Ragtime Music

Without question this is one of the unsung treasures in Deutsche Grammophon's vault, which the company has reissued in a splendid 24 bit digital imaging remastering as part of its "Originals" series. The Boston Symphony Orchestra chamber musicians give warm, glowing accounts of Strauss waltz transcriptions composed by the likes of Schoenberg, Webern and Berg, which remain true in spirit to the original compositions. The same can be said for their performances of Stravinsky's chamber music scores. Clearly this is a unique CD because of its Strauss waltz transcriptions, yet one still worth owning inspite of its novelties thanks to the Bostonians' splendid playing.

There are quite a few recordings out there of "Four Norwegian Moods," and none of the others hit those marvelous chords at the end of the introduction to "Wedding Dance" quite right. There should be a burst of light when the whole orchestra stomps twice, and here the rays shine out brilliantly.

That pretty much sums up the rest of the CD as well. The devious "Renard" is sung in Russian as it should be, and the addition of both Suites for Small Orchestra is icing on the cake, especially the way they are handled on this recording.

Just listen to the seductive, lightly lyrical opening of Suite No. 1, a suite that is finished with a playful but punchy staccato chord in the finale. Suite No. 2, while generally at a faster tempo than the First, is adroitly played here. All of Stravinsky's colors are brought out on this CD. See for yourself.

This CD, led by Paavo Järvi and played by the Bremen Chamber Orchestra, is in simply stunning sound, no matter which format you play it in. It is, of course, in hybrid multichannel SACD, which is among the best sounding I've ever heard, but its plain vanilla CD layer is also quite wonderful. The performances themselves are really quite good. 'L'Histoire du soldat' may be a little smooth for some tastes, considering the rustic nature of the story (and that the Soldier is a peasant fiddler, not a conservatory-trained violinist) but if you don't mind the beautiful playing of Florian Donderer (and, really, why should you?) this is an excellent 'L'Histoire.' (Järvi includes the 'Petit choral' which is generally left out of the 'L'Histoire' suite.) As for the other pieces, they are all played as well as I've ever heard them - and I own Stravinsky's own recordings of some of them. I particularly liked the 'Dumbarton Oaks Concerto' - one of my favorite Stravinsky pieces - for its crisp motoric rhythms and suave string playing. The 'Concerto in D' for strings is given a similar performance.

The two 'Suites for Small Orchestra' are brief, satirical and are handled lightly and with rhythmic point. 'Ragtime' is given a suitably dry reading. I have always assumed Stravinsky was sending up the genre but you might feel otherwise. In any event, it is played with bracing secco approach and that's entirely appropriate.

These are worthwhile performances in spectacular sound, and in the instance of the 'Dumbarton Oaks' and the 'Concerto in D,' at least, I don't know of any better recordings.

Scott Morrison

Compilations of classical music usually bring a bite-sized, dumbed-down view of the music at hand, but in the case of a musician of the stature and insight of Pierre Boulez, this is a compilation to be applauded. You will hear Boulez' amazing versatility in music from Berlioz to his own masterpiece Repons, with a powerful, unsentimental Parsifal Prelude, a charming, wonderfully grotesque Lulu excerpt, some ferocious, charged Stravinsky, ecstatic Messiaen, and luminous, gorgeous Ravel and Debussy in between. The playing is uniformly outstanding, and one can only hope that a collection like this will spur neophytes on to the riches of Boulez' discography. Highly recommended!

I spent a lot of money for the Kramer-produced set of interesting performances (and they ARE live performances)mainly to hear the Franck. Kramer himself doesn't play in this performance. The sound is a bit harsh and at times indistinct. The dynamic range is huge; this isn't a recording for anything but dedicated listening, preferably in a large room. The ensemble is often sketchy, sometimes atrocious, and the pianist misses quite a few notes in ways that are all too obvious. That said, the reading itself is full of urgent energy, quirky but effective rhythmic nuances, and above all passion. This ain't a ho-hum performance, but that's probably not a surprise from this group. The audience goes wild at the end. I guess you had to be there.