It has been a while since I have done the birthday recognition day, and I haven't spent much time here discussing classical music.  So let's rectify that by noting that today marks the birthdays of 2 19th century giant composers:  Johannes Brahms and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.  In studying the development of the orchestra as a social and cultural phenomena of the late 19th-century, and in looking at what is often considered standard repertoire, it comes as no surprise that the music of these two composers tends to get a lot of attention.  The truth of the matter is that Brahms' style is very much a part of the 1860-1880 orchestral style seen in pretty much every composition from that period that tends to err on the Beethoven side of musical composition instead of the Mozart side.  We even see Tchaikovsky exploring Mozart's musical style in one of his orchestral suites where the harmonic development is truly from the more expressive 19th century style.

Instead of rehashing historical arguments I thought I would simply take a moment to share personal favorites of both of these composers today.

We'll start with Brahms.  Brahms' music always felt rather stuffy to me.  I slogged through those symphonies many times, even a powerful old Horenstein performance was not enough to convince me that I would like his music.  So for me it was the Second Piano Concerto that really became my quintessential Brahms favorite--made so by a re-issued performance by Emil Gilels.  That performance, filled with an almost manic energy, made me wonder why that was missing from my Solti Brahms set.  It was in Brahms' solo piano music, especially the Intermezzi and Waltzes that I found the more romantic spirit and gorgeous harmonic writing that made his music stand out for me.  And, though I was never a big fan of chamber music, I found his Sextet in Bb a fabulously engaging piece of music that I tended to play again and again.  My favorite performances of the symphonies tend to be those made by Gunther Wand towards the end of his life on RCA.  But, I prefer many of the American symphonists from this period to Brahms any day...and my other guilty pleasure--Dvorak.

When I was a kid, supposedly, I begged my dad to get a recording of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony conducted by Herbert von Karajan.  Now, I have no idea how a kid in the middle of North Dakota would even know as a kindergartner/first grader who the heck Karajan even was.  But perhaps a hint at my future critical interest was the fact that I was furious when my dad brought home the wrong Karajan performance!  He had purchased an Angel/EMI performance and I evidently had specifically requested a recording from the Deutsche Grammaphon label.  I don't know how my parents survived...

Even so, Tchaikovsky's music always exhausted me.  I always found myself making it through the opening 10-15 minutes of his symphonies only to awake later and realize the record had stopped hours ago.  I tended to prefer the 4th and the First Symphony the most.  The 6th never did much for me oddly enough.  The romantic in me always was drawn to the Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture and of the miniature symphonic pieces I tended to prefer the Marche Slave to the 1812 Overture, the latter seemed rather boring to me--it is after all mostly scales and noise.  The Violin Concerto and First Piano Concerto also were personal favorites (the Tchaikovsy violin concerto actually sending me into discovering Brahms' own concerto which I tend to enjoy more now).  At one point I tried to listen to the other 2 piano concerti.  The second one was rather silly...sort of proof that writing in a major key missed out on the pathos and romantic anguish of the minor key pieces.  It was through Tchaikovsky's music, and the many compilation discs that led me to discover and appreciate other Russian music, starting with Rimsky-Korsakov, then Borodin and Mussorgsky.  And in one of my orchestral pieces, I even cribbed a bit of the pulsing heartbeats of Romeo & Juliet to represent a similar emotion (there is a tidbit for anyone who discovers my music in the latter 21st century).

On the film music side, Anne Dudley celebrates a birthday today.  I have not had much interest in, or exposure to her work, though I happened to have enjoyed her music for The 10th Kingdom and parts of Tristan and Isolde.  Both have made me decide to keep an eye out for other scores that may come my way in the future.  (of the three most common female composers working in film today, I would say I prefer Debbie Wiseman, then Rachel Portman, and then Anne Dudley in terms of order of musical interest, but all three women have distinct musical voices and are woefully underused in film these days, at least over here.  And is it not odd that we have no American female film composers?)

For those classical buffs out there, do you have a favorite Brahms or Tchaikovsky piece that is "essential" or a performance? 

I can't remember a July when there were so many "special" or "limited edition" releases available.  Some of them seemed less "special" but along the way there were some fun surprises.  So for the month of July here are a few "highlights" that passed through here.

Any Mancini score on CD is an event to say the least.  Film Score Monthly, which has released Mancini's Bachelor in Paradise along with a John Williams score (Penelope), this month announced the release of his superb dark thriller score Wait Until Dark.  The score features a piano tuned off a quarter-tone played against a piano tuned traditionally.  The effect is offsetting to say the least.  It's worth checking out if you are a fan of thriller music and a rare chance to hear Mancini in his lesser known dramatic form.

The High and the Mighty: A Century of Flight came out a couple of years ago.  Varese some how acquired this Koch recording that features master pops film conductor Richard Kaufman with the London Symphony Orchestra.  You cannot find a better mixture of old and new film music in stellar sound and with great performances.  Walton's "Prelude" and "Fugue" (presented as separate tracks here) from Spitfire is just on of many highlights.  There is music from The Last Starfighter, The Boy Who Could Fly, and even some music from Ron Goodwin (633 Squadron, Those Amazing Young Men in their Flying Machines).  It is a rich recording with some familiar themes ("Flying" from E.T. for example) along with a lot of familiar films represented by cues that are new to disc.  This is a fabulous release.

Already reviewed earlier this month, David Arnold's score for Godzilla was well worth the wait.  This 2-disc presentation of the complete score from La-La Land Records is a fun big blockbuster score in a summer when the ones we thought would be great have been mostly miss.  At last count they were down to the last 1000 or so copies. 

Also from La-La Land is a new Dominic Frontiere disc.  This one features music from a late-60s Western, Hang 'Em High coupled with the score for a Christopher Reeve adventure film, The Aviator (1985).  The former takes the sound of Morricone's Spaghetti Western style and tempers it a bit for a more mainstream Americana sound.  The latter is kind of like a Howard Hanson theme and variations big Romantic sound.  It's a great score filled with plenty to remind you that Frontiere is one of those undeservedly neglected film score composers.  I would also have passed on this one so was glad to have recieved this for review.

It's already halfway through the year and I can think of only 2 film scores that have really been impressive.  The first was David Shire's work on Zodiac.  The second is about 180 degrees in the opposite direction, Giacchino's Ratatouille.  This time out, Giacchino takes us on a Gallic musical journey that is filled with delightful gestures and a wonderful theme.  The flight through the sewer sequence features an amazing flute solo of virtuoso proportions that is some of the best writing heard in a long time.  It's still pretty early in Giacchino's career for him to break out uniquely with a style we can begin to identify as his own.  So far it feels very chameleon-like but perhaps in the future we will discern his fingerprints.  (I'm always reminded how much early Williams sounds like Mancini.) 

Finally, for classical music fans, there is a wonderful new recording of music by Tchaikovsky.  Now, I'm the first to tell you that we probably don't need another recording of the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture (currently well over 150 recordings) but this one EMI by Antonio Pappano is really superb.  The disc includes Francesca da Rimini in a recording that makes the piece sound like music.  It is beautifully shaped and gorgeously recorded.  There is even another recording of the 1812 Overture.  But this time, Pappano chooses to use a version similar to the work's premiere.  The opening is quite striking as it is performed by chorus.  The choral parts included in this version give the work a whole different feel and make this warhorse sound like music.  Further creating the surprise is the fact that this is a live recording and it is with an Italian orchestra.  No wonder, perhaps, the lyricism of this music really sings here.  I would not throw away my other favorites of these pieces, but it's a great disc.