The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra lives up to its reputation for its brilliant Mahler performances and surpasses all expectations under the baton of conductor Marc Albrecht. And Elizabeth Watts’ performance in the final movement is surely one not to be missed. The chemistry between Watts and the orchestra is utterly pervasive. With a voice described by International Record Review as “one of the most beautiful Britain has produced in a generation”, Watts sweeps the listener off their feet with this sunny, accessible symphony from Mahler.

Review:

This is a lovely performance–sensitive, very well played, shapely and effortless. Conductor Marc Albrecht makes his points without exaggeration, revealing personal touches in his care for proper observance of Mahler’s dynamics and his concern for textural clarity. Yet the big climaxes in the first movement and Adagio have plenty of impact, and in soprano Elizabeth Watts we have one of the best singers set loose on the tricky finale in many a moon.

This being Mahler, of course, there will always be a criticism here and there. The trio sections of the scherzo might just be a touch too relaxed, and Albrecht’s fondness for portamento could well strike some listeners as excessive, particularly in the Adagio, but these are quibbles. I am less happy with the sonics, which are quite impressive when the music is loud, but lack body at lower dynamic levels, even with the substantial boost in the volume. Still, this small reservation could very easily be a non-issue on your own sound system.

Holland being “Mahler central” some of the idiomatic response to the music was to be expected, but that doesn’t do anything to diminish Albrecht’s sympathetic handling of the score overall. A winner.

- ClassicsToday

From the New York Philharmonic's in-house label come three separate and distinct albums of orchestral fare that highlights the trumpet, including eleven complete concertos, all featuring the orchestra's longstanding and recently retired principal trumpet chair, Phillip Smith, in performances stretching across the more than thirty years this most distinguished and honored musician occupied the position, 1979-2013. Album 1, available on CD and digital download, is a 21-track offering that boasts highlights from four of Gustav Mahler's nine symphonies, as well as works by Bernstein, Copland, Stravinsky, Ives, Bach, and others, in whole or on part. Album 1 also includes a 32-page booklet containing photos, notes and essays. Albums 2 & 3, available as digital downloads only, boast complete concertos by Vivaldi, Molter, Haydn and Zwilich, among several other important trumpet-centric concerted works. "For the past 36 years, Philip Smith has presided over orchestral trumpet playing, with a resonant, clarion sound and a reputation for never missing a note." (The New Yorker)

This OehmsClassics release of Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony coupled with sole Mahler-completed movement (Adagio) from the Tenth signals the completion of the Markus Stenz led Mahler cycle with the Gürzenich Orchestra, Köln. Critical acclaim for this cycle has been outstanding, with the Third and Seventh Symphonies in particular being singled out as among the finest recordings currently available. 2013-14 marked Mr. Stenz’s tenth and final season as Principal Conductor of the Gürzenich Orchestra.

•Gustav Mahler’s Sixth Symphony employs the largest orchestral apparatus he ever used. It is a work of extremes, from the Andante’s main, sweetly cantabile theme to the chordal agglomerations breaking out in triple forte “with raw force” at the centre of the Finale’s development section, to its final, inevitable catastrophic ending. This next-to-last release in the OehmsClassics Mahler SACDcycle presents a live recording from the Cologne Philharmonie made in November 2013.

Lorin Maazel and the Philharmonia Orchestra perform Mahler’s Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Symphonies. This four-disc box is the second set in a series that will encompass Mahler’s Nine Symphonies, featuring live orchestral recordings from London’s Royal Festival Hall of Maazel and the Philharmonia’s much-lauded Mahler Cycle.

A release celebrating the centennial of the birth of German soprano Elfride Trotschel. Songs and arias by Schubert, Schumann and Brahms, among others. Ms. Trotschel not only had exceptional vocal and acting ability; she truly lived her roles, transforming into one of many fragile female figures, whether Rusalka, Tatyana, Mimi or Butterfly, suffering and perishing just as they did. 'She sang what she felt,' as Professor Reinhard Ulbricht, Staatskapelle leader for many years, describes it.

The embodiment of the most serious and most sacred artistic will of our time,' said Thomas Mann after the premiere of the Symphony No. 8 to Gustav Mahler. The impressive Mahler Symphony cycle from the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra continues, with a new recording of the Seventh and it's famous 'Night Music' movements. 'The Germans and their conductor Jonathan Nott are proving to be a dream team for Mahler, so we've been eager to hear the latest installment.' - David Nice, BBC Music Magazine.

The highly distinguished conductor Rudolf Kempe (1910-1976) started as an oboist with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. During the Second World War, he was chief conductor of the Chemnitz Opera until 1946. He then worked at Weimar for the 1948-9 season, before joining the Dresden Opera and becoming chief conductor. From 1952 to 1954, he was chief conductor of the Bavarian State Opera, which he conducted at Covent Garden in 1953 to great acclaim. Mahler's Symphony No.4 is a new addition to the Kempe discography. The recording, which was discovered in the Music Preserved archive in York, is a real rarity. Similarly, Mendelssohn's Ruy Blas Overture is a new addition to the conductor's discography. It is heard here in a fiery performance captured live from the Royal Festival Hall in 1967 with the LSO. Kempe's account of the Prelude to Act I of Wagner's Parsifal, recorded in 1965, confirms his status as one of the greatest Wagnerian conductors of the 20th century. His Covent Garden performances of Parsifal in 1959 were landmarks for the company.

Hartmut Haenchen was born in Dresden in 1943 and from the moment of his 1971 Carl Maria von Weber Competition victory onward, he has been a force of nature in the classical music world. These Mahler recordings are being released to commemorate Haenchen's seventieth birthday and a rich career conducting orchestras and opera companies worldwide.

The journey starts in Switzerland, in the canton of Thurgau, leading from Steckborn and the Bodensee to the Rhine Falls. From Styria, in Austria, comes Hochosterwitz Castle and from Bavaria Weikersheim Castle, the latter intercut with wild life from the Austrian Assling Nature Park. The tour ends amid the strangely shaped mountains of the Dolomites in Southern Tyrol, a region divided between Austria and Italy. In a remarkable way Mahler, in his symphonies and songs, has seemed to reflect the world of today in all it's bewildering variety and has now won an established place in concert repertoire. Distinguished as a conductor, his fame as a composer has grown over the years since his death. The music included here is Mahler's ymphony No. 1, nick-named Titan, not for it's massive power, but after the book by Jean Paul, a strong influence over earlier romantics and over Mahler at this stage in his career. The symphony breathes the spirit of the Austrian countryside, reflected in Mahler's songs.

A paradigmatic example of the Wiener Symphoniker's core repertoire, Mahler's First Symphony in D major was written only four years before the orchestra was founded in 1900. Not surprisingly, Mahler's symphonies and their interpretational challenges were among the main intersts of the orchestra and it's many renowned conductors from the very beginning. Above that Mahler's Symphony No. 1, being the first oeuvre of a Vienna revolutionary, is more sutable for the start of this new Vienna Orchestra label.

Rozhdestvensky was the first Russian conductor to perform and record all Mahler's symphonies in his country. Das klagende Lied is performed here live. The ICA version has been remastered, restoring the wide dynamics of Rozhdestvensky's magnificent performance. Janacek's the Fiddler's Child, from the 1979 Prague Festival, has never been issued before and is Rozdestvensky's only taping of the work.