Once again, it’s the end of the year and time to proclaim my not-so-humble opinions as to my favorite releases of 2010:
Pierre Monteux — Early Recordings
Stravinsky: Le sacre du printemps
Ravel: Le petit poucet
Piero Coppola: Interlude dramatique
Charpentier: “Fête Polonaise” from Le Roi malgré lui
Ravel: La valse
Orchestre Symphonique de Paris
Pierre Monteux, conductor
Recorded 1929-1930
Remastered by Mark Obert-Thorn
Pristine Classics PASC219 (download)
At last, Pierre Monteux’s landmark first recording of Stravinsky’s Le sacre is now readily available — a fine performance that balances primal wallop with pungent instrumental timbres. Four other shorter works not only represent the legendary maestro’s favored repertoire but come off with plenty of character and color, particularly Ravel’s La valse, whose coda balances rhythmic impact and suave sensuality. Mark Obert-Thorn’s transfers of these early electrical recordings are mostly non-interventionist (declicked) and open a revelatory aural window on performance practice in prewar France.
“An Robert Schumann” — Susanne Kessel
Ulrike Haage: „Hör ich das Liedchen klingen“ — Fantasmagorie
Christoph Israel Milonga: para acunar
Kreisleriana 2010
- Michael Denhoff: An R. Sch. – für Susanne
- Sascha Janko: Dragicevic Aus nächster Ferne
- Ivan Sokolov: Intermezzo
- Alex Shapiro: Slowly, searching
- Leon Milo: Fantaisie Electroacoustique I pour R.S. and S.K*
- Moritz Eggert: Hammerklavier — Kreislerianana
- Alvin Lucier: SK 7
- Manfred Niehaus: 1 2 3 4 7
Mike Lang: “… in blooming shimmer“
Torben Maiwald: „Es wehet ein Schatten darin.“
Susanne Kessel, piano
* Leon Milo, electronics
Tonmeister: Stephan Schmidt
Toningenieure: Michael Morawietz/Christoph Rieseberg
Co-Produzent: Frank Kämpfer (Deutschlandfunk)
Obst P330.30 (CD)
This excellent and adventurous tribute to Robert Schumann by thirteen composers writing in a wide variety of styles is one of the most satisfying programs of new piano music to come down the pike in a long time. I especially enjoyed Mike Lang’s “… in blooming shimmer“ and the Kreisleriana 2010 movements by Alex Shapiro and minimalist godfather Alvin Lucier, but every one of the works on this disc is compelling. Pianist Susanne Kessel has plenty of technical chops and is astonishlingly convincing in the dauntingly wide variety of styles represented in this program. If you like new piano music, this disc is a must-have!
Gare du Nord
Bohuslav Martin?: Duo No.2 for Violin and Cello
Reinhold Glière: 8 Duets, Op.39
Arthur Honegger: Sonatina for Violin and Cello
Brian Fennelly: ‘Sigol’ for Two
Darius Milhaud: Sonatina for Violin and Cello
Bohuslav Martinu: Duo [No.1] for Violin and Cello
duo parnas (Madalyn Parnas, violin / Cicely Parnas, cello)
Lincoln Mayorga, executive producer
Dan Czernecki, engineer
Sheffield Lab 10088 (CD)
Full review here. My favorite chamber music disc of the year.
Bach: Toccatas
Toccata and Fugue in d minor, BWV 565
Prelude and Fugue in D Major ‘Little’, BWV 532
Toccata and Fugue in d minor ‘Dorian’, BWV 538
Toccata and Fugue in F Major, BWV 540
Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major, BWV 564
Prelude and Fugue in E Major, BWV 566
The 7 Toccatas for keyboard, BWV 910-916*
Toccata for keyboard in G major, BWV 916 — Adagio with ornamentation*
Rossi (?Purcell): Toccata quasi Fantasia con Fuge in A Major
Léon Berben, organ and *harpsichord
Rainer Arndt, producer and engineer
Ramée 50903 (2 CDs)
2010 was a very good year for new recordings of Bach’s music, but I kept returning to this wonderful two-disc set of (almost) all of Bach’s large-scale keyboard and organ toccatas played with virtuoso exuberance by Léon Berben, one of the most interesting of a new generation of Baroque keyboard specialists who are shattering stodgy stereotypes. Berber draws a satisfying balance of power and delicacy from a Keith Hall harpsichord (modeled after a 1728 Christian Zell instrument) and a restored Hagerbeer/Schnitger organ dating back to 1648, in particular reframing the organ works as simultaneously masterpieces of counterpoint and hair-raising Baroque showpieces. The realistic recording out you near the front row but not too close, with just the right ambient balance.
MAHLER: Symphony No.2 “Resurrection”
Yvonne Kenny, soprano / Jard Van Nes, mezzo-soprano
London Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra / Klaus Tennstedt, conductor
Recorded February 20, 1989
Engineer: Tony Faulkner
LPO Records 0044 (2 CDs)
The last few years have seen a bounty of live Mahler performances conducted by Klaus Tennstedt released on CD, both legitimate and bootlegged. They’ve all proven satisfying, but this release is in a league of its own. Tennstedt has consistently proven in my less-than-humble opinion to be the most convincing Mahler conductor of the “subjectivist” school (along with Dimitri Mitropoulos), largely because of his consistently strong adherence to the score. In this performance, recorded a few years before illness forced Tennstedt to retire, he does make one minor “retouching” near the end of the work, but I doubt that even Mahler would have objected. I have yet to hear a more moving performance of this symphony.
XENAKIS EDITION, Volume 11 — Works with Piano
Eonta / Morsima-Amorsima / Akea / Paille in the Wind
Aki Takahashi, piano
with Rohan de Saram, cello / JACK Quartet / Callithumpian Consort / Stephen Drury, conductor
Recorded February 20, 1989
Producers: Brian Brandt and Michael Hynes
mode records 217 (DVD)
Aki Takahashi has been a champion of Xenakis’s daunting piano works for over four decades. She has already recorded a must-have program of the solo piano works for American indie mode records, and this new release — released in both CD and DVD format — brings together the works for instruments with piano. By all means get the DVD; both the DTS Surround and 96k/24bit PCM sound great, the performances of these works are unrivaled, and it’s worth the modest extra bucks alone to watch the “spatial” effects of the wandering brass quintet in Eonta.
Richter in Hungary
Schumann: Piano Concerto in a minor, Op.54 *
Brahms: 2 Intermezzos from Op.118
Bach: 5 selection from Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, Buch I / French Suite in C minor, BWV 813
Prokofiev: Sonata No. 8 in B-flat Major, Op.84
Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte / “Le gibet” from Gaspard de la nuit / Valses nobles et sentimentales / Jeux d’eau / Alborada del gracioso
Schubert: Sonata in C minor, D958
Schumann: Toccata, Op.7
Schubert: Moment musical in C Major, D780 No.1
Liszt: Gnomenreigen / Liebesträume Nos.2 & 3 / Valses oubliées / Sonetto 123 del Petrarca
Debussy: Ariettes oubliées Nos. 1 & 5
Beethoven: Sonata in B-flat Major, Op.22
Schubert: 3 Klavierstücke, D. 946 / Wanderer-fantaisie
Händel: Suite No. 5 in E Major
Shostakovich: 6 preludes and fugues from Op.87
Prokofiev: 9 selections from Visions fugitives, Op.22
Mozart: Piano Sonata in F Major, K280
Beethoven: Piano Sonata in A Major, Op.101
Chopin: The Four Scherzos
Schumann: 2 Novelletten from Op.21
Haydn: Piano Sonata in C Major, HobXVI:35
Chopin: Rondo à la mazur
Debussy: Préludes, Livre II
Schubert: Thirteen Variations on a Theme by Anselm Hüttenbrenner, D576
Schumann: 6 selections from Fantasiestücke, Op.12
Rachmaninoff: 12 Préludes from Opp.23 and 32
Prokofiev: War and Peace – Waltz, Op.96 No.1
Bach: 14 selections from Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, Buch II
Mendelssohn: 5 Lieder ohne Worte from Op.19
Chopin: Nocturne in B-flat minor, Op.9 No.1
Debussy: Images, Livre I / Hommage à Haydn
Chopin: Waltzes in F Major (Op.34 No.3) and G-flat Major (Op.70 No.1) / 4 Mazurkas
Schubert: Piano Sonata in A Major, D664
Beethoven: Sonata in F minor, Op.2 No.1 / Sonata in D Major, Op.10 No.3 / Sonata in E Major, Op.14 No.1 / Sonata in A-flat Major, Op.26
Liszt: No. 9 (Andante lagrimoso) from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses
Franck: Prélude, choral et fugue
Szymanowski: 4 Mazurkas
Debussy: 10 Préludes from Livre I
Tchaikovsky: 4 selections from The Seasons, Op.37b / 6 Piano pieces
Rachmaninoff: 8 Études-Tableaux from Opp.33 and 39
Grieg: 22 Lyric Pieces
Sviatoslav Richter, piano
*Hungarian State Philharmonic Orchestra / János Ferencsik, conductor
Recorded live 1954-1993
BMC Records 171 (14 CDs)
In a year that’s seen the release of dozens of big box sets, one release stands out.
In past decades, Philips and Praga have both released anthologies of live performances by Sviatoslav Richter that are out of print and command high prices on the used market. They’re both excellent, but this set of 14 CDs from the too-little-known Budapest Music Center records is overall more satisfying than either of the others. There are too many high points to mention, thanks in good part to the work of the project’s A&R director — none other than master Hungarian pianist Deszö Ránki! A few performances that stand out are: the Schumann Piano Concerto, a far more engaging performance than either of Richter’s commercial recordings not only on the soloist’s part but from the orchestra conducted by the much-underrated János Ferencsik; an intense reading of selections from Bach’s WTC Book I and contrastingly introspective selections from Book II recorded some decades later; grand and expansive performances of Rachmaninoff’s solo piano works that makes you forget that these are some of the toughest pieces in the repertoire; and beautiful performances of many of Grieg’s best Lyric Pieces that reveal the works as more substantial than you may think. Sound quality throughout is better than expected, and the beautiful, high-end packaging is something one would expect from a premium-priced import (you can find it online for under ten bucks a disc with shipping).
Bottom line: this is the live Richter survey to get, a great place to start for new Richter fans and a must-have collection for his current followers.
Messiaen: Livre du Saint Sacrement
Paul Jacobs, organ of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, New York City
Producers: Isabelle Demers and Daniel Sullivan
Engineer: Stephen Roessner
Naxos 8.572436-37 (2 CDs)
2008 was the Messiaen centenary year, but new recordings of his music continue to be issued with surprising regularity. In particular, there have been a number of recordings of his large-scale late organ works, which at last seem to be gaining wide recognition. Organist Paul Jacobs’s performance of the Livre du Sainr Sacrement is a remarkable listening experience, conveying massive grandeur, sustained meditative atmosphere, and timbres that invoke a wide range of aural images from ancient music to symphonic spectacle. But it is Jacobs’s control over the daunting large-scale dramatic and formal elements of the cycle that make this recording one of the most satisfying Messiaen releases in years.
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben / Webern: Im Sommerwind
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Bernard Haitink, conductor
Producers: James Mallinson
Engineer: Christopher Willis
CSO Resound 9011004 (SACD)
The music press has been going ga-ga over the Riccardo Muti/Chicago Symphony recording of Verdi’s Requiem on CSO Resound, and for good reason: it’s excellent. But I liked Haitink’s recording of Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben even more. I’ve had quibbles with Haitink’s technically superb but emotionally detached recordings (and concerts) with the orchestra in recent years, but this detailed, nuanced performance of Heldenleben is overflowing with character and virtuoso playing, and the coupling, Webern’s early symphonic poem Im Sommerwind, is the finest recording I’ve yet heard of the work: perfect orchestral balances, lyircal playing, and a satisfyingly dramatic feel. It’s also the best-sounding new orchestral recording I’ve heard this year.
Mozart — APOLLO’S FIRE
Symphony No.40 in g minor, K550
“In un istante… Parto, m’affretto” from Lucio Silla, K135*
Ballet Music from Idomeneo, K367
4 German Dances†
Apollo’s Fire
Jeannette Sorrell, conductor
* Amanda Forsythe, soprano
Producer: Erica Brenner
Engineer: Thomas Knab
Recorded in St Paul’s Church, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, April 2008, and † live, April 2003
Avie AV2159 (SACD)
British CD indie imprint Avie has long been one of my favorite labels. Their head honchos, Simon Foster and Melanne Mueller, have a penchant for finding outstanding underexposed artists in just the right repertoire. The result: you’re pretty much guaranteed to find any of their releases thoroughly satisfying.
Here’s one that completely surprised me, given my general antipathy toward Mozart: an energetic, entertaining, and refreshing program of the familiar Symphony No.40 and less familiar works played by one of the finest period instrument ensembles on the planet, Cleveland-based Apollo’s Fire. Amanda Forsyth’s contribution in the recitative and aria “In un istante… Parto, m’affretto” from Lucio Silla may be performed with a small ensemble, but the effect is potently theatrical. The entire disc presents a strong case for small-scale ensemble “authentic” instrument Mozart.
So what were your favorites of 2010? Drop me a line and I’ll share your choices.