MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


 REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: AmazonUK AmazonUS


Mordecai Shehori – The Celebrated New York Concerts - Volume 4
Joseph HAYDN (1832-1809)
Arietta and Variations in A H XVII: 2. (ed. Mindru Katz) [9:34]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Piano Sonata in A D.784. (1823) [18:58]
Sergei RACHMANINOFF (1873-1943)
Melodie in E major op. 3/3 [4:14]
Barcarolle in G minor op. 10 No3 [3:27]
Etude-tableau in E flat minor Op.49 No.5 [4:37]
Valse in A major Op.10 No.2 [4:12]
Humoresque in G major Op.10 No.5 [2:54]
Prelude in E flat major Op.23 No.6 [3:21]
Polichinelle in F sharp minor Op.3 No.4 [3:26]
Franz LISZT (1881-1886)
Années de pèlerinage: 2e Année, Book II Venezia e Napoli – Tarantella [8:53]
(attrib) Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Das Butterbrot, introduced from the stage by Mordecai Shehori [0:21 + 1:55]
Mordecai Shehori (piano)
rec. May 1987 (Haydn), May 1986 (Schubert), Merkin Concert Hall: June 2001 Rachmaninoff pieces except Opp. 23/6 and 3/4) Alice Tully Hall: September 1980 (Rachmaninoff Opp.23/6 and 3/4) and January 1982 (Liszt and Mozart) The 92nd Street Y.
CEMBAL D’AMOUR CD139 [65:58]
Experience Classicsonline


As before, Mordecai Shehori’s New York concert series offers a variety of locations and recorded dates. Volume Four gives us a twenty year plus conspectus of powerful performances that starts with Haydn, ends with probably-not Mozart (‘attributed’ is the kindest word one can come up with) and takes in Schubert, Rachmaninoff and Liszt. It formulates a programme of wide-ranging expressive and technical demands; ones moreover well suited to the stylistic qualities of this most unfairly overlooked of musicians.

He plays the Arietta of the Haydn with limpid refinement, one worthy of the work’s editor and Shehori’s erstwhile teacher, Mindru Katz. The deftly weighted right hand is a sheer joy and so too in the variations is the sense of imperious dynamism and control. Nor does Shehori deny Haydn the wit that is so richly embedded here. The few coughs from the Merkin Concert Hall audience hardly detract at all from the sense of thorough absorption in the charm and voluble energy of the work.

Schubert’s Sonata in A D.784 receives a reading of powerful, intensely biting internal contrasts, Shehori stressing the funeral march elements of the first movement with a sense of lowering inevitability: contrast Kempff’s altogether lighter expression. Indeed Shehori seems like a man possessed in this work. Not only does he sculpt the first movement with graphic urgency, which is contrasted with eruptive passionate lyricism, but he makes something monumental of the slow movement. There’s a sense of almost manic abandon here, which carries on the implicit violence of the opening movement into a still greater sense of theatre. With a tumultuous finale – chordal playing of elemental and resounding projection – Shehori launches yet another exploration of the unease, instability and rapid conjunctional tumult embedded in the sonata. In Shehori’s hands this is a work of frightening intensities, savage abruptness and destabilising violence. Others will recoil perhaps from the starkness of the ultimate vision thus revealed – but you cannot doubt the commitment with which Shehori presents it.

The Rachmaninoff selection gives us a rich variety of material. Shehori revels in the rich voicings and fluid tempi of the Melodie in E. The Etude-Tableau is a tempestuous and temperamental affair, whereas there is a nice contrast between the Valse and the Humoresque; this last is subject to some truly outsize playing. The Polichinelle is a delight. And so too in Liszt’s Tarantella which draws from the pianist some eloquent and virtuosic dynamism. The little ‘Mozart’ piece is introduced by Shehori and ends the recital.

This selection of performances has been well recorded; the audience ambience adds to the frisson, I find. Some listeners tend to recoil from these kinds of thing but what else does one expect from live performances? Shehori is on vertiginous form here: his danger meter is high in the Humoresque and in the Schubert and the temperature of these two pieces alone is combustible. Exciting!

Jonathan Woolf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

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
Past 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.