Label: Pearl Classical

Kurt Weill - Kurt Weill from Berlin to Broadway (1995) {2CD Set, Pearl GEMM CDS 9189}
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© 1995 Pearl | GEMM CDS 9189
Classical / Stage & Screen / Cabaret / Opera / Jazz

Did coming to America dull one of this century's most talented composers of music for the German theater? Nonsense. Kurt Weill simply turned into one of this century's most talented composers of music for the American theater. He arrived in America in 1935, and it took him only a few years until he was writing theater music for Broadway that was idiomatic and of the very highest quality. Therefore, if one finds fault with the American Kurt Weill, then one must find fault with American musical theater from the thirties and forties in general, because Weill was one of its best craftsmen.

Spanish cellist Pablo Casals ceased performing in 1946 to protest the world's indifference to the oppressive Franco regime then in power in his homeland. The silence of the cellist, then in his 70s, was keenly felt by the millions who loved him. When he returned to concertizing in 1950, at first it was only to honor Bach, who had died two hundred years before. Violinist Alexander Schneider (of the Budapest Quartet) was integral in coaxing Casals out of his silence and in planning what became known as the Prades Bach Festival.

These recordings were made between 1937 and 1942, and they represent the sum of Mengelberg's commercially released Beethoven for the Telefunken label.

The music of Steve Reich has been heard in various venues, including electronic music dance clubs, but the full symphony orchestra treatment has been rare. That is changing, however, with the tenure of Kristjan Järvi as chief conductor of the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the result in that musically conservative, German city is this major-label double album of Reich's music, in many respects a first. Järvi's enthusiasm for the project is palpable here, most obviously in the live performance of the early Reich standard Clapping Music, which he and the composer perform together to the approval of the crowd.

Various Artists - Keyboard Wizards Of The Gershwin Era - Volume VI (1922-34) {Pearl GEMMCD 9206 rel 1998}
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© 1922-34, 1998 Pearl | GEMM CD 9206
Classical / Jazz / Traditional Jazz / Pop / Piano

This has to be one of the most brilliant piano collections ever. The whole Keyboard Wizards series is wonderful, but some of the tracks on this disc - notably the duet "Dizzy Fingers" - are jaw-droppingly stunning. As a longtime pianist myself, I can't imagine playing some of these works, and the remastered recordings are a national treasure. I hope the creating company keeps finding and releasing more! Another great audio-engineering feat by this label. Another disc that I have listened to dozens of time. My only suggestion would have been giving Constance Mering billing over Vee Lawnhurst as Constance's playing displays greater technique and artistic range.

Mother of Pearl is the first duo album from composers Sarah Davachi and Sean McCann. Two people, a couple, recording together at home. A slow, autumnal album made with no preconceptions or planning. Intimate, intended for ourselves.

Various Artists - Keyboard Wizards Of The Gershwin Era - Volume V (1912-28) {Pearl GEMM CD 9205 rel 1998}
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© 1912-28, 1998 Pearl | GEMM CD 9205
Classical / Jazz / Vocal / Traditional Jazz / Pop / Piano

Keyboard Wizards Of The Gershwin Era Vol V - by Arndt / Banta / Bargy / Bernard / Bloom was released Jul 28, 1998 on the Pearl label. This Volume V in the series Keyboard Wizards Of The Gershwin Era was part of a seven-volume series released by Pearl from 1995 to 1998 and together provides a comprehensive history of that style of music second to none. The sound quality, considering the tracks date back close to 100 years, is surprisingly good and with this issue you get informative notes.

Recordings of the keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti come and go. Reissues of those made in Paris in the 1930s by Wanda Landowska seem to be always with us. A recent reissue of 26 of them quickly earned a rarely-bestowed rosette in a prestigious CD guide, and the comment, "her playing has more character than that of most modern players put together; it is electrifying in its sheer vitality and imagination".