The Music Pages | March 2008


	Cat. No.: 442 9097 Barcode: 0028944290974 Label: Decca CD Release Date: 22 March			SIR GEORG SOLTI \| BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 7 ARTISTS Wiener Philharmoniker Sir Georg Solti TRACK LISTING BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 7 in E major Now considered one of the most important of 19th-century symphonists, during his lifetime, Bruckner was the subject of incomprehension and ridicule. Sir Georg Solti made two recordings of this symphonic edifice. While his Chicago recording has been in regular circulation, this much-requested reissue of the Seventh with the Vienna Philharmonic has lain dormant for far too long and is now exhumed on Decca Eloquence at budget price. The legendary producer/engineer team of John Culshaw and Gordon Parry capture the full splendour of the Sofiensaal acoustics and the 1965 sound is sonorous and burnished. Also reissued on Decca Eloquence is Solti’s Vienna Philharmonic recording of Bruckner’s Eighth. RETURN TO THE TOP

	Cat. No.: 442 9235 Barcode: 0028944292350 Label: Decca CD Release Date: 22 March			SIR GEORG SOLTI \| BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 8 ARTISTS Wiener Philharmoniker Sir Georg Solti TRACK LISTING BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 8 in C major As with his Seventh symphony, Bruckner began his Eighth without a commission and without any specific promise that it would be performed. Nowadays, it’s one of his most often performed symphonies. It also happens to be his longest symphony – one, with its sheer breath of scope, asks for the listener to adjust his or her internal clock. And this performance is nothing short of epic. Recorded in the legendary ‘Decca’ venue of the Sofiensaal, the producer/engineer team were the equally legendary John Culshaw and John Parry. Also reissued on Decca Eloquence is Solti’s 1965 Vienna Philharmonic recording of Bruckner’s Seventh. “Splendidly recorded in the Sofiensaal in 1966 … the Vienna Philharmonic responds to [Solti’s] direction with great fervour and incisiveness” Penguin Guide to CDs RETURN TO THE TOP

	Cat. No.: 442 9985 Barcode: 0028944299854 Label: Decca CD Release Date: 22 March			ALEXANDER GIBSON WITCHES’ BREW: Saint-Saëns \| Arnold \| Mussorgsky \| Humperdinck \| Gounod ARTISTS New Symphony Orchestra of London Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Sir Alexander Gibson TRACK LISTING ARNOLD: Tam O’Shanter Overture, Op. 55 MUSSORSGKY: Gnomus (Pictures at an Exhibition) MUSSORGSKY: A Night on the Bare Mountain (arr. N. Rimsky-Korsakov) SAINT-SAËNS: Danse macabre, Op. 40 HUMPERDINCK: Witch’s (Hansel and Gretel) LISZT: Mephisto Waltz GOUNOD: Funeral March of a Marionette GOUNOD: Ballet Music (Faust) Issued in the US under the title ‘Witches’ Brew’, Alexander Gibson and the New Symphony Orchestra of London recorded this album in 1959 and the performances remain today as characterful and incisive as they were then. While pieces from this recording have previously appeared on Decca, this is its first complete release on the label. Given that the music is a kind of Halloween concoction, it is now filled out on this reissue for CD with two supernatural pieces by Gounod – his Funeral March of a Marionette and the sparkling Ballet Music for Faust, both recorded in 1964 and which have come up sizzlingly well on CD. RETURN TO THE TOP

	Cat. No.: 442 9955 Barcode: 0028944299557 Label: Decca CD Release Date: 22 March			SIR GEORG SOLTI \| DEL TREDICI: Final Alice ARTISTS Barbara Hendricks, soprano Chicago Symphony Orchestra Sir Georg Solti TRACK LISTING DEL TREDICI: Final Alice Commissioned for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and dedicated to Sir Georg Solti, Final Alice is scored for gargantuan forces and is based on the last two chapters of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It has been described by the composer as a “grand concerto for voice and orchestra” and an “opera written in concert form”. The solo part is partly spoken and partly sung, and here despatched with great flair by Barbara Hendricks. The spacious recording, made in 1980 at Chicago’s Medinah Temple is of demonstration class and the whole piece, lasting an hour, is a real spectacle. The booklet includes David Del Tredici’s original liner notes as well as the libretto. Much requested for reissue by enthusiasts, it’s finally made it to CD. RETURN TO THE TOP

	Cat. No.: 480 0482 Barcode: 0028948004829 Label: Decca 2CD Release Date: 22 March			PETER JABLONSKI TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-3 \| GRIEG: Piano Concerto ARTISTS Peter Jablonski, piano Philharmonia Orchestra Peter Maag Charles Dutoit* TRACK LISTING TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23 TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G major, Op. 44* TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 75/79* GRIEG: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 Tchaikovsky’s three piano concertos (including the third in Taneyev’s completion) are here collected for release in superbly colourful performances by Peter Jablonski with the Philharmonia. Peter Maag, for some time a conductor much associated with Decca (as witness his marvellous Mozart recordings, now on Decca Eloquence, as well as some glorious Mendelssohn) was meant to conduct all the recordings, but his death, shortly after recording the first and the Grieg, meant that task had to be passed on to another Decca stalwart, Charles Dutoit. For all their virtuosic impact, it’s Jablonski’s poetry that is so refreshing and Maag’s direction of the Philharmonia in Tchaikovsky 1 and Grieg are simply sublime – glorious singing tone from the strings and wonderful interplay with the soloist. RETURN TO THE TOP