Newly signed on with naïve, the Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son immerses herself in the limitless whimsical imagination of Mozart’s sonatas, and with this complete collection takes us on a voyage in a land of contrasts. Yeol Eum Son has always been drawn to Mozart’s style, in her heart and in her fingers, and maintains a special relationship with his music. She likes to translate from this language, which she considers her mother tongue, the incredible ability to express different worlds, atmospheres and feeling. “His music,” she says, “speaks of both sunshine and eternal night, extremes of heat and cold, elegance and farce, Lolita and Madonna.”

Franz Schmidt 150 (1874-1939)

“In conversations about Franz Schmidt the recurring theme emerging for many is that listening to a performance of his music at a young age became the turning point in their lives the realization of how powerful music can be,” says Jonathan Berman, whose longtime love of Franz Schmidt’s work has its origins in a performance preparation for his Fourth Symphony.

Berman’s passion for Schmidt’s work and the composer’s upcoming 150th birthday in 2024 were key reasons for the conductor to approach the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to record all four symphonies together – a major project that also marks Jonathan Berman’s CD debut.

The recordings were realized between 2020 and 2022 at BBC Hoddinott Hall, the home of the BBC NOW in Cardiff. In November 2023, Accentus Music releases all four symphonies in a high-quality box set that will also be made available across all digital platforms. BBC Music Magazine wrote about the digital pre-release of the first symphony in March 2021: “Jonathan Berman and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales deliver a terrific performance which provides a fine alternative to the excellent version from Paavo Järvi. […] What really makes this new recording so enticing is the sheer energy and enthusiasm with which conductor and orchestra communicate the vigour and optimism of the opening movement.”

Produced in association with BBC Radio 3 and BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

REVIEW:

Following their highly acclaimed streamed recording of his First Symphony, Jonathan Berman and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales have now completed their Franz Schmidt symphony cycle. Packaged together in this sumptuously designed and luxuriantly recorded set, the performances of all four symphonies, released in celebration of the 150th anniversary of his birth, pay worthy tribute to an undeniably major late-Romantic Austrian composer who, despite the passage of time, continues to divide opinion.

With almost evangelical zeal, Berman staunchly defends Schmidt from his detractors by providing some insightful personal observations in the booklet notes and by investing sufficient energy and dedication in his interpretations to allow the music to speak directly and fervently to the listener.

In 1970 Kurt Masur took over the direction of one of the best orchestras in Germany and the world: the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. One year later, in 1971, these recordings of the 12 Youth Symphonies by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy were made. They are testimony to the emergence of a fruitful artistic relationship between Kapellmeister and musicians that was to last 26 years. Bold artistic spirit meets musical excellence here, leading to a high level of listener enjoyment. Kurt Masur's masterful interpretation provides a revealing insight into the imagination of a talented young composer. These recordings now shine in new splendor through a loving analog remaster.

Zhu Xiao-Mei has taken an important place in the classical music world, not least in view of her valuable interpretations of Bach's music. This CD box set combines other key works by the pianist from Scarlatti, Haydn and Mozart to Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann, testifying to her ability to express a wide range of styles and epochs through her unique artistic vision and tonal sensitivity. These recordings, recorded between 1995 and 2011, are the result of an intense exploration of the different characters of the six composers and are indicative of their interpreter's Œuvre.

“What is really interesting about Geoffrey’s music is that it looks orthodox on the page initially, but is in fact extremely thought-provoking. He has a unique way of combining the familiar with the unfamiliar: Geoffrey’s music is always extremely well crafted and looks deceptively simple on the page, but as soon as you begin to play any phrase from his works you discover that he is always subtly reinventing the wheel! There is subtle originality, extraordinary variety and colourful fascination in his prolific output for the instrument. The recordings...will unquestionably amount to a significant contribution to the development of the 20th/21st century piano sonata.” (Murray McLachlan)

Murray McLachlan’s discography now includes over forty commercial recordings, including the complete sonatas of Beethoven, Myaskovsky and Prokofiev, the six concertos of Alexander Tcherepnin, the 24 Preludes and Fugues of Rodion Shchedrin, Ronald Stevenson’s ‘Passacaglia on DSCH’ the major works of Kabalevsky, Khatchaturian and the complete solo piano music of Erik Chisholm.

Anton Bruckner and Sankt Florian, an incomparable and authentic relationship: In the monastery of Sankt Florian, Bruckner’s home and resting place, not a single stone has changed since Bruckner’s time. Conductor in Residence Rémy Ballot and the Altomonte Orchestra of St. Florian have been using the annual gathering at the St. Florian Brucknertage festival for more than ten years now to devote themselves intensively to a selected Bruckner symphony and to present it to the audience in one or two celebrated concerts. From the live recordings this 10-part cycle was created and in 2023 completed with the recording of the “Nullified Symphony WAB 100” and is now being released as an exclusive complete edition. In the entire history of Bruckner’s reception, this is the only cycle to have been performed live in its entirety by a single conductor – Rémy Ballot – exclusively in Sankt Florian. The acoustics of the St. Florian Abbey Basilica are problematic due to their reverberation time of up to ten seconds, and are only suitable for a few works, as there is a danger of “harmonic mush” if the tempo is too fast and the harmonic changes too rapid as a result. Far from this trap, on the contrary, music is made in alliance with the acoustics in the present recordings. The architectural and acoustic conditions of the basilica require a consciously specific articulation and dynamic shaping. The Altomonte Orchestra, made up of local musicians reinforced by members of the most important Austrian orchestras, is traditionally deeply familiar with these, as well as is the Upper Austrian Youth Symphony Orchestra, which has been performing Symphonies VI and VIII for this edition.

Known for his characteristically deep sound and formidable virtuosity, violinist Monte Belknap joins concert pianist Barbara Allen to perform the complete collection of Beethoven's sonatas for piano and violin in this new 4-disc set.

Belknap has numerous film credits, including serval as a soloist. He regularly performs with the Uinta Trio and the Deseret String Quartet. Belknap has been a violin professor at the BYU School of Music since 2003, and his former students concertize and perform with major symphonies around the world.

Allen has concertized widely, playing solo chamber music and concerto repertoire. Also a singer and a conductor, she has been music director of the Utah Lyric Opera and is currently vocal coach for the BYU Opera Theatre.

It was only after his death that Franz Schubert’s symphonic works made an impact in music history. In fact, the first public performance of any of Schubert’s symphonies took place at a memorial concert held a few weeks after the composer had passed away, on 19th November 1828. The work that was heard at that occasion was Symphony No.6, D589, the ‘Little C major’, while the two undisputed master works of the series – the ‘Great C major’ and the ‘Unfinished’ – had to wait until 1838 and 1865, respectively, before being performed. The six symphonies that precede them in the list of completed works were all composed between 1813 and 1818, while Schubert was still only 21 years of age. In a style above all oriented on Haydn and Mozart, they are youthful in the best sense of the word and display a disarming freshness which the present performances convey to perfection.

The four discs gathered here were released singly between 2010 and 2014, receiving critical acclaim in the international music press: the reviewer in The Daily Telegraph (UK) described the experience as ‘having a layer of varnish removed from a much-loved painting’ while his colleague in Fanfare wrote that the approach by Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra ‘changes the landscape’, proposing that the cycle ‘could become a first choice among any available.’ The set also include some shorter orchestral works, among them the much-loved Rosamunde Overture.

Excerpts from reviews of previously released volumes included in this set:

Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9 / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Dausgaard somehow manages to approach the surviving two movements of Schubert's B minor Symphony as though we didn't all know that it remained 'unfinished. For once it was hard not to regret the absence of an energetic scherzo or finale.

-- BBC Music Magazine

Schubert: Symphony No. 6 / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Dausgaard dexterously manages the internal balance within the orchestra. His pacing of the opening Adagio instills confidence, the line shaped by phrases stretched and contracted, dynamics thoughtfully graded, the interpretation of the whole work thoughtfully considered.

-- Gramophone

Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 3, 4 & 5 / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Even if not in his mature style, and showing the influence of Rossini, as well as of Haydn and Mozart, they are pure Schubert, not least in harmony and scoring, and they stand up well to the high-powered approach of Dausgaard and the splendid Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

-- The Sunday Times (UK)

Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

The definition and dynamism that these forces have been bringing to their Schubert symphony cycle are qualities that are radiantly replicated in the performances here.

-- Gramophone

Mauro Giuliani (1781-1828) was a contemporary of Schubert and one of the many Italian guitar virtuosos who had to flee his own country to get noticed. He ended up in Vienna frequently playing in the fashionable salons and contributing to the guitar becoming all the rage there. As a composer he mainly wrote for his own use: around 200 pieces in all. Many of his works are still popular today, and belong to the standard guitar repertoire. 'Composer, or rather translator of beauty'. This is how Giuliani described himself in a letter to Anton Diabelli on 24 January 1824, and it contains all the poetry and aesthetics of his music, which is quintessentially beautiful, charming, melodious and witty. This new recording presents the complete works for flute and guitar, a popular combination. Included are sets of variations on popular themes from operas, serenades and divertimenti, potpourri’s, Grand Duo’s and Marches, a veritable treasure trove of instrumental brilliance and joie de vivre.

Flutist Daniele Ruggieri completed his studies in Venice where he graduated with the highest marks under Guido Novello and subsequently in Geneva where he was awarded the first Prix de Virtuosité in the class of Maxence Larrieu, after which he built an impressive career as a soloist and ensemble player: “...Rarely will you hear the flute flutter around a concert hall in such a beautiful and playful display of virtuosity.” (M. Connolly, The Times, London). Master guitarist Alberto Mesirca is twice winner of the Golden Guitar, for the best recording of the Year. He recorded the complete guitar music by Regondi, Asencio and Sanz, and “Voces de Sefarad”, four centuries of Sephardic Songs.

Women composers had great difficulty in making their voices heard and gaining recognition during their lifetimes. Even today, they are all too rarely heard in the concert hall or the opera house. That situation obviously cries out for a change in attitude, but then come the questions: all right, let’s programme women composers, but which ones, and which of their works? In this eight-CD set featuring several hundred performers, the Palazzetto Bru Zane offers its initial answer as far as nineteenth-century France is concerned. The selections range over chamber music, orchestral works, piano pieces and songs. They highlight twenty-one female creators, from already identified personalities like Hélène de Montgeroult, Louise Farrenc, Pauline Viardot, Marie Jaëll and Mel Bonis to such completely unknown figures as Charlotte Sohy, Madeleine Jaeger, Marthe Grumbach, Jeanne Danglas, Hedwige Chrétien and Madeleine Lemariey. From now on, there will be no excuse for ignoring Romantic women composers.