Christmas and Hanukah are joyous times for my family, except that the flow
of new classical music recordings comes to a relative halt.  Then, some
time in mid to late January, there's a deluge of new recordings.  This year
is no exception.  The local Borders and even Hastings are stacking them
faster than I can buy them.

On my latest trip to Borders, I walked away with Nadia Reisenberg's 2
cd set of Haydn piano works on Ivory Classics, the Haydn Paukenmesse on
Chandos conducted by Hickox, the 2nd volume of Hummel's piano concertos on
Chandos, The Grieg/Kuhlau piano concertos performed by Malling/Schonwandt
on Chandos, and the ballet "Narcisse et Echo" composed by Nikolai
Tcherepnin on Chandos.  I must like Chandos a lot.

So far, I've only listened to the Reisenberg discs.  The glowing reviews
in Fanfare and ARG(John Bell Young) are certainly warranted.  This is noble
playing, and the sound is great for its vintage.  So far, every recording
recommended by John is right on target.

I acquired the Grieg/Kuhlau disc mainly for the Kuhlau piano concerto.
I've been very happy with every Kuhlau disc I have except for his
overtures, also on Chandos.

When I bought volume three of the Chandos Hummel series, I assumed I
already had the first two.  Then, I heard on the local classical station
Hummel's Concertino.  It didn't sound familiar, so I knew something was
missing - volume two.  This is the first time that this pathetic radio
station was advantageous for me.

Whenever I buy a few discs at one time, I like to have at least one that's
"out of the blue." The Tcherepnin falls into that category.  I'll report on
it later.

I'm currently listening to the most recent sampler disc from Classic CD.
The Finzi bagatelle selection from Naxos is very attractive; I'll have
to investigate further.  There's Bartoli singing from the Bach Mass in B
Minor; I have no idea why she is so highy touted - I really dislike her
voice as she just sounds "heavy" to me, as if she was singing with a
mouthful of mashed potatoes.  Actually, mashed potatoes are very good for
you when you have an acidic stomach.  Fast food chains should give them a
try.

Upcoming new releases that I'm likely to hunt down include Gergiev's
"Boris", volume nine of the BIS Bach cantata series, Bach's Christmas
Oratorio on BIS, Ignaz Lachner's piano trios on Claves, Vainberg piano
sonatas on Olympia, Chopin's piano concerto no.1 by Pires on DG,
Shostakovich string quartets on BIS, volume ten of Bowyer's Bach on Nimbus,
Borresen string chamber works on CPO, Petersen-Berger's 2nd symphony on
CPO, Weiner string quartets on Hungaroton, Koch's third volume of Marek
orchestral works, the fourth volume of Marco Polo's Spohr string quintet
series, and Saeverud string quartets on Simax.  This is a great hobby!
Buy, listen, talk about it, and watch the checking account balance
disappear.

Don Satz
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