John Williams: Flute Concerto – Bernard Herrmann Souvenirs d
PENTATONE
CD
$19.99Jul 24, 2026
The Singapore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Darrell Ang and Joshua Tan, presents a compelling programme that explores the rich and often unexpected dialogue between film and concert music, featuring works by John Williams, Bernard Herrmann, and Hugo Friedhofer. Once considered distinct spheres, these worlds are brought together through compositions that reveal the breadth and depth of three composers whose artistry extends far beyond the screen. At the centre of the programme is Williams' Concerto for Solo Flute, Strings and Percussion (starring Singapore Symphony Principal Flutist Jin Ta), a work of striking imagination and expressive range, complemented by his Essay for Strings (1965), an early yet already assured statement of his concert voice. Alongside these works, Herrmann's Souvenirs de Voyage for clarinet quintet, here heard in the late Hans Sørensen's adaptation for clarinet and string orchestra, receives it's world premiere recording with clarinettist Ma Yue, offering a vivid example of the composer's distinctive harmonic language in a concert setting. Friedhofer's Suite for 5 Woodwinds, also presented in a world premiere recording, further enriches the programme with it's inventive textures and stylistic range. Together, these works highlight a shared spirit of exploration, brought to life with clarity and refinement by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in a release that continues it's distinguished collaboration with PENTATONE.
John Williams and "The President's Own", Vol. 1 & 2
Naxos
CD
$26.99$29.99Save 10%Jun 19, 2026
In 2002, anticipating the 205th anniversary year of "The President's Own" Marine Band, the then-Directors of this beloved ensemble invited John Williams to conduct a gala concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The legendary American composer graciously accepted, noting that his own father, a percussionist, had taught his son to love and respect the Marine Band from a young age. Williams first appeared with the band on July 12, 2003, one day after the band's official 205th birthday, thus inaugurating a long collaboration sustained by mutual respect and admiration. Williams would return to the Kennedy Center for another concert, this time in celebration of the band's 210th anniversary, in 2008. Several of his most enduring works were prepared especially for the Marine Band for these concerts, from film soundtrack highlights to original concert works. These full-length gala concerts from 2003 and 2008 are, taken together, a tour de force of some of Williams' most popular and creative scores, and serve as the primary source for this unique new recording collection. "Performing with 'The President's Own, '" writes Williams, "has been one of the highest honors of my working life in music. My great hope is that listeners of this special recording will experience some of the exhilaration and fun that I enjoyed conducting these two memorable performances... this ensemble truly is a national treasure of which all Americans should be justly proud."
Following the huge success of the album Spotlight on John Williams, the City Light Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kevin Griffiths, returns with an equally spectacular follow-up project: Sound of Adventure. The double CD brings together legendary film themes that embody a spirit of adventure, imagination, and emotional depth in equal measure-a tribute to the great soundscapes of Hollywood. An album that not only delights film music fans, but also impressively translates the orchestral artistry of the great screen composers into concert format.
American Tapestry by the Calidore String Quartet weaves together a panoramic portrait of American musical expression across the 20th and 21st centuries. The programme spans Samuel Barber's lyrical String Quartet No. 1, featuring the iconic Adagio; Wynton Marsalis's jazz-inflected At the Octoroon Balls; and John Williams's With Malice Toward None-here in it's world premiere string quartet version. The album concludes with Erich Korngold's radiant String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, written in postwar Los Angeles. Together, these works reveal a vibrant continuum of American artistry-a sound world both richly diverse and deeply unified in spirit.
After releasing the complete set of Ennio Morricone's Cinema Suites for violin and orchestra on two albums (Cinema Suites, A495 and Cinema Rarities, A554), Marco Serino now presents world premiere recordings of the Maestro's own arrangements for violin and piano. Marco is joined by pianist Leandro Piccioni, who, like Marco, brings over twenty years of experience working closely with Morricone in his favoured orchestra, Roma Sinfonietta. These original arrangements, all from celebrated soundtracks, represent the point of departure for an original anthology in which the two musicians investigate the wider repertoire connected to the cinema. Cinema Memories ranges from works that have since become classics such as the Three Pieces from Schindler's List by John Williams to Bernstein's West Side Story Suite, one of the outright masterpieces of musicals on film, and Myroslav Skoryk's Melody in A minor, a jewel of a piece that has since become a sort of national anthem for the Ukrainian people. It is a programme that interweaves memory and imagination, melancholy and light, dreams and reality, making each listening experience a truly multifaceted experience.
Williams & Bernstein / Ehnes, Denève, St. Louis Symphony
PENTATONE
CD
$19.99Apr 26, 2024
The St. Louis Symphony and their music director Stéphane Denève present a program featuring two of the most accomplished American composers in history: Leonard Bernstein with his Serenade and John Williams with his Violin Concerto, both performed by star James Ehnes, one of the most exceptional North American violinists. John Williams himself was present at the recording of his violin concerto, working together with the St. Louis Symphony, Denève, and Ehnes.
Both works evolve around love: Bernstein’s Serenade was inspired by musings on love from Plato’s Symposium while Williams’s work was arguably inspired and eventually dedicated to his suddenly deceased wife. By combining these two concert pieces, this album puts the symphonic work of Bernstein and Williams at the center, two composers who weren’t afraid of crossing the boundaries between film music and “serious” classical genres at a time when these worlds were generally kept far apart. Especially in Williams' concerto, there are still hints of his work as a film composer; the slow movement brings to mind a scene of emotional gravity.
Widely considered one of the world's finest orchestras, the SLSO maintains its commitment to artistic excellence, educational impact, and community connections. The St. Louis Symphony, Stéphane Denève, and James Ehnes all make their Pentatone debut.
REVIEWS:
Dutch label Pentatone continues to champion American orchestras with the Saint Louis Symphony’s recording of violin concertos by John Williams and Leonard Bernstein. Williams dedicated the 1974 Violin Concerto No. 1 to his late wife, the actress Barbara Ruick. It’s a serious-minded, sometimes bleak affair, and Williams has called it atonal, though it seems harmonically straightforward enough.
With a 30-minute, three-movement sweep, Williams's concerto is expansive too. Canadian violinist James Ehnes is the thoughtful soloist, investing the music with deserved gravitas and fully on top of its technical challenges. Stéphane Denève leads a weighty reading, darkly dramatic in the opening “Moderato,” consoling in the glowing slow movement (which Ehnes plays like an angel), and incisive in the intermittently clangorous finale.
Bernstein’s Serenade has been recorded many times, but this astute interpretation is a welcome reminder of both its wistful profundity and its headstrong vigor. Ehnes and Denève open the debate spaciously with an expressive account of the “Phaedrus” movement. “Aristophanes” seems to channel graceful elements out of Candide, while a weighty “Socrates” gives way to the jazzy joie de vivre of “Alcibiades.” The violin sound is clean and clear, offset against a slightly resonant orchestra.
-- Musical America (Clive Paget)
Violinist James Ehnes’ discography is so extensive that it was only a question of when he’d get around to recording Leonard Bernstein’sSerenade, not if. What’s more striking about his new recording with Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is that it pairs Bernstein’s 1954 effort with John Williams’ Violin Concerto No. 1.
The Williams dates from the mid-‘70s and was written right after the untimely death of his first wife, the actress Barbara Ruick. Its brooding, volatile aspect perhaps owes something to that context – the central “Slowly in peaceful concentration” unfolds like an elegiac barcarolle – though this is hardly funereal music.
In fact, the Concerto marked a turning point in Williams’ concert music, allowing him to cultivate what he called the “Romantic [Atonal], but in an American way”-style he’d long been striving for...there’s a motivic rigor here that’s straight out of the Brahms-Schoenberg line and the writing for violin and orchestra is thoroughly idiomatic...[here, it is] exceptionally well played and draws out the tight thematic relationships between each movement. The Canadian violinist makes the most of the introspective spots – the middle movement, the reflective episode in the center of the finale, especially – while also suffusing its bravura passagework with purpose and direction.
Denève and the SLSO are right with him, teasing out the music’s gentle echoes of Hollywood and sometimes mercurial shifts of character with surety and ease.
They make for an impressive combination, too, in the Bernstein. Take or leave the score’s programmatic allusions to Plato’sSymposium: theSerenadeis one of the American composer’s freshest and most satisfying concert works.
Here, Ehnes plays with gorgeous tone – the clarity of his bow arm is just marvelous, as is his left hand’s ability to cleanly and purposefully get the music’s knotty double and triple stops to sing. Over theSerenade’sfirst three movements, too, there’s a strong sense of shape and propulsion: this is well-focused, graceful, spry Bernstein.
Born in Zurich 1988, into a traditionally Jewish family, Anne grew up in Zurich, Washington D.C. and Basel. She started to play the violin at the age of six and was immediately drawn to the beautiful sound of this instrument. After graduating from Music-Gymnasium in Basel, Anne pursued her studies at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK) with the renown teacher Nora Chastain. Another important influence she gained from an Erasmus year in Munich, studying with Ingolf Turban, famous for his virtuoso violin playing. In 2013 and 2015 Anne finished her Masters of Performance and Masters of Pedagogy with distinction. The album recording 'The Essential Hebrew Violin' with arrangements for violin and chamber orchestra recorded for the first time was inspired by a concert Anne Battegay played in 2020 on the occasion of the European Day of Jewish Culture at the Zwinglihaus in Basel.
From the late Romanticism of the music from Pearl Harbor to the delicacy and refinement of The Girl with the Pearl Earring, Anna Scheps brings the full resources of the piano to bear on some of the most beautiful and rousing film scores of the last half century. Her arrangements for piano exude eloquent virtuosity and Lisztian rhapsodic lyricism as well as razor-sharp dynamism in the case of Mission: Impossible. She also includes the evocative sound world of Isaac Albéniz and the sparkling elegance of Scarlatti sonatas to create an album of ambitious bravura and poetry.
REVIEW:
There’s no doubting the virtuosic talent on display here and some of the arrangements are rather insightful, taking familiar cinematic ditties to new musical heights.
Mozart, J. Williams et al.: Portrait of a Concertmaster / Ferenc Kiss
Bella Musica
CD
$20.99Jul 15, 2022
Ferenc Kiss was born in Budapest in 1943.He began to play the violin and piano at the age of 5, first learning with his father who was concert master of the Hungarian Radio Orchestra, then at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music from 1959, and also inDüsseldorf with Sándor Végh. He made his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 20, and from 1965 he played throughout Europe, Mexico and Japan, as well as making recordings for numerous Radio and TV Stations all over the world. From 1963 he became concertmaster of the Philharmonia Hungarica, then later at Opera Saarbrücken 1968-74, München Symphonie Orchestra 1974-79, and from1979 at the German State Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been a guest concertmaster and soloist for many years with orchestras such as the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Köln Radio Orchestra, Opera Nürnberg, Basque National Orchestra (San Sebastian), Orchestra Sinfonica di Bolzano e Trento, Symphony Orchestra Xalapa (Mexico) and Pro Arte Orchestra München. This is his first Portrait album.
Bach, Saint-Saëns, J. Williams et al.: enCORes / Hervé Joulain & Tatiana Chernichka
Tyxart
CD
$20.99Jul 15, 2022
Encores are works with strong expressive power. Here original music and own arrangements. At the age of 48, Hervé Joulain has already performed concerts of Haydn, Saint-Saëns, Strauss, Britten... In the year 2000 he made his debut in America and Canada with Strauss and Mozart with 110 different orchestras. The French hornist performed with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (1987–1997), with the Orchestre National de France (1997), and with the Orchestre de Paris under the direction of renowned conductors like Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Metha, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Maazel, Seiji Ozawa, Eliahu Inbal, Kurt Mazur, Charles Dutoit, Riccardo Muti, Bernard Haitink, Claudio Abbado. Since December 2002 he has been the solo French hornist in the Symphonica Toscanini (Italy).
Giacchino, Göransson & Williams: Star Wars Stories - Music from The Mandalorian, Rogue One & Solo
Sony Masterworks
CD
$11.98May 04, 2022
A collection of the most famous melodies and fan favorite tracks from the recent Star Wars universe including The Mandalorian, Solo and Rogue One. The compilation features main themes, epic orchestral tracks and emotional songs, paying tribute to the originals by John Williams, Michael Giacchino and Ludwig Göransson.
Michael Giacchino writes of his score for Rogue One: “I had four and a half weeks to write this score, and since it happened so quickly, I think adrenaline just took over. I was only hoping that I could come up with something that I would be happy with when I saw it in the theater. If at that moment, my focus has been on the fact that this was Star Wars, I am not sure I would have been able to get done what I had to do in the time frame I was given. It wasn’t until I was on the scoring stage at Fox that it hit me. I decided to have the orchestra play John Williams’ main title as a warm up, to set the mood, and to test the mics. It was at that moment I thought, “This is insane that I am getting to do this!”. After all, I saw Star Wars when I was nine, and that score and that film is what inspired me and set me on the path that I am on today.”
Includes:
Music from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Main Theme (From “Star Wars: Rogue One”) Imperial Suite (From “Star Wars: Rogue One”) Jedha City Ambush(From “Star Wars: Rogue One”) Jyn Erso and Hope (From “Star Wars: Rogue One”) Hope and End Credits (From “Star Wars: Rogue One”)
Music from Solo: A Star Wars Story
Meet Han (From “Solo: A Star Wars Story”) Flying with Chewie (From “Solo: A Star Wars Story”) Reminiscence Therapy (From “Solo: A Star Wars Story”) The Adventures of Han (From “Solo: A Star Wars Story”)
Music from Star Wars: The Mandalorian
Main Theme (From “Star Wars: The Mandalorian”) Grogu Theme (From “Star Wars: The Mandalorian”) Luke Skywalker Hallway Theme (From “Star Wars: The Mandalorian”) Boba Fett Theme (From “Star Wars: The Mandalorian”) End Theme (From “Star Wars: The Mandalorian”)
From the nature sounds of the opening to the edgy "heavy metal" of the conclusion: this GENUIN release by the Lake Brass Ensemble is a production full of good humor and meaty sounds! The young musicians under Norbert Stertz perform this richly orchestrated brass music with an impressive low brass group, with two tenor horns and a tuba providing a velvety, fleshy lining to the brilliance of their dazzling colleagues. In addition to two world premiere recordings - Kerry Turner's Lake Constance Fantasy and Alexander Reuber's Cerberus - the tracklist features known and unknown, but above all magically shimmering works: film music by Hans Zimmer and John Williams, symphonic selections by Gustav Mahler, and chamber music by Dmitri Shostakovich. Simply brilliant!
Zoltan & Peter Katona write: “A couple of years ago we were invited to play a Hollywood themed programme in Grafenegg/Austria. We quickly arranged a handful of well-known film music pieces and performed them along with some original compositions for two guitars by M. C. Tedesco, a prolific film music composer in the forties and fifties. We couldn’t omit the king of gypsy jazz: Django Reinhardt, whose compositions often enliven Hollywood films. The concert was a huge success and we received an unusually high number of requests for a film music themed record. From this, our Hollywood and Swing album was borne. Some of our choices of repertoire might seem over ambitious, especially when reducing the whole orchestral sound to two guitars. We hope nevertheless, that our interpretation of these iconic Hollywood film scores like “The Deer Hunter” or the beautiful tunes from the “West Side Story“ will provide the listener with as much pleasure as we had playing them.”
Itzhak Perlman: Complete RCA & Columbia Album Collection
Sony Masterworks
CD
$59.98Aug 07, 2020
In celebration of the great Israeli-American violinist’s 75th birthday, Sony Classical is proud to present the first-ever collection of Itzhak Perlman’s complete recordings for RCA and CBS/Sony in a single box set: 18 CDs spanning the years 1965 to 2012.
Itzhak Perlman has dominated the world of violin virtuosos for half a century. His TV appearances had already made him a household name in the US by the time he was 13. A few years later came his Carnegie Hall debut, then the prestigious Leventritt Award, followed by triumphant tours of Israel, North America and Europe between 1965 and 1968. By then he was an international celebrity and recognized “not just as the finest violinist of his generation but as one of the greatest musical talents to emerge since World War II” (leading string authority Tully Potter writing in the NEW GROVE).
And it was then that Perlman began his illustrious, virtually unparalleled career as a recording artist. His first sessions for RCA, accompanied by pianist David Garvey – with works ranging from sonatas by Handel, Leclair and Hindemith to showpieces by Paganini, Bazzini, Sarasate and Falla – took place in New York in 1965 but were not issued for nearly 40 years because the label felt concertos would make a more suitable commercial debut for the rising star. When an album of these pieces was finally released – as “Perlman Rediscovered”, in 2004 – it was hailed “an outstanding tribute to one of the great names among violinists of any age, as well as a remarkably varied and interesting recital in its own right” (ClassicsToday). These tracks are, of course, included in the new collection.
Perlman’s first concerto efforts for RCA – the Tchaikovsky, Sibelius and Prokofiev Second, with Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony – were set down in 1966/1967 and released the following years as his recording debut. ClassicsToday acclaimed them in a recent reissue as “offering playing that is gutsy and shamelessly virtuosic, and with a sharper rhythmic focus than Perlman often achieved subsequently. The finale of the Sibelius remains a potent example of the playing’s youthful fire.” In 1969, Perlman recorded what was arguably one of the finest albums of his career, the two Prokofiev Sonatas (which he never remade), partnered by pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy at the beginning of their long and distinguished collaboration: “Delicate where needs be … and yet with a Heifetzian resilience that both sonatas willingly respond to … Perlman and Ashkenazy play with astonishing virtuosity” (Gramophone).
Itzhak Perlman’s work for American Columbia began in the mid-1970s and – apart from Bach and Vivaldi multi-violin concertos with Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman and the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta – cover a wide swath of chamber music with special partners: pianists Daniel Barenboim and Emanuel Ax, cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Harrell and guitarist John Williams. The Mendelssohn Piano Trios with Ax and Ma, first released in 2010, appear here for the first time in a Perlman collection (“…ensemble balance, clarity of inner part-writing, drama, lyricism, and phrase shaping of the highest order … I find these performances not just outstanding; I find them astounding” (Fanfare).
That other John Williams, the legendary composer for the silver screen, was Perlman’s collaborator in another medium, the movies: his two best-selling “Cinema Serenade” albums arranged and conducted by Williams, with Perlman featured in selections from such classic films as Modern Times, Gone with the Wind, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Out of Africa, Cinema Paradiso, The Color Purple and, of course, the theme that Perlman memorably performed on the soundtrack of Williams’s Oscar-winning score for the Spielberg masterpiece Schindler’s List.
New to Perlman CD editions are two complete soundtrack albums: John Williams’s “elegant and thoughtful score” for Memoirs of a Geisha in which the violinist is joined by Yo-Yo Ma and to which Perlman “brings a magical and peculiarly oriental sound to his violin-playing” (Gramophone), and the music for Yimou Zhang’s Hero by Tan Dun: “Few composers today write more effective melodies for bowed strings” (Gramophone). And to round off this uniquely wide-ranging survey of the violinist’s musical passions and triumphs, in its first appearance in a Perlman collection, the artist is joined by golden-voiced cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot in Eternal Echoes, a highly praised album of liturgical and traditional selections which the violinist has affectionately described as “Jewish comfort music – everything that I recognize from my childhood is in this program.”
SET CONTENTS
DISC 1: Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 63 Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47
DISC 2: Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35, TH 59 Dvořák: Romance in F Minor, Op. 11, B. 39
DISC 3: Prokofiev: Violin Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 80 Prokofiev: Violin Sonata in D Major No. 2, Op. 94bis
DISC 4: Lalo: Symphonie espagnole, Op. 21 Ravel: Tzigane, M. 76 (Version for Violin & Orchestra)
DISC 5: Paganini: Centone di sonate, Op. 64, MS 112 (Sonata No. 1 in A Minor) Paganini: Sonata for Violin and Guitar in E Minor, Op. 3, No. 6, MS 27 Paganini: Sonata concertata in A Major, Op. 61, MS 2 Giuliani: Duo concertante in E Minor, Op. 25 "Grand Sonata" Giuliani: Cantabile in D Major, Op. 17, MS 109
DISC 6: Dohnányi: Serenade in C Major, Op. 10 Beethoven: Serenade in D Major, Op. 8
DISC 7: Bach, J.S.: Concerto for 2 Violins in D Minor, BWV 1043 Vivaldi: Concerto for 3 Violins in F Major, RV 551 Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E-Flat Major, K. 364
DISC 8: Chausson: Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet in D Major, Op. 21
DISC 9: Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78 Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 100 Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 108
DISC 10: Mozart: Duo for Violin & Viola in G Major, K. 423 Mozart: Duo for Violin and Viola, K. 424 Leclair: 6 Sonatas for 2 Violins, Op. 3, No. 4
DISC 11: Lubbock/Rosenbaum/Jones/Temperton: The Color Purple: Main Title Gardel: Scent of a Woman: Tango (Por Una Cabeza) Legrand: Yentl: Papa, Can You Hear Me? Bacalov: Il Postino: Theme Bernstein: The Age of Innocence: Theme Williams: Theme (From "Far and Away") Legrand: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg: I Will Wait for You Previn: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Theme Williams: Sabrina: Theme Barry: Out of Africa: Main Title Bonfa: Black Orpheus: Manha de Carnaval Williams: Main Theme (From "Schindler's List") Morricone: Love Theme (From "Cinema Paradiso")
DISC 12: Raksin: Theme from "Laura" (1944) Steiner: Theme from Now, Voyager (1942) Chaplin: Smile from "Modern Times" (1936) Rózsa: Love Theme from Lost Weekend (1945) Young: St. Patrick's Day from The Quiet Man (1952) (Traditional) Korngold: Marian & Robin Love Theme from "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938) Hupfeld: As Time Goes By from "Casablanca" (1942) Walton: Touch Her Soft Lips and Part (From "Henry V") Young: Stella by Starlight from The Uninvited (1944) Young: Theme from My Foolish Heart (1949) Steiner: Tara's Theme (From "Gone with the Wind" 1939) Newman: Cathy's Theme from "Wuthering Heights" (1939)
DISC 13: Tan Dun: Works
DISC 14: Paganini: 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1, MS 25 Ben-Haim: Berceuse Sfaradite Sarasate: Navarra, Op. 33 Handel: Violin Sonata in E Major, Op. 1 No. 15, HWV 373 Hindemith: Violin Sonata, Op. 11 No. 1 in E-Flat Leclair: Violin Sonata, Op. 9 No. 3 in D Bloch: Baal Shem: II. Nigun (Version for Violin & Piano) Falla: Spanish Dance No. 1 (from La vida breve) Bazzini: La ronde des lutins, Op. 25
DISC 15: John Williams: Works
DISC 16: Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 49 Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 2 in C Minor Op. 66 Mendelssohn: Songs without Words, Op. 19, No. 1 Sweet Remembrance" - Andante con moto" Mendelssohn: Songs without Words, Op. 38, No. 2 - Allegro non troppo
DISC 17: Berditchever: A Dudele Shenker: Mizmor L'Dovid Goldfaden: Shoyfer Shel Moshiakh Schwartz: Romanian Doyne Rosenblatt: T'filas Tal Traditional: Yism'chu Schloßberg: R'tzay Traditional: Dem Trisker Rebns Khosid Schorr: Sheyibone Bays Hamikdosh Traditional: Kol Nidrei
DISC 18: Tchaikovsky: Sérénade mélancolique, Op. 26, TH 56 Tchaikovsky: Valse-Scherzo, Op. 34, TH 58 Dvořák: Romance in F Minor, Op. 11, B. 39 Dvořák: 8 Humoresques, Op. 101, B. 187: No. 7, Poco lento e grazioso (Transcribed by Oscar Morawetz for Violin, Cello & Orchestra) Dvořák: Piano Trio No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 90, B. 166: "Dumky", V. Allegro Dvořák: Slavonic Dances, Op. 72, B. 147: No. 2, Dumka. Allegretto grazioso Halvorsen: Passacaglia and Sarabande for Violin and Viola (With Variations on a Theme by Handel) Walton: Canzonetta from Henry V Williams: Air and Simple Gifts
The Greek word 'kosmos' is our ethos in a nutshell. It means the world, the universe, people, order from chaos, honour and is also the name of a flower. Kosmos transcends boundaries, and connects people from all around the world. With our shared passion for music from across the globe -from Argentina to Japan-we create bridges between classical and non-classical music, and our music dances across them. All the music on this album is arranged and composed together by us for our signature combination of violin, viola and classical accordion. This recording is a one-off performance, just as each and every one of our concert performances is always novel and singular. Kosmos is a trio of award-winning, international musicians who have performed worldwide, with live broadcasts on national radio including BBC Radio and Classic FM. They regularly tour international festivals (including Poland, Italy, Spain, Greece, Scotland, Channel Islands). In 2018 acclaimed composer Errollyn Wallen wrote a Triple Concerto for Kosmos, which was premiered at the Jersey Royal Opera House and Chichester Cathedral. Their previous album released by Nimbus, Pomegranate, was highly acclaimed as 'a delight from start to finish' by Guy Rickards of Gramophone Magazine.
Great Classic Film Music / Sutherland, Philharmonic Concert Orchestra
SOMM Recordings
CD
$20.99Jul 19, 2019
This fine collection of arguably the Greatest Film Music ever written brings together on one album music from some of the most memorable films ever made. Opening with the unforgettable music from the ground-breaking 1977 movie ‘Star Wars’ by the greatest living composer of film music, John Williams, this selection includes a unique 14-minute concert suite of music from the film. Other Williams scores for Stephen Spielberg blockbusters include those for the unforgettable fantasy ‘E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial’ and the haunting science fiction ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’. This album also looks back to the heyday of Hollywood, with scores by Max Steiner – from ‘Gone With the Wind’ – and the undisputed Master of the genre, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, with music from ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ and the weepie ‘Escape Me Never’. The hit theme from ‘The Big Country’ by Jerome Moross is also here, and British music from legendary U.K. movies widens the scope of this unique collection, with two great film scores by Sir William Walton – ‘Henry V’, starring Laurence Olivier, and ‘The First of the Few’ – the famous ‘Spitfire Prelude and Fugue’ – as well as the great Ron Goodwin’s memorable ‘633 Squadron’ alongside music from two Soviet composers: Prokofiev’s score for ‘Alexander Nevsky’ and Aram Khachaturian’s famous ‘Adagio from Spartacus’, featured in the romantic historical drama ‘Mayerling’. All in all, this SOMM release should form part of any collection, conducted by the great Scottish-born Maestro Iain Sutherland, directing the Philharmonic Promenade Orchestra of Hilversum.
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REVIEW:
Expertly recorded by conductor Iain Sutherland and the Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, Great Classic Film Music captures the magic of cinema through the music we know and love.
John Christopher Williams, OBE (born 24 April 1941) is an Australian virtuosic classical guitarist renowned for his ensemble playing as well as his interpretation and promotion of the modern classical guitar repertoire. In 1973, he shared a Grammy Award in the Best Chamber Music Performance category with fellow guitarist Julian Bream for Julian and John (Works by Lawes, Carulli, Albéniz, Granados). Guitar historian Graham Wade has said: "John is perhaps the most technically accomplished guitarist the world has seen." This third instalment in the IDIS John Williams Beginning of a Legend series includes works recorded in the studio in 1961, when John was only 20 years old. Works include compositions by Ponce and Torroba as well as traditional songs for voice and guitar.
Bernstein: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Suite, Slava!, CBS Music & A Bernstein Birthday Bouquet / Alsop, Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra
Naxos
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Oct 12, 2018
This recording brings together music from some of Leonard Bernstein's best-loved scores with seldom heard occasional works and premiere recordings. From the iconic musical West Side Story, the hot-blooded dance number 'Mambo' embodies the show's dramatic tensions. 'Slava!' celebrates Bernstein's friend and colleague, the cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, in music reworked from the daring show 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, from which the Suite rescues further highlights. 'CBS Music' has not ben heard since the broadcasting giant's 50th anniversary celebrations in 1978, while the 'Birthday Bouquet' takes the form of affectionate musical tributes from eight composer colleagues to one of the twentieth century's greatest musicians. Marin Alsop is an inspiring and powerful voice in the international music scene who passionately believes that "music has the power to change lives." She became music director of the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra in 2012 and made history in 2013 as the first female conductor of the BBC's Last Night of the Proms, which she returned to conduct in 2015. As a student of Leonard Bernstein, Alsop is central to his 100th anniversary celebrations, conducting Bernstein's 'Mass' at the Ravina Festival, where she serves as musical curator for 2018 and 2019.
For TRACKLIST/PERFORMERS SUMMARY, please expand note below:
One of the best parts of the Halle Christmas celebration is the inclusion of the entire Halle family- the Halle and Halle Choir, as well as Halle’s Youth Choir and Children’s Choir. This lovely collection of popular, rare, and newly discovered holiday gems will bring festivity to all of your holiday gatherings. Compositions include works from film composers such as John Williams and Nigel Hess, as well as choral superstars like John Rutter and John Gardner. Especially notable is the orchestral showpiece Noel!, which was written specifically for Halle and conductor Stephen Bell by Roderick Elms, and is receiving here its world premiere recording. “A lovely festive celebration and a reminder of what Christmas is all about” (Oldham Chronicle)
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TRACKLIST/PERFORMERS:
A Christmas Overture - Nigel Hess O Holy Night Adam - arr. Battiwalla * Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day - John Gardner ^ In Dulci Jubilo - arr. Pearsall *^ Noel - Roderick Elms Somewhere in my Memory - John Williams ~ Fairytale Sleighride - Adam Saunders Angels’ Carol - John Rutter * Waltz, Winter Bonfire - Sergei Prokofiev Personent Hodie - arr. Gustav Holst * The Holy Boy - John Ireland Jesus Christ the Apple Tree - Elizabeth Poston ^ A Christmas Carnival - Richard Bissill In The Bleak Midwinter - Harold Darke/Christina Rossetti *^ Dance of the Tumblers - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Christmas on the Beach at Waikiki - Marta Keen arr. Alwyn Green ~ Sleighride - Leroy Anderson We wish you a Merry Christmas *^
This album is the first to present an entire program of works by Debussy and Ravel, the greatest exponents of Impressionism in music, transcribed for two guitars. The arrangements bring new life to the rich canvas of sonorities and complex harmonies in these popular works. The reflective atmosphere in Debussy's famous Clair de lune and special upper-harmonic effects in La plus que lente contrast with the "merry romp" of the Golliwog's Cakewalk and Ravel's nod to Schubert in the Valses nobles et sentimentales.
Commissioned by Richard Gregson-Williamson in 1989 for the Exeter Festival, Plague and the Moonflower by Richard Harvey takes the listener into an uneasy world, teetering on the precipice of the millennium, and tortured by fear. Alongside the scoring by Harvey is an exceptional libretto by Ralph Steadman. Performing on this recording are the Choir of New College, Oxford, under the direction of Edward Higginbottom, the New London Children’s Choir, under the direction of Ronald Corp, and the English Chamber Choir.
A 4 CD extravaganza of John Williams’ soundtrack and film score music joins the 12th batch of box sets released as a part of the Sony Classical Masters Series and provides a colossal reminder of Williams’ prodigious breadth and ubiquity of his works in some of the most culture defining films of the recent Hollywood era. With a disc devoted to his Star War scores, and another to his orchestral works and Olympics inspired works; the collection also features popular orchestras and soloists including Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic and more.
Rodrigo: Concierto De Aranjuez, Fantasia Para Un Gentilhombre; Villa-Lobos / John Williams
Sony Masterworks
CD
$9.98Apr 05, 2011
There has been no shortage of good versions of the Concierto de Aranjuez, a tribute to its unique charms in this virtually impossible concerto genre. John Williams himself has already made one of the finest, yet if possible even more conclusively this new one must be counted a winner, irresistible from first to last. The differences in interpretation are relatively minor but add up significantly. Broadly speaking Williams allows himself mole rhythmic freedom this time, more expressive rubato in the slow movement (taken a fraction slower), more infectious pointing in the outer movements. Quite simply it may be a question of Williams nowadays enjoying himself more in the recording studio, tensing-up a fraction less. The first movement is more carefree than before, and there the comparison with Bream is interesting. Bream has his lilting manner all right, but he is fiercer, less relaxed than the latter-day Williams. Williams before showed himself the most formidable technician, rigorously precise: now he shows himself as that and more, giving Rodrigo's haunting but trivial ideas extra flair and imagination.
The recording this time still puts the solo instrument well to the fore (how else can you balance a guitar concerto?) but there is more light and shade. Compare for example the passage in the first movement where the solo cello enters. The Philadelphia playing under Ormandy is marvellously well drilled, but the EGO under Barenboim matches the delicacy of Williams more subtly, helped by the recording.
Maybe it is my imagination but the balance in the Villa-Lobos Concerto on the reverse seems to balance the soloist closer still. In the first movement the closeness gives extra emphasis. The more natural balance given to Bream on his RCA version exposes the flimsiness of the argument—not difficult, I fear, in this work. In the last movement it is rather the other way about with Bream finding far more charm and fantasy, where Williams's fine playing is not helped by the closeness, the relative absence of light and shade. In any case comparisons are largely academic, when the couplings are so different. Anyone wanting the most delightful of guitar concertos—I refer to the Rodrigo— coupled with a different concerto from last time will be well satisfied with the new disc. Williams has rarely projected his musical personality more positively on record. Quite apart from balances, the recording is sweeter and clearer than last time.
