I weigh in at APJ.
Category Archives: Blog
This section contains news, updates and oress releases about our company.
Stanley Drucker, Hero of My Youth
Stanley Drucker, principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic for sixty years and one of America’s truly legendary classical instrumentalists, is retiring at the end of this season. My review of his spectacular performance of Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto last night with the Philharmonic conducted by Lorin Maazel can be found at Classical Source. Friday’s New York Times ran a terrific piece on Drucker by Daniel Wakin.
Mystery track: Guess the Violinist
Here is one of my favorite violinists, woefully underrecorded as a soloist, playing the finale of the BeethovenViolin Concerto, Op.61 with a student orchestra, who rise to the occasion quite well. You guessed it: name the soloist.
{enclose 2009.myst.08.mp3}
The answer will be posted on July 10 at 1500 EST.
Mystery Track Revealed
The storm sequence from Richard Strauss‘s Eine Alpensinfonie, Op.64, captured in an aircheck from November 23, 1947. Dimitri Mitropoulos conducts the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. From Volume 1 of Music & Arts’ invaluable The Art of Dimitri Mitropoulos.
{enclose 2009.myst.07.answer.mp3}
Mystery Track, Alpine Thunderstorm Edition
The storm sequence from Richard Strauss‘s Eine Alpensinfonie, Op.64. Can you name the conductor (and orchestra) captured in this vintage aircheck?
{enclose 2009.myst.07.mp3}
All will be revealed at 1500 EST on July 3.
Mystery Polonaise Revealed
Polonaise, Op.29 by Dutch composer Peter Schat (1935-2003), played by Jacob Bogaart. From the 12-CD set of Schat’s (nearly) complete works released by Donemus/NM Classics.
{enclose 2009.myst.06.answer.mp3}
Mystery Polonaise
Here’s something a little different for the mystery track: a Polonaise for solo piano by one of my favorite 20th century composers. Don’t let the neo-Romantic elements fool you – he was a postwar composer in Western Europe and a prominent musical figure in his country
{enclose 2009.myst.06.mp3}
All will be revealed June 26 at 1500 EST.
Mystery Pianist Revealed
Bach‘s Prelude and Fugue in b-flat minor from Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, played by Tatiana Nikolayeva. Originally released by Melodiya, reissued in one of Scribendum’s superb Melodiya archival releases remastered at Abbey Road Studios.
{enclose 2009.myst.05.answer.mp3}
Mystery Track: Who Is Conducting?
Who is conducting this 78-era recording of Brahms‘s Hungarian Dance No.1? This one’s for you, Jessica Duchen!
{enclose 2009.myst.04.mp3}
Find the answer here at 1500 EST on June 12.
Mystery Track Revealed
The final section of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, played by the USSR Gostelradio Orchestra conducted by the much-underrated Konstantin Ivanov. The recording was made in 1965, and is dubbed from a 15ips 1/4 inch tape in my private archive. And about that little “editorial change” to the coda: during the Soviet era, the ‘Gloria’ theme from Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar replaced the pretty-much-treasonous God Save the Tsar.
{enclose 2009.myst.03.answer.mp3}