Salonen's Complete Sony Recordings, part 5

Finally coming to an end! The final post covers discs 50 to 61. This has been an enjoyable journey with almost no exceptions. An interesting selection of repertoire played with expertise and conviction. I will have a general comment on Salonen's conducting at the end, but up front I want to point out that one of the best aspects of his creativity is his wide-ranging choice of repertoire.

• Jean Sibelius: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor; Carl Goldmark: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor. Joshua Bell, violin with the LA Philharmonic. Recorded in 1999. As far as I can tell, the Sibelius Violin Concerto is the only piece that Salonen has recorded more than once. It appears twice in this collection and there is a third recent recording with Hilary Hahn. Like some other works by Sibelius, this was composed in the intervals between alcoholic binges (along with the Valse triste and other incidental music for a play). It was not initially successful. Not until Jascha Heifetz took it up in the 1930s with a brilliant recording and many concert performances, did the concerto enter the mainstream repertoire. After this I went back and listened to part of the Hahn recording. I think, particularly in the last movement, her recording has more point and grace. The Goldmark concerto dates from 1877 and in its day was very popular. Recently it has re-entered the repertoire.
• Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen, Duet Concertino for Clarinet, Bassoon, String Orchestra and Harp, Capriccio: Prelude. Recorded in 1987 with the New Stockholm Chamber Orchestra. Metamorphosen, the main work on the album, is a very unusual piece, a thirty minute long chamber piece for twenty-three solo strings! It started out as a septet and expanded to eleven and then twenty-three instruments. It was written towards the end of WWII on a commission from Paul Sacher and was partly a pretext to allow Strauss to travel to Zurich for the premiere. The work was completed in April 1945 and premiered in Zurich in January of 1946. The music is deeply introverted and both autumnal and elegiac as one would expect. From what Strauss wrote in his journal, the tribute is to the death of German culture at the hands of the "twelve year reign of bestiality, ignorance and anti-culture under the greatest criminals, during which Germany's 2000 years of cultural evolution met its doom."
• Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka, Orpheus. Two ballets launch a seven-disc survey of Stravinsky's orchestral music. These were previously available in a box from Sony. Petrushka, composed in 1910-11, immediately prior to the Rite of Spring, is a remarkable piece full of Russian folklore set to striking music. Orpheus, a re-telling of the most popular of all Greek myths, for musicians at least, was composed in California in 1947 and premiered in 1948. This recording is from 1991 with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Salonen does very well with the montage cuts in sections like the Shrovetide Fair and Russian Dance. He is rhythmically crisp when that is needed and expressive when that is needed; more the former than the latter in Stravinsky.
• Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird, Jeu de cartes. Another early ballet, The Firebird, premiered in 1910, was Stravinsky's first for Diaghilev and was an instant success. Stylistically it shows the influence of his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov, but perhaps a bit improved. The plot blends two Russian folktales. Jeu de cartes, a neo-classical work, was written in 1936-37 with choreography by George Balanchine and premiered in New York. The recording dates from 1988 with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Their brass and percussion sound particularly robust in The Firebird. Jeu de cartes is suitably jaunty.
• Igor Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps, Symphony in Three Movements. Again with the Philharmonia Orchestra, recorded in 1989. I grew up with the 1968 Cleveland recording with Pierre Boulez. A couple of years ago I heard a terrific live performance with the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra. This performance is excellent. Rhythmically tight when needed, expressive when needed and above all, clear textures and well-defined dynamics. The Symphony in Three Movements was Stravinsky's first major piece written after his move to the US--composed between 1942 and 45.
• Igor Stravinsky: Pulcinella, Ragtime, Renard, Octet. Pulcinella, a one-act ballet, was Stravinsky's first neo-classical work, dating from 1920. It uses characters from the 18th century Neapolitan commedia dell'arte. The rest of the disc is a couple of shorter works and Renard, an unclassifiable one-act opera-ballet called by Stravinsky an "Histoire burlesque chantée et jouée." It was written in 1916 and is based on a Russian fable. The recording is from 1990 with the London Sinfonietta. If Pulcinella were the first thing you heard by Stravinsky you would wonder what the fuss was all about. But in context, the atonal avant-garde world of 1920, it was the most radical thing he could have done. The last piece, the Octet, was completed in 1923, another early neo-classical work. It experiments with sonata-form, variation-form and fugue.
• Igor Stravinsky: Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, Symphonies of Wind Instruments, Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Movements for Piano and Orchestra. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Stravinsky relocated to Western Europe. Unfortunately he was cut off from royalty payments that would have been owed him by Tsarist Russia. In order to provide himself a living he wrote music that would provide playing opportunities for him, hence two of the works on this disc: the Capriccio and the Concerto, both for piano and orchestra (of winds in the former). Both were composed in the 1920s. The Movements were the result of a commission. Composed in 1959, the piece is twelve-tone and was influenced by Webern. The Symphonies of Wind Instruments is a homage to Debussy. Written in 1920 it is a work of experiment that has attracted a lot of interest from theorists. Paul Crossley is the pianist with the London Sinfonietta and the recording was made in 1988.
• Igor Stravinsky: Apollon musagète, Concerto in D, Cantata. Apollon musagète, "Apollo, leader of the muses" is a rather undramatic ballet depicting the birth of Apollo who is then visited by three muses. It was composed in 1927-28 in neo-classical or perhaps neo-baroque style. It certainly recalls the ballets of Lully. The original commission was $1,000! The Concerto in D was commissioned by Paul Sacher for the Basel Chamber Orchestra and composed in 1946. The Cantata dates from 1951-52. The texts are anonymous fifteenth and sixteenth century English poems from a collection given Stravinsky by W. H. Auden (edited by him and Norman Pearson). This recording was made in 1990 with the Stockholm Chamber Orchestra. The Cantata is with the London Sinfonietta and Chorus. How's the playing? Excellent as always.
• Igor Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex. The work is billed an "opera/oratorio" and it is performed in both versions, as a concert oratorio or staged as an opera. The libretto was written in French and translated into Latin. The narrator's introductions are in the language of the country where the performance is held--in this case they are in French. The story is after Sophocles tragedy of the king of Thebes who unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother. The work is in Stravinsky's neo-classical style, composed in 1927. This recording was made in 1991 with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. The Wikipedia article is not very useful as it is too short and very uninformative about the work. The review in Gramophone is probably more informative. Oedipus Rex is a strange and strangely compelling work.
• Toru Takemitsu: To the Edge of Dream (guitar and orchestra), Folios (guitar), Toward the Sea (alto flute and guitar), 12 Songs for Guitar (transcriptions by Toru Takemitsu), Vers, l'arc en ciel, Palma (guitar, oboe d'amore, orchestra). This disc is the only one in the box that I purchased when it was released in 1991. That was because of the guitarist, John Williams, and the composer. I barely knew who Esa-Pekka Salonen was. In any case, fine collection of Takemitsu's compositions for guitar with the added treat of his transcriptions ranging from Gershwin to the Beatles. The orchestra is the London Sinfonietta. Lovely recording, of course.
• Henri Tomasi: Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra, André Jolivet: Concertino for Trumpet, String Orchestra and Piano, Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra No. 2. Wynton Marsalis, trumpet, Philharmonia Orchestra. The recording dates from 1985. Spectacular trumpet playing of these French concertos.
• A Nordic Festival. Hugo Alfvén: Swedish Rhapsody no. 1, Jean Sibelius: Valse triste, Edvard Grieg: Sigurd Jorsalfar (3 orchestral pieces), Hugo Alfvén: Vallflickans dans, Jón Leifs: Geysir, Carl Nielsen: Maskarade, Armas Järnefelt: Berceuse, Jean Sibelius: Finlandia. This collection of familiar and popular Scandinavian music for orchestra was recorded in 1990 with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. It is like a selection of encores to the box as a whole. And quite a nice one.

General observations

Esa-Pekka Salonen is not only a very musical conductor and one that is particularly good at challenging repertoire, he is also a real workhorse conductor capable of handling a large number of difficult pieces in a short time. In the two years 1987 to 1988 he recorded the Messiaen album of Des canyons aux étoiles and the two shorter pieces for piano and winds, the Nielsen Symphony No. 2, the Symphony No. 5 and excerpts from Masquerade, the Sibelius Violin Concerto, the Nielsen Violin Concerto, an album of Richard Strauss with the Metamorphosen and some shorter works, two Stravinsky ballets (The Firebird and Jeu de cartes), an album of concertante music by Stravinsky including the Capriccio for piano and orchestra, the Symphonies of Wind Instruments, the Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments and the Movements for piano and orchestra! As he was born in 1958, this was all when he was twenty-nine and thirty years old. No wonder he looks so young on the covers.

The composers he particularly focuses on include Carl Nielsen, Igor Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen, Györgi Ligeti, Claude Debussy, Bela Bartók, Witold Lutoslawski, Gustav Mahler, and Jean Sibelius (though a bit less than one would expect). Composers he entirely avoids, at least in this collection: Beethoven, Mozart and, except for one disc of transcriptions, Bach. I suspect the most likely reason was that, as a young conductor, his primary interest was to find repertoire that he could put his individual stamp on. With the heavily-trodden repertoire of the three great masters, there is not a whole lot that a young conductor can bring to the interpretation that hasn’t already been done. He has recorded very, very little Shostakovich and not much more Prokofiev so one wonders if he just feels no empathy with that music.

One of the things I enjoyed most about this collection was the way each disc was organized as a short concert in itself. The combinations were always stimulating and internally consistent.

For our envoi, here is Salonen conducting the Rite of Spring with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra:

Salonen's Complete Sony Recordings, part 4

This part will cover discs 40 through 49 in the box.

• Sergei Prokofiev: Concertos for Violin and Orchestra nos. 1 and 2; Stravinsky, Concerto in D for Violin and Orchestra This is a 1992 recording with Cho-Liang Lin and the LA Philharmonic. Compared to his piano concertos, Prokofiev's concertos with violin are surprisingly lyrical. He sees the violin as a strictly melodic instrument and the piano as, partly, a percussion instrument. One thing for sure, the melody of the second movement of the second concerto is remarkably lovely, something one rarely finds oneself saying about a 20th century piece! Crisp and clean performance of the Stravinsky who treats the violin almost like a percussion instrument.
• Sergei Rachmaninoff: Concertos for Piano and Orchestra nos. 2 and 3 Recorded in 1990 with Yefim Bronfman and the Philharmonia Orchestra. I'm very glad to listen to this because, just as a matter of policy, I tend to avoid Rachmaninoff, which means I am probably a bad person. But it still sounds to me like a greatbrownfloodofharmonicclichésthatgoonforaverylongtime... I can't help recalling that great cartoon of a young boy of perhaps twelve years old, in formal evening wear, standing onstage beside a piano and announcing to the audience: "And now, God help us all, Rach Two." 
• Silvestre Revueltas: Sensemayá, Ocho por radio, La noche de los Mayas, Homenaje a Federico García Lorca, Ventanas, First Little Serious Piece, Second Little Serious Piece Salonen's tenure in Los Angeles led not only to his exposure to and advocacy of film music, but also of music from Latin America, in this case, Mexico. The list of important Mexican composers is a short one, but most certainly includes Silvestre Revueltas. The only two others that you might know are Carlos Chávez and Manuel Ponce (who wrote a great deal of music for guitar). Sensemayá and La noche de los Mayas are considered the most important works by Revueltas. They date from the last two years before he died in 1940. Despite it being based on a poem by Cuban Nicolás Gullién invoking an Afro-cuban religious ritual, the music of Sensemayá might remind you a bit of the Rite of Spring by Stravinsky. Ventanas (1931) is another important piece.
• Kaija Saariaho: Grall Théâtre, Château de l'âme, Amers This disc and the next were ones that particularly attracted me to the collection. I have wanted to become more familiar with the music of Kaija Saariaho for some time. Born in Finland she studied there, but moved to France and studied with some of the important figures in post-WWII modernism including Klaus Huber and Brian Fernyhough. She found this approach too stifling and was attracted to the French spectralist school. She did a lot of work with computers and electronics combined with live instruments. The three works on this disc were recorded between 1996 and 2000 and each features a soloist: Gidon Kremer, violin, Dawn Upshaw, soprano and Anssi Karttunen, cello.
• Esa-Pekka Salonen: LA Variations, Five Images after Sappho, Giro, Mania, Gambit Salonen's LA Variations was his return to composition after a long pause in which he was extremely occupied with conducting. Another reason he was not composing was that he found some of the strictures of modernism--against melody, for example--very oppressing. Living in Los Angeles was a freeing experience and led to a revival of his composing. The works on this disc were recorded in 2000. The first, and continuing, impression is one of absolutely remarkable orchestral sounds: rich, clangorous and transparent.
• Arnold Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, String Quartet No. 2 (both works in the versions for string orchestra) Recorded 1996 with the Stockholm Chamber Orchestra. Verklärte Nacht is Schoenberg's early sextet notorious for being chamber music with a program and for using a minor ninth chord in last inversion. Beethoven had already done that in one of the op. 59 quartets. Verklärte Nacht is likely Schoenberg's most popular piece. It is lovely and intensely expressive. The Quartet (in the arrangement by the composer) is the very famous one with a soprano singing a text from Stefan George with the line "a breath of air from another planet" used to announce the introduction of atonality into music. The soprano is Faye Robinson. Both works transfer easily to the chamber orchestra instrumentation with strings only and benefit from Salonen's typical rhythmic clarity
• Dmitri Shostakovich: Concertos nos. 1 and 2 for Piano and Orchestra, Quintet for Piano and String Quartet The Concerto No. 1 for Piano, Trumpet and Orchestra actually started out as a trumpet concerto but Shostakovich added a piano, which eventually took over and became the prominent instrument. Dating from 1933 when the composer was only twenty-seven, the piece has been called an "irreverent hodgepodge of styles" but a delightful one. The Concerto No. 2, written in 1957, was composed for the composer's son Maxim, then completing his final year at the Central Music School. The Piano Quintet, composed in 1940, was from the beginning one of his most successful works, the second movement fugue, with its strange meandering subject, showing his fascination with the polyphony of Bach. The soloist is Yefim Bronfman with the LA Philharmonic. The Julliard Quartet play in the quintet. The recordings were made in 1998 and 99. These two almost casually written piano concertos I find much more enjoyable to listen to than those two tired warhorses of Rachmaninoff.
• Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Pohjola's Daughter The 1986 recording of the Symphony No. 5 with the Philharmonia Orchestra is the only numbered Sibelius symphony in this collection--the other orchestral works on the next few discs are symphonic poems. Except for this one symphony, Salonen avoided the usually performed Sibelius works (excepting the Violin Concerto, of which we have two versions). The Fifth is a terrific piece, often called more conventional than the Fourth, but we might just see it as more subtle. One of my favorite clips on YouTube is Salonen conducting the last movement with a Verbier Festival youth orchestra. Salonen gives it clarity through a very articulated performance, by which I mean he lets in light by observing the rests closely and articulating the phrases well. The disc is filled out with the symphonic fantasy Pohjola's Daughter.
• Jean Sibelius: Lemminkäinen Legends, En Saga The Lemminkäinen Legends (or Suite as it is often called) consist of four legends from the Kalevala, one movement of which, the very popular Swan of Tuonela, is often played separately. The Kalevala, a collection of legends and folklore first published in 1835, is the foundation of Finnish literature. This suite, along with the earlier Kullervo, is usually considered the foundation of the Finnish national character in music. The original version dates from 1896 though the movements were later revised. The filler is the tone poem En Saga. This is a 1991 recording with the LA Philharmonic. Colorful and evocative.
• Jean Sibelius: Kullervo is a symphonic poem for mezzo, baritone, male chorus and orchestra dating from 1891-2. The folk tale, with its reminiscences of Oedipus, along with a special trip he took to hear a Karelian runic singer, inspired Sibelius to create a powerful work of Finnish character and the premiere was a great success. The recording was make in 1992 with the LA Philharmonic and the Helsinki University Chorus with Marianne Rørholm and Jorma Hynninen, vocal soloists.

The next will be the last post on this collection, which I have found particularly enjoyable, not least for the selection of repertoire. For an envoi here is Lemminkäinen's Return from the four legends in a performance with the LA Philharmonic.

Salonen's Complete Sony Recordings, part 3

This review will cover discs 30 through 39.

• Olivier Messiaen: Des canyons aux étoiles... Movements one through nine, Paul Crossley piano and the London Sinfonietta, recorded in 1988. I don't know this piece as well as some other Messiaen. At well over an hour and a half, Des canyons is a very substantial piece. The solo piano has a great deal to do and the sixth movement, Appel interstellaire, is for solo horn (played by Michael Thompson) and is extraordinarily difficult. There are also a number of unusual percussion instruments such as the geophone, invented by Messiaen specifically for this piece.
• Des Canyons continued with movements ten to twelve plus Oiseaux exotiques, Couleurs de la cité céleste Oiseaux exotiques is quite an exotic piece itself, written for solo piano and orchestra of winds and percussion. It uses a great deal of birdsong as basic material and the rhythms are derived from the Carnatic music of southern India and ancient Greek music. Couleurs is written for roughly the same ensemble of solo piano, winds and metallophones. It is rather hard to review performances of works like these. One longs for the scores, but comparison with the performance would merely give one a sense of how accurate it was, not how expressive or authentic it was. So we are thrown back on the originality and expressiveness of Messiaen's approach to music.
• Carl Nielsen: Symphony No. 1 in G minor, [Little] Suite for String Orchestra in A minor The first disc of Salonen's survey of all the symphonies and much of the other orchestral music of the iconic Danish composer is very well done. All the discs are with the Swedish Radio Symphony who bring a solid, meaty strength to the performances. The recording is from 1986.
• Carl Nielsen: Symphony No. 2 "The Four Temperaments,"Aladdin Suite The Second Symphony is a real advance over the first, much more intense and dynamic and this is an excellent performance with lots of expressive juice. The disc also contains his brief symphonic poem Pan and Syrinx and the seven movement suite of incidental music to Aladdin. Recorded in 1988/89.
• Carl Nielsen: Symphony No. 3 "Sinfonia espansiva," Symphony No. 6 "Sinfonia semplice" The Symphony No. 3 was a much bigger success than his previous symphonies with many international performances in the first few years after its premiere. It is unique in that the second movement has wordless parts for soprano and baritone. The first movement is powerfully syncopated with a lot of drive that the Swedes really deliver. The Symphony No. 6 is the most challenging with unusual textures and harsh harmonic passages. Possibly the only symphony to end with a single low note from a solo bassoon.
• Carl Nielsen: Symphony No. 4 "The Inextinguishable," Helios Overture Written during the first part of WWI, this is one of Nielsen's most successful symphonies. The title refers to what the symphony is "about": the inextinguishable will to live. The irony is that this was composed at the precise moment that European civilization was engaged in a suicidal war. The last movement features a duel between two sets of tympani. One interesting element of Nielsen's symphonic style is the prominence and independence of his percussion parts which often have a nearly "melodic" role.
• Carl Nielsen: Symphony No. 5, Maskarade By the time you get to the Symphony No. 5 you recognize that Nielsen's symphonic voice, though certainly sharing a general approach with Beethoven and Brahms, is distinctly different. His colors and textures have more edge and his developments follow they own sorts of rules. the Fifth, like the Fourth before it, has an obsessive use of percussion, especially the snare drum. While the mood of the Fifth, dating from 1922, certainly has a deal to do with the horrors of the First World War, it has no program as such. Denmark's national opera is Nielsen's comic Masquerade and the disc ends with three orchestral excerpts. As before, these performances are outstanding. I have previously listened to the Blomstedt/San Francisco complete set and, for some reason, did not find the music interesting enough to investigate further. Not the case with this set, which is quite compelling. The recording dates from 1987.
• Jean Sibelius: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, Carl Nielsen: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra I know the Sibelius concerto from Salonen's recent Deutsche Gramophon recording with Hilary Hahn. There it is heard alongside the Schoenberg Violin Concerto. The Sibelius is a lovely piece and this disc enables us to do a side-by-side comparison of the two Nordic masters. The Sibelius is with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Nielsen with the Swedish Radio Symphony and the recordings date from 1987 and 88. Sibelius and Nielsen are almost exact contemporaries, both born in 1865. Sibelius lived longer, but wrote little in his later decades so their productive years overlap exactly. Sibelius seemed to come up with more winning melodies and saw earlier success. Nielsen is less overtly charming and his success came later. In fact, his orchestral music didn't really become part of the mainstream repertoire until the 1960s. His Violin Concerto is a bit grittier and more intently focused than Sibelius' though certainly not lacking in beauty.
• Carl Nielsen: Saul og David, Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, En fantasirejse til Færøerne, Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, Fynsk foraar (eight short movements) This disc completes Salonen's survey of the orchestral music of Nielsen and includes his other two concertos, both for solo winds, the Prelude to Act II of his opera Saul and David as well as his tone poem on a journey to the Faroe Islands and the "lyrical humoresque" on springtime on Funen, an island where he spent a great deal of time. The concerto for clarinet makes good use of both the comic and virtuoso aspects of the instrument but also brings out a good deal of intense expression. Nielsen's background experience with bands proved useful in both this piece and the concerto for flute.
• Sergei Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet The ballet was written largely over the summer of 1935 but not premiered in the Soviet Union until 1940. The full ballet, in four acts, takes an entire evening to perform. Excerpts from each act have been selected for the recording which was made in 1986 with the Berlin Philharmonic. The famous "Dance of the Knights" is found in Act I. You can certainly hear why the Berlin Philharmonic are so admired for their low bass sound.

That brings this part of the review to an end. I think I will have two more parts with about ten discs each. Later I will have some comments on Salonen's conducting in general.

Salonen's Complete Sony Recordings, part 2

Blogger won't allow me to continue the numeration from the previous post, so I have defaulted to bullet points. The first disc is actually number 20 and the last number 29. So there will be a couple more posts before I am finished.

• Witold Lutosławski: Fanfare for Los Angeles Philharmonic, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Chantefleurs et Chantefables, Symphony No. 2 I attended a lecture given by Lutosławski at McGill in the 70s where he talked a lot about his use of aleatory techniques. I wish I had been more interested at the time as now I am doing something similar myself! In any case, this is an interesting disc of an interesting composer. The music is more lyrical than you would expect despite being non-tonal. He does a great deal with tone-colour and contrasting groups of instruments in the symphony.
• Witold Lutosławski: Fanfare for Los Angeles Philharmonic, Symphony No. 1, Symphony No. 4 The Lutosławski symphonies are spread out over six decades from the first, completed in 1947, to the fourth, in 1992. The style of the Symphony No. 1 is not radically different from that of, for example, the Symphony No. 5 of Prokofiev, composed at roughly the same time, though the Lutosławski is more motoric with more structural clarity. The Symphony No. 4 is in the two-section structure that he first explored in the Symphony No. 2 where there is an episodic section followed by a section in continuous development.
• Witold Lutosławski: Symphony No. 3, Les Espaces du sommeil There is a lot of Lutosławski's technique of "limited aleatorism" in the Symphony No. 3 where the exact pitches are notated, but the rhythmic element is left to the players. Les Espaces du sommeil was written at the request of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. One thing that all of Lutosławski's symphonies share is conciseness: the Symphony No. 3, for example, is only thirty minutes long and the 4th is around twenty-one minutes. As opposed to the Mahler 3rd, which runs around one and a half hours.
• Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 3 I've not been fond of Mahler in recent years, so I was hoping that Salonen's interpretation might rescue Mahler for me--that was at least partially true! Salonen doesn't do melodrama, but he is pretty good at drama and this performance is a bit tauter and more incisive than many others. I don't think that Mahler needs any indulgence in the interpretation! I appreciated the clean and precise delivery of the LA Philharmonic.
• Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 3, continued Good pacing, good singing from Anna Larsson, the alto soloist, great work from the brass section and overall an excellent performance. I enjoyed this a lot more than I usually enjoy Mahler.
• Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 4 At under an hour in duration, the 4th is one of the shortest Mahler symphonies. This performance is crisp, clean and focussed. Barbara Hendricks sings the vocal part in the last movement.
• Gustav Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde This has long been my favorite piece by Mahler, a symphony in all but name using German translations of classic Chinese poetry. This is the version for two male voices: Plácido Domingo, tenor, and Bo Skovhus, baritone. The orchestral parts seem a bit clearer than I am used to and the opening of Der Abschied is especially rich and resonant. Some excellent singing in this recording.
• Wynton Marsalis: All Rise What is this anyway? A blues cantata? Jazz oratorio? Marsalis' notes for the premiere performance aren't too helpful: "All Rise is structured in the form of the Blues, 12 movements to the 12 bars. It is separated into three sections of four movements; each section presents different attitudes about the uncontrollable rush of experiences in the quest for happiness. The first four movements are joyous, the second four are more somber and poignant, and movements 9, 10, and 11 are dance movements. Movement 12 is the gospel 6/8 shuffle; a dance, but not in a secular sense." I almost hate to say this, but the first few movements sound vaguely like a little Leonard Bernstein mixed with Carl Orff, and, ok, just a soupçon of neo-classical Stravinsky.
• Wynton Marsalis: All Rise, continued The second disc, beginning with El "Gran" Baile de la Reina, has some pretty nice jazz.
• Olivier Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie I've noticed that this piece is getting more and more performances these days--and so is Des canyons aux étoiles, being given at the Proms this year. The first thing I notice is that the pacing is a little less hysterical and more organized than some other recordings of the piece. If you don't know this amazing work, here is a fairly substantial post I did on it a couple of years ago: https://themusicsalon.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-music-of-messiaen-part-8.html This recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra dates from 1985.

I'm fairly sure I don't have the specific technical training to precisely evaluate Salonen's conducting, but I do have ears, and aesthetic sensibilities and some knowledge of the repertoire, so that helps. Also, I think that one way to evaluate the work of any musician is to look at what kind of repertoire he or she focuses on. One thing I like about this box is that it exposes me to music that I would likely not otherwise spend time on. What is worth our time is one of the big aesthetic questions. In general, Salonen's conducting seems to bring out interesting counter-melodies, it is rhythmically clean and emphasizes rich orchestral color, when appropriate.

Review of Salonen's Complete Sony Recordings

The best way to review this big box of sixty-one CDs of largely orchestral music conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen might be just to make a brief comment on each disc. That will also tell you exactly what is in the box, something the Amazon page doesn't do. So here goes:

1. Bach Transcriptions These are by Leopold Stokowski, Edward Elgar, Anton Webern, Arnold Schoenberg and Gustav Mahler and are quite enjoyable.
2. Bela Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta Excellent recordings with the LA Philharmonic.
3. Bela Bartók: The Three Piano Concertos The pianist is Yefim Bronfman and he does an excellent job as does the orchestra.
4. Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major "Romantic" The LA Philharmonic do a great job with this: rich, resonant and not rhythmically turgid--Salonen might have had something to do with that.
5. John Corigliano: The Red Violin The original film soundtrack plus the related chaconne. Joshua Bell, violin. Quite nice, but likely much better with the film.
6. Luigi Dallapiccola: Il prigioniero and Canti di prigionia Well done, of course, but I didn't find the composition very compelling.
7. Claude Debussy: Images pour orchestra, Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, La Mer All wonderfully done, of course, with the LA Philharmonic.
8. Claude Debussy: Nocturnes, La Damoiselle élue, Le Martyre de saint Sébastien Dawn Upshaw does a fine job in La Damoiselle élue. For some reason I have never previously heard either that or Le Martyre.
9. Edvard Grieg: Peer Gynt incidental music to the play by Henrik Ibsen This contains the well-known In the Hall of the Mountain King. Quite nice in its way.
10. Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 82 in C major "The Bear," Symphony No. 78 in C minor, Symphony No. 22 in E-flat major "The Philosopher" Three excellent Haydn symphonies excellently played by the Stockholm Chamber Orchestra. This tends to highlight that there is no Mozart, nor Beethoven in the collection. Overdone by others or he's just not interested?
11. Bernard Herrmann: The Film Scores Containing music from The Man Who Knew Too Much, Psycho, Marnie, North by Northwest, Vertigo, Torn Curtain, Fahrenheit 451 and Taxi Driver. Probably one of the best recordings of these classic soundtracks.
12. Eva Dahlgren: Jag will se min älskade komma från det vilda Eva Dahlgren is a well-known Swedish pop star and this recording, released in 1995, went to no. 2 on the Swedish charts.
13. Paul Hindemith: Sinfonische Metamorphosen, Thema mit 4 Variationen, Symphonie "Mathis de Maler" Well-played, certainly, but, with the exception of "Mathis de Maler" it just serves to remind me why I don't like Hindemith. Surprisingly dreary compositions, on the whole. But "Mathis der Maler" really is quite lovely and transcendent.
14. Lars-Erik Larsson: Förklädd Gud Tuneful and charming with a folkish air.
15. György Ligeti: Le Grand Macabre, Scene I and II At first hearing it sounds like a 60s "happening", but further listening will likely reveal interesting aspects. Extreme vocal techniques, plus characters named Spermando, Clitoria and Mescalina. One wonders if Ligeti never quite recovered from the 60s.
16. Scene III and IV 
17. György Ligeti: Nonsense Madrigals, Mysteries of the Macabre, Aventures, Nouvelles Aventures, Der Sommer, Három Weöres-dal, Öt Arany-dal, Mégy lakodalmi tánc Interesting recreation of madrigal style in contemporary terms, plus settings of folk songs.
18. Magnus Lindberg: Cantigas, Cello Concerto, Parada, Fresco One way of describing Lindberg's music is to call it "complex chaos." Perhaps that's not entirely fair, but it is very busy and without too many obvious guideposts for the listener.
19. Arnold Schoenberg: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Franz Liszt: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in A major, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in E-flat major Schoenberg and Liszt is not a pairing we see too often, so let's give Salonen some points for creativity in putting these piano concertos together. One wonders: who is he trying to punish, Schoenberg fans or Liszt fans? Kidding, of course! The pianist is Emmanuel Ax who does a fine job. I have talked about Schoenberg's violin concerto recently, but I haven't heard the piano concerto for decades. I used to have a recording by, I think, Peter Serkin. After much negotiation with two different patrons, Schoenberg received the handsome commission of $1,000 for the work, completed in 1942. Something that has always puzzled me was why Liszt, the greatest piano virtuoso of his day, only completed two (and mostly, a third) piano concertos, and that after decades of revision? Mozart, for comparison, wrote twenty-three. Mind you, Liszt was astonishingly creative in a number of ways as a composer. Bartók, for example, commented that the Piano Concerto No. 1 was "the first perfect realisation of cyclic sonata form."

One of the fruits of Salonen's tenure in Los Angeles, apart from its effect on his composition, was his encounter with film music. Here is the overture to North by Northwest composed by Bernard Herrmann from disc 11. Blogger won't embed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L768_bgwM0I

Not on the Herrmann disc is this excerpt from the soundtrack to "On Dangerous Ground" also by Herrmann:

UPDATE: Sorry, forgot to mention that this is just part one! There are sixty-one discs in total, so this is a review of less than a third of them. I am planning two more posts.