SONGS OF FATE

ART OF THE PRODUCER

Claudio Abbado had only made a very few recordings for EMI Classics (now Warner), including Mozart's Flute Concertos with Emmanuel Pahud. This live rendition of Verdi's Messa da Requiem is definitively a major modern version of the work. In 2001, Abbado was doing his. In 2001, Claudio Abbado was soon to complete his tenure as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Berliner Philharmoniker, when he was diagnosed with stomach cancer not long before. Nonetheless, he was able to conduct this Verdi Requiem during two concerts that held a special significance, offering us a remarkable modern interpretation of the work. It featured an outstanding quartet of soloists, three of the world's most renowned choirs, and Berlin's iconic orchestra. "EMI was quite right to be on hand to record this performance in Berlin at a time when Abbado had arisen from his sick-bed to show just how much this work meant to him in the circumstances. It's conveyed in spades through the tremendous concentration and emotional thrust felt throughout this shattering interpretation. This performance has something extra that you find in Fricsay's live, 1960 account, and both come close to the spiritual element in the music. Abbado has at his bidding a superb group of specialist choirs who combine effortlessly into a cohesive whole, singing with commendable breadth, accuracy and involvement, few if any better on disc. They find fit counterparts in the players of the BPO who seem individually, in solos, and collectively intent on giving of their appreciable best for their chief. So all the big choral moments, Dies Irae, Rex tremendae, Sanctus, Libera me fugue are superbly achieved. EMI's recording is wide-ranging and immediate, the equal of any the work has yet received. If the solo singing can't be given such an unqualified encomium, much of it is impressive, especially that of the young mezzo Daniela Barcellona, even in tone and beseeching in manner. Gheorghiu does so much so well: she sings throughout in that rich, warm tone of hers and offers many long, arching phrases. She's also as dramatic as one could wish in the Libera me (...). Alagna sings with a deal of passion and authority. (...) Given it's superlative sound and special circumstances, [it] is an important addition to the work's discography." The Gramophone Classical Music Guide

COMPLETE RECORDINGS ON DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON

MENDELSSOHN

1001

AZNAVOURIANA

PURCELL & MOZART

COMPLETE DECCA RECORDINGS

KURT WEILL ALBUM

PURCELL & MOZART

Distant Fragments Camilo Mendez / With "Distant Fragments", Camilo Mendez presents an album of solos and duos that showcase his most intimate and reflective works, creating a rich sound tapestry. While Mechanical Resonance I: Iridescent Resonance explores cloud luminescence through prepared violin and viola, Five Fragments deals with the themes of variation and polyphony. Cancion de la Distancia, on the other hand, reflects the fleeting nature of memory and time, inspired by Arturo's poetry. Recorded by Roberto Alonso, Linus Fung, William Lane, Angus Lee and Charles Ng, this album offers a subtle and complex musical contemplation. KAIROS

FELIPE LARA: PORTALS

ISLANDS - ESSENTIAL EINAUDI

John Williams - "John Williams In Concert" / In recent years, Deutsche Grammophon has captured a series of very special concerts at which the legendary John Williams has conducted selections of his own music with some of the world's greatest orchestras. The Yellow Label is now issuing a unique collection of it's recordings with the Hollywood icon. John Williams in Concert brings together performances of film music from the Saito Kinen Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker and Wiener Philharmoniker, as well as the world premiere recording of Williams's Second Violin Concerto, with soloist Anne- Sophie Mutter and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Stylishly designed, the 7-LP vinyl boxset in butterfly fan packaging, includes a booklet featuring the original album liner notes; a new essay about Williams by renowned film-music writer Jon Burlingame; recollections from Williams himself, Anne-Sophie Mutter and some of the other musicians involved in these recordings; and a selection of concert and portrait photos. Limited Edition. Verve Label Group; Deutsche Grammophon; Classical; [7 LP Boxset]

Celebrated in his time as a 'man of great worth', who 'really knew how to play well and compose well', Annibale Padovano's modern-day neglect doesn't reflect the high regard in which he was held. Cinquecento deliver flawless accounts of two major Mass settings as they might have been heard in Karl II's Habsburg court.

SATIE: THE PIANO WORKS / VARIOUS

SATIE: THE PIANO WORKS / VARIOUS

SCRIABIN - SCARLATTI

ECHOES OF LIFE

PHILIP GLASS/COCTEAU TRILOGY

SAINT-SAENS: THE DEFINITE WORKS / VARIOUS

MENDELSSOHN

2024 release. Danny Elfman, known the world over for his scores to over 115 movies, including numerous collaborations with directors Tim Burton, Gus van Sant and Sam Raimi, not to mention the classic theme for The Simpsons, adds two major orchestral works to his recorded catalogue. The dynamic American conductor JoAnn Falletta directs the forces of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in this new studio recording. The Percussion Concerto was written for the Scottish virtuoso Colin Currie and was co-commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Wunderkammer, a concerto for orchestra, was written for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. The album is completed with a short choral piece in French, 'Are you lost?', from Elfman's song-cycle Trio. Scored for women's voices, piano, strings and various percussion instruments.

The album comprises three works by Andres: the composer's third piano concerto, The Blind Banister, with Andres as soloist, and Upstate Obscura for chamber orchestra and cello, with soloist Inbal Segev both of which feature Metropolis Ensemble and conductor Andrew Cyr and the solo piano piece Colorful History, also performed by the composer. The Blind Banister was written for pianist Jonathan Biss to be performed alongside Beethoven's second concerto. Andres says, My piece is not a pastiche or an exercise in palimpsest. It doesn't quote or reference Beethoven. There are some surface similarities to his concerto (a three-movement structure, a B-flat tonal center) but these are mostly red herrings. The best way I can describe my approach to writing the piece is: I started writing my own cadenza to Beethoven's concerto, and ended up devouring it from the inside out. The piece was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2016. Upstate Obscura takes it's inspiration from American painter John Vanderlyn's Panoramic View of the Palace and Gardens of Versailles. Andres says, In taking on a quintessentially French subject, Vanderlyn somehow came up with something that feels American; it seems to regard Versailles at a bemused distance, with that characteristically American distrust of anything unnecessarily fanciful. My plan was to start with fragments of musical ornament from the French Baroque tradition like loose chunks of masonry and stretch them out until they no longer felt like ornaments... The solo cello moves just as a viewer might explore a virtual world at times wandering, at times with purpose. Andres describes the album's solo piano work: Colorful History is a chaconne, stemming from a single augmented triad, and following the course of various directions it suggests. I think of this as a kind of extended metaphor for historical events, and how they echo each other without literally repeating.