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Presto News - 24th November 2008The World's Great Orchestras, and Euros and US Dollars now accepted |
 An international perspective this week inspired by the Gramophone Magazine’s highly controversial ranking of the world’s twenty ‘greatest orchestras’. It was an ambitious project to say the least but they assembled an eleven-strong panel of worldwide music critics - comprising three British critics from the magazine, two Americans, two Asians and one each from Le Monde (France), Die Welt (Germany), De Telegraaf (the Netherlands) and Die Presse (Austria) - and valiantly set about the impossible.  Mariss Jansons I suppose the best opportunity you get anywhere in the world to compare the relative qualities of different orchestras is at the BBC Proms every summer where you can hear different world class orchestras night after night, but even then you’ve got a problem because they’re playing different music and they’ve almost always got different conductors as well. And although I guess the make-up of the panel was designed to gave a good balance to the discussions, how many of them could for example claim to have heard the Saito Kinen Orchestra (Japan) recently (if at all) – yet that Orchestra ended up 19th on the list. The three British critics didn’t do much to help the British Orchestras with only the LSO making the list (at No. 4) compared with seven American ones! - surely the Philharmonia at least should have been up there. As I said at the outset this sort of survey is always going to be controversial and I think the biggest omission is Claudio Abbado’s handpicked Lucerne Festival Orchestra which I'd have put in the top five, let alone top twenty. It is hard to argue with the top three though - in reverse order - Vienna, Berlin and the Royal Concertgebouw, although I’m sure Berlin and Vienna will both feel slightly peeved to have missed out on top spot, having traditionally fought each other for the unofficial title since the days of Karajan and Bernstein in the 1960s and 70s. The Royal Concertgebouw though under their principal conductor Mariss Jansons are fully deserving winners and follow up their recent outstanding Strauss Alpine Symphony (Disc of the Month in a recent Gramophone) with a new Mahler 5 which is out today and tops our New Release section below.  Continuing with the international theme, an important note this week for our overseas customers in that we’ve just introduced the option to pay in Euros and US dollars as well as Pounds Sterling. We’ve done this in response to a regular flow of emails asking to know exactly how much things will cost in these currencies, and we hope you will find the facility useful. We take a daily update from the bank to ensure that prices remain as close as possible to the Pound Sterling alternative, but you are free to shop in whichever currency you like – just click the 'Change country/currency' link in the top right corner of the website. And of course with the fall in value of the pound over the last couple of months we think you’ll find our prices rather competitive, and hopefully our very fast turn-around of orders (made possible by our commitment to over 10,000 stock items) will help offset the extra day or two it spends in the post. Any questions, as always please don’t hesitate to ask. And apologies if your currency still isn’t listed. We hope to roll out more next year.
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Chris O'Reilly - chris@prestoclassical.co.uk |
New Releases24th November 2008 |
This is just the pick of the recent releases. The New Releases and Future Releases pages are always available for browsing all the new and forthcoming releases. |
 Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minorRoyal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mariss Jansons (chief conductor)Practically on the 120th anniversary of the first performance on 3 November 1888, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra releases a new episode in Mariss Jansons' Mahler cycle: the majestic Symphony No. 5. The history of this world class orchestra and the composer are closely interwined. It was Willem Mengelberg, Chief Conductor from 1895 to 1945, a close compatriot and fierce champion of Mahler's music, running strongly against European and American public taste and critical disdain, who championed Mahler's music with his Amsterdam orchestra and this music has remained on their music stands ever since. Mahler with the RCO is always like coming home. In this recording Jansons underscores more than ever the Fifth's narrative, poetic side. |
 Lasso - Canciones Sacrae sex vocum (Graz 1594)Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe HerrewegheThe Cantiones Sacrae are Lassus’ swansong, crowning his life's work. In them Roland de Lassus deploys the essence of his art, which distinguishes him from his contemporary Palestrina and complex polyphony is employed in order to espouse the nuances of the text as closely as possible. In other words, here we have the ideal balance between 'head' and 'heart', a recurrent feature of most of the greatest masterpieces. Philippe Herreweghe has long been considered one of the foremost interpreters of the music of Lassus. Here he leads his hand-picked choral ensemble, Concerto Vocale, in definitive readings of these seminal works of the Renaissance choral repertoire. |
 Sakari Oramo conducts Magnus Lindberg (World Première Recordings)Esa Tapani (horn), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sakari OramoMagnus Lindberg is one of Finland's leading international contemporary composers, together with Kaija Saariaho and Einojuhani Rautavaara. This disc, to celebrate Lindberg's 50th birthday, follows on from the huge success of the Clarinet Concerto recording, also for Ondine, best contemporary / première recording both at the Gramophone Awards and the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2006. |
 Sibelius - Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin DavisSir Colin Davis' award-winning cycle of Sibelius's symphonies reaches its conclusion with the release of Symphonies Nos 1 & 4. Sibelius was still heavily influenced by Tchaikovsky when he composed his First Symphony although there are clear signs of him developing his own highly individual style. The Fourth Symphony, completed eleven years later consitutes a dark heart at the centre of his symphonic output, written shortly after he underwent treatment for cancer. |
 Melchior Neusidler - Lute MusicPaul O'Dette (lutes)The son of a lute maker and prominent teacher, Melchior Neusidler was lucky enough to gain the favour of the Fuggers, a rich family of Augsburg bankers: soon his skills as a performer and their passion for his art enabled him to make his living from music, despite his 'difficult' character, which discouraged many patrons! Paul O'Dette breathes new life into the music of this now forgotten master, which at one time was to be heard all over Europe. |
 Duruflé - RequiemMagid El-Bushra (countertenor) & Peter Harvey (baritone), The Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, Bill Ives (director)In 1961, the 59-year-old Maurice Duruflé put the finishing touches to the third and last version of his Requiem, composed 14 years previously. Duruflé had already transcribed some of these themes for the organ: hence this entire programme underlines the artistic and spiritual coherence of his approach. Bill Ives leads the men and boys of the Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford and the players of the English Sinfonia in a glorious disc, rich in timbre and deeply spiritual. |
 Mozart - Serenade and DivertimentoAlexander Janiczek (Director & Violin), Scottish Chamber OrchestraThe Scottish Chamber Orchestra continues their hugely successful series of Mozart recordings, following on from Mozart Symphonies 38-41. Austrian-born violinist Alexander Janiczek directs the Orchestra in a fine performance of the rarely recorded Colloredo Serenade and Divertimento K.251. The Colloredo Serenade, written for Hieronymous, Count von Colloredo, who was elected Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg in 1772, shows the eighteen-year-old Mozart writing in an easy, informal style, but showing great originality. |
 Strauss, R: Der RosenkavalierBrigitte Fassbaender, Claire Watson, Karl Ridderbusch, Lucia Popp, Benno Kusche, Annelie Waas, David Thaw, Margarethe Bence & Gerhard Unger, Bavarian State Opera, Carlos KleiberCarlos Kleiber conducted Der Rosenkavalier in the most famous opera houses all over the world, but nowhere as much as at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. These performances justifiably remain in the audiences' memory, as proven by this recording of a 1973 festival performance. A year after the première of this Munich production, the performances had become that of a perfect ensemble: the different vocal characteristics of the various singing personalities also inspired Kleiber to bring to light other details of the score: the blackness and the seriousness of the bass Karl Ridderbusch as Baron Ochs is made all the more intense by the almost threatening quality of the orchestra, and even more refreshing by the purposefully performed comic punchlines; the wise melancholy of the Marschallin is celebrated by Claire Watson and Carlos Kleiber with equally shadowed quality and accentuation; the vocal freshness and natural impetuosity of Lucia Popp as Sophie and Brigitte Fassbaender in the title-role match Carlos Kleiber's direction in its unrestrained vigour. |
 BBC Radio 3 CD ReviewSaturday 22nd November 2008 |
Building a Library - Vaughan Williams: Job - A Masque for Dancing |
 First Choice(as part of the budget priced 30 CD set - Vaughan Williams - The Collector’s Edition)London Symphony Orchestra, Adrian Boult |
 First Choice(as part of a smaller 8 CD set containing the Complete Symphonies and other works)London Symphony Orchestra, Adrian Boult |
 Single Disc Choice(coupled with Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Five Variants of Dives & Lazarus)London Philharmonic, Vernon Handley |
Disc of the Week |
 Bartók - ConcertosPierre-Laurent Aimard, Tamara Stefanovich (pianos), Gidon Kremer (violin), Yuri Bashmet (viola), London Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Pierre Boulez (conductor). |
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