FUR ELIOT

The London Symphony Orchestra's string sound is world renowned. This recording marks the LSO Live debut of the LSO String Ensemble, directed by the orchestra's leader Roman Simovic. The Serenade is one of Tchaikovsky's most enduringly popular works. Inspired in part by Mozart, it's elegant music blends Russian folk-song with traditional classical forms. The recording's pairing is Bartok's Divertimento, a highly original work in it's own unique idiom, contrasting two buoyant and lighthearted movements with a somber Adagio.

CONCERTI PER FLAUTO

PIANO MUSIC

2016 three CD collection that features beloved arias from Bellini's "Norma;" Puccini's "La Boh�me," "Madame Butterfly" and "Gianno Schicchi;" Verdi's "La Traviata" and "Aida;" Bizet's "Carmen" and much more! Opera singers come and go, but just a few - the legends - live on. And Maria Callas was the great-est legend of them all, though not just for the wonder of her voice. She changed the way people thought about opera, but she also became famous as the glamorous celebrity who fell in love with Aristotle Onassis, leaving her elderly husband to live with him on his yacht Christina and enjoy the high life with the international jet set. Of course it ended badly. She lived her life like one of her own tragic heroines who (as women tend to do in opera) sing, suffer and die. And her own death came at just 53, after a dazzling but short career that took in heavy roles alongside decorative, nightingale-like ones - ignoring the established rules of vocal health and probably explaining why her voice finally gave out as it did. But in that time she did extraordinary things, using the muscle of those heavy heroines to em-power the nightingales with strength and depth of feeling nobody had thought to offer them be-fore. She gave them credibility as drama. Her performances were absolute and self-exposing: she held nothing back. And she was even tougher on herself than she could be on others - which is why her voice was never quite the flawless instrument singers are meant to cultivate. Her personality was far too volatile and too self-sacrificing in it's love affair with risk. In the mythology of opera, though, that's what the audience demands. We want the diva to be both a goddess and a slave: to give her life for art. We thrill to the dimension of that sacrifice. And Callas dutifully obliged.

GLORIA & MAGNIFICAT

Two CDs. Mozart & Flute in Paris brings together nine captivating works, all with their origins in Paris, which feature a solo flute. Emmanuel Pahud is joined by his colleagues from 'wind supergroup' Les Vents Fran�ais - oboist Fran�ois Leleux (here also conducting the Orchestre de chambre de Paris), clarinettist Paul Meyer, bassoonist Gilbert Audin and horn-player Radovan Vlatkovic - and by Belgian harpist Anneleen Lenaerts. "The pieces on this album represent different golden ages of the flute," says Pahud. The earliest, dating from 1778 are two concertante works that Mozart wrote while visiting Paris. The newest, premiered in 2014 by Pahud and the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, is Dreamtime by Philippe Hersant. The intervening period is represented by pieces by Saint-Sa�ns, Faur�, Chaminade and Poulenc, composers whose music embodies France's special relationship with the flute.

BERLIOZ: ROMEO ET JULIETTE

Recorded live at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London, on 27 November 2013 and 14 October 2015.

“The LPO string-players vividly felt the music’s pain. They don’t write music like that anymore” - Classical Source on Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, 14 October 2015

This is the first release of works by Krzysztof Penderecki on the LPO Label. The Orchestra has had a long relationship with Krzysztof Penderecki as both a composer and a conductor, regularly performing his works at Royal Festival Hall.

The Adagio for Strings and Horn Concerto on this album, both conducted by the composer, are recordings of the UK premiere performances.

Krzysztof Penderecki wrote the Horn Concerto specifically for soloist Radovan Vlatkovic. The Guardian described this performance as impressive, and having a “disquieting, at times savage beauty,” while The Telegraph called it “fantastically fluent” with “genuinely entrancing [moments].”

This is also the first release on the LPO Label featuring conductor Micha? Dworzynski. He is renowned as a great champion of music by Polish composers. His interpretation of the Violin Concerto was praised by The Guardian for capturing “the work’s fraught, tightly bound texture and the imploded lyricism of its constantly evolving melodic material.”

Violinist Barnabás Kelemen’s performance in the Violin Concerto was widely praised. Bachtrack said he “[married] brilliant virtuosity to deep expressiveness. Whether racing through leaping runs or holding eye-wateringly high notes, his tone never faltered.”

The Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima is an iconic work by Penderecki which received the UNESCO Prize in 1961. On its dedication to Hiroshima, Penderecki wrote “May this threnody express my deep belief that the sacrifice of Hiroshima will never be forgotten and lost, and Hiroshima will become a symbol of brotherhood between people of good will.”

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REVIEW:

All the works here, except the First Violin Concerto, are conducted by Penderecki himself, so hearing them with the LPO in the Festival Hall immediately makes this a special document, and it is a fascinating compilation of the orchestra’s performances of his music in recent years. The LPO is consistently excellent throughout.

– Choir & Organ

“made at public concerts, and involves applause between items, and some occasional coughs. The microphone picks up piano action noise, and the tone is not ideally free. BUT none of these faults mask for a moment the art of Richter, who, I am inclined to suspect, is the greatest interpreter of music (piano or otherwise) in the world” “Schubert he plays simply, lyrically, with perfectly judged articulation and rhythm ... Liszt: Valse oubliée: begins with a gentle, very affectionate, whimsical rubato that lifts, but never disturbs, the rhythm; and then suddenly away he goes with the repeated-note theme and you jump out of your skin at the precision and strength and musical control ... warm bass harmonies like the relaxing sun on a Mediterranean beach and the final recitative fades away with almost intolerable pathos. The second Valse oubliée merges into the muffled clatter of a barrel-organ (-a genius made it, and another is turning the handle). ... Transcendental studies: superior performances will only be heard in heaven. In Feux follets, an ethereal sensibility unmatched in my experience.” (Gramophone)

The London Philharmonic Orchestra presents this live recording from 2017 of Mahler's Symphony No. 8, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, with soloists including Sofia Fomina and Matthew Rose, and massed choirs. It's a celebration of the end of Jurowski's 14-year tenure as Principal Conductor.

From it's opening notes, to it's final closing breaths, the spirit of revolution is infused into the fabric of Shostakovich's 11th Symphony. Completed in 1957, it remembers the failed uprising of 1905 and hints at Hungary's anti-Soviet rebellion of 1956. Through his powerful, and at times unsettling music, Shostakovich celebrates the revolutionary spirit and offers a cautionary tale about the dangers of complete power. The London Philharmonic Orchestra harnesses the dark intensity and emotion of his writing in this live performance under Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski.

Recorded live in concert at Royal Festival Hall in 1988 and 1992 under the baton of Zubin Mehta, these recordings of Richard Strauss's Symphonia Domestica and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade are now available from the London Philharmonic Orchestra archives.

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REVIEW:

The key to appreciating the Symphonia Domestica's gentleness and its small details, as American audiences did from early on, is to simply take the work at face value, and this is accomplished admirably here by conductor Zubin Mehta. Even better, is the pairing: Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, Op. 35, might seem poles away from the Symphonia Domestica in its contrast of eastern exoticism to Strauss' bourgeois world, but Mehta asks hearers to listen again. Both works are delicately orchestrated, a bit folkish in places, and they alternate action with big melodies in a similar way, and what melodies they are. A fine pairing of favorites from the London Philharmonic's in-house label.

– All Music Guide (James Manheim)

Mozart was a master at capturing the spirits of the instruments for which he wrote. This skill is perfectly exemplified here in the lighter-than-air Flute Concerto No.2, the sprightly and playful Bassoon Concerto and the interplay of the four soloists in the Sinfonia Concertante. These three exceptional works come to life in this studio recording with featuring soloists of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski.

GLORIA

This manuscript, from Christophe Rousset's private collection, was discovered by him in 2004. Dedicated to a Madame de Th�obon, it contains not only the essential French harpsichord pieces of the late seventeenth century, but also many transcriptions of compositions by Lully and several hitherto completely unknown preludes. Providing precious insight into the art of the harpsichordist and the musical practices of that time, these pieces are recorded here for the first time. With it's powerful but still austere sound, the Nicolas Dumont harpsichord of 1704 does them full justice.

Libera are a phenomenon with over 100 million hits on YouTube. One of the leading worldwide exponents of the British choral tradition, the 3-time Classical BRIT nominees have recorded a brand new studio album titled If. The new album will be available on October 15, 2021 on CD plus digital formats through Invisible Hands Music and features 15 songs including 5 brand new compositions. Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys - who knows a bit about vocal harmonies - said, "When I heard them sing - it actually took me to tears." This album provides a welcome respite from over a year of unrelenting bleakness; the boys who make up Libera are very happy to be back making music. This album continues Libera's mission of spreading joy and hope through the beauty and purity of their wonderful voices and arrangements. With shimmering, mystical chords and ecstatic harmonies, they are unlike any other group you have ever heard. The distinctive sound of Libera has garnered fans all over the world, particularly in the USA, the UK, the Philippines, South Korea and Japan. Their CDs top the mainstream and classical charts and they pack concert halls and Cathedrals appearing in their trademark flowing white robes.

Written at the request of Louis XIV in honor of his sister-in-law, Henrietta of England, Lully's Le Ballet royal de la naissance de Vénus was performed in 1665 with Henrietta herself as the goddess of love and youth. This grandiose spectacle combining dancing, music and poetry, served the power of the king, while attesting to the magnificence of his court. Musically very inventive, it shows the culmination of the ballet genre. The recording, from Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques is completed by excerpts from Les Amours déguisés, Psyché, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and Le Carnaval.

CELEBRATION

BRITTEN KORNGOLD VIOLIN CONCERTOS

A New York Times Top 25 Classical Track Choice for 2020

A European bestseller in their time, Händel’s 1720 suites are far from having regained, in concert and on disc, the eminent place they once held. Does the fault lie with the anathema pronounced by the ‘pope’ Gustav Leonhardt, who always openly shunned Händel? With the man himself, a startling virtuoso, but keener to compose for the opera? With recordings that are often pleasant but rarely showcase the strongest personalities of their generation?

Three decades after the exceptional Scott Ross, Pierre Hantaï in his turn is determined to rehabilitate Händel the harpsichord composer.

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REVIEW:

Handel’s eight suites for harpsichord have sometimes been viewed more or less as training exercises. Pierre Hantaï, known for his vivid Scarlatti, dispels the slightly derogatory preconceptions with suave danciness and lucid touch.

– New York Times (Zachary Woolfe)

Libera are a phenomenon with over 100 million hits on YouTube. One of the leading worldwide exponents of the British choral tradition, the 3-time Classical BRIT nominees have recorded a brand new studio album titled If. The new album will be available on October 15, 2021 on CD plus digital formats through Invisible Hands Music and features 15 songs including 5 brand new compositions. Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys - who knows a bit about vocal harmonies - said, "When I heard them sing - it actually took me to tears." This album provides a welcome respite from over a year of unrelenting bleakness; the boys who make up Libera are very happy to be back making music. This album continues Libera's mission of spreading joy and hope through the beauty and purity of their wonderful voices and arrangements. With shimmering, mystical chords and ecstatic harmonies, they are unlike any other group you have ever heard. The distinctive sound of Libera has garnered fans all over the world, particularly in the USA, the UK, the Philippines, South Korea and Japan. Their CDs top the mainstream and classical charts and they pack concert halls and Cathedrals appearing in their trademark flowing white robes.

This highly anticipated box set brings together Valery Gergiev's acclaimed cycle of the complete Rachmaninov symphonies, which were recorded alongside the London Symphony Orchestra across 2008 to 2015. These masterful accounts of the Russian's complete symphonies are accompanied by his 1940 composition Symphonic Dances, while two symphonic poems by Mily Balakirev echo the luxurious textures present throughout Rachmaninov's music.

Written at the request of Louis XIV in honor of his sister-in-law, Henrietta of England, Lully's Le Ballet royal de la naissance de V�nus was performed in 1665 with Henrietta herself as the goddess of love and youth. This grandiose spectacle combining dancing, music and poetry, served the power of the king, while attesting to the magnificence of his court. Musically very inventive, it shows the culmination of the ballet genre. The recording, from Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques is completed by excerpts from Les Amours d�guis�s, Psych�, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and Le Carnaval.