This release is one of a pair of distinctive Debussy recordings, made with the Philharmonia Orchestra and remastered here. Geoffrey Simon's programme expands several of Debussy's piano works into lavish orchestrations, including arrangements here from Stokowski, Grainger, Ravel and Caplet. Australian conductor Geoffrey Simon is resident in London and has appeared there with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra, and English Chamber Orchestra. Internationally he has appeared with the Adelaide, Atlanta, Israel, Moscow, and American Symphonies, among others. He is Music Director Emeritus of the Northwest Mahler Orchestra in Seattle, with which he has conducted the Mahler symphonic cycle and Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony. He is Consultant for Classical Special Projects for Arts Global, and has served as a jury member for Young Concert Artists, PianoTexas, Australian Cello Awards and Royal Over-Seas League.
Fantasia / Anne Akiko Meyers, Jarvi, Philharmonia Orchestra
Avie Records
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Oct 06, 2017
"A simply outstanding CD." - The Whole Note
Superstar violinist Anne Akiko Meyers is one of today’s most in-demand classical performers. Beloved by audiences around the world, with a reputation for groundbreaking recital programs and important commissions, Fantasia marks her 35th studio album and is one of her most important projects to date. Meyers has been Billboard’s Top Selling Classical Instrumentalist of the year and has had numerous albums reach the Number 1 spot on Billboard’s Traditional Classical Chart. Her latest album captures the rare combination of incredible virtuosity and poetic color with iconic works by Ravel, Einojuhani Rautavaara’s last major work, written for Meyers, and Karol Szymanowski’s sensuous Violin Concerto No. 1. The title track, Fantasia is legendary Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara’s premiere posthumous recording and last major work for violin and orchestra. Ms. Meyers traveled to Finland and worked with the composer on it shortly before he died. Karol Szymanowski’s sensuous Violin Concerto No. 1, dedicated to Polish virtuoso violinist, Paul Kochanski, is a dazzling display of exotic melodies, and Ravel’s iconic Tzigane is a virtuoso showpiece that conjures Hungarian gypsy music, and premiered almost a century ago.
REVIEW:
Meyers also seduces the senses in Ravel’s Tzigane, emphasising the magical essence of its blazing inspiration without the slightest whiff of empty, showpiece bravado. Yet the star item here is Rautavaara’s Fantasia (2015), one of his last works and composed especially for Meyers, who soars aloft with its tender cantabile, shaping its shimmering melodic lines with a profound sensitivity that exerts irresistible pressure on the tear ducts.
Schoenberg: Pelleas Und Melisande, Erwartung / Craft, Silja
Naxos
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Aug 26, 2008
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.
Ravel - Five O'Clock Foxtrot and more works for orchestra / Simon, Philharmonia Orchestra
Signum Classics
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Oct 14, 2022
Ravel grew up in Paris during la belle epoque, the thirty-odd years prior to 1914 when Paris was the unquestioned artistic center of the world. The fin de siecle years saw him enter the Paris Conservatoire. He was an immensely gifted youth, and one by one his early compositions began to show a real mastery of conception and execution-before the 1800s were out, he had produced such assured works as Habenera, Menuet antique, several fine songs, and Pavane pour une infante defunte.
Ravel: Valley Of The Bells and more works for orchestra / Simon, Philharmonia Orchestra
Signum Classics
CD
$19.99Oct 14, 2022
Ravel's status as one of the most popular composers of all time rests to a large extent on the phenomenal success of Bolero. Yet there is much more to this endlessly intriguing man's work than the "seventeen minutes of orchestral tissue without music": childhood fantasy, Spain, the Orient, American jazz, the theater, clockwork toys and all the things mechanical, preoccupied Maurice Ravel throughout his life, and echoes of each can be found in all corners of his music.
Hailed by Classic FM as "one of today's most exciting young composers" Rebecca Dale is a London based composer, working most often with large orchestral and choral forces in the worlds of cinema and theatre. Night Seasons is an album about hope, looking for the light in difficult times, written during a time of personal dif- ficulty while her father was terminally ill. With works written for choir and cello it strives to be a hopeful album, reaching for the wonder around us. Rebecca Dale says "It's been one of the great privileges of my life to be able to write for cellist heroes of mine to whom I grew up listening. I also got to have fun setting some famous poems... I am indebted to everyone who has created this album with me".
Santtu Conducts Stravinsky - Petrushka; Firebird Suite / Philharmonia Orchestra
Signum Classics
CD
$10.49$20.99Save 50%Mar 22, 2024
Santtu conducts Stravinsky is the third album from Philharmonia Records featuring two incredible works by Igor Stravinsky - the complete Petrushka (1947 version), and the Firebird Suite (1945 version) - conducted by Principal Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, these two works were recorded at Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall in 2023.
SOMM Recordings' Elgar from the Archives series is creating a stir amongst Elgar lovers and historic performance enthusiasts alike, with Music Web International's Nick Barnard remarking, 'SOMM's presentation is it's usual excellent self.' The series draws on the Elgar Archive of producer and master restoration engineer Lani Spahr, and SOMM is now pleased to release Volume 5, which features the oratorio The Apostles, Op. 49 (1903) and the song cycle Sea Pictures, Op. 37 (1899). Since his youth, Edward Elgar had conceived of a large-scale work depicting the disciples of Jesus and their response to the extraordinary events they witnessed. When the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival commissioned him to write a new choral work, he began to compose an intended trilogy. While the third part remains only in sketches, the first two-The Kingdom and The Apostles-are monumental contributions to British oratorio. SOMM's May 2026 release of The Kingdom (ARIADNE 5048-2) featured Sir Adrian Boult conducting The BBC Symphony Orchestra as part of the 1957 centenary celebrations for Elgar's birth. This present live recording of The Apostles is from a BBC Home Service aircheck at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 12 June of that year. This also features The BBC Symphony Orchestra, here conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent-who, along with Boult and Sir John Barbirolli, was strongly associated with the promotion of Elgar's music in the years following World War II. As principal conductor of The BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sargent threw himself into celebrating the Elgar centenary, when the BBC broadcast all three of the major oratorios. In addition to The Dream of Gerontius, Sargent considered both The Apostles and The Kingdom to be masterpieces, which should have been much more widely known. About Sargent's 1957 performance of The Apostles, Stanley Bayliss wrote, 'the closing pages are magnificent and give us something that cannot be found even in Gerontius. This was fully understood by Sir Malcolm Sargent, who was the hero of the evening.' Included in this album is a first CD release, newly restored by Lani Spahr, of Elgar's Sea Pictures for contralto and orchestra with Gladys Ripley and George Weldon conducting the then recently formed Philharmonia Orchestra. This was recorded in 1946 for EMI. Elgar was no doubt one of Weldon's favourite composers. In 2008 SOMM first released the Sea Pictures with Gladys Ripley and the London Symphony Orchestra (SOMMCD 073, George Weldon conducts Elgar). This was recorded in 1954 at EMI's Abbey Road and produced by the late Brian Culverhouse.
The German-born conductor Otto Klemperer, a towering figure in the musical history of the 20th century, died at the age of 88 on July 8th 1973, so 2023 will mark the 50th anniversary of his death. His complete recordings on Warner Classics catalogue are being made available for the first time in 2 huge separate boxes; the first volume with the Symphonic Works, Concertos & Lieder (95CD) will be released in June 2023. All recordings are remastered in HD 192/24 from original sources. One month before the release of the first box, we are releasing on vinyl and digital HD + Dolby Atmos one of his most famous album. The epic Symphony No. 2 brought Gustav Mahler and Otto Klemperer together in 1905, when the 20-year-old conductor took charge of the off-stage band for a performance in Berlin. Mahler, impressed, subsequently recommended him for appointments in Prague and Hamburg. In this recording Klemperer rewards the composer's faith with an interpretation of granite-like strength, drawing magnificent performances from orchestra, chorus and soloists.
"Michael Tilson Thomas made some excellent records with the Philharmonia in the ’80s, and although I hadn’t come across this particular performance before, knowing this conductor’s flair for such music, I expected good things. I wasn’t disappointed.
The Nutcracker was the final ballet in Tchaikovsky’s great triptych, and was completed in 1891, a year during which the composer made a fatiguing concert tour of America and also suffered a nervous collapse. There is real justification in calling Tchaikovsky the father of the modern ballet score, and he effectively paved the way for dance-theatre music to be taken seriously. However, his first ballets were coolly received, and he was (as ever) wracked with self-doubt about this work, even after the premiere. This score has, of course, gone on to become one of his most popular scores.
Like Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, The Nutcracker is most often heard in highlight form, but in fact works better when experienced complete. It’s just the right length, and has so many famous numbers that it seems ridiculous to condense it to 20 or 30 minutes. I do possess excerpt discs, but turn most frequently to my benchmark complete version, Ashkenazy’s Decca recording with the Royal Philharmonic. It has a spectacular sound, full, rich and wide-ranging, and a very useful fill-up is included, Glazunov’s masterpiece The Seasons. However, that set is at full price, so the real competition for this budget Sony release comes from Previn’s excellent LSO version (now on Classics for Pleasure, also without a filler), and Dorati’s marvellous Concertgebouw recording on a Philips Duo, which finds room for a substantial Sleeping Beauty selection (Fistoulari and the LSO).
The fact that Tilson Thomas can hold his own against anyone is immediately evident in the Overture, which has a Mendelssohnian lightness and graceful wit that is captivating. As a Bernstein protégé, MTT is a theatrical conductor through and through (listen to any of his Mahler or Copland records), so he is completely at home with the colour and drama of this great score. His pacing throughout is exemplary, on the fast side but with ensemble crisp and rhythms tight. All the famous dances of Act 2 are as infectious as one could wish for; listen to the delectable trumpet playing in the Spanish Dance, whilst the Russian Dance has tremendous weight and panache. The principals of the Philharmonia obviously relish the many solos that litter the score, and indeed the whole orchestra enjoy themselves enormously. I like the way Tilson Thomas gives due attention to Tchaikovsky’s exotic ‘special-effects’, including a child’s trumpet in C, children’s drums, a rattle and mechanisms suggesting cuckoos and quails. He even uses a ratchet and Irish whistle in the Grandfather’s Dance, while kazoos, toy snare drums and a children’s cap gun are used in The Battle. Marvellous fun!
The whole performance has a flair and feeling of ‘rightness’ that are very captivating. The conductor never loses sight of the famous adage that ‘there is a lot of ballet in Tchaikovsky’s symphonies, and a lot of the symphony in his ballets’. He gives everything its due place, so one feels an organic growth in the piece, rather than a succession of set-pieces. Listening to these discs was as satisfying as any of the competition I had to hand, and in many ways the short playing time ceases to be an issue in the face of a great performance. Recording quality is also well up to scratch, with a full-bodied richness that matches the playing...highly recommended."
Wolf-Ferrari: Il Segreto di Susanna / Pritchard, Scotto
CBS Masterworks
CD
$18.99Mar 27, 2008
If there is one sensation aroused today in the listener to Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's operas it is delight: How attractive they are! The composer seems to have achieved the perfect unity of straightforward Italianate lyricism and the orchestral style of the German school. His operas are supreme examples of eclecticism in the best sense of the term...
(The Secret of Susanna), first performed at the Hofoper, Munich, on November 4, 1909, was outwardly a departure from the composer's usual eighteenth-century settings, but in fact it is clearly modelled after Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona with its three roles for soprano, baritone, and mime servant. The overture "in miniature" is a masterpiece of engagin melody and marvelously controlled counterpoint - each of the four themes upon which it is built are able to hold their own when played separately, yet work perfectly when played together in the coda.
Here and there during the course of his one-act opera, one may recall Donizetti - as in the piano solo that returns as the duet finale - or wagner, Liszt, Debussy - a faun flits about the tobacco smoke as the clarinet weaves its sinuos chromatic arabesques during Susanna's aria - and others, but in no way can this score be construed as derivative. The harmony is predominantly diatonic, enriched when necessary with Wagnerian chromaticism. Nevertheless, unlike the music of Humperdinck, Wilhelm Kienzl or Alexander von Fielitz, to name but three of the many Wagnerite composers, it is free of the pervasive flavor of Bayreuth. On the other hand we do not come away from hearing the music with the impression that Wolf-Ferrari was a follower of twilight Verdi - though the excitement ad panache of Falstaff is there - Massenet, or a rival of Puccini or Richard Strauss. Clearly Wolf-Ferrari set out on his own mission; he was influenced by many, but a disciple of none; he was inspired by the past but sought to beautify the present. above all, for all his eclecticism, ermanno Wolf-Ferrari remained his own man.
- Barrymore Laurence Scherer excerpted from album liner notes
Vaughan Williams: Symphonies 8 & 9, Etc / Leonard Slatkin
RCA
CD
$17.99Jan 27, 2010
...[A] first-class performances of the inventive Eighth Symphony – Slatkin’s reading of the Tallis-like Cavatina is radiant. Slatkin also gives an inspiring and sensitive account of RVW’s enigmatic, undervalued Ninth Symphony, rich in associations with Salisbury, Stonehenge and Hardy’s Tess.
Ligeti: Le Grand Macabre / Salonen, Philharmonia Orchestra
Sony Masterworks
CD
$34.99Sep 17, 2009
This recording was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for "Best Opera Recording.
György Ligeti's only opera, 'Le Grande Macabre,' after a play by Michel de Ghelderode, concerns itself with nothing less than the end of the world. This is promised by the evil Nekrotzar but, despite dire warnings and ominous foreshadowing, the whole thing is something of a bust and in the end the only casualty is Nekrotzar himself. In between are any number of lascivious and criminal goings-on in fictional Breughelland, a place of infinite corruption, socially, morally and politically (and enormously funny in the bargain). Ligeti's brilliant, delightful, infinitely difficult music ranges from preludes and interludes scored for automobile horns and doorbells to the breathtaking coloratura flights of Gepopo, the soprano chief of the secret police. The performance under Esa-Pekka Salonen is beyond praise.
Volume 8 of Sony's Ligeti Edition presents the revised score of 1997, taken from live performances in Paris. There are numerous changes and the opera is shorter by some ten minutes. The revision also changes the language from German to English. The German original is available on Wergo in a fine performance. The Sony recording preserves a performance of even greater brilliance of what is now one of the great comic operas in English.
Puccini: Il Trittico / Maazel, Scotto, Domingo, Cotrubas
CBS Masterworks
CD
$54.99Sep 10, 2009
It's refreshing and invigorating to have a taut unyielding view of a fine score. This recording should win converts among those who still regard Puccini as merely soft and sentimental.
Rather as I expected, the reissue of Lorin Maazel's three recent recordings of Puccini's one-acters as a co-ordinated box of the Trittico sharply brings out the conductor's distinctive approach. It is an approach which is typified by the very start of Gianni Schicchi, where there is an almost Stravinskian sharpness in the ostinato rhythms. Generally Maazel's concessions to romantic expressiveness are calculated rather than obviously warm. This degree of severity has the merit of underlining the musical cogency of all three pieces, splendid examples of Puccini's mastery at his high maturity, and Suor Angelica—wrongly regarded for far too long as a limp piece of sentimentality —benefits just as much as either of the others with the succeeding climaxes spaced in carefully balanced relationship.
The snag is that particularly with CBS's somewhat close recording balance, the atmospheric qualities of each opera—which some Puccinians would regard as among their highest merits—are underplayed. When I first reviewed Il tabarro, this absence of essential atmosphere made me give a less charitable review than I would now. Hearing it in context with the other performances, it is refreshing and invigorating to have a taut and relatively unyielding view of a fine score, even while one misses the dark evocations of the scene under a bridge of the Seine in Paris, which other versions so vividly capture.
The other gain from hearing the performances together is to have the dominance of Renata Scotto reinforced in both It tabarro and Suor Angelica. In Il tabarro neither Placido Domingo as Luigi (not quite in his warmest voice) nor Ingvar Wixell as the bargemaster Michele (rather too gritty-toned as recorded) is exactly a cipher, but Renata Scotto consistently focuses the centre of involvement with her dramatic and finely detailed singing.
In Gianni Schicchi the central pivot is provided of course by the contribution of the veteran Tito Gobbi, and though there may be some signs of the voice not being as young as it was, it is a deeply satisfying performance, as fine in its way as the classic one he recorded for HMV 20 years earlier. That HMV version is included in the boxed reissue set of Il trittico which appeared two years ago (SLS5066, 10/76), with all three operas given marvellous performances but with very dated recording and only Schicchi in stereo. The Decca set under Gardelli (SET 236-8, 12/62) is more idiomatic in performance than this Maazel CBS issue, and the sixties recording is amazingly bright and full for its age. But the new issue, controversial as it may be in some ways, is certainly refreshing, and should in particular win converts among those who still regard Puccini as merely soft and sentimental.
-- Gramophone [8/1978, reviewing the LP release of Il Trittico]
Haydn: London Symphonies Vol 2 / Slatkin, Philharmonia
RCA
CD
$17.99Jan 07, 2010
"Leonard Slatkin's series of Haydn London Symphonies brings fresh, refined readings at speeds that never sound breathless. There is wit from the Philharmonia woodwind and the string phrasing always gives pleasure."
REVIEWS: American Record Guide (11-12/97, p.122) - "...Starker plays with marvelous control and virtuosity, leaving him free to make the most of the music....Slatkin follows him beautifully, and the orchestra is terrifyingly uncompromising in their response..." BBC Music (4/98, p.73) - Performance: 3 (out of 5), Sound: 3 (out of 5) - "...The opening flourishes [of the Elgar] are perfectly played but alarmingly matter-of-fact....Slatkin makes the most of the colourful and often lush scoring [of the Walton]..."
