This is a rather odd release, clearly intended for the audiophile
market. It consists of an SACD with extracts from various works in the MDG
catalogue. There is a second Blu-Ray disc with the same items and an
additional thirty minutes of tracks intended to test the audio set-up of a
Blu-Ray system. The musical extracts are given with extensive quotations
from reviews in various publications, including a considerable number from
this site; but the musical content is more reminiscent of the cover-mounted
CDs that used to be supplied with various publications such as
Classic
CD and
Gramophone, with many of the items truncated in one way or
another. Of the 28 tracks only one exceeds six minutes in duration.
There are some very good individual items included in these tracks,
beginning with an extract from the scherzo of Bruckner’s
Symphony
No 0 played by the Beethoven Orchester Bonn under Stefan Blunier; but
the problem lies with the term ‘extract’ - we are not even given
the complete movement, just the scherzo section shorn of its trio and
repeat. The Schumann scherzo from the
Symphony No 4 is even more of a
bleeding chunk, as is the extract from Liszt’s
Totentanz
cruelly cut off in mid-flow. There are some interesting rarities, such as
the excerpts from Ponchielli’s
Euphonium Concerto and
Dorati’s
Divertimento, as well as the expected choral and
baroque items, although here again we are often given individual movements
rather than complete works.
The main
raison d’être of this disc is clearly
therefore intended not primarily for musical consumption, but for its
‘hi-fi’ elements. The producers are frank about this:
“Simply listen to this disc from start to finish, and enjoy the
variety of its sounds and acoustics…[The] extensive test
section…will help you to calibrate your system - be it stereo or
multi-channel state-of-the-art - in a much more balanced way, so you will
never have to be annoyed at sound reproduction again.” A laudable aim,
but one suspects that in practice the listener will nevertheless always wish
to make adjustments to balance and tone to suit his or her own preferences
in different styles of music.
To discuss the individual tracks in detail - they are listed at the
end of this review - would not therefore address the main purpose of this
disc, although one might note that cover-mounted CDs advertising the output
of a particular catalogue were generally made available free of charge while
this set appears to retail for over $30. The performances, or the bits of
them we get to hear, are fine and the recordings are as excellent as one
would expect. We are not given details of the recording venues, but the
notes in the booklet come in a wide variety of languages. The tracks succeed
one each other with no more than the usual disjunction one might expect from
such a varied programme, although the eruption of the Shostakovich
Jazz
Suite immediately after the Beethoven sonata gives the listener a real
jolt.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
Track listing (in alphabetical order)
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Ich ruf’ zu dir, BWV 639 [2.30]
Hariolf Schlichtig (viola), Yumi Sekiya (piano)
Mein Seele erhebt den Herren [orch RESPIGHI]
Beethoven Orchester Bonn/Stefan Blunier
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Piano Sonata in F minor, Op.57: Allegro ma non troppo [5.08]
Jin Ju (piano)
Oskar BOHME (1870-1938)
Brass Sextet, Op.30: Scherzo [2.25]
Ensemble Wolfgang Bauer
Anton BRUCKNER (1824-1896)
Symphony No 0, WAB 100: Scherzo [excerpt] [2.38]
Beethoven Orchester Bonn/Stefan Blunier
Frederick CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Étude, Op.10/4 [1.34]
Hardy Rittner (piano)
Nocturne in F sharp, Op.15/2 [3.41]
Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano)
Antal DORATI (1906-1988)
Divertimento: Bergamasca [2.11]
Yeon-Hee Kwak (oboe), Munich Radio Orchestra/Johannes Goritski
Johannes ECCARD (1555-1613)
Missa ‘Mon coeur se recommende’: Sanctus and
Hosanna [2.06]
Norddeutscher Kammerchor/Maria Jürgensen
Mario GIULIANI (1781-1829)
Serenata: Rondo [3.47]
Andrea Lieberknecht (flute), Frank Bungarten (guitar)
Norbert GLANZBERG (1910-2001)
Suite Yiddish [arr Frederic CHASLIN]: Jossele un Jankele af
der Britshke [2.08]
Mulhouse Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Klajner
George Frederick HANDEL (1685-1759)
Sonata, Op.1/2: Allegro [1.54]
Heiko ter Scheggert (recorder), Zvi Meniker (harpsichord)
Franz LISZT (1811-1886)
Totentanz (1849): excerpt [4.06]
Claudius Tanski (piano), Beethoven Orchester Bonn/Stefan Blunier
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Piano Concerto No 16, K451: Rondo [6.49]
Christian Zacharias (piano/cond), Lausanne Chamber Orchestra
Amilcare PONCHIELLI (1834-1886)
Euphonium Concerto, Op.144 [excerpt] [2.24]
Roland Fröscher (euphonium), Mecklenbergische Staatskapelle
Schwerin/Matthias Foremny
Francis POULENC (1899-1963)
Sept Chansons (1936): Marie [2.01]
Norddeutscher Figuralchor/Jörg Straube
Max REGER (1873-1916)
O Jesulein suss [2.47]
Norddeutscher Figuralchor/Jörg Straube
Heinrich SCHEIDEMANN (1596-1663)
Jesu, du wollst uns weisen, WV 78 [1.37]
Leo van Doeselaar (organ)
Arnold SCHOENBERG (1874-1951)
Notturno (1896) [3.2o]
Beethoven Orchester Bonn/Stefan Blunier
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Rosamunde: Huntsmens’ chorus [1.59]
Schweizer Kammerchor.Musikkollegium Winterthur/Douglas Boyd
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Piano Quartet, Op.47: Scherzo [2.24]
Mozart Piano Quartet
Piano Sonata No 1, Op.11: Aria [3.28]
Jim Ju (piano)
Symphony No 4, Op.120: Scherzo [3.15]
Lausanne Chamber Orchestra/Christian Zacharias
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
Jazz Suite No 2: Marcia [2.53]
Selmer Saxharmonic/Milan Turkovic
Antonio SOLER (1729-1783)
Sonata No 104: Allegro [1.04]
Godelieve Schrama (harp)
Heitor VILLA-LOBOS (1887-1959)
Distribution des fleurs [3.35]
Andrea Lieberknecht (bass flute), Frank Bungarten (guitar)
Etude No 1 (1928) [1.23]
Frank Bungarten (guitar)
‘Classica Venezolana’
Heraclio Fernández (arr Omar Acosta): El Diablo suelto
[2.14]
Anette Mailburg (flute), Nirse González (guitar),
Jesús González Brito (cuatro)
[Blu-Ray: 108.28 + SACD: 78.14]
