ICA reviews
Sir Thomas Beecham: Works by Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn et al
Guido Cantelli conducts orchestral works by Rossini, Brahms and Schumann
Any recording from Guido Cantelli is precious: killed in an air crash aged 36, just a week after he had been appointed artistic director at La Scala, he was the one young Italian who excited Toscanini. We have Richard Itter to thank for this bootleg of an entire Philharmonia concert, broadcast by the BBC from the Royal Albert Hall in 1953. The sound quality improves as it progresses: Cantelli’s party piece, Rossini’s Semiramide Overture, sizzles with nonchalant panache, but it’s filtered through a loud hiss and intermittent interference.
Vladimir Jurowski gives a 'no-nonsense and sometimes rather brisk approach' to Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty
Given the sheer multitude of recordings of Tchaikovsky’s ballets, it seems perhaps foolhardy of ICA Classics to release a recording, even at mid-price, of Sleeping Beauty based entirely on a single live concert performance. One of today’s most acclaimed conductors, Vladimir Jurowski’s characteristically no-nonsense and sometimes rather brisk approach informs this account by the Moscow-based State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia.