Customer Reviews

The Chicago Principal: First Chair Soloist Play Famous Concertos

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The types of people who will buy the CD are the people who know exactly what they're getting, and what they're looking for (i.e., music performance students and aficionados of the CSO). For them, any introduction to this music is hardly necessary. Jacobs' rendition of the Vaughan-Williams tuba concerto has become the defacto standard interpretation of this influential composition, and this is the only place you'll hear his complete performance (all three movements of it). Herseth, Still and Clevenger are all top-notch as well. Good sound quality, even if the Still Mozart performance (which opens the first CD) sounds a little like Muzak. This is a wise investment so long as you don't pay retail-store prices for it. Get it on amazon.

Recently I had an opportunity to meet with the legendary Bud Herseth, and I wanted a CD to get an autograph. But which one? The fabled archetype of the first trumpet, Herseth is on every recording the CSO made since he started in 1948 until he retired just a couple of years ago. If you want to get into an argument about who the best trumpet player who ever lived was, Herseth's name will center the argument, and the other contenders won't have been as well recorded. This CD turned out to be perfect, the Haydn concerto showcases his remarkable ability to be consistently perfect. I recommend this CD to classical music fans; Herseth, Clevenger, Still, Elliot and Jacobs are the best of the best in symphonic music, and these solo selections are truly magnificent. I recommend this CD especially to CSO fans, there are maybe a dozen symphonies at most in the same league as the CSO, and these principal chairs are one of the main reasons for the continued superiority of the symphony. I also recommend this CD to music students who play french horn, trumpet, tuba, oboe or bassoon. All musicians should strive for this level of magnificence, and though most will never reach this acme, the effort will bring you beyond the average. Lastly, I also recommend the CD to Solti fans, in spite of the fact that there are so many Solti recordings to choose from. You'll appreciate Solti's Bolero, it's my favorite Ravel recording. Oh by the way, I did get Herseth to sign the CD, he has a charming sense of humor and said "well, if I can remember how to spell my name." To which I replied: "Sir, it's printed on the CD."

To be completely honest, this album did not interest me at first, even though I am the biggest CSO fan ever. The only reason I stumbled upon it was because I was browsing in a bad CD collection. All they had was generic, tripe recordings of most everything. Well, when I saw this I picked it up because I noticed it was under the DG label and because it had CSO recordings. I soon realized what I had been missing. This CD has probably the best recording ever of the Vaughn-Williams tuba concerto. Jacobs's mastery is held blatantly obvious in this recording, it is simply amazing and inspiring (even though I think his successor Gene Porkorny has a better sound). Another piece which caught my eye was the energetic Konzertstuck by Schumann. By itself the piece already speaks for itself. But, performed correctly, as it is here, the piece becomes heroic statement. The CSO horns play out boldly, without trepidation but alos without assaulting the ears. The sound is amazingly balanced between the four of them and they seem to be veritably unified in their playing, almost if one horn could double or triple stop( understandable?) instead of throwing 4 different players together and forcing them to compete. This is the CSO brass section that I know and love.

The real winner on this CD, however is the Bolero, conducted by Solti. The soloists are obviously all top notch. But espectially effective is the barely audible start with a simple side drum figure mingled with a flute to the deafening, exhilarating climax that closes the piece. If you're a brass person and you're looking for stereotypical Chicago brass, it's right here at the end. Good job Solti, and the CSO. Happy listening

As a horn player, I must unobjectively confess that there is something quite magical about the work of Dale Clevenger and the CSO horn section from the 70s and 80s.

Perhaps the predigital recording technology during this time
left a little to the listeners imagination. Perhaps the virtuosity and freshness of the performances was something truly
historic. Maybe it is just me.

The Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings and the Schumann Konzertstueck recordings are absolutely my hands down favorites. I cannot listen to these without getting excited about horn playing again. And, having them on CD is great.

The other performances on the CD are also excellent - so this recording is by no means just for horn players!

Now, if DG would just rerelease the wonderful Schumann Symphony set that the Konzertstueck was originally on!

Principals of first class symphony are here gathered in some exciting solo work done with Chicago Symphony, in the years 1977-84.

Superb is each of them, but especially enjoy Sill's magnificent phraising of Mozart's Concerto in C Major and the Konzertruch in F Major by Schumann, as well as Willard Elliot's bassoon work of Mozart's B-Flat Major Concerto.

All of this is superb, and is truly a collector's item from one of the country's premier symphonies with their famour principals illustrated.

IN A NUTSHELL: PRINCIPAL CSO PLAYERS PERFORM A DIVERSE SELECTION OF CLASSICAL CONCERTOS

I thought I was looking for gifts, but actually I ended up purchasing some classical CD recordings for myself. Here's why I selected this set.

This is a 2-CD set that is dedicated to presenting the classical Concerto, 6 in fact, plus 1 serenade and the 'Bolero'. All told, over 139 minutes of excellent music.

ANSWERING THIS BUYER'S OBJECTIONS: HOW DO THE RECORDINGS SOUND

If you like the titles in this set, you know them, so I'll skip that, and discuss the recordings, which one can not know about without hearing them first. Frankly, although the thematic idea of having all the pieces performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, [CSO] and its most experienced soloists really strenghtened the appeal of this set to me, I was worried about the recordings having been recorded at different times between 1976-1984. How would they sound? Well, they sounded quite clear and crisp as one would expect a new release to sound, which is to say they sound good enough to purchase. After hearing the set that is what I did.


***----- CD1 69:53 -- All 'Disk 1 Tracks' Recorded in 'Orchestra Hall'

----- W.A. MOZART [1756-1791]
Concerto in C Major for Oboe and Orchestra, K314
I. Allegro aperto, 7:47, II. Andante ma non troppo, 6:59, III. Allegro, 5:47
Ray Still, Oboe, CSO, Claudio Abbado, Conductor, Recorded March 1983

----- F.J. HAYDN [1732-1809]
Concerto in E-Flat Major for Trumpet and Orchestra
I. Allegro, 6:21, II. Andante, 3:19, Finale - Allegro, 4:42
Adolph Herseth, Trumpet, CSO, Claudio Abbado, Conductor, Recorded Feb. 1984

----- W.A. MOZART [1756-1791]
Concerto No.3 in E-flat Major for Horn and Orchestra, K447
I. Allegro, 7:38, II. Romance - Larghetto, 4:44, III. Allegro, 3:35
Dale Clevenger, Horn, CSO, Claudio Abbado, Conductor, Recorded Feb. 1981

----- ROBERT SCHUMANN [1810-1856]
Konzerstuck in F Major for Four Horns and Orchestra, Opus 86
I. Lebhaft, 7:34, II. Romanze - Ziemlich langsam doch nicht schleppend, 5:23, III. Sehr lebhaft, 5:49
Dale Clevenger, Richard Oldberg, Thomas Howell, Norman Schweikert, Horns, CSO, Daniel Barenboim, Conductor, Recorded March 1977


***----- CD2 69:12 ALL RECORDED IN ORCHESTRA HALL EXCEPT FOR "BOLERO"

----- W.A. MOZART [1756-1791]
Concerto in B-Flat Major for Bassoon and Orchestra, K191
I. Allegro, 7:15, II. Andante ma adagio, 6:18, III. Rondo - Tempo di menuetto, 4:33
Willard Elliot, Bassoon, Claudio Abbado, Conductor, Recorded Feb. 1981

----- R.V. WILLIAMS [1872-1958]
Concerto for Bass Tuba and Orchestra in F Minor, 1954
I. Allegro moderato, 4:04, II. Romanza - Andante sostenuto, 4:32, III. Finale - Rondo alla tedesca - Allegro, 3:03
Arnold Jacobs, Tuba, CSO, Daniel Barenboim, Conductor, Recorded March 1977

----- Benjamin Britten [1913-1976]
Serenade for Tenor, Horns and Strings, Opus 31
I. Prologue - Andante, 1:31, II. Pastoral - Lento "The day's grown old", 3:22, III. Nocturne - Maestoso "The splendor falls on castle walls", 3:23, IV. Elegy - Andante appassionato "O rose, thou art sick", 5:00, V. Dirge - Alla Marcia Grave "This ae nighte, every nighte", 3:21, VI. Hymn -Presto e leggiero "Queen and hantress, chaste and fair", 2:06, VII. Sonnet - Adagio "O soft embalmer of the still midnight", 3:50, VIII. Epiloque - Andante, 1:47
Robert Tear, Tenor, Dale Clevenger, Horn, CSO, Carlo Maris Guilini, Conductor, Recorded April 1977

----- MAURICE RAVEL [1875-1937]
Bolero
CSO, Georg Solti, Conductor, Recorded May 1976 in the Medinah Temple

It's not every day that you come across a recording that showcases as many elite calibur musicians as this collection does. Not only do you get some of the best names in the CSO, but you also get a tremendous diversity of musical genres to explore the viruosity. Being a horn player myself, I purchased the set for the Konzertstuck for four horns by Schumann. This single piece is worth the purchase of the 2 disk set all by itself. Describing this piece as a 'tour de force' would hardly do it justice, as horn players across the globe would agree. The fantastic four represented here certainly do not disappoint, masterfully executing the tremendous technical hurdles and extreme range requirements with flawless ease. Even though the technical demands are quite substantial, this group never loses sight of the phrasing, balance, and intonation, as can easily happen. Clevenger was most impressive in the Mozart horn concerto #3- an interpretation that I thought was extremely tasteful and pleasing. His command with changing not only of the dynamics of the piece, but also tonal colors to compliment this, is in my opinion unmatched. Adolph Hersith, what more can be said, a legend who played the Haydn to perfection. These are definitely the shining stars on the collection. Not to say the other selections were not outstandingly performed, but perhaps just fall out of the range of my preferred taste. While Jacobs played wonderfully, the tuba concerto was not to my liking as a matter of musical preference. The serenade for horn and tenor was even less appealing to me, and though the performers were stellar, I found the music to be difficult to follow, and repetitive in nature. Let's just call the entire second cd an adventure in specialties. Unless you happen to specialize in the particular instrument that is featured, you are unlikely to find these tracks as 'accessible' as the ones found on disk one. Between the bassoon concerto and Bolero, there is enough sleep aid for even the hard-core insomniac. Without the Konzertstuck, this rating would be a four, with it, it is a six!

I usually purchase full symphoneys but I thought I'd take a chance on this CD. I'm very glad that I did. This is really, really nice music.

A friend recommended Britten's setting of the Blake poem in his Serenade and that is exquisite. The rest is beautifully performed but not very interesting. Ravel's Bolero is Ravel's Bolero. The remaining composers wrote lots of interesting music but the pieces in this collection are not examples of that.

Great collection of concerti, some very familiar, some less so. Shortly after purchasing this double CD I had the chance to see the Chicago Symphony perform in Sarasota. Fun to see the principles at work on stage.