After Franck, Debussy and Strauss, Mikko Franck and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France here continue their collaboration with Alpha Classics, this time with the spotlight on Igor Stravinsky. The program begins with two pieces from his so-called ‘neo-classic’ period: his Capriccio and Octet. In the first, in which Stravinsky sets up a dialogue between piano and orchestra, the soloist is one of the great stars of the new generation, the French pianist Nathalia Milstein. Then the mood darkens, with the primitive rhythms and ferocious chordal attack of The Rite of Spring, a work that Mikko Franck has long since wanted to immortalize on album: a major masterpiece of the 20th century and an essential milestone for every orchestra. Every single player seems to be on fire in this recording, which puts the seal on seven years of collaboration and achievement with its Finnish Music Director.

'Little Wanderer', from William Blake's dream world, seemed the perfect title for an album in which we are surrounded by myriad landscapes in songs by Benjamin Britten, Imogen Holst and Daniel Kidane. Since meeting on our first day at the Royal College of Music, we have long enjoyed programming Britten's masterful folk song reimaginings, and we adore the texts and music in his powerful Hardy cycle, Winter Words. It has been a joy to discover songs by Imogen Holst, Britten's close friend and assistant, and we are proud to be able to make the first recording of Dan's Songs of Illumination, commissioned for us by Leeds Lieder in 2018. For over a decade, song in English has played a major part in our musical lives and performing relationship, and we are delighted to present this programme together.

The Czech Bohuslav Martinů and the Finn Einojuhani Rautavaara may not seem to have much in common, but both have adopted an attitude free of musical puritanism, constantly finding new sources of inspiration which they explored without taboos. Explaining the heterogeneity of his musical language over the years, Rautavaara stated that, as a Finn, he stands ‘between East and West, between the tundra and Europe, between Lutheran and Orthodox faith’. Premiered in 1999, his Piano Concerto No. 3 has managed to join the small group of late twentieth-century concertos that are now part of the repertoire. Its subtitle, ‘Gift of Dreams’, seems to describe perfectly the character of the music in the first two movements, before a finale that exhibits a more driven, anxious manner.

Eclectic, prolific and capable of composing in all genres, Bohuslav Martinů is nevertheless a composer who is difficult to categorise and the word that seems to best suit his music is ‘cosmopolitan’. The Piano Concerto No. 3 shares many features with the Romantic concerto and recalls both Brahms and Stravinsky. Reflecting the tragic events in Prague at the time of its composition, the concerto ends in a macabre dance and appears as a defiant, almost belligerent gesture.

REVIEWS:

BIS is to be commended for producing an imaginatively programmed disc and giving the music brilliant performances and superb recorded sound. To round out the picture, Jean-Pascal Vachon’s program notes are helpful introductions to both pieces.

-- Fanfare

This enticing disc pairs the third piano concertos by two masters – works separated by a half-century in composition but that are highly expressive, vibrant, even complementary. At least that’s how they sound when played so eloquently by soloist Olli Mustonen, accompanied by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under the sensitive baton of conductor Dalia Stasevska. Rautavaara’s 1999 concerto, subtitled Gift of Dreams, shimmers in an array of musical colors, and Martinů’s 1948 third, which has a foot in both Romantic and modern styles, is eclectic in the best sense.

-- The Flip Side

The Czech Philharmonic and its Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov present a new recording of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, laying the foundation of a complete Mahler symphonies cycle to appear on PENTATONE. It will be the label’s first ever full Mahler cycle, and the Czech Philharmonic’s first survey of this extraordinary symphonic opus since their recording under Vacláv Neumann between 1976 and 1982. Although chiefly active in Vienna during the heydays of his career, Mahler was born in what is now the Czech republic, and through this recording project, he returns to his native soil. For conductor Semyon Bychkov, Mahler’s symphonies are all about expressing the polyphony of life, and recording these works is the fulfilment of a life-long fascination. This cycle deliberately starts with the most popular and frequently-played Fourth, famous for its macabre scherzo, soothing slow movement and heavenly finale, sung by soprano Chen Reiss. The Czech Philharmonic is one of the world’s most acclaimed orchestras, with a rich tradition of performing Czech masters and music from Central Europe. Semyon Bychkov has led the greatest orchestras of the world, and is Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic as of the 2018/2019 season. Soprano Chen Reiss frequently appears on the biggest opera and concert stages throughout the world. Chen Reiss, Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic all make their PENTATONE debut.

REVIEW:

The music of Gustav Mahler may have no greater champions than the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Semyon Bychkov, the orchestra's music director since 2018. The Czech Philharmonic's association with Mahler dates back to 1908, when the composer led the orchestra in the premiere of his Symphony No. 7.

Soprano Chen Reiss is a perfect match for the finale. She delivers the light playfulness necessary to depict a child and is equally serious when the mood shifts. The trust and communication between the musicians of the Czech Philharmonic and Bychkov is evident throughout as the orchestra responds to his demands and delivers an exciting and clean reading. One looks forward to further editions in this cycle with anticipation.

-- AllMusic.com (Kevin Finke)

There is no piece of music that the Patricia Kopatchinskaja cannot play in a way that unwinds your expectations and forces you to hear it anew.

This new recording marks the reformation of the legendary duo of Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Fazil Say. The Moldovan violinist says the Turkish pianist ‘is a volcano, with an indomitable strength and energy’, while he emphasizes the ‘freedom’ that her ‘spontaneous playing’ exudes: ‘At each concert, she creates a different character and tells a new story.’ The explosive duo presents a program devoted to Bartók’s Violin Sonata no.1 (‘a marvel from start to finish, one of his finest works’, says Patkop), Brahms’s D minor Sonata (‘I imagine a feather in flight at the opening of the sonata’) and Janáček’s Sonata, ‘an extreme work, wounded and heart-rending’.

REVIEW:

There is no piece of music — works by Tchaikovsky or Schoenberg, or an old folk tune — that the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja cannot play in a way that unwinds your expectations and forces you to hear it anew. So it is with the latest chapter in her partnership with the intrepid Turkish pianist and composer Fazil Say. The Janacek sonata that opens this recording and the Bartok Sonata No. 1 that closes it clearly play to the duo’s strengths: curiosity, an impatience with convention and exceptional technique. They pounce, almost too eagerly, on each of the Janacek’s lightning-quick mood changes; and in the Bartok, a piece in which the two instruments work virtually at cross purposes, they achieve an ESP-like mutual responsiveness.

Their rendition of Brahms’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, however, is the paramount achievement here. Resisting the urge to swath this wistful music in a big luxuriant tone, Kopatchinskaja adopts a timbre that’s sometimes bristly, sometimes gossamer-light. She and Say push the music to extremes: The quiet moments seethe and the outbursts approach violence, but it’s all done with impeccable control. The piece sounds bereft and heartbroken even as it avoids the clichés of Romanticism. It’s not the way I’d want to hear it played every time, but it’s invaluable for offering a glimpse deep into a work you might have thought predictable, which is exactly what these imaginative musicians are after.

-- New York Times (David Weininger)

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) is one of the most important Italian composers of the first half of the 20th century. Famous for his sumptuous symphonic works (notably the Roman Trilogy) he had a fascination for the Italian Renaissance and Baroque, transcribing works by the old masters and using their modal techniques. The Ancient Airs and Dances “Antiche danze ed arie” and the orchestral suite “Gli Uccelli” (The Birds) are adaptations of Renaissance and Baroque dances and arias by Italian composers, brilliantly orchestrated by Respighi. Organist Rodolfo Bellatti was inspired by Respighi’s orchestrations and strove to create a similar effect on the organ, with its endless possibilities for coloring and tonal differentiations. The result is spectacular and presented on this new recording, which is recorded on the magnificent Serassi and Grisanti Organs at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Asti, Italy, the specifications of which are included in the booklet. Rodolfo Bellatti is an active recitalist and recording artist, with several albums to his credit, as well as a researcher in the areas of organ building and musicology.

Horn Universe - Works for Horn, Tenor and Orchestra by Telemann, Mozart, Britten and Kikta Although nameless, the Suite in F Major TWV 44:7/55: F4 by Telemann is extremely pictorial: In the early 18th century, the horn is still somewhat new as an ensemble music instrument, and it serves to evoke the rural. This piece takes us outdoors. Like any French-style suite, it begins with a slow and majestic Overture, almost celestial [...] This recording allows us to discover a new completion of Mozart's Concerto in D, with a reworked second movement (Andante) by horn player Marco Elia Righi in 2020. Not only did he bring the Rondo with Mozart's original melodies back to life, he also added a second movement, Andante: Written in consideration of the natural horn's technique, this new movement is quite reminiscent of the style of the slow movements of the other concertos, while perfectly ?tting into the continuity of the Allegro. Marco shows real Mozartian taste, and brings a little freshness into this familiar music. What a pleasure to rediscover Mozart! The Serenade by Britten begins and ends with calls, not of a bugle as evoked in the Nocturne, but of a horn. In this period of con?ict when many deaths were to be deplored, one cannot ignore the thought of a death knell, recalled by the two horn solos which frame the Serenade. These calls, played without the valves, let the tone of F and it's natural harmonics sound the way the bugle without valves can produce them. On the other hand, not only does Britten's choice highlight the beauty of the horn and the talent of it's interpreter, but these sounds add a plaintive and painful idea that announces everything that the tenor declares. [...] As a great admirer of all the works in this album, hornist Herve Joulain cannot hide his excitement at presenting the Concerto for Horn and Strings by Valery Kikta. The composer is of Ukrainian origin but has been living and teaching in Moscow for decades. It was pure chance that led Joulain to discover the recording by Valery Zhavoronkov, while looking for educational information for the completion of his horn book. He immediately fell in love with the piece, Kikta having mastered the art of playing with half a dozen major thematic elements, which he reuses very happily, not to say brilliantly. These elements are sometimes declamatory, sometimes rhythmic, sometimes melodic, sometimes obstinate, o?ering the instrument a palette of unexpected colors to play with. [...] A great new recording, interpreted by Herve Joulain (Horn), Karlis Rerihs (Horn: Telemann), Kaelig Boche (Tenor: Britten), Sinfonietta Riga Chamber Orchestra and Kaspars Adamsons.

John Cage's importance for a comprehensive aesthetic reorientation of New Music after the Second World War can hardly be overestimated. His self-discovery and compositional articulation took place particularly in the field of piano music: in the art-merging experimental laboratory of New York around the dancer Merce Cunningham, the painter Robert Rauschenberg and the congenial performer and pianist David Tudor. It is good fortune that Sabine Liebner, who has already released several internationally acclaimed, award-winning albums with WERGO, has thrown herself into the complex pianistic and artistic demands of interpreting another of Cage's great works. The result is the first recording of the complete "Winter Music" for one pianist: all notated events (aggregates) from each of the 20 unnumbered pages are played consecutively. The additional, fascinating expansion of the sound space through "harmonics" - overtone vibrations - creates a very differentiated sounding, kaleidoscope-like music of surprisingly idiosyncratic beauty. Dedicated to the artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, "Winter Music" calls for a new way of listening: listening to sound with crystalline clarity and permanent change both inside and outside the sound. This integral recording, which is set against the tide of a strongly event-driven cultural life, represents a milestone and point of reference for the further impact of "Winter Music"!

As both musician and composer the violin was central to Sibelius’s career, and his output for the instrument spans much of his long life. Acclaimed violinist Fenella Humphreys and celebrated pianist Joseph Tong explore a tantalizing program of Sibelius’s music, from the youthful Andante cantabile in G major composed in 1887, through Opp. 78 and 81, written in the midst of the First World War, to his last works for the instrument – Four Pieces, Op. 115 and Three Pieces, Op. 116 both penned in 1929. Completing the program are the five Danses champêtres, Op. 106 from 1924–5.

The BBC Philharmonic and its new Chief Conductor, John Storgårds, follow their previous release of Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony with this album of Symphonies Nos 12 and 15. Subtitled ‘The Year 1917’, the Twelfth Symphony was a project which Shostakovich had been planning and discussing for two decades – a symphony about Lenin. The first movement, ‘Revolutionary Petrograd’, depicts the arrival of Lenin in Petrograd in April 1917 and his meetings with the working people of the city. The second, ‘Razliv’, commemorates the site of Lenin’s retreat to the north of the city. ‘Aurora’, the third movement, refers to the Russian battleship the revolutionary mutinous crew of which fired the first shot of the attack on the Winter Palace.

Finally, ‘The Dawn of Humanity’ celebrates the ultimate victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution. Musically, the Twelfth seems to regress to a more simplistic musical language than that of the immediately preceding Symphony – which some commentators ascribe to Shostakovich’s joining the Communist Party and perhaps trying harder to meet its expectations. The Fifteenth (and last) Symphony was written entirely in July 1971, at a composer’s rest home in Repino, north-west of Leningrad. It was his first non-programmatic symphony since the Tenth, and Shostakovich was wary of discussing the meaning of it, but eventually commented that it might be understood as representing the journey from life to death.

The Turkish pianist Emre Yavuz studied in Ankara and Vienna. After his final recital, he was the first piano student at the Vienna Conservatory to graduate with top marks. After a Rachmaninoff album, the multi-award-winning artist's latest recording for TYXart is dedicated to piano works by Maurice Ravel, whose 150th birthday the music world will be celebrating in 2025.

Composed at the age of 19, Rachmaninov's earliest published cycle of piano pieces, the Morceaux de Fantaisie, contains the Pr�lude in C-sharp minor, destined to become his signature work, and the M�lodie in E major, much loved by Tchaikovsky. The expressive Morceaux de Salon show Tchaikovsky's influence and some of the grief felt by Rachmaninov after his mentor's death. With the inclusion of the melodically rich Nocturnes and the Four Pieces, the earliest to survive in his hand, this collection shows both the young composer finding his voice and the timeless Rachmaninov we recognise today.

Weinberg: Songs

Named a Concerto Choice in BBC Music Magazine September 2022!

The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and its Music and Artistic Director Jonathan Nott continue their acclaimed series of 20th-century masterpieces on PENTATONE, together with star pianist Francesco Piemontesi, presenting piano concertos by Ravel and Schoenberg alongside Messiaen’s Oiseaux exotiques. Each of these composers redefined 20th-century music in a highly personal way, and the works recorded here share a connection to the United States which one would perhaps not expect right away from these European master composers. While Ravel and Schoenberg’s piano concertos provide the most original and colourful 20th-century contributions to this genre, Messiaen employs a similar scoring to express his profound reverence for nature in Oiseaux exotiques. These challenging and multifarious scores fit Piemontesi, Nott and the orchestra like a glove.

Francesco Piemontesi is among the most-cherished pianists of our age, and presents the third fruit of his exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE, having released the acclaimed Schubert - Last Piano Sonatas (2019) and Bach Nostalghia (2021). The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande is one of the world’s most respected orchestras with a vast PENTATONE discography. This is their third release on the label with their Music and Artistic Director Jonathan Nott, after Strauss, Debussy & Ligeti (2018) and the gloriously received Debussy & Schoenberg,Conductor:Pelléas et Mélisande (2021), containing Nott’s new arrangement of Debussy’s opera.

REVIEWS:

Francesco Piemontesi’s musicianship is both deft and searching. Here are stellar interpretations of three very different concerto-type works, ordered into a journey from easier listening to more difficult.

You have to envy the citizens of Geneva, regularly able to hear music-making on this level from their resident orchestra and conductor. Add a pianist in Francesco Piemontesi’s class, and here are stellar interpretations of three very different concerto-type works, ordered into a journey from easier listening to (notionally at least) more difficult.

Ravel was so determined to avoid portentousness in his winsome G major Piano Concerto the first work heard on the disc — that it can easily sound trite in performance. Any such risk vanishes in the presence of Piemontesi’s brand of musicianship, which is at once deft and searching; a special moment is the sequence of trills decorating the melody in the first movement’s cadenza, marvellously judged to sound as if the notes are somehow gliding, rather than stepping from one to the next.

Without any compromising sense of a soft- focus paraphrase, the music is nonetheless delivered with a sureness of touch and purpose that absorbs and, as often as not, beguiles the ear.

--BBC Music (Malcolm Hayes)

What Dreams May Come features music spanning more than a century, beginning with Gustav Holst's Suite No. 1 in E Flat, composed in 1909, and ending with Omar Thomas's Come Sunday that premiered in 2018. Also included are Steven Bryant's Suite Dreams, first performed in 2007, and David Maslanka's A Child's Garden of Dreams, described by the composer as "a symphonic suite for one-on-a-part wind ensemble."

Jascha Horenstein (1898-1973) was born in Kiev but studied in Vienna. After a move to Berlin, he became Wilhelm Furtwangler's assistant and during the 1920s he conducted both the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic. At this time, he came into contact with Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Nielsen. In 1929, Horenstein became the music director of the Dusseldorf Opera but, with the outset of war, he settled in the US. He conducted some of the major orchestras there but returned to Europe in 1947, where he was much in demand including a close association with the LSO. He is best remembered for his outstanding Mahler and Bruckner performances but, being Russian, he conducted Shostakovich who he knew, and because of his early links with Nielsen, both composers were featured throughout his life.

One of the most important vocal projects of recent years: the complete songs on 5 CDs by Nikolai Medtner, performed by Ekaterina Levental and Frank Peters. Nikolai Medtner was born in Moscow in 1880. After piano lessons with his mother he entered the Moscow Conservatory where he had lessons from Pavel Pabst and Sergey Taneyev. He won the prestigious Anton Rubinstein Prize at age 20. A younger contemporary of Scriabin and Rachmaninoff he was destined for a brilliant pianistic career but he chose to concentrate on composition. In 1936 he settled in London where he spent the rest of his life teaching and composing till 1951. Medtner's style is rooted in the 19th century, full-blooded romantic, with a highly personal harmonic and melodic language, often complex and dense, but hauntingly beautiful. His vocal works fuse intricate piano accompaniments with expressive melodies and poetic texts, often by Goethe, Pushkin, or Tyutchev. Ekaterina Levental was born in Uzbekistan. She settled in The Netherlands where she studied at the Conservatory of The Hague. She embarked on a successful career as singer, dramatist and theatre producer. Pianist Frank Peters is a highly respected Dutch pianist, both as soloist and chamber music partner. He is an indefatigable champion of the piano works of Medtner. 'Levental's soft high notes are truly exquisite, and she can do things with the voice that most modern singers cannot, such as to drain the voice of vibrato for expressive effect. All things considered, she is a virtuoso vocalist of the old school, and such artists are extremely rare nowadays... "We are very lucky to have a pianist like Peters, who fully understands this dichotomy, as the pianist on this album. " (Artmusiclounge. Com). "Levental has a dark, rich voice, but her pure tone is never burdened by excess vibrato... She couldn't ask for a more responsive partner than Peters, who reveals an astonishingly deft touch and an uncanny ear for detail. " Fanfare (Volume 1, 96056). "The phrasing is so perfect, the sense of line so keen, the rubato so natural sounding, that this seems the only way to sing them... this lucidity is due to the purity of Levental's voice, which she employs with sure intonation and minimum vibrato, as well with an exquisite (but always controlled) play of colour... This is a major release. " Fanfare (Volume 2, 96061).

Thomas Albertus Irnberger, the Salzburg violinist, who performs worldwide, and Michael Korstick, piano, internationally known for his Beethoven interpretations, release works by Sergei Prokofiev for violin and piano on this double SACD. With unmatched precision in ensemble play and critically acclaimed virtuosity, the performers present the two sonatas for violin and piano, Op. 80 and Op. 94a, the “Five Melodies, Op. 35a” and “Five Pieces from Cinderella”. Also included on this recording is the Sonata for Violin solo, Op. 115. Irnberger dedicates this recording to Igor Oistrakh, who was born in Ukraine and died in 2021, from whom he received important impulses for his own playing, and whose father David Oistrakh was one of the most important Prokofiev interpreters and friends of the composer.

The Romanian conductor Constantin Silvestri (1913-1969) began his distinguished career in 1930 with the Bucharest Radio Symphony Orchestra, leading to the directorship of the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra in 1945. In 1956 Silvestri moved to Paris and a year later he made his UK debut with the London Philharmonic. This led to a major contract with EMI, under which he conducted the Philharmonia, the Paris Conservatoire and the Vienna Philharmonic orchestras in a wide selection of repertoire including Bartok, Debussy, Dvorak, Elgar, Franck, Hindemith, Liszt, Ravel, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky. These 'Spanish'-themed recordings are rarities and belonged to Silvestri's private collection, only discovered after his death. Silvestri's live performances of Debussy's Iberia, Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain (Noches en los jardines de Espa�a) and The Three Cornered Hat (Le tricorne) are new additions to his large discography, either commercial recordings or live broadcasts. The wide-ranging recording captures Silvestri's hugely dynamic, colourful and expressive conducting of these popular Spanish-influenced works

The great Yevgeny Svetlanov frequently conducted Debussy. His interpretation of Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune in the Philharmonia concert recorded here in 2001 has an almost operatically vocal style, coupled with spacious tempo. He achieves a most remarkable response from the Philharmonia both in this piece and La Mer, in which the dramatically assertive style of brass playing contributes to a particularly powerful approach to the French composer's music. Svetlanov's conducting of Respighi's orchestration of two of Rachmaninov's Etudes-Tableaux, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in October 1999, is typically atmospheric in the first tableaux - La Mer et les Mouettes (The Sea and the Gulls) following Debussy's La Mer, while the second, La Foire (The Fair) demonstrates the conductor's wonderful ear for colour. Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes was composed for sextet in 1919 while in the USA, but was re-scored for orchestra in 1934. Svetlanov's concert with the LSO from October 1979 is a rarity since his only recording dates back to an early Melodiya account.

The Austrian bass Günther Groissböck enchants on the opera and concert stages around the world with the unique noble sound of his voice and virtually breathtaking verve of performance. Together with Malcolm Martineau, who is recognized worldwide as one of the leading piano accompanists of his generation, Groissböck presents on the album “Nicht Wiedersehen!” incomparable interpretations of late Romantic songs and ballads by Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and Hans Rott.

The duo pays homage to passion in Strauss songs such as “Zueignung”, “Allerseelen” or “Breit' über mein Haupt”, or leaves the audience rather thoughtful with “Der Einsame”, “Das Thal” or “Befreit”. Hans Rott, who died at a young age, can be heard in “Wandrer’s Nachtlied”, “Geistesgruß” and “Der Sänger”. Groissböck also brings the tragic characters in Mahler’s songs “Revelge”, “Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz’”, “Tamboursg’sell” or “Nicht wiedersehen!” to life in an incomparable way, before this great recording promises a transcendental end with “Urlicht”.

Flautist Ana de la Vega’s fourth PENTATONE album My Paris is a declaration of love to the glorious French capital and its rich flute history, as well as a trip down memory lane, featuring some of the greatest gems of French music history, including works by Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, Massenet, Saint-Saëns, Satie, Poulenc, Mozart, Chaminade, Lili Boulanger, Von Paradis, as well as Bizet. De la Vega plays these pieces with verve and charm, full of reverence to centuries-old French flute-teaching traditions to which she still feels deeply connected and absorbed. She performs them together with the esteemed pianist Paul Rivinius. Flautist Ana de la Vega’s presents her fourth PENTATONE album, after having released Bach Unbuttoned (2021), Haydn Stamitz (2020) and Mozart Myslivecek (2018). Paul Rivinius makes his PENTATONE debut.

The album “Atlantic Crossings” by the Parisian Orchestre Pasdeloup, directed by Wolfgang Doerner, is dedicated to music written by European composers who came across the Atlantic to New York or later had to flee there from the Nazis. Gustav Mahler, who since 1907 has been travelling annually to New York over the winter to perform there, is introduced with the “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen” with the Austrian baritone Daniel Schmutzhard, “Das himmlische Leben” with the French soprano Amel Brahim-Djelloul, as well as the orchestral pieces “Blumine” and “Entracte” (from “The Three Pintos”).

Extended by the jazz orchestra of percussionist Franck Tortiller, Orchestre Pasdeloup presents Sigmund Romberg’s “Lover Come Back to Me”, again featuring Amel Brahim-Djelloul; Romberg had been living in New York since 1909 and had established himself on Broadway. In the same line-up, Kurt Weill, who had to leave Europe for good in 1935, can be heard with “Berlin im Licht”, the chanson “Je ne t’aime pas” written in France in the early thirties and the Broadway song “That’s Him” from 1943.

On her second PENTATONE album Sinnbild, soprano Hanna-Elisabeth Müller presents an enchanting collection of orchestral songs by Richard Strauss, together with the WDR Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach. Culminating in the famous Four Last Songs, the program explores all forms of farewell – the big and the small – that we go through as human beings. Amidst this melancholia, Strauss’s lush, glorious orchestral writing and his exceptional understanding of the soprano voice offer profound solace to the listener.

Hanna-Elisabeth Müller is among the most celebrated lyrical sopranos of our times. Sinnbild is the second album as part of her exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE. The WDR Symphony Orchestra has released several albums with the label, including Beethoven’s complete symphonies (2020) and Hindemith orchestral works (2018), both with Marek Janowski, as well as the Strauss album Aber der richtige… (2018) with Arabella Steinbacher and Lawrence Foster. Christoph Eschenbach is universally acclaimed as conductor and pianist, and makes his PENTATONE debut.

Santtu conducts Strauss: Ein Heldenleben is the sixth album from Philharmonia Records. Con- ducted by Santtu-Matias Rouvali, this performance was recorded at Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall. PRAISE FOR Santtu conducts Shostakovich: Symphony 10 "Themes from the previous movements are intriguingly revived and intertwined and the sheer energy of Rouvali's onslaught upon the music almost convinces us of the heroism of resistance and endurance, ultimately rewarded by explosive, joyous liberation." - MusicWeb International "The first movement is both atmospheric and flowing, sensitively delineating each stage in the unfolding psychological drama." - Gramophone

In November 2025, SOMM pays special tribute to the centenary of Sir Charles Mackerras (1925 - 2010) who was, amongst other stellar achievements, an outstanding interpreter of the music of Czech composer Leos Janacek�(1854 - 1928). At the age of 25, and over the next six decades, Mackerras introduced generations of London opera-goers to Janacek's extraordinary masterpieces, and he was directly responsible for these works becoming established in the British operatic repertoire. Our centenary tribute features the release of a remastered broadcast, from 1964, of Mackerras's first London production of the opera The Makropulos Affair. Also included is Janacek's quasi-operatic�song cycle, The Diary of One who Disappeared. Audio restoration is by Lani Spahr, whose previous restorations for SOMM of works by Elgar, Bruckner, Holst, and Bliss have recently received no less than three Gramophone Editor's Choices. Shortly after Mackerras arrived in the UK from Australia in 1947, a�British Council�Scholarship enabled him to study conducting with�Vaclav Talich�at the Prague Academy of Music, during which time he discovered Czech music and Janacek in particular. His breakthrough in introducing Janacek's unfamiliar music to British audiences came in February 1964, when he conducted The Makropulos Affair at Sadler's Wells. This release is an exciting, highly-charged souvenir of that first London production. The title of the opera, inspired by Karel Capek's 1922 play, refers to a century-old probate case, which holds the key to the formula for a life-extending elixir. The coolly enigmatic opera diva Emilia Marty shows great interest in the case, and is revealed to be Elina Makropulos, a woman from�Crete, who has lived for 337 years. This recording features the Australian dramatic soprano Marie Collier, an outstanding exponent of the role. The vocal writing in the opera is predominantly conversational, underpinned by an orchestral score that is both uncompromisingly modern and evocative of ancient times. The lead characters in two of Janacek's operas Kata in�Katya Kabanova�and Emilia Marty in�The Makropulos Affair were inspired by Kamila Stosslova with whom he fell deeply in love, despite their both being married and he being almost forty years her senior. The earliest work to be inspired by Kamila was�The Diary of One who Disappeared, begun the month after Janacek met her in 1917. This unorthodox song cycle for tenor, contralto, female voices, and piano was inspired by a diary-in-poems about a village boy who falls in love with the gipsy girl �ofka. Janacek wrote to Kamila, "All through the work I thought of you! You were my �ofka." This 1956 recording features Bernard Keeffe's English translation with Richard Lewis, tenor, Maureen Forrester, contralto, women from the BBC Singers, and pianist Ernest Lush.

Allan Pettersson’s Symphony No. 15 is characterized by a high degree of tension right from the striking opening: brief, emphatic chords from horns and trombones above the tremolo of a side drum. Soon an expressive melodic subject is heard from the first violins, followed by contrasting rapid scales – at which point Pettersson has presented the greater part of the symphony’s building blocks. Like so many of the composer’s symphonies, the 15th is in one movement, but with clearly defined sections. It was completed in 1978, two years before Pettersson’s death, and was followed in 1979, by the sixteenth symphony, the last work that the composer submitted for performance. Only later did it become known that Pettersson had also been working on a Viola Concerto – a work that, if not fully completed, was so far advanced that it has been accepted as part of his œuvre. It is presented here by the Swedish violist Ellen Nisbeth, who also performs one of Pettersson’s very earliest compositions – a Fantaisie pour alto seul, dated June 1936, when the composer himself was about to embark on a career as violist. On this the tenth disc in their acclaimed Pettersson cycle, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra and Christian Lindberg bring their combined expertise to bear on the orchestral scores.

Ottorino Respighi's 'mystery in three episodes', Maria egiziaca, started out as a concert triptych. It's intensely dramatic and at times symphonic qualities give it a character somewhere between an oratorio and an opera. Based on the life of Saint Mary of Egypt, the archaic story of Maria egiziaca revolves around faith seen through it's various characters, with Maria's journey from prostitution to sainthood conveyed as an expressive and eloquently immediate musical fresco. This Teatro La Fenice production of Respighi's profoundly moving and deeply sensuous stage work was critically acclaimed.

A musical journey, James W. Iman's latest album, IMAN II, is a stunning blend of Classical and contemporary piano compositions that will leave you spellbound. Four years in the making, this album is the culmination of Iman's passion for Debussy and Donald Martino, as well as his permiere of work from composer and sound designer, Jenny Beck. Iman's masterful interpretations of Martino's Fantasies and Impromptus are nothing short of awe-inspiring, and his renditions of Debussy's works provide the perfect contrast, bringing together the past and present in a way that is both exciting and unique. But it is Beck's electrifying compositions that truly set this album apart.

Iman says, "I have played Stand Still Here more times than any other work in my repertoire. Each of the five pieces that comprise the work are brief–the longest is four minutes–but Jenny Beck achieves a depth of introspection and emotional sweep that is absolutely magnetic.” What makes Beck's work so remarkable is the way she achieves such depth and complexity with seemingly simple motives and harmonies. The pieces on this album hover and linger, creating a hypnotic and immersive listening experience that is nothing short of miraculous. Iman's passion and dedication to this project are evident in every note he plays. He has crafted a captivating album that showcases his skill as a pianist and his ability to bring together the best of the past and present in a way that is fresh, exciting, and deeply moving.

The Symphony in C was conceived in Paris in the late 1930s, but completed in America in 1940, and is dedicated to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary. Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and premièred in 1946, the Symphony in Three Movements presents us with movements that also manifest different ways of moving: a march, a slow dance, and a march-jog-race. The Greeting Prelude was written as an eightieth birthday tribute to Pierre Monteux, conductor of the premières of Pétrouchka and The Rite of Spring, and was first performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra on the very day: 4 April 1955. The other two pieces on the album reflect Stravinsky’s lifelong involvement with ballet. The Divertimento is an orchestral piece extracted by Stravinsky from his ballet The Fairy’s Kiss. The ballet was a homage to Tchaikovsky, based on songs and piano pieces by him, stitched together and orchestrated with Stravinskian cool. The Circus Polka was a commission from Stravinsky’s long-time collaborator George Balanchine, who had been asked by the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to create a dance for elephants. The version heard here is the composer’s own orchestral version; the original was scored for circus band and organ by David Raksin, and performed by fifty elephants and fifty female dancers!

REVIEW:

It’s easy to underestimate the depth and breadth of Andrew Davis’s repertoire and indeed his sterling qualities as a conductor – his ebullience, robust sense of rhythm and razor-sharp ears. All of which are much in evidence in this generous compendium of Stravinsky.

-- Gramophone