Remastered by Urlicht AudioVisual’s Gene Gaudette – strong critical praise shared with Parnassus Records’ Leslie Gerber: “Last September I included in this column Parnassus’s ‘Michael Rabin on The Bell Telephone Hour’, promising a forthcoming second volume, which has now appeared and like the first includes some dazzling tracks. Both volumes are mandatory purchases for violin buffs. But more important still for fans… is a coupling of two full-length concertos that he never had the chance to take into the studio, Paul Creston’s Second (which Rabin commissioned) and, most treasurable, the Beethoven Concerto. … Both recordings only go to illustrate Rabin’s level of musical and technical superiority while at the height of his powers. Gene Gaudette’s remastering is excellent and so are Leslie Gerber’s notes.”
– Rob Cowan, Gramophone
Read the full review here.
“English Music for Strings” – Collins, New Symphony Orchestra (Decca)
“Glass World of Annea Lockwood” (Room40, digital reissue)
Elgar: Violin Concerto – Frang (Warner)
“Beat” – King Crimson (EG)
Nono: Seguente (edition RZ)
Monk: Atlas (ECM)
Poulenc: Aubade, Les Biches (Tacchino, Prêtre) – EMI
“Liberation Music Orchestra” – Chalie Haden (Impulse!)
Johann Michael Bach, Johann Christoph Bach: Choral and Keyboard Works (Ricercar, from the “Masters of the German Baroque” big box)
Schoenberg: Serenade Op. 24, Variations Op. 31, Bach Transcriptions – Robert Craft, 20th Century Chamber Ensemble, Philharmonia Orchestra (Naxos) Qobuz • Apple Music • Amazon ‘Masters of Chopin’– Ignaz Friedman, Ignace Tigerman, Severin Eisenberger (arbiter) Apple Music Telemann: ‘The Grand Concertos for Mixed Instruments, Volume 2’ – Michael Schneider, La Stagione Frankfurt (cpo) Qobuz • Apple Music • Amazon ‘God’s Favorite Dog’ (Touch and Go, ripped and restored from vinyl!) Louis Andriessen: Il Principe, Il Duce (Donemus Composers’ Voice, ripped and restored from vinyl!) ‘Xenakis in het Orgelpark’ (Orgelparkrecords) Qobuz • Apple Music • Amazon
Globular, Berio, Stockhausen, Roque Alsina: Music for Trombone[s] – Vinko Globokar (DG avant garde) Qobuz • Apple Music • Amazon
JC Bach: Harpsichord Sonatas – Virginia Black (CRD) Qobuz • Apple Music • Amazon
Martinů: Piano Concerto No. 2 – Emil Lechner, Jiří Bělohlávek, Czech Philharmonic (Supraphon) Qobuz • Apple Music
Pettersson: Symphony No. 9 – Commission, Göteborg SO (Philips, ripped and restored from vinyl!) ‘In the Tradition, Volume 2’ – Anthony Braxton et al (Steeplechase) Qobuz • Apple Music • Amazon ‘Live at Cēsis Concert Hall’ – Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica (AKKA) Limited Edition CD
Schütz: Vocal and Choral Music – Ricercar Consort, Vox Luminis (Ricercar, from the massive, out of print “Masters of the German Baroque” CD box)
MMY28H . English: Portrait of Carlo Gesualdo ???????: ????? ?????????? (???????????? ???????) . 16th century. Anonymous Gesualdo3
If you are a fan of Stravinsky, Varèse, and/or the Second Viennese school – Webern, Berg, and in particular Arnold Schoenberg – you likely recognize the name Robert Craft, a conductor best known as a champion of that esteemed group of composers. You may not be aware that he was also profoundly interested in renaissance- and baroque-era polyphony, particularly the music of Carlo Gesualdo.
Craft’s first pioneering recording of the Italian master’s madrigals, made before his long-term partnership with Columbia Masterworks, was made with a handful of Hollywood’s most gifted singers – including the young Marilyn Horne. The result of these independent studio sessions proved an important catalyst in the revival of interest in Gesualdo’s unique and revolutionary oeuvre, and a landmark recording at the dawn of “historically informed” early music performance practice.
Unavailable for over six decades, this recording has been restored and remastered by Urlicht AudioVisual and will be available on our sister label Toblach Ausgabe for streaming, sale on CD, and download in HD formats on February 18.
You can download the liner notes in .pdf here.
Hindemith: Pittsburgh Symphony – Kegel, Berlin Symphony (Berlin)
Blackwood: Microtonal Compositions – (Cedille)
“Last September I included in this column Parnassus’s ‘Michael Rabin on The Bell Telephone Hour’, promising a forthcoming second volume, which has now appeared and like the first includes some dazzling tracks. Both volumes are mandatory purchases for violin buffs. But more important still for fans… is a coupling of two full-length concertos that he never had the chance to take into the studio, Paul Creston’s Second (which Rabin commissioned) and, most treasurable, the Beethoven Concerto. … Both recordings only go to illustrate Rabin’s level of musical and technical superiority while at the height of his powers. Gene Gaudette’s remastering is excellent and so are Leslie Gerber’s notes.”
Wagner: Rienzi – Studer, Kollo, Sawallisch (Orfeo)
“English Music for Strings” – Collins, New Symphony Orchestra (Decca)
Schoenberg: Serenade Op. 24, Variations Op. 31, Bach Transcriptions – Robert Craft, 20th Century Chamber Ensemble, Philharmonia Orchestra (Naxos)
Globular, Berio, Stockhausen, Roque Alsina: Music for Trombone[s] – Vinko Globokar (DG avant garde)
