Pablo Curise

Pablo Cruise achieved some measure of success during the latter part of the '70s with their mellow, easygoing California pop. The band was formed in 1973 by former members of Stoneground and It's a Beautiful Day: guitarist Dave Jenkins, keyboardist Cory Lerios, bassist Bud Cockrell, and drummer Steve Price…

This program is a mirror of four musical universes, which are as contrasted as interconnected with each other. Enlightening and transgressive, music full of passions, irony, madness, humor, heart- breaking pain, the controversy of letting go, and the purity of love in different states and forms. Bernstein and Poulenc, invited by Benny Goodman’s artistry to create two delighful chamber works – for one was his penultimate,, for the other his first. Weinberg and Prokofiev achieving at the same time the powerful grandeur of their expression and virtuosity, through two of their most intimate and fragile masterpieces. It has been a super exciting adventure to travel all the way this music has taken us through, and we feel this program has an authentic message which connects us to our recent roots and encourages us to go forward full of love, passion and enthusiasm.

These three magnificent works belong in the repertoire of cellists everywhere. They are full of Villa-Lobos’ signature exotic instrumental textures, folk-like melodies, and abundant invention. They are also harder than hell to play, and difficult to balance. Villa-Lobos was a cellist himself, and loved the instrument’s low, dark register. Penetrating his dense orchestration without making the instrument sound like a dying cow is just one of the many challenges facing cellists attempting to come to grips with this marvelously expressive music, though recordings can solve this problem with sensitive microphone placement. Antonio Meneses understands both the music and its performance problems, and his lower register manages to sound gruff without undue signs of bovine distress. He’s helped by some very sensitive accompaniments; Pérez projects the music’s lush timbres without laying it on too thick.

Pablo Casals was once the greatest living cellist. His technique was formidable, his tone was magisterial, and his interpretations were sovereign. In the '20s and '30s, Casals was a charismatic virtuoso on the same level as Kreisler and Horowitz. Those days were over by the time he recorded Beethoven's works for cello and piano with the superb Rudolf Serkin in 1954. His formidable technique had irrevocably decayed: in the fast passages and movements, Casals could barely keep up and he dropped notes like a tree drops leaves in a late autumn rain. His magisterial tone has deteriorated: in the slow passages and movements, Casals groaned and growled like boughs and branches in a hard autumn wind.

This is a world première production on DVD. Torvaldo merits greater attention than has been previously paid to it; the rich orchestration, preludes of infallible expression and recitative passage of extraordinary clarity deem this an opera of considerable interest.

Star tenor and director Rolando Villazn's staging of La Traviata at the Festspielhaus in Baden Baden is "visually spectacular" (The Huffington Post) and made for "an enthusiastic reception for the premiere" (Stuttgarter Zeitung)! Villazn "proves again his excellent narrating skills on stage" (WDR Klassik). "The setting and opulence of the stage captivates the spectator, as do the stylized costumes designed by Thibault Vancraenenbroeck for circus artists" (Stuttgarter Zeitung). Olga Peretyatko as Violetta delivers "a fantastic portrait of the title role wavering between adolescent joie de vivre, mature insight and anguish" (Stuttgarter Zeitung).