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Welcome to the Decca Music Group
news for December 2001. Select one of the headlines below to take a look at
what's going on this month. If you want to get all this delivered to
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can write to us by using our Contact form. See you next month!
In the Studio
Pavarotti receives double honours
New Year's Concert 2002 - programme announced
Review - Barbara Bonney and Reneé Fleming on stage
CD Reviews - Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Cecilia Bartoli
In the Studio
Hard at work in the studio this month are Vladimir Ashkenazy and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Ashkenazy is recording Rachmaninov transcriptions including Kreisler: Liebesfreud, Tchaikovsky: Lullaby, Rimsky-Korsakov: The Bumblebee, Schubert: The Brooklet, Bizet: Minuet (for solo piano); Six morceaux Op 11; Romance (for 4 hands); Waltz (for 6 hands); Italian Polka (for piano & trumpet). Joining him on these recordings will be members of his family.
Jean-Yves Thibaudet begins work on recording works by Erik Satié. Also, the Philips engineers will be heading out to Vienna at the end of the month to record the annual extravganza of the Vienna New Year's Concert - this year featuring Seiji Ozawa and the Wiener Philharmoniker. The album will be available from early January. See our feature atwww.philipsclassics.com/newyearsconcert2002
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Pavarotti receives double honours |
Luciano Pavarotti has just been awarded two major international awards to mark his commitment to the world of arts and his unstinting commitment to humanitarian causes. Maestro Pavarotti was recently in Washington DC to receive the coveted annual Kennedy Center Award "for the unique and extremely valuable contributions [he] has made to the cultural life of our nation" (Kennedy Center Chairman, James A Johnson). Pavarotti also attended a State Dinner, hosted by US Secretary of State, Colin Powell. Prior to the star-studded Kennedy Center Awards gala at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the tenor attended a White House reception, hosted by President of the United States, George W Bush, and America's First Lady, Laura Bush. Fellow honorees include Jack Nicholson and Quincy Jones.
At Vienna's Hofburg Palace on 3 November this year, to mark World
Men’s Day, President Mikhail Gorbachev presented Luciano Pavarotti
with the WORLD SOCIAL AWARD in recognition of his continuing
international humanitarian work. In May this year, the UNHCR (United
Nations High Commission for Refugees) presented Pavarotti with the
prestigious Nansen Award for his United Nations International
charity work and to recognise that the tenor has helped raise more
funds for the UN refugee agency than any other private individual.
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New Year's
Concert 2002 |
The programme to the New Year's Concert in Vienna has
recently been announced. The concert is being recorded by Philips
and will be available in January. For more details, visit our new
feature at philipsclassics.com/newyearsconcert2002
Johann Strauß Zivio! Marsch, op. 456
Johann Strauß Carnevals-Botschafter, Walzer op. 270
Josef Strauß Die Schwätzerin, Polka mazur, op. 144
Johann Strauß Künstlerleben, Walzer op. 316
Johann Strauß Vater Beliebte Annen- Polka op. 137
Josef Strauß Vorwärts! Polka schnell, op. 127
- Pause -
Johann Strauß Ouvertüre zu „Die Fledermaus"
Josef Strauß Arm in Arm, Polka mazur, op. 215
Josef Strauß Aquarellen, Walzer, op. 258
Josef Strauß Die Libelle, Polka mazur, op. 204
Josef Strauß Plappermäulchen, Polka schnell, op. 245
Johann Strauß Perpetuum mobile op. 257
Joseph Hellmesberger jun. Danse diabolique
Johann Strauß Elisen- Polka, op. 151
Johann Strauß Wiener Blut, Walzer, op. 354
Johann Strauß Tik- Tak, Polka schnell op. 365
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Review -
Barbara Bonney and Reneé Fleming on stage
Barbara Bonney and Reneé Fleming have been on stage recently at
the Metropolitan Opera. Many of the performances reviewed below can be found on the
wonderful Strauss Heroines recording [catalogue number 466 314]
New York Times - The Arts Wednesday, November 28, 2001
Opera Review Excerpt By Anthony Tommasini
The buzz of expectations on Monday centered on Mr Eschenbach, a major conductor by any measure, who will become the music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2003...His work was in many ways impressive. An insightful musician with a dynamic temperament, Mr. Eschenbach gave an urgent and rhapsodic account of the score. The long arcs of musical drama were surely gauged and supplely executed. His keen ear for color and acute sensitivity to musical character were always evident.
Ms. Fleming sang with the plush sound,
sublime lyricism and dramatic subtlety that have endeared her to
opera lovers. A small roster of privileged aristocrats flock after
Arabella, but she clings to an unrealistic fantasy of an ideal mate.
Ms. Fleming brings a sense of quiet certitude to Arabella's fantasy,
which is realized in one romantic, impulsive instant when through
her hotel window she sees a stranger on the street corner looking up
at her intently...The soprano Barbara Bonney is Zdenka, Arabella's
younger sister, whom her parents compel to dress and live as a young
man, since the family cannot afford to introduce two daughters to
society...Ms. Bonney's singing was sweet-toned and pliant.
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CD Reviews -
Cecilia Bartoli and Jean-Yves Thibaudet
New releases from John-Yves Thibaudet and
Cecilia Bartoli have been gathering rave reviews in the press. Here
are some excerpts from some of them. Cecilia Bartoli - Gluck Italian Arias
"When Cecilia Bartoli arrives at the gates
of heaven - an event I trust will be postponed for at least the next
seven decades - this record is one of the entries in her credit
column that should see her safely through to the other side...the
most significant new Gluck recording in a long while...the singer at
her committed, passionate, technically astonishing and intensely
loveable best...this review needs to be read as if bordered by an
omnipresent health-message: 'Get to your record store or online to
Amazon now!'"
Max Loppert,
Opera News Oct/2001
"This is something very much out of the ordinary...music of great power and character, sung with an extraordinary emotional force and technical skill, not to say a sheer beauty of tone that I cannot imagine being matched by any other singer today...each note articulated perfectly tuned - like a row of faultless pearls, each one glistening...a quite outstanding record that no one who loves fine singing can miss."
Stanley Sadie, Gramophone Oct/2001 Mendlessohn Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 2; Solo piano works
Jean-Yves Thibaudet,
Leipzig
Gewandhaus Orchestra, cond Herbert Blomstedt Decca 468 600-2
Mendlessohn's reputation as a talent unfulfilled persists, based on the evidence of a few brilliant works from his youth, some well known miniatures, and, one supposes, those dutifully pious oratorios. But he’s a more complete composer than his reputation suggests. The two piano concertos — the brilliant G minor, composed in 1831 at the age 22, and the deeper D minor work of 1837 — are these days relatively rarely heard. Thibaudet is an ideal champion of both, his agile fingerwork always allied to a muscular tone and an impressive array of colours, while Blomstedt and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra make deft partners. Thibaudet also gives two solo works, the Variations sérieuses, Op 54, thoughtfully done, and the Rondo Capriccioso, Op 14, one of those pieces written at 16. They break up the programme nicely.
Stephen Pettitt,
Sunday Times November 18th
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