title: Two Stars

text: The album was unprotected and arrived broken!


title: One Star

text: I paid for a new and perfect album... it was used and in a bad condition...


title: fun music

text: This kids music was a gift for our grandkids from some of our friends.  Neither the kids or we have ever laughed so much while helping the kids to learn!  This is FANTASTIC listening for kids and those of us who are kids at heart!  Buy it today and expect to laugh beyond your wildest imagination!  Just don't forget to share with the children in your life, as they will love it, too, and will learn at the same time!  ENJOY!


title: My family

text: Pay bills


title: Five Stars

text: Came on time and was a good price!


title: Perfecto

text: Perfecto


title: Bien

text: Bien


title: Four Stars

text: Solo que se tardo en llegar


title: Great album

text: All songs are good


Not sure who likes it more, baby or us :)


title: Five Stars

text: Love it.


title: Great product

text: awesome


title: Five Stars

text: WHAT A FANTASTIC VOICE; A MASTERPIECE !


title: Five Stars

text: wonderful


title: Five Stars

text: GREAT COLLECTION !


title: Five Stars

text: Beautiful compilation of the classics


title: Five Stars

text: LOVELY


title: Five Stars

text: Fabulous !


title: Five Stars

text: Wonderful !


title: Great sound.

text: Great sound....I was pleased.....I have the original Mono pressing but it's in less than good shape....however it plays well (on heavy vinyl for it's time)....I went on a quest to pick up my top favorite LP's  reissued on vinyl and found that this one was expensive.....I lost an eBay bid on the release which turned out good for me because I purchased it later much cheaper......very nice to have.....but probably not for everyone.....I am a record collector but only the things I like....favorites....original LP with Homburg inserted as track 1 (that's okay because Homburg is my favorite PH tune)....additional colored vinyl of Whiter Shade (12") and a 45 release on white vinyl.....great....pleased....indeed!!!!!


title: Great German Artist

text: I have followed Oli since 1999. One of the best German singers.


title: Ben is a great German singer.

text: Love all of Ben Zucker's music. Great voice.


title: One of Nino's best!

text: I have this album in vinyl from the late 80's and it is one of the best from Nino. Especially "Ring Aus Eis". I'm glad to finally get it on cd.


title: Better than Ever

text: All of these songs are excellent.  The words are so expressive and give the impression that James Taylor's experiences influenced the meaning of the lyrics.  The musical backup is also top notch - the instrumentalists and the singers.  It almost has a country feel.  Love the harmonica!


title: Old sound but still great music.

text: I owned this music after hearing Sammy Hall live and it still<br />sounds like the real thing.  Great music & grat purchase.


title: ITS ALL THE SUPERTRAMP YOU REMEMBER & LOVED, BACK IN THE DAY !! ALL THE HITS .

text: ITS ALL THE SUPERTRAMP YOU NEED FOR YOUR COLLECTION..  ALL THE HITS ARE THERE !! IT WILL COVER ALL THE SONGS YOU REMEMBER ?, BACK IN THE DAY OF SUPERTRAMPS PEAK YEARS .


title: Five Stars

text: loved the music


title: Five Stars

text: Eddy Arnold was a great artist, thanks for selling ++++++


title: The cd was not the right one that I ordered, the seller said it was.

text: The cd that was sent had a different cover but the same songs  that I already  had  Time Life 1965-1969, I thought I was getting the cd from the United Kingdom,  but it turned out to be the same cd that I already had but with  the United Kingdom cover .


title: Five Stars

text: THIS ALBUM IS AWESOME! I CAN'T WAIT FOR IT TO BECOME AVAILABLE AGAIN!


title: The best!

text: This is one of my favorite albums of all time. I'm delighted to hear that it will soon be re-released as a CD as I wore out my old vinyl.


title: Kid Rock

text: Absolutely fantastic !!!!!!


title: Worship music

text: This is a great CD.


title: Cool

text: i got this CD for 99 cents in a used bin at a record store nearby.. i love it. They sound like a very grundy Tool sound. :) definately worth the 99 cents i paid.


title: Five Stars

text: What's Going On is my song!!


title: great cd

text: I really love this band.  The cd's were great and I loved the extra tracks they included.  This teen is really great country singer from Ireland.


title: Record was sent to my daughter who reports that it arrived earlier than projected  and like new.

text: Purchase and transit met all expectations


title: Important information for Shuffle Play fans...

text: If you're a person who uses Shuffle Play on your MP3 player, you need to know that this CD is banded as one continuous track - not individual songs.  That's enought for me to give it one star.


title: Five Stars

text: Fantastic compilation from eight of the world's greatest cellists of the early and mid 20th century.


title: My bad but all else was done as said

text: I should have read the fact that it was not complete.  My bad but all else was done as said.


title: The CD is excellent! I was surprised and please to find that ...

text: The CD is excellent! I was surprised and please to find that there was an additional song included along with the hit 'Uptown Funk'!


title: My favorite!

text: Been waiting on this one a long time! Hoping for The Shunned House in the future!


title: Close your eyes,lay back and enjoy!

text: These are FANTASTIC!! If you enjoy Lovecraft this is a must. Would love to see Poe done in the same fashion.


title: 4 stars

text: Great product timely shipping as well thanks


title: Four Stars

text: shipping was fast cd was new and unopened as stated thank you very much


title: So cool!!!!

text: I love this mini album!!! It is so different than my other Shinee albums. This is a must buy!!! Go Shinee! 😊

attachment_type: IMAGE


title: Last Great Stones album! or what everyone else says.

text: While i can say i don't have anything past this album, everyone always says this was the perfect come back album and it was the last album of theres to chart. And they have a point, the 80s stones career after Tattoo you wasn't the best, they had some songs on Dirty Work, Under Cover that were worth checking out, but this album has that perfect 80s feel with the amazing stones rock n roll. The one thing i didn't like about this period was it started when the stones would use back up singers live. Back in the 60s Keith and Bill used to sing back up but towards 69 that stopped and now they had back up singers. I don't understand why that stopped because i thought they gave great backup vocals. But anyways this is bills last album with the band, and it was a great one to go out on. You have classics on here such as Mixed Emotions, Rock and a Hard Place, Almost here you sigh, and slipping away. I would recommend this to any stones fan.


title: Great toddler cd!

text: I decided to purchase this cd for my son after a friend of ours had it for her kids.  He LOVES it!  That's all we listen to in the car these days.  I catch myself singing to all of the songs too.  It's not your typical weird nursery rhyme songs, it's fun songs and I highly recommend it!


title: Great doom metal

text: Illusion's Play is the latest cd from the funeral doom band Shape of Despair released in 2004. While this cd isn't as good in my opinion as their previous cds, it is still very good. Although the 6 tracks on here are all great, they don't sound quite as depressing as their older material did but that could be a good thing depending on how you look at it. Unless I am mistaken, this cd wasn't released in the U.S. so it could be somewhat hard to find, but it is definitely worth getting. All you doom metal fans go grab this one now.


title: Julian Perretta is amazing.

text: I never heard of Julian Perretta until I was on twitter and Tom Felton(Draco) from Harry Potter,tweeted about him.  I checked him out on youtube and fell in love.  It's not my usual type of music but he is good.  I suggest you check him out.  He's upbeat and can actually sing very well.  The album that came in the mail was in very good condition, pretty much brand new.


title: "Bounce" to this with your whole "Body"

text: Bobby!!!! Mino!!!! The MoBB!!!!! My heart races just writing this review because of the excitement over this album! I preordered it as soon as possible. It came out Friday the 23rd and I received it Monday the 26th! This album came with a huge 2 sided poster. One side Bobby and one side Mino. It also came with two photocards. I got the Bobby Version, so everything was mostly Bobby. The photobook did have Mino eventually in it, tho. Not sure if the Mino Version is just the opposite of the Bobby Version. But anyway. This album is, of course, FANTASTIC!!!! Out of the 6 songs on the album, not a single one will make you want to skip it. As expected from a collab album that I always wanted!!!!


title: "If You Do" love GOT7 "Put Your Hands Up"

text: Got7! Everyone should love Got7! I don't really need to say much about this album. I got it to finish my collection. It came with everything that it should have! The photocard I got was my bias, JB! WooHoo! I also got an extra photocard, Jinyoung!


title: Master-Tape Quality from an Obscure Audiophile Label of the Late Fifties!

text: Urania was a lesser but solid classical label in the mono era, bleeding money by the time the stereo LP made its appearance in 1958.  But the owners made one last expensive throw of the dice on all-out superb stereo sound, and pressed a series of LPs that were easily the equal of Mercurys, RCAs, Deccas and EMIs.  Sadly, the label failed to survive its own extravagence, and issued only 35 stereo classical titles (and a bizarre but delightful Sampler album) before folding around 1960.  Each of the titles is quite rare and quite a collector's item, with prices on eBay to match.  The label was revived, also very briefly, in this superb series featuring one of its original sound engineers, who did yeoman's service for us all by going back to the original master tapes.  This rare CD combines two of the original LPs, including the very first the label issued (the Saint-Saens "Organ" Symphony).  Sonically, the CD is superb.  (Too bad that the organ, apparently recorded in a different venue from the orchestra, is a quarter tone flat at the end of the grand conclusion - but this really doesn't matter after the excellent performance that precedes it).  Hans Swarowsky was a minor superstar at that time, both as a conductor and particularly as a composition mentor, with some stellar students to show for it.  The Mendelssohn, with the LPO conducted by the once-household-name Sir Eugene Goosens, is also excellent, with a satisfying, pull-all-the-stops-out "A Mighty Fortress" climax.  If you're lucky enough to come across this CD, or really any in this wonderful series, grab it.  Like most collectors who become fanatics after hearing a few of these Urania CDs, I have most of the line, but this one was by far the most challenging to find.  (For clarity, this Urania label is not to be confused with the more recent, more commercially successful, historic reissue CD label of the same name).


title: By far the best and most instantly riveting of any of the umpteen ...

text: Holy mackerel!  So THIS is how the Eroica is supposed to sound!  Magnificent, full-bodied, inspiring!  You don't know the Eroica until you've heard this superb recording.  By far the best and most instantly riveting of any of the umpteen zillion versions I've heard, and by a considerable margin.  Who the heck was Lovro von Matacic?  If Furtwangler had lived into the stereo age, his Erioca might have sounded like this.  The Cornelius filler is nice, frothy, and sparkling too.  Buy it if you can find it!


title: Glad I added this CD to my music library.

text: I am a fan of the artist. And a collector of music I like.


title: Diverse and beautiful.

text: Reznor always did best when it came to instrumentals. I loved the Still album, but it was so short I wished there'd been more. I heard about Ghost IV and saw it in BestBuy for $10 so I decided to get it. This is exactly what I wanted. Some of the pieces are more synth and beat based, others being more focused on somber piano and strings. None of the tracks have names, just numbers. My favorites are Disc 3: Track 4, Disc 4: Track 1, and Disc 4: Track 7. They evoke a strange wave of emotion that's hard to describe, if you remember "Adrift and At Peace" and "Leaving Hope" from the Still album, its kinda like that. This probably isn't the best album for Metal/Industrial fans, but if you like classical, ambient or game music this would be right up your alley.


title: GD&TOP, leaving fans mindblown once again.

text:
This CD is incredible, and absolutely nothing less.
Whether you're a fan of YG, BIGBANG, and the members or not (or even heard of them at this point, really), GD&TOP's album will blow your mind. Truly.

Package-wise, this CD comes in a plastic case comparable to the size of a DVD case, and includes the CD, an attached photobook with lyrics included, a unique YG Family Card, and a link to an unlisted "thank you" video from YG, which will make any VIP happy. (The packaging really is gorgeous, as well.)

The CD comes with eleven tracks, produced and written by G-Dragon (Kwon Jiyong) and T.O.P (Choi Seunghyun) of the South Korean K-pop group Big Bang. Each song holds a remarkable amount of energy accurately representing the personality and mind of its respective artist, and each is different from the previous. The tracks included are as follows (with English name in parentheses, since Korean characters aren't recognized on an English server):*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Intro - GD&TOP
A introduction to the album, by GD&TOP. Short rap track, with a backbeat that's thoroughly hip hop. Introduces all 11 tracks on the album in a short concluding stanza.

2. High High - GD&TOP
Easily the most popular song on the soundtrack, and thoroughly recognizable as the party song of the album. Very techno, fast-paced hip hop track, with pop undertones. Ridiculously catchy.

3. Oh Yeah - GD&TOP, ft. Park Bom of 2NE1
The track has an electronic backbeat, but that certainly doesn't wash out the voices of G-Dragon or T.O.P at all. Characterized by strong verses, a slower tempo than High High but fast enough to still classify as a dance track, and a melodic chorus featuring the vocals of Bom.

4. (Don't Leave) - GD&TOP
Very melodic and distinctly pop. Also has a lot more singing and a lot less rapping. This is the prime track to hear GD and T.O.P's voices without autotune (and even catch GD's trademark falsetto from back in the day). One of the most upbeat songs of the album.

5. Baby Good Night - GD&TOP
The title has it right- this song makes it sound like the night is winding down. R&B inspired, vaguely acoustic. No rap whatsoever, despite a few spoken pieces. This track has a slower (or perhaps, calmer) tempo than the majority of the album, but it influences the tone of the song quite nicely.

6. (Knockout) - GD&TOP
The rap track of the album, and nothing less (featuring a backbeat from American rapper Diplo). Very energetic, featuring verses performed in straight rap throughout the entire song and a strong pulse. The music video comes highly recommended.

7. Oh Mom - TOP
A powerful rock track that almost classifies as a power ballad. A look at T.O.P's softer side, as the album gives the audience a taste of his solo vocals backed by a melody that, comparatively to the rest of the album, delves in acoustic work, stripped entirely of techno/electronic influence. High autotune use during verses, but overall very melodic.

8. (Obsession) - GD
A darker ballad by G-Dragon, implementing a dissonant introduction. The track takes a more somber turn with Obsession (alternately, Nightmare), and shows off G-Dragon's vocal prowess despite the occasional influence of autotune. Comparable to Oh Mom in some aspects, but honing fuller melodies and smoother, more fluid transitions.

9. (Of All Days) - TOP
Harmonically comparable to Obsession, but distinctly warmer. Emphasis is placed on T.O.P's vocals in this track, rather than the techno of the earlier tracks or the electronics/instrumentals of the tracks in the middle of the album. A calmer song, but T.O.P definitely keeps things interesting rather than bland.

10. (What Do You Want?) - GD
Very close to being purely humor, this track is apparently G-Dragon's venture into an upbeat rock genre. (Otherwise, a drinking song.) A very fun and whimsical song, exemplifying how crazy GD will go with his experimentation with this album. Perhaps the most energetic song on the album, behind High High.

11. Turn It Up - TOP
An appropriate closing to the album, T.O.P personalizes this track by emphasizing the lowest register of his vocals and combining R&B and rap styles. The song has a very strong bass rooted in a drum instrumental, looped throughout the song and adding tone and flavor to every corner of the song. The lyrics in particular add character to the song and establish the track as distinctly T.O.P. The energy of the closing vocal stanza in addition to the final strike of the drum send the album out with a phenomenal "bang".

*(as always, it comes highly recommended to listen to some of the album's tracks before you purchase the album, but I guess that sort of goes without saying)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Overall, I feel like this album has something for everyone. The CD has a broad range of styles that flow together particularly well, but are all distinctly GD&TOP- sometimes personal, sometimes trademark. This album, unlike many K-pop albums being produced recently, doesn't seem to have ANY filler tracks, which is a nice benefit to buying the entire physical CD rather than picking certain tracks over others on iTunes. I would encourage most anyone to purchase this CD and support GD&TOP (as well as YG Entertainment, Teddy Park, and everyone else who helped with the album), and I guarantee VIP status by the end of the listening session.


title: Fantastic CD for Boys and Girls (and fun for mom & dad, too)

text: I purchased this CD four years ago, and my kids are still listening to it (they are now 6 and 5). We even built a birthday party around the CD and gave them away as gifts. Fun for kids -- the stories aren't too scary. And the songs are classics. This is probably the best and most used CD we ever purchased.


title: Once in a while something Extraordinary comes along

text:
Best music I have heard in quite some time!
Give it a listen.  I may have to buy all of
Dream Theatre just to have more of his work.


title: No problem, works great

text: Packaged well. No issues/damage when opened.


title: Best baby gift ever!

text: This has been my go-to new baby gift for nearly 30 years. If they get used to going to sleep with this as infants, it works like magic when they become cranky toddlers! The gift that keeps on giving!


title: Great CD!

text: Great CD! I am learning German and this is a great way for me to practice while driving. The case had a crack in it, but otherwise the CD was in great condition! :)


title: Bad advertise

text: Thought it was a DVD of the tour, NOT!! Cd good but momma not happy!<br />Paid way too much for a o.k. Cd.


title: Nothing

text: I like every song on this CD


title: Blowback to the past

text:
I think we borrowed this CD from the library back when I was small and we LOVED it. Now as I'm trying to find the CD for my little cousins to listen to, here it is!!! It's hard to find, though because it's a rare gem. I ended up buying the Album from itunes, but it gypped me out there because the whole 20 songs (one CD) was broken up into two for 10 dollars each set. :( I was hoping to find the free CD at the libary instead but since we moved, the libraries up here don't offer nearly as much as where I come from.

Like the previous reviewer mentioned awesome songs like "Ma na ma na," "Honker Duckie Dinger Jamboree," "Captain Vegetable," "Dance Myself to Sleep," etc are all on this CD.

I am listening to it right now as I type and I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT. Still.


title: So much potential

text: This was one of the very best, most talented bands I have ever had the pleasure to hear live.  Explosive energy, intricate songwriting, and just plain brilliant music.  They never broke out, and it's a shame, because their potential was huge.  Pick up this CD, if you can find one still floating around out there...


title: Five Stars

text: My wife Naisha love this cd a lot.


title: Great country music

text: Great country music


title: Geraldine Farrar Lives On In a Modern Format and is Charming

text:
Geraldine Farrar.  Yes, Geraldine Farrar the famous soprano of the Met in the first part of the 20th century.  I have her autograph in her autobiography and when you hold that item in your hands and look at it and you think that she worked with Caruso, Mahler, and Toscanini that alone gives you pause and reflection.

To begin with I can say Ward Marston has done a simply outstanding job of transferring from 78rpm records to compact disc this collection of songs and has done so in such a way as to make them sound natural.  In my opinion the only better way to hear most of these is to play them on a Victor Talking Machine with external horn which was basically how they were meant to be heard originally as that makes them truly boom and adds in many marvelous overtones that even the best electronic transfer cannot replicate.  To my ear these Marston transfers far surpass the sound quality of other collections of Farrar’s output found on such labels as Nimbus (do not yet own the Romophone set which he may have also participated in).

The first disc covers acoustically recorded sides from 1904 to 1906  for the Gramophone and Typewriter Company out of Germany, and the second disc covers sides that were electrically recorded in 1927 for Victor, plus a few extras.  Further, all the records contained in this collection are hard to find in their original 78rpm form as they are nowhere as common as her Victor Red Label acoustics.  This CD represent the first time I had heard Farrar’s electrically recorded sides and so I can now more fully appreciate how she must have actually sounded like and further now can readily identify her voice as more distinctive in the earlier acoustics which so often tend to sound generic from one singer to the next.  This alone was worth the price.

I found myself putting these discs on while working around the house only to suddenly stop what I was doing and just listen as they are in many cases quite compelling and not just some historical artifact.  The same has occurred when I have put them on while reading they distract you and you just have to listen to them for their own sake.

We also get to hear one of Farrar’s Met Opera Radio Broadcast comments so we get to hear her speaking voice (and for some reason her speaking voice reminded me of Anna Russell of “The Ring of the Nibelungs (An Analysis)” fame) which is always interesting when we are not familiar with it and can then compare to their singing voice.  The interesting aspect in these broadcast comments is that she is reminiscing in a nostalgic kind of way about her younger self, and now we are listing to it yet another 80 years on in a nostalgic way ourselves.

This set has basically just wet my appetite for more of this artist and I hope Ward Marston will consider a collection of her remaining sides for Victor that this current product so nicely bookends.

I highly recommend this collection if you are in the least bit curious about Farrar and her work and wish to put sound with that you may have read about her.


title: Five Stars

text: Awesome


title: Five Stars

text: Great CD!!!!


title: Five Stars

text: Great!!!!


title: You will love this!

text: I was lucky enough to stumble onto this CD.  My personal favorite is My Old Haunts, but all the songs are well written and performed.  You can't go wrong with this purchase. ♥


title: Great!

text: It came with no problems and received everything in the album including pob goods! The poster decorates my college dorm now ^^


title: Great album! Straight forward hip hop

text: Great album!  Straight forward hip hop.  Abdominal is a lyricist that can carry each song.  DJ Format brings some great tunes to back up Abdominal.


title: Just what we needed. Delivered to my front door ...

text: Just what we needed.  Delivered to my front door.  That's the way to do it.


title: {insert title here}

text: Not an "official" release but pretty good quality.  It has all the songs I was looking for on one (well, two) cd.  It comes from Russia so shipping is really, really slow.


title: Saw live

text: When in New York had the pleasure to see his little group and really enjoyed.


title: Five Stars

text: This worked perfect for our wedding.  Thanks!


title: Five Stars

text: Great


title: Amazing album!!!

text: What an incredible album.  The last CD I purchased from Tears For Fears was Songs From The Big Chair.  This album is better.  Not a bad song.  Great lyrics.  Great music.  I purchased the copy with the two extra songs and they are both great.  You can’t miss this album if you like this band.  It’s just sad there are so many years between albums.  I really hope they put out more music.  Buy This Album!


title: Useful with some reservations.

text: Unfortunately, in my opinion, Michel Thomas sounds to be in a rather frail condition for this recording when I compare it with his Advanced Course from which this was derived. This criticism may seem a little harsh but it seems to me that the vibrance of the language is somewhat muted.  However, it still contains a lot of useful information for those looking for self instruction in Italian.


title: Dad's Army, series two

text: Anyone who enjoys Dad's Army, whether through CD or DVD presentations, will not be disappointed with this superb collection of classic Dad's Army wit.


title: brings back the memories

text: easy listening


title: very impressive

text: love the BOLERO--my favorite piece of music


title: Great Country Music Set from Time-Life

text: Great set. Recommend for anyone who likes the older country music styles.  There is a smaller set, but you get so much more with the 8 additional in the super set.


title: Absolutely wonderful!

text: I gave this CD a 5 star rating because it is all of the hymns you are familiar with, enabling you to sing or just listen to the soothing music.


title: Worth every penny!

text: Arrived quickly and was even better than I expected! Loved it!


title: Another sweet cd

text: If you like awesome music, this cd is a must have. It is one of my definite favorites. I got mine from their myspace page for a little better deal.


title: Dave Clark Hit$

text: As others have said, this is the penultimate disc to own.  Price IS pricey, but that is why Dave Clark is so smart compared to his peers from the same era!  He has been profitable his whole life!  Nonetheless, a great disc of music, I find it best to leave in the car for those road trips where you need some good, stomping music!


title: Five Stars

text: Classic, swingin' Basie!


title: Five Stars

text: Terrific performances by these great musicians!


title: My most favorite music on earth!

text: This has to be my favorite CD ever. I play it in my car all the time. I give copies of it to my friends. My favorite song is called "Huarachi Lights ". I play it over and over again. Good beats.

user_id: AGMKVHGMCJPQEFFJFXFWQWEGAFAQ


title: A Magical Evening

text: This fabulous , exquisitely done video provides wonderful sound and visions alike.  Andrea brings in guests Sarah Brightman, trumpet virtuoso Chris Botti, Kenny G and others.  Day becomes evening and it's just a great, much satisfying experience.


title: Polish-Americans, take note!

text: remake of LP album from the 1960's very well done...a trip down memory lane for me


title: Vinyl @ It's Best!

text: It's Perfect!  Just what I ordered.  I will continue to order those hard to find "reasonably priced" items.  You Rock...........>


title: nice to see this in circulation

text:
I have lived in Las Vegas since the 70's. Saw Roadhouse play live many of times. RIP to Sceamin Robin Freeman, who sadly passed away before this album was made. And yes, I do mean album, as that was how this was released. I still have this album in my closet. It was never officially released on CD, so expect this to be a cd-r copy from the album.

Either way though, nice to see this in circulation, just hope any sales go to the proper people.


title: Add Cathedral Bellringers to Your Christmas Collection

text:
In the 1970s I attended the Cathedral of St. Phillip in Atlanta, home of the Cathedral Bellringers.  Christmas eve performances by the Bellringers had by that time become a tradition, so I took the experience for granted.  In 2009 I ran across this album at eBay by chance.  I bought the album and had it professionally coded to DVD and sent a copy to the Cathedral.  I had not realized how much the Bellringers added to my life, until I was able to hear the music again all these years later.  Since, the music has richly enhanced the Christmas experience for my entire extended family.

This is a very unusual compilation of Christmas music to be treasured, and the actual performance of the young Bellringers is astonishingly sharp given the pressure that must have been on them for the session.  Some of the Bellringers were as young as five or six years old.  The tracks were recorded live without audience in the Cathedral's main worship hall, accounting for the excellent acoustics of the recording.

The Bellringers were first assembled in the early 1950s and achieved their greatest notoriety in the late 1950s and 1960s even performing for President Dwight Eisenhower on the White House front lawn during the ceremony of the lightning of the Christmas tree.  The group traveled in the U.S. and abroad fairly extensively performing mostly in small and medium sized churches.

The Bellringers program was finally disbanded in the 1980s.

Over the years, I have kept many various recordings of Christmas music, but track for track, this is the best Christmas collection I have ever run across.  If you purchase this album in good enough condition to transfer to DVD, pay a professional to have the job done right.  The music will bless your life.


title: Great Blu-Ray 5.1 Production

text: Wonderful 5.1 remaster .  Not  APP"s best Album but worth the listen.  Ordered from Amazon on July 24th.........day of release Aug 3rd the order was pushed back 2 months.  Now it goes from 2 to 5 weeks and 2 to 4 weeks.  However, some people received their copy on the 3rd?  Anyway, I found the Blu-Ray 5.1 on the APP official website.  I received the item in just over a week.  It cost $5 more due to shipping.  Not sure what is going on with Amazon?


title: Great songs

text: Great songs song by a great voice.


title: Don't EXPECT to get this in a REASONABLE TIME

text: GREAT MUSIC but waiting a month to get is IS REDICULOUS


title: The Importance of Being Alive

text:
Patricia Kopatchinskaja is the most exciting violinist before the public today; I know of no one even remotely like her. Her hell-bent-for-leather, take-no-prisoners approach places her in a category far beyond mere technical perfection. Her technique, which is considerable, is placed completely at the service of her uncompromising vision of music and life. This ferocious recording of the Bartok 2nd Violin Concerto makes all others sound square and routine. Lovingly framed by her utterly sympathetic collaborator, Peter Eötvös, she gives the impression that she is improvising the entire solo part on the spot! Her profound love and understanding of her native Balkan folk music allows her to speak Bartok's folk-inflected idiom with an unparalleled sense of authenticity. Gestures that sound like mere modernism in other hands finally make stylistic sense expressed within a living folk tradition.

Eötvös lends the orchestration a surprising sense of discovery, too: listen to the delicious opening of the concerto where the single note on the horn urgently increases its intensity against the solo harp, a simple but astonishing effect that turns a merely beautiful introduction into something profoundly meaningful. Conductor and soloist are bound to the same cultural traditions and everywhere there are idiomatic touches you will hear in no other recording.

Eötvös' Concerto, obviously written with PatKop's special abilities in mind, is pretty spectacular, too. Do not buy this recording unless you are prepared to leave your comfort zone and jump out of your skin!


title: Five Stars

text: never heard these guys before and they are good.


title: Satisfied customer!

text: This is one of my favorite CD's!!  Works well!!


title: Classic

text: A friend introduced me to Ms. Hathaway a few years ago and it was love at first sound.  Her music never gets old to me and I enjoy listening to this CD over and over again.  She has a unique voice and sound.  If you don't have this CD and enjoy classic R&B, I highly recommend this one.


title: Song Titles

text:
1  Baby, Come To Me - Patti Austin (a duet with James Ingram)  3:38

2  If Ever You're In My Arms Again - Peabo Bryson  4:15

3  (Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop) Goes My Mind - LeVert  5:51

4  I've Made Love To You A Thousand Times - Smokey Robinson  4:23

5  Natural High - Bloodstone  4:54

6  Something He Can Feel - Aretha Franklin  6:19

7  Yah Mo B There - James Ingram (with Michael McDonald)  4:27

8  So Very Hard To Go - Tower Of Power  3:41

9  If You're Not Back In Love By Monday - Millie Jackson  4:50

10  Just Be My Lady - Larry Graham  4:25

11  Is It Still Good To Ya - Ashford And Simpson  3:52

12  Tonight Is The Night - Betty Wright

Disc Two:

1  Nite And Day - Al B. Sure  4:01

2  You Sure Love To Ball - Marvin Gaye  4:45

3  I Like The Way (The Kissing Game) - Hi-Five  5:46

4  Real Love - Skyy  5:11

5  Still - The Commodores  5:49

6  Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye) - Gladys Knight And The Pips  4:24

7  Love Zone - Billy Ocean  4:15

8  Very Special - Debra Laws  4:27

9  She's Gone - Tavares  3:41

10  Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart) - The Stylistics  2:55

11  Let's Straighten It Out - Latimore  5:16

12  I Miss You - Harold Melvin And The Blue Notes  8:38


title: SONG LIST

text:
1.  JOSHUA FIT THE BATTLE OF JERICHO

2.  NAVAHO TRAIL

3.  JOHN HENRY

4.  GOING TRAIN BLUES

5.  MR. DITTY WA DITTY

6.  STROLLIN'

7.  I GOT A HOME

8.  DOG CHASE

9.  EARLY IN THE MORNING

10. POOR BOY


Everything is fine but I didn't realize they would be used. I think that should have been made clearer.


title: Great CD!!!

text: Love this CD!!!!!!


title: Eagles CD

text: Great sounds.  Long time fans.  Thanks for the fast delivery and excellent service.


title: Intelligent, Beautiful Music

text: This is an excellent album. The music is brilliantly composed and beautifully performed. It's tough to label, but I'd call it jazz chamber music at its very best.


title: Substandard music

text: This bootleg is not very good.  The sound quality is terrible and there is a conversation happening in the background that is very distracting.  Not worthwhile.


title: GREAT ROCK ALBUM!!!!!

text: This disc is an excellent example of the high energy Rock that was being made in the mid 70's. Thought I knew all the hot bands back then. Don't know how I missed these guys. Glad I found them.  Definitely worth a listen.


title: Hard to see on cable netwo

text: Great movie


title: Pretty good

text: Really nice quality and got here fast.


title: Truly a Remarkable Score...

text: From a very different age. Dissonant, alarming, edgy. Definitely not the homogenous "film music" that is the order of the day.


title: Relaxing

text: Brought this for my grand children.


title: Really Enjoyed This Album

text:
I will start off and say that I received the product quicker than I thought. It came in almost a week and half than the date of the estimated time. I was definitely thrilled about that.
Now....I have been a fan of 2pm since I learned of them and pretty much everything Korean four years ago. I never had a favorite among the band however after listening to this CD I must say that I may cheer for WooYoung more than the others now.
I enjoyed listening to the whole album. It didn't have as many songs as I expected but I'm definitely okay with what I got.
I would say that my favorite song has got to be song number four: Be With You. He sounds so good on this song and I dare say he sounds sexy. Especially when he does his rap with this low voice, it sounds so good. I had my parents listen to it, just to hear his voice, since none of us know what he's saying. And even though I was teased constantly throughout the whole song, they agreed that he did have a good voice.
My second favorite song would be song number seven: Only Girl. Yet again it's just the tone of his voice that makes it sound so good.
In all honesty I enjoyed the whole album but those would my top two songs. It seems that with this he's spreading out slightly from the rest of the members of 2pm, but only to see what he can do by himself.
If you like 2pm...most especially if you're a fan of WooYoung then you will LOVE this album. Some dance songs. A few slow songs. And all around he's a good entertainer even if you can't see him while you're listening to this album. Seriously, buy it if you're a fan and if not, then get it anyway and you will become a fan of his.


title: Four Stars

text: good tunes


title: Love it!

text: Makes you want to go a little farther and longer! Brings back good memories!


title: By another name

text:
This is a similar product to another Clint Eastwood
product. So it was confusing. Ended up with both. I
wish I can have back my money from one and buy something
else. BUT happy with one.


title: Beatles3ever

text:
Don't know if it is the missing Ringo drums.
Don't know if I've listened to the bootleg too many times.
But is that all there is?
I hope Pete Best is getting some money from this. Not that
I know the exact ego clashes that caused his ouster. The
chemistry here is still missing. But as to what he missed
out...poor guy ought to get a little.
A good sampling of the roots of the Beatles. None of that
ridiculous Muddy Water-Blind Whoever-Hooker-Hank Williams
connections. It was pop radio. Make Believe Ballroom with
Martin Block. Top Thirty. That influenced The Beatles.


title: Sleeping now

text:
This is (to me anyway) a hard to find Warren Zevon item.

There might be more Zevon rarities out there and I sure
hope I can get to hear them.

If Jordan Zevon is taking care of this output besides his
own career, I think there will be some releases.

Maybe some early tracks with the Everly Brothers or even
his just talking to Hunter S. Thompson.

That should be brilliant before my ride's here.


title: Hats el fin del musdo

text: Fj of the year has not been a fan but I


title: Funeral at its best.

text: Here are the melodies for a funeral on a cold snowy winter's day. Everyone is dressed in black, and all heads are lowered in anguish as the procession slowly lumbers forth towards the grave plot. Dark gray clouds from horizon to horizon paint a picture of gloom and despair as the priest says his words. Down into the pit the casket is lowered, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Howling Void does a grand job at slithering forth a grim masterpiece of desolation and sorrow. The vocals consist of deep growls of agony strewn together with a few loathsome whispers and hisses now and then. The strings and drums grind forth slower than a sloth stuck in a tar pit, canvassing the melodies with vast quantities of misery. The keys bring it all together in a pure orchestra of woe, sucking away all the light and pitching you into a dark swirling abyss. Pretty darn good album from what I am assuming is their first. My only disappointment is that Megaliths of the Abyss is too short. It clocks in at a mere 44 minutes long; a few more songs would have made this album even better. Perhaps when it is released on CD, they may throw in a few more, who knows. If you're into the funeral doom genre, then everything you are looking for is here. Try to imagine a mix between Ea and Comatose Vigil. That will get you in the neighborhood of what The Howling Void sound like.


title: Let the sirens of doom wail forth...

text: Void of Silence's Human Antithesis is a blistering, seething pool of hateful, yet beautiful doom. This fiendish formation takes you to the very edge of the abyss, a vast black swirling nothingness as far as the eye can see. Then you are pushed off into the deep. They are the masters of atmosphere, filling the room with emotion and imagination. They paint a picture of violence and anger, suffering and war. Then the eye of the hurricane passes over and a gleam of hope and re-birth shines forth from the gloom. Then of course, the eye dissipates, and you are plunged back into the tempest. The guitars are as icy as an artic blizzard. They not only riff out a monstrous vortex of brutality, but they also pick forth an ample supply of haunting acoustic melodies and Pink Floyd stile leads. There is a mixture of many vocals stiles here also. Growls and howls, crusty screeches, detestable whispers, and surprisingly pretty good clean vocals, which is something rarely found in the funeral doom stile genre. The keyboards create a lot of atmosphere also, washing forth melodies like a tidal wave of grief, and also hope. The twenty minute title track is one of the most epic songs I have ever heard. It is also the most played funeral doom track in my collection, with Monolithe I coming in second. Fans of Esoteric, Comatose Vigil, or Colosseum will no doubt enjoy this bleak creation. If you like turning off the lights and listening to music that spurs imagination and wonder, then Void of Silence's Human Antithesis is for you.


title: Very Pleasantly Surprised

text: I do not listen to this type of music and came across this cd by mistake and decided to listen to it. I was blown away by every song on it and now will have to get volume 1. It isn't harsh banging music or too laid back.


title: Fast shipping

text: Wish it was the signed copy like in photo


title: Great, great, great

text: Elvis will love it.


title: Happy reveluv

text: Everything received in good condition.


title: Happy moomoo

text: Everything was in good condition.


title: Everything in good condition

text: No complaints


title: How it Arrived

text: Everything was packed securely in bubble wrap, which definitely put my mind to rest to know that the CD inside the photobook was most likely not damaged (which it wasn't) and it came with everything it said it'd come with.  I didn't like the idea of the poster being folded, but I didn't care as much as I thought I would when it came a month earlier than expected.  I was so happy and saw the poster folded inside and the rest of the things securely in the bubble wrap.  The album had no bruised corners and the photo card was inside of it, along with BigHit's recruitment card.  In the bubble wrap, I found a pleasant surprise of two pieces of candy, which also eased my mind about the creases in the poster haha! My CD worked just fine and the package itself was a brown envelope.  Thank you for everything! Let's keep supporting our boys ARMY :D


title: KALINKA (Popular Russian Songs)

text: Excellent arrangements, high quality recording.  I had a similar record more than 20 years ago and lost it but thanks to God, I got it back in CD.  I wish I could also get the DVD of same. I don't know the meaning of the words but I love it nonetheless.Thanks.


title: Five Stars

text: great


Absolutely love this!!! The best thing you could play for your baby!!!


title: Five Stars

text: A great gift for a Naruto fan.


title: Happy but broken

text: Case for the CD is broken.


title: So happy

text: There was no damage to the packaging.


Great album, brings a lot of good memories. I am so glad I finally find this CD. Very happy customer.


title: Thank you Paul Williams

text: Paul Willams and Victory treo, never dissapoiant. They are always a blessing .


title: Truly fantastic "Traditional Japanese Surf" album!

text: OK, there's really no such thing as "Traditional Japanese Surf" music, but if there was this would be one of its pinnacles. What it really is: traditional Japanese melodies, most of which are hundreds of years old, played by a tight rock band led by a true guitar-master and augmented by a few well-placed traditional Japanese instruments. "Eleki" was the nickname given to electric guitar music in the mid-1960s, made most famous there by the Ventures and adopted to great effect by musicians like these. The cover art perfectly represents the music inside: a masterful melding of old & new, East & West, tradition & innovation.


title: Fantastic music for guitar freaks!

text: Seriously some of the best instrumental guitar out there, Terry seamlessly integrates styles of East & West into a prog/surf/psych/funk masterpiece. A great listen from beginning to end, recorded in excellent sound and in a lovely package. I just wish I could read Japanese!


title: I love it

text: Es hermoso!, No duden en comprarlo, llegó súper rápido y bien empaquetado, gracias


title: good quality shirt

text: good quality shirt, just a little on the larger side.


title: This is a good CD I enjoy it immensely

text: This is a good CD I enjoy it immensely. Still looking for the CDs that are so good by this group. Dosage is a good one I have it.


title: Hernaldo; Mi Historia

text: this is an excelent CD, two really good songs even though they are not his own are "Procuro Olvidarte" and "Insoportablemente Bella"/Este es un excelente disco mis canciones favortas son "Procuro Olvidarte" y "Insoportablemente Bella" aun que el no sea el autor de estas dos canciones su interpretacion es excelente...


title: Four Stars

text: love it!


title: Four Stars

text: good job


title: Four Stars

text: hot s*** from japan


title: Five Stars

text: Beautiful piece of work- worth a listen


title: just great music

text: I like the history behind each song, using it for my own enjoyment


title: Collector's item

text: With the purchase of Jerry Goldsmith's The Sand Pebbles Deluxe Edition, I now own all three soundtracks, including the Complete Soundtrack.  This item had been on my wish list for a very long time because of the price. I finally found one that was within my budget.  This album is on a single disc with only two extras (Overture Alternate Version & Chinese Love Theme), but those extras made this album worth it. The Alternate Overture is beautiful and haunting. If you can find The Deluxe Edition at a reasonable price, I would highly recommend that you purchase it.


title: Disappointing

text: I was very disappointed with this soundtrack and would recommend not purchasing.  The main title was okay but the rest of the soundtrack was mostly a bunch of strange & irritating, non melodic sounds.


title: Five Stars

text: The songs are GREAT! But there are only 5 songs on the CD and the cost was almost $40.00


title: Get it

text: I love it it works so good reconend


title: Yes, this was their debut album.

text: Often labeled as new wave, Blondie were actually part of the New York punk rock scene of the 1970s;  they were just another band playing in a club that was a gathering place for punkers.  But that changed when they went into the studio and took a song they had a hard time getting to work (Once I Had a Love) and tried to rework it.  After numerous arguments and creative struggle, the song was almost completely changed and renamed HEART OF GLASS.  The rest is history;  Debbie Harry became a fashion icon without even trying, and Blondie became part of a new wave of bands -- that were grossly mislabeled as new wave.


title: super album

text: this album is really great and i am on it. not many people bought it when it cam out but you can change that.


title: bad things happen to good plants, but the business is hones and reliable. .

text: This is an update after the first feedback: the plant didn't do well and was delivered in poor shape. However, the business owner is an honest person and refunded the plant cost. That's what important. Bad things may happen to good plants, but buyers relay on the business to be honest.


title: Four Stars

text: Baby enjoys the music but looks for the TV screen, lol.


title: Excellent sound quality.

text: Excellent and timely service.


title: Good cd

text: Sounds good


title: DON WILLIAMS CD

text: I LOVE THE DON WILLIAMS CD GREAT PRICE ALSO I HAVE NO  COMPLANTS ABOUT EVERY THING<br />I BUY FROM AMAZON. GET ALL MY  ORDERS FAST AND AT A GREAT PRICE.


title: The "COMET" version of this album is a complete rip-off ...

text: The "COMET" version of this album is a complete rip-off. Except for the title song, none of the numbers from the original are here. There are no liner notes, no dates, no personnel info, no way to know what you're actually listening to. Save your money.


title: WOODY WOLFE

text: WOODY WOLFE IS A GREAT PERSON. HE LOVES THE LORD AND TO SING TO SICK CHILDREN .HE TRAVELS TO THE CHILDRENS HOSPITALS JUST TO SING AND TRY TO MAKE THE KIDS FEEL BETTER.


title: Five Stars

text: NIce


title: Five Stars

text: Special gift; aptly titled.


title: I was pleased to find this CD

text: I am always looking for different albums by Hank Williams, it is getting harder to find rare recordings, I was pleased to find this CD.  I have a excellent collection of Hank Williams,  Every time I have all his recordings something else comes out, and I hope that more music does.<br />Chris K.


title: The Singing Doctors - Keep You In Stitches

text: These albums are from the 1960s, I don't know how many albums they have released, I now have three of them, and I every once in a while I enjoy listening to them.<br />Chris.


title: Happy Customer

text: Clayton McMichen Legendary Fiddler Vol 1.  Is great old tim fiddling music.  It was when you could tell be listening to music and you could tell what genre it was with out any problems.  This album is not a filtered mess either. Thank you.<br />Chris.


title: Happy Customer

text: Clayton McMichen Legendary Fiddler Vol2. Is a great old time fiddle music album.  This cd has not been filtered to death, and the other thing i like about this is, no computerized instruments.  Real Music.  Thank you.<br />Chris.


title: I love real music!

text: This Bing Crosby record I have been looking for years, and finally found it.  It contains out takes and fluffs, from some of his recordings.  Some of these have been released on some other albums, but this has some of the better known cuts,  I like Bing's early recordings.  These ones are just a little harder to find.<br />Chris K.


title: Love it

text: This album was very hard to find,but very with the effort.Love the blueze kind of feel to the music :)


title: Awesome

text: This cd was awesome and I would highly recommend this to any of my friends and family. Great buy at a great price.


title: Nads is an Australian word for Painful

text: Messy, extremely painful, and after all that screaming it left enough hair that I shaved my legs 2 days later (after the swelling went down) Those Aussie women must be from tough stock to use this junk on their armpits or bikini lines. Crikey!


title: Five Stars

text: excellent copy


title: Five Stars

text: nice music


title: This is worth getting for sure!

text: Do buy this... my grandkids ask for it and love to dance to it and sing along.  The songs are easy for adults to enjoy and make Scripture easy to memorize.  What could be better?


title: OK Haydn sonatas from Carmen Piazzini

text:
Though the Arte Nova label is a “budget” one, it has released some very worthy recordings, including an exceptional version of Sergei Prokofiev’s string quartets from the Russian Quartet and an interesting and attractive Beethoven cycle form Chilean pianist Alfredo Perl.  This release, volume 6 of Argentina-born pianist Carmen Piazzini’s traversal of Joseph Haydn’s piano sonatas, is unfortunately not exceptional.

Instead of focusing my criticism on one of Piazzini’s weaker tracks, let me instead focus on one of her better ones, the opening Allegro of Sonata 21 in C (track 9).  The performance of this cheerful Allegro begins well enough, with a stately, upbeat opening theme.  This segues into a contrasting theme built from thirds higher up in the treble register, which I think is done clumsily by Piazzini.  The central development section of the Allegro contains a more serious contrasting section, which is short but potentially attractive.  Piazzini’s unemotional performance doesn’t maximize this section’s potential.  The recapitulation doesn’t stand out because Piazzini doesn’t imbue the different passages with different sounds – the textures blend into one another, for a sameness that isn’t well-suited for Haydn’s art, built from dramatic contrasts.  This Allegro is actually one of the better tracks on this disc, so I’m not picking on an errant underperformance.

The different aspects of Piazzini’s pianism aren’t bad.  It’s just that none of them are particularly good.  The technique is ok, but not at a high professional level.  Her playing is musical, but not ever in a special or insightful way.  There is some emotion projected, but it usually fades away into nondescript playing.  And there is a limited ability to draw different textures and sound from the piano.

Like Piazzini’s pianism, sound is OK.  This result is unfortunate as Piazzini has programmed some unusual but worthwhile sonatas, including Sonata 51 in D major (numbers here refer to the Hoboken catalog), the beautiful 44th in G minor (look for Sviatoslav Richter’s brilliant recording of this one) and the 38th in E-flat.  Besides the 21st I wrote about above, two early and very short sonatas are also added in.


title: Terrific “Military” and 104 from Bruggen

text:
As a big fan of Franz Bruggen’s set of Joseph Haydn symphonies recorded for Philips with the Orchestra of the 18th Century, I found this release containing the 100th (the “Military”) and 104th holds to the series’ high standards.

Beautiful and inspired moments are found throughout.  The imposing Adagio which opens the 104th is begun with almost floor-shaking force by Bruggen and the orchestra but eventually subsides into the slow introduction’s final cadence, that memorable high oboe turn, which is done with a positively sensuous richness that stands out.  The 104th is energetic and excellent throughout.  In this memorable symphony, the Minuet seems to be a bit overlooked; one of the virtues of this performance is that the zest and commitment with which Bruggen conducts it raises it out of the shadows cast by the opening Allegro and the finale.  Bruggen coaxes a just beautiful sound from the orchestra during the Trio from this Minuet, a halting peasant dance number which anticipates the famous country dance drone in the finale, a finale which is done with panache here.

I find the 100th not to be quite at the level of the 104th, but it is a good piece overall.  Haydn’s talent for orchestration, an aspect of composition that barely existed as a concept when he wrote these symphonies in the 1790s, is very evident and the name “Military” is not some arbitrary label but connects to Haydn’s clear intention in writing the 100th, as these coloristic touches center around fife and army band music.  While the opening Allegro presents the best known of this style, the Andante is built by Haydn to openly mimic these bands, with the flute and woodwinds joined by drums and triangle to shift the center of gravity from the string section to the wind and percussion.  Bruggen’s interpretation strikes me as terrific.  The entire dramatic episode in G minor starting about 2’ in is done with stirring strength and the lead-in with the cellos is sinuous and awesome.  The other contrasting section in C minor later in the Andante is also done with force and impact.  It underlines Bruggen’s interpretational range, which shifts on a dime from textural effects to moments of emotional power.

Technically, this disc is very well put together with excellent sound engineering, an important quality as it brings out the very accomplished orchestral playing.  I very much like this recording and recommend it to you with warmth.  Terrific work.


title: This unpretentious Haydn just flows

text:
Though it is understated and unpretentious, the Panocha Quartet’s playing of the first 4 quartets from Franz Josef Haydn’s Op. 33 set is very good.  The music just flows nicely; the pacing is superb.  Besides fairly brisk tempi, the Panocha has the good sense to omit most of the repeats across the quartets.  They take the opening Allegro exposition repeat and repeat the first A section in the Minuet, but that’s it.  This reduces the length of the quartets from a lumbering 25-30 minute range that I hear from ensembles that take every repeat down to under 20 minutes -- and the music benefits enormously.  The quartets lose any sense of ponderousness.  Haydn’s talent is partly one of wit, and wit needs to be concise and not overstay.  The Panocha’s compact renditions aren’t always light but they at all times cut out any un-Haydnesque sprawl and distill the story.  In fact, I can’t remember enjoying playing of this important Op. 33 set more, despite having many recordings and knowing the set very well.

Their approach’s success can be heard right off, not in the witty and light writing, but in one of Haydn’s more dramatic moments, the opening Allegro of the B-minor quartet which starts off the set.  This Allegro’s abrupt melodic material is made more effective by the fleet-footed playing.  It’s almost as if the terse and famous opening theme of the b-minor quartet becomes an epigram here.  And the wonderful and nearly heroic theme that serves as the Allegro’s ‘B’ theme is only helped by the understated playing.  The melancholia of this Allegro never comes close to pathos or even Beethoven-like grandeur; its restrained sadness comes through with more impact because of the Panocha’s underplaying.

While I focused on the first track, an exceptional interpretation of an important Haydn allegro, the Panocha is very consistent in its style.  Everything is fleet.  I’ve never heard the scherzo of the ‘Bird’ quartet (op 33/3) done faster; and the light opening Allegro of op 33/4 is graceful and concise.  The lightness and liveliness isn’t just a result of the quick tempi and the redaction of repeats.  Focused knowledge of the music is apparent in the neat trade-offs between the instruments – one moment, the first violin leads, the next the cello rises higher in its range to present a theme, and so on – in a relaxed interplay.

Do I have any criticisms of this performance?  The Panocha have a lean sound which is made thinner by a lean recording from Supraphon.  I don’t want to overstress this weakness.  Intonation problems are limited, the string playing is within the range of normal richness for professional quartets, and the recording is pretty good.  But this isn’t a lush CD in any way.

I agree with the opinions of the other reviewers and enjoyed the results.  This Panocha release may be a reference version.  While I don’t think it’s perfect, I think my enthusiasm for this release comes out from what I wrote above.  There is just something so right and clear-sighted about it.  Warmly recommended.


title: The Buchbinder’s risk-taking Haydn Op. 50

text:
The Buchbinder Quartet’s Franz Josef Haydn Quartets series presents this music in a raw, extroverted way.  At times, they are almost improvisatorial.  The Buchbinder uses original instruments and they intentionally avoid playing the quartets in a smooth, polished way.  The risk-taking can alienate listeners, although I personally generally enjoy it.

They are at their best in the high-spirited music.  In Haydn’s Op. 50 set of six quartets written in 1787, the best performance for me was of the Op. 50/3 quartet in E-flat, a happy product displaying Haydn’s characteristic sense of humor.  The Buchbinder’s raw, intentionally unpolished sound is immediately apparent, but so is their sense of gusto in a fleet, fun interpretation.  The minuet in Op. 50/3 is likewise enjoyable, with the central Trio section working particularly well.  This quartet flies by in an unpretentious way, without the Buchbinder’s taking particularly fast tempi.

The Buchbinder is less impressive in the more serious or tragic music.  The Op. 50/4 quartet in f-sharp minor is known among enthusiasts for an opening Allegro spiritiso that in a very real way foreshadows the opening of 5th Symphony from Beethoven, Haydn’s pupil and artistic descendant.  The Allegro opens with the same note repeated three times in an aggressive way and features several passages of great emotional intensity.  I didn’t find the Buchbinder particularly convincing in this type of music and, additionally, this Allegro contains some higher passages that I think contain intonation issues.  This quartet concludes with a fugal finale and the Buchbinder’s version isn’t particularly pretty or particularly profound.  They are more interested in the sound of the music and the more upbeat numbers than in Haydn’s more introspective moments.

This is the second Buchbinder set to which I have listened.  The other is a double set containing the Op. 54 and 55 quartets, which struck me as more creative, with some really unusual interpretational touches that are risky but successful.  This Op. 50 performance is more vanilla and, while it is a successful professional Haydn performance, doesn’t stand out.  This is perhaps not surprising as the Op. 50 set is considered one of Haydn’s more intellectually complex and experimental efforts, so it isn’t down the Buchbinder’s lane.  The recording benefits from a very fine engineering job – it sounds great purely as an audio artifact.

The recording of the Op. 50 quartets that I think is the leading version is an under-the-radar recording by the Nomos Quartet on the CPO label.  The Nomos play the music in an understated yet affecting way that combines with a high level of technical accomplishment.  I recommend you seek that one out, although this Buchbinder version is a perfectly respectable effort.


title: Good set of Mozart violin sonatas

text:
This is a generally good British recording of three excellent WA Mozart violin sonatas.  Violinist Gyorgy Pauk and pianist Peter Frankl, who have performed together for many years, are technically adept and play nicely but the performance lacks the spirit and sense of drama of really good performances.  Frankl I think plays the best of the two instrumentalists.  I know him from an excellent disc of solo piano Bela Bartok works on the ASV label, and he’s had a long and distinguished career on the UK musical scene.  The performance is live and released in 1994 as one of the BBC Magazine’s monthly issues.  The sound is very good and there is no audience sound when the music is being played.

The set contains the K454 Sonata in B-flat and the K526 Sonata in A, two of Mozart’s best known chamber music compositions. Sandwiched between these two pieces is the shorter and less-known G-major Sonata, K 379, which despite its relative obscurity is very worthwhile and original.  So the music is very high level.

The strengths and weaknesses of the performance can be heard in the Andante of the K454 Sonata.  After a calm and happy opening, Mozart segues into a sadder section in f minor.  Pauk and Frankl play the opening section smoothly and with nice musicality.  But the more emotive f-minor section is flat and lacks life, despite Mozart’s wonderful melodic writing.

This is a well-executed and decent recording, but it is also a bit workmanlike.  A very good alternative for the K526 Sonata is a brilliant version from Mitsuko Uchida and Mark Steinberg.  This BBC release receives 4 stars.


title: Gieseking Bach & Schumann for collectors

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This re-release of a historic recording  - the liner says the sessions date from 1953 – of the great German pianist Walter Gieseking has its good points but also some defects.  Blending both sides of the coin, I assign it a 3-star rating.

The good:

Gieseking gives us a very fine, at times inspired 6th English Suite from JS Bach. The playing is energetic, on the fast side.  It’s marked by an exciting conclusion to the Gigue which caps the suite.  Gieseking does trip up in what is a rushed playing of the final Gavotte.  But the suite on the whole possesses energy and gusto.

Next up is an exciting version of Robert Schumann’s” Kreisleriana”, marked by an unusually fast first section, done at a much swifter pace than alternative, that verges on the electrifying.  This harkens back to Gieseking’s earlier version of the complete “Kreisleriana”, one of the great Schumann performances I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing.  The alternations between the ghost-like ride and the more lyrical passages of the fourth part of “Kreisleriana” are also done superbly by Gieseking.  This takes us to…

The bad:

Only the first four sections of “Kreisleriana” are contained here!  The last half of the suite has been excerpted out.  Look elsewhere for Gieseking’s great complete version, which appears to have been an earlier performance.

The disc also contains a complete version of Schumann’s ambitious “Davidsbundlertanze” in what I would describe as a harsh and overly aggressive reading.  Gieseking’s version lacks the lyrical grace of other performances.

And very average sound by early 1950s standards.  The sound has some degree of richness but there is some distortion and generally shows its age.  It doesn’t compare to some of the very good German engineering jobs from this time period.

In sum, this disc is a collector’s item and, while it has some fine playing at points, I would recommend it only for Gieseking collectors.


title: Stoic & stern Starker Suites

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In a master class several decades ago, I heard Janos Starker deliver the following advice: “Students often ask me how to prepare for a concert.  I tell them to leave plenty of time.  Dress at home, slowly.  Make sure you’ve had a small meal before the event so you’re not hungry.  Drive to the concert hall slowly, leaving plenty of time for mishaps and arriving well ahead of time.  When you get to the concert hall, warm up a bit, leaving time to become comfortable with the hall.  Next, you go into the rest room and throw up.  Now, you’re ready to go onstage and perform.”

Clearly the guy had a sense of humor, but his musical personality is different, stark and severe.  These famous recordings of the six solo JS Bach Suites for cello, paired with two of Bach’s Sonatas for cello and piano done with fellow Hungarian émigré to the American midwest, Gyorgy Sebok, are cornerstone midcentury baroque recordings.  Dating from 1963 and 1965, the engineering holds up pretty well, not surprising coming from the esteemed Mercury label, although the sound of the cello is bare rather than lush.

Starker’s interpretation of the beautiful 5th Suite reveals him at his best.  The Suite's Prelude, with the noble dotted rhythms typical of this overture form, sees Starker’s severity projected with power.  This power extends to the fugal 2nd section which follows, where there is a real sense of forward momentum, making for exciting listening.

The 2nd Suite comes off particularly well.  It ends with a Gigue finale which can be presented in a lighter, merrier way.  Starker presents it with strength instead, the opening leaps not joyful but a launchpad into the ensuing scale runs, done with intensity and a great sense of coherence.  The slow Prelude to the 2nd also suits Starker.  Constructed differently from the Prelude of the 5th suite, this 2nd suite's Prelude presents a weaving and mostly even melody that builds into a climax about 2’ in.  It aligns with Starker’s temperament and he does it perfectly.

With the sternness, though, there can come a drab sense of sameness, the downside of the Starker approach.  This dullness is found in the Bourree II from the 4th Suite, a beautiful, sunny ‘B’ section built over double stops.  Starker plays it like he is bored, and I was bored as a consequence.  The 4th is not as successful a performance on the whole as some others here and I found both Bourrees and the final Gigue disengaged, with a rote sense of rhythmic fluidity not up to Starker’s formidable reputation.  I am also not fond of the two cello sonatas done with Sebok, a pianist with a sterling reputation within the profession.  Starker’s austerity, which can be so successful in the solo suites, suppresses the brio and sparkle of these sonatas, which are lighter fare.  Even the sadder portions of the sonata aren’t successful.  The Sicilienne from the G major Sonata is a somber piece but it sounds in Starker's hands dull and lacking feeling.  And the thin sound of the cello in this recording also doesn’t fit what I think is luxuriant music.  (I have the old LP set of these sonatas, too, and the remastering can’t be blamed for the thin sound in the sonatas; it didn’t sound great on vinyl either.)  Get this set for the suites.

This is beautiful playing, but of a certain type.  It is Bach without frissons, the Lutheran churchman, dour, austere, imposing.  And that would be fine -- but Starker is uneven on his own terms.  This Starker cycle, despite its reputation, doesn’t equal the standard setter for the Suites, the recording from French cellist Pierre Fournier, and it doesn’t match my current favorite among the modern cycles, from American cellist Zuill Bailey.  Still, I found parts of the set powerful and generally enjoyed it.  4 stars.


title: Extroverted Faure Nocturnes from Paul Crossley

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There’s something prelapsarian about Gabriel Faure’s earlier music.  Springing from a world of sophistication and urbanity, it is at times sad but seems completely unthreatened by disaster.  Faure’s later years were marred by the war and by personal devastation, but the first seven Nocturnes written in the earlier part of his life between 1875 and 1898 and presented here by UK pianist Paul Crossley, come from an era where any more minor personal misfortunes appear against a background of beauty and placid delight.  These seven Nocturnes contain some very fine example of the composer’s piano efforts, including the memorable 4th with its well-known falling fourths theme and the 1st Nocturne, with its high bell-like opening melody segueing into the dark and moody lower central section melody.  This is very fine music presented successfully by Crossley.

Extroverted and masculine, Crossley’s combines these characteristics with a great degree of rhythmical flexibility and an emphasis on the foreground melodies.  Faure’s piano music is typically texturally rich, which several complex streams of music joined together.  I compared Crossley’s playing with the terrific set of nocturnes from another British pianist, Kathryn Stott (in her cycle on the Hyperion label) and found the contrast revealing.  Stott emphasizes the polyphony and texture, with the foreground melody more integrated into the complex accompaniment.  Her sound also pushes Faure closer to the impressionist and post-romantic composers from circa 1900.  Crossley, focused on the main melody, presents a Faure that sounds much more traditionally romantic and mid-century.

Crossley’s approach brought a new perspective to the music for me.  The wonderful 2nd Nocturne, which is often presented so peacefully, has a new sense of forward momentum and energy in his hands.  He gives us a thought-provoking 6th Nocturne, a critically-esteemed work, with a wonderful interpretation that builds to a powerful climax in the final section.  This is not placid Faure.  There are some undersides to Crossley’s approach: the 4th Nocturne’s middle section is a bit plodding and lacks the rhythmic fluidity of the rest of the disc.  But most of the disc sustains that balance of energy and rhythmic fluidity to realize Crossley’s cohesive vision of these Nocturnes.

This is a 1983 recording using analog technology with only decent sound.  But Crossley’s gifts and thought make this a worthwhile and interesting Faure release.  Recommended.


title: Good Faure songs release from the UK

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Getting past what is one of the more humorous CD covers I’ve run into – a candidate for  “Worst covers” lists – you have here a solid, musical performance of Gabriel Faure songs from Brit mezzo-soprano Sarah Walker.  The songs are a compilation from different published groups but the collection also includes a rarity, the short cycle “Le Jardin clos”, a 1914 effort that forms a portion of the author’s late style.  Also included are favorites such as “Apres un reve”, probably the composer’s most famous single song, and “Nell” (both from 1878).

Walker has a very attractive voice and shows a great deal of rhythmic suppleness.  Her singing is musical and always in control, with no hint of oversinging or overemphasis anywhere.  I have had mixed experiences with her accompanist, Malcolm Martineau, in this repertory but think he is in good form here.  One of the release’s high points for me was Walker’s interpretation of “In the September Forest” (1901, track 24), a brooding song about nature, aging and death.  Walker sings it with passion to accentuate the drama and effect.  I compared her performance to the one in one of my favorite Faure albums, the collection from Frederica von Stade done with Jean-Philippe Collard (on EMI).  Walker provides more richness and strength than the limpid and peaceful rendition from Von Stade.  But Von Stade holds the edge elsewhere.  In Faure’s early “Reve d’amour” (1862), the American soprano presents a much more controlled melodic line than Walker, who presents it without the same sense of architecture or assurance.  Comparing Walker with another EMI Faure disc from a US soprano, Barbara Hendricks with accompanist Michael Dalberto, I noted this same difference.  In “Notre amour” (1879), Hendricks controls the arch of the melody, for a sort of simplifying effect one often hears from musicians with a long-range feeling for the piece they are performing.  Walker is fine but, as with “Reve d’amour”, doesn’t display the same structural command.

I hope this illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of Walker’s album.  Recorded sound quality is very good.  This is a solid, successful Faure recital.  While not perfect, it is enjoyable with some notable high points.


title: Excellent Barbara Nissman Prokofiev installment

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The US pianist Barbara Nissman isn’t a household name for classical music fans but rest assured that she is a first-rate performer with a very worthwhile, enjoyable take on Sergei Prokofiev’s solo piano music, of which this is the first of three volumes recorded in 1989.  If you are interested in hearing any of the sonatas on this disc, you can order this release with confidence.

The question with Prokofiev sonatas, at least for me, is how interesting and engaging they are as compositions.  My take is that three of the works, Sonatas 2, 3 and 4, contained here are genuinely interesting and are superior to Prokofiev’s “war sonatas” (numbers 6-8).

Nissman proceeds in chronological order.  After a short early 1st sonata from 1909, we jump into the 2nd and 3rd sonatas, both example of post-Scriabin Russian piano writing.  I very much enjoy Nissman’s playing of both.  The 2nd sonata (1912) is uneven but has moments of memorable beauty, such as the mysterious passage, simultaneously going up and down in contrary motion, that forms the opening allegro’s second subject (marked Piu mosso in the score) or a very pleasing andante.  Directly comparing Nissman with Yefim Bronfman version on Sony, I found that both are excellent with Nissman presenting a more consistently musical performance but with Bronfman excelling in certain passages, including that opening allegro second subject I mention above.

I’m on my fourth recording of the 3rd sonata (1917), a short one-movement piece that can present very different results in different hands.  Nissman is superb here, not overplaying the tempestuous main theme as Gary Graffman does, always musical and sensitive, and presenting a more refined, polished version than Bronfman.

Maybe my favorite single work in this 1st volume is the 4th sonata, another 1917 opus assembled by Prokofiev from his old student notebooks.  Whatever the origins of the 4th sonata, it is a delicious and often very attractive piece.  Nissman as usual is consistent and musical here, for a very nice take.  The version by Yefim Bronfman however can be counted as special.  Prokofiev’s piano writing is tremendously technically demanding.  Both Bronfman and Nissman surmount these obstacles, but Bronfman presents such a variety of colors in the complex polyphonic tapestry of the 4th that it’s a remarkable achievement.  Edge to Bronfman on this one.

Nissman concludes with the 5th sonata, very French, drier and I think less accessible.  The 5th was written in 1923 and then revised at the very end of Prokofiev’s life.  Nissman includes both versions, commenting in the liner notes that she prefers the original.  It has taken me some time to warm up to this 5th sonata, but I think Nissman makes the best possible case for this light-hearted example of neoclassicism, adept and charming when necessary.  The passage concluding this work’s finale typifies Nissman's excellence, an incredibly difficult “three-hand” passage which she throws off fluently and musically (at 4’40” of track 12).  Boris Berman’s recording of the original version on Chandos is I think a particularly successful installment of his complete cycle.  Berman is more sensuous, Nissman a bit quicker, a bit less precious.  As a result, I find that her interpretation holds my attention better.

Sound quality on this disc is very good.  This is a strong and entirely successful release from an excellent performer.


title: Shostakovich 10ths from Rostropovich/Rattle/Petrenko compared

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Shostakovich’s 10th dates from 1953, the year of Stalin’s death, and represents one of the composer’s very ambitious efforts, lasting about an hour, and featuring a massive opening allegro.  Aside from its obvious quality, the symphony is significant because it has been rumored to be a summa of the bitter era under this tyrant’s deranged rule.  It is also one of the most obvious instances of Shostakovich being influenced by Gustav Mahler, among other things because of a quote in the Allegretto that is close to direct.

I wanted to compare three prominent recordings of the 10th as a guide for the listener.  All three are good but the Rostropovich and Petrenko interpretations stand out as achievements.

Rostropovich/London Symphony (Teldec, 1991): Mstislav Rostropovich’s conducting often is what I’d describe as relaxed.  Which doesn’t mean he lacks intensity.  Rather, he is willing to take pauses and let up from a metronomic pace more than many other conductors.  That could represent a problem in the massive architecture of the 10th symphony, but he keeps hold of the overall pacing to present a beautiful interpretation, like in the opening Moderato, which builds beautifully from somber darkness.  I'd describe Rostropovich’s vision as more humanistic than the other performances reviewed here.  Particularly memorable are the two big orchestral "sighs" towards the beginning of the first (2’ in) and third movements (4’ in), moments that I think of as a passage of recollection and grief for what has come before.  Each is done very movingly, as if to step away from the tragedy.  Rostropovich’s attention to detail and musicality are heard throughout, for example, in the very musical sloping of the opening paragraph of the finale.  There is obvious emotion in the playing and a vision of what the music means.  Despite the flexible and relaxed tempo, Rostropovich builds to a very exciting and well paced conclusion in the finale.  This superb performance is helped by excellent work from the LSO and audiophile-quality sonics.  It would be a clear reference for most other 20th-century works, except that…

Petrenko/Royal Liverpool Orchestra (Naxos/2005): except that young Russian émigré Vasily Petrenko presents a very different and riveting vision of the 10th.  While Rostropovich and Rattle take similar approaches to the 10th, Petrenko is the outlier.  If Rostropovich is relaxed, Petrenko emphasizes speed, architecture and long-term coherence.  The opening allegro is boiled down to 22 minutes of stress, a full 5 minutes shorter than the Rattle.  It is fast, entirely coherent.  Interestingly, Petrenko manages like Rostropovich an exceptional ending to the finale, but approaching it from a different place.  All this focus on architecture doesn’t cause Petrenko to gloss over details.  In the Allegretto, Petrenko’s has the orchestra play louder and faster than the other two conductors, but the result is nonetheless haunting.  He also nicely transitions from the more active klezmer-like theme louder into the hushed portion.  I also found that Petrenko accents the lower registers of the orchestra more.  This is my first experience with Petrenko and the quality of this performance ensures that I will need to listen to all of his Shostakovich releases.  The orchestra plays well and, like the Rostropovich, the sound quality is audiophile level.

Rattle/Philharmonia (EMI/1985): With two outstanding performances like the Rostropovich and the Petrenko, where does that leave a good but not great release like Rattle’s?  In a bit of a halfway house.  The interpretations from Rostropovich and Rattle are similar, but Rattle is something of a poor mans version.  I had pointed to the opening paragraph of the finale as an example of Rostropovich’s musicality; Rattle is pretty good there but there isn’t Rostropovich’s level of nuance.  Over long spans of music, this difference in quality also comes out.  Rattle’s opening Moderato is the slowest and comes off as a tad sluggish, although the individual phrases are often very expressive.  Rostropovich’s interpretation at first seems close to it in character but the Russian builds more powerfully so that the first ten minutes of the Moderato seem to tells one, unified story.  Now Rattle is generally very good in Eastern European repertory and he does well here, with an ably-presented and musical rendition.  But it doesn’t have the vision of Petrenko or Rostropovich.  Dating from 1985, the sound is good for the era but less strong than the two alternatives.  I’m assigning it 4 stars, because this is by no means shoddy work, but it can’t be recommended as an alternative due to the stunning strength of the others.

Hope this is helpful.


title: A brilliant "Tamara" headlines this Balakirev disc

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An outstanding performance of Mily Balakirev's "Tamara" is the highlight in this generally strong release.  This 20+minute-long symphonic poem represents one of the neglected jewels of the classical repertory.  It has received several fine recordings over the years, but none projects its virtues like Evgeny Svetlanov and the USSR Symphony Orchestra do here.  Svetlanov takes an unusually sensuous approach, accenting the subsidiary voices to create a rich palette of primary and secondary melodies.  The opening, in which Tamara surveys the river far below her mountain tower, marvelously evokes the rushing river.  The depth and nuance that Svetlanov and the orchestra bring to this passage is extended into the Orientalia of the long middle section, where Balakirev weaves of the work's melodies into exotic different textures.  The performance is helped by a surprisingly outstanding recording job, detailed yet bold and varied.  I simply love this performance and strongly recommend it to any dedicated classical music fans out there.  "Tamara" is a major work of 19th-century orchestral writing and Svetlanov presents it just beautifully.

The quality of the performance extends to a well-done Balakirev's 2nd symphony.  A man with a magnetic if troubled personality, Balakirev was a major figure in the Russian music world during the 1850s and 1860s.  He withdrew into a psychiatrically troubled period during the 1870s, when he pulled back from all contact with fellow artists and expressed increasingly violent anti-semitic bigotry and religious obsessions.  It was during this decade that he wrote "Tamara", finishing it in 1882.  His later years showed more moderated behavior but also less productivity.  The 1st Symphony, completed in the 1860s, has a particularly beautiful slow movement which I recommend you hear.  Balakirev returned to the symphonic form, composing the 2nd symphony slowly over a number of years and finishing it in 1908, a couple of years before his death in 1910.  Balakirev's musical evolution seems to have slowed as he grew older and by the time of its composition, the 2nd symphony, still steeped in an earlier style, was somewhat antiquated in a Russian scene dominated by composers like Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Scriabin.  Despite its stylistic backwardness, the symphony has its attractions, most prominently a slow movement showing great metric creativity in its ambiguous combination of accents and bar lines.  Balakirev, based on my listening, has a preference for forms using only one theme (instead of two or more contrasting themes like many other composers), and this holds true in the 2nd symphony, with each movement dominated by a single motif or melody.

While the 2nd symphony is a worthwhile, attractive work, this disc is really notable for Svetlanov's wonderful rendition of "Tamara". (Svetlanov recorded these two works twice and whatever the transliteration, this version appears to be the one done in the late 1970s with the USSR State Symphony, the maestro's longtime orchestra.)

Recommended disc.


title: Homebrew Soviet “Onegin”

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The question with historical recordings like this one is always whether the tradeoff in sound quality is worth it because of some exceptional aspect of the performance. The answer in this case in my opinion is “no” but the performance is pretty good and the sound quality isn’t highly objectionable.  I would point to the James Levine “Onegin” with Mirella Freni and Thomas Allen (on DG) as probably the leading modern recording of the opera, as an alternative.

This is truly a homebrew release.  The CD was made from LPs, as surface noise is clearly heard in the opera’s opening scenes.  There is no libretto and no information about recording date.  Wikipedia indicates that lead Galina Vishnevskaya recorded “Onegin” in 1956 so I have to assume that this is that performance.

My attention was drawn to this performance because of Vishnevskaya, a great artist but, while she provides a good performance in the lead role of Tatyana, it is not an exceptional one.  The strongest cast member is Eugene Belov, who sings the lead role of Onegin just very well.  The supporting cast can be iffy, with what I thought was some shaky solo singing in some of the ensemble numbers.  That said, Ivan Petrov (as Gremin) delivers a stirring Act III aria (“Lyubvi vsye,” pardon my transliteration), the best version of this beautiful number I have yet heard.  The orchestra is led by Boris Khaikin, a long-time presence on the Soviet conducting scene, in an effective accompaniment with the dances in Acts II & III (the well-known polonaise and waltzes) done with panache.

The sound quality is quite acceptable.  It sounds like vinyl, with a pleasing warmth and a fairly large amount of analogue distortion that strikes me as qualitatively different from digital distortion.  But the soundstaging is clearly antiquated, in that there is no blend of microphones recording separate singers and the orchestra.  The different forces sound if they come from different sources, spatially.  This recording appears to have been released in several guises.  I can’t compare this set with the alternatives but can rate it at 4 stars, as a generally well-performed Soviet historical recording with decent sound.


title: I prefer Gould's Goldberg live to his earlier studio session

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Glenn Gould famously retired from the stage in 1964 and thereafter only presented his performances through recordings.  This is the first live music by Gould I have encountered and am surprised to be writing this: it looks like the master pianist made a big mistake.

This valuable disc contains two independent live recordings of JS Bach, the Goldberg Variations done in Salzburg in 1959 and the Three-part Inventions done in Moscow in 1957, where Gould was the first North American to play since the war, during the post-Stalin loosening of Soviet restrictions.

The Goldberg Variations are a delight.  They are close in general approach to the famous and career-making 1955 studio debut Gould had made 4 years earlier, but they have a looseness and improvisatorial feeling that adds even more zest to the interpretation.  Gould is clearly willing to experiment, with changes in emphasis and tone color.  Again, this is strange to be writing, but Gould sounds like one of these exceptional and unusual musicians who is as comfortable on stage as off.  (Artur Rubinstein is another.  In his memoirs, he wrote that he always played better on stage than in practice because the audience invigorated him.)  Anyway, this Goldberg set is wonderful.  It may be the best recording of this work Gould left.  What's more, the audio quality, with very few audience sounds, is better than the 1955 recording.

The 1957 Moscow recording of the 15 Three-part Inventions is often very beautiful.  Recorded sound is poorer than the Salzburg concert.  Gould's interpretations can be wayward here, a tendency which intensified in later years and has led me to avoid his later recordings.  The 15th invention, in f minor, is an example, with a glacial tempo and precious tone color effects.  I understand the appeal of this particular track - writing about it makes me want to spin it again, certainly the ultimate critical recommendation - but it points to the self-indulgent eccentricity Gould displayed in some later playing, like his exasperating performance of Beethoven's Op. 2 no. 3 sonata.  But I digress.  The Inventions here are sometimes played willfully but there is great beauty in many of them.

This disc is a must for Gould fans out there.  It seems to fly below the radar as something of a curiosity, but shouldn't.  The Goldberg Variations are great (Great!) and the Inventions are very good.  An outstanding release.


title: Strauss was bored writing the “Alpensinfonie”

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And it shows.  Strauss began writing the “Alpensinfonie” in 1911 based on some earlier sketches, while  waiting for his librettist Hugo von Hoffmanstahl to deliver several librettos for the genre (opera) that was to dominate the composer’s next three decades of creativity.  Strauss had last completed a symphonic poem almost a decade ago, the “Sinfonia domestica,” a work which also shows a declining level of interest as it progresses.  While writing the “Alpensinfonie”, he wrote that he was “torturing himself with a symphony – a job that, when all's said and done, amuses me even less than chasing cockroaches".  After finally finishing the work in 1915, he stopped writing ambitious orchestral music until the 1940s.  So the biographical patterns  point to the phenomenally-gifted Strauss writing the work without applying his full faculties.

Does this reveal itself in the music?  I think it does.  There is an emptiness to this music – not an emotional emptiness, but a lack of ideas.  The symphony stretches out for 50 minutes and it is difficult to think of a long work like this by a composer of Strauss’ caliber with just so few thematic ideas of consequence.  And when there are ideas they are sometimes uncomfortably close to second-rate film music – as in the “Entrance into the woods” (about 7 minutes in), which I challenge people to play for their friends or family without embarrassment.  (The 1915 premiere, led by Strauss himself, led to exactly this criticism: it sounded like bad film music.)  The highlight of the work is the sunset, with its impressive string glissando.  But that highlight points to the works defects – it lives by orchestral sonic effects, use of an incredibly large orchestra (125 players including 20 french horns and a novelty wind-simulating instrument).  Please note that I am a big fan of Strauss’ music but this symphony is empty, empty, empty… and dull.

OK, so I don’t much care for the “Alpensinfonie” after years of trying.  If you are curious about it, Karajan is the gold standard for Strauss conducting and he and the Berlin Philharmonic do an excellent job here.  The recording, dating from 1980, is a very flawed early digital recording effort, with some tinny sound in the strings and a tendency towards being noisy.  That is the flaw in what should be a definitive performance.  Note that the earlier DG release had the entire symphony on 1 track.  The later Karajan Gold offering splits the work into a more manageable 22.  Despite the accomplishment of Karajan and the Berliners, the lackluster nature of the “Alpensinfonie” and the dated sound engineering make this a 3-star offering.


title: Stern and Bronfman's serene live Brahms

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The question with Isaac Stern recordings is always whether he's practiced.  No disrespect intended.  If Stern is on point in terms of intonation and technical assurance, his very strong innate musicality can shine.  I'm happy to report that it does shine through in this live recording of the three wonderful Johannes Brahms violin sonatas, done with his frequent collaborator, Yefim Bronfman, in St. Petersburg in 1991.  Stern and Bronfman have worked together on a series of fine releases of violin and piano repertory, including a very nice Mozart series, and this release is another strong installment.

Stern and Bronfman take a serene approach to these Brahms sonatas.  It is calm and even contemplative, as can be heard right from the outset, in the superbly-paced opening Vivace from the 1st sonata, Op. 78 (1879), where both musicians allow the music to breathe in a relaxed way.  But the range of expression can move towards greater force, as one hears in the energetic coda to this Vivace.  In fact, the ambitious opening mvts. of each of the three sonatas works particularly well for Stern and Bronfman.  For example, the sweet opening Allegro of the 2nd sonata, Op. 100 (1886), is again given a performance that is at once utterly at ease but with varied textures and moods presented.

The relaxed approach can also prevent the performance from fulfilling its potential at times. I found the anxiety-filled opening section of the 1st sonata's Adagio lacking in intensity.  For this reason, I don't rate this Stern/Bronfman interpretation as highly as my favorite recording of the sonata, that special DG release from Augustin Dumay and Maria Pires.  But let's not have what Stern and Bronfman don't do take away from what they do: a highly musical, often very beautiful interpretation that just flows.

This appears to be a true live recording.  My guess is that only very limited portions were re-recorded in the studio and dubbed in.  There is some crowd sound but it is limited.  The sound quality is generally very good.  This is a worthwhile and very successful example of Brahms chamber music recordings.


title: Wand Brahms 3rd: great finale, iffy sound, short

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I have marked this 1984 Gunter Wand/NDR Orchestra performance of Johannes Brahms’ beautiful 3rd symphony (EMI) down to 4 stars, for reasons I’ll spell out below, but it’s worth saying up front that for about a decade – between the time I got rid of my LP collection (alas) and the last couple of years where I’ve started accumulating performances of this work – this recording was the only one in my pretty decent Brahms collection.  I’d take it out and listen to it every few years, always with pleasure.  For music with which I am very familiar, I am finding the quality of the performance less and less important.  The physical instantiation of the music serves less as a full presentation but a kind of memory aid.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of this Wand recording?

Pluses:
A powerful, exciting finale.  Easily the CD’s highpoint.
The big opening allegro is shaped by a conductor focusing more on instrumental colors and harmonic weightings rather than the meter and organization in time, which makes for an interesting interpretation.

Minuses:
The early digital sound is mediocre, with slightly metallic strings.
An uninspired Poco allegretto and a rushed Andante make for a very average pair of central movements.  The central part of the Andante with the modal, oscillating wind theme is plodding.
This entire disc is all of 35 minutes in length… so small portions.

I recently reviewed a Georg Szell/Cleveland Orchestra recording which I would recommend as an alternative.  I do like this Wand Brahms 3rd better than alternatives such as the Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic recording (DG) and a lot more than the James Levine/Chicago Symphony recording.  So it’s a pretty good interpretation of a beautiful work, with strengths and weaknesses.