Sir Roger Norrington Conducts Berlioz / Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra
SWR
CD
$16.99$33.99Save 50%Apr 08, 2022
During his thirteen years as chief conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra of SWR Sir Roger Norrington conducted and recorded an important part of Berlioz's core repertoire. The present boxed set brings together on seven CDs the Requiem, the opera Benvenuto Cellini (concert performance), the oratorio L'Enfance du Christ, the overture Les Francs-juges and of course the Symphonie fantastique.
Norrington's style has caused a stir internationally with what has come to be termed ‘The Stuttgart Sound’: a synthesis of historically-informed performance practice with the technical capabilities of a modern orchestra. Whether in Mozart, Haydn, Bruckner, or Berlioz, Norrington seeks to capture the performance experience of the time, adjusting the orchestra’s size and seating plan to create an authentic sound without vibrato.
Hector Berlioz had to surmount a variety of challenges before he was able to pursue his musical vocation. His father, a respected physician in the provincial South of France, was not readily willing to come to terms with his son's intention to quit his medical studies and turn instead to music. He therefore made all further financial support subject to Hector's climbing up the musical ladder at lightning speed. Alas, it didn't work so easily. Berlioz's road to success was tedious and marked by adversity and struggle, his personal life tumultuous. The uniqueness and originality of his musical style are no longer disputed, but this insight came at the end of a decades-long process.
The recordings of the gifted Shostakovich interpreter Andrey Boreyko have met with great acclaim; his Shostakovich’s Symphonies No. 9 & 15 (CD 93.284) were awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in 2012. Shostakovich completed his Fifth Symphony in July, 1937 as a "response of a Soviet artist to justified criticism" – a critique which befell Shostakovich in 1936 over Stalin’s particular displeasure with “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”.
The present collection commemorates the long-standing cooperation between Gary Bertini, born in today’s Republic of Moldova, and the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, beginning in 1978 with Hector Berlioz’ 'Symphonie fantastique'. Their last recording featured on this box was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, performed in 1996 in Tokyo. Bertini conducted several Israeli orchestras for many years. Even though he had never wanted to set foot in Germany, he was convinced to travel to Hamburg by the offer to conduct the 1971 premiere of the opera Ashmedai by Josef Tal. He later became chief conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, then director and highest-ranking conductor at the Frankfurt opera and in 1998 went on to serve as artistic director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.
On the occasion of conductor Georges Prêtre's 100th birthday in August, the label SWRmusic will release an 8CD box-set containing a wonderful collection of representative orchestral works by eleven composers, thus showing the fruitful collaboration between the French conductor and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSO). Most of the recordings are being released for the first time, with the exception of the works by Maurice Ravel and Richard Strauss, which have previously been released by this label.
The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1945 and has developed into one of Germany’s most important musical ambassadors over the following seven decades. World-renowned conductors, as well as some of the world’s greatest soloists, have been guests of the Stuttgart RSO, including Carlos Kleiber, Ferenc Fricsay, Karl Böhm, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Hans Knappertsbusch, Sir Georg Solti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Kurt Sanderling, Gary Bertini, and Herbert Blomstedt, as well as Maria Callas, Mstislaw Rostropowitsch, Maurizio Pollini, Yehudi Menuhin, Alfred Brendel, Hélène Grimaud, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Elina Garanca, Rolando Villazon, Hilary Hahn, Sol Gabetta, and Lang Lang, to name just a few.
Mahler: Symphony No. 1 / Norrington, Stuttgart Radio Symphony
SWR
CD
$9.99Aug 10, 2018
This release features Mahler’s First Symphony in a historically informed performance that features a large, modern orchestra and includes the Blumine movement, which was part of the original version of the symphony, the one preferred by the conductor, Sir Roger Norrington. With the inclusion of the Blumine, the listener can appreciate the return of pastoral motifs in the finale movement. Mahler’s First symphony, sometimes titled “Titan,” was written mostly in February and March of 1888, incorporating music that had been written much earlier. The first performance wasn’t well received, but after several revisions over the following years the work has become a staple in symphonic repertoire. Originally, Mahler called the work a “Symphonic Poem in two parts.” But finally he began to refer to the work as a symphony.
Capriccio Encore is a series of re-releases of the most famous recordings from Capriccio’s back catalogue, fully re-mastered and competitively priced. The legendary recordings of artists such as Sandor Végh, Ton Koopman, Sir Neville Marriner and the Vienna Boys’ Choir also contain repertoire highlights that have a particularly special appeal, from the baroque to the present day. This specific Encore release features Sergei Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 2 and Vocalise, Op. 34 No. 14, performed by the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, lead by Sir Neville Marriner.
Furtwängler famously considered himself a composer who conducted, rather than vice versa, and his most familiar surviving work is without question his Second Symphony. It’s a lovable outpouring composed in the last year of the Second World War but that has both its head and its heart buried among the dying embers of late Romanticism. Bruckner, Strauss, Brahms and Reger are all there in attendance and, although the work is well worth sampling, one laments the fact that, while we have at least four recordings of Furtwängler conducting it, we have none of him conducting the Missa solemnis or Parsifal. The 1954 Stuttgart RSO recording of Furtwänger’s Second, reissued here by Hänssler Classic, comes paired with a typically marmoreal account of Beethoven’s First. Both performances are characteristic...it’s nice to have seven minutes’ worth of Furtwängler in (German) conversation with the conductor Hans Müller-Kray, a privilege included only on the Hänssler Classic set.
This album features many extraordinary performances of 19th Century repertoire, but it also provides a glimpse of Schuricht's advocacy of 20th century composers such as Borish Blacher and Gunter Raphael. A bonus disc featuring Schuricht in rehearsal rounds out this second portrait of one of the 20th century's greatest conductors.
Two well-known and two less-familiar orchestral works by Debussy
• A new recording from the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) and Heinz Holliger,
following up on their globally acclaimed Koechlin series
• A continuation of the orchestra’s exploration of the French orchestral repertoire that began
with their CDs of the music of Koechlin
• May 21st 2014: Heinz Holliger’s 75th birthday
The "Afternoon of a Faun“ together with the orchestral "Images" are among Claude Debussy’s best known and most popular compositions. Both works show different side of the composer: "Afternoon of a Faun" is a textbook example of musical impressionism, while
about the "Images", the composer himself said that his
goal was to “try to achieve something different – an
effect of reality”. The scores contrast well with the two
Rhapsodies: the one for clarinet, called the "first"
Rhapsody, was sketched out within a few weeks at the
end of 1909, while the "second" Rhapsody for
saxophone was only completed and orchestrated after
the death of its author.
The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) and
conductor Heinz Holliger manage to bring out the
evocative, dynamic colors and peculiarities to be found
in all of these works with precision.
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.
Legendary Conductors - Symphonic Masterpieces / The Symphony Orchestras of the SWR
SWR
CD
$55.99Oct 14, 2022
In their long history the SWR symphony orchestras (one covering the Southern part, the other the South-Western part of the federal state Baden-Würrtemberg) have changed their names several times. In 2016 they merged and are known today as the SWR Symphonieorchester. Over the years these orchestras have performed with many legendary conductors who either were in charge as chief conductor or occasionally invited as guest conductor. On this 10 album boxed set the listener will find 12 of the greatest conductors of the 20th century. Some, such as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Leopold Stokowski, Hans Knappertsbusch, Karl Böhm, Kirill Kondrashin, Carlos Kleiber and Kurt Sanderling, appeared only sporadically on the podium of the two leading Baden-Württemberg orchestras. But all, including Carl Schuricht or the chief conductors represented here, Hans Rosbaud and Michael Gielen (Baden-Baden), George Prêtre and Roger Norrington (Stuttgart), have left a lasting legacy with the respective orchestras.
This recording of the 1993 Schwetzingen Festival has already achieved cult status. The then, 78 year old Sviatoslav Richter plays for the first and last time in public Gershwin's jazzy Concerto in F-sharp. Gershwin's works had always been suspect under the Soviet regime. All the more surprising was Richter's decision to perform this work in his maturity. Needless to say, Richter never made a formal, studio recording of this work. It is not only a unique recording, but also a document of Richter's expansive interest in all musical repertoires than came under his purview. The Fifth Piano Concerto by Camille Saint-Saëns was eclipsed by the same composer's more popular "Second" Concerto throughout Richter's performing career. With the exception of one album, he never again recorded this work and there is no record that he ever again performed it internationally. With this concert, there can be no dispute that we are dealing with a real rarity.
Paul Hindemith was an all-round musician, virtuoso violist, composer and educator. He mastered all the instruments of the orchestra to a more or less professional level of proficiency, all of which was more than adequate preparation for conducting too. He was strongly influenced in his conducting by Wilhelm Furtwängler, placing the highest value on the living tradition of interpretation. This release features his 1958 recording of Bruckner’s radiant Seventh Symphony; the mature master locating Bruckner’s achievements as a high point on the continuum between Bach and his own work.
A kind of "organized confusion" characterizes the music of Sebastian Claren (b. 1965). "The music should, so to speak, exist without preconditions and should initially refer only to itself. In my estimation, culture and good-breeding are completely out of place in a work of art," says Claren. In his music, this view assumes audible form in a constant alternation between continuity and discontinuity, whether consecutive or simultaneous. It is a game of sophisticated montage techniques involving myriad contrasting splices and a multitude of camera positions translated into music. Yet his stupendously energetic and sometimes highly volatile compositions are not montages in the strict sense; they are not concerned with reproducing things already said elsewhere. Claren is more interested in the dense synchronicity of (inner) events viewed from the vantage point of the self, the composer, who, of course, works with and within past and present-day music. Hence Claren's keen interest in certain styles of pop music, which are no less essential to his aesthetic than the roughly one-hundred years of modern music and it's forerunners.
Hanno Donneweg writes of his new release: “For many years, one of my heartfelt desires has been to expand the bassoon repertoire. I think this wonderful instrument deserves to draw on a more extensive body of works. […] The bassoon was very frequently favoured by composers of the Baroque period, but this interest significantly waned during the Romantic era. […] Two years ago, Andreas N. Tarkmann and I teamed up with Coviello to make a recording of solo works for bassoon and orchestra from the German-speaking world. We have now turned our attention to French compositions from the last 150 years.” Hanno Donneweg, born in 1977, took his first bassoon lessons at age nine with Horst Wartha, along with chamber music instruction from Bernd Rimbrecht at the Jugendmusikschule in St. Georgen im Schwarzwald, Germany. Between 1995 and 1998, Donneweg was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Germany and Jeunesse Musicale International. Since 1999 he has been a scholarship recipient of the Deutschen Musikwettbewerb and a member of the Bundesauswahl Konzerte junger Kunstler. Since August 2002, Donneweg has been solo bassoonist with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart.
Kurt Sanderling Conducts Rachmaninov Symphony No. 3
SWR
CD
$13.99Jan 05, 2018
The legendary conductor Kurt Sanderling has always been a great admirer of Rachmaninov’s music. This is a recording form 1995 of Sanderling conducting Rachmaninov’s 3rd Symphony. The eminent German conductor, Kurt Sanderling, was born to a Jewish family in Arys in East Prussia and took piano lessons as part of a private education. For his further studies he moved the short distance north to Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) and then to Berlin. When the Nazis rose to power, Sanderling’s world was turned upside down. He left for Moscow to live with an uncle, and it was there that he made his mark in a debut concert with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra. It is therefore no surprise that Rachmaninov’s music spoke so deeply to him. He led a seven decade career, and passed away in 2011.
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 9 & 19 / Haskil, Schuricht
SWR
CD
$13.99May 13, 2016
When these recordings were taken in 1952 and 1956, Clara Haskil was still climbing to stardom. Her perceptive artistry put her in a class above other pianists, and gave her the ability to interpret Mozart’s music in such an organic, natural way that these performances are definitely timeless. This release feature’s Clara Haskil’s performances of Mozart’s Concertos Nos. 9 and 19. Carl Schuricht conducting the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR is equally perceptive in his interpretation of the score, beautifully complimenting Ms. Haskill.
