Haenssler CLASSIC's Ballets Russes series is unrivaled for completeness and will include many works never before recorded. Each booklet includes historic details of the works performance and artwork from the original productions. World-renowned choreographer John Neumeier has overseen the production of the entire series. For 20 years from 1909 to 1929, the Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev and his Russian ballet became one of the 20th century's most incredible artistic adventures, redefining theater, music and dance in every performance.

Perhaps no other musical style has exerted a greater influence on the culture of the first half of the 20th century than Jazz. This utterly American music travelled to every corner of the globe: From Shanghai to St. Petersburg; from New Orleans to New Dehli, from Harlem to well... Haarlem. While classical composers embraced the rhythmic vitality and melodic freedom of their own compositions, others sought to legitimize Jazz in the concert hall including: Debussy, Stravinsky, Hindemith and Shostakovich and of course Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington.

Sir Roger Norrington's approach to adapting historical performance practice for a modern symphony orchestra has yielded excellent results. This recording features the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra performing Schubert's most famous work, Symphony No. 8.

These arrangements for string orchestra of works by Alban Berg take their cue from Berg himself: he arranged three of the six movements of the Lyric Suite for string orchestra; the Dutch composer Theo Verby arranged the other three. The CD includes an arrangement of Berg’s Piano Sonata for strings by Wijnand van Klaveren. Ernst Kovacic arranged Berg’s early works especially for this recording. The arrangements chart Berg’s development as a composer, from prentice pieces composed under the tutelage of Schoenberg to the rich, mature style of one of his masterpieces, the Lyric Suite, written to express an impassioned and illicit love. Ernst Kovacic is one of Austria’s best-known violinists as well as a conductor. Among the composers who have written works for him are Krenek, Holloway, Gruber and Schwertsik. Ernst Kovacic and the NRM Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra’s previous Toccata release of music by Ernst Krenek (TOCC 0199), was received with universal enthusiasm, the reviewer for Fanfare writing: ‘This Toccata Classics CD is a model of fine production values…(and) magisterial performances…an absolute must for Krenek fanciers’.

REVIEW:

The Lyric Suite is played complete. It gains from the extra players, not only in obvious richness of sound, but in nuances of phrasing. The arrangements accomplish a broad range of expressive tonecolor, with nearly every conceivable string effect on display. In the trickier parts where there are several extremely chromatic legato lines playing against one another, they play accurately and in tune. The album is a curiosity for a limited audience, but they’ll be happy.

-- American Record Guide

Roger Norrington and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra SWR continue their survey of the major works of the 19th Century symphonic repertoire with two symphonies by Schubert. Throughout his decade of working with the RSO, Norrington has transformed the sound of a modern symphony orchestra into an ensemble capable of delivering authentic historically informed music making. By employing both the benefits of authentic performance practice and technically superior modern instruments, Norrington has left a legacy that has opened the ears of romantic "purists" as well as delighting devotees of authentic performance practice.

REVIEW:

We are told that Luis Carlos Figueroa is one of the senior and much esteemed figures in Colombian music. As such this disc is very welcome as to most intents and purposes it serve as an initiation into the man’s music. Given his dates we might perhaps have expected a thornier style but it is warm and welcoming. This is attractive music that is well worth your ear-time.

-- MusicWeb International

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”.

This third installment in a series documenting the works of Maurice Ravel includes his longest work, Daphnis et Chloe, as well as Valses nobles et sentimentales. The works are performed here by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR). Founded in 1945, the ensemble is one of the most significant musical ambassadors for Germany. The SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart are also counted among the top ensembles in Germany. They frequently perform concerts on their home stages, and are often invited abroad.

"Daniel Müller-Schott['s] Schumann rates right up there with the best (in my book Du Pré and Starker) while the inclusion of Robert Volkmann’s concerto was a stroke of genius, a wonderful work of great appeal that has only two other recordings available, for reasons unknown. Volkmann (1815–83) writes a piece that is different from Schumann in several important ways, especially the more prominent role given to the solo instrument, and his harmony is somewhat more advanced as well, probably from the influence of Liszt, who supported him, though Schumann and Mendelssohn were primary mentors. The work deserves a much wider audience.

Bruch’s Kol Nidrei has remained one of his most popular works, its pathetic and melancholy nature due to the source material, an ancient Hebrew song of repentance and the middle section of “Oh Weep for Those That Wept in Babel’s Stream.” It has never left the repertoire since it was created, and Müller-Schott performs it with a wistful sadness that will not fail to leave anyone unmoved. The Strauss tidbit here is his Romance, written when he was all of 19, and only published in 1987; yet it enjoyed many performances in the immediate years after it saw the light of day. It makes a fine and enjoyable filler that has been recorded a number of times, none better than here.

The NDR players are in top form and Eschenbach’s accompaniment is first-rate, rounding off an exceptional release of high desirability."

FANFARE: Steven E. Ritter