Sgustok Aus

Long overdue reissue of Berlin-based experimental new wave/post-punk outfit Sprung Aus Den Wolken's vital self-titled debut, remastering it from the original tapes and bundling it with extra material from the same period. RIYL Malaria!, Einstürzende Neubauten, Suicide or Tuxedomoon.

Krenek’s wonderful travelogue is a real tour de force; a fusion of the remembrance of things past—the Schubertian landscape of Austria and its cultural history—with the music of the 1920s. The very special demands it makes of its performers are effortlessly negotiated by Florian Boesch and Roger Vignoles.

French chanteuse Mireille Mathieu is classically known for her illustrious French crooning during the '60s and '70s. In the early '60s, French pop vocalist Johnny Hallyday's manager Johnny Stark noticed Mathieu's enchanting vocalic beauty and later built her into her own star with the classic urchin hairdo and loud, vibrant costumes. She was quickly hailed as the next Edith Piaf and her 1965 performance run at the Paris Olympia sparked her recording relationship with Barclay Records. Singles such as "Mon Credo," "C'est Ton Nom," and "Qu'elle Est Belle" made Mathieu an international star in Europe…

The plot couldn't be simpler: the Spanish nobleman Belmonte must free his fiancée Konstanze, her English maid Blonde and Belmonte's servant Pedrillo from the clutches of the Turkish Bassa, or Pasha, Selim. Belmonte must sneak into the pasha's seraglio and sneak back out again, all the while eluding and outsmarting Osmin, the overseer of the harem. With his Salzburg production of 2003, young Norwegian director Stefan Herheim raised a storm of controversy that continued to crackle in 2006, when the production was revised for the Mozart 22 cycle. The controversy was largely due to the fact that Herheim transposed the events to the inner world of the human psyche.

If you can get past the 1940s monaural sound (and if you are not already familiar with this performance, you will get a shock). This is the gentlest, most right sounding rendition I have ever heard. The tempi are uncommonly brisk, though they never sound that way. The third movement has never sounded more beautiful. Halban is perfect in the finale. Walter passed away before he could record this work in stereo. His later performances were very different and I'm still not sure whether or not his later slower tempos and even greater expression were an improvement.