Classical Music

Classical Music

Between 2020 and 2023, Anna Fedorova released all of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concertos together with the Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen and Modestas Pitrenas on Channel Classics Records. BBC Music Magazine gave five star reviews for Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1, Preludes, and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini as well as Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 4, noting that “Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova is clearly not only a fine human being ... but also a remarkable artist". It was also Classic FM’s Album of the Weekend, Album of the Week on Scala Radio, received Luister Magazine’s 10 star-review and Anna was highly praised in International Piano for her "passionate, spontaneously phrased and radiant reading". Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 was released in the spring of 2023 and quickly became a bestseller at Tower Records in Japan and at NativeDSD Music. With over 38 million views, Anna Fedorova’s live recording of Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw is the most frequently watched concerto on YouTube. Anna Fedorova, Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen and Modestas Pitrenas raise their glass to Rachmaninoff by releasing their complete 3 CD box-set in 2023; the 150th birthday year of the composer.

Channel Classics reissues the 8-CD box-set of Mozart’s complete Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin. Rachel Podger and Gary Cooper make this difficult music sound effortless, witty and elegant on the first-ever recording of the complete sonatas on historical instruments. The inclusion of early, middle and late sonatas in this set conveys a balanced survey of Mozart's music for violin and keyboard. Each sonata stands out in its own right, revealing a snapshot in time of his developing personality. Of the original releases, Gramophone Magazine said that "it's impossible to ignore the individuality, vitality and commitment of their performances", while BBC Music Magazine noted that these are "characteristically intelligent and insightful performances".

This boxed set brings together all the recordings that cellist Pieter Wispelwey (a disciple of Dicky Boeke and Anner Bylsma) made for Channel Classics between 1990 and 2009: 35 recordings in 20 years and an impressive diversity of repertoire. The great masterpieces of the solo repertoire, from the Bach Suites, recorded twice - an essential reference! - to those of Britten, not forgetting Reger, Kodaly, Crumb, Hindemith and Gubaidoulina, alongside all the great concertos (Haydn, Dvorak, Schumann, Elgar, Schumann, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Lutoslawski) and also a magnificent anthology of chamber music, including sumptuous Beethoven and Brahms ensembles. This anthology also allows us to appreciate the Dutch cellist's taste for instruments, on the one hand, and to rediscover his collaborations year after year with a few well-chosen partners, such as Paul Komen, Paolo Giacometti, Dejan Lazic, and the conductor Ivan Fischer, on the other.

Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra released Symphonies Nos. 1-4 and a large variety of other works by Johannes Brahms between 2009 and 2021. On this box set you will find all of these highly acclaimed Channel Classics recordings. Brahms worked on his First Symphony for many years, a long process driven by extremely diverse musical impulses. The Guardian reviewed Fischer’s recording as “monumental in every sense of the word”. In the Second Symphony, which took him only a summer to compose, Brahms shows us his masterful skill in developing large-scale architecture from the simplest motifs. Iván Fischer refers to the beginning of Brahms’ Third Symphony as being “A life’s story in ten bars – there is no more magnificent opening of a symphony than the first 34 seconds of Brahms’ Third.” Many consider the Fourth Symphony to be the finest of all romantic symphonies. And what a wonderful start: a fragmented melody like a hovering leaf blown up and down by the wind. Iván Fischer: “Never has tenderness been composed more movingly.” BBC Music Magazine gave this recording a Double 5-Star review, noting that “This is an orchestra whose players listen to each other intently.”

Sebastian Berner is one of the most prominent trumpet players of his generation: in 2022, he won first prize at the Maurice Andr� International Competition in Paris and is principal trumpet of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. While Henri Tomasi's trumpet concerto, composed in 1948, is fairly well known, the Concertino for Trumpet and Orchestra, composed in 1913 by the Belgian Joseph Jongen, is much rarer, and the concerto by his pupil L�on Stekke, dated July 1937, is being recorded for the first time. Another world premiere is Charles Koechlin's Chants de Kerv�l�an, transcribed in 2008 for trumpet and orchestra by Robert Orlidge. Finally, Florent Schmitt's Suite in Three Parts was premiered in it's orchestral version in 1956 by Maurice Andr�.

Baroque ensemble Camerata oresund and their musical director / violinist Peter Spissky explore the musical world of composer, instrumentalist, and patron of the arts, Wilhelmine von Bayreuth (1709-1758). The recording brings to light works by Wilhelmine herself and musicians from within her circle, as we rediscover several long-forgotten pieces. Wilhelmine's entrepreneurial spirit, intellect, talent, and deep love of music and the arts remain an enduring source of inspiration. This album is a tribute to the life and legacy of this remarkable woman of the arts, revealing vibrant musical colours and styles in these concertos, dances, and arias.

Three years after their album of works by J.S. Bach (FUG 792), flautist Toshiyuki Shibata and keyboard player Anthony Romaniuk now record works not only by Bach but also by his sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann, "the most original and innovative" of the lineage, according to Shibata. Both musicians were trained in historically informed interpretation in Belgium and admit their fascination for Art Nouveau, stating that it harmoniously combines tradition and innovation; they have also been influenced by other musical traditions, including jazz and contemporary music: "Preludes and improvisation were essential elements of music-making in the 18th century - for us it's natural to add preludes and postludes to our performances," says Shibata, who plays three traversos, copies of instruments by after Buffardin, Eigentopf and Quantz; Romaniuk plays a Flemish harpsichord and a Silbermann fortepiano. Their programme includes improvised preludes, a bold ending to BWV 1032/I and an original extra movement - a Gigue from BWV 997 with influences from several genres woven into it's bass line, honouring both tradition and invention.

Conductor and composer Jorg Widmann leads the Stuttgarter Kammerochester in this album of masterpieces for string orchestra. The precocious Mendelssohn is represented with his String Symphony No.10 in B minor. It consists of a single movement, in which a sweeping slow introduction is followed by an allegro and coda. Widmann's own Ikarische Klage takes it's subject matter from a poem by Baudelaire: "Burnt by the love of beauty / I will not have the sublime honour / of giving my name to the abyss / that will serve as my grave". On Korngold's Symphonic Serenade, Widmann says "What a piece, full of glittering magic!". In this work we hear dreams of a real or imaginary Vienna in the time of Mahler or Berg: a vision that looks to the future, is heart-rending but never sentimental.

Ashley Solomon and Florilegium are joined by violinist Rachel Podger, soprano Elizabeth Watts, and recorder player Hannah Parry on Telemann: Ino Cantata and Double Concertos. Based on a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Telemann's Ino is a dramatic and theatrical cantata with a single soprano voice carrying the entire narrative. The two double concertos on this recording showcase Telemann's mastery of instrumental color and texture. His innovative and non-traditional approach to the standard concerto form can be seen in the five-movement structure of the concerto for flute and violin. The concerto for recorder and flute is one of his most popular instrumental works and is a wonderful example of his love for unusual instrumental combinations.

'If you want to know who, for me, is the greatest living composer, I'll tell you without hesitation - it's Elgar, whom I place on the same level as my idols Beethoven and Brahms!' So said the great virtuoso Kreisler.' Nicolas Dautricourt continues: 'This Concerto, with it's unbridled lyricism and unique proportions, is an Everest for any violinist.' In this, his first recording for Channel Classics, the French violinist brings together three works by two English composers. In 1888, in the same year Elgar wrote the famous Salut d'amour for his fiancee Caroline Alice Roberts, Frederick Delius composed his Suite for Violin and Orchestra, one of his very first works. The Suite, which only received it's premiere in 1984, is heard here in this insightful arrangement by Frederic Chaslin for violin, piano and string quartet.

Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova's new release, Liberte, is a cultural and musical dialogue between France and America. The influence of jazz plays a central role in this tribute to French and American composers whose work transcends genres and borders. Performed together with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon under Pablo Gonzalez, the album's core pillars are Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Also featured are short solo pieces that echo it's central themes: three miniatures by Germaine Tailleferre, Time Peace, a miniature by Andrew Blickenderfer, and the jazzy�Valse�from�Partita No. 5�by Fedorova's compatriot Myroslav Skoryk. Two French chansons round out Liberte, an album where freedom, jazz, and the shared spirit of France and America meet in music.

Following up her critically acclaimed recording of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber's Rosary Sonatas (CCSSA37315), violinist and musical director Rachel Podger leads Brecon Baroque on Just Biber, an album of Sonatas from Biber's 1681 collection Sonatae Violino Solo and his theatrical Sonata Representivo. These works are extremely virtuosic with extensive multiple stopping and dazzling passages of stylus fantasticus. In Biber's time, harmony was something cosmic, vibrating in a God-given resonance between human, instrumental and celestial bodies. Dedicated to Archbishop Maximilian Gandolf, the sonatas were not only designed to delight, but also potentially to balm and heal; Biber described the sonatas as a kind of prayer for the Archbishop's longevity and good health.

The Camerata Salzburg begins a collaboration with Channel Classics and, with it's leader Giovanni Guzzo, presents it's first recording entitled Muses. The album includes three neoclassical masterpieces for chamber orchestra by Igor Stravinsky. The Concerto in E-flat "Dumbarton Oaks" is a small concerto in the style of the Brandenburg Concertos. Apollon musag�te pays homage to Apollo, and to the Muses of mime, poetry and dance, with beautiful, harmonically pure and melodically perfect music. The Concerto in D employs every conceivable kind of string sound and technique, creating a combination of pure melodic and rhythmic drive and wonderful cantabile passages. In these three works, Camerata Salzburg delves deeply into sound, a quest made possible by each musician's individual commitment to the ensemble, uniting the muses of chamber music, concert and orchestra.

French-Hungarian pianist Suzana Bartal joins Sebastien Rouland and the Saarlandische Staatsorchester in this release of two warhorses of the Romantic repertoire, Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor and Camille Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor. Although not successful at it's premiere with the composer at the piano, Saint-Saens' 2nd went on to be beloved by the public, and is probably the most played of his 5 concertos for piano. Very few pieces of music are as iconic as the only concerto Grieg ever completed: his famous Piano Concerto in A minor. Liszt famously sight read and lavished praise on it when it was written in 1870, and it has been a perennial favourite since then.

Dutch cellist Lidy Blijdorp and pianist Tobias Borsboom, delve into the world of the Soci�t� Nationale de Musique in this programme of late-romantic and early modern French chamber music. C�sar Franck's Sonata for Violin and Piano was transcribed, with the composer's approval, by Jules Delsart, Nadia Boulanger's Trois Pi�ces for cello and piano date from 1914, these lyrical and playfully virtuosic works are proof of the master pedagogue's extraordinary talent for composition. Debussy's Sonata for Cello and Piano conjures up images of nocturnal encounters, in a form and proportions that are almost classical, a performance of this Sonata in Amsterdam in 1918 after Debussy's death, inspired Dutch composer Matthijs Vermeulen to write a cello sonata of his own. Shortly after, Vermeulen moved to France, where he would work as a journalist and keep composing until after the Second World War, with seven symphonies and a wide array of chamber music works to his name, Blijdorp and Borsboom present Vermeulen's Sonate pour violoncelle et piano here.

Born in Mexico City, violist Dana Zemtsov has always retained a deep love for the colourful Latin-American culture. The discovery of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's book One Hundred Years of Solitude, in which the vivid literary images of clouds of yellow butterflies precede a forbidden lover's arrival, inspired Dana to revisit her earliest musical memories. This led to a unique project embodying the most characteristic expression of love in Latin-American culture: the beautiful boleros presented on this album entitled Yellow Butterfly. They are so well known that practically every Spanish-speaking person can sing them by heart. With arrangements by the legendary Joan Albert Amargos and Claudio Constantini, the recording conjures the surreal atmosphere of the Americas: melancholy, roughness, poetry, vitality and joy. These 'recomposed' boleros were arranged for solo viola and a small ensemble that consists of pianist Anna Fedorova, trumpeter Angelo Verploegen, bandoneonist Claudio Constantini, double bassist Nicholas Schwartz and percussionist Andre Groen.

Soprano Rowan Pierce joins Florilegium and Ashley Solomon in Tra le fiamme - a new recording of secular cantatas by G. F. Handel and J. S. Bach. Tra le fiamme is one of Handel's Italian style cantatas, combining vocal virtuosity with deep emotional expressivity. Bach's cantata Ich bin in mir vergnugt is an elegant example of one of his secular cantatas. This cantata stands out for it's reflective exploration of themes of inner peace, contentment, and stoic philosophy - qualities that reflect Bach's interest in moral and philosophical themes outside of his sacred music. Also included here is the final virtuosic Alleluia from Vivaldi's motet In furore iustissimae irae together with instrumental concertos by Vivaldi and Handel.

Anna Fedorova explores the Intrigues of the Darkness in these programmatic and extremely virtuosic works for solo piano. The journey from darkness to light begins with Scriabin's terrifying "Black Mass" Sonata. The work represents a satanic ritual that is possessed by the spectre of the Mephistophelian Liszt. de Falla's Suite from El Amor brujo conjures a mysterious world, full of magic, rituals and ghost visitations. Ravel described his Gaspard de la nuit as "romantic and of transcendent virtuosity". These highly evocative pieces are based on Aloysius Bertrand's prose poems depicting scenes of a hanged man sighing on the gallows and a devilish dwarf. Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition portrays many scenes of darkness but emerges into light with the Great Gate of Kiev, in which triumphant episodes alternate with moments of religious contemplation.

Celebrated violinists Maria Milstein and Mathieu van Bellen pair Bela Bartok's 44 Duos for Two Violins with Luciano Berio's 34 Duetti per Due Violini. Bartok's miniature masterpieces have inspired and delighted countless young musicians. Although written for children, these duos are far from childlike: original harmonies, striking dissonances and lively rhythms are employed to create music with emotional depth, some being profoundly tragic, others fierce, lyrical, wild or fiery. Few works capture the vitality of folk music as vividly as these. Like Bartok, Berio composed his 'Duetti' as teaching pieces, dedicating each of the 34 duos to a friend, colleague or composer, beginning with Bela, an homage to Bartok. The pieces offer a kaleidoscope of styles, reflecting Berio's personal connections with the dedicatees.

Robert Schumann called Mendelssohn the Mozart of the 19th century given his mastery of both the keyboard and composition at such an early age. On "Wunderkind Felix" conductor Patrick van der Linden and Ars Musica pay tribute to the precocious work of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy with this album of pieces the young master wrote between the ages of 14 and 19. Ars Musica presents a reorchestration of the 1st Symphony for chamber orchestra which explores the flexible orchestral settings of Mendelssohn's youthful compositions. This is paired with the equally youthful String Symphony No.10 and his Kyrie, which is performed by the Ars Musica Chorus and Orchestra. Soprano Nanette Mans and the Ars Musica Chorus join the orchestra to perform the Cantata 'Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten' and his setting of Ave maris stella, both written in 1828 when he was a mere 19 years old.

On She / Her, South African clarinetist Maria du Toit and Dutch pianist Vera Kooper explore music from around the world, exclusively written by women. The pieces performed here are rarely played, and for about half of them this is the world-premiere recording. Although some of these composers enjoyed popularity during their lifetimes, such as Ivy Priaulx Rainier, with the passage of time, their music vanished into near oblivion. Rainer's exhilarating and at times meditative Suite is the centre of this album. With compositions ranging from 19th-century France to present day Nigeria, the exploration of this obscure repertoire became a mission - to celebrate and appreciate the music of talented and neglected female composers and bring these wonderful pieces to life again.

Violinists Simone Lamsma and Candida Thompson explore connections between J.S. Bach and Arvo Pärt on their new release, 'Pärt über Bach,' with Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Arvo Pärt’s groundbreaking 'Tabula Rasa' is presented alongside Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin in the version for two violins, and Pärt’s own 'Collage über B-A-C-H,' written in 1964, wherein the Estonian master intertwines his own modernist music with phrases from J.S. Bach’s music.

"Turning to Bach was for me a way of stating my position regarding my experience with twelve-tone music. In my state of extreme discomfort at that time, I wanted to prove to myself how beautiful Bach’s music was, and how hateful mine was. [...] I was convinced that through this musical sacrifice I could gain a clearer vision of my own contradictions." - Arvo Pärt

Dutch violinist Niek Baar joins the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie under the direction of Christoph Poppen to perform two classic violin concertos from the mid-19th century: Robert Schumann's Violin Concerto in D minor and Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor. Both of these violin concertos were written for the legendary Joseph Joachim, who had a hand in shaping the final form of both pieces, although ultimately his changes to the Schumann were rejected by the composer. The highly original, introverted and melancholic concerto is a moving self-portrait of the 43-year-old Schumann a few years before his death, and Bruch's No. 1 is one of the most beloved concertos of the entire repertoire.