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Vintage LP "Saint-Saens Piano Concertos Philippe Entremont"— $14.99 (Save 40%!)

Item specifics: Genre: Classical Sub-Genre: PIANO Speed: 33 RPM Duration: LP Record Size: 12" LP Rates in NEAR MINT Conditon, cover shows shows minimal ware. (please see picture). COLUMBIA RECORDS - MASTERWORKS - 34512(1977) PHILIPPE ENTREMONT, PIANO L'ORCHESTRE DU CAPITOLE - DE TOULOUSE MICHEL PLASSON, CONDUCTOR....

Vintage LP Berlioz: Nuits d'ete; La Mort de Cleopatre (Death of Cleopatra). BBC SO, Boulez conductor— $14.99 (Save 40%!)

Vintage LP Berlioz: Nuits d'ete; La Mort de Cleopatre (Death of Cleopatra). BBC SO, Boulez conductor

RARE VINTAGE TWO CLASSICAL WORKS COLUMBIA MASTERWORKS STEREO M 34563 SLEEVE IS IN GOOD CONDITION - LP IS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION Written by Hector Berlioz Berlioz, the passionate, ardent, irrepressible genius of French Romanticism, left a rich and original oeuvre which exerted a profound influence on nineteenth century music. Berlioz developed a profound affinity toward music and literature as a child. Sent to Paris at 17 to study medicine, he was enchanted by Gluck's operas, firmly deciding to become a composer. With his father's reluctant consent, Berlioz entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1826. His originality was already apparent and disconcerting â€” a competition cantata, ClÃ©opÃ¢tre (1829), looms as his first sustained masterpiece â€” and he won the Prix de Rome in 1830 amid the turmoil of the July Revolution. Meanwhile, a performance of Hamlet in September 1827, with Harriet Smithson as Ophelia, provoked an overwhelming but unrequited passion, whose aftermath may be heard in the Symphonie fantastique (1830). Absence, song for voice & orchestra, (Les Nuits d'Ã©tÃ©), H. 85 (Op. 7/4) Berlioz was a frustrated opera composer. The fiasco which overtook the Paris OpÃ©ra's premiere of Benvenuto Cellini in 1838 forced him to seek alternatives which would allow his dramatic richness of conception to be aired without actual staging. In the upshot, the loose form of a "dramatic symphony" for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, achieved in RomÃ©o et Juliette (1839), allowed him to focus upon salient moments from Shakespeare's play, freed from the entanglements of a complex narrative. The concentration achieved thereby helped Berlioz temper his unique power, grandeur, and sheer flair with a new delicacy and refinement. The next step was taken in 1840 with the six songs of Les Nuits d'Ã©tÃ©, to poems by the arch-Romantic, ThÃ©ophile Gautier, of which Absence is the most poignant â€” a cri de coeur whose distilled drama is all the more powerful for being implicit and allusive. Scored for piano and mezzo, this lament unfolds with a melodic eloquence in which the ache for the absent lover is palpable and breathtakingly gripping â€” a world of heartbreak conjured in a few telling phrases. Sung by Yvonne Minton (Mezzo-soprano) This tall, comely and aristocratic mezzo-soprano from Australia achieved fame in the 1970s, propelled by the mentoring of Georg Solti (who engaged her for several important recordings) and her cool (but inwardly passionate) and dignified presence on-stage. Yvonne Minton was also a concert artist of the first order, appearing with many of the world's ranking orchestras under leading conductors. She was perhaps the finest Octavian of her time, that role serving as her calling card in several prominent houses. She was a dignified, consoling Angel in Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, equaled only by Janet Baker. and Stuart Burrows (Tenor) Though his voice sometimes lacked individuality, Stuart Burrows was in many ways an ideal Mozart and French lyric tenor, flexible and with a seemingly seamless technique. He was also scrupulous musician, known for saying that a role can be memorized but never fully learned, that there is always more to add and rethink. While he occasionally and carefully sang some heavier roles, such as Lensky in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Alfredo in Verdi's La traviata, Gounod's Faust, and even the title role in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, he never, as many of his predecessors and successors did, forced and harmed his voice by choosing the wrong repertoire. Performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by PIERRE BOULEZ Pierre Boulez (b. 1925), French composer, conductor, and music theorist, is regarded as a leading composer of the post-Webern serialist movement who also embraced elements of aleatory and electronics. As a child Boulez demonstrated a formidable aptitude in mathematics, but left for Paris in 1942 to enroll in the Paris Conservatoire. His studies there often ran into difficulties, as he was rapidly developing revolutionary â€” "Praise be to amnesia" â€” attitudes towards all things traditional. But two decisive influences during those years helped to shape his musical personality. The first was Messiaen's famous analysis course, the other was RenÃ© Leibowitz, who introduced him to serial music, where Boulez found "a harmonic and contrapuntal richness and a capacity for development an extension of a kind I have never found anywhere else." AND La Mort de ClÃ©opÃ¢tre, for soprano & orchestra, H.36 La Mort de ClÃ©opÃ¢tre (The Death of Cleopatra) was Berlioz's third attempt to win the Prix de Rome from the Academie des Beaux-Arts. His first attempt in 1827 was La Mort d'OrphÃ©e, which failed to place. His second attempt in 1828 was Herminie, which took second place. Berlioz called La Mort de ClÃ©opÃ¢tre "a lyric scene" for soprano and orchestra, setting a text by P.A. Vieillard. The vocal writing is extremely dramatic, but it ignores distinctions between recitative and aria, which infuriated the jury. The orchestral writing is lush and full, with extraordinary harmonies that likewise alienated the jury. La Mort de ClÃ©opÃ¢tre was judged such a failure in the eyes of the Academie that it gave no first place prize that year. The following year, Berlioz won the Prix de Rome with his conservative La Mort de Sardanapale, but, having already composed his wildly experimental and incredibly wild Symphonie fantastique, he found that he no longer cared all that much about the Academie. Also sung by Yvonne Minton and performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez

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Vintage LP Camille Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78 (— $14.99 (Save 40%!)

Vintage LP Camille Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78 (

RARE VINTAGE LP ORGAN CONCERTOS THE MUSICAL HERITAGE SOCIETY STEREO MHS 1232 SLEEVE IS IN GOOD CONDITION - LP IS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION Composed by CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS Camille Saint-SaÃ«ns was something of an anomaly among French composers of the nineteenth century in that he wrote in virtually all genres, including opera, symphonies, concertos, songs, sacred and secular choral music, solo piano, and chamber music. He was generally not a pioneer, though he did help to revive some earlier and largely forgotten dance forms, like the bourÃ©e and gavotte. He was a conservative who wrote many popular scores scattered throughout the various genres: the Piano Concerto No. 2, Symphony No. 3 ("Organ"), the symphonic poem Danse macabre, the opera Samson et Dalila, and probably his most widely performed work, The Carnival of The Animals. While he remained a composer closely tied to tradition and traditional forms in his later years, he did develop a more arid style, less colorful and, in the end, less appealing. He was also a poet and playwright of some distinction. Saint-SaÃ«ns was born in Paris on October 9, 1835. He was one of the most precocious musicians ever, beginning piano lessons with his aunt at two-and-a-half and composing his first work at three. At age seven he studied composition with Pierre Maledin. When he was ten, he gave a concert that included Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, Mozart's B flat Concerto, K. 460, along with works by Bach, Handel, and Hummel. In his academic studies, he displayed the same genius, learning languages and advanced mathematics with ease and celerity. He would also develop keen, lifelong interests in geology and astronomy. In 1848, he entered the Paris Conservatory and studied organ and composition, the latter with HalÃ©vy. By his early twenties, following the composition of two symphonies, he had won the admiration and support of Berlioz, Liszt, Gounod, Rossini, and other notable figures. From 1853 to 1876, he held church organist posts; he also taught at the Ã‰cole Niedermeyer (1861-1865). He composed much throughout his early years, turning out the 1853 Symphony in F ("Urbs Roma"), a Mass (1855) and several concertos, including the popular second, for piano (1868). In 1875, Saint-SaÃ«ns married the 19-year-old Marie Truffot, bringing on perhaps the saddest chapter in his life. The union produced two children who died within six weeks of each other, one from a four-story fall. The marriage ended in 1881. Oddly, this dark period in his life produced some of his most popular works, including Danse macabre (1875) and Samson et Dalila (1878). After the tragic events of his marriage, Saint-SaÃ«ns developed a fondness for FaurÃ© and his family, acting as a second father to FaurÃ©'s children. But he also remained very close to his mother, who had opposed his marriage. When she died in 1888, the composer fell into a deep depression, even contemplating suicide for a time. He did much travel in the years that followed and developed an interest in Algeria and Egypt, which eventually inspired him to write Africa (1891) and his Piano Concerto No. 5, the "Egyptian". He also turned out works unrelated to exotic places, such as his popular and most enduring serious composition, the Symphony No. 3. Curiously, after 1890, Saint-SaÃ«ns' music was regarded with some condescension in his homeland, while in England and the United States he was hailed as France's greatest living composer well into the twentieth century. Saint-SaÃ«ns experienced an especially triumphant concert tour when he visited the U.S. in 1915. In the last two decades of his life, he remained attached to his dogs and was largely a loner. He died in Algeria on December 16, 1921. selections include: SYMPHONY No. 3 in C Minor ("Organ"), Op. 78 Composition Description by John Palmer The London Philharmonic Society commissioned the Symphony No. 3 from Saint-SaÃ«ns, much as it had Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Saint-SaÃ«ns directed the first performance in London on May 19, 1886. Although he lived until 1921, Saint-SaÃ«ns would not compose another symphony. He later explained: "With it I have given all I could give. What I did I could not achieve again." He had intended to dedicate the piece to Liszt, but the score was published after Liszt's death with the inscription, "Ã la Memoire de Franz Liszt." The Symphony in C minor shows Saint-SaÃ«ns' use of thematic transformation, also present in the overture Spartacus and the Fourth Piano Concerto. This technique Saint-SaÃ«ns observed in the symphonic poems of Liszt, as well as in Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique. Following their lead, Saint-SaÃ«ns takes his principal theme through transformations throughout his Third Symphony. To the typical forces of a large orchestra he added his and Liszt's primary instruments, the organ and piano. Saint-SaÃ«ns cast the symphony in two large sections, but each of these is in two clear parts, creating a traditional four-movement work. . and OMPHALE'S SPINNING WHEEL, Op. 31 DANCE MACABRE, Symphonic Poem in G Minor, Op. 40 Composition Description by John Palmer Composed in 1874 and published in 1875, Danse macabre is the third of Saint-SaÃ«ns' four orchestral tone poems and is easily his most popular work in that medium. In his Le carnaval des animaux (The Carnival of the Animals), composed in 1886, Saint-SaÃ«ns parodies the Danse macabre, as well as works by other composers. The title of Danse macabre is usually translated as Dance of Death, but Ghoulish Dance or Dance of Grim Humor might better communicate the character of the piece. Saint-SaÃ«ns did not originally write the Danse macabre as a work for orchestra. It was first a song for voice and piano that the composer later transcribed and modified for orchestra. A few lines from the song's text will aid in understanding the symphonic poem: "Death at midnight plays a dance-tune/Zig, zig, zig on his violin....Through the gloom, white skeletons pass/Running and leaping in their shrouds....The bones of the dancers are heard to crack." Once the cock crows, signaling the approach of morning, the fun ends. It is possible that this is the first instance of Death being portrayed as a violinist, an instrument generally associated with the devil. performed by Marie-Claire Alain, at the Organ Marie-Claire Alain was the youngest child in a family of distinguished musicians, born August 10, 1926, in St. Germain-en Laye, a Paris suburb. Her father, Albert Alain, a composer and amateur organ builder, had been a pupil of Guilmant and FaurÃ©. Her sister Odile was a promising soprano and pianist who lost her life early in a mountaineering accident; her older brother, Olivier, was a composer, pianist, and musicologist. Her oldest brother was the renowned Jehan Alain, a composer and organist whose teachers included DuprÃ©, Dukas, and Jean Roger-Ducasse. He numbered Messiaen and Poulenc among his closest friends and his works for organ â€” Litanies, in particular â€” established him as one of the brightest stars among rising French composers in the decade before his battlefield death in 1940, at 29. A twin sense of loss and inheritance informed her studies and career. and the National Orchestra of the O.R.T.F. conducted by Jean Martinon In the words of one of his biographers, conductor Jean Martinon's performances "were distinguished by a concern for translucent orchestral textures, and sustained by a subtle sense of rhythm and phrasing." Occasionally, "he stressed a poetic inflection at the expense of literal accuracy." Martinon's first instrument was the violin; he studied at the Lyons Conservatory (1924-1925), then transferred to the Paris Conservatory, where he won first prize in violin upon his graduation in 1928. He subsequently studied composition, with Albert Roussel, and conducting, with Charles Munch and Roger DesormiÃ¨re. Until the outbreak of World War II, Martinon was primarily a composer. His early substantial works include a Symphoniette for piano, percussion, and strings (1935); Symphony No. 1 (1936); Concerto giocoso for violin and orchestra (1937); and a wind quintet (1938). At the start of the war he was drafted into the French army. Taken prisoner in 1940, he passed the next two years in a Nazi labor camp. There, he wrote Stalag IX (Musique d'exil), an orchestral piece incorporating elements of jazz; during his internment, he also composed several religious works, including Absolve, Domine for male chorus and orchestra, and Psalm 136 (Chant des captifs), the latter receiving a composition prize from the city of Paris in 1946.

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Vintage LP Jean-philippe Rameau: Dardanus Orchestral Suite: Baroque Soloists: John Eliot Gardiner— $14.99 (Save 40%!)

Vintage LP Jean-philippe Rameau: Dardanus Orchestral Suite: Baroque Soloists: John Eliot Gardiner

Vinatge LP SLEEVE IS IN VERY GOOD CONDITION, LP IS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION THE MUSICAL HERITAGE SOCIETY A DIGITAL RECORDING MHS 7102F RARE VINTAGE CLASSICAL OPERA JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the truly multifaceted musicians of his day. Acclaimed for his innovative and popular operas, he was also known as one of the greatest organists in France, and his theoretical writings continue to influence musical thinkers over two centuries later. Although his father was a professional organist, Rameau was expected to pursue a career in the law. However, he was musically very precocious, teaching himself several instruments and the basics of harmony and composition. After spending more time on music than on his studies at the Jesuit College in Dijon (1693-1697), Rameau was removed from school; only when he was 18 did his parents give in to his wishes for a musical career. He went to Italy for a few months, and spent some time playing violin in a travelling French opera troupe. Then he took organist posts in Clermont-Ferrand (1702-1705), Paris (1705-1708), Dijon (1709-1714), Lyons (1714-1715), and Clermont again (1715-1722). Rameau had begun composing for the harpsichord, publishing his first book of keyboard works in 1706 (subsequent volumes appeared in 1724, 1728, and 1741). He had also written a few motets and secular cantatas, and had started his first book, the TraitÃ© de l'harmonie (published 1722), which later made his reputation as an important theorist. Hoping for greater fame as a composer, he moved to Paris in late 1722; there he took on some private students and composed numerous keyboard and short stage works. Eventually, he came to the attention of the financier and courtier Le Riche de la PoupliniÃ¨re, who hired Rameau as conductor of his orchestra (a position he held for some 22 years) and allowed him and his family to live in his mansion. Through La PoupliniÃ¨re, Rameau also met many of the great writers of his day, including some who later became librettists for his operas. Rameau produced his first opera, Hippolyte et Aricie (1733), at the age of 50. The work wasn't well received initially, but the opera Castor et Pollux (1737) was much more successful, and Rameau gradually became known as one of France's leading composers. For the rest of his life, he divided his time between composing and writing further theoretical works like Nouveau systÃ¨me de musique thÃ©orique (1726), Dissertation sur les differents mÃ©thodes d'accompagnement pour le clavecin ou pour l'orgue (1732), and DÃ©monstration du principe de l'harmonie (1750). He felt his theoretical works were at least as important as his music, and defended his theories in extensive correspondences and debates with many of the leading musical thinkers in Europe. In 1745, he was appointed composer of the King's chamber music. He continued writing operas, both tragic works like Dardanus (1739, rev. 1744) and comedies like PlatÃ©e (1745) and La Princesse de Navarre (1745). These and his other operas and incidental music (he wrote about 30 stage works in all) were noteworthy for their expanded harmonic palate, their brilliant choruses and ballets, and the prominent role Rameau gave to the orchestra. But not everyone admired his music, and for years a bitter public rivalry existed between the Rameau partisans and the "Lullistes," who preferred the somewhat more conservative works of Jean-Baptiste Lully. Rameau also had to defend his musical style in the "War of the Buffoons" of 1752 against those who preferred the lighter Italian operas of composers like Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. Four months before his death, Rameau was granted a patent of nobility by King Louis XV. He died just before his 81st birthday, and was buried at his parish church at St. Eustache. Dardanus Dardanus, tragÃ©die en musique Orchestral Suite Jean-Philippe Rameau's Dardanus is typical of his works for the operatic stage: it contains innovative music of great inspiration and dramatic sensitivity, and it caused a public controversy at the time of its premiere. Rameau, who was a respected theorist and writer as well as a composer, employed harmonic devices, orchestrations, and a range of emotional expression that some listeners found grotesque, especially those who favored the works of his predecessors, Jean-Baptiste Lully. Lully's works were more typical of the period than were those of Rameau, especially in their relatively understated orchestrations and use of secco (dry) recitative â€” done with only keyboard accompaniment. For those who valued tradition over innovation, Rameau's work â€” full of dramatic instrumentation and accompanied recitatives (performed with orchestra) â€” was simply too adventuresome and, although Rameau's more forward-looking style would eventually win out, the conflict between the supporters of Rameau and Lully makes for one of opera history's more colorful chapters. Based on Greek mythology, the libretto, by Charles-Antoine Leclerc de La BruÃ¨re, tells the story of Jupiter's son, Dardanus, and his war with The king of Phrygia. BruÃ¨re's libretto represents opera seria at both its most grand and its most absurd: the numerous processions, dream scenes and intrigues brought out the best in Rameau's dramatic writing, but the plot was so laden with supernatural events and interventions that it became a caricature of itself. For this reason, Dardanus was a less-than-spectacular success at its premiere (Paris OpÃ©ra, November 1739), and underwent at least two extensive revisions, the first of which completely discarded the last three acts. Subsequent versions placed a greater emphasis on human relationships and simplified the plot â€” steps that were necessary for the sake of clarity and cohesion, but which also involved the removal of excellent music. Modern revivals of Dardanus have attempted to find an effective middle ground, keeping as much as possible of Rameau's colorful writing while trimming the plot into a coherent form â€” often with great success. and performed by the English Baroque Soloists Although the English Baroque Soloists was officially established as a chamber ensemble of period instruments in 1978, the group actually gave its first concert at the 1977 Innsbruck Festival of Early Music in a performance of Handel's Acis and Galatea. Founded by John Eliot Gardiner, the group regularly performs throughout England and Europe. It has given a number of concerts in two London halls, the Barbican and St. John's Smith Square. The English Baroque Soloists drew many of their original members from another group Gardiner had founded (in 1968), the Monteverdi Orchestra. and conducted by John Eliot Gardiner John Eliot Gardiner is one of the leading conductors in the active "authentic performances" movement in England, performing Baroque music but also extending his range into later repertoire. He first conducted at the age of 15, and after finishing school he studied at King's College, Cambridge. While still an undergraduate, he conducted the combined Oxford and Cambridge Singers on a 1964 tour of the Middle East and founded the Monteverdi Choir, which has consistently performed on his recordings since.

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Vintage LP "The Glory of Venice" E. Power Biggs, Giovanni Gabrieli— $12.99 (Save 48%!)

Vintage LP "The Glory of Venice" E. Power Biggs, Giovanni Gabrieli

RARE VINTAGE Chamber Music COLUMBIA MASTERWORKS STEREO M 30937 SLEEVE IS IN FAIR CONDITION - LP IS IN VERY GOOD CONDITION Written By Giovanni GABRIELI Giovanni Gabrieli is an important transitional figure between the Renaissance and Baroque eras and their associated musical styles. The distinctive sound of his music derived in part from his association with St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, long one of the most important churches in Europe, and for which he wrote both vocal and instrumental works. Through his compositions and his work with several significant pupils, Gabrieli substantially influenced the development of music in the seventeenth century. Very little is known about his early years; he probably studied with his famous uncle Andrea Gabrieli, who was also a composer, and organist at St. Mark's. Like his uncle, Gabrieli lived in Germany for several years, and was employed at the court of Duke Albrecht V in Munich from around 1575 until the Duke's death in 1579. Soon after that Gabrieli returned to Italy, and in 1585 became the organist for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, a religious confraternity; he would hold that post for the rest of his life. That same year (1585), Gabrieli became organist at St. Mark's and, on his uncle's death in 1586, assumed his position as its principal composer (Gabrieli also edited a number of his uncle's compositions for posthumous publication). At that time, Venice was a very cosmopolitan city and something of a musical crossroads. Much of the city's musical activity centered around St. Mark's Cathedral, which had long attracted many great musicians. The Cathedral's unusual layout, with its two choir lofts facing each other (each with its own organ), led to the development of what has been called the Venetian style of composition â€” a colorful and dramatic style often involving multiple choirs and instrumental ensembles; many of Gabrieli's motets and other religious choral works are written for two or four choirs, divided into a dozen or more separate parts. Gabrieli also became one of the first composers to write choral works including parts for instrumental ensembles; the motet In ecclesiis, as an example, calls for two choirs, soloists, organ, brass, and strings. Gabrieli wrote a number of secular vocal works (most or all of them before 1600), and a number of pieces for organ in a quasi-improvisational style. Gabrieli composed many purely instrumental works in forms such as the canzoni and ricercari, which had become increasingly popular in the sixteenth century. Several of these were published with some of his choral music in the collection Sacrae symphoniae (1597). This publication was very popular all over Europe and attracted for Gabrieli a number of prominent pupils, the best known of which were Heinrich SchÃ¼tz (who studied with him between 1609 and 1612) and Michael Praetorius. More of Gabrieli's instrumental pieces were published posthumously in Canzoni e sonate (1615). Some of these works were particularly innovative: the Sonata pian e forte was one of the first documented compositions to employ dynamic markings, and the Sonata per tre violini was one of the first to use a basso continuo, anticipating the later trio sonata. His instrumental works are now seen as the culmination of the development of instrumental music in the sixteenth century. From around 1606, Gabrieli suffered from a kidney stone that reduced his activities, and eventually led to his death. The Glory in Venice GABRIELI IN SAN MARCO Selections Include "Jubilate Deo" The Venetian Giovanni Gabrieli occupied a crucial position in the pedagogical transmission of late-Renaissance and early-Baroque musical style. Giovanni first learned composition at the hands of his uncle Andrea Gabrieli, organist for San Marco Cathedral and standardbearer for Venice's already-rich musical traditions. Giovanni supplemented this experience with a four-year period of service at the Bavarian court chapel of Munich, learning from one of the worldwide paragons of the late-Renaissance style, Orlande de Lassus. In turn, after Giovanni Gabrieli took over the position of San Marco organist from his uncle in 1585, he passed on his stylistic synthesis to a series of his own students. In Venice, both his successor Alessandro Grandi and Claudio Monteverdi were influenced by Gabrieli; over a dozen northern musicians, as well, made the arduous journey to Italy to study with him, among them Heinrich SchÃ¼tz. A piece of music such as Gabrieli's eight-voiced polychoral motet Jubilate Deo omnis terra (from the first volume of his Sacrae Symphoniae of 1597) admirably displays the synthesis of styles he achieved and passed on. The most obvious musical traits of Gabrieli's Jubilate Deo (Psalm 99:1-4) â€” its blend of flawless imitative counterpoint, careful text declamation, and splendid antiphonal effects â€” clearly reflect his mastery of both Lassus' teaching and his uncle's. The first verse opens with two classic and well-balanced "points of imitation" in a single choir of higher voices, then builds to a cadence in two syncopated phrases of homophony, much as Lassus might have done. At the important structural moment of the Psalm verse's second half, however, a second choir with contrasting lower textures makes its delayed yet grand entrance. Though by no means exclusive to Venice, this type of choral antiphony had long been a common feature of the music. For the second and third Psalm verses, Gabrieli continues his alternation between three contrasting textures (upper choir, lower choir, and full chordal sonorities), while maintaining a characteristically lucid declamation of the text and sensitivity to its structure. After a brief, dance-like triple-meter section, the final verse ("His truth endures for all generations") appears in a twice-extended coda with extraordinarily close imitation among all eight contrapuntal voices. The imitative motive ripples through the entire choir, blurring the prior antiphonal distinctions in one majestic tapestry of praise. In the Venetian liturgy, Jubilate Deo served a number of high festal Lauds, especially those jubilant services on Christmas morning. and "Magnificat" "Surrexit Christus" "Nunc Dimittis" "Angelus Ad Pastores" "Regina Caeli" Performed by: E. Power Biggs E. Power Biggs studied music at the Royal Academy of Music, emigrating to the U.S. in 1930 and becoming a citizen in 1937. He concertized widely, eventually broadcasting a weekly radio program from 1942-1958 on a classic Aeolian-Skinner organ from the Musch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University. This program alone brought the sound of organ music, particularly that of the Baroque, to an unprecedented large audience. Biggs' inexhaustible energy as a performer was instrumental to the popularization of both the organ and Baroque music, and his activities extended well beyond these broadcasts. He toured and recorded widely, playing a huge variety of modern and historic organs and the music best suited for them, eventually expanding his repertory into every period of music. A series of LPs Biggs recorded for Columbia in the 1960s did much to make Bach's organ masterpieces familiar to a variety of listeners that ranged well beyond the traditional classical audience. Biggs also courted crossover listeners with a recording of Scott Joplin rags made on the pedal harpsichord. He also worked with a number of contemporary composers on commissions, including Walter Piston and Roy Harris. After the onset of arthritis, which led to a forced retirement, Biggs concentrated on editing and publishing early organ music. By the time of his death in 1977, the name E. Power Biggs had become synonymous with the organ for several generations of music lovers. with The Gregg Smith Singers and The Texas Boys Choir with the Edward Tarr Brass Ensemble Conducted by Vittorio Negri

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Marian Anderson "Let Us Break Bread Together" and "Oh! What a Beautiful City" 78RPM 10" Porcelain— $14.99 (Save 50%!)

Marian Anderson "Let Us Break Bread Together" and "Oh! What a Beautiful City" 78RPM 10" Porcelain

Vintage 78 RPM 10 inch Porcelain Record Traditional Spirituals sung by Marian Anderson Arrangement by William Lawrence sung by Marian Anderson - Contralto accompanied by Franz Rupp at Piano A legendary African-American interpreter of both operatic and concert repertoire, Marian Anderson was possessed of one of the finest contralto voices in living memory. Her career was notable not only for her artistic achievements -- which were many -- but also for a dignified tenacity in the face of discrimination. She opened doors for subsequent generations of black American singers. Having sung since childhood, and subsequently studied with a number of teachers in her native Philadelphia, Anderson first rose to prominence when she appeared with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1925. In the early '30s she made a successful concert tour of Europe, and solidified her growing reputation with further appearances in New York and London. In 1939, Anderson scheduled an appearance at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., but was denied the use of the building by its owners, the Daughters of the American Revolution, who objected to the presentation of a black performer. Eleanor Roosevelt resigned her membership in the DAR in protest of this decision and then scheduled an appearance for Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. The resulting concert, attended by thousands and broadcast nationwide, forever established Anderson as an ambassador for racial progress -- a role she embraced with great pride and success for the remainder of her career. Fittingly, Anderson's 1955 appearance at the Metropolitan Opera marked the first by an African-American singer, preparing the way for such future stars as Leontyne Price and Shirley Verrett. Marian Anderson's voice was dark, rich, and possessed of great power and agility. Her repertory ranged from opera and concert material to Negro spirituals, and she brought to all things a great sense of commitment and integrity. Arturo Toscanini is noted to have remarked that a voice like hers only appears "once in a hundred years." Her extraordinary range extended all the way down to the D below middle C -- as displayed in her performances of Schubert's song Death and the Maiden (Der Tod und das MÃ¤dchen) -- as well as upwards into soprano territory (as an exercise, she even sang the devastatingly difficult "Casta diva" from Bellini's Norma). While her voice was most distinctive in the lower range, she was also capable of lightening it almost to leggiero proportions -- as she did in works of Handel and other Baroque composers -- and of bringing a near-ideal combination of classical training and folk-like spontaneity to the spirituals that were an integral part of her concert and recording repertoire.

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Vintage LP - Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, (Organ Symphony)— $14.99 (Save 40%!)

Vintage LP - Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, (Organ Symphony)

RARE VINTAGE CLASSICAL SYMPHONIC ORGAN CONCERTO ANGEL RECORDS 35336 SLEEVE IS IN GOOD CONDITION - LP IS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION Composed by CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS Camille Saint-SaÃ«ns was something of an anomaly among French composers of the nineteenth century in that he wrote in virtually all genres, including opera, symphonies, concertos, songs, sacred and secular choral music, solo piano, and chamber music. He was generally not a pioneer, though he did help to revive some earlier and largely forgotten dance forms, like the bourÃ©e and gavotte. He was a conservative who wrote many popular scores scattered throughout the various genres: the Piano Concerto No. 2, Symphony No. 3 ("Organ"), the symphonic poem Danse macabre, the opera Samson et Dalila, and probably his most widely performed work, The Carnival of The Animals. While he remained a composer closely tied to tradition and traditional forms in his later years, he did develop a more arid style, less colorful and, in the end, less appealing. He was also a poet and playwright of some distinction. Saint-SaÃ«ns was born in Paris on October 9, 1835. He was one of the most precocious musicians ever, beginning piano lessons with his aunt at two-and-a-half and composing his first work at three. At age seven he studied composition with Pierre Maledin. When he was ten, he gave a concert that included Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, Mozart's B flat Concerto, K. 460, along with works by Bach, Handel, and Hummel. In his academic studies, he displayed the same genius, learning languages and advanced mathematics with ease and celerity. He would also develop keen, lifelong interests in geology and astronomy. In 1848, he entered the Paris Conservatory and studied organ and composition, the latter with HalÃ©vy. By his early twenties, following the composition of two symphonies, he had won the admiration and support of Berlioz, Liszt, Gounod, Rossini, and other notable figures. From 1853 to 1876, he held church organist posts; he also taught at the Ã‰cole Niedermeyer (1861-1865). He composed much throughout his early years, turning out the 1853 Symphony in F ("Urbs Roma"), a Mass (1855) and several concertos, including the popular second, for piano (1868). In 1875, Saint-SaÃ«ns married the 19-year-old Marie Truffot, bringing on perhaps the saddest chapter in his life. The union produced two children who died within six weeks of each other, one from a four-story fall. The marriage ended in 1881. Oddly, this dark period in his life produced some of his most popular works, including Danse macabre (1875) and Samson et Dalila (1878). After the tragic events of his marriage, Saint-SaÃ«ns developed a fondness for FaurÃ© and his family, acting as a second father to FaurÃ©'s children. But he also remained very close to his mother, who had opposed his marriage. When she died in 1888, the composer fell into a deep depression, even contemplating suicide for a time. He did much travel in the years that followed and developed an interest in Algeria and Egypt, which eventually inspired him to write Africa (1891) and his Piano Concerto No. 5, the "Egyptian". He also turned out works unrelated to exotic places, such as his popular and most enduring serious composition, the Symphony No. 3. Curiously, after 1890, Saint-SaÃ«ns' music was regarded with some condescension in his homeland, while in England and the United States he was hailed as France's greatest living composer well into the twentieth century. Saint-SaÃ«ns experienced an especially triumphant concert tour when he visited the U.S. in 1915. In the last two decades of his life, he remained attached to his dogs and was largely a loner. He died in Algeria on December 16, 1921. selection SYMPHONY No. 3 in C Minor ("Organ"), Op. 78 The London Philharmonic Society commissioned the Symphony No. 3 from Saint-SaÃ«ns, much as it had Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Saint-SaÃ«ns directed the first performance in London on May 19, 1886. Although he lived until 1921, Saint-SaÃ«ns would not compose another symphony. He later explained: "With it I have given all I could give. What I did I could not achieve again." He had intended to dedicate the piece to Liszt, but the score was published after Liszt's death with the inscription, "Ã la Memoire de Franz Liszt." The Symphony in C minor shows Saint-SaÃ«ns' use of thematic transformation, also present in the overture Spartacus and the Fourth Piano Concerto. This technique Saint-SaÃ«ns observed in the symphonic poems of Liszt, as well as in Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique. Following their lead, Saint-SaÃ«ns takes his principal theme through transformations throughout his Third Symphony. To the typical forces of a large orchestra he added his and Liszt's primary instruments, the organ and piano. Saint-SaÃ«ns cast the symphony in two large sections, but each of these is in two clear parts, creating a traditional four-movement work. After an Adagio introduction, the tempo shifts to Allegro moderato and the strings perform the main theme of the first movement, which incorporates the chant at the beginning of the Dies irae, a melody associated with both death and, in part because of the Totentanz, Liszt. The melody exhibits an AABB pattern, which is typical of the composer's works, and is the main idea, or "motto" theme, of the entire symphony. This restless theme is transformed and eventually gives way to a new, calmer idea. Afterward, these two themes appear simultaneously in the development section before a return brings more transformational episodes and prepares for the slow "movement," in D flat major. Strings, supported by organ chords, perform the main theme of the second movement, Adagio, which is the best known section of the Third Symphony. Woodwinds take the peaceful theme and vary it until a new transformation of the "motto" theme injects contrasting, restless energy. A return of the Adagio theme rounds off the movement. Near the end we hear a brilliant mixture of woodwinds with reed stops on the organ. An aggressive, brief theme opens the Scherzo, a transformation of the motto contained in the low string outburst that follows the first phrase. When the tempo changes to Presto, the piano enters with rapid, rising arpeggios and scales, played several times on different harmonies. The Scherzo material returns, and what seems like a reprise of the Presto section introduces a new theme, played by the lower instruments under busy figurations and anticipating the finale. The finale opens with a powerful chord played on the organ. Yet another transformation of the "motto" theme appears; this time its ties with the Dies irae are very clear. A few quiet statements follow before the organ and orchestra join in a powerful presentation of the transformed theme. After a development section, the piece closes with all the available forces in C major. performed by Henriette Roget, Organ and the Orchestre de la Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire conducted by Andre Cluytens AndrÃ© Cluytens was among the leading French conductors of his time. His father, Alphonse Cluytens, was also a conductor, and recognized the boy's musical talents. AndrÃ© was enrolled in the Royal Flemish Conservatory at the age of nine. He studied in the piano class of Emile Bosquet, and received first prize for piano at the age of 16. The next year he won first prize in harmony, theory, counterpoint, and fugue. His father was conductor at the Royal French Theater of Antwerp. AndrÃ© became his assistant and a choirmaster there. When an illness prevented Alphonse from conducting, AndrÃ© made his performance debut in 1927 in Bizet's Les PÃªcheurs de perles. After that experience he devoted his efforts to orchestral and opera conducting rather than choral work, and he became a resident conductor in the house.

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Vintage LP Albert Roussel "Bacchus Et Ariane" Two Suites for Orchestra— $14.99 (Save 40%!)

Vintage LP Albert Roussel "Bacchus Et Ariane" Two Suites for Orchestra

RARE VINTAGE CLASSICAL SYMPHONIC BALLET IN TWO ACTS THE MUSICAL HERITAGE SOCIETY STEREO MHS 1244 SLEEVE IS IN GOOD CONDITION - LP IS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION composed by ALBERT ROUSSEL Though less well known than his contemporaries Ravel and Debussy, Albert Roussel is nevertheless regarded as one of the most important figures in early twentieth century French music. Roussel's music reflects his efforts to explore new possibilities of expression while remaining faithful to traditional musical ideas; evident in his chamber music and works for the stage, this tension between traditionalism and experimentation is particularly successful in his symphonies. Born into an affluent family, Roussel lost both his parents when he was very young, and was entrusted to the care of his grandfather at age seven; in 1880, the grandfather died, and a maternal aunt took over the responsibility of raising the boy. Although he was interested in music, Roussel decided to pursue a naval career; he graduated from the Ecole Navale in 1889, eventually serving in Indochina as an officer. In 1894, however, Roussel resigned his commission, devoting himself completely to music. He went to Paris, where he studied with the composer and organist Eugene Gigout. Four years later, he began studies with Vincent d'Indy at the newly-founded Schola Cantorum. In 1902, although he had not yet completed his studies, Roussel became professor of counterpoint at the Schola Cantorum. Having already composed several significant works (including his Piano Trio and the First Symphony), Roussel married Blanche Preisach in 1908; the following year, the two traveled to India, where he was exposed to the medieval Hindu legend of Queen Padmavati, who sacrificed her life for love. Fascinated by this story, Roussel decided to set it to music (his opera, PadmÃ¥vatÃ®, 1923). At the outbreak of World War I in 1914 Roussel applied for active duty, eventually obtaining an artillery commission; after the war, having retired to Perros-Guirec on the coast of Brittany, he focused on unfinished projects, which included the opera-ballet PadmÃ¥vatÃ®. This work, which incorporates elements of traditional Indian music, marked a new period for Roussel, whose earlier compositions showed influences of Impressionism. During the 1920s, Roussel struggled to balance an increasing structural complexity with emotional expressiveness in his works. His Second Symphony, completed in 1921, exemplifies this tension; in Roussel's subsequent works, the listener can also detect elements of neo-Classicism. In 1922, Roussel settled in Vasterival, in the coast of Normandy. Despite increasingly frail health, he devoted much of his energy to composing; he completed the Piano Concerto in 1927. His increasing public esteem is evidenced by a festival entirely devoted to his works in Paris (1927) as well as a commission from the Boston Symphony Orchestra for that organization's 50th anniversary (Third Symphony, 1930); Roussel traveled to the United States for the performance. Works composed toward the end of Roussel's life, such as the String Quartet (1931-1932), the Fourth Symphony (1934), and the String Trio (1937), show his melodic idiom to be enriched by elements of chromaticism and polytonality. In these compositions, Roussel managed a successful synthesis of these new elements with the transparency of his earlier style. Bacchus et Ariane, ballet, Op. 43 Receiving its premiere in a lavish production at the Paris OpÃ©ra on May 22, 1931, â€” with Olga Spessiwtsewa dancing Ariane, Serge Peretti as Theseus, and choreography by Serge Lifar, who danced Bacchus â€” Bacchus et Ariane met a cool reception and venomous criticism of the set and costumes by Giorgio di Chirico. The flop was remarkable, for, taken with his Third Symphony, Bacchus et Ariane is the glowing summit of Roussel's symphonic art. Partitioned into suites, the ballet's two acts have won success in the concert hall, beginning with performances led by Charles Munch in 1933 and by Pierre Monteux in 1934. Taking up music as a career in his mid-twenties, in a time of unparalleled diversity and experimentation, Roussel was keenly aware of style. A prolonged flirtation with the sensuous world of Impressionism stimulated his first symphonic masterpieces â€” the Symphony No. 1 ("Le PoÃ¨me de la forÃªt" [1906]) and the glowing Evocations (1910). With Evocations, and his marriage to Blanche Preisach followed by an extended honeymoon in India and Cambodia, a strain of exoticism colored his work, culminating in the great opera-ballet, PadmÃ¢vatÃ® (1914/18). The "hermetic" Second Symphony (the composer's description [1919/21]) marks a stylistic shake-out, a turn toward purely musical processes, and a new â€” non-programmatic, non-descriptive â€” linear classicism realized in the works of the 1920s, and preeminently in the condensed, powerful utterance of the Third Symphony (1929/30). Thus, when offered Abel Hermant's scenario for Bacchus et Ariane, Roussel took it with the serenity of a master raconteur who knows how to marshal his effects â€” and who has considerable effects to marshal â€” lavishing them upon this ancient fable which has fired the imaginations of musicians through the ages. From the opening propulsive bound, celebrating Theseus' slaying of the Minotaur, the listener is transported by a unique rhythmic vivacity of strongly accented, often enticingly irregular, and arrestingly shifting meters. For Roussel, the Dionysian is not (as it was for, say, Szymanowski) primarily intoxicating and erotic â€” Bacchus is a god of enchantments and compelling dynamism. And Ariane never fails to draw from him music of sinuous tenderness. Throughout, the score is rife with glowing melody and preternatural animation, couched in orchestral writing ranging from caressing sorcery to coruscating brilliance. The music rises to each moment â€” Ariane's salto mortale, Bacchus' kiss and spell, the procession of Bacchic worshippers, and so on â€” with richly compact, spellbinding invention. And it must be said that the final Bacchanale and coronation of Ariane ranks among the most powerfully whelming endings in French music of any genre. performed by the NATIONAL ORCHESTRA of the O.R.T.F. conducted by JEAN MARTINON In the words of one of his biographers, conductor Jean Martinon's performances "were distinguished by a concern for translucent orchestral textures, and sustained by a subtle sense of rhythm and phrasing." Occasionally, "he stressed a poetic inflection at the expense of literal accuracy." Martinon's first instrument was the violin; he studied at the Lyons Conservatory (1924-1925), then transferred to the Paris Conservatory, where he won first prize in violin upon his graduation in 1928. He subsequently studied composition, with Albert Roussel, and conducting, with Charles Munch and Roger DesormiÃ¨re. Until the outbreak of World War II, Martinon was primarily a composer. His early substantial works include a Symphoniette for piano, percussion, and strings (1935); Symphony No. 1 (1936); Concerto giocoso for violin and orchestra (1937); and a wind quintet (1938). At the start of the war he was drafted into the French army. Taken prisoner in 1940, he passed the next two years in a Nazi labor camp. There, he wrote Stalag IX (Musique d'exil), an orchestral piece incorporating elements of jazz; during his internment, he also composed several religious works, including Absolve, Domine for male chorus and orchestra, and Psalm 136 (Chant des captifs), the latter receiving a composition prize from the city of Paris in 1946. Upon his release from the Nazi camp, Martinon became conductor of the Bordeaux Symphony Orchestra (from 1943 to 1945) and assistant conductor of the Paris Conservatory Orchestra (from 1944 to 1946), then associate conductor of the London Philharmonic (from 1947 to 1949). He toured as a guest conductor as well, although his U.S. debut did not come until 1957, with the Boston Symphony giving the American premiere of his Symphony No. 2. Although he devoted as much time as he could to composing in the early postwar years â€” producing a string quartet (1946), an "Irish" Symphony (1948), the ballet Ambohimanga (1946), and the opera HÃ©cube (1949-1954) â€” he was increasingly occupied with conducting, working with the Concerts Lamoureux (from 1951 to 1957), the Israel Philharmonic (from 1957 to 1959), and DÃ¼sseldorf Symphony Orchestra (from 1960 to 1966). In 1963, he succeeded Fritz Reiner as head of the Chicago Symphony. Martinon's tenure there was difficult. In five seasons, he conducted 60 works by modern European and American composers, and made a number of outstanding LPs for RCA, mostly of bracing twentieth century repertory in audiophile sound. Chicago's conservative music lovers soon sent him packing.

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Vintage LP "Christian Ferras (Violin) Paul Tortelier (Cello) Brahms: Double Concerto in A Minor"— $14.99 (Save 40%!)

Vintage LP "Christian Ferras (Violin) Paul Tortelier (Cello) Brahms: Double Concerto in A Minor"

RARE VINTAGE CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC SERAPHIM RECORDS 60048 SLEEVE IS IN GOOD CONDITION - LP IS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION COMPOSED BY JOHANNES BRAHMS The stature of Johannes Brahms among classical composers is well illustrated by his inclusion among the "Three Bs" triumvirate of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. Of all the major composers of the late Romantic era, Brahms was the one most attached to the Classical ideal as manifested in the music of Haydn, Mozart, and especially Beethoven; indeed, Hans von BÃ¼low once characterized Brahms' Symphony No. 1 (1855-1876) as "Beethoven's Tenth." As a youth, Brahms was championed by Robert Schumann as music's greatest hope for the future; as a mature composer, Brahms became for conservative musical journalists the most potent symbol of musical tradition, a stalwart against the "degeneration" represented by the music of Wagner and his school. Brahms' symphonies, choral and vocal works, chamber music, and piano pieces are imbued with strong emotional feeling, yet take shape according to a thoroughly considered structural plan. Concerto for violin, cello & orchestra in A minor ("Double"), Op. 102 Brahms wrote this work during the summer of 1887, and conducted the premiere himself on October 18 in Cologne, with Joseph Joachim and Robert Hausmann as, respectively, the violin and cello soloists. Brahms had just turned 20 when he met Joseph Joachim (1831-1907), already a celebrated violinist at 22 and destined to be acclaimed also as a composer, conductor, and educator. It was Joachim who commended his new friend to Robert and Clara Schumann, thereby assuring his celebrity. For 30 years the two were fast friends despite the distance usually separating their power bases: Joachim's in Berlin, Brahms' in Vienna finally. "Jussuf," however, had a weakness â€” obsessive jealousy of his wife Amalie, whom he accused of adultery in 1881 with his (and Brahms' and DvorÃ¡k's) publisher, Fritz Simrock. Brahms disbelieved, and said so in a consolatory letter to Frau Joachim. During divorce hearings she produced this letter in court, and the judge agreed publicly with its contents. As a result, Joachim cut off communications with Brahms for six years, although he continued to play the composer's music. Finally, seeking to repair the damage, Brahms composed the "Double" Concerto as a peace offering; the effort was successful, although their camaraderie of former years was never fully restored. In addition to composing the "Thun" sonatas of 1886 for violin and cello, Brahms had been studying Baroque concerti grossi, so the sound of string instruments was in his ear. This concerto would be his last orchestral work. performed by CHRISTIAN FERRAS, Violin and PAUL TORTELIER, Cello A consummate artist whose approach to the cello was directed toward breathing life into the music, Paul Tortelier earned the respect and affection of countless colleagues. An enduring friendship with Pablo Casals found him playing, in the words of a French critic, Apollo to Casals' Jupiter. Like Casals, Tortelier emphasized using but one finger at a time on the string to allow free vibration. Fantasy and emotional freedom marked his performances and attracted numerous young players. Given a cello by his mother at age six, Tortelier was prompted toward a career from the beginning. His first teacher, Beatrice Bluhm, exposed young Paul to the flexible wrist and free bowing arm favored by the Franco-Belgian School. At ten, Tortelier entered the Paris Conservatoire, where his studied with GÃ©rard Hekking, who encouraged a sense of rhythmic freedom and instilled in his pupil an abiding love for Bach. While his lessons continued, he performed in Paris cafÃ©s and cinemas; at 16, he graduated from the Conservatoire with a first prize. After joining the Paris Radio Orchestra as assistant principal, Tortelier made a debut with Lamoureux Concert Association, all the while studying harmony with Jean Gallon at the Conservatoire. Completion of those courses brought another first prize, this time in composition. As a member of the Monte Carlo Symphony Orchestra, Tortelier played under the direction of Toscanini and Walter and performed as soloist in Richard Strauss' Don Quixote under the composer's direction. Though his career advanced in the late 1930s, taking him to Asia and Africa, as well as North and South America, WWII curtailed his activities. After the war, he resumed his concert appearances. Impressed by efforts to establish Israeli statehood, Tortelier (a Catholic) moved his family to Mabaroth, a kibbutz only several hundred yards from the enemy border. The first Prades Festival, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Bach's death in 1950, drew an invitation from Casals to be principal cellist. From 1956 to 1969, Tortelier was a professor at the Paris Conservatoire; from 1969 to 1975, he taught at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, Germany. Conducting occupied more of his time in later years, as did composition (two concertos included). His book, How I Play, How I Teach, has become a standard text for performance of modern cello works. with the PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA conducted by PAUL KLETZKI Paul Kletzki was a highly respected conductor in the middle years of the 1900s. He was a composition student at the Warsaw Conservatory and the Berlin Academy. He had taken violin as a boy and continued his studies on that instrument in Warsaw with Emil Mlynarski. His first professional job was as a member of the Lodz Philharmonic Orchestra. Meanwhile, he was composing. When he debuted as a conductor in Berlin in 1923 it was in a concert of his own compositions. He settled in Berlin, where he conducted and composed actively. He left Germany in 1933 when he went to Venice and Milan and received an invitation to teach composition and orchestra at the Milan Scola Superiore di Musica. From 1937 to 1938 he was the musical director of the Kharkov Philharmonic Orchestra in the U.S.S.R. At the end of that term he left for Switzerland, where he remained. He took Swiss citizenship in 1947. Kletzki conducted widely after the War. He came into demand for his qualities of lucidity and power, together with fresh conceptions of the music. He was particularly in demand as a guest conductor in South and Central America, and had a close association with the Israel Philharmonic. He was music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (1958 - 1962), the Bern Symphony Orchestra (1964 - 1966), and the Orchestra of Suisse Romande (1968 - 1970). He had received considerable praise for his compositions, particularly before World War II, when he had more time to write. However, most of his output was lost in the destruction of World War II. and additionally on side 2 LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN's Sonata for violin & piano No. 1 in D major, Op. 12/1 Beethoven inaugurates his first Violin Sonata with a brief fanfare played in octaves by both instruments; this melts into a smoother yet still energetic melody (the tempo is Allegro con brio) that is essentially an expansion of the fanfare. By this point, Beethoven has already laid out all the raw material for the sonata- form movement, even though the exposition is far from over. The thematic ideas simply evolve from each other, in a quick preview of the technique of thematic metamorphosis that Franz Liszt would advocate decades later. Beethoven thoroughly works over all this material in the development section, but only as he approaches the recapitulation does he combine the fanfare with its smooth variant, thus making their relationship explicit. Sibelius would later employ a similar trick, but in a more complex way, in the first movement of his Second Symphony. In the second movement, Andante con moto, a broad, noble theme introduced by the piano is then taken up by the violin, with four variations. The first variation, dominated by the keyboard, is formal and ornate, with the violin playing a subsidiary role. The second variation offers the violin its own florid showcase, with the keyboard in a burbling accompaniment. The movement takes a dramatic turn with the third variation; it slips into the minor mode and wrenches the instruments through sudden dynamic contrasts and key shifts. Calm prevails once again in the last variation, although the theme is now hidden in the syncopated inner voice of the piano part. Syncopation rules the main theme of the rondo finale (Allegro). It's an ebullient 6/8 tune with the accent shifted to the second beat, but it makes way for more expansive melodies for the violin over animated piano accompaniment. One of these, a soaring F-major theme, returns to lead the movement through its coda, which Beethoven elongates by modulating through some surprisingly distant keys. performed by CHRISTIAN FERRAS, Violin PIERRE BARBIZET, Piano

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Classical 2 LP Set SERGEI PROKOFIEV's "Love for Three Oranges"— $16.99 (Save 43%!)

Classical 2 LP Set SERGEI PROKOFIEV's "Love for Three Oranges"

THE MUSIC HERITAGE SOCIETY MHS 4027/28 LIBRETTO ENCLOSED SLEEVE IS IN GOOD CONDITION, LPS ARE IN EXCELLENT CONDITION RARE VINTAGE CLASSICAL OPERA by SERGEI PROKOFIEV's In breathing new life into the symphony, sonata, and concerto, Sergey Prokofiev emerged as one of the truly original musical voices of the twentieth century. Bridging the worlds of pre-revolutionary Russia and the Stalinist Soviet Union, Prokofiev enjoyed a successful worldwide career as composer and pianist. As in the case of most other Soviet-era composers, his creative life and his music came to suffer under the duress of official Party strictures. Still, despite the detrimental personal and professional effects of such outside influences, Prokofiev continued until the end of his career to produce music marked by a singular skill, inventiveness, and Ã©lan. As an only child (his sisters had died in infancy), Prokofiev lived a comfortable, privileged life, which gave him a heightened sense of self-worth and an indifference to criticism, an attitude that would change as he matured. His mother taught him piano, and he began composing around the age of five. He eventually took piano, theory, and composition lessons from Reyngol'd Gliere, then enrolled at the St. Petersburg Conservatory when he was 13. He took theory with Lyadov, orchestration with Rimsky-Korsakov, and became lifelong friends with Nicolai Myaskovsky. After graduating, he began performing in St. Petersburg and in Moscow, then in Western Europe, all the while writing more and more music. Prokofiev's earliest renown, therefore, came as a result of both his formidable pianistic technique and the works he wrote to exploit it. He sprang onto the Russian musical scene with works like the Sarcasms, Op. 17 (1912-1914), and Visions fugitives, Op. 22 (1915-1917), and his first few piano sonatas. He also wrote orchestral works, concertos, and operas, and met with Diaghilev about producing ballets. The years immediately after the Revolution were spent in the U.S., where Prokofiev tried to follow Rachmaninov's lead and make his way as a pianist/composer. His commission for The Love for Three Oranges came from the Chicago Opera in 1919, but overall Prokofiev was disappointed by his American reception, and he returned to Europe in 1922. He married singer Lina Llubera in 1923, and the couple moved to Paris. He continued to compose on commission, meeting with mixed success from both critics and the public. He had maintained contact with the Soviet Union, even toured there in 1927. The Love for Three Oranges was part of the repertory there, and the government commissioned the music for the film Lieutenant KijÃ© and other pieces from him. In 1936, he decided to return to the Soviet Union with his wife and two sons. Most of his compositions from just after his return, including many for children, were written with the political atmosphere in mind. One work which wasn't, was the 1936 ballet Romeo and Juliet, which became an international success. He attempted another opera in 1939, Semyon Kotko, but was met with hostility from cultural ideologues. During World War II, Prokofiev and other artists were evacuated from Moscow. He spent the time in various places within the U.S.S.R. and produced propaganda music, but also violin sonatas, his "War Sonatas" for piano, the String Quartet No. 2, the opera War and Peace, and the ballet Cinderella. In 1948, with the resolution that criticized almost all Soviet composers, several of Prokofiev's works were banned from performance. His health declined and he became more insecure. The composer's last creative efforts were directed largely toward the production of "patriotic" and "national" works, typified by the cantata Flourish, Mighty Homeland (1947), and yet Prokofiev also continued to produce worthy if lesser-known works like the underrated ballet The Stone Flower (1943). In a rather bitter coincidence, Prokofiev died on March 5, 1953, the same day as Joseph Stalin. The Love for Three Oranges, opera, Op. 33 In 1917, with his opera The Gambler in rehearsals for a St. Petersburg production, Prokofiev, already recognized as one of the leading modernist composers in his country, was looking for a new subject for his next operatic effort. The composer found his inspiration in a magazine published by theatrical producer Vsevolod Meyerhold in 1914-16, called The Love for Three Oranges, after the comedy by Carlo Gozzi. Following his arrival in Chicago in 1918, Prokofiev attempted to interest the Chicago Opera Company in a production of The Gambler, whose staging was canceled owing to the Bolshevik Revolution. The director, Cleofonte Campanini, turned him down, but did offer to do the new opera he suggested, The Love for Three Oranges. Prokofiev, a fast worker, completed the work in October that year, and it was premiered on December 30, 1921, in Chicago. Productions in New York (1922), Cologne (1925), Berlin (1926), and Leningrad (1926) followed, each helping to advance the cause of the composer, but meeting with little actual success. Yet, by the 1940s the music in the opera became widely known, mainly because of the often-played Suite adapted from it and use of its March as the theme of a popular radio show in America called "Your FBI in Peace and War." Throughout most of the twentieth century, The Love for Three Oranges opera had achieved more performances than any other Prokofiev opera. The Love for Three Oranges begins with a prologue in which the supporters of tragedy, comedy, eccentricity and other forms of drama watch the story, not only commenting on it, but affecting the outcome of certain events. The story they watch centers on the hypochondriac Prince, who is cursed by the witch, Fata Morgana, to fall madly in love with three oranges and obsessively pursue them. There is much humor and joy in Prokofiev's score. Some see the opera as a clever, updated Offenbach-like creation, full of slapstick and silliness. It is hard to dispute this view, though Prokofiev's occasional acid and handling of the story line perhaps place the work in a somewhat different arena, where farce and fun mix menace and mayhem in a sometimes cruel way. Just as the duck gets swallowed alive by the wolf in Prokofiev's children's classic, Peter and the Wolf, characters here can die or disappear as if quite dispensable: two of the three princesses who emerge from the oranges die immediately of thirst, the third being saved by the Eccentrics who intervene to give her water. However one interprets the opera, it is generally agreed that it is masterpiece of the twentieth century stage. performed by Viktor Ribinsky, Bass Vladimir Makhov, Tenor Boris Dobrin, Baritone Lyutsia Raskovets, Mezzo-soprano Ivan Budrin, Baritone Yuri Yelnikov, Tenor Gennady Troitsky, Bass Nina Polyyakova, Soprano Nina Postavnicheva, Mezzo-soprano Georgy Abramov, Hoarse Bass Yuri Yakushev, Bass Tamara Medvedeva, Mezzo-soprano Miroslav Markov, Bass and Ivan Kartavenko, Tenor with the Chorus and Orchestra of the Moscow Radio directed by DZHEMAL DALGAT

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Vinatge LP - Dvorak's Piano Concerto with Michael Ponti & Rohan— $14.99 (Save 40%!)

Vinatge LP - Dvorak's Piano Concerto with Michael Ponti & Rohan

TURNABOUT RECORDS TV-S 34539 SLEEVE IS IN GOOD CONDITION - LP IS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION RARE VINTAGE CLASSICAL WORK FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA FROM ANTONIN DVORAK Widely regarded as the most distinguished of Czech composers, Antonin DvorÃ¡k (1841-1904) produced attractive and vigorous music possessed of clear formal outlines, melodies that are both memorable and spontaneous-sounding, and a colorful, effective instrumental sense. DvorÃ¡k is considered one of the major figures of nationalism, both proselytizing for and making actual use of folk influences, which he expertly combined with Classical forms in works of all genres. His symphonies are among his most widely appreciated works; the Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World," 1893) takes a place among the finest and most popular examples of the symphonic literature. Similarly, his Cello Concerto (1894-1895) is one of the cornerstones of the repertory, providing the soloist an opportunity for virtuosic flair and soaring expressivity. DvorÃ¡k displayed special skill in writing for chamber ensembles, producing dozens of such works; among these, his 14 string quartets (1862-1895), the "American" Quintet (1893) and the "Dumky" Trio (1890-1891) are outstanding examples of their respective genres, overflowing with attractive folklike melodies set like jewels into the solid fixtures of Brahmsian absolute forms. DvorÃ¡k's "American" and "New World" works arose during the composer's sojourn in the United States in the early 1890s; he was uneasy with American high society and retreated to a small, predominantly Czech town in Iowa for summer vacations during his stay. However, he did make the acquaintance of the pioneering African-American baritone H.T. Burleigh, who may have influenced the seemingly spiritual-like melodies in the "New World" symphony and other works; some claim that the similarity resulted instead from a natural affinity between African-American and Eastern European melodic structures. By that time, DvorÃ¡k was among the most celebrated of European composers, seen by many as the heir to Brahms, who had championed DvorÃ¡k during the younger composer's long climb to the top. The son of a butcher and occasional zither player, DvorÃ¡k studied the organ in Prague as a young man and worked variously as a cafÃ© violist and church organist during the 1860s and 1870s while creating a growing body of symphonies, chamber music, and Czech-language opera. For three years in the 1870s he won a government grant (the Viennese critic Hanslick was among the judges) designed to help the careers of struggling young creative artists. Brahms gained for DvorÃ¡k a contract with his own publisher, Simrock, in 1877; the association proved a profitable one despite an initial controversy that flared when DvorÃ¡k insisted on including Czech-language work titles on the printed covers, a novelty in those musically German-dominated times. In the 1880s and 1890s DvorÃ¡k's reputation became international in scope thanks to a series of major masterpieces that included the Seventh, Eighth, and "New World" symphonies. At the end of his life he turned to opera once again; Rusalka, from 1901, incorporates Wagnerian influences into the musical telling of its legend-based story, and remains the most frequently performed of the composer's vocal works. DvorÃ¡k, a professor at Prague University from 1891 on, exerted a deep influence on Czech music of the twentieth century; among his students was Josef Suk, who also became his son-in-law. Featuring Piano Concerto in G Minor, B. 63, Op. 33 AntonÃn DvorÃ¡k composed his only virtuoso vehicle for pianoforte and orchestra during the late summer months of 1876, at the prompting of a notable Czech pianist. The Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 33, is often described as DvorÃ¡k's first effort at concerto composition, but in fact this is not so: he had, a dozen or so years earlier, made what might be called a first draft of a concerto for cello and orchestra â€” an apprentice piece that quite naturally pales when placed next to his mature cello concerto of 1894-1895. It is usually, but certainly not always accurately, assumed that a pianoforte concerto is a vehicle for better and loftier musical thoughts than is a concerto for string instruments (the assumption goes back to Mozart and Beethoven, for whom it does indeed hold true), and DvorÃ¡k â€” himself far more a string player than a pianist â€” seems to have approached his Piano Concerto with that assumption in mind. The work is epic in style, grand in architecture, and sewn from an immediately and urgently dramatic fabric very different in kind from that used for the Violin Concerto, Op. 53, of just a few years later. Even DvorÃ¡k devotees, however, are forced to admit that the Piano Concerto is not a completely successful piece of music. Some of the problems come from the piano writing, which is at times imbalanced and unwieldy. Many pianists have edited and rewritten the pianoforte part of the concerto over the years, but, in the end, something is lost in these rewrites. It takes a superb pianist to pull off DvorÃ¡k's original, but it can be done: Sviatoslav Richter is perhaps the finest exponent the work has yet known. There is a full orchestral exposition at the start of the Allegro agitato first movement (again unlike the Violin Concerto, in which the soloist intrudes after just a few bars). The principal theme is symphonic in tone; the second theme veers towards something very chorale-like. A bombastic cadenza is the only sure sign that the work is not really a symphony accidentally scored for piano and orchestra. The Andante sostenuto in D major is serene, and follows a harmonic path full of quiet surprises. The Allegro con brio finale is started by the soloist, a vintage Beethoven move, and proceeds to romp around in vintage DvorÃ¡k style; there is an undisguised Bohemianism to the energetic principal ideas of this rondo. performed by Michael Ponti Micheal Ponti is an all-around pianist who has recorded a wide variety of literature ranging from the early Romantics to that of Pierre Boulez. He began recording in the 1950s for Period and is best-known for his series of recordings The Romantic Piano Concerto issued by VoxBox. However, Ponti has always maintained a number of different label associations and is yet actively recording in the year 2001. and the Prague Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jindrich Rohan

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Classic 1993 VHS "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" Told and Sung by Burl Ives— $5.99 (Save 60%!)

Condition: Very Good Seller Notes:"Corners of sleeve damaged, tape in excellent condition" Genre: Animation & Anime Leading Role: Burl Ives Sub-Genre: Holiday Former Rental: No Rating: G Country/Region of Manufacture: United States UPC: 012232730938 Classic 1993 VHS Suitable for all ages from the Christmas Classics Series Broadway...

"The Adventures of Milo and Otis" Classic VHS tape from 1989 Columbia Pictures— $5.99 (Save 60%!)

Item specifics Condition: Very Good: An item that is used but still in very good condition. No damage to the item cover. Rating: G Country/Region of Manufacture: United States Director: Masanori Hata Genre: Action & Adventure Former Rental: No UPC: 043396501430 Classic 1989 VHS tape from Columbia Tristar Home Video The...

"EYES of Laura Mars" VHS Tape - Starring Faye Dunaway & Tommy Lee Jones— $5.99 (Save 60%!)

Item specifics Condition: Very Good: An item that is used but still in very good condition. No damage to the case or item cover. Genre: Thriller & Mystery Leading Role: Faye Dunaway Rating: R Former Rental: No Director: Irvin Kershner Country/Region of Manufacture: United State UPC: 018713042194 Classic VHS Tape 1988 Goodtimes...

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