Wine battle: Priorat vs Priorat

Two wines head to head – both are Spanish wines from Priorat, a mountainous region in the heart of Catalunya, just down the coast from Barcelona. Both are red blends containing the Caringnan grape, which lends a floral aroma and taste. The contenders:

Mas Martinet Viticultors
2012 Martinet Bru – $30
40% Syrah
26.5% Carignan
17% Merlot
10.5% Grenache
6% Cabernet Sauvignon
Ecologically produced, 14% alcohol


Celler Burgos Porta
2010 Mas Sinén Coster – $70
50% Grenache
50% Carignan
Aged 12 months in French oak barrels, 15% alcohol

Mas Sinén takes its name from a village in the Priorat growing region.



Color – Both wines are rosy purple in the glass, with the Martinet Bru just a half shade darker.

Aroma – The Martinet Bru is like ripe plums with a fragrance of mountain laurel blossoms. The Mas Sinén smells of wet clay and bark mulch.

Taste – The Martinet Bru leans slightly toward sour, evoking caramelized pork rind and a mad chef's concoction of a pomegranate mustard glaze. The Mas Sinén leans toward bitter, evoking mature arugula, daikon (Chinese white radish), and pepper rub; it also has more grit in the mouth.

Pairings – The Martinet Bru encourages bold, hearty flavors. Try it with steak fajitas, lime rice and a side of pickled beets. Treat the Mas Sinén like an arugula salad: temper it with fruit, nuts and cheese. Try a fiery hot lamb vindaloo, served with cashew and raisin biryani and a side slab of smoky Idiazábal.

The winner – Martinet Bru for friendlier price and easier pairing.

Opera report: Put the wine glasses down!

Noli me tangere (Touch Me Not) is Filipino composer Felipe Padilla de Leon's operatic treatment of the most important nineteenth-century novel to came out of the Philippines. The opera has its dramatic challenges (more on that later), but this weekend's production at the Strand Theatre flailed with directorial shortcomings. Let me set up a scene and present two possible treatments.

Our hero, let's call him Chris, has returned from seven years abroad and is about to be reunited with his beloved, let's call her Maria. Chris has a glass of wine with the Maria's father. The father drains his glass, hands the empty glass to Chris, and heads offstage to usher in his wife and daughter. The hero sips from his own glass while anticipating the reunion. Enter mother and Maria.

Treatment 1 – The mother sweeps over to Chris and, exchanging pleasantries, takes one glass from his hand. She goes to sip but finds the glass empty. She returns the glass to Chris, sweeps to his other side, takes the other glass, downs it, hands it back, says a few more pleasantries, and sweeps off. Chris raises the second glass (that he just saw the mother finish) to take a sip, and – huh – the glass is empty. He spends the next three minutes getting reacquainted with Maria while holding two empty glasses. Put the wine glasses down, you awkward schmuck!

Treatment 2 – The mother sweeps over to Chris and takes the empty glass from his hand. She sweeps to his other side and takes the other glass. After a few pleasantries, she exits with both glasses, draining the second one as she goes. Chris and Maria reunite unencumbered by stemware.

I think you can guess which treatment I endured on Sunday.

Beyond the director's blindness to the stage action, the work itself suffers from unchecked sprawl. In the second act the lovers must say their final goodbyes. As Chris departs, he is shot and killed. Maria collapses sobbing. Curtain down? No. A tertiary character follows with a mad scene. It would be an impressive standalone concert recital piece, evoking Lucia di Lammermoor with a flute shadowing the madwoman's vocal flights. But in this opera it is too much too late.

Curtain down? No. A boatman, who took a second bullet during Chris's departure, then follows with a death scene. I suppose the librettist was being loyal to the original novel, but a different composer, say Puccini, would have demanded more concision. He would have cut the entire subplot leading to the madwoman and given the death scene to Chris. Or better yet, Maria would take the second bullet, and she would have the death scene. Now that is an opera I could raise a glass to.

Wine report: Taster's choice

The Newton office had it's final tasting of the season, and the theme was Taster's Choice. Participants were encouraged to bring in either a favorite wine to share or a bottle they were eager to try. The benefit was that most everything came with a recommendation, so there were few disappointments. First the reds.

Añares, Rioja reserva, 2010. In a competitive field of riojas, this one hits a sweet spot. For fifteen dollars, Añares is neck and shoulder above the rest. Put a steak on the grill and open a bottle of Añares, and you are set for the evening.

Penya, Côtes Catalanes red blend, 2015. This French wine is Spanish at heart. The blend of grenache, carignan and syrah (garnacha, cariñena, syrah) is typical of a Catalunyan wine. It carries notes of blackberries and raspberries, including the  grassiness of the plants themselves. Carignan adds floral notes to the aroma and taste. I see this wine in a traditional ham dinner: cloves embedded in the crosscut rind, a sweet glaze in the gravy boat. Add a kale salad with toasted pine nuts, dried cranberries and balsamic dressing for a fine meal. There is a lot of lees in the glass, though. Decant this bottle slowly for best presentation.

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, Fay Cabernet Sauvignon, 2013. The first of our cabernets was from a long-established producer that helped put California wines in the international conversation. We could only describe it with intangibles like "deep aroma" and "smooth finish", but this bottle was one of the tasters' favorites. This is not a wine for everyday drinking (unless you have very deep pockets), but if you ever get a chance to try it, leap. A good cabernet can age for 20 years or more, so we tasted this one quite young. Shall we have a ten-year reunion to try it again?

Gavone Brothers, Elvis in Hell Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006. Don't even try hunting down this relic; it is a hobby wine from our tech guy, this bottle unearthed while packing up the cellar for a move. How did it hold up after ten years of aging? Well, it exceeded expectations. The aroma had a slight pruniness over fresh-cut cardboard. The taste evoked a hip flask at a fish market. All in all, sippable without inducing spit takes.

Now the lighter wines.

Cuvaison, Chardonnay, 2013. This offering from the Carneros growing region of Napa Valley got several nods. Not overly oak aged; one commenter appreciated that it wasn't too buttery. Our insider reported that this was the white wine served in the Obama White House. None of us would have refused a second glass.

Les Portes de Bordeaux, Rosé, 2016. I have to say that after several weeks of recent sampling, rosés don't do anything for me. That said, I was pleasantly surprised by this offering. It is an easy drinker, and for seven dollars at Trader Joe's, don't be afraid to pick up a few bottles for your next back yard summer party. Good times.

Zorvino Vineyards, Fragole Z. A local producer from New Hampshire, just north of us, hits the nail on the head. A strawberry dessert wine. It tastes like a strawberry dessert. Serve it with a puff pastry filled with whipped strawberry crème. Or instead of. If you are a fan of sweet wines, you will glow.

Crunching the numbers

Armin Jordan: The French Symphonic Recordings (13 CDs)

I can easily recommend this 13-disc box set of conductor Armin Jordan for someone looking to explore the French symphonic repertoire. The sound is quite good in late analog and early digital. Generous timings: 75 minutes per disc. The performances consistently make me smile. The sly trombone in Ravel's Boléro almost makes this recording my favorite, marred only by an editing splice at 3:41. It is subtle, but it adds a fraction of a beat to the otherwise persistent tempo.

There is a satisfying amount of greatest hits: lots of Ravel and Debussy, Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice, Fauré's Pelléas et Mélisande. There are treasures in the deeper cuts as well: bass Philippe Huttenlocher is uncredited in Ravel's Don Quichotte songs. It is wonderful material that serves as a launching point for further exploration. (Seek out José van Dam singing the same work – what a killer voice.)

Here is a breakdown of the contents of this set, presented as proportions of the total time (16h 16m 44s).

Composers

23.5% – Ravel

20.5% – Debussy

12.6% – Franck

10.2% – Chausson

9.2% – Dukas

8.8% – Fauré

5.5% – Chabrier

2.9% – Delage

2.7% – Jaubert

2.5% – Lekeu

1.6% – Rabaud

Orchestras

45.6% – Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

16.0% – Sinfonieorchester Basel

10.0% – Orchestre de chambre de Lausanne

8.6% – Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo

6.4% – Kammer Ensemble de Paris

5.5% – Orchestre National de France

5.0% – Orchestre National de l'Opéra de Monte-Carlo

2.9% – Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique

Recording years

20.9% – 1977-1981 (late analog, including Ravel with Orch. Lausanne)

52.1% – 1982-1986 (the digital boom, including Ravel remakes with Suisse Romande)

20.6% – 1987-1991 (more digital, including the core Debussy catalog)

6.4% – 1994 (vocal album with Felicity Lott)

Two box sets in one

Georges Prêtre: The Symphonic Recordings (17 CDs)

This 17-CD set in the Warner/EMI/Erato ICON series covers two periods in Georges Prêtre’s career, from 1960 to 1965, when the conductor was in his late thirties, and from 1983 to 1990, his early sixties. The earlier period comprises mostly French and Russian composers, with a few other nationalities mixed in. The later period is all French. There is one 1970 recording of Dvořák’s New World Symphony that bridges the two periods. Prêtre died in January of 2017, age 92.

There is a spectrum of romantic to modern repertoire. Nine orchestras perform a total of 23 composers. Camille Saint-Saëns gets almost 3 hours of disc space, primarily with the Carnival of the Animals and his three symphonies (the Organ Symphony included twice). Poulenc, Landowski and Milhaud get about an hour each; the other composers supply one or two works to fill out the rest of the box.

A program of Babar the Elephant and the Story of the Little Tailor appears twice. The two CDs are virtually the same recording, with Peter Ustinov narrating first in French, then in English. For my purposes I will only count that as one CD, so the total content of the box set runs about 16 hours and 23 minutes. That’s just over an hour per disc.

The Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire plays about 30% of the material, all recorded in the early 1960s. These tracks are miked close, which gives the music an intimate sparkle. This lively band has panache; even their flaws are endearing. The early recordings from the British orchestras are captured a little grainy in a narrower stereo field. Surprisingly, it is the 1980s recordings that sound the most distant and anonymous.

For me, this collection is a grab bag. It fills some gaps in my library with the Jongen Symphonie concertante, the Milhaud suites and the Landowski symphonies, but the disparate material doesn’t inspire me to listen through from beginning to end. Of course, this lack of focus might be the point. Prêtre wasn’t imposing an agenda, his aim was to bring out the individual character of each ensemble he conducted. In that respect I’d say his earlier recordings were more successful.

It might help you to know what was recorded when, so you can decide if this package is worth your investment. I give you a list of the composers and the year they were recorded, followed by a list of he orchestras that recorded them.

The Composers

1960 - GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue, Piano Concerto [Daniel Wayenberg]

1961 - JONGEN: Symphonie concertante for organ and orchestra [Virgil Fox]

1961 - POULENC: Les Biches

1961 - MILHAUD: La Création du monde

1961 - DUTILLEUX: Le Loup

1961 - RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Capriccio espagnol

1961 - BORODIN: In the Steppes of Central Asia, Polovtsian Dances

1961 - MUSSORGSKY: Night on Bald Mountain

1962-1963 - SHOSTAKOVICH: Festival Overture, Symphony 12

1963 - BERG: Violin concerto, Kammerkonzert [Christian Ferras, Pierre Barbizet]

1964 - TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony 5

1964-1965 - SAINT-SAËNS: Symphony 3 ‘Organ’ [Maurice Duruflé], Le Carnaval des Animaux

1965 - POULENC: Les Animaux modèles, L’Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant

1965 - HARSÁNYI: L'Histoire du petit tailleur

—

1970 - DVOŘÁK: Symphony 9 ‘From the New World’

—

1983 - MILHAUD: Le Carnaval d’Aix [Michel Béroff], Suite française, Suite provençale 

1984 - ROUSSEL: Bacchus et Ariane, Le Festin de l'araignée 

1985 - CASTILLON: Piano Concerto [Aldo Ciccolini], Esquisses symphoniques

1985 - d’INDY: Poème des rivages, Diptyque méditerranéen

1985 - BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique

1987 - RAVEL: Pavane pour une infante défunte, La Valse

1987 - DUKAS: L’Apprenti sorcier

1987 - DEBUSSY: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune

1987 - SATIE: Gymnopédies Nos. 1 & 3

1987 - SAINT-SAËNS: Danse macabre

1988 - LANDOWSKI: Symphonies 1, 3 & 4

1990 - SAINT-SAËNS: La Jeunesse d’Hercule, Symphonies 1 & 2, Symphony 3 ‘Organ’ [Marie-Claire Alain]

The Orchestras

Orchestre du Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris (1961 Jongen)

Royal Philharmonic (1961 Russian material)

Philharmonia Orchestra (1962-1963 Shostakovich)

New Philharmonia Orchestra (1964 Tchaikovsky)

Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire (1960-1965 remainder)

—

Orchestre de Paris (1970 Dvořák)

—

Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo (1983 Milhaud; 1985 Castillon, d’Indy)

Orchestre National de France (1984 Roussel; 1987 French showcase; 1988 Landowski)

Wiener Symphoniker (1985 Berlioz; 1990 Saint-Saëns)

Here are some details to consider: 

- The Paris Opera Orchestra’s recording of Joseph Jongen’s Symphonie concertante helped establish Georges Prêtre as a world-renowned conductor. The same ensemble played under Prêtre’s baton for the 1964 recording of Maria Callas’s Carmen (not in this box, but an event for which I am eternally grateful).

- British orchestras performed all of the Russian works in this set.

- The Conservatoire orchestra disbanded in 1967, but most of its players were chosen for the newly formed Orchestra de Paris. So the jump to Dvořák wasn’t that great a leap after all.

For nostalgics only

Charles Munch: The Complete RCA Album Collection (86 CDs)

If you grew up listening to the vinyl LPs of Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, you will rejoice at having all those recordings gathered in one CD box set that takes up less than a foot (29 cm) of shelf space. If you are a current fan of the BSO or a beginning listener looking to expand your collection of core classical repertoire, I fear you would be disappointed by the value of this set. I have several strong reservations, as follow:

1. Short discs. The average running time is 45 minutes. This being an original jackets collection, many discs are much shorter. An abridged Water Music Suite paired with two overtures runs 28 minutes. Beethoven's Eighth Symphony languishes alone at 23 minutes and 35 seconds.

2. Awkward cross referencing. You hold in your hand a sleeve with the original cover art and a reproduction of the back notes in an inconveniently small font. Get a strong magnifying glass. You have to thumb through a separate booklet for track listings, durations and recording information.

3. Inferior recording technology. A flaw plagues the Boston Symphony's first decade of stereo recordings (it continued into Leinsdorf’s tenure): soft passages have a lovely stereo sparkle, but mezzo forte sections get wooly around the sonic edges. Anything forte or louder either overpowers the microphones or is recorded too hot. Most of these CDs have a crackling peak distortion that I find distracting. Another quirk is that the orchestra spreads its stereo wings in the piano concertos, but the soloist seems constricted in a tight mono box.

4. Inconsistent mastering. The early discs (1947-1953) bear high fidelity, late-era mono and sound better than you might expect. The stereo discs (1954-1963) vary greatly, from the warm and intimate French Touch album to the brittle and distant Creatures of Prometheus. The Star-Spangled Banner never sounded so tatty.

5. Sub-par performances. I have read that Munch was a musician's conductor, and standards got lax when he took over from Koussevitzky. The BSO sounds like an enthusiastic provincial ensemble: the reeds are blithely out of tune, the trumpets blare away. The clipped, barking chorus in Beethoven’s Ninth is stupefying: A! La! Men! Schen! Wer! Den! Brü! Der!

Until an affordable technology comes along that can rectify the last three issues, I offer Sony Music, who currently owns the rights to these recordings, a solution for the first two. Take the approach of the recent Jascha Heifetz stereo box set, preserving some of the original cover art, but providing track listings on the back of each sleeve. Add the recordings dates, producers and engineers; skip the pedigree of matrix publishing. Resequence the material and increase the running time of each disc. Groupings by composer would make it easier to explore the conductor’s treatment of Berlioz or Ravel without hopping across the set.

I would also divide the material into two packages, the mono recordings and the stereo years. My suggested playlist appears below. I condense nineteen mono CDs down to fourteen with an average running time of 67 minutes. It is possible to shrink the total to thirteen discs (72 minutes), maybe even fewer, but then the programs get a little disjointed. Admittedly, the combination of the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony with several works by Ravel gets a bit busy, but most discs have a satisfying unity of composer, soloist or complementary material. Handel’s Water Music Suite and Strauss’s Don Quixote make a felicitous pairing.

Charles Munch: The RCA Mono Recordings (a dream sequence)

Disc 1

BEETHOVEN: Symphony 7, Gratulations-Menuett, Symphony 1

Disc 2

DEBUSSY: La Damoiselle élue, BERLIOZ: Les Nuits d’été [de los Ángeles]; BERLIOZ: Béatrice et Bénédict Overture, Roméo et Juliette (Part I)

Disc 3

BERLIOZ: Roméo et Juliette (Parts II & III)

Discs 4 & 5

BERLIOZ: La Damnation de Faust [including the one surviving stereo track]

Disc 6

BRAHMS: Symphony 4; TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto [Milstein]

Disc 7

BRAHMS: Piano Concerto 2 [Rubinstein]; BRUCH: Violin Concerto [Menuhin]

Disc 8

d’INDY: Symphony on a French Mountain Air, FRANCK: Symphonic Variations [cond. Weldon], MOZART: Piano Concerto 21 [all Casadesus]

Disc 9

MOZART: Marriage of Figaro Overture, HAYDN: Symphonies 103 & 104

Disc 10

HONEGGER: Symphony 5; MENOTTI: Violin Concerto [Spivakovsky]; HONEGGER: Symphony 2

Disc 11

CHOPIN: Piano Concerto 2, SAINT-SAËNS: Piano Concerto 4 [Brailovsky]; SAINT-SAËNS: Overture to La princesse jaune

Disc 12

SAINT-SAËNS: Organ Symphony, LALO: Overture to Le Roy d’Ys, RAVEL: Pavanne pour une infante défunte, Rapsodie espagnole, La Valse

Disc 13

SCHUBERT: Symphony 2, SCHUMANN: Genoveva Overture, Symphony 1

Disc 14

ROUSSEL: Bacchus et Ariane, HANDEL: Water Music Suite, STRAUSS: Don Quixote

The 67 stereo CDs easily condense down to 45 discs, averaging 65 minutes each. Granted, physical packaging is becoming moot in an age of digital downloads and streaming, but the current selling price of about three dollars per hour of music could drop to two dollars per hour. If Sony produced a more economical bundling, more listeners might be tempted to explore what was happening in Boston sixty years ago.

Charles Munch: The Stereo Years (a dream sequence)

Disc 1

MENDELSSOHN: Violin Concerto, BACH: Violin Concerto BWV 1041 [Laredo]; BACH: Brandenburg Concertos 1 & 2

Disc 2

BACH: Brandenburg Concertos 3–6

Disc 3

BEETHOVEN: Symphony 3, Creatures of Prometheus (excerpts), Corolian Overture

Disc 4

BEETHOVEN: Symphony 5; Violin Concerto [Heifetz]

Disc 5

BEETHOVEN: Symphony 6, Leonore Overtures 1–3

Disc 6

BEETHOVEN: Fidelio Overture, Symphony 9

Disc 7

BEETHOVEN: Symphony 8; Piano Concerto 1, Piano Sonata 22 [Richter]

Disc 8

BERLIOZ: Corsaire Overture, Symphonie fantastique [1962], Béatrice et Bénédict Overture

Disc 9

BERLIOZ: Le Carnaval romain, Symphonie fantastique [1954], Benvenuto Cellini Overture

Disc 10

BERLIOZ: Harold in Italy, Royal Hunt and Storm from Les Troyens, Romeo and Juliet (Part I)

Disc 11

BERLIOZ: Romeo and Juliet (Parts II & III)

Disc 12

BERLIOZ: L’enfance du Christ (Parts I & II)

Disc 13

BERLIOZ: L’enfance du Christ (Part III), Requiem (Nos. 1 & 2)

Disc 14

BERLIOZ: Requiem (Nos. 3–10)

Disc 15

BARBER: Adagio for Strings, Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, BLACKWOOD: Symphony 1, HAIEFF: Symphony 2

Disc 16

BRAHMS: Symphony 1, Tragic Overture

Disc 17

BRAHMS: Symphony 2, Symphony 4

Disc 18

BRAHMS: Piano Concerto 1 [Graffman]; BLOCH: Schelomo [Piatigorsky]

Disc 19

CHOPIN: Piano Concerto 1, MENDELSSOHN: Capriccio Brillant [Graffman]; SCHUMANN: Manfred Overture

Disc 20

DUKAS: Sorcerer’s Apprentice; SAINT-SAËNS: Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, CHAUSSON: Poème for Violin and Orchestra [Oistrakh]; CHAUSSON: Symphony in B flat, DEBUSSY: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun [1956]

Disc 21

DEBUSSY: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun [1962], The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian

Disc 22

DEBUSSY: La Mer, Images, Nocturnes

Disc 23

DEBUSSY: Printemps, ELGAR: Introduction and Allegro, DVOŘÁK: Symphony 8

Disc 24

IBERT: Escales, FRANCK: Symphony in D minor, Le Chasseur maudit

Disc 25

MAHLER: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Kindertotenlieder [Forrester]; MARTINŮ: Symphony 6

Disc 26

MENDELSSOHN: Symphony 3, Symphony 4

Disc 27

MENDELSSOHN: Symphony 5; Violin Concerto [Heifetz]; Scherzo from Octet

Disc 28

MILHAUD: Suite provençale, La Création du monde, PISTON: Symphony 6

Disc 29

MOZART: Clarinet Concerto, Clarinet Quintet [Goodman]

Disc 30

PROKOFIEV: Violin Concerto 2 [Heifetz]; Piano Concerto 2 [Henriot-Schweitzer]

Disc 31

PROKOFIEV: Romeo and Juliet (excerpts), POULENC: Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani

Disc 32

RAVEL: Bolero [1956], Daphnis et Chloé [1955]

Disc 33

RAVEL: Daphnis et Chloé [1961]

Disc 34

RAVEL: Bolero [1962], Pavane pour une infante défunte, Mother Goose, La Valse [1955], La Valse [1962]

Disc 35

RAVEL: Rapsodie espagnole; Piano Concerto in G, d’INDY: Symphony on a French Mountain Air [Henriot-Schweitzer]

Disc 36

SAINT-SAËNS: Le Rouet d’Omphale, Organ Symphony, SCHUBERT: Symphony 2

Disc 37

SCHUBERT: Symphony 8, Symphony 9

Disc 38

STRAVINSKY: Jeu des cartes, STRAUSS: Till Eulenspiegel, SCHUMANN: Symphony 1, SMITH: Star-Spangled Banner

Disc 39

TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony 4, Romeo and Juliet [1956]

Disc 40

TCHAIKOVSKY: Romeo and Juliet [1961], Symphony 6

Disc 41

TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto [Szeryng]; Francesca da Rimini

Disc 42

TCHAIKOVSKY: Serenade for Strings; RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto 3 [Janis]

Disc 43

WAGNER: Tannhäuser Overture, Magic Fire Music, Siegfried’s Rhine Journey; Brünnhilde’s Immolation, Prelude to Act I & Isolde’s Liebestod [Farrell]

Disc 44

WALTON: Cello Concerto, DVOŘÁK: Cello Concerto [Piatigorsky]

Disc 45

RAVEL: Valses nobles et sentimentales, FAURÉ: Pelléas et Mélisande, BERLIOZ: La Damnation de Faust (excerpts) [Philadelphia Orchestra]