Ravel Orchestral Works (CD Review)

by Karl Nehring 

Valses nobles et sentimentalesMa mère l’Oye (Complete Ballet)Daphnis et Chloé, Suites Nos. 1 and 2L’Éventail de Jeanne: Fanfare. St. Olaf Choir; Minnesota Orchestra; Stanisław Skrowaczewski, conductor. VOX-NX-3037CD

 

Many classical music lovers of a certain age are no doubt familiar with Vox, a budget label that produced some real gems that provided the music lover on a budget an excellent way to expand their classical LP collections at a reasonable price. I can offer a quick example from my own experience: I’ll never forget a day back in the mid-1970s when I was strolling through a Sears department store one afternoon and came across an aisle display that featured the newly released 4-LP Vox Box of Ravel’s orchestral music featuring Stanislaw Skrowaczewski conducting the Minnesota Orchestra. I was back in college on the G.I. Bill after serving 4½ years in the Army, with a wife, two kids, a pair of Bose 901s, a rapidly expanding passion for classical music, and a tight budget. When I saw that this box was on sale for something like seven bucks – well, that settled it, I just had to have it. It sounded pretty darn good through the 901s (purchased in Germany with my reenlistment bonus) when I got home, and I found the music of Monsieur Ravel to be utterly spellbinding. Even though Vox was a budget label, the sound quality on some of their releases could be excellent (the main drawback was the often-substandard quality of their vinyl pressings), and this Ravel set, which was recorded by Elite Recordings (engineer Marc Aubort and producer Joanna Nickrenz), had beguiling sound. Those performances and recordings still hold up as you can see from reviews of digital releases from the Ravel set, such as a review from our own John Puccio that you can read here, or an article at the PS Audio website that provides some insight into the recording process, which you can find here

 

Appearing on the back cover of these new “Vox Audiophile Edition” releases is a highlighted statement affirming that “The recordings of American orchestras produced for VOX by the legendary Elite Recordings team of Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be among the very finest sounding orchestral recordings ever made” For this new series of reissues from the Vox catalog, the folks at Naxos have begun to pull some of those  tapes out from the vaults and carefully prepare these CDs for release, the end product of their labors being what they describe as “new192 kHz / 24-bit ultra high definition transcriptions of the original Elite Recordings analogue master tapes.” Yes, those Vox Ravel LPs had sounded more than satisfying back in the day when played through that Army-purchased college playback system and continued to sound just fine as that system got upgraded over next decade. As CDs began to gain in popularity in the 1980s and I began to make the transition from LP to CD, I found CD versions of the Minnesota Ravel recordings, which Vox released in remarkably cheap cardboard packaging. It is heartening to see the care that Naxos is taking with this new series.

 

The one curious decision by the Naxos production team as far as I can see concerns the order of the program; specifically, the decision to close rather than open with the brief (1:55) fanfare from the children’s ballet L’Éventail de Jeanne (“Jean’s Fan”), which premiered in 1929. Ten French composers contributed the music the, including the fanfare by Ravel. Although it is not the fanfare for any of the other compositions included on this disc, it still seems much more fitting for a fanfare to open rather than close a program, n’cest-pas? Other than that, there is nothing about this jam-packed (80+ minutes) release about which to quibble. In our previous Classical Candor posting (Recent Releases No. 72, here), we mentioned another fine Skrowaczewski-led Minnesota performance. The Polish-born Stanisław Skrowaczewski (1923-2017) became Music Director of the orchestra in 1959, a position he held for 19 years. He was then appointed conductor laureate, returning every year to Minnesota to lead his beloved orchestra. In all, his relationship with the orchestra stretched over 56 years. He was instrumental in their getting the acoustically resplendent new concert hall in 1974, the venue in which Elite Recordings was called in to record their complete set of Ravel’s orchestral works for orchestra, of which this new release offers a substantial sampling on one CD.

 

The disc opens with Valses nobles et sentimentales, a beautiful, flowing piece that Ravel said he intended to compose as a series of waltzes following the example of Schubert. The music sweeps the listener along, but with charm rather than the feverish intensity of his other famous orchestral waltz fantasy, La Valse. Next up is what was the highlight of the original Vox Box, the complete score for the ballet Ma mère l’Oye (“Mother Goose”). There is something simply magical about this music, the way the sound of the solo violin can seem to float above the orchestra, the way the orchestra can swoon and sigh. Magic… Then the familiar Daphnis et Chloé, Suites Nos. 1 and 2, derived from Ravel’s self-described “choreographic symphony.” 


After such a glorious experience, to end the program with a fanfare? As Joe. E. Brown said to Jack Lemmon at the end of Some Like It Hot, “Well, nobody’s perfect.” Maybe so, but this release is close.

Recent Releases No. 72 (CD Reviews)

by Karl Nehring 

Mahler: Symphony No. 8. Carolyn Sampson/Jacquelyn Wagner, sopranos; Sasha Cooke/Jess Dandy, altos; Barry Banks, tenor; Julian Orishausen, baritone; Christian Immler, bass; Minnesota Chorale; National Lutheran Choir; Minnesota Boychoir; Angelica Cantanti Youth Choir; Minnesota Symphony; Osmo Vänskä, conductor. BIS-2496 SACD

 

This recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, a work for which to provoke public interest the organizer of the first public performances, an impresario named Emil Gutman dubbed “Symphony of a Thousand,” was made at the occasion of the final concert in the 19-year tenure of Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä (b. 1953) as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra. He is now music director laureate, with Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård (b. 1969) succeeding him as music director. At Minnesota, Vänskä has recorded for BIS all of Mahler’s numbered symphonies except for No. 3; the following links will direct you to our reviews of Symphony No.1Symphony No. 7, and Symphony No. 10. Those reviews were all positive, and this one will continue the trend. Vänskä and his forces, with the expert support of the BIS engineering and production team, bring out the details of Mahler’s complex score with both clarity and power. 

 

The only other recording in my experience in the same league as this one is the Wit on Naxos; however, that one is split over two discs while Vänskä’s release is conveniently contained on one SACD, which has the additional advantages of including a not only an SACD stereo layer for those with SACD players who can take advantage of the higher resolution but also a multichannel layer for those with multichannel playback systems. (My listening was to the CD layer, which was certainly impressive enough.) For Mahler fans, this new release is highly recommended.

 

Bruckner: Symphony No. 9. Manfred Honeck, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Reference Recordings Fresh! FR-733SACD

 

To be honest, this release has been on the market long enough now that it does not really count as a “recent release,’ but Bruckner and Mahler are so often thought of together that it seems appropriate to review them in the same posting. From the CD booklet: “Bruckner’s skills as an organist were enthusiastically received. From Notre Dame in Paris to the Royal Albert Hall in London, his artful improvisations were celebrated. It is said that Bruckner humbly replied to the many admirers of his organ playing, ‘I am not a musician, but a composer. What my fingers play will pass, but what they write will stand.’ Soon, Bruckner was called to Vianna as court organist and also began to teach at the conservatory. (Of note, amongst his most famous pupils was none other than Gustav Mahler.) It is from this point forward that Bruckner turned almost exclusively to the symphonic form.” 

 

Austrian-born Manfred Honeck (b. 1958) opens his extensive booklet essay with an excerpt from a speech delivered by the late American Maestro Leonard Bernstein: “Perhaps, after all, it is only the artist who can reconcile the mystic with the rational, and who can continue to reveal the presence of God in the minds of men.” He then goes on to reflect: “Long after I was fortunate enough to play Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony under the baton of Leonard Bernstein, this quote by Bernstein himself fell into my hands. I immediately and instinctively connected it with the music as Bernstein’s words serve as a clarion reminder of the role an artist can play in society and our relationship to the divine, the very same thoughts at the heart of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony. It is in the Ninth that Bruckner invites us into the presence of God to experience the beauty of his world, while also facing the darker and violent abysses.” 

 

Although Bruckner wrote three Masses and a majestic Te Deum, an argument can be made that although he employed no text and never completed a final movement for his Symphony No. 9, it was in this work that he reached the peak of his spiritual and artistic achievement. Honeck and his orchestra deliver a powerful performance that indeed offers glimpses both of the divine and of the existential abyss. The recording was pulled together from live performances by the engineering team from Soundmirror, the recording firm that Reference Recordings employs for their Pittsburgh releases. They do fine work. One of my other favorite recordings of this symphony is also on the Reference Recordings (RR-81) and also features the Minnesota Orchestra, this time under the baton of conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski (1923-2017). It is an engineering marvel, not quite as dramatic in performance, although a bit more flowing and lyrical overall. It certainly is startling to discover two such highly recommendable recordings of the same piece with the same orchestra on the same relatively small label. In any event, the Honeck release is something special, well worth an audition by faithful Brucknerians. 

   

Giorgi Mikadze Trio: Face to Face: Georgian Songbook, Vol. 1. Mikadze: Satchidao; David Toradze: Not Easy to Repeat; Sulkhan Tsintsadze: Dolls Are Laughing; Shota Milorava: Same Garden; Jansungh Kakhidze: The Moon Over Mtatsminda; Mikadze: NanaAfter the Tale; Giya Kancheli: A Magic Egg; Nodar Gabunia: To Nodar; Rusudan Sebiskveradze: Wind Takes It Anyway. Giorgi Mikadze, piano, arrangements; François Moutin, acoustic bass; Raphaël Pannier, drums. Peewee! PW1012

 

Georgian pianist and composer Giorgi Mikadze was educated at Berklee and has had experience playing with some notable jazz figures, which has of course given him plenty of experience playing American jazz standards. However, he found himself reaching a turning point om his musical path. “I started to ask myself, ‘Why should I play American standards when there are numerous melodies written by Georgian composers? I love the American Songbook – that’s how I learned to play jazz. But I would like to offer the world a Georgian Songbook and share all these beautiful melodies from my country.” A glance at the composers listed above should serve as a tip-off that no, this are not tunes from the Great American Songbook. Some classical music fans may recognize the late Georgian composer Giya Kancheli (1935-2019), whose music received a series of excellent recordings for Manfred Eicher’s ECM label. Some of the works featured huge dynamic contrasts for orchestra. A Magic Egg, however, was originally composed as part of the soundtrack for an animated short film in the 1970s, and here Mikadze has arranged it for his trio.

 

Mikadze explains that “Georgian classical composers of the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s were heavily influenced by the harmony and freedom of jazz music. Jazz was kind of taboo at the time, but the Georgian people would try to crack old radios to listen to [broadcaster] Willis Conover on the Voice of America.” He goes on to say, “I love the freedom that you have in the trio setting, especially when the musicians are super sensitive about every note. It has the intimacy of chamber music, but you can also achieve a massive sound. Besides, François and Raphael are simply amazing musicians.” The album includes a pleasant mix of tunes, all of them melodic and listenable. For a sample of Mikadze’s style, you can watch this video.

Messiaen: Turangalîla Symphony (CD Review)

by Karl Nehring 

Marc-André Hamelin, piano; Nathalie Forget, ondes Martenot; Toronto Symphony Orchestra; Gustavo Gimeno, conductor. Harmonia Mundi 905336

 

Those relatively new to classical music who may be unfamiliar with the Turangalîla Symphony.by the late French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) are in for quite the ear- and mind-expanding experience when they first encounter this expansive, expressive, exhilarating 10-movement, 80-minute piece that is scored for piano, ondes Martenot, and orchestra. Nor may many music lovers reading this review be familiar with the ondes Martenot, an electronic instrument with a sound similar to that of a theremin (more information here ). In general, Messiaen blends the sounds of the ondes Martenot and the piano with the sound of the orchestra rather than featuring either instrument in a concerto-like fashion, even though in concert performance, both instruments take their place in front of the orchestra, as they would for a concerto. There are passages, however, where Hamelin, one of the world’s finest pianists, has some moments in the spotlight, and Forget on the ondes Martenot gets a few chances of her own to lead the proceedings briefly. There are moments that are boisterous, there are passages that are tender. In terms of size and spectacle, this symphony has some parallels to the works of Mahler, but Messiaen’s musical language is much different.  

 

Spanish-born conductor Gustavo Gimeno (b. 1976), who is the Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, leads his assembled forces in a performance that never goes over the top. There were times when I might have wished for a bit more emotion and excitement; on the other hand, I could also appreciate hearing everything laid out clearly before me. Same for the sonics, which are clean and unexaggerated. My personal favorite recording for both performance and sound is the Wit on Naxos, a 2-CD release which also features an exciting orchestral version of Messian’s L’ascension – but has the distinct disadvantage of spreading the symphony onto two discs (advantage: streaming). The Chung on DG is a delightful performance with so-so sonics. All things considered, this new release from Toronto is a safe bet for those wishing to explore Messiaen’s grand musical testament of love.

Meet the Staff

Meet the Staff
John J. Puccio, Founder and Contributor

Understand, I'm just an everyday guy reacting to something I love. And I've been doing it for a very long time, my appreciation for classical music starting with the musical excerpts on the Big Jon and Sparkie radio show in the early Fifties and the purchase of my first recording, The 101 Strings Play the Classics, around 1956. In the late Sixties I began teaching high school English and Film Studies as well as becoming interested in hi-fi, my audio ambitions graduating me from a pair of AR-3 speakers to the Fulton J's recommended by The Stereophile's J. Gordon Holt. In the early Seventies, I began writing for a number of audio magazines, including Audio Excellence, Audio Forum, The Boston Audio Society Speaker, The American Record Guide, and from 1976 until 2008, The $ensible Sound, for which I served as Classical Music Editor.

Today, I'm retired from teaching and use a pair of bi-amped VMPS RM40s loudspeakers for my listening. In addition to writing for the Classical Candor blog, I served as the Movie Review Editor for the Web site Movie Metropolis (formerly DVDTown) from 1997-2013. Music and movies. Life couldn't be better.

Karl Nehring, Editor and Contributor

For more than 20 years I was the editor of The $ensible Sound magazine and a regular contributor to both its equipment and recordings review pages. I would not presume to present myself as some sort of expert on music, but I have a deep love for and appreciation of many types of music, "classical" especially, and have listened to thousands of recordings over the years, many of which still line the walls of my listening room (and occasionally spill onto the furniture and floor, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife). I have always taken the approach as a reviewer that what I am trying to do is simply to point out to readers that I have come across a recording that I have found of interest, a recording that I think they might appreciate my having pointed out to them. I suppose that sounds a bit simple-minded, but I know I appreciate reading reviews by others that do the same for me — point out recordings that they think I might enjoy.

For readers who might be wondering about what kind of system I am using to do my listening, I should probably point out that I do a LOT of music listening and employ a variety of means to do so in a variety of environments, as I would imagine many music lovers also do. Starting at the more grandiose end of the scale, the system in which I do my most serious listening comprises Marantz CD 6007 and Onkyo CD 7030 CD players, NAD C 658 streaming preamp/DAC, Legacy Audio PowerBloc2 amplifier, and a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE loudspeakers. I occasionally do some listening through pair of Sennheiser 560S headphones. I miss the excellent ELS Studio sound system in our 2016 Acura RDX (now my wife's daily driver) on which I had ripped more than a hundred favorite CDs to the hard drive, so now when driving my 2022 Accord EX-L Hybrid I stream music from my phone through its adequate but not outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through the phone into a Vizio soundbar system that has tolerably nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence. And finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker for those occasions where I am somewhere by myself without a sound system but in desperate need of a musical fix. I just can’t imagine life without music and I am humbly grateful for the technology that enables us to enjoy it in so many wonderful ways.

William (Bill) Heck, Webmaster and Contributor

Among my early childhood memories are those of listening to my mother playing records (some even 78 rpm ones!) of both classical music and jazz tunes. I suppose that her love of music was transmitted genetically, and my interest was sustained by years of playing in rock bands – until I realized that this was no way to make a living. The interest in classical music was rekindled in grad school when the university FM station serving as background music for studying happened to play the Brahms First Symphony. As the work came to an end, it struck me forcibly that this was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that point on, I never looked back. This revelation was to the detriment of my studies, as I subsequently spent way too much time simply listening, but music has remained a significant part of my life. These days, although I still can tell a trumpet from a bassoon and a quarter note from a treble clef, I have to admit that I remain a nonexpert. But I do love music in general and classical music in particular, and I enjoy sharing both information and opinions about it.

The audiophile bug bit about the same time that I returned to classical music. I’ve gone through plenty of equipment, brands from Audio Research to Yamaha, and the best of it has opened new audio insights. Along the way, I reviewed components, and occasionally recordings, for The $ensible Sound magazine. Most recently I’ve moved to my “ultimate system” consisting of a BlueSound Node streamer, an ancient Toshiba multi-format disk player serving as a CD transport, Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/crossover, dual Legacy PowerBloc2 amps, and Legacy Signature SE speakers (biamped), all connected with decently made, no-frills cables. With the arrival of CD and higher resolution streaming, that is now the source for most of my listening.

Ryan Ross, Contributor

I started listening to and studying classical music in earnest nearly three decades ago. This interest grew naturally out of my training as a pianist. I am now a musicologist by profession, specializing in British and other symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. My scholarly work has been published in major music journals, as well as in other outlets. Current research focuses include twentieth-century symphonic historiography, and the music of Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold.

I am honored to contribute writings to Classical Candor. In an age where the classical recording industry is being subjected to such profound pressures and changes, it is more important than ever for those of us steeped in this cultural tradition to continue to foster its love and exposure. I hope that my readers can find value, no matter how modest, in what I offer here.


Bryan Geyer, Technical Analyst

I initially embraced classical music in 1954 when I mistuned my car radio and heard the Heifetz recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. That inspired me to board the new "hi-fi" DIY bandwagon. In 1957 I joined one of the pioneer semiconductor makers and spent the next 32 years marketing transistors and microcircuits to military contractors. Home audio DIY projects remained a personal passion until 1989 when we created our own new photography equipment company. I later (2012) revived my interest in two channel audio when we "downsized" our life and determined that mini-monitors + paired subwoofers were a great way to mate fine music with the space constraints of condo living.

Visitors that view my technical papers on this site may wonder why they appear here, rather than on a site that features audio equipment reviews. My reason is that I tried the latter, and prefer to publish for people who actually want to listen to music; not to equipment. My focus is in describing what's technically beneficial to assure that the sound of the system will accurately replicate the source input signal (i. e. exhibit high accuracy) without inordinate cost and complexity. Conversely, most of the audiophiles of today strive to achieve sound that's euphonic, i.e. be personally satisfying. In essence, audiophiles seek sound that's consistent with their desire; the music is simply a test signal.

Mission Statement

It is the goal of Classical Candor to promote the enjoyment of classical music. Other forms of music come and go--minuets, waltzes, ragtime, blues, jazz, bebop, country-western, rock-'n'-roll, heavy metal, rap, and the rest--but classical music has been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around for hundreds more. It's no accident that every major city in the world has one or more symphony orchestras.

When I was young, I heard it said that only intellectuals could appreciate classical music, that it required dedicated concentration to appreciate. Nonsense. I'm no intellectual, and I've always loved classical music. Anyone who's ever seen and enjoyed Disney's Fantasia or a Looney Tunes cartoon playing Rossini's William Tell Overture or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 can attest to the power and joy of classical music, and that's just about everybody.

So, if Classical Candor can expand one's awareness of classical music and bring more joy to one's life, more power to it. It's done its job. --John J. Puccio

Contact Information

Readers with polite, courteous, helpful letters may send them to classicalcandor@gmail.com

Readers with impolite, discourteous, bitchy, whining, complaining, nasty, mean-spirited, unhelpful letters may send them to classicalcandor@recycle.bin.

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa