As I struggled, as every year, to get my end-of-year lists finished in a reasonably timely fashion, it occurred to me that I could publish half of the classical list earlier if I could find a reasonable way to split it into categories. Thus the non-contemporary/contemporary divide this year. The newer composers' work requires more listening; that's the only reason the older repertoire comes first.
1. Ivan Moravec Twelfth Night Recital Prague 1987 (Supraphon) Supposedly this release of a previously unissued concert recording was approved by the pianist shortly before his passing in July 2015. Certainly it's hard to hear anything of significance that he wouldn't have liked about it, because it is a magnificent testament to everything that made him one of the greatest pianists who ever lived: one of the most beautiful piano tones ever heard, allied to liquid phrasing that gave him one of the greatest legato touches ever recorded.
1. Ivan Moravec Twelfth Night Recital Prague 1987 (Supraphon) Supposedly this release of a previously unissued concert recording was approved by the pianist shortly before his passing in July 2015. Certainly it's hard to hear anything of significance that he wouldn't have liked about it, because it is a magnificent testament to everything that made him one of the greatest pianists who ever lived: one of the most beautiful piano tones ever heard, allied to liquid phrasing that gave him one of the greatest legato touches ever recorded.
- 1/6/2016
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
“Angesichts der Wirklichkeit ist alles Erfinden obszön.” “In the face of reality, all fiction is obscene.” That sentence, by the Austrian writer Jürg Amann, came back to me during the Lincoln Center Festival performance of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Holocaust opera The Passenger. The director David Pountney cites the line in a program note, acknowledging the moral challenge of transplanting a chorus of the doomed from Auschwitz to an operatic stage. Based on the novel by the Polish camp survivor Zofia Posmysz, composed in the 1960s, suppressed by the Soviet state, and left unperformed until 2010, The Passenger has been resurrected in the guise of a historical triumph — a tale that must be told, a score that must be heard. But it remains troubling, an earnest, frequently beautiful, and fitfully powerful drama about the relationship between prisoner and guard. Its many splendid moments aestheticize Auschwitz; its weaker ones fall back on...
- 7/11/2014
- by Justin Davidson
- Vulture
Nigel Redden, director of Lincoln Center Festival today announced the 2014 Festival's line-up, which runs from July 7 through August 16, 2014, with performances by artists and ensembles from 11 countries unfolding in six venues on and off the Lincoln Center campus. These productions join the previously-announced Lincoln Center Festival and Park Avenue Armory co-presentation of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's opera, The Passenger, performed by Houston Grand Opera, directed by David Pountney, and conducted by Patrick Summers.
- 1/8/2014
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
My usual explanation in this space: I am especially interested in piano and choral music, plus symphonies, so that’s what I get the most promos of. Other stuff obviously gets through my filters, but the percentages of what comes in inevitably affect what comes out, i.e. this list. That said, in terms of number of centuries spanned, rather than genres or formats or whatever, I think I'm covering as much or more musical territory than most critics. By the way, look for a shorter list of my favorite classical reissues of 2012, to follow in a day or two.
1. Tokyo String Quartet, Jon Manasse, Jon Nakamatsu Brahms: Piano Quintet, Clarinet Quintet (Harmonia Mundi) There were recordings this year that were more important in terms of bringing new repertoire to light, or featuring young artists, or bringing classical into the 21st century, or being more controversially newsworthy. Examples of all of those follow.
1. Tokyo String Quartet, Jon Manasse, Jon Nakamatsu Brahms: Piano Quintet, Clarinet Quintet (Harmonia Mundi) There were recordings this year that were more important in terms of bringing new repertoire to light, or featuring young artists, or bringing classical into the 21st century, or being more controversially newsworthy. Examples of all of those follow.
- 1/2/2013
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Bertrand Chamayou Liszt: Anneés de Pèlerinage (Naïve)
The musical harvest of last year’s Liszt bicentennial continues even now; this young French pianist (who already, six years ago, gave us an excellent cycle of the Transcendental Etudes) celebrated it by presenting this mighty collection, which amounts to three cycles, in single concerts and then recording this three-cd set. For decades Lazar Berman’s set for Deutsche Grammophon has set the standard in this repertoire for an integral set, but Chamayou equals it.
Berman’s primary assets, besides his sterling technical skills, are the fiery drama and monumental breadth with which he infused these mighty works. His total time for all three cycles is nearly 26 minutes longer than Chamayou's. The Frenchman by contrast leans towards the music's poetic side and plays with a lighter touch, though when the occasion demands power (the climaxes of "Sposalizio" and "Apres une lecture du Dante...
The musical harvest of last year’s Liszt bicentennial continues even now; this young French pianist (who already, six years ago, gave us an excellent cycle of the Transcendental Etudes) celebrated it by presenting this mighty collection, which amounts to three cycles, in single concerts and then recording this three-cd set. For decades Lazar Berman’s set for Deutsche Grammophon has set the standard in this repertoire for an integral set, but Chamayou equals it.
Berman’s primary assets, besides his sterling technical skills, are the fiery drama and monumental breadth with which he infused these mighty works. His total time for all three cycles is nearly 26 minutes longer than Chamayou's. The Frenchman by contrast leans towards the music's poetic side and plays with a lighter touch, though when the occasion demands power (the climaxes of "Sposalizio" and "Apres une lecture du Dante...
- 4/23/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
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