Thomas Lisowsky

Oberlin is a native of Akron, OH, who, despite his birthdate (1928), is a contemporary to falsetto countertenor Alfred Deller – Oberlin also began his recording career right around 1950. Unlike Deller, countertenor is Oberlin's true range, and unlike Deller, he did not stick around to make recordings when his voice was past its prime; in the mid-'60s Oberlin quit singing and went into education. While Oberlin is not quite forgotten, relatively few plaudits and reissues have come his way.

Thomas Arne, (who wrote “Rule Britannia”) is underplayed. Practically everything I’ve heard by him is of interest on multiple levels, either as an original voice utilizing the harmonic and melodic materials of the English baroque style, or as an innovator, at least to my ears, conjuring novel expressions within those materials, or simply as a good tunesmith.

The Masque of Alfred - apart of course from its finale "Rule Britannia" - has in the 1990s reached CD. Just two years ago a version was issued with the BBC Music Magazine and now we have this more complete account (though there were several variants in Arne's own day) from Nicholas McGegan, an experienced exponent of 18th Century music, recorded in America and using mainly American performers. And very welcome is it. If offers 76 minutes of music, 25 minutes more than the BBC CD and if the OAE's playing on the latter under Nicholas Kraemer often seems rather superior, the Philharmonic Baroque Orchestra are fully equal to Arne's demands which include often atmospheric parts for oboes, horns and flute as well as the basic strings. McGegan uses only four solo singers against the BBC's six.

Here is Johann Sebastian Bach in transfigured light: with organ chorale preludes, vocal cantata movements and orchestral sinfonias – 24 pieces in all – transcribed for trio and solo piano by Fred Thomas, and threaded into a compelling new sequence by Manfred Eicher. On Three Or One, Bach’s idiom is respectfully explored by three innovative players, a process Thomas describes as “quietly joyful,” and the trio pieces, primarily drawn from Bach’s Orgelbüchlein, acquire a fresh character in the hands of Kazakh violinist Aisha Orazbayeva and British cellist Lucy Railton, musicians more often associated with contemporary composition’s cutting edge.

Neither too nationalist nor too internationalist, this 1995 recording of Béla Bartók's two violin concertos featuring Thomas Zehetmair with Ivan Fischer leading the Budapest Festival Orchestra is just right. Austrian-born Zehetmair has a fabulous technique, a warm but focused tone, and lively sense of rhythm, all of which make him an ideal Bartók player. His interpretations are less about showing off then about digging in, and his performances are more about the music than they are about the musician. Hungarian conductor Fischer and his Hungarian orchestra are not only up for the music in a technical sense, they are also down with the music in an emotional sense, and their accompaniments ground Zehetmair's coolly flamboyant performances. Captured in white-hot sound that is almost too vivid for its own good, these performances deserve to stand among the finest ever recorded.

Four CD set. SoulMusic Records is proud to present a first-of-it's-kind complete collection of all of the Atlantic and Stax recordings by Carla Thomas, released between 1960-1968. With a total of 94 tracks, Let Me Be Good To You celebrates 'The First Lady Of Stax Records' whose 1961 classic hit 'Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes)' led to the Memphis-based label's distribution with Atlantic Records. Sequenced by session, the deluxe 4-CD set includes tracks from Carla's four solo albums, plus the famed 1967 King & Queen LP of duets with the late Otis Redding. The 'A' and 'B' sides of all of Carla's singles - including (28) non-album tracks - are featured including Carla's duets with her famous father, Rufus Thomas, along with five live recordings from Carla's 1967 performances in London and Paris with the famed Stax/Volt Revue. Produced by SoulMusic Records founder David Nathan, Let Me Be Good To You - The Atlantic & Stax Recordings (1960-1968) boasts a stellar 8,000-word extensive essay by renowned UK writer Charles Waring with 2020 quotes from Stax executive Al Bell, famed songwriter/producer David Porter, Carla's sister Vaneese (a recording artist in her own right) and former Stax publicist and songwriter Deanie Parker and others.

Never mind the Symphonie espagnole and Le roi d’Ys, Edouard Lalo is the last of the great unknowns in 19th-century French music. His mature instrumental works combine the wisdom drawn from his professional playing experience with the familiar flair for rhythm and colour. They are likely to transform any opinion you may hold: it isn’t often that the inspiration of Beethoven was so well digested in France. The first two trios don’t really count as mature, and although they contain fine things, especially in the scherzos, their characteristic soul, sweep and dash are often clumsily handled. With No. 3, form and feeling are as one, the first movement’s surges integral to its progress to a hushed end, while the slow movement builds a powerful span from a sustained melody. Between them comes the irresistible piece better known in Lalo’s later arrangement as a Scherzo for orchestra. These performances have the necessary robustness without stinting on delicacy.