Classical Music

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

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After his gruesome Elgar Second, I have to confess that I had low expectations for this release of Nielsen’s Fourth and Fifth. After all, very few conductors do equally well by both works. Gibson, for example, produced a great Fourth and a limp Fifth, while Salonen delivered a fine Fifth but a distorted Fourth. In the event, Oramo succeeds in both, big time. His “Inextinguishable” is lithe, propulsive, well-proportioned, and he actually gets the tempo relationships right in the finale, which features terrific timpani battles and a thrilling peroration at the end. The performance also has plenty of personality, particularly in the finale, in terms of unusually clear phrasing and articulation, as well as impressively well-judged balances between brass and strings.

As for the Fifth, let’s get right to the point: it has one of the best snare drum cadenzas in the first movement of any recent performance. Oramo doesn’t pull out all of the stops too early: the initial eruption of Nielsen’s “evil forces” might strike some listeners as a touch tame, but this is only to save the best for the movement’s second half, where it really counts. The result is one of the most organic and cohesive versions of the opening movement yet committed to disc. Happily, the second movement goes just as well, with a mightily crazy first fugue, and a perfectly judged recapitulation and coda. The breath pause before the final chord is surely exactly what the composer ordered. BIS’ SACD sonics are, typically, excellent. If you want Nielsen’s two greatest symphonies on a single disc, you can’t do better than this.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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NIELSEN Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 • Sakari Oramo, cond; Royal Stockholm PO • BIS 2028 (SACD: 69:46)

These recordings have such electricity that I would have guessed that they are live performances. The booklet, however, suggests otherwise, listing simply “August 2012” as the recording date for the Fourth Symphony, and “June 2013” for the Fifth.

Nielsen’s symphonies have been lucky on records. My first exposure to them was in the recordings by Bernstein (Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5) and Ormandy (Nos. 1 and 6) and those remain enjoyable. Nevertheless, Oramo eclipses Lenny in both of these works, much as other, younger conductors have come along and eclipsed Lenny’s Mahler. Neither composer needs special pleading or a hard sell any longer. Oramo conducts these symphonies with far more subtlety and nuance, and we are not beaten over the head with interpretive points. The “Inextiguishable” (No. 4), sometimes undervalued by being touted as a stereophonic showpiece (the antiphonal timpani in the last movement are a big opportunity, indeed), has more to offer. It is in the quieter sections where Oramo is particularly telling—for example, in the third movement’s chamber music-like textures. The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic does outstanding work here, not just in producing massive sonorities, but also in the solo writing, which is anything but routine. Indeed, it seems that Oramo has challenged received wisdom about this symphony, and has interpreted it afresh. In turn, the symphony itself comes across with uncommon freshness.

Similarly, the Fifth Symphony sometimes is pigeonholed as a response to the Great War, and much is made of the disruptive, militaristic influence of the side drum. Again, these are just starting points, and there is more to this symphony than early sleeve note commentators let on. As in the Fourth Symphony, Oramo seems to have started from scratch in interpreting this work, and the results are more interesting and penetrating than ever before. One particularly interesting feature of Oramo’s conducting, in both of these works, is that his willingness to play up the music’s internal contrasts does not weaken the symphonies’ overall structures. If anything, both works hold together even more tightly than usual. I’m hoping that Oramo will go on to record Nielsen’s other orchestral works for this label with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. If he does, the finished cycle probably will be the new top choice. The super-realistic engineering also adds to the strong impact of the music-making on this SACD. Most enthusiastically recommended!

FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle

Classical Music

Recently released recordings of Mozart's concertos, of three contemporary works for flute and orchestra and of a programme for solo flute have earned Sharon Bezaly epithets such as 'God's gift to the flute', 'an amazingly talented performer' and 'a First Lady among equals'. Here she has turned to some of the central works for flute and piano, and with Ronald Brautigam, familiar from many BIS releases, gives her interpretations of three master-pieces of the 1940s flanking Schubert's great Trockne Blumen variations, composed some 120 years earlier. Though written in the span of two years, Prokofiev's Sonata, Dutilleux's Sonatine and Jolivet's Chant de Linos each show the flute in a different light. Prokofiev was preoccupied with clarity of style and found the instrument a perfect vehicle: 'The sonata should be played with a bright, transparent, classical tone', he wrote. (David Oistrakh later convinced the composer to create a violin version, which quickly became very popular.) A distinctly different approach was taken by Jolivet, who wrote his Chant inspired by the ancient Greek concept of 'linos', a ritual lament punctuated by cries and dancing. It is thus based on musical material associated with Greek modes and explores the extremes of expression. Dutilleux, finally, composed his Sonatine as a set piece for the flute competitions of the Paris Conservatoire. But these academic-sounding origins are belied by the by turns atmospheric and spirited writing, so typical of the multi-faceted Dutilleux. Sharon Bezaly and Ronald Brautigam have previously collaborated on BIS-CD-1439, with violist Nobuko Imai. Upon its release this disc received a number of distinctions and highly favourable reviews, not least because of the superb ensemble playing.

beethoven ronald brautigam,fortepiano cmplete works for solo piano volume 12: Variations (II)

"If you want to show people how fine a conductor in the old style Litton is, this version of The Isle of the Dead will do nicely, since it offers little to distract by way of surface brilliance. There’s an attention to structure, a matter not only of the tone poem’s all-important dynamic arch, but of carefully teasing out thematic cross-references in the orchestral texture. Inner lines are clarified, but not at the expense of vitality, momentum, or expressive power. As much can be said of this version of The Rock. It is in some respects a study for The Isle of the Dead, and Litton turns in a performance every bit as detailed and authoritative."

-- Barry Brenesal, Fanfare

Martin Fröst is as fine a clarinetist as has ever touched this music, and he's given splendidly alert and lively accompaniments courtesy of Okko Kamu and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. His sweet timbre and ability to play loudly without turning shrill serve these virtuosic pieces particularly well, whether in the F minor concerto's lovely Andante pastorale, or in the B-flat concerto's "risoluto" opening movement. Fröst and Kamu also pace those moderate-tempo finales extremely well (that is, with plenty of rhythmic lift), largely because Fröst's technical virtuosity is so absolute that he can do just about anything at any speed and make it sound effortless. Perfect balances between solo and orchestra and stunningly lifelike presence in all formats (I'm not sure we need to hear these works in multi-channel surround-sound, but it's nice to have) make this the new reference version if you have a hankering for Crussel's delightful clarinet concertos.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Classical Music

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Classical Music

Classical Music

The love affair between Alan Gilbert and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra began in December 1997 with a performance of Mahler's First Symphony. In 2000 Gilbert became chief conductor and artistic advisor of the orchestra, remaining in that post until 2008 - a period which has been described as 'a golden age' in the history of the orchestra. For his farewell concert as chief conductor, Gilbert chose to close the chapter by performing Mahler's last symphony, No. 9 in D major, and the present recording was made in conjunction with this very special occasion. It was a fitting choice of repertoire in another respect as well: Mahler composed his Ninth in 1909-10, after having accepted the post of music director of the New York Philharmonic, the very orchestra that Gilbert now goes on to take charge of. The symphony is often regarded as the composer's monumental - both in terms of scale and emotional scope - leave-taking of the world. In his insightful liner notes, Arnold Whittall acknowledges the difficult circumstances in Mahler's personal life at the time of composition, but rather than nostalgia he finds in it a momentum propelling the symphonic genre far into the future: 'Mahler's Ninth is one of the crowning glories of symphonic history, and many would argue that it has only rarely been equalled, and probably never surpassed, in the century since its completion.' Please note: The music on this Hybrid Super Audio CD can be played back in Stereo (CD and SACD) as well as in 5.0 Surround sound (SACD).

Classical Music

On a previous disc of Rimsky-Korsakov?s orchestral music, Kees Bakels and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra gave us their interpretation of one of the composer?s most popular works, Sheherazade, coupled with the less well-known Second Symphony. (About this disc (BIS-CD-1377) International Record Review wrote: ?Bakel's new release is impressive, with Sheherazade a particular joy. The recorded sound, like the performances is lucid and natural.?) On the present release, the favourites are represented by the ever-popular Capriccio espagnol and that favourite encore The Flight of the Bumble-Bee, unusually presented in its context as the third movement of a suite of orchestral excerpts from the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan. But at least as attractive, and every bit as glowing, is the Russian Easter Festival Overture, dedicated to the memories of Mussorgsky and Borodin, and the composer?s final large-scale orchestral piece. Based on Russian liturgical themes it progresses from a solemn pre-Easter processional, through the discovery of Christ?s empty tomb, and finally to the joy and triumph of the Resurrection. Another work that definitely deserves to be better known is the Piano Concerto. Possibly because its short duration (only 14 minutes) it has proved difficult to programme in concerts, but within this short time-span it daringly explores a wide range of expressive possibilities, which soloist Noriko Ogawa and the orchestra know to exploit to the hilt. All in all, a most attractive programme then, performed by an orchestra which in a previous review has been described as follows: ?the players are obviously excellent; more importantly, this is an orchestra that plays with character and commitment ??

Classical Music