Highlights from MOZART'S FIGARO

Their marriage is on the rocks. as soon as the curtain rises on Le nozze di Figaro, Count Almaviva, who with the help of the eponymous hero of the Barber of Seville had bewitched the beautiful and wealthy Rosina and quite literally swept her off her feet, is on the look-out for new conquests. And from her very first entrance the Countess, too, leaves us in no doubt why she is so deeply unhappy. Her husband is threatening to slip from her grasp, and so she comes to an arrangement with her maid, Susanna, who is the object of the Count's attentions. As a woman of the Rococo world, she also finds consolation with the Count's page, Cherubino. Above all, she is resolute, in spite of all the insults that she has suffered and the sadness that she feels. Only Figaro, who is normally so well informed, fails to appreciate the full extent of the crisis in the relationship between his master and mistress. Susanna opens his eyes and awakens his fighting spirit, persuading him to set in train the intrigue that ultimately escapes from his control. “Given the unpredictability of the emotions", says the conductor, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Le nozze di Figaro does not really end. The work, he argues, is “a slice of life, everything can keep on going the way it is".
Harnoncourt has long been convinced that Mozart's opera buffa is “very witty, but in the sense of 'intelligent'" and that it is “concerned only with relationships". The director Claus Guth took up this idea and in preparing for his Salzburg production studied the plays of Ibsen and Strindberg and the films of Ingmar Bergman. Together with his designer Christian Schmidt he relocated the action from 18th-century Andalusia to fin-de-siècle Central Europe. An impressive belle époque staircase with abnormally wide steps houses the action, the characters directed as if in a play by Strindberg or a film by Bergman: much can be guessed, but we can never know all that the protagonists are feeling and thinking. In this draughty ambience, Harnoncourt has made himself at home, allowing Mozart's music to unfold at a leisurely pace. By slowing down and stressing points of detail, Harnoncourt is able to ensure that the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra produces a very specific and individual Figaro sound.
Blinded by young love, Figaro sings of the joys of his new home, but even as he is doing so Almaviva makes his first visible move on his wife's chambermaid, Susanna, who, although she responds with a certain coyness, nonetheless enjoys her master's advances (or at least she accepts them and plays along with them for tactical reasons). The end of the work is not located in the manor-house park specified in the libretto. It opens, significantly, with a view from the park of the double doors that lead out to it. But what follows is an exploration of the characters' blindness in the room familiar from the earlier acts, except that on this occasion the banisters and so on are doubled, as if in a mirror, suggesting the curious way in which our perceptions may be mistaken.
In the background the newly invented figure of an angel provides a constant presence, a Cherubino-like doppelgänger with Cupid's wings who underscores the page's erotic influence, while also functioning as a guardian angel and Fury. In philosophical discussions of Mozart's oeuvre, Don Giovanni was quickly interpreted as Cherubino returning from war. In fact, Guth, who is a master of the subtle psychological portrait, regards Count Almaviva as a double of the dubious hero of Don Giovanni - that “opera of all operas" - and portrays him as a compulsive erotomaniac, a man in his mid-forties obsessed with sex, always wanting to get a look-in, yet never able to do so in the way he wants, at least not in the course of the period covered by the action of the opera. Instead, he remains a picture of bourgeois domesticity. After snatching a kiss from Susanna, he grabs his white handkerchief with the panic-stricken gesture of a man anxious not to be caught in flagrante delicto. Time and again Almaviva dabs away the sweat as he stalks the women in his household - thanks to the costumes that Christan Schmidt has created for his domestic staff, the image of the philanderer - in German Schürzenjäger, literally an “apron-chaser" - may be taken literally here. One expects Sigmund Freud to enter this unfathomable world of Viennese affluence, and yet even Freud's penetrating insights cannot entirely untangle the ravelled skein of emotions left hanging in the air in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. (Frieder Reininghaus)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
Le nozze di Figaro, K.492
Original version, Vienna 1786
1. Sinfonia [5:04]
Act 1
2. "Cinque... dieci... venti..." [3:04]
3. "Se vuol ballare, signor Contino" [2:45]
4. "La vendetta, oh, la vendetta" [3:27]
5. "Non so più cosa son, cosa faccio" [3:03]
6. "Non più andrai" [4:11]
Act 2
7. "Porgi amor" [3:26]
8. "Voi che sapete" [3:14]
9. "Venite... inginocchiatevi..." [3:34]
10. "Susanna, or via, sortite" [4:09]
Act 3
11. "Crudel! perchè finora" [3:03]
12. "Hai già vinta la causa" - "Vedrò mentr'io sospiro" [4:42]
13. "E Susanna non vien!" - "Dove sono i bei momenti" [6:53]
14. Cosa mi narri?...Che soave zeffiretto [3:51]
15. Ecco la marcia - Andate amici [6:41]
Act 4
16. "L'ho perduta... me meschina!" [1:51]
17. "Tutto è disposto" - "Aprite un po' quegli occhi" [4:37]
18. "Giunse alfin il momento" - "Deh vieni non tardar" [4:31]
19. "Gente, gente, all'armi" [5:36]
Bo Skovhus
Ildebrando d' Arcangelo
Florian Boesch
Patrick Henckens
Eva Liebau
Christine Schäfer
Marie McLaughlin
Anna Netrebko
Dorothea Röschmann
Wiener Philharmoniker
Nikolaus Harnoncourt

2007 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
1 CD DDD
477 6544 8 GH

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Emerson String Quartet MENDELSSOHN The Complete String Quartets

Following up comprehensive recording projects featuring the Viennese Classics - Haydn and the entire Beethoven cycle - and music of the 20th century - the complete Bartók and Shostakovich quartets, the Emerson String Quartet now focus their famously penetrating musicianship for the first time on the complete quartets of an early Romantic composer - Felix Mendelssohn. Speaking for the ESQ, violinist Eugene Drucker had this to say about the Quartet's championship of this wonderful music, which deserves to be much better known: "We've wanted to record Mendelssohn for a long time. His music is soulful, lyrical, passionate and exciting. His strong sense of structure, rooted in the Classical models that made such a deep impression on him, is apparent throughout his chamber music. Mendelssohn's melodic invention, harmonic palette and pacing combine to give his music a distinct personal stamp and a directness of expression that have a strong effect on concert audiences. As performers, we enjoy the kinetic energy that galvanizes us when we play his fast movements, the glittering brilliance of his scherzos and the emotional depth of his slow movements." Music lovers have always revered Mendelssohn's famous works - A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Violin Concerto, the "Scottish" and "Italian" Symphonies, the Octet, the Songs without Words and Elijah. But many of them are probably still unfamiliar with the String Quartets. They're in for a treat - and, as Drucker points out, for something of a revelation: "The main surprise for listeners not previously familiar with these quartets will be how varied they are, how typically Mendelssohnian they sound (except the very early quartet and the disturbed and disturbing soundscape of op. 80). Those who tend to think of Mendelssohn as a composer tied to tradition will be surprised by how unformulaic this music is. The return of material from earlier movements in both opp. 13 and 12 gives these works an almost novelistic sense of destiny fulfilled. The echoes of Schubert in the poignant slow movement of op. 44 no.3, and the outbursts of passion sometimes bordering on anger in many of the slow movements, belie any lingering notion of Mendelssohn as a happy, superficial or facile genius. The late op. 80 is almost modern in its rejection of easy solace." One of the great musical prodigies of all time, Mendelssohn wrote some of his supreme masterpieces while he was still a teenager - the Octet and Midsummer Night's Dream Overture being two famous examples. He was only 14 when he wrote his first string quartet, but he wrote his tragic last one near the end of his brief life. In performing and recording all of these works, the Emerson Quartet have noted a clear developmental arc. As Eugene Drucker tells it, Mendelssohn's youthful first effort already demonstrates a deep understanding of Classical form: "sonata form, song form in the slow movement, a stylized minuet that's closer in spirit to a scherzo, and a fugal finale." But, even more importantly, Drucker emphasizes: "His sense of interplay of melodic material among the four voices shows that he'd already absorbed the essential idea of the texture of a string quartet: Goethe's idea of an intelligent conversation among equals. A much more developed example of fugal writing came a few years later, with a slow, lyrical fugue in E flat major that may have been influenced by the opening movement of Beethoven's op. 131. In his first mature quartets, opp. 13 (1827) and 12 (1829), one can hear both a strongly individual voice and an astonishing absorption and understanding of Beethoven's late quartets, written not long before." A decade after the "subjective ruminations" of opp.12/13 - to use a phrase of Mendelssohn expert R. Larry Todd, who has written the booklet notes for the Emerson's new recorded cycle - came the three quartets of op. 44 (1837-38), composed in a more objective, "Classical" style. Eugene Drucker points out a few highlights from this set: "The slow movement of no.2, the dark, brooding Quartet in E minor, like every slow movement in Mendelssohn's quartets from op. 13 on, is a real gem, which ranges from serenity to urgency and back again with the most natural balance in every phrase. The first and last movements of no.3 are full of brilliant writing for all four instruments, while the tender, intimate slow movement reveals an unusually broad harmonic palette. The outer movements of op. 44 no.1 feature the most buoyantly virtuosic writing of the entire set." Let's skip ahead another decade to the summer of 1847. Exhausted from a visit to England, Mendelssohn had returned to Germany only to learn that his beloved sister, also a composer, had died suddenly while he was away. Profoundly grief-stricken he travelled to Switzerland to recover, but at first was able only to paint, not to compose. Eventually he turned again to music, and one of the works he drafted on that trip was the turbulent String Quartet in F minor. Drucker speaks of this extraordinary piece: "Op. 80, brooding and disturbed, in the dark key of F minor, was written after the sudden death of the composer's sister Fanny. This was a terrible blow for him, and one can hear it in the obsessive character of his last full quartet, written in the year that he himself was to die. Though much of Mendelssohn's earlier music is passionate, and some of it stormy, there is usually some sense of relief, or at least resolution. None of that is available to the listener in the brooding, unremitting turbulence of the first, second or fourth movements. The wistful slow movement, on the other hand, seems more vulnerable in its lyricism than many of the earlier slow movements." Tragically, Mendelssohn never regained his physical and mental strength. Only a few months later, he suffered a fatal series of strokes. He was only 38. Shortly before his death he composed two movements that may possibly have been intended for a new four-movement string quartet: the Andante (a set of variations) and Scherzo. Together with the earlier Fugue and Capriccio these were published posthumously as op. 81. Eugene Drucker finds a valedictory quality in these last chamber musical utterances: "The mellow lyricism of the Andante, though it erupts at one point into a fast and stormy variation, seems to indicate a measure of peace of mind restored to the bereaved genius. The witty, mercurial Scherzo also indicates that Mendelssohn had rediscovered some of his youthful joy in composing. Perhaps it is fitting to think of this miniature, which may or may not have been part of a projected larger work, as his farewell to the genre into which he had poured so much inspiration and love." (Richard Evidon)

CD 1:

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847)

String Quartet No.2 in A minor, Op.13

1) 1. Adagio; Allegro vivace [7:40]

2) 2. Adagio non lento [7:53]

3) 3. Intermezzo; Allegretto con moto [4:44]

4) 4. Presto [8:59]

Four Pieces for String Quartet, Op.81

5) 4. Fuga [4:58]

String Quartet No.1 in E flat, Op.12

6) 1. Adagio non troppo; Allegro non tardante [7:54]

7) 2. Canzonetta: Allegretto [3:55]

8) 3. Andante espressivo [3:57]

9) 4. Molto allegro e vivace [7:52]

CD 2:

String Quartet in E minor, Op.44, No.2

1) 1. Allegro assai appassionato [10:34]

2) 2. Scherzo. Allegro di molto [4:06] 3) 3. Andante [6:05]

4) 4. Presto agitato [6:20]

String Quartet in E flat, Op.44, No.3

5) 1.Allegro vivace [12:35]

6) 2. Scherzo: Assai leggiero vivace [4:05]

7) 3. Adagio non troppo [8:12]

8) 4. Molto allegro con fuoco [8:23]

CD 3:

String Quartet in D, Op.44, No.1

1) 1. Molto allegro vivace [12:55]

2) 2. Menuetto. Un poco allegro [5:33]

3) 3. Andante espressivo ma con moto [5:25]

4) 4. Presto con brio [6:58]

Four Pieces for String Quartet, Op.81

5) 3. Capriccio [5:52]

String Quartet No.6 in F minor, Op.80

6) 1. Allegro vivace assai [7:25]

7) 2. Allegro assai [4:24]

8) 3. Adagio [6:43]

9) 4. Finale: Allegro molto [5:23]

Four Pieces for String Quartet, Op.81

10) 1. Tema con Variazione [5:45]

11) 2. Scherzo [3:26]

CD 4:

Octet in E flat, Op.20

1) 1. Allegro moderato, ma con fuoco [13:43]

2) 2. Andante [6:47] 3)

3. Scherzo (Allegro leggierissimo) [4:14] 4)

4. Presto [5:39]

String Quartet in E flat major o. op.

5) 1. Allegro moderato [8:49]

6) 2. Adagio non troppo [5:15]

7) 3. Minuetto - Trio - Minuetto [5:51]

8) 4. Fuga [4:02]

Emerson String Quartet

2005 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg

4 Compact Disc DDD

477 5370 4 GH4

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Hille Perl J.S. BACH ...per la viola da gamba...

Johann Sebastian Bach's surviving output for the viola da gamba is not very extensive, being limited to just the three Sonatas BWV 1027-1029. These are often played on the gamba's better integrated cousin, the cello. Gambist Hille Perl has been through the three canonical Bach gamba sonatas before for H nssler Classics; what this new Deutsche Harmonia Mundi disc offers is two "new" Bach works for the gamba that may be surmised from scores written for solo cello, violin, and harpsichord and a new spin on the Gamba Sonata BWV 1029. So in a sense these are all "premiere" Bach recordings that are nonetheless made up of music that is already familiar. Novelty aside, Per la viola da gamba is a solid, entirely satisfying, and authoritative-sounding hour of Bach. In particular, the gamba and lute transformation of Bach's "doubtful" Violin Sonata, BWV 1025, utilizing Sylvius Leopold Weiss' original lute part and transposing the Bach's violin part down an octave, sounds more natural and authentic than the familiar "doubtful" version. The Sonata BWV 1029 is played as a trio with continuo, and this approach lends a concertato effect to the sonata, which works well due to the obviously close relationship between this work and Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. Think you're all tapped out on J.S. Bach and that there's no more "great" Bach to be discovered? Perl and her colleagues will make you a believer. Per la viola da gamba is recorded in excellent sound and comes with helpful and detailed notes written mostly by Perl herself. This is an excellent disc that recommends itself. (Uncle Dave Lewis , Rovi)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
Suite Per La Viola Da Gamba Re Mineur, BWV 1011/995
1 Prelude [5:42]
2 Allemande [4:48]
3 Courante [2:33]
4 Sarabande [2:06]
5 Gavotte [5:04]
6 Gigue [2:11]
Trio In A Major, BWV 1025 (after Silvius Leopold Weiss)
7 Fantasia [3:26]
8 Courante [5:27]
9 Rondeau [3:39]
10 Sarabande [6:46]
11 Menuett [4:46]
12 Allegro [3:52]
Sonata In G Minor, BWV 1029
13 Vivace [5:34]
14 Adagio [5:00]
15 Allegro [4:10]

Andrew Lawrence-King, harp
Lee Santana, lute
Hille Perl, Barbara Messmer (tracks: 13 - 15), Viola da gamba
Veronika Skuplik, violin

2004 Deutsche Harmonia Mundi

1 CD DDD

77515

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Daniel Müller-Schott - Angela Hewitt BEETHOVEN Cello Sonatas Vol 2

And here it is, right on schedule, Daniel Müller-Schott and Angela Hewitt’s second volume of Beethoven’s works for cello and piano, concluding the project. Like most integral cycles, of course, with the exception of Miklós Perényi and András Schiff’s for ECM, Müller-Schott and Hewitt’s does not include the composer’s arrangement for cello and piano of an early horn sonata he had written for the virtuoso horn player Giovanni Punto. Everything I had to say about the first installment in this undertaking applies here. Müller-Schott and Hewitt are a dream team that seems custom-tailored for this repertoire. In fact, if anything, given Beethoven’s heightened interest in counterpoint and fugue in his late works, Hewitt’s exceptional skill and insight as a leading interpreter of Bach reveal subtle details in the piano parts of these final two cello sonatas where other keyboard partners may play the notes without necessarily finding their deeper connections. Take, for example, the opening dialoguing between cello and piano in the opening bars of the D-Major Sonata, where the two voices don’t just echo and complement each other in overlapping entries—that’s the obvious part—but where each picks up and continues statements broken off in midsentence by the other. Hewitt brings this out in a way that draws lines between the dots to complete the fragmented picture. But subtle details revealed do not alone make great performances. Seeing the larger picture and being able to draw the details together in a way that lends credence to the totality are also crucial, as, needless to say in these sonatas for cello, is a cellist in possession of a technique, tonal qualities, and musical intelligence and instincts to match those of his partner. In these, Daniel Müller-Schott is every bit Hewitt’s equal, and that is what makes this an ideal partnership and what makes these, in my opinion, the currently preferred recordings of the Beethoven cello sonatas. This may be a comparatively short review, but it’s long on praise. For a more detailed analysis of why I believe Müller-Schott and Hewitt to be the duo par excellence in Beethoven’s cello sonatas, you can reference my review of Volume 1 of this set in Fanfare 32:4. Superb recorded sound captured in Berlin’s Jesus Christus Kirche completes a release that comes with the most urgent recommendation possible. (Jerry Dubins)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)
1) Variations in G major on "See the conqu'ring hero comes" from Handel's Judas Maccabaeus WoO45 [12:54]
Cello Sonata in G major Op 102 No 1
2) Andante [2:46]
3) Allegro vivace [5:14]
4) Adagio - Tempo d'andante [3:15]
5) Allegro vivace [4:30]
6) Variations in F major on "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen" from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte Op 66 [10:18]
7) Variations in E flat major on "Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen, from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte WoO46 [10:00]
Cello Sonata in D major Op 102 No 2
8) Allegro con brio [6:53]
9) Adagio con molto sentimento d'affetto [10:48]
10) Allegro - Allegro fugato [4:21]

Daniel Müller-Schott, cello
Angela Hewitt, piano

2010 Hyperion Records Ltd London
1 CD DDD
CDA 67755

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Daniel Müller-Schott - Angela Hewitt BEETHOVEN Cello Sonatas Volume 1

Beethoven’s cello sonatas have been getting an awful lot of attention lately. Just for this issue, I submitted a review of yet another complete set with Suren Bagratuni and Ralph Votapek on the Blue Griffin label, and two or three others have come my way within recent months. Hyperion has chosen to make its entry into the field with a disc containing the first three sonatas, with the remainder to follow on a second volume. By all expectations, Daniel Müller-Schott and Angela Hewitt should be the dream team. I’ve praised Hewitt to the heavens for her Beethoven piano sonatas, and I’ve waxed rapturous over Müller-Schott in other repertoire, most currently in a review of his disc of Saint-Saëns concerted cello works. Put together one of the most exciting young cellists to come along in quite awhile with one of the great Beethoven interpreters of our time, and the results are bound to be electrifying. Sometimes expectations are satisfied and sometimes they’re not. In this case, they’re fulfilled in spades. Whatever good things I’ve said about other entrants in this field—and there are good things to say about all of them—Hewitt and Müller-Schott make just about everyone else dispensable, which is to say that if I were allowed only one recording of these works, this would be the one I’d choose. Müller-Schott is a magnificent player and musician, but Hewitt, with her recent foray into Beethoven’s solo piano sonatas, brings all of the wisdom and wit of that experience to bear on these readings. There is a joyous exuberance and an explosion of wide-eyed wonderment and delight in these performances that make them sound as if the ink has barely dried on the page and they are being played for the first time. There are passages, such as the one that begins around 1:40 in the last movement of the F-Major Sonata that will make you laugh out loud, so perfectly do Hewitt and Müller-Schott capture Beethoven’s tomfoolery. Other passages, such as the long introduction that opens the G-Minor Sonata that I used to think was so achingly sad, I now hear in Hewitt’s and Müller-Schott’s interpretation as actually funny in its mock seriousness. This was Beethoven as tragic poseur before any of life’s true tragedies had struck him. Müller-Schott is sensitive and responsive to the music’s every nuance, and he brings to these scores an open-heartedness as big and generous as is the tone he draws from his 1727 Ex Shapiro Matteo Goffriller cello. Hewitt continues her allegiance to the Fazioli brand, the piano she has played to such stunning effect in her Beethoven sonata cycle. When I am in the mood for Beethoven’s cello sonatas, this will be the first (and perhaps the only) CD I will want to listen to. Cruel though it may be to say so, after this, others need not apply. Urgently recommended. (Jerry Dubins)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)

Cello Sonata in F major Op 5 No 1
1) Adagio sostenuto [2:59]
2) Allegro [14:24]
3) Allegro vivace [6:58]
Cello Sonata in G minor Op 5 No 2
4) Adagio sostenuto ed espressivo [6:26]
5) Allegro molto più tosto presto [10:29]
6) Rondo: Alllegro [9:02]
Cello Sonata in A major Op 69
7) Allegro, ma non tanto [12:55]
8) Scherzo: Allegro molto [5:07]
9) Adagio cantabile [2:01]
10) Allegro vivace [6:55]

Daniel Müller-Schott, cello

Angela Hewitt, piano

2008 Hyperion Records Ltd London

1 CD DDD

CDA 67633

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ARVO PÄRT Symphony No. 4

"...grace and pardon are all the more

necessary as the laws are absurd and

the sentences are cruel..."

Cesare Beccaria

Arvo Pärt's “Fourth Symphony”, subtitled “Los Angeles”, was written in 2008 and premièred in January of the following year, with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. That first performance is reprised on this disc. It is the first of Pärt’s symphonic pieces to appear on ECM New Series, the label closely associated with the Estonian composer since the 1984 release of “Tabula rasa.” “The symphony is exceedingly beautiful,“ wrote Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times in January 2009, reviewing the premiere concert. Pärt’s return to symphonic structure and scope (in a work scored for string orchestra, harp, tympani and percussion) created great interest amongst press and public, for almost forty years had passed since the composer’s 3rd symphony. In the interim, many of the fundamentals of Pärt’s art had been overturned, his epochal “Tabula rasa” wiping the slate clean, that the composer might begin again. In the new symphony his radically reductive tintinnabulation style is focused upon the larger form. The idea of the symphony first began to take shape in Pärt’s mind in a period when he was reflecting upon texts related to guardian angels. A commission from Los Angeles, a city whose very name means 'the angels' was timely, and confirmed his decision to make the “Canon of the Guardian Angel” the foundation of the new piece. The Fourth Symphony, then, is both literally and figuratively a 'musical setting', based on an underlying text which forms the work’s point of departure, determining its structure down to the smallest details. Paul Griffiths has noted that this music is “saturated with chant: in its modality, in its phrasing, in its repetitions and alternations, in how groups answer one another, in how – more as in the western church than the eastern – percussion instruments are used to make ritual signals. The orchestra seems to be straining to enunciate a litany, the stretched strings to sound as if from angel throats.” In making a canon the starting point of a symphony, Pärt once again allowed the spirit of Church Slavonic poetry to permeate the musical fabric, as he had done in his 1995/6 choral work “Kanon Pokajanen”. “To my mind, the two works form a stylistic unity and belong together”, the composer explains. “I wanted to give the words an opportunity to choose their own sound. The result, which even caught me by surprise, was a piece wholly pervaded by this special Slavonic diction found only in church texts. It was the canon that clearly showed me how strongly choice of language preordains a work's character.” Appropriate, then, to bring together the Fourth Symphony on disc with a new editing of the “Kanon Pokajanen” – “Fragments” as Arvo Pärt calls them. Like newly-found pieces of a mosaic reassembled, they can give us a powerful sense of the whole. This recording of the “Symphony No. 4” is issued in time for Arvo Pärt’s 75th birthday on September 11, and in a period when a number of Pärt events are taking place.

Arvo Pärt (1935 - )

SymphonyNo. 4 "Los Angeles"

Dedicated to Mikhail Khodorkovsky

1) Con sublimità [12:04]

2) Affannoso [14:12]

3) Deciso [8:45]

Los Angeles Philharmonic

Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor

4) Fragments from Kanon pokajanen [14:50]

Dedicated to Tonu Kaljuste and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir

Tonu Kaljuste, conductor

2010 ECM Records GmbH

1 CD DDD

ECM 2160

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Sergey Khachatryan BACH Sonatas & Partitas

Any violinist with sufficient ambition is bound to take on the supreme challenge of Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin. Not only are these works stunningly difficult to play, they are staggeringly difficult to interpret, so if the piece's multi-voice fugues don't get the performer, their unrelenting emotional intensity often will. Yet violinists still have to try or be found wanting, and Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan has taken on the sonatas and partitas in this 2008 two-disc set. Against long odds, he has triumphed. He certainly has the technique; any violinist who can tackle Sibelius' concerto, as Khachatryan has, can handle Bach's sonatas and partitas. What is more impressive is that he is also emotionally up to the challenge; not only does he deliver ebullience, enthusiasm, and energy in the "C major Sonata" and the "E major Partita," but he delves deep into the dark night of the soul of the "D minor Partita" and expresses fear and dread touched with heart and hope. For some listeners, Khachatryan's tone may be too wiry and his attacks a bit too aggressive, but for others, these qualities are ideal for the music. The recording is amazingly, even frighteningly immediate. When Khachatryan breathes, some listeners might look up to see who's entered the room. (James Leonard)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)

Sonata No. 1 in G minor BWV 1001

1) Adagio [4:05]

2) Fuga (Allegro) [6:23]

3) Siciliana [3:21]

4) Presto [3:27]

Partita No. 1 in B minor BWV 1002

5) Allemande [7:42]

6) Double [3:02]

7) Corrente [2:51]

8) Double [3:37]

9) Sarabande [4:37]

10) Double [3:05]

11) Bourée [3:44]

12) Double [3:19]

Sonata No. 2 in A minor BWV 1003

13) Grave [4:29]

14) Fuga [8:20]

15) Andante [6:39]

16) Allegro [5:48]

Partita No. 2 in D minor BWV 1004

1) Allemande [6:12]

2) Corrente [2:59]

3) Sarabande [4:28]

4) Giga [4:27]

5) Ciaccona [16:25]

Sonata No. 3 in C major BWV 1005

6) Adagio [5:01]

7) Fuga (Alla breve) [11:34]

8) Largo [5:34]

9) Allegro assai [5:04]

Partita No. 3 in E major BWV 1006

10) Preludio [3:43]

11) Louré [4:55]

12) Gavotte en rondeau [3:06]

13) Menuet I [2:06]

14) Menuet II [1:58]

15) Bourée [1:32]

16) Gigue [1:56]

Sergey Khachatryan, violin

2010 Naïve

2 Compact Disc DDD

V 5181

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Arabella Steinbacher - Robert Kulek JOHANNES BRAHMS Complete Works for Violin and Piano

Arabella Steinbacher made her international breakthrough in Paris in March 2004 with the Orchestre Philharmonique of Radio France, under conductor Sir Neville Marriner. She was given a tumultuous reception from the audience and the press wrote as follows: “A superior and fully mature performing artist, whose beauty of tone is overwhelming.” Her career then took off rapidly, with concert performances under world-famous conductors such as Vladimir Fedossejev, Valery Gergiev, Fabio Luisi, Neeme Järvi, Sakari Oramo, Yuri Temirkanov, Lorin Maazel, Charles Dutoit, Christoph von Dohnányi and Marek Janowski.

Arabella Steinbacher is a prizewinner of the Hanover Violin Competition, which is dedicated to Joseph Joachim. In 2001, she received the sponsorship prize of the free state of Bavaria, and that same year she was awarded a scholarship from the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation. From Anne-Sophie Mutter, who had supported her personally, she received a bow made by master luthier Benoit Rolland.

In 2007, Arabella Steinbacher was awarded one of the most sought-after prizes in the profession: the “ECHO Klassik” award as “Young Artist of the Year”.

Arabella Steinbacher was born in Munich in 1981 (her mother is Japanese, her father German). She received her first violin lessons at the tender age of three, and was accepted six years later by Ana Chumachenko, as her youngest student, at the Munich Musikhochschule. To this day, Ana Chumachenko remains one of her closest friends. She continues to receive valuable musical inspiration and guidance from Ivry Gitlis. Arabella Steinbacher plays the “Booth” Stradivarius (Cremona, 1716), loaned to her by the Nippon Music Foundation.

Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897)

Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78

1)I. Vivace ma non troppo [11:04]

2)II. Adagio [8:55]

3)III. Allegro molto moderato [9:22]

Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100

4)I. Allegro amabile [8:26]

5)II. Andante tranquillo - Vivace [7:32]

6)III. Allegro grazioso (quasi andante) [5:43]

Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108

7)I. Allegro [8:11]

8)II. Adagio [4:53]

9)III. Un poco presto e con sentimento [3:05]

10)IV. Presto agitato [5:54]

Violin Sonata in A minor, "F-A-E": III. Scherzo in C minor, WoO 2

11) Allegro

12) Trio - Più moderato - In tempo ma marcato [5:50]

Arabella Steinbacher, violin

Robert Kulek, piano

2011 PentaTone Music

1 CD DDD

PTC 5186 367

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Angela Hewitt BACH Goldberg Variations

Angela Hewitt, who is recording all of Bach¹s keyboard works on piano, has proven to be one of the most inspired interpreters of his music. In her many recordings, she has demonstrated a rare capacity to get to the heart of the music. However, there are many fine recordings of the Goldberg Variations on piano - the competition is tough. One could choose, to name only a few of the best, among Glen Gould¹s excellent 1981 recording, Andras Schiff¹s slightly quirky version, or the recent landmark recording by Murray Perahia. One of the main differences among recordings of the Goldberg Variations is that of the tempi for the different parts of the work. Not only does the tempo of each variation affect the individual piece, but the difference in tempo between any two variations has a great effect on the transition between them. One of the best examples of this is the transition between the opening aria and the first variation; or that between the 30th variation and the final aria. Both of these transitions are essential for the overall feeling of the work - in the former case, it establishes a sort of rhythmic range, since there is such a great difference between the two sections; in the latter, it is the coming home, after the 30 variations, that acts as a sigh, as both the performer and listener catch their breath, and settle in for the victory lap. Hewitt seems to have found the correct tempi for all the variations. Her slightly slower tempo in variation 3 allows the left-hand part to be more prominent, giving this variation a more apparent rhythm than some other performers. And her slightly faster tempo of variation 27 helps give this section the joyful tone it deserves. Hewitt’s playing in general can best be described as limpid - she does not try and take centre stage; she seems to step back and let the music take over. While her ornamentation can be singular at times, it never sounds affected, it never seems as though it is there merely to show off. For example, she chooses to lengthen some of the ornaments in the initial aria - undoubtedly, performers tend to try and play the aria in a more ‘personal’ way, since it helps set the tone for the entire work - but this does not shock. Hewitt can be energetic at times, such is in variation 10, a four-part fughetta. Her playing here shines, and she uses exemplary dynamic effects in the different sections of the variation. But she definitely has rhythm! Listening to variation 12, one can hear the ever-so-slight syncopation she occasionally uses. Her touch can be light and playful, when necessary, such as in the brief runs and arpeggios of variation 23. However, one of my few disappointments is the overly forceful entry of variation 29 - it is just a bit too loud, especially compared to the previous variation, and the music gets slightly lost in the very fast runs of this section. In the slower movements, she shows a great deal of feeling. Variation 13 is a beautifully melodic section, where her phrasing of the slightly off-beat cantabile melody fits with perfection. Variation 25, the longest and most melodically beautiful section of the Goldbergs, is played here almost perfectly. Hewitt uses excellent phrasing, again, and her dynamics help bring out the many nuances in this variation. Hewitt seems to have understood the unique transition between the final variation and the aria da capo - no other recording of this work I have heard has as much silence between the two: about 15 seconds. This time is essential to fully appreciate the return to the initial aria, especially considering the difference in volume between the two. It is rare to find a musician who understands silences in this manner. And when Hewitt's reprise of the aria is one of the best ever - she does not repeat the initial aria as much as she reworks it. It is slower, more introspective, softer, subtler. As if it were not a new beginning, but an end that recalls the beginning. A masterpiece. A brief note on the notes - this disc contains what are probably the best liner notes on the Goldberg variations. All too often, the notes are usually a cursory overview of the piece, but Hewitt looks at each variation, and helps the listener better understand the complexities and subtleties of the music. This is one of the best recordings of the Goldberg Variations available on piano. Hewitt shows a rare grasping of the subtlest nuances of Bach’s music. Her phrasing, dynamics and rhythm are immensely satisfying. While, in the end, I still prefer the recent recording by Murray Perahia, for his unique touch and the way he has incorporated his foray into harpsichord playing to the piano, this recording will remain high on my list of favourites. A highly-recommended recording. (Kirk McElhearn)

Johann Sebastian Bch (1685 - 1750)

Goldberg Variations

1) Aria

2) Variatio 1 a 1 Clav.

3) Variatio 2 a 1 Clav.

4) Variatio 3 a 1 Clav. Canone all'Unisono

5) Variatio 4 a 1 Clav.

6) Variatio 5 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav.

7) Variatio 6 a 1 Clav. Canone alla Seconda

8) Variatio 7 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav. Al tempo di Giga

9.) Variatio 8 a 2 Clav.

10) Variatio 9 a 1 Clav. Canone alla Terza

11) Variatio 10 a 1 Clav. Fughetta

12) Variatio 11 a 2 Clav.

13) Variatio 12 Canone alla Quarta

14) Variatio 13 a 2 Clav.

15) Variatio 14 a 2 Clav.

16) Variatio 15 a 1 Clav. Canone alla Quinta

17) Variatio 16 a 1 Clav. Ouverture

18) Variatio 17 a 2 Clav.

19) Variatio 18 a 1 Clav. Canone alla Sesta

20) Variatio 19 a 1 Clav.

21) Variatio 20 a 2 Clav.

22) Variatio 21 Canone alla Settima

23) Variatio 22 a 1 Clav. Alla breve

24) Variatio 23 a 2 Clav.

25) Variatio 24 a 1 Clav. Canone all'Ottava

26) Variatio 25 a 2 Clav.

27) Variatio 26 a 2 Clav.

28) Variatio 27 a 2 Clav. Canone alla Nona

29) Variatio 28 a 2 Clav.

30) Variatio 29 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav.

31) Variatio 30 a 1 Clav. Quodlibet

32) Aria da capo

2000 hyperion

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Carolin Widmann - Dénes Várjon ROBERT SCHUMANN The Violin Sonatas

ECM debut for two outstanding young soloists playing with vigour and temperament. Carolin Widmann’s reputation as a both committed and exciting performer of contemporary music has constantly spread in recent years. Her first CD with unaccompanied violin works ranging from Eugène Ysaÿe to Salvatore Sciarrino met with unanimous critical acclaim and was immediately awarded an annual prize at the German Record Critic’s award (Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik). Composers such as Matthias Pintscher, Erkki-Sven Tüür and her brother Jörg Widmann write pieces for the Munich-born violinist and in summer 2008 she is giving first performances of no less than five new violin concerti including, in September in Leipzig and Lucerne, a piece by Wolfgang Rihm with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly’s baton. Of equal importance to Widmann is the preoccupation with the repertoire from the Baroque to the romantic era and the conception of programmes that highlight affinities between composers from different epochs. Together with Dénes Várjon whose formative influences in his native Budapest included masters such as Ferenc Rados, György Kurtág and András Schiff – his career took of after a sensational first prize at the Zurich Géza Anda competition, in 1991 – she has worked on Schumann since the start of their collaboration in 2004. Especially on the three violin sonatas from his last years of his life, highly-demanding scores which clearly reflect the composer’s difficult mental situation in the 1850s. “I had always been under the impression that certain traits of these pieces had never been thoroughly explored, and this applies most of all to the third sonata which was virtually unknown for decades and was only recently published in a reliable critical edition. We wanted to contribute to the understanding of this music, revealing just how fantastic, crazy and modern these compositions are. Schumann has been one of my favourite composers for many years, everything I know out of his works grips and touches me. Dénes shares this passion, and he completely understands the mental attitude of these pieces”, says Widmann who has been a professor at the Leipzig Musikhochschule since fall 2006 thereby getting even closer to Schumann and the localities the latter’s artistic activities. In retrospect, the violinist describes the recording session at Lugano Radio Auditorium – a venue which Manfred Eicher has as well chosen for several important jazz productions in recent years – as a very lucky constellation. “Once the hall, the piano and the mutual trust with your partners both in front and behind the microphones fit so well together you can really play in a way you wouldn’t have thought possible”, Widmann confesses, not so much alluding to technical perfection but rather to the courage to take risks in the rendition of the scores: “It was Dénes who always wanted to go still a step further, saying ‘we can surprise each other much more!’ And he was absolutely right: There is this enormous variety of characters in these sonatas, each tone has a different colour, each bar a new pulse. Maybe Schumann, as opposed to so many other composers, really is the one whose black dots on white paper represent the least that is actually to be said. No traditional triple meter can properly express the right kind of rhythmic inflection and that’s why, in our playing, I wanted to virtually make the bar-lines disappear, suggesting rather some kind of three-dimensional notation. In this respect, too, Dénes, with his incredible flexibility, has been an ideal duo partner to me. With many Schumann interpretations I miss this ‘edgy’ feeling and the constant quest of the meaning of every detail.” Part of this questioning and digging is the work on very specific sound hues and timbres which should always be related most closely to the respective expressive qualities. “It’s terribly sad when we violinists reduce our spectrum to one or two colours, so I’m consciously looking for the sombre and rather grim shadings but also for some very bright, even piercing sonic qualities. I like to use open strings because this can be so painful: It hurts much more when this open E-string shrieks than when it’s appropriately muffled – the second finger on the A-string … this really eschews all tragedy!” The unusual sequence of the three sonatas on the record arouse from extensive experiments and ruminations between the two musicians and producer Manfred Eicher. “Even from today’s perspective I somehow understand why Clara Schumann held back the third sonata and some other of Robert’s late compositions for such a long time” says Widmann. “She must have feared that they would expose just too much of this mentally ill man whose – then quite unstable – reputation she had to protect. Me, too, I sense a certain emotional decay in the course of this cycle, that’s why we didn’t conclude the album with the chronologically last sonata. For a while we were even thinking about a reverse order, putting the first sonata last. But this way one would have sensed even more how Schumann was drawn down within the years between these pieces.” This is not to express as judgement over artistic or compositional qualities: After her thorough work on this ragged third sonata, Widmann doesn’t share the communis opinio of this piece as a deficient Schumann whose creativity is almost extinguished. “You really have to accept the conflict of antagonistic energies, this constant back and forth between a rather strained classicism and complete unleashed passion. It’s essential for late Schumann to be uncomfortable – which might account for the difficult reception of this repertoire. But if you take the challenge a completely new world opens up. In such a world there is always a way to solve the technical and instrumental problems of certain passages.”

Sonate Nr. 1 für Pianoforte und Violine in a-Moll, op.105

1) I. Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck

2) II. Allegretto

3) III. Lebhaft

Sonate Nr. 3 für Violine und Pianoforte in a-Moll, WoO 2

4) I. Ziemlich langsam – [Lebhaft]

5) II. Lebhaft

6) III. Intermezzo. Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell

7) IV. Finale. Markiertes, ziemlich lebhaftes Tempo

Sonate Nr. 2 für Violine und Pianoforte in d-Moll, op. 121

Ferdinand David zugeeignet

8) I. Ziemlich langsam – Lebhaft

9) II. Sehr lebhaft

10) III. Leise, einfach

11) IV. Bewegt

Carolin Widmann, violin

Denes Varjon, piano

2007 ECM New Series

1 CD DDD

2047

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THIRD ANNIVERSARY!! (THREE YEARS SHARING MUSIC)

Giuseppe Verdi RIGOLLETO Wiener Philharmoniker - Giulini

In point of date this is the earliest of the Verdi operas which have retained their place in public favour. Founded on Victor Hugo’s "Le Roi s’amuse," the plot would seem to be the reversion of the wickedness of the sinner on the head of the sinner himself. Its outline is as follows: ACT 1 -- Rigoletto is the Duke of Mantua’s jester. The Duke is a sensual libertine, and Rigoletto abets him in his evil purposes. He assists him to debauch the wives of Count Ceprano and Count Monterone, the latter of whom utters a terrible malediction against him which fills Rigoletto with a fearful foreboding. Rigoletto has a daughter, the beautiful Gilda. Gilda, so far as he can order it, shall never be contaminated by the pernicious influence of the Court. So, to that end, he immures her in an out-of-the-way part of the city. But the Duke discovers her retreat, wins her affections in the disguise of a student, and arranges for her forcible abduction and transference to the Palace. ACT 2 -- When Rigoletto discovers his daughter there, he is horrified -- horrified especially to find that she loves the Duke. He vows vengeance against Gilda’s seducer, and hires a desperado named Sparafucile to assassinate him. Sparafucile is the proprietor of a lonely wayside inn; and he engages his sister, Maddalena, who acts as a decoy for victims, and is herself enamoured of the handsome Duke, to lure him to the hostelry. ACT 3 -- The Duke arrives at the inn, and makes love to Maddalena, singing the familiar "La donna e mobile." Meanwhile, Rigoletto has been persuading Gilda to rig herself out as a cavalier, with the object of escaping from the Palace. But before she flies, he sends her to the door of the inn that she may prove for herself the Duke’s faithlessness. Maddalena has fallen more than ever in love with the Duke, and, making an appeal to her brother, gets him to promise that he will spare the Duke’s life on condition that he may kill the first person who enters the inn. For Sparafucile had bound himself to bring the Duke’s body in a sack to Rigoletto before claiming his reward. Gilda, overhearing the discussion in the inn, and still infatuated with the Duke, resolves to save his life. She knocks for admittance, and is promptly stabbed by Sparafucile. Rigoletto, coming for the supposed victim’s body, opens the sack, discovers his daughter, and falls senseless upon her. The opera ends with the prostration of Rigoletto, whose dreaded forebodings of Count Monterone’s terrible curse are thus literally realised. As regards the music, "Rigoletto" marked an immense progress in Verdi’s style. The instrumentation is far less noisy than in former works, and has more significance than a mere accompaniment. There are brilliant touches of dramatic power, particularly in the last Act. The vocal score contains many effective passages, such as Rigoletto’s wrath at the stratagem of the courtiers in abducting his daughter; Gilda’s love-song, "Caro Nome"; and the Duke’s gay and lightsome aria, "La donna e mobile," so full of elegant ease, and so striking in rhythm. The magificent quartet, "Un di, si ben rammento mi," sung by Rigoletto, Gilda, the Duke, and Maddalena, is often remarked upon by critics as combining the most diverse emotions into a powerful ensemble. Even today it is a model of concerted writing. Here, and in other places, Verdi reached a level of art which he had never before attained, and which, indeed, he did not touch again until twenty years later in "Aida." Written and instrumented, under the prompting of managerial necessity, in forty days, "Rigoletto" was first produced at Venice on March 11, 1851. Like "Faust" and "Carmen," it did not take the fancy of the public at first, but ultimately won its way to the forefront of popular esteem. The famous "La donna e mobile," already referred to, made an instantaneous hit, and was long hummed and sung and played to boredom in every quarter of the globe. To make quite sure that the public should not get wind of this arresting melody before the night of the performance, Verdi did not put it on paper until within a few hours of the time when Mirate, the tenor, had to sing it. Soon all Venice was mad over it; and the men, they say, sang it in the streets into the ears of the women. The opera was heard in Paris in 1857, and was received with great applause. Some years before, a French musical journal declared that it was "the least strong" of Verdi’s works, and that it had "not the slightest chance of maintaining itself in the repertoire." It is a safe dictum never to prophesy unless one knows!

Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901)

Rigoletto

1. Preludio [2:03]

Act 1

2. Della mia bella incognita borghese (Duca, Borsa) [1:47]

3. "Questa o quella...Partite? Crudele!" [6:54]

4. Ch'io gli parli (Monterone, Duca, Borsa, Rigoletto, Marullo, Ceprano, Coro) [4:49]

5. Duetto. "Quel vecchio maledivami!" (Rigoletto, Sparafucile) [4:34]

6. Recitativo e Duetto. "Pari siamo!... io la lingua"(Rigoletto) [3:35]

7. "Figlia!" / "Mio padre!" (Rigoletto, Gilda) [5:52]

8. Già da tre lune son qui venuta [6:54]

9. Scena e Duetto. "Giovanna, ho dei rimorsi" (Gilda, Giovanna, Duca) [2:50]

10. "E il sol dell'anima" [3:43]

11. "Che m'ami, deh! ripetimi" - "Addio... speranza ed anima" (Duca, Gilda, Ceprano, Borsa, Giovanna) [2:04]

12. Scena ed Aria. "Gualtier Maldè ... Caro nome..." - "+ là..." / "Miratela" (Gilda / Borsa, Ceprano, Coro, Marullo) [6:21]

13. Scena e Coro - Finale I. "Riedo!... perché?" / "Silencio...all'opra" (Rigoletto, Borsa, Ceprano, Marullo) [2:15]

14. Zitti, zitti, muoviamo a vendetta (Borsa, Marullo, Ceprano, Gilda, Rigoletto, Coro) [2:47]

CD 2:

Act 2

1. Ella mi fu rapita! (Duca) [2:19]

2. Parmi veder le lagrime (Duca) [2:45]

3. "Duca, Duca! L'amante fu rapita a Rigoletto" / "Ebben?" (Borsa, Marullo, Ceprano, Duca, Coro) [2:19]

4. Possente amor mi chiama (Duca, Borsa, Marullo, Ceprano, Coro) [3:18]

5. Scena ed Coro: "Povero Rigoletto!" (Marullo, Rigoletto, Borsa, Ceprano, Paggio, Coro) [3:18]

6. Cortigiani, vil razza dannata (Rigoletto) [4:37]

7. Scena e Duetto: "Mio padre!" / "Dio! Mia Gilda!" (Gilda, Rigoletto, Borsa, Marullo, Ceprano, Coro) [1:50]

8. Tutte le feste al tempio (Gilda, Rigoletto) [3:00]

9. Ah! Solo per me l'infamia (Rigoletto, Gilda) [4:09]

10. Poiché fosti invano da me maledetto [3:03]

Act 3

11. "E l'ami?" / "Sempre" (Rigoletto, Gilda, Duca, Sparafucile) [2:13]

12. "La donna è mobile" [3:06]

13. Quartetto. "Un dì, se ben rammentomi" (Duca, Gilda, Maddalena, Rigoletto) [1:39]

14. Bella figlia dell'amore (Duca, Maddalena, Gilda, Rigoletto) [4:23]

15. "M'odi, ritorna a casa" [1:25]

16. "Maddalena?" / "Aspettate" (Duca, Maddalena, Sparafucile) [2:54]

17. È amabile invero cotal giovinotto (Maddalena, Sparafucile, Gilda) [6:18]

18. Della vendetta alfin giunge l'istante (Rigoletto, Sparafucile, Duca) [4:43]

19. Chi è mai, chi è qui in sua vece? (Rigoletto, Gilda) [1:46]

20. "V'ho ingannato" [4:17]

Cappuccilli · Cotrubas · Domingo Obraztsova · Ghiaurov · Moll Schwarz Wiener Staatsopernchor Wiener Philharmoniker Carlo Maria Giulini

1980 Polydor International GmbH, Hamburg

2 Compact Discs ADD

415 288 2 GH2

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Tchaikovsky SHAKESPEARE Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela - Gustavo Dudamel

Hot Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel has renamed his Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela simply as the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. This may somewhat diminish the "Waiting for Superman" aspect of Dudamel's celebrity, but the good news is that this disc delivers just what's needed in establishing him as a worthwhile star over the long term. The Tchaikovsky & Shakespeare album reproduces the program of a widely advertised and rebroadcast concert Dudamel conducted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, recruiting Hollywood stars to read relevant passages from Hamlet, The Tempest, and Romeo and Juliet. The studio recording may be the superior idea, for Tchaikovsky's works, with the exception of the perennially crowd-pleasing "Romeo and Juliet," are only loosely programmatic, and the orchestra's young musicians, products of the famed Venezuelan music education program known as El Sistema, acquit themselves admirably. Indeed, the strength of the performances lies in the orchestral playing: the bronze glow of the low strings in the comparatively rare "Hamlet," the scintillating brasses and big themes of "The Tempest." Dudamel somewhat tamps down the overdoses of sheer sentiment in "Romeo and Juliet," which many listeners will find all to the good. What this release shows is that, whether he's Superman or not, Dudamel is shifting the center of excitement in the symphonic scene of the Americas definitely westward and southward. Fine booklet notes by Simon Callow are given in English and Spanish, and the unfamiliar Centro de Acción por la Música concert hall in Caracas clearly showcases the musicians. (James Manheim)

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)

1. Hamlet - Overture-Fantasy after Shakespeare, Op.67 [18:39]

2. The Tempest, Op.18 [24:42]

3. Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy Overture [22:14]

Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela

Gustavo Dudamel

2011 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg

1 CD DDD

477 9355 7GH

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