Busoni: Piano worksGeoffrey Tozer
Chandos
An excellent selection of music from "one of those composers". I'd heard this album years ago and liked it, and when I read that Geoffrey Tozer had died recently I immediately thought of it. Funny how a name sometimes just lodges itself into the memory. The Berceuse from the Elegies is one of my favourite pieces of music (related post on that to follow), and one of the other highlights is the charming Turandots Frauengemach, which unexpectedly makes use of Greensleeves! Of course there is Bach-Busoni here too. A great album all round.
Mozart: Overtures
Norwegian National Opera Orchestra/Rinaldo Alessandrini
Naive
Well, everyone needs a collection of Mozart overtures, don't they? This one doesn't have all of them, but it does include a few other orchestral interludes. As good a collection as any, I suppose. And the cover's great!
Soler: Sonatas for harpsichord, volume 11
Gilbert Rowland
Naxos
Bought in Tower Records in a weird little Naxos sale they were having: 4 discs for a tenner, but there were only a few dozen to choose from. Cue a bit of mental arithmetic to work out which ones were cheaper to buy for €2.50 than to download from eMusic. Answer: not that many! But this was a good choice - all highly entertaining.
Weill: Lost in the Stars
cast; Orchestra of St Luke's/Julius Rudel
MusicMasters
Weill's last work, a version (written by Maxwell Anderson) of Alan Paton's novel Cry, the Beloved Country. Anderson called it a "musical tragedy", as opposed to a "musical comedy". I think there's a little too much of the Broadway musical for my taste; what's good is very good, but perhaps a better sort of structure might have suited the material better. But anyway, this is a committed performance and definitely worth hearing.
Mozart: OverturesNorwegian National Opera Orchestra/Rinaldo Alessandrini
Naive
Well, everyone needs a collection of Mozart overtures, don't they? This one doesn't have all of them, but it does include a few other orchestral interludes. As good a collection as any, I suppose. And the cover's great!
Soler: Sonatas for harpsichord, volume 11Gilbert Rowland
Naxos
Bought in Tower Records in a weird little Naxos sale they were having: 4 discs for a tenner, but there were only a few dozen to choose from. Cue a bit of mental arithmetic to work out which ones were cheaper to buy for €2.50 than to download from eMusic. Answer: not that many! But this was a good choice - all highly entertaining.
Weill: Lost in the Starscast; Orchestra of St Luke's/Julius Rudel
MusicMasters
Weill's last work, a version (written by Maxwell Anderson) of Alan Paton's novel Cry, the Beloved Country. Anderson called it a "musical tragedy", as opposed to a "musical comedy". I think there's a little too much of the Broadway musical for my taste; what's good is very good, but perhaps a better sort of structure might have suited the material better. But anyway, this is a committed performance and definitely worth hearing.
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