Archive for November, 2006

Playlist #763: 2006-11-27

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006
Karol Szymanowski: String quartet no. 2, op. 56 (1927)
Silesian Quartet (CD Accord ACD 037)
Karol Szymanowski: String quartet no. 1, op. 37 (1917)
Silesian Quartet (CD Accord ACD 037)
George Crumb: Sonata for solo violoncello (1955)
Robert Sylvester vc (Desto DC-7169)
Charles Koechlin: Les Bandar-Log, op. 176, conclusion (1939)
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Antal Dorati cond (Angel S 36295)

Playlist #762: 2006-11-20

Tuesday, November 21st, 2006
Michael Torke: Monday (1992)
London Sinfonietta / Lothar Zagrosek cond (Ecstatic Records ERO 92204)
Dmitri Shostakovich: String quartet no. 15, op. 144 (1974)
Gidon Kremer, Daniel Phillips vn / Kim Kashkashian vla / Yo-Yo Ma vc (CBS MK 44924)
Judith Lang Zaimont: A calendar set: November (1978)
Joanne Polk pf (“Zones,” Arabesque Z6683)

Playlist #761: 2006-11-13

Tuesday, November 14th, 2006

Broadcast #761 — a prime number, by the way — marks the return of one of our prime anti-warhorses from the earliest years of classics without walls, the Wellesz cello sonata. This magnificent piece alone — which in the course of 13 minutes encompasses the depth of spiritual crisis and its resolution in ecstatic dance — should be enough to prove that the obscurity of Wellesz has been a scandal of the first order. Fortunately, after several decades during which this out-of-print LP by Robert Sylvester was the only recording of his music available, a flood of releases in recent years have made much more of his work accessible. Many thanks to Bill & Judy Cartmel of Memories Inc. in Lewiston, Maine, for ending a 15-year search for this LP.

Somei Satoh: Birds in warped time II
Margaret Leng Tan pf / Frank Almond vn (New Albion NA008)
Egon Wellesz: Sonata for violoncello solo, op. 31 (1920)
Robert Sylvester vc (Desto DC-7169)
Maurice Delage: Quatre poèmes hindous / Four Hindu poems (1912-13)
Dawn Upshaw S / Lynn Chang, Nai-Yuan Hu vn / Nardo Poy va / Bruce Coppock vc / Marcia Butler ob / Fenwick Smith, Laura Gilbert fl / Thomas Hill, Mitchell Weiss cl / Barbara Allen hp (Elektra Nonesuch 9 79262-2)
Sofia Gubaidulina: Rejoice! sonata: “Your joy no one will take away from you” and “Rejoice with joy”
Gidon Kremer vn / Yo-Yo Ma vc (CBS MK44924)

Playlist #760: 2006-11-06

Tuesday, November 7th, 2006
Gustav Mahler: Symphony no. 5: IV, Das himmlische Leben (1901)
Gustav Mahler pf, Welte-Mignon roll, rec. 1905 (Telefunken HT18, Berühmte Komponisten spielen eigene Werke)
Ned Rorem: Snake (Theodore Roethke)
Gianna d’Angelo S / Ned Rorem pf (New World 229, rec. 1962-63)
Ned Rorem: My Papa’s waltz (Theodore Roethke)
Donald Gramm bar / Ned Rorem pf (id.)
Ned Rorem: I am Rose (Gertrude Stein)
Regina Sarfaty Mz / Ned Rorem pf (id.)
Ned Rorem: To you (Walt Whitman)
Donald Gramm bar / Ned Rorem pf (id.)
Ned Rorem: Early in the morning (Robert Hillyer)
Donald Gramm bar / Ned Rorem pf (id.)
Ned Rorem:
I am Rose (Gertrude Stein)
Now sleeps the crimson petal (Alfred, Lord Tennyson)
Opus 101 (Witter Bynner)
Sonnet (Witter Bynner)
The wintry mind (Witter Bynner)
The sowers (Witter Bynner)
I strolled across an open field (Theodore Roethke)
Ferry me across the water (Christina Rossetti)
That shadow, my likeness (Walt Whitman)
Susan Graham Mz / Malcolm Martineau pf (Erato 8573-80222-2)
Arnold Schönberg: Erwartung / Expectation (Richard Dehmel) (1899)
Phyllis Bryn-Julson S / Ursula Oppens pf (Music & Arts CD-650)
Arnold Schönberg: Jesus bettelt / Jesus begs (Richard Dehmel) (1899)
Phyllis Bryn-Julson S / Ursula Oppens pf (Music & Arts CD-650)
Gustav Mahler: Um Mitternacht / At midnight (Friedrich Rückert) (1901)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau bar / Berlin Philharmonic / Karl Böm cond (DG 138 879)
Beth Custer: Bernal Heights suite: Scary monster string trio (2006)
Beth Custer voice / Left Coast Chamber Ensemble: Anna Pressler vn / Kurt Rohde va / Leighton Fong vc (BC Records BC-9)