As far as classical boxed sets go this holiday season, size matters.
Heading this year’s list is a 12-CD, limited edition that retails for $225 and is worth every penny. “The Mahler Broadcasts, 1948 to 1982” is the follow-up to the New York Philharmonic’s valuable 1997 set of historic broadcasts. It contains concert performances of all nine symphonies plus “Das Lied von der Erde” and the Adagio and Purgatorio movements from the unfinished Tenth Symphony, beautifully packaged with two thick booklets containing essays, photos, interviews and program notes.
The orchestra’s Mahler tradition extends back to the early years of the century when Mahler served as the orchestra’s music director. It has been kept alive continuously since then by music directors including John Barbirolli (represented here by the First and Ninth symphonies), Bruno Walter (who leads a 1948 broadcast of “Das Lied,” with soloists Kathleen Ferrier and Set Svanholm), Dimitri Mitropoulos (heard here conducting Nos. 6 and 10), and Leonard Bernstein (who, given the ready availability of his Philharmonic Mahler cycle, is not included). Other conductors represented in the set are Zubin Mehta (Symphony No. 2), Pierre Boulez (No. 3), Georg Solti (No. 4), Klaus Tennstedt (No. 5), Rafael Kubelik (No. 7) and Leopold Stokowski (No. 8).
Naturally some of the performances are better than others; and Mehta’s generic “Resurrection” makes one wonder about the ones languishing in the Philharmonic archives that weren’t included. Even so, this archival set is of prime documentary importance and a major addition to the Mahler discography. Available through the orchestra (phone 800-557-8268), the Internet (newyorkphilharmonic.org) and at selected stores.
Another hefty box is Nonesuch’s 10-CD collection, “Kronos Quartet: 25 Years,” celebrating the Fab Foursome’s silver anniversary as chamber music’s most adventuresome explorers of our musical present. The slimline CDs, gathered in a designer box, combine core Kronos repertoire (Adams, Crumb, Feldman, Glass, Reich, Gubaidulina and Schnittke) with new, previously unreleased recordings of music by Part, Riley, Piazzolla and others. The downside: In order to hear the new material, Kronos fans must duplicate a fair number of recordings they probably already own. Nonesuch really should release these bonus recordings separately. Until it does, these committed performances are a powerful inducement to indulge.
Philips Records has launched a series, “Great Pianists of the 20th Century,” an ambitious, indeed monumental, edition totaling 100 separate volumes to be released at regular intervals over the coming 12 months. Each pianist is allotted a two-CD album, packaged as a hardcover book and retailing for the price of a single CD. The first 20 volumes are now at hand.
Among the notables represented in the first batch of releases are Martha Argerich, Claudio Arrau, Wilhelm Backhaus, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Emil Gilels, Sviatoslav Richter, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vladimir Horowitz and Artur Rubinstein. Philips has also issued a specially-priced two-CD sampler containing over 2 1/2 hours of selections from the complete collection. Transfers are excellent and the notes illuminating. One cannot praise too much the tender loving dedication with which the project has been realized thus far.
Other recommended boxed sets:
Edgard Varese: Complete Works. Soloists, Prague Philharmonic Choir, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, ASKO Ensemble, Riccardo Chailly, conductor (London, 2 CDs). This important set makes clear Varese’s stature as one of the century’s great originals. Included are first recordings of works the composer left unpublished or unrealized (“Tuning Up,” the song “Un grand sommeil noir,” “Dance for Burgess”); several are heard in reconstructions by Varese scholar Chou Wen-chung. That astonishing modernist manifesto, “Ameriques,” is recorded in the 1921 original version, while “Deserts” comes complete with its electronic interludes. These performances wring every last ounce of dramatic power from Varese’s clashing, percussive timbres and sonorities.
The William Kapell Edition (BMG Classics/RCA Victor, nine CDs). To commemorate the 45th anniversary of the lamented American pianist’s death, BMG has issued a commemorative collection that includes all his commercial recordings plus a number of previously unknown and unpublished items, alternate takes and a radio interview taped shortly before his tragic death in a plane crash in 1953. I wrote about this magnificent set at length in these pages last October. Since then I have dipped repeatedly into this set, each time with increased pleasure and admiration for Kapell’s art. Not for nothing was he considered the leading American pianist of his generation.
Alban Berg: “Wozzeck.” Soloists, New York Philharmonic, choruses of the High School of Music and Art and Schola Cantorum, Dimitri Mitropoulos, conductor (Sony Masterworks Heritage, 2 CDs). This is the first recording ever made of Berg’s harrowing masterpiece. The live concert recording set the standard for all later recordings of “Wozzeck”; nearly 50 years later it still carries considerable impact. It took guts for Mitropoulos to champion an opera that, in 1951, was considered the last word in thorny modernism. He assembled a superlative cast (headed by Mack Harrell as Wozzeck and Eileen Farrell as Marie) and led a performance whose gripping intensity has perhaps never been surpassed, rough edges and stray pitches notwithstanding.
Mozart: “Don Giovanni.” Soloists, Coro di Ferrara Musica, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Claudio Abbado, conductor (DG, 3 CDs). This is a whistle-clean studio presentation, intimate in perspective, naturally paced, conscientiously performed, above all brisk and bracing in its unforced dramatic continuity. Abbado gives you a real sense of an actual stage performance, allowing arias and recitatives to flow in and out of one another. Another plus is the crisp interaction of the fine ensemble headed by Simon Keenlyside as the Don, Bryn Terfel as Leporello, and Carmela Remigio, Soile Isokoski and Patrizia Pace as the three ladies. This may not supplant any of the classic “Don Giovanni” recordings, but for the cleansing insights it brings to the work it should be heard.
Hans Krasa: “Verlobung im Traum” (Betrothal in a Dream); Symphony. Soloists, Ernst Senff Chamber Chorus, Deutsches Symphony Orchestra, Berlin, Lothar Zagroszek and Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductors (London, 2 CDs). This latest entry in London’s valuable “Entartete Musik” series is an intriguing discovery. The Czech composer (who died at Auschwitz in 1944) was a student of Alexander Zemlinsky and Albert Roussel, whose influences are felt in the colorfully eclectic style of his opera, which had its premiere in his native Prague in 1933 under George Szell. The music is expertly made, piquantly scored, and makes an immediate impression in this brilliant performance, to which the Symphony makes a pleasing pendant.
Britten: “Billy Budd.” Soloists, Manchester Boy’s Choir, Northern Voices, Halle Choir and Orchestra, Kent Nagano, conductor (Erato, 2 CDs). This is the first modern recording of Britten’s 1951 opera in its original, four-act version. The composer’s own London recording of the two-act revision remains the basic library choice for “Billy Budd.” Still, those interested in his first thoughts should appreciate this well-sung, diligently prepared, strongly conducted alternative. The able cast is headed by Thomas Hampson as Budd, Anthony Rolfe Johnson as Captain Vere and Eric Halfvarson as Claggart.
Gluck’s “Ifigenia in Tauride” and Donizetti’s “Poliuto,” both with Maria Callas (EMI Classics, 2 CDs in each set). These live recordings, dating from 1957 and 1960 and captured in boxy monaural sound, form the coda to EMI’s extensive reissue of virtually the complete recorded output of Maria Callas. If neither operatic rarity really captures the iconic diva in her most important roles, or at her vocal zenith, both sets are essential for Callas collectors.
