Danse Macabre—Montreal Symphony/Kent Nagano (Decca 4830396)
In time for Halloween, this release features new recordings of some usual suspects for All Hallows Eve: Saint-Saëns’s Danse Macabre, Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, and Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Newer additions to classical music’s spooky pantheon are here too: Dvorak’s The Noonday Witch and Balakirev’s Tamara. Rounding out the program is Charles Ives’s Hallowe’en, possibly composed on April Fools’ Day 1907, and more trick than treat: two minutes of musical hijinks (in four different keys!) ending with an operatic send-up. We’ll feature the disc on October 31 st—naturally—and in November as well.
Featured Mon 10/31