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Very little time for music today. Just a comparative listening of three different versions of Yun’s Königliches Thema for solo violin. No new review yet.
Re: my post from September 4 re: that novel by Gabriel Josipovici, “Infinity” (in fact the full title is “Infinity – The Story of a Moment”) and the conjecture that the character may have been inspired by Scelsi: indeed he was. See the review in The Guardian.
Great news from the Isang Yun Society !
No listening, no reviewing, not much done today, at least not much that’s visible. I’ve spent a lot of time working on the text of presentation that should appear under the tab “About”. Once again, it’s turning out to be a long text (because there is a long history and many reasons that lead to this website). Something like “My adventures in Amazonia (and how I got out if it)”.
I did have time to listen to Yun’s “Fanfare & Memorial”, though Magnificent piece, writte for large orchestra (and played by the Berlin Phil under Maazel, a live recording), typical Yun. Took notes for the future review. Two other works on the CD, with some comparative listening to do. Time time time.
posted my review of:
20th Century Portraits: Isang Yun Chamber Music (Novellette, Piano Trio, Duo for cello & harp, Sonata for violin & piano). Kolja Lessing (violin), Walter Grimmer (cello), Holger Groschopp (piano), Maria Graf (harp), Roswitha Staege (flute). Capriccio 67 116 (2005)
Good deed done.
Funny, a few days ago I had this pervert blast of listing all the B-composers in my collection – a lot of them! – and today I read in the newspaper the review for a book, by Gabriel Josipovici, “Infinity”, the story of an imaginary, self-conceited, Italian composer, Pavone (seen and recounted by his butler, Massimo), who finds no value in any music or any composer before him, and one of Pavone’s pronouncements is quoted (I’m translating back from French, so this might no be accurate with the original English: “Britten is a disaster. Dallapiccola a disaster. Nono a disaster. Berio a disaster. Bussotti a disaster. Did you ever notice, by the way, Massimo, he said, how many composers have names that begin with letter B?”
Sure, I noticed. And Cs, and Ds, and Ms, and Ps, and Rs and Ss. I need to chekc on Gs and Ts. As I said in my earlier post, there’s still a little place for the extremes in the world of contemporay music, As or X-Y-Zs.
Maybe this Pavone is inspired by Scelsi.
Brought over from Amazon my review of Lauren Newton: Filigree. hatOLOGY 519 (1998). She’s an American avant-garde Jazz vocalist, more active and noted in the German-speaking countries than in the US. Not my habitual listening, but, as usual, one thing led to the other. Not a recent listen either, but I needed to put up the CD after writing down the info about the other releases from the label, HatHut, an interesting Swiss label specialized (besides avant-garde jazz) in the 20th century avant-garde. Many releases of the so-called “New York School” (Cage, Feldman, Earle Brown, Christian Wolff), of Rzewski, Scelsi, Ustvolskaya, Stockhausen, and more.
Since I’ve been preoccupying myself with Isang Yun, I thought I’d transfer my old review of the atrocious music of Rolv Yttrehus. Which reminds me that my discography of the Louisville Orchestra is a candidate for upload – whenever. Looking at the Ys in my collection I’m also reminded that I also reviewed (not very enthusiastically) a CD of Richard Yardumian, which I should carry over as well.
I’ve been looking again at the very complete discography hosted by the International Isang Yun Society and spotted a few other CDs of interest – including one that seeing it on the list reminded me that I had it: the Yun CD by the Schönberg Ensemble of Reinbert deLeeuw, part of the great tribute to the ensemble published by Etcetera in 2006, and which I am fortunate to have. So I’ve added it to the discography on my introductory Yun page.
Since I’m doing the Ys – very tractable, the Ys: in classical music as opposed to philosophy, there’s a very finite number of Ys – I pulled out of my shelves the double-CD set from Camerata, “The Age of Birds”, works of Takashi Yoshimatsu, 30CM-178-179. I chanced on this set a number of years ago in the “real” store, I’m not familiar at all with Yoshimatsu, his fame seems not to have crossed the borders of Japan, but the music is absolutely beautiful, sweepingly lyrical, without stooping down to vulgar sentimentalism as contemporary music that tries to be “beautiful” often does. Another blatant contradiction to the ignoramuses who claim that “beauty” has disappeared from classical music since the deaths of Britten and Shostakovich. I need to review that set. I haven’t been very inspired in writing the reviews of the couple of Yun CDs I’ve listened to these last few days. It’s the introduction I find difficult to write, I’d like to try and avoid simply cutting and pasting again the intro used in my upteenth previous Yun reviews and… it’s just hard to invent something new when really you want to say exactly the same thing: that Yun is a great composer who invented a uniquely personal and uniquely beautiful style, both highly demanding and achingly lyrical. Well, I guess that can function as my intro.
Completed my Isang Yun Introductory page with more discographic information (listing the CDs I’m still missing, which makes the page a fairly complete Yun CD-discography. Missing, so far as I can tell, are only those collection CDs which I don’t have and which include this or that piece of Yun). Compiling that discography yesterday, I realized that the Isang Yun International Society had released, over the years, 10 CDs of Yun, including some repertoire not available elsewhere. Those CDs have a limited circulation and only very few of them are listed on the Amazons or offered on eBay, which makes them even more a fatal attraction for the record collector and Yun admirer. I just wrote to the Society to inquire if I could purchase them. And I bought a couple more CDs of Yun on Amazon (two were selling cheap enough) and a couple from Eybler, in the wake of my listening of yesteday.
All the while, listening (also in the wake of my Eybler from yesterday) to Cherubini’s Requiem in C minor, which I had received yesterday in the same shipment (the recording by Christoph Spering on Opus 111 OPS 30-116, barcode 3386700301164). It confirms that there has been an infinite amount of beautiful music written over the ages. I won’t review that one soon, I don’t think. As with Von Suppé’s Requiem, I’d need to do serious comparative listening (I haven’t checked if this is the same Requim as recorded by Toscanini and Muti), and it’s not on my plan in the immediate future. Too much vying for one’s attention and time.
posted a review of Eybler’s Requiem. That one wasn’t on my working plan – it’s just that I received a new shipment of CDs today from an eBay seller, and I had no idea who this Eybler was, I bought the CD out of curiosity and to benefit from postage rebates on combined shipment, so I decided to give it a cursory listen while attending to other things. Well… it certainly engaged my attention.
I looked at the discography of Eybler. Well – once again, it’s both exhilarating and frustrating. There’s a very respectacle number of recordings – again, sooooo much music vying for one’s boundless attention but limited time. Most of them, though, are sold on the marketplace at prices that are slightly above what I’m willing to pay for my numerous purchases. I can wait.
Eybler’s Requiem brought back to memory the one by Franz von Suppé, which I had heard many years ago – well, I guess it adds up to decades now – and found very memorable, and have wanted to listen again ever since. So I did, pulled out one of my pending versions from my shelves – by Roland Bader on Koch Schwann 3-1248-2 H1 (barcode 099923124825), a recording made in 1989 but a CD released only in 1996. Yeah, very beautiful, and what makes it stand out is how much of it sounds like Italian opera (a little bit like Rossini’s Stabat Mater). Very powerful, pathetic and dramatic, too – not the music you’d expect from this king of operetta. But I’m not ready to review that one right now, I’d need to buy a few more versions and spend some time on comparative listening. Time time time.
Irksome computer problems today, and I needed to vent that too – It’ll be the first off-topic discussion on this website. So with all that I didn’t tend to Yun today, alas.
posted my review of Compositions of Isang Yun-3: Muak – Tänzerische Fantasie for big orchestra (1978). Pièce Concertante for chamber ensemble or small orchestra (1976) (Radio Symphony Orchestra Saarbrücken, Chamber Ensemble of the Radio Symphony Orchestra Saarbrücken, Hans Zender). Sonatina for two violins (1983) (Saschko Gawriloff & Akiko Tatsumi). Camerata 32CM-107 (1989)
Listened again to the Piano Trio and Sonata for Cello and Harp on Capriccio. Superb. That’s my next review.
Completed the list of composers for the Kronos Quartet’s “White Man Sleeps” (and listened again on the occasion).
And, hey, a small step for mankind but a giant step for me and this website: I found the plugin that will enable me to increase font sizes. I really needed that (among many other things). I can easily anticipate that, when I’ve imported my 2,5OO or some reviews from Amazon plus all the news ones that I will post until I get there, the alphabetical list of composers reviewed is going to be so overwhelming that it’ll border on the intractable. Sure, if the reader knows exactly what he’s looking for – “mmmhhh…. let’s see what he’s reviewed of Mahler” – fine, no problem, but just browsing through names of hundreds and possibly thousands of composers to see if something inspires? But there the great classics, Bach, Bartok, Beethoven, Berg, Berlioz, Bizet, Brahms, Britten, Bruckner, and Byrd, and possibly even Babbitt, Balakirev, Barber, Bellini, Berio, Bernstein, Berwald, Biber, Bingen, Birtwistle, Bloch, Blow, Boccherini, Borodin, Boulez, Brant, Bridge, Bruch, Brumel, Busoni and Buxtehude, will be burried under the mass of van Baaren, Babadjanjan, Bach’s family close and distant, Bacewicz, Backhofen, Bacri, Badings, Baer, Baerman, Baird, Baker, Bakfark, Balada, Balakauskas, Balanescu, Balbastre, Balcy, Baley, Ballif, Balsis, Banchieri, Bancquart, Bandö, Banfield, Bank, Banks, Banshchikov, Barbirolli, De’ Bardi, Barkauskas, Barlow, Barnard, Barraqué, Barraud, Barrière, Barry, Bartholomée, Bartkevieiûté, Bashmakov, Bassani, Bassano, Batchelor, Bates, Bateson, Battistelli, Bauld, Baur, Bayer, Bax, Bazàn, Bazelon, Bazzini, Beach, Beaser, Bedford, Beck, Becker, Belmonte, Benda, Bengtsson, Ben Haïm, Benjamin, a number of Bennetts, Benson, Bentoïu, Berberian, Berger, Bergman, Bergsma, De Bériot, Berkeley father and son, Berlin, Bernaola, Berners, Bertali, Berton, Bertoni, De Bertrand, Besançon, van Beurden, Beveridge, a number of Beyers, Biggs, Bird, Blacher, Blackwood, Blanco de Nebra, two Blakes, Blank, Bliss, Blitzstein, Blomdahl, Blumenfeld, Bobylev, De Boeck, Boehmer, Boëllmann, Boëly, Boesmans, Boeuf, Boïeldieu, Bolaños, Bolcom, Bon, and Bon, Boni, Bonime, Bononcini, Bonporti, Professor Bor, Borisovas, Borkovec, Børresen, Borstlap, Bortnianski, Börtz, von Bose, Bossi, Bottermund, Bottesini, Boucourechliev, Boulanger, Bourgault-Ducoudray, Bourgeois, Boutmy, Boyce, Braam, Braun, Brégent, Brehme, Breuker, Brian, Brief, Brindus, Brizzi, Bronner, Broschi, Brouwer, some Browns and a couple of Brownes, Bruce, Bruneau, Brunyèl, Brusselmans, Bruszdowicz, Bryars, Buck, Bull, Buller, Buonamente, von Burck, Burgeon, Burgmüller, Burgr, Burleigh, Burton, Busby, Bush, Bussotti, Butterworth, and, ultimately, Byrne (no Byström having reached my shelves so far). What a bummer to be born a B and become a composer! B is a crowded field! Composers, take an alias in A, or E, or Y and Z! And don’t get me wrong: there are great composers in those “minor” names”. It’s just a matter of the importance given to them by posterity, and what a newcomer might first be looking for.
So I really need to be able to single out the “classics”, and now I think I’ve got what it takes to do it.
Completed my Isang Yun introductory page, with presentation and table of correspondence between the original, 11-CD Camerata serie “Compositions of Isang Yun”, and the 9-CD reissue, “Art of Isang Yun”. A good deed done. But Jeez’ is WordPress a nightmare to use when you want to do things even only remotely sophisticated. Inserting a link within a page (rather than from one page to another) is a nightmare, there is no automated, user-friendly process to do it, you’ve got to go fiddle with the html code. WHY? Do I fiddle with codes when I want to set a text in italics or bold? No, I just press a key, and the computer takes care of the damn codes, it translates the key into codes, that’s what computers and word-processing are for! So why can’t WordPress do it? “Insert a target here”, “insert the link to target there”, done! Forcing you to fiddle with html code will is really prehistory, it’ll be looked upon in a few years with bemusement. Remember when you needed to crank up your automobile with a handle to get it started? Yeah, sure, we see that in oldies from the 1910s or 1920s…
Okay, I needed to vent that. Creating this website is really a labor of love. Now I know the answer to the question often asked: “why don’t you create your own website?”. ‘Cause it’s a helluvaloto’work!
After the indication of Yun’s nationality, “Korean”, I added “German”, because after all it’s a point of fact: Yun settled definitively in Germany in 1969 after the international protest led to his liberation from the South-Korean gaols, acquired the German citizenship in 1971 and never returned to his country of birth. I hesitated to originate him as “South”-Korean – and decided against it: Yun was born in a unified country called Korea, fought the Japanese occupation during the war and paid the price for it, and his inclinations towards the Northern side after the partition forbids, in his case, to slot him on one or the other side of that border.
And after repeated listens, reviewed the magnificent Violin Concerto No. 1, “Compositions of Isang Yun-2“. Despite the absence of barcode, I even found a bypass to create the entry on Amazon, so that I could post my review there too.
Listened to “Compositions of Isang Yun-3”, with Muak, Pièce concertante and Sonatina for 2 Violins. Magnificent. Need to listen again and review. Sometimes it takes more time to find the right words than to listen to the music, words not just to describe the music but also the emotions that the music stirs in you.
29 August 2016
Two new reviews:
Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer, Hendrik Focking. Sonatas for recorder/traverso & continuo. Pieter van Houwelingen, Henk Dekker Noami Hirschfeld. Erasmus Muziek Producties WVH 079 (1993)
…two CDs that I had bought from various eBay sellers, as part of their “other offers”, to benefit from decreasing postage rates on combined purchases. No significant discovery this time.
Listening to Compositions of Isang Yun-2: Violin Concerto from 1981, Akitko Tatsumi, Frankfurt Radio SO, Zdenek Macal, Camerata 32CM-68. Superb work, I need to review it.
Caught up on my daily log, 19-29 August.
Yesterday, 28 August 2011 was my big Isang Yun (1917-1995) day. It’s not that I’m deliberately jumping to the extremes, from A to Y. In fact, a new addition to my collection has been too much for my available shelf space, so one had to go out for the new one to slot in. But when I started reviewing on Amazon.com, a decade ago, one of my objectives was to review all he music of Isang Yun that I had. Ten years later, I’m still far from it – too much vying for one’s attention and listening time – but here is the chance to resume.
New review of:
Isang Yun: Works for flutes. Attaca Babel 9056-3 (1990)
reposted reviews from Amazon.com (with the deletion of some introductory notes that were too topical and not useful for the re-posting) of:
Compositions of Isang Yun-1: Selected works for Clarinet: Concerto for Clarinet (1981), “Riul” for Clarinet and Piano (1968), “Piri” (1971). Eduard Brunner, Bayerischer Rundfunk SO, Patrick Thomas, Aloys Kontarsky (piano). Camerata 32CM-46 (1988) originally posted on Amazon.com 14 July 2011
Compositions of Isang Yun-4: Double Concerto for Oboe, Harp and Small Orchestra, “Images” for Flute, Oboe, Violon and Violoncello. Heinz Holliger (oboe), Aurèle Nicolet (flute), Ursula Holliger (harp), Hansheinz Schneeberger (violin), Thomas Demenga (cello), Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken, Dennis Russell Davies. Camerata 32CM-108 (1989) originally posted on Amazon.com 14 July 2011
Compositions of Isang Yun- 5: Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra (1975/76), Sonata for Oboe, Harp and Viola (1979). Siegfried Palm, Berlin Radio SO, Hans Zender. Heinz & Ursula Holliger, Hirofumi Fukai. Camerata 32CM-22 (1987) originally posted on Amazon.com 22 October 2011
Compositions of Isang Yun-9: Concerto for Flute and Small Orchestra (1977), Salomo for Solo Alto Flute (1978), Gong-Hu for Harp and Strings (1984), In Balance for Harp (1987). Roswitha Staege (flute), Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken, Hans Zender. Ursula Holliger, Camerata Bern String Ensemble, Heinz Holliger. Camerata 32CM-109 (1991) originally posted on Amazon.com 22 October 2011
Created an Isang Yun introductory page and listed all the Yun in my CD collection. Still need to complete the page (correspondence between Camerata’s 11-CD series “Compositions of Isang Yun” and the 9-CD reissue “Art of Isang Yun”) and to write the short introduction on Yun and explain why I consider him one of the great contemporary composers. Going back to Camerata’s series was useful in that I was able to use the label’s barcode logic and locate some listings on Amazon of the “Art of Isang Yun” reissue series, that I had missed the first time around, in 2011, when I had reviewed those few instalments from “Compositions” and “Art”, because they are scripted in Japanese and don’t yield to a search on “Yun Camerata” (is it “instaLments” or “instaLLments”? I never know. Check dictionary: OK, it’s both, that’s why I never know). Apparently there are two listings for each, one using the actual CD barcodes and the other one using a barcode derived from it, which I am supposing is a distributor’s barcode rather than a specific barcode for an edition for the West. The Isang Yun website has also been useful in establishing issues and reissues (but I’ve spotted a few reissues that they are missing, and what I think are small errors in release datings).
Also listened to 20th Century Portraits: Isang Yun – Chamber Music: Novelette for flute & harp with violin and cello ad libitum. Piano Trio. Duo for Violoncello & Harp. Sonata for Violin & Piano. Kolja Lessing (violin), Walter Grimmer (cello), Holger Groschopp (piano), Maria Graf (harp), Roswitha Staege (flute). Capriccio 67 118 (2005) while I was doing that. Need to listen again more carefully and review. Time time time.
25 & 26 August 2016
Posted review of Dance (works of Tunde Jegede, Joe Cutler, John Adams, Graham Fitkin, Andrew Poppy, Michael Finnissy, Tan Dun, Kevin Volans, Michael Nyman, Jon Lord, Gabriel Prokofiev, Elena Kats-Chernin, Domacha Dennehy, Django Bates) by The Smith Quartet. Signum Classics SIGCD236 (2011) and had to create 13 composers pages. A Helluvalot o’work for just one CD.
Since Graham Fitkin was one of those composers and The Smith Quartet are the performers, I also imported from Amazon my recent review of Graham Fitkin: Slow. Huoah. Frame. The Smith Quartet, Graham Fitkin & Shelag Sutherland (keyboards). Argo 433 690-2 (1992).
Created a performers page for The Smith Quartet.
Also Listened to Ghosts, another recital CD by The Smith Quartet, which includes superb pieces by Tim Souster, Michael Alcorn and Stephen Montague, frightening music, very reminiscent of George Crumb’s incredibly inventive and frighteneing “Black Angels”. But there’s a big stain on the edge of the CD and the last 12 minutes of the Montague didn’t play. Frustrating. Reported to the Amazon seller (Zoverstocks) and got a refund no problem. Ordered the CD again (from the same seller. Zoverstocks is reliable, they have a huge inventory, attractive prices and make no problem at refunding when there’s a problem).
24 August 2016
Music for Merchants and Monarchs (works for lute, archlute and guitar from the Renaissance by Anonymous, Newsidler, Foscarini, Robinson, Mellii, Calvi, Galilei). James Tyler, Renaissance lute, Archlute, Baroque guitar. Saga Classics SCD 9036, barcode 8711572903621 / Saga Classics EC 3365-2. Not the kind of CD I’d normally go for, but I was examining the CD reissues of the (originally British) label Saga Classics. Complicated story, that’ll be for one of my discographies one day.
23 August 2011
Continuing the As, this was my Lera Auerbach day. One new review:
Lera Auerbach Plays her Preludes and Dreams for piano. BIS-CD-1462 (2006)
and two previous ones imported from Amazon.com:
Lera Auerbach 24 Preludes for Violin & Piano, T’filah, Postlude. Vadim Gluzman, Angela Yoffe. BIS-CD-1242 (2003) originally posted on Amazon.com, 21 November 2013
Lera Auerbach: Celloquy. Ani Aznavoorian, Lera Auerbach. Cedille Records CDR 90000 137 (2013) originally posted on Amazon.com, 31 July 2016
21 August 2016
Imported from Amazon my reviews of:
“De Profundis” (works of Sibelius, Pärt, Šerkšnytė, Schumann, Nyman, Schubert, Tickmeyer, Shostakovich, Auerbach, Piazzolla, Pelēcis, Schnittke). Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica. Nonesuch 7559 79969 9 (2010), originally posted on Amazon.com, 19 January 2011. Still need to create some of the composers entries for that one. Those recital discs are lots of work when you want to log them.
Martynas Švėgžda von Bekker: 20th-Century Lithuanian Composers (Balsys, Balakauskas, Barkauskas, Bartkevieiûté, Borisovas). Dante LYSC004 (1997), a rare CD from the French Dante label, review originally posted on Amazon.com, 9 February 2012. You’d think all Lithuanian composers started with letter B. And I loooove those diacritic signs, went to Wikipedia to fish them (was surprised and delighted to see that the fiddler has an entry there), quicker than to find them on my computer. Created the composers entries for those five.
Created my Performers Index and performers pages for Kremer and Bekker.
20 August 2016
Continuing Firsova and Smirnov. Reposted from Amazon.com two ANCIENT reviews:
Lydian String Quartet in Moscow: Firsova, Chausian, Child, Lee. MCA Classics AED 10108 (1990), originally posted on Amazon.com, 18 February 2007
Stravinsky, Schnittke, Smirnov, Roslavets, Firsova: Music for String Quartet, by the Chilingirian Quartet. Conifer Classics 75605 51252 2 (1995), originally posted on Amazon.com, 17 February 2007
Since I had created the label entry for the French label Transes Européennes after re-posting my two Aperghis CD from that label (see 17 & 18 August), decided to bring over from Amazon my reviews of other instalments from that label:
Jean-Pierre Drouet Solo en public à Banlieues Bleues. Trans-Européeenes TE 004, originally posted on Amazon.com, 18 May 2016
Jean-Pierre Drouet: Les Variations d’Ulysse, music for a choreography of Jean-Claude Gallotta. Jean-Philippe Audin (cello), Claude Barthélémy (guitars), Marie-Isabelle Bondu (viola), Xavier Charles (clarinet), Pascal Contet (accordion), Jean-Pierre Drouet (percussion), Serge Garcia (violin), Eric Giausserand (trumpet). Transes Européennes TE 006 (1995), originally posted on Amazon.com, 14 May 2016
Pablo Cueco: Sol, Suelo, Sombra Y Cielo. Transes européennes Orchestra, Pablo Cueco (berimbao, zarb), dir. Patricio Villarroel. Transes Européennes TE 023 (1999), originally posted on Amazon.com, 29 May 2016
Also imported my review of:
Kronos Quartet: White Man Sleeps. Elektra Nonesuch 979 163-2 (1987) or 7559-79163-2, originally posted on Amazon.com, 18 July 2010. I need to create the composers entries and links for that one.
19 August 2011
Since I was doing Aperghis and was coming to his Hamletmaschine-oratorio, decided to post as well my review of Wolfgang Rihm’s own Hamletmaschine, and, while I was at it, his Tutuguri-Ballet after Antonin Artaud. Reposted from Amazon, then:
Georges Aperghis: [die hamletmaschine-oratorio]. SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, Françoise Kubler (sop), Lionel Peintre (bar), Romain Bischoff (bar), Geneviève Strosser (viola & voice), Jean-Pierre Drouet (percussion & voice), Ictus, dir. Georges-Elie Octors. Cypès Records Cyp5607 (2002), originally posted on Amazon.com, 30 April 2009
Wolfgang Rihm: Die Hamletmaschine, music theatre in five parts (1983-1986). Libretto by the composer after the text of Heiner Müller. Soloists, Chor und Orchester des Nationaltheaters Mannheim, Peter Schneider. Wergo WER 6195-2 / 286 195-2 (1991), originally posted on Amazon.com, 2 May 2009
Wolfgang Rihm: Tutuguri (1982). Radio Sinfonie-orchester Stuttgart des SWF, SWF Vokalensemble Stuttgart, Fabrice Bollon. Hänssler Classics CD 93.069 (©2001-℗2002), originally posted on Amazon.com, 27 April 2009
Realized I had never reviewed Rihm’s Eroberung von Mexico and pulled it out of my shelves for a new listen. Need to find the time now.
Continuing my exploration of the label Megadisc Classics. New review (posted two days before on Amazon) of:
Georgs Pelēcis: Revelation. Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica. Megadisc Classics MDC 7797 (2009)
and since Pelēcis’ Double Concerto for violin and piano, performed on that disc, was also featured on Kremer’s earlier CD “From My Home”, I re-posted my review from Amazon:
“From My Home”: works of Dvarionas, Pärt, Barkauskas, Vasks, Pelēcis, Plakidis, Tüur. Gidon Kremer (violin), Vadim Sacharov (piano), Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. Teldec Classics 0630-14654-2 (1997), originally posted on Amazon.com, 25 January 2016
But I can’t say that I take this Pelēcis very seriously, and the title of my review of the Megadisc CD summarizes my opinion: “It’s not the flowers of paradise that Pelēcis is gardening but cheap plastic avatars”.
Need to see how I’m going to work out my “Discographies” pages. Uploaded my discography of EMI Reflexe. Need to work on that.
Continuing the As. Where’s a better place to start a collection than with Carl Friedrich Abel – alphabetically, I mean. Imported my reviews from Amazon and created a composers entry:
Carl Friedrich Abel: Chamber Music for flute. La Stagione. Cpo 999 209-2 (1994), originally posted on Amazon.com, 14 December 2015
Carl Friedrich Abel: 4 Flute Concertos. Karl Kaiser, La Stagione, Michael Schneider. Cpo 999 208-2 (1993), originally posted on Amazon.com, 14 December 2015
Karl Friedrich Abel: Ouvertures Sinfonias. Il Fondamento, Paul Dombrecht. Vanguard Classics 99703 (1994), originally posted on Amazon.com, 7 March 2010
Carl Friedrich Abel: Symphonies op. 10. La Stagione, Michael Schneider. Cpo 999 207-2 (1993), originally posted on Amazon.com, 10 December 2015
Since I had done Firsova, it seemed a good idea to do her husband too, Dmitri Smirnov. Imported my recent Amazon review:
An Introduction to Dmitri Smirnov. Patricia Kopatchinskaya (violin), Alexander Ivashkin (cello), Ivan Sokolov (piano). Megadisc Classics MCD 7818 (2002)
Continuing Aperghis: two reviews imported from Amazon:
Georges Aperghis: Tryptique (1982). Brigitte Sylvestre (harp) & Gaston Sylvestre (percussion). Transes Européennes TE 014 (1997), originally posted on Amazon.com, 11 May 2016
Georges Aperghis: Simulacres 1, A Bout de bras, Les Sept crimes de l’amour, Cinq couplets, Il gigante Golia, 280 Mesures pour clarinette. Ensemble Accroche-Note. Accord 201992 (1992), originally posted on Amazon.com, 11 May 2015 (total coincidence that they were posted exactly a year apart, only realized it now that I write the two dates one after the other)
Created entries for the label Transes Européennes, and, following the re-posting of my review of the Arditti-Trio Le Cercle Montaign CD, for composers Xenakis, Allain Gaussin and François-Bernard Mâche. Need to import my Amazon reviews of Mâche and Xenakis. Time time time.