“Occurrence is the third, and at least for now the last, in a hugely illuminating series devoted to works by contemporary Icelandic composers, as performed by Iceland’s 70-year-old national orchestra. Speaking for myself – and surely for many others, as well – the series has been a milestone project, one that any conscientious collector of symphonic music simply must have on the shelf. Across three albums now, Sono Luminus has capitalized shrewdly on swelling global interest in the music of Daniel Bjarnason and Anna Thorvaldsdottir, using their works as a means by which to introduce seven more composers with original, substantial voices. Three of the composers represented on Occurrence return from previous installments in the series. In addition to Bjarnson – who also has served as an insightful, sympathetic conductor throughout – we hear new works from Þuri´ður Jonsdottir, whose Flow and Fusion opened the initial disc, Recurrence, and from Haukur Tomasson, whose Piano Concerto No. 2 was a highlight of the second release in the series, Concurrence. These repeat engagements prove serendipitous, showing off fresh facets of these newly familiar creators. One, Bjarnason’s own Violin Concerto, scarcely requires introduction, having proved its merits and attractions already on concert platforms around the globe since its 2017 world premiere at the Hollywood Bowl. Pekka Kuusisto, the violinist for whom the piece was written, demonstrates his consummate skill as a technician, a melodist, a collaborator and – not least – a whistler, and the orchestral accompaniment, no surprise, is vivid and alert.

REVIEW:

‘Recurrence’, ‘Concurrence’, and now ‘Occurrence’. The Iceland Symphony Orchestra’s three-disc survey of new orchestral music from its homeland has reached its end point and it’s easy to conclude that no country on earth has reinvented the language of the symphony orchestra on such distinctive and locally relevant terms as this one. So much so that a Canadian such as Veronique Vaka can fall for Iceland and cook up a piece like Lendh, an extraordinary canvas with an umbilical connection to the landscape of the place. Lendh is a marvel.

Haukur Tómasson’s In Seventh Heaven is full of ear-catching orchestration, as raw and unconventional as Jón Leifs’s, ulterior harmonies tugging while colours shift as rapidly as the Icelandic weather above. The orchestra’s handling of the exposed passages for high strings and characterised woodwind-writing demonstrate technically how far it has come in the past decade alone.

Þuríður Jónsdóttir's Flute Concerto, "Flutter", features sampled insect noises and other electronics, including a promotion of the ubiquitous Nordic pedal note to a general hum. Structurally it feels like a road movie – a journey through textural landscapes more than anything developmental.

Conductor Daníel Bjarnason own Violin Concerto has dedicatee Pekka Kuusisto’s puckish spirit all over it, from the infectious soloist whistling (used to moving effect when it returns late on as the violin’s sole accompanist) to the grunge-improvisatory elements and clear-cut, eyemoistening tune.

As an appendix we hear from a dead composer, Iceland’s great 12-tone pioneer Magnús Blöndal Jóhannsson (1938-2005). His Adagio for strings and percussion of 1980 marked a shift in style following the death of his wife and a battle with the bottle. This is a bleak, translucent elegy that places unison sheets of wannabe-lyrical string melody over held pedal notes and drones, ending with a sudden rush of air as the last pedal falls away. A quizzical gesture to wrap up an outstanding and historic series, one that affects the mind as much as the ears. 

– Gramophone

The swan is famous for its song. The Indo-Germanic stem “suon/suen” stands for “moaning” or “resounding.” But can he really sing? The mute swan, common in the composer’s region, does not. The great white bird usually glides majestically yet silently over the water. The singing swan, a bird with a more upright neck that ever more frequently winters in Germany, is another case altogether. After Die Winterreise (Winter Journey) and Die schone Mullerin (The Fair Maid of the Mill), Roman Trekel has selected Schwanengesang (Swan Song) for his latest Lied- album available from OehmsClassics. He interprets well known titles from this cycle, such as Kriegers Ahnung (Warrior’s Foreboding), Liebesbotschaft (Love’s Message) and the famous Standchen (Serenade) with intelligence as well as a mature, warm voice. His regular piano partner, Oliver Pohl, accompanies him with sensitivity, at times with vigour as well.

Classical Music

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski is successful both as a composer and as a conductor. In 1946 he became the Director of the Breslau Philharmonic. After that, he occupied the posts of Principal Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestras in Katowice, Krakow and Warsaw. When he won the International Conducting Competition in Rome in 1956, his international career was assured: George Szell invited him to conduct the Cleveland Orchestra for several weeks in 1958. In 1960 Skrowaczewski became Principal Conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, remaining there for 19 years.

In late 1994 Skrowaczewski was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra, with which he has enjoyed a close collaboration for many years, both in the concert hall and in the recording studio. In Japan, Skrowaczewski is honored almost like a saint. Oehms Classics is proud of the extent of the recordings and is delighted to be able to continue the Brahms Cycle with the Second and Third Symphonies. - Oehms

MARCO POLO FILM SAMPLER

120 years after it's very first performance, which took place at Teatro Regio di Torino, La Boheme returns to the tradition-steeped Italian opera house. With director Alex Olle from La Fura dels Baus and music director Gianandrea Noseda the Teatro Regio presents a spectacular, up-to-date anniversary production. For Alex Olle, directing the opera for the first time, "La Boheme allows the young generation to get rid of everything that prevents them from flying, feeding only on their own vitality; the real hunger of the protagonists is the hunger for life. My production is set in a modern city outskirt. It is there where, in my opinion, the intellectual matrix of the future happens; in ugly, disreputable and poor places which are authentic. In this kind of environment, where life and art - as they did in Romanticism - belong to the survivors." "A triumphant youthful Boheme", in which the singers excel due to their naturalness. Giorgio Berrugi sings his Rodolfo "with a luminous timbre, in refined nuances" (La Stampa), perfectly matching "Irina Lungu's full-bodied Mimi" (The London Times). All in all, "this is theatre, this is life, this is passion" (Corriere della sera)

Classical Music

Don Quixote was created by the master choreographer Marius Petipa, together with the composer Ludwig Minkus, for the Imperial Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow in 1869. Marking the 400th anniversary of Cervantes’s death, Don Quixote is here seen in the revised version by Nureyev which the French choreographer Manuel Legris – once a noted Basil himself in his days as an “étoile” in Nureyev’s Paris troupe – devised for the Wiener Staatsballett. “A Don Quixote to love … Legris and company can count the evening a total success” (Die Presse). As for the two principals, Maria Yakovleva and Denys Cherevychko as Kitri and Basil, no praise was high enough: “both are technically brilliant” (Wiener Zeitung).

Classical Music

Classical Music

Two well-known and two less-familiar orchestral works by Debussy • A new recording from the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) and Heinz Holliger, following up on their globally acclaimed Koechlin series • A continuation of the orchestra’s exploration of the French orchestral repertoire that began with their CDs of the music of Koechlin • May 21st 2014: Heinz Holliger’s 75th birthday The "Afternoon of a Faun“ together with the orchestral "Images" are among Claude Debussy’s best known and most popular compositions. Both works show different side of the composer: "Afternoon of a Faun" is a textbook example of musical impressionism, while about the "Images", the composer himself said that his goal was to “try to achieve something different – an effect of reality”. The scores contrast well with the two Rhapsodies: the one for clarinet, called the "first" Rhapsody, was sketched out within a few weeks at the end of 1909, while the "second" Rhapsody for saxophone was only completed and orchestrated after the death of its author. The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) and conductor Heinz Holliger manage to bring out the evocative, dynamic colors and peculiarities to be found in all of these works with precision.

Classical Music

Donizetti’s Messa da Requiem was composed after the composer received the news of Vincenzo Bellini’s death. Soprano Leyla Gencer performs beautifully in this rare recording. This recording was made in 1961 by the Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Milano della Rai with conductor Gianandrea Gavazzeni.

Mahler: Symphony No. 1

Also available in Blu-ray!

Rameau’s first opera Hippolyte et Aricie delivered a lyrical tragedy of such extraordinary intensity it changed the course of French music, stunning and overwhelming its audiences. This breathtaking spectacle involves prince Hippolyte, who asks his mother-in-law Queen Phédre for help in wooing the beautiful Aricie, little knowing that Phèdre secretly wants Hippolyte for herself. In a single work Rameau re-invented tragédie en musique with dramatic expressiveness and shocking harmonic innovations. It is seen here in an acclaimed Opéra Comique production that personifies Rameau’s assertion that ‘music must speak to the soul, its true aim must be to express thoughts, feelings, and passions’.

This compilation brings together popular orchestral works and ballet music by Tchaikovsky. Dmitrij Kitajenko and the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, of which he has been Honorary Conductor since 2009, have recorded the complete symphonies by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. These recordings have been awarded with numerous international prizes and are considered important reference recordings. Their recording of Tchaikovsky’s opera Iolanta in 2015 (with Olesya Golovneva, Alexander Vinogradov and Andrei Bondarenko in the lead roles) caused a sensation, and it received the Opera of the Year Award of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA).

The 150th anniversary celebrations of Florence, Capital of the Kingdom of Italy (1865-2015) create an opportunity to know and appreciate the voices of the two precious organs preserved in the basilica of San Lorenzo, and the music composed by musicians active in Florence. The organ built by Fratelli Serassi in 1864, with more than 60 registers and three keyboards, is one of the most impressive and unique of its time. The Renaissance-era organ dates to the mid-15th c. The recording features Florentine works from the Renaissance, Classical and Romantic eras, many of which are world premieres.

Classical Music

Also available in Blu-ray!

The award-winning Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin has become one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras on period instruments. These concerts reveal some of the foundations of Beethoven’s genius, and capture vital performances from the 2020 SWR Schwetzingen Festival, the biggest radio festival for classical music in the world. Robert Schumann pointed out similarities between Méhul’s First Symphony and Beethoven’s Fifth, and these third and fourth concerts in the cycle also include a tempest by Holzbauer that precedes Beethoven’s by half a century, plus the little-known Le portrait musical de la nature by Justin Heinrich Knecht, a work that also anticipates Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony. The first and second concerts are also available on Naxos.