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Stravinsky in Hollywood, a film by Michael Capalbo, tells the story of an "old school" European artist knocking heads with the brash New World. The documentary uses a combination of existing archival footage (some never before seen), interviews with Stravinsky and his assistant Robert Craft, and premieres several big studio film scenes of the 40s with music Stravinsky wrote for them.

Three examples of Leonard Bernstein’s vocal art can be heard in this recording. His Symphony No. 3 ‘Kaddish’ shuns traditional symphonic ideas in favor of an eclectic theatrical and oratorio-like form with a prominent rôle for speaker. For this recording, Marin Alsop has returned to the work’s original narrative text, heard before the 1977 revision. The Lark – heard in a concert version with added narration – derives from Lillian Hellman’s adaptation of L’Alouette on the life of Joan of Arc, and it was this music that Bernstein reworked into his Missa Brevis many years later. Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony since 2007 and Principal Conductor the São Paulo Symphony since 2013, the NYC-born Marin Alsop is recognized across the world for her innovative programming as well as her bold, audience-expanding community and education outreach initiatives.

REVIEWS:

Under Alsop's baton, the Baltimore Symphony realizes Bernstein’s extraordinary orchestral effects in ways that will both scarify you and tug at your heartstrings; and while the text is still the embarrassment it always was, narrator Claire Bloom delivers it as if it were Shakespearian prose. She believes in the part and gives it a powerful reading. Soprano Kelley Nassief will melt your heart in her “Kaddish 2” movement solo, and both the boy and adult choirs are superb. I’m really glad to have this performance, especially since my Columbia LP has disappeared and this is now the only recording I have of the original 1963 work. It’s a fantastic performance and a spectacular recording.

– Fanfare

Kaddish is recorded here in a performance of great conviction from Marin Alsop, with the wonderful Claire Bloom achieving a happy medium between the declamatory and the confidential. There are instances of pure gold - a consoling lullaby at the heart of the piece (featuring limpid soprano Kelley Nassief) which Bernstein called his 'Pietà'.

- Gramophone Magazine

Prior to becoming Principle Guest Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Andrey Boreyko served as chief conductor of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra from and is currently in the same position with the Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra. In his first recording for Henssler CLASSIC, Maestro Boreyko delivered what has come to be regarded as one of the definitive recordings of Shostakovich's difficult and emotionally searing Fourth Symphony. For this new release, Boreyko returns with what will surely become benchmark versions of two equally difficult Shostakovich scores.

After their very successful album release, Zukva, on ARC Music in January 2016, Divanhana are back with a live album featuring their sold-out show in their homeland, Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina. Divanhana performs traditional music in new arrangements created with influences from jazz, pop and twentieth century classical music. Divanhana’s intention is to present the urban traditional music, not only from Bosnia and Herzegovina, but from the whole Balkan region, with a particular accent on Sevdalinka. “Supple sevdah from young, gifted Sarajevans… Divanhana are a young band but a very confident one… They can play sevdah with the right mix of dynamic pace and epic melancholy…” (Songlines UK) “…Divanhana’s sound is simultaneously rooted in the tradition and outward looking, their music dancing with breathtaking inventiveness. By turns romantic and upbeat, the sevdah music of Bosnia and Herzegovina is beautifully showcased from these hugely talented and inventive musicians.” (R2, UK)

Vocal Recital: Grummer, Elisabeth - MOZART, W.A. / SCHUBERT,

Vaughan Williams, R.: Mass in G Minor / Silence and Music /

Despite the limitations of life in his Salzburg birthplace - and the patronage of a new and somewhat unsympathetic Prince-Archbishop - opportunities nevertheless presented themselves to Mozart. Following a commission for Il re pastore in 1775, he wrote a sequence of violin concertos that reveal his own performer’s understanding of the instrument. The concertos are suffused with elegance and refinement and charged with vivacity and wit. His mastery of solo violin cantilena is matched by prodigious melodic invention and moments of exotic colour, such as the Turkish episode in the Rondeau finale of K.219.

With this recording Septura answers the question, “what if the greatest Christmas music had been written for brass?” In arrangements that go far beyond Yultide clichés, Septura has carefully crafted a programme that explores virtuosity and festive celebration in pieces such as the Christmas Suite with music by J.S. Bach, rapturous serenity from the likes of Robert Parson´s beautiful Ave Maria, and nostalgic favourites such as the ravishingly polyphonic The Three Kings by Peter Cornelius. Septura pushes its colours and combinations to the limit in re-imagining this varied selection of sublime Christmas music from the past 450 years.

REVIEW:

The English brass septet Septura's ensemble work is unimpeachable, but where they break new ground is in their arrangements, which both draw on a slightly wider range of sources than usual and have a more varied selection of textures. The program starts off normally enough with Schütz, Bach, and Praetorius, but brings some delightful surprises in the middle parts, such as arrangements of two sections from Rachmaninoff’s Vespers. There’s nothing to make this collection unsuitable for festive holiday listening, and indeed it will fill the bill elegantly in that regard.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

John Huston’s 1956 film adaptation of Melville’s epic novel Moby Dick is a genuine grand movie adventure. For it, Phillip Sainton (1897-1967) produced one of the most vibrant “sea scores” ever written, from the shimmering, rhapsodic depictions of the becalmed ocean to the thrilling, earth-shaking whale motif. Including music omitted from the soundtrack, this recording was widely acclaimed upon its original release, with Gramophone considering the score to be “music of richly stocked imagination…” “… anyone who enjoys Finzi and Howells will find Sainton’s music equally appealing …” (ClassicsToday)

Mozart himself saw the advantages of creating more accessible versions of his concertos in reduced instrumentation. Ignaz Lachner followed common 19th-century practice by leaving the piano parts of these concertos intact and making splendid transcriptions of the orchestra parts using only a string quartet with added bass. K. 488 and K. 491 are two of Mozart’s greatest and most popular piano concertos. These chamber versions throw an intense and intimate new light on familiar music. Alon Goldstein is one of the most original and sensitive pianists of his generation, admired for his musical intelligence and dynamic personality. His career as a soloist has taken him all over the world, working with leading orchestras and conductors. The Fine Arts Quartet ranks among the most distinguished ensembles in chamber music today, with an illustrious history of performing success and an extensive legacy of over 200 recorded works.

The works of Thierry Pécou have brought something back into contemporary European music that had almost been forgotten: the sound of Latin America. Thierry Pécou is French, and his Latin America is the product of a creative fantasy that grew out of a desire to explore the nearly extinct Pre-Colombian cultures of Central and South America. Any assumption, however, that these are simply the exotic longings of a European culture tourist would be false. Pécou, who grew up in a Paris suburb and graduated from the Paris Conservatory, has Caribbean ancestors, and so his musical search for roots is also a personal journey of discovery. He is at home in two cultures. One is the culture of career and daily life; the other continues to exist only as a projection arising from the depths of the individual personality – a world which, not only for Pécou himself, has become impossibly distant in a cultural and historical sense. Thierry Pécou’s dreamed landscapes of sound can also be seen as an expression of this search for the ruins of a lost culture. With ritualistic repetitive structures, mysterious depths, and strongly physical sounds, his music conjures up an archaic past, but the colors he uses are those of a symphony orchestra, even though these colors are often placed in unusual or exotic constellations. “My position is somewhat ambiguous, because I am a European, even though I have certain roots in these places (Central America). At the same time, I also want to better understand the Mexican people and their history, for example, and hopefully contribute to the search for their own truth and their own roots.” - Thierry Pécou

Chant for quiet meditation Timeless music from the early church, it's rites and it's rituals, creates an unhurried atmosphere of calm. Vocal plainchant and instrumental music combine to envoke the medieval world in sound with fine performances from groups new to the Gift of Music: The Oxford Clerkes and the stunning musicians of Le Basile.

An eclectic collection, colourful and often arresting.

Mussorgsky’s Pictures were originally composed for the piano. In that form he created a spacious canvas necessitating something of a symphonic sound from the piano. This proved exquisitely demanding and only a few brave pianists, including Prokofiev, dared to scale its fearsome crags. Maurice Ravel, to whom we owe its renown, was paid 10,000 francs to orchestrate it for Serge Koussevitzky. But as one might look at and interpret a picture in many different ways so then different sonic paint brushes might offer alternative views and insights? Thus Leonard Slatkin’s notion to bring together an eclectic selection of arrangements, some quite outlandish, might seem fresh and appealing?

D. Wilson-Ochoa is the Nashville Symphony’s Principal Music Librarian and former horn player. His neat opening ‘Promenade’ [1] was arranged, using woodwinds, at first, then pizzicato strings. This walking bass/cello line leads into the orchestral build-up, to give the impression of the visitor arriving at the gallery with mounting excitement and anticipation of seeing its treasures. Sergey Gorchakov’s portrait of Gnomus [2] is simpler, more sober and menacing than Ravel’s; his colours darker. Walter Goehr’s ‘Promenade’ [3] is calmly introspective as the visitor passes thoughtfully on; it features sensitive use of solo strings, double woodwind and muted brass. Emile Naoumoff’s entrancing arrangement of Il vecchio castello [4] has, at its heart, a glistening piano solo with woodwinds and cellos sounding the lilting Italian Sicilienne – absolutely gorgeous. Van Keulen’s ‘Promenade’ [5] is a much grander walk while his Tuileries [6] is a perky arrangement full of childish mischief and high spirits. Wind and brass are delicately mixed - woodwinds supported by muted trombones and trumpet – to create an appealing pastel. Conductor/pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy makes an impact with four horns in unison. Low strings and heavy percussion are used to underline the heaviness of Bydlo his picture of the Polish cart on enormous wheels [7].

Carl Simpson’s ‘Promenade’ [8] is brief and straightforward but with an unexpected cheeky cheep anticipating – Ballet of the unhatched chicks [9]. Lucien Cailliet was a student of Vincent D’Indy, His arrangement exerts his imaginative faculties to the full, out Ravel-ing Ravel. He makes exuberant use of wood-block, rattle and a flutter-tonguing blast from the trumpet. Sir Henry Wood’s vision of the Two Jews … [10] markedly underlines the differences between the two: the rich one glowering and overwhelming and the cowering pauper. The next ‘Promenade’ [11] (and the one that Ravel left out) is by Lawrence Leonard. It’s grand too , in terms of its rich harmonies and orchestrations; carrying on the self-regarded magnificence - one might say - of the rich Jew. Leo Funtek’s picture of French women arguing around a market square in Limoges, Le marché [12] makes for a snappy riot of colour. Funtek surmounts its challenges of articulation through its brief 1:26 of presto writing. The Catacombae [13] of John Boyd, demonstrates his experience with wind, brass and percussion. It is a haunted subterranean vision and is more menacing than Ravel’s portrait. It leads seamlessly into Ravel’s own arrangement of Con mortuis in lingua mortua [14]. As David Nice says, “the French master’s subtle halos and shadows remain uniquely evocative.’ That wonderful orchestrator, Leopold Stokowski, adds his characteristically vivid colouring to The hut on fowl’s legs (Baba-Yaga) [15]. This is a satanic portrait using four trumpets and eight horns supported by shrill whistling upper woods, to evoke Baba-Yaga’s terror-filling flight.

The concluding The Bogatyr Gate at Kiev [16] is the most substantial picture. Douglas Gamley paints this massive gate in resplendent colours using to fine effect the chorus of the Nashville Symphony and an organ. What magnificence - magnificence to rival 1812!

Liszt’s first surviving piano concerto was sketched out in 1832, when the composer was 21. It was only orchestrated 17 years later, with the help of the young composer Joachim Raff. Its first performance in 1853 at Weimar was conducted by Berlioz. Revisions followed in 1857. Its three movements are cyclically connected. This striking live recording of Peng Peng’s articulate and polished reading is sturdy in the portentous episodes and sensitively shaded in the quieter and more introspective passages. Slatkin gives sterling support.

Rob Mathes’s arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner was commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra under its conductor Leonard Slatkin. It was conceived as a eulogy on the tragedy of 9/11. This performance - part grandiloquent, part restrained - is affecting.

Instead of the familiar Ravel orchestrations of Mussorgsky’s Pictures here is an eclectic collection of alternatives, always colourful and often arresting.

-- Ian Lace, MusicWeb International

Composer, musicologist, graphic artist and professor Bugoslaw Schaeffer has more than 550 musical works to his credit, across 23 different musical genres, and his 44 plays have been translated into 17 languages. His works have been performed to great acclaim at home and abroad. Born 6th June 1929 in Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine), he died 1st July 2019 in Salzburg. The two works on this release were produced in Polish Radio Experimental Studio, and the featured artists include pianists Kuba Sokolowski and Piotr Zabrodzki, with mastering by Piotr Zabrodzki.

In the 1860s Johannes Brahms composed one of the most beautiful song cycles of the romantic era: Die schöne Magelone. Now baritone Christian Gerhaher, a lied singer of international renown, has joined forces with his longstanding accompanist Gerold Huber to record Brahms’s masterpiece. For Gerhaher, named singer of the year in 2016 by the German trade journal Opernwelt and awarded the coveted Wigmore Medal in England for “outstanding musicianship in opera, oratorio and song”, the project is a dream come true.

The 15 poems that Brahms fashioned into “romances” are taken from Ludwig Tieck’s novella The Wondrous Romance of Magelone the Fair and Peter Count of Provence (1797). Inspired by a medieval legend, it tells of the love of the valiant knight Peter of Provence for Magelone, the daughter of the King of Naples.

In 2011 Christian Gerhaher commissioned the well-known German writer Martin Walser to produce a new version of the text, which he then premièred in Coburg together with Gerold Huber and Walser himself.

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REVIEWS:

It is quite clear that the singer and his longstanding accompanist are absolutely at one—they have been performing together since the beginning. Sound is good and all is clear and well defined. For those seeking a commanding and modern German singer in Brahms—no quibbles, this is for you.

– Fanfare

Gerhaher is more compelling in this music even than Fischer-Dieskau is in his classic recording with Sviatoslav Richter. Gerhaher and Gerold Huber sound more athletic in the vigorous songs, and the baritone is more rapt and spiritual in the famous Ruhe.

– Sunday Times (UK)

The longest work in Brahms’s entire oeuvre, A German Requiem was almost certainly triggered by the death of his mother, although it also seems likely that the tragic loss of his friend Robert Schumann, some years earlier, added to its depth and eloquence. Taking inspiration from Bach’s contrapuntal genius but avoiding overt religious tradition, Brahms chose the texts himself, placing an emphasis on an affirmation of life with the suggestion that he would gladly have substituted ‘human’ for ‘German’ in the title. This release joins Antoni Wit’s ‘richly satisfying’ (Gramophone) recording of Brahms Choral Music [8.572694].

"The Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, a highly capable of the most subtle gradations of tone, is always here the centre of creativity, creating the music’s existential continuum and arising to sombre unexpected splendour at ‘Die Erlöseten des Herrn’ and ‘Der Gerechten Seelen sind in Gottes Hand'...There is some beautiful orchestral playing."
-- BBC Music Magazine [5/2014]

"The Warsaw Philharmonic Choir sings beautifully throughout…Of the soloists, Christiane Libor and Thomas E. Bauer are excellent singers and the orchestra is also first-class...Wit conducts with considerable insight and interpretative command and the recording quality is equally first-rate."
-- International Record Review [5/2014]

"The Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir outdo themselves, with some especially fabulous singing that is worth the price of the disc alone. As for the orchestral contributions, Wit uncovers all sorts of wonderful details in the low strings and winds, his expansive vision allowing for a huge emotional expressive range. Attention to dynamics, especially in the singing, is simply tremendous. This is really moving."
-- Brian Wigman, Classical Net [6/2014]

Alessio Bax plays an Italian inspired programme, picking his favourite pieces taken from a rich history of music from one of the most romantic countries in the world.

He opens the programme with a J.S. Bach transcription of a oboe concerto by Venetian composer Alessandro Marcello, which reveals a deep insight into Bach’s mind. This is followed by Rachmaninov’s last ever work for solo piano, which is incredibly eloquent, introspective and personal. The Dallapiccola continues this eloquent theme, showing some beautifully crafted dodecaphonism. The recording is rounded off with two pieces of Liszt, which take the listener on a multi-legged journey through hell, purgatory and heaven, with beauty and drama along the way.



REVIEW:

This Italian’s salute to his home country is inspired indeed. The standout performance is a spellbinding account of the Dante Sonata in which Bax masterfully combines scrupulous observation of Liszt’s agogics and dynamics (trusting the composer here really does pay dividends) with quite thrilling bravura in which he throws caution to the wind. Few accounts of the first two pages are so filled with menace and mystery.

– Gramophone

Classical Music

Schoenberg' polyphonic tone poem Pelleas und Melisande is often compared to Debussy' opera based on the same text by Maurice Maeterlinck. According to the composer, "The first performance, 1905, in Vienna, under my own direction, provoked riots amo.

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Also available on standard DVD

Franz Welser-Möst has conducted The Cleveland Orchestra in a series of acclaimed video and audio productions, further enhancing the ensemble’s storied recorded legacy. At the Anniversary Gala on September 29, 2018, documented in the present video recording, he programmed works touching on more than a century of Viennese musical traditions. Opening with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24, featuring soloist Lang Lang, a regular collaborator with the orchestra since 2000, it also includes works by Richard and Johann Strauss, concluding with Ravel’s cataclysmic La Valse. The Cleveland Orchestra was founded in 1918. Over the ensuing decades, the Orchestra quickly grew from a fine regional organization to being one of the most admired symphony orchestras in the world. Seven music directors have guided and shaped the ensemble’s growth and sound: Nikolai Sokoloff, Artur Rodzinski, Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Franz Welser-Möst. The opening in 1931 of Severance Hall as the Orchestra’s permanent home brought a special pride to the ensemble and its hometown, as well as providing an enviable and intimate acoustic environment in which to develop and refine the Orchestra’s artistry. Touring performances throughout the United States and, beginning in 1957, to Europe and across the globe have confirmed Cleveland’s place among the world’s top orchestras. For this anniversary concert, The Cleveland Orchestra will be joined by none less than world famous pianist Lang Lang. Heralded by the New York times as “the hottest artist on the classical music planet,” Lang Lang works with many of the best classical musicians of our time. He first appeared with The Cleveland Orchestra in 2000.