EMI 74287
[75:44+72:44]
2 discs, budget-price

Current Reviews

        by Jon Yungkans

 
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Sergei Prokofiev
Piano Concerto No. 1-3

Martha Argerich, piano
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor



Samuel Barber
Orchestral Works and Concertos
Leonard Slatkin, Charles Munch



Rimsky-Korsakov
Evgeny Svetlanov


Beethoven
Symphony No.9
Piano Transcription by Franz Liszt
Konstantin Scherbakov, Piano



Kronos Caravan

This may be the single most valuable collection of Barber’s works in one box set. 

On its own terms, having virtually all the shorter orchestral works plus some of the best chamber and instrumental music makes this set more than its weight in gold.  It also fills a void as an adjunct to RCA France’s two-disc release of the First Symphony and three concertos with Slatkin and the St. Louis Orchestra.  Only missing is Knoxville, which no one coming to Barber’s music should be without.  But, depending on what you want with that heavenly masterpiece, there are ways to easily solve that problem.

Of course, the fiercest competition to these recordings comes from Naxos through Marin Alsop and the Royal Scottish Symphony Orchestra.  In horse-racing terms, it’s a nose-to-nose contest between Alsop’s Seabiscuit and Slatkin’s War Admiral.  (For anyone who may not know what I mean, either rent the movie Seabiscuit or read Laura Hillenbrand‘s book of the same name.  Either way, you will not be sorry–Hillenbrand’s tome is one of the most thrilling page-turners I’ve ever picked up.)  Both Alsop and Slatkin have Barber’s music fully in their blood.  They practically breathe and move by the pulse and cadence of the music, and they intuitively understand the yin and yang of its dramatic and the rhapsodic qualities.  Both are abashedly unafraid of letting the music move away to some point from the inside rail of strict formal structure without losing too much momentum on the turns. 

In the home stretch, Slatkin holds the inside track more commandingly than Alsop.  He pulls back on the reigns even more than Alsop, lingering more than his colleague in the quieter spots, and takes bigger risks, yet more expertly loosens those same reigns and maintains greater control .

In The School for Scandal Overture, a wider ranging ride through the valleys and expertly picking up the pace through the dramatic peaks [shows Slatkin at his best.  He adopts takes an even broader pace than Alsop out of the gate in the Third Essay.  Once past any thought of ponderousness, one hears how Slatkin links the notes like  Alsop, phrasing the lines and even that percussion solo at the onset, taking more time than her in projecting the emotive weight and complexity, which is so easy to miss in this work.  The results, as in Alsop’s reading, are enormous, but richer and more rewarding.

The other way this set sweeps the field is through the impressive stable of chamber and instrumental works – nearly a full disc’s worth.  Each performance is thoroughbred, and together yields a much wider (and welcome) range and variety in Barber’s music than we are normally accorded.  All of the players deserve special mention:  cellist Alan Stepansky and pianist Isreala Margalit in the Cello Sonata; flautist Jeanne Baxtresser and Margalit in the Canzone for flute and piano; Margalit as soloist in Excursions, Nocturne in homage to John Field and two pieces arranged from the piano four-hands Souvenirs; and Baxtresser, Joseph Robinson, clarinetist Stanley Drucker, bassoonist Judith Le Clair and French hornist Philip Myers in Summer Music.

The Violin Concerto is the only also-ran, and not because it is a bad performance – just a less than fully persuasive one.  Soloist Elmar Oliveira combines Isaac Stern’s firm tone with some of the Kyoko Takezawa’s rhapsodic approaches to the melodies.  The key word here is “some.”  As good as Oliviera is – and he is very good – where he lacks is striding one leg on Stern’s stay-on-the-rail firmness to the work’s structure and the other on Takezawa wider-ranging, more mercurial jaunt around the course.  He’s astride two horses with very different temperaments and riding styles, not giving either mount his full attention but doing all he can just to keep them together.  Slatkin gives this piece his all, but Oliviera holds him back.  When you hear Slatkin and Takezawa, you hear how Slatkin and his team are willing to deliver a much more exciting a ride.

Don’t allow that caveat to steer you away from what is otherwise a sure thing – as rare in recordings as it is in racing.  Place your bets!

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