Classical CD Reviews, Part 2 of 2

by John Sunier | Apr 1, 2004 | Classical CD Reviews

April 2004 Pt. 2 of 2   [Pt. 1]

How about starting out this section with a bunch of really tuneful, accessible, easy-on-the-ears music – first from Europe and South America, and then from the U.S.?
SAINT-SAENS: Carnival of the Animals; Septuor in E Flat Major; Fantasie for violin and piano; Romance and Priere for cello and piano; My Heart at They Sweet Voice, From Samson & Dalila (cello & piano) – Renaud and Gautier Capucon and chamber ensemble – Virgin Classics 5 45603 2 3:

Saint-Seans enjoyed writing works for unusual and even unique combinations of instruments. His wonderfully witty Septet here was created for a group of amateur musicians which happened to include strings and a trumpet player. The contrasts between the two instrumental sounds provide for plenty of drama and quirkiness in this very French four-movement work. But the well-known “grande fantasie zoologique” is the main entree on the menu ici. Except that instead of the full orchestra version we have its original chamber music score for only a dozen instruments – what Saint-Saens orginally had to work with. The light-hearted 14-section suite moves along with even more élan that usual, and it seems as if the composer’s efforts to paint realistic pictures of the various animals is more successful and humorous than with the full orchestra version. The players are just perfect, everything sounds completely fresh and sparkling and has been captured in extremely clean sonics. It is like getting to know this delightful work all over again. And the four little pieces featuring violin, cello and harp provide a nice change of pace between the Carnival and the Septet. Plus the packaging of the musicians with the animal heads is great fun. This would be a fine CD to introduce children to some great classical music without compromising anything about it.

– John Sunier

ERIK SATIE & JüRGEN GRöZINGER: Inside the Dream – European Music Project, with Barbara Baier, soprano/Ilya Itin, piano/Girard Rhoden, tenor – Wergo Alcar ALC 5107 2:

The German Wergo label is known for cutting-edge contemporary music projects. A major series on John Cage is one of their efforts. The 22 selections on this disc grew out a live mulimedia performance with a multichannel audio installation; it’s unfortunate it couldn’t be presented using DVD-Audio or DVD-V with DTS 5.1. Composer and vibes-player Grozinger was fascinated by the literature of the surrealists, but especially by the novels and poetry of Robert Desnos, which mixed kitschy horror and detective stories with romance and comedy. The passages chosen for the presentation involve interweaving dreams and reality. Several early songs by Erik Satie are heard, interspersed with original music by Grozinger and some of Satie’s instrumental Gnossiennes. Satie’s position as a close friend of the surrealists fits him into this mileau, and the extremely slow tempi and melancholy of much of this music is a counterpart of the atmosphere of Desno’s poetry. Some photos of pseudo-1920’s cheesecake illustrate the booklet and evidently were part of the media presented. The performances by the seven-piece ensemble plus the three guest performers, are of high quality. There was room in the booklet for the photos and notes in three languages; why wasn’t there room for English translations of the Satie songs? What is this? More and more vocal music recordings seem to be provided recently without any translations of the songs which are in other languages. We’re not asking for a multimedia extravaganza here – just librettos, OK?

– John Sunier

Julia Thornton – Harpistry (Arrangements by Craig Leon, with National Radiio Orchestra and Chorus of the Netherlands and assisting guest artists) – EMI 5 90145 2:

The major labels have their own big-budget ways to going about trying to create successful crossover albums. Often they fall flat on their derrieres but occasionally – as with the Yo-Yo Ma album below and this one – they score handsomely. For this lovely CD Julia Thornton is Harp Babe. The seven glamourous photos of her are not salacious as with Bond or Sarah Brightman, but tasteful, still sexy, and just about what you would expect a beautiful young female harpist to look like. (Notice there’s no closeups of her fingertips.) The music choices for the 13 tracks are superb for this sort of album – some chesnuts, but nothing such as the Pachelbel Canon yet again. And the arrangements – while clearly intended to reach a broader audience than the core classical listener – are imaginative and very attractive listening. There are two Bach themes, a Handel Sarabande, Couperin’s Les Baricades Misterieuses, a Dowland, the slow movement of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto and Debussy’s Sunken Cathedral. The Dutch players are top rate and the sonics are fine. Relaxing and unhackneyed music that would be perfect for either foreground or background listening.

– John Sunier

Yo-Yo Ma and Friends – Obrigado Brazil Live in Concert – Sony Classical SK 90970 (CD & DVD video):

This is a sort of sequel to Ma’s previous studio-recorded album Obrigado Brazil, with some of the same tunes but quite different versions of them. As Cuban clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera – among the guests here – observes in the album notes, Ma has talent, dedication and respect for every musical genre there is. Just as Japan’s Sakamoto can be an integral part of a Brazilian trio, Ma and his cello fit beautifully into the Brazilian/Argentinian genre of this exciting ensemble. The concert took place in Carnegie Hall last fall and featuring 14 tracks from such diverse sources as Jobim, Piazzolla, Jaco do Bandolim, Gismonti, and members of the group D’Rivera and Sergio Assad. The Assad Brothers guitar duo (who also play gypsy music with violinist Nadia Solerna-Sonnenberg) and versatile pianist Kathryn Stott are central to the ensemble. There are also three Brazilian musicians – guitarist Rosa Passos, bassist Nilson Matta and percussionist Cyro Baptista. For my ears the highlight of the album was their terrific version of Barroso’s Aquarela do Brasil – made me think of my favorite movie by Terry Gilliam. The bonus video with the CD (which hasn’t yet arrived for review here) features three selections from the concert, including Ma’s arrangement of Piazzolla’s most famous work, Libertango, which he performed on the soundtrack of the film The Tango Lesson.

– John Sunier

Now for some Very American Music!…

DON GILLIS: Star-Spangled Symphony; Amarillo – A Symphonic Celebration; A Dance Symphony (No. 8) – Sinfonia Varsovia/Ian Hobson – Albany Records TROY618:

Gillis was a Missouri-born composer who lived until 1978 and outdid even Copland in creating music that could be instantly identified by anyone as extremely American-sounding. He was a very straightfoward melodist, had a great sense of humor and light-heartedness about his music, and was genuinely interested in communicating roots American culture via classical music. The spirit of the Southwest was a frequent starting point for his music. It’s a shame that Gillis has been neglected in recent years – he was frequently heard on radio and in concerts in the 40s and 50s. Just a list of the movements of these two symphonies will give a good idea of his musical approach: Star-Spangled: Production Line, Prayer and Hymn for a Solemn Occasion, Bobby Socks, Fourth of July; Sym. No. 8: Jukebox Jive, Deep Blues, Waltz (of sorts), Low Down Hoe-Down. This is the world premiere recording of Gillis’ musical celebration for the 75th birthday of the city of Amarillo, Texas. Excellent sound and performance. Any serious about American concert music should have this CD in their collection.

– John Sunier

DAVID GUNN: Somewhere East of Topeka – The Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble – Albany Records TROY535:

Gunn is a composer of today who obviously follows in the footsteps of Gillis. He is posed (it least it seems to be him) in the note booklet in a striped prison uniform hitching a ride under a sign proclaiming “Hitchhikers May Be Escaping Inmates.” Gunn, like Gillis, is a melodist and uses clearcut rhythms and harmonices, though in a more modern, deconstructionist manner. Klezmer and pop music in general are among his influences. Even the humor involved in these good-natured creations is more modern, more surrealist. Take for example the opening one of these 16 short pieces – Cowbellies. The composer notes say, “Marked Andante with a full udder, this bovine blues follow the multiple-stomached digestive process of man’s best friend.” Another piece in the style of a perpetual motion duo for violin and piano is described as a short-attention-span version of minimalism. Ununsual combinations of instruments show up in Gunn’s chamber compositions – for example the trio Khartoumaraca: for marimba, cello and clarinet.

Not the Right Balloon is a surrealist story-song narrated by the composer, and Do Aliens Wear Sombreros? is sung by a female voice. It’s a hoot, but musically and humorously. Here’s the titles of the selections , not including the title tune and those already mentioned: Katmandon’t, Going Like Sixty, The Help Me Rondo, Dance of the Hasidic Chigger Hecklers, Out of Cahoots, Hunting Tuna, Missing Inn March, Out of the Dark, Fossick, Running Lights

– John Sunier

WM. BOLCOM: Lyric Concerto for Flute and Orchestra; MICHAEL DAUGHERTY: Spaghetti Western for English Horn and Orchestra; LESLIE BASSETT: Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra – Amy Porter, flute/Harold Smollar, Eng. horn/Clifford Leaman, sax/University of Michigan Symphony/Kenneth Kiesler – Equilibrium EQ63 [www.equilibri.com]:

This beautifully performed, recorded and packaged (in jewel box alternative fold-out design) CD appears to be entirely a project of the University of Michigan Music Department. The choice of three fairly well-known contemporary composers and three unusual concertos is a ringer. All three create very American-sounding works. Bolcom is known for his mixing of musical metaphors and wrote his flute concerto originally for James Galway. It’s second movement has American-Irish musical quotes. Iowa-born composer Daugherty is known for his many works inspired by pop culture such as Superman, Elvis and Jackie O. The inspiration for his concerto comes from the music of Enrico Morricone for the Italian spaghetti westerns. The English horn becomes the “man without a name,” wondering thru various cliched western musical landscapes. Basssett’s sax concerto is chromatic but not serial; it focuses strongly on the virtuoso side of what the composer calls the most agile woodwind instrument. This effort is a most commendable presentation of new music that hopefully will find a wide audience.

– John Sunier

Now for another very American composer of a rather different bent…

FRANK ZAPPA: Greggery Peccary & Other Persuasions – Ensemble Modern/Jonathan Stockhammer /Omar Ebrahim & David Moss, voices – RCA Red Seal 82876 56061 2:

The Ensemble Modern is an acclaimed, high-precision German chamber ensemble specializing in new music. Just as with similar ensembles in Holland and Sweden, Stockhammer and his players think very highly of the instrumental music created by the late composer/rock star/satirist. Zappa had complained about the difficulties of getting players to properly interpret his larger complex scores and the last years of his life created nearly everything on his Synclavier. Now Stockhammer, with the assistance of some musical computer mavens, have worked with Zappa’s files of this now obsolete synthesizer and printed out the music so that it could be performed live by their very skilled and precise players. This album is a sort of encore to the first Zappa album they did in l998, The Yellow Shark. The composer’s mordant wit is couched in very complex and often atonal musical language that is nevertheless immediately identifiable as “concert hall Zappa.” Here’s the ten works selected for this album: Moggio, What Will Rumi Do?, Night School, Revised Music for Low Budget orchestra, The Beltway Bandits, A Pig With Wings, Put a Motor in Yourself, Peaches En Regalia, Naval Aviation in Art?, The Adventures of Greggery Peccary

VIVALDI: The Four Seasons; Concerto for 2 violins, strings & continuo in A minor; Concerto for 2 violin in D – Nigel Kennedy & Daniel Stabrawa,violins /Members of the Berlin Philharmonic – EMI Classics 5 57666 0 1 (CD + DVD):

Another of an increasing number of DVD and CD combo releases. I’ve decided to include the album here rather than the DVD-V section because the audio portion is the main attraction. I wasn’t excited about auditioning yet another Four Seasons, but Kennedy’s (he seems to be using his first name again) thoughtful interpretation won me over. It is impetuous and sometimes exaggerated in attack on the notes, but not as over the top as, say, Il Gardino Armonico. A nice balance, I’d say. But tempi-wise it must be the fastest Four Seasons on record – the fast movements seem to be almost double-speed .And his Berlin cohorts in this effort are totally up to the challenge, as expected.

As to the DVD, it begins with a highly promotional introduction about what a great artist Kennedy is and how he single-handedly has made Vivaldi a big seller! The shots are of him playing in a highly romantic setting with hundreds of candles burning and Kennedy strolling around playing. However, we never do see the rest of the ensemble – they just seem to be on tape I guess. At one point a beautiful girl walks silently thru the candle-lit scene. That’s it. No explanation.

– John Sunier

We have next a trio of discs featuring the harpsichord…

RAMEAU: Opera & Ballet Transcriptions from Castor et Pollux, Daardanus, Les Indes Galantes, Pygmalion – Kenneth Weiss, harpsichord – Ambroisie SR 031:

Before recordings, transcriptions were the only way for people to become familiar with the music of important operas and ballets. Rameau and a fellow composer named Balbastre did most of the transcriptions in this collection, but the rest come from harpsichordist Weiss. Two of the suites open with an overture. As with Rameau’s original keyboard music, many of the selections are based on various dance forms. In fact these transcriptions sound like newly-discovered clavier works by the composer. Weiss transmits the feeling of the dance very well in his phrasing and tempi. The glorious sound of the two instruments on which he plays surely is a part of this musical experience. Both are authentic original instruments in the Musee de la musique in Paris, dating from around 1749 and 1761. The fold-out alternate packaging is also very tasteful, with photo studies of dancers in period costume.

– John Sunier

BACH: Per cembalo solo… Concerto in G Major BWV 973 after Vivaldi; Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue in D Minor; Concerto in D Major BWV 972 after Vivaldi; Fantasia & Fugue in A Minor BWV 904; Italian Concerto in F Major; Sonata in A Minor after Reincken; Fantasia & Fugue in C Minor BWV 906; Fugue in C Minor BWV 906 (reworked by Richard Egarr) – Richard Egarr, harpsichord – Harmonia mundi HMU 907329:

The same harpsichordist who performed the seven Bach harpsichord concertos with Andrew Manze last year in an award-winning set has now put together an exceptional program of Bach’s works for the solo keyboard. There are examples of his reworkings of pieces by various other composers, of his fantasy & fugue form, and one of his crowning solo keyboard works – the Italian Concerto. It should be noted that his transcriptions of the works for strings by Vivaldi and others were not strictly literal – he enriched and expanded the originals just as Busoni, Liszt and just about everyone else did Bach himself in the years to come! Egarr’s touch is perfect and the recording is perfectly balanced between close detail without emphasizing the mechanism noises, and a futher distance feeling for the sound of the instrument in the room. (It is always said how difficult to record properly the piano is, but the harpsichord is not so easy either!)

– John Sunier

BARTOK: Microcosmos – Huguette Dreyfus, harpsichord – Harmonia mundi Curiosita Series HMX 290791:

Yes, Bartok on the harpsichord – not a typo! And as the note booklet points out, this is not an attempt to do something as a novelty or for the shock value. Bartok himself says in his prefatory note to Microcosmos that some of the pieces may be performed on the harpsichord. In this he seems to be the only modern composer returning to the traditions of early music, in which a piece was often suggested or intended for playing on many different sorts of instruments. The Microcosmos was intended to be a small musical world for children, so most of the pieces are very short and simple – though simple in Bartok’s world is quite a different thing from most composers! The overall structure of some these pieces makes them seem almost more appropriate for the harpsichord with its terraced timbres and dynamics than for the grand piano. Dreyfus has chosen three or four short pieces from each of Volumes three thru six of Microcosmos. I found those with a drone effect, such as the Danse bulgar Nos. 2 & 3 to be most interesting on the harpsichord. As Charles Ives would have said, An ear-stretching experience.

– John Sunier

MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE & JOHN SCOFIELD: Scorched – Scofield, guitar/John Patitucci, electric bass/Peter Erskine, drums/HR Big Band/Symphony Orchestra of Radio Frankfurt/Hugh Wolff – DGG 20/21 Series B0001416-02:

This live recording made in Frankfurt preserves a major effort in the fusion of classical and jazz genres. British composer Turnage is known for some very wild orchestral works such as his Three Screaming Popes. He played in a jazz group in university and later worked with Third Stream pioneer Gunther Schuller. Scofield is one of the leading jazz guitarists today, known for his many recordings for ECM and other labels. The work – for jazz trio, big band and symphony orchestra – crosses and blends idioms in a manner more advanced than anything heard during the Third Stream movement.

The 14 sections of the piece mix rich orchestral string writing with high voltage loft-jazz-type excursions built around the virtuoso guitar lines of Schofield. There are also some big band/symphonic atonal/chromatic explosions that nearly pin you against the wall. Turnage intended in his writing for the various forces to make them a distinctive amalgam rather than being identified as “now we’re hearing the big band, or now the solo guitar, or now the string section.” And he succeeds mightily. The sections for the jazz trio were not scored by Turnage but became a vital part of the sound – offering a lighter and more energetic sound in contrast to the darker and denser sound of the composed portions. The title of the work is a pun on how it came about: SCofield ORCHestratED. Sound is well up to the challenges of the music, though I’m sure it would be yet more detailed in SACD format.

– John Sunier

Classical CD Reviews, Part 1 of 2

by John Sunier | Apr 1, 2004 | Classical CD Reviews

Part 1 of 2  [Part 2]

BIRTWHISTLE: The British Music Collection. Ensemble InterContemporain, Pierre Boulez, et al. Decca 468 804-2 (2 CDs):

In Alice in Wonderland, Alice has a great deal of trouble with a “little gold key.” At first, it’s too big to open the door she wants; then when she find a door that it fits, it’s not the one she wants. When she shrinks, the key is out of reach on the glass table. Listening to the music of British composer Harrison Birtwhistle is like struggling over Alice’s key. The first task is finding it. Surely there must be a key to these complex and intriguing structures. But where is it?

At first, a piece like Endless Parade seem like third stream jazz, with its seemingly melded jazz and classical elements. Yet this ebullient trumpet concerto belies categorization. Its lurking undercurrent constantly struggles to emerge, but is beaten back by the bright staccato tones of Elgar Howarth’s trumpet. Third stream would seem to apply more to Panic, the saxophone concerto. A chaotic opening and random direction, suffused with spiky energy, is reminiscent of the late work of Don Cherry or John Coltrane. Performed with hot lava passion by John Harle, the piece keeps up its traffic-jam intensity most of the way through until, at 11:50 it suddenly breaks into a disturbing moment of reflection. No, third stream is not the key here.

Earth Dances seems to progress toward development and uses heavily accented percussion. Yet there is no second-guessing where it is going. It invades your space like a week-old houseguest and changes direction with a snap of a temple block. The work is highly excitable: a mere thematic suggestion sets off into another inscrutable direction. Is that the key, over there behind that shifting tone cluster? Sorry. It might have been, but it’s gone.

Other works on this satisfying and mystifying two-CD set keep you guessing at all points: Tragoedia, Five Distances, Three Settings of Celan, Secret Theatre. The titles are as mystifying as the pieces. Once you hear them you don’t forget them. Their beauty is that Birtwhistle keeps you looking for that little golden key, yet never lets you find it– perhaps because it doesn’t exist.

–Peter Bates

COURVOISIER: Abaton. – Sylvie Courvoisier, piano; Mark Feldman, violin; Erik Friedlander, cello – ECM Stereo CD, ECM 1838/39, B0001308-02:

I have to indecently expose my prejudices from the start when writing about what I term “academic music” of the second half of the 20th century. Most often, but with a few exceptions, I just don’t like it. I feel the music of Stockhausen, Schoenberg, Berg, Ligeti, and Berio mannered in a fashion I find a dead end. I think the styles known as minimalism and neo-romanticism have begun to supplant it in the popular taste and in the conservatories. This modernist music seems on its way out, despite many attempts to revive it.

In his liner notes to this 2 CD colection, Thomas Steinfeld, in his thoughtful essay about the music of the Sylvie Courvoisier trio, Abaton, makes a telling observation. He writes: “…But newness has long lost its novelty, and the wildest of undertakings have become ordinary artistic fare. Indeed, the surreal can be provoked, incoherence can be summoned up at will, and for decades there have been familiar signals to indicate that a norm is being broken, a convention abandoned, and expectation thwarted. Intervals start leaping far beyond the fifth, a gigantic scratching, drumming and whistling ensues, and before long we hear Karlheinz Stockhausen twiddling the dials of a radio. At the end it all sounds like the country fair in Georg Büchner’s “Woyzeck,” except that we seem to hear a source reference for every idea. … Courvoisier … has also studied Arnold Schoenberg’s musical teachings and learned from them that even atonal series must be composed rather than produced with a throw of the dice…”

These thoughts seem to place the whole of modernism under an unflattering light. It has lost its appeal to newness. Its favorite tropes no longer generate a “primal and elemental amazement.” Its wildest undertakings have become ordinary. Which leaves us with a “gigantic scratching, drumming and whistling.” We hear the echoes of pioneering modernism only slightly refreshed in more recent works. Steinfeld, after passing such judgment on the style of music in the album, falls back on the taste of Sylvie Courvoisier. He claims that her application of these techniques is, somehow, above the herd. I’m not so sure. I think the music itself limits any of its practitioners – Sorry. The first CD of this collection (a more heavily arranged series of four pieces) doesn’t do it for me. It has its moments, but on the whole it doesn’t knock me out, or even raise a smile. Sylvie Courvoisier’s cool musical style isn’t enough to dissuade me of the difficulties with this school.

The second CD is a group of jazz-like improvisations named for fictional places, such as Brobdingnag, from Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. [Who was it that said, “Swift should have been named Sterne; and Sterne, Swift?” Sir Winston? George Bernard Shaw? Harold Bloom?] It is more spontaneous and more fun. I find more spits and giggles here. But not a great deal. Feldman and Friedlander are witty in their idiom but I still prefer Brubeck and Desmond, or Stephane Grapelli and Yo-Yo Ma. I wish I could wax more enthusiastic about this album, but this school of music just leaves me cold, and (I think) brings its practitioners down. Excu-you-ooze Me!! But in the end, Not Recommended.

-– Max Dudious

WYNER: The Music of Yehudi Wyner; The Second Madrigal, Quartet for Oboe and String Trio, Horntrio. – Numerous Assorted Artists/Yehudi Wyner, cond.– Bridge CD 9134:

Yehudi Wyner (b.1929) is a composer of long experience with modernist music and has developed the much sought-after combination of good “chops” and good taste. These three pieces were all completed between 1997 and 1999. The period of this music very much reflects the style I refer to as “academic music” of the second half of the 20th century. It is characterized by many of the tropes introduced by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, György Ligeti, et al, during the early Post WWII period. It is not my favorite period in music history nor my favorite style, I must confess. In Wyner’s competent hands it fares better than usual.

The Second Madrigal: Voices of Women (1999), scored for soprano and eleven instruments, features ten songs that serve as the unifying threads of each of the ten sections of the song-cycle (Could we call this a cantata?). The titles are: I Getting Up In Winter; II In The Morning; III Morning; IV When He Pressed His Lips; V The Second Madrigal; VI Thank You, My Fate; VII Cosmetics Do No Good; VIII The Greatest Love; IX Hopelessness; and X Question. They are sung in English. The soprano, Dominique Labelle, for whom it was written, does an excellent job with a tough assignment. The ensemble weaves its tapestry very artfully. “Good job” to Daniel Stepner, vn; Judith Eissenberg, vn; Mary Ruth Ray, va; Rafael Popper-Keizer, clo; Carolyn Davis Fryer, cbass; Susan Gall, flt; Peggy Pearson, oboe; Katherin Matasy, clnt; Janet Underhill, bsoon; Jean Rife, horn; Robert Schulz, pcus; Yehudi Wyner, cond. Wyner writes: “Verdi used to speak of his need for ‘la parola scenica,’ the words that encouraged the scene to be immediately suggestive and clear and which also allowed the music to animate and provide new values to the text. I have tried to choose texts which embody ‘la parola scenica’ and seek to liberate the music which may lie dormant in those texts.” In large measure, Wyner succeeds. He is a good musician.

Quartet for Oboe and String Trio (1999), was written for the terrific Boston oboist, Peggy Pearson. Wyner’s album notes describe the compositional practice and why he made certain decisions to include this but not that, or to employ a particular device. Having heard Peggy Pearson play two of Bach’s cantatas, and how she was able to develop the long singing line necessary for her to play oboe in duet with the Mezzo-Soprano soloist, I feel the beauty of her tone, and the plaintive quality of her phrasing was lost in this very staccato piece. This is a good example of how even the best modernist compositions can bring some of the instrumental talent down from what they do best. But, on the whole, an interesting effort.

Horntrio (1997) is filled with modernist devices. It is “very quick, full of fragments, spiky figures, and contradictory events. Toward the end of this short movement, a grave and mysterious dirge-like music interrupts with no apparent preparation and is followed by a very compact coda conclusion.” Wyner describes these traits as if he’s proud of them, and ironically, they are precisely the practices of modernism that I find most difficult to value. Still, he pulls them off in pretty good shape. This is an admittedly good example of a style for which I have little sympathy. If you are a fan of post WW II “modernist” music, you might like this. A very exacting performance, with good engineering and production values. With reservations, Recommended. I think this music is for those who already have a grounding in the period and its practices.

— Max Dudious

RUDERS: Guitar Concertos & Solos. – David Starobin, guitar; Speculum Musicae/Donald Palma, cond.; Odense Symphony Orchestra/Jan Wagner, cond. – Bridge CD 9136:

Somewhere in Dante’s Inferno there is the realm of adulterous lovers whose punishment for their worldly sins is to copulate throughout eternity without fulfillment. I recently dreamed that I was living in my own private Hell, wherein my punishment for worldly sins was to listen to modernistic, what I call “academic music” of the 2nd half of the 20th century. Here the music of Schoenberg, Berg, Stockhausen, and Ligeti and those lesser composers whose music they inspired plays on throughout eternity. And here I sit, made to listen to them by my infernal tormenter, my editor — over and over and then over and over. Egad! I was pleased to awake in a cold sweat.

Don’t get me wrong. The work of Poul Ruders on this album is this type of modernist in style, but he does it well. As a matter of fact, his treatment of the Paganini Variations (Guitar Concerto No. 2) is one of the more successful pieces in this style I can remember. That may be due to having the work of Paganini as its foundation. Or it may be due to having the creativity of Poul Ruders guiding its superstructure. Either way, it’s better than O.K., if you don’t mind, as I do, the characteristic tropes of this kind of music. I just can’t get past the disjointedness. The emphasis on sound qua sound. Thankfully, they don’t figure as largely in this one work.

A good example of how Ruders composes is the “Cadenza for All” in Psalmodies or (Guitar Concerto No. 1), Section VIII. In this section Ruders deals with the descending glissando. He does it with the guitar and with different sections of the orchestra. It is an etude focused on the glissando demonstrating how it can be done away from the piano or the violin, on which it is apparently easier. There is a famous ascending glissando for the clarinet at the beginning of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. But I think it is more of an isolated coloristic device. In Ruders’ score it becomes a three minute discourse on how to do a glissando breaking the actual slide into its component notes. It is a little jewel. Fascinating. In the 16th variation on a theme by Paganini he uses the strings after the fashion of György Ligeti, whose music came to prominence in Stanley Kubrick’s film, 2001. Ruders seems a bit taken by Ligeti and his various tropes are heard here and there in Ruders’ works. Which is not to say he heists them, but he uses them with good effect to his own ends, most notably in the 16th and 20th variations. Rachmaninoff would have enjoyed them.

David Starobin does an outstanding job on guitar, playing music that demands the highest virtuoso technique – both the solo works (Etude and Ricercare, 1994; and Chaconne, 1997) and the two Concertos. Orchestral work is under good control. The tricky balance between the not-loud acoustic guitar and sometimes very loud orchestra is quite well managed, and the hall acoustic in the Paganini Variations is noticeable. I’d say the production values of this set of recordings is of the highest level, and the recordings are very well engineered. I’m sure Aaron Shearer is delighted to hear how effortlessly his pupil Starobin plays this program. In all, a series of modern works for guitar that overcome the limitations of the “modernist” idiom somewhat. I guess that places Poul Ruders in the vanguard of those composers who use the idiom. He has won me over. I sense myself moving from Hell to Purgatory. Thank you, Poul Ruders and David Starobin. You have elevated me, I hope, on my spiritual path.

– Max Dudious

VALENTIN SILVESTROV (born 1937): Requiem for Larissa, for mixed choir and orchestra (1997-1999) – National Choir of Ukraine “Dumka” and National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine conducted by Volodymyr Sirenko – ECM New Series 1778:

Alfred Schnittke referred to the Ukrainian Valentin Silvestrov as “the greatest composer of our generation,” Arvo Pärt expressed similar sentiments in a recent New Yorker interview, and both in the Ukraine and across the former Soviet Bloc there can be few composers today who are held in comparable esteem by their peers.

Requiem for Larissa reflects on the life shared by Silvestrov and his wife, the musicologist and literary scholar Larissa Bondarenko. It was composed in the wake of her sudden death in a Kiev hospital in May 1996, and is founded in a slow-moving sequence of liturgy based on the Latin Mass for the Dead, giving way to an exquisite setting of a poem by the great 19th-century Ukrainian poet, Taras Shevchenko, then to a lovely piece modeled on Mozart, before returning to slow, slower and more somber. It’s not really a piece that will grab you all at once; instead, it is for listening to in the quiet of the night, to hear the dimensions of man and the depths of his sadness.

The critic, novelist and opera librettist Paul Griffiths’ liner notes set the stage for this vastly beautiful and profound music: “Time in Valentin Silvestrov’s music is a black lake. The water barely moves; the past refuses to slide away; and the slow, irregular stirrings of an oar remain in place.” The recording is not audiophile in the conventional sense—the painfully intimate nature of the message precludes that—but it handles the wide range of challenges so superbly that it can serve as a touchstone for a sound system that has emotion as well as dynamic range and an accurate sense of soundstage.

– Laurence Vittes

PURCELL: Dido and Aeneas – Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano/ Ian Bostridge, tenor/Camilla Tilling soprano – Le Concert d’Astree/ Emmanuelle Haim, harpsichord & direction – Virgin Veritas 7243 5 45605 2 1:

Dido and Aeneas may be called “an opera in miniature.” Taking less than one hour to perform and with no single number much more than 100 bars in length, Purcell has created a magnificent Baroque demi-opera that is musically and dramatically complete. The pace is furious but the emotional impact of the music builds relentlessly, never seeming hurried despite its brevity.

Commissioned 1683-1684 for court performance, Dido and Aeneas has frequently been revised and recorded with differing forces. Here Emmanuelle Haim directs the period-instrument Concert d’Astree comprised of ~25 instrumentalists and the 14 members of the European Voices in a tight-knit, vibrant reading of Purcell’s masterpiece. The seamless interplay between soloists, chorus and orchestra is beautifully rendered, leading inexorably to the emotional impact of Dido’s Lament and the opera’s concluding measures.

Susan Graham is a ravishing Dido; the character of her voice, diction and phrasing portray the vulnerability of this doomed Queen. Ian Bostridge is an heroic, fallible Aeneas. Realized too late, the utter tragedy of the hero’s decision to leave Carthage permeates Mr.Bostridge’s final arias.

Recorded at the Arsenal, Metz, France in 2003, the sonic presentation is deep and precisely directional, and the balance between voices and instruments seems right. There is a sweetness about this recording that brings to mind the finest analog recordings. For lovers of Baroque music and of all opera, this Virgin Veritas recording is not to be missed.

— Ronald Legum

Violin Fantasies – Jennifer Koh, violin/Reiko Uchida, piano – Cedille Records CDR 9000 073:

The rather pedestrian title in no way prepares the listener for what a truly sensational disc this is! Awards are often given for best instumental, orchestral, vocal, chamber music discs. I find Cedille Records CDR 90000 073 simply one of the few great CDs.

Violin Fantasies is a total success. Fantasy in context refers to music composed in the freesest possible form for that composer . Three violin-piano fantasies-Schubert, Schumann and Schoenberg plus a brief Fantasy for solo violin by Ornette Coleman comprise this diverse and challenging program.

The development of the violin-piano fantasy from Schubert through Schoenberg is magnificently represented by these performances.The Schubert C major Fantasy, long one of my favorites,D.934,presents incomparable Schubertian lyricism amidst virtuoso demands /rich harmonies and cyclical use of themes. Jennifer Koh plays a 1727 Ex Grumiaux Ex General Dupont Stradivarius which sounds gorgeous in all ranges and levels of intensity. Her intonation and phrasing is flawless. Ms. Koh studied with Jaime Laredo at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Mr Laredo has recorded the complete violin music of Schubert for Dorian. I find Ms.Koh’s recording of this C major Fantasy superior to Mr.Laredo’s fine recording.

The Schumann Fantasy is a concerto in miniature,displaying virtuosity and almost constant motion..Ms. Koh and ReikoUchida are dazzling as they segueway from seamless dialog into piano accompaniment for the brilliant solo violin. This is passionate music, wonderfully executed.

The Phantasy for violin and piano (1949) by Arnold Shoenberg is his last instrumental serial work. It is a confrontational, virtuosic rhapsody for violin with
random, expletive comments from the piano.Having only limited exposure to this work, I find the Koh-Uchida performance very finished and curiously satisfying .

Trinity, a six+ minute fantasy for unaccompanied violin by Ornette Coleman
presents free form themes taken up by the violin and developed almost as jazz improvisation. It defines the late 20th century essence of fantasy. The piece is gorgeously performed with impressive tonal palatte by Jennifer Koh.

Judith Sherman recorded these Fantasies in Feruary-March 2003 at the Academy of Arts and Letters auditorium in New York. The recording is expertly balanced in a moderate size space with an impression of ideal reverberation.The excellent Cedille notes are by Andrea Lamoreaux, Music Director of WFMT-FM Chicago and Ms.Koh. This disc is a MUST HAVE.

— Ronald Legum

BERLIOZ: La Révolution Grecque; Grandes Oeuvres Chorales. – Choeur ‘Les Elements,’ Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse./Michel Plasson, cond.– Stereo CD, EMI 7243 5 57490 2 5:

Some music-lovers hate Berlioz’ work. Of them I ask, “How can you hate Berlioz’ music and call yourself a music-lover?” Who was it who first said? “You never know, ya know.” Ah, yes. Cindy Lauper. When you think of Schubert, you think of his predecessors; Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. When you think of Berlioz there are no predecessors. He seems to have sprung from the forehead of Zeus, sui generis, a mature musical personality already formed with no musical parents. His innovations and contributions to European classical music are so many and varied that whole books have been written about them. He began his music studies at age 23, and at age 27 he wrote his Symphonie Fantastique. And yet there are his detractors who would make of him a mere colorist, an innovative orchestrator. You never know, indeed. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music (1980) says, “His extravagances in his scores, no longer very remarkable but ahead of their time, diverted critical attention, even among his admirers, from the classical purity of his melody and the Beethovenian grandeur of his command of dramatic contrasts. Today, the opera Les Troyens, the Grand Messe des morts [now known as his Requiem], and the Nuits d’été (forerunner of Mahler’s song-cycles with orchestra) are recognized for their poetry and originality.” I’d add Berlioz is by anyone’s measure a truly great composer whose overtures alone would rank him with Rossini.

This two CD set of Choral Works is a two hour anthology of some of his lesser known compositions, and it reflects some of his earliest and latest efforts, though concentrating on his most prolific middle period. I think this music is for the already converted Berlioz fans, not for initiates. It employs a range of moods and a variety of forces ranging from female chorus and orchestra; mixed chorus and orch.; to 2 basses, mixed chorus and orchestra; tenor, female chorus and orch.; tenor, bass, male chorus & piano; etc. etc. The soloists are: Rolando Villazon, ten.; Nicolas Rivenq, bar.; and Laurent Naouri, bass. David Bismuth is heard on piano; Frank Villars on Harmonium. The recording was done in Toulouse, Halle aux Grains, in April 2003. The hall acoustic is excellent.

I’ve never heard most of these compositions before. They strike me as good examples of Berlioz’ choral works. They display many of his compositional traits, his favorite tropes, his purity of melody, his sense of grandeur, his flexibility, his ability to write for occasions, such as a cantata on the death of the Emperor Napoleon, or a “Warriors’ Song,” or a “Locomotive’s Song,” as well as a “Sacred Song,” and a “Hymn for the Consecration of the New Tabernacle.” All of these pointing toward his Nuits d’été (Summer Nights). The album notes opine, “… his handling of the text could not be more skillful and apt, and his light touch with the orchestra, especially the woodwind, is something we must recognize as entirely characteristic. Berlioz could and did roar like a lion; in such refined choruses as these he sings like a nightingale.”

What we have here is an attempt to communicate the varied choral writing of a master: some from his early career, many from mid-career, and three from his final years. They show his development as an artist, his ability to write for a wide array of emotional effects, his mastery of many forms. Berlioz’ first student composition was an opera, and his second an oratorio. These are the musical genres he was drawn to, and at which he excelled. This collection is a perfect reference for students of his work, and a welcome addition for Berlioz lovers. Recommended.

— Max Dudious

BRUCE ADOLPHE: Ladino Songs of Love and Suffering, Mikhoels the Wise (excerpt), Out of the Whirlwind. – Lucy Shelton, sop; Eliot Fisk, guitar; David Jolley, French horn; Erie Mills, sop; Nathaniel Watson, bar; Seattle Symphony/Gerard Schwarz, cond: John Aler, ten; Phyllis Pancella, mezzo-sprano; CCM Wind Symphony/Rodney Winther, cond.– Naxos Stereo CD, 8.559413.

This is another in the Milken Archive series of American Jewish Music, and it is a series of attempts by composer Bruce Adolphe to set various documents to contemporary music. Some succeed brilliantly: most of the others do not. To explain myself I guess I ought to get my prejudices out on the table right from the start. The idiom of what I think of as “academic music”of the 2nd half of the 20th century is not to my liking. Unfortunately, Bruce Adolphe was educated when such music was enjoying its greatest vogue. Signs suggest it will prove to be a dead end. Nowadays, there are fewer compositions being written in this style, which has already given way to “minimalism”and “neo-romanticism” in popular taste and the conservatories.

The music has little melodic content that you come away from performances whistling. As there is no base of memorable melody lines, it is hard to recognize what might be a perfectly dazzling set of variations, or a subtle set of harmonic shifts, or a polyphonic development. Every phrase of this style stands alone, new, neo-natal (or just born) in time. The phrases go from one to another with a minimal sense of connection. Moreover, the compositions are like charm bracelets where each charm may be completely unrelated to the next. So we examine them each out of musical context. In the best of this type of music, say Arnold Schoenberg’s string quartets, there are startling, if isolated, moments musicaux. These are set up as stratagems almost, punchlines to musical jokes, or musical declamations that summarize or invert what Schoenberg has been doing in a given composition, or movement within a composition. There is some substance there for the listener to have as a reward for his attention. In lesser hands these rewards are meager. Bruce Adolphe is not up to the standards set by Schoenberg. Nonetheless, he has his moments.

I found affecting the closing soprano aria, “Lullaby of Birobidzhan,” from the Mikhoels the Wise excerpt, the orchestral playing by the Seattle Symphony under Gerard Schwarz quite good, if mannered. I found most of Out of the Whirlwind moving, though I couldn’t decide if it was due to the sadness of the poetry, and my conditioned response to it, or the music which I found arresting if only in isolated spurts. Again, the accompaniment of the College-Conservatory of Music Wind Symphony, under Rodney Winther, was very apt. Bruce Adolphe is obviously a talented composer who knows how to produce evocative effects from an orchestra or a soprano-guitar- French horn trio. I wonder what he’d be able to do if he turned his talent to minimalism or neo-romanticism. I’m sure compositions in those styles would broaden his listener base.

This album is an interesting example of what can be done by a composer writing in the “academic style” of the 2nd half of the 20th century. It has extraordinarily good musicians playing and singing in very good recording venues. Apparently no expense has been spared in the production values. The recording engineering is excellent. The resulting CD is excellent. Everything works. This is an extraordinary album for the student who would know more of this type of music, what works, and what doesn’t. A very mixed bag, but not for me. Recommended, just barely.

— Max Dudious.

BLOCH: Suites 1-3 for Unaccompanied Cello; Meditation hebraique; Jewish Life, Nos. 1-3; Nigun; Nirvana for Piano Solo – Emmanuelle Betrand, cello/Pascal Amoyel, cello – Harmonia Mundi HMC 901810 72:16:

Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) is a Swiss Jew who settled in America and built up a body of compositions that combine a strict European pedagogy with his distinctly ethnic voice. A Bible reader and scholar, Bloch made his music in a responsorial mode to his Biblical interests in Job, Daniel, Isaiah, and The Song of Songs. His reverence for cellist Pablo Casals inspired the 1924 Meditation hebraique which follows the 1916 Schelomo as a testimony of his fervent, liturgical spirit. Jewish Life, like Baal Shem, is in three movements, of which the second, Supplication, has that declamatory, cantorial quality we associate with Bloch’s music.

The Cello Suites are a product of both Bloch’s 1920s neo-classicism and of his competing with Britten’s simultaneous interest in composing cello music, 1964-1971. If Britten’s muse were Mstislav Rostropovich, Bloch’s was Zara Nelsova, for whom he composed all three, and he dedicated the first two to her. The mixture of Bach polyphony and dance forms with Jewish ardor and modal coloring is distinctive, and the tonal beauty of each suite is appealing. Some will find the cello version of Nigun even more compelling than its usual violin incarnation.

No notes are provided about Emmanuelle Bertrand, but she plays with vigor and obvious sympathy for each of the works. The Cello Suites are uniformly dark, minor key compositions; so, I advise taking them in smaller doses than a complete run-through. The solo piano piece, Nirvana, has no date given; but it has obvious debts to the opening of Liszt’s Funerailles and to Debussy. The glossy sheen of the piece may not achieve Eastern heaven, but it has a luminosity that reminds me of Gurdieff’s awkward attempts at composition, here made by a more secure hand.

–Gary Lemco

PLEYEL: Violin Concerto in D Major; Serenade for Violin and Cello Solo, String Orchestra and Two Horns – Vilmos Szabadi, violin; Peter Szabo, cello; Erdody Kamarazenekar condcuts Erdody Chamber Orchestra – Hungaraton HCH 32241 56:06 (Distrib. Qualiton):

Volume Two of the Complete String Concertos of Ignace Pleyel (1757-1831) includes some charming, if undistinguished. music that sounds like Haydn with bits of Mozart mixed in. At one time among the most celebrated of Europe’s composers, Pleyel’s work has fallen into obscurity; so, we can be grateful that some talented instrumentalists are taking up his mantle again. A competent kapellmeister and more than competent master of diverse forms, Pleyel seems to employs the three-movement format for his Viotti-like concertos; the recording gives us the alternative ending, a 4/4 Rondo, to his violin concerto. The Violin Concerto (1787) sounds like a cross between Mozart’s K. 412 D Major Horn Concerto and the Haydn C Major Violin Concerto. Its Largo is worth re-hearing. If you dropped the needle, as it were, on this music and told me it was by young Mozart or Spohr, I would not argue. The Serenade (1780) exists in multiple editions, like most of Pleyel. ! This version is in four movements in classical sonata-form, minuet, adagio and rondo. The parts are grateful for each of the soloists, but I cannot say the piece competes well with Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. It could be a piece by Michael Haydn, who also favored big concertante forms. Musicians Szabadi and Szabo play a lovely violin and cello, respectively, and I for one would like to hear them in the Brahms Double Concerto.

–Gary Lemco

BACH, J.S.: Six Suites for Solo Cello – Sergei Istomin – Analekta Stereo FL 2 3114-5:

The intellectual challenge of music reviewing is, one never knows exactly what one will get for review. One often finds the unexpected in the monthly box of goodies. Then one has to devise a small essay appropriate to the music at hand. So it was with the usual curiosity that I plopped the disk of well known cello suites into my tray of surprises. And, indeed, this was a great surprise. Here were the Bach suites all new and fresh, perhaps due to the Russian conservatory trained Sergei Istomin, or due to his original instrument approach to these suites, or due to the period-correct practices outlined in newly discovered performance manuals. These suites were a new venture into old terrain. This time I wore some period-correct filters over my regular eyeglasses.

Over the years, I have listened to two particular sets of this music. One performed by Pierre Fournier, the renown French cellist (on Archiv label LPs), whose style on his recordings (1960) follows the lead of Pablo Casals and emphasizes the light, dance-like qualities of the tempi suggested in the titles; Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gavotte, and Gigue, all dances of the day. The other set, performed by Mstislav Rostropovich (on EMI label CDs) – another Russian conservatory trained soloist considered the greatest cellist of his generation – whose style on his recordings (1995) is considerably more dramatic, aiming (as he says in the album notes) for the big emotional effects where possible. Slava, as he is called, seemed to play these suites as pure Romantic era music by de-emphasizing the dance qualities, which pleased some and infuriated others. Istomin plays the same notes, but his interpretation is one developed out of the growing information base of performance practices of Bach’s era. Since Fournier’s and Rostropovich’s student days, many old manuals of how-to-play various instruments have been discovered. This new information has led to a handful of wonderful new interpretations of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, for example. Here is a new set (2004) of the solo cello suites, played on a period-correct instrument, tuned to A-415 for a somewhat darker sound, informed by performance manuals of the period.

The first thing that struck my ear was the call-and-response characteristic of many passages. We know Bach didn’t want for inventiveness. Yet, he wrote in a number of repeat passages. Istomin often drops the volume level on the second of these passages (the response), and in so doing creates the illusion of a dialogue with another instrument farther away, which requires consummate control. This stylistic trope is also found in the most recent of the Vivaldi recordings. Istomin often uses a more relaxed tempo, another period influenced mannerism. Rostropovich, from the outset of the Prelude to the first suite (G Major), takes the tempo to an agitated state that brings the listening exercise to a highly emotional plane. Fournier, liberally applies rubato to generate syncopation, emphasizing the dance quality of the music. Istomin, in that same Prelude, plays at a slower, more cerebral pace, which allows the listener to reflect on the sonorities and harmonies he hears. A- 415 tuning takes the treble edginess down a tad, compared with A- 440, and with the relaxed tempi makes for cooler, more reflective auditioning.

Istomin’s performances are a good introduction to the music for a student just learning about Bach, or a welcome addition to a collection rife with garden-variety Bach interpretations. Istomin’s reading is arresting. It is patiently conceived, well reconstructed, and consistently period-correct throughout. These are exceptionally well played, well-recorded cello suites. Istomin is a rare musician. His Bach, quite revelatory. A must-have if you like Bach.

– Max Dudious

SIBELIUS: Violin Concerto in D Minor , Op. 47/KHACHATURIAN: Violin Concerto in D Minor

Sergey Khachatryan, violin
Emmanuel Krivine conducts Sinfonia Varsovia
Naive Classics V 4959 69:53 (Distrib. Naxos):

Sergey Khachtryan (b. 1985) was the big winner of the VIII International Jean Sibelius Competition in Helsinki. The performance captured here was taped in Warsaw in 2003. Collectors may recall Emmanuel Krivine’s work in Mozart that appeared on the Denon label several years back. A pupil of Yehudi Menuhin and Karl Bohm, Krivine took up the mantle of Sinfonia Varsovia after Menuhin toured with the ensemble and the Polish Chamber Orchestra.

I must say I find Khachtryan very impressive, delivering one of the most intimate renditions of the Sibelius Concerto I have ever heard. The smooth and suave playing has elements of Kogan, certainly, but the exalted line rivals Kremer and Oistrakh. The dark hues of the orchestra in the second movement Adagio di molto make a many-layered, multi-textured dialogue of knotty power. The Khachaturian, written for Oistrakh as an explosive, virtuoso vehicle in Armenian colors, has been effective with Oistrakh and with other brilliant soloists, like Szeryng and Ricci. Khachatryan and Krivine whip up a fine fettle for this reading of the Khachaturian, making it shimmer and shine. As a debut album for this young firebrand, this disc is most impressive. Now, let us hear him in rarer and more refined repertory.

–Gary Lemco

ORIGINAL MASTERS: The Singles – DG 474 576-2 (2 CDs):

From October 1953, alongside the newly-established 33 1/3 rpm LP, the seven-inch 45 rpm single played a significant role in Deutsche Grammophon’s release schedules. Released regularly between 1953 and 1965—more than 1,200 were produced—45s appeared in a number of series and styles. Making no claims to being systematic, DG have compiled 16 examples in this 2-CD set, including all the original album covers. It’s a collector’s delight, both as a snapshot of what was considered to have widespread commercial appeal in a time almost forgotten; and for the wonderful artwork.

Adding to the sense of delight, many of the best things in this anthology are being made available for the first time on CD: three arias sung by the delightful Rita Streich, the Koeckert Quartet’s aristocratic recording of Hugo Wolf’s Italian Serenade, a Trio Sonata of Tartini played with unimaginable sweetness and pure intonation by David Oistrakh and his son Igor, a wonderful waltz sequence from Der Rosenkavalier played by the Berlin Philharmonic under Eugen Jochum, the incomparable Canadian tenor Léopold Simoneau in arias by Verdi and Flotow, and a few selections by Serge Jaroff’s Don Cossacks Choir.

It’s all very anachronistic, and perhaps a bit provincial, but as a collection of cultural artifacts that once attempted (and not without success) to salvage Germany’s standing among nations, it shows touching and admirable pride. The remastering is immaculate, and the liner notes by David Butchart are a model of useful information, efficiently presented. Don’t miss this set: It may be just a trifle in the grand scheme of things, as the 45s were themselves, but once it is gone you will be sorry you missed it for a very long time to come. [If this was a pop singles project, fans would demand having repressings of the individual original 45rpm discs with all the artwork!…Ed.]

– Laurence Vittes