Delos Diary

More about the MCO and Bermuda

Recently we described the glowing reception Carol Rosenberger and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra conducted by Constantine Orbelian received at the orchestra's second concert in Hamilton, Bermuda on February 15th. This was not meant to slight the equally enthusiastic audience the MCO entertained the night before with a concert featuring the orchestra and its own musicians… every one a virtuoso!
The Hamilton Royal Gazette published a glowing review the very next morning, headlining the concert as "intimate and exquisite." Cellist Alexander Zagorinsky was singled out for his Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff and four violinists and the same cellist also wowed the audience with one of their specialties, the Vivaldi Concerto for Four Violins and Cello. These, plus Mozart, Piazzolla and numerous encores, apparently made for an exceptional program. Many of these pieces are featured on the Delos CD Stars of the MCO (DE 3327).
The newspaper review ends "the audience rose in appreciation. Too soon, literally, the concert was over, although there seemed nothing but looks of satisfaction on their faces as they prepared to depart."
I add a random thought about the MCO now that its tours have begun to include island hopping. How long until they travel to the Azores, St. Helena, the Falklands, then on to Pitcairn and Easter Island? I'm sure music-starved locals in these remote outposts would love to welcome and listen to this incredible band of musicians and their indomitable leader, Constantine Orbelian. I can almost see him in a parka, his orchestra behind him, at the prow of a long boat, landing on a remote beach to the huzzahs of the enthusiastic natives.

Delos Diary

Bermuda and Bridge

Devotees of TV nature series know all about the famed Bermuda Triangle, a mysterious area south of the resort island which seems to lure seafarers and airliners into unexplained disappearances.
We have now restored Bermuda's good name and reputation by creating a new Delos version of the triangle, a threesome consisting of conductor Constantine Orbelian, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, and pianist Carol Rosenberger.
On Tuesday February 15th at the Ruth Seaton James Center in the capital city of Hamilton, Bermuda, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra gave the second of two concerts conducted by music director Constantine Orbelian. Pianist Carol Rosenberger was the featured soloist and as a tribute to the island's British heritage she played the wonderful Chamber Concerto version of Frank Bridge's Quintet for Piano and Strings in D Minor (H. 49).
Delos fans are probably already familiar with the very successful CD of this music the same threesome recorded for Delos in 2001 (DE 3263).
From all reports, the Bermuda audience was delighted with the concert and Carol's stunning pianism. After the concert and post-concert jubilation they all disappeared into the Bermuda night happily humming the enchanting Bridge melodies.
Constantine, Carol, and the Orchestra, our golden triangle, defied the Bermuda legend and have all returned to mainland USA safe and sound with no enforced side trips to the Sargasso Sea.

Delos Diary

The diversity of population in Los Angeles continues to surprise. In West Hollywood alone, over 6,000 Russian-speaking immigrants have found new homes. Many are Russian Jews who fled post-World War II persecution for our friendlier clime, and now are living out their old age surrounded by the glitz of Hollywood.
Among these thousands, over 500 men are veterans of what the Russians still call the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945. To pay tribute to their honorable military service, private and public money has been raised to sponsor a monument in West Hollywood's Plummer Park. The face of the seven-ton granite memorial will feature carvings of three white cranes and four lines from the famous poem "Cranes" by Soviet poet Rasul Gamzatov.
Here's where Delos comes into the picture. In 2002, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, the internationally renowned. Russian baritone, recorded an album for Delos entitled Where Are You, My Brothers? (DE 3315). Along with 16 other songs from the war years, the musical setting of the poem "Cranes" by composer Yan Frenkel stands out as almost unbearably poignant. The four lines of the song-poem that will be featured on the monument are probably these:
It seems to me sometimes that soldiers
Who didn't come home from the blood-soaked battlefields
Weren't laid to rest in the earth.
But turned into white cranes.
If the final monument lives up to the beauty and emotional appeal of the war songs included in Hvorostovsky's album, it will be a sight to see when it is unveiled on May 8.
Meanwhile there is the Delos album in which Hvorostovsky's art is enhanced by the accompaniment of Constantine Orbelian conducting the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Style of Five and the Spiritual Revival Choir of Russia.

Delos Diary

Lurking in the depths of the Delos catalog are two CDs highlighting the works, the pianism and the singing voice of distinguished British composer and musician, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett. These recordings date back to 1990 when sir Richard — not yet a "Sir" — was also 15 years younger. At that time Bennett recorded an album for Delos here in Los Angeles entitled I Never Went Away (DE 5001). It featured 15 popular songs, mostly classic standards. In his own inimitable vocal style, Bennett sings each number accompanying himself on the piano in a manner comparable to the best cabaret artists of the time — in fact, superior to most.
Anyone old enough to remember and still love the great songs of the mid-20th century should make an effort to look up this recording. Younger listeners too might be surprised to find that such tunes ever existed — tender, witty, touching, sentimental, literate, and melodic.
Meanwhile Bennett's career has flourished, with movie scores and more recently a commission from Charles, Prince of Wales, for a piece commemorating the late Queen Mother, plus the issuance of a new multi-volume CD set of all Bennett's works for piano.
Two of these, Partridge Pie and Suite for Skip and Sadie can already be found on Delos' My Keyboard Friends (DE 6002). As an additional surprise, Carol Rosenberger's solo album Singing on the Water – Piano Barcarolles (DE 3172) contains a "smoky and sensuous" barcarolle written for and dedicated to Carol by the composer, Richard Rodney Bennett, himself.