Naxos
CDs: Leonardo
Balada - Sinofonia de Negro: Homage To Martin Luther King
(1968, 1991, 2010), Les
Galanteries: Mandolin Music From The 18th
Century/Artemandoline
(2012 - 13) & Biret
Solo Edition 7/Schumann
(2013)/Brahms: The
Complete Symphonies/Thielemann
(United Classica/C Major Set)/La
Sonnambula/Bellini/Ferro
(United Classica/EuroArts)/La
Bayadere/Minkus/Bolshoi
(Bel Air)/Legend Of The
Invisible City Of Kitezh/Risky-Korsakov/Albrecht
(Opus Arte)/Rape Of
Lucretia/Britten/Paul Daniel
(Opus Arte/BBC)/Written On
The Skin/George Benjamin/Royal Opera House
(Opus Arte/Naxos Blu-rays)
Picture:
X/X/X/B-/B-/C+/B-/B-/B- Sound: C+/B-/B-/B/B-/B/B/B/B- Extras:
C-/C-/C-/B-/C+/C/C+/C+ Main Programs: B-/B-/B-/B/B-/B-/B-/B/B
Here's
a diverse new set of recent Classical titles you should know
about....
All
our releases here are distributed by Naxos, starting with three CDs.
Leonardo
Balada - Sinofonia de Negro: Homage To Martin Luther King
(1968) combines three compositions that may seem contradictory.
Serious, introspective and much as recent as anything on the list,
the middle piece is from 2010 and makes its debut here. Double
Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet & Orchestra
is very much in the mode of the other works, but is not based on
anything historical is supposed to make us think like the other two
included here. The King
work was made after he was killed and is a remarkable piece in its
ability to capture the conflicts and anger in the after math of what
we can safely say was a political assassination. The last four
tracks come from his opera Christopher
Columbus,
which seems like a contradictory thing to include here, but it does
make me want to experience the whole opera. An interesting release
all around.
Les
Galanteries: Mandolin Music From The 18th
Century
(2012
– 13)
is loaded with 24 tracks of 9 composers (plus one listed as
anonymous) that gives one a nice sampling and range of such works by
the 6-member group Artemandoline
that includes vocals in some cases. This is more than most might
want or need to hear, but you'll get a great sampling of what the
famous instrument inspired at just over 55 minutes (Fibber McKee
would be pleased) and it is worth a listen to hear the diversity.
Idil
Biret Solo Edition 7: Robert Schumann
(2013) is
an all-piano presentations of four works by the legendary composer by
Biret, who gives us about 80 minutes on one disc. This is the latest
entry in one of the more popular, successful classical music album
series and you can overdose on piano works here, but it is very
through, well rounded and well done. I can understand the success.
Moving
on to Blu-rays, Brahms:
The Complete Symphonies is
our only Blu-ray set and
is conducted by Christian Thielemann, who previously showed us equal
excellence in his Blu-ray of Beethoven's
7th,
8th
& 9th
Symphonies
at the same time we covered a fine Brahams
Blu-ray from Claudio Abbado at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10861/Brahms+Violin+Concerto/Dvorak+Sym.+No+9/Abb
Symphonies
Nos. 1 & 2 run 118 minutes on the first disc, while Nos. 3 &
4 run only 90 minutes, but like Abbado before him, Thielemann has a
smooth, easy grasp of the classics that make watching and hearing him
bring them to life always a pleasure to enjoy.
Vincenzo
Bellini's La
Sonnambula
is about a sleepwalker and deals with poverty, class division and
isolationism in small place far away in the Swiss Alps. Those
expecting possibly a horror and/or zombie tale will instead discover
other kinds of horror and irony in this solid opera production from
Stuttgart conducted by Gabriele Ferro and a pretty solid cast of
singers. Know that this takes a little while to get started up, but
the results are not bad, though some of the senses of isolation do
not always work. Still, this is decent but long at 156 minutes and
you should have some patience while viewing.
Ludwig
Minkus' La
Bayadere
is presented here by no less than The Bolshoi Ballet with
choreography by Marius Petipa (they wrote the libretto together) and
its great costumes and designs are only outdone by the amazing
dancing throughout the 126 minutes that tells the tale of the
celebration of what seems to be a happy union of man and woman when
things start to slowly go wrong, seem cursed and doom starts to
eclipse joy in the face of love. As good as anything here, this work
deserves wider exposure.
Risky-Korsakov’s
The
Legend Of The Invisible City Of Kitezh
is another dark opera set in what seems like a near future land where
the earth has been ravaged by the abuse of the human race and leaves
our protagonists to go
to the forrest to try to find any life, salvation and joy that might
be left to salvage. As conducted by Marc Albrecht
with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, this is very long at 187
minutes (!) and does not always justify its length, but it was one of
the last works of its legendary composer and needs the time to
realize the work.
Most
serious is Benjamin Britten's The Rape Of Lucretia
running exactly two hours and boldly dealing with the ugly plight of
the title character (Sarah Connolly) and can get rough at times, but
thanks to the skills of all involved including the rest of the opera
singers, Conductor Paul Daniel, Stage Director David McVicar and the
Orchestra of English National Opera. Britten is on of the later
opera composing greats and we have been receiving a series of his
works on Blu-ray, with this one proving once again he is one of the
most important and prolific of creators of works in the art form in
recent times. Another mature work, it is highly recommended, but
make sure you feel you can deal with the subject matter.
Finally
we have George
Benjamin's Written
On The Skin,
who happens to still be alive and well for this Royal
Opera House realization of a tale of a rich, powerful man ironically
called Protector who asks a poor boy to make a magic book to honor
his power, wealth and rule by fear, so the young boy does this and it
backfires on him in profound ways. Martin Crimp wrote the text and
this work only just debuted in 2012, so it is an event to celebrate
and behold because I think this might become some kind of modern
classic. Ideas of magic, religion, spirituality and a sense of
history as the narrative goes from place to place (post-modern or
not) work in its favor and I'll be curious to see the reaction as
this work slowly circulates in artistic circles. You should get this
disc to be one of the first ones to experience it before that happens
so you can have it to yourself for a while.
As
the CDs are imageless, the 1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition
image transfers on the remaining Blu-ray releases (save Skin
in a 2.35 X 1/25fps/1080p presentation) look good often and have some
good color, but as UltraHD approaches, with its 2160p performance,
detail issues and depth limits will be slowly more noticeable. There
are also crushed video black and slight noise moments here and there,
but sadly Bayadere has more image breakup and motion blue than
I would have liked for such a good-looking production.
As
for sound, the PCM 16/44.1 2.0 Stereo on the three CDs are as good as
the older format will deliver, but have their sonic limits. Balada
however, is a little more strained and the all digital recording and
mastering is part of the problem, making it the poorest performer on
the list sonically. All the Blu-rays sport lossless DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 mixes (Brahams
also has some 5.0) that are all nicely recorded, but Sonnambula
and Skin
lack the full soundfields and range the rest of the Blu-rays have
allowing the better CDs on the list to compete with them overall
though I still thought they were more than clear enough to enjoy.
PCM 2.0 Stereo tracks are also included on all Blu-rays as an option
and for comparison.
Extras
in all releases include the usual booklets on their respective works
and often sport text in several languages. The Blu-rays have less
trailers than usual, Brahms
adds a nearly hour-long featurette on the shows, Sonnambula
adds trailers, Bayadere
adds nothing else, City
adds a Cast Gallery & Cast/Crew Interviews section, Lucretia
adds Cast gallery and Comments by Director David McVicar and Written
adds a Cast Gallery with an Introduction by Creator/Conductor
Benjamin.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
