RECORDING OF THE MONTH


RECORDING OF THE MONTH

BARGAIN OF THE MONTH

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
A London Symphony
Oboe Concerto
£11 post free World-wide



RACHMANINOV Elegy, Preludes, Piano concerto 3
£12 post free World-wide

CHAUSSON, DEBUSSY
RACHMANINOV
TRios
2CDs £16 post free World-wide

Search
What's New
Classical CD Reviews
Live Reviews
Jazz CD Reviews
Composers
Resources
Contact Us

Every Day we post 10 new Classical CD and DVD reviews. A free weekly summary is available by e-mail. MusicWeb is not a subscription site and it is our advertisers that pay for it. Please visit their sites regularly to see if anything might interest you. Purchasing from them keeps MusicWeb free.
  Classical Editor: Rob Barnett  
Founder Len Mullenger   
 


CD REVIEW
RECORDING OF THE MONTH


EXPLORE
Musicweb - CLICK

------------------
Message Board
Announcements
Twitter @MusicWebINt
------------------


Schubert complete symphonies
Bamberger Symphoniker
Jonathan Nott


Only complete set on the Market
35CDs £67

 


 

RECORDING OF THE MONTH

Momentous!

BARGAIN OF THE MONTH

Italian Cello Concertos and Sonatas
3CDS £10.95


Brahms Symphonies Zinman
£26.85

 

RECORDING OF THE MONTH

Beethoven Symphonies
Thielmann


Magic Moments of Opera
10 Operas Arthaus £95


Brilliant Classics 40CDs


Brilliant Classics 60CDs


9 Symphonies Chailly
£31.90


9 Symphonies C Davis
£18.70

BARGAIN OF THE MONTH

Absolutely marvellous!
£5.99 post free


Bruch VC1 Gluzman
Quite the finest performance of the Bruch concerto I have ever heard.


The best opera DVD of the year so far [ST]


Mahler Song Cycles
Katarina Karnéus

Available again

The Raga Guide
4CDs + 196 page book
£33 post-free world-wide
15,000 copies sold

 

 

Would you like a hyperlinked weekly summary of the CDs we have reviewed?

Click for further details

Sample: See what you will get

Editorial Board
Classical Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Seen & Heard
Editor Emeritus
   Bill Kenny
Editor in Chief
   Stan Metzger
MusicWeb Webmaster
   Len Mullenger
Assistant Webmaster
   David Barker

 



alternatively AmazonUK   AmazonUS

 

 

Leopold Stokowski
Otto KLEMPERER (1885-1973)
Merry Waltz from the opera Das Ziel (1915) [3:02]
Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910) [17:02]
Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937)
Rapsodie espagnole (1908) [16:02]
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Symphony No.4 in E minor Op.98 (1885) [37:36]
Ottokar NOVÁČEK (1866-1900)
Perpetuum mobile Op.5 No.4 transcribed Leopold Stokowski (1940) [3:55] ¹
New Philharmonia Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski
London Symphony Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski ¹
rec. Royal Albert Hall, 14 May 1974; 21 September 1974 (Nováček)
BBC LEGENDS BBCL 4205-2 [78:24]
 

 


Scanning the programme for the May 1974 concert now reissued on BBC Legends seasoned Stokowski collectors may well be noting the existence of BBCRD9107. Back in 1995 the Radio Classics imprint released the concert – minus the 1964 Nováček – wholesale. It’s a funny thing but what then seemed reasonable enough sound quality now turns out to have been more than somewhat less so. Running the old BBC transfer alongside the new one effected by Paschal Byrne of the Audio Archiving Company has been an instructive experience and is one of the reasons that I would encourage those of you who still possess the Radio Classics disc to try this new one. Whether you will want to fork out for the privilege is a question only you can answer but I have to say that this performance of the Brahms Fourth seems to me to be the most exciting, galvanizing and convincing of all Stokowski’s efforts. If that tips the balance, well and good.

Now for those transfers. The gains in detail and transparency are significant. What was murky and frankly turgid has now become lighter and clearer; there’s far greater depth all round and the string choirs are separated with maximal clarity. You can hear the solo strings in the VW as one rather failed to do back in 1995. I don’t hear any edginess as a result of the 20 bit digital remastering and nor do I find the newly scrubbed tapes anything other than a marked advance.

The VW is a performance of almost ethereal and slowly refined beauty. It doesn’t materially differ from the Library of Congress performance enshrined on Bridge 9074 given with the Symphony of the Air, but the vast Royal Albert Hall makes a huge contrast to the LC’s boxier acoustic. The resultant tonal qualities are very different. The 1975 EMI recording with the RPO was perhaps less impressive. As a matter of fact I find Stokowski’s performance of his fellow student’s work far too languid and voluptuous but taken on its own terms one could hardly imagine it being done better.

The Brahms is a remarkable example of Stokowski’s employment of fluid tempi. Sometimes the New Philharmonia is marginally caught out by some of the more abrupt transitions but by and large they follow Stokowski well. One of the features of his last years was the determination to press tempi; sometimes he was goaded either by friends or family and the result could border on the manic. There are indeed moments when the phrasing borders on the breathless. But turn back to the 1931 recording now on Music & Arts and we find that the slow movement has actually broadened in the Albert Hall and it’s only the finale that is measurably and appreciably quicker. I prefer this 1974 reading to that 1931 and also to the 1933; both have been widely admired however. His 1941 performance is also on Music & Arts, whilst another 1941 traversal has survived; the 1974 RCA/BMG recording does sound relatively static when measured against the adrenalin fuelled dynamism of the live concert and I can’t really recommend it. As I say this live one is the Stokowski Fourth I’d take with me – yes and that includes the accelerandi, wonderfully full-on horn sound, the inter-movement applause, the cracked horn in the slow movement, the audience splutters and coughs, the vibrant percussion detail and all. If you want dynamism, here’s dynamism.

The Ravel exists in several versions – the 1934 Philadelphia, 1957 LSO on EMI, and a couple of live performances from 1959. Here despite the improved restoration work I’d opt for the Philadelphia. Not that the NPO’s performance is poor – it’s still a splendid example of control and phantasmagorical indulgence with Feria being the most gorgeous, exciting and pulsating example of all. Otto Klemperer had died about ten months before the concert and his old orchestra plays the not-really-so-brittle 1915 Waltz from his opera Das Ziel with real affection. At last one can hear details of the solo violin line that were pretty much obscured in the older transfer. And to end there’s the 1964 LSO Nováček in Stokowski’s ebulliently naughty 1940 transcription.

I think you can more-than-infer by now that the advances in restoration work mean that this is a very viable purchase even if you already have that older BBC disc. I’d buy it for Brahms Four on its own.

Jonathan Woolf 

 


 

 

Advertising Rates
Visitor stats
MusicWeb International
has over 40,000 Classical CD reviews on offer

Discs received

Having a problem Donating?



Gerard Hoffnung Concerts &
The Bricklayer Story

MusicWeb can now offer you discs from the following catalogues:
Prices include postage

There will be NO VAT Rises

[Acte Préalable £13.50]
[Arcodiva £12.00]
[Avie from £6.25]
[British Music Society £12.00]
[CDACCORD from £13.50 ]
[ClassicO £12.50]
[Hallé from £11]
[Heritage £10]
[Hortus £14.99 ]

[Lyrita ONLY £11.75 ]
[Nimbus Special prices]
[Northern Flowers £13.50]

[REDCLIFFE £11 ]
[Sheva £11]
[Tactus £11.50 ]
[Talent from £12.00 ]
[Toccata Classics £10.50 ]

Musicweb
Special Offers

Monthly Best Buys

 

Naxos Classical


New Releases

Hyperion


New Releases


 





MusicWeb sells the Polish
catalogue CDAccord
£10.50 post free W-W


MusicWeb sells the
Arcodiva catalogue
£12.00 post free W-W


£11.75
post-free
world- wide

 

 

Google Ads - for information about privacy matters, click here
Amazon Musicweb International is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Pat and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.