Finale 2005

This two-CD set pulls together the Borodin Trio's recordings of all four of Dvorák's piano trios into one package. These were originally recorded between 1983 and 1992, and despite the different dates, there is a consistency of sound in them. That sound has an ambient coldness that isn't warmed up by the music, and it balances the instruments almost equally, to the point where when the piano has the melody it doesn't stick out much from the violin and cello. It leaves the impression that hearing the Borodin Trio live would be the best way to fully appreciate its performance, because even if it were in a bad sounding hall, you would still be able to see their reactions to the music and each other.

This marks the final offering from Opera Rara's laudable restoration of BBC broadcasts from the 1970s and '80s of Verdi's first thoughts on specific operas, and it is quite up to the standard of the series. It differs only in being given without an audience, and was broadcast two years after the recording.

The Talich have set down the Quartets on three occasions: for Supraphon in 1990, and for Calliope in 1985 (with Kvapil's excellent account of Book I of On an Overgrown Path as coupling) and 2004 (with the Schulhoff). It is the latter which has been reissued here.

Thuille, a Savoyard, created a name for himself in Munich’s academic life. Now, if his name is known at all, it is because of his famous pupils who included Hermann Abendroth, Ernest Bloch and Walter Braunfels. His writing as a composer has been overshadowed by his reputation as a teacher. Perhaps all that will be changed by this CD. It deserves to. In fact he wrote plentifully with almost one hundred songs and six operas although I can find only three listed in my old edition of Grove.

The Alban Berg Quartet excel in 18th-century repertory and the Franz Josef Haydn found here makes up an especially excellent example of this ensemble’s playing. The music is great, too: the two late Op. 77 Quartets quartets are what I believe are the finest examples he penned in this genre.

These four discs collect Leif Segerstam's second cycle of the symphonies of Sibelius. First issued by Ondine in the early years of the 21st century as separate discs filled out with symphonic poems, the symphonies are here condensed into a cold, hard block of eternity. Segerstam's first Sibelius cycle for Chandos in the early Nineties aimed both barrels at eternity, but with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra's colorful and dedicated but sometimes too cheerful playing, he didn't always hit it.

Thuille, a Savoyard, created a name for himself in Munich’s academic life. Now, if his name is known at all, it is because of his famous pupils who included Hermann Abendroth, Ernest Bloch and Walter Braunfels. His writing as a composer has been overshadowed by his reputation as a teacher. Perhaps all that will be changed by this CD. It deserves to. In fact he wrote plentifully with almost one hundred songs and six operas although I can find only three listed in my old edition of Grove.

Beethoven's String Quartets are well known for their inventiveness. The mold of the string quartet form, established by Haydn, was shattered by Beethoven's profound expression and expansion of the "rules." Between 1999 and 2003, the renowned Pražák Quartet recorded all of the Beethoven string quartets, and this match of program and performers is one made in heaven.

This recording demonstrates, the Lindsays still continue to make the same sort of expressively intense and interpretatively aggressive recordings the group produced for the past three decades. And it must be admitted that the current Lindsays are every bit as willing and able to bend tempos, push phrases, and exaggerate dynamics as the original Lindsays. Indeed, in the group's need to prove its potency, it is now even more willing and there are times when the Lindsays' approach is too powerful for Haydn's music. Listen to the climax of the Largo assai from the G minor Quartet: if you like the sound of Peter Cooper's stabbing violin rending the tempo and texture of the music, you'll love the rest of the recording. If you don't, you won't. ASV's sound is nicely detailed, but slightly too reverberant.

Still at it and still pretty good at it even if not as good at it as it used to be, the Borodin Quartet continues to record with only cellist Valentin Berlinsky still on hand from the Borodin Quartet of the '60s. With a powerful attack and an expressive tone, the new Borodin Quartet is a fine ensemble. But although the attack is powerful, it's not the old Borodin's attack. The angle of attack is different, the point is different, the moment is different.