Recent Releases, No. 11 (CD Mini-reviews)
By Karl W. Nehring
Brahms: Symphony No. 3; Serenade No. 2.
Iván Fischer, Budapest Festival Orchestra. Channel Classics CCS SA 43821.
I will say at the outset that this is a truly fine recording
and performance of the Brahms symphony and serenade; seriously, if you read any
further, you may be left scratching your head and wondering what the heck my
problem is. Believe me, good reader, the problem is mine, not yours, nor
Channel Classics, nor Maestro Fischer’s (who with the same orchestra has made
some dynamite Mahler recordings). In an event, I have rarely been able to find
recordings of Brahms symphonies with which I am truly satisfied (that list – a
rather short one indeed – consists of Klemperer in No. 1, Karajan and
Walter in No. 3, and Walter and Stokowski in No. 4). The
engineering on this new Channel release is superior to either of my two
favorites (I listened to the stereo CD layer of this SACD disc, which also
contains a 5.0 surround mix for those so inclined and equipped). (As far as the
Serenade No. 2, I will withhold any comment, for this is music I have
tried repeatedly over the years to develop any sort of feeling for without any
success.) Although the Budapest Festival Orchestra sounds splendid on this
recording, what holds me back from giving it my own enthusiastic recommendation
is a certain feeling of squareness, of liveliness, of spontaneity. For my taste
at least, Fischer just seems too earthbound. All the notes are there, but he
does not quite make them sing or dance or come completely to life. But in my
experience, very few conductors do, and again, the sound quality is excellent,
so this release is certainly well worth an audition by Brahmsians more
broadminded than I.
Glass-Sandresky: Strange Energies. Sandresky: Flowing
Water Encounters Obstacles; Nor'easter; What's Left; Fear;
Force; Waves; Laughter. Glass: Etudes Nos. 2, 9, 12, 16.
Eleonor Sandresky, piano. Orange Mountain Music OMM 7019.
Eleonor Sandresky is a pianist who has worked closely with
composer Philip Glass for than three decades and has often performed with the
Philip Glass Ensemble. Her works for the piano as presented on this recording,
however, do not sound like warmed-over Glass. They are more expressive, more
varied in style and mood. On her website, Sandresky says of this music that “I
began composing these pieces back in 2012 as a way to try to capture various
properties of sound: how it dies away, how it travels, where I feel it in my
body, etc. With each of these pieces, I have tried to explore a different set
of parameters for the performer and the audience. These are as much etudes for
the audience to listen with specific intention as they are for the pianist!”
Although the music of Glass that concludes the album by comparison seems more
buttoned-down emotionally, the piano music of Glass can be fascinating, even
spellbinding, and Sandresky does a fine job of drawing out the “strange
energies” that lie below the surface of what can come across as shallow and
repetitive music. This CD was one of those library finds that I hesitated to
audition, having never having heard of Sandresky, but in the end I was glad I
took the chance. If you are a fan of piano music, I invite you to do the same.
Reflections.
Vikingur Ólafsson, piano. Deutsche Grammophon 00289 483 9222.
This new album from Icelandic pianist Vikingur Ólafsson is something of
a follow-up to an album that we reviewed last year (that review can be found here).
This time around, however, what we have is not a straightforward recital by
Ólafsson of music by Debussy and Rameau, but rather some cuts featuring
Ólafsson on the piano along with a variety of other musicians and sonorities.
Ólafsson says of his aims in putting this project together: "I wanted to
explore certain works from fresh perspectives, to reimagine them and invite
other composers to rework elements of these extraordinary pieces... In addition
to my own new recordings and material, this album features wonderful artists
from different directions who have used my recordings from the Debussy-Rameau
album as material for their own highly original works. They have opened my ears
to new, fascinating paths and for that I am immensely grateful." Those new
paths and sounds include the use of some electronic manipulation of sounds,
synthesizers, guitars, percussion - this might sound quite daunting, but
overall, the sounds produced are quite tasteful. The most jarring sound to my
ears was the inclusion of a human voice on one cut. The sound of the voice was
not in itself jarring, it was just unexpected on what is otherwise an
instrumental album. Still, the best cuts on the albums were those featuring
Ólafsson on the piano, of which fortunately there are quite a few, the most
amazing of which is Track 8, titled Reflection, which is an improvisation on
Debussy's Bruyères, the piece with which Ólafsson also opens and closes the
album. The only fly in the ointment is the recorded sound, as some of the
Ólafsson tracks were apparently recorded during pandemic lockdown under less
than ideal circumstances and there are some extraneous noises that some
listeners might find an unwelcome distraction. The other tracks are just fine.
All in all, Reflections is a fascinating and imaginative release. The Tower and the Garden: Toivo Tulev: A child
said, what is the grass?; Gregory Spears: The Tower and the Garden;
Joel Puckett: I enter the earth; Donald Nally, The Crossing. Navona
NV6303.
The Crossing is a professional chamber choir
that specializes in new music. They have made a number of recordings and picked
up Grammy Awards for Best Choral Performance of 2018 for their recording of
The
Fifth Century by Gavin Bryars and 2019 for their recording of
Zealot
Chronicles by Lansing McCloskey. The three compositions on
The Tower and
the Garden each have a different overall sonority and sonic signature to
them; ideally, that means listeners will be bound to find a sound they really
like (reminiscent of the old Jimmy Dean restaurant television commercials –
remember them? – “
we’ll treat you so many ways you’re bound to like one of
‘em!). First up is
A child said, what is the grass? by Estonian
composer Toivo Tulev (b. 1958), which features some relatively mild dissonances
but not to the point of annoyance. Next up is the title piece,
The Tower and
the Garden by American composer Gregory Spears (b. 1977), which consists of
four movements. On this piece, the sound of the choir is augmented by the sound
of a string quartet, producing a rich sonic rich tapestry. For the final
composition,
I enter the earth by American composer Joel Puckett (b.
1977), The Crossing produce some truly enticing harmonies, leaving the listener
with a sense of serenity and inspiration.
KWN
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.
I will say at the outset that this is a truly fine recording
and performance of the Brahms symphony and serenade; seriously, if you read any
further, you may be left scratching your head and wondering what the heck my
problem is. Believe me, good reader, the problem is mine, not yours, nor
Channel Classics, nor Maestro Fischer’s (who with the same orchestra has made
some dynamite Mahler recordings). In an event, I have rarely been able to find
recordings of Brahms symphonies with which I am truly satisfied (that list – a
rather short one indeed – consists of Klemperer in No. 1, Karajan and
Walter in No. 3, and Walter and Stokowski in No. 4). The
engineering on this new Channel release is superior to either of my two
favorites (I listened to the stereo CD layer of this SACD disc, which also
contains a 5.0 surround mix for those so inclined and equipped). (As far as the
Serenade No. 2, I will withhold any comment, for this is music I have
tried repeatedly over the years to develop any sort of feeling for without any
success.) Although the Budapest Festival Orchestra sounds splendid on this
recording, what holds me back from giving it my own enthusiastic recommendation
is a certain feeling of squareness, of liveliness, of spontaneity. For my taste
at least, Fischer just seems too earthbound. All the notes are there, but he
does not quite make them sing or dance or come completely to life. But in my
experience, very few conductors do, and again, the sound quality is excellent,
so this release is certainly well worth an audition by Brahmsians more
broadminded than I.
Eleonor Sandresky is a pianist who has worked closely with
composer Philip Glass for than three decades and has often performed with the
Philip Glass Ensemble. Her works for the piano as presented on this recording,
however, do not sound like warmed-over Glass. They are more expressive, more
varied in style and mood. On her website, Sandresky says of this music that “I
began composing these pieces back in 2012 as a way to try to capture various
properties of sound: how it dies away, how it travels, where I feel it in my
body, etc. With each of these pieces, I have tried to explore a different set
of parameters for the performer and the audience. These are as much etudes for
the audience to listen with specific intention as they are for the pianist!”
Although the music of Glass that concludes the album by comparison seems more
buttoned-down emotionally, the piano music of Glass can be fascinating, even
spellbinding, and Sandresky does a fine job of drawing out the “strange
energies” that lie below the surface of what can come across as shallow and
repetitive music. This CD was one of those library finds that I hesitated to
audition, having never having heard of Sandresky, but in the end I was glad I
took the chance. If you are a fan of piano music, I invite you to do the same.
This new album from Icelandic pianist Vikingur Ólafsson is something of
a follow-up to an album that we reviewed last year (that review can be found here).
This time around, however, what we have is not a straightforward recital by
Ólafsson of music by Debussy and Rameau, but rather some cuts featuring
Ólafsson on the piano along with a variety of other musicians and sonorities.
Ólafsson says of his aims in putting this project together: "I wanted to
explore certain works from fresh perspectives, to reimagine them and invite
other composers to rework elements of these extraordinary pieces... In addition
to my own new recordings and material, this album features wonderful artists
from different directions who have used my recordings from the Debussy-Rameau
album as material for their own highly original works. They have opened my ears
to new, fascinating paths and for that I am immensely grateful." Those new
paths and sounds include the use of some electronic manipulation of sounds,
synthesizers, guitars, percussion - this might sound quite daunting, but
overall, the sounds produced are quite tasteful. The most jarring sound to my
ears was the inclusion of a human voice on one cut. The sound of the voice was
not in itself jarring, it was just unexpected on what is otherwise an
instrumental album. Still, the best cuts on the albums were those featuring
Ólafsson on the piano, of which fortunately there are quite a few, the most
amazing of which is Track 8, titled Reflection, which is an improvisation on
Debussy's Bruyères, the piece with which Ólafsson also opens and closes the
album. The only fly in the ointment is the recorded sound, as some of the
Ólafsson tracks were apparently recorded during pandemic lockdown under less
than ideal circumstances and there are some extraneous noises that some
listeners might find an unwelcome distraction. The other tracks are just fine.
All in all, Reflections is a fascinating and imaginative release.
