Search - Samuel Barber, Marin Alsop, Royal Scottish National Orchestra :: Samuel Barber: Piano Concerto; Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance

Two Barber Rarities

D. A Wend | Buffalo Grove, IL USA | 12/06/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This disc is another installment in the Naxos Barber series, conducted by Marin Alsop. It has some interesting, little-heard music: Die Natalie, variations on Christmas carols, and the Commando March. Both show Barber's versatility and Die Natalie contains some deft counterpoint as Barber creates some remarkable music on those themes. The Piano concerto is well played by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the soloist, Stephan Prutsman. Mr. Prutsman is a very gifted pianist and has an interesting, more aggressive approach to the concerto. This recording is comparable to those by John Browning, the dedicatee of the concerto, but this recording is not quite as lyrical as Browning and has a harder edge to the playing. Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance, part of a longer ballet written for Martha Graham, is well played but cannot match the recording by Thomas Schippers for its intensity and atmosphere of fear. So although these are not among the best recording they are of interest and are appealing. The reasonable price for this disc and the overall quality recommend it highly."

Not my favorite of the set

Michael Suh | 08/24/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This CD pretty much exemplifies the rest of the Naxos set under Alsop -- decent, competent performances, even if they're not authoritative. Even with the Pulitzer prize, Barber's Piano Concerto is my least favorite of his major works -- his earlier works from the early 1940's (Violin Concerto, Cello Concerto, 2nd Symphony) I think are much more appealing. While the Concerto recording here isn't bad, it puts dramatic gestures over proper musical phrasing. I definitely prefer John Browning's recording with Slatkin over this one, even if Alsop presents a different approach; I just don't think it's well executed and it comes off sounding a little sloppy and unpolished.



Die Natalie is a really marginal work. The "Orientalism" that one of the other reviewer refers to is just a cheap and tacky sound effect meant to dress up a work that is overall pretty weak and uninteresting.



Medea's Dance of Vengeance comes up very flat here. I definitely agree with other reviewers that point out that Alsop and the Scottish Orchestra don't push the momentum through to the end. It brings just enough to the table for me to think how much better it would have been if they brought up the tempo a little in the last few pages of the score.



And maybe I'm just a cornball and a sucker for big melodies, but I really like the Commando March. "Don't-ask-don't-tell" policies aside, I think it's a fun work that posesses a unequivocal heroism that isn't common in Barber's output. It's an interesting (but brief) counterpoint to his more ambivalent and tragic wartime 2nd Symphony that was written at the same time.



I recommend the disc for the completists and the Commando March, but I would also be on the lookout for other versions of some of these works."

Naxos/Alsop continues its excellent Barber series

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 11/08/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Marin Alsop and the Royal National Scottish Orchestra appear to be continuing their complete traversal of Samuel Barber's orchestral works with the fourth volume of the set. There have been some quibbles about tempi in the earlier volumes, particularly of the School for Scandal overture, but there is no such problem here.The centerpiece of this CD is the Piano Concerto. This concerto was written for John Browning and he has played it literally hundreds of times over the past four decades; he has recorded it several times. I listened to his most recent recording with Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony in order to compare it with the present recording, and I have to say that Stephen Prutsman, the pianist on this disc, has nothing to apologize for. Whereas Browning's treatment seems a bit more settled, a bit more sedate, Prutsman's playing is more brilliant, somewhat more percussive, and equally satisfying. The piano is recorded rather more forward on this Naxos disc. I would have to give Browning the edge in the poetic second movement, but in the more vigorous sections Prutsman seems more energized.The Die Natali is a Christmas piece, written at about the same time as the Piano Concerto. It treats such familiar Christmas carols as O come, O come, Emmanuel; Lo, how a rose e'er blooming; God rest ye merry, Gentlemen; We three kings; Good King Wenceslas. There is even a section where O come, O come, Emmanuel is played over an ostinato taken from Adeste fideles. The biggest climax is based on Joy to the world, and then Silent Night closes the piece quietly. Do not mistakenly believe that this is simply a medley of Christmas tunes--far from it; it is an extremely skillful piece that utilizes all manner of contrapuntal and harmonic devices to create a satisfying symphonic whole. Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance had a classic recording by Leonard Bernstein and this performance does not compete very well with it, but it must be said that no one has ever come close to Bernstein's incandescent reading. This performance is certainly more than adequate.The collection ends with Barber's delightful Commando March, originally written for military band in 1943, and later orchestrated; this is the version we hear. It is all one could ask of a stirring military march.The performances here are quite good. The sound is also very clear and lifelike, although in the Concerto the piano, as mentioned, seems a bit spotlighted, which may not be all bad. Recommended to those who do not have these particular pieces in their collections or who want several versions of, say, the Concerto or the Medea."