Having exhausted Igor Stravinsky's conductible repertoire for Naxos, conductor Robert Craft has turned his attention to Arnold Schoenberg; Naxos' Schoenberg: Six Songs for Soprano and Orchestra is already Volume 7 in his Schoenberg series. Of course, Craft has been here before in most instances, mainly through the incomplete, though comprehensive, Schoenberg series he did for CBS Masterworks in 1962-1964. That series was marked, in some cases, by unfamiliarity with the material and the vagaries of working with pickup ...
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Having exhausted Igor Stravinsky's conductible repertoire for Naxos, conductor Robert Craft has turned his attention to Arnold Schoenberg; Naxos' Schoenberg: Six Songs for Soprano and Orchestra is already Volume 7 in his Schoenberg series. Of course, Craft has been here before in most instances, mainly through the incomplete, though comprehensive, Schoenberg series he did for CBS Masterworks in 1962-1964. That series was marked, in some cases, by unfamiliarity with the material and the vagaries of working with pickup choruses and instrumental groups specifically assembled for the recording, not to mention CBS' indifferent album mastering during that period, which could render outstandingly well engineered efforts dim sounding and crackly. These recordings, made at Abbey Road Studios between 2003-2006, improve on those earlier ones in every way; soprano Jennifer Welch-Babidge is certainly a step up from Ithaca College soloist Irene Jordan in the Six Songs, Op. 8, for soprano and orchestra, significant...
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