“ …the orchestra is generally – a first-class listening delight: with precise reference to the singers, emphasis of significant moments and magnificent soli in the winds – transparent and never in an impasto-style despite all the dramatic excitement – thus Weigle leads his instrumentalists through this extensive world. The palette full of contrasts between lyrical moods and glaring attacks offered the most highly differentiated colors under his polished conducting. Music – “legible“ for the ears and always compliant with the stage. There was thundering applause for this truly excellent achievement.”- Olga Lappo-Danilewski, Giessener Allgemeine Zeitung

REVIEWS:

Among the singers, the real standout performance is from Eva-Maria Westbroek as Sieglinde. She has everything this part needs: warmth, passion, humanity, precision and stamina…her performance here alone compellingly justifies buying the set.

…this is a very fine Walküre…like the Rhinegold before it, this Walküre has the particular advantage of having Sebastian Weigle at the podium. His measured approach isn’t going to be to everybody’s taste, but he is one of the few Wagner conductors working today who does something distinctive with the music. His control of the orchestra is ideal, but so too is his intuition for giving the singers the freedom they need.

-- MusicWeb International

Not having heard of any of these singers and little of the conductor, I did not anticipate the high quality of this performance. Although, to my knowledge, none of the above could be described as international stars, they have combined to produce a Walküre that is greater than the sum of its parts—I find it absorbing from start to finish, partly because the singers are always on message.

The recording balance is just about perfect. The singers even sound like they are on stage and although the orchestra, which plays very well, actually seems to be in front of them, they can always be heard. It’s like having a first-row seat.

In act II, one adjusts quickly to the fact that Susan Bullock isn’t Birgit Nilsson, but “Hojotoho!” is but a small fraction of what Brünnhilde sings, and having a somewhat strident top doesn’t hurt at all in her two important scenes—the long ones with Wotan in acts II and III. Both have a conversational quality to them; once again, one senses the characters reacting to each other instead of merely banging it out. On the other hand, she makes a few unpleasant sounds early in act III when she helps Sieglinde to escape to the forest, but these are mere vocal warts. Terje Stensvold may not be, say, Hans Hotter, but he’s that kind of Wotan, one who can convey emotion in his voice—you know what Wotan is thinking...Martina Dike is a strong Fricka and, as a bonus, we get a set of Valkyries that can hold their own with anybody’s. I have already alluded to the vivid sound (on the dry side, thanks to the audience) and great playing. I was so surprised by my reaction to this set that I A-B’d it against the second acts of Dohnányi, Furtwängler/Vienna, Haitink, Karajan, Levine, and Solti. I have my favorites but I could live with any of them and, basically, Weigle holds his own.

-- Fanfare

In early 2012, the Frankfurt Opera completed its cycle of the “Ring des Nibelungen” with Götterdämmerung. OehmsClassics is proud to now be releasing Siegfried from October 2011; Götterdämmerung will follow in June 2012. Both the audience and press were thoroughly impressed by the outstanding musical performance of the orchestra and singers under conductor Sebastian Weigle. This box set includes extensive texts by the Frankfurt dramatic advisors as well as the complete libretto in German and English.

REVIEWS:

The highlight of the drama is Susan Bullock’s Brünnhilde. The immolation scene is superb…[and she] sings with great assurance, control, and emotional power.

-- Classical Net

Sebastian Weigle’s sensitive grasp of the mammoth score’s multivalent moods ensures that the performance retains a powerful grip on the listener and the vividly characterised orchestral playing is well recorded in a restricted but not excessively dry acoustic. In addition, the tirelessly heroic Ryan is well complemented by the other singers, perhaps most strikingly Jochen Schmeckenbecher, whose Alberich initially sounds more like the soulful Wolfram in Tannhaüser than one of Wagner’s more malevolent villains. Schmeckenbecher proves far from lightweight in the role, however, and his vivid encounters with Wotan (Terje Stensvold) and Mime—the excellent Peter Marsh—show the Frankfurt ensemble working at its best.

-- Gramophone (Arnold Whittall)

Production values for the product itself are…of the first order, including full libretto and English translation, plus synopsis, interesting commentary…and the strangest, most wonderful genogram I have ever seen…

The set begins as it means to go on: purposefully. The opening is fast, but Weigle maintains tension, thanks to the orchestra’s tremendous rhythmic spring. That is not to imply he is relentless, though. He relaxes well into Siegfried’s “Vieles lehrtest du, Mime”…for example, and he sets up the dark atmosphere at the outset of the second act well. The recording ensures there is much to delight the ear. The lower strings at Mime’s “Mein Kind das lehrt dich kennen” are truly gorgeous…Weigle’s identification of the variety of textures available in Siegfried and his musical invocation of them is one of the set’s triumphs. Try his handling of the sparse scoring at the critical structural juncture of Mime’s recounting of Siegfried’s mother’s “death” (where Peter Marsh is himself excellent), or the way he delineates the different scorings for Mime and Wotan in their exchanges. He ensures proper dramatic thrust through the Wanderer/Siegfried scene of the final act. The result: gripping Wagner.

Peter Marsh has a typical Mime voice, and is blessed with great diction. When he opens out his voice, he reveals what a powerful singer he really is. Lance Ryan sounds like a proper Helden-Siegfried right from the start.

The Alberich of Jochen Schmeckenbecher is superb…The Brünnhilde is fresh and sounds young…Kateryna Kasper is a superbly light Woodbird. There is so much to enjoy here…Recommended.

-- Fanfare

This spectacular collection comprises The Sixteen’s five acclaimed Polish recordings with the group’s Associate Conductor, Eamonn Dougan. Masters of the Polish Baroque such as Bartlomiej Pekiel, Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki and Marcin Mielczewski are celebrated alongside Italian maestri Giovanni Francesco Anerio, Vincenzo Bertolusi, Luca Marenzio and Asprilio Pacelli. These composers flourished at the court of King Sigismund III marking a new dawn for sacred music in Poland. “The Sixteen luxuriate in textures and sonorities, offsetting serene, arching lines with more urgent declamatory passages...basses plummet while sopranos soar into the stratosphere in a swirl of all-embracing sound.” (BBC Music Magazine)

This ten-album set celebrates the release of the first ten volumes of the HAYDN2032 series, which aims to record all 107 Haydn symphonies by the 300th anniversary of his birth in 2032. This highly ambitious project under the artistic direction of Giovanni Antonini is shared between two ensembles, Il Giardino Armonico and Kammerorchester Basel. Its first volumes have received the most prestigious awards, including the Gramophone Award, the Diapason d’Or, the ‘Choc’ de Classica of the year and the Preis der Deustchen Schallplattenkritik. Produced in collaboration with the Joseph Haydn Foundation in Basel, this series pays tribute to one of the key composers in the history of music, whose inventiveness and emotional richness are nevertheless underestimated all too often. Antonini places his enthusiasm and sense of colour at the service of this music, which he sees as ‘a kaleidoscope of human emotions’.

Boris Giltburg is lauded worldwide as a deeply sensitive, insightful and compelling interpreter, with critics praising his impassioned approach to performance. This project to record all of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas is a personal exploration for Giltburg, driven by curiosity and his profound respect for the composer. These exceptional performances received widespread critical acclaim upon their original digital release and this premiere release includes extended personal and informative booklet notes written by the pianist. From the vivid energy of the early sonatas, through the dark passions and enchanted lyricism of Beethoven’s middle period, to the awe-inspiring transcendence of the final sonatas – this cycle runs the full gamut of human emotion.

At home in repertoire ranging from Beethoven to Shostakovich, in recent years he has been increasingly recognized as a leading interpreter of Rachmaninoff. He is recording the complete Beethoven piano concertos for Naxos with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (RLPO) and Vasily Petrenko. In 2018 he won Best Soloist Recording (20th/21st century) at the inaugural Opus Klassik Awards for his Naxos recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Carlos Miguel Prieto, coupled with the Études-Tableaux.

Past praise for previously released performances included in this set (digital video format only):

Beethoven: 32 Piano Sonatas, Vol. 3, Nos. 8-11

In keeping with the character of both the Op 14 Sonatas, Giltburg’s approach is prevailingly lyrical. For me, the two standouts of the series thus far are Opp 13 and 22. I can think of no other performance of the Pathétique that imbues the Grave introduction with a greater sense of melancholy desolation. The bright, ingratiating Op 22 is also brimful of character, its narrative unfolding with a charming urgency.

– Gramophone

Beethoven: 32 Piano Sonatas, Vol. 8, Nos 27-29

These interpretations are enormously pleasurable and at times revelatory. Always clean and never showy, Giltburg’s pianism is ideally suited to late Beethoven, and his touch throughout is light and flexible. His Hammerklavier lacks fury at the outset but magnificently makes up for that in the closing fugue, where his easy control of the tumult of voices is impressive.

– BBC Music Magazine

Together with the Berlin based Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Mari Kodama and her husband Kent Nagano have now completed the recording of all of Beethoven's piano concertos by jumping, as it were, back in time twice: the last element of this recording series that has spanned more than 13 years was Beethoven's concerto "number nought” WoO 4- personally edited by Mari Kodama from the autograph score. The original manuscript of this piano concerto is kept at the State Library in Berlin. This is not a completed score, because there is no orchestration. That said, Beethoven annotated the short score, especially in the first two movements, with indications as to which instrument was to play which part. The orchestra score which is available today was written in the early twentieth century based on those annotations. The only problem is "armed with the knowledge we now have acquired about the young Beethoven, we would perform this concerto quite differently in places," explain Mari Kodama and Kent Nagano in unison. They therefore present a very personal adaptation that emerged during rehearsal with the orchestra and at the recording sessions, and which reflects Kodama's and Nagano's individual image of Beethoven. They aim to make audible the exuberant freshness and urgent sense of awakening in the young, almost childlike Beethoven's writing shortly before his artistic powers were to burst forth, the joie de vivre and vital energy in a style that owes something to the playfulness of both Haydn and Mozart. That is Mari Kodama's intention, and she plays it in precisely such a versatile manner.

Orfeo honors Júlia Várady as one of the most important sopranos of the second half of the 20th century with the release of this 10 album boxed set ‘The Orfeo Recordings’ on the occasion of her 80th Anniversary on 1st September 2021.

A significant number of opera lovers and connoisseurs maintain that Maria Callas’ mantle ought to have passed to Júlia Várady, and that the (now eighty-year-old) Romanian-Hungarian-German soprano actually should, in her day, have ascended the international throne of the prima donna assoluta. But as it is said, her loyalty to her two musical homes, the Bavarian State Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, prevented this. Nonetheless, she made guest appearances at all the world’s major opera theaters – but she was apparently not available to the market as unrestrictedly and ubiquitously as would have been necessary for her image, in order for her to be enthroned as the Várady (as the legitimate successor of the Callas). In addition to her loyalty to the two aforementioned opera houses, another reason seemed to be a natural modesty that prevented her from constantly drawing attention to herself (with a reputation, for example, of being the “difficult one,“ or even with scandals). Her marriage to the titan Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in 1977 may also have played a role, as she often and willingly stepped into his shadow.

Escerpts from reviews of previously released volumes included in this set:

Julia Varady sings Wagner

Varady's reading of the Wesendonck Lieder is remarkable, enthralling. There's nothing here of the slow, wallowing approach often favoured today. The feeling of the words is one of very present emotions. And transfiguration is a feature of Varady's concentrated, urgent Liebestod, her complete absorption with the text as much as with the music an object-lesson in great Wagner singing. The players of Fischer-Dieskau's Berlin orchestra cover themselves in glory. The recording is exemplary.

– Gramophone

Julia Varady sings Richard Strauss

The final scene of Salome, under the watchful eye of Varady's husband, Fischer-Dieskau, has the perfection of pitch and phrase one expects of this singer, as well as an expected acuity for the meaning of the text.

– Gramophone

Julia Varady - Puccini Arias

A lovely and somewhat surprising record by the most fascinating and patrician lyric soprano of the present age: 'surprising' because, though Varady is associated closely enough with Verdi, the Puccini connection is less readily made, 'lovely' because the voice is still so pure, the style so musical and the response so intelligent, immediate and full-hearted. She adjusts wonderfully well to the Italian idiom, lightening the vowels, freeing the upper range, allowing more portamento than she would probably do in other music, yet employing in its use the finest technical skill and artistic judgement.

– Gramophone

Johann Sebastian Bach’s stature as a composer of extraordinary talent and widespread influence is so firmly established in Western culture that it is difficult to believe that only 150 years ago his works lay in veritable obscurity, unknown to all but a small group of scholars. It is largely thanks to Mendelssohn, who essentially effected a revival of the composer’s music through his rediscovery and promulgation of the St Matthew Passion, besides other pieces, that his works are today regarded as pinnacles of music expression. That they are among the most performed and widely attended is in no doubt; in Holland alone, thousands of singers and musicians are involved in dozens of performances of the St Matthew Passion in Holy Week, with hundreds of thousands listening in churches and concert halls, or gathered around the radio, to what has been described as ‘the Gospel according to Bach’.

Bringing together all of his works, this dynamic 142-CD set offers a resounding impression of this great spirit of our Western culture, presenting dynamic performances – many period-based, many acclaimed by the international press – that are divided according to genre, thus making for a highly user-friendly compendium. The set draws on all periods of his career, tracing the development of a style that was much influenced by contemporary and past fashions but which was always adapted to Bach’s own purpose, often far surpassing the models on which he drew. The German composer travelled a great deal from city to city, and the different circumstances of his various positions are reflected in the great range of works comprising his output: while his early years are dominated by much keyboard music, on account of the numerous organist posts he held during this period, later positions at various courts accorded him more personal and artistic freedom – in Cöthen, for example, Prince Leopold’s passion for music-making and his renowned resident orchestra resulted in a string of unforgettable works including the great Brandenburg Concertos, the Solo Cello Suites and the Well-Tempered Clavier Part 1, beside many others.

Bach was a master of all genres, whether sacred, secular, instrumental or vocal, and his oeuvre is a rich mixture of severe Baroque craftsmanship and expressive Romanticism. Thomas Zehetmair, Kristof Barati, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, René Jacobs, Peter Schreier and Lucia Popp are just a handful of the first-class performers and ensembles gracing this set. It is a collection not to be passed up.

R E V I E W S:

"Brilliant Classics embarked on a daring project in the year 2000, the year of the 250th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach's death: this budget label decided to release a complete set of Bach's works...some 65% of the 155 CDs in this set were newly recorded (the remainder was licensed from other labels), including Bach's almost 200 sacred cantatas...I highly recommend this set. I have recordings of all of Bach's works and yet I was delighted and surprised as I listened to the many pearls that I discovered here...if you like Bach's music, you owe it to yourself to get this - at its super-bargain price, even those recordings you don't like will not cause too much disappointment, but the quality of the excellent ones is such that you will certainly be delighted...If only to have the 60 CDs of sacred cantatas, and to discover what is an incredible collection of moving and memorable music, this set is worth having. Treat yourself to 160 CDs of Bach, then, take a few weeks off to enjoy this music." -- Kirk McElhearn, MusicWeb International, reviewing the original version of this set

"Brilliant's 2006 recordings of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, performed by Pieter-Jan Belder and the Netherlandish original instruments ensemble Musica Amphion, have been reissued several times as two separate discs, though the original release containing all six concertos maintains a separate existence as a budget release. This volume contains the Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049, the Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050, and the Concerto No. 6 in B flat major, BWV 1051, all played in clean and colorful period style and recorded in a resonant church acoustic that gives the music a fresh, lustrous ambience. Because this, like other titles in Brilliant's catalog, has the drab appearance of a poorly produced cost-cutter release, some collectors may pass it by, but that would be a mistake since these are exceptional performances that can give many of the better-known authentic renditions a run for the money. As leader of the group and performer on recorder and harpsichord, Belder offers intelligent and expressive interpretations that closely follow accepted Baroque practices, and though he and his fellow musicians aren't widely known outside the circle of listeners interested in early music, they can be respected for their musicianship and scholarly credentials. While these Brandenburgs may not be everyone's favorite performances in the end, they deserve attention from experienced listeners and newcomers alike." -- Blair Sanderson, AllMusic.com, reviewing the Brandenburg Concertos

"In their fusion of grand rhetoric, sharp technique, and obvious musical intelligence, Baráti’s readings of this bedrock literature recall both the most majestic and the most thoughtful ones from an earlier era. Urgently recommended, especially to those who honor that tradition and who lament its coming to a premature and unfortunate end." -- Robert Maxham, FANFARE, reviewing the Sonatas and Partitas for Violin

"Jaap ter Linden's traversal of the Bach cello suites is exceptionally fine; right across these discs, his playing never falters. His painstakingly researching interpretations are vividly spontaneous, yet unusually acerbic and philosophically probing." -- Classic CD, reviewing the Cello Suites

Andris Nelsons, today simultaneously Principal Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, was discovered by Orfeo for the album. Christiane Delank, the long-standing artistic director of the label had taken him on to conduct the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in the recordings of the two violin concertos by Dmitri Shostakovich with Arabella Steinbacher and realized that in him one of the great conductors of his generation was maturing, a development that took place at breath-taking pace. When he was entrusted with conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, she won him over for the ambitious projects of a complete recording of the symphonies by Tchaikovsky (the first three symphonies were recorded, but no longer released following Nelsons’ departure to Boston) together with symphonic poems and other orchestral works by Richard Strauss and works by Stravinsky and Shostakovich. So, Orfeo had the privilege of documenting on album the Birmingham period, the first major international stage in Andris Nelsons’ career.

Excerpts of reviews from previously released volumes included in this set:

Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra; Don Juan; Till Eulenspiegel / Nelsons:

Don Juan has all the sparkle and the flood of testosterone that you might expect, dissolving into a string theme that is radiant with extrovert ambition. This is a reading full of passion and drive. Nelsons refuses to linger where some others do but keeps the adrenaline rushing throughout.

– MusicWeb International

Tchaikovsky: Francesca Da Rimini, Symphony No 4 / Nelsons:

In the last movement of the symphony Nelsons is just as blistering in tempo and febrile excitement as Svetlanov, and I never thought I would hear a living conductor equal that kind of intensity. These are great performances by a great conductor.

– Fanfare

Stravinsky: The Firebird, Symphony Of Psalms / Nelsons

Nelsons' interpretation of The Firebird has much in common with Boulez's New York recording for Sony--hyper-detailed (those three harps really tell), yet never at the expense of excitement. Emphasis on clarity also flatters the Symphony of Psalms, particularly in the central fugue. His fleet tempos come close to Stravinsky's own and project the quick outer movements with plenty of punch. This is a very good performance by any standard, and the sonics are impressively natural. If the coupling suits, then don't hesitate.

– ClassicsToday

This release, containing all nine of Bruckner’s symphonies, is one of Challenge Classics’ greatest achievements so far. The quality of the performances- by both conductor and orchestra- and of the recordings makes this Bruckner’s complete survey a primary reference for anyone interested in such repertoire. Each one of these symphony recordings has received positive press. Of the Seventh: “Conductor and orchestra bring out the structural and thematic complexity of the final movement, in a fine end to another very strong and recommended performance.” (Classical Net Review) Of the Third: “This is a resplendent addition to an important cycle in the making.” (Gramophone) And of the Sixth: “Exceptional engineering achieved by Challenge Classics, with natural-sounding timbres and an extremely realistic sense of acoustic space.” (International Record Review) Jaap van Zweden has risen rapidly in the past decade to become one of today’s most sought-after conductors. He has been Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 2008, and Music Director of the Honk Kong Philharmonic Orchestra since 2012. Earlier this year he was announced as the next Music Director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

VOX presents an irresistible 6-CD set taken from Alfred Brendel's remarkable 36 album discography with the company. Made during the early years of his unique career, these recordings rightly established him as one of the foremost pianists of the century. The repertoire covered the complete works of Beethoven, most of Schubert's solo pieces, several Mozart concerti, some of the cornerstones of Franz Liszt's output and many other works. This set is fascinating because his early interpretations are different from his current ones and they show a towering artistic maturity shining through a young man's buoyant fiery energy.

Wind ensembles saw an interesting development throughout the eighteenth century, both in their scoring and in their function, from musique de table to Harmonie. Mozart, who appreciated all the wind instruments of his time and gave them important roles in his orchestral and chamber music, including writing solo concertos for most of them, also composed important works for wind ensembles. His early divertimenti for six wind instruments were written in Salzburg between 1775 and 1777, mostly to entertain at outdoor banquets. The two serenades for wind octet K375 and K388/384a, composed in Vienna in 1781 and 1782 respectively, coincide with the foundation of the Kaiserliche Königliche Harmonie by Joseph II of Austria, which originated a widespread trend in the Empire and elsewhere. The function of such ensembles was mainly that of playing arrangements of famous opera tunes in the palace. The most sublime example of Harmoniemusik, however, is to be found in the Serenade K361/370a, the so called ‘Gran Partita’, written between 1781 and 1784: this is the most expansive of Mozart's works for wind in duration and scoring. Award-winning ensemble ZEFIRO brings together the world’s leading specialists in performance on historical wind instruments and has gained a reputation in its thirty years of activity for lively, eloquent and expressive renderings of Mozart’s music. This six-album set assembles for the first time its complete Mozart recordings, some of which are now considered as milestones in the discography.

Germany’s oldest Mozart festival celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2021. The present jubilee boxed set presents previously unpublished treasures from the archive of the Bavarian Broadcasting. All live recordings from the Baroque Imperial Hall at Würzburg Residence are digital remasters.

This boxed set includes all nine Vaughan Williams symphonies, attractively packaged and released at a special price to mark the occasion of the composer’s 150th anniversary. These award-winning performances are accompanied by an extensive booklet, including new material charting the Hallé’s historic relationship with Vaughan Williams, and featuring material drawn from the orchestra’s archives. The releases follow the joint Hallé/BBC Philharmonic festival of Vaughan Williams Toward the Unknown Region - RVW150 which will run in Manchester from February to May 2022.

Surely, no map could chart the fantastic voyage presented in this release. For while this odyssey takes us around a large part of the globe, via the music of Ireland and the British Isles, Germany, France, Spain and Italy, North Africa, Turkey, the Balkans, and Asia, it is largely an imaginary voyage, an interior journey made by the performers, inspired by their travel experiences and their passion for a geographical or temporal ‘elsewhere’. Music has the power of transporting us, in both senses; it can open the ear – and the mind – to other worlds, other cultures and customs; and it can exhilarate and transcend the senses. Here are recordings by iconic artists of the Alpha label such as le Poème Harmonique, Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, and Cappella Mediterranea – all represented in this release.

Highlights include:

Traditional songs & dances of Naples, Ireland, The Balkans, The British Isles & North Africa on baroque instruments | Le poème harmonique plays music of French traditions | Cappella Mediterranea performs music from Spain, 16th-20th centuries | Doulce Mémoire performs music from the meeting points of Western and Middle Eastern cultures in the Renaissance | Andreas Staier leads performances of Bach cantatas

Past praise for previously released volumes included in this set:

Aux Marches du Palais / Le Poème Harmonique

The infectious La molièra qu’a nau escus, the rhythmic zest and mellow harmonies of the largely homophonic Le 31 du mois d’août, the pastoral delicacy of Réveillez-vous, belle endormie, are only a few of the standouts that required frequent use of the repeat button on my CD player. As for the 11 musicians who make up Le Poème Harmonique, they are vastly skilled, rhythmically disciplined, and theatrically vivid where required, as in the galvanizing a capella tarantelle, Sarremilhòque. (The music may be from France, but various patois are employed, as well.) This group is far from the “churchly” type that usually brings great delicacy and little passion to such music. One hopes we’ll hear more from them in the future.

-- Fanfare