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classical music CDs
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Leonard Bernstein: A White House
Cantata. Kent Nagano and the London Symphony Orchestra.
2000, Deutsche Grammophon. Get
it from Amazon.com.
Leonard Bernstein's A White House Cantata: Scenes From 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue, with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, is the concert
adaptation of the musical by the same name, which the two Americans
had written between 1972 and 1976. The musical's subtitle, a musical
about the problems of housekeeping, makes clear that the
composition is not a boring history lesson about the first one
hundred years of the White House, but an entertaining piece which
highlights episodes about the building and its inhabitants. Soloists
like Barbara Hendricks, June Anderson, Thomas Hampson and
Kenneth Tarver make sure that the concert is of a certain quality.
It spans from the decision for the location of the presidents seat
through the historic occupation of the capital by British troops during
the War of 1812, when they smashed the furniture and set the White
House ablaze, only to see the flames sputter out in a torrential
downpour, to the explanation why the GOP calls itself The Grand
Old Party. An amusing concert about American history.
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Jacob Heringman: Josquin des Prez.
2000, Discipline Global Mobile.
The arrangements of the greatest of renaissance composers, lute player Josquin des Prez (c. 1450-1521),
is a calming experience for people of our century. People who are stressed by today's hectic
life, nervous video
clips and pop music will not only enjoy the music in its interpretation by
Jacob Heringman, but also find a moment to relax and recharge their
batteries. Josquin des Prez inspired French, German, Italian and Spanish
composers to write arrangements of his compositions. It is only since Helmuth
Osthoff's biography of Josquin des Prez, published in 1962-65, that we
really know about the importance and influence of the renaissance man's
work, although since the 1960s, the image of the artist has partly been
corrected. The
New Grove Dictionary (1980) attributed just 176 of the more the 300
compositions which bear his name to Josquin des Prez and, since then, this
number has dropped even further. Still, work of the renaissance composer
who was born on today's French-Belgian border and who had composed in Milan, Aix-en-Provence
and Ferrara, remains of an outstanding importance for the history and
development of the music of the Occident.
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Verdi: La Traviata.
Zubin Mehta, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Eteri Gvazava (Violetta),
José Cura (Alfredo), Rolando Panerei (Germont), et al. 2000, Teldec/Warner
Classics. Get
it from Amazon.com
Eight years after Tosca, which was recorded at the historic scenes
in Rome and at the "original" times of day, the experience found a
successor in La Traviata. The live event was broadcasted in 125
countries. La Traviata takes place in Paris since it is based on Alexandre Dumas'
Dame au camélias which takes place in the French capital. The two CDs
of La Traviata. A Paris. The Soundtrack offer about two hours of
live music [correction: January 30, 2001]. For the CD, the action had been shortened and the
highlights are presented. Unfortunately, the important part, the visual
experience, the effect of seeing the original locations of the opera, is
not present anymore. You can of course still play the different parts of La
Traviata CD at the appropriate time of day, but the intentions of Andrea
Andermann, who has developed the idea and produced the television
broadcast, is lost. The double CD is still worth listening to for the
performance of the Siberian singer Eteri Gvazava as Violetta Valéry who
can more than fulfill the expectations. José Cura as Alfredo Germont is
also convincing.
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Christophe Rousset plays Jean-Henri
d'Anglebert: The Complete works for Harpsichord. 2000, Decca. Get
it from Amazon.com.
In 1983, Christophe Rousset won the international Cembalo competition
in Bruges. Since then, the French musician has been in demand,
especially in his homeland. He has also recorded some remarkable albums
with Musica Antiqua Köln. Christophe Rousset is mainly interested in the
French and Italian repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries, above all in
the opera seria and the opéra
comique. He has received several awards for his recordings of the complete cembalo works of Rameau and
Couperin. Together with his Baroque ensemble,
Les Talens Lyriques, he interpreted the soundtrack for the film Farinelli,
the portrait of a castrato. Christophe Rousset's two CDs with the complete
recordings of Jean-Henry d'Angleberts (1635-1691) works for harpsichord is
dedicated to a man who is in the shadow of his contemporaries. Under Chambonnières,
the French music for harpsichord took the leading position in Europe. D'Anglebert,
together with the better known Louis Couperin is one of his heirs. D'Anglebert's
style is shiny, magnificent, of a certain classicism and at the same time
subtle, of a refined technique with virtuoso elements. Rousset recorded
his works on a harpsichord by
Joannes Ruckers (Antwerpen, 1629). The two CDs only contain original
compositions by d'Anglebert and neglect his transcriptions and variations
after Couperin, Lully, Marais and others. Rousset's interpretations of
D'Anglebert's complete works for harpsichord allow us to rediscover a
notable French composer who is still in the shadow of Chambonnières, Couperin,
Lully and Marais.
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Patricia McCarty: J.S. Bach: Six Cello Suites performed on
viola. (Ashmont Music 2000) Get
it from Amazon.com
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Winner of the First Silver Medal and Radio Prize
in the Geneva International Competition when she was eighteen, Patricia
McCarty, a former assistant principal violist of the Boston Symphony
Orchestra, has become an active proponent of the solo viola. She has performed
throughout the world with, among others the Detroit Symphony, the Houston
Symphony, l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Kyoto Symphony. She has
also worked with jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, whose works for viola and
orchestra she commissioned, premiered and recorded. She presently teaches at
the Boston Conservatory and the Longy School of Music in Cambridge. For her
performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's Six Cello Suites on viola,
Patricia McCarty studied facsimiles of the early manuscripts and other
sources. She had some crucial choices to make since the composer's autograph
score has disappeared and the different editions of Bach's suites offer
several possibilities. In the fifth suite, she retains normal tuning instead
of scordatura. In the sixth suite, she plays the original key of D
major rather than the frequent transcription to the key of G. Recorded in
1998, 1999 and early 2000 at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy, New
York, with its natural acoustics, Patricia McCarty's rendering of the suites
is, in contrast to Mischa Maisky's cello
version, not flamboyant but subdued. Although I prefer the cello version, the
viola CD is worth listening to. Get
it from Amazon.com |
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