For his debut on Warner Classics, the 17-year-old pianist Yoav Levanon has chosen a demanding programme of works by Liszt, Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann. Liszt's mighty Sonata in B minor forms the centrepiece of A Monument for Beethoven, an album honouring the four composers' contribution to the festivities which in 1845 marked Beethoven's 75th anniversary in the city of Bonn, his birthplace. When Yoav Levanon performed the programme in Paris in 2020, Le Monde declared him "already a great pianist". He describes the album as "a "musical journey that traverses many distinct planes" and which is "emblematic of the great fellowship and solidarity that exists among musicians".
Not the least extraordinary thing about this wonderful blend of the sublime and the humane is that it draws from all musicians the best of which they are capable... This issue is specially commended to those who are after the mystery and elevation of The Magic Flute. - Gramophone
The pianist Claudio Arrau fully deserves the epithet "legendary": a sovereign technical command, a deep patience and a gravitation towards weighty matters, enriched by his study with 'philosopher pianists' such as Busoni and Martin Krause. Made in London from the late '40s to the late '50s, this collection of profound and impassionate recordings is a striking illustration of his Beethovenian authority.
This boxed set presents for the first time in Hybrid SACD format the greatest cello concertos by the greatest cellist in history, Jacqueline du Pre, in the very recent HD remasterings made from the original tapes and specially adapted for SACD.
The Dutch modern-classical composer/pianist is back with a new album (digital, CD, vinyl) - beautiful solo piano tracks and some tracks created with various keyboard instruments and synthesizers - another relaxing and exciting journey through Matteo's unique sound world. In this latest project, Matteo again explores the subject of longing. In a way it's a follow-up to the first one - but while "Notes of Longing" still suggested a longing to the future, "A brief nostalgia" is composed mainly with a nostalgic look at the past. Regardless of whether this consists of sadness, desire or bliss! This new work employs a wide arsenal of keyboard instruments: Grand piano, upright piano, harmonium, organ, choir organ, various synthesizers and drum computers.
Beethoven was Wilhelm Furtwängler's guiding musical force. In his interpretations of the symphonies, the conductor generates irresistible dramatic momentum - and a constant sense of imaginative freshness - through the interrelationship of form, harmony, texture, rhythm and tempo. These recordings, all made in the late 1940s and early 1950s, in the Musikverein in Vienna and at concerts in London, Bayreuth and Stockholm, have been remastered in 192kHz/24-bit at Art & Son Studio (in 2021 for the 7 recordings included in The Complete Wilhelm Furtwängler on Records and newly for this edition for the 3 other ones), bringing their sound more alive than ever before and for the first time here on a physical medium.
As a bonus the 5th Symphony live performance from 1950 in Copenhagen restored in HD from an excellent condition analogue source has been added.
Almost every story about minimal or repetitive music starts with the triumvirate Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Terry Riley. Each in their own way, paved the way for one of the most exciting and thriving movements in music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Minimal music has been an inspiration for Eric Sleichim since the 1980s. Today, BL!NDMAN's demarche towards the renewal of early music finds more than ever a connection with Reich, Glass and Riley whose works draw inspiration from the oldest polyphonic techniques. In this programme, BL!NDMAN offers a sampling of the exceptional timbres generated by his unique line-up: with his saxophone, string and percussion quartet, piano, electric guitar, tubax and electronics, BL!NDMAN conjures up a 21st-century orchestral sound. The solo works combine the virtuosity of the soloists with the use of electronic doubling, while in the tutti works, the instrumentation and powerful consonance of the full BL!NDMAN ensemble provide the very diverse perspectives that give full credit to these extraordinary compositions. The choice of relatively well-known and, above all, lesser-known works by the three icons of repetitive music gives raison d'etre to a triple album that will be released on April 14th 2023.
Lahav Shani, Chief Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra for the past five years, conducts the Dutch ensemble in Bruckner's epic Symphony No 7. He admires the Austrian composer for his proverbially grand musical architecture, but also for his vision and the atmosphere he creates as he builds to mighty climaxes over extended periods "... from a hint of light to the whole world". Shani's sense for symphonic structure and drama, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic's response to it, was evident in their Warner Classics recording of Shostakovich's Symphony No 5 (released in 2022). Gramophone magazine's reviewer praised "... an account where the feeling is refreshingly one of rediscovery... Shani has a wonderful nose for atmosphere... [He] reminds me just how achingly beautiful the slow movement of this piece is... and I don't think I have ever heard the transition into the hushed final pages sound quite as breathtaking... A terrific disc."
This recording of Turandot, Puccini's spectacular final opera marks a number of important firsts. Before the recording sessions in Rome in March 2022, Sir Antonio Pappano had never conducted Turandot; neither Sondra Radvanovsky, who takes soaring title role, nor Jonas Kaufmann as Turandot's suitor, Calaf - who sings 'Nessun dorma' - had previously performed the opera. It is also the first studio recording of Turandot to include the entire, crucial final scene as completed after Puccini's death in 1925 by Franco Alfano. Radvanovsky and Kaufmann are joined by Ermonela Jaho as the slave Liu, Michele Pertusi as King Timur and Michael Spyres - a star tenor in a character role - as the Emperor of China. Pappano conducts the forces of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. The success of the entire project was confirmed by a public concert performance, greeted with a standing ovation, that took place a few days after recording had been completed:.Stunningly beautiful," was the view of Opera magazine,.Pappano brings out the dramaturgical sense of every moment of the score... The singing was outstanding." Il Corriere della Sera wrote that.First and foremost, this Turandot will be remembered [for] Antonio Pappano's absolutely inspired achievement... It really felt like discovering a new Turandot."
Two life-affirming works from Leoš Janáček's prodigious final years are performed by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg under Marko Letonja, it's Music Director from 2012 to 2021: the Glagolitic Mass, both monumental and exuberant, and the colourful, multi-faceted Sinfonietta. The vocal soloists are Malin Byström, Jennifer Johnston, Ladislav Elgr, and Adam Plachetka, who are joined by organist Johann Vexo and the Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno - the city where Janáček made his home and which he evokes in the Sinfonietta. This recording uses a 2011 critical edition of the Glagolitic Mass which captures the true adventure and passion of Janáček's score.
Described as one of the world's most imaginative contemporary orchestral composers (5-star-BBC Music Magazine Review), Jacob Muhlrad comes back with a new album for a chamber ensemble. Burn All My Letters is the original soundtrack for awarded director Bjorn Runge's new film.
Michel Beroff produced an impressive series of recordings over a period of more than 25 years for EMI. A quarter of a century full of musical highlights, ambitious projects, exciting artistic collaborations. This box is just as packed with music as it is with the life story of an exceptional talent. For connoisseurs, it represents the reopening of a treasure trove richly filled with reference recordings; for less experienced listeners, it offers a fantastic opportunity for discovery tours. And although much of it is already more than four decades old, this discography has remained as young and "timeless" as Michel Beroff himself. The box is enriched by two never-before-released recordings: a master tape from 1978 uniquely documents the outstanding and astonishingly mature Beethoven playing of the young Michel Beroff; together with Bach's Overture in the French style (from 1969), it adds another color to the dazzling mosaic, another zoom on a still radiant career that was marked by great artistic successes not only in the concert hall but also in the recording studio. Born in 1950, the French pianist Michel Beroff gave his first recital in Paris in 1967 and won the same year the First Prize of the first edition of the Concours international Olivier-Messiaen, whose jury was chaired by Olivier Messiaen himself. He had a dazzling international career since that alongside the greatest conductors: Seiji Ozawa, Claudio Abbado, Kurt Masur, Daniel Barenboim, Andre Previn, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Charles Dutoit among others. Beroff's extensive discography includes the complete works for piano and orchestra by Liszt, Prokofiev and Stravinsky, as well as a big part of solo piano works by Debussy, Messiaen (of which he is a renowned interpreter), Bartok, Schumann or Mussorgsky. His duets with the violinist Augustin Dumay and with the pianist Jean-Philippe Collard were acclaimed with incredible recordings made together and available in this box. The Messiaen, Debussy, Prokofiev and Mussorgsky are true highlights of this edition. The boxset includes worth of 3CDs of premiere on CD, and as a bonus (CD 42) two previously unpublished recordings (Bach & Beethoven).
Clara & Robert Schumann: Piano Concertos / Rana, Nézet-Séguin, Chamber Orchestra of Europe
WARNER CLASSICS
CD
$17.28Mar 17, 2023
Beatrice Rana combines Clara Wieck-Schumann and Robert Schumann's piano concertos with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin In an interview with the New York Times, Rana, who called the piano concerto by Clara Wieck "a genius work in many ways," said: "I think that it's very, very underestimated - the intellectual value of this concerto in the history of music. It's fascinating to see that she conceived of this music free from any limitations; that as a teenager she composed an uninterrupted concerto with no breaks between the movements. We think of Liszt's First Piano Concerto as revolutionary in that regard, but Clara wrote hers so much earlier, unbroken and with connecting themes linking the movements."
Beethoven: Concertos Nos. 3 & 4 / Leonskaja, Sokhiev, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse
WARNER CLASSICS
CD
$17.28May 26, 2023
Elisabeth Leonskaja states, "When I play, I am not presenting myself on the stage, but the music I am playing. It is the music that matters." For her second Warner Classics album, she performs Beethoven's Piano Concertos 3 & 4 recorded with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse under conductor Tugan Sokhiev. One of the most celebrated pianists of our time, she remains true to herself and to her music, and in doing so following in the footsteps of great Russian musicians such as Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels. French magazine Diapason has written: "Elisabeth Leonskaja's journey leads from one peak to another. By constantly excelling herself, driven by her own personal demands, by her passion and her intelligence, she has earned a place among the greatest, not just of today, but of the past." Winner of Germany's prestigious Opus Klassik Award in 2020, she is admired as an interpreter who respects the truth of the music.
THRIVE was composed over the last couple of years, during a period of uncertainty and fear. I have always been convinced that it is in times of adversity that we remember what is essential to us. THRIVE is the inner strength that pushes us to fight in moments of doubt or sorrow. The impulse deep inside us that incites us to search for the best, to look up, to fight to overcome difficulties and reach a kind of fulfilment. This album is for those who feel, consciously or unconsciously, the need to build something else, to seek out new horizons. For those who wish to turn their backs on the things that oppress us and aggress us, on meaningless demands. This is a personal battle at a time when collective awareness is settling in: the planet is spiralling; a vortex. We must change; we can evolve. Many of us want this, and music can be a catalyst. The piano has always helped me find this momentum, and composing for strings has opened up new horizons for me. By taking inspiration from a theme, a melody, or a few notes by the greatest classical composers, I also wanted to show that there is always a personal path. I hope that this album will accompany you or inspire you to find your own way of life, there is always hope. Within us, we all have this ability; this power to transform a difficulty into an opportunity. The greater the challenge, the greater the reward. THRIVE!
2021 release. A collection of 11 titles unveiled one by one every month, each a jewel of pure emotion, will allow Riopy to enter into an uninterrupted conversation with the fans of his music. His inspiration has been guided by his will to pay tribute to the anonymous but true heroes of "normal life". Although he has rejected tricks of over-produced music, preferring the sheer power and shine of an amazing Fazioli piano, he manages to create incredibly cinematic music, built chapter by chapter, character by character, growing into a piano tale - a piano tale that, for the listener, will become an unforgettable experience of Bliss.
23-year-old French pianist Kim Bernard is the first laureate of the Fondation Gautier Capucon. Kim Bernard studied piano from the age of 5, won first prize at the 2012 Montrond-les-Bains International Competition and at the National Pianistic Nights Competition. His first album is dedicated to Chopin, Ravel and Debussy.
The partnership of the young and dynamic Daniel Barenboim with Otto Klemperer, a veteran not known for his readiness to compromise, proved a revelation. As Barenboim says, Klemperer - considered the greatest Beethoven conductor of his time - "approached the essence of what he wanted directly and without hesitation". The fruit of their collaboration in 1967 was this vivid and inspiring set of the Beethoven Piano Concertos.
