Benjamin Zander conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in Mahler’s hugely popular ‘Resurrection’ Symphony in a GRAMMY-nominated recording. Exceptionally challenging and thrillingly powerful it is the perfect showcase for Zander’s distinctive balance of insightful musicianship and emotional intensity. With London’s famed Philharmonia Orchestra, he is recording the complete cycle of Mahler symphonies, recordings which have been received with extraordinary critical acclaim and several awards. Zander’s recordings of Mahler symphonies have inspired critics worldwide to use superlatives such as ‘revelatory’, ‘exhilarating’, ‘illuminating’ and ‘remarkable’. The featured soloists are Sarah Connolly, one of the foremost British mezzo-sopranos who has impressed at La Scala and Glyndebourne, and Swedish soprano Miah Persson, who is in great demand with the major opera houses including Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera New York.

There are only world premiere recordings on this concluding Volume 3 of the wonderful music of Amanda Maier (1853-1894), including a recently re-discovered masterpiece: the piano trio in E flat! The previous two volumes of this remarkable, Swedish-German violinist and composer, married to composer Julius Röntgen, have been great successes. On this third volume, violinist Cecilia Zilliacus's and Bengt Forsberg's loving playing is backed up by cellist Kati Raitinen, second violinist Julia-Maria Kretz, and Johanna Persson, viola. Rising-star-pianist David Huang also appears in a four hand piece. Swedish violinist and composer Amanda Maier was the first female graduate in music direction from the Royal College of Stockholm. She performed concerts in Sweden and abroad, and began composing her first works, which she often premiered. With this album, her entire catalogue is now available.

This new release is the final installment in Chandos’ Atterberg series with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Neeme Jarvi. This volume features two rarely performed centuries from the later years of Atterberg’s career. The seventh century is featured first in its final form which consists of three movements. While it was composed in 1942 with four movements, it didn’t reach its final shape until 1969 when Atterberg removed the last movement. The ninth symphony was regarded by the composer as “evil.” He set parts of the Icelandic poem “Volupsa” which tells of how evil came into the world and how it will eventually cause total destruction. The work is a single movement large-scale rondo form.

Mozart’s Mitridate, re di Ponto was first performed in Milan in 1770—the composer was still a month short of his fifteenth birthday and the opera ran for an impressive 22 performances. As well as the complete opera, this release includes original versions of a number of arias that Mozart subsequently changed.

In this celebrated Glyndebourne Festival production, David Hockney’s designs for director John Cox reinterpret the Hogarth etchings that inspired the opera’s libretto, written for Stravinsky by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman. In 2010, this revival under Glyndebourne’s Music Director, Vladimir Jurowski, captured the opera’s neo-classical spirit and its juxtaposition of whimsy, cynicism and compassion, prompting the Financial Times to call it,‘‘as enjoyable a performance of Stravinsky’s opera as any that has come along".

Recorded live at the Glyndebourne Opera House 18–19 December 2010

Bonus:
- Documentary includes an interview with David Hockney
- Introduction to the Rake’s Progress

• Picture format: NTSC 16:9
• Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
• Region code: 0 (worldwide)
• Subtitles: English, French, German, Dutch, Japanese, Korean
• Running time: 140 mins
• No. of DVDs: 1
  

REVIEW:

Nick Shadow speaks directly to the audience in Act 2, which justifies his winking and gurning at them at various points throughout, usually to show what a dupe his master is, and always to delicious comic effect. His costume, and in particular his hairdo, is ridiculous, yet strangely disquieting. Matthew Rose plays the part to the hilt, making clear from his very first scene that Tom is a pushover and that Anne is where the danger lies. He manages adeptly the comic aspects of the role, at least as far as the graveyard scene, when everything changes. It’s possible to imagine a darker voice for Shadow, but I find his assumption totally convincing. Topi Lehtipuu as Tom is very fine too. He captures very well indeed Tom’s love for Anne, which is genuine and will be his salvation, but which he abandons by weakness of will. Miah Persson is adorable as Anne. She brings out beautifully the vulnerability of the character, but crucially she has brilliantly understood the steely determination present in Anne’s music, and acts it out, both physically and vocally, to perfection. The smaller roles are beautifully taken, and the chorus sings and acts splendidly. Time and again I was struck, as never before, by the sheer beauty of the sound of this work, and the orchestra plays magnificently under the inspiring direction of Vladimir Jurowski.

There are other performances of The Rake’s Progress on DVD, including an earlier incarnation of this same production, finely sung but now superseded technically. Then there is the production from La Monnaie in Brussels, garishly updated to 1950s America. Rapturously received in many quarters, you are likely to love it or hate it. Either way, there is no question, this life-enhancing DVD from Glyndebourne is truly special and not to be missed.

-- MusicWeb International

Haydn composed more than twenty operas, mainly for the sumptuous theatre at Eszterháza, the palace of his long-time employers, the princes of Esterházy. Even so, his work in the operatic field remains largely neglected. This disc focuses on an even more closely guarded secret: the so-called 'insertion arias' that Haydn wrote for inclusion in operas by other composers. The rarely, if at all, recorded music includes Haydn's three contributions to La Circe, an opera pasticcio which combined music by several composers, and six of the surviving insertion arias. Among these is Infelice sventurata, written for an opera by Cimarosa, and one of Haydn's finest arias, here movingly performed by Miah Persson. The Swedish soprano shares the greater part of the programme with the Swiss tenor Bernard Richter. The latter in Ah, tu non senti, amico takes on what, according to the initiated liner notes of conductor and Haydn specialist Manfred Huss, 'may be the highest drama in eighteenth-century music - ghostly and spine-chilling in a Hitchcockian manner.' In contrast, Huss describes the concluding tercet from La Circe as 'a tremendously witty and energetic and also dramatic scene that sounds like Mozart - or perhaps even like Rossini'. This varied programme thus becomes an illustration of Mozart's verdict on Haydn as an opera composer: 'Nobody can do all of this - flirt and unsettle, provoke laughter and deep emotions - as well as Haydn!' It is presented by Manfred Huss and his period band Haydn Sinfonietta Wien as part of a Haydn bicentenary celebration, which includes four previous, highly acclaimed releases. The opera fragment Acide (BIS-SACD-1812) was called 'a wonderful tribute to Joseph Haydn' by the reviewer of MusicWeb International, who also found Bernard Richter 'outstanding' in the title role. The review of the marionette opera Philemon und Baucis (BIS-SACD-1813) on ClassicsToday.com described the work as 'exceptionally moving stuff, full of Sturm und Drang, with ... music of substantial humanity and warmth.' And the playing of Haydn Sinfonietta Wien on the two collections of overtures (BIS-CD-1818) and chamber works (BIS-CD-1796/98) has been unanimously praised: 'the ideal interpreters for these works' (Pizzicato) and 'sensational... lively tempos, gutsy brass and timpani, perky winds, and stunning music' (ClassicsToday.com).

Musical settings of the Mass for the Dead have a tendency to dwell on the dramatic high points of the day of judgement and the trumpets of doom (Dies irae and tuba mirum) - partly for the reason that they are dramatic high points. With their respective 'Requiems', Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Duruflé wanted to express something different, something which Fauré himself described as a 'trust in eternal rest'. Indeed, when hearing the descpription of his work as 'a lullaby of death', Fauré approved of it. It is the eternal light and peace wished for in the Mass that both composers infused their Requiems with (to the point of actually omitting the more doomladen passages). These qualities are certainly part of the palette of the magnificent Swedish Radio Choir - the favourite vocal instrument of many of the world's greatest conductors, including Claudio Abbado and Riccardo Muti. The choir's previous disc on BIS (CD1157) consisted of works by Schnittke and Pärt and their performance was described as being 'of commanding, awesome brilliance...with a virtuosity and commitment that are astounding' (Int. Record Review) and 'refulgently passionate' (BBC Music Magazine). On this disc, the choir, directed by Fredrik Malmberg, is joined by three of Sweden's foremost singers - all of them represented on previous BIS recordings - as well as organist Mattias Wager, who has also supplied the organ arrangements of Fauré's orchestral scores.

REVIEW:

In the early 1730s Bach revised his E flat major Magnificat of 1723, transposing it to D major and omitting the interpolations peculiar to Christmas performances in Leipzig. (Recent research suggests such richly scored Latin Magnificats could be performed in Lutheran churches at some 15 annual festivals, not just the three – Xmas, Easter, Ascension – previously supposed.) The D major was apparently Bach’s preferred version and is the one commonly played today, as on this latest instalment of Masaaki Suzuki’s acclaimed survey of Bach’s sacred vocal music. Suzuki’s Magnificat, like his earlier Bach recordings, is sharply focused and performed with engaging conviction. My benchmark disc, by Philippe Herreweghe, grips with its palpable air of excitement. Suzuki’s reading is cooler, more nuanced and has a clearer acoustic; yet Herreweghe’s soloists retain a slight edge – few could match Barbara Schlick and oboist Marcel Penseele in rapt duet on ‘Quia respexit’. Herreweghe’s coupling is the splendid Cantata, BWV 80; Suzuki offers a trio of fascinating rareties. The Magnificat by Kuhnau, Bach’s predecessor at Leipzig, resembles Bach’s in instrumentation and division of text: it’s a lively, attractive piece, trumpets ringing out boldly in the bright opening chorus. Two shorter Magnificats by Bach’s Dresden-based contemporary Zelenka represent a very different and highly individual approach, the C major’s tripartite structure creating an almost concerto-like framework for soprano soloist. Suzuki’s excellent, scrupulous performances should provoke greater interest in Kuhnau’s and Zelenka’s church music – the latter’s Missa Dei Filii, by Tafelmusik/Frieder Bernius (DHM), is also highly recommended. Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- Graham Lock, BBC Music Magazine