Paragon Ragtime Orchestra and Singers/Rick Benjamin
New World
"Imagine a parallel universe where the greatest democracy on earth had thought better than to legislate against a fifth of its own people because of their skin colour. Living in Utopia might have allowed Scott Joplin to transcend his typecasting as 'The Ragtime King'; and just perhaps his 1911 opera Treemonisha might have been cut the understanding and respect it clearly deserves; and perhaps a new recording would have been unnecessary... This is the most important document about the history of American composed music to have appeared in a long, long time." - Philip Clark, Gramophone.
"Benjamin aims to replicate the smaller theater pit-band aesthetic with which Joplin was familiar, aided by surviving Joplin orchestrations, plus instrumentation guide books relevant to the era and milieu. The music takes on a completely different complexion with a 12-piece ensemble that features one instrument to a part, including cornets instead of trumpets, and percussion instruments of the period. Moreover, the swifter, lighter instrumental textures liberate Joplin’s gorgeous vocal lines, imparting a conversational rather than histrionic quality that befits both the musical style and the still-relevant moral of Joplin's self-penned libretto of how education, rather than superstition, provides a pathway out of poverty." - Jed Distler, Classics Today.
"Benjamin aims to replicate the smaller theater pit-band aesthetic with which Joplin was familiar, aided by surviving Joplin orchestrations, plus instrumentation guide books relevant to the era and milieu. The music takes on a completely different complexion with a 12-piece ensemble that features one instrument to a part, including cornets instead of trumpets, and percussion instruments of the period. Moreover, the swifter, lighter instrumental textures liberate Joplin’s gorgeous vocal lines, imparting a conversational rather than histrionic quality that befits both the musical style and the still-relevant moral of Joplin's self-penned libretto of how education, rather than superstition, provides a pathway out of poverty." - Jed Distler, Classics Today.
Runners-up:
Shostakovich: Orango - Prologue; Symphony no.4. Los Angeles Philharmonic/Esa-Pekka Salonen [DG]
Donizetti: Maria di Rohan. Krassimira Stoyanova et al; Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Mark Elder [Opera Rara]
Mozart: Apollo et Hyacinthus. Lawrence Zazzo et al; Classical Opera/Ian Page [Linn]
Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer. Albert Dohmen et al; Berlin RSO/Marek Janowski [Pentatone]
An unusual winner, perhaps, but that's part of the fun of the Nereffid's Guide Awards. 2010 and 2011 winning conductor Mark Elder is a runner-up this year (and his Hallé "Die Walküre" just missed the cut too). Marek Janowski's Dutchman proved to be the best-reviewed of his four Wagner releases under consideration ("Lohengrin", "Meistersinger", and "Parsifal" were the others).
An unusual winner, perhaps, but that's part of the fun of the Nereffid's Guide Awards. 2010 and 2011 winning conductor Mark Elder is a runner-up this year (and his Hallé "Die Walküre" just missed the cut too). Marek Janowski's Dutchman proved to be the best-reviewed of his four Wagner releases under consideration ("Lohengrin", "Meistersinger", and "Parsifal" were the others).
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