FeuchtBlog

Bartók Complete Solo Piano Works, performed by Zoltán Kocsis ????

Bartók has a unique style of composition and Kocsis a delightful ability to render those compositions in a pleasant and enjoyable manner. Bartók was born in Hungary, eventually emigrating to the United States in the early 1940′s to escape the war, though many of his works were produced prior to his emigration. He delved into a range of styles, including atonality of the Schönberg style, polymodal chromaticism, and various modifications of early 20th techniques. Bartók focused on the utilization of Hungarian folk song themes in his compositions. Kocsis manages to take these various forms of composition, and make them flow with reasonable emotive expression. These performances would never be in my “desert island” top 10, but they have great value in most music lovers’ collections, and much to commend to them.

Cherubini Masses, Overtures, Motets, Conducted (mostly by) Riccardo Muti ?????
Cherubini is an under-heard and under-appreciated composer from the era of Beethoven. Writing in an Italian style, these masses and other choral works are a delight to hear. Cherubini is quite accessible to both classical neophyte as well as long-standing classical listener. Muti does a masterful job of conducting these performances, which have a very crisp and clean recording presence. This set is a true bargain from Amazon.com, and worthwhile in any classical collection.

Shostakovich Symphonies, conducted by Mariss Jansons, multiple orchestras ????
My first complete Shostakovich Symphony set was that conducted by Haitink, and also have complete sets by Barshai, Maxim Shostakovich, as well as multiple renditions of symphonies that do not have complete sets, such as symphonies conducted by Bernstein and von Karajan. Jansons seems to be the most novel of all the sets. Some symphonies did not sound entirely like what I heard out of the other performances. In many instances, such as his performance of the Fourth Symphony, it has a very accessible nature, probably the best 4th I’ve heard so far. Some of the recordings had annoying background noise and were not of highest quality. I still prefer Haitink as the all-round best performance of the Shostakovich symphonies, but consider Jansons in very rightful competition for the interpretation of these symphonies, and very much worth having in a music collection.

Living Stereo Collection of Classical Music, RCA ????

This is a collection of 60 CDs, representing more than 60 albums of music published on vinyl under the Living stereo label. I remember having a number of these recordings as a teenager. They are now reproduced in CD format. For all of the CDs, the transfer was impeccable, with a brilliant and clean sound. Many of the performances are historically notable, such as the VanCliburn Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto. Also featured were many of the recordings of Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Charles Münch and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, as well as Jascha Heifetz. This set represents a super value, running at less than $2/disc when purchased on Amazon.com.