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Foerster: Symphony No 4, Etc / Friedel, Slovak Radio Symphony

Naxos

Available as CD

$19.99

Mar 21, 2006

Josef Foerster was by all accounts a contented soul, and this shows in his music, which is generally open and optimistic in character. Certainly the Festive Overture and the tone poem Meine Jugend fall into this category: he sounds a bit like Richard Strauss without the danger or decadence. Symphony No. 4, subtitled "Easter Eve", strikes a deeper note, and it's a lovely work. There is no competition for the two shorter pieces, which are well played and conducted and make a very good impression. Foerster lived to the ripe old age of 91, and he wrote a ton of music, so who knows what other gems are out there waiting to be discovered.

In the symphony (Foerster's best-known piece along with the tone poem Cyrano de Bergerac) conductor Lance Friedel is about six minutes slower (out of 40-plus) than Smetácek on Supraphon, and some listeners will prefer the latter's livelier tempos. (There's also an historical recording under Kubelik that really isn't competitive on account of very dated sonics.) Questions of tempo aside, if you didn't know the Smetácek you'd surely not care at all, because Friedel has the measure of the piece and projects its gentle loveliness just as effectively. Also, the vivid engineering gives the organ-reinforced conclusion plenty of the necessary gravitas, and at the Naxos price you can hardly go wrong. This is well-made, attractive music that fans of late-Romanticism should certainly hear.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Foerster: Symphony No 4, Etc / Friedel, Slovak Radio Symphony

$19.99
CD

Naxos

Mar 21, 2006

8557776

Volbach: Syphony, Op. 33 & Es waren zwei Konigskinder / Berg, Munster Symphony

CPO

Available as CD

~~$18.99~~ $13.99

Nov 01, 2019

Since 2017 Golo Berg has been the general music director of the Munster Symphony Orchestra, which was founded by the composer Fritz Volbach in 1919. It was only logical that Berg would also occupy himself with the composer around this centennial year, and Volbach turned out to be a significant personality both as a musicologist and as a composer. Berg and cpo both were surprised by the originality and high quality of these works. During the first decade of the twentieth century Volbach’s name continued to be thoroughly familiar to people who were interested in music; his works were regularly included in programs, but then they were forgotten somewhat. Volbach’s most popular works included the Symphonic Poem “Es waren zwei Konigskinder” based on the famous folk ballad of the same name. Like Richard Strauss in Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Volbach drew on this universally familiar material of folk character in response to the turn-of-the-century predilection for German tales and sagas. He attached great importance to clear structure and an intelligible musical realization, so that the story of the two enamored but unlucky royal children can be imagined without difficulty. The subsequently composed Symphony in B minor formed the crowning conclusion of Volbach’s instrumental music for orchestral ensembles. It represents, so to speak, the “royal category” at the end of his development inasmuch as his aim in this form was to demonstrate his true mastery as a composer.

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Volbach: Syphony, Op. 33 & Es waren zwei Konigskinder / Berg, Munster Symphony

~~$18.99~~ $13.99
CD

CPO

Nov 01, 2019

777886-2

Hindemith: Works for Clarinet / Sharon Kam

Orfeo

Available as CD

~~$20.99~~ $15.99

Nov 05, 2021

Sharon Kam discovers Hindemith on her third album on Orfeo label. Even if some people still consider him “too modern” today, Hanau-born Hesse Paul Hindemith is undoubtedly one of the most influential German composers of the generation after Richard Strauss. Few of his immediate colleagues have found their way into the international repertoire to the same extent that he has, or influenced subsequent generations through comparably extensive educational work. All three works for clarinet featured on this recording date from years of extensive travel: the Quartet for Clarinet, Violin, Cello, and Piano was written in 1938 around the time of his emigration to Switzerland, the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in 1939 during the course of the tours of the USA that immediately followed the emigration, and finally, the Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in 1947 (written for and premiered by Benny Goodman) when Hindemith left his American exile to visit Europe again for the first time after the Second World War. Sharon Kam has teamed up with her long-standing musical partners Enrico Pace , Antje Weithaas , and Julian Steckel for the chamber music part of the album, and with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony under the musical direction of Daniel Cohen for the clarinet concerto.

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Hindemith: Works for Clarinet / Sharon Kam

~~$20.99~~ $15.99
CD

Orfeo

Nov 05, 2021

ORF-C210041

Wolf-Ferrari: Il Segreto di Susanna / Pritchard, Scotto

CBS Masterworks

Available as CD

$18.99

Mar 27, 2008

If there is one sensation aroused today in the listener to Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's operas it is delight: How attractive they are! The composer seems to have achieved the perfect unity of straightforward Italianate lyricism and the orchestral style of the German school. His operas are supreme examples of eclecticism in the best sense of the term...

(The Secret of Susanna), first performed at the Hofoper, Munich, on November 4, 1909, was outwardly a departure from the composer's usual eighteenth-century settings, but in fact it is clearly modelled after Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona with its three roles for soprano, baritone, and mime servant. The overture "in miniature" is a masterpiece of engagin melody and marvelously controlled counterpoint - each of the four themes upon which it is built are able to hold their own when played separately, yet work perfectly when played together in the coda.

Here and there during the course of his one-act opera, one may recall Donizetti - as in the piano solo that returns as the duet finale - or wagner, Liszt, Debussy - a faun flits about the tobacco smoke as the clarinet weaves its sinuos chromatic arabesques during Susanna's aria - and others, but in no way can this score be construed as derivative. The harmony is predominantly diatonic, enriched when necessary with Wagnerian chromaticism. Nevertheless, unlike the music of Humperdinck, Wilhelm Kienzl or Alexander von Fielitz, to name but three of the many Wagnerite composers, it is free of the pervasive flavor of Bayreuth. On the other hand we do not come away from hearing the music with the impression that Wolf-Ferrari was a follower of twilight Verdi - though the excitement ad panache of Falstaff is there - Massenet, or a rival of Puccini or Richard Strauss. Clearly Wolf-Ferrari set out on his own mission; he was influenced by many, but a disciple of none; he was inspired by the past but sought to beautify the present. above all, for all his eclecticism, ermanno Wolf-Ferrari remained his own man.

- Barrymore Laurence Scherer
excerpted from album liner notes

Wolf-Ferrari: Il Segreto di Susanna / Pritchard, Scotto

$18.99
CD

CBS Masterworks

Mar 27, 2008

SONY36733

Vienna 1913 - Brahms, Kornauth & Korngold / Herold, Staemmler

CAvi-music

Available as CD

$19.99

Jan 13, 2023

The years 1900-1914 were perhaps the most thrilling period in European music history: the cradle of what we now call musical Modernism. This was the time when the great “avant-garde schools” took shape: in Paris, Berlin, Saint Petersburg, and particularly in Vienna. Music branched out into a multitude of aesthetics, styles, and genres, as we can see in in the variety of terms that attempt to describe art in that period: Impressionism, Expressionism, Art Nouveau, Neo-Classicism, Foklorism, Late Romanticism, Symbolism, and others. Our program selection for this album focuses on two works written in Vienna in 1913 – the “summer of the century”, as author Florian Illies calls a pivotal year that put an end to the long 19th century and introduced the somber 20th century. The two works are Alban Berg’s Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano op. 5 and Egon Kornauth’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano. 1913 was the year of several “scandalous” premieres: Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, Berg’s Altenberglieder, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, and others that were less scandalous: Debussy’s Images pour Orchestre, Max Reger’s Isle of the Dead, Sibelius’s Luonnotar, de Falla’s La vida breve, and Richard Strauss‘s Festliches Präludium.

Vienna 1913 - Brahms, Kornauth & Korngold / Herold, Staemmler

$19.99
CD

CAvi-music

Jan 13, 2023

AVI 8553517

Rendezvous With Tashi- Hindemith, Foss, Gershwin, Shulman

RCA

Available as CD

$17.99

Jun 19, 2008

Tashi don their tuxedos and, in the case of violinist Ida Kavafian, a flapper dress. The roaring twenties provide the only common link in this oddball collection; as the sleeve-note suggests during that rollicking decade ''the world was bent on having a good time''. I'll take that on trust. Tashi have a good time here, and so, for the most part, do we. I am never entirely sure about Hindemith, but you don't argue with the craftsmanship. He was 28 and irritatingly eager when he put together this inventive little Quintet. No musical fashion seems to have escaped him—from the obligatory string elegy with its generous coating of late romanticism, to the curdled third movement Landler with its grotesque mix of Berlin cabaret and Mahlerian Wunderhorn (Richard Stoltzman in his element brandishing the E flat clarinet), a touch of premature minimalism in the curiously spare fourth movement, and a finale which begins by sounding as though it is rewinding the score back to the beginning. The Lukas Foss piece is weird, too—not in terms of the musical language, which is disarmingly mainstream, but on account of its gentle off-beat humour. Just when you think you should be taking it seriously … The treadmill finale, for instance, is notable for two thin-lipped piano solos and a spooky disappearing-trick at the end. Stoltzman again gets the lion's share of the virtuosity.

As for the remaining bon-bons Stoltzman and friends are suitably laid-back. Alan Shulman's Rendezvous was written for Benny Goodman and sounds much as its title suggests. A deceptive start, like off-duty Richard Strauss, gives way to swingtime. And swingtime is what we are looking for, and get, in at least three of the five Gershwin morsels. Stoltzman tosses off a deliciously frisky Promenade (or Walking the dog) while the standards are duly adored—the flavour of the arrangements, Palm Court with a twist.

-- Edward Seckerson, Gramophone [3/1990]

Rendezvous With Tashi- Hindemith, Foss, Gershwin, Shulman

$17.99
CD

RCA

Jun 19, 2008

RCA7901

R. Strauss & Copland / Stamp, Academy of London, Royal Northern Sinfonia

Signum Classics

Available as CD

~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Jan 01, 2021

The four works on this release, all composed in the 1940s, embrace the lingering end of one musical tradition and the vigorous upsurge of another. Mellifluous, retrospective and playful, the Duet Concertino and Prelude to Capriccio were works from Richard Strauss’s final phase – an old man’s refuge from the barbarism of war and its aftermath. What the public thought of them was incidental, even irrelevant. In the same decade, Aaron Copland and other younger American composers were reaching out, via radio, recordings and film, to a new mass audience. The European influence of Appalachian Spring and the Clarinet Concerto, though inescapable, was minimized in a populist, vernacular idiom that absorbed folk music and jazz.

Richard Stamp unites some of the finest instrumentalists from the UK and Europe in these performances – featuring celebrated orchestras the Academy of London and the Royal Northern Sinfonia with renowned Austrian soloists Ernst Ottensamer and Stepan Turnovsky. Stepan Turnovsky joined the Vienna State Opera and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in 1978 and has kept the position of Solo Bassoonist there since 1985, performing with conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Karl Böhm, Carlos Kleiber amongst many others. The late Ernst Ottensamer was a former principal clarinettist at the Vienna Philharmonic and an avid performer of chamber music – founding numerous ensembles and collaborating with musicians such as Sir Simon Rattle, André Previn, Daniel Barenboim and Rudolf Buchbinder amongst others. In 2005 he found a clarinet trio with his sons Daniel and Andreas Ottensamer – themselves the Principal Clarinettists of the Vienna Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. This present performance represents his last concerto recording.

REVIEW:

It is for the two Strauss performances that I can offer an enthusiastic thumbs up. Ernest Ottensamer died suddenly in 2017 at the age of 61, and the Copland was his last concerto recording. That, too, adds to the value of this release. Signum deserves gratitude for saving all four performances from being lost and forgotten.

– Fanfare

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R. Strauss & Copland / Stamp, Academy of London, Royal Northern Sinfonia

~~$19.99~~ $9.99
CD

Signum Classics

Jan 01, 2021

SIGCD654

Schoenberg: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 3 / Gringolts

BIS

Available as SACD

~~$21.99~~ $15.99

Apr 01, 2022

Arnold Schoenberg’s second string quartet – included on a previous release by the Gringolts Quartet – is often used as a reference point when the emergence of atonality is discussed. That work, where Schoenberg in the fourth movement suddenly does away with a time signature, was composed in 1907, three years after his first work in the genre: the String Quartet in D minor, Op. 7, a work which still has much in common with the Late Romantic idiom of Richard Strauss. The D minor quartet is in one movement, but with four distinct sections which, according to a note left by the composer, chart a progression from ‘rebellion’ and ‘depression’ to ‘quiet joy and the contemplation of rest and harmony’ – a program reminiscent of the one Strauss had used in his recent tone poem Ein Heldenleben. Albeit tonal, the harmonic language is richly chromatic, pointing forward to the inevitable break in the second quartet. Some twenty years later, Schoenberg had developed his twelve-tone method, and his Third Quartet is an example of how he was using this to refresh traditional form schemes and contrapuntal textures, while at the same time counterbalancing the modern idiom with familiar features such as a slow variation movement and a rondo finale.

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Schoenberg: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 3 / Gringolts

~~$21.99~~ $15.99
SACD

BIS

Apr 01, 2022

BIS-2567

Romantic Exuberance

Genuin

Available as CD

~~$20.99~~ $15.99

Sep 06, 2019

The young Romanian violinist Ioana Cristina Goicea and her piano partner Andrei Banciu draw on the full range of their talents: on their debut album, they bring late Romantic music by Richard Strauss, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and the world premiere recording by Stan Golestan to life in full color. The two winners of the competition are perfectly attuned to each other. A technically flawless rendition serves as the basis of their interpretation and is exalted by the extraordinary artistic personality of the two Romanian musicians. The romantic exuberance creates goosebumps! Ioana Cristina Goicea is one of the outstanding violinists of her generation. She won First Prize at the 2017 Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand, with critics praising her passionate performance and describing her as "a new star in the musical firmament." In 2018 she won First Prize at the German Music Competition in Bonn and was a laureate of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. In 2019 she became a prize winner of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Born in 1985 in Timisoara (Romania), Andrei Banciu began studying the piano in his home town with Maria Bodo, later continuing in Berlin at the UdK (University of the Arts) under Prof. Klaus Hellwig and at the "Hanns Eisler" School of Music under Prof. Fabio Bidini.

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Romantic Exuberance

~~$20.99~~ $15.99
CD

Genuin

Sep 06, 2019

GEN 19668

American Classics - Beach: Songs / Kelton, Bringerud

Naxos

Available as CD

~~$19.99~~ $13.99

Oct 19, 2004

Amy Beach's songs are pleasant enough, and certainly well-crafted, with smartly chosen texts--Burns, Longfellow, Browning, Shelley, and some lesser-known poets, including Beach herself. But most of their appeal lies with the composer's deftness in borrowing from and incorporating the styles of major artists such as Schubert, Brahms, Wolf, Richard Strauss, and Debussy into her writing. She even takes directly from Beethoven in her quite lovely song "The Rainy Day". In other words, there's nothing really original here, but melodically and in terms of overall accessibility and singability, Beach understood the genre and knew how to create music that nearly everyone--singers as well as listeners--could enjoy. There are lullabies, German lied, and French chansons, as well as a nod or two to English and American parlor-song. And we're fortunate to have as our interpreter a singer who is one of the world's experts in this repertoire: mezzo-soprano Katherine Kelton did her doctoral dissertation on Beach's songs. She exhibits a voice of rich color and easy, inviting expressiveness, and her technique effortlessly conveys the varied moods and cleverly imitative styles so that we can just sit back and appreciate each one of these charming if not particularly profound works. Beach's piano accompaniments are carefully thought-out and add essential, characterful aspects of tone, color, and texture that are often very technically challenging. Catherine Bringerud is completely at home with this music and at one with Kelton's vocal interpretations. The sound is complementary to vocal and instrumental timbres and presents the performances in realistic perspective. Fans of American song--and especially of Amy Beach (who did much of her writing just down the road from where I'm writing this review, at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, NH)--shouldn't miss this interpretively considerate, solidly performed recital.

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

On Sale

American Classics - Beach: Songs / Kelton, Bringerud

~~$19.99~~ $13.99
CD

Naxos

Oct 19, 2004

8559191

VIER LEZTE LIEDER - 12 ORCHESTRAL SONGS

WARNER CLASSICS

Available as CD

$10.49

Sep 18, 2015

Classical Music

VIER LEZTE LIEDER - 12 ORCHESTRAL SONGS

$10.49
CD

WARNER CLASSICS

Sep 18, 2015

WCL552136.2

Grieg: Lyric Pieces - Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte / Kozhukhin

PENTATONE

Available as SACD

~~$21.99~~ $16.99

Jun 28, 2019

On his new solo album, Russian star pianist Denis Kozhukhin presents a personal and colourful collection of character pieces taken from Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte and Edvard Grieg’s Lyric Pieces. Combing these miniature gems by two outstanding poets of music, Kozhukhin provides a shining example of how disarmingly touching and penetrating a simple song or a vision of nature captured in sound can be. The programme features classics such as Mendelssohn’s Venetian Gondola Song and Grieg’s Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, as well as less famous but equally enchanting pieces. Kozhukhin lifts out the noble simplicity of these works with his delicate playing. Denis Kozhukhin has established himself as one of the greatest pianists of his generation. He now presents the fifth chapter to his exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE, after albums with the piano concertos of Grieg and Tchaikovsky (2016), Brahms Ballades and Fantasies (2017), Ravel and Gershwin piano concertos, as well as Richard Strauss’ Burleske (both 2018).

-----

REVIEW:

Once in a while a piano recording comes along that really plucks at the heart-strings. Denis Kozhukhin's compilation of miniatures by Mendelssohn and Grieg is one such. He brings to the table a perfect balance between spontaneity and control, teamed with infinite variety of touch and timbre. Every phrase is imbued with sensitivity and luminous beauty.

– Gramophone

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Grieg: Lyric Pieces - Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte / Kozhukhin

~~$21.99~~ $16.99
SACD

PENTATONE

Jun 28, 2019

PTC5186734

Journey through a Century / Sueye Park

BIS

Available as SACD

~~$21.99~~ $15.99

Jun 04, 2021

Shortlisted for the Gramophone Awards!

Exploring the repertoire for solo violin, the young Korean violinist Sueye Park has chosen works spanning exactly 100 hundred years – from Max Reger’s Prelude and Fugue from 1909 to Penderecki’s Capriccio, composed in 2008. Framing the 20th century, the program starts as a relay race of famous violinist-composers; Reger dedicating his piece to Kreisler, who dedicated his Recitativo and Scherzo-Caprice to Ysaÿe, who wrote his Sonata No. 6 for the Spanish virtuoso Manuel Quiroga. In this series of names, that of Richard Strauss may come as a surprise, but his little-known Daphne-Etüde from 1945 is also dedicated to a violinist – his young grandson. The journey now turns eastwards with two solo sonatas, by Prokofiev and Weinberg, that were both composed in Moscow, albeit 20 years apart. These are followed by Isang Yun’s ‘Royal Theme’. The Korean-born composer uses the theme from Bach’s Musical Offering, but takes it on ‘a walk through the Asian tradition’ in the course of seven variations. In A Paganini, Alfred Schnittke revisits another colleague from the past – and one closely associated with the violin. Finally bringing us into the 21st century is Penderecki, whose early training as a violinist stood him in good stead when he composed his virtuosic Capriccio.

On Sale

Journey through a Century / Sueye Park

~~$21.99~~ $15.99
SACD

BIS

Jun 04, 2021

BIS-2492

Echoes / Urioste, Brown

BIS

Available as CD

~~$21.99~~ $10.99

Nov 18, 2016

Elena Urioste and Michael Brown formed a recital duo in 2009 and have performed together extensively ever since. For their first recording together they have selected four works which have formed part of their repertoire from the very beginning, resonating throughout their entire musical partnership. All four are early works, written by composers in their twenties or younger- Michael Brown was only eighteen when he composed his own contribution. As the performers put it in their liner notes, the pieces they have chosen are “imbued with an ardour that is unapologetically, deliciously youthful.” The disc opens with the only multi-movement work of the program- Richard Strauss’s expansively melodic Sonata in E flat major, written around the time when the composer met and fell in love with his future wife. A few years later, in Paris, Ravel made a first attempt at composing a violin sonata while still a student at the Conservatoire. The resulting piece, in one movement, had a single performance during Ravel’s lifetime and was only published in 1975, as Sonate posthume. Between these two works we hear Michael Brown’s Echoes of Byzantium, inspired by William Butler Yeats’s Sailing to Byzantium, and an attempt to portray the meaning of the poem through music alone. The disc closes with a piece by another American composer and pianist, Amy Beach (1867-1944) The first American woman to compose and publish a symphony (first performed in 1896), she was best known for her songs, and her gift for melody is evident in the 1893 Romance for violin and piano.

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Echoes / Urioste, Brown

~~$21.99~~ $10.99
CD

BIS

Nov 18, 2016

BIS-2284

In the Music Hall / Wien-Berlin Brass Quintett

Tudor

Available as CD

~~$21.99~~ $10.99

Oct 15, 2021

A spectacular album by a superb brass quintet. -- American Record Guide

Baroque masters were already playing to the gallery with brass players’ fanfares; Mozart and Haydn com-posed wonderful concertos for trumpet or horn; then the Romantics Brahms and Dvorak did their bit, followed by orchestral wizards Berlioz and Richard Strauss who triumphantly ushered trumpet, horn and trombone into the symphony orchestra. Jazz brought the great liberation, and light entertainment contributed to the overdue recognition of their possibilities. The wide spectrum of the present album illustrates the boundless popularity of this musical genre. The composers of these works enjoy life, and are proof positive that brass ensembles are to be taken seriously – whether performed in venerable concert halls, the Music Hall or the circus. The Wien-Berlin Brass Quintett radiates a cheerful, vibrant atmosphere, offering musical fireworks, sparkling wit and humor along with quite unique and breathtaking virtuosity.

REVIEWS:

This disc is simply good, clean fun and a sheer delight. The Wien-Berlin Brass Quintett—Gábor Tarkővi and Guillaume Jehl, trumpets; Thomas Jöbstl, horn; Mark Gaal, trombone; Alexander von Puttkamer, tuba; Jöbstl and Gall are members of the Vienna Philharmonic, the other three men present or former members of the Berlin Philharmonic—here kicks back its collective heels to present five entertaining divertissements. All the music is unabashedly tonal and listener-friendly.

The virtuoso, spirited playing of this marvelous brass fivesome [is] captured in brilliant sound. A booklet provides basic notes. Cheerily recommended.

-- Fanfare

On Sale

In the Music Hall / Wien-Berlin Brass Quintett

~~$21.99~~ $10.99
CD

Tudor

Oct 15, 2021

TUDOR7204

NICODE: EIN LIEBESLEBEN & OTHER PIANO WORKS

HYPERION

Available as CD

$18.33

May 31, 2019

Simon Callaghan - Nicode: Ein Liebesleben & Other Piano Works (CD) - Felix Draeseke's description of Jean Louis Nicode (1853-1919) as 'more a moderate progressive than a cacophonist' - in contrast to his younger contemporary Richard Strauss - may have been intended as a compliment, but doesn't begin to do justice to this profoundly enjoyable music, it's several influences (most notably Schumann) never far away.

NICODE: EIN LIEBESLEBEN & OTHER PIANO WORKS

$18.33
CD

HYPERION

May 31, 2019

HYP68269.2

Schoenberg: Erwartung & Pelleas und Melisande /Jakubiak, Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic

Chandos

Available as SACD

~~$21.99~~ $16.99

May 01, 2020

Written only six years apart, these two works share a common narrative of frustrated love, and the concept of the forest as a metaphor for the subconscious mind. Musically they are wildly different, however; Pelleas, which Schoenberg wrote in his late twenties, is the epitome of his late romantic style, indebted to Richard Strauss. Erwartung (his first work for the stage) was written after his conversion to atonality. Maurice Maeterlinck’s play Pelleas et Melisande fired the imaginations of several of the greatest composers of the time. Debussy began writing his opera almost immediately after its publication in 1892, and within a decade or so Faure and Sibelius had created elaborate incidental scores for different stage productions of the play. Schoenberg composed his tone poem in 1902 – 03, for a large-scale (Straussian) orchestra. Schoenberg seems to have put himself into a state of free association to write Erwartung, which he completed in just seventeen days in August 1909. ‘In Erwartung, the aim is to represent in slow motion everything that occurs during a single second of maximum spiritual excitement, stretching it out to half an hour’, he wrote. Not only the first solo opera, this is perhaps also the first cinematic one.

REVIEW:

Gardner keeps the music’s sumptuousness on a tight rein, favouring faster tempi than most other interpreters. But he makes sure the shape of the huge musical structure is never compromised, and there’s no lack of tonal weight when required from the Bergen Philharmonic. Jakubiak is a compelling soprano soloist too, far less histrionic and squally than some.

– Guardian (UK)

On Sale

Schoenberg: Erwartung & Pelleas und Melisande /Jakubiak, Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic

~~$21.99~~ $16.99
SACD

Chandos

May 01, 2020

CHSA 5198

Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Stravinsky & Shostakovich / Nelsons, CBSO

Orfeo

Available as CD

~~$69.99~~ $34.98

Nov 15, 2019

Andris Nelsons, today simultaneously Principal Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, was discovered by Orfeo for the album. Christiane Delank, the long-standing artistic director of the label had taken him on to conduct the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in the recordings of the two violin concertos by Dmitri Shostakovich with Arabella Steinbacher and realized that in him one of the great conductors of his generation was maturing, a development that took place at breath-taking pace. When he was entrusted with conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, she won him over for the ambitious projects of a complete recording of the symphonies by Tchaikovsky (the first three symphonies were recorded, but no longer released following Nelsons’ departure to Boston) together with symphonic poems and other orchestral works by Richard Strauss and works by Stravinsky and Shostakovich. So, Orfeo had the privilege of documenting on album the Birmingham period, the first major international stage in Andris Nelsons’ career.

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

Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra; Don Juan; Till Eulenspiegel / Nelsons:

Don Juan has all the sparkle and the flood of testosterone that you might expect, dissolving into a string theme that is radiant with extrovert ambition. This is a reading full of passion and drive. Nelsons refuses to linger where some others do but keeps the adrenaline rushing throughout.

– MusicWeb International

Tchaikovsky: Francesca Da Rimini, Symphony No 4 / Nelsons:

In the last movement of the symphony Nelsons is just as blistering in tempo and febrile excitement as Svetlanov, and I never thought I would hear a living conductor equal that kind of intensity. These are great performances by a great conductor.

– Fanfare

Stravinsky: The Firebird, Symphony Of Psalms / Nelsons

Nelsons' interpretation of The Firebird has much in common with Boulez's New York recording for Sony--hyper-detailed (those three harps really tell), yet never at the expense of excitement. Emphasis on clarity also flatters the Symphony of Psalms, particularly in the central fugue. His fleet tempos come close to Stravinsky's own and project the quick outer movements with plenty of punch. This is a very good performance by any standard, and the sonics are impressively natural. If the coupling suits, then don't hesitate.

– ClassicsToday

On Sale

Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Stravinsky & Shostakovich / Nelsons, CBSO

~~$69.99~~ $34.98
CD

Orfeo

Nov 15, 2019

ORF-C987199

Ciurlionis: The Sea, In the Forest & Kestutis Overture / Pitrenas, Lithuanian National Symphony

Ondine

Available as CD

$18.99

Apr 03, 2020

This release by the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Modestas Pitrenas includes the complete surviving symphonic oeuvre of the great Lithuanian composer Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis (1875–1911) restored into their original versions. Ciurlionis was conceptually ahead of his time and the uniqueness and aesthetic value of his compositions have been fully understood only during the last decades. For the international audience ?iurlionisis particularly known as a painter who gave titles related to music to his paintings, but he wrote an impressive catalogue of at least over 340 music compositions, including10 orchestral works. ?iurlionis studied composition under professor Carl Reinecke in Leipzig. He submerged himself into investigation of orchestrations of Hector Berlioz and especially Richard Strauss. His symphonic poems In the Forest (1900–1901) and The Sea (1903–1907) remain the cornerstones of Lithuanian symphonic repertoire. In the Forest brought Lithuanian professional academic music into existence, while The Sea remains an unsurpassed peak in the history of Lithuanian symphonic literature. Sadly, both works were premiered only after the composer’s death, in 1911 and 1936.Although both works were published, it was only in recent years when they have been cleared of editions by other composers back into their original form finally bringing to the listener the way how the composer envisioned them. The 30-minute symphonic poem The Sea has particularly sad history of editions and ‘improvements’ by other composers, but this recording includes the work in its original form.

Ciurlionis: The Sea, In the Forest & Kestutis Overture / Pitrenas, Lithuanian National Symphony

$18.99
CD

Ondine

Apr 03, 2020

ODE 1344-2

Muller: Uncommon Concertos / Zehnder, Royal Czech Symphonia Hradec Kralove

Ars Produktion

Available as CD

$22.99

Feb 16, 2024

The violin, the violoncello and the piano are blessed with an immense wealth of concertante works from all eras. Originally a cellist, and married to a marvellous cellist, it was only natural that many concertante works for strings were also written over the years.
However, writing for unusual instrumentations and instruments always seems to have had an appeal for me. Concertante works for vibraphone, saxophone and even snare drum ("Clatterclank" - homage to Jean Tinguely) bear witness to this. There are instruments which, despite their great potential in terms of expressiveness and tonal possibilities, have not been able to establish themselves in the classical concert repertoire. It is particularly surprising that, despite the great and worldwide popularity of the pan flute, there are hardly any concertante works for this instrument in a classical context.
The heckelphone, on the other hand, is still little known. With just over a hundred instruments in existence worldwide, it has its place above all in the great opera houses, where it shines with wonderful solos in operas by Richard Strauss, but also in his Alpine Symphony. In the 20th century it was used in the orchestra by Hans Werner Henze. Apart from a unique piece of chamber music by Paul Hindemith, a trio for viola, heckelphone and piano, the literature is quickly exhausted.

Muller: Uncommon Concertos / Zehnder, Royal Czech Symphonia Hradec Kralove

$22.99
CD

Ars Produktion

Feb 16, 2024

ARS38647

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