Customer Reviews

Hovhaness: Symphony No. 2 - Mysterious Mountain / Prokofiev: Lt. Kije suite / Stravinsky: The Fairy's Kiss divertimento

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first heard the music of Alan Hovhaness in 1971 and the piece which introduced me to his music was 'Fra Angelico'. I was an instant convert! I eagerly sought out Symphony No.2 as it was listed to be one of his most popular pieces. This recording is transcendent. I have the version on Delos by Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony - but they romp through it as if it were a trip up a small mountain - rucksacks on our backs an all! Every other version that I have heard, via the Radio, treats it similarly. But the title of the piece is MYSTERIOUS Mountain and on this recording that is precisely what we get. Tremendous sensitivity pervades this performance whereby it is even possible to experience an Internal mountain through which we can leave all the troubles of the world behind. Hovhaness speaks of his being inspired by mountains as sources of spiritual sustenance and all of that is here too. If you're looking for a recording of this Symphony by one of the world's most uplifting composers - then look no further. This is IT!

This album serves up a marvelous sampling of twentieth-century classical music. The first piece, "Mysterious Mountain" is a work of such aching beauty that once heard, it will be held in reverence forever. If you have any feeling for the wonders of nature, this piece will go straight to your heart.

The Stravinsky and Prokofiev works are also magnificent and provide a welcome counterpoint to the Hovhaness piece, but it is "Mysterious Mountain" that will live on in your memory.

The LP version of this album became a legendary collector's item prior to the CD release. One listen and you'll see why.

This is arguably one of the finest symphonic recordings made of any piece by anyone, anywhere. Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's rendition of Hovhaness's Symphony No. 2 is a worthy companion to their recordings of Strauss and Bartok - recordings that belong in the library of anyone who loves great music.

What's equally worth noting is the care that RCA took in transferring it to compact disk. They recruited John Pfeiffer, the engineer who made the original recordings, to do the re-mastering. Further, they rebuilt the original analogue recording equipment to transfer the tape master to digital format. Then, they made the brave decision to avoid all noise reduction post-processing, in order to preserve as much of the original performance as possible. As a result, you do hear tape hiss on this disk, as well as other extremely slight noise; but you also hear a beautifully detailed recording. For example, on one of the pianissimo trumpet passages, you can hear a very slight blurring of the trumpet tone, as Bud Herseth tightens his emboucher - a sound that contributes to the performance, but would have been scrubbed out by most noise-reduction systems.

If you love great music, buy this disk. And play it loud!

There is a defining moment, I think, when we first hear a piece of music and a unique nexus occurs, instantaneous and infinite, that forever both transforms and transcends us. Indeed, it is just this rare relationship we have with music that enables it to reach the very core of our being or catapult us to a new emotional plane. It is a wondrous thing.

Such was my experience with Alan Hovhaness's Symphony No. 2, or simply, "Mysterious Mountain." Something deep within me was enlightened and moved by this all-embracing, mystically serene and ultimately ravishing and majestic music.

"Mysterious Mountain" is a four movement work lasting a mere nineteen minutes. Yet, if you surrender yourself to its bottomless spirituality and humanity, if you allow yourself to be "taken" to wherever it will, you will be transformed in the process. You may even touch eternity. Within this music lies the innate experience of what it really means to be human.

I truly wish I could peel away the years and return to the time I first heard this glorious symphony.

[Running time: 63:36]

For many, climbing a mountain (or a hill) is more than a physical exercise. Amercian composer Alan Hovhaness recognized that there is a spiritual quality to being on top of a mountain, perhaps going back to the Biblical example of the three disciples who joined Jesus Christ on a mountain. Simon Peter said, "Lord, it is good for us to be here." Mountains can be a place for meditation and reflection.

In his second symphony, which he called "Mysterious Mountain," Alan Hovhaness imagined a mountain where one could indeed have a spiritual experience. Perhaps this was his vision of an IDEAL mountain, certainly a place to get away from things and spend time in contemplation. There's no doubt that the symphony, which was premiered by Leopold Stokowski and the Houston Symphony in 1955 (on NBC television), is an uplifting piece. It is also very majestic and profound at times, setting a pattern for Hovhaness in the numerous symphonies he wrote in the years after 1955.

Fritz Reiner's remarkable recording of "Mysterious Mountain" was one of a series of incredible stereophonic recordings that RCA Victor made in Chicago's Orchestra Hall between 1954 and 1962. Using just three microphones and a triple-track tape recorder, RCA achieved outstanding results with a greater clarity than had been accomplished in earlier recordings. This particular recording remains a "high water" mark and is probably the definitive version of a magnificent work that can be quite inspirational. Yes, Hovhaness does represent a mountaintop experience and, some years later, he celebrated yet another mountain in his "Mount Saint Helens" symphony, recorded by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the volcano's violent 1980 eruption.

The lighter work on this disc is a top-notch performance of Igor Stravinsky's tribute to Peter Tchaikovsky, a divertimento drawn from the ballet "The Fairy's Kiss." Much in the same vein as Tchaikovsky's "Sleeping Beauty," this is magical, delightful, and enchanting music that is given a very fine interpretation by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony. Although there are a few obvious quotes from the music of Tchaikovsky, much of the score is a homage to the earlier composer that represents his considerable imagination and musical abilities.

Stravinsky (1882-1971) once said, "Of all of us, Tchaikovksy was the most Russian." Stravinsky once glimpsed Tchaikovsky, just before the premiere of the sixth symphony in 1893, and was left forever with an image of a tragic but very gifted composer/conductor. Reiner's recording is a very good representation of this musical tribute.

One of the first recordings this writer ever heard by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony was their performance of the orchestral suite that Sergei Prokofiev prepared from his film score for "Lt. Kije," based on a classic Russian tale of a mythical Russian Army officer created by a bureaucratic error. The satirical qualities of the story were not lost on Prokofiev, who readily composed music that suited the various episodes of the lieutenant's supposed life.

Reiner's interepretation of this delightful music was thoroughly enjoyable, even if it omits the baritone solo in the original score (included in Seiji Ozawa's Deutsche Grammophon recording with the Boston Symphony).

The score begins with a mysterious, haunting theme representing the birth of Kije; this music is later repeated, in a somewhat altered version, for Kije's death. Along the way, we hear a delightful, appropriately martial, march; an exquisite and intense love theme; a grandiose, pompous wedding celebration; and a furious sleigh ride. All of this is played extremely well by the Chicago musicians and, once again, the ground-breaking stereophonic recording still has a remarkably modern sound.

At the moment I have over 1000 cd's of music of every sort though mostly western classical, and I have no problem recommending this before any of them. This piece of music by Alan Hovhaness is easily the most simply beautiful thing I have ever heard and never fails to inspire and uplift upon repeated listenings. The performance here by Reiner and The Chicago Symphony is virtuosic and sensitive, revealing the hidden details of this seemingly simple piece of music. This is THE recording to own of this work, no competition. However, don't let this be your only recording of music by Hovhaness. Don't let shallow comments like "All his music sounds the same" or he "re-wrote this symphony 60 more times," keep you from further explorations of Hovhaness' music. Odd that those same criticisms aren't raised with the music of Haydn and Mozart... The performance of the Stravinsky work is equally impressive. The superb solo and ensemble playing of the Chicago musicians under Reiner reveal the characters and colors of this lesser known Stravinsky work. This is a recording I have treasured for years and I have no doubts that you will as well. Highest Recommendation!

For many of us some of the most thrilling recordings during the 1950s and 1960s were those made by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The magic that happened between conductor and orchestra is legendary. Fortunately we are seeing more of his recordings remastered and made available to a new audience on CD.

This CD remastering of the old 1955 recording is a terrific example. This is probably the most eloquent recorded performance of Armenian American Alan Hovhaness' Symphony No.2 (better known as 'Mysterious Mountain'). Hovhaness created some lushly atmospheric works that have somehow slipped into the realm of 'old style' and therefore are not performed frequently. But this performance of Symphony No. 2 should bring back some to the fold. The recorded sound of this extended poem is lush and full-bodied and Reiner moves the blocks of strings movements like few others can.

Keeping in line with his penchant for embracing new and old works this CD includes an abbreviated but well played 'Divertimento', Stravinsky's own symphonic suite from his Tchaikovskyesque ballet 'The Fairy's Kiss'. This is not one of Stravinsky's more memorable scores and is far better represented in the violin/piano transcription, but Reiner makes it work well in the few moments he includes here.

Prokofiev's suite from 'Lieutenant Kije' fares very well in Reiner's bristling and tongue in cheek reading. This is a romp of a performance and one that should please even the most 'anti-contemporary music' friends you may have! But the glory of the recording is the respect Reiner pays to Hovhaness and for this it is worth the purchase. Grady Harp, May 06

This fine digital reproduction of one of the finest recordings of Hovhaness' "Mysterious Mountain" deserves to be on every classical music shelf.

In only slightly more than nineteen minutes, Alan Hovhaness provides many moments of mood and musical texture. And the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Fritz Reiner, makes this rendition one of the very finest that has ever been recorded. I particularly like the chiming bells sequences - very haunting and yet evoking images of fireflies twinkling in the night.

This almost spiritual journey to the Mysterious Mountain is joined by Prokofiev's "Lieutenant Kije Suite" in which we are musically told the story of the soldier that never existed, and Stravinsky's "Fairy Kiss" divertimento.

The mystery of the mountain is an almost perfect lead in to the musical rendition of the soldier who never was. And "The Fairy's Kiss" is another piece that suggests fantasy rather than reality. And the orchestra provides a memorable performance of all three pieces of fantasy.

Despite a transfer from vinyl, this CD has almost none of the problems associated with transfers of Analog signal to a digital format. I detected no discernable hiss on the copy I purchased.

Although newer recordings of Hovhaness' "Mysterious Mountain" exist, there is no better performance available to the classical music collector.

I haven't heard John Williams's version. But I have heard Gerard Schwarz's speed-freak version and was duly disgusted by the fastness of it. Nicholas Slonimsky said that MYSTERIOUS MOUNTAIN's exoticism is partially due to the suspended ninths. But maybe you already knew that. This record is arguably the single greatest argument for the existence of that which Frank Sinatra & Sammy Davis Jr. routinely referred to as The Big G. And listening to this record is the closest way that you'll ever get to Heaven without going to the bother of dropping dead.

Reiner & the astounding Chicago Symphony Orchestra at their considerable best!

Here are performances that represent a fine achievement ; the works collected on this indispensable CD are, basically, essential interpretations. In particular, the masterpieces by Hovhaness and Prokofiev are key recordings. And, yes, it's presumable that this version of "Mysterious Mountain" could be the finest you are likely to hear (and sonically the most crystal-clear maybe). Fritz Reiner was a magisterial conductor, and that shows on such a remarkable cd.

And there is "Lieutenant Kije", in this monumental recording (which is still, almost certainly, unrivaled), either from a musical perspective or from a sonic judgment. I remember listening to the Chesky LP reissue : Wow! On the CD, of RCA-BMG fame, this composition really shines (and is deservedly famous) because the sound is so transparent. In a word, this actual reissue of some vintage Reiner/CSO has no equivalent. It was ultimately captured on tape in its original form (1950's) and still sounds alert today. As mentioned in Audiophilia, "the recording of Kije displays the wonderful Orchestra Hall in all its glory." The delicate - and intricate - melodies of Kije are played vividly, with almost electrifying vigor, and through sensitive, "unadorned", gorgeous colors. There is no higher recommendation.*****