Category: Recordings

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?

Jean-Philippe Rameau is usually remembered today (when he is remembered at all) as an important musical theorist. This limited reputation is unfortunate, because Rameau was a masterful composer known for his sumptuous melodies and colorful harmonies.

Iím told that, if an auditioning singerís repertoire includes a Verdi piece, the auditors will very likely choose to hear it, because singing Verdi well requires the full catalogue of skills: musical exactness, dynamic range, breath control, sensitive phrasing, the ability to provide a variety of colors in the voice, and, if possible, a large enough personality to truly fill out whichever character is being portrayed.

I have to admit it: this is the first time I ever listened to the complete version of this early Decca-issue of 1952 (though some sources say it was recorded one year earlier).

While I was listening to this recording of Krenekís song cycles Durch die Nacht (op. 67) and Ges‰nge des sp‰ten Jahres (op. 71), I started to think about art and memory.

I first became acquainted with Glassís music when Lyric Opera of Chicago staged his Satyagraha in the 1980s. Having grown up on a small-town Midwestern diet of Beethoven sonatas and Broadway musicals, I was blown away by his vision of Mahatma Gandhi.

A happy feature of the King CD is the booklet in German and English: at least 7 pages full of information on the tenor. Then there is the pristine sound of the recordings. Though there is no mention of a concert source Iím fairly sure all the pieces (always followed by generous applause), are derived from the famous M¸nchner Sonntag Konzerte.

Sir Arthur Sullivanís legacy suffers from that common malaise that, once a good or bad reputation is made, it is very difficult to be remembered for anything elseóbe it better or worse.