José Serebrier's distinctive conceptions and nimble conducting imbue the familiar Marche slave, Capriccio italien, and 1812 Overture with a freshness that belies their long-held "warhorse" status. By employing lighter sonorities and crystal-clear balances (all rendered with spectacular fidelity and dynamism by BIS's remarkably vivid recording) that expose Tchaikovsky's gorgeous woodwind writing and inner harmonic detail, Serebrier brings a vibrant youthful quality even to the overplayed 1812. Listen to how the bracing opening, with its cleanly phrased, rhythmically taut string playing fosters ever-increasing tension. Later, in the grand coda, the dramatic brass-and-strings interplay genuinely excites while cannons roar away in the distance (the opposite approach to Telarc's cannon-down-your-throat technique).


Serebrier's light and balletic rendition of the rarely heard Fatum is in marked contrast to the heavier variety offered by Slatkin, yet it nonetheless doesn't shy away from the raucous percussion that makes this rather naïve piece a real kick (just what does all that booming and crashing have to do with an inexorable "fate" anyway?).


Tchaikovsky's elegant and sweetly melancholy Élégie, and Serebrier's own arrangement of the Andante cantabile from the String Quartet No. 1, come as relaxingly gentle interludes between the noisier selections on the disc, all of which receive probing and polished performances by the Bamberg Symphony. Even if you think you've heard this music one too many times, you'll likely find this disc a rewarding listening experience.
--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

The Bamberger Symphoniker’s collaboration with the record label Tudor has evolved in cycles. It began with Joachim Raff’s œuvre, a pioneering step into overlooked repertoire. Then stepped up to the Greats with Schubert’s symphonies: the first recording to follow the new Schubert edition was enthusiastically hailed as a refreshing new departure interpreted with historical awareness. Reaching for the stars under the aegis of Jonathan Nott, the scores of Gustav Mahler then entered the Bamberg Konzerthalle. That whole cycle has won countless prizes and awards, becoming a milestone of Mahler discography.

The next step? Staying in Vienna with symphonies by Johannes Brahms while remaining true to Gustav Mahler’s Bohemian homeland with Antonín Dvořák. The Bamberger Symphoniker and Jakub Hrůša’s cycle of the four Brahms symphonies and Dvořák’s last four symphonies is the first recording to give an overview of their extraordinary universe and cast light on their musical affinity, in a vivid soundscape with a contemporary pulse.

REVIEWS:

This enticing release is a further addition to the ongoing series twinning symphonies by Brahms and Dvořák, a theme validated by the kinship between both the composers and the cross-fertilisation of their styles. The orchestra and conductor here have since 2016 been producing a stream of admirable concerts and releases...

The ominous, growling opening of Dvořák’s Seventh is perfectly realised and Hrůša immediately reveals his mastery of the form through the application of subtle rubato in his phrasing without the musical thread going slack. Again, lovely woodwind playing strikes a pastoral note, recalling the Brahmsian inspiration to the work but the darker, denser, “Germanic” orchestration also underlines that link; this is a lilting, songful and unhurried account which never loses the skein of disquiet lurking beneath the dancing, three-quarter-time melodies and the faintly disturbing, mysterious conclusion with distant horns intoning gnomically leaves the listener in ambivalent mood, paving the way for the similarly enigmatic Poco adagio. As with the first movement, Hrůša presides over relaxed, flowing playing underpinned by a prominent bass line and a solid, rhythmic stability modulated by judicious use of rubato and rallentando. The stately grandeur of the music is maximised, ensuring that Dvořák does not come across as just a lightweight, jolly tunesmith.

This is attractively packaged in a dark green cardboard digipack with colour and black and white photos, trilingual notes and an interview with the conductor by German musicologist and critic Wolfgang Sandner, who describes the unusually warm and friction-free friendship between the two composers whose works make a welcome match for this release, especially, as Sandner remarks, Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony is regarded as the most “Germanic” of his mature works.

-- MusicWeb International (Ralph Moore)

Includes work(s) by Antonín Dvorák.

Includes work(s) by Johannes Brahms.

A vibrant selection of pictorial-impressionist exotica.

This disc made little impression when first issued and the undertow caused by the fall of Conifer delivered the coup de grace. It certainly deserves better if you have a taste for Russian nationalism.

Mtzyri is a nice piece of Russo-Oriental pictorial-impressionist exotica. Its elements include a Sheherazade-sinuous song for solo violin and the minaret and the muezzin are never far away. Think in terms of a more lucidly orchestrated brother of Balakirev's Tamara and the tragic-tormented aspects of Tchaikovsky’s Manfred. It’s all done with real conviction and soprano Barainsky (13:20) holds an impressive high note with throbbing invincibility.

The Symphony is lively enough and wends its way between Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov - nearer to Tchaikovsky. The quiet shuddering footfall in the third movement recalls the Capriccio Italien.

The booklet notes - now standard in ArkivMusic licensed discs - are by Toccata's Martin Anderson and are therefore a rewarding read in their own right. They are in English, French and German. They paint in the details of the life and music with a fine brush.

A minor gripe is that despite there being plenty of space we have only one attractive segment of the Caucasian Sketches - the composer's only claim to popularity. There was room for the whole suite.

This is a handsome offering and something to tantalise until we can hear his other works. There are six operas including The Last Barricade (1933-34) which has as its subject the Paris Commune. We would do well in our safety and superiority not to hold against him that, as the times dictated, ‘patriotic’ pieces were required and were delivered: Song of Stalin, Hymn to Work, Voroshilov March, The Year 1917. Further afield there is a Catalan Suite and a four movement work, Karelia - possibly intended as his Second Symphony. Other folk-influenced material include An Evening in Georgia, Musical Pictures of Uzbekistan, On the Steppes of Turkmenistan and Turkish Fragments.

If you would like to delve beyond this disc try Naxos 8.553405 (Caucasian Sketches – suites 1 and 2), Marco Polo 8.223629 (Yar-Khmel, Ossian Tableaux, Jubilee March and Episode from life of Schubert etc) and Marco Polo 8.220217 (Symphony 1 and Turkish Fragments).

Gary Brain is a sensitive and confident advocate for this largely unknown music. It is to his credit that he continues to champion the wilder periphery. His discography includes the Truscott Symphony (Marco Polo) and a cycle of orchestral discs presenting music by Polish-Swiss composer, Czeslaw Marek (Koch International).

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

This recording was formerly available as Eurodisc CD 610-510-231. It is
also available as 610 520.

"[A] high-class ensemble with superlative playing in all departments. Flor has an excellent feel for Mendelssohn's music. . . . [H]e understands the paradox that while Mendelssohn's scores should never be made to sound too heavy they often contain more emotional depth and expressive weight than is immediately apparent. . . . Camacho's Wedding is a real rarity, though it shouldn't be, [with] a charmingly open-hearted character and high craftsmanship. . . . Ruy Blas is given an urgently expressive yet beautifully balanced reading, while The Hebrides receives a delicately inflected, most imaginative performance. The recording of this very desirable disc seems to me just about ideal, for it has a very natural, warm quality with plenty of space, clarity and detail." -- Gramophone

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker Suite - Weber: Invitation to the

Roland Pöntinen first entered a recording studio for BIS in 1983 – at the age of 20 – and released his début recital disc the following year. Since then he has appeared on more than 60 discs in the label’s catalogue, as soloist with orchestra, in piano recital and chamber music programs. Drawn from this impressive discography, Piano Rhapsody is a wide-ranging collection of pieces which allows us to admire the talent, the breadth of repertoire and the unquenchable curiosity of this ‘pianists’ pianist’.

But it is also an odyssey through the piano literature, which takes in the well-known
and less familiar (from Für Elise to Carl Tausig’s Johann Strauss paraphrase), and features
miniatures as well as bravura works (Satie’s Gnossiennes and Grieg’s Piano Concerto). It also
traverses a large tract of music history, making stops in the 1720s (Bach’s Prelude No.1 in C
major), the budding Romantic era (C.M. von Weber’s Perpetuum Mobile) and ’the Age of the Great Virtuosos’ (Liszt and Rubinstein, among others) and reflecting the proliferation of national schools in the early 20th century, with composers of Russian, French, Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish and Czech extraction. All in all, the generous playing time (5 hours 20 minutes) and the wide-ranging program provide a unique opportunity to explore the piano and its literature, with one of Sweden’s finest pianists as our guide.

Alberto Ginastera was one of the most admired and respected musical voices of the twentieth century, who successfully fused the strong traditional influences of his national heritage with experimental, contemporary, and classical techniques. The two Cello Concertos are among his most innovative, brilliant and technically formidable compositions. The First Concerto, the definitive version of which was premièred by Ginastera’s second wife Aurora Nátola in 1978, is notable for the provocative singing lines, Latin dance rhythms and virtuosity of its solo part, and the intense colours and abundant percussion of the orchestral accompaniment. The Second Concerto, composed as a 10th wedding anniversary tribute ‘To my dear Aurora’, makes more prominent use of Argentine folk elements. It includes a brilliant depiction of the rising sun, percussion instruments portraying sounds of the jungle, and a celebratory rustic finale.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The Bamberger Symphoniker’s collaboration with Tudor has evolved in cycles. It began with Joachim Raff’s œuvre, a pioneering step into overlooked repertoire. Then stepped up to the Greats with Schubert’s symphonies: the first recording to follow the new Schubert edition was enthusiastically hailed as a refreshing new departure interpreted with historical awareness. Reaching for the stars under the aegis of Jonathan Nott, the scores of Gustav Mahler then entered the Bamberg Konzerthalle. That whole cycle has won countless prizes and awards, becoming a milestone of Mahler discography.

The next step? Staying in Vienna with symphonies by Johannes Brahms while remaining true to Gustav Mahler’s Bohemian homeland with Antonín Dvořák. The Bamberger Symphoniker and Jakub Hrůša’s cycle of the four Brahms symphonies and Dvořák’s last four symphonies is the first recording to give an overview of their extraordinary universe and cast light on their musical affinity, in a vivid soundscape with a contemporary pulse.

This release also includes 8 of Brahms's Hungarian Dances, each orchestrated by one of these extraordinary contemporaries.

A household word when speaking of repertoire, legendary flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal devoted just as much effort to establishing the masterpieces in their rightful place as to unearthing countless works from the baroque, classical and romantic eras. As far as concertos are concerned, cornerstones by Bach, Mozart and Vivaldi thus gained worldwide fame, and it went the same way for Ibert, Jolivet and Nielsen. Unfailing lyric sense, purity of style, magnificent tone, grace of phrasing, fabulous virtuosity, tremendous commitment... Critics, colleagues and the public were all running out of superlatives. Immediately valued as references, his recordings still fascinate and often leave the listener exhilarated. This 12 CD set tries the challenge of surrounding these marvels with some of the most dazzling rediscoveries, offering famous and less famous music, but equally glorious interpretations.

Classical Music

Includes work(s) by Richard Wagner.

Includes work(s) by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Includes work(s) by Hector Berlioz.

Includes work(s) by Robert Schumann, Edvard Grieg.

Includes work(s) by Franz Joseph Haydn.