I'm The Problem

"…Im Klang…," the composition originally written for accordion, makes its recorded debut here in two versions. They are separated by "Klavierstuck '87," performed by the truly gifted Marianne Schroeder. The reason for the two performances is a mechanical one: When Stiebler was going over the score with Teodoro Anzellotti, Anzellotti noted that the accordion (though certainly capable of playing everything) was not capable of making all of it audible – hence the work for organ as well…

The "Limp Bizkit craze" seemed to hit Europe a bit later than it did the U.S. Looking back now, the tour in support of their third album, 2000's Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water, was when you could start seeing cracks in the band's armor. Besides the fact that rap-metal was finally on its way out, this would prove to be the start of the on-again, off-again relationship between the band and guitarist Wes Borland (the only element that many took seriously in the band in the first place), resulting in the group's popularity taking a nosedive on subsequent releases. But overseas in the time frame of 2000, the Bizkit boys could still headline enormoudomes, and get the teens bobbing up and down in unison to rage and rubbery detuned guitar riffs…

It seems that Gary Bertini, like Gustav Mahler, is destined to be better remembered after his death than he was known during his life. When he passed away in 2005, he was little known outside Israel, Japan and continental Europe and nowhere near as widely recognised as the glamour conductors who appear on the пїЅmajorпїЅ labels. His recordings were few and hard to find. A year after his passing, Capriccio has launched a Gary Bertini Edition (see, for example, review) featuring live recordings drawn from the archives of the KпїЅlner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester, and EMI has re-released his Mahler cycle.

After having released boxed cd sets dedicated to former chief conductors Willem Mengelberg, Eduard van Beinum, Bernard Haitink and Riccardo Chailly (now only available as part of the RCO Live Radio Legacy, RCO 13006), the Anthology-series is now brought up to date with radio recordings featuring Mariss Jansons. After being chief conductor for eleven seasons, Jansons has resigned for health reasons. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra's beloved sixth maestro will be succeeded by Daniele Gatti with effect from the 2016/2017 season.

Using the texts of playwright Heiner Muller and collecting a wide range of imaginative musicians, Heiner Goebbels constructed a fascinating music-theater piece that mixes languages and musical styles. The text, read and sung by Arto Lindsay, concerns the thoughts and fears of an employee summoned to his boss' office and has something of a Brazil-like aura about it. Perhaps coincidentally, Lindsay interjects some Brazilian songs into the proceedings. But the highlight is the performance by this stellar ensemble, ranging from free to punkishly tinged jazz-rock to quasi-African. There are outstanding contributions from guitarist Fred Frith, trombonist George Lewis, and the late Don Cherry on trumpet, voice, and the African hunter's guitar known as the doussn'gouni. Goebbels brews a rich stew of overlapping languages and styles in a dense matrix that creates an appropriate feeling of angst, but never loses a sly sense of humor…

The appetite for evolving performance practices in Bach’s St Matthew Passion appears undiminished as we have gradually shifted, over the generations, from larger to smaller ensembles and also towards a greater dramatic understanding of the implications of Bach’s ambitious ‘stereophonic’ double choir and orchestra choreography.