The works recorded here are by Maximilian Steinberg and Dmitry Shostakovich, the first is the teacher of the second, and both are representatives of different generations in Russian music of the 20th century. Written at almost the same time, their works are very different in their genres, their way of thinking and their imagery. Steinberg's symphony, a fully mature work, remains faithful to the traditions of Russian and European cultures and is set apart by it's conceptualisation of the theme "Personality and the World". Performed in Russia and abroad only during the 1930s, it is recorded here for the first time; a new discovery for lovers of symphonic music undoubtedly awaits. The young Shostakovich, unlike his mentor, grew up in the atmosphere of the avant-garde and the demolition of tradition. In his early ballet The Bolt he paid tribute to the era of socialist industrialisation and created a light-hearted, divertimento-like work, although it does not lack a certain daring. It's theatricality and satirical nature are perfectly suited to the Ural Youth Symphony Orchestra, whose musicians are around the same age as Shostakovich when he composed the ballet.

Musical fireworks flare and dazzle in this New Year's concert! This live recording of the 2024 New Year's concert is Philzuid's seventh album - and it's a very different New Year's concert with Latin rhythms and American dance in the foreground. Chief conductor Duncan Ward takes us from Gershwin's lively Overture from Strike Up the Band to a radiant Adriana Bignagni Lesca in Montsalvage's Cinco canciones negras. The dancing continues with Bernstein's On the Town: Three Dance Episodes and ends with a premiere: the first recording of the swinging Cuban Suite by young composer Jenny Pena Campo.

The polyphonic choral concerto performed a cappella first appeared in Russian music at the beginning of the 18th century. Sacred in origin, it began as a multimovement setting of liturgical texts. Although it later became more secular in character, it nonetheless retained an elevated nature thanks to its use of Christian imagery. Most of the composers who worked in this genre were choirmasters and conductors, and inherited the traditions of the oldest professional choirs in Russia: the Moscow Synodal Choir and the Saint Petersburg Court Chapel.

The Golden Age of the Russian choral concerto came with the works of Dmitry Bortnyansky and Stepan Degtyarev during the reign of Catherine the Great. The genre took a new turn at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, thanks to the efforts of Pavel Chesnokov, Sergei Rachmaninov and Alexander Arkhangelsky. Composers during the later 20th century had greater freedom to choose their poetic texts and to modify the form of the genre: they could make use of secular themes, as did Georgy Sviridov in Pushkin’s Garland, or follow the spiritual and philosophical path of the genre, as we see in Valery Gavrilin’s Chimes.

The pianist Pierre Solot here rediscovers the works of Ernesto Lecuona: their roots lie in many cultures and blend romantic virtuosity, Cuban dances, passionate avowals, evocations of distant lands, and the last decadent traces of 19th-century Vienna. � The Cuban-born Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963), a composer and virtuoso pianist, was acclaimed by both George Gershwin and Maurice Ravel when he toured Europe and the United States, following in the footsteps of the 19th-century piano virtuosi who, driven by their passion, set concert halls and audiences aflame. These were pianists whose charismatic wizardry transformed the piano into an orchestra that could not only set the world ablaze and make it dance, but also evoke solitude and lovelorn exile.

“Concertos Without Orchestra” is the concept of the young Turkish pianist Sa­lih Can Gevrek, Associate Artist at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, for his first CD recording. He presents two mirrored works, both of which are imbued with references to the musical style and structure of concertos with orchestra. J. S. Bach’s famous Italian Concerto is subtly linked to Schumann’s lesser known but equally virtuoso Sonata No. 3 in F minor Op. 14, also known as the “Concerto without orchestra”. Rachmaninov’s rarely recorded Moments musicaux com­plete this musical panorama to commemorate the 80th anniversary of his death. This recording offers the listener a real voyage through the Baroque, Romantic and post-Romantic periods, drama and poetry expressed in music supply the connection between these three very different works.

The Pacific Quintet have gone beyond the standard classical repertoire and have selected pieces that represent their diversity. Its musicians were born and raised all over the globe — Japan, Honduras, South Korea, Germany, and Ukraine/Turkey — and here present music from their home countries, transcending all differences of culture, language, and tradition. Two pieces, one by the Honduran composer Jorge Santos and the other by the South Korean female composer Soeui Lee, were commissioned especially for this album, which also includes Fazil Say’s quintet Alevi dedeler raki masasinda and a medley of Japanese folk songs; Hanns Eisler’s Divertimento represents Germany, the Pacific Quintet’s home base. The album ends with an arrangement of music from West Side Story and pays homage to Leonard Bernstein, the founder of the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo where the players first met. As this project shows, they are truly United in music.

Peter Benoit (1834-1901) inspired a renaissance in Flemish music, composing magnificent choral works in Flemish despite the cultural predominance of French in Belgian society. Many of his compositions were performed during open-air concerts attended by large crowds. Moreover, this changemaker also helped found several Antwerp art institutions that define local cultural life to this day. Benoit’s extensive and timeless oeuvre spans numerous genres, from religious music in Latin to monumental oratorios in the vernacular. As a proud ambassador of Benoit’s music, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra pays the ultimate tribute to the spiritual father of Flemish music with this CD box, featuring a collection of his greatest masterpieces, performed live with an international cast of soloists, choirs and conductors.

Philzuid's sixth album includes works by Louise Farrenc and Robert Schumann. This brave and welcome attempt to rewrite or at least re-evaluate music history features live recordings of Louise Farrenc's Third Symphony and Robert Schumann's Third (Rhenish) Symphony under chief conductor Duncan Ward. Female composers in the 19th century were not expected to pursue a career, let alone compete with the great symphonists of the period; Schumann, however, had all eyes and ears on him whenever he premiered a new work or took up a new position.

The fifth album of Philzuid features works by Béla Bartók, Anders Hillborg and Claude Debussy. Chief conductor Duncan Ward takes you on a journey filled with innovative sounds and with folk music. Bartók developed his own tonal language through elements taken from folk music whilst Anders Hillborg’s surprising tonal language shows the influence of Scandinavian folk music and of Klezmer. Claude Debussy, however, turned Romantic tonality on its head with harmonies and melodies that owed part of their development to Javanese gamelan music.

My selection of works by Rameau, Rachmaninoff and Bach for this album weaves a tapestry of nostalgia for a Golden Age — an epoch of eternal beauty and purity in which time itself has a completely different meaning.
I have placed the works non-chronologically and in a tripartite form in order to present not only a better perception of time’s effects on the artist, performer and listener but also its presence in essence thanks to the composer’s art: Rameau’s Suite in G from his Nouvelles Suites de pièces de clavecin functions as a type of prelude, Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a theme of Corelli as the central element, and Bach’s French Suite in B minor as a postlude.
The time frames of the two Baroque cycles that open and close the album are extremely flexible; music of this period never seems to hurry — it is as if the com­poser is saying “Take your time — you have plenty of it — and breathe as freely as you want”. Rachmaninoff, however, pushes us out of our comfort zone, squeezing time like a spring or stopping it completely while reflecting upon the cruelty of the outside world and the harm that it does to harmony and beauty. I decided not to end this recording with the Variations on a theme of Corelli, given the work’s powerful emotional charge; the suite by Bach that concludes the album returns us to a state of harmony and gives us hope that there is time enough.
Konstantin Emelyanov

Alexander Rudin and the Ural Youth Symphony Orchestra here present two symphonies by Nikolai Myaskovsky — one of the most undiscovered composers of the 20th century. In his creative legacy, Myaskovsky equals his more famous contemporaries — Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Rudin has been deeply attached to Myaskovsky’s works for a long time; “I have been playing and recording his compositions for more than thirty years… Myaskovsky hardly ever lowered his standards of sincerity, noble taste, extraordinary depth and tragedy. He is an amazing composer, whose works cannot perhaps be immediately understood by everyone. You have to enter into his music and listen to it with an open heart. There is nothing funky about it and many of its connotations are encoded; the music is introverted and thus reflects the personality of the composer. It nonetheless makes a very strong impression and can provide the answers to the questions we face today”.

Rachmaninoff's Third and Second Symphonies are distanced from each other not only by thirty years but also by the turning point in history that bisected the destiny of the Russian intelligentsia. Rachmaninoff was full of creative energy and aspirations while writing the Second Symphony, in 1906-1907, even though he sought solitude in Dresden to feel the breath of his Motherland from a distance and to relate his own destiny to it. He was already a different person by the mid-1930s, struggling with the aftermath of his fate as an exile and summing up his life. He wrote this new work about Russia and himself - which was to become the Third Symphony - at villa Senar in Switzerland. The geographical distance was aggravated by the distance in time: a gravitation towards the cherished past, to which it was impossible to return. The Ural Philharmonic Orchestra under Dmitry Liss has repeatedly performed the Third Symphony in both Russia and abroad; they also performed it in La Folle Journee festival in Nantes in 2018. The orchestra's interpretation of Ravel's La Valse is similarly iconic; this gained particular recognition from European critics and opened the doors to the world's leading stages.

Composer Philippe Boesmans writes: "I’d read On purge bébé! even before I composed Pinocchio. I said to myself: ‘This is a wonderful play... but it’s impossible to turn it into an opera’. And if I say something like that, it means that I’m going to do it — it’s like I’m setting myself a kind of challenge! I liked a lot of things in this play. It’s rather malicious, as it presents an image of a smug, pretentious, and uneducated petty bourgeoisie and their complete dishonesty. I don’t think anyone has ever done an opera based one of Feydeau’s plays — at least, not that I know of. People don’t think of turning Feydeau into an opera..."

“I don’t want to betray that constantly sounding tone in me, through which I hear the world around,” acknowledged Sergei Rachmaninoff. This tone stimulated by the intonations of folk melodies and bell ringing, and the imagery of the Russian landscape, permeates his Second Symphony. It became a landmark work for the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, whose performances in the leading concert venues of Europe and Asia were widely admired. Dmitry Liss, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Orchestra has created a musical collective of remarkable quality during his 25-year tenure. A life-long personal favorite of Liss, Rachmaninoff is frequently included in the Orchestra’s programs, both in Russia and abroad. “For me, his music is as much a symbol of the flourishing Russian culture of the Silver Age as works by Bunin and Chekhov”, states Liss. “His music always captivates me with its incredible emotional sincerity expressed in a reserved, noble and aristocratic way. Perhaps it’s this combination which gives his music such extraordinary depth.”

César Franck considered Les Béatitudes, for soloists, choir and orchestra, to be his greatest work. It was perhaps Johann Sebastian Bach's St. Matthew Passion that prompted him to begin a work in 1869 that too would be dominated by the voice of Christ. Franck worked on Les Béatitudes for ten years and created an original and deeply personal renewal of the oratorio form in 19th-century France. This is no simple musical depiction of a subject taken from the Gospel: Franck, a firm believer in the precepts of the Beatitudes, was here inspired to write a bold and personal work, driven by the ideal of justice that its music unforgettable portrays.

London 1651: the third year of Civil War. Opera houses and theatres are shut down, but the nightlife is buzzing: people enjoy a few hours of escape thanks to carefree dancing, cheerful songs and good drinks, living for today and not tomorrow. There’s so much life in the traditional tunes, virtuosic divisions and popular songs that were well-known thanks to the theatres! PRISMA takes us ona trip through the bars and pubs of London and explores the British dance music of the seventeenth century. This program comprises melodies from the famous collection The English Dancing Master, as well as music from The Division Violin, Scottish and Irish folk tunes, and even some later hits like Danny Boy – all served up in PRISMA’s spontaneous and lively signature style!

From the dawn of time, across the four corners of the world, exile has left its mark on the landscape of men…and on the songs of women. Mediaeval songs by trouvères and nuns (The women who stayed), Iberian and Sephardic songs (The women who left) are woven around Exils, a set of four pieces composed by Thierry De Mey in homage to all those women (from ancient times to our modern and highly topical times) who never reached their place of exile...

This album of works by Debussy, Prokofiev and Barber aims to show not only the fascination of the increasing complexity of musical language in the 20th century but also the desire to preserve the ideas and achievements of previous musical epochs. The expansion of tonality and the search for new rhythmic and acoustic solutions in the first book of Debussy’s Préludes are followed by Prokofiev’s Visions fugitives, perhaps his only work that was clearly influenced by Impressionism.

Some pieces from Visions fugitives could seem to be part of Debussy’s cycle, although Prokofiev’s famous Feroce offers electrifying rhythms and sharp dissonances. I have chosen Barber’s Piano Sonata as my final work. This unique masterpiece literally sprouted from the soil of 20th century musical discoveries but still retained Baroque and Classical structures. The stunning fugue that concludes the sonata sounds like a manifesto: no matter how far the creative process takes us, there is always something constant to which we will always return. (Konstantin Emelyanov)

From the Second Empire to the Roaring Twenties, Alexandra Soumm, the Orchestre de chambre Pelleas and Benjamin Levy paint a ruffled, nostalgic and swaying portrait of the City of Light, spanning seventy years of music. This recording, a testament to the musical and human affinities forged over many years between these performers, is also a return to the sources of creative fount, with the first recording of Tzigane in the new �Ravel Edition� and the first recording of the orchestration of Emmanuel Chabrier's Bourree fantasque according to the sketches left unfinished by the composer. From the crinolines of Georges Bizet's adolescence to the wisps of cigar smoke in the dreamy Brazil of Le Boeuf sur le toit, let's immerse ourselves in an era when Paris set the tempo for cosmopolitan, carefree celebrations.

Hailed by the music press as one of the most gifted pianists of her generation and recipient of many international awards, established German-Italian pianist and ECHO winner Sophie Pacini invites us on a very personal journey across the pianistic cosmos. In her own words: “On this album, I have combined pieces which have accompanied and reassured me in seemingly small, but ultimately crucial moments of my life.”

Since her concert debut at the age of eight and her training in the highly gifted institute of the Mozarteum Salzburg, Sophie Pacini has played in many important concert halls worldwide, including the Philharmonie Berlin, Philharmonie and Prinzregententheater Munich, Suntory & Orchard Hall Tokyo, KKL Luzern, and Kurhaus Wiesbaden. Sophie's special focus is on communicating classical music to the next generation, in the context of her own concert activities and in numerous publications.

Coline Dutilleul writes: "What could be more fascinating than the play of light and shadow? To descend into sensual melancholy, to dare to be fragile and to reveal oneself in its depths and inner nuances. I find that one way of illustrating this complexity of the senses is to compare two musical and pictorial schools: French Impressionism and German Expressionism. The colors and timbres employed by these two schools have long fascinated me just as much as the extreme refinement and detail of the paintings and compositions themselves. Each painter and composer explored the depths of the human soul in his or her own manner. This program of works composed between 1899-1914 that laid the foundations for modern music is intended as a bridge between Expressionism and Impressionism. This parallel does not claim to illustrate their differences but rather to highlight their common points, to reveal the voluptuous and almost decadent sensuality of these two currents as well as their geographical and stylistic contrasts."

Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony is one of conductor Dmitry Liss’ favourite works. It is close to his heart because it encapsulates an ethical standard. Orchestras from countries that have experienced dictature and repression have a special relation to this work. The performers immediately understand what is behind the notation; the mysteries, the magic of ambiguities, the playing with fire. To express oneself so personally is extremely hazardous and Shostakovich does it with sublime skill. Dmitry Liss says he comes closer to the music and admires it more and more each time he conducts it. The Ural Philharmonic Orchestra has performed the work in major venues all over Europe.

The forest has always been an important place for Olivia Gay. She wanders through the woods alone, listening not only to its silence but also to its murmurs. It is a place of creation where her cellist’s instincts are awakened and where she can find peace and quiet outside the city. She joined forces with the Office national des forêts (ONF) in 2022 to raise public awareness of such spaces by inviting spectators to concerts given in the heart of the forest or in natural site. This album continues this project and includes works by Jacques Offenbach, Camille Pépin, Edward Elgar, John Luther Adams and Max Richter; the program as a whole is under the aegis of Antonin Dvorák’s magnificent Silent Woods, which also lent its name to this initiative.

A program of works by Sergei Prokofiev performed by Dmitry Liss and the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra in Yekaterinburg in June 2021 caused the audience to react with extraordinary enthusiasm and a storm of emotion. Critics stated that its outstanding performance and interpretation deserve to be recorded for future generations: yet another acknowledgment that this orchestra, the winner of the 2020 National Critics Prize, should now be classified as one of the best performing today. This album by the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra is a celebration of Prokofiev’s 130th anniversary.

In February 2021, when public concerts had been cancelled for several months, the musicians of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne were able to meet behind closed doors on the stage of the Opéra de Lausanne in order to record this disc under the direction of Heinz Holliger. An album released in 2013 presented an earlier recording collaboration between the Bernese conductor and the Lausanne-based ensemble with two works by Schoenberg (Verklärte Nacht and the Chamber Symphony No. 2) and an early piece by his pupil Anton Webern (Langsamer Satz). Nearly a decade later, the same performers are reunited and continue to highlight these two leading composers of the Second Viennese School.