The Musical Heritage Review - February 2024

TRIBUTE ISSUE featuring THE BEST OF MAX GOBERMAN’S HISTORIC MHS VIVALDI RECORDINGS

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: ARTUR BALSAM plays HAYDN PIANO SONATAS CAPPELLA NOVA performs OCKEGHEM, BYRD & JOSQUIN and LETTERS TO THE EDITOR!

IN THIS ISSUE NEWRELEASES RELEASES NEW and Exploring Music: a few (choice) words about each of our new releases.

HISTORIC VIVALDI - OUR MAIN SELECTION................................page 4 EXPLORING MUSIC: SAILING TO THE END OF VIVALDI by David White (4 MIN READ)

HAYDN: TEN PIANO SONATAS with Artur Balsam ...................page 16 EXPLORING MUSIC: HAYDN IN PLAIN SIGHT by David White (4 MIN READ)

J.S. BACH: 8 SONATAS FOR DIVERSE INSTRUMENTS...............page 20 EXPLORING MUSIC: FREEDOM! by David M. Greene (6 MIN READ)

TELEMANN: ESSERCIZII MUSIC.......................................................page 22 EXPLORING MUSIC: NEVER PERFORMED BETTER by David M. Greene (5 MIN READ)

CAPPELLA NOVA: THE MHS RECORDINGS...................................page 30

EXPLORING MUSIC: OCKEGHEM - PRINCE OF MUSIC by David M. Greene (5 MIN READ)

MOZART FOR FOUR HANDS with Misch & Cipa Dichter.........page 32 EXPLORING MUSIC: MOZART FOR HANDS by David White (4 MIN READ)

ESSAY

VIVALDI: WORTHY OF RESCUE by helen baker

Look for this box on every page to return easily to the Table of Contents

IN THIS ISSUE NOW ON SALE In these sections, our vault doors are open and you'll find many long out of print recordings next to favorites. All titles are downloadable with sound samples and liner notes!

Preto Rosso, The Red Prince...we offer some additional selections to accompany the reissue of our historic New York Sinfonietta recordings.

From the unknown to the very well known, this selection takes you through a tiny slice of our recordings dedicated to music written a long time ago...

Never a household name, except among violinists - Oscar Shumsky shied away from the spotlight. We shine the spotlight on his remarkable MHS catalog.

We get letters - well, we got letters.

A Pulitzer Prize winning composer takes us to task, someone rejects colonialism rampant in the early music conductors rank, and a reader looks into his crystal ball and accurately predicts that there will never be a CD/LP player.

Page 26

EXPLORING MUSIC

by David White

SAILING TO THE END OF VIVALDI

Once upon a time there was a world without Vivaldi – and not simply because he hadn’t been born yet. One of the most remarkable musical stories of the 20th century was the discovery of the entire universe of music composed by Antonio Vivaldi. The story of his neglect and revival has been told – in the early issues of The Musical Heritage Review there are many articles about the dazzling finds that scholars were introducing to a music-loving public, at that very moment.

Now, in our century, after nearly 100 years has passed since the vault doors opened to the world, Vivaldi is musical wallpaper – renown, and played and overplayed enough so that opinions of whether “everything sounds alike” (a direct quote from a Vivaldi article in 1992), or whether Vivaldi is best served by being the composer of the most well-known classical music work on the planet.

Haydn symphony cycle was completed in 1971 (Goberman had completed recordings of 52 symphonies of the 107, from 1960 to 1962). And the works of Vivaldi grew to nearly abstract levels – Goberman recorded 70 works for his own label. These recordings – which you are about to hear revived – were acquired by Musical Heritage Society in the 1960s after his death. And no one has been so maniacal to suggest they could record the complete works of Vivaldi since – it’s almost naïve and charming in retrospect.

These recordings – 2 hours’ worth, chosen from the 17 LPs released by MHS in the mid 1960s – are being issued to the public for the first time in 50 years. What you hear probably won’t suddenly change your mind about Vivaldi (good or bad), but you can’t help but get a sense of Lewis and Clark, or the Mercury 7 when you listen.

This is not the space for this debate. We’re going to accept that the discovery of the music of Vivaldi might have been the most important or certainly in the discussion as the most important development in “classical” music that took place during the 20th century.

So, when Max Goberman began his remarkably ambitious musical journey to record all the works of Vivaldi in the late 1950, on his own subscription record label, it wasn’t entirely an entirely insane concept. At that time, scholarship around Vivaldi was just barely entering the mainstream – in fact, the essay included in this issue “Vivaldi: Worthy of Rescue” tackles this issue, as the “powers” in control of access to Vivaldi’s music had decreed that instrumental music would be first out, to define Vivaldi’s reputation, and the essay writer makes an impassioned plea for the release of more of Vivaldi’s sacred works, believing them to be the true musical core of Vivaldi’s genius.

So when we look now at a “complete works” of Vivaldi, there’s lots of asterisks and quotation marks (as I just used) because it’s BARELY complete – it’s complete as we know it so far. And when Max G started on his journey, the entirety of Vivaldi was probably one-tenth of what is known so far – no major choral works, the barest knowledge of the concerti and chamber music yet to be uncovered, he really was going toward the New World with no idea of whether he was ever going to get there.

His unfortunately and tragic death at age 51 might, without exaggeration, have kept certain works by Haydn and Vivaldi from the public ears for a decade or more. Goberman was embarking simultaneously upon recording the complete symphonies of Haydn and had a clear and insurmountable lead in the race (that was eventually won by The Musical Heritage Society’s series conducted by Ernst Marzendorfer). So when Goberman died of a heart attack on December 31, 1962, both projects stopped, and efforts to duplicate it were widely scattered. The first complete

So MUCH has changed in the 60 years since these recordings were made – performance practices are different, these recordings tend toward a Romantic approach (Goberman’s day job - really his night job - was conducting Broadway shows, most famously “West Side Story”, for which he won a Grammy Award).

He draws that from his musicians – the cream of Juilliard and a bit of Curtis as well made up Goberman’s band the “New York Sinfonietta”. Top notch soloists include flautist Julius Baker, violist Walter Trampler, and violinist Felix Galimir. And though the years – and the advent of “historically informed performance” have redefined our aural vocabulary of Vivaldi, these performances offer beautiful moments, and this collection does prove that 2 hours of Vivaldi is better than almost 2 hours of anything else you can pump through your speakers.

So much more could be written – but we are told the entire set will be reissued during the course of the next year!

The Musical Heritage Review MAIN SELECTION 14 concerti and chamber works performed by one of the first ensembles devoted to baroque music in America - the New York Sinfonietta.

The remarkable Max Goberman, founder and conductor of the New York Sinfonietta was not a man of small musical ambitions.

He took on two tasks in the 1950s: his first was to record the entire orchestral works of Antonio Vivaldi. He established the New York Sinfonietta to do just that and made 17 LPs devoted entirely to the concerti and chamber music of Vivaldi.

(His second task: to record all of the symphonies of Haydn.)

VIVALDI: CONCERTI AND CHAMBER WORKS NEW YORK SINFONIETTA MAX GOBERMAN, conductor/soloist NON- MEMBERS PRICE:

$14.99

It could be argued his tragic death at age 52 cut short the introduction of the great works of Vivaldi to the general public by a decade - others took up his task but it wasn’t until the late 1970s that suddenly EVERY small orchestra in the world was copying the New York Sinfonietta.

We’ve taken 14 works from his 17 LP library for this historic reissue - the first release of these recordings in 50 years.

The great New York musicians of the 1950s are represented - Felix Galimir, Walter Trampler & Julius Baker are soloists in many of the recordings, which were world premieres when they were released via Goberman’s own label, and then MHS in the 1960s.

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ES IV US CL EX

Musical Heritage Review

More concerti from our “other” historic set of Vivaldi’s instrumental music, featuring Shlomo Mintz and the Israel Chamber Orchestra - these collections are only available here, at our store.

VIVALDI: CONCERTI FOR ANNA MARIA Shlomo MINTZ, violin & conductor Israel Chamber Orchestra

VIVALDI: STRING SINFONIAS & CONCERTI FOR PISENDEL Shlomo MINTZ, violin & conductor Israel Chamber Orchestra

Musical Heritage Review

VIVALDI: 12 CONCERTI for VARIOUS INSTRUMENTS performed by the Aulos Ensemble on period instruments

Worthy OF RESCUE by helen baker

The Prete Rosso considered only his best efforts worthy of glorifying God. He praises God not in the dead language of the stile antico, but in the most eloquent accents of his personal musical language.

Thanks to their happy discovery that Bach had found Vivaldi worthy of imitation, musicologists found the Prete Rosso worthy of rescue from oblivion. The once interna­tionally famous Vivaldi had already become an obscure figure by the time of his pauper's death in Vienna in 1741. Today, his instrumental music is allowed to form the backdrop for clever conversation at culturally pretentious cocktail parties, much as it did for the urbane chatter of eighteenth century Venetian visitors to the fashionable concerts of the orphan girls of the Pieta. A French traveler, relating in amazement his exper­ience at a concert in this remarkable Venetian institution, describes a scene not unlike a modern cocktail party: "The orchestra, recruited from four hundred of the finest virtuose, was conducted by the famous Saxon, Hasse. (One of Vivaldi's successors). The unprofessed sisters, all refined ladies, came and went behind two grilles, making conversation and distributing refreshments to the cavaliers and abbes gathered in a circle around one or another grille, fans in their hands.'' Guardi

and Longhi delighted in painting just such scenes. The Pieta was but one of four Venetian conservatories or ospedal renowned for their music.

They were actually shelters for the orphaned, illegitimate, handicapped, or otherwise unwanted female offspring of the city. With these conservatories, the Venetians had hit upon a brilliant solution to a tragic social problem. Venice was even then a playground for tourists, and for sailors on shore leave. Needless to say, Venice was plagued with a prodigious number of illegitimate births, and rather than have the innocent byproducts of what was, after all, an important factor in the Venetian economy, cast into the canals, the Pieta was founded to provide a haven for these unfortunates, who numbered as many as six thousand at one point in its history. The Pieta was no Dickensian institution, however. Though its charges wore habit-like uniforms and were kept in cloistered seclusion, they did not take religious vows and austerity was not a conspicuous quality in their lives. Music played an enormous part in the education of the girls at the Pieta. The best masters were engaged to instruct them in vocal and instrumental performance, in solfege and theory. The most gifted musicians formed a kind of aristocracy in the school (much as do the

members of the football team in the modern high school or college); they received a yearly stipend of about one hundred lire from the state, while the elite among these received minor privileges, adulation, gifts, even proposals of marriage. They gave regular weekly concerts for which admission was charged, and the popularity of these concerts swelled the coffers of the Pieta. In addition, they sang at the funerals of distinguished Venetians, and were often invited to perform at the palaces of the nobility on special occasions, even traveling considerable distances from Venice.

In September 1703, only a few months

after his ordination as a priest, the twenty-six year old Vivaldi assumed the post of "maestro di violino" at the Pieta. His industry as pedagogue and composer was rewarded by increases in salary and promotions, and he rapidly acquired an international reputation. When in 1713, Francesco Gasparini, as "maestro di coro" -Vivaldi's superior-- took a leave of absence from the Pieta because of illness, Vivaldi assumed his responsibilities as house-com­poser, chiefly of sacred music. Around the same time Vivaldi also turned to opera, not only as a composer but as an impresario as well, an activity in those days not considered incompatible with his role as a priest. Vivaldi had long since given up saying Mass for reasons of ill-health; he seems to have had asthma and a heart condition which interfered with his religious obligations, although they did not seem to hamper his activities as a violinst, conductor, composer or business manager. Henceforth, Vivaldi would distinguish himself as much as a vocal composer as he had as a violinist and instrumental composer.

Gasparini's absence from the Pieta, which in due course became permanent, made it possible for Vivaldi to turn to a genre he had previously neglected, the oratorio. Two of Vivaldi's oratorios were performed in

the concerts of the Ospedale della Pieta, Moyses Deus Pharaonis in 1714 and Juditha triumphans devicta Holofernes barbaris in 1716 (on MHS 835L/36H). The first of these has been lost, but the second is among the six volumes of Vivaldi's sacred music preserved today in Turin. (The discovery in the 1930s of a vast amount of Vivaldi's music, including a considerable number of operas and sacred works hitherto unknown, is in itself a fascinating scholarly detective story, full of intrigue and suspense.)

Judith's providential discovery was fortunate, indeed, for the work is a masterpiece with its abundance of fresh musical ideas and variegated, appropriately-chosen instrumen­tal

colors. The Judith story was a Baroque favorite, not only in art but in music: Charpentier had set it; Alessandro Scarlatti had composed two versions; five years before Vivaldi his compatriot Benedetto Marcello had written both libretto and music for a Giuditta dedicated to a Borghese princess; Metastasio's libretto of the Judith story, Betulia liberata, would be set by a long chain of composers, including the fifteen-year old Mozart.

Vivaldi and his librettist Jacopo Cassetti saw in Judith, with her heroic and erotic qualities, a figure of Venice.

The oratorio is not only a retelling of the Biblical story, but a veiled political allegory symbolizing the triumph of Venice (Judith and Betulia) over the

Turks (the Assyrians), another episode in the "myth of Venice." In inverse proportion to the waning of Venetian mercantile dominance and political prestige, the Republic strove to bolster its image through art and music. The state-supported musical activities of the Pieta were part of this public relations scheme to glorify Venice; thus the Pieta was the ideal locale for the performance of an oratorio intended to enhance the prestige of Venice. In it, Vivaldi utilized all the musical resources of the Ospedale, players of all kinds of instruments as well as singers. The five solos were assigned to ospaliere, as the orphan girls were called; all the roles, even the male ones, are for soprano or alto. The chorus calls for full SATB; while the tenor parts could be sung by the low altos of the Pieta, the bass parts must have been taken by instructors at the Ospedale, perhaps filled out by members from various church choirs. Vivaldi makes use of a variety of unusual obbligato instruments in the arias--viola d'amore, a family of "viole all'inglese," theorbo, salmoe (a shawm), clareni (clarinets), even a mandoline-exploiting the wide-ranging abil­ities of the virtuose of the Pieta. Vivaldi was later to draw on material from Juditha for the concerto La Primavera.

uditha, a "Sacrum militare oratorium" remains closer to opera in its drama and characterization than it does to sacred music. Worldly-wise and ambitious, Vivaldi was nevertheless a priest. Though he did not say Mass and was constantly in the company of his favorite prima-donna and pupil, Anna Giro, he had a reputation for being personally very pious--it was said of him that he dropped his rosary or breviary only to take up his pen to compose. It is obvious that he was able to lavish more care on his sacred music, which, unlike his operas, he could write at his own pace and according to his own inspiration.

Moreover, he was writing for the competent, docile musicians of the Pieta, most of whom he had personally trained, and his works were assured of having adequate rehearsal. He could also count on having a more attentive audience; while his concertos had to vie with gossip and refreshments, and his operas with gambling and other highly inappropriate behavior, his church music was sure to have rapt and devoted listeners. The chapel services at the Pieta on Sundays and feast days were open to all who wanted to come in (for an offering of a few soldetti) provided they remained quietly in their seats during the service. Only a few aristocrats and distinguished visitors were permitted in the small reserved loggias that opened into the interior, beyond the

grille that stood between the congrega­tion and the ospealiere.

Applause was of course forbidden in church, but the audience showed its appreciation by coughing, loud noseblowing, or by shuffling feet. Some­times, women were so affected by the music, they would weep, cry out and faint in church!

Vivaldi's sacred music allows for greater stylistic variety than any other genre; it has all the drama and vocal brilliance of opera, all the color and verve of his concertos, while the stately polyphony of the stile ecclesias­tico more often yields to powerful homo­phonic choral writing, frequently for double chorus.

Religious feeling abounds, not of quiet intensity and austerity, but of lyrical rapture and sumptuous grandeur.

The administration of the Pieta was well pleased with Vivaldi's earliest sacred works; in 1715, he was given an extra emolument for having produced in a very short time "many outstanding compositions ... an entire Mass, Vesper service, an Oratorio [Moyse], more than thirty motets, and other works." By latest count, Vivaldi's sacred music numbers sixtyfive titles including psalms, motets hymns, and Mass movements. They range from works for solo voice and orchestra (both

intimate motets in chamber cantata style and more imposing psalm settings in sacred concerto style) to grandiose compos­itions for two choruses, each with its own orchestra and soloists, in several move­ments.

Falling between these two extremes are pieces with more conventional scoring for four-part chorus and occasional solos.

An intimate example of the first type of setting is found in the motet for soprano and string ensemble, Nulla in mundo pax sincera (on MHS 3994).

Similar to a chamber cantata in form, it consists of two da capo arias, the first a siciliano, the second a gavotte with a cadenza-like "Alleluia" providing a coda. The two arias are separated by an expressive recitative verging on arioso with its frequent tempo changes and florid passages.

Somewhat more elaborate is Vivaldi's setting of Psalm 126, Nisi Dominus, (on MHS 834T) for contralto with obbligato viola d'amore, strings pnd organ. Each of its nine verses is set as a separate movement, with the music expres­sing faithfully the spirit of the text, sometimes affectively, sometimes literally-­in "Sicut erat in principio" the music “is the same as it was in the beginning!''

Vivaldi's Magnificat (one version of this work is on MHS 834T), employing a single chorus, orchestra and soloists, falls into the middle category.

It exists in two versions: in the first, greater scope is given to the chorus; in the second, evidently a reworking for use in the Pieta, several of the choruses are replaced by brilliant arias specially com­posed to display the virtuosity of particular singers who are named in the score: Appolonia, Ambrosina, Chiaretta, Alberta. In the choruses, Vivaldi favors homophony, reserving more elaborate polyphonic treat­ment for the final movement. In the section "Deposuit potentes" he uses chorus and orchestra in unison with striking effect. The demanding vocal writing in the arias of the second version explains why leading opera singers paid regular visits to the services at the Pieta to hear and learn from the well-schooled voices of the ospealiere.

An especially imposing example of Vivaldi's most elaborate sacred style is Psalm 111, Beatus vir (on MHS 3994) beyond doubt one of Vivaldi's supreme master­pieces. Vivaldi appears not to have written it for the girls of the Pieta, for in it he does not cater to the vocal brilliance of individual performers; even seemingly solo movements are marked for unison "soprani," "bassi," or "tenori " (although this need not proscribe performance by

intimate motets in chamber cantata style and more imposing psalm settings in sacred concerto style) to grandiose compos­itions for two choruses, each with its own orchestra and soloists, in several move­ments.

Falling between these two extremes are pieces with more conventional scoring for four-part chorus and occasional solos.

An intimate example of the first type of setting is found in the motet for soprano and string ensemble, Nulla in mundo pax sincera (on MHS 3994).

Similar to a chamber cantata in form, it consists of two da capo arias, the first a siciliano, the second a gavotte with a cadenza-like "Alleluia" providing a coda. The two arias are separated by an expressive recitative verging on arioso with its frequent tempo changes and florid passages.

Somewhat more elaborate is Vivaldi's setting of Psalm 126, Nisi Dominus, (on MHS 834T) for contralto with obbligato viola d'amore, strings pnd organ. Each of its nine verses is set as a separate movement, with the music expres­sing faithfully the spirit of the text, sometimes affectively, sometimes literally-­in "Sicut erat in principio" the music “is the same as it was in the beginning!''

Vivaldi's Magnificat (one version of this work is on MHS 834T), employing a single chorus, orchestra and soloists, falls into the middle category.

It exists in two versions: in the first, greater scope is given to the chorus; in the second, evidently a reworking for use in the Pieta, several of the choruses are replaced by brilliant arias specially com­posed to display the virtuosity of particular singers who are named in the score: Appolonia, Ambrosina, Chiaretta, Alberta. In the choruses, Vivaldi favors homophony, reserving more elaborate polyphonic treat­ment for the final movement. In the section "Deposuit potentes" he uses chorus and orchestra in unison with striking effect. The demanding vocal writing in the arias of the second version explains why leading opera singers paid regular visits to the services at the Pieta to hear and learn from the well-schooled voices of the ospealiere.

An especially imposing example of Vivaldi's most elaborate sacred style is Psalm 111, Beatus vir (on MHS 3994) beyond doubt one of Vivaldi's supreme master­pieces. Vivaldi appears not to have written it for the girls of the Pieta, for in it he does not cater to the vocal brilliance of individual performers; even seemingly solo movements are marked for unison "soprani," "bassi," or "tenori " (although this need not proscribe

performance by a single soloist today).

In Beatus vir, Vivaldi takes as his point of departure the Venetian polychoral tradition, enriching it by blending into it elements of both the ecclesiastical and concerto styles. The instruments do not merely support the parts of the chorus, but conduct dialogues with it and are in every way its equal. The choruses fluctuate in texture between polyphony and dramatic homophony.

Des­pite the stylistic variety, formal unity is achieved by the recurring statement of "Beatus vir qui timet Dominum" by homophonic chorus with orchestra. If in his instrumental music Vivaldi could at times be hasty and superficial, the level of his church music is consistently high. Indeed, the best of it can be put alongside Bach's without suffering by comparison.

The Prete Rosso considered only his best efforts worthy of glorifying God. He praises God not in the dead language of the stile antico, but in the most eloquent accents of his personal musical language.

Helen Baker was a frequent contributor to The MHS Review. She had a Ph.D from Rutgers University, and was also a pianist, a harpsichordist and a music educator. She died in 1997.

EXPLORING MUSIC

by David White

CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN, FORD EVERY SONATA Not really what I meant, but in the classical music world we do prize “complete”-ness. In fact, owning a complete set of something seems to be a driving force in how someone makes a decision to buy. The Musical Heritage Society released a series of recordings in 1968, of pianist Artur Balsam performing the complete keyboard sonatas of Joseph Haydn. The 15 LP set went in mostly chronological order, and in 2021, the new Musical Heritage Society released the entire set as a complete entity for the first time.

Unlike most of the piano repertoire of the great composers of the classical era, there are few complete sets of the sonatas by Haydn. Fewer by comparison, than the number of recordings of the complete sonatas of Beethoven, or Mozart. Just to look at it as a measure of a pianist’s time: the complete sonatas of Haydn encompasses about 6 hours of time, Beethoven’s complete series is about 8 hours, and Mozart’s is about 5 hours.

Perhaps it is similar to what the world’s greatest climbers know about the world’s highest mountains – climbing Everest gets you the press, but the truly great climbers know that Everest is barely in the Top 5 (yes, there are websites devoted to just this topic). K2, Annapurna and Denali outrank the world’s highest peak in terms of difficulty…but yet, there’s no comparison in press coverage, or the number of novels written about the hubris or human effort expended on climbing Annapurna versus that of the climbs and misadventures of Mount Everest.

So what is the point we’re trying to make here (apart from the knowledge that you can find nearly every obscure fact you need to know to flesh out an essay on the internet)?

Very simple – that of the peaks a pianist needs to climb, the complete peaks of Joseph Haydn’s works for solo piano are VERY uninteresting to most pianists.

And they’re right. A close examination of the sonatas of Haydn shows that you can easily scan right past many of the works. This writer collected Balsam’s complete MHS cycle (released on L’Oiseau Lyre in the UK) and found that the complete series is filled with maddening twists and turns of “colossally non-collosal” moments. (that’s my phrase, and I’m sticking to it). Haydn wrote most of the early sonatas (which aren’t even called sonatas, they’re partitas or divertimentos) for students and even threw a few tricks in there (re-using the final movement of one partita as the opening movement of the next).

Which leads us to this conclusion – this new collection “10 Great Sonatas” is really what you need. And if you think I’m thrilled to trash any works by FJ Haydn, you’re very wrong.

He is undoubtedly my favorite composer of this chapter of my life (perhaps best summed up by Bob Dylan: “It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.”)

So consider this release a service we’ve undertaken to provide you with a smashing, and consumable meal of Haydn’s finest sonatas, and (again) as the producer of his complete set, this compilation really helps to shine a light on Balsam’s performances, and Haydn’s finest keyboard moments. (To be honest, we should also have included Haydn’s exceptional Variations in F Minor, possibly his finest work for keyboard, but you can quibble with me via email.)

As with most MHS recordings of the late 1960s, you’ll find Balsam unencumbered with the strictness and “speed” oriented rules of the early music, harpsichord based approach. You’ll find here the performance of a professor – a strictly by-the-book attack, inside the margins. There’s no Horowitz moment where a wild virtuoso pops through.

Balsam’s Haydn is comfortable side by side with Mozart and Beethoven, and while insights may be few, musicality and the composer shine through.

And to return to our mountain-scaling analogy, Haydn’s complete sonatas, with their conspicuous filler (although Mozart’s sonatas offer the nearly same ratio of padding v inspiration), do rank below those of Beethoven, who took the form and perfected it, much as Haydn did with the string quartet and the symphony. Even C.P.E. Bach offers more “ah-ha” moments than Haydn when it comes to keyboard works. But Haydn provides a smooth walk up a challenging slope but he never reaches a “killer zone” where only the greatest pianists dare approach.

However, most of us couch-driven explorers won’t mind two hours of beauty brought right to us.

(A last note of grievance – the respected editors of Gramophone and the Penguin Guide continue to present John McCabe as the “first” to reach a complete set of Haydn’s keyboard works. While technically correct, McCabe was the first to record ALL the works for solo keyboard, his set only differs in an important way from Balsam’s with the addition of Haydn’s Seven Last Words for solo keyboard. The rest of the works are mostly forgettable fluff – and Balsam and a few others beat McCabe to the complete sonatas by five years or more.)

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The Musical Heritage Review NEW RELEASE AN

EXCLUSIVE

Artur Balsam, one of the most sought after and accomplished performers and teachers in America in the 1960s, was also one of the first pianists to recording the complete sonatas of Haydn (as well as Mozart).

MHS has released the complete set, but now we offer 10 of Haydn’s best sonatas in one nearly two hour collection.

HAYDN: 10 GREAT PIANO SONATAS Artur BALSAM, piano NON-MEMBERS PRICE: $9.99

MEMBERS PRICE: $4.99

THIS SET INCLUDES: Sonata No. 20 in B Flat Major Sonata No. 32 in G Minor, Sonata No. 34 in D Major Sonata No. 37 in E Major Sonata No. 40 in E Flat Major Sonata No. 48 in C Major Sonata No. 49 in C-Sharp Minor Sonata No. 50 in D Major Sonata No. 51 in E-Flat Major Sonata No. 52 in G Major

Musical Heritage Review

Oscar Shumsky was the last in a great line of violinists taught in the “High Romantic” tradition, personified by the great Fritz Kreisler.

In fact, Kreisler was an early patron of Shumsky’s, ensuring the talented young violinist found the right teachers, and even encouraging the musician personally by performing his’s own works - on the piano, while Shumsky played violin (at age 13).

MHS recorded Shumsky at his peak - in masterworks of the violin for solo and violin and piano.

ARTUR BALSAM & OSCAR SHUMSKY PLAY MOZART MOZART: THE VIOLIN SONATAS Artur BALSAM, piano Oscar SHUMSKY, violin

These are, indeed, performances to treasure, vividly recorded. -GRAMOPHONE

Musical Heritage Review SHUMSKY PLAYS BACH BACH: THE SONATAS & PARTITAS FOR SOLO VIOLIN, BWV 1001-1006 Oscar SHUMSKY, violin

...a marvelous production MHS can be justifiably proud of and an incandescent achievement by an astonishing musician." --Fanfare

AN HISTORIC RECORDING THE MOST COMPLETE RECORDING OF THE WORKS OF KREISLER EVER MADE

KREISLER: VIOLIN MUSIC VOLUMES 1 & 2 Oscar SHUMSKY, violin William WOLFRAM, Milton KAYE, piano

includes complete liner notes and an autobiographical essay by Oscar Shumsky about working with Fritz Kreisler

EXPLORING MUSIC by David M. Greene FREEDOM! THE AULOS ENSEMBLE PLAYS JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Even though I know all there is to be known about the stuff whereof I write in these pages, I am basically a modest guy and make it a point to glance over the notes submitted with it. Thus it was that the other evening, preparatory to settling in with these recordings, I sat down (actual­ly I wallowed on the bed) to read the liner notes submitted in xeroxed typescript. Now to be sure I see the names of per­formers on the worksheets, but until I get down to the actual business of listening, I must confess that I don't pay much atten­tion. Hence all that "Aulos Ensemble" con­veyed to me was that it was one of those Old Music outfits that MHS records from time to time.

But I had not got very far into the notes when I found myself saying, "By golly, these are good!" As I went on a bit further, I said, "This must be Richard Taruskin, because no one else is this good.'' Then I remembered that Mr. Taruskin is the mov­ing spirit behind Aulos. Taruskin also writes for an ambitious but struggling review called Opus (not after the penguin in "Bloom County"). Opus is a refuge for some of the best record reviewers and music writers in this benighted nation. But I have to say that when it arrives in the mail, I automatically seek out Taruskin irst. How refreshing to find someone who is not only authoritative, but who ex­presses himself with real style and who avoids the usual blather.

Aulos has given us previously some generous helpings of Telemann and Handel; now they offer us Bach. Consider­ing the amount of attention that is given him lately, you will be wondering why. As you will see from the facing page, the two compact discs/cassettes/records are oc­cupied by a number of miscellaneous sonatas, which, if you're a Bach nut, you probably already have in spades.

Well, first of all there's the matter of Authentic Performance Practice. The Aulos people have the instruments and they have the techniques (as they believe them to be). They, to coin a phrase, go for baroque. They, as the notes to one of their earlier records say, have "been spreading the word.''

So if you want your Bach as Bach supposedly heard it, here 'tis (sort of: see below). (If you want to duplicate the con­ditions under which Bach heard it, turn off your central heating, your water, and your electricity for starters.)

But wait a mo'! I have sensed from the testiness of certain reviewers that Authenticity is beginning to run dry in some quarters. Now here comes Taruskin suggesting that something is missing. Getting as close as is possible to what the composer intended has its drawbacks. It turns the music into museum pieces--impeccably restored, beautifully mounted, cleaned to a luster, but museum pieces all the same. Bach was less respectful of his own work "Individual movements slipped in and out of conjunction; media were interchangeable and adaptable (even vocal to instrumental and vice versa); masses paraphrased cantatas and oratorios parodied bawdy ditties ... .It becomes clear that the status of a piece of written music was by no means as definitive in Bach's day as it is in ours." Do you sense where this is leading?

Yep. Authenticity, to be really authentic is freedom. What Aulos has done here, is present most of these works as Bach (as far as we know) never wrote them. Admittedly they have not gone very far: they have something like the composer's sanction for what they have done. For example, the first selection is a sonata in G for flute, viola da gamba and harpsichord. Now the gamba sonata in that key has a counterpart in S. 1039, a sonata for two flutes and continuo. So why not combine them? Do you object? Aulos offers in defense a trio sonata in G for flute, violin and continuo. This is known to be "inauthentic," i.e. Bach didn't write all of it. What he did was take the continuo part from the Violin Sonata, S. 1021 and, as an exercise, have a pupil (probably his son Emanuel) construct other parts on it.

Do you know the G minor Oboe Sonata'? No? What has come down to us is the keyboard part of the B minor Flute Sonata, transposed to a key that is unsuited to the flute. So why not? Etc. And Taruskin refuses to apologize. Rather, he says, he looks forward to the day when we can "revel with impunity in the music we love to play" and "the revival of Early Music will have truly come of age." I patiently await the Second Coming of Leopold Stokowski.

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The Musical Heritage Review NEW RELEASE AN

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The Aulos Ensemble performs works by J.S. Bach, as you might not have ever heard them arrangements of works, even from research showing that Bach “erased” instrumentation, or correcting scholarship that led to incorrect conclusions.

BACH: 8 SONATAS FOR DIVERSE INSTRUMENTS THE AULOS ENSEMBLE NON-MEMBERS PRICE: $9.99

MEMBERS PRICE:

$4.99

The recording features America’s finest period instrument musicians, and notes are by performer and famed musicologist Richard Taruskin.

EXPLORING MUSIC by David M. Greene NEVER BETTER PERFORMED: TELEMANN’S ESSERCIZII MUSICI .: G.P

r he Dea T e Ar .! u o .T Y A . !

O G. ots L ou pal, Y e Lov r best h You S. Bac J. I have read, with some amusement, the Papierkrieg over the "Vivaldi glut" in the Letters column of this organ (well, harmonium at least). Is it just me (as resident exsanguine turnip), or isn't there also a Telemann glut? Considering that he holds the Guinness record for musical prolificity, there's certain grave danger of one.

As with Vivaldi, it was not always so, and many a man is now alive who can remember when Telemann records were harder to come by than the sunken treasures of the Titanic.

The second edition of The Gramophone Encyclopedia of Recorded Music (1942), for example, lists the A minor Suite, two quartets, a trio sonata, two movements from the Tafelmusik, three songs, six keyboard fantasias, a single fantasia, and an unidentified aria. Schwann now lists several columns of LPs and CDs, any one of which probably contains as much music as what I have cataloged above.

I believe that there is an inherent danger in extraordinary artistic fertility: it makes one suspect of glibness and lack of seriousness of intent. Though his contemporaries considered Telemann up there with the best of them, later generations tax­ed him with just such sins. Just for the heck of it, I attempted a very unscientific run­down on how long such attitudes lasted. I began with two older histories, one general (Lang) and one of the period (Bukofzer). Neither gave Telemann much individual attention, being content to cite him as an also-ran with those typical of his time.

Deems Taylor's updating of The Music Lover's Encyclopedia (1939) accords Telemann eight lines which call him "prolific and facile." (Bach gets three-and-a-half pages plus a family tree; Handel gets three­ and-a-half columns.) The American History and Encyclopedia of Music (1908), however, gets down to business. Acknowledging Telemann's technical knowledge, it continues " ... but his works are lacking in depth and grandeur, and his church pieces particularly seem shallow. He had a bad influence on the church music of his day .... He seems to have been affected by Italian composition, then decadent .... His writings are lacking in depth and originality." This view was echoed and embroidered as recently as 1954 by Grove V: "With all of his undoubted ability, he originated nothing, but was content to follow the tracks laid down by the old contrapuntal school of organists, whose ideas and forms he adopted without change." His fertility, contrapuntal skill, and technical mastery "were neutralized by his lack of any earnest Ideal and by a fatal facility naturally inclined to superficiality... The shallowness of the church music of the latter half of the l8th century Is distinctly traceable to Telemann's influence " But, taking a forward leap of only 30 years to the Britannica, we find Telemann enshrined In Its "Macropedia" (reserved for the most important entries). Here we are told that, thanks largely to Max Schneider and Romain Rolland, the official view of the composer has been upgraded, and we are given such judgments as this: "He composed equally well for the church as for opera and concerts. His music was natural in melody, bold in harmonies, buoyant in rhythm, and beautifully instrumentated. Profound or witty, serious or light, It never lacked quality or variety."

And In his too-brief notes to this album, Richard Taruskln sums up Telemann's galanterie, that "quality of civility and wit, grace and everyday congeniality that was worlds away from the passionate heroics of the baroque ... Telemann wore his learning lightly, occasionally affected a pleas­ing melancholy but never (at least in a chamber piece) went after deep pathos, would count himself successful if his hearers smiled and said 'How pretty.' "

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The Aulos Ensemble performs selections from Telemann’s great and extensive masterwork “Essercizii Musici”, or “Musical Diversions”.

Beautiful chamber music, featuring America’s finest period instrument musicians.

TELEMANN: ESSERCIZII MUSICI (selections) THE AULOS ENSEMBLE NON-MEMBERS PRICE: $9.99

MEMBERS PRICE:

$4.99

Notes by Richard Taruskin and Nigel Teri Towe included.

Musical Heritage Review

Baroque Music of Love and War Four Cantatas for Soprano (Telemann, Monteclair, Pepusch, Melani)

Badinage featuring Julianna Baird

EXCLUSIVE REISSUE!

CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH FOUR ORCHESTRAL SYMPHONIES, Wq. 183 Berlin Chamber Orchestra Helmut Koch

EXCLUSIVE REISSUE!

Musical Heritage Review

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EXCLUSIVE REISSUE!

As a member of the composition faculty of a large school of music, I suppose I am one of those "arrogant," "narrow," and "self-important" professionals to which Mr. John F. Leahy refers (February 12). I am hardly alone among my colleagues in simply loving music--in a visceral and essentially non-cerebral way--and as a fan of people like Rachmaninov. Tchaikovsky. and Offenbach, I hardly think of myself as some sort of aesthetic snob. I fear that Mr. Leahy only limits himself in attempting to ascribe an elitist pomposity to us "professionals," but it is not my desire to prove my intelligence (seeming. or otherwise) to him; rather, I wish to add my own two cents to the fracas on contemporary music presently being aired in the Musical Heritage Review.

What I have yet to see in your pages is a real definition of what is meant by the term "contemporary music." Are we speaking only of what might be called "avant garde" music? Or are we speaking of all music being written by living composers? (Note that this would include men such as Bernstein, Orff, Schuman, Menotti, and Barber.) Or are we even referring to all twentieth century music, and in this case, are we really grouping such composers as Ravel. Copland, and Shostakovich with Boulez, Wuorinen, and Cage? And what of "popular" experimentalists like Crumb and Penderecki? It seems to me that there is an intrinsic vagueness about what "contemporary music" really is. And further. I don't believe that there is much hope of clarification.

What I would hope is that all listeners would judge each work individually. without a priori dogmatic decisions about the wrongness or rightness of any particular style. I feel that there is no musical language or system which is intrinsically bad. though of course there are examples of music in all styles which are poor, tonal as well as atonal Much of today's music does not appeal to me either. but this is the fault of the composer's handling of a language rather than of the language itself. Mr. Robert Baksa (also February 12) is correct in saying that much good tonal music is still being written. but his implication that non-tonal music is automatically inferior (or worse) is specious. Most important of all is to keep one's ears and mind open--! will grant that Stockhausen may come as a shock to the unprepared listener. but there are ways to reach Stockhausen. and to have him reach you. if you try to approach such music gradually. Start with some Pettersson, some recent

Schuman or late Shostakovich, then move on to Messiaen and Crumb. then perhaps to Lutoslawski or Gerhard, and gradually Boulez may prove to be of some use after all. It would also be a good idea to do some reading on the subject--after all. what's wrong with a bit of self-education? Most crucially. give all music a second chance. Even though we may be mystified by our first hearing of a late Beethoven quartet. we tend to assume that the work must deserve another hearing: shouldn't a contemporary composer be worthy of the same consideration.

Finally. if it is any consolation. many so-called "avant garde" composers are themselves concerned about the problems of communicating with an audience. Many are consciously simplifying their styles. consciously reaching out anew to listeners without denying their own beliefs and standards. We ask only that you meet us halfway. and then perhaps we shall better understand one another.

Christopher Rouse Assistant Professor of Music University of Michigan. Ann Arbor. Mich "Their price prevents purchase on a 'what the heck .. .' basis"

The purpose of this letter is to resolve the confusion about CDs and to comment on some of your offerings. As a professor of electrical engineering, I see two major advantages of CDs over LPs. They are virtually indestructible, and they have a fantastic dynamic range. On the other hand, their frequency response is no better than that of the modern LP. Last but not least, recording engineers are still learning to work in the CD medium, so that these discs are sometimes strident or overexaggerated. (We had the same problem in the early days of stereo. with the pingpong and other effects.)

I have a large collection of LPs, going back to 1948. Consequently, my treasury (not library, when you think of their cost) of CDs is limited to gems of an archival nature, such as the Beethoven Ninth by Furtwangler, and to a few pot-boilers (such as the 1812 Overture) which I play when I wish to impress or annoy my neighbors. A big problem with CDs is that their price prevents purchase on a "what the heck the title sounds intriguing" basis.

In fact, I often buy a CD of a treasured LP which I already own, as a replacement item, and because it is a safe bet. In some of the big cities, I believe you can rent CDs on a trial basis. but I have not found a store that will.

Now for a few comments about your offerings and my opinion of them. First Vavaldi: everyone is arguing about him. All his music is competent and delightful. Much of it is worth buying in cassette form, but almost none warrants the high cost of CD. It doesn't matter whether it is hi or lo-fi, since it was never meant to be serious listening in the first place (ask any of his contemporaries if you don't agree).

And now for a comment on the English conductors/performers: Davis, Gardiner, Pinnock, Hogwood, Marriner, Bilson, and others of that ilk. Perhaps it is my ex-colonial background, but they all sound alike: identical in style and mechanical in approach.

They all think that, as long as you use period instruments, you do not have to worry about style or interpretation. They all confuse speed with excitement, to the point of being frenetic.

And finally, there is Nikolaus Harnoncourt, of the archive gang. He can take the fun and excitement out of any piece of music. Give me Pablo Casals any time.

As far as your own offerings are concerned, I often buy them on an exploratory public basis, in LP form. They them go to my public library if I don't like them. Some, like the Field Nocturnes by Adni, and the Mozart String Quintets by the Amadeus Quartet, stay at home, and I wait for the day you will reissue them as CDs. In the meantime, please keep publishing LPs. Sorab K. Ghandhi Schenectady, NY Those waiting for an LP/CD player ought not to.

I must comment on John Millar's letter in release 401. "Equipment for playing regular LPs using CD technology" does not exist, nor will it ever. The Finial player (which I have heard demonstrated) does use a laser, but the basic technology has existed for over 15 years, and is not a spin-off from compact disc engineering. Although a combo player handling both LPs and CDs could be built, it would be so complex that it would be cheaper to buy separate units. The Finial player will probably show up within a year or so; those waiting for an LP/CD player ought not to.

Finally, the "technologically superior" video discs and players (LaserVision) John Millar disparages are readily available. There are at least a dozen mail order firms specializing in the discs, and there are four stores near where I live with a good selection. Several firms (notably Philips and Yamaha) make the players, and Sony just introduced a consumer model. Many LV players also play CDs, and an increasing number of LV releases have digital sound tracks. If you haven't seen LaserVision, you haven't seen home video!

William Sommerwerck Bellevue, WA

EN ST LI

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KENNY DAVERN: ONE HOUR TONIGHT

with

Phil Flanigan, bass Howard Alden, guitar Giampaolo Biagi, drums

Elsa's Dream/Pretty Baby/Comes Love/Love Is The Thing/No One Else But You/Pee Wee's Blues On With The Dance/Old Folks/Oh, Baby/If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)

EXPLORING MUSIC by David M. Greene

OCKEGHEM: "PRINCE OF MUSIC" The thesis of Barbara Tuchman's recent book A Distant Mirror is that there is a likeness between the "calamitous" 13th century and our own. Despite the reviewers, who find Mrs. Tuchman out of her depth and our wars, nuclear accidents, pollution, rampant crime, cultism, and so on, perfectly healthy and even hopeful, it strikes me as an acceptable argument. The chief trouble with it is that one can find--given the limitations of human nature and of this planet--parallels between our century and virtually any other. In music, for example, it is easy to see a parallel with the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries: both are centuries in which intellectualism played a large role in composition.

The primary difference here, however, (if I may adopt a reactionary pose) is that then the intellectual gimmicks arose out of the acoustical laws that determine the difference between music and the dumping of beer-cans into a rock-quarry. The performer could marvel at the intricacies of what was going on; the hearer could appreciate the work as music without being aware of the pawls and ratchets that made it go. Contrast, if you will the following bit of arrogance from a contemporary "intuhleckshul": "Those who wish to understand what I have written. must read the score. Those who wish to understand how the players interpret my score must know the score and compare performances. Those who simply wish to hear it without understanding need only listen.

What is left to explain?" (One is tempted to add "You filthy peasants!"). Unfortunately, lacking the score or a photographic memory of previous perfor­mances, the listener in this instance is likely to be quite baffled, whereas Ockeghem's almost certainly were not. For, all its complexity, the Missa prolationem is clearly beautiful music.

It is generally agreed that Johannes Ockeghem (accent on the 0, as in hope) was the most important composer between Guillaume Dufay and Josquin des Prez (both of whom he probably knew in some degree). But. apart from the fact that he served three French kings (Charleses VII and VIII and Louis Xl) as choirmaster and chaplain, and was treasurer of the richest abbey in France (the abbot being King Louis himself), we know addeningly little about him, includ­ing when and where he was born, when he died, and how to spell his name.

There were some Ockeghems (or however they spelled it) in the Belgian city now called Dendermonde around 1400, and there is a village of similar name in East Flanders. (There is also one called Silly, in Hainaut.) He studied with Barbireau or Binchois or Dufay or someone-­no one knows for sure. The first account of him has him as a left-side choirsinger at Antwerp Cathedral in 1443. (Left-siders sang composed music; right-siders sang plain­song.) In 1496 someone else was handling the treasury of Saint-Martin de Tours, so it is assumed that Ockeghem had either died or was too incapacitated to carry on. Whatever he may have written, not much has been preserved--about twenty chansons, some motets (many of them to the Virgin, and some of doubtful authenticity) and fifteen Masses, including the first known "com­posed" Requiem, about cover it.

Some of Ockeghem's Masses are of the cantus firmus variety, based on a plainsong theme. The Missa prolationem is not; it is "freely composed," in that the . material is (apparently) original, but the structure is stu nn ingly--even frighteningly--formal. Written for four voices (i.e. voice-parts), it appears to be scored for only two. Each part, however, is actually for two voices in canon. (That is. one imitates the other, coming in later and often at a different pitch--as, more simply, in rounds, like Row, row, row your boat.) In Ockeghem's Mass, the key to when and where and at what speed voice No. 2 comes in is in the initial time-signatures or prolations. In the opening number the imitating voice begins on the same note as the imitatee (if there is such a word), but with each successive section of the Mass the voices move farther apart until they are at a distance of a whole octave.

The record concludes with the lament for Ockeghem set to the text of Erasmus of Rotterdam (he of The Praise of Folly and friend to Thomas More) by Joannes Lupi or Lupus or Johann Wolf. A rather mysterious figure is Lupi--the woods seem to have been full of his namesakes--but he is probably the one from Cambrai who died in 1539 and whose real name seems to have been Jennet LeLeu.

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The Musical Heritage Review NEW RELEASE AN

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For the first time, Cappella Nova’s complete set of recordings recorded by the Musical Heritage Society is released in one set.

Noted writer and scholar Richard Taruskin leads this choir in performances of Ockeghem, Byrd and des Prez.

CAPPELLA NOVA: The Musical Heritage Society Recordings Richard Taruskin, director NON-MEMBERS PRICE: $14.99

MEMBERS PRICE:

$7.50

This set also includes the complete notes - researched and compiled by Taruskin for these recordings.

JOSQUIN DES PREZ: Motets OCKEGHEM: Masses & Motets BYRD: A Pentecost Service, including Byrd’s Mass for 5 Voices

EXPLORING MUSIC

by David White

MOZART FOR HANDS As we complained about in our essay about Haydn (we’ll spare you a recap of the mountain climbing analogy), much of the repertoire that exists for piano before Beethoven made it great again was written by great composers for lousy students. And to do some simple research on these works, their descriptions actually trend toward an increasingly desperate composer, willing to compose for some rich man’s mechanical clock (and hating every moment of it) in the last year of his life.

So these recordings fall squarely into the category of a reminder that Mozart is a composer who keeps on giving – while you won’t discover a new Don Giovanni or a work that reaches the heights of the Adagio from Piano Concerto No. 23, you will find that even when Mozart is distracted and utterly convinced that he is under utilized, under paid and overburdened with idiotic commissions, he still produces a work for mechanical clock that makes you smile without reservation.

But what you’ll find with this unmatched set of recordings is that the Mozart four-hand repertoire contains charming and wonderful music, as if, even as a desperate and frustrated composer, Mozart couldn’t help but write music that contained creativity, beauty and functionality in an unparalleled fashion.

In his fine but short notes for this collection Anthony Rudel infers that Mozart’s love of four hand piano stems from his deep affection for his sister, whom he called Nannerl. And Rudel makes the suggestion that not only is Mozart’s imagination fueled with emotional warmth but that he used his extraordinarily talented sister to “test drive” his own works, relying on her assessment of the works before passing them along to his students, with “warnings” that they were under order to practice the pieces, because they were difficult.

It's a stretch to say that Mozart reached sublime heights with his music for four hand piano – the works are very much in the same “strata” as his piano sonatas for two hands. Written for others in mind, they breeze along, and the sonatas themselves rarely attain the imaginative quality or melodic heights that Mozart attains in his works for piano with orchestra. Not to break in narratively, but does anyone else find that odd? In this listener’s mind, it’s not even close. If scholars tomorrow were to publish that Mozart had “outsourced” his works for solo piano, and had only composed works for piano and orchestra, I, for one, wouldn’t be all that shocked. Perhaps the orchestra represents an audience, and Mozart allows his facility for a truly memorable melodic line, for any instrument or for voice to ring out. Maybe he just got paid more for piano concertos.

And to top it off – other composers jump in afterward and add their own new layers to the works. This set is padded out with works by Busoni and Grieg, who took works of Mozart and added their own new elements. Grieg added an entire additional part to a two handed Mozart sonata.

Busoni somehow reigned himself in and kept from turning Mozart’s work for mechanical clock into a two hour symphonic variations for 190 piece orchestra (which is my estimation of his normal bent).

Misha and Cipa Dichter’s lifelong love story begins with a “meet-cute” that involves friends bringing them together as pianists and potential mates – over the Mozart four hand piano music. And they bring these works off tremendously.

There are a few “star-studded” versions of the complete works, but this package combines fine recording quality with top notch interpretations, with an added bonus of the Grieg and Busoni.

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The Musical Heritage Review NEW RELEASE

Mozart’s charming and often AN EXCLUSIVE overlooked works for four hands were written for, and - the liner notes suggested “test driven” by his sister, Nannerl, a gifted soloist overshadowed by her much more famous and extroverted brother.

This set includes works arranged by other composers - Busoni and Grieg of Mozart’s works for four hand piano.

MOZART: THE COMPLETE WORKS FOR FOUR HANDS Misha & Cipa DICHTER, piano

NON-MEMBERS PRICE: $14.99

MEMBERS PRICE: $7.50

Sonata In D Major, K. 448 Fugue In G Minor, K. 401 Variations In G Major, K. 501 Sonata In F Major, K. 497 Adagio & Fugue In C Minor, K. 426 Sonata In B-Flat Major, K. 358 Sonata In C Major, K. 19D Fantasia In F Minor For Musical Clockwork, K. 608 (arr. Busoni) Sonata In C Major, K. 521 Sonata In D Major, K. 381 Sonata In C Major, K. 545 (arr. by Edvard Grieg)

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