Jules
MASSENET (1842-1912)
Thais-Meditation
Laszlo Kote (violin)/Budapest Philharmonic
Orchestra/Andra Korodi
Robert SCHUMANN
(1810-1856)
Des Abends
Jenö Jando (piano)
Ferenc FRAKAS
Aria
Lajos Lencses (oboe)/Budapest Strings
Edvard GRIEG
(1843-1907)
Solveig’s Song (Peer Gynt)
Vienna Symphony Orchestra/Yuri Ahronovitch
W BOCHMANN
Heute abend in der blauen Stunde
WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne/Thomas Gabrisch
Zdenek FIBICH
(1850-1900)
Poeme Op.41 No.6
Budapest Strings/Bela Bánfalvi
Giacomo PUCCINU
(1858-1924)
Tosca’s Prayer
Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra/Emil Tabakov
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH
(1906-1975)
Romance from The Gadfly
Radio Symphony orchestra Berlin/Leonid
Grin
Felicien Cesar
DAVID (1810-1876)
Le reverie du soir
Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin/Guido
Maria Guida
Georges BIZET
(1838-1875)
Intermezzo from Carmen
Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra/Janos
Sandor
Walter JURMANN
Tränen in der Geige
Ferenc Kiss (violin)/Cologne Radio Symphony
Orchestra/Klaus Arp
Maurice RAVEL
(1875-1937)
Scheherezade-La Flute enchantèe
Gisella Pasino/Radio Symphony Orchestra
Berlin/Hanns-Martin Schneidt
Sergei RACHMANINOV
(1873-1943)
Vocalise Op.34 No.14
Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart/Neville
Marriner
Modest MUSSORGSKY
(1839-1881)
The Old Castle –Pictures At An Exhibition
Dénes Várjon (piano)
Nicolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
(1844-1908)
Boyarinya Vera Sheloga-Wiegenlied
Stevka Evstatieva (soprano)/Bulgarian
Symphony Orchestra/Stoyan Angelov
Ferde GROFÉ
(1892-1972)
Grand Canyon Suite – Sunset
Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin/Hans-Dieter
Baum
Tomaso ALBINONI
(1671-1750)
Adagio
Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra/ Herbert
Kegel
Felix MENDELSSOHN
(1809-1847)
Venetian Gondola – Song without Words
Jenö Jando (piano)
Antonin
DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)
Symphony No.9 From the New World – Largo
(extract)
Prague Festival Orchestra/Pavel Urbanek
Johannes BRAHMS
(1833-1897)
Wiegenlied
Budapest Strings/Bela Bánfalvi
Giacomo PUCCINI
(1858-1924)
E lucevan le stele – Tosca
Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra/Emil Tabakov
Emmerich KÁLMAN
Wenn es Abend wird
Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra/Janos
Sandor
Eugene BOZZA
Aria
Lajos Lencses (cor anglais)/Orchestre
de Chambre National de Toulouse
Jean SIBELIUS
(1865-1957)
Valse Triste Op.44
Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra/ Herbert
Kegel
Louis Etienne Ernest REYER
Chant du soir
Bruno Lazaretti/Radio Symphony Orchestra
Berlin/Guido Maria Guida
Claude DEBUSSY
(1862-1918)
La fille aux cheveux de lin
Janos Balint (flute) Deborah Sipkai
(harp)
Samuel BARBER
(1910-1981)
Adagio
Philharmonia Orchestra/Geoffrey Simon
Gustav MAHLER
(1860-1911)
Urlicht – Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Vessela Zorova (mezzo soprano)/Sofia
Philharmonic Orchestra/Emil Tabakov
Jean FRANCAIX
(1912-1997)
La princesse de Cèves-Prelude
Lajos Lencses (oboe)/Radio Symphony
Orchestra Stuttgart/Patrick Strub
Heitor VILLA-LOBOS
(1887-1959)
Bachianas Brasileiras No.2 – Aria
Radio Orchestra Berlin/Hans-Dieter Baum
Ernest CHAUSSON
(1855-1899)
Chanson perpetuelle
Julianne Banse (soprano)/ Wolfram Rieger
(piano)
Giacomo PUCCINI
(1858-1924)
Turandot – Nessum dorma
Capriccio are past
masters of compilation discs but this
one has the Adagio Classics look about
it. Take thirty or so reverent melodies,
some more honoured or more or less supine
than others, raid the radio vaults and
package into a gatefold double and present
to the public. Yes, fair dos, but what
about the critic; what can he possibly
do with this melange of material? As
it happens my first review for this
site, which was so awful it was never
published, was a compilation very like
this one of Violin Classics. Saved from
a critical fate by the editor I brushed
up my lingo, increased the length of
my paragraphs and got on with the job.
But I’m still haunted by the memory
of the blank computer screen, my finger
hovering uselessly over a defeated mouse,
of a brain scrambled into pieces by
a succession of Andantes.
Now, older, uglier
and more bold with flannel I’m far better
equipped to tell you that you should
only buy this disc if you have discovered
long forgotten relatives in Albania
and want to fob them off with a veneer
of culture. Not that it’s a bad set
but rather that it’s for present giving
as one look at the headnote will show.
From the off - with the Massenet - we
are deep in schmaltz; this is the dodgiest
version I’ve heard since I was serenaded
with it in a Slovak restaurant by an
itinerant band only some of whom were
still vertical. We embrace a touch of
the Richard Cleydermans with Bochmann’s
Heute abend – a filmic and sugary
confection – which vies with the orchestrated
Fibich for Sugary Surge of the Week;
most of these awards are won by Hungarians
by the way, who as ever prove themselves
cosmopolitan in their café affiliations.
Best not to wonder about the acoustic
in the otherwise well-worth-a-listen
Felicien David extract; was it recorded
down a mine? (I’m not joking).
About Jurmann’s Tränen
in der Geige the best I can say
is that there’s a lovely moment that
sounds like a cross between Mantovani
and the Modern Jazz Quartet. And so
it goes; orchestrated piano classics
(Brahms), bloated passion flowers, wistful
droopers. Yes, true, there are some
good things – Villa-Lobos, Banse’s Chausson,
the excellent Francaix. And unusual
too to find in a collection of this
kind Geoffrey Simon and the Philharmonia
playing – you’ve guessed it – Barber’s
Adagio.
Still. Christmas is
coming and the goose is getting fat,
put this rum old bugger in a relative’s
hat.
Jonathan Woolf
Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra/Emil Tabakov 
for
details 
