Search - Samuel Barber, Andrew Schenck, London Symphony Orchestra :: Samuel Barber: Piano Concerto / Medea: Meditation & Dance of Vengeance / Adagio for Strings - Tedd Joselson

Barber, Neat and Trim

Daniel G. Berk | West Bloomfield, Michigan | 04/24/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The principal work on this recording is the Barber piano concerto, and if one is a collector of his compositions, the Medea and the Adagio will likely be represented on more than one recording in one's music library. So it would be for the concerto that this CD would be acquired, and a worthy acquisition it would be. Exciting and well-played, it is a significant addition to 20th century American music."

If Glenn Gould played Barber.

bonerfly | NY | 05/05/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the best played and most exciting version of Barber's Piano concerto which is very modern and completely tonal.

Joselson's attitude reminds me of Glenn Gould playing Bach. But without the "humming".

His sense of dynamics and playing is astounding. A really exciting and thrilling performance.

Andrew Schenck is sort of a Barber expert. Having recorded MUCH of his music.

Here he leads the great LSO in what has to be the definitive performance of this Piano Concerto.

Media's Meditation and Dance Of Vengeance is also one of the 2 best (Schippers) of the many I have heard over the years. He had recorded the Media suite and the entire ballet (as Cave Of The Heart) previously with the New Zealand Symphony with great results. So he knows his Barber.

The well known Adagio is also a wonderful performance, With only Schippers' version preferred.

So I would highly recommend this CD for The Piano Concerto and the Media Dance. You would be HARD pressed to find better.

Along with Thomas Schipper's legendary 1960's NYPO recordings, This is probably the finest Barber CD in the catalog. And Schippers never recorded the Piano Concerto.

Oh...the sound quality is excellent."

Efficient but superficial reading

Gupus62 | 06/16/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Samuel Barber's music is far less known in Europe than it should deserve. Hopefully the composer's centenary of birth in 2010 will bring the chance to have a fresh and unbiased look on one of the pivotal figures in contemporary music, albeit so lyrical and communicative to make its labeling as such difficult.

The Piano Concerto, in particular, is a masterwork under both the sructural and the instrumental standpoint, with some of the most marvellous and richest orchestral textures you could find anywhere since Ravel, not to mention the extraordinary piano cadenzas disseminated throughout the movements. It displays, as it often is with Barber, a highly personal instrumental idiom which is as much form as it is substance, bestowing a unique sound to any phrase or tutti in the score.

All this to say that the more faithful to the text the performer is, the more you are able to grasp from the listening from the very first time you meet the piece; you couldn't really say that of Joselson's highly efficient but rather superficial approach. We are informed by the booklet that he even made some changes to the score - with Barber's approval - but if that means liberally changing dynamics or tempi...or pushing some peculiar traits back to ordinary...we could have done without. Not to blame good Andrew Schenk, but there are also few spots here and there where soloist and orchestra are not together - the Concerto is very difficult, I know it - but in the end Stephen J. Prutsman recording for Naxos fares better.

The rest of the program may well be worth it but is also very much recorded; I cannot make recommendations for that except noticing that the sound seems, at traits, verging a bit towards the nasal, but that may be a matter of personal taste."