Originally released in 2007, Artur Pizarro and Vita Panomariovaite’s ‘Rimsky-Korsakov: Piano Duos’ has been re-issued as part of Linn’s ECHO series. These two talented pianists bring to bear their skill and virtuosity in three colorful arrangements encompassing Rimsky-Korsakov’s most popular music for orchestra, Scheherazade, Sadko and Capriccio Espagnol. Mr. Pizarro’s prize-winning performance at the Leeds Piano Competition marked the beginning of his international concert career. “…wonderful… very effective, evocative and exhilarating performances.” (Int’l Record Review)

Robin Ticciati’s recording debut, Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, received rave reviews: it was named Critics’ Choice ‘Sound of 2012’ (The Independent), ‘Classical CD of the Week’ (The Sunday Times), ‘Disc of the Week’ (BBC Radio 3 ‘Record Review’) and was #3 in The Sunday Times’ Best Classical Albums of 2012 list. Ticciati brings out the deep colours and emotions of this composition while balancing the orchestra and keeping the pace to create an impressive and dynamic sound throughout, showing similar flair to that of his teacher the great Berliozian Sir Colin Davis. The works of Berlioz have featured prominently in Ticciati’s programmes with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra since he was appointed Principal Conductor in 2009 earning critical acclaim. With this recording Ticciati succeeds in his aim to offer audiences ‘a thought-provoking and new way of listening to the piece’. With a performance of this calibre it is easy to see why Symphonie Fantastique continues to be one of the most popular early Romantic compositions with today’s audiences.

Winner of the 2024 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition, the trio Ayres Extemporae make it's recording debut on Linn Records with a programme that explores various colours and textures made available by the group's unusual combination of violin, five-string cello and cello. Erbarme dich! Represents a spiritual journey from torment to redemption built around the instrumental transcriptions of arias and sonatas by J. S. Bach, interwoven with the expressive depth of works by Biber and Locke. It is a profound reflection on these universal themes, tracing the full spectrum of human emotion from anger, guilt or remorse to acceptance and, ultimately, peace. The aria from the cantata BWV 55 lends it's name to this programme: a plea for mercy of touching vulnerability, signalling the beginning of the journey towards absolution.

Classical Music

The popular Ensemble Marsyas returns with a diverse programme of concerti, wind music and Scottish songs by composers Francesco Barsanti and George Grideric Handel, centred around the music composed for The Edinburgh Musical Society. Horn soloists Alec Frank-Gemmill and Joseph Walters take centre stage in Handel's Concerto for French Horns, exemplifying the extraordinary vogue for horn music at this time. Timpanist Alan Emslie joins them for Barsanti's Concerti gross Op. 3, an unusual concertino comprising timpani and natural horns. Barsanti's four ''Old Scots Tunes'', notable as one of the first examples of Scottish Traditional music to be faithfully transcribed, introduces fiddle player Colin Scobie. Completing the programme is Handel's aria 'Sta nell'Iracana' from Alcina, featuring mezzo-soprano Emilie Renard, and the March for Wind Band, HWV 346.

Peter Whelan champions the music of Matthew Dubourg in his recording debut as Artistic Director of the Irish Baroque Orchestra. Dubourg, a pupil of Francesco Geminiani, was a charismatic virtuoso and composer who Whelan believes deserves to be acknowledged as one of Ireland’s most influential musicians. With many of his compositions having only recently come to light, most are presented here for the very first time including the world premiere of the ode ‘Crowned with a more illustrious light’. The eclectic programme showcases a composer whose music is shot-through with humanity, charm, virtuosity and wit. The works includes arrangements of Irish traditional melodies, music written for royal celebrations and virtuosic violin solos in the fashionable Italian style. A Corelli violin sonata and a violin concerto by Vivaldi paint a picture of the musical landscape in which Dubourg’s creativity flourished. This recording is an exciting rediscovery of long forgotten, but truly wonderful, music from Ireland’s past.

For her recital debut the in-demand concerto soloist Katherine Bryan performs a selection of twentieth-century concertos, including the rarely recorded Liebermann Concerto for Flute and Orchestra. The Liebermann concerto has rarely been recorded in it's entirety. Commissioned and originally performed by James Galway, the concerto is considered one of the most substantial and significant additions to the flute repertoire in recent years. Considered 'a flautist's dream composer' (BBC Music Magazine) Liebermann's writing is full of optimistic, audience-friendly and tuneful melodies with rapid-fire fingering passages that showcase the technical prowess of the soloist. Katherine stated: 'I feel that Lowell Liebermann's concerto encompasses all the emotions and colours of which the flute is so brilliantly capable and it is for me, quite simply a twentieth-century virtuoso masterpiece, and thrilling to play.' The inclusion of works by Hu�e, Nielsen and Poulenc in the programme shows the particular diversity of the flute, demonstrating the variety of repertoire composed for the instrument during the twentieth century.

Scottish Ensemble’s new release fuses together French and Japanese influences. Featuring works by Debussy and Takemitsu, instrumental color and textures are explored through these works. Scottish Ensemble is the UK’s only professional string orchestra. They are built around a core twelve members, and are known throughout the United Kingdom for their virtuosic and ambitious programming. ”…a scintillation of ace soloists who combine bracing energy, flexibility and precision, breathing and moving as one.” (The Observer)

‘Makedonissimo’, meaning ‘very Macedonian’, sees pianist Simon Trpceski take a detour from Beethoven and Brahms to celebrate the music of his homeland. Trpceski takes listeners on a joyous tour through the incredible rhythms and haunting melodies of the Macedonian folk music tradition in which highly intricate, jazz-influenced riffs and harmonies are seamlessly interwoven. Inspired by Trpceski’s passion for the folk traditions of his homeland Macedonian composer Pande Shahov (b. 1973) created a six movement cycle he called Pletenki (Plaits). In these new arrangements Shahov merges his own sound world – one which is influenced by impressionist attitudes to resonance and jazz harmony – with Macedonia’s traditional music. This project had its world premiere in May 2017 at the Ludwigsburg Festival, Germany and went on to wow audiences in the UK (London, Liverpool, Birmingham), Slovenia (Ljubljana), France (Lille), Poland (Warsaw, Szczecin, Gdansk, Katowice), the Netherlands (Amsterdam), Serbia (Belgrade) and South Korea (Jeongseon, Wonju, Chuncheon). Led by Trpceski on piano the quintet of virtuosi musicians comprises Aleksandar Krapovski violin, Alexander Somov cello, Hidan Mamudov clarinet, saxophone, kaval and Vlatko Nushev percussion.

This is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Francesco Piemontesi's summer 2017 release, Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 25 & 26. This recording finds the 'dream team' of Piemontesi, Andrew Manze and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra back together for two further concertos: the graceful and sunny Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major and the mellow and magnificent Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, which was Mozart's last. When Piemontesi performed No. 27 at the 2018 BBC Proms, The Independent commented: 'Piemontesi gave a definitive performance... his sound was gloriously transparent throughout'. This well-established team garnered multiple accolades for their debut recording together (Benchmark Recording France Musique, Recording of the Year Presto Classical, Excepcional Scherzo, Editor's Choice Gramophone, Album of the Week Classic FM) which increases the weight of expectation for this new recording. In addition the orchestra has recorded the Rondo in A major, K. 386, which only survived in the form of a piano arrangement by Cipriani Potter, whose father was a pupil of Mozart. Fittingly this piece was reconstructed by the SCO's Conductor Laureate Sir Charles Mackerras in 1989 and it is this orchestral version which is performed here. Widely considered one of the world's greatest Mozart orchestras, the SCO finds an ideal foil in the freshness and spontaneity of Piemontesi's playing.

Shortlisted for the Gramophone Awards!

This recording brings together three youthful masterworks all composed by Benjamin Britten before his 30th birthday. Originally released in 2005 'Britten: Les Illuminations' has been re-issued as part of Linn's ECHO series which offers a second chance to enjoy the best of the label's award-winning catalogue. These are highly insightful performances, widely considered to be modern reference versions to set next to Britten's own. Clio Gould and the ensemble demonstrate playing of impressive unanimity of purpose, joyous intensity and clarity of detail. The ensemble is joined by the Royal Philharmonic Society's 2012 'Singer of the Year' Toby Spence, for two of Britten's most popular song cycles. Toby Spence's voice is ideally suited to the wide-ranging demands that Britten makes on it; his tonal freshness and acutely observed articulation of the words are absorbing. Martin Owen, whose horn playing has drawn comparisons with Dennis Brain, is equal to every one of the near-impossible tasks set him by Britten in the Serenade. Re-defining the string orchestra, Scottish Ensemble inspires audiences with vibrant and powerful performances. Scottish Ensemble is the UK's only professional string orchestra, built around a core of twelve outstanding string players. The ensemble is known both in the UK and internationally for it's versatility and ambitious programming. Performing standing up, the individual layers bring an energetic and passionate dynamic to every performance.

Peter Whelan and the Irish Baroque Orchestra explore the music in Ireland from the 1750s to 1770s. Following a live performance, The Irish Times wrote that ‘Whelan and the IBO are lively guides to this repertoire’ which marks a revolutionary moment where the structures of Baroque music break down and we see the emergence of the Classical style. Many trailblazing early classical composers visited Ireland during this time including van Maldere, Pasquali and Giordani (some even incorporate Irish traditional melodies into their symphonies).

Perhaps the most famous visitor to Ireland at this time was the superstar castrato, Giusto Tenducci, who had works especially written for him by Mozart, Haydn and J. C. Bach. To tell his swashbuckling tale, IBO is joined by present-day superstar Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, performing works which would have been sung by Tenducci in Ireland. This programme also includes modern-day premieres from the collection at the National Library of Ireland including van Maldere’s Sinfonia in G, known as the ‘Dublin’ Sinfonia, Giordani’s much-admired Overture and Irish Medley to the entertainment of The Isle of Saints and The Braes of Ballenden by J. C. Bach.

REVIEWS:

Whilst in Dublin...Tenducci also arranged operas for the Smock Alley Theatre. We hear two arias from the opera. First the virtuoso ‘Amid a thousand racking woes’ which Erraught sings with warm tone and engaging bravura, well supported by the orchestra in what is quite a substantial instrumental accompaniment. The second aria is the simpler lament, ‘Water parted from the sea’ which understandably became the hit number, so much so that Dublin street boys sang a song about him which was quoted and parodied by James Joyce in Finnegan's Wake.

Johann Christian Bach was in fact another of Tenducci's friends...When Tenducci visited Edinburgh in the 1760s for the Scottish premiere of Artaxerxes, he got Bach to arrange some Scottish songs for him which were included in the production(!). Two have been lost, but we are able to hear Bach's version of The Braes of Ballenden.

In 1778, Bach was in Paris auditioning singers for the production of his opera Amadis de Gaule and Tenducci was with him. Also in Paris at the time was Mozart, to whom Tenducci taught singing. Mozart wrote to his father ‘Tenducci is here … He is Bach’s bosom friend. He also was greatly delighted to see me again … I am composing a scena for Tenducci, which is to be performed on Sunday; it is for pianoforte, oboe, horn and bassoon’ (27 August 1778). Frustratingly, the work is now lost, so the performers complete the programme with another work by Mozart written in the 1770s for another star castrato, sacred motet Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165[.]

Here Whelan and his forces have created an engaging and fascinating recital which draws a number of threads together.

-- Planet Hugill

BRUCKNER Symphony No. 2 (arr. Payne). J. STRAUSS II Wein, Weib und Gesang (arr. Berg) • Trevor Pinnock, cond; Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ens • LINN 442 (SACD: 65: 39)


A Bruckner symphony arranged for chamber orchestra? That really shouldn’t work—but it does, and it’s a spectacular success. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, principal of the Royal Academy of Music, is the brains behind the project, and top honors go to him for his astute choice of symphony and even more astute choice of arranger, the composer Anthony Payne. Add to that the arrangement itself, which is a triumph of clarity and timbral focus, an interpretation from Trevor Pinnock, who proves to be an insightful Brucknerian (who knew?), orchestral playing from students who need fear no comparisons with the finest professionals, and exceptional SACD audio, and the result is an unqualified success on every count.


The release is the second in a series called Reigniting Schoenberg’s Vision . The idea is to recreate—or even reinvent—Schoenberg’s famous Society for Private Musical Performances, performing some of the chamber arrangements of symphonic works made for those events, and even, as in this case, correcting Schoenberg’s omissions by adding to the repertoire. Bruckner’s Second “Symphonie” (as it’s referred to throughout the accompanying literature, a curious affectation) is a daring but smart choice. While it is not particularly small of stature, its identity, character, and charm emanate more from its quieter passages than from its climaxes. Payne follows the spirit more than the letter of the Schoenberg/Berg/Stein arrangements, using a 20-piece ensemble, larger than in any of the Vienna reworkings, but substituting the full orchestra in similar ways, particularly in the use of piano and harmonium to provide essential, although usually invisible, support.


Some of the climaxes feel underpowered, but even here the pros of the arrangement outweigh the cons. We hear the stratospheric violin lines, the chugging bass figures, and the brass fanfares with a rare clarity. But it is in the quieter passages that this version really comes into its own. At the start, for example, the theme is given to the cellos. Here, we hear it as a cello solo, elegantly phrased and all the more beautiful for the sense of intimacy a single player can bring. In later passages, the bassoon writing is a particular revelation, and just as beautifully played. The opening of the Andante second movement, pared down to string sextet, is transporting in a way that only the very finest recordings of the full symphony manage. Some of the scherzo sounds a little hollow, but Pinnock and his small brass section ensure the momentum is maintained through finely calibrated accentuation. And in the finale, an appropriate gravitas is achieved, even in the absence of weight.


Trevor Pinnock brings many of the preoccupations of the period instrument movement to bear on the work, yet it never sounds dry. Details of phrasing and accentuation are addressed in every bar, and the smaller ensemble allows him to shape and color accompanying textures with as much care as the main themes. His tempos are propulsive, but never rigid, nor excessively fast. He seems to be in a quandary over the caesuras. The tutti cut-offs don’t need the time to decay, but the severity of the mood changes often require a pause for reflection, which he always gives.


The instrumentalists perform to an exceptionally high standard throughout. The playing of the string sextet is particularly impressive, highly expressive but finely controlled and balanced. So too the woodwind soloists, blending their tone in ensemble but taking full advantage of the increased exposure in solos to play with character and color. To all the other accolades for Jonathan Freeman-Attwood we must also add recording producer, another field in which he excels. The recording was made at St. George’s Bristol, and the sound is warm, but never excessively resonant. The clarity that Payne achieves in his arrangement is amplified at every step by the quality of the recorded sound.


If I’ve one grumble, it’s with the coupling, Alban Berg’s arrangement of Wine, Women, and Song . It follows hard on the heels of the Bruckner without any gap at all (not even time to jump up and switch it off) and it adds little. In comparison to Payne’s detailed and clear textures in the Bruckner, Berg’s arrangement feels bloated and unfocused. Berg had a different acoustic in mind of course, and a different setting in every sense. Presumably this arrangement is included to highlight the link with the Society for Private Musical Performances, but it’s unnecessary. Whatever inspiration Freeman-Attwood, Payne, and the RAM musicians have drawn from Schoenberg is of only historical interest as far as this recording is concerned: The project needs no further justification than the exceptional quality of the results.


FANFARE: Gavin Dixon

Duo Pleyel releases its second album on Linn, following its ‘winning performances’ (BBC Music Magazine) of Schubert. Richard Egarr and Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya perform the complete original works for piano four-hands by the unjustly neglected composer Jan Ladislav Dussek. Born into a Bohemian musical family, Jan Ladislav led a colorful life, both personally and as a virtuoso. He was a much sought-after teacher and helped push forward the development of the piano. Before his death in 1812 (perhaps helped by a fondness for strong drink and rich food) he enjoyed the company of the great and the good from all walks of life and travelled widely throughout Europe. His somewhat roguish character led to him having to flee for his safety on at least two occasions. Once from Russia, where he was accused of participating in a plot against the Empress, and again from London, where a joint publishing venture (with his father-in-law and a certain Lorenzo Da Ponte) went bankrupt. Despite these dubious personal flaws, Dussek was an acclaimed and hugely important composer and pianist during his lifetime. Duo Pleyel offers you a delicious and hearty musical feast – it is time for Dussek to be back on the world’s musical menu.

Performed by the talented Nigel North, this album is an outstanding collection of early lute music. The pieces chosen for this album contain a great deal of variety. The forty two pieces cover composers from France, England, Italy, and the Low Countries, showing how each region used the instrument differently. This album is being released as part of Linn’s ECHO series, and was originally released in 2000. Nigel North is one of the world’s most respected lutenists. He is also an active teacher, accompanist, director, and writer.

This laid back program of classics by powerhouse jazz composers Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn adequately show Tommy Smith’s virtuosic saxophone playing. Smith does a fantastic job of keeping the composers’ intentions in mind, while still adding his own colors and textures to these classics. Smith is accompanied here by an all-star trio of musicians, including Kenny Barron, Peter Washington and Billy Drummond. Many of these tracks were recorded in just one take. This album was originally released in 1998, and is being re-issued here as part of Linn’s ECHO series.

For his fifth recording with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Robin Ticciati conducts a captivating programme of Richard Strauss including Tod und Verklärung and Don Juan. The scandalous story of the insatiable Don Juan forms the inspiration for a tone poem which is rich in imagination and dramatic flourishes. Tod und Verklärungis further testament to Strauss's vivid imagination; his exploration of the mystery of death and what may follow was written when he was only twenty-five. Ticciati is a consummate Straussian, as his triumphant Rosenkavalier at Glyndebourne demonstrated, and his complete control of phrase shape and dynamics delivers performances of tremendous power and lucidity. Soprano Louise Alder joins Ticciati and the DSO to record what she describes as 'a fiendish but beloved cycle of Strauss songs': Sechs Lieder, Op. 68, affectionately known as the Brentano Lieder. The recording is released to coincide with Ticciati's fourth season as Music Director of the DSO.

Richard Strauss and the Viennese Trumpet is the latest in Jonathan Freeman-Attwood's imaginative series of musical reinventions for trumpet and piano. Works by Fux, Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler, Bruckner, Webern and Zemlinsky complement the core work: a newly imagined Strauss trumpet sonata. Building on his highly successful transcriptions of sonatas by Faur�, Grieg, Mendelssohn and Schumann, Freeman-Attwood pushes the boundaries further delivering a fully-realized trumpet sonata which Strauss did not write. This innovative approach embraces various levels of transcription, transformation, realignment and composition to create a significant new contribution to the trumpet repertoire, full of the gloriously idiomatic writing for which Strauss is renowned. The material is variously drawn from the first movement of Strauss's Violin Sonata, Op. 18, a combination of both light and very significant arrangements of miscellaneous music, newly composed music, and development or transitions based on existing material within the Sonata. Pianist Chiyan Wong, who was awarded the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque by the Franz Liszt Society, accompanies Freeman-Attwood.

GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS • Pamela Thorby (rec); Andrew Lawrence-King (hp, psaltery) • LINN 291 (Hybrid multichannel SACD: 67:01)


Music of ORTIZ, VAN EYCK, CASTELLO, DOWLAND, SCHOP, BASSANO, FONTANA, MARINI


Pamela Thorby has been recording for Linn for most of the label’s existence, both as ensemble player and soloist. This time she joins Andrew Lawrence-King (except for a few unaccompanied pieces) in a varied program of music of the 16th and 17th centuries. In his notes, the harpist has an explanation for the disc title in the literary use of the garden as a place of earthly delights (Hieronymus Bosch’s allusion) where lovemaking is accompanied by recorders and plucked strings. His essay lucidly explains some of the terminology too often taken for granted in music of this period. Diego Ortiz, in Trattado de glosas of 1553, illustrated three ways of playing music on instruments; hence the program uses three of his examples at the beginning, middle, and end of this program. Some of these pieces are adapted from earlier composers, such as Bassano after Lassus and Van Eyck after Caccini, while others are original. There is enough variation of mood and style to sustain interest. Thorby is a thoroughly accomplished player, using soprano, alto, and tenor instruments, while Lawrence-King, who uses a double harp and a triple harp (one track employs a psaltery), has five solo tracks. This is an offbeat disc that will hardly duplicate anything in your collection.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

This is a lovely recording. It is always good to be reminded of Monteverdi's third extant opera and the least well known of the three. It's also a sad reminder of how much of his work has been lost. However, this recording gave me a lot of pleasure. There aren't as many recordings out there of Ulisse as there are of Orfeo or Poppea. It has structural flaws which probably place it below its two companions, but what is represented here is excellent.

Martin Pearlman has made his own performing version of the score, working from the only surviving manuscript copy. He explains his editing decisions in the booklet note, and you can also hear him talk about it at length, if you're interested. You'd need to be a greater expert than I am to pick out any major differences from pre-existing versions. Suffice to say that Pearlman makes his own decisions about how to fill in the gaps that have been left in the score.

The result is a labor of love in which he has invested much of his time, energy and passion, and that comes across in what you hear. He has also assembled a team who have bought into his vision completely, performing with passion and total commitment. Central to the sound-world of the recording is the playing of Boston Baroque, Pearlman's own band. They sound as marvelous as their other recordings have led me to expect. There is a slightly acidic quality to their sound but it is very energetic and full of affection. This is a score, and an edition, that Pearlman knows well and wants to bring to life with beauty and affection. There were innumerable touches that brought it to fruition, such as the chattering brightness that the winds often brought to proceedings. Pearlman's way with the dance music is very convincing. I also loved vitality of the score for the brief pastoral scene at the opening of Act 2, full of tremendous verve. The orchestral accompaniment to the gods' scene in the third act also sounds very fine. Throughout the opera there is a focus on beauty above all. This never undermines the drama, however, and many little touches bring that to the fore over and over again.

The singing cast is excellent, too. Fernando Guimarães is magnificent as Ulisse himself. His voice is passionate, ardent and fully committed, a delight in this role which he makes sound totally human. His mannerisms are technically very impressive too. He knows and loves the style of the period, which makes him a first-rate travelling companion for Pearlman's vision. Jennifer Rivera's Penelope is, if anything, even better. Hers is a low, slightly husky voice but I fell for it completely. Her portrayal of the queen is sensual and dignified but deeply felt, and her opening lament is something that not just welcomes you into the opera but gets you hooked. She is equally fine during the climactic scene of Act 2 when she presents Ulysses' bow to the suitors for the contest, full of possibility but also ample regret. The greatest moment in the opera comes in the final recognition duet, where the voices of Guimarães and Rivera blend beautifully while the orchestra spins a beatific web of sound around them. It's a magnificent ending to the disc.

Aaron Sheehan is a dashing, youthful-sounding Telemaco, who sings with ardour and passion, linking him with but setting him apart from the sound of his father. As Melanto, Abigail Nims is energetic and skittish, a strong contrast to Penelope. Their duet towards the end of Act 1 is beautiful, not least due to the contributions of the Boston Baroque strings. Daniel Shirley's Eurimaco manages to convey much of the character's duplicity, and his voice blends beautifully with Nims'. Daniel Auchincloss is a surprisingly virile, affectionate Eumete, while Marc Molomot cuts a slightly ironic, rather unpleasant figure as Iro, but at least he knows that the part is little more than a comic caricature. The trio of suitors are surprisingly sympathetic, and their Act 2 trio with Penelope (Ama dunque, sì, sì) is very beguiling. Antinous has an eerie resonance, however, and Ulysses Thomas' resonant bass brings him to life very compellingly.

The gang of gods are also very convincing. João Fernandes is a rich, boomy Neptune - beautifully accompanied, first by the buzzing organ then by endearingly chattering cornetts - while Owen McIntosh's tenor makes a surprisingly young-sounding, vigorous Jupiter. Leah Wool is at first slightly warbly as Minerva, but she sounds more comfortable as the opera progresses. Sonja DuToit Tengblad is a bright, sparkly Juno. The Prologue, too, sets the tone for the rest of the opera to come: bouncy and full of life; not at all a mere forethought. The chorus don't have much to do, but what they have is done very well with lots of energy and bounce.

Even aside from its unique qualities, this Ulisse sits pretty close to the top of the available recordings that I've heard. Its studio perfection is more welcoming than Alan Curtis' live version, for all its merits, and, while I acknowledge his importance, I've never been able to love Harnoncourt's version which sounds paradoxically wilful and underdone in places. René Jacobs typically has his own quirks and, for once, I thought they worked rather well, but I now rate Pearlman's version very highly too. Definitely worth a look for Monteverdians old and new.

– MusicWeb International (Simon Thompson)

Classical Music

This 2014 recording saw Robin Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra embark upon their first symphonic cycle together in a performance which earnt widespread praise. Sir Simon Rattle commented, ‘Robin makes a clear case for how the revised version can retain the radical edge of the 1841 version. Still it sounds like a fireball and I take my hat off to him.’ Schumann: The Symphonies also won a prestigious Edison Award, received several five star reviews and featured in multiple critics’ ‘Best of 2014’ lists worldwide, including The Sunday Times Top 10. When Ticciati and the SCO performed the Third Symphony at the 2017 BBC Proms, the critics were equally effusive. The symphonies are very close to Robin Ticciati’s heart; Schumann is one of his favourite composers and has often spoken about how important poetry, colour and story are in Schumann’s music. The SCO’s smaller forces bring a lightness of touch and a clarity to the counterpoint; under Ticciati they achieve a sense of movement that no previous recording has.

-----

Ticciati clearly knows how he wants this music to go and his strong partnership with the Edinburgh players enables him to shape readings notable for their energy and individuality. Throughout the performances are characterised by a woodwind sweetness that is becoming a trademark of this orchestra.

– Gramophone

These performances of the Second and Seventh Symphonies are impressive–particularly the case with the Second. Despite the work’s popularity, or maybe because of it, no other Sibelius symphony has received so many disappointing recordings, some by very major conductors (think: Karajan, for example). Søndergård gets it right. The first movement moves swiftly and purposefully. Usually it’s taken too slowly, its pastoral freshness compromised. Not here. The second movement’s turbulent climaxes have plenty of the necessary ferocity, and the scherzo is simply stunning at the swiftest possible tempo. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales strings really do themselves proud. Søndergård paces the finale perfectly, and only a certain timidity in the trumpets prevents its heroic opening theme from projecting with sufficient brilliance. Otherwise, this is certainly one of the better recent versions.

As for the Seventh, there are no issues at all. At just twenty minutes, again, Søndergård reveals his understanding of the idiom and mastery of large scale architecture. The transitions, from the opening adagio to the initial allegro and back again, and then on to that sunny pastoral interlude, all proceed with the inevitability of fate itself. The orchestra’s woodwinds and solo trombone do some particularly excellent work throughout the symphony, and the closing pages have that warm glow of fulfillment that seems completely unique to the work. Again it’s a question of timing, particularly those final “amen” chords. Sonically the engineering is warm and well balanced, but the soft timpani and brass have a tendency to vanish into the texture and lose presence. Still, if this is the first disc in a planned cycle, it looks like it’s going to be a very good one.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Under the directorship of Jonathan Morton, Scottish Ensemble adds the Tchaikovsky Serenade, regarded by the composer as one of his finest works, to it's impressive Linn discography. Imbued with the classical spirit of Mozart, but with Tchaikovsky's style to the fore, the Serenade contains some strikingly effective scoring and an exhilarating Finale the ensemble relishes. SE brings the same level of precision and finish you would expect from a string quartet; this is particularly evident in the elegiac third movement, one of Tchaikovsky's most inspired musical moments. This recording also marks the premiere of Jonathan Morton's 2013 transcription of Shostakovich's Quartet No. 2. Drawn to the work's large, epic scale and the richness of it's sound-world, Morton was keen for the ensemble to tackle this masterpiece from the chamber repertoire. With his arrangement Morton adds to SE's enviable reputation for Shostakovich transcriptions established by the late Rudolph Barshai. Re-defining the string orchestra, Scottish Ensemble inspires audiences with vibrant and powerful performances. Scottish Ensemble is the UK's only professional string orchestra, built around a core of twelve outstanding string players. The ensemble is known both in the UK and internationally for it's versatility and ambitious programming. Performing standing up, the individual layers bring an energetic and passionate dynamic to every performance.