The Very Best of Adagio

". . . el sonido pur�simo y �nico de la Deutsche y la multidimensionalidad de la Filarm�nica de Berlin comparten espacio con grabaciones de cortar la respiraci�n, pertenecientes a los dominios que mejor conoc�a el director." --Record Review, Mel�mano (Madrid), 1 February 2006

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Herbert von Karajan.

French Ballet Music of the 1920s

�The zany exuberance of Les mari�s, concocted by five of Les Six in the 1920s, is infectiously captured in this colourful reissue, as is L'�ventail, a contemporaneous ten-composer collaboration.� --BBC Music Magazine, May 2005 ****

�these pieces are full of imagination and fun. Geoffrey Simon and the Philharmonia Orchestra give a very good account of themselves and the Chandos recording is little short of spectacular. --The Penguin Complete Guide to Compact Discs

Penguin Guide Rosette Winner

I listened to these two on-act pastiche ballets on a broiling hot, humid June night when it was 84 degrees in my living room and said, �who needs air conditioning! This is better than AC!�� What gorgeous playing and sound in All saints� Church Tooting (a suburb of London). --American Record Guide

The zany exuberance of �Les mari�s� concocted by five of Les Six in the 1920s, is infectiously captured in this colourful reissued, as is �L�eventail�, a contemporaneous ten-composer collaboration. --BBC Music Magazine

All this music, Gallic in its unsentimental clarity, demands the cleanest and crispest playing, and this the Philharmonia Orchestra admirably supplies. --Gramophone

The performances under Geoffrey Simon are excellent. They deserve nothing but praise. --New York Times

The sessions evidently secured the right zippy response from the Philharmonia while also providing interestingly colourful sound quality. --Which Compact Disc

Great Piano Concertos (10-CD Box Set)

"The box set Great Piano Concertos has been produced to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Naxos and draws on their extensive catalogue of concerto recordings. The recording quality varies from the older 1980�s recordings but there are some good things to enjoy in the 10 CD set particularly Idil Biret playing the two Chopin piano concerts with the Slovak State Philharmonic under Rubert Stankovsky. The two Liszt concertos with Eldar Nebolsin and the RLPO under Petrenko are also very enjoyable as is Jeno Jando playing the Grieg and Schumann concertos with the Budapest Symphony under Andr�s Ligeti. There are finer performances available in the catalogue of these works but this box set give an excellent introduction at a bargain price." --Audiophilia, May 2012

At the very heart of a concerto is the interplay and contrast of a solo instrument within a larger instrumental ensemble. The natural progression from the Baroque concerto grosso, the concerto as we know it was fully established as a concert staple in the eighteenth century, and many works dating from this period are still a key part of the repertoire today. The opportunity for dazzling virtuosic display from the soloist has resulted in the concerto becoming a vital musical force both on the concert platform and in the audience arena.

The most important composer in the development of the early piano concerto was Mozart, whose masterly compositions for the instrument paved the way for expansion of the form by composers such as Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Grieg. In the Romantic era, composers such as Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky lent a distinctly Russian fluency and passion to the idiom, whilst no pianistic survey would be complete without the transcendent concertos of those great piano masters, Chopin and Liszt. The twentieth century transformed the piano concerto yet further with splendid offerings from a delicate Ravel, fiery Prokofiev and jazzy Gershwin to name but a few.

Revisions

Steven Isserlis has earned a reputation as one of the foremost cellists of our day. At the same time he has become known for his ingenuity and innovation in programming, something which this disc is the perfect example of. It combines four works for cello and orchestra that wouldn't even exist without Isserlis - all arrangements made at his personal request, and each of them by the arranger of his personal choice. The most radical reworking is the opening piece, an arrangement based on the fact that Debussy at the age of 19 composed a Suite for cello and orchestra. 

All that is known for certain about this suite is that its fourth movement was called Intermezzo, and that this piece has survived in a version for cello and piano. In her imaginative reconstruction of - or rather replacement for - Debussy's original composition, Sally Beamish has used this piece as the opening movement, going on to construct orchestral arrangements of four other Debussy works from the same period, including the piano pieces R�verie and Danse boh�mienne. The two Ravel songs which follow were arranged by Isserlis' friend, the violinist Richard Tognetti in order to supplement the concert programme for a tour that the two were to make with Tognetti's own Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Vladimir Blok's orchestration of Prokofiev's Concertino, which had been left incomplete at the death of the composer, was made as Isserlis was unhappy with the existing arrangement of the work, made by Kabalevsky. The disc closes with the earliest of these four re-visions, film composer Christopher Palmer's orchestration of Ernest Bloch's From Jewish Life, allowing the disc to end with the movement entitled Prayer - 'one of the most fervently beautiful pieces ever written for the cello', according to Steven Isserlis himself. Throughout the programme Isserlis receives the expert support of Tapiola Sinfonietta conducted by G�bor Tak�cs-Nagy.

The Gershwin/Ravel Cycle

�Ravel once played Rhapsody in Blue to Gershwin at a private party. It's tempting to think it must have sounded something like Rog�'s performance here: sophisticated, elegant, oh-so-well-well-behaved� the Left Hand Concerto starts well with wonderfully saturnine grumblings and a superbly sculpted long orchestral crescendo. Rog�'s long soliloquy after the Allegro's huge climax is particularly fine.� --BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2008 ****

�Rog�s playing of Ravel�s Left-Hand concerto is masterly. He has complete technical regard for the work; more importantly, he appreciates the range of the music, its darkness, menace, anger, other-worldly escape, introspection and defiance.� --International Piano, May/June 2008

Gershwin/Ravel: Piano concertos

Here�s a disc whose breathtaking sonic detail and attractive, roomy ambience make a cogent case for investing in SACD surround-sound hardware, although it sounds perfectly fine and vivid enough via standard stereo two-channel playback. Regarding the performance, pianist Pascal Rog� here surpasses his early-1980s Ravel Concerto recording under Charles Dutoit. He makes more of the first movement�s lyrical, unaccompanied episodes, yet never overindulges, and he treats the central slow movement like a song rather than a dirge, with tasteful droplets of rubato.

The finale�s busy fingerwork appears to fly off the printed page through Rog�s incisive articulation and biting accents. Just listen to his dazzling repeated notes here and in the finale of Gershwin�s concerto. The latter also finds Rog� in dapper fettle and fully attuned to the composer�s syncopated swagger.

Bertrand de Billy elicits alert and translucent playing from the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, aside from thin, undifferentiated string tone and some less than idiomatic first-desk solo work in the Gershwin. While these performances won�t make you forget the above-mentioned reference versions, nor recent contenders of equal stature (like Grimaud�s Gershwin and Moravec�s Ravel), their combined sonic and interpretive assets add up to a pleasurable and memorable listening experience. --classicstoday.com [4/23/2005]