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The Pittsburgh Symphony, which earlier this year announced its return to commercial recording on the PentaTone label with an upcoming Brahms Symphony cycle, is seeing its efforts go on sale ahead of schedule. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that PentaTone has decided to release the first volume in the set on August 28 rather than wait until the complete cycle is recorded during the coming season.
Masters and Commanders: Music from Seafaring Film Classics, a Telarc release by conductor Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops, is this week's new arrival on the Billboard classical chart, making its debut at no. 9. This disc features selections from the scores of such films as (among others) Pirates of the Caribbean, The Sea Hawk, Mutiny on the Bounty, Captains Courageous, and, naturally, Master and Commander. Masters and Commanders is a swashbuckling musical portrait of valiant seamen, tempestuous captains, eccentric pirates, pious pilgrims and more.
CONSUMER INFO
Another premiere recording, of Henryk Górecki's String Quartet No. 3, subtitled ... songs are sung and played by the Kronos Quartet, has been on and off the classical chart every couple of weeks since its debut in late March. It is now back on the chart at no. 17. ...CONSUMER INFO Henryk Mikolaj Górecki's String Quartet No. 3, Piesni Spiewaja ("...Songs Are Sung"), Op. 67--like its predecessors--was especially commissioned for and dedicated to the Kronos Quartet, whose impassioned, sympathetic performance burnishes it to a fare-thee-well. Approximately a decade of fits and starts separated the work's completion from its premiere, which finally took place in the composer's native Poland on October 15, 2005. Fans of his elegiac, incongruously popular Third Symphony likely somewhat startled by the spiky, dissonant virility that informs so much of Górecki's output. But the present piece would be an ideal follow-up for admirers of his more mystical, minimalist style.
The new Strauss recording, entering the chart at no. 20, is of the world premiere performance of the Four Last Songs, recorded live in concert at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1950. Kirsten Flagstad is the soprano soloist, with Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra. The disc also includes orchestral excerpts from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Götterdämmerung, along with Brünnhilde's Immolation from the latter opera. ...CONSUMER INFO
The Boston Globe..."Osvaldo Golijov has made his name by shaking up the classical-music landscape and disturbing its boundaries... He has become the composer of the moment." Oceana, arriving on the chart at no. 4, is the third disc of Golijov's music to be recorded by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and conductor Robert Spano for the Deutsche Grammophon label. In addition to the title work, which features Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and the ASO Chamber Chorus, the disc includes the string quartet Tenebrae (performed by the Kronos Quartet) and three songs for soprano and orchestra (sung by Dawn Upshaw). ...CONSUMER INFO
A tribute to America's first great classical violinist, played by one of her musical descendants, on this week's Billboard classical chart. Making its debut at no. 12 is American Virtuosa: Tribute to Maud Powell
, performed by violinist Rachel Barton Pine with pianist Matthew Hagle. Powell (1867-1920) was once renowned for her virtuosity on both sides of the Atlantic — conductor Leonard Slatkin has described her as "the female Fritz Kreisler" (and Barton Pine prefers to think of Kreisler as the male Maud Powell) — and was a star of both the concert stage and the 78 RPM recording. This new CD is a collection of turn-of-the-20th-century miniatures for violin and piano which Powell made staples of her touring repertoire; many of them are arrangements she made herself.
This is an expertly played, beautifully recorded take on Gershwin standards. One way to look at the panoply of recordings of the "Piano Concerto in F" and "Rhapsody in Blue" is to consider the respective weight of the classical and jazz/pop aspects of Gershwin's language in each one. This disc, perhaps surprisingly in view of the jazz background of Rochester Philharmonic conductor Jeff Tyzik, doesn't play up the jazziness of Gershwin. Listen to the finale of the piano concerto: it is brisk and sharp but not brassy. California pianist Jon Nakamatsu elaborates the work in ways related to Romantic pianism rather than to jazz, most noticeably with a good deal of tempo rubato. Given that these performances stress Gershwin's symphonic aspect (which was how 1920s audiences encountered these pieces, the rediscovery of the small-orchestra versions of the "Rhapsody in Blue" coming only much later), the listener will find them among the very best available in that style. These readings are detailed and subtle -- not words always used in connection with Gershwin, but this recording finds those qualities in his music. New York Times
Mr. Nakamatsu’s relaxed virtuosity in the concerto and the rhapsody is in contrast to the usual "wired" approach to these pieces. He lingers and ruminates where others press on. Bernard Holland
Dallas Morning News [Grade: A-] Right away, you'll notice the rhythmic snap and crackle.... This [performance] is competitive with the best. Scott Cantrell
Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F; Rhapsody in Blue; Cuban Overture [Hybrid SACD]
Dorothy Maynor in Concert at the Library of Congress (1940); Great
Artur Balsam In Concert at the Manhattan School of Music; Artur Balsam,
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Pavarotti at Amazon.com