Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3

Byron Janis' celebrated recordings of these two concertos have never sounded better than in this new remastering by Mercury's Wilma Cozart Fine. Talk about recordings usually focuses on the artists and composers, and rightly so, but there are some people in the industry whose names you should know, producers and engineers whose work is as artistically excellent as the performers they record. During the late 50s and early 60s the Fines, husband and wife, created a catalog of recordings, which, when all is said and done, is probably title for title the finest in existence. There isn't a single one that isn't worth hearing, and some, like this one, belong in every collection. --David Hurwitz Listen to Samples.

Piano Concerto No.2 In C Minor, Op.18

Serge Rachmaninoff (1873 – 1943)

Moderato
Adagio sostenuto
Allegro scherzando

The year of the Piano Concerto No.2 was 1900, and its first performance took place on October 14, 1901 with the Moscow Philharmonic. The composer played the piano part in this premier performance. Few of Rachmaninoff’s works are so richly filled with intoxicating melodic ideas; few seem to have arisen in such a soaring flight of inspiration. From the majestic opening of the first movement with its succession of chords pronounced by the solo piano in increasing sonority from pianissimo to fortissimo, through the eloquent melody for oboes and violas in the third movement (one of the most stirring lyric pages in modern concerto literature), the concerto teems with exciting, moving, passionate, tender ideas, pouring forth inexhaustibly. The second movement, Adagio sostenuto, is a particularly poetic page, somewhat sentimental, somewhat nostalgic, but always deeply felt and sensitively expressed.

Rachmaninoff dedicated the concerto to Dr.Dahl whose treatment of Rachmaninoff’s state of despair and morbidity following the failure of his First Symphony and First Piano Concerto enable the composer to compose again with new vitality and freshness. The result was his Piano Concerto No.2, in many respects the best loved of all his larger works, and one of the most inspired. When his vein of melody was tapped, it gushed in a warm stream of that Russian lyricism which can turn the stone heart to water. Rachmaninoff never sought to expound doctrines other than the doctrine of beauty, and that is why his music is always “singing”. He was a composer with soul in his music – emotional, hypersensitive, moody, at alternate moments brooding.

Bartok The Miraculous Mandarin

This Bartok album from conductor Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra is a real treat. It brings wonderful performances of Bartok not often recorded...even Boulez hasn't recorded some of these pieces in his Bartok survery.
In addition to the colorfully, zesty performances of these rare Bartok gems, this dics has (to my mind) the best performance of the Complete Mircaculous Mandarin Ballet out on CD. The orchestra and conduct go for color and refinement rather than sheer power. The opening bristles with excitement, and the chase shows the orchestra in fine form at a tempo that is daringly fast. In this case it works. It is clear that conductor and orchestra are very much home in these works of Bartok. For a complete Mandarin I would say that this is now first choice...even over the excellant Boulez version for DG. The playing in this ballet is some of the best I've heard (only the Berlin Philharmonic in their recording of the suite...not complete ballet...plays better).
Perhaps until the BPO makes a complete recording with Abbado or Rattle...this is the Mandarin to get I would say.
Strong recommendation.--Greg Hales See more.

Rumanian Folk Dances For String Orchestra

Béla Bartók (1881 – 1945)

Béla Bartók’s interest in and preoccupation with Hungarian folk music considerably influenced his own style as a composer. The real Hungarian music, which he discovered, is quite other than the meretricious gypsy music exploited by Brahms and Liszt: its melodies, built on modes, are harsher and severer in line; its spirit is more virile; it’s feeling more barbaric. And Bartók’s model for his own works, up to the time he settled in the United States, was this Hungarian folk music. At first hearing this music is usually not pleasant to listen to, for it is disjointed, discordant, and seemingly amorphous. Bartók was intensely modern in his use (or lack of use) of tonality and in his harmonic vocabulary. His music was the product of a complex intelligence, demanding familiarity before it could be understood and appreciated. However, in his last works written, humanity and emotion are added elements-qualities which explain why these compositions are heard more frequently and appreciated more widely than the earlier works of his early manhood and maturity.

MUSIC OF SAMUEL BARBER

Samuel Barber's most popular orchestral works have seldom been as well-performed as they were by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin. This wonderful EMI recording is a lasting testament to the great things that Slatkin accomplished during his long tenure in St. Louis.

The overture to "The School for Scandal" was an early triumph for Samuel Barber and it was clearly an exciting, dramatic, and sometimes lyrical work. Slatkin is very sensitive and understanding of this music and was able to lead the St. Louis musicians in one of the best performances of this popular work.

Perhaps Barber's best-known work is the "Adagio for Strings," originally part of a string quartet. It bears the distinction of having a world premiere under the legendary Arturo Toscanini. It's interesting to note that Barber had gone to Italy one summer and managed to meet the Maestro, who was on his own summer vacation. Toscanini was impressed with the aspiring, young composer and was soon even more impressed with the "Adagio for Strings." Toscanini chose to premiere the "Adagio" with the NBC Symphony on a broadcast performance. It is one of the most deeply moving compositions by any American composer. I've seldom heard such a powerful performance as this one by Slatkin and the St. Louis orchestra.

Toscanini also premiered the first of Barber's "Essays for Orchestra." Interestingly, however, the first recording of this energetic, colorfully orchestrated work was by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra in a 12-inch 78-rpm RCA Victor Red Seal recording. Slatkin not only conducted this work but the two essays which followed, the third of which is one of Barber's later works (with rather spectacular, imaginative writing for percussion).

Finally, there is the rather jazzy and compelling "Medea's Dance of Vengeance." One critic referred to this as a boogie woogie for orchestra. It is very syncopated and almost overwhelming in its intensity, particularly in this performance. Anyone familiar with the legend of Medea will recognize that Barber has managed to faithfully depict the horrible events in this memorable work. -- Robert E. Nylund See more.

ADAGIO FOR STRINGS

Samuel Barber (1910 - )




A suave style combined with elegant workmanship has made Barber one of the major voices in American music. For a long time he was regarded as a conservative composer, because he was more concerned with expressing his inmost feelings unashamedly than with embarking on new forms and novel experiments. But later compositions reveal an increasing independence of style and thought, together with the necessity to utilize the fullest resources of modern writing. The outstanding trait of his major works is a capacity to project subtle moods and atmospheres. His is a deeply poetic temperament reflected in everything he has written.

Written in 1937, and introduced at a concert of the NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, on November 5, 1938, the Adagio for Strings is built out of a single theme (heard at the beginning of the piece in the violins). A poetic mood is sustained throughout the work. Sibelius, who saw the manuscript, remarked: “I am glad to say that I consider this music excellent…(It is)…good art, and especially do I like its simplicity.

SYMPHONY NO.29 IN A MAJOR, K.201

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)



I. Allegro moderato
II. Adante
III. Menuetto
IV. Allegro con spirito

The piece was completed in Salzburg in April of 1774.
The character of this symphony is created by two main factors; the adoption of chamber music style orchestration consisting of two oboes, two horns and a string ensemble, and the use of A major in which Mozart often wrote fluent melodies.

The subtle second movement is the most beautiful and elegant passage, but we also appreciate the noble taste of the minuet in the third movement. The last movement revives the characteristics of the first movement in a more lighthearted and lively way, leading to the dramatic climax. With its excellent overall composition, the piece is one of the best works of Mozart from his early days.

In “Symphony No.29 in A major,” Mozart frequently incorporate bright and happy melodies and harmonies reminiscent of Italian music, which he tactfully mixes with the Austrian style. He also attempts a fusion between symphony and chamber music styles, to open up new possibilities.