Category: Recordings

Sergei Prokofievís Ivan the Terrible? Which one? Prokofiev composed music for Sergei Eisensteinís film (part 1, 1942-44; part 2, 1945) about the sixteenth-century ruler, and the score is catalogued as op. 116. After the composerís death, music for the film was arranged first into an oratorio (with speaker, soloists, chorus, and orchestra) by Alexander Stasevich (1961) and later into a concert scenario by Christopher Palmer (1990).

Ralph Vaughan Williams and Charles Ives; both known more for their symphonic music than anything else, receive superb tributes in these recordings of some of their early songs. Only two years separate the birth dates of these composers; but the musical language each speaks seems to put far more distance than that between them.

Two recent releases document performances of Georges Bizetís Carmen that took place within just a few months of each other. The casts share many of the same performers, most notably the conductor and the interpreter of the operaís title role.

Bass-baritone Michele Pertusiís voice is captured in this recital disc after only two years of formal studies. Taking this into account one can forgive what he calls ìimperfections: a few, slight musical errors, some invented or switched words, a Neapolitan pronunciation that is not quite perfect, an English one which could be improved on, a few marred notes.î

On 24 October 1998, the Vienna State Opera presented the opening night of its staging of Gioachino Rosssiniís Guillaume Tell. It was the first Staatsoper production in 91 years of Rossiniís final opera and masterpiece, as well as the Vienna premiere of the 1829 operaís original French-language version.

The compositions of John Tavener, Arvo P‰rt, and Henryk GÛrecki have accustomed us to the degree that religious spirituality has found serious musical voice in the late twentieth century. In their works, a profound language of musical mysticism is wed to various liturgical evocations, creating compositions that seem both authentic in their expression and unusually personal in their genesis.

Watching this DVD, your reviewer suddenly recalled a brief exchange from the film Reversal of Fortune, when the Ron Silver/Alan Dershowitz character says to the Jeremy Irons/Claus von Bulow one, ìYou are a very strange man, ì and Irons, in the moment that may have won him the Academy Award, replies with eerie blandness, ìYou have no idea.î

Orfeo has joined the ranks of CD companies adding artwork to the inner casing beneath the disc. For this recording of Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983), a series of photographs of gauchos riding horses on the pampas receives a modified Andy Warhol treatment.

Eight long and dark years later, La Fenice rose, once again, from the ashes following a devastating fire which destroyed the theater in 1996. For the ìformalî re-opening of the refurbished Venetian landmark, its management wisely chose Verdiís original score for his 1853 opera for La Fenice: La Traviataóanother survivor that rose from the ashes.

Dorothea Schroder, as translated by Stewart Spencer, begins her booklet essay for Magdalena Kozenaís recent CD by quoting a review of an earlier disc of the mezzo: ìÖKozena is simply marvelous.î Brazen record company self-promotion?