Search - Fifty Years of Vox Recordings :: 50 Years of Vox Recordings 1945-1995

Wonderful, celebratory collection

DJ Rix | NJ USA | 09/27/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Amazon currently sells this as a sealed cutout for an incredible $4.97 in the used CD section, under this code:
Label: Scde
ASIN: B00005MJTD As many of the old Vox single CDs & boxes disappear or are reshuffled into deceptively "premium" packaging, this wonderful, celebratory collection remembers the glory years with a wide-ranging selection of great music, from the post-war mono recordings that, among other achievements, resuscitated Otto Klemperer's career & sent him on to settle some old scores, to pristine sessions from the Eighties engineered by the team of Marc Aubert & Joanna Nickrenz. Along the way there are some delightful surprises; pianists Novaes, Philipp, Haebler; Alfgren's lovely "Swedish Rhapsody" superbly played by the Baltimore Symphony as something more than a light classic; the under-rated Donald Johannos & Dallas Orchestra challenging Lenny Bernstein in 1967, the height of the Charles Ives revival, with a remarkable "Fourth of July;" Ravel's "Habanera" performed by violinist Elmar Oliveira. Included is a colorful 40 page booklet, written by frequent Vox liner note contributor, Richard Freed, outlining the Vox history with special attention to its visionary founder, George H. de Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (a collateral descendent of Felix & Fanny). My set also came with a "complete listing" insert of Vox Boxes, so many of which have been discontinued since 1995. One could only wish for a fourth CD devoted to the avant garde music Vox issued on the Turnabout & Candide labels, proudly mentioned in the booklet, but alas, tapes apparently buried in a secret vault somewhere. Bob Rixon"

Vox clamante in foro

pclaudel | New York City | 01/30/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Everything written more than five years ago by the other reviewer, Mr. Rixon, can be seconded today; this is a wonderful set, and the fact that Marketplace copies are available for less than five bucks makes it more wonderful still.



It is worth noting that these CDs contain more complete works (that is, rather than merely snippets) than is customary in a sampler. Mr. Rixon mentions Hugo Alfvén's Swedish Rhapsody no. 1, but there are others: Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain, conducted by Leonard Slatkin; Mendelssohn's Variations sérieuses, op. 54, played by Abbey Simon; a brief but startling piece by Carl Ruggles called Angels, conducted by Lukas Foss; and most significant of all, Carlos Chávez's Symphony no. 2 (Sinfonia India), conducted by Eduardo Mata. Most of the remaining selections (there are 39 in all) are movements from larger works; one of the best is a sizzling opening movement of Mozart's two-piano Concerto no. 10, played by Rudolf Firkusny and Alan Weiss. Some few selections are not as well performed as one might wish, but there are no duds, no disasters.



Anything missing? Tastes will differ, of course, but one listener regrets the absence, from both recordings and accompanying text, of the French-born, now American pianist Evelyne Crochet, whose set of Fauré's piano music was one of the best in recorded history. It should have been transferred to silver disc decades ago. Crochet plays this music as sensitively as Collard and notably better than Crossley, who is still very good. Surely she has other fans! (Need all who perform Fauré's oeuvres complètes pour piano have a name starting with C?)



It would be foolish to suggest that this set is self-recommending or that a man would go to his grave with an unquiet heart if he never heard it. Yet once purchased and once heard, Fifty Years of Vox Recordings is unlikely ever to spur a moment's regret."