The Finnish maestro John Storgårds, Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, presents his first recording on Chandos, a complete symphonic cycle of his nation’s greatest musical export, Jean Sibelius.

The triumphant premieres of Symphonies Nos 1 and 2, with their big tunes and great romantic sweep, established the international reputation of Sibelius as a symphonist, some audiences even considering him Beethoven’s natural successor. The symphonies that followed chart Sibelius’s development as one of the most individual composers of the early twentieth century. Each symphony has its unique approach, whether it be the classicism of the Third, the brooding modernism of the Fourth, or the icy stillness of the Sixth, so evocative of the Finnish landscape. The Symphony No. 7 in C major represents Sibelius’s greatest achievement in the symphonic form. In it he compresses the grand emotional sweep of a symphony into one startlingly original movement lasting little over twenty minutes.

Illness prevented Sibelius from completing any major works in the last thirty years of his life. Manuscripts show, however, that he never stopped composing. Recorded here are three orchestral fragments prepared by Timo Virtanen from late sketches thought to be for Sibelius’s legendary ‘lost’ 8th Symphony, destroyed by the composer in 1945. They offer a fascinating glimpse into the composer’s creative imagination during a time when impaired health inhibited Sibelius from realising his rich musical visions.

Classical Music

Doric String Quartet
Alex Redington violin
Jonathan Stone violin
Simon Tandree viola
John Myerscough cello
Recorded in:
Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, 9-11 February 2011

The three string quartets, Op. 41 make up Schumann’s only published contribution to the genre. They were completed during a period of intense creative activity in 1842. In February, Schumann noted in his diary that he was having ‘continual quartet thoughts’. In April and May, he devoted himself to studying the quartets by Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart; in early June, the first two quartets were completed, and the third followed soon after in July that same year.

Brimming with the canons with which Schumann was so taken, as well as his characteristic turn of melody, these works all display in full the spirit that one would expect from this most romantic of romantic composers.

Schumann arranged for the first, private, performance of the quartets to take place on 13 September 1842, as a present for his wife, Clara, on her twenty-third birthday. Clara, always supportive of her husband’s efforts, praised them as ‘lucid, finely worked, and always in quartet idiom’. The esteemed theorist and composer Moritz Hauptmann said: ‘His [Schumann’s] first, which delighted me immensely, made me marvel at his talent… it is cleverly conceived and held together, and a great deal of it is very beautiful.’

The Doric String Quartet, exclusive Chandos artists are among the most impressive young quartets on the classical music scene today. They regularly perform at major festivals and venues throughout the UK as well as across continental Europe, Asia, and the US.

Back in the days when Johann Christian Bach was writing music, staying true to a composer's intention was not a priority in musical performances in the way it is today! His publisher, William Foster, was particularly cavalier in his attitude to his client's music and often amended the masterpieces - amalgamating or even omitting parts entirely - for purely commercial reasons. The Academy of Ancient Music, renowned for the authority of its performances, restored the works on this disc so that the listener can experience these pieces as J.C. Bach intended.

Tuneful and very well-crafted music.

At one time Ignacy Dobrzynski is said to have been as well known in Poland as Chopin, with whom he once shared the teacher Józef Elsner. One left Poland and found fame, the other remained in Russian-occupied Warsaw and was ultimately all but forgotten. Bits and pieces of Dobrzy?ski's music have appeared on disc in recent years, but very few monographs. The opera overture, piano concerto and symphony offered here by the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra under ?ukasz Borowicz for Chandos make for a varied and enjoyable, though not essential, table d'hôte.

The pirate-painting Monbar Overture is of a generally Rossinian nature - cheerful, catchy, with an exuberant finale. Though not quite as huge as the Piano Concerto, the Symphony is nevertheless a substantial work. Dobrzynski gave it a new second movement more than a quarter of a century on, and that is the version heard here - although the attractive original movement has thoughtfully been included by way of bonus. The ostensibly nationalistic Symphony is no stand-out masterpiece - Dobrzynski's own title is perhaps more revealing than he intended - but it is tuneful and very well-crafted in the way many lesser symphonies of the time were. The final movement, oddly, sounds not unlike a Rossini overture itself, brimming with high spirits and operatic-style reprises.

The best work of the three is, ironically, the Piano Concerto. Ironically, because Dobrzynski was only seventeen when he wrote it. In that respect it is an astonishingly assured work, elegantly proportioned, sophisticatedly orchestrated and with an abundance of pianistic and symphonic ideas. In some respects this is an an unfortunate pairing for the Symphony by Chandos - Howard Shelley's recording of the Piano Concerto was released only last year by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute (NIFCCD101, paired with Franciszek Lessel's) to widespread praise. Chandos made their recording in early 2010, more than six months after Shelley's, which was done live at the 'Chopin and his Music' festival in Warsaw - thus it seems unlikely no one at Chandos was aware of it. It might have been more revealing at any rate if Borowicz and team had recorded Dobrzy?ski's First Symphony, which indeed the PRSO already have in their repertoire.

On the other hand, the Chandos version is sufficiently different - many minutes longer than Shelley's, and taking advantage (controversially, it must be said) of a reconstruction by composer Krzysztof Baculewski from Dobrzynski's original deletions. The concerto itself does not resemble those of Chopin, but rather Johann Hummel's or Friedrich Kalkbrenner's crowd-pleasing, bravura-stoked works. Bizarrely, the first known performance was not given until 1986. Polish soloist Emilian Madey, himself a composer, gives a suitably heroic performance of this epic work.

Sound quality is pretty good, but never reaching the heights one or two prominent reviews of this disc indicate - a suggestion of lossiness in the strings sections is hard to escape. The two CDs only add up to a single plus a quarter of an hour, but as Chandos are only charging single-disc price, the timing is actually extremely generous. The trilingual booklet notes by Adrian Thomas are interesting and well written. Moreover, the text goes almost to the edges of the page - what a tree-saver, if this marks the beginning of the end for the label's notoriously wasteful margins! Madey and especially Borowicz stare out from the booklet in a strikingly dour, humourless way - quite what the origin of their severity is, is unclear. Not Dobrzy?ski's music, for sure.

-- Byzantion, MusicWeb International

The best-selling Contemporaries of Mozart series with Matthias Bamert and the London Mozart Players is one of Chandos' most long-running recording projects and we are delighted to add three symphonies by the German-Austrian composer Franz Anton Hoffmeister to the collection. His highly appealing music is full of fluent melodies and classical elegance, much admired by Schubert. All the works here are recorded for the first time.

Chandos presents the premiere recording of the one-act opera 'A Feast in Time of Plague', Three Scherzos, Op.82 and three songs for solo voice and orchestra. César Cui is the least-known member of the group of five Russian nationalist composers (with Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky and Borodin) who together became known as 'The Mighty Handful'. He was considered to be the most dramatic of these composers. His music is highly tuneful and approachable, full of the colour we expect from the Russian romantic tradition.

Chandos has wisely reduced this original, expensive three-disc set to a moderately priced twofer, without losing any music at all. The performances are wonderful: this recording was made in the first flush of Neeme Järvi's relationship with Chandos, when their recordings with the Scottish National Orchestra were winning accolades the world over for their sonic brilliance. At the time, much of this music was also difficult to find (particularly the suites from Christmas Eve and The Invisible City of Kitezh), and so were additionally welcome in such glittering interpretations. Even now they hold up extremely well: Järvi's strength always was his willingness to let the orchestra cut loose in the big moments, especially the march music in Le coq d'or, or the Dance of the Tumblers from The Snow Maiden. Also as usual, the string playing lacks that last ounce of precision and rhythmic clarity (the galloping rhythms in Christmas Eve, for example), but few will complain. BIS's ongoing series of Rimsky's orchestral music with the Malaysian Philharmonic has even finer sonics, but if you're looking for just the opera suites, you can hardly do better than this.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

[The Violin Concerto's] last five minutes [are] a most moving elegy which Lydia Mordkovitch plays very beautifully on this excellent new recording. . . . [If] you can surrender to its rhapsodic musings and gusts of passion and forget its obvious debt to Elgar and Delius, then this is as good a performance as you could wish, recorded with the clarity and fidelity that are the hallmark of Chandos recordings. The Ulster Orchestra plays superbly, so that Moeran's attractive and colourful scoring gets its full due; and, of course, Vernon Handley is a sympathetic interpreter. -- Gramophone

This disc forms one of the few comprehensive collections of Duruflés choral music in the catalogue. Duruflé is most famous for his exquisite 'Requiem', included here, but his other choral works are equally appealing and they complete this unique programme.

Includes work(s) by Stephen McNeff. Ensemble: BBC Concert Orchestra. Conductor: Clark Rundell. Soloist: Imelda Staunton.

2 discs for the price of 1!

This selection is also available as a Hybrid Super Audio CD as Chandos 5005.

The Borodin Trio's recordings of Arensky's Piano Trios Nos. 1 & 2 are now available on the Chandos Classics label. On their original release these highly idiomatic performances met with great critical acclaim. Recorded in: Layer Marney Church, Essex June 1986 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Philip Couzens (Assistant)

Classical Music