Amazing 100 CD Set of containing a plethora of Classic Jazz tunes. New Orleans was the starting point of the collective improvisation. The Jazz for which the city on the Mississippi Delta was to become so famous for developed at the beginning of the 20th century.
This collection of pieces in D is the longest in all the books of Couperin and contains several masterpieces. Grace and nobility seem to reign. In his official portrait Couperin has one hand on the score to “Les Idées Heureuses”. It is a work of sonorous nostalgia and melancholy. ” La Garnier” a tribute work, sings out in the tenor range of the harpsichord combining sensuousness and rhetoric in a most poetical homage. “La Terpsicore” delineates dance gestures and paints the muse of movement. Debussy in his preludes owes much to the spirit and genius of this piece. The dance movements live in the courtly world of the chateau (the gavotte and courantes) or the rough and tumble world of the barnyard or village square (rigaudon and passepied). There are suites within the suite (for Diane) and there is not one genre or character piece that is not inspired in its choices of delicate dissonance and voluptuous harmonies.
Culled from New York Philharmonic broadcasts spanning 75 years, this remarkable 10-disc compilation testifies to the strong-willed yet chameleon-like orchestra's virtuosity and versatility under a diverse assemblage of podium personalities. Stylistically speaking, the earlier items are the most interesting, revealing, for instance, a more vibrant Otto Klemperer and freer Arturo Toscanini than their later commercial efforts sometimes suggest. Other artists are heard in repertoire which they otherwise didn't record: Fritz Reiner's Brahms 2nd, Leonard Bernstein's Berg and Webern, and a wrenching concert version of Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle under Kubelík's direction, to name but a few. From program notes to transfer quality, not one stone is left unturned to ensure first-rate results.