The Christmas Oratorio is a series of six separate cantatas, collectively relating the story from Christmas through to Twelfth Night. Bach wrote the work in Leipzig in 1734 and 1735 for Christmas Day, Boxing Day, the third day of Christmas, New Year, the Sunday after New Year, and Twelfth Night. As with the Passions, the texts here are drawn from three sources: the evangelical texts intoned by the Evangelist as recitatives, chorales from the Lutheran tradition and free texts for arias and some choral passages, written by the poet Picander. This performance is perhaps as close as presently possible to what we imagine Bach might have had in mind as he composed the work in Leipzig. First of all, we have the 'one to a part' aspect: historical research among the various sources clearly shows that Bach did not ask for a choir to perform his cantatas, but simply a vocal quartet. This 'single line singing' certainly adds to the individual expression of the text and the music's transparency. Bach's religious music always uses the text as it's starting point and a great deal of attention is therefore paid to correct enunciation. The vocal principle of 'one to a part' also has a major influence on the instrumental forces. Bach employed a small-scale string ensemble, as well as single wind instruments where appropriate, all supported by an organ, which formed the continuo in conjunction with the bass violin. And since the instrumental music is also completely permeated by the rhetoric that stems from the text, the transparency of this small ensemble intertwines seamlessly with the vocal lines, giving a refined polyphony that reached it's zenith in Bach's music.

Franz Liszt was 67 when he composed his Via Crucis, yet it did not receive it's first performance until 1929, 43 years after the composer's death. This work of his mature years is in 15 sections, retracing the Stations of the Cross that mark the stages of Christ's Passion, from being condemned to death to being laid in the tomb. Combining Gregorian chant, the Lutheran liturgy and the Latin, German and Aramaic languages, the Via Crucis shows real formal originality. A devout believer, Liszt gives us here his most important sacred work. He composed several versions: for mixed choir, soloists and organ (with the organ part optionally transcribed for piano), for piano solo, organ solo, and two pianos. After an album devoted to Janacek, the Collegium Vocale founded by Philippe Herreweghe is once again conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw in this new Alpha recording.

Daniel Jones (1912-1993) composed in a wide range of genres, yet the cornerstone of his prolific output is the Symphony, memorably described by him as ‘a dramatic structure with an emotive intention’. He tackled the form afresh with each of his 13 examples, of which the first 12 are based on a different note of the chromatic scale. Jones’s Second Symphony was written between March and July 1950 and first broadcast in the Welsh region by an augmented BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra under the composer on 13 September 1951. The Second Symphony places great emphasis on intricate rhythms and combines both lyrical and dance elements. There is a focus on orchestral colour, epitomised by the prominent role given to the celesta in the first, third and fourth movements. Expansive, big-boned and at times uncharacteristically discursive, it is Jones’ last symphony conceived on a large canvas: from now on his symphonic works would be increasingly concise and cogent, rejecting any orchestral colour extraneous to the musical argument. Daniel Jones’s Eleventh Symphony in E flat was completed on 7 December 1983 and premiered by the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra under Sir Charles Groves on 20 October 1984 in the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea. Commissioned by the Swansea Festival, it is dedicated to the memory of George Froom Tyler, chairman of the festival committee, who had died in 1983 and was a friend of the composer. Though each of his thirteen symphonies is a unique and highly personal statement, the cycle as a whole maintains an unwavering consistency of quality and vision. Daniel Jones domonstrates a steadfast integrity throughout, never bowing to the latest trends. His priority is always to communicate directly with the listener.

Following on from the success of the Red and Yellow series (a total of twenty-eight reissues), which have restored to the limelight the treasures of the label’s Baroque music catalogues, here are fourteen new titles offering a chance to renew acquaintance with further gems of the Baroque as well as a number of rarities. This third series also expands to embrace the Classical repertory (Mozart, Haydn etc.) and other cultures, notably those of the East, in recordings that form an integral part of Alpha’s identity and history. The fourteen reissues are performed by the leading musicians in the relevant repertory; most of these discs received one or more press distinctions on their first release. They are accompanied by full booklets, with articles in three languages (English, French, German) and richly illustrated chronologies. A wide range of photographers have provided the cover illustrations for the series, this time with the colour blue as the unifying thread.

If the engagingly unpredictable idiom of CPE Bach has overshadowed the work of Johann Sebastian’s other musical sons, Brilliant Classics has been gradually righting this wrong with a series of recordings dedicated to the other out-and-out genius among them, Wilhelm Friedemann. Without the taste for fashionably abrupt turns of phrase and thought which distinguish CPE’s Sturm und Drang language, nonetheless WF’s music occupies that fast-evolving chronological and aesthetic space between what we now think of as the Baroque and Classical periods. Unlike his brother, Wilhelm Friedemann was a church musician in the lineage of their father. At the age of just 23 he was appointed principal organist at the church of St. Sophia in Dresden, and in 1747 became Musikdirektor and organist at the Church of Our Lady in Halle. After almost 20 years there, moved to Leipzig, then Brauschweig, followed by Gottingen and lastly Berlin, where he was offered an honorary (unpaid) post of Kapellmeister. He died in poverty in 1784, entirely forgotten by the musical community. The organ music that has survived is dwarfed by his father’s output for the instrument. There are four sets of fugues, and a collection of just seven choral preludes. In fact the chromatic richness of the fugues brings to mind the grand, tormented examples composed by Beethoven in the last years of his life. As such, they are like problems to be solved, like containers that are no longer sufficient to encompass the composer’s intrepid discourse and abundance of feelings. Even so, WF was still writing this music in the shadow of his late father: one F major fugue inevitably uses the B-A-C-H motif which crowned The Art of Fugue. Turri plays two recent Italian instruments: the organ by Francesco Zanin in the Church of Sant’Antonio Abate, Padua; and for the more intimately scaled works, an orgel-positiv (without pedals) by Luigi Patella.

Mezzo-soprano Eva Zaicik, who has signed up with Alpha for several recordings, is one of the most prominent vocal artists of her generation. She was chosen as 'Revelation lyrique' at the Victoires de la Musique Classique 2018, and elected the same year a Laureate of the prestigious Queen Elizabeth of Belgium Competition. She has participated in the "Jardin dex Voix" of les Arts Florissants under William Christie, and regularly collaborates with Le Poeme Harmonique and Vincent Dumestre- but her constant accompanist is the harpsichordist Justin Taylor. Together with two other musicians- violinists Theotime Langlois de Swarte and Sophie de Bardonneche, they have founded Le Consort, to explore both sacred and secular works by composers such as Charpentier, Campra and Clerambault. For this recording they are joined by the flautist Anna Besson and gamba player Lucile Boulanger, both well-known to the Alpha label, as well as Louise Pierrard and Thibault Roussel. This recording is devoted to the Cantatas of Lefebvre, Monteclair, Clerambault and Courbois, more than half of which have never previously been recorded.

In Hamburg, 1775, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, by then an internationally celebrated and well-connected figure, was surely aware of the genre’s popularity. After all, his half-brother, the London-based Johann Christian, was central in promoting this new culture of domestic piano playing. Responsive to the market demand, C.P.E. came to an agreement with the London publisher Bremner to publish the following year Six Sonatas for the Harpsichord or Pianoforte accompanied by Violin and Violoncello (Wq. 89). Despite the title, Bach referred to these works at times as Trios, at times as Sonatas, and sometimes even as “Trios (which are also Solos)”. Business acumen aside, these works reveal C.P.E. Bach at the height of his career and are full of invention, expression, and shocking surprises that at times surpass what even Beethoven might dare to do. Despite their 10-year career that includes winning many high-powered awards around the world, this is the Linos Piano Trio’s debut recording.

Radames Gnattali, son of Italian immigrants, is one of the most popular and famous composers of his native Brazil, where he is mentioned in the same breath as Villa-Lobos. His music is the perfect fusion of the high and the low, of formally structured classical music and the vibrant multi-colored folk culture of Brazil. The 4 Concertinos for guitar and orchestra are medium-sized, 3-movement works, highly entertaining and brimming with good tunes, groovy rhythms and brilliant instrumentation: a real discovery! Played with infectious enthusiams by guitarist Marco Salcito and the Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese conducted by Marcello Bufalini.

The German tradition of Lieder accompanied by guitar is overlooked but surprisingly rich. Several of the great Lieder singers have recorded Schubert songs with guitar (Christoph Pregardien and Peter Schreier principal among them), and to highly expressive effect. In many ways the change of instrument draws back these songs to their medieval heritage, to the Minnesänger (minstrels, or troubadours) who fulfilled courtly functions, or at a more humble level travelled from town to town, lute slung over the back, entertaining nobles and commoners alike with tales of love and war.

It is this tradition that Patrizia Cigna and Adriano Sebastiani have tapped into with the first complete recording of the Lieder composed by Carl Maria von Weber for which he had a guitar in mind. In fact Weber, more than most of his native contemporaries, nurtured a great affection for the instrument while it was more celebrated abroad – notably in the Classical tradition by Mauro Giuliani, and we should not forget that the guitar was the first instrument of Hector Berlioz. Weber would accompany himself like a early-Romantic troubadour in his own songs, and he scored for the guitar in several of his stage-works such as Abu Hassan.

The Op.25 Lieder bring together these two strands, written as incidental music for August von Kotzebue’s one-act play Der arme Minnesänger (The Poor Minstrel). Some of the songs here such as the Op.13 set and the Op.29 Canzonettas were written with either keyboard or guitar accompaniment in mind, for obvious, commercially attractive reasons, but the standalone Mayenblümelein was only ever intended for the guitar, as was the lovely, polyphonic Sagt, woher stammt Liebeslust which calls for two sopranos, a three-voice female choir, and a guitar accompaniment. These, like several other songs on this recording, have no rivals in the current catalogue, making this a new recording an essential acquisition for all lovers of Romantic Lieder.

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REVIEW:

The songs are utterly charming, lyrical and dramatic, on a par with Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte and early Schubert songs. The guitar freely and independently interacts with the melodic lines, never being a mere accompaniment.

– Records International

From Mozart to Leoncavallo: three hours of opera's greatest hits in rhythmically buoyant, highly enjoyable East-German recordings. Taped between 1959 (Wagner's Der fliegende Holl�nder) and 1993 (Die Fledermaus), a collection of overtures gets this operatic compilation off to a (literally) flying start. Suitner in particular directs deliciously sprung performances of Humperdinck (Hansel und Gretel), Smetana (The Bartered Bride) and Supp� (Dichter und Bauer / Poet and Peasant and Leichte Kavallerie / Light Cavalry). The Austro-Germanic angle of the first half of the release is widened on the second half by a selection of opera choruses that represents some of the most powerful moments of 19th-century Italian opera. There is the triumphant hymn in praise of Egypt from the second act of Aida as well as the sublime song of pride and defiance, 'Va pensiero', that crowns Nabucco and became before long the unofficial anthem of the Risorgimento and the struggle for Italian unification. Verismo choruses are here too, taken from that evergreen pairing of Pagliacci and Cavelleria rusticana. Favourite German operatic choruses include the Chorus of Guests in Wagner's Tannh�user as well as the hymn of the priests in Mozart's Die Zauberfl�te. Suitner directs all these: a compilation album made in Berlin in 1978. He also exercises a subtle guiding hand over the Staatskapelle Dresden for a compilation of tenor/baritone opera duets recorded in 1972 with the two foremost East-German male singers of their generation, Peter Schreier and Theo Adam. 'Expectably' commented Fanfare, 'the results are echt Deutsch' - even if the repertoire itself again covers Smetana, Gounod and Verdi as well as Mozart and Lortzing, with all the numbers sung in German and 'performed with zest'.

Le docteur Miracle (Doctor Miracle) is an opérette in one act. The libretto, by Léon Battu and Ludovic Halévy, is based on Sheridan's play Saint Patrick's Day. Bizet wrote the work when he was just 18 years old for a competition organised by Jacques Offenbach. He shared first prize with Charles Lecocq, 6 years his senior. Their reward was to have both pieces performed at Offenbach's Bouffes-Parisiens theatre. The premieres took place on 9 April 1857 and although neither opera was a palpable hit both were performed 11 times before falling into oblivion. It seems that public opinion favoured Lecocq - now we can all be judge and jury.

Of all Cristiano Porqueddu’s adventurous guitar-music surveys on record for Brilliant Classics, the latest may be the most invaluable and enlightening for listeners who may never even have suspected that Russia had a rich guitar tradition of its own. As a detailed booklet essay complementing this new recording explains, the guitar flourished during the first half of the 19th century in Russia. Towards the turn of the 20th century, it became more of a folk instrument, a trend further exaggerated by the cultural demands of the Russian revolution which repurposed both instruments and musicians to vernacular ends for songs and marches to raise the spirits. However, a renaissance took place in classical guitar composition following the triumphant tour of Andres Segovia across Soviet Russia in 1926. The impact of that event may be felt not only in the work of Boris Asafiev, who saw Segovia play, but even two generations later in the Hispanic flair of Edison Denisov’s Sonata, with its edgy opening Toccata, gently swaying Berceuse and picture-postcard ‘Souvenir d’Espagne’; in itself this revives the kind of naturalistic love-affair of Russian artists with the country that had produced Glinka’s Jota aragonesa and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol. But there is much more here than picture-postcard imitation and love in a cold climate. Local Georgian rhythms and traditions may be savoured in the sonata of Gherman Dzhaparidze; there are two early, vibrant miniatures of Sofia Gudaidulina; the work of more guitar-specialised composers such as Vitaly Kharisov, Valeri Kikta and Viktor Kozlov is much less well-known outside their native land. To all of them Cristiano Porqueddu brings the technical mastery and interpretative conviction which has distinguished his work for Brilliant Classics, in boxes such as the set of 20th-century guitar sonatas (BC9455) which includes an earlier recording of the First Sonata by Evgeny Baev

Although now largely forgotten, Rhene-Emmanuel B�ton (1879-1940) was a key figure in Parisian musical circles during the early 1900s. Rhene-Baton, as he was later known, was born in Normandy to a Breton family. But trained at the Paris Conservatoire to become a composer, pianist and conductor. A meeting with Serge Diaghilev led to the engagement to conduct the Ballets russes on tour, and as a conductor he was the subject dedicatee of several works such as Roussel's Second Symphony. Meanwhile Rhene-Baton continued to compose, and it was through his own music that he felt most free to express his Breton identity. Almost all the chamber music presented here dates from the years 1921-27. Both the Cello Sonata and Violin Sonata call for piano playing of great virtuosity, probably because Rhene-Baton intended those parts for himself, while the melody line unfolds in a mode of archaic, neoclassical lyricism. The peak of his achievement in the chamber-music genre, however, is the A minor Piano Trio, composed in 1923. The second movement is a 'Divertissement sur un vieil air Breton' - the 'vieil air' in question being Gwin ar c'hallaoued' (the wine of Gall), one of the best-known Breton tunes. The Suite Ancienne (1933) is different in character: a collection of dances like a Baroque suite (Prelude, Aria, Gavotte, Gigue). The more intimate mood of this chamber repertoire evokes a series of everyday musical scenes: interiors, winter hearths, summer festivities and ancient celebrations in which Rhene-Baton is both narrator and participant. Founded in 2009, the Wolferl Trio comprises three Italian musicians all with distinguished careers as performers and teachers in their own right.

As both conductor at La Scala from 1802 to 1833, and a professor at the new conservatoire in Milan, Alessandro Rolla (1757-1841) was the heartbeat of Milanese music in the turbulent early decades of the 19th century. He was also an accomplished performer on both violin and viola, and his own compositional output reflects his instrumental mastery, filtered through his experience of leading the Italian premieres of quartets and symphonies by Beethoven as well as operas by Mozart: he was a complete musician of his time. The F major Viola Concerto opening this attractive new album belongs to Rolla’s apprentice years in service to the ducal court at Parma. With its uncompromising technical demands and unwavering focus on the solo instrument, the concerto represents a missing link between the idioms of Tartini and Paganini. The dawn of bel canto may be discerned in the slow movement of the album’s concluding D minor Viola Concerto, which concludes with a charmingly bucolic Rondo. Dating from Rolla’s Milanese years, the 1805 Tantum ergo also features a concertante role for the viola, in sinuous accompaniment to the vocal bass soloist: a highly original device perhaps prompted by Mozart’s famous Sinfonia Concertante. As a performer, Rolla reserved the most haunting melodies and moments for himself: After a vocal cadenza on the closing Amen it is the viola that sets the seal on the work with an intensely lyrical phrase and a brilliantly virtuosic stretta. The D major Sinfonia likewise belongs to the first decade of the 1800s – infused with Rossinian verve and bubbling with operatic drama in the quick outer movements. The Milanese violist Simonide Braconi plays Rolla’s music to the manner born, being the long-standing principal violist at La Scala. He is accompanied here by a chamber orchestra based in nearby Pavia and specialising in Classical-era works by neglected composers.

Jonathan Rudy, the 2014 First Prize Winner in the American Guild of Organists' National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance, plays the Fisk Organ in Alumni Hall and the Fisk Organ in Auer Hall at Indiana University, Bloomington. Jonathan D. Rudy is recognized by colleagues and audiences for excellence as a performer, church musician, improviser, educator, and conductor. A native of Batavia, Illinois, Mr. Rudy’s recent concert appearances, including recitals, master classes, competitions, and dedicatory/commemorative events, have included locations all across the United States. Recent performances include an appearance at the 2016 AGO National Convention in Houston TX. Jonathan D. Rudy currently serves as Director of Musical Arts and Administration at St. John Cantius Catholic Church in Chicago, where he lives with his beautiful wife, Katie. He tutors students privately in Aural Skills, Music Theory, Piano, and Voice, and maintains an amateur recording studio. Mr. Rudy has served as Music Director at First Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Cookeville, TN, Organist at Central Presbyterian Church, Terre Haute, IN, as Associate Instructor of Music Theory and Aural Skills at Indiana University, and as Dean and Member-At-Large of the American Guild of Organists Bloomington Chapter (Region V).

2019- an anniversary year. For three exceptional musicians 2019 brings cause for great joy and gratitude for several reasons. Ton Koopman, internationally renowned as a harpsichordist, organist, conductor, professor and musicologist, celebrates his 75th birthday. He also looks back on 40 highly successful years with the ensemble he founded, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. His wife, Tini Mathot, an outstandingly gifted harpsichord and fortepiano virtuoso as well as a very successful producer of countless international albums, celebrates her 70th birthday. Klaus Mertens, acclaimed for over four decades as an international concert singer with an admirably wide repertoire stretching from Monteverdi to contemporary composers, also celebrates his 70th birthday. "As the ideal conveyor of Bach's cantatas and passion texts..." he also receives the Bach-Medaille of the city of Leipzig in 2019. As if this were not sufficient cause to celebrate an anniversary, these three musicians cap it all by looking back on 40 years of successful and amicable music-making together in concerts and recording studios by presenting an anniversary album as well as several chamber concerts.

Classical Music

Italian composer and guitarist Francesco Di Diuseppe presents a highly personal program of solo guitar works. His work draws heavily from his Florentine experience, and he has developed new harmonies, melodies and rhythms inspired by his pictures and memories of Florence, as well as flashbacks to his childhood in his beloved Naples. ​​​​​​​Born in Naples in 1979, Francesco Di Giuseppe majored in Classical Guitar at the Conservatorio “San Pietro a Majella” in Naples, under the direction of Maestro Aniello Desiderio. He also studied piano and composition with Maestro Aldo Cusano, and has won several national guitar competitions. An eclectic and curious musician, over the years Francesco has enjoyed delving into a variety of genres, from classical music to punk rock, from tango to traditional Neapolitan music.

Christopher Wells plays a program of original new organ music by American composer Craig Phillips on the Casavant Organ of Christ Church in Bronxville, New York. Christopher Wells is from Annapolis, Maryland, where he began his organ studies with James Dale at the United States Naval Academy. Mr. Wells received his undergraduate degree in organ performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music on the Dean’s Talent Grant. During these years, he absorbed elements of the Anglican tradition serving as Organ Scholar at Saint Paul’s in Washington, D.C, and taking lessons at Washington National Cathedral. Mr. Wells took his master’s in organ from the University of Michigan as a student of Robert Glasgow. While in Michigan, Mr. Wells also served as Assistant Organist at Christ Church, Cranbrook, in Bloomfield Hills. In addition to accompanying Christ Church’s four choirs, he was soloist for Poulenc’s Concerto for Organ, Timpani and Strings as well as the premieres of Enid Sutherland’s ‘Alpha’ and Emma Lou Diemer’s ‘In Hope We Sing, Alleluia!’

Composer Alexandra Pajak draws her inspiration from minimalism, Medieval Polyphony, and biology, providing a modern interpretation to each with social justice. In addition to her work as a composer Alexandra Pajak works as a mental health clinician. The present release joins her two passions, and presents a programme of music inspired by mental illness. Each track is titled after a different mental condition, including Schizophrenia, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and others, before rounding out with the track Recovery. A brilliant team of musicians interprets this music, including pianist Tim Whitehead, cellist Charae Krueger, violinist Helen Kim, violist Joli Wu, and oboist Sasha Shatalov.

Marking their latest collaboration with their conductor laureate Vladimir Ashkenazy, the Philharmonia returns with a stellar live-performance recording of two late works by Rachmaninov – the Symphonic Dances and Symphony No. 3 in A Minor. This release is third and final in a new series of Rachmaninov’s symphonic works, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy in live performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra. The previous volumes, which included Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, were met with critical acclaim. “Perhaps the most satisfying of all…” (BBC Music Magazine) “Ashkenazy knows how to shape detail and soar in the big melodic moments. The PHilharmonia sound is muscular and alert, from the opening woodwind solos to the mighty, stirring symphonic tutti of the finale.” (The Observer)

Although Lully never held any post in the Chapelle du Roi, his influence on the development of the grand motet, so emblematic of the Grand Si�cle, was of decisive importance. He wrote imposing motets celebrating the glory of God and the King for the great ceremonies at court. Of the many royal funerals, that of Queen Marie-Th�r�se in 1683 was among the most grandiose. Lully's Dies ir� and de profundis were sung there. But his most celebrated motet was undoubtedly his Te Deum, which rang out for the first time in 1677 and became the king's favorite. In 1687 Lully directed it once again, but struck his foot violently with the heavy walking stick he used to beat time. The wound became infected and the gangrene gradually spread, causing the surintendant's death on 22 March. Such was the tragic destiny of the man who was capable of conveying the most brilliant glory but also all the anguish of death in the same vein of grandeur. That theatrical grandeur is the characteristic of this version recorded in the Chapelle Royale of the Ch�teau de Versailles. Lully is in the limelight again in 2019, on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the Acad�mie Royale de Musique (Paris Op�ra), of which he was director from 1672 until his death.

On this new release Simon Nieminski plays all 3 volumes of Eugene Reuchsel's Promenades en Provence and 2 selections from the Bouquet de France upon the Kilgen Organ of the Cathedral of St. Louis the King, Saint Louis, Missouri. Simon Nieminski studied at the Royal College of Music where he gained their Associate diploma. He was then awarded the Organ Scholarship of Pembroke College, Cambridge. After graduating with honors, he was appointed Organ Scholar of York Minster for two years, during which time he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. He is currently assistant organist at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, which is unique in Scotland in maintaining daily choral services, with the trebles drawn from its own choir school; his duties at St. Mary’s include playing the organ for all of the seven weekly choral services, and other services and concerts. He also writes reviews and articles on church and organ music, which have been published in Organists’ Review and the Musical Times.

The Mozartists present an unprecedented survey of Mozart’s childhood stay in London from 1764-65. The wide-ranging programme includes Mozart’s remarkable first symphony (composed when he was eight years old), along with his two other London symphonies and his first concert aria. The repertoire also explores music that was being performed in London during Mozart’s stay, including works by J. C. Bach, Thomas Arne, Abel, Pescetti, Perez, George Rush and William Bates, many of which have not previously been recorded. The album features an outstanding line-up of soloists comprising sopranos Ana Maria Labin, Anna Devin, Rebecca Bottone, Martene Grimson and Eleanor Dennis, mezzo-soprano Helen Sherman, tenors Ben Johnson and Robert Murray and harpsichordist Steven Devine. The album was recorded live during a weekend of performances at London’s Milton Court in February 2015 as part of the opening season of MOZART 250, and includes over a dozen world premiere recordings.

Marking their latest collaboration with their conductor laureate Vladimir Ashkenazy, the Philharmonia have returned to recording with a stellar live-performance of Rachmaninov’s ebullient Symphony No.2 in E Minor. This is the second release in a new series of Rachmaninov’s symphonies, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy in live performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra. The first release of Symphony No. 1 (SIGCD484) was met by critical acclaim: “Perhaps the most satisfying of all [Ashkenazy’s recordings of the Symphony]…” (BBC Music Magazine) “Ashkenazy knows how to shape detail and soar in the big melodic moments. The Philharmonia sound is muscular and alert, from the opening woodwind solos to the mighty, stirring symphonic tutti of the finale.” (The Observer)