Saint-Saens - Symphony 3 'Organ' [Levine-Berliner Philharmoniker] 

This is the first time that Saint-Saens most famous work has appeared in my Blog, this is so surprising to me, it's one of my favourites, and this is my favourite recording of it, the first ever live concert i went to had this as their main piece, it's somewhat of a shame that his other Symphonies just aren't of the same calibre.

James Levine was born in America in 1943, now 67 years old, and suffering a number of health issues which is curtailing his conducting, he recorded this work in 1986, i'm not all that endeared with the booklet cover, DG have some fairly crazy visuals on their front covers, the back inlay is more interesting, white lettering on a black background works well for me.

The whole of this Symphony is a delight, each of the four movements play their part perfectly, Saint-Saens certainly knows how to put a Symphony together, i especially liked the second and fourth movements, there's some tremendous things going on at the start of the last movement, and yet my own personal favourite is the sublime slow movement Poco Adagio, it is so soothing, a beautiful and sweet delicacy, right after the initial gentle notes by the Organ, the strings come in with the most ravishing tone [0:10+], no woodwind, brass, or timpani, just strings, and they play at viola level [0:10-1:24], and then the strings play up a notch to more violin level [1:22-2:31] with woodwinds in the background, and the lower strings have that deeper and sultry creamy tone afterwards [2:31-3:15] with organ as a backdrop, and so it goes, Saint-Saens uses the different levels of the strings as a sort of dialogue, the whole movement is very sparse, the tune is the star of the show rather than complex instrumentation, after a string pizzicato section [5:50-6:56] for me the highlight appears, the violins play sweet and high [6:57-8:19], restrained at first, but getting higher and sweeter, they really hit the mark at [7:42+], with quiet pizzicato strings as a backdrop, like gently falling rain, it's just exquisite, and afterward the woodwind and strings have a nice little autumnal dialogue, the whole movement shows an excellent use of the different string textures.

Here's the second movement Poco Adagio conducted by Myung-Whun Chung on YouTube.

Brahms - Handel Variations [Magnan] 

Last month i played Magnan's interpretation of the 6 Klavierstucke Op118 [13th April 2011], and now it's the turn of the other work on this disc, this is the main reason i bought this disc, in my opinion this is Brahms's best solo piano work, and there's pros and cons to Magnan's interpretation.

Gisele Magnan i take it is French, but apart from that, i really don't know much else about her, this disc was recorded in 1995, i like the booklet front cover [photo by Stephane Ouzounoff], a nice concept, i like the tall photo on the left, from top to bottom, and then the more sparse cream coloured right hand booklet, nice ideas.

This is the first time i've played this work on this disc, so these are only my initial thoughts, i will surely play this disc again, and my thoughts and feelings may well change, Magnan is a good guide in this work, she hardly puts a finger or hand wrong, i find her a little impetuous, playing certain variations at a slightly garbled gait, there's a tendency to be a little sloppy at times, forcing the music, rather than letting Brahms speak for himself, she can also be a little too straightforward, too matter of fact, the very best Pianists find something extra to say, something unique, my first impressions [and these are only first impressions] is that Magnan doesn't have a magic wand to wave, well we'll see on subsequent listenings how she fares, don't get me wrong, i really did enjoy Brahms / Magnan today.

Out of all these variations, it was towards the last quarter of the work that it started to really click for me, variations 18, 21, 23 & 25 were the best, here's a little synopsis of each variation, first timings are for the disc, and second timings are for the YouTube video below. 

18 a lovely variation, starting high in the treble right hand, with some very choice treble notes, towards the end of the variation, these treble notes gets slower and more pronounced, the last one is the most affecting [3:09+]. [2:16-3:20 track 4] & [2:16-3:20].

21 a nice chimerical variation, like a strumming harp in many ways, gently rippling notes wash over me, and like a welcome gentle breeze, it ends all too soon. [1:46-2:28 track 5] & [6:05-6:45].

23 a gruff and deep bass variation, almost like a fugue, it's also very short. [3:14-3:45 track 5] & [7:33-8:05].

25 a barnstorming last variation, Magnan really plays this very well, there's a finality and culmination to the last variation, as if it's the capstone which snaps into place and completes the whole work, nicely hammered out by Magnan as a sort of reverse fanfare, which announces the end of the work. [4:19-4:58 track 5] & [8:38-9:18].

Here's Gisele Magnan playing the Handel Variations on YouTube, Part 1 [up to variation 13], and Part 2 [variation 14 onwards].

The Jack Rubies [See The Money In My Smile] 

I've had this disc for 10 years, i discovered The Jack Rubies by buying a tape cassette of this album in a second hand record shop in London, those were the days where i would go to London once a month, and buy roughly 40 cassette tapes for about £25, picking albums and Artists that looked interesting, Classical, Rock, Jazz, Folk, Country, Blues, anything that looked like it might strike a musical chord with me, if it was a hit, then i'd get the disc of the album, now i don't need to buy cassette tapes to 'test' music out anymore, i can listen online before i buy, neither do i need to go to London to do my buying, now Ebay is my new second hand shop, when i left my old house i left roughly 6,000 unwanted cassettes behind in the loft!, those cassettes served their purpose, they introduced me to an ever increasing array of Artists i would have heard no other way, this is one of those successes.

The Jack Rubies  were formed in England in 1987, but they've slipped into obscurity, they sound very much like The Church in their Gold Afternoon Fix days, and their lead singers have a canny similarity.

The two tracks that i felt were the best are track 9 Calamity Jane, and track 11 Western Sky [sounds extremely like Sit Down by James], they're one of those jangly guitar bands, and on Calamity Jane i like the wailing lead guitar, plus their band boasts a percussionist [Lawrence Giltnane] as well as a drummer, and he's very inventive, creating a new angle and freshness.

There's no YouTube music etc, and the biography is sparse, it's not a great album by any degree, but one i enjoyed listening to again today.

Various Artists [Disco Fever] 

This is a wonderful compilation album, the tracks are lovingly chosen, representing a good chunk of the very best of the Seventies Disco era, with some very winning cream of the crop songs, there is a Disco Fever Volume 2 available, but even though that has some great tracks on it, this volume has a tendency to have first pick of the best tracks, and volume 2 scrapes the barrel in places, when Disco first came out in the Seventies, i wasn't so much interested in it, Glam Rock, the Punk Rock was my thing, but later i came to appreciate Disco, now i love it!.

The visuals for this issue are good and bad, the front cover booklet is mirror silver writing, with a shocking pink background, not a lot too it, the back insert benefits from the black background with white writing on it, and the Artists in shocking pink again, really clear, and nice and easy to read.

On this listen i really liked tracks 2, 4, 10, 18, 37-38 & 40, and here's a nice little synopsis of each of theses tracks,

2 Earth Wind And Fire - Boogie Wonderland, a wonderful beat, and a fantastic rhythm, and just a superb example of words and music marrying in perfect harmony, notice the glockenspiel that is quite hidden, but there are moments if you listen carefully, you just love it, i like the 'second' chorus that comes around every now and again [1:37+ & 3:37+], the whole song is drenched in soulful brass, and a main male singer, but female chorus singers, lots of ad libbing.  

4 The Trammps - Disco Inferno, lovely boogie rhythm, and that lead singer [Jimmy Ellis] with such enthusiastic vocals, nice growl to his voice at times, drenched in strings and brass.

10 Candi Staton - Young Hearts Run Free, i remember this song so clearly in my youth, when i was on holiday on the south coast of England, it was on the radio all the time, but i was only interested in Slade and 10cc, but it's such a tremendous track, for me it represents those endless summer days of my summer, and it has such an endearing tune, and Candi Staton has that soulful voice, i just love the percussion, sounds like the drummer hitting bongos with drumsticks [0:23+], but it's probably a rhythm guitar sounding percussive, i just love that sound.

18 Wild Cherry - Play That Funky Music, i hated this track when it first came out, that crazy singer [Rob Parissi] that overemphasizes every phrase, but now i love it!, the over the top-ness of it all makes the whole song, i always thought he was a black guy, he sounds the epitome of a black voice, but he's actually a white guy.

37 The Three Degrees - When Will I See You Again, you gotta have a nice smoochy slow song to dance to at a Disco, and this is the perfect end, the lyrics are perfect for that special person you just met, with swaying strings and swooning breathy vocals, and that gently rattling percussion in the background, and those strings soar at just the right moment [1:45-1:53], see also a previous review [30th November 2010].

38 Johnny Bristol - Hang On In There Baby, a long intro, which heightens the magic when the boogie kicks in, i like the rhythm guitar that goes on in the background.

40 Tina Charles - I Love To Love, and finally, i really did love this song when it first came out, it has a superb ongoing rush to it, it never lets up, the chorus is superb, with Tina Charles singing echo, and at the end she gets stronger and emotional, it's a great and fitting end to this album.

Various Composers - 'Liebestraum' Piano Recital [Arrau] 

This is a lovely piano recital, with a nice variety of 12 pieces by 7 different Composers, with a whopping 79 minutes of music!, how's that for a well filled disc?, actually this was not recorded as a recital, but is taken from many different recordings, ranging from 1963-1989, and yet i'm surprised how much the sound is so consistent, listening to it blind i could not notice any difference between each piece sonically, i also listened to it on random / shuffle mode, and without looking at the track listing to determine what was playing, it was interesting / fun to guess the pieces, it was only the Schumann pieces that i was unfamiliar with.

Claudio Arrau was one of those last of the breed Pianists, from a time of old, a gentleman of the piano, like Horowitz, Rubinstein, and Bolet, born in Chile, and he died almost 20 years ago, but these pieces sound like he recorded them yesterday, this is one of those discs from Philips's Insignia series, very nice re-releases, with excellent photography [by Christian Steiner], and the lettering / info is neatly placed in a box, nicely bordered, a great little package.

The 3 pieces that really impressed me were tracks 2, 6 & 12, and here's a little synopsis of each piece,

2 Chopin - Nocturne 17, it was good to listen to this Nocturne today, so many recitals have Chopin's early Nocturnes on a recital, so it's a good choice to programme one that isn't quite so popular, there's some nice hesitations around [1:51], where Arrau lets the moment hang in the air in a lovely pause, nicely weighted, the way he caresses the tune is sublime, excellent emphasis on a double note [4:30], and a superb section with the main tune played in trills towards the end [4:52-5:55], well sustained, an extra special mention should be made of the coda, just so incredibly perfect in the high treble [6:27-7:02], in Arrau's hands it's a work of art.

6 Schubert - Impromptu 3, maybe a tad too staccato in the mid range, but Arrau can work this sheer magic in creating a higher intensity [1:45+ & 4:35+], the music isn't about keys and hands anymore, it's a spiritual entity, this really lifted me today.

12 Liszt - Harmonies Du Soir, one of the longest pieces on the disc, and one that i really need to familiarize myself with more, and it was a joy to get to know this work more, i really do forget how wonderful a creation it is, Liszt isn't one of my favourite Composers, and i need to re-assess him now, this piece is a real 'fantasy', full of excellent variety, those arpeggio trills are just dynamite! in Arrau's hands [1:30-2:06], so incredibly thrilling, i now love this piece!, and the superb treble stabs, while the left hand is hammering out chords in the bass is phenomenal [5:28-6:26], oh my gosh! Liszt / Arrau are a genius combination, this is so hair raising, this is my new favourite piece, it seems to have everything.

Various Composers - The French Clarinet Collection [Hinson & Puddy/Martineau] 

And a second French Clarinet recital in a row, i don't really plan these things, it's almost the next disc on the shelf, like two buses come at the same time!, but it was good to listen to another similar disc, which must be two thirds the same works as yesterdays disc, and to compare the two, i found this disc in a second hand shop in London, it wasn't very expensive either, and i just had to have it!.

Nigel Hinson i take it is English, i don't really know too much about him, but he did study with Keith Puddy, who is also represented on this disc, and i have an inkling Puddy is Irish [huh!, or is that me thinking Paddy!], Hinson plays the shorter pieces, and Puddy plays the Sonatas, the booklet front cover is one of the major things which attracted me to buying the disc in the first place, a great shot [by Robert Carpenter-Turner], with Hinson & Puddy in a nice mood, good use of hands, nice to see those clarinets, the pink / rose background adds that splash of brightness, going from dark to light, and the lettering / logo is nicely laid out too.

The two pieces i liked here were Saint-Saen's Clarinet Sonata [tracks 3-6], and Messager's Solo De Concours [track 17], the piece by Messager is a lovely examination test piece, which shows up the Clarinetists skills, and also their shortcomings too!, but it's not just an exercise, it's also pure clarinet music at its very best, Nigel Hinson is the Clarinetist here, he takes it a tad slow to begin with, and it's not quite recorded as well as yesterdays disc, the bravura introduction is certainly nice, but it's the more lyrical and introspective middle section which is such a delight [1:37-3:13], where the clarinet sings a melancholy tune in the lower registers [1:37-2:22], very breathy, and then some nice magic, the piano takes over the tune, while the clarinet bubbles away up and down scales [2:22-2:47], now in higher registers, and both instruments get higher and louder, until the clarinet takes over the main melody again [2:47-3:13], this central section is the very best part of the whole piece, afterwards comes a solo clarinet cadenza [3:19-4:28], and a bravura finale, a piece that seems to have a bit of everything.

Here's Jose Franch-Ballester playing this pieces on YouTube.