Liszt Piano Concertos

Liszt Piano Concertos concert disc contains:

1.  Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2

2. Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1

3. Liszt Consolation No. 3

4. Liszt Valse oubliée No. 1

5. Wagner's A Faust Overture

6. Wagner's Siegfried Idyll

Daniel Barenboim is pianist.  Pierre Boulez conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin. Released in 2012, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: Help!

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Mahler Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection"

Mahler Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection". Alan Gilbert conducts the New York Philharmonic at the Avery Fisher Hall on 9/10/2011 commemorating the attack on the World Trade Center buildings ten years earlier on 9/11/[01]. Singers are Dorothea Röschmann (soprano), Michelle DeYoung (mezzo-soprano), and the New York Choral Artists (directed by Joseph Flummerfelt). Directed by Michael Beyer; produced by Paul Smaczny. This performance is also known as A Concert for New York: In Rembembrance and Renewal. Grade: Help!

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Mahler Symphony No. 8 "Symphony of a Thousand"

Mahler Symphony No. 8 "Symphony of a Thousand". Riccardo Chailly conducts 2011 the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig as well as the MDR Rundfunkchor, the Chor der Oper Leipzig, the GewandhausChor, the Thomanerchor Leipzig, and the GewandhausKinderchor (Chorus Masters Howard Arman, Georg Christoph Biller, Frank-Steffen Elster, Gregor Meyer, and Volkmar Olbrich). Soloists are Erika Sunnegårdh (soprano), Ricarda Merbeth (soprano), Christiane Oelze (soprano), Lioba Braun (alto), Gerhild Romberger (alto), Stephen Gould (tenor), Dietrich Henschel (baritone), and Georg Zeppenfeld (bass). Produced by Paul Smaczny; directed for TV by Michael Beyer. Released 2011, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: Help!

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Mahler Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection"

Mahler Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection". Riccardo Chailly conducts the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig as well as the MDR Rundfunkchor, the Berliner Rundfunkchor, and the GewandhousChor (Chorus Masters Howard Arman, Simon Halsey, and Gregor Meyer). Soloists are soprano Christiane Oelze and mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly. Produced by Paul Smaczny; directed for TV by Henning Kasten. Released 2011, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: Help!

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Chopin Warsaw Recital

Chopin The Warsaw Recital. Daniel Barenboim performs the following solo Chopin pieces in 2010 at the Warsaw National Philharmonic Hall:

1. Fantasia in F minor

2. Nocturne in D flat major

3. Sonata in B flat minor

4. Barcarolle in F sharp major

5. Waltz in F major

6. Waltz in A minor

7. Waltz in C sharp minor

8. Berceuse in D flat major

9. Polonaise in A flat major

10. Mazurka in minor

11. Waltz in D flat major

Produced by Paul Smaczny; directed for TV by Michael Beyer. Released 1011, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A

Save for the iconic funeral march, this 2010 performance features Daniel Barenboim in a sunny, optimistic all-Chopin program for the Composer's bicentennial in Warsaw, Poland. Considering Barenboim's legendary intellectual curiosity, its almost ironic that this program contains most of Chopin's popular, crowd-pleasing work.

In this performance Barenboim summoned all of his physical and intellectual prowess---and charm. Robert Schumann's famous criticism of Chopin's second piano sonata (four unruly children bound together)  seems less valid thanks to the precision and sense of architecture Barenboim brings to it. The finale doesn't have the cosmic, manic energy Alfred Cortot brought in a popular EMI account, but Barenboim’s control is remarkable. Until the last note, he plays the whole movement in velvet pianissimo (and with astonishing clarity), showing the finale's journey through the pleasant harmonic changes written in.  It makes the final notes that much more of a surprise. Barenboim's wealth of life experience must have brought a warmth and maturity to the Barcarolle, which is uncommon among most competition winners these days. Perhaps the most delightful pieces on this disc are the waltzes---I've never heard Barenboim play with so much grace and finesse.

This concert has a very pleasant and uncommonly no-nonsense camera direction--- I love it.  It's not erratic and pretentious like Barenboim's acclaimed 2005 EMI DVD set of the Beethoven Sonatas (which needs to be re-edited and released on blu-ray). In this Chopin video, we always get great shots of his hands or profile which never linger too long or too short. It's just really well thought out compared to the otherwise superb EMI Beethoven cycle. Recorded with modern technology, the handsome Steinway concert grand sounds very real.

A few interpretational quirks in this concert will definitely offend most Chopinists (I didn't particularly admire the repetitive "DING!" sounds Barenboim made in certain notes during the A-minor waltz).  His habit of producing thumping sonorities in grand passages (as he does in the Brahms Concertos or Beethoven Sonatas) is present---but are fortunately tolerable. And it's true; there have been other pianists who have brought out more mysticism from the Sonata or drama in the Fantasy. But because Barenboim played all of these works with such convincing authority and the concert was filmed and recorded so well, no connoisseur should forgo experiencing this.

Almost inarguably, this is one of the best blu rays discs of a solo piano recital. If this program were in the hands of a certain histrionic Chinese celebrity, the present disc could have been a tasteless spectacle. Instead, this is a milestone in Barenboim's illustrious career and a thoroughly enjoyable product.  It fully deserves an "A" grade.

Martha Argerich & Mischa Maisky

Martha Argerich & Mischa Maisky concert. Argerich, Maisky, and the Lucerne Symphony perform:

1. Dvořák Scherzo capriccioso in D flat major

2. Shchedrin Romantic Offering (world premiere)

3. Franck Sonata for Cello and Piano in A Major

4. Shostakovich Symphony No. 9

Neeme Jarvi conducts the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester. Directed for TV by Michael Beyer. Released 2011, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B+

This concert was recorded February 9/10, 2011 in Lucerne. The HDVD came to my door in Dallas, Texas on July 6, less than 6 months later! Now we are getting current events on Blu-ray! This is a concert by the Lucerne Symphony, a relatively small, young band that probably often feels overshadowed by the famous festival. So why did Paul Smaczny, probably the world's most distinguished independent produced of HDVDs, get interested  this?

Well, Smaczny has a keen sense for performances that are also "events." Here the event was a world premier of a double piano/cello concerto written by Rodion Shchedrin under commission from the Lucerne Symphony. And they had recruited Martha Argerich and Mischa Maisky to play the first public performance.

The Lucerne folks all but jumped out of their skins at this chance to shine and get recorded to boot. They came up with an exuberant program. Warm-up number was a happy Dvořák Scherzo Capriccioso in D flat Major. Then followed the Shchedrin Romantic Offering double concerto. (The keep case booklet says this is the only double concerto for piano and cello ever written.) Now I don't think Shchedrin was trying to depict young love in this work. Maybe a better title for it might be Battle of the Sexes. But the sophisticated audience went for it and especially loved the spectacle at the end when Shchedrin went on stage and got on his knees kissing Martha's hands. I learned this: no matter how difficult or daunting a piece of music may be to you the novice listener, somebody poured his heart and soul into it---so give it a chance.

After intermission, Martha & Mischa (this time in iridescent blue) came back with the crowd-pleasing Cesar Franck Sonata in A Minor for Cello and Piano. Never mind that Martha was hitting a lot of bad notes at the end---it was fine for the most part. Finally the orchestra returned for a jaunty rendition of the Shostakovich Symphony No. 9 in which the composer seems drunk with joy that he didn't get shot in the Lubyanka. Whew!

The performances here are not quite at the world-class level, but it was, as Smaczny had hoped, a fun event. And there is always that possibility that Romantic Offering will become a popular piece of contemporary music. Then Smaczny can brag he was there. And by buying this HDVD, you can brag too!

Mahler Symphony No. 9

Mahler Symphony No. 9 concert. Claudio Abbado conducts the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in 2010. Directed for TV by Michael Beyer; produced by Paul  Smaczny. Released 2011, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. This is the first HDVD to have a "multi-angle conductor camera." When you turn this on (typically with the "Angle" button on the remote control), you just see the conductor---it's possible to listen to the entire symphony and only see what various players in the orchestra see of the conductor when not looking directly at their sheet music. Grade: C

Paul Smaczny left EuroArts and started the Accentus label. It appears he took with him the contract to publish the Mahler symphony concerts at the Lucerne Festival. The last EuroArts disc in this series was the Symphony No. 7. Subject title is the first for Accentus, and Accentus will probably publish the Abbado Symphony No. 8 [this prediction turned out to be true].  

This title made a splash. David Gutman in the June 2011 Gramophone praised the DVD lavishly and it got an award. But you get the impression that Gutman never saw the Blu-ray version. This makes you wonder what kind of equipment and credentials even the top record critics have. Subject title also got a "Diapason d'Or" award from Diapason magazine.

We disagree, however, with these glowing assessments. For a complete review from confrere William Alexander Huang, see his special article Too Close to Greatness. We think this Lucerne performance was fine and could have been made into a great "A+" HDVD title. But the sound, though well miked and mixed, was not recorded with 96kHz/24bit sampling technology. And the video content is obsolete because it does not follow best practice standards and violates Huang's Law. This law holds that a good HDVD shoot will, "Use the flexible power of the high-def camera to get a pleasant (not hyperactive) mixture of shots of solos, small groups, small sections, large sections, and even groups of sections as well as the whole orchestra---depending on what forces the composer commits at various places in the score." For a discussion of an HDVD that gets the video content (and sound) right, see Huang's special article An Introduction to Blu-ray.

The heart of the problem with subject disc (and many other similar titles) is what we sometimes call DVDitis. The industry is still shooting DVDs and then trying to use the material to have another HDVD profit center. You can't do this. Because DVD picture resolution is so low, you have to shoot the DVDs as a long daisy chain of close-ups. This doesn't allow the viewer to see what is happening in the large orchestra. With high-definition cameras, the video director can follow the composer's score as his shooting script and give the viewer comprehensive views of what the orchestra is doing (in addition to the close ups).