Harpsichord Concerti by J S Bach conducted by Karl Ristenpart

This really nice Nonesuch LP was one of my very first records, bought some 30 years ago when I wa in high school. I used to visit the old Strawberries Records (a Boston chain long time gone..I think bought by Sam Goody) on Friday nights as my dad would drive me down to the local mall where it was located. Strawberries had a good selection of $2.95 albums which were perfect for the high school kid on a budget!

Karl Ristenpart recorded a substantial number of Bach recordings during the 60's with his very fine Chamber Orchestra of the Saar. Especially notable was a very popular, and omnipresent item for Nonesuch, of Bach's Magnificat. I think Ristenpart, along with Karl Richter, really dusted the cobwebs off of Bach and their efforts helped to spawn the movement toward period performance practices. Certainly, what we have here are four concertos for one and more harpsichords which are splendidly rendered and very tastefully performed. They really do sparkle and are a joy to listen to some 40 years+ after being recorded.

You know, I really miss the old Nonesuch LP label. I grew up on it and really built a good collection of LP's and performances from it. I still have my first Nonesuch LP, The Art of the Baroque Trumpet with Edward H Tarr - a great, great record. It's too bad that Warner/Elektra (or whatever that conglomerate is called now) lets the awesome collection from Nonesuch rot away in some warehouse. Many gems are in that collection, including this one!

Enjoy...full notes etc. in the download.

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The incomparable Clara Haskil playing who else? Mozart!

What better way is there to celebrate Christmas Eve then with a fine bottle of wine and Clara Haskil playing?  Here we have concertos K466 and K488 impeccably rendered by perhaps the greatest interpreter of Mozart during the last century....well in my opinion. Haskil is so...tasteful...that's it in a nutshell. Everything is played with such sensitivity and clarity, it unfolds so naturally with a dose of spontaneity. On top of that, both conductors, Paumgartner and Sacher,  provide vital support as they enter and absorb Haskil's genious with this music. Magnificent!

Merry Christmas!

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Reine Gianoli and Paul Badura Skoda in Mozart's Two Piano Concerto K 242

Charm Nick at Grumpy's Classics Cave recently posted the pianist Reine Gianoli performing Bach. I'm going to piggy back on that with this offering of Mozart's Two Piano Concerto K 242. Unfortunately, the flip side with K 365 was in a bad shape and beyond my restorative abilities.

There is some very fine playing going on here between Gianoli and Badura Skoda. The latter is probably one of the finest Mozartian's of the last century. I think that Hermann Scherchen leads a suitable accompaniment without the mannerisms that he was sometimes known for. Admittedly, I had not heard of Gianoli before I picked up this record. Listening to her here and on Charm Nick's posting in Bach reveals a strong player with good technique who also has an almost willful approach to the music. In fact, I believe that Gianoli imparts a lot of herself in the music, maybe bordering on over the top. Well, you be the judge.

An interesting discovery, nonetheless.

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Schubert's Incidental Music to "Rosamunde" conducted by Dean Dixon

I was lucky to find a decent copy of this first ever recording of the Incidental Music to Schubert's Rosamunde led by the fine, and underrated,  Dean Dixon. I've spoken in the past on Dixon; truly a man of great abilities who appeared on the American musical scene "before his time" as the old cliche goes. It's a damn shame that his greatest success was in Europe, with its more liberal racial climate and, not in his home country. Only toward the end of his life did he begin to gain recognition here - he died at the terribly young age of 61.

This recording is a fascinating and satisfying affair. Dixon strives for clarity and his brisk tempos would be more in line with period performance practice then the romantic, big bodied approach that Schubert was typically given during the early 50's when Westminster recorded this performance. I like Dixon's way, he doesn't linger or get overly sentimental and nothing is forced, in short, he lets the music speak for itself. His efforts are well supported by Ferdinand Grossman's fine Academy Chamber Choir and the famed contralto Hilde Roessel-Majden. Interestingly, the overture to Alfonso und Estrella is included as the opening number.

My opinion is that had Dixon lived, he would've achieved greater fame in the US and been counted as one of the major podium presences of his time. Instead, we have here a document of an immensely talented man whom the fates dealt not the best hand.

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George Singer conducts Dvorak's New World Symphony with the Tonkuenstler Orchestra

The name of George Singer is probably all but forgotten today, however we are fortunate to have this well interpreted Dvorak "New World" Symphony as a momento of his work.

Singer was a Czech born musician of Jewish heritage who emigrated to what was then Palestine prior to WW II. He was a very important part of the musical establishment in Palestine, later Israel, and conducted virtually all the orchestras and opera companies there. After the war, he was contacted by Don Gabor of Remington Records to conduct a number of recordings, most made with the reconstituted Tonkuenstler Orchestra, often referred to as the Austrian Symphony, Viennese Symphonic Society and a whole lot of other pseudonyms. Among Singer's recordings were this one, a good Les Preludes and some fine renditions of a handful of Slavonic Dances by Dvorak.

The recording here is well interpreted and it is evident that Singer was comfortable with this very Czech music since he himself grew up with it. Everything sounds very right, not forced and natural though the orchestra is decidedly second tier, often dropping into third tier status. The real problem, admittedly is the brittle sound of this Plymouth re-release of  a Remington original. Plymouth was a bargain label and what deficiencies Remington had in pressings are magnified here. Still, I encourage everyone to have a listen to this fine performance by a solid, an unfortunately, rather forgotten musician.

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