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The three cantatas on Volume 34 were first performed in February and March 1725, in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, where Bach was employed. The first one, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, was composed for the Feast of the Annunciation, and celebrates the joyous news brought to Mary of the coming birth of Christ in a suitably jubilant manner. A particular feature is the unusual scoring - as well as a string orchestra there are two horns, two oboi da caccia (ie. alto oboes) and two solo violins. BWV126 (Erhalt uns, herr, bei deinem Wort) is in a rather more dramatic vein, with its exhortation to God to support mankind against the enemies of the faith. the recitative 'Der Menschen Gunst und Macht' for alto and tenor is particularly noteworthy: Bach has cast the entire movement in the form of a dialogue, creating a fusion of recitative, arioso and chorale that is without equal in its era. The disc ends on a more resigned note with BWV127, based on a hymn which is in fact a song of death, ending with a plea for the forgiveness of sins. The soprano aria 'The soul will rest in Jesus' hands' combines a certainty of belief and a longing for death are combined in one of Bach's most beautiful and individual cantata movements, and the simple four-part final chorale concludes with an exquisite sequence of harmonies that lends a dreamlike quality to the words 'until we slumber blessedly'.

This specially-priced (3 CDs for the price of 2) boxed set spans from Scriabin's first large-scale orchestral work, his Piano Concerto (1897), to Prometheus (1909-10), his last completed piece (which incidentally also features an important part for solo piano). It thus includes the lion's share of his orchestral output - excepting the unfinished, mythical Mysterium - and shows his development from a young man brought up on Chopin and Tchaikovsky into one of the most original composers the world has ever known.

For the final instalment of his survey of Beethoven's works for piano and orchestra, Ronald Brautigam has saved 'the final crowning glory of his concerto output', as Beethoven specialist Barry Cooper describes the Fifth Piano Concerto in his liner notes. The work has become known as the Emperor Concerto, as it shares its key (E flat major) as well as a certain sense of power and grandeur with the Third Symphony, the 'Eroica'. It is coupled on this disc with the Choral Fantasia - an intriguing work scored for piano, orchestra and chorus with vocal soloists. The explanation for this unusual combination is that Beethoven wanted to provide a fitting finale for one of his mammoth concerts in Vienna. The concert, which took place on 22 December 1808, included performances of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies as well as the Fourth Piano Concerto and two movements from the Mass in C major; the Choral Fantasia thus brought all of the evening's performers on stage once more before the end of the concert. The individual discs in Ronald Brautigam's series have received numerous distinctions, including a MIDEM Classical Award in 2010, and his performances have been weighed against classic recordings by legendary pianists. 'Brautigam's account [of Concerto No. 1] compares with Richter's for sparkle, with Pollini's for cleverness, and with Michelangeli's for liveliness... The performance of Beethoven's Third Concerto that follows is even better', wrote the reviewer on website All Music.com, while the one in Gramophone deemed that the recording of the Second Concerto was 'almost as good as Serkin's account with Ormandy, which is saying something!' In the review in International Record Review of the penultimate volume, finally, the series so far was summed up as follows: 'For my money, Brautigam and Parrott are setting a new bench-mark, and I eagerly await the final instalment.' It is of course a great pleasure to be able to announce the release of that longed-for disc, with Ronald Brautigam, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Parrott in their usual top form, and with the brief but crucial appearance of the eminent Eric Ericson Chamber Choir in the Choral Fantasia.

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Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

The Unknown Sibelius presents a spectrum of the music that is the least wide-spread of the Finnish master’s production, either because the pieces included belong to genres not usually associated with ‘Sibelius the symphonist’, or because they appear in versions that differ from the ones that are performed frequently all over the world. A case in point is the opening Finland Awakes, a rarely heard version of what is possibly Sibelius’ best-known piece, Finlandia, in which the famous ‘hymn’ tune is restated in full, scored with unashamed flamboyance for brass, at the end of the piece. That recording and others on this disc are culled from the complete SIBELIUS EDITION brought to a close in 2011 – but completeness is a relative concept: a ‘complete’ edition is only complete until the next mislaid manuscript or forgotten work is re-discovered. The present disc thus serves a dual purpose, as it also includes première recordings of works and fragments that have been discovered or otherwise have become available after the EDITION was brought to a close. Among these, the late orchestral fragments earned a certain celebrity in October 2011, as media across the world greeted the discovery of what was soon proclaimed to be sketches for the famed 8th Symphony – that elusive Holy Grail of all Sibelius-spotters. Dr. Timo Virtanen, the respected authority on Sibelius, has prepared the sketches for the present recording and also written a text – available on the BIS web site – discussing them and the context in which they may have been written. If the orchestral fragments generally tend towards the harmonically bold sound world that Sibelius explored in some of his very late works, the three piano pieces that have also come to recent light are earlier works which all in different ways are connected to other compositions by Sibelius.

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Mark Wigglesworth's cycle of the symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich has been evolving gradually since its beginnings in 1997. First out was No. 7, the 'Leningrad Symphony', which Classic CD Magazine described as 'a magnificent release in all respects'. Since then, Wigglesworth has offered us a Ninth, Twelfth and Fourteenth all designated 'Benchmark Recordings' by BBC Music Magazine at the time of their respective releases, a 'Babi Yar' (No. 13) described as 'probably the most convincing Thirteenth to have appeared in the West' in International Record Review, an account of the Fourth in which the conductor, according to the DSCH Journal, proved himself to be 'unquestionably outstanding'... The list could go on, with the general verdict being that the cycle has offered constantly interesting and often thought-provoking interpretations and striking performances. Wigglesworth started his traversal with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, recording Symphonies Nos 5, 6, 7, 10 and 14 with that orchestra, and in 2005 moved across the English Channel to continue the project with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. It is the Dutch ensemble that on this last instalment of the series perform the First and the Fifteenth, the alpha and omega of a symphonic production that spans almost 50 years of the composer's life and more than perhaps any other body of musical works reflects world events - the Communist revolution, World War II, Stalinist oppression - and their creator's reactions to them.

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In spite of the fact that Sibelius’ chamber music is far less well-known than his orchestral works, it forms a large and important part of his production. In terms of numbers of discs it makes up a fourth of the complete recorded edition being brought out on BIS. Already released are the complete quartets and piano trios [BIS-CD-1903/05] and the works for violin and piano [BIS-CD-1915/17]; the present set focuses on his chamber music for other instrumental combinations and includes a number of world première recordings and previously unreleased material. A substantial chapter is the music for cello (solo and with piano accompaniment), much of which was written for Sibelius’ brother Christian. It is here performed by Torleif Thedéen, with the support of Folke Gräsbeck on the piano. There are also a number of duos and trios for strings, including the brief Vattendroppar (Water Drops) for violin and cello pizzicato, which is often claimed to be Sibelius’ earliest surviving composition, dated to around 1875. Another, more sizeable, rarity is the music to the play Ödlan (The Lizard), scored for string ensemble. Composed in 1909, half way between the Third and Fourth Symphonies, it was once described by Sibelius as ‘one of the most exquisite works that I have written’. This volume also includes Sibelius only work for viola and piano (‘Rondo in D minor’), as well as the world première recordings of two pieces for solo kantele, the traditional Finnish plucked-string instrument which appears in the Kalevala, the Finnish national epos that served as such an inspiration to Sibelius. Another group of works with a specifically Finnish background, are the pieces for ‘torviseitsikko’, a particular combination of seven brass instruments and percussion. These are here performed by members of the eminent German ensemble brasspartout. A varied programme then on this ninth instalment of the acclaimed Sibelius Edition, about which a reviewer in Fanfare has already predicted that it ‘will certainly be considered a landmark in the history of recording’.

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Click here to view all 13 volumes of The Sibelius Edition


This set contains almost all of Sibelius' incidental music written to accompany spoken theater (King Kristian II, Swanwhite, Pelléas and Mélisande, Belshazzar's Feast, Kuolema, Jedermann, The Language of the Birds, and The Tempest), as well as his ballet-pantomime Scaramouche. Missing are the two movements for strings from The Lizard, which presumably will be included in a later release--but in all respects that matter BIS offers an embarrassment of riches. Indeed, you get to hear most of this music twice, since the complete edition includes both the original theatrical scores (from Vänskä) as well as the later concert suites drawn from them (featuring Järvi). Not everything is duplicated: Everyman, for example, never got turned into a suite (it's a bit too fragmentary), but it's well worth hearing.

The performances are all splendid and extremely well-recorded. There's not a weak link in the bunch. The original scores, with the exception of The Tempest, have no competition on disc, while Järvi's versions of the suites all rank with the best. His is still the only complete recording of Scaramouche, a patchy but fascinating piece. It's true that perhaps only diehard Sibelians will want to compare the arrangements side by side, but at a special price (6 CDs for the price of 3) anyone can afford to sample. This extremely well-executed project certainly deserves your support, and will reward it amply.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

In connection with the 2009 bicentenary of the death of Joseph Haydn, BIS Records and the Haydn Sinfonietta Wien have entered into a collaboration which will bear fruit in several recordings. The repertoire will mainly consist of rare works from Haydn’s œuvre, including music written for the stage, concert arias and orchestral works. Also included will be rereleases of the highly acclaimed recordings by Haydn Sinfonietta Wien and its conductor Manfred Huss of Haydn’s overtures, divertimenti etc. Providing an opportunity to explore less familiar aspects of the great composer, this six-disc set contains works written for the house of Esterházy, Haydn’s long-time employers, and for the King of Naples: from the Six Scherzandi, a set of ‘miniature symphonies’ probably composed in 1761, to the Eight Notturni for the King of Naples, composed around 1790.

Up until the late 18th century, almost all music was written for a specific person or institution, and often with a specific occasion in mind. But the works featured here are associated with their maker’s employer to an unusual degree: the Baryton Octets (and the Quintet Hob.X:10) were written for the private use of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy I, for performances that may have been heard by nobody but the musicians themselves. At such occasions, the part of the baryton, an instrument of the gamba family which was outmoded already at the time of composition, would be played by the Prince himself, while his favourite horn-player performed the highly virtuosic horn parts. Similarly, the ‘Concerti a Due Lire’ and the Notturni were commissioned by Ferdinand IV of Naples for his own consumption: a great lover of the ‘lira organizzata’ – a development of the hurdy-gurdy – he contacted a number of composers in order to expand the very limited repertoire of this highly unusual instrument. In fact, so unusual was the lira that Haydn, fearing that his music would never be played outside of the court in Naples, soon made versions in which the lira parts were replaced by other instruments. The result is to be heard here – glorious chamber music for various combinations of instruments, including flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello and double bass. Haydn Sinfonietta Wien’s acclaimed recordings of these works were originally produced and released by the Koch/Schwann label, with the exception of Notturni Nos 2, 4, 5 & 8, which, although recorded during the same period, were never released. For this collection the original recordings have been remastered by BIS Records.

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