Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Two great symphonic organ concertos can be heard on the new album from BR-KLASSIK: the famous Organ Symphony by Camille Saint-Saëns and the lesser-known but highly impressive Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani by Francis Poulenc. The Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks is conducted by Mariss Jansons, and the organ soloist is the excellent Latvian musician Iveta Apkalna, one of the most renowned concert organists of our time. In his Symphony no. 3 in C minor, op. 78, the so-called ”Organ Symphony” of 1886, Camille Saint-Saëns succeeded in integrating the organ into the musical fabric of a symphonic work. Of this, the last of his five symphonies, Saint-Saëns wrote: “Here, I gave everything I was able to give. What I have here accomplished I will never achieve again.” Francis Poulenc's Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani in G minor was composed in 1938. At a time when it was no longer customary to present a solo concerto for organ, the work, with its unusual choice of instruments, is a tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach. In contrast to the organ compositions by the Baroque master, of course, Poulenc wrote for a large organ that could achieve impressive sound effects. The Latvian concert organist Iveta Apkalna debuted in 2007 with the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado. As the titular organist of the new Klais organ at the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, she played at the opening of the new concert hall in 2017 with world premieres of works by Wolfgang Rihm, together with Thomas Hengelbrock and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester. In 2018, she received prestigious music awards in Latvia in the “Musician of the Year” and “Concert of the Year” categories, and that same year, as part of the centennial celebrations of the Republic of Latvia, she was awarded the highest state order of merit in the country.

This is the newest release in the popular series the Musical Advent Calendar. Featuring the best professional and amateur ensembles of the SWR, this release includes the most famous Christmas songs.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Clarinet virtuoso David Howard performs some of the greatest works for clarinet and piano from the Mid-20th Century.

This is a beautiful program of art songs by Francis Poulenc, performed by soprano Alissa Deeter and pianist Arlene Shrut. A nationally recognized performer with firm footing in both classical and musical theatre circles, she is an active recitalist with a penchant for French mélodie as well as the treasured compositions of Gershwin, Porter, Berlin, and Weill. She was a founding member and co-director of The Miscreants Cabaret, a fringe theatre troupe in San Francisco that wrote, produced, and performed original works. Dr. Deeter is the co-author of The Mélodies of Francis Poulenc: A Study Guide (Scarecrow Press, 2014) and has several articles published in the Journal of Singing. She recently presented the lecture recital “The Gender Gap in Francis Poulenc’s Mélodies” at the College Music Society’s International Conference in Stockholm and Helsinki.

With his extensive Lieder output, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) made some of the most beautiful, important, and varied contributions to this genre in the 20th century. With soaring and sparkling French esprit, brilliant melodies and fireworks displays of colors and harmonies that encompass all possible moods, from meditative stillness to exuberant gaiety and frivolity, are virtuosically combined, lending the sophisticated poetry of his celebrated contemporaries like Apollinaire and Éluard an incomparably sonorous countenance. With this album, pianist and singer Matthias Veit presents a kaleidoscope of several of the composer’s most popular song cycles. A simultaneous balancing act between voice and keyboard! Matthias Veit studied piano with Gernot Kahl and voice with Susanne Korzuscheck, Peter Elkus and Tom Krause. Since 1999 he has been teaching at several music academies in Germany as well as continuing to record for television and record companies.

Susan Gritton, Sylvie Brunet, Soile Isokoski, Susanne Resmark, Helene Guilmette, Bernard Richter, and Alain Vernhes star in this Bayreuth production of the Poulenc opera conducted by Kent Nagano and directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov.

Susan Gritton, Sylvie Brunet, Soile Isokoski, Susanne Resmark, Helene Guilmette, Bernard Richter, and Alain Vernhes star in this Bayreuth production of the Poulenc opera conducted by Kent Nagano and directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov.

POULENC: Piano Music, Vol. 2

Classical Music