A trawl of Columbia, RCA and Sony adds up to a magnificent recorded legacy.

Bartók is the starter this month with Mahler, Rachmaninov, Bruckner and Respighi the substantial main course. Offenbach provides the perfect soufflé to finish.

Gil Shaham shines in Berg's heavenly Violin Concerto.

Charles Ives with Hymns Ancient and Very Modern.

Renée Fleming and Audra McDonald add sparkle to Michael Tilson Thomas's easy-going opening.

Debussy under a spotlight perhaps could use a few more shadows.

San Francisco’s latest Post-Minimalist outing raises two musical smiles for the price of one. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

This new recording on the San Francisco Symphony’s own label presents two works written three decades apart by American composer John Adams. Although Adams is most commonly associated with Minimalist compositional techniques, these are only very obliquely in evidence in this world premiere recording of Absolute Jest (2013 Most unusually, the work is scored for string quartet with symphony orchestra – “pretty much a repertory black hole,” as Adams notes dryly. This piece takes as its starting points phrases from late Beethoven string quartets, predominantly Op. 131, 135, and the Große Fuge (Op. 133), weaving them into “a colossal 25-minute scherzo” with orchestral elaborations, digressions and counterpoints, and nods to other Beethoven works. “Absolute Jest is playful, in the literal sense of scherzo as joke, but it is by no means lightweight”  It’s hugely playful, in the literal sense of scherzo as joke/jest, but it is by no means lightweight, flippant or ironic. Rather, it’s a vivacious, lively homage, a recent example in a long line of composers (including Brahms and Stravinsky, to name but two) looking back and ‘sampling’ the work of their… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt came to San Francisco in 1985, following a decade with the Dresden Staatskapelle. Although Blomstedt lacked a marketable outgoing personality, he was in the right place at the right time. A contract was signed with Decca, and here are many of the memorable results, recorded between 1988 and 1995. Blomstedt brought the central European repertoire back to the orchestra, and the set includes Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler and Brahms. These discs reveal a clear, lithe orchestral sound. SFS was light on its feet compared to its rival in Chicago, and in many ways better suited to recording. Blomstedt’s performances are not eccentric, but neither are they dull. Lively versions of Mendelssohn’s Scotch and Italian symphonies are here, and a terrific selection of Hindemith. He excelled in Scandinavian repertoire, so we have the complete Peer Gynt, Symphonies 2 and 3 from his excellent Nielsen set, and two delightful symphonies by the under-appreciated Berwald. From his Sibelius survey we get the First and Seventh Symphonies, plus Tapiola. (Many of these well-filled discs last over 80 minutes.) Rarities include works by Brahms for choir and orchestra, coupled with the Alto Rhapsody meltingly sung by Jard van Nes. Sound quality…