Anton Dolgov

String quartet fans will relish this excellent release from ECM. Although the Shostakovich 8th is one of the most over-recorded pieces in the string quartet literature, the performance here is worth having, and is combined with a somewhat familiar but not as widely recorded piece by Webern (for those who might be afraid to listen to anything by Webern, let me assure you that this is a most lovely, lyrical, hauntingly beautiful work, not at all daunting) and a quartet by a composer that will be unfamiliar to most, Emil Burian (1904-1959), whose String Quartet No. 4 is a haunting piece that makes for an attractive finish for this fine CD by the Rosamunde Quartet. The sound quality is rich and radiant in the best ECM tradition.

'There is plenty to delight ear here, in the delicate dances and variations of the Suite No. 3, in the dramatic vigour of the introduction to the opera Nal and Damayanti, and in the charming little Intermezzo.' (The Telegraph)

Polyansky continues to record some great off the beaten track repertoire for Chandos with this latest version of Arensky's First Symphony. The disc also includes a number of rarities that are making it onto disc as first recordings.
I don't recall that Svetlanov's thrilling Melodiya version of this work was ever issued on CD so I believe this has the field to itself, at least for the moment. Polyansky directs with a firm hand and his knowledge of the score is palpably evident in the beautiful First movement with its quirky 'Allegro patetico' tempo.

The Fourth is probably the best of Rubinstein’s Symphonies. Written in 1874 it’s a deeply uneven and ultimately unconvincing work but contains enough perplexing turbulence to elevate it far beyond the merely decorative, beyond the post Mendelssohnian symphonic statement. If it never reaches the heights of a genuine Romantic crisis symphony it contains intriguing material sufficient to warrant more than a second hearing and this Naxos issue, first issued on Marco Polo 8.223319 in 1991, provides just such an opportunity.

Chailly has radically rethought his approach to these works, re-examining the scores and returning to the recorded interpretations of a generation of conductors alive during Brahms lifetime, principally Felix Weingartner and one of his Gewandhaus predecessors Bruno Walter.

If you want to play games with your music-loving friends, put on this recording of the Octet and tell them it's a newly discovered work by Beethoven. Eventually they may catch on, but maybe not. Although Reicha's development is a bit more discursive than Beethoven's, the quality of this piece is amazingly high. The Quintet is on a smaller scale and a little more lightweight, but it's still a fine piece. For lovers of music in the late-classical style, this disc is a real find, and the Ensemble Carl Stamitz performs with a proper sense of its worth. A real sleeper.

In his final performances with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in August 2013, Claudio Abbado conducted Anton Bruckner's unfinished Symphony No. 9 in D minor, and this recording is drawn from the best takes from those concerts. Considering that this rendition came near the end of Abbado's life and stands as a worthy testament to his achievements, it's easy to read too much into the interpretation, and to view it as a mystical or transcendent reading because of the circumstances. On the one hand, Abbado's understanding of this symphony was as thorough as any conductor's, and the Lucerne musicians played with seriousness and dedication, offering a version that has impressive power and expressive depth. On the other hand, there are many competitive recordings that either match Abbado's for strength and feeling, or surpass it in purely technical terms of sound quality and reproduction. Certainly the sound is exceptional, according to Deutsche Grammophon's high standards, and this stereo recording is exceptionally clean and noise-free.

One of Schoenberg's leading pupils and disciples, Anton Webern continued to write songs throughout his life. It is thus possible to follow his development as a composer, from early traditional writing to the more experimental work of his later years, from the tonal to the atonal, and to the sparer textures for which his work became well known.

In one of Johann Strauss' waltzes, a dream operetta couple of the 70s returns: Ingeborg Hallstein and Rene Kollo. Wiener Blut, filmed in 1971, is a thoroughly Viennese production whose strengths guarantee unadulterated operetta enjoyment: Beautiful voices, natural acting, more committed to the film than the opera stage and a cast of operetta stars even in supporting roles: Among others, Dagmar Koller, Ferry Gruber and the unforgettable Viennese original Fritz Muliar can be seen and heard.