March: Featured Classical Music

The Complete Recordings of Edvard Grieg
P0607.Camille Saint-Saëns, Jules Massenet, Claude Debussy, Louis Diémer & Raoul Pugno. 2 Marston 52054, recorded 1903-20. Transfers by Ward Marston. $35.90, the Set.

“In 1903, the Paris branch of the Gramophone and Typewriter Company made 27 incredibly important piano records. These documented the pianism of Edvard Grieg (1843–1907) and Raoul Pugno (1852–1914). The Grieg and Pugno recordings are some of the most rare and sought after discs and are unfortunately some of the most primitive and problematic. We are pleased to say that very recent technology has allowed us to greatly reduce these problems to produce these recordings in startlingly improved versions. This set also includes the equally rare 1904 G&T sides (five in total) of Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) playing various selections from his own works, the eight sides Saint-Saëns recorded for the Gramophone Company in 1919, and other important piano recordings made by G&T.”

- Marston Records

A–Z of Pianists
P0555. incl. Eugen d’Albert, Claudio Arrau, Wilhelm Backhaus, Simon Barère, Monique de la Bruchollerie, Una Bourne, Ferruccio Busoni, Robert Casadesus, Cecile Chaminade, Shura Cherkassky, Alfred Cortot, Solomon Cutner, Alan Feinberg, Jacques Fevrier, Edwin Fischer, Samson François, Ignaz Friedman, Ossip Gabrilovich, Walter Gieseking, Emil Gilels, Jakob Gimpel, Grigory Ginzburg, Leopold Godowsky, Percy Grainger, Alfred Grünfeld, Mark Hambourg, Clara Haskil, Josef Hofmann, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Kempff, Raoul Koczalski, Frederic Lamond, Yvonne Lefebure, Myra Hess, Mischa Levitzki, Josef Lhévinne, Robert Lortat, Nicolas Medtner, Marcelle Meyer, Aleksander Michalowski, Dinu Lipatti, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Benno Moiséiwitsch, William Murdoch, Tatiana Nikolayeva, Guiomar Novaës, Lev Oborin, Robinson Orozco, Vladimir de Pachmann, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Vlado Perlemuter, Egon Petri, Francis Planté, Sergei Prokofiev, Raoul Pugno, Sergei Rachmaninov, Walter Rehberg, Sviatoslav Richter, Édouard Risler, Moriz Rosenthal, Arthur Rubinstein, Walter Rummel, Camille Saint-Saëns, Jesús Mariá Sanromá, Vassily Sapellnikov, Emil von Sauer, Pietro Scarpini, Xavier Scharwenka, Artur Schnabel, Leo Sirota, Vladimir Sofronitsky, Magda Tagliaferro, Ricardo Viñes, Michael von Zadora & Carlo Zecchi. Accompanied by elaborate 861pp. book containing numerous photos & 300 biographies, by Jonathan Summers. (Hong Kong) 4-Naxos 8.558107/110. Transfers by Ward Marston. $39.90, the Set.

“This is no ordinary CD annotation, but a CD-size 861-page book boxed alongside a four-disc set of important and mostly rare piano recordings. Summers’ brief extends to an amazing 300 biographies [containing] a thumbnail review of each career and a short list of selected recordings, particularly valuable with those many artists whose records are nowadays almost forgotten….The transfers by Ward Marston are first-rate; as historical anthologies go, this has to be among the best-planned and the best-annotated. No piano buff…can possibly afford to be without it.”

- Rob Cowan, GRAMOPHONE, Sept., 2007

Léopold Simoneau & Pierrette Alarie
V1298. , w.John Newmark (Pf.); Pelletier, Bittner & Goehr Cond.: Arias, Duets & Songs by Mozart, Beethoven & Schumann; w.Catherina Delfosse, Grace Hoffman & Heinz Rehfuss; Goehr Cond.: Mass in b minor (Bach); w.Maureen Forrester & Joseph Rouleau; Pelletier Cond. Montréal S.O.: Choral Symphony #9 in d – Ode to Joy (Beethoven); w.Jean Cocteau (Narrator); Stravinsky Cond. OEDIPUS REX (Cond. by the Composer). (Canada) 4 Doremi 7916/19, recorded 1952-67, partially Live Performances. Specially priced at $49.90, the
Set.

"Léopold Simoneau, the Canadian lyric tenor who dominated international Mozart performance in the 1950s, died [24 Aug., 2006] in Victoria, British Columbia. He was 90 and lived in Victoria….Mr Simoneau was the epitome of the French tenor, meaning that he had a light voice, beautiful diction and a mastery of musical nuance….By the time he made his Met début as Don Ottavio in Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI, in 1963, Mr Simoneau was acknowledged as one of the world’s leading performers of the role….After initial voice studies in Québec City, he moved to Montréal…where he met Ms Alarie….they were married in 1946….In June, Mr Simoneau and Ms Alarie celebrated their 60th anniversary."

- Anne Midgette, THE NEW YORK TIMES, 29 Aug., 2006

Birgit Nilsson
V1317. w.Set Svanholm, Margareta Bergström, Joel Berglund, Sigurd Björling, Ingvar Wixell, Elisabeth Söderström, Kjerstin Dellert, etc.; Ehrling & Sandberg Cond. Royal Swedish Opera Ensemble: Tannhäuser, Parsifal & Siegfried – Excerpts. (Sweden) 2-Caprice CAP 22062, Live Performances, 1955-59, Stockholm. $39.90, the Set.

“Swedish Wagnerian singers had already risen to international fame by about 1900, at the same time as it had always been possible to raise an in-house chorus of the highest quality, singing in Swedish, for both the Ring and Parsifal, as well as Wagner’s ‘lighter’ earlier operas. New generations of singers and orchestral musicians were schooled in this tradition, simultaneously with the education of a knowledge ‘Wagnerian’ audience. Nearly all Wagner’s operas were on the repertoire practically every season, an offering that no international opera house would be capable of today. Stockholm Opera audiences were accustomed to great world-famous singers like Set Svanholm, Joel Berglund, Sigurd Björling and Birgit Nilsson returning regularly to perform Wagner on their home stage, at the same time as its other leading artists thought nothing of assisting as master singers, pages, valkyries and flower girls.”

I Pagliacci
OP1650., Live Performance, 10 March, 1934, w.Bellezza Cond. Giovanni Martinelli, Lawrence Tibbett, Queena Mario, Alfio Tedesco, etc. (E.U.) Walhall 0226. Specially priced at $13.95

“For Giovanni Martinelli and Lawrence Tibbett, the 1934 PAGLIACCI matinee broadcast was an occasion at least the equal of their legendary OTELLO. They’re more than ably seconded by Queena Mario’s bright, girlish Nedda…and the eager Silvio of George ehanovsky….Tibbett deports himself with the space and majesty of a great Shakespearean actor in a Prologue which encompasses both off-the-voice parlando and fearless attack on the unwritten…high notes….Martinelli’s dark Canio has little clown left in him; he’s shot and half-crazed by Nedda’s infidelity from his first words…The old Walhall transfer’s source suffered from variable sound and pitching. A new remastering [above] has just been reissued.”

- Mike Ashman, GRAMOPHONE, March, 2008

Historical Reissue Classical CDs Classical Music CDs
Malibran CDs 78rpm Auctions