This concludes my look back at 2015 with the newer new albums -- the ones with new, or at least contemporary, compositions, most by living composers.
1. Soloists/Warsaw Boys' Choir/Warsaw Philharmonic Male Choir/Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra/Antoni Wit Penderecki: Magnificat; Kadisz (Naxos) Naxos' invaluable Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) project continues to bring us conductor Antoni Wit's impeccable renderings of the Polish composer's complex and challenging music, especially excelling in the choral works, as here. One of the longer settings of this text (here nearly 45 minutes), Penderecki's Magnificat (1973-74) is also epic in sound, written in a high-avant style similar to his iconic St. Luke Passion, with extended singing effects (especially long glissandi, but also speaking and whispering), highly disjunctive melodies, extremely dense dissonance, and colorful cluster interjections by the orchestra, especially the winds.
It has a prominent if intermittent role for solo bassist (here Wojtek Gerlach), surprising...
1. Soloists/Warsaw Boys' Choir/Warsaw Philharmonic Male Choir/Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra/Antoni Wit Penderecki: Magnificat; Kadisz (Naxos) Naxos' invaluable Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) project continues to bring us conductor Antoni Wit's impeccable renderings of the Polish composer's complex and challenging music, especially excelling in the choral works, as here. One of the longer settings of this text (here nearly 45 minutes), Penderecki's Magnificat (1973-74) is also epic in sound, written in a high-avant style similar to his iconic St. Luke Passion, with extended singing effects (especially long glissandi, but also speaking and whispering), highly disjunctive melodies, extremely dense dissonance, and colorful cluster interjections by the orchestra, especially the winds.
It has a prominent if intermittent role for solo bassist (here Wojtek Gerlach), surprising...
- 1/12/2016
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Between reviews I'd been accumulating, things I listened to for my best-of-2014 list, and a couple of comparisons I'd planned to make, there's enough for another review roundup before the close of the year. Note that the three that could fit into the reissue category -- Rilling, Berman, and the first 71 tracks of the lead review here -- would all have been on my best-classical-reissues-of-2014 list if I'd made one.
Budapest Zoltán Kodály Girls' Choir/Ilona Andor; Magnificat Children's Choir of Budapest/Valéria Szebellédi; Budapest Zoltán Kodály School Children's Choir/Csilla Öri & Eszter Uhereczky; Zoltán Kodály Hungarian Choir School of Budapest/Ferenc Sapszon; Kecskemét Miraculum Children's Choir/László Durányik; Kecskemét Aurin Girls' Choir/László Durányik; Angelica Girls' Choir of Budapest/Zsuzsanna Gráf; Pécs Béla Bartók Girls' Choir/Attila Kertész Kodály: Bicinia Hungarica; Tricinia (Hungaroton Classic)
This is part of Hungaroton's monumental Kodály Complete Edition, and contains exactly...
Budapest Zoltán Kodály Girls' Choir/Ilona Andor; Magnificat Children's Choir of Budapest/Valéria Szebellédi; Budapest Zoltán Kodály School Children's Choir/Csilla Öri & Eszter Uhereczky; Zoltán Kodály Hungarian Choir School of Budapest/Ferenc Sapszon; Kecskemét Miraculum Children's Choir/László Durányik; Kecskemét Aurin Girls' Choir/László Durányik; Angelica Girls' Choir of Budapest/Zsuzsanna Gráf; Pécs Béla Bartók Girls' Choir/Attila Kertész Kodály: Bicinia Hungarica; Tricinia (Hungaroton Classic)
This is part of Hungaroton's monumental Kodály Complete Edition, and contains exactly...
- 12/29/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
It was another year full of great classical music. Here are my favorites from 2014, new releases only, no reissues.
1. Magnificat/Philip Cave The Tudors at Prayer (Linn) This superbly programmed and performed album contains eight Latin sacred choral works (specifically motets, mostly votive antiphons and psalm motets) by John Taverner (c.1490-1545), Thomas Tallis (c.1505-1585), William Mundy (c.1529-1591), Robert White (c.1538-1574), and William Byrd (c.1540-1621). Active during the period of greatest religious upheaval in English history, they kept writing richly layered polyphony despite changing fashions (though the later composers listed would also provide chordal English-language anthems as needed). The mightiest work here, Mundy's Vox Patris caelestis, leads off the program. The text, speaking as it does of "flowering vines" and their "heavenly ambrosial scent," practically begs for an elaborate polyphonic setting, and Mundy provided one that is among the most exquisite works of the 16th century.
1. Magnificat/Philip Cave The Tudors at Prayer (Linn) This superbly programmed and performed album contains eight Latin sacred choral works (specifically motets, mostly votive antiphons and psalm motets) by John Taverner (c.1490-1545), Thomas Tallis (c.1505-1585), William Mundy (c.1529-1591), Robert White (c.1538-1574), and William Byrd (c.1540-1621). Active during the period of greatest religious upheaval in English history, they kept writing richly layered polyphony despite changing fashions (though the later composers listed would also provide chordal English-language anthems as needed). The mightiest work here, Mundy's Vox Patris caelestis, leads off the program. The text, speaking as it does of "flowering vines" and their "heavenly ambrosial scent," practically begs for an elaborate polyphonic setting, and Mundy provided one that is among the most exquisite works of the 16th century.
- 12/28/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
As always, there are biases at play here; my greatest interests are symphonic music, choral music, and piano music, so that's what comes my way most often. There are some paired reviews; the ranking of the second of each pair might not be the true, exact ranking, but it works better from a writing standpoint this way.
1. Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1-4; Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 Tragic Overture, Op. 81; Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a; 3 Hungarian Dances; 9 Liebeslieder Waltzes; Intermezzi, Op. 116 No. 4 & Op. 117 No. 1 Gewandhausorchester/Riccardo Chailly (Decca)
It is not easy, at this point in recording history, to match the giants of the baton in a Brahms cycle, but Chailly has done it (this is my fiftieth Brahms cycle, and I have more than another fifty Brahms Firsts, and upwards of thirty each of the other symphonies outside those cycles, so I've got some basis for comparison...
1. Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1-4; Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 Tragic Overture, Op. 81; Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a; 3 Hungarian Dances; 9 Liebeslieder Waltzes; Intermezzi, Op. 116 No. 4 & Op. 117 No. 1 Gewandhausorchester/Riccardo Chailly (Decca)
It is not easy, at this point in recording history, to match the giants of the baton in a Brahms cycle, but Chailly has done it (this is my fiftieth Brahms cycle, and I have more than another fifty Brahms Firsts, and upwards of thirty each of the other symphonies outside those cycles, so I've got some basis for comparison...
- 1/6/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
The 55th Grammy Awards have arrived, and music's biggest night promises a ton of trophies, and hopefully some great live performances by today's hottest acts. Who has the best record of 2012? How about the year's best new artist? Stick with Zap2it throughout the night, as we continue updating the list of this year's winners!
All of the award categories are below, with the winners in bold.
Record of the Year"Lonely Boy" by The Black Keys"Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" by Kelly Clarkson"We Are Young" by Fun., featuring Janelle Monáe"Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye, featuring Kimbra"Thinkin Bout You" by Frank Ocean"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift
Album of the Year"El Camino" by The Black Keys"Some Nights" by Fun."Babel" by Mumford & Sons"Channel Orange" by Frank Ocean"Blunderbuss" by Jack White
Song of the Year...
All of the award categories are below, with the winners in bold.
Record of the Year"Lonely Boy" by The Black Keys"Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" by Kelly Clarkson"We Are Young" by Fun., featuring Janelle Monáe"Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye, featuring Kimbra"Thinkin Bout You" by Frank Ocean"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift
Album of the Year"El Camino" by The Black Keys"Some Nights" by Fun."Babel" by Mumford & Sons"Channel Orange" by Frank Ocean"Blunderbuss" by Jack White
Song of the Year...
- 2/11/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
My usual explanation in this space: I am especially interested in piano and choral music, plus symphonies, so that’s what I get the most promos of. Other stuff obviously gets through my filters, but the percentages of what comes in inevitably affect what comes out, i.e. this list. That said, in terms of number of centuries spanned, rather than genres or formats or whatever, I think I'm covering as much or more musical territory than most critics. By the way, look for a shorter list of my favorite classical reissues of 2012, to follow in a day or two.
1. Tokyo String Quartet, Jon Manasse, Jon Nakamatsu Brahms: Piano Quintet, Clarinet Quintet (Harmonia Mundi) There were recordings this year that were more important in terms of bringing new repertoire to light, or featuring young artists, or bringing classical into the 21st century, or being more controversially newsworthy. Examples of all of those follow.
1. Tokyo String Quartet, Jon Manasse, Jon Nakamatsu Brahms: Piano Quintet, Clarinet Quintet (Harmonia Mundi) There were recordings this year that were more important in terms of bringing new repertoire to light, or featuring young artists, or bringing classical into the 21st century, or being more controversially newsworthy. Examples of all of those follow.
- 1/2/2013
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Mahler's Symphony No. 3 in D minor is his longest, a six-movement ode to Nature and the World. It includes a children's choir and a contralto soloist but is largely instrumental, using a quite large orchestra complete with posthorn, harps, English horn, bass clarinet, contrabassoon, bass trombones, and a lot more brass than usual. Mahler's nature is not exclusively a calm pastoral scene -- it's stormy, uneasy, sometimes threatening, with mysterious rustling and twittering, yet with rays of sunlight cutting through the shadows at times.
This work had a long and confusing path from conception to completion. Mahler wrote movements II through VI in the summer of 1895. The following year, he worked on a first movement, weaving in elements of the movements he’d written in '95. That movement kept growing and growing -- at least a half an hour long, by itself it as long as all of Beethoven's First Symphony.
This work had a long and confusing path from conception to completion. Mahler wrote movements II through VI in the summer of 1895. The following year, he worked on a first movement, weaving in elements of the movements he’d written in '95. That movement kept growing and growing -- at least a half an hour long, by itself it as long as all of Beethoven's First Symphony.
- 6/10/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Here's what I have to say to all the people who bemoan the state of classical music: My classical list is the last one I'm posting (as has often been the case) because there were so many great releases to listen to that I didn't finish until now.
I want to once again admit the biases operating in my best-of-the-year classical lists: I am most interested in the piano, choral, and symphonic literatures. I’m happy to listen to other things when they come my way, but those are what I seek out, vastly tipping the balance in their favor (tipping the balance against opera is the increasing disinclination of record companies to send promos for new opera recordings unless one specifically asks -- and even that is no guarantee). Also note: no reissues or compilations here. That disqualified even the first box-set appearance of David Zinman's fine Mahler cycle,...
I want to once again admit the biases operating in my best-of-the-year classical lists: I am most interested in the piano, choral, and symphonic literatures. I’m happy to listen to other things when they come my way, but those are what I seek out, vastly tipping the balance in their favor (tipping the balance against opera is the increasing disinclination of record companies to send promos for new opera recordings unless one specifically asks -- and even that is no guarantee). Also note: no reissues or compilations here. That disqualified even the first box-set appearance of David Zinman's fine Mahler cycle,...
- 1/5/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
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