CD Fairy

So in my previous post I wrote that my professor has assigned me excerpts BWV 56, La Scala di Seta, Brahms Violin Concerto, and Tchaik 4.

Well, today at the School of Music, I received a package from someone in Bothell, Washington containing CDs which included Mark Lifschey and Mack Harrell performing BWV 56 and 82, and the Chicago Symphony with Reiner (and Ray Still) playing Rossini Overtures! Thank you CD Fairy!

The Mark Lifschey CD is actually a very, very special recording. I don’t think you can get it anymore, and I’m not sure where this person got this recording. I thought it was available on vinyl only. When I was in High School, my instructor played the recording for me and told me that his ideal oboe sound was Mark Lifschey. We worked on 56 at the time, and I still remember the style and articulation he taught me today.

Well, I took it into my lesson two weeks ago, and my professor said, “Where did you learn that? Have you ever listened to a recording of it?” To which I said “I heard a recording of it with Lifschey a long time ago.” She wasn’t pleased with the style, and told me it was “100% Schubert”. Well, it’s funny that after 12 years or so, the recording has found its way back to me, and listening to it again, I guess I remember why I play it in a “Schubertesque” manner. I suppose she likes a more up-tempo form, similar to that of Albrecht Mayer on this recording. In any case, I will always treasure this long, lost recording and keep it dear to my heart.

UPDATE: Wow! Ray Still makes not 1 but TWO finger flubs on La Scala (1:43, and 1:48)! There’s hope for me yet!

CDs! Woohoo!

So I figured it’s been a super long time since I bought a CD, and now that I have time, I’d order some. So I did. Can’t wait to give them a good listening to.

• Judith LeClair : New York Legends - Working on the Telemann d minor tafelmusik Quartet. Great recording!
• Holliger : Telemann Concerti - Another one of the “once lent and never returned”, can’t live without this one
• Alex Klein : Bliss and Britten Quartets I’m planning a Mozart/Bliss/Britten Quartet concert for next quarter followed up by the Mozart EH Adagio for string quartet and EH
• Holliger : Baroque Sonatas - Really, who does baroque like Holliger? (Well, Alex Klein comes close.)
• Holliger : Mozart EH Quintet - More prep for the recital. Very rare recording!
• Tabuteau : Mozart Quartet - Hard to find! And pricey! But you never can have too much Tabuteau, can you?
• Alex Klein : Krommer and Hummel Concertos - I’m sure the Hummel is amazing. I’m not too familiar with Krommer’s concertos.
• And finally David McGill’s book on music, phrasing, and Tabuteau’s number system. Sounds interesting, eh?

I know… I know… I splurged. But once a year isn’t bad, is it?

2 CDs

I recently bought two CDs, both works by Barber.

The first one is conducted by Marin Alsop, one of my heroes, and a fantastic American Music interpreter.  Back in the day, she used to be the conductor of the Eugene Symphony. Being the protege of the first oboist who happened to be the personnel manager, I got to hang around backstage during rehearsals a lot and attended many concerts. Later, I got to do an internship with him as we went to Santa Cruz to do the Cabrillo Music Festival, where he did production and Maestra Alsop conducted. I got to spend more time with her, and enjoyed seeing the “real” side of her. I admire her very much, and continue to follow her career.

The CD is very interesting and features several rare works, including Barber’s unfinished work, Canzonetta, and the Capricorn Concerto, named after his recluse retirement home where he drank his life away in depression and despair. I really enjoyed the pieces, and I appreciated the ways she as a conductor was able to interpret it. However, I did not enjoy the oboist’s playing, which felt very choppy to me. When I listen for legato, I listen for one who “plays in between the note”, and has flawless transitions from note to note without change in color, dynamic, tonal quality, etc. It is the same as if someone were singing, they don’t change their color, dynamic, and tone quality as they sing each note. It sounds even, flowing, and smooth. I clearly prefer Lucarelli’s recording of the Canzonetta, although the strings in Maestra Alsop’s CD is clearly more “shimmery”

The second CD I bought was an old recording of the Atlanta Symphony performing works by Barber. It was quite nice as well, and I particularly enjoyed Patrick McFarland’s English Horn playing. His solo in the School for Scandal Overture has beautiful phrasing, and very controlled nuances. It is certainly some of the nicer English Horn playing I’ve ever heard. (My favorite still being St. Louis Symphony, Ravel Piano Concerto in G with Alicia de Larrocha.)

Lucarelli Concertos CD

I remember the first time I listened to this CD (when I was 17) and I loved it. I told my teacher then and he said, “Yeah, I would love his sound too, if he sounded like that!” and gave me a puzzled look. This was pretty shocking, considering I rarely heard a negative word out of my teacher’s mouth about any of his colleagues.

There are few CDs where I enjoy one or two tracks on it very much, while abhorring other tracks. The CD has a great program of pieces, including the Barber Canzonetta (one of the few recordings available), along with Concertos by Vaughn Williams, Strauss, and Wolf Ferrari. While I appreciate Lucarelli’s playing on the Vaughn Williams, Wolf Ferrari, and in particular the Barber, his Strauss irks me in more ways than one. His tempos don’t make a lot of sense to me and feel a bit spastic. Furthermore, he circular breaths much of the 1st and second movement, which makes me feel very uncomfortable. Yes, circular breathing works for some things, and I’ll admit that I don’t mind it so much on the first movement but the 2nd movement just seems to go on and on and on without a breath and you just kind of move around in your seat uncomfortably. David Mankin of Oboerista said “Remember, the musical line has to breathe just like a singer would. Catch a quick one if you can, but don’t over-do it!” and I completely agree with him.

Another thing that makes me cringe about this CD is how altered the sound of the CD seems to be. There’s a LOT of reverb, and you can particularly hear too much on the Vaughn Williams 3rd movement - the slow part in between the two faster parts of the movement where the oboe plays alone - amongst other places. Listening to the Vaughn Williams, I also think the string section sound a bit distorted and dampened, with a loss of it’s silvery texture that is there in the Barber.

There’s also some weird accoustical things that happen. In the Strauss 2nd movement at the 8:26 point the entire recording sounds like it goes from stereo to mono. In fact, the entire 2nd movement cadenza sounds cut and sliced as some phrases seem to ring from the reverb, while other phrases have the reverb immediately cut off. Also in the Vaughn Williams 3rd movement at the 5:25 mark, the entire volume level gets boosted up, as if someone moved the volume button up really fast. It’s jarring, and sounds like a bad cut.

I do think the Barber is played marvelously, and his circular breathing adds a lot to the fluidity of the musical line. I can’t imagine hearing it performed any other way, and would consider his interpretation as perhaps the standard.

Not sure what really was done to the CD, but I sure would like to hear Mr. Lucarelli in person.

Another Survey

Since my last survey was so successful (a whole 4 people voted), I thought I’d do another survey where people might have more of an opinion on such a topic. It’s an Oboe Tone Preference Survey! Listed below are clips which you can listen to them.

John Mack’s Loeffler/Mozart CD

Joseph Robinson’s New York Legends CD

John de Lancie’s on Strauss Concerto CD

Marilyn Zupnik’s on Handel/Telemann Sonatas CD

Nancy Ambrose King’s on Winning Program CD

Rebecca Henderson’s on …is but a dream CD

I would have included a lot more names, but there is only 8 spots to put answers into. I thought these examples would give a wide variety of tonal colors.

Surely more than 4 people have an opinion about such a topic!?

Starbucks Classical Music?

While sitting in Starbucks for the past 2.5 hours, I’ve heard de Lancie’s recording of the Marcello, as well as an unidentifiable recording of Mozart’s Gran Partita, and currently playing is an unidentifiable Brandenberg Concerto #2. Not a bad program for a coffee shop!

Two Sketches, for Woodwind Quintet… and Rubber Ducky

I posted in a few days about interesting noises in recordings. For those curious about where I thought the rubber ducky squeak is, its in Milhaud’s Two Sketches, right at the 4:55 mark. Has anyone ever played this? Does it really say, “Squeeze rubber ducky HERE!”?

I’ll look for the other place I thought I heard the ducky reappear. It might have been on the French quintets CD

Tabuteau revisited

Today I had to go to orchestra rehearsal. While searching for my favorite earphones, some $50 sony earbuds, I realized that I had probably lost them in the move, so I was forced to grab the normal sony earbuds that came with my CD player, similar to these.

Well, interesting enough, I heard much more clearly through the normal earbuds while I was listening to the Casals Festival CD featuring Tabuteau playing the Mozart Divertimento. It was like the clouds parted, and I saw the sunshine for the first time. Tabuteau’s inflections came alive, and I was able to hear every slight “up up up” and “down down down” inflection that he talks about in his Lessons CD. It was very satisfying.

One time I traveled down to Gangneung in Korea where I visited the Edison Charmsori Museum. The museum is the life work of a very rich Korean man who has spent an entire lifetime collecting Gramaphones and other items invented by Thomas Edison. One room he built was an acoustically perfect auditorium, equipped with some of the finest stereo speakers ever made (which are no longer made), and was incredible to sit and listen to music. (This man was also a classical music fan.) Unfortunately, the man was a big fan of Franz von Suppe and wasted the valuable opportunity to play of all pieces, Light Cavalry March. (I classify Suppe as one of those cheap trick composers. I despise playing his works. Maybe there’s a good one out there, but I haven’t come across it.)

Anyways, after listening to the Mozart today, I remembered what a tremendous difference good audio equipment can do, and I couldn’t help but think, “Dang, if I could only listen to this in Gangneung.

Listening to that CD, you also have to admire the tremendous job they did recording those CDs. They have beautiful intonation, beautiful ensemble work, and beautiful solo playing. Not to mention, you know they didn’t have the technology to slice and dice back then, and that what you’re listening to is a single take. It makes you wonder how many takes they took, and how tiring it must have been. (Can you imagine playing the Bach double concerto 2nd movement over and over and over again back to back to back? That’s a lot of chops!)

What was that!?!?!?

Sometimes I listen to CDs where you’re going along listening to the piece and *BAM* there’s a strange sound.

For example, most oboists own de Lancie’s Strauss concerto and, in the first movement, there’s this strange “flap flap flap flap flap” sound that happens very quickly, as if someone slowly dragged a ballpoint pen down a washboard. Does anyone know what that sound is? It appears again later, obviously some kind of background noise that would be edited out nowadays.

Another example is on the Philadelphia Woodwind Quintet. There’s a piece on the 20th century CD that has what sounds like a squeaky rubber duck in the middle of it. It sounds right, and although I don’t know the piece, my guess is it is written in. But if you’re not familiar with the piece, it definitely takes you by surprise! The odd thing though, is I believe it reappears in another piece on the CD, which was recorded several years later. Was this some recording studio joke?

Speaking of the Philadelphia Woodwind Quintet CDs, I love de Lancie’s playing, particularly of the Barber Summer Music in those. But I love how natural they sound. In fact, de Lancie misses the high E in the opening of the Poulenc Sextet, and it’s also very shocking! I think that’s the only mistake I’ve ever heard recorded of de Lancie. Good to know he’s mortal after all!

Alex Klein rare recordings

I believe Patty blogged this a long time ago, or it popped up on the Oboe Bboard or something, but some company named Ibiblio had some recordings of Alex Klein and when they went bankrupt, they posted them on the web as public domain.

So give it a listen to! It’s not often you hear Pasculli so controlled. (And is what he does at the end of that written? I think he improvised that high G or whatever it is!)