Hidden Legacies: Weinberg and Korngold Kristina Reiko Cooper, cello. Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra/Constantin Orbelian Delos 3616 Total Time:  61:28 Recording:   ****/**** Performance: ****/****   Hidden Legacies  brings together works for cello and orchestra by two 20 th -Century composers whose lives were turned upside down by political turmoil and persecution of their Jewish heritage.  One of them, Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957), is perhaps better known from his work

Here's the second installment of my personal survey of the symphony and recordings in my collection. The decade of the 1850s starts to see some rather unusual composers and works appear and it shows the growing availability of orchestras in new parts of the world. Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 1 (1852)                             French Radio & TV Orch./Jean Martinon Fry: Santa Claus Symphony (1853)                                Royal Scottish NO/Tony Rowe Smetana: Festive Symp

After picking up some boxed sets featuring music for the Ballets Russe and then the excellent stereo Sir Thomas Beecham set, I decided to explore my own large collection here by doing a little survey of symphonies across time starting in the 1820s and working my way forward. In this way, I could revisit some discs I had not had a chance to really just listen to in a long time. The choices of which performances to listen to grew out of that idea of making sure to explore so

The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its annual list of winners for excellence in musical scoring, in the 2025 IFMCA Awards, February 26.     The award for Score of the Year goes to British composer Simon Franglen for his score for Avatar: Fire and Ash , director James Cameron’s second sequel to his epic space saga Avatar . IFMCA member Christian Clemmensen wrote that Franglen “continues his intelligent merging of James Horner origins with his co

From the Soul Frank Morelli, bassoon. Wei-Yi Tang, piano. Janna Baty, mezzo-soprano. Callisto Quartet Musica Solis 202602 Total Time:  59:06 Recording:   ****/**** Performance: ****/****   Bassoonists will be most familiar with Frank Morelli, the first person awarded a bassoon doctorate from the Julliard School.  He can be heard in many of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s recordings (notably the Mozart wind concertos disc) and also performed with the Chamber Music Society of L

Tiomkin: From New York to Hollywood—Music for Albertina Rasch and Classic Films Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Richard Kaufman Intrada 7191 Total Time:  72:13 Recording:   ****/****Performance: ****/****     In 2020, Intrada released a fascinating collection of ballet music by Dimitri Tiomkin (1894-1979) composed for the Albertina Rasch Dancers (INT 7158).  Rasch (1891-1976), was an early pioneer of modern dance and after some success on Broadway with Ziegfield productions

The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) has announced its nominees for excellence in musical scoring in 2025 for the 22nd annual IFMCA Awards. Composer Alexandre Desplat leads this year’s field with six nominations, followed by Michael Giacchino with five and Simon Franglen with four.   The bulk of Desplat’s nominations come for his work on two scores: director Guillermo del Toro’s new exploration of the classic horror story Frankenstein , and the latest inst

In the documentary, For the Living (2024), a group of cyclists participate in a moving journey retracing the movements of Holocaust survivor Marcel Zielinski’s 60-mile journey from Auschwitz to Krakow.  The “Ride for the Living” reflects on that journey and man’s ability to dehumanize people.  The film was shown at several festivals last year and had a limited November release.  The score is from Daniel Alcheh ( The Tattooed Torah; The Trouble With Bliss ).   “Liberation Path

Bach: Cello Suites, BWV 1007-1012 Inbal Megiddo, cello. Atoll Records 233 Disc One: Total Time: 70:47 Disc Two: Total Time: 77:34 Recording:   ****/**** Performance: ****/****     Bach’s six cello suites are rites of passage for every cellist.  Audiophiles will also have the standards to compare this new release whether it is Pablo Casals (who first discovered these works), Jacqueline du Pre, Mstislav Rostropovich, Janos Starker, or Yo-Yo Ma to name just a few.  Inbal Megiddo

Paganini: Capriccio Tomas Cotik, violin. Monica Ohuchi, piano (tracks 1 & 19) Centaur 4130 Total Time:  77:05 Recording:   ****/****...