Tuesday, May 15
Back in the 80s, America's venerable Columbia record company became part of Sony. Well, now the Sony label has merged with BMG (which incidentally had already absorbed RCA Red Seal). As a byproduct of this conglomeration, the tapes in the closets are mixing and mingling.
Emanuel Ax, for example, recorded one Brahms piano concerto with one orchestra for Sony. He recorded the other Brahms concerto with another orchestra for BMG. Now in a kind of family reunion these two performances have come together in a fresh SonyBMG package. We hear Ax in Brahms's second concerto.
The concert season? Winding down but not over. On air I mentioned the Preservation Hall Jazz Band's "Salute to New Orleans" Saturday at Atlanta's Rialto Center; the Savannah Sinfonietta's toe-tapping, turn-of-the-century-style "Sousa!" program, Friday at Skidaway Island and Saturday and Sunday in Savannah; and Prokofiev, Harbison and Brahms with the Atlanta Symphony.
11 AM
- Schumann: Waldszenen (Forest Scenes). Vladimir Ashkenazy (Longon 421 290)
- Rodrigo: Canconeta. Christopher Parkening (EMI 57591)
- Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in E-flat, K. 543. Camerata Salzburg, Kavakos (SonyBMG 82876 842412)
- Gershwin: Cuban Overture. Rochester Phil, Tyzik (Harmonia Mundi 807441)
- Gershwin: Porgy and Bess, Fantasy (arr. Courage). Joshua Bell, London Sym, Williams (Sony 60659)
- Suesse, Dana (a.k.a. "the girl Gershwin"): Jazz Concerto in D for combo and orchestra. Coleman, Davis, Thomas, American Sym, Fennel (Premier 1055)
- Sousa: Wolverine. USAF Heritage of America Band, Graham (Klavier 11131)
- Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat. Emanuel Ax, Boston Sym, Haitink (SonyBMG 88697 03510)
