Theodore Kuchar Latin American Classics

Latin American Classics - Works by Piazzolla, Copland, Chávez, Revueltas, Ginastera and others
New World Symphony · Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Classical | 1 CD | EAC Rip | 326 Mb | FLAC+LOG+M3U+Cue | Full scans | 5 RS links
Publisher: Decca Eloquence Australia 467 603-2(CD)

First released in 1992 under the general title "Tangazo!" (after Piazzola's piece), this exceptional recital was the first in what promised to be a series of Argo recordings featuring Michael Tilson Thomas and his own New World Symphony. That project fizzled out when Argo did, as did this talented orchestra's subsequent deal with RCA. Still, collectors can take heart that these fantastic performances, including reference editions of the Chávez Sinfonia India, the Ginastera Estancia Suite, Revueltas' Sensamayá, and the Piazzola, are now available at budget price. The sonics were superb in 1992 and still are. Ten Twinkies and a Devil Dog chaser to all concerned. [7/17/2001]
–David Hurwitz

Bedrich Smetana was the first major nationalist composer of Bohemia. Probably best known for his opera The bartered bride and of course The Moldau (from ‘My homeland’) most of his orchestral music is rather neglected by the average symphony orchestra.

The music of the Ukrainian-born Thomas de Hartmann (1884–1956) is only now beginning to be rediscovered, almost seven decades after his death. The two works receiving their first recordings here reveal a major late-Romantic voice, downstream from Tchaikovsky, a student of Arensky and Taneyev, contemporary of Rachmaninov, and alert to the discoveries of Stravinsky and Prokofiev. The Symphonie-Poème No. 1 – a musical cousin of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony – occupies a vast canvas and requires a correspondingly huge orchestra, generating a monumental sense of scale from essentially balletic material. The lighter Fantaisie-Concerto for double bass and orchestra moves from tangy dissonance via a tuneful slow movement to a perky, folk-inspired finale.

Klára Würtz studied with Zoltan Kocsis and Gyorgy Kurtag, and received a scholarship from András Schiff for his masterclasses at Prussia Cove, Cornwall, UK. She has since performed widely in the North America and Europe When Bartók started work on his Third and last piano concerto in 1944, he was already ill, and in exile in the United States. The following year he died, leaving the concerto almost complete.