The fourth volume in this series explores a pivotal decade in Claudio Santoro's compositions, traversing his move from serialism towards nationalism. The release starts with the transitional, reflective Canto de Amor e Paz and continues with Symphony No. 4, one of his most accessible and influential works, and his brief Symphony No. 6 of 1958. The concertante works for saxophone and violin show his command of dance rhythms, colourful lyricism and virtuosity.

The Catalan Roberto Gerhard studied piano with Granados, and was the only Spanish composer to study with Arnold Schoenberg. It was, however, over twenty years before he committed himself to writing twelve-tone music. In the interim, his output brought a new focus and precision (owing more to Stravinsky and Bartok) to the Spanish style. All the works on this album were composed in that period. Dating from the early 1940s, his ballet Alegrias was originally conceived for two pianos, but soon evolved into the four-movement suite heard here. The flamenco-inspired movements are linked in pairs, and show Gerhard's brilliance and humour in equal measure. During this same period Gerhard decided to mark the centenary of his first teacher, Felipe Pedrell (who had also taught Albeniz, Granados, and de Falla), with a three-movement symphony, Homenaje a Pedrell (CHAN 9693). Gerhard failed to secure a performance of the work, but in 1954 was invited to re-work the final movement for a BBC Symphony Orchestra concert, which became Pedrelliana. Gerhard's ballet on episodes from Cervantes's Don Quixote evolved for almost a decade, from a work for chamber orchestra, for a touring company (abandoned because of the war), via a version for radio and an expanded orchestral suite, to the work recorded here, in it's full and final orchestration for performances at the Royal Opera House in 1950, choreographed by Ninette de Valois. Robert Helpmann danced the title role and Margot Fonteyn Dulcinea.

If you’ve seen the Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro”, you’ve seen and heard The Orchestra Now, the exceptional ensemble that appears in the movie’s Tanglewood Music Festival scene. The Orchestra Now (TON), a New York-based graduate-level training orchestra comprised of the most vibrant young musicians from around the globe, was founded by conductor, educator and music historian Leon Botstein, whose insatiable curiosity has resulted in rescuing countless musical works from oblivion. Their first recording for AVIE, “The Lost Generation”, brings together three German-speaking composers who were contemporaries of Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg, but whose music became supressed by historical events of the 20th century.

In November 2022, TON gave the US premiere of Hugo Kauder’s Symphony No. 1, a “splendid” work that “made a splash” (New York Classical Review). The largely self-taught Moravian-born composer had a distinguished career in Vienna until he was forced to flee the Nazis and arrived in New York in 1938. The first of Kauder’s five symphonies was dedicated to Alma Mahler. Whilst his musical language is rooted in the tradition of Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler, he forged an individual voice with his ease and flexibility of harmonic and metrical shifts.

German-born, Austrian composer Hans Erich Apostel studied with Schoenberg and Berg. His works incorporated his mentors’ expressionism and 12-tone methods in equal measure. The Nazis deemed Apostel’s music “degenerate”, but he lived out his life in Vienna until his death in 1972. His Variations on a theme by Haydn, performed frequently in the mid-20th century, is an homage to the second movement of Haydn’s Symphony No. 103, the “Drum Roll, which itself comprises variations on a theme.

Adolf Busch, one of the most celebrated violinists and chamber musicians of the 20th century, was also a prolific composer. A staunch opponent of Nazism, he left his native Germany, arriving first in Switzerland and eventually the United States in 1939. A late Romantic compositional style imbues his Variations on an Original Theme, originally for piano four hands and presented to his wife as a Christmas present in 1944. Busch’s longtime chamber music partner and son-in-law, the pianist Rudolf Serkin, frequently performed the work with his son Peter, who made this orchestration of his grandfather’s composition, in a familial labor of love.

The Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra enjoyed a long and intensive artistic collaboration, which came to an abrupt end with Haitink's death in October 2021. BRKLASSIK now presents outstanding and previously unreleased live recordings of their concerts from past years. This recording of Dvorak's Seventh Symphony documents a concert given in March 1981 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. The "Scherzo capriccioso" is a studio recording, also from March 1981. Following the success of Antonin Dvorak's first visit to London in 1884, the London Philharmonic Society asked him to return the following year and to compose a new symphony for the occasion. It was an honourable request - after all, the London Philharmonic Society had commissioned Beethoven's Ninth Symphony six decades earlier! When Dvorak began sketching out the symphony on December 13, 1884, he was well aware of the high expectations involved - both his own and those of others. Most music critics and Dvorak biographers, however, have struggled with the interpretation of this exceptional piece. For example, it has been interpreted "politically" against the background of the growing German-Czech tensions of those years. But the existential power of the D minor Symphony - it's anger, it's expansive pessimism, i.e. it's confessional character - may also derive from the biography and personality of it's composer, which were probably far more complex, painful and problematic than any "Bohemian idyll" we might assume. Even in Dvorak's Eighth Symphony, which is considered to be more cheerful, and in his last symphony, "From the New World", one can still detect a more or less latent tendency towards tragic longing. The world premiere of the Seventh Symphony took place on April 22, 1885 in London, with the composer conducting. It became one of Dvorak's greatest successes. Dvorak's Scherzo capriccioso of 1883 is certainly more than just a filler on this CD. The fact that it is more dramatic and passionate than it's playful title suggests is probably due to the fact that it was written at a time of crisis in the composer's life. The work is an elaborate composition of convincing craftsmanship

Among Simon Rattle's first concert programs as the new chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra was Gustav Mahler's Sixth Symphony. The performances marked the beginning of a new chapter in Mahler interpretation, for Rattle, like his predecessors Jansons, Maazel and Kubelík, is an ardent admirer of the composer. BR-KLASSIK has now released the live recording of the concerts.

Gustav Mahler's Sixth Symphony is perhaps the darkest work he ever wrote – its nickname is "The Tragic". And there is something almost destructive about the final movement. "But strangely enough," says Simon Rattle, "it is also a very classical symphony. Yes, it is extreme, but for long stretches it is less wild than other works of his – although of course it does convey a harrowing message. But it's like a lot of great works: there are always different ways of reading them. I've been conducting the Sixth for forty years now, and over time I’ve come to realise that it also contains hope."

Anton Bruckner 200 (1824-2024)

Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra were linked by a long and intensive artistic collaboration, brought to an abrupt end by his death in October 2021. BR-KLASSIK now presents outstanding and as yet unreleased live recordings of concerts from the past years.

This recording of Bruckner's "Te Deum" and his Eighth Symphony (version by Robert Haas, 1939) documents concerts performed in the Philharmonie im Gasteig in November 2010, and in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz in December 1993.

"These six overtures were recorded in a single day, November 22, 1958, at Orchestra Hall in Chicago. Intended originally by RCA Victor to be the stereophonic successor to Toscanini's recordings of five of the six, Reiner in this recording held to tempos in many cases a few seconds faster than Toscanini's; yet, notwithstanding, he managed to inject an element of geniality into the music absent in Toscanini's vivid thrust and forward drive. No one, however, could make The Barber of Seville Overture scintillate the way Toscanini did, be it with the New York Philharmonic or the NBC Symphony , but Reiner does bring a liquidity to the score that is quite refreshing. Reiner's The Thieving Magpie Overture and II Signor Bruschino Overture are even more successful, with sharp detail, bravura, and panache, totally exhilarating in their sparkling frothiness. Conversely, there is a decided lushness in the opening of The Silken Ladder Overture and in Reiner's approach to the Cinderella Overture that may not appeal to those who want the refined polish Karajan brought to the former or the tauter rhythms and dry finesse Abbado brought to the latter; but Reiner could, for all his discipline and precision, be a musical sybarite at times and he obviously relished this music. As if to make up for it, his opening to the William Tell Overture is more reserved, lacking the immediate plunge into darkness and mystery that characterized Toscanini's way with this music or the dramatic intensity of Leonard Bernstein in what is my preferred recording of it (but, actually, Reiner is only toying with the listener, holding back so he can finish in a flourish of brass that generates terrific excitement. The original recordings were magnificent sonically and that warmth, lushness, clarity, and vigor have been quite successfully transferred to the new format."

-- Jon Tuska, Fanfare [9/1990] Reviewing RCA 60387

After his highly variable Mahler cycle, it's very good to be able to report that David Zinman is back in top form for Brahms. For the most part, these are splendid performances, beautifully played and recorded. The very opening of the First symphony sets the tone: rich, emphatic, but not exaggerated. Textures are clear, bass lines unusually audible. Zinman handles some of Brahms' most intransigent bits of orchestration, such as the opening of the Third symphony, with its perpetually syncopated accompaniment, with effortless mastery. The inner movements of all four symphonies are without exception perfectly paced, including the slow movements of the Second and Fourth symphonies.

Are there a few quibbles? Naturally. The introduction to the First symphony's finale lacks mystery, while the coda of the Second symphony's finale would have benefited from slightly more prominent brass and a surge of additional energy from the podium. On the other hand, the finale of the Third never has sounded better, the coda tremendously fulfilling, while the Fourth's passacaglia is really imposing, but also energetic. Here the trombones truly make their presence felt. In short, this set stands with the best, and I suspect its stature will only grow over time.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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Brahms had a special connection with Zurich. He attended the opening of the Tonhalle, the city’s famous concert hall, in 1895 and was the only living composer to be featured on the ceiling painting; it’s reproduced in the booklet for this set, part of the altogether splendid packaging. The latter-day descendants of the orchestra for that opening concert have here given us a cycle of symphonies with which I am sure the composer would have been very pleased.

The first thing that strikes you is the beauty and colour of the playing. Both times I’ve heard them live, it’s the Tonhalle strings that have impressed me most, rich and rounded, oozing with character. This makes them ideal for Brahms. The mellow beauty of the Second’s first movement suits them perfectly, but they also develop a distinctive sheen, even a slight hard edge, for the more high energy moments, such as the opening movement of the First or the invigorating downward sweep that opens the Third. There is also some sensational wind playing and some first rate solos, such as the oboe in the First and the clarinet in the slow movements of the Third and Fourth. The playing alone would be worth the asking price, but it’s Zinman’s dynamic conducting that holds the set together. His reading of each symphony carries a clear sense of a transformational journey which, for me, went beyond the ordinary. The transition from darkness to light in the First is obvious, but Zinman breaks it down still further so that there is ebb and flow in each movement: in the first movement’s Allegro, for example, there is an almost tangible feeling of the drama and tension of the first subject being tamed by the gentler lyricism of the second. The Second carries a steady trajectory towards the celebration of the finale, but Zinman takes this movement just a touch slower than many so that the ebullience is contained within a certain set of rules. The Third also seems to go on a steady path from the exhilaration of the opening to an increasing sense of melancholy which is almost - but not quite - solved by the finale. Only in the first two movements of the Fourth was that sense of direction a little lacking. The tension and energy ups dramatically with the Scherzo and the final Passacaglia becomes so intense as to be almost unbearable.

It helps that these live recordings were all taped within two days, so we have here an unusually coherent reading of Brahms’ symphonic oeuvre. Sections of the press have damned this set with faint praise, calling it a safe middle-of-the-road Brahms cycle, but for me it’s much more than that: it’s an intelligent, well argued reading of this great cycle which stands comparison with any Brahms set that has come my way in recent years. Zinman is very much in the traditional mould of Brahms interpreters, eschewing the approaches of Harnoncourt or Gardiner, but he argues convincingly that there is still a place for this in our 21st century and he certainly carried me along with him. The sound, by the way, is excellent, rich and bloomy with plenty of clarity for the inner voices.

Incidentally, for those who are interested in such things, Zinman observes all the exposition repeats. Live as these recordings are, the audience is exceptionally well behaved and there is not a hint of a cough throughout. Applause, and there must have been much, is also absent. My only quibble is that the CDs give us barely any time to digest one movement before the next begins, surely an unnecessary compression of space when there is so much spare time on each disc.

-- Simon Thompson, MusicWeb International

This recording is the second of a highly-rated three-volume Stravinsky series recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with then Principal Conductor (now Conductor Emeritus) Vladimir Jurowski. This series documents Jurowski's year-long Stravinsky festival with the LPO in 2018, 'Changing Faces'. The festival surveyed Stravinsky's works, programed chronologically alongside his influences and those he influenced. The Fairy's Kiss is a work close to Jurowski's heart. The LPO had performed this work 17 times under his baton by the time of this recording, and the partnership between the conductor and the Orchestra culminates in this performance. It is rare to find a live performance recording of The Sleeping Beauty excerpts. The most recent commercial recording of the Pas de deux was 2012. Stravinsky was in the audience, as an 8-year old, for the premiere performance of Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty, a performance that was to have a profound effect on him as a composer. Stravinsky's music in the hands of Jurowski delivers live in concert a focus and clarity that is beautifully preserved and realised on these recordings.

The Estonian composer Mihkel Kerem - born in Tallinn in 1981 and Joint Assistant Leader in the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra since 2015 - used the Covid lockdown to produce no fewer than four symphonies, two of them, his Seventh and Eighth, conceived as a contrasting pair. Kerem's dark and ominous Seventh Symphony, like that of Sibelius, plots a huge sonata-form arch, growing from and back into it's opening material. It's soundworld sits somewhere between Sibelius and Schnittke, combining a sense of natural symphonic growth with dramatic twists of kaleidoscopic textural variety. No. 8, which also nods to Sibelius' Seventh by quoting it's celebrated trombone theme, is a vast, unhurried accelerando, it's three linked movements tapping into the Nordic-Baltic tradition of using the controlled power of the orchestra to suggest the vastness of nature.

This fifth volume of the orchestral works of the late-Romantic Swiss composer Richard Flury (1896-1967) brings two works deeply bound up with his native Solothurn, in the north-west of the country. His Fastnachts-Sinfonie, or 'Carnival Symphony', is an expansive symphonic poem predicated on local legend and folk tradition, embracing both frolic and feeling. The Third Symphony - in which one can hear traces of Bruckner, and Richard Strauss - celebrates the rolling hills and endless skies of the Bucheggberg, where he loved to go walking, and where, the freewheeling music would suggest, his heart found freedom.

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) in 2024, the BR-KLASSIK label is releasing previously unreleased recordings of concerts worth listening to, available on CD and as a stream.

Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony remains today one of the greatest and most powerful creations of the Late Romantic period. The immense symphony, longer and more monumental than others, incorporates texts from the collection of poems by Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim entitled “Des Knaben Wunderhorn”. Composed over a period of four years from 1892 to 1896, with particular focus during the summers of 1895 and 1896 spent at the Attersee in Austria, it was premiered in its entirety on June 9, 1902, at the 38th “Tonkünstler Festival” in Krefeld. Mahler conducted the Städtische Kapelle Krefeld and Cologne’s Gürzenich Orchestra at this momentous event, which garnered great acclaim from his contemporaries. Between 1902 and 1907, the composer conducted his Third Symphony a further 15 times.

Among the symphony's six powerful movements, the slow fourth movement necessitates not only a large orchestra but also a mezzo-soprano solo for a setting of the “Midnight Song” (“O Man! Take heed!”) from Friedrich Nietzsche's poetical-philosophical work "Thus Spoke Zarathustra." In the cheerful fifth movement, the mezzo-soprano soloist is joined by a children’s choir and a female chorus for the song "Es sungen drei Engel" from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn." The symphony presents a significant challenge for all its performers, and this concert recording from December 2010 features a prestigious lineup: Mariss Jansons conducting the Chor and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, with the Tölzer Knabenchor, and solo parts sung by Nathalie Stutzmann.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra and it's Music Director Jader Bignamini present Wynton Marsalis' Blues Symphony. The piece is a triumphant ode to the power of the blues and the scope of America's musical heritage. With a blend of influences from ragtime to habanera, the piece takes listeners on a sonic journey through America's revolutionary era, the early beginnings of jazz in New Orleans, and a big city soundscape that serves as a nod to the Great Migration. Detroit being one of the most vibrant melting pots of musical cultures in the US, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra seems the ideal advocate for this original contribution to the symphonic repertoire. The recording is also the first with Jader Bignamini, giving a new dimension to his music directorship. Wynton Marsalis is a world-renowned trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and a leading advocate of American culture. Jader Bignamini has worked with the world's leading orchestras and opera companies, preferably conducting without a score to guarantee maximum engagement with his players. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, America's fourth-oldest, has a history as varied and exciting as that of it's hometown.

This album celebrates a warm and close musical relationship between composer, conductor, and orchestra - and the extraordinary impact the Covid pandemic had on British cultural life. Sir Mark and the Hallé commissioned and premiered the works on this album between 2020 and 2025, with Huw Watkins writing with the specific sound of the Hallé in mind. Symphony No. 2 and Fanfare for the Hallé were born of the pandemic. The symphony was composed during Covid lockdown, and Watkins said this influenced the work's character, with a determination that it should end positively. This is uplifting music, crafted in a symphonic tradition whilst offering a fresh voice and skilful use of instrumental writing. The performance was awarded the South Bank Sky Arts Classical Music Award for 2022. The Fanfare for the Hallé was commissioned by the Hallé to celebrate the return of the orchestra to the concert platform following the first Covid lockdown. Scored for 11 brass instruments, the work moves from a tentative beginning to a confident and defiant conclusion - arguably reflecting much of the national mood during the pandemic. Following almost a quarter of a century as Music Director of the Hallé, Sir Mark premiered Watkins' Concerto for Orchestra in his first concert as Conductor Emeritus. The piece particularly reflects the qualities of the orchestra and it's musicians, and their longstanding relationship with Sir Mark. The work exudes positivity, with rhythmic deftness and highly effective orchestral colourations, displaying the musical strengths of all sections of the orchestra, in writing that is beguiling and joyous.

The St. Louis Symphony and their music director Stéphane Denève present a program featuring two of the most accomplished American composers in history: Leonard Bernstein with his Serenade and John Williams with his Violin Concerto, both performed by star James Ehnes, one of the most exceptional North American violinists. John Williams himself was present at the recording of his violin concerto, working together with the St. Louis Symphony, Denève, and Ehnes.

Both works evolve around love: Bernstein’s Serenade was inspired by musings on love from Plato’s Symposium while Williams’s work was arguably inspired and eventually dedicated to his suddenly deceased wife. By combining these two concert pieces, this album puts the symphonic work of Bernstein and Williams at the center, two composers who weren’t afraid of crossing the boundaries between film music and “serious” classical genres at a time when these worlds were generally kept far apart. Especially in Williams' concerto, there are still hints of his work as a film composer; the slow movement brings to mind a scene of emotional gravity.

Widely considered one of the world's finest orchestras, the SLSO maintains its commitment to artistic excellence, educational impact, and community connections. The St. Louis Symphony, Stéphane Denève, and James Ehnes all make their Pentatone debut.

REVIEWS:

Dutch label Pentatone continues to champion American orchestras with the Saint Louis Symphony’s recording of violin concertos by John Williams and Leonard Bernstein. Williams dedicated the 1974 Violin Concerto No. 1 to his late wife, the actress Barbara Ruick. It’s a serious-minded, sometimes bleak affair, and Williams has called it atonal, though it seems harmonically straightforward enough.

With a 30-minute, three-movement sweep, Williams's concerto is expansive too. Canadian violinist James Ehnes is the thoughtful soloist, investing the music with deserved gravitas and fully on top of its technical challenges. Stéphane Denève leads a weighty reading, darkly dramatic in the opening “Moderato,” consoling in the glowing slow movement (which Ehnes plays like an angel), and incisive in the intermittently clangorous finale.

Bernstein’s Serenade has been recorded many times, but this astute interpretation is a welcome reminder of both its wistful profundity and its headstrong vigor. Ehnes and Denève open the debate spaciously with an expressive account of the “Phaedrus” movement. “Aristophanes” seems to channel graceful elements out of Candide, while a weighty “Socrates” gives way to the jazzy joie de vivre of “Alcibiades.” The violin sound is clean and clear, offset against a slightly resonant orchestra.

-- Musical America (Clive Paget)

Violinist James Ehnes’ discography is so extensive that it was only a question of when he’d get around to recording Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade, not if. What’s more striking about his new recording with Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is that it pairs Bernstein’s 1954 effort with John Williams’ Violin Concerto No. 1.

The Williams dates from the mid-‘70s and was written right after the untimely death of his first wife, the actress Barbara Ruick. Its brooding, volatile aspect perhaps owes something to that context – the central “Slowly in peaceful concentration” unfolds like an elegiac barcarolle – though this is hardly funereal music.

In fact, the Concerto marked a turning point in Williams’ concert music, allowing him to cultivate what he called the “Romantic [Atonal], but in an American way”-style he’d long been striving for...there’s a motivic rigor here that’s straight out of the Brahms-Schoenberg line and the writing for violin and orchestra is thoroughly idiomatic...[here, it is] exceptionally well played and draws out the tight thematic relationships between each movement. The Canadian violinist makes the most of the introspective spots – the middle movement, the reflective episode in the center of the finale, especially – while also suffusing its bravura passagework with purpose and direction.

Denève and the SLSO are right with him, teasing out the music’s gentle echoes of Hollywood and sometimes mercurial shifts of character with surety and ease.

They make for an impressive combination, too, in the Bernstein. Take or leave the score’s programmatic allusions to Plato’s Symposium: the Serenade is one of the American composer’s freshest and most satisfying concert works.

Here, Ehnes plays with gorgeous tone – the clarity of his bow arm is just marvelous, as is his left hand’s ability to cleanly and purposefully get the music’s knotty double and triple stops to sing. Over the Serenade’s first three movements, too, there’s a strong sense of shape and propulsion: this is well-focused, graceful, spry Bernstein.

-- The Arts Fuse

One of Saxony-Anhalt's oldest and most tradition-rich orchestras presents a compelling combination of two major orchestral works on GENUIN, marking the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus's relocation from Weimar to Dessau: the Anhaltische Philharmonie of the Bauhaus city Dessau, under it's general music director Markus L. Frank, pairs Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (in Ravel's orchestration) with Feininger Fractals by Eisenach-born composer Thomas Buchholz (b. 1961) - two orchestral works closely connected to visual art. The finely spun textures of Buchholz, who in this work engages with Bauhaus master Lyonel Feininger, and the endless colors of Mussorgsky/Ravel are in the best hands with this Dessau ensemble. Magnificent but not pompous, virtuosic yet full of meaning, the orchestra plays with intelligence and nuance under it's chief conductor.