February 5, 2009, marked the 100th birthday one of the most prominent figures among women in classical music history, Polish composer and violinist Grazyna Bacewicz. She is not well known in the United States, primarily as her career was made behind the Iron Curtain, but in Europe her name carries considerable cachet as a top Polish composer of the generation that also witnessed Witold Lutoslawski, and as a woman whose professional career in music seemed unhindered by consideration of her as belonging to the fairer sex.

Read the rest of this entry »

Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s (hereafter referred to as “NRK”) symphonic suite Scheherazade has many of the elements listeners are looking for in piece of classical music: sweeping grandeur, strong themes, color, and a vivid sense of musical storytelling. Connecting with a recording that might be right for you, however, can be a daunting proposition; in the digital era alone, easily more than 100 CDs have been made of the whole work and another 70 or so contain excerpted performances. Where does one begin, and how? In the Scheherazade sweepstakes, there is no clear “winner” –- far too many recordings of the work exist to permit that. However, through a little background on the work, a brief appreciation of its unusual form, and a quick survey of the different kinds of orchestras and conductors who have recorded it, we hope to guide the listener to a Scheherazade that will work on an individual basis, as opposed to dictating a choice and saying, “here’s the ship to board.”

Read the rest of this entry »

There are a few great recordings of Béla Bartók’s six string quartets available, by such esteemed quartets as the Emerson, Takács, and Penderecki quartets, among others, so listeners who want a terrific set have a fair number to choose from. Still, the highest honors go to the long-unavailable but classic 1963 recording on Columbia Masterworks by the Juilliard String Quartet, the second of the group’s three versions and far and away the best set by anyone, before or since. This legendary cycle was briefly available on CD in Japanese and German reissues, though both imports are now out of print; and String Quartets Nos. 3, 4, and 6 were included as a volume in the Juilliard’s 50 Years box set, also discontinued. Because of the scarcity of these recordings on CD, it’s high time to see a reissue of all six masterpieces in the Great Performances series, preferably with the label’s trademark DSD remastering.

It’s been gratifying to see the increasing number of quadraphonic and other multi-channel recordings from the 1970s that are being reissued in the hybrid SACD format. (Kudos to PentaTone, whose dedication in this area has been exemplary). Since now seems to be the right time for reassessing early explorations of surround-sound, it would be nice to see Sony reissue on SACD the unjustifiably out-of-print four-channel LP, The Music of Harry Partch (Columbia MS 7207), which featured Harry Partch and the Harry Partch Ensemble in hypnotic performances of Castor & Pollux, Barstow, and the spectacular Daphne of the Dunes, delivered with fantastic playing and spacious sound.