Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D-minor Gerd Schaller, conductor, London Philharmonic Orchestra With a final movement, drawn from original sources and supplemented and completed by Gerd Schaller 'My work on completing the symphony drew upon compositional principles characteristic of Bruckner's later style. From the Seventh Symphony onwards, and certainly by the Eighth at the latest, this particular late style that he had developed became increasingly evident. I applied these principles by analogy and developed them further. Further sources of inspiration were Bruckner's 'Psalm 150' and his symphonic choral work 'Helgoland'. Ultimately, my decades of experience as a conductor and Bruckner exponent also found their way into this performance, although it should be noted that I had already performed an initial version of my completed work in concert and recorded it on CD in 2016. This experience gave me the opportunity to review the piece once again from a practical perspective.' Gerd Schaller

The gala concert to celebrate the 475th anniversary of the foundation of the Sachsische Staatskapelle Dresden on September 22, 2023 After the introductory tones of Carl Maria von Weber's festive 'Jubel' Overture have died away, conductor Christian Thielemann turns round and addresses himself to the audience: not an official pronouncement with an edited manuscript but a spontaneous, deeply felt expression of commitment. The principal conductor praises the 'wondrous way' in which the orchestra's sound has remained true to itself over the centuries, recalling the great succession of it's Kapellmeisters 'from Hasse through Weber and Wagner to Busch and Bohm' and relating it to the exceptional artistic depth of the city. With a nice touch of irony he quotes Rousseau, who praised Dresden's 'splendid orchestra' at a distance in 1763, and Beethoven, who wrote half a century later: 'It is said to be the best in all Europe.' Finally Thielemann finds words that sound like a gentle reminder in this splendid hall: 'Take care of this orchestra of mine the way you take care of Meissen porcelain and your art collections! It is an appeal and an avowal of love too - for the musicians, for the city, for a 475-yearold tradition that never gathers dust but is constantly renewing itself. The gala concert of September 22, 2023 is more than a celebration of the past: it is an affirmation of what remains present - that Dresden light that streams forth from this recording.

� A comprehensive, multi-layered documentary portrait of this 80 years young (2013) composer. � Includes his personal and career reflections, dialogue and musical extracts. � The film follows Penderecki from Krak�w to Munich, Vienna to Leipzig, and to his country estate in Luslawice. � Interviews with Anne-Sophie Mutter, Mariss Jansons and Lorin Maazel, among others. � To be premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, February 2014. � Availability: Blu-ray and DVD � Subtitles. 814337011550 CMAJ715504BR 26016962 .00 37.99 .18 C MAJOR BLU-RAY MOVIE DOCUMENTARY 03/25/2014 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/6/8/6/3/2523686.jpg 13 1 N BUSONI / BACH / SLOTCHIVER VISIONARY 3 044747339627 CAV3396.2 27775257 .00 18.99 .20 CENTAUR COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 02/10/2015 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/6/1/4/9/2839416.jpg 15 1 N NEUBAUER / PUNTO / DEMACHI / HAGEL / CAPELLA NASSAU COURT MUSIC Searching for traces of once-admired Nassau court music in European and American libraries made it apparent that, despite large losses, there still survives a corpus of court music, though hard to fully assess due to it's size and geographical scattering. The majority of these autographs and manuscripts are unheard pieces, condemned to two and one-half centuries of oblivion. The 350th birthday of Count Johann Ernst of Nassau-Weilburg (1664-1719) provides an appropriate occasion to let the brilliance of the Nassau court music be heard again.

Well-known for spearheading a general revival of interest in, and modernizing the performance practices of Baroque music, especially Bach, after WWII, Karl Richter (1926-81) also conducted works by composers other than Bach, including Handel and Mozart. Heard here conducting the choral and orchestral forces he founded in mid-20th c., the Munchener Bach-Chor and Munchener Bach-Orchester, this performance of Mozart's Requiem, KV626 features a stellar company of soloists, including sopranos Maria Stader, Hertha Toepper and the fine Dutch-born lyric tenor John van Kesteren.

Rising pianist Ekaterina Litvintseva writes of this release in which she performs Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor Op. 15: "From a technical and musical perspective, it is one of the hardest concertos ever written! What clearly distinguishes it from other concertos is it's symbiosis of orchestra and pianist. What I mean is that the orchestra and pianist are very closely interlinked so as to give the concerto a thoroughly symphonic complexion. It is known that Brahms originally conceived the work as a symphony. It stands to reason, therefore, that this work should sound symphonic. The task set before the pianist when tackling this work is a very tall order, namely the challenge of playing a 50-minute concerto and, throughout every minute, immersing oneself in the music without losing sight of the overall picture. A useful analogy might be to imagine a mountainous landscape and, whilst enjoying the harmony and unity of the mountains, also to observe their slightest elevations and hollows. I believe that nature abounds in this work, as if I were to breathe in the fresh mountain air, feel it's vigor and visualize scenic colors. I have put so much time and energy into this concerto. By giving so many concerts, I was able to thoroughly immerse myself in the music and experiment with it 13 times. So I think I'm justified in saying that it has become my concerto."

Issued in cooperation with the Bayreuth Radio and part of Hänssler’s ongoing Profil series devoted to Wand, these performances—recorded at the 1982 Nuremberg Mozart Festival—are at once tasteful and stylish. The heaviness that sometimes infected the approach of such one-time admired Mozartians as Beecham and Walter is absent: tempos are well judged, mannerism avoided, the music simply set forth without affectation. I have always found this huge eight-movement serenade somewhat uneven, but it certainly has more than a few magnificent Mozart moments. And the great (extraordinarily demanding) concert aria, K 528, is projected by Wiens with virtuosity and temperament. Aside from a slight edginess in the strings, the sound is fine. In short, for those interested in the artists or the repertoire, this release is worth having.

Mortimer H. Frank , FANFARE

Acclaimed by the international music press as a “virtuoso of astonishing brilliance,” and a “thoroughly poetic artist,” Luiza Borac has established herself as one of the most charismatic artists of her generation. Based in Germany, the Romanian pianist has won over 30 prizes and accolades, including First Prize in the Mendelssohn Competition in Berlin and the Viotti-Valsesia International Music Competition in Italy. She performs regularly in Europe and the USA. She has given concerts in all of the major concert houses across these two continents. In 2014 Borac attained her doctorate following research into the piano works of George Enescu and she graduated in musicology from the National University of Music in Bucharest with the highest distinction. This release features works by Enescu, as well as Ravel, Debussy, Mihalovici, and Schumann.

Georges Schmitt - a German-French "frontier runner" The German-French composer Georg (Georges) Schmitt was born in Trier, then a Prussian city on the banks of the Moselle, in 1821. At 14 years of age, he took over the office of cathedral organist from his deceased father. In 1844, though, he moved to Paris, the hub of European music, where he remained until his death in 1900. It was there that he assumed a prestigious post in 1849, taking over at the Great Organ in the Church of Saint-Sulpice. He became very active as a composer and writer, published organ works and papers on the organ and the reform of church music and also co-founded a congress that aimed to re-establish "true" church music. Schmitt was gradually forgotten after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71. The performance of a comic opera and operettas at minor theatres and his participation in national composition competitions with cantatas and great choral symphonies did not give the composer the breakthrough he hoped for. Nonetheless, he published numerous piano pieces and songs as well as theoretical and educational works. This album features just about half of Schmitt's surviving French songs. They were individually published in Paris between 1855 and 1890 and some have survived in handwritten form. All the main genres of French song from this period are represented: mélodie, romance and chanson.

The strumming stylings of flamenco and other forms of Spanish musicality flavor this album of classical numbers. Virtuosos such as Friedemann Wuttke, Rita Honti, David Lorenz and others provide hours of unforgettable entertainment might just inspire a trip to Seville.

A memento of what must have been a very moving occasion.

As far as I know, this is Sir Colin Davis’s second recording of Tippett’s oratorio; his first, made for Philips in 1975 and featuring such luminaries as Jessye Norman, Janet Baker and John Shirley-Quirk, has always been one of the top choices. There are also valuable performances from Pritchard (1957, the pioneering recording), Rozhdestvensky (a live BBC relay on Carlton Classics) and, not least, the composer himself (a technically fallible but nevertheless overwhelming performance with the CBSO on Naxos). Davis also performed A Child of our Time at the Barbican last December and this was recorded for LSO Live.

Sir Colin has performed a number of works by British composers during his appearances in Dresden. His acclaimed reading of Elgar’s First Symphony has already appeared in this edition and he also performed Britten’s War Requiem in 2000 in commemoration of the destruction of Dresden. Performances of A Child of our Time in Germany carry a particular charge, bringing as they do associations of atonement and reparation. This is further confirmed by the lavishly illustrated CD booklet, which provides a detailed background to the events in Europe that inspired Tippett’s oratorio. There is also some fascinating information on Dresden’s synagogue, designed, like its famous opera house, by Gottfried Semper and destroyed during the Kristallnacht of 1938. No texts are provided.

Davis, aided by the spacious acoustic of the Semper Opera House, sets a steady pace for the most part, emphasising the dramatic weight and power of his conception. The chorus is backwardly placed but such is the excellence of their diction that this is not a problem. The oratorio is paced unerringly, the chorus providing rich tone in “Steal Away” vivid characterisation of persecutors and persecuted in “Burn down their houses” followed by a sombre reading of “Go Down Moses”. The sequence of Handel-inspired recitatives and arias in the central part of the oratorio move from fear, terror, anger and, finally, acceptance. At the end Davis draws the threads together with complete mastery for the final “Deep River”.

The soloists all characterise their roles extremely vividly, and although occasionally some idiosyncratic pronunciation can make for disconcerting listening this is a relatively small blemish when we are faced with such obvious involvement. Ute Selbig possesses a bright, full soprano - she sang Sibelius’s Luonnotar in the first half of the concert at which this recording was made - and soars effortlessly over the other forces in the spirituals and elsewhere. The late Jerry Hadley sings with passionate although somewhat plaintive tone, and Robert Holl is a tower of strength in the important bass part.

Sir Colin’s reading is undoubtedly authoritative and moving, with a powerful and responsive chorus and a team of soloists who are extremely involved dramatically, although vocally more fallible than some of their counterparts on disc. I wouldn’t say this new disc superseded any of the versions listed above, but it does provide a memento of what must have been a very moving occasion in the Semperoper, and occasionally surpasses its predecessors in terms of sheer emotional commitment.

-- Ewan McCormick, MusicWeb International