{"title":"Edward Gardner","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"liza-lim-a-sutured-world-mary-the-compass","title":"Liza Lim: A Sutured World; Mary; The Compass","description":"The music of the composer, educator and musicologist Liza Lim, who was born in Perth, Australia in 1966, has a collaborative and transcultural focus. Her recent works have explored beauty, anger and noise, ecological issues, and women's spiritual traditions. Liza Lim has received commissions from leading orchestras and institutions worldwide, and her works continue to be performed at prestigious festivals. In 2024, she was named \"Composer of the Year\" by OPUS KLASSIK. Liza Lim is Professor of Composition and Australian Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. As part of a Laureate Fellowship from the Australian Research Council, she will lead a five-year program starting in 2025 to promote the exploration of pressing climate and social issues through music. Her gender equity initiatives through Sydney Con's Composing Women have had a significant impact on commissioning, performance and next-generation leadership in Australian music.    A Sutured World for cello and orchestra was commissioned in 2024 by musica viva of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Cello Biennale Amsterdam, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Casa da Musica Porto. The world premiere recorded on this CD took place in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz on October 25, 2024, with Nicolas Altstaedt (cello) and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner.    The orchestral work Mary - Transcendence after Trauma was commissioned by musica viva of the Bayerischer Rundfunk in 2020\/21. The world premiere of the work at musica viva, originally scheduled for January 28, 2022, had to be cancelled due to the Covid pandemic. In the meantime, the triptych was premiered at the Cologne Philharmonie on April 29, 2022 as part of \"Musik der Zeit\" with the WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Cristian Macelaru. This CD features the musica viva recording of May 12, 2023 in Munich's Herkulessaal by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Franck Ollu.    The Compass for flute, didgeridoo and large orchestra was commissioned by musica viva of the Bayerischer Rundfunk and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2005\/06. The premiere took place at the Sydney Opera House on August 23, 2006 with Rosamund Plummer (flute), William Barton (didgeridoo) and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Briger. This CD features the musica viva recording of the European premiere of the work on January 12, 2007 in Munich's Herkulessaal, with Carin Levine (flute), William Barton (didgeridoo) and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph Poppen.      ? The main work on the CD is Liza Lim's latest composition: a live recording of the world premiere of the cello concerto \"A Sutured World\" (2024) as part of the musica viva concert series by the Bayerischer Rundfunk from the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz - with the famous cellist Nicolas Altstaedt    ? The CD also features Liza Lim's compositions \"Mary - Transcendence after Trauma\" (2020\/21) and \"The Compass\" (2005\/06) as live recordings from the musica viva concert series    ? Performed and conducted by renowned musicians, all of them experts in contemporary music","brand":"BR Klassik","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012472393962,"sku":"4035719006476","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4426890-3394332.jpg?v=1786684308"},{"product_id":"nordheim-the-tempest-suite-from-the-ballet-7090020182728","title":"Nordheim: The Tempest - Suite from the Ballet \/ Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Bergen Philharmonic and Chief Conductor Edward Gardner present Arne Nordheim's \"The Tempest\" (Suite from the Ballet). Arne Nordheim was Norway’s most significant and respected composer until his death in 2010, and one of the few figures in contem­porary western music who proved himself able to move beyond traditional harmonic re­lationships while maintaining a distinct ability to communicate widely through his striking, physical music.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LAWO Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012508176618,"sku":"7090020182728","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4169786-2944981.jpg?v=1786690413"},{"product_id":"brahms-symphonies-2-4","title":"Brahms: Symphonies 2 \u0026 4","description":"His First Symphony famously took Brahms twenty-one years from conception to first performance - a marker of both his own highly self-critical assessment of his output, combined with the expectation of everyone around him that his symphonic output would naturally pick up where Beethoven had left off. Astonishingly, his Second Symphony was begun in June 1877 and received it's first performance just six months later, by the Vienna Philharmonic and Hans Richter. It's cheerful nature and pastoral mood are also a stark contrast to the first symphony.    Following a gap of some six years, Brahms returned to the form in 1883, and composed his third and then fourth symphonies in quick succession. Begun in 1884, the Fourth Symphony was premièred by Brahms and the Meiningen court orchestra in October 1885. The work is especially notable for it's last movement, which takes the form of a passacaglia (an extremely rare occurrence) and is the only one of Brahms's symphonies to end in a minor key.","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46012548874474,"sku":"0095115524824","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4467003-3467363.jpg?v=1786682558"},{"product_id":"schubert-symphonies-vol-3-0095115526521","title":"Schubert: Symphonies nos. 1 \u0026 4 [Vol. 3] \/ Gardner, City of Birmingham Symphony Orch.","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor the third volume in their cycle of Schubert’s symphonies, Edward Gardner and the CBSO turn to the first and fourth symphonies. Composed in 1813, when Schubert was just sixteen, the First Symphony admirably demonstrates the young composer’s grasp of symphonic form and technique, and whilst the influences of Haydn, Mozart and early Beethoven are clearly audible, the spirit of Schubert’s own distinctive voice is certainly in evidence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eComposed three years later, in 1816, the ‘Tragic’ Fourth Symphony is scored for larger forces and is much more ambitious in outlook – Schubert seemingly anxious to create a more substantial work. He took more trouble to unify his thematic material across the four movements, and the symphony is clearly closer to the style of his later works. The Overture to his opera ‘Fierrabras’ completes the album, which was recorded in Birmingham Town Hall\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46012550512874,"sku":"0095115526521","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4190955-3139262.jpg?v=1786679062"},{"product_id":"sibelius-works-for-violin-orchestra","title":"Sibelius: Works for Violin and Orchestra \/ Ehnes, Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic","description":"\u003cp\u003eSibelius studied the violin in his youth, and actively entertained the prospect of a career as a professional violinist for much of his student life. After graduating from the Helsinki Music Institute, in 1890, he went to Vienna to continue his studies, and while there he even auditioned (unsuccessfully) for a place in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. So, it comes as no surprise that the instrument plays an important place in his compositional output. What might be surprising is that he wrote only one concerto – this might perhaps be due to the difficult conception of the work. The first performance received mixed reviews, and led to extensive revision of the score. It was only when Jascha Heifetz in the 1930s started to perform the concerto regularly that it gained its place in the standard repertoire. Although there was no second concerto, Sibelius’s numerous other works for violin and orchestra are no mere miniatures, as the recordings on this album amply demonstrate. The acclaimed international virtuoso James Ehnes is accompanied here by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Edward Gardner.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46012552052970,"sku":"095115526729","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4365233-3225847.jpg?v=1786709375"},{"product_id":"brahms-ein-deutsches-requiem","title":"Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem","description":"Composed between 1865 and 1868, Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem has become a repertoire staple for choirs around the world, amateur and professional alike, possibly because it relies so much more on the choir than it's soloists to convey the texts than other works. Brahms chose not to set the Requiem Mass, but rather a collection of biblical texts of his own selection, taken from the Lutheran Bible (hence the 'deutsches'). Rather than a prayer for the dead, Brahms's concern is much more with offering comfort to the bereaved, still on earth. When challenged about the lack of a single reference to Christ in the entire work, Brahms responded, 'I would gladly omit even the word German and simply put Human'. This adds credence to the view that he saw the work in an entirely humanist way, and that the religious overtones of the title and text selection are much more a result of the avowedly Christian culture of his times than a specific decision to express personal belief. Edward Gardner and his Bergen forces are joined by the soloists Johanna Wallroth and Brian Mulligan in this exciting new recording.","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46012553494762,"sku":"0095115527122","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4392430-3307306.jpg?v=1786661036"},{"product_id":"manmade","title":"Neset: Manmade \/ Neset, Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra","description":"\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBorn in Bergen in 1985, the Norwegian saxophonist and composer Marius Neset has earned countless nominations and awards for his performances and recordings, and has performed with jazz musicians all over the world. He is increasingly in demand as a composer of works for the concert hall; these range over a wide spectrum of performing forces, many featuring the saxophone. This album features four world première recordings, three of which feature the composer as saxophone soloist. MANMADE is a concerto for saxophone and symphony orchestra in which the form and the structure are inspired by the climate change which our times are experiencing. The work is divided into five movements which concern themselves with man-made historical innovations that have contributed to the development of society, but that in many ways have also brought us step by step to the great global challenges facing the world today. Originally scored for flute, string quartet, and piano, Windless is a piece that Neset was keen to re-score for saxophone and orchestra. Similarly, A Day in the Sparrow’s Life started out as a piece for solo saxophone that has grown (via saxophone and string quartet) to the full orchestral score recorded here. Every Little Step was composed during lockdown when we all had to maintain a distance, and spend time by ourselves. It was also a period when we had to stand together in making all the small but crucial changes that would get us to the finish line. To Neset, it also offered the possibility of spending a lot of time with his new-born daughter and following her development from day to day.\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46012561260778,"sku":"095115529829","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4037987-3207682.jpg?v=1786676886"},{"product_id":"grieg-symphonic-dances-gardner-bergen-philharmonic-orchestra","title":"Grieg: Symphonic Dances \/ Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic","description":"\u003cp\u003eGrieg’s four Symphonic Dances are a late work, completed in 1898. Grieg takes his inspiration (as in so much of his output) from traditional Norwegian folk tunes, and the four movements together deliver a symphonic unity in their overall effect. Both Bergliot and Before a Southern Convent are written on texts by Grieg’s good friend the author Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, who was also a theatre manager in Oslo. Bjørnson is considered one of the four great Norwegian authors alongside Ibsen, Lie, and Kielland, received the 1903 Nobel Prize for literature, and wrote the words for the Norwegian national anthem. Bergliot – a declamation with orchestra – tells the story of a dramatic episode involving the chieftain Einar Tambarskjelve and his son Eindride, killed by King Harald Hårdråde. Before a Southern Convent is a more traditional setting – requiring two vocal soloists, female choir, and orchestra rather than the narrator of Bergliot – of the story of the folk-hero and barbarian Arnljot Gelline. In the course of his wild escapades, he killed a chieftain, but allowed the chieftain’s daughter, Ingigerd, to live. This daughter left the homestead and wandered southwards in poverty – through Europe. At long last she arrived at a convent which granted her admittance. The album is completed by the Funeral March for Rikard Nordraak – a friend of Grieg’s, who died of tuberculosis in 1866. Grieg conceived it first for solo piano, but whilst travelling by train to Bergen to attend Grieg’s funeral, Johan Halvorsen made the orchestral arrangement heard in this recording.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46012563620074,"sku":"095115530122","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4289987-3147684.jpg?v=1786638745"},{"product_id":"nielsen-violin-concerto-symphony-no-4-james-ehnes-edward-gardner-bergen-philharmonic","title":"Nielsen: Violin Concerto; Symphony No. 4 \/ Ehnes, Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic","description":"\u003cp\u003eNielsen’s epic Violin Concerto was premiered in Copenhagen in February 1912, by violinist Peder Møller. Nominally the work is set in two movements; both open with a slow section and move to a faster one. Whilst unusual, this could be seen as a more usual fast – slow – fast three movement form, but with an extensive slow introduction to the first movement. The music moves quickly from one idea to the next, and overall has a bold, playful and optimistic feel. In stark contrast, although written only a few years later, the fourth symphony is more cohesive and unified as a work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWritten against the background of the first world war, the work is a celebration of life itself. Just before the premier in 1916, Nielsen described it as: ‘Music is Life, and, like it, inextinguishable.’ Composed in the usual four movement form, each movement continues from the last without a break. The final movement features two sets of timpani battling each other across the orchestra. The recording was made in Bergen’s Grieghallen, in Surround Sound, and is available as a hybrid SACD and in Spatial Audio.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEWS\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNielsen's Violin Concerto \u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ecouldn’t have a better advocate than James Ehnes: strong in his lyricism when he needs to be, alert to all dynamics and a sense of fantasy which is outstanding in the two cadenzas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-- BBC Music Magazine\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\"\u003eJames Ehnes – that most elegant and unflashy of players – seems to relish all that is unexpected about the piece...Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic give it real backbone and play like its greatest champions.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\"\u003e-- Gramophone\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\"\u003eIn Nielsen's Fourth Symphony, Gardner succeeds handily. The orchestra plays outstandingly well for him in all departments and he keeps the symphony moving. This is appropriate because all the movements are connected. I found his slightly quicker tempo for the second movement convincing with the woodwinds as delectable as one would expect and the dynamics quieter than in some recordings.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\"\u003e-- MusicWeb International\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46012566896874,"sku":"095115531129","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4201661-2974515.jpg?v=1786672943"},{"product_id":"nielsen-flute-concerto-symphony-no-3-pan-syrinx-bergen-philharmonic-orchestra","title":"Nielsen: Flute Concerto; Symphony No. 3 \/ Walker, Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor this second instalment in their Nielsen cycle, Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra are joined by the flautist Adam Walker for a programme that combines the Flute Concerto, the Third Symphony, and the tone poem Pan and Syrinx. Nielsen began work on the Third Symphony in 1910, some seven years after he had completed his second symphony ‘The Four Temperaments’, and the work was premièred in Copenhagen in 1912. In his album note, Paul Griffiths describes the work’s eventual title, ‘Sinfonia espansiva’ as a fifth temperament – Joviality. In the second movement, uniquely in his symphonic output, Nielsen calls for (wordless) voices – solo soprano and baritone. It was also the first of his symphonies to be commercially released on record – Erik Tuxen conducting the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Composed in 1926, the Flute Concerto is a late work, and demonstrates Nielsen’s stylistic evolution towards the new modernism. The soloist engages in repeated interactions with other instruments within the orchestra, most notably the clarinet and the bass trombone. Pan and Syrinx dates from 1918, and is based on the ancient legend which tells how the amorous god Pan invented the pan flute whilst pursuing the nymph Syrinx.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46012567716074,"sku":"095115531228","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4302708-3148804.jpg?v=1786661206"},{"product_id":"nielsen-helios-clarinet-concerto-symphony-no-5","title":"Nielsen: Helios; Clarinet Concerto; Symphony No. 5","description":"Edward Gardner's series of Nielsen symphonies with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra continues with this recording of No. 5, complemented with the overture Helios and the Clarinet Concerto, featuring Alessandro Carbonare as soloist. Nielsen composed Helios in 1903 on a trip to Greece, as his wife, Anne Marie, a sculptor, had won a grant to copy sculptures on the Acropolis. Over it's ten-twelve-minute duration, the work depicts sunrise, noontime, and then sunset over the Aegean Sea, and is one of the composer's most performed works. The Clarinet Concerto dates from 1928 and is cast in one long movement falling into four sections. It is dedicated to Nielsen's friend Aage Oxenvad who gave the first performance. Composed between 1920 and 1922, the Fifth Symphony is unusually laid out in just two movements - the only piece by Nielsen to adopt this structure. Unlike his other mature symphonies, the fifth lacks a subtitle, and so could be considered to be more 'pure music' compared to the descriptive nature of the others. Nielsen described the symphony as 'the division of dark and light, the battle between evil and good' and the opposition between 'Dreams and Deeds'. Considered by many as a \"war symphony\", Nielsen insisted that he had not been thinking of World War I whilst he was composing the work, but also commented \"not one of us is the same as we were before the war\".","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46012568469738,"sku":"0095115531426","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4439273-3412646_b587669e-3efd-4f7c-91cb-d7893c4f2263.jpg?v=1786680552"},{"product_id":"schubert-symphonies-vol-4","title":"Schubert: Symphonies, Vol. 4","description":"Edward Gardner's Schubert cycle concludes with the 'Great' Symphony No. 9 in C major. Having (remarkably) composed a symphony a year between 1813 and 1818, the onset of syphilis and it's intrusive treatment seemed to shake the composer's confidence as a symphonist - the Ninth is the only symphony after those first six that he actually completed. This is attributed by many to a wonderful holiday with friends in the high Austrian Alps that seems to have re-ignited his enthusiasm. The nickname 'Great' may originally have arisen to distinguish it from the 'little' C major Symphony (No. 6), but is apt, as the Ninth is on so much greater a scale than any symphony before it, which can run to almost an hour in some performances. The soprano Mary Bevan joins Edward Gardner and the CBSO in a selection of orchestral songs that complete the album. One was orchestrated by Schubert himself, the others are settings by Britten, Berlioz, Brahms, and Reger.","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46012591931626,"sku":"095115535424","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4397856-3315036.jpg?v=1786683035"},{"product_id":"richard-strauss-salome","title":"Richard Strauss: Salome","description":"Oscar Wilde's play Salome was conceived for the actress Sarah Bernhardt and was originally planned for performance in London, in 1892. The play was blocked by the sensor (it was forbidden at the time to depict biblical characters on stage) and so first given in Paris instead, in 1896. Wilde never saw his play performed, as he was serving a prison sentence for homosexual acts whilst the only two performances in his lifetime occurred. Subsequently the play gained popularity in Germany, and having attended a performance in Berlin in 1902, Strauss determined that this would be the subject for his third opera. First performed in 1905, Strauss's Salome has gone on to become much better-known than Wilde's play, and is regularly performed at opera houses around the world. This live recording was made at a performance at the Usher Hall, in Edinburgh, as part of the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2022. Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra are joined by an outstanding cast of soloists, led by Malin Bystrom in the title role, Gerhard Siegel as Herod, Katarina Dalayman as Herodias, and Johan Reuter as John the Baptist.","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46012592652522,"sku":"095115535622","price":43.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4413307-3364102.jpg?v=1786658272"},{"product_id":"richard-strauss-elektra","title":"Richard Strauss: Elektra","description":"First performed in Dresden in 1909, Elektra was Strauss's first collaboration (of many) with the librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and is the most modernist of all of his operas. Based on the (heavily reworked) play by Sophocles, Hofmannsthal's version concentrates on the inner thoughts and feelings of Elektra as she holds individual conversations with other members of her family. Strauss's score is exceptionally adventurous harmonically, and famously features the Elektra Chord (a simultaneous combination of E major and C sharp major). The orchestration is exceptionally lavish - even by Strauss's standards - featuring eight horns, six trumpets, double timpani, and two harps. The performance was recorded live in Bergen in December 2023, Edward Gardner conducting a cast led by the great Swedish dramatic soprano Iréne Theorin, one of the finest Elektras of our time.","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46012598616298,"sku":"0095115537527","price":43.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4484269-3505360.jpg?v=1786675230"},{"product_id":"britten-piano-concerto-violin-concerto-095115176429","title":"Britten: Piano Concerto - Violin Concerto","description":"\u003cp\u003eTying in with the 100-year anniversary in 2013 of the composer’s birth, we here present two such works, performed by the BBC Philharmonic under Edward Gardner with Chandos stars Tasmin Little and Howard Shelley. The Violin Concerto, here performed dazzlingly by Little, is essentially tragic and weighty in tone, perhaps reflecting his growing concern with the escalation of war-related hostilities. Under Shelley’s fingers the Piano Concerto – in a rare recording with the original third movement, “Recitative and Aria” – is generally lighter and brighter, more transparent and simpler in style.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012883599594,"sku":"095115176429","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2225604_6a942f9e-dd91-4868-9bbc-cfe94ded386f.jpg?v=1786630531"},{"product_id":"berlioz-grande-messe-des-morts-op-5-79408","title":"Berlioz: Grande Messe des Morts, Op. 5 \/ Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic","description":"With this surround-sound recording of Berlioz’s Requiem, Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra tackle the infinite and the immeasurable.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e All the grandiose, striking beauty of the Requiem’s large-scale ceremonial is encapsulated by first-class vocal and orchestral forces, fully utilising the spatial possibilities of Grieghallen in Bergen. The matching of space and sonority was one of Berlioz’s lasting obsessions, one experience in St Paul’s Cathedral in London throwing Berlioz into a delirium of emotion from which he took days to recover. His Grande Messe des morts, notorious for its requirement of four brass bands in addition to a large orchestra and chorus, taken here from live concerts, has often been seen as one of the most emotionally powerful works of its kind.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Setting a solemn and austere, even ascetic text, the music is not that of an orthodox believer but of a visionary, inspired by the dramatic implications of death and judgement.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46012961652970,"sku":"095115521922","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3825447.jpg?v=1786701497"},{"product_id":"bartok-concerto-for-orchestra-dance-suite-rhapsodies-185701","title":"Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra, Dance Suite \u0026 Rhapsodies \/ Ehnes, Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic","description":"\u003cp\u003eFour years after a highly successful Bartok recording with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner here returns to the composer on SACD, with James Ehnes as solo violinist, and his Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. The central piece in this recording is the Concerto for Orchestra, the largest work that Bartok completed during the last five years of his life and described by the composer, in the program notes for its 1944 premiere, as ‘a gradual transition from the sternness of the first movement and the lugubrious death-song of the third, to the life-assertion of the last one.’ It is joined by the Dance Suite, the immediate predecessor, among Bartok’s few works for full orchestra without a soloist, of the Concerto for Orchestra, though by more than two decades; and by the violin Rhapsodies, the colorful folk influences of which are revealed by James Ehnes, a specialist in the repertoire, who already has recorded the complete sonatas as well as the concertos for violin and for viola to critical acclaim.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46012965355754,"sku":"095115518922","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3895892.jpg?v=1786676358"},{"product_id":"lutoslawski-vocal-works-095115168820","title":"Lutoslawski: Vocal works","description":"Classical Music","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012975120618,"sku":"095115168820","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1890425.jpg?v=1786760168"},{"product_id":"britten-canteloube-eriksmoen-gardner-bergen-philharmonic-orchestra","title":"Britten, Canteloube: Vocal Works \/ Eriksmoen, Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic","description":"\u003cp\u003eNorwegian soprano Mari Eriksmoen is undoubtedly a rising star at the moment, following successful appearances at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Oper Frankfurt, Komische Oper Berlin, and Teatro alla Scala in Milan. On the concert stage she has made recent important appearances with the Orchestre de Paris, Berliner Philharmoniker, Oslo Philharmonic, and Münchner Philharmoniker among others. Here she joins the Bergen Philharmonic and Edward Gardner for a powerful album of orchestral songs, coupling Britten’s Les Illuminations and Four French Songs with a selection of Cantaloube’s inimitable Songs of the Auvergne. Eriksmoen spent a year studying in Paris, and proves an effective and natural singer of the French language. As she mentions in her program note: ‘It is highly demanding to sing in French when it is not one’s native tongue, but I have always felt at home when singing in French and nurture an emotional attachment to the French language.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEWS\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\"\u003e One cannot can’t praise Eriksmoen enough for the accuracy of her singing, its tonal beauty, and her absorption in the text. There are running passages, exposed intervals, and those chromatic steps to contend with. She faces every challenge with ease.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\"\u003e-- Fanfare\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\"\u003eIn Britten’s Les illuminations, the generally belllike accuracy of Norwegian soprano Mari Eriksmoen’s singing is more than matched by the expressive truth of her interpretations. She is most beguiling when floating her voice weightlessly and with a serene joie de vivre in ‘Antique’, perfectly partnered by the lovely violin playing of the Bergen Philharmonic leader Melina Mandozzi.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"c-product-review--quote\"\u003e-- BBC Music Magazine\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46013119856874,"sku":"095115528921","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4012989-2767984.jpg?v=1786676853"},{"product_id":"verklarte-nacht-schoenberg-fried-lehar-korngold-gardner-397459","title":"Verklarte Nacht - Schoenberg, Fried, Lehar \u0026 Korngold \/ Gardner, BBC Symphony","description":"\u003cp\u003eHot on the heels of their acclaimed recording of Britten’s Peter Grimes, Stuart Skelton and Edward Gardner join forces with Christine Rice and the BBC Symphony Orchestra for this fascinating programme of early twentieth-century works. Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht needs no introduction, but far rarer is Oscar Fried’s contemporaneous setting of the same poem. Composed in 1901 for soloists and orchestra, Fried’s version is a true setting of (as opposed to Schoenberg’s reflection on) the text by Richard Dehmel. Lehár wrote Fieber in 1915 as the closing part of his song cycle Aus eiserner Zeit – he then made the orchestral setting a year later. Korngold’s Lieder des Abschieds (Songs of Farewell) date from the early 1920s, whilst he was still in Vienna, and shortly after he had completed the opera Die tote Stadt. Setting poetry by Christina Rossetti, Edith Ronsperger, and Ernst Lothar, the cycle is a poignant reflection on the Great War.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46013212721386,"sku":"095115524329","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3886801-2650660.jpg?v=1786675903"},{"product_id":"szymanowski-symphonies-no-1-3-gardner-bbc-210507","title":"Szymanowski: Symphonies No 1 \u0026 3 \/ Gardner, BBC SO","description":"Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony return to the intoxicating orchestral music of Karol Szymanowski in their third disc devoted to the composer. Ben Johnson, a tenor whose star is rapidly rising, joins Gardner and the BBC SO here as a soloist in two works. Symphony no 1 (1907) belongs to his early period, heavily influenced by German late-Romanticism. The exquisite Love Songs of Hafiz (1911), marked by fascination with oriental themes, and the ‘Song of the Night’, scored for huge orchestra with choir and tenor soloist, both feature Persian poetry set to sensuous and emotionally-charged music.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  Reviews:\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  The performances are particularly cosmopolitan. And why not? The works here reflect influences from many nationalities. Johnson, whose relatively lean voice (in contrast with the Eastern European sopranos sometimes heard in this piece) is very much responsive to the text's meaning.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  – Gramophone\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  “The BBC Symphony Chorus sings with languid exaltation, yet it is the orchestral detail that impresses most here, right from the still, mystery-laden opening. Gardner conducts with such conviction that it is impossible not to find beauty in [Love Songs'] potentially dense Reger-meets-Scriabin soundworld.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  – BBC Music Magazine","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46013224222954,"sku":"095115514320","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2804670.jpg?v=1786733570"},{"product_id":"the-best-of-tasmin-various-292387","title":"The Best of Tasmin Little - Music of Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms \u0026 More","description":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing the announcement by Tasmin Little of her intended retirement from the concert platform, we wanted to create an album that would stand as both a tribute to, and celebration of, her outstanding career as a performer. What better way to do so than ask her to select her own, personal favorites from her recorded career? An exclusive Chandos artist since 2010, Tasmin has made a series of recordings that have proved a cornerstone of the Chandos schedules for a decade, and feature a range of composers and styles of quite breath-taking variety. The first album concentrates on concerti, and features both Walton’s and Britten’s concertos with Edward Gardner, along with the slow movement of her award-winning Elgar recording with Sir Andrew Davis. The second features works from Vivaldi though to Shostakovich via Brahms, and includes (among many other gems) her recording of Vaughan Williams’s iconic The Lark Ascending. It also celebrates Tasmin’s recital partnerships with three outstanding pianists: Piers Lane, Martin Roscoe, and John Lenehan. As she writes in her booklet note: ‘I am very happy that this final, double-album set should reflect so many aspects of me as a musician; and I remain full of gratitude for the tremendous opportunities I have been given to play and record with the greatest musicians of today. I hope you all enjoy this final release.’\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46013275341034,"sku":"095115218525","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3813934-2569112.jpg?v=1786717135"},{"product_id":"schubert-symphonies-vol-2-095115524527","title":"Schubert: Symphonies, Vol. 2","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdward Gardner leads the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Schubert’s Symphonies Nos. 2 and 6 in this second volume in the acclaimed series. Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra since October 2015, Edward Gardner has led the musicians on multiple international tours, which have included performances in Berlin, Munich, and Amsterdam, and at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival. He was recently appointed Principal Conductor Designate of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, his tenure commencing in September 2021. In demand as a guest conductor, during the previous two seasons he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, and Wiener Symphoniker, as well as at The Royal Opera, Covent Garden in a new production of Káťa Kabanová, praised by The Guardianas a ‘magnificent interpretation’. He returned to the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Philharmonia Orchestra, and Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano. In April 2019, he conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Lincoln Center in New York. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46013281829098,"sku":"095115524527","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3770558-2534821.jpg?v=1786643528"},{"product_id":"sibelius-orchestral-works-davidsen-gardner-bergen-philharmonic-orchestra","title":"Sibelius:  Orchestral Works \/ Davidsen, Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic","description":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing their acclaimed recordings of Schoenberg with Sara Jakubiak and Britten’s Peter Grimes with Stuart Skelton, Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic turn their attention to the music of Sibelius. Written in 1913 for the diva Aino Ackté, the tone poem Luonnotar draws on text from the Finnish national epic poem, the Kalevala. Its virtuosic demands are ably met here by award-wining soprano Lise Davidsen, who also feature in the Suite from Pelléas and Mélisande, music re-worked by Sibelius from his incidental music written for the first performances of Maeterlinck’s play in Helsinki, in 1905, in Swedish. The tone poem Tapiola, from 1926, is Sibelius’ last great masterpiece and evokes the forests of his native Finland. The programme is completed by a pair of much earlier works, Rakastava (the Lover) and Vårsång (Spring Song).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEW\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere’s a mostly excellent disc, smartly programmed to offer an appealing mix of familiar and less-known music. Soprano Lise Davidsen seems to be all over the place these days. She’s the real deal, an intelligent and affecting singer with the vocal heft and secure technique to do justice to just about anything she tries. Let’s hope her current popularity doesn’t result in a premature vocal blowout. Her Luonnotar is beautiful, but just a hair too fast. This of course makes it easier to sing, but there’s more mystery and atmosphere in the music than Gardner and Davidsen realize here. It’s my only quibble about this otherwise wholly desirable program.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs for the rest: this Tapiola has all of the eerie strangeness missing in Luonnotar–and let’s face it: Is there a more alien and spooky sounding work out there, by anyone? Gardner is so adept at easing the music from one section to another that you have to wonder why he was in such a rush in Luonnotar? The Pelleas and Melisande music goes splendidly, each of its numbers played to the hilt, with Melisande at the Spinning Wheel and the following Entr’acte especially memorable. Rakastava (The Lover) is an odd arrangement for strings (with triangle and timpani) of an original vocal work. Seldom performed and melodically elusive, it’s good to hear a fresh new version. Spring Song is another rarity. It’s hymn-like opulence sounds strangely un-Sibelian, although it represents perhaps the most extended example of a very characteristic aspect of his musical personality. It’s splendidly done, its successive climaxes especially well-judged by Gardner.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs you might have guessed, the Bergen Philharmonic sounds terrific, as do the sonics. Never mind the unfortunately zippy Luonnotar. This is great stuff.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e– ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46013340057834,"sku":"095115521724","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3972972-2713524.jpg?v=1786712602"},{"product_id":"szymanowski-symphonies-no-2-4-gardner-87157","title":"Szymanowski: Symphonies No 2 \u0026 4 \/ Gardner","description":"This recording of orchestral works by Karol Szymanowski form part of the Polish Music series on Chandos, and is performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Edward Gardner. These performers have impressed in their Lutoslawski survey, which is part of the same series; in a review of volume 1, Gramophone described them as a veritable ‘dream team’.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Symphony No. 2 by Szymanowski is a work of great power and ingenuity, with many passionate and varied contrasts in its use of solo instruments. Composed in 1909 – 10, it is widely considered the greatest orchestral work of the composer’s early period, not to mention one of the most important Polish symphonic compositions to date. Szymanowski himself thought very highly of it, and in August 1911 wrote in a letter to his fellow Polish composer Zdzis?aw Jachimecki: ‘How happy I am that this Symphony impressed you as I had wanted. I will frankly admit that I feel somewhat proud about its value. In some miraculous way I have managed during my work on it to resist all those garish phantoms which seduce “young and inexperienced” artists and to produce pure and uncompromising beauty in the way I personally understand it.’\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  The internationally acclaimed pianist Louis Lortie joins the orchestra and conductor in Symphony No. 4 of 1932, which the composer subtitled ‘Symphonie concertante’ in recognition of the near-soloistic role played by the pianist. Whereas Szymanowski’s early and middle works clearly reflect Wagner, Strauss, and Scriabin, this work is strongly influenced by Prokofiev, particularly in the finale, an agitated and daring movement reminiscent of the Russian composer’s Piano Concerto No. 3, composed about a decade earlier.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Written in 1904 – 05 in a style recalling Wagner and Strauss, the Concert Overture is characterised by enormous expressiveness and gusto in the way it handles the expanding themes. Szymanowski inscribed the original score with part of the poem Wite? W?ast by his friend Tadeusz Mici?ski: ‘I will not play you sad songs, O Shades! but will give you a triumph proud and fierce…’. This vivid imagery is perfectly in keeping with the music’s exuberant and vivacious character.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  - Chandos","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46013419946218,"sku":"095115511527","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2109113.jpg?v=1786756004"},{"product_id":"britten-peter-grimes-gardner-bergen-philharmonic-359610","title":"Britten: Peter Grimes \/ Skelton, Wall, Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the coveted Gramophone \u003cem\u003eRecord of the Year \u003c\/em\u003eaward!\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e‘The burly Aussie tenor is now even more identified with this ill-fated protagonist than Peter Pears, the first Grimes. And everywhere Skelton has sung the part, whether at English National Opera, the Proms, the Edinburgh festival or now on this international tour of a concert staging mounted by the Bergen Philharmonic, the conductor has been Edward Gardner. Theirs is one of the great musical partnerships, and they continue to find compelling new depths in this tragic masterpiece.’ – Richard Morrison – The Times. This studio recording was made following the acclaimed production at Grieghallen, in Bergen, in 2019 (repeated in Oslo and London and reviewed above). Luxuriant playing from the Bergen Philharmonic and a stellar cast under the assured direction of Edward Gardner make this a recording to treasure.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEW\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe net joy of this new recording is that Skelton, now a Grimes of considerable experience and range, has found in his vocalisation of the role a well-judged mixture of obsessive professional (sometimes rough) fisherman and troubled, confused and persecuted outsider. All this is precisely framed by Gardner’s conducting and his choice of cast. An exciting, committed, necessary and brilliantly recorded version for our times.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e– Gramophone (\u003cstrong\u003eRecording of The Month\u003c\/strong\u003e, October 2020\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46013427450090,"sku":"095115525029","price":43.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3842070-2595193.jpg?v=1786650781"},{"product_id":"opera-in-english-verdi-macbeth-simonetti-keenlyside-119155","title":"Verdi: Macbeth [in English] \/ Simonetti, Keenlyside, Sherratt, Moore","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEW:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMy feelings about this release are many and complicated. It is the last in the long-running Opera in English series made and compiled by Chandos, as funding from the philanthropic Peter Moore’s Foundation ends this year. If nothing else this is a fine studio recording of Verdi’s \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eMacbeth\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e, well sung and conducted, and special praise goes to Chandos for shoehorning the whole work on to two discs with the ballet and both the 1847 and 1865 endings. If you want Verdi’s youthful masterpiece sung in English, there is no competition (and I doubt there will ever be). But are there many of us who still want Verdi in English? Did we ever? \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI am surprised the series lasted as long as it did, to be honest. Studio sets of Italian opera in German ended in the late 1980s (with EMI-Electrola’s \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eLa bohème\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e, I believe) and if people sneered that Verdi in German sounded like a grotesque Bavarian drinking song, then singing it in English only makes Joe Green sound like Gilbert and Sullivan. Whereas a theater can argue a case for producing opera in the vernacular (a sense of immediacy, or “relevance” and “inclusivity” if you want to sound like every marketing department), listening to opera in translation on CD only emphasizes two fallacies: The original sound the composer had in mind has gone and diction remains too murky to forgo the printed libretto. Diction is a contentious issue especially with regard to the English National Opera, whose remit was rendered pointless ever since it put in surtitles. In the singers’ defense, the crisp enunciation of the Golden Age was due to the drier acoustic of their former home at Sadler’s Wells. The airy Coliseum is a tough venue to project text, yet in the case of John Tomlinson, Lisa Milne, or even Lesley Garrett, not impossible. Some blame also has to go to the post-Julie Andrews fashion for favoring a smooth, creamy vocal line ahead of clear text. It is a problem that neither the Coliseum nor Chandos ever resolved. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMy personal view is that the ties between Chandos and the ENO were not tight enough. The gems of this catalog (The Goodall \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eRing\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e, Janet Baker’s Massenet and Handel) tend to be live from the theater or, like Richard Hickox’s fabulous Britten recordings, in the original language. What amazes me is how little of the English National Opera there is on DVD, especially when its reputation hangs more on provocative visuals rather than ultimate casts. A phenomenal show like Richard Jones’s technicolor\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003e Lulu\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e would be highly desirable on DVD, yet again and again the Peter Moores Foundation thought it better to spend money and record the opera in the studio. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAlthough the studio sets wisely paired familiar stars with the younger ensemble names, there is a palpable feeling of redundancy when there is no production to link it to. The English National Opera still struggles (although it is currently having a terrific run of hits, be it accessible new opera from Julian Anderson or celebrity-led stagings such as Terry Gilliam’s \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eBenvenuto Cellini\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e) and with the demise of this series, London’s second opera company has lost yet another media outlet. With its reputation as the youthful, funky alternative to Covent Garden, the English National Opera “Power House” years were at a time when a terrestrial TV station was prepared to broadcast these “sexy,” Postmodern stagings at prime time, so the idea of a corresponding opera set still made sense. I can’t help feeling sad, but times have changed, and Chandos would be better off producing DVDs from the Coliseum. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnyway, enough of my polemic. How good is this new \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eMacbeth\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e? With no corresponding audience who want a memory of what they saw, this new studio recording hangs on the star casting of Simon Keenlyside, a welcome but again slightly redundant choice given that you can hear and see his troubled psychopath (in the original Italian) on a fine DVD from Covent Garden conducted by Antonio Pappano. Good as he is here, I do think Keenlyside is best when seen \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eand\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e heard (I don’t say that about many singers) as he is one of opera’s few truly visceral actors. In the cold glare of the studio he gives us a carefully modulated reading, text aware and utterly precise, but just a little bland and unvaried. I do like his creepy chuckle when plotting Banquo’s demise, and such diligence and caution fits the weak and corruptible Thane. Although a bit small for Verdi, his sense of line is good, and he knows his vocal limits, although the tone is getting gritty when pushed. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNevertheless, he is a good foil to Latonia Moore’s gleaming Lady Macbeth, a fine portrayal which is really worth getting excited about. There’s the she-devil steel to her voice, but she sings her runs cleanly and is equally fearless in the more soaring passages. Her sleepwalking scene, here taken much faster than usual, is especially chilling and fanatical. Only her diction under pressure is wanting, otherwise she holds her own against such luminaries as Fiorenza Cossotto and Shirley Verrett. The rest of the cast are generally fine. In the comfort of the studio Brindley Sharratt’s lightish bass makes enough impression as Banquo, with a very fine account of his aria and Gwyn Hughes Jones is an adequate Macduff. Comprimario roles are well taken, creating a tight, well dramatized ensemble. Having both endings really is a selling point, but I’m personally torn between which I prefer. Verdi’s reworked version has a much better battle but ends with that ludicrous, jaunty, “everything’s fine” chorus, and we lose Macbeth’s chilling final aria, here sung as “I have sinned.” Listeners will find themselves flitting between the two. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEdward Gardner gets superb work from his ENO forces. In the barn-like Coliseum, this young charismatic figurehead has failed to live up to his initial promise, as his readings have often been sluggish, if polished, so this urgent, propulsive account of \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eMacbeth\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e is a real surprise. His tempos go to both extremes, galloping through the jaunty choruses, or giving a deliciously creepy, lugubrious account of the overture, but he understands the overreaching arc of the opera. Ensembles are built up to thrillingly and there is no sense of a static studio run-through. There is good work too from the pickup chorus (The English National Opera chorus must have been busy elsewhere), full of young London-based names, great and good. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRecorded at the Blackheath Halls, the sound is full but cavernous. It lends the production a suitably empty feel for the bleak setting, but some orchestral detail is lost to the closely miked singers. Documentation is up to the usual, thorough standard of this series, with a typically fine essay from Mike Ashman. So, this is worth buying, if only to mark the end of an era. It is a very good performance with a standout Lady Macbeth, but ever so slightly redundant in an age of surtitles, live recording, and at a time when London’s opera in the vernacular struggles to show its face in this harsh multimedia world. It is hard not to feel sad when every new opera set on CD feels like a penultimate nail in the coffin, but this set announces two demises, and I’m not really talking about Verdi’s multiple endings. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: bold;\"\u003eFANFARE: Barnaby Rayfield \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46013429809386,"sku":"095115318027","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2545365.jpg?v=1786733597"},{"product_id":"lutoslawski-orchestral-works-iii-095115510629","title":"Lutoslawski: Orchestral Works III","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is the fourth volume in Chandos’ series devoted to the music of the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski. Described by Gramophone as a ‘veritable dream team’, Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra perform Symphony No. 2 and the Little Suite, and are joined by Paul Watkins as the soloist in the Cello Concerto and Grave.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46013448650986,"sku":"095115510629","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2067808.jpg?v=1786679769"},{"product_id":"schoenberg-erwartung-pelleas-und-melisande-jakubiak-gardner-292465","title":"Schoenberg: Erwartung \u0026 Pelleas und Melisande \/Jakubiak, Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic","description":"Written only six years apart, these two works share a common narrative of frustrated love, and the concept of the forest as a metaphor for the subconscious mind. Musically they are wildly different, however; Pelleas, which Schoenberg wrote in his late twenties, is the epitome of his late romantic style, indebted to Richard Strauss. Erwartung (his first work for the stage) was written after his conversion to atonality. Maurice Maeterlinck’s play Pelleas et Melisande fired the imaginations of several of the greatest composers of the time. Debussy began writing his opera almost immediately after its publication in 1892, and within a decade or so Faure and Sibelius had created elaborate incidental scores for different stage productions of the play. Schoenberg composed his tone poem in 1902 – 03, for a large-scale (Straussian) orchestra. Schoenberg seems to have put himself into a state of free association to write Erwartung, which he completed in just seventeen days in August 1909. ‘In Erwartung, the aim is to represent in slow motion everything that occurs during a single second of maximum spiritual excitement, stretching it out to half an hour’, he wrote. Not only the first solo opera, this is perhaps also the first cinematic one.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eREVIEW:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGardner keeps the music’s sumptuousness on a tight rein, favouring faster tempi than most other interpreters. But he makes sure the shape of the huge musical structure is never compromised, and there’s no lack of tonal weight when required from the Bergen Philharmonic. Jakubiak is a compelling soprano soloist too, far less histrionic and squally than some.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e– Guardian (UK)","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46013478895850,"sku":"095115519820","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3812199-2561379.jpg?v=1786717176"},{"product_id":"britten-phaedra-a-charm-of-lullabies-lachrymae-two-po-095115167120","title":"Britten: Phaedra - A Charm of Lullabies - Lachrymae - Two Po","description":"Classical Music","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46013480173802,"sku":"095115167120","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1844819_e8a55bfa-d424-4928-8c0e-803f7bf67ef0.jpg?v=1786702239"},{"product_id":"mendelssohn-in-birmingham-vol-2-gardner-243554","title":"Mendelssohn in Birmingham Vol 2 \/ Gardner","description":"Edward Gardner and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra present Volume 2 in their series Mendelssohn in Birmingham; this time they perform Symphonies Nos 1 and 3 and the Overture to Ruy Blas. The impressive first volume was roundly praised, International Record Review commending the ‘powerfully engaging and alert performances’, while The Sunday Times made it their ‘Album of the Week’.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Among the fruits of his prodigiously gifted youth were thirteen string symphonies, which Mendelssohn composed privately as ‘practice’ pieces. At age fifteen he returned to the last of these, expanded the orchestration, and published it as the first of his mature numbered symphonies. As heard here, this energetic work, bursting with youthful high spirits, shows the influence of Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber, but that influence is always absorbed in a personal way.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Although numbered as the third of five, the ‘Scottish’ Symphony was actually the last which Mendelssohn composed. Inspiration for it had come while Mendelssohn was visiting Edinburgh in 1829. He was immediately moved to compose the brooding melody that begins and ends the work, but not until 1842 did he actually finish this masterpiece.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  No such time span was needed to complete the Overture to Victor Hugo’s tragedy Ruy Blas, which was commissioned only three days before the production’s opening night. Mendelssohn loathed Hugo’s drama and though the opening is suitably sombre, the rest of the overture disregards the play’s form and character, concluding in celebration where Hugo’s story culminates in murder and suicide.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  Review:\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  Gardner conducts these pieces with a highly satisfying blend of freedom and discipline. In some of Mendelssohn's more lyrical moments you need a metronome to judge his rhythmic flexibility, so naturally does he apply it, and throughout the disc the strings articulate with splendid vigor.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  – BBC Music Magazine","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46027377344746,"sku":"095115513927","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2777954.jpg?v=1786736947"},{"product_id":"elgar-symphony-no-2-serenade-for-strings-79403","title":"Elgar: Symphony No. 2 \u0026 Serenade for Strings \/ Gardner, BBC Symphony","description":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing a highly praised recording of Symphony No. 1 last year, Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony present here an electrifying interpretation of Elgar’s Symphony No. 2, with the addition of one of his most performed works: the Serenade for Strings. Having now become experts in British repertoire with highly lauded series of Walton and Britten, they reveal all the aspects of Elgar’s masterpiece in this surround sound recording. Symphony No. 2 is richly orchestrated and skillfully constructed, drawing on hugely varied resources of harmony, rhythm and melody, and making considerable use of thematic transformation as a unifying technique. While the Symphony No. 2 is one of the greatest products of Elgar’s maturity, the Serenade in E minor for Strings is perhaps the most charming product of his youth. In this three-movement piece dominated by a deeply passionate Larghetto, the strings of the BBC Symphony superbly encapsulate all the emotions offered by this graceful work: tender lyrical and intense.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46027520245994,"sku":"095115519721","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3793068.jpg?v=1786712542"},{"product_id":"berio-orchestral-realisations-schubert-mahler-brahms-gardner-184917","title":"Berio: Orchestral Realisations - Schubert, Mahler, Brahms \/ Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic","description":"\u003cp\u003eBerio had an abiding fascination with reconciling the past and the present, which can be seen in his orchestral realisations of works by Mahler and Brahms, and most notably, in Rendering (1990), his typically creative completion of unfinished symphonic sketches by Schubert. In Rendering, Berio - in his own words - sets himself the target of 'following those modern restoration criteria that aim at reviving the old colours without, however, trying to disguise the damage that time has caused, often leaving inevitable empty patches in the composition'. In the 'restoration', Schubert's sketches have been beautifully orchestrated in period style, and the 'empty patches' have been filled with music composed by Berio himself, in his own voice - thereby successfully combining the musical worlds of the early nineteenth and late twentieth centuries into one convincing whole. The Clarinet Sonata by Brahms embodies the composer's taut and concentrated compositional style. In transcribing the work, Berio felt that, when experienced in the less intimate surroundings of today's concert halls, the extreme compression of Brahms's late chamber music style was in need of some additional support, and his version, recorded here, includes a fourteen-bar orchestral introduction to the first movement, leading into Brahms's own, much shorter opening phrase, as well as five additional bars at the beginning of the second movement. Berio completed his orchestration of six early songs by Gustav Mahler in 1987, and conducted the first performance with the Toscanini Orchestra on 7 December that year,with Thomas Hampson the baritone soloist. The six songs in this orchestrated set are 'Hans und Grete', 'Phantasie', 'Scheiden und Meiden', 'Erinnerung', 'Frühlingsmorgen', and 'Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald'. The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Edward Gardner, with Roderick Williams the baritone soloist in the songs by Mahler and Michael Collins the soloist in Brahms's Clarinet Sonata.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027521851626,"sku":"095115510124","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1948700.jpg?v=1786732214"},{"product_id":"britten-cello-symphony-symphonic-suite-from-gloriana-87080","title":"Britten: Cello Symphony; Symphonic Suite From Gloriana; Four Sea Interludes From Peter Grimes","description":"\u003cimg src=\"\/graphics\/p10s10.gif\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  These are outstanding performances, as good or better than the composer's own. Edward Gardner tears into the Four Sea Interludes with uninhibited excitement. It's great to hear the high violins and flutes in \"Dawn\" swooping and soaring like the gulls that they're supposed to be evoking. \"Sunday Morning\" has an infectious bounce, while \"Moonlight\" casts a rapt stillness abruptly shattered by perhaps the most vicious storm on disc. It's one of those versions you will listen to and say, \"Finally, that's the way it should go!\" \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The suite from Gloriana is still a comparative rarity, which is a pity, as the music really is first-rate Britten. But then, so is the opera; why anyone cares that it flopped at its premiere is beyond me (the Queen allegedly was not amused, as if her opinion matters). The Lute Song is very nicely sung by Robert Murray, but the version for oboe rather than voice strikes me as more appropriate within the context of the symphonic suite as a whole. Granted, Britten used Peter Pears, but that was an opportunity for him to give his partner something to do while on tour.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Finally, there's the Cello Symphony: a tough, somewhat gnarly work that receives a performance every bit as fine as Britten\/Rostropovich, which still remains the benchmark version. Paul Watkins and Gardner somehow make music out of the low, grotty opening, pacing the movement as unerringly as did Britten himself. The finale works its way up to a wonderfully life-affirming conclusion, and Watkins does a wonderful job with the lengthy preceding cadenza. In short, this release is a major entry in the Britten discography, and the sonics are every bit the equal of the interpretations.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027685396714,"sku":"095115165829","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1813472.jpg?v=1786737535"},{"product_id":"mendelssohn-in-birmingham-vol-5","title":"Mendelssohn in Birmingham, Vol. 5","description":"Edward Gardner's Mendelssohn in Birmingham series continues with a recording of Overtures. As with the previous volumes, a reduced size CBSO join Gardner in Birmingham Town's Hall, where Mendelssohn himself conducted many of the UK premieres of his own orchestral works. The majority of works in the programme were written as concert overtures, spanning the length of Mendelssohn's career from the early Midsummer Night's Dream composed when he was just 16 though to 'Ruy Blas' written towards the end of his lifetime. Two of these overtures were written as the opening movements of larger works: 'St Paul', his first great Oratorio from 1836, and his overture to 'Athalie', incidental music written for Racine's play. The Trumpet Overture is the earliest work here, written possibly to precede a performance of Handel's Israel in Egypt, and allegedly Mendelssohn's father's favourite piece!","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46027685888234,"sku":"095115523520","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3666424-2420311_56c5825f-bbc8-4379-83ce-f8b17875ee81.jpg?v=1786676353"},{"product_id":"szymanowski-stabat-mater-harnasie-muzyka-polska-vol-7-095115512326","title":"Szymanowski: Stabat Mater \u0026 Harnasie (Muzyka Polska, Vol. 7)","description":"\u003cp\u003eWith this new release Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra continue their critically acclaimed series exploring Polish music for Chandos. It features two large scale works by Karol Szymanowski, the expressive Stabat Mater and the vigorous and colorful ballet Harnasie. The Stabat Mater, recorded here in its 1965 revised version, features a cast of internationally acclaimed soloists: Lucy Crowe, Pamela Helen Stephen, Robert Murray and Gabor Bretz.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027688739050,"sku":"095115512326","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2309578.jpg?v=1786748986"},{"product_id":"schoenberg-gurre-lieder-gardner-bergen-philharmonic-65546","title":"Schoenberg: Gurre-Lieder \/ Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic","description":"\u003cimg src=\"\/graphics\/features\/gramophone_choice.jpg\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Recorded live on SACD in the sumptuous acoustic of Grieghallen in Bergen, this mind-blowing interpretation of Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder involves 350 performers: large choral forces, six exceptional soloists, and the legendary Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra- extended for the occasion- all conducted by Edward Gardner. Marking the pinnacle of the Orchestra’s 250th anniversary celebrations, the same forces offered two evening concerts that met with unanimous acclaim in the press, including a five-star review from The Daily Telegraph praising the ‘sweep of Gardner’s conducting, by turns luminous and incisive.’ It added, ‘He unleashed the piece’s volcanic passions while never becoming mired in its high-calorific density, and somehow avoided drowning the singers’, and also congratulated the ‘heroic’ Stuart Skelton, ‘warm’ Alwyn Mellor, ‘ethereal’ Anna Larsson, and ‘powerful’ Thomas Allen.","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46027689230570,"sku":"095115517222","price":43.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3483975.jpg?v=1786678894"},{"product_id":"mendelssohn-in-birmingham-vol-4-pike-gardner-79413","title":"Mendelssohn in Birmingham, Vol. 4 \/ Pike, Gardner, City of Birmingham Symphony","description":"For this new recording of orchestral works by Mendelssohn, the CBSO and its principal guest conductor, Edward Gardner, join the violinist Jennifer Pike, who made a remarkable debut at Carnegie Hall this year. She here performs the Violin Concerto in E minor, the piece that launched her career thirteen years ago when she became the youngest-ever winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Award. This recording contains another of Mendelssohn's later works: the Incidental Music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1843), in which he managed to recapture and amplify the unique magic of his early years.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  Review:\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  Pike allies the luminous beauty of her tone to her innate musicality and mercurial technique to produce an exceptionally lyrical interpretation of the evergreen Violin Concerto in E minor.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  – Guardian (UK)","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46027689263338,"sku":"095115516126","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3077394.jpg?v=1786702255"},{"product_id":"holst-the-planets-strauss-also-sprach-zarathustra-79414","title":"Holst: The Planets - Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra \/ National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor its very first album on Chandos, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain devotes its characteristic energy and musical mastery to an explosive program that transcends daily life and earthly experience. It is helped by the enthusiastic, encouraging and experienced baton of Edward Gardner as well as by the sumptuous yet detailed acoustic of Symphony Hall, Birmingham, all fully revealed in this surround-sound recording. Their performance of Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra and Holst's The Planets is already a point of reference in the UK after the immensely successful Prom concert that preceded the recording. The concert's five-star review in The Daily Telegraph praised in particular the orchestra's \"great attack and complete absence of anything routine\", while The Guardian emphasized the great performance of the orchestra in this \"graceful and evocative programme\", especially the \"depth and richness of sound that belied their youth\". This unique album is a first milestone in what promises to be a superb discography for the NYO.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46027689984234,"sku":"095115517925","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3550154.jpg?v=1786650060"},{"product_id":"landmarks-40-years-of-chandos-172220","title":"Landmarks: 40 Years of Chandos","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEach recording in this 40-disc set has been selected by Chandos Managing Director, Ralph Couzens, son of the label founder, because it represents a turning point, or ‘Landmark’, in the development of the label.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e-----\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFounded by Brian Couzens in 1979, Chandos quickly established itself as one of the world’s leading classical labels. The ‘Chandos Sound’ has become a benchmark for quality, renowned alike among artists and critics around the globe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom its inception, Chandos has specialised in recording British music, and in bringing lesser-known (and unknown) music to public attention. Released to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the label, this handsomely packaged 40-disc set comprises 40 complete recordings from Chandos’ extensive catalogue.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEach of the four decades is represented, and each recording has been hand-picked by the Managing Director, Ralph Couzens, because it represents a turning point, or ‘Landmark’, in the development of the label.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e-----\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExcerpts from select reviews of previously released volumes included in this set:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProkofiev: Symphony No 6, Waltzes Suite, Etc. \/ Järvi, Royal Scottish National Orchestra\u003c\/strong\u003e - NLA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cimg src=\"\/graphics\/p10s10.gif\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis 1984 recording put the somewhat neglected Sixth Symphony of Prokofiev back on the musical map; it remains on balance the finest available.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e– ClassicsToday.com\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVaughan Williams: London Symphony; Butterworth: Banks of Green Willow \/ Hickox, LSO\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eConductor and orchestra respond with an unquenchable spirit, generous flexibility and tender affection that suit VW’s admirably ambitious inspiration to a T, and Chandos’s sound is big and bold to match. Quite simply, an essential purchase for anyone remotely interested in British music.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e– Gramophone\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRavel, Debussy \u0026amp; Massenet \/ Bavouzet, Tortelier, BBC Symphony\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cimg src=\"\/graphics\/p10s10.gif\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBavouzet gets the tempo changes in Ravel's G Major Concerto absolutely right, following up with one of the most songfully flowing and elegantly shaped accounts of the Adagio on disc, and concluding with an absolutely scorching finale. The Massenet encores are both novel and delightful.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e– ClassicsToday.com\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027691196650,"sku":"095115004029","price":82.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3685713-2420310.jpg?v=1786691088"},{"product_id":"szymanowski-karlowicz-violin-concertos","title":"Szymanowski \u0026 Karlowicz: Violin Concertos","description":"This recording brings together some of Chandos’ greatest artists in a spellbinding programme. It follows performances that The Guardian described as ‘a thrilling show of ferocity and feistiness,’ given by the same forces in January at the Barbican. After widely acclaimed recordings of Walton’s and Lutoslawski’s violin concertos, Tasmin Little again joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner, in intensely expressive interpretations of the concertos by the Polish composers Karlowicz and Szymanowski. All were written within the space of a generation, and yet they belong to quite different worlds. One was composed at a time of national occupation, another in the throes of wartime, and yet another at a time of national renewal. The first inhabits the lyrical tradition developed by Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky, the second escapes towards Debussy and the exoticism of Mediterranean influences, while the third is imbued with the folk culture of the Tatra Mountains.","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46027694047466,"sku":"095115518526","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3729465_b3e473f2-6144-4d8e-968f-9d34045174a4.jpg?v=1786727743"},{"product_id":"grieg-piano-concerto-peer-gynt-bavouzet-gardner-62418","title":"Grieg: Piano Concerto \u0026 Peer Gynt \/ Bavouzet, Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic","description":"This much awaited recording offers keenly idiomatic performances of the most famous works by Grieg, played by the composer’s own orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic, and its Chief Conductor, Edward Gardner. The drama and passion of such favourite pieces as the incidental music to Peer Gynt and the Piano Concerto are superbly captured in surround-sound with exemplary Chandos sound quality. Unlike most existing recordings, offering only the orchestral suites, this disc presents numerous extra excerpts from Peer Gynt, which follow the sequence of Henrik Ibsen‘s dramatic poem, including sections for the unique Norwegian 'Hardanger Fiddle’. Having collaborated with the orchestra on several occasions, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is the soloist in the Piano Concerto, a piece that stands out as a shining example of a single great thought captured and expressed in music. The power of this conception is evident throughout the concerto in the pianist’s faithful, yet highly romantic interpretation.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  -----\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  REVIEW:\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  In the Piano Concerto, Gardner brings to the table flair, drive, and an almost Tchaikovskian lushness to the string sound, which matches well Bavouzet's commanding manner in the piano's opening flourish. Bavouzet bewitches in the slow movement, not just in the clarity of his lines but also in the sense of ebb and flow. He fully claims his status as a supreme virtuoso in the work's finale.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  – Gramophone","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46027694768362,"sku":"095115519028","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3756756.jpg?v=1786626621"},{"product_id":"bartok-bluebeards-castle-095115523728","title":"Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle \/ Relyea, DeYoung, Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic","description":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing acclaimed performances around the globe, John Relyea’s interpretation of Duke Bluebeard now appears on record, with Michelle DeYoung as Judit and Edward Gardner leading his Bergen forces with aplomb. John Relyea continues to distinguish himself as one of today's finest basses. Mr. Relyea has appeared in many of the world’s most celebrated opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera (where he is an alumnus of the Merola Opera Program and a former Adler Fellow), Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Vienna State Opera, Theater an der Wien, and the Mariinsky Theater.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46027737891050,"sku":"095115523728","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3707579-2418275.jpg?v=1786721448"},{"product_id":"schubert-symphonies-vol-1-nos-3-5-8","title":"Schubert: Symphonies, Vol. 1 – Nos. 3, 5 \u0026 8","description":"Following a highly successful series 'Mendelssohn in Birmingham', the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with their former Chief Conductor Edward Gardner here presents the first volume in a new surround-sound series: Schubert Symphonies. This first volume comprises of three symphonies spanning across Schubert's short productive composing life. His Symphony No. 3 (1815), with it's extensive and evolving slow introduction modelled on late Haydn is followed by the culminating distillation of Schubertian classicism that is his 'little' Symphony No. 5 (1816). Scored for chamber orchestra, it tells of much more of an influence of Mozart, for whom Schubert seemed to have felt a special affinity with around this time. Completing the album is Schubert's much more intense (with a turbulent first movement and serene second) Symphony No. 8 \"unfinished\" (1822), of which only the first two movements and a skeleton sketch of a third Scherzo movement were completed.","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46028054986986,"sku":"095115523421","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3855489.jpg?v=1786817824"},{"product_id":"janacek-orchestral-works-vol-1-bavouzet-gardner-199397","title":"Janacek: Orchestral Works Vol 1 \/ Bavouzet, Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic","description":"First some housekeeping. This version of the suite from The Cunning LIttle Vixen is allegedly the “final” edition prepared by Charles Mackerras, consisting largely of the Talich score (that is, most of Act 1) but with Janácek’s original orchestration restored. According to Janácek scholar John Tyrrell, who wrote the otherwise comprehensive notes, Mackerras planned to conduct the “final” version of his edition, but his death intervened and it was only premiered at his memorial concert in 2010. What Tyrrell does not make clear is that Mackerras played and recorded his “almost final” version of the suite with the Czech Philharmonic for Supraphon. It differs in no major way from that offered here. So if you think that this recording features something new, it doesn’t, for the most part. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e That said, this release represents an auspicious beginning to a new series of Janácek orchestral works. Gardner really is a good conductor. He plays the Sinfonietta swiftly and, happily, without an inappropriate effort to polish the music’s rough edges. There are a couple of quirky touches. The second movement starts quickly and then settles down to a marginally slower tempo for the rest. The fourth movement, too, after those two sudden eruptions towards the end, is taken very slowly for the last appearances of the main theme. I’m not sure that I like it because it sits oddly with the overall spunky tenor of the performance, but it’s not wrong, and it may improve on repetition.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Jean-Efflam Bavouzet plays a mean Capriccio, another swift performance, especially in the third movement, which the brass handle with aplomb. This is such a weird piece that you can do almost anything with it (or to it) and have it come out successfully, but Bavouzet’s fluidity in the spiky solo part, and the excellence of the ensemble generally, disarm criticism. Finally, Mackerras’ version of the Vixen suite is surely the way to play it, and Gardner doesn’t put a foot wrong. The SACD sonics are quite good–occasionally a touch low level, perhaps, but that’s easily remedied.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46039863525610,"sku":"095115514221","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2794548_2518bdf9-70af-494c-a89b-21b0f20a9467.jpg?v=1786759332"},{"product_id":"walton-viola-concerto-sonata-for-strings-partita-243561","title":"Walton: Viola Concerto, Sonata for Strings, Partita \/ Gardner, BBC Symphony","description":"\u003cimg src=\"\/graphics\/features\/gramophone_choice.jpg\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Also available from  \u003ci\u003eEdward Gardner\u003c\/i\u003e and the  \u003ci\u003eBBC Symphony Orchestra\u003c\/i\u003e on Chandos:  \u003ca href=\"album.jsp?album_id=1256466\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eWalton: Symphony 1, Violin Concerto \/ Little\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e and  \u003ca href=\"album.jsp?album_id=1735576\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eWalton: Symphony No 2, Cello Concerto \/ Watkins\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  In this third volume of Edward Gardner’s Walton series with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, James Ehnes leaves his violin to tackle the taxing soloist role in the Viola Concerto. In a recent Strad interview, Ehnes confesses: ‘This is a piece I have loved since I was a teenager, so it is wonderful that the opportunity has come my way to record it... With Walton’s Viola Concerto, none of the writing is impossible but a lot of it is close. And in a way that is exactly where you want it to be: on the edge of technical limitations. There’s a tremendous amount of excitement in that.’ This album in surround sound also features two much later works: the 1957 Partita for Orchestra and the Sonata for String Orchestra, adapted in 1971 from the String Quartet in A minor of 1945 – 47. There is a striking contrast between the uncomfortable modernism of the up-and-coming young composer’s Viola Concerto and the relaxed brilliance of the mature Partita. But the Sonata shows Walton late in his life re-engaging as an arranger with his earlier manner, and so with the characteristic vein of restless unease that runs through most of his output.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  -----\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  Ehnes and Gardner take us back to pre-Menuhin tempos, only a fraction slower than William Primrose’s pioneering 1946 recording. There’s a grand sweep to the performance which is wholly engaging in its refusal to wallow. Ehnes’s burnished viola tone is noble and warm. Gardner conducts a lithe performance of the Sonata for string orchestra, and a suitably boisterous Partita to fill out the disc.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  – Gramophone","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46039864049898,"sku":"095115521021","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3778078.jpg?v=1786712585"},{"product_id":"leeds-international-piano-competition-2018","title":"LEEDS INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION 2018","description":"2018 release. Warner Classics and Askonas Holt are proud to announce the signing of 20-year old Americanpianist, Eric Lu, winner and Dame Fanny Waterman Gold Medallist at the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition 2018. As part of this year's coveted prize the winner receives worldwide management with Askonas Holt - one of the world's leading arts management agencies, and an international album release on Warner Classics - one of the foremost global classical music recording companies. This is the first time a record label and a management agency partner with 'The Leeds' to createa ground-breaking portfolio prize designed with long-term career development in mind. The recording deal is a corner-stone of it's new prize package, designed to redefine what a music competition can offer young performers. Both, Warner Classics and Askonas Holt, aim to ensure that the winner has the opportunities, support and advice to develop a significant long-term international career.","brand":"WARNER CLASSICS","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46130474385642,"sku":"190295552152","price":17.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3828953.jpg?v=1786811588"}],"url":"https:\/\/arkivmusic.com\/collections\/edward-gardner.oembed?page=2","provider":"ArkivMusic","version":"1.0","type":"link"}