Mstation Classical Reviews

Age of the Diva Albinoni Almost Christmas Arias, Hampson, Harnoncourt Bach Keyboard Concertos Bach Viola Bach, Barenboim Bach, Cantatas Bach, Concertos Bach, JS, Keyboard Works Bach, Mass in B Minor Bach, Mutter Bach, trio-sonatas Baroque Christmas Album Baroque Trumpet Bartok, Concertos Bartoli Bartoli, Opera Proibita Bax, Baroque Beethoven Piano Beethoven String Quartets Beethoven and Brahms Beethoven, piano Bella Donna: Courtly Love Belle Epoque Melodies Berlioz, Les Troyens Binchois, Dufay Boccherini, Cello Concertos Boxed Baroque Boyce, Eight Symphonies British Light Classics British Piano Concertos Brubeck, The Gates of Justice Bruch, Violin Concerto Callas Canteloube, Chants d'Auvergne Carols Chanticleer, Sound in Spirit Charpentier Charpentier, Lebegue Christmas 04 Christmas Vespers Contemporary and Medieval Copland Delius Der Rosenkavalier Dukachev - Beethoven, Prokofiev, Rachminov Elgar Elgar, Marches Elgar, The Enigma Variations Faure songs French Medieval Songs Fux Gounod, Faust Graham: Causon, Ravel, Debussy Great Ballets Grieg, Franck Handel Arias Handel, Deborah Handel, Messiah Handel, The Triumph ... Handel, Water Music DVD Hapsburg Music Haydn Haydn, Handel DVD's Herz Piano Jane Austen's Songbook Josefowicz Recital King's Singers La Fille Mal Gardee Lang Lang and Yo Yo Ma: Farewell Isabella and Chinese things Lauridsen Llibre Vermell Luci, Bartoli, and a dead diva Lully, Comedies-ballets, Phaeton Maerzmusik sampler Mahler Symphony No 7 Mahler, Berg Mantovani Matsudaira Medieval French Songs Mendelssohn Sacred Mendelssohn, Dvorak Messa di Gloria Michael Haydn Miles Davis ... sorta Monterverdi, Orfeo Monteverdi Vespers Monteverdi, Poppea Monteverdi, The Sacred Music 3 Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Handel Montiverdi Vespers Morricone Mozart Symphonies Mozart, Cosi fan tutte Mozart, Exsultate Jubilate Mozart, Mass in C Minor Mozart, symphonies 40, 41 Mozart: Die Zauberflote Mozart: the string quartets Mozrt Requiem Mutter Mozart New English Hymnal New RSS system and Feeds Nikolay Roslavets Peerson, Latin Motets Penguins March Pergolesi, La Serva Padrona Philip Glass, Symphonies 2 and 3 Poulenc concerto Proms Purcell - Dido and Aeneas Purcell Sonatas Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Rachmaninov, Piano Ramallah - Beethoven No. 5 Rameau, Les Paladins Reger, Bach and Telemann Variations Renaissance Organ Music Romantic Cello Concertos Romantic Violin Russian Album -Anna Netrebko Rutter Mass Sanctuary, the heart has its reasons Scarlatti, The complete Keyboard Sonatas Schubert and Mozart piano Schubert Ð Death and the Maiden Shostakovich Shostakovich and Schnittke, Cello Shostakovich/Josefowicz Sibelius String Quartets Sixteen: Ikon South American Baroque Stainer, The Crucifiction Sting does Dowland Strauss tone poem Takemitsu Tallis Tchaikovsky, Symphony No 5, Verdi, Sibelius The Kirov celebrates Nijinsky Toshiro Mayazumi Vaughan Williams Verdi View from a dark tunnel Virginal -Susann van Soldt Vivaldi Cello Vivaldi, Motezuma Vivaldi, Sacred Music Vivaldi: Dixit Dominus Von Otter Wagner, Das Rheingold Wagner, Gotterdammerung DVD Water Music, Music for the Royal Fireworks Weir, Gillian Weiss / Lindberg Lute Whitacre, Cloudburst Williams, Bingham: Mass von Weber, Chamber Music

Mon, 01 May 2006 Tchaikovsky, Symphony No 5, Verdi, Sibelius Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893) Symphony No 5 in b minor Op64 [44.59] Guiseppe VERDI (1813-1901) Overture La Forza del Destino [8.02] Jean SIBELIUS (1865-1957) Valse Triste Op44 [5.15 Bonus Disc - DVD of The Geneva Concert [59.00]; Documentary on the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra [33.00]; Interview with Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said [83.00]. West-Eastern Divan Orchestra/Daniel Barenboim rec Aug 2004, The Victoria Hall, Geneva, Switzerland. Live Recording. WARNER CLASSICS 2564 62190-5 Occasionally there is a music project that is based on so laudable an idea and carried out with such exemplary aplomb that one cannot help but stand back in awe and gaze. Such is the concept that results in this disc. We know that Barenboim is a great musician, but to be able to pull together as unlikely sounding a group as the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and make them play like this is nothing less than miraculous. The orchestra is comprised entirely of young musicians. Nothing so unusual in that; there are plenty of international youth orchestras (e.g. The Mahler Youth Orchestra under Claudio Abado, the European Union Youth Orchestra under just about anybody famous that you can name) which give the great concert house denizens of the European capitals a run for their money. The remarkable thing here is that the players are drawn in equal numbers from Israel and the Arab countries, including Palestine. A less likely combination for successful artistic partnership is hard to imagine. Maybe the thing that makes it possible at all is the fact that Barenboim and his co-founder the Palestinian writer the late Edward Said, have such political skill as to be able to get the Spanish to host the whole thing and, largely, to pay for it. The orchestra has gathered every summer since 1998 in Andalusia for workshops and rehearsals, learning as much about the pettiness of the long-running Israeli-Arab hatred as about the intricacies of Western symphonic music. Such is the fundraising that the West-Eastern Divan pays scholarships and bursaries for talented young Israeli or Arab musicians to study at conservatoria in Europe as well, and this has resulted in numerous graduates of the orchestra occupying permanent positions in orchestras around the Mediterranean. So what of the music? Well, intensive rehearsal, the envy of most professional orchestras, top players in complete command of their techniques, and Daniel Barenboim. How bad could it possibly be? This is absolutely first rank Tchaikovsky playing in what is arguably his greatest work. Similarly the overture to La Forza del Destino simply buzzes with sinister energy. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra wowed the public at the 2005 Proms in London and they clearly wowed the audience in this live recording in Geneva the previous year. Phenomenal playing under inspired leadership. Highly recommendable, and the bonus DVD is interesting as well. ((c)Peter Wells 2006) [] permanent link