lohengrin on DVD, added a little heft to this role and was less detached as the Norwegian hunting-boy - and sang Erik, an otherwise peripheral figure in the drama, to the center of the action and into the hearts of the attendees. His clarion voice less choir-boy-like than in Lohengrin, his execution effortless, his acting excellent and earthier than his narcissistic, introverted Lohengrin.

Konwitschny begins the Dutchman in a rather conventional way: Painted backdrops (with superimposed clouds, to great effect) and a stage flanked by steep rocks surprise because they are so conventional. When the Norwegian ship's gangplank is lowered from off-stage right, Daland (Kurt Rydl - Hunding in the 2003 WNO Walküre) and the Steuermann (Kevin Conners) emerge. The gangway is lifted and lowered with the waves that carry the (unseen) ship, forcing the crew/singers hold on tightly to the railing and consciously avoid motion sickness. Kevin Conners, especially, acts this out to the maximum. He tumbles about, half intoxicated, half thrown about by the waters violent swelling, finally toppling over the railing and falling four feet flat on his back, all while singing one of the finest accounts of the Steuermann arias I have heard with wonderful heft and a baritonal quality.

Conners' fall was the first sign that this production was not going to let anyone down who expects the theatrical side to be as important as the music. And something unusual to come. Sure enough, the curtains to the second scene reveals the first 'shock'. Senta's spinning room is a large, modern, white gym. And Senta and her friends are in... spinning class. One gets the pun ("Spinning Classes" are popular in Germany, as well) - but wonders if one measly play on words is sufficient reason to so alter an entire scene. That it looked much like the second act of the Marinsky's woefully tacky Falstaff (seen in Washington last XXX) had me on the verge of cringing. Except that Mary - formerly her nurse, now the spinning class instructor, does tell her girls that in order to get a good husband, a gal better know how to spin well. Well, if spinning yarn was a way for a woman to promise that a household of hers would be able to avoid dearth or dependence on a husbands' income and become a more attractive wife, now a spinning-class of a different kind will ensure a woman to be a good catch. The translation of an old concept into a language of our times - the pun the clever hook. What may look silly or wilfully strange at first turns out to be a well-thought out concept to recast the point the opera wants to make in a guise that makes sense to us.

But if the second scene was visually the most glaring discrepancy from the expected and traditional, it was the third act that bore the surprise element that had audiences divided into those who left enraged and scornful and those who left speechless, touched, and awed into submission.

The un-dead Dutch crew and the Norwegians - very much alive, the latter - have their back and forth in an early 19th century industrial port, with welded iron and large gates giving a view of the sea in the back. It still looks rather modest - hardly crying out for controversy. Alas, as Senta is confronted by the Dutchman who claims that the girl can't stay faithful to him (after all he had overheard that Erik had reasonable expectations of some hanky-panky with Senta), she takes her turn toward slight insanity. (True enough, she's an odd girl. Instead of committing herself to good and down-to-earth Erik, a most eligible bachelor by all means, she has teeny-fantasies about a mythical un-dead seafarer, whose poster she has pinned up in her room. Her dreams are no more likely or realistic as would be a Jersey-girl's of marrying Robbie Williams. That the Dutchman exists is almost besides the point.) Removed from reality, she drowns herself in the fantasy of becoming the Dutchman's faithful wife - and as he leaves her (to save her from hell, in case of unfaithfulness) she's ready to show him just how faithful she will be - until death. At whatever cost.

Traditionally that is achieved by going into the water. But in Konwitschny's set there is no convenient rock to throw herself from. In her increasingly mad state of mind, she topples the barrels that are stored in the port facility. The keen eye sees the explosive sign on them. As she utters her last words - along the lines of "I'll show you how faithful I can be - until death" - she takes a candle and moves suspiciously toward the barrels. In the performance I just had time to think to myself: "Oh, no you're not going too..."
And as it became clear that she was, I thought: "Well, you can't possibly can pull it off, realistically, in the theater...". And before I finished my thought, Senta holds the candle to a barrel, a lightning flash blinds me, the theater is nearly torn asunder by the thunder of the explosion, two women in front of me scream, and all the lights go out, the music stopped.

When the lights on stage go back on, dimly, the heavy cloud of smoke still billows and the cast is lined up behind a screen, immovable. The rest of the music resumes - but now no longer played by the excellent orchestra under XXX but removed, played from an old gramophone like a grim and eerie postlude. Shock, erratic boos, speechlessness linger - before the majority breaks into ecstatic applause. (No warning of that in the program, of course - unlike in the US, where every use of special effects must be noted to avoid the errant law suit.)

I don't think I have ever been so impressed by a theatrical effect and I still can't quite figure out how they were able to pull it off without Anja Kampe and colleagues losing their hearing or hair. I saw green spots for the next 15 minutes, having looked directly at the explosion. And I regained my speech only some time after that. But effect is not everything - nor is the element of surprise, important though it is. But with Senta being quite as deranged as she is, she might indeed be the kind of woman that no longer cares whether she takes everyone else down with her self-sacrifice... which, at any rate, seems to be the choice method of theatrical suicide these days, in a troubled world. I don't suppose I'd want all my Sentas to blow themselves up - but having seen it once like this, I don't think I shall ever forget that moment. Just how emotional and deliriously touched I left the opera house is impossible to convey in words. And if it were not just a silly pun, I'd point out that most in the audience - especially those who had not come with expectations or knew much of Wagner - had been blown away. Wagner neophytes became instant converts in this superbly sung, touching, and highly dramatic Dutchman. (Wagnerians, however, canceled their subscriptions.)

Dip Your Ears, 80

2007-04-30T08:41:00.000-04:00

Jerusalem Q4t - 1, 4, 9

Jerusalem Q4t - 6, 8, 11

From when I first heard the Jerusalem Quartet recording of Shostakovich Quartets (Nos. 1, 4 & 9) my ears perked notably. This was Shostakovich in heat, with played with great idiomatic and musical understanding - in short: stunning.

After hearing live performances of the young quartet - 3/4 of Russian descent - and its current, second Shostakovich release, I think of them as the most promising quartet of its generation in Shostakovich. Their first release (HMU 901865) is among the very best single discs of Shostakovich quartets available.

Seeing quartet No.1 should not scare anyone away as a possible peace of modestly inspired DSCH-juvenilia. There are, in fact, no "early" quartets and although just a test-run with the format, it's one of his finest. He must have realized that he got along very well with the format... as 14 others - many of them masterpieces - followed.

Quartet No.4 in D-Major, op.83, with its long pedal points underneath a firm pulse, its beautifully orchestral and melodic second movement, the subtle nervousness and two gently irresistible pulses tip-toe-galloping over more open string pedal points of the Allegretto third movement, all before cumulating in the pizzicato-heavhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gify Allegretto finale is performed with the technical wizardry expected these days, and the emotional investment so rarely heard anymore. The same goes for the other two works here.

If the first disc is made up of more or less upbeat and joyously exciting works, the coupling of Quartet No.6, op.101, the great No.8, op.110, and No.11, op.122 (HMU 901953) has an altogether darker, more somber hue. But the strengths of the Jerusalem Quartet come out in these works just as much. From the Allegretto of op.101 to the Finale - Moderato of op.122, they give a riveting account that is haunting in its painful moods, biting in its irony, irresistable in its drive. Especially in Quartet No.8, where the cool perfection of the Emerson Quartet (DG 638802) the Hagen Quartett (DG 650502) work best, the Jerusalem Quartet shows an alternative that is equally dark but gripping instead of offering a sense of détaché. Their vigor in the second movement (Allegro) is almost freightening, the haunting ´fanfare´ of the first violin in the Allegro, bone-chilling.

The cynical wit and dark humor of op.122 is combined with a compelling forward movement as the Jerusalem Quartet saws away on their instruments, unstoppably buzzing and twitching away. The delicacy in the third and fourth movements of op.101 is touching like I have not heard before - the transition from Lento to Lento gently indulging in music that, although in need of getting used to for newcomers, can´t fail to touch. If there is a group - on disc - that can please as much as the Borodin's first two cycles do, this is it. And amid the plethora of complete Shostakovich cycles that has come on the market over the last ten years, this quartet is one where I actively wish will throw their hat in the ring, too! Both releases are very highly recommended.