Urspruch: Das Unmoglichste von Allem / Yinon, Broberg, Maier, Fendl, Wieben
Naxos
Available as
CD
$35.99
$25.99
Sep 24, 2013
Anton Urspruch was Franz Liszt’s favourite pupil and saw himself as a ‘progressive modernist’. His music, whilst influenced by his teacher, and by Wagner, diverged from the paths taken by contemporaries such as Reger and Richard Strauss. His masterpiece, the comic opera Das Unmöglichste von Allem, is constructed on a symphonic scale with a series of amusing plot lines powered by tuneful and inventive writing. Although the opera was well received early on by both critics and musicians, after Urspruch’s death it fell into oblivion until triumphantly revived by the forces on this live recording, the first performance of the original, uncut version of the opera.
On Sale
Urspruch: Das Unmoglichste von Allem / Yinon, Broberg, Maier, Fendl, Wieben
$35.99
$25.99
CD
Naxos
Sep 24, 2013
8660333-35
Alfven & Rautavaara: Orchestral Works
Chandos
Available as
SACD
$21.99
Feb 13, 2026
Hugo Alfvén was an accomplished writer and painter as well as musician and composer. Born in Stockholm in 1872, he studied first at Kungliga Musikhögskolan (the Royal College of Music) and then in Berlin, Dresden, Paris, and Brussels. Influenced by Wagner and Richard Strauss, Alfvén's style is also permeated with the influence of Swedish folk music. Festspel (Festival Play) was commissioned to inaugurate the new art nouveau building for Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern (the Royal Dramatic Theatre) in Stockholm, in 1908, the work is suitably rousing and celebratory for such an occasion. Alfvén was asked in 1932 to write incidental music for a play by Ludvig Nordström, to commemorate the 300-year anniversary of the death of the protestant Swedish monarch at the battle of Lützen, at the end of the Thirty Years War, the suite that he subsequently extracted is a substantial work in it's own right. Cantus arcticus is perhaps Rautavaara's best-known work, and was commissioned by the University of Oulu, in northern Finland, to honour it's first formal doctoral graduation ceremony, in 1972, Rautavaara instead took his inspiration from the natural environment of the region, incorporating two-channel tape recordings of birdsong as part of the orchestral texture.
Themes of art song, poetry, and spirituality run throughout Poème Mystique, the second solo album by Korean-American violinist Danbi Um. Following Danbi’s acclaimed solo debut album Much Ado – a showcase for her virtuosity and gilded tone – Poème Mystique explores works of lyrical beauty and profound personal expression. Richard Strauss’ Violin Sonata, written in the year he met his future wife, is imbued with romance and intimacy. Ernest Bloch’s Second Violin Sonata, the title work of the album, is by turns ecstatic, spiritual, and fantasy-like. Inspired by a dream, Bloch incorporates a vast range of spirituality, including motifs from his Jewish-themed works, the Gregorian Credo, Mass Kyrie, and traditional Amen. Danbi weaves two shorter works amongst the sonatas. Gabriel Fauré’s Après un rêve (“After a dream”), originally a French art song, becomes an exquisite song without words in this transcription for violin. The album concludes with Franz Schubert’s Ave Maria, likewise originally for voice and piano, presented here in an arrangement by August Wilhelm. Danbi’s refined collaborator is Finnish pianist Juho Pohjonen. Together they deliver a performance that is at once technically virtuosic and emotionally nuanced.
On Sale
Poème Mystique / Danbi Um
$19.99
$14.99
CD
Avie Records
Feb 14, 2025
AV2743
Mozart: Requiem in D Minor, K. 626
Archipel
Available as
CD
$10.99
$5.49
May 12, 2015
One of the 20th c. greatest interpreters of the works of his contemporary Richard Strauss, W.A. Mozart, and the Austro-German masterworks more generally, the conductor Karl Böhm (1894-1981 was nearly halfway through his long Vienna Philharmonic association when this now historic 1956 Mono recording of Mozart's Requiem, KV626 was realized. The quartet of soloists - Teresa Stich-Randall, Ira Malaniuk, Waldemar Kmentt and Kurt Böhme - among the greatest Mozartian singers of the era, plus the sterling bonus 1957 Beethoven Choral Fantasy, op. 80, insure this disc's import.
On Sale
Mozart: Requiem in D Minor, K. 626
$10.99
$5.49
CD
Archipel
May 12, 2015
ARPCD0395
OVERTURES, POLKAS, VALSES
Zig-Zag Territoires
Available as
CD
$20.99
$15.99
Jun 30, 2009
OVERTURES, POLKAS, VALSES
On Sale
OVERTURES, POLKAS, VALSES
$20.99
$15.99
CD
Zig-Zag Territoires
Jun 30, 2009
ZZT2020601
STRAUSS & THE VIENNESE TRUMPET
Linn Records
Available as
CD
$20.99
$15.99
Feb 14, 2020
Richard Strauss and the Viennese Trumpet is the latest in Jonathan Freeman-Attwood's imaginative series of musical reinventions for trumpet and piano. Works by Fux, Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler, Bruckner, Webern and Zemlinsky complement the core work: a newly imagined Strauss trumpet sonata. Building on his highly successful transcriptions of sonatas by Fauré, Grieg, Mendelssohn and Schumann, Freeman-Attwood pushes the boundaries further delivering a fully-realized trumpet sonata which Strauss did not write. This innovative approach embraces various levels of transcription, transformation, realignment and composition to create a significant new contribution to the trumpet repertoire, full of the gloriously idiomatic writing for which Strauss is renowned. The material is variously drawn from the first movement of Strauss's Violin Sonata, Op. 18, a combination of both light and very significant arrangements of miscellaneous music, newly composed music, and development or transitions based on existing material within the Sonata. Pianist Chiyan Wong, who was awarded the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque by the Franz Liszt Society, accompanies Freeman-Attwood.
On Sale
STRAUSS & THE VIENNESE TRUMPET
$20.99
$15.99
CD
Linn Records
Feb 14, 2020
CKD621
Canciones Españolas
Capriccio
Available as
CD
$21.99
$16.99
Aug 14, 2015
After the successful album release “Slavonic Souls” (Capriccio C5039) the Vienna State Opera Singer Zoryana Kushpler, accompanied on the piano by her partner and twin sister Olena, offer a rich recital of famous Spanish songs by the likes of Granados, de Falla, Mompou, Rodrigo and Montsalvage, including some choice rarities by these composers. Born in Lvov, Ukraine, Ms. Kushpler made her debut at the Wiener Staatsoper in 2007 as Adelaide in Richard Strauss’s Arabella. She has also been heard there in the operas of Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Puccini, Offenbach and Johann Strauss.
Here we meet Jorg Widmann as soloist, conductor and composer. With his piece Con brio, premiered in 2008, he pays a vibrant tribute to Beethoven in general and his Seventh Symphony in particular. At the head of the excellent Irish Chamber Orchestra, of which he is principal conductor, he has also recorded the aforementioned Symphony no.7, which occupies a special place among the most grandiose works of Beethoven; he himself considered the second movement to be one of his finest compositions! He wrote this symphony in 1812, when deafness was beginning to take its toll on him, the Napoleonic Wars were raging in Russia, and he met Goethe. Richard Strauss was in his twilight years when he composed his last instrumental work, the Duett-Concertino for clarinet and bassoon with string orchestra and harp, in 1947.
Mahler Contemporaries, a live concert recording from the Gustav Mahler Festival 2014, offers a range of well and lesser-known songs by friends, contemporaries and collaborators of Mahler, including Hugo Wolf, Pauline Viardot, Hans Rott, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schönberg and Bruno Walter, among others. The world premiére recording of Czech composer Josef Bohuslav Foerster’s Stabat Mater, Op. 56 opens proceedings; several of his songs also feature. Sung by winners of Karlsbad Int’l Singing Competition, the concert was recorded in the same Jihlava Church where Mahler started to listen to music.
On Sale
Mahler Contemporaries (Live)
$18.99
$14.99
CD
ArcoDiva
Sep 11, 2015
UP0164
Isasi: String Quartets, Vol. 3 (Completed by K. Dobers)
Naxos
Available as
CD
$19.99
$9.99
Apr 14, 2015
This is the third and final volume of the string quartets of the important but long-neglected Basque composer Andres Isasi (1890-1940). Initially influenced by Grieg and Dvorak, Isasi studied under Humperdinck in Berlin, where he acquired a love of Germanic culture, reflected in both quartets heard on this recording. Much of the violin sonata's thematic material has tangible links to Basque melodies and songs though there is also an element of Richard Strauss. His remaining quartets can be heard on Naxos 8.572463 and 8.572464, while Isasi's symphony no. 2 and suite no. 2 are available on 8.557584.
On Sale
Isasi: String Quartets, Vol. 3 (Completed by K. Dobers)
$19.99
$9.99
CD
Naxos
Apr 14, 2015
8572462
I Skogen: Nordic Songs
BIS
Available as
SACD
$21.99
$15.99
Sep 11, 2015
Already well known to opera audiences worldwide, Swedish soprano Camilla Tilling is also a dedicated and acclaimed recitalist, as noted by reactions in the Sunday Times and Gramophone, among other publications, to her two previous BIS releases with pianist Paul Rivinius that feature songs by Richard Strauss and Franz Schubert. This new, third BIS disc of songs by Edvard Grieg, Jean Sibelius and Wilhelm Stenhammar takes its title from Stenhammar’s I skogen (In the forest), with many of the selected songs either played out in or depicting natural settings, in a manner familiar to Nordic composers.
On Sale
I Skogen: Nordic Songs
$21.99
$15.99
SACD
BIS
Sep 11, 2015
BIS-2154
Credo / Sirmais, State Choir Latvija
HYPERION
Available as
CD
$18.33
Sep 01, 2023
Two opulent choral masterpieces by Richard Strauss frame an eclectic program from one of Europe's most highly acclaimed choirs. The name of the young Slovenian composer Matej Kastelic may still be relatively little known, but the title track "Credo / I believe" is simply extraordinary, and demands to be heard.
REVIEW
The Latvians are ravishing in Strauss’s formidable "Deutsche Motette," which is essentially a concerto for choir, the composer treating the ensemble in the same way as a vast orchestra. The impressively vibrant choral sound and emotional ebb and flow ensure this recording encourages repeated listening.
— BBC Music Magazine
Credo / Sirmais, State Choir Latvija
$18.33
CD
HYPERION
Sep 01, 2023
HYP68426.2
6 SYMPHONIES
Danacord
Available as
CD
$36.99
Aug 17, 2018
Louis Glass was a contemporary of Carl Nielsen, however his musical ideals were of the late-Romantic idiom. Like Nielsen he composed six symphonies, but as a composer he was a dreamer and his lush, brilliantly orchestrated works hark back to a time when modernism had no influence. This is the first complete recording of the six symphonies which were played frequently in Denmark, but vanished into the mist of a forgotten world. The splendid Bulgarian orchestra easily identifies with Glass’ musical sound world, stretching back and absorbing the style of the early Richard Strauss. These symphonies were recorded between October 1999 and August 2000, and feature the Plodiv Philharmonic led by renowned conductor Nayden Todorov.
6 SYMPHONIES
$36.99
CD
Danacord
Aug 17, 2018
DACOCD541-544
Bruckner: Symphonie No. 2 / Pinnock, Royal Academy Of Music Soloists Ensemble
Linn Records
Available as
SACD
$21.99
$16.99
Mar 25, 2014
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 2 (arr. Payne). J. STRAUSS II Wein, Weib und Gesang (arr. Berg) • Trevor Pinnock, cond; Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ens • LINN 442 (SACD: 65: 39)
A Bruckner symphony arranged for chamber orchestra? That really shouldn’t work—but it does, and it’s a spectacular success. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, principal of the Royal Academy of Music, is the brains behind the project, and top honors go to him for his astute choice of symphony and even more astute choice of arranger, the composer Anthony Payne. Add to that the arrangement itself, which is a triumph of clarity and timbral focus, an interpretation from Trevor Pinnock, who proves to be an insightful Brucknerian (who knew?), orchestral playing from students who need fear no comparisons with the finest professionals, and exceptional SACD audio, and the result is an unqualified success on every count.
The release is the second in a series called Reigniting Schoenberg’s Vision. The idea is to recreate—or even reinvent—Schoenberg’s famous Society for Private Musical Performances, performing some of the chamber arrangements of symphonic works made for those events, and even, as in this case, correcting Schoenberg’s omissions by adding to the repertoire. Bruckner’s Second “Symphonie” (as it’s referred to throughout the accompanying literature, a curious affectation) is a daring but smart choice. While it is not particularly small of stature, its identity, character, and charm emanate more from its quieter passages than from its climaxes. Payne follows the spirit more than the letter of the Schoenberg/Berg/Stein arrangements, using a 20-piece ensemble, larger than in any of the Vienna reworkings, but substituting the full orchestra in similar ways, particularly in the use of piano and harmonium to provide essential, although usually invisible, support.
Some of the climaxes feel underpowered, but even here the pros of the arrangement outweigh the cons. We hear the stratospheric violin lines, the chugging bass figures, and the brass fanfares with a rare clarity. But it is in the quieter passages that this version really comes into its own. At the start, for example, the theme is given to the cellos. Here, we hear it as a cello solo, elegantly phrased and all the more beautiful for the sense of intimacy a single player can bring. In later passages, the bassoon writing is a particular revelation, and just as beautifully played. The opening of the Andante second movement, pared down to string sextet, is transporting in a way that only the very finest recordings of the full symphony manage. Some of the scherzo sounds a little hollow, but Pinnock and his small brass section ensure the momentum is maintained through finely calibrated accentuation. And in the finale, an appropriate gravitas is achieved, even in the absence of weight.
Trevor Pinnock brings many of the preoccupations of the period instrument movement to bear on the work, yet it never sounds dry. Details of phrasing and accentuation are addressed in every bar, and the smaller ensemble allows him to shape and color accompanying textures with as much care as the main themes. His tempos are propulsive, but never rigid, nor excessively fast. He seems to be in a quandary over the caesuras. The tutti cut-offs don’t need the time to decay, but the severity of the mood changes often require a pause for reflection, which he always gives.
The instrumentalists perform to an exceptionally high standard throughout. The playing of the string sextet is particularly impressive, highly expressive but finely controlled and balanced. So too the woodwind soloists, blending their tone in ensemble but taking full advantage of the increased exposure in solos to play with character and color. To all the other accolades for Jonathan Freeman-Attwood we must also add recording producer, another field in which he excels. The recording was made at St. George’s Bristol, and the sound is warm, but never excessively resonant. The clarity that Payne achieves in his arrangement is amplified at every step by the quality of the recorded sound.
If I’ve one grumble, it’s with the coupling, Alban Berg’s arrangement of Wine, Women, and Song. It follows hard on the heels of the Bruckner without any gap at all (not even time to jump up and switch it off) and it adds little. In comparison to Payne’s detailed and clear textures in the Bruckner, Berg’s arrangement feels bloated and unfocused. Berg had a different acoustic in mind of course, and a different setting in every sense. Presumably this arrangement is included to highlight the link with the Society for Private Musical Performances, but it’s unnecessary. Whatever inspiration Freeman-Attwood, Payne, and the RAM musicians have drawn from Schoenberg is of only historical interest as far as this recording is concerned: The project needs no further justification than the exceptional quality of the results.
FANFARE: Gavin Dixon
On Sale
Bruckner: Symphonie No. 2 / Pinnock, Royal Academy Of Music Soloists Ensemble
$21.99
$16.99
SACD
Linn Records
Mar 25, 2014
CKD442
Celebrations / United States Navy Band
Altissimo
Available as
CD
$18.99
$13.99
Feb 28, 2012
Celebrations features the talents of some of this nation's finest musicians, members of the U.S. Navy Band. As a commemoration to the exceptional musicianship and unfailing dedication of the Navy Band, this exciting album strikes a balance between concert band works and orchestral transcriptions that challenge the performers and inspire the listener. The pieces on the album also represent the works of some of the world's greatest composers such as Carl Friedemann and Richard Strauss. Three of the selections found on this album were composed or transcribed by present and former Navy Band members. One such member, Chief Musician Herb Weber, had a father who performed with the Sousa Band. This album is a fantastic representation of the talent, dedication, and professionalism that is characteristic of the United States Navy Band in every endeavor.
On Sale
Celebrations / United States Navy Band
$18.99
$13.99
CD
Altissimo
Feb 28, 2012
ALT61042
Mozart & Strauss: Lieder / Devieilhe, Pordoy
ERATO
Available as
CD
$18.36
Aug 09, 2024
Richard Strauss considered Mozart to be "the most sublime of all composers". Both Mozart and Strauss wrote exquisitely for the soprano voice and Sabine Devieilhe, with pianist Mathieu Pordoy, has assembled a beautifully balanced programme of their songs. Among them is Strauss's sublime 'Morgen', which brings a guest appearance by violinist Vilde Frang. When Devieilhe and Pordoy performed Mozart and Strauss at London's Wigmore Hall, The Spectator wrote of a "heart-stopping soprano" who made the songs "sound dewy-fresh. Her voice picked up and outlined each word; long lines sounded spontaneous but wholly considered. The clarity and the lightly worn self-awareness of Devieilhe's singing made for a seductive combination."
Mozart & Strauss: Lieder / Devieilhe, Pordoy
$18.36
CD
ERATO
Aug 09, 2024
EAO794886.2
J. Strauss Jr: Die Gottin Der Vernunft / Pollack, Kumpfmuller, Cortez, Mittermeier, Fodinger
Naxos
Available as
CD
$29.99
$20.99
May 31, 2011
Set in the town of Chalons near the German border at the time of the French Revolution during the Reign of Terror in 1794, Johann Strauss II’s final operetta The Goddess of Reason languished for 111 years until this 2009 in-concert revival. Its light-hearted mockery of the aristocracy, morality and the army, somewhat controversial at the time, seems as harmless now as that of Bernstein’s ebullient opera Candide and its humour stands the test of time. Abounding in waltz tunes and marches, its exuberant music is vintage Strauss. For this recording Christian Pollack has reconstructed the score as it would have been heard on its opening night with additional items that Strauss added for its 25th performance.
On Sale
J. Strauss Jr: Die Gottin Der Vernunft / Pollack, Kumpfmuller, Cortez, Mittermeier, Fodinger
$29.99
$20.99
CD
Naxos
May 31, 2011
8660280-81
Jongen: Works for Cello & Orchestra / Arming, Demarquette, Liege Philharmonic
Musique en Wallonie
Available as
CD
$20.99
May 19, 2017
Anyone who has witnessed the welcome accorded to a national football team returning home after winning an international trophy might find it hard to believe that, not all that long ago, composers too were the object of similar popular adulation. The contest that gave rise to the most extreme transports of delight and pride was the Prix de Rome. Instituted by the Belgian government in 1841 on the model of the French prize of the same name, it was awarded every two years to young composers of under thirty. After being awarded the Prix de Rome in 1897, Joseph Jongen (1873-1953) began to compose vast works for cello and orchestra. These testify to a culture both Germanic and French which allows him to make the link between the works of Richard Strauss- whom he met in Munich- and Ernest Chausson. These three pieces are performed by the brilliant French cellist Henri Demarquette, accompanied by the Liege Royal Philharmonic- whose reputation is well known- conducted by the Austrian chef Christian Arming.
Jongen: Works for Cello & Orchestra / Arming, Demarquette, Liege Philharmonic
$20.99
CD
Musique en Wallonie
May 19, 2017
MEW1785
Mozart, Strauss / Eaglen, Mehta, Israel Philharmonic
Sony Masterworks
Available as
CD
$17.99
$13.99
Jan 29, 2008
There is certainly blood aplenty in these bleeding chunks. As Salome kisses the mouth of Jokanaan, the lunar beauty at the core of Jane Eaglen’s dramatic lyric soprano reminds us not only of the chilling purity of Salome’s corruption, but of just what we are missing in hearing Eaglen live so little in Britain.
The partnership of Eaglen and the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta is at its strongest in the Richard Strauss tracks of this Mozart and Strauss compilation. The orchestra’s superbly balanced wind soloists create dark shadows for Guntram’s Freihild, as she reflects within them, at first perplexed and then, in unflaggingly focused voice, thankful for her love for the Minnesinger – and for the glory of her top B. If Ariadne’s distraction is captured rather less convincingly, then the sustained rapture of Die Aegyptische Helena’s “Zweite Brautnacht!” draws the full effulgence from Eaglen’s golden soprano in what seems to be one breathless sentence.
The five Mozart arias here remind us just what a formidable Mozartian Eaglen is; and one only wishes that Mehta were her equal in this respect. I found myself constantly longing for a livelier orchestral presence, warmer phrasing, more discriminating support. Eaglen’s bleached tone in Donna Anna’s “Non mi dir” gives way to some considerable tension in the florid, high-lying passages, and the matter-of-fact, even peremptory accompaniment of “Or sai chi l’onore” doesn’t help her in what becomes a somewhat shrill revelation.
Eaglen’s own skills at pacing and charging with emotion Electra’s passages of accompanied recitative make for real momentum, lit by a bright platinum gleam in the voice in “Oh smania! ... D’Oreste, d’Aiace”; and her instinctive phrasing gives eloquent voice to Electra’s more demure moments in “Idol mio”.'
-- Hilary Finch, Gramophone [6/1998]
On Sale
Mozart, Strauss / Eaglen, Mehta, Israel Philharmonic
$17.99
$13.99
CD
Sony Masterworks
Jan 29, 2008
SONY60042
20th Century Oboe Sonatas / Klein, Bush
Cedille
Available as
CD
$19.99
$9.99
Apr 12, 2019
Grammy Award-winner Alex Klein, former principal oboist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, performs sonatas that signify the oboe’s 20th-century reemergence as a brilliant solo instrument. One of the world’s most famous oboe players, Klein says he waited to acquire a professional lifetime’s worth of experience before putting his stamp on the six sonatas heard here. With pianist Phillip Bush, Klein plays works that he says “define the modern oboe”: Camille Saint-Saëns’ jovial, late-Romantic Sonata for Oboe and Piano, Op. 166; York Bowen’s lushly beautiful Sonata for Oboe and Pianoforte, Op. 85; Henri Dutilleux’s emotionally wide-ranging Sonata for Oboe and Piano; Petr Eben’s youthful, inventive Oboe Sonata, Op.1; Francis Poulenc’s late, philosophical Sonata for Oboe and Piano, FP 185; and Eugène Bozza’s Sonata for Oboe and Piano, an ethereal, rarely heard tour de force. Klein possesses a “tone so unique and beautiful that musicians from around the globe would flock to [Chicago’s] Symphony Center to hear him play” (Chicago Magazine). He won a Grammy Award in 2002 for Best Instrumental Solo Performance (with Orchestra) for his recording of Richard Strauss’s oboe concerto with conductor Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
REVIEW:
Oboe playing simply does not get any better than this. The collaborative support of pianist Phillip Bush could also not be bettered, nor could the recorded sound offered by Cedille. This recital, then, is nothing less than an essential acquisition for any fan of the oboe or superlative wind playing in general.
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
