Concert Program [Live]

Track Listings
Disc: 1

1. Air À Danser

2. Cage Dead [Version 2]

3. Organum

4. Southern Jukebox Music

5. Numbers 1-4

6. Air

7. Perpetuum Mobile

8. Nothing Really Blue

9. Telephone and Rubber Band

Disc: 2

1. Beanfields

2. Vega

3. Surface Tension (Where the Trees Meet the Sky)

4. Oscar Tango

5. Music for a Found Harmonium

6. Lifeboat (Lovers Rock)

7. Steady State

8. Scherzo and Trio

9. Giles Farnaby's Dream

10. Salty Bean Fumble

See all 11 tracks on this disc

Concert Program,The Penguin Cafe Orchestra,Windham Hill Records,Chamber Jazz,Contemporary Instrumental,Jazz Music,Neo-Classical,New Age / Meditation

Product Description

Final Concert at Carnegie Hall, recorded in High Fidelity Stereo: Wagner-Selections for Orchestra,

Customer Reviews:

Actually, quite good.......2007-05-16

The myths surrounding this final concert do not jibe with the realities. The legend - unfortunately perpetrated as much by Toscanini adherents such as B.H. Haggin as well as by the conductor's detractors - says that all the performances are "stiff," lacking in flexibility, and that the "Tannhauser" Bacchanale is a disaster because that is where the Great Conductor "broke down."

The actual recording says otherwise. Yes, there are weak moments and lapses, but not in the "Tannhauer" or the final "Meistersinger" prelude. The "Siegfried" forest murmurs is a clumsy, disjointed performance; the music completely lacks the elegant flow of his commercial recording. And in the "Gotterdammerung" Dawn and Rhine Journey, there is not only discontinuous phrasing but the trombones crack notes all over in one section.

On the other hand, the Act 1 prelude to "Lohengrin" is simply gorgeous; the "Meistersinger" prelude is invigorating and richly detailed; and the infamous "Tannhauser," though experiencing the one stiff moment (it lasts about a minute) when the maestro stopped conducting, is actually a looser, more relaxed and fluid reading than his mono recording. So, a good buy, for both Toscanini and Wagner fans...and the sound quality reveals the NBC Symphony to have actually had a warm sound, contrary to so many of the commercial recordings.

For Toscanini Fans.......2006-08-02

I suppose it's because my life with Wagner began a long time ago that I rate this recording with only three stars. Yes it's the Maestro's farewell, yes it's historic and yes it's a recording I'm glad to have in my collection. Yes, Maestro Toscanini ranks properly with the best conductors ever to raise a baton. But, I was introduced to Wagner by Otto Klemperer and then I met Georg Solti and Lorin Maazel and others. Especially Klemperer, these conductors glorified Wagner's dark beauty with orchestras full of sturm and drang and lush with unimaginable beauty. The lustrous, all enveloping darkness of evil and the shining brilliance of love and redemption is not present in this recording. It simply is not absorbing - it doesn't wrap around and capture me. It doesn't take over my mind to place me in an entirely different world as the music ordinarily does. Perhaps it's a smaller orchestra, perhaps it's because Toscanini had done it so often it no longer thrilled him to be conducting Wagner. Perhaps the players had not been together long enough - some of them seem to clamor for attention by playing so they will be heard above the others. Perhaps it's the engineering - a microphone or microphones were not properly placed. Perhaps the players were not used to their leader.

But mostly, I think, is that it is Toscanini's interpretation. The finale of Die Meistersinger as played here sounds as though it were written by Beethoven - not Wagner. Gotterdammerung is not played as the end of everything and every person and every god. It is played. With attention to the notes but without the realization that the world is coming to an end and Brunnhilde has leapt with her horse into Siegfried's funeral pyre and the Rhine is overflowing and the Rhinemaidens are going to drown Hagen and retake the ring. It simply is played as an episcopal minister delivers his sermon - heartfelt but without passion.

I cannot imagine the work and knowledge and talent involved in being a world class conductor and Toscanini certainly was that. I am simply a listener and an admirer of all things Wagner. I do not consider this recording a great interpretation.

Toscanini's Farewell Concert.......2006-06-02

Arturo Toscanini's final two broadcast concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra were the only ones to be taped in stereophonic sound. It was all part of RCA Victor's experiments with binaural recording in early 1954; many of these recordings were issued on reel-to-reel tapes and then on "Living Stereo" discs. Unfortunately, the two final Toscanini/NBCSO concerts were not up to his usual standards and he refused to allow them to be released.

It has long been reported that Toscanini suffered a memory lapse during the overture to the Paris version of Wagner's "Tannhauser." The lapse was rather brief, but it caused the orchestra to falter and conductor Guido Cantelli, who was in the broadcast booth of Carnegie Hall, temporarily interrupted the live feed with a recording of Brahms' first symphony. Within a minute, when it was apparent that Toscanini was back in control, the broadcast returned to Wagner's music.

Despite the temporary faltering in the overture and some "nerveless" playing of other pieces, the NBC Symphony still played with great beauty and sensitivity. Perhaps this concert was not up to Toscanini's usual high standards, but the experimental stereo recording clearly gives a better sense of the quality of the orchestra the Maestro led from 1937 to 1954.

Reportedly, the rehearsals for the last two concerts were also taped in stereo and it might have been possible to splice in sections to cover the passages where the orchestra faltered, especially in the "Tannhauser" overture. However, when this concert was first released on disc in the 1980's, the decision was made to include the final rehearsal and the full broadcast without any editing.

As I recall, during the final rehearsal Toscanini spoke mostly in Italian and he clearly lamented what was happening, both to him and to his beloved orchestra. He was very bitter and sad. There is speculation that Toscanini was pressured into retiring, either by his family or by David Sarnoff, the head of both RCA and NBC, or both. We may never know the full story. However, it is known that he signed a letter of resignation and the April 4, 1954, concert was his last. The NBC Symphony was later reorganized as the Symphony of the Air and continued to make recordings and give concerts until 1961.

The beauty of Wagner's music and the fine playing of the NBC Symphony can be clearly appreciated in the experimental recording. While the sound is not as spacious or impressive as most of the "Living Stereo" recordings of the Boston and Chicago orchestras of the same time, there is still a greater dimension in the recording than in most of Toscanini's well-known monaural recordings.

Remarkably, just two months later, Toscanini returned to Carnegie Hall to again conduct the NBC Symphony in portions of Verdi's "Aida" and "A Masked Ball" so that the broadcast performances of those opera could be commercially released by RCA Victor. Those present say it was amazing that Toscanini had completely recovered and was fully in charge again. The recording sessions of June 1954 were a great success. There were hopes that Toscanini might conduct more concerts and recordings, but health problems prevented that from occurring and the Maestro spent most of his remaining life participating in the editing of unreleased recordings.

So, this is among the final documents of Toscanini's extraordinary career, which had begun in Rio De Janeiro in 1886 when he was only 19 years old. For those of us who admire Toscanini's incredible achievements, it is well worth having this historic recording, even if it isn't absolutely perfect.

When the memory turns off!.......2005-11-14

April 4 1954. The Carnegie Hall is specially proud and honored for the presence of the great Aruro Toscanini. The NBC Orchestra will perform a whole program dedicated in Wagner 's memory.

The whole stage is disposed for such monumental occasion. The Italian master has arrived to the 87th anniversary. Three generations of listeners have known about him. The Hall was full crowded.

This day is to many people, perhaps the first experience to watch the mythic conductor; but no one knows the special transcendence and unforgettable evening that will be hard to forget.

The memory; that enviable faculty that distinguishes us of the rest of the species the fabulous mechanism that allows us to recreate the most vivid and past experiences in real time, this astonishing gift of Gods, this impeccable electric neuronal flow is at the verge of the collapse, in the fecund mind and outstanding of Toscanini.

This abominable memory 's fail will appear without previous announcement, a true unexpected guest in that musical session. At that fatidic moment, everybody has suspended the breathing, a gelid air has invaded even the most apathetic o the listeners. Toscanini has suspended suddenly the magic flight of his genial baton. Something terrible has happened; the members of the orchestra simply do not know what to do A silence of ice and a vague sensation of anguish empowers of all the people in the Hall.

For all of us, who did not live certainly the historic moment and were too far and even were not born, the sorrowful experience still awe us. Toscanini is living the worst moment of his brilliant career.

This musical document contains this unpleasant fact. For the young and new generations to come, it must be an absolute must to acquire this treasured episode. Many of us who appreciate the craft of Toscanini, who vibrated and lived his intense and mercurial temperament along so many registers, simply can not do without of this recording.

The Italian Master would never conduct again, and we agreed with him. This would be his last public appearance.

Genuine Stereo by Arturo Toscanini / NBC Symphony!.......1998-09-17

At last, after decades of fake stereo attempts by RCA Victor, Victrola, and numerous botched "bootleg" CDs, Toscanini is represented in a genuine two-channel recording which truly displays the full stereophonic perspective.

Made during the radio broadcast on NBC on 4 April 1954, using a stereophonic pickup and recording system separate from the monaural feed used for the network transmission, this recording is one of several tests done in stereo by RCA; others include the Rossini "Barber of Seville" overture and Tchaikovsky Sixth Symphony broadcast of 21 March 1954 (rumor has it that an RCA executive accidentally erased the master tape of the "Pathetique" symphony's dramatic third movement, thus defacing the complete recording, which was circulated in "samizdat" bootleg tapes with stereo in movements 1, 2, and 4, but fake stereo in #3!)

Do not expect an enhancement of spatial richness: the mike placement seems almost claustrophobically close to the ensemble, and separation is exaggerated. It is so dry sounding that the venue could almost be Studio 8-H; the reflection of Carnegie Hall reverberation and bloom is largely lost, overshadowed by the incident instrumental pickup.

Toscanini became perturbed at this, his last NBC broadcast, and lost his concentration during the Tannhauser "Venusberg" section; the producers panicked and cut him off the air, but here -- on this tape -- he and the orchestra martial their resources and plod along, avoiding a total breakdown. The effect is very poignant and sad, and might upset some listeners who are sensitive to the significance of the event.

Interpretatively, each work is performed with greater intensity and polish in a commercial Toscanini recording, as this concert definitely represents an "off day" of the Maestro. The Siegfried "Forest Murmurs" is the best played; the end of the Meistersinger, and the confusion in the Venusberg music, the worst.

The source is a close copy of the original master tape, and there is not too much hiss or distortion. For further information on those early RCA "Living Stereo" experiments, consult the fascinating RCA / BMG CD tribute to the RCA music producer, John Pfeiffer.

I would suggest that in future, this tape recording of the musical events of the concert be reissued with excerpts from the actual radio aircheck, particularly the famous interruption during the Tannhauser music. One hears the orchestral playing degenerate into very ratty and sour incoherence; the music fades; the control room mike is brought up and one hears rustling; Ben Grauer speaks, in a rather abrupt and strained manner, explaining that "technical difficulties" have caused the program to be stopped; then there is the off-mike sound of a cue -- probably given by Don Gillis -- and the engineer starts up the commercial Toscanini RCA Red Seal LP record of the Brahms First! This plays for a while, but cross-fades back into the Venusberg music, now once again being conducted by Toscanini, who has resumed his concentration. The account of this given in Samuel Chotzinoff's book is grotesquely incorrect, as this aircheck recording corroborates. When the first edition of Robert Marsh's book on Toscanini's records was issued, the actual events were still in question, since the aircheck tapes had not been circulated and many had not heard, or had forgotten, the actual broadcast. By the 1980s, many Toscanini collectors all around the world had heard the "bootleg" recording: for example, I was privileged once to hear it from an amateur tape taken down from WNBC-AM in New York. I hope that Music & Arts or some other enterprising company will try to append this historic tape to the stereophonic tracks of the complete musical part of the broadcast.

Toscanini: The Complete Concert of March 21, 1954
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Re-living A Toscanini Experience

Toscanini (mostly) in stereo...

Toscanini: The Complete Concert of March 21, 1954

Manufacturer: Music & Arts Program
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

All Works by Tchaikovsky | Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilyich | ( T ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
All Works by Rossini | Rossini, Gioacchino | ( R ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
Romantic | Symphonies | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
Toscanini, Arturo | ( T ) | Featured Performers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
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Toscanini: The April 4, 1954 Final Concert

Arturo Toscanini: The Complete Philadelphia Orchestra Recordings 1941-42

Toscanini conducts Bizet, Mozart, Copland, etc.

Stokowski and Kubelik Conduct: Experimental Stereo Recordings

Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture; Symphony No. 3; Schumann: Symphony No. 2

ASIN: B000KJTGXS
Release Date: 2006-12-26

Product Description

Rossini: Overture: Barber of Seville Tchaikovsky: Sym. 6 Digital Restoration: Aaron Z. Snyder

Customer Reviews:

Re-living A Toscanini Experience.......2007-03-20

When my grandmother helped me into my heavy winter coat on March 21, 1954 and whisked me off to Carnegie Hall as a present for my 8th birthday, little did I realize the significance of what I was to see and hear that evening.

We rode the subway from Brooklyn into Manhattan and then continued by taxi up to 7th and 57th to the grand edifice itself: imposing, thrilling, memorable.

The concert I witnessed that night 53 years ago almost to the day, is now available on CD in "true" stereophonic sound. Hearing the music again is like reliving that experience.

I've been a Toscanini fan all these years and, although there are some shortcomings to this CD given the fact that stereo recording techniques were in their infancy along with a few ensemble issues in the orchestra, the recording here presented along with that accomplished during the following performance on April 4, 1954 at the NBC Symphony's final concert under Toscanini, does give us the best approximation of the brilliance and clarity of sound and texture that people lucky enough to have heard him live have been attempting to describe for decades.

Yes, I have to admit I'm prejudiced; but as an eyewitness (and earwitness)to history, I can vouch that this recording does great justice to the "Toscanini Sound." Buy and enjoy it!

Toscanini (mostly) in stereo..........2007-01-11

One irony of Arturo Toscanini's recorded legacy is that the overwhelming majority of his recordings, acclaimed as they are, do not give an accurate picture of how he actually sounded. All of Toscanini's recordings were in monaural sound, except for his final concert, released several years ago, and this penultimate concert, finally available after having been "lost" for decades.

In his last two seasons with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, Toscanini had good days and bad days. His memory was fading, and the octogenarian conductor was at times simply not "in the moment."

As with nearly everything Toscanini did, the performances here emerge as faithful to the text. Contrary to revisionist myth, Toscanini's tempos generally became slower, not faster, in his last few years, which this performance demonstrates. Conceptually, these performances are similar to the more familiar Toscanini recordings, but there are differences in details. The Rossini goes well from start to finish. However, the Tchaikovsky doesn't really come to life until four minutes into the first movement.

Although the substantial mishap of Toscanini's final concert is avoided, not all the playing is tidy. There is a brief bauble early in the first movement of the Pathetique, and there are several intonation problems throughout the performance. Yet the sonority of the NBC Symphony under Toscanini was truly luminescent, even beautiful, which was not often captured in the mono recordings.

As for the sound itself, it's too closely miked, as was the case with Toscanini's final concert. As a result, not all the balances are as Toscanini intended, and there is no sense of hall ambiance. Additionally, the stereo tape for the last two minutes of the third movement of the Pathetique was spliced into a stereo demo reel and subsequently lost. The missing tape has been skillfully replaced with a clip from the mono broadcast and altered into simulated stereo. Yet this remains an invaluable document of the work of one of the greatest conductors of all time, and required listening for all Toscanini admirers.

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Concert Program
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra
Manufacturer: Windham Hill Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | New Age | Styles | Music

Meditation | New Age | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000008OZ2
Release Date: 1995-05-09

Tracks:

Air A Danser
Cage Dead (Version 2)
Organum
Southern Jukebox Music
Numbers 1-4
Air
Perpetuum Mobile
Nothing Really Blue
Telephone And Rubber Band

Tracks:

Beanfields
Vega
Surface Tension (Where The Trees Meet The Sky)
Oscar Tango
Music For A Found Harmonium
Lifeboat (Lovers' Rock)
Steady State
Scherzo And Trio
Giles Farnaby's Dream
Salty Bean Fumble
Red Shorts

Ginette Neveu Historic Public Performances

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Ginette Neveu Historic Public Performances

Manufacturer: Music & Arts Program
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Violin Concerto In D, Op. 61: I. Allegro ma non troppo
Violin Concerto In D, Op. 61: II. Larghetto
Violin Concerto In D, Op. 61: III. Rondo (Allegro)
Tzigane For Violin & Orchestra

Tracks:

VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D, OP. 77: I. Allegro non troppo
VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D, OP. 77: II. Adagio
VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D, OP. 77: III. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace
Poeme For Violin & Orchestra, Op. 25: Bonus Track: Poeme For Violin & Orchestra, Op. 25

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Recorded Live in NYC
Martin Sexton
Manufacturer: Atlantic
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Seeds

ASIN: B000JGTAYW

Product Description

Very Rare 7-Track Limited Edition CD. Recorded Live At The Central Park Summerstage On July 19, 1999. Issued In Illustrated Cardboard Sleeve. TRACKS: Soundcheck (1:27); Freedom Of The Road (5:05); Glory Bound (5:11); Love Keep Us Together (4:16); Can't Stop Thinking About You (5:32); The American (3:26); & The Way I Am (5:36).

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Classic Penguin Cafe
TRACK LISTINGS

Concert Program

Manufacturer: Windham Hill
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Music From the Penguin Cafe

ASIN: B000H7JYN0

Customer Reviews:

Classic Penguin Cafe.......2006-12-02

Quintessential and sublime live recording of the band performing their most accessible tracks, including Music for a Lost Harmonium, Telephone and Rubber Band, Beanfields and others less familiar, but as inviting. Taking the principle of repeated phrases and applying different tonal arrangements and textures, under leader Simon Jeffes the band established parametres for cross-over genres that reign still today (2006): their mix of classical and world styles is still very hard to beat.

TRACK LISTINGS.......2006-07-27

DISC 1
1.Air A Danser
2.Cage Dead - (version 2)
3.Organum
4.Southern Jukebox Music
5.Numbers 1-4
6.Air
7.Perpetuum Mobile
8.Nothing Really Blue
9.Telephone And Rubber Band

DISC 2
1.Beanfields
2.Vega
3.Surface Tension (Where The Trees Meet The Sky)
4.Oscar Tango
5.Music For A Found Harmonium
6.Lifeboat (Lovers' Rock)
7.Steady State
8.Scherzo And Trio
9.Giles Farnaby's Dream
10.Salty Bean Fumble
11.Red Shorts

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Erica Morini In Concert

Manufacturer: Music & Arts Program
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

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Tracks:

Allegro Moderato/Moderato Assai
Andante
Allegro Vivacissimo
Allegro Non Troppo
Adagio
Allegro Giocoso, Ma Non Troppo Vivace/Poco Piu Presto

Previously Unreleased Concert Performances

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Previously Unreleased Concert Performances

Manufacturer: Music & Arts Program
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B00002MXO7
Release Date: 2000-07-25

Sviatoslav Richter Concert Performances And Broadcasts, 1958-1976

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A thousand carats album!

Sviatoslav Richter Concert Performances And Broadcasts, 1958-1976

Manufacturer: Music & Arts Program
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Etudes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Fantasies | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Preludes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B000006KG3
Release Date: 1993-11-01

Customer Reviews:

A thousand carats album!.......2006-07-31

This fabulous set gives us a fabulous and complete selection from Richter's oeuvre that spans the years 1958-1976; it includes a kaleidoscopic variety of composers, a wide range of musical styles. The famed pianist Glenn Gould once affirmed : "There are musicians who try to bypass the whole question of the performing mechanism, to create the illusion, at any rate, of a direct link between themselves and a particular musical score, helping therefore the listener to achieve a sensation of involvement, not with the performance per se, but rather, with the music itself." And that is absolutely valid in the case of Richer.

For many Beethoven purists, Richer may result quite propulsive and even unaware. But that is just an illusion. It's a question of temperament. Richter uses to explore directly without reflexive pauses the soul of Beethoven. In fact, you may feel Richter plays as a huge mirror that reflects the multiple facets of any composer as a whole. In this superb compilation Beethoven occupies two and a quarter CD' s . His Variations & Fugue for piano Op. 35 are even much more emotive and volcanic respect the famous performance given in Carnegie Hall of 1965. (I just have this recording and have compared them one each other.). The Sonata Op. 10 is extraordinary. The Sonata Op. 4 is an excellent performance that denotes the multiplicity of vision (listen to Benedetti Michelangeli and Schnabel, for instance). The Sonata 32 is memorable although it's far to reach the unbeatable version of Paul Badura Skoda ` s version of 1973.

Believe or not the impressive performance of Richter around Pictures at exhibition is not so far respect to the well known and best acclaimed version of Sofia. You may realize this recital in Budapest was made just a week after Sofia' s performance and the most notable feature is how different is. If it's true the overall texture is visibly lighter and less dark respect Sophie, in certain passages I find it wildest, aggressive and even volcanic. The Catacombs and the Great Gate of Kiev are to my mind, much reposed analytical and colder but better performed. In my case, I have another additional Pictures of Richter and I use to compare between themselves.

Tchaikovsky pieces are quite sensitive and beautifully phrased. Scriabin' s Ninth Sonata has always been a personal trademark of this formidable pianist, although I rather his mesmerizing Warsaw live version of 1972. Prokoviev' s Fourth Sonata has constituted for Richter another treasured battle horse in most of his recitals. He possesses that required intensity, black humor and bitter cynicism that nestles along the score, because of the fact nobody like him knew about the nature of the monster and the oppressive atmosphere in those years. In sum, this is a very remarkable musical document for treasure and enjoy it over and over.

Highly recommended for those Richter' s hard fans and even you don' t.

Gryffgryffgryffs: The 1996 Radio Sweden Concert

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Gryffgryffgryffs: The 1996 Radio Sweden Concert
Guy-Gustafsson-Strid Trio & Marilyn Crispell
Manufacturer: Music & Arts Program
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Avant Garde & Free Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B000001OJD
Release Date: 1998-01-20

Tracks: