•Gustav Mahler’s Sixth Symphony employs the largest orchestral apparatus he ever used. It is a work of extremes, from the Andante’s main, sweetly cantabile theme to the chordal agglomerations breaking out in triple forte “with raw force” at the centre of the Finale’s development section, to its final, inevitable catastrophic ending. This next-to-last release in the OehmsClassics Mahler SACDcycle presents a live recording from the Cologne Philharmonie made in November 2013.
This OehmsClassics release of Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony coupled with sole Mahler-completed movement (Adagio) from the Tenth signals the completion of the Markus Stenz led Mahler cycle with the Gürzenich Orchestra, Köln. Critical acclaim for this cycle has been outstanding, with the Third and Seventh Symphonies in particular being singled out as among the finest recordings currently available. 2013-14 marked Mr. Stenz’s tenth and final season as Principal Conductor of the Gürzenich Orchestra.
Mussorgsky: St. John's Night on Bald Mountain & Songs and Da
Oehms Classics
CD
$7.49$14.99Save 50%Jun 16, 2017
A Witches' Sabbath, A Little Dance with the Grim Reaper and The Battle on the Ice. The author of the programme booklet of this album, Hartmut Luck, gave these headings to the three magnificent works recorded for OehmsClassics by the Gurzenich Orchestra with Dmitrij Kitajenko. The Gurzenich Orchestra of Cologne and its Honorary Conductor since 2009, Dmitrij Kitajenko, have been united in an outstanding collaboration lasting over the course of decades. Their Tchaikovsky cycle, already now considered a reference recording, was completed in early 2014 with the Seventh Symphony and the Third Piano Concerto. Their recording of Tchaikovsky's one act opera Iolanta issued in the summer of 2015, with Olesya Golovneva, Alexander Vinogradov and Andrei Bondarenko in the leading roles, created a sensation and received outstanding reviews in the international specialist press. This highly successful artistic collaboration was continued with an equally highly praised Rachmaninoff cycle. The Gurzenich Orchestra of Cologne and Dmitrij Kitajenko have dedicated their latest recording to Tchaikovsky's complete ballet music to The Nutcracker as well as Stravinsky's Divertimento from The Fairy's Kiss.
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 Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne with its Conductor Laureate Dmitri Kitaienko proudly present magical music illustrating the story of Nutcracker and Mouse King by E. T. A. Hoffmann and Alexandre Dumas. A Nutcracker performance can hardly be more authentic than this – especially since the artists are presenting us here with the entire ballet, not merely the Suite (Op. 71a). The ballet is complemented by the Suite from The Fairy’s Kiss by Stravinsky – composed in 1928 and arranged a number of times. It became world famous through the choreography by George Balanchine for the old New York Metropolitan Opera in 1937, later also for the City Center of Music and Drama as well as Lincoln Center, New York.
Bruckner‘s Third - a creative history that is unique even for the great Austrian romantic. No other of his symphonies has been revised, reshaped and reissued more often. Yet the first version from 1873, which François-Xavier Roth has chosen for this recording, bristles with boldness and the joy of experimentation. Here, the reminiscence of Beethoven‘s Ninth and the works of the dedicatee Richard Wagner is almost tangible. With this recording, François-Xavier Roth and the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln continue the highly acclaimed Bruckner Symphonies cycle and, with great attention to detail, once again present the „unvarnished“ Bruckner, groundbreaking, virtuosic and refined.
