Leonard Bernstein and New York Philharmonic - Handel ~ Messiah (highlights)

Messiah is unquestionably Handel's most popular work and has been called by the German musicologist Hugo Leichtentritt "one of those mysterious marvels of great art that appear but once in a century!' George Bernard Shaw, as a music critic in the last decade of the nineteenth century wrote "My favorite oratorio is the Messiah, with which I have spent many of the hours which others give to Shakespeare, or Scott, or Dickens." These highlights from Messiah are offered, in the words of Leonard Bernstein, "in the spirit of deep love for the music and reverence for its textual significance.

tracks

01. Air - Every valley shall be exaulted (3:31)
02. Chorus - And the Glory of the Lord (3:08)
03. Chorus - And He shall purify (2:40)
04. Air - O thou that tellest good tidings to zion (5:26)
05. Chorus - For unto us a Child is born (3:56)
06. Air - He shall feed His flock (6:42)
07. Chorus - Lift up your heads (3:09)
08. Chorus - Hallelujah! (4:49)
09. Air - I know my redeemer liveth (8:08)
10. Air - The trumpet shall sound (4:01)
11. Chorus: Worthy is the Lamb - Blessing and honour - Amen (7:17)

Chorus - And the Glory of the Lord

Radetzky Marsch ~ Herbert von Karajan

tracks
1. Johann Strauss (Vater) - Radetzky-Marsch op. 228 (2:28)
2. Josef Strauss - Sphärenklänge op. 235 (9:51)
3. Johann Strauss - Perpetuum Mobile op. 257 (2:55)
4. Josef Strauss - Delirien-Walzer op. 212 (9:44)
5. Johann Strauss - G'schichten aus dem Wienerwald op. 325 (13:14)
6. Johann Strauss - "Die Fledermaus" : Quadrille op. 363 (5:11)
7. Johann Strauss - Wiener Blut op. 354 (8:53)
8. Johann Strauss - Napoleon-Marsch op. 156 (1:46)

Johann Strauss - Perpetuum Mobile

Vladimir Ashkenazy ~ Rachmaninov Transcriptions

Although he has recorded almost all of Rachmaninov's music, Vladimir Ashkenazy is not a pianist one would expect to be attracted to the composer's transcriptions--or to play them as well as he does on this disc. Ashkenazy has a deserved reputation for sobriety, seriousness, and faithfulness to the composer's texts. These qualities do not usually accord with a taste for transcriptions, which celebrate the resources of the piano and the legerdemain of the virtuoso. But time seems to have softened Ashkenazy's puritanism. It's hard to think of anyone--save the composer himself--who has ever played so many of these transcriptions so well. In Rachmaninov's arrangement of the Scherzo from Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Ashkenazy attacks the famously difficult passages--with their crossed hands, thick chords, and awkwardly positioned repeated notes--and achieves results superior to those of pianists who are considered specialists in this kind of literature. The energy, delicacy, and transparency of his interpretation make Bolet's sound labored and Wild's heavy-handed. Ashkenazy's approach to these pieces resembles Rachmaninov's: lean, swift, and unsentimental. His performance of the transcription of Tchaikovsky's song "Lullaby," for example, moves at a dry-eyed pace and with a disciplined rhythm similar to that heard on the composer's own recording. But unsentimental does not mean lack of feeling. In this piece, and elsewhere on the disc, Ashkenazy surpasses his peers in capturing Rachmaninov's poignancy and passion, as well as his nostalgia for the Russia he would never see again.

tracks

01. J.S. Bach Partita in E major for solo violinI. Preludio (3:31)

02. J.S. Bach Partita in E major for solo violinII. Gavotte (2:41)

03. J.S. Bach Partita in E major for solo violinIII. Gigue (1:40)

04. Schubert WohinDie schöne Müllerin (2:47)

05. Mendelssohn ScherzoA Midsummer Night's Dream (4:25)

06. BizetMinuetL'Arlésienne Suite No.1 (3:03)

07. Mussorgsky HopakSorochintsy Fair (1:38)

08. Rimsky-Korsakov Flight of the Bumblebee (1:16)

09. Tchaikovsky Lullaby, Op.16 No.1 (4:03)

10. Polka de W.R.after Franz BehrScherzpolka (3:44)

11. Rachmaninov Lilacs, Op.21 No.5 (2:21)

12. Rachmaninov Daisies, Op.38 No.3 (2:23)

13. Fritz Kreisler Liebesleid (4:16)

14. Fritz KreislerLiebesfreud (5:50)

15. Rachmaninov Six Morceaux, Op.11 for piano, four hands I. Barcarolle (6:07)

16. Rachmaninov Six Morceaux, Op.11 for piano, four hands II. Scherzo (3:09)

17. Rachmaninov Six Morceaux, Op.11 for piano, four hands III. Thème russe (4:27)

18. Rachmaninov Six Morceaux, Op.11 for piano, four hands IV. Valse (4:10)

19. Rachmaninov Six Morceaux, Op.11 for piano, four hands V. Romance (3:28)

20. Rachmaninov Six Morceaux, Op.11 for piano, four hands VI. Slava (5:11)

21. Rachmaninov Waltzfor piano, six hands (1:23)

22. Rachmaninov Romancefor piano, six hands (3:53)

23. Rachmaninov Italian Polkafor piano, four hands, and trumpet (1:47)

24. Rachmaninov The Star-Spangled BannerJohn Smith, transc. Rachmaninov (1:24)

 J.S. Bach Partita in E major for solo violinI. Preludio

Mendelssohn ScherzoA Midsummer Night's Dream