Artist: Giaconda De Vito;Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Belin

Artist: Mozart

Artist: Géza Anda, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Ferenc Fricsay

Three more masterworks from Hungary's greatest master, 2009-12-06
The three piano concertos should be fairly early stops on any journey of discovery into Bartók's extraordinary world, and this disc provides terrific accounts of all three, despite their being digital remasterings of recordings made in 1960. These performances were created by a partnership that had devoted much of their careers to winning audiences over to these works of their fellow countrymen, in the years when his music's reputation for being difficulty was still fresh. The result is performances that have the electricity and sparkle one would expect from the very best of live situations, despite their being made in the studio. To be sure there is the slightest hiss in the background silence, but when the music is underway all such distraction is swept aside.

If forced to choose a favourite then it would have to be the 2nd (1931), which sees Bartók, in the first movement, at his most ebullient and joyous, and the music abounding with those beautiful fairy-tale fanfares that signified his brightest idiom. This first movement is architecturally huge, with themes clashing, colliding and mutating in the foreground, against a background of multitudinous layers that suggest indefinite depths. The second movement is a mischievous presto of great brilliance sandwiched between a pair of adagios of brooding tragic nobility. In these adagios the piano's interactions with hushed foreboding timpani yield to simple, but beautiful chord progressions in the strings. In the brief but intense third movement piano and orchestra struggle intricately to generate a fierce and highly syncopated drama, but echoes of the golden fanfares from the first movement intervene to ultimately force a bright conclusion from this stormy material.

The first movement of the 1st concerto (1926) sees relentless, marching staccato stamping down every effort by more friendly material to assert itself. There is a ghoulish grin to this stabbing music, like monsters from a fairy tale, an expression perhaps of Bartók's highly developed macabre side. In the second movement the dark forces released in the first congeal into something slow and sinister, in which simple piano lines engage with edgy percussion, in a manner that must surely have formed the model for his masterpiece of later life Bartok: Sonata For Two Pianos & Percussion. The movement builds towards a diabolical crescendo, from which it recedes before an abrupt announcement of the fierce and tumultuous final movement. Out of this tumult other material of brighter more open modalities, suggestive of the pealing of bells, tries to emerge, blossoming at one point into something that would seem to be a nod at Stravinsky's Firebird. But the work ends in violence, bringing to a close a dark but exhilarating fantasy of an almost gothic flavour.

In biographies of Bartók we are told of his love of nature, his proclivity for walking and his genuine affection for the peasants of the Hungarian countryside, and their simpler, quieter way of life. I had not been able to discern nature or the pastoral in Bartók's music until a close listening to the 3rd Piano Concerto (1945). This is particularly so in its simple but beautiful first movement. Although written in American exile, in the years of his final illness, it is hard to hear this as anything other than a nostalgic and affectionate hearkening back to the countryside of his lost homeland. The gorgeous pathos of the second movement is rendered all the more intriguing by its marking of Adagio religioso by a man who was a staunchly declared atheist. Despite being written at a time of sickness and hardship the final movement is as bright and vivacious as anything in his output. It was incomplete at the time of his death and it fell to his friend, Tibor Serly, to complete the orchestration of the seventeen bars.

Artist: RIAS Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Ferenc Fricsay

A great introduction to Opera, 2004-05-24
I, a novice, just stumbled upon this as part of an excercise to enlighten myself prior to an evening at Adrian Noble's directorial debut at Glyndebourne. What a thrill! Blimey but isn't Opera great? I've heard that it's not always so, and hesitate to recommend the whole genre but, wow, if the evening of Saturday 29th May 2004 is any thing like this extraordinary CD is then I'll be well chuffed.

Unlike other Zauberflötes of the mono era, Ferenc Fricsay's 1953 recording includes the dialogue, albeit spoken by actors rather than the singers. The prize assumptions here are Fischer-Dieskau's youthful, engaging Papageno, Haefliger's intelligent Tamino, Rita Streich's effortless Queen of the Night, and Lisa Otto's touching Pamina. Fricsay's tight-knit pacing doesn't hurt either. On balance, this is the finest of this short-lived conductor's Mozart opera recordings. --Jed Distler

Classic performance of Fidelio, 2010-07-28
This is far from the most recent recording of Fidelio, but I don't doubt one of the best. Singers and conducting are wonderful, especially Fischer-Dieskau at his prime. Anyone who doesn't know Fidelio should give it a go. The finale is one of the most life-affirming pieces ever written.

This 1960 recording of the Great C Minor Mass is here released under the Deutsche Grammophon Originals umbrella, and is thoroughly deserving of the accolade. This is an account of the work which is completely uninfluenced by authentic practice--if you're already curling your lip, then please stop here--but which establishes its own terms of performance with such assurance that it's almost impossible to resist. The forces (both orchestral and choral) are large but by no means unwieldy, and directed with infectious and spirited enthusiasm by Fricsay. The effect is one of solidity and grandeur, but without any hint of pomposity: indeed, the jubilant choruses of the Gloria have an almost childlike glee about them. This is of course a soprano mass par excellence, and Maria Stader sings beautifully, tripping through the semiquaver scale passages with admirable dexterity, and yet producing a much fuller sound when necessary. The other soloists also offer excellent support. The work is coupled with Haydn's ebullient and short Te Deum in C major (Hob. XXIIIc:2) recorded three years later.--Warwick Thompson
AP from UK -, 2006-01-24
5 stars is not enough. Maria Stader is the best Mozart performer ever. Her singing is outstanding. Compared with other recordings like Barbara Bonney-Claudio Abbado-Berlin Philharmony this one is so much better. OK Berlin Philharmony is good but they need Maria Stader to do justice to their Orchestral prowess.
She uses her voice like a virtuoso violinist.
If you do not have this recording of the Great Mass then you are not appreciating it in its full glory.
Definitely a must.

Artist: Myung-Whun Chung, Géza Anda, Rudolf Baumgartner, Trevor Pinnock, Karl Böhm, Eugen Jochum, Ferdinand Leitner, Ferenc Fricsay, Neeme Järvi, Claudio Abbado

The Essential Classics Collection, 2010-07-05
This set is an excellent introduction to the various facets of Classical Music, or as a collection of old favourites easily accessable. Each of the 6 CDs are arranged according to mood.(1) Meditation; featuring Albinoni, Bach, Faure, Rodrigo, Mahler, and Elgar. (2)Orchestral Fireworks; featuring a rousing excerpt from Tchaikovsky's 1812, Gershwins's Rhapsody In Blue, and the complete Ravel's Bolero.(3)Invitation to the Dance; with Weber, Handel, and Borodin.(4)Nocturne; featuring Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy-Clair de Lune.(5)Pomp and Circumstance; with Elgar, Holst, and Sibelius. (6)Grand Opera; with Puccini-One Fine Day, Bizet-Carmen, Verdi-Il Travatore, and Wagner-Liebestod. Each disc has between 10 and 15 tracks playing for approx 70 minutes. They are compiled by Deutsche Grammophon 1990, usually an indication of excellent artistic and recording quality. The number of well known orchestras and musicians are too many to list in this space, and for quality it is unfair to ignore any, but as a guide- Placido Domingo, Mirella Freni, Pierre Fournier(cello), Goran Sallischer(guitar), Berlin Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra of La Scala, Boston Symphony orchestra, Orchestra of the Bastille, Daniel Barenboim(piano), Simon Preston(organ), and The English Concert Orchestra with Simon Standage(violin)-are included.
This collection is also very good value for money, and very pleasently presented in magnolia and black with various images from a painting by Martin Mooney inspired by classical Corinthian Architecture.