Classical Music

Classical Music

75 Years Ysaÿe & Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition

Classical Music

Classical Music

75 Years Ysaÿe and Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition

Classical Music

Classical Music

Organ

ORGELSTADT HALBERSTADT

At the time of Emperor Charles V, music was heard around the clock, and was a vital part of day-to-day life. This album’s focus is on ceremonial wind music, performed at both secular and religious occasions in Spain. Ensemble Capella de la Torre performs these historical works with vitality and color.

HISPANIAE ARS ORGANI

***This is the 100th Release of the BR-KLASSIK Label!***

At the age of just fifteen, the budding composer Richard Strauss (1864-1949) lost his way during a summer hike on the Heimgarten in the Bavarian Alps, and ended up in a thunderstorm. The next day, he fantasized about the experience on the piano. - Twenty years later, that memory had matured into a concept describing a one-day hike in the form of a symphonic poem, and in 1915 – a further fifteen years later – Strauss finally completed his masterpiece. The hike begins in the darkness before dawn, and after sunrise the ascent goes through a forest, past a stream and a waterfall, through meadows and pastures, and up to a glacier. The hiker then loses his way, and after several risky moments arrives at the summit, where he also experiences a vision. The weather then suddenly worsens, and the descent is accompanied by heavy rain and fierce thunderstorms. The eventful day - summarized in just sixty minutes of music - ends with a sunset, and darkness returns. "An Alpine Symphony" is probably Strauss' most famous symphonic poem. Its content is easily understandable, and the work became especially well-known for its gigantic orchestra. The music is far from heavy-handed, however, with many of the passages orchestrated like chamber music. Like a kind of greeting from the Bavarian Alps, as it were, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and its chief conductor Mariss Jansons have placed this masterpiece, and the music of Richard Strauss in general, on the programme of their forthcoming tour of Asia in late 2016. The live recording of “Alpine Symphony” concerts planned for October 2016 in Munich’s Philharmonie im Gasteig is enhanced on this latest release from BR-KLASSIK by the addition of Strauss’ symphonic poem "Death and Transfiguration", first performed in 1890; the recording here is of concerts performed in Munich in February 2014. – We thus have two very recent interpretations of two of this great German composer’s most important tone poems on one release.

This newest release from BR KLASSIK explores the genre of the 19th and 20th century Rhapsody, featuring works from masterful composers Emmanuel Chabrier, George Gershwin, George Enesecu, Maurice Ravel, and Franz Liszt. The concert-like atmosphere of this recording makes this a truly unique release, as these works were recorded live in Munich as recently as October 2015. The five rhapsodies featured here come from different regions and the composers’ unique styles can be heard in each of their works. Chabrier’s “Espana” is centered around Iberian and folk music which was very popular at the time. Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody” contrasts this work with its use of Hungarian folk melodies. The ever-popular “Rhapsody in Blue” from George Gershwin throws Americana into the mix with its blues roots. Mariss Jansons and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks never fails to please with their brilliant interpretations and performance quality. World-renowned Russian pianist Denis Matusev is brilliant as the “Rhapsody in Blue” soloist.

• V Symphony (pronounced vi) is the second symphony in the catalogue of Maciej Zielinski’s work. • The title of Zielinski’s symphony is no accident. The composer evokes both the number 5 and the visual aspect of the Roman letter V. • Lukasz Borowicz conducts the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The idea of making an album featuring music by Krenek and Schumann had been on my mind for a long time. In 2012, I was able to discuss by concept with Gladys Krenek in Palm Springs. We reamined in regular contact over the next few years to develop the concept for this album. Gladys Krenek gave her full support for the project which has always been very close to my heart. (Tatjana Masurenko) On her latest album, Masurenko presents her comparison between Schumann's and Krenek's works. Both composers have had similar interest in music and literature and to both of them, music was a kind of therapy.

Classical Music

Martinu: Chamber Music

THE SEASONS. 12 CHARACTERISTIC

The general consensus over the past few years among music critics and the public at large is that everything the conductor Sir Simon Rattle touches "turns to gold". Everything with the exception of the music dramas of Richard Wagner, that is! The oft-repeated assertion here is that Rattle and Wagner do not go together, even though no good reasons have been furnished to support this. The third collaboration between Rattle and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, together with a team of the very best Wagner singers, now conclusively proves the opposite. This concert performance of "Das Rheingold", the first opera in Wagner's mighty tetralogy "The Ring of the Nibelung", was performed live in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz on April 24 and 25, 2015, and has now been brought out by BR KLASSIK on two CDs only a few months after the event.

No question about it: Rattle is a master of the Rheingold score, which is certainly a tricky one due to its closely interwoven ensemble of soloists and to the fact that the orchestra does not accompany events and flow round them in a lofty manner, as in other Wagnerian music dramas, but is also sometimes quite openly rebellious! Rattle has already impressively proven his expertise at handling the music of Wagner on two occasions: in 2004 in London, together with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and in 2006 in Berlin with the Berlin Philharmonic. The fact that he is more inclined to conduct this "evil conversation piece, almost a black comedy" (as Robert Braunmüller described "Das Rheingold" in the Munich "Abendzeitung") with light and sometimes even dance-like inflections, and that he has the orchestra play with a great deal of colour and detail, shakes a little of the supercilious Wagnerian dust from this work, without in any way compromising the glittering brilliance of the musical sound. The soloists – all of them very good without exception - blend in completely with Rattle's fine interpretation, which is very much in the spirit of the drama.

Audiences and critics alike were unanimously delighted by the Munich concert performances. Even more than in the small Herkulessaal, which already enabled more intimate insights into the structures of the score and of the aesthetic created by Rattle, this listening experience on CD makes it clear "just how radically the avant-garde artist Richard Wagner composed in every single bar" (Reinhard J. Brembeck, "Sueddeutsche Zeitung").

V4: KAKHIDZE - THE LEGACY

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Musica Bohemica are celebrating their 40th anniversary, which is a fitting occasion to look back. The very first recording the ensemble made for Supraphon, the LP Drevo se hudbou odívá (Wood Attired in Music), released back in 1979, features several forcible folk texts (Vandrovali hudci, Horelo srdécko, etc.), to which the artistic director, Jaroslav Krcek, composed music with such sensitivity that many a listener still considers it folk tunes. The next Musica Bohemica album, Ceské a moravské lidové balady (Czech and Moravian Folk Ballads), includes traditional melodies in Krcek's arrangements, imbued with his singular signature and colourful instrumentation. Jaroslav Krcek also proved to be sure-footed when selecting the soloists; one would be hard pressed indeed to imagine better delivery. The anniversary album features pieces selected from the two early recordings, with some of them being released on CD for the very first time. The songs that have enchanted generations of Musica Bohemica listeners now come across in their full beauty. Musica Bohemica's anniversary commemorated with early recordings - a spell that does not wear off.