A hint of Hollywood in his ode to Oman

Lalo Schifrin: “Symphonic Impressions of Oman”

London Symphony. Lalo Schifrin, conductor. (Scherzo Music)

**

If much of this disc carries strong echoes of movie music, it’s more than just coincidence or artistic prerogative: Schifrin, a gifted Argentine-born emigre to Hollywood, has helped write the book on the standard film scoring vocabulary over his decades in the biz. That pedigree makes it easier to embrace this ambitious and a bit too accessible tribute to the Persian Gulf sultanate of Oman and to ancient music of the Middle East. The 12-movement work is full of unabashedly tonal pleasantries and slightly exotic regional motifs, tidy parallel harmonic shifts, and nods in the direction of Mahlerian rusticity. Lush playing by the London Symphony (a mainstay on the film orchestra circuit, not incidentally), conducted by the composer, completes the sense of sonic pictorialism. Schifrin summons a big, sweet orchestral sound hovering somewhere between Mesopotamia and Hollywood, but nearer the latter.

-- Josef Woodard

Capturing the prolific Haydn

Haydn: String Quartets, Opus 33, No. 3; Opus 77,

Nos. 1 and 2; Hoffstetter: Serenade.

Alban Berg Quartet. (EMI Classics)

*** 1/2

Haydn’s creative output is simply staggering -- not only the sheer number of works but the number that are of the highest quality. This recording counterbalances one quartet from the Opus 33 set, in which the composer struck out in new directions, with the later Opus 77 pair, in which he pulled back from experimentation but without failing to provide variety and interest. The players -- violinists Gunter Pichler and Gerhard Schulz, violist Thomas Kakuska and cellist Valentin Erben -- bring a seasoned, tight ensemble to their playing. Sometimes there is a harsh bright edge, almost an aggressive tension to it, but the musicians also know when to ease up and let a phrase blossom. The first quartet was recorded at a live performance. The disc closes with the ever-popular Serenade, now attributed to Roman Hoffstetter rather than Haydn, but gently attractive whoever the author.

-- Chris Pasles

Faded but genuine opera and style

Charpentier: “Louise” (abridged)

Ninon Vallin, soprano; Georges Thill, tenor; Andre Pernet, bass. Les Choeurs Raugel and Orchestra, Paris. Eugene Bigot, conductor. (Naxos)

***

For this 1935 recording, Gustav Charpentier condensed his enduring love letter to Paris to a trim 70 minutes and the opera’s faded but genuine charms survive in the throats of a trio of French stylists whose like has vanished from international stages. Vallin radiates both sensuality and vulnerability as the seamstress torn between passion and familial duty; her “Depuis le jour” is a keeper. Thill delivers the poet Julien with robust sensitivity; Pernet communicates the pathos and rage of Louise’s father in a mellifluous Golden Age bass. Ward Marston’s transfers of this classic set are the finest of three sampled, and Naxos’ budget price couldn’t be more right.

-- Allan Ulrich