Classical Music

Left unfinished at the death of the composer, Gustav Mahler's Tenth Symphony has exerted an enormous fascination on musicologists as well as musicians – a kind of Holy Grail of 20th-century music. Recognized as an intensely personal work, it was initially consigned to respectful oblivion, but over the years, Alma Mahler, the composer’s widow, released more and more of Mahler’s sketches for publication, and gradually it became clear that he had in fact bequeathed an entire five-movement symphony in short score (i.e. written on three or four staves). Of this, nearly half had reached the stage of a draft orchestration, while the rest contained indications of the intended instrumentation. Over the years a number of different completions or performing versions of ‘the Tenth’ have seen the light of day. One of the most often performed and recorded of these is that by Deryck Cooke. Cooke himself insisted that his edition was not a ‘completion’ of the work, but rather a functional presentation of the materials as Mahler left them. Cooke’s performing version of the symphony is the one that Osmo Vanska has chosen to use for the seventh installment in his and the Minnesota Orchestra’s Mahler series, a cycle characterized by an unusual transparency and clarity of sound as well as musical conception.

REVIEW:

From the outset, Vänskä’s handling of the opening Adagio is sublime, its long themes opening up in endless waves thanks to the clean-toned Minnesota strings and the conductor’s perfectly judged balance between purposeful progress and emotional repose. BIS’s engineering is immaculate, simultaneously spacious and detailed, and presented with convincing weight and clarity. The contrast between the pristine pianissimo strings and the moment the Adagiofinally heaves its heart into its mouth is overwhelming.

The first Scherzo is nimble and fleet of foot, Vänskä’s insistence on delicacy over grotesquery tying it neatly to the first movement. Again, incident is brought out with considerable imagination and there’s some superb solo work from the Minnesota principals. This is musical storytelling at its finest.

In Vänskä’s hands the “Purgatorio” movement is a gossamer reflection of the younger composer in the carefree days of the Fourth Symphony upon which the clouds occasionally darken. Building his argument, Vänskä urges the fourth movement second Scherzo along while ensuring plenty of contrasts. “The devil is dancing this with me; madness, seize me and destroy me,” Mahler wrote at the top of this movement, ending with, “You alone know what it means. Ah! Ah! Farewell my lyre! Farewell, farewell, farewell, farewell. Ah! Ah!”.

Linking the two final movements is a dramatic coup. The sudden impact of the muffled drum – inspired by a funeral procession that Mahler and Alma witnessed from the window of their New York hotel room – is heart-stopping, as is the following progression in which the musical spools of Mahler’s life seem to gradually unravel towards that final page where Mahler scribbled, “für dich leben! für dich sterben! Almschi!” (To live for you! To die for you! Almschi!). Over 25 unmissable minutes, Vänskä interweaves the moving with the mercurial in a riveting demonstration of musical storytelling.

As this Minnesota cycle enters the final furlong, this Tenth is a major achievement.

– Limelight (Clive Paget)

Kalevala, the Finnish national epic, begins with the creation of the world – from a duck's egg – and goes on to relate a series of tales of magic and adventure. One of the most memorable characters is Kullervo, a flawed hero whose tragic story is told in the course of six songs or runos. These describe multiple murders, rape, incest and finally suicide – a powerful brew that has inspired several Finnish artists. Among them is Jean Sibelius, who in 1891 was a young music student in Vienna. At home in Finland a wave of nationalism was gaining momentum and the Kalevala was an important symbol in the struggle for independence from Russia. Sometimes called a choral symphony, Sibelius's Kullervo was premiered in 1892, receiving a mixed reception and the work was soon overshadowed by the First Symphony. Only in the 1970s did it became more widely known, at which time the score caused something of sensation. Faithful to the urgency and brutality of the score, the present recording was made at live performances at Symphony Hall in Minneapolis, with Osmo Vänskä directing the forces of the Minnesota Orchestra, joined by their Finnish guests Lilli Paasikivi, Tommi Hakala and the eminent YL Male Voice Choir.

This selection is a High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) recording.

For the latest instalment in their Mahler series, the Minnesota Orchestra under the direction of Osmo Vänskä presents what many consider to be the pinnacle of the Austrian composer’s entire work, the Ninth Symphony, his last completed symphony. After a vast and emotionally intense first movement that shows an astonishing fluidity of form, theme, texture and tonality, ‘the most glorious thing Mahler has written’ according to Alban Berg, the second movement brings joy and playfulness and seems to evoke both an urban Straussian world and folk music cultures. To the bitter irony and anger of the third movement the last movement, a mystical Adagio, seems to respond with ineffable tenderness. Often regarded as the composer’s monumental – both in terms of scale and emotional scope – leave-taking of the world, the Ninth Symphony can also be understood as a requiem for his daughter who died a few years before, an acknowledgment of the transience of life, a memorial to Vienna, an evocation of fading Austrian and Bohemian landscapes, a homage to a vanishing European cultural world.

1999 GRAMMY NOMINATED; Best Engineered, Classical

1998 GOLDEN NOTE AWARD Best Original Recording


"This disc is, in short, a marvel. The Minnesota Orchestra outplays the Concertgebouw, and the recording really blows away all the competition." -- David Hurwitz, CD Finder online magazine

". . .The performance is massively authoritative. The playing of the Minnesota Orchestra should cause concern in those European centers that have traditionally claimed preëminence in Bruckner performance." -- Michael Jameson, Fanfare

". . . Sound that is about as good as it gets. The recording achieves the sound of a real orchestra in a specific auditorium. A new demonstration classic is born." -- Wes Phillips, Stereophile

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

REVIEW:

All of the discs in this set have been reviewed individually, and in detail. Still, it's worth pointing out that this is unquestionably one of the great Beethoven cycles, and on SACD there's certainly none better. Osmo Vänskä manages to have the best of both worlds--an interpretive perspective enhanced by the latest scholarship, as performed by a great orchestra on a mission. And this is exactly what Beethoven needs: a point of view, and total commitment. There are no weak performances here. In the "Eroica" I was just a touch disappointed in the first movement when Vänskä's pursuit of the barely audible pianissimo threatened to become a mannerism, but that is about the only criticism possible to level at this set.

His Fifth blazes; the Seventh offers the apotheosis of excitement that never spins out of control. The early symphonies have charm and humor in abundance. The Fourth and Eighth reveal Beethoven's masterly command of movement and proportion with effortless enthusiasm. In the Sixth we find a perfect balance between programmatic description and symphonic logic. It's all capped by one of the great Ninths, with a perfectly timed Adagio and a gloriously sung finale. If you haven't been purchasing these discs as they were released, then get the box. It's one of the few cycles that maintains the highest standards all the way through, and the sonics are uniformly stunning.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.



REVIEW:

Vanska's Sibelius is all about clarity - of rhythm, of texture, of intention. It is zealously unfussy and entirely without exaggeration. But it can stop you in your tracks. One just knows that the ear-pricking clarity throughout these performances is of Vanska's and not the balance engineer's making.

The suddenness of the hush Vanska manages as we enter the "no-man's-land a few pages into the Third changes the way the air moves in the Minnesota Hall. There really isn't much to say about this performance (of the Sixth), it just feels perfectly balanced - in music as in nature. And the work's evaporating final chord is startling. As for the eleventh-hour resolution into C Major in the Seventh, it is as emphatic as it is precipitous.

– Gramophone

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

This selection is a High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) recording.

World Premiere Recording
includes interview with John Tavener 10:45

"Gorgeous, mystical music with the power to entrance. Sir John Taverner, a follower of the Greek Orthodox faith, writes simple, repetitive compositions that embody the spiritual essence of prayer. . . Slowing down – sitting or lying in silence by candlelight would be ideal – is essential to experience Tavener's reverential universe. This is a universe that is always with us, Tavener's music suggests, if we are only willing to align ourselves and tune in. . . Captured in demonstration quality 24–bit HDCD sound by Prof. Keith Johnson, this world premiere recording is an extraordinary achievement." – Jason Serinus, Bay Area Reporter 11/27/03

"The recording, a world premiere of this piece, is beyond reproach. Individual instruments are distinct and float in space. By his own words, Tavener recommends that the piece be played in a resonant acoustic. He could have not asked for a better place. The voices echo slightly off of the walls and ceiling creating an even more metaphysical feeling. I don't think I've heard a better piece to test your soundstage. There is little else I can provide. Tavener says Ikon of Eros is "humbly offered to those who have ears to hear." I suggest you take him up on it." — Bill Brooks, 12/03, Soundstage.com

Chosen by Andrew Quint of The Absolute Sound magazine as one of the ten best classical releases of 2003.

This selection is a HDCD (High Definiteion Compact Disc) recording.

First, you need to play this recording at a higher than normal level because it's got a very realistic dynamic range--which means that the opening's soft string chirpings won't register fully at a low level. But then, watch out (I said it's a realistic dynamic range): when the orchestra rips, you'll be abruptly transported to Minneapolis' Orchestra Hall. Okay, so what's all this state of the art 24-bit digital technology bringing to us? Namely one of the best Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances on disc! The playing by the Minnesota Orchestra is simply stupendous: tremendously unified ensemble, immaculate balances that let you hear all the important lines, and a palpable sense of enjoyment from the players (those trumpets rule!).


Eiji Oue sets an ideal tempo for the first movement and employs perfectly timed rubato in its lyrical central section. The second movement flags a bit, lacking the snarling sexuality of Jansons with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, which remains the most gripping performance of recent years; but with the finale Oue gears up again for a blockbuster reading of tremendous excitement and bracing virtuosity. And yes, he lets the final tam-tam stroke reverberate uninterrupted, as (confusingly) indicated in the score.


A gently passionate performance of the ubiquitous Vocalise functions as an interlude (with serenely singing strings) before the Études-tableaux, where Oue again exploits his orchestra's radiant sonorities to fully flesh out Respighi's brilliant orchestrations of these mysterious, sensuous, and evocative pieces. Reference's recording renders all the music's color, irony, and drama in true high fidelity. An excellent conclusion to an excellent disc, one you are wholeheartedly urged to investigate.
--Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com

The recording of "Casa Guidi" on this album won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. This selection is a HDCD (High Definition Compatible Digital) recording.

" . . .Argento, who has extensive experience writing opera, is a master of scene setting and grateful writing for the voice. He is also a great orchestrator and like his obvious mentor here, Strauss, leaves nothing to be desired in his touching and flawless expressions of these warm and intimate texts. If you love Strauss opera and want it in English with a little Carlisle Floyd thrown in, you will want this, especially in this gleaming performance with Ms Von Stade at her peak and this wonderful orchestra captured in radiant sound . . ."

" . . . Argento's Capriccio for clarinet and orchestra (1985) takes the titles of its three movements from piano pieces from Rossini's Sins of My Old Age . . . this is a charming, classically sculpted concerto filled with diverting melody, absorbing argument and congenial civilization. This major contribution to the clarinet repertoire is given a performance that will set the standard for years to come."

" . . . [an] essential release, which offers a compelling portrait of one of our most persuasive American romantics."

- GIMBEL, American Record Guide, Jan/Feb 2004 issue

BEETHOVEN: OVERTURES AND INCID

As a team, Osmo Vänskä and his Minnesota Orchestra began their collaboration with BIS in 2004, launching a Beethoven symphony cycle that made reviewers worldwide sit up and take notice: "a modern reference edition" was the verdict on web site ClassicsToday.com, while Gramophone Magazine described it as "a Beethoven reforged for today's world". Twelve years later saw the release of the third and final disc in the Minnesota-Vänskä cycle of Sibelius's symphonies, with individual discs receiving distinctions such as a 2014 Grammy Award (for symphonies Nos. 1 and 4), Gramophone's Editor's Choice, Choice of the Month in BBC Music Magazine and inclusion on the annual list of best classical recordings in New York Times.

The present disc launches yet another series, of even more monumental proportions, with Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony, recorded by the orchestra under Osmo Vänskä in Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis in June 2016. Composed in 1902, the purely instrumental work followed upon three symphonies that had all included vocal parts. This and the opening trumpet motif, an allusion to the rhythm that begins Beethoven's Fifth have been interpreted as Mahler's return to a more conventional idea of the symphonic genre. Other features are less traditional, however –a sometimes bewildering mixture of musical idioms reminds us of the melting-pot that Vienna was at the time, with allusions to Austrian, Bohemian and Hungarian styles. To an unsuspecting audience, the famous Adagietto for strings and harp –probably the best-known of all of Mahler's music –must also have been surprising, appearing at the heart of a work which is otherwise lavishly scored and orchestrated.

REVIEW:

The orchestral playing is crisp; the conductor, although determined to avoid histrionics, cognizant that emotional extremism is an essential part of Mahler’s idiom even if it need not be indulged. While some might prefer to look elsewhere for the customary Mahlerian blend of anguish, heft, and geniality, there’s more going on here than a thoughtful seating plan and state-of-the-art production.

BIS’s SACD format is certain to wow audiophiles. Even heard through two channels the recording is spacious yet precise and, true to form, the dynamic range is vast, complementing Osmo Vänskä’s partiality for music-making on the threshold of audibility.

– Gramophone

Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

The Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä first came to my attention with the superb series of Kalevi Aho recordings he made for BIS. I came to his Lahti Sibelius a little later and, more recently, I heard his Minnesota remake of the Second and Fifth symphonies. At the time of writing the Minnesota Orchestral Association’s lock-out – which began in October 2012 – has resulted in the cancellation of all concerts and recordings until at least the end of April 2013. That’s very bad news for Vänskä, the orchestra’s music director since 2002, and for BIS; the latter are also affected by the turmoil at the Malaysian Philharmonic, with whom they’ve already made a brace of fine recordings.
 
Given that Vänskä’s Lahti Sibelius set was so well received one might wonder why BIS deemed it necessary to embark on a second one. For the most part concertgoers and music buyers have responded well to Vänskä’s latest thoughts on the Second and Fifth symphonies; indeed, my colleague William Hedley made the SACD a Recording of the Month. No question, these are supremely assured performances and, in the case of the Second, very spacious too, yet for all that they miss the fallible, all-too-human perspectives that inform the earlier cycle.
 
To a certain extent it’s about the orchestral ‘sound’; on both new discs the Minnesota band are highly polished – chromium-plated, even – but these dry, not very tactile Orchestra Hall recordings lack the warmth and breadth of the Ristinkirkko, Lahti, ones. Balances are rather different too, so that the gorgeous harp figures that start around 8:08 in the first Andante of No. 1 – Lahti version – are not so easily discerned in Minnesota. That said, Vänskä is never less than thrilling, and in both versions of this symphony it’s clear he has a rare and wonderful sense of the work’s architecture. What pulls me back to Lahti though is the conductor’s proselytizing zeal – a fire in the belly – that makes the music burn with a magnesium light and heat.
 
There are many instances in the Lahti First where one is drawn deep into the music – from the eloquent clarinet solo at the outset and those sheer cliffs of brass to that powerful accelerating passage at the end of the first Andante – a feat the Minnesotans can’t begin to emulate. Take the sense-alerting start to the second Andante of the Lahti version; such eloquence and inwardness are absent from the new recording, as is the timbral sophistication and presence of the older CD. In short – and thanks in no small part to a very well engineered, sympathetic recording – the Lahti performance breathes and palpitates in a way that the cooler, more metropolitan Minnesota version never does.
 
I didn’t intend this to be a panegyric to Vänskä’s earlier reading of No. 1, but hearing it in this comparative context underlines just what a superbly realised and deeply affecting version it is. The Minnesota sound – both the orchestral sheen and the closer recording – drains all the colour and character from the gloriously emphatic Scherzo. Not only that, but the unfolding narrative of the last movement is so much easier to grasp in the Lahti performance; also, at the close of the latter the athletic, forthright Lahti timps strike just the right note of finality.
 
If you must have Vänskä’s Sibelius in multichannel – it seems many die-hard SACD fans across the pond simply don’t listen in stereo any more – this new First will be a no-brainer. However, if performance is the most important part of the audio equation the Lahti recording wins hands down. In fact, I’ll wager that in years to come this landmark recording of the First – made in 1996 – will be regarded as a classic.
 
That said, the Minnesota Fourth has an unexpected trenchancy and power that is very persuasive, and there’s a glow to the sound that I don’t hear in their version of the First. Moreover, the weight and amplitude of this fine orchestra seems better caught than before. In the opening Tempo molto moderato I was transfixed by the quality of the Minnesotans’ yearning strings and louring bass, not to mention those Brucknerian brass chorales. As for the Allegro molto vivace it’s darkly skittish, and the In tempo largo is winningly phrased and remarkably well sustained. As fine as the more pliant Lahtians are in the Fourth they don’t always have the seamlessness and focus of their American counterparts.
 
The concentration of the Minnesotans really pays dividends in those long, gyre-like unwindings of the Largo; and for once I can’t fault the recording when it comes to nuance and detail. Perhaps the pared-down textures of this symphony – it’s central tranquillity and poise always a joy to hear – are much better suited to BIS’s recording set-up in Orchestra Hall. It’s only in the big moments that the lack of depth and ‘air’ had me longing for the fullness and three-dimensionality of the Lahti Fourth. I daresay the multichannel layer offers more spatial information, and that the sound is more immersive, but given that the vast majority of listeners are still wedded to two channels I’d welcome a more natural, involving stereo mix.
 
Anyone hoping for a neat either/or choice here will be disappointed, for the honours are quite evenly divided; the Lahti First is a clear winner, but despite the felicities of the earlier Fourth the formidable focus of the newer one makes it a front-runner too. That means serious Sibelians will have to own both. Now we can only hope that the hiatus in Minneapolis comes to an end soon, so that this impressive – if not always supplanting – cycle can be completed.
 
Vänskä’s latest thoughts on Sibelius are certainly worth hearing, but the splendid Lahti cycle remains his greatest achievement yet.
 
-- Dan Morgan, MusicWeb International

Few works of art - musical or otherwise - are as firmly established in the canon of global culture as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The sheer size and complexity of it is daunting even today, and at the time of its composition it was a highly revolutionary work. Even so, the audience at the first performance, in 1824, was enthusiastic - as audiences have been ever since. Its appeal has not only stood the test of time, however - the Ninth holds significance for people all over the world, regardless of country: the closest we have to a truly universal piece of music. To record such a work is not a task to take lightly. In preparation for the great occasion, Osmo Vänskä and his Minnesota Orchestra paced themselves by recording two previous discs of Beethoven symphonies, both of which have been greeted with great acclaim. 'It's obvious from the first bars of the Eroica that this is something special... these are great interpretations and a true 21st century take on the music...' wrote the reviewer in Classic FM Magazine of recently released BIS-SACD-1516, while Financial Times' critic stated about the same disc: 'I choose my words carefully when I say this is the best recording of Beethoven symphonies since Carlos Kleiber's with the Vienna Philharmonic a generation ago.' The recording of the Ninth was preceded by three concert performances, and the Minnesota Chorale - one of the finest symphonic choirs in the USA - was meticulously prepared for both concerts and recording. The quartet of soloists has been handpicked and gives a final edge to this huge ensemble in the final movement's Ode to Joy, filling it with all the excitement that this exciting music invites. About a previous disc the critic of the web site Classics Today wrote: 'There's no question that Osmo Vänskä is a true Beethoven conductor.' There is also no question that Vänskä's account of the greatest of the Beethoven symphonies is something that must be experienced!

Beethoven began composing his Second Symphony around late 1800, after a successful performance of his First Symphony at a benefit concert in April that year. The hope seems to have been to perform it at a similar concert the following spring - the week before Easter was just about the only time of year when such concerts could be staged in Vienna at that time, since the orchestras were engaged mainly in operas during the rest of the season. After sketching the first movement in considerable detail, however, plans for the rest of the work were suddenly put on hold when he was commissioned to write a ballet, Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus. This was duly performed in March 1801, and Beethoven finally returned to complete the symphony the following winter, in readiness for the next opportunity for a benefit concert. When the time came in April 1802, however, Beethoven was disgusted to find that he had not been given one of the few available slots in the calendar, and that the date had instead been allocated to what he called 'thoroughly mediocre artists'. Nevertheless, this misfortune may have enabled him to make further refinements to the music before it was first performed. Certainly he did make substantial alterations to the finale at a late stage, in particular by greatly enlarging the coda. Osmo Vänskä became the Minnesota Orchestra's tenth music director in September 2003. Praised for his intense and dynamic performances, Vänskä is recognized for compelling interpretations of the standard, contemporary and Nordic repertoires, as well as the close rapport he establishes with the musicians he leads. He began his musical career as a clarinettist, occupying the co-principal's chair in the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra for several years. After studying conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, he won first prize in the 1982 Besançon International Young Conductor's Competition. His conducting career has featured substantial commitments to such orchestras as the Tapiola Sinfonietta, Iceland Symphony Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. His numerous recordings for BIS continue to attract the highest acclaim; his Beethoven symphony cycle with the Minnesota Orchestra - including a Grammy-nominated recording of Symphony No.9 - has broadcast the exceptional dynamism of this musical partnership to audiences worldwide. Meanwhile Vänskä is heavily in demand internationally as a guest conductor with the world's leading orchestras, enjoying regular relationships with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Washington. In May 2008, after two decades at the helm of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Vänskä was named that ensemble's conductor laureate. Among the many honours and distinctions he has been awarded are the Pro Finlandia medal, a Royal Philharmonic Society Award, Musical America's 2005 Conductor of the Year Award, the Sibelius Medal in 2005 and the Finlandia Foundation Arts and Letters Award in 2006.

In 2010 Yevgeny Sudbin released the first instalment in a cycle of Beethoven's piano concertos. Featuring the Fourth and the Fifth concerto the disc received top marks on web sites such as ClassicsToday.com and klassik-heute.de and was selected CD of the Week in Daily Telegraph and Editor's Choice in Gramophone, whose reviewer wrote 'The mother-of-pearl sheen of [Sudbin's] pianism is backed by a special underlying sensitivity...Delectably light-fingered brilliance and virtuosity shines a new light on some of the most familiar scores in the repertoire...' Other reviewers agreed that there was something very special about these interpretations ('Extraordinarily vibrant and unforced', Piano News) and, not least, about Sudbin's partnership with Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra ('There is a true give-and-take between soloist and orchestra throughout these performances that makes them especially engaging', Listen Magazine). The web site Classical CD Review found Sudbin and Vänskä to be 'ideally matched Beethoven interpreters,' and the French reviewer in Classica agreed, detecting a 'Mozartian flame' in the performances. For this sequel Sudbin and Vänskä go one step further and actually include a Mozart concerto to precede Beethoven's Concerto No.3 in C minor. Also in C minor, Mozart's Concerto No.24, K 491, is often regarded as having been the inspiration for Beethoven's work. The mood of K 491 is dramatic, even Romantic - the concerto was memorably described by the Mozart expert Alfred Einstein as an 'explosion of passion, of dark tragic emotions' - reflecting its proximity to The Marriage of Figaro, which was composed at the same time. Among Mozart's concertos it is one of the most ample, both in terms of scoring and duration, and thus provides an ideal counterweight to Beethoven's Third, which the composer began to sketch in 1796, but only completed eight years later.

All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.

Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony started life as a single-movement tone poem called Todtenfeier (‘Funeral Rites’). Completed in 1888 – one year before Richard Strauss's Death and Transfiguration – it echoed the composer's vision of seeing himself lying dead in a funeral bier surrounded by flowers. Deciding to use it as his opening movement, Mahler didn't finish the complete five-movement symphony until more than six years later, the longest time he spent on any work. The huge scale of the work apart, its weighty subject matter may well have contributed to the slow progress: Mahler himself outlined a scenario making references to the ultimate meaning of life and death (first movement), recollections of lost innocence and the desperation of unbelief (second and third movements), the return to naïve faith (fourth movement) and final redemption from the last judgement (finale). To convey this he took recourse to the human voice: incorporating a solo alto in the 4th movement Urlicht, he went on in the finale to risk comparison with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony by introducing a choir, as well as a soprano and alto soloist.

Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä have received praise for their previous Mahler recordings (‘Vänskä and the orchestra are among the finest exponents of Mahler’s music...’, allmusic.com). The team is here joined by soloists Ruby Hughes and Sasha Cooke and the Minnesota Chorale in the deeply moving close to the vast and tumultuous panorama that is his Second Symphony.

REVIEW:

[Vänskä] adopts a nicely relaxed approach – and pace – for the second movement. The strings play very stylishly and the recording differentiates very well indeed between the various string parts. The third movement is also largely a success; the sardonic humour comes across quite well – as is in keeping with the original Knaben Wunderhorn song on which the movement is based. The orchestra points the music very effectively with special praise for the woodwind in this regard. The wild premonition of the finale (8:03) is projected with dramatic force and urgency. Sasha Cooke sings "Urlicht" very well indeed.

The huge finale is unleashed in dramatic fashion and the vivid impact of the bass drum stroke is typical of the quality of the BIS recording. Vänskä handles this vast musical fresco pretty well. The drama is projected strongly, not least in the huge march episode that follows those two apocalyptic percussion crescendi (9:21). The grosse Appell is impressive (17:16): the distant brass is very well handled in the recording and the solo piccolo and flute distinguish themselves. When the choir begins to sing (20:01) their sound is hushed but distinct, which is as it should be. Ruby Hughes’ silvery voice rises gently and sweetly from the midst of the singers at the end of the first long phrase. Miss Hughes does very well, too, in the ‘O Glaube’ duet with Sasha Cooke.

The performance is highly accomplished. Vänskä has a good choir at his disposal and two excellent soloists. As for his orchestra, they play the music marvellously. There are many idiomatic touches such as string portamenti while accents – so crucial in Mahler – and dynamics are scrupulously observed.

– MusicWeb International

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

It was with performances and recordings of the music of Jean Sibelius, his great compatriot, that the Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä first attracted the attention of a wider international audience. Beginning in the early 1990s, seminal recordings with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra of tone poems and the seven symphonies became synonymous with a new interpretative approach to the composer's music, with words such as 'clarity', 'intensity' and 'freshness' reappearing in review after review. Vänskä has remained true to Sibelius (and BIS), and recordings made by him over the past 20 years form the backbone of the label's newly completed Sibelius Edition, but in the meantime his international career has also flourished, including a highly successful partnership with the Minnesota Orchestra. On disc this has resulted in an acclaimed cycle of Beethoven's symphonies, and most recently with a recording of Bruckner's Fourth ('Romantic') Symphony, which in Pizzicato Magazine was described as 'exceptional... without doubt one of the finest recordings of the work...' Now, some 15 years after the appearance of his previous cycle of Sibelius's symphonies, Vänskä has returned to the works in recording, and with his Minnesota players he has recorded the first disc in a new cycle. The Sibelius expert Robert Layton, in his introduction to the programme, presents the Second Symphony as 'the symphony by which many music lovers find their way to Sibelius', and in his discussion of the Fifth he quotes the composer himself, in a comment about symphonic form: 'a river with innumerable tributaries feeding it before it broadens majestically and flows into the sea'.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.


Expectations ran high in anticipation of this release, and they have not been disappointed. BIS just completed a partially successful Beethoven piano concerto series in which an often inspired Ronald Brautigam was shackled to an expressively challenged and period-pedantic Andrew Parrott. Here, both conductor and soloist are consistently operating on the same exciting wavelength. Osmo Vänskä's credentials as a Beethoven conductor remain impressive. He understands the importance of accents, of sforzandos that enliven but don't disrupt the melodic line. He never fails to balance Beethoven's all-important bass lines clearly (opening tutti of the Fourth concerto), or to give sufficient prominence to those rapid accompaniments in repeated notes that energize the music's texture (first movement of the "Emperor"). The orchestra plays with real intensity as well as expressiveness, offering the perfect collaboration for Yevgeny Sudbin's contributions.

These are no less memorable. It's sometimes said that you can tell how well the Fourth concerto will go from the pianist's handling of the opening phrase, and there's some truth to this observation. Sudbin plays it with simple dignity, refuses to make a big ritard at the end, and strictly observes Beethoven's eighth-note value on the last note. The result is that the phrase sounds incomplete (as it should), arousing expectation and carrying the music through the pause to the hesitant entry of the violins in a different key. He understands that some of Beethoven's biggest surprises arrive softly. In short, there is a true give-and-take between soloist and orchestra throughout these performances that makes them especially engaging.

The slow movement is wonderful: Vänskä finds a tempo--a touch slower than usual--that allows him to observe the "sempre staccato" indication and provide the necessary rhetorical weight to the strings' emphatic proclamations, while Sudbin's answers represent the soul of inward poetry. The finale, by contrast, is dazzling and uninhibited, with trumpets and drums cutting through the texture, and Sudbin's fast passage-work is joyous but never tonally forced or hard.

Indeed, it may sound odd to say so, but one of the joys of Sudbin's playing is his handling of simple scales and runs. Mozart once remarked how he delighted in making them "go like oil", with perfect smoothness, and that's just how Sudbin handles them. There are a lot of scales in these pieces, in the "Emperor" particularly. In its first movement, each major entrance (and exit) of the piano features a simple scale, and anyone who can make these as memorable and beautiful as Sudbin does is a major talent indeed. He has a particular way, in the Adagio for example, of rendering the melodic line expressive through control of touch and dynamics without distorting the rhythm, and this makes the music touching without excess sentimentality. It all seems very much in the spirit of Beethoven, as is the robust and perfectly-timed manner in which he and Vänskä launch the finale--grand in all of the right ways. The coda's huge, amazingly well-judged diminuendo and ritard only confirm the generally masterful impression. Gorgeous SACD sonics make this release a Beethoven experience you will not want to miss.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Learn more about this recording on the Naxos Classical Spotlight podcast!

Much has been written about Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, formerly Leonore. Beethoven worked on it on and off for almost a decade. During that time the four different overtures included on this recording were composed. They are substantially different, not only in length but also in themes, while the Fidelio overture is composed in a different key and uses no material from the opera itself. The Ruins of Athens is a set of incidental music pieces composed for the opening of the Deutsches Theater in today’s Budapest. Even though only the Turkish March is often heard today, many listeners may be familiar rather with Liszt’s fantasia for piano and orchestra on themes of this score.

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski began to play the piano and the violin at the age of four, composed his first symphonic work at seven, gave his first public piano recital when he was eleven and went on to become one of the best known conductors in the world. He conducted several Polish orchestras before emigrating to the US where he was chief conductor of many leading orchestras. On the present recording he leads the GRAMMY Award-winning Minnesota Orchestra. The recordings of American orchestras produced for VOX by the legendary Elite Recordings team of Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be among the very finest sounding orchestral recordings ever made.

Past praise of the recordings included on this remastered CD release:

‘The sound is by and large excellent, the beautiful clarity and simplicity of the sonics show modern American analog recordings at its best, just as the performances show the non-slick, musical/expressive side of music making in this country at its lively best.

-- Stereo Review, (11/1981)

It’s not all that uncommon to collect all of Beethoven’s dramatic incidental music and overtures in one set, but it’s quite possible that it’s never been done as well as this before.

-- Buffalo Evening News, (06/1981)

The overall sonic qualities of this venture are extraordinary.

-- Los Angeles Times, )04/1981)

The recorded sound is amazing. The performances are nothing short of a revelation. This record shows that the Minnesota Orchestra is one of the finest on the continent.

-- FM Guide Toronto, (04/1981)

The piano concerto was the category in which Mozart most consistently excelled, in which he most successfully combined elements of virtuosity and depth, of chamber music and symphonic style, of regard for his public and for personal expression. No. 17 is one of six piano concertos he composed in 1784, two of them, including this one, for one of the most talented of his own pupils, Barbara Ployer. Scored for the same instrumentation as No. 17, No. 27 was his last piano concerto. It stands alone, because its content and character make it unique and it is deeply personal, having a feeling of subdued gravity. Pianist Walter Klien studied with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Paul Hindemith and performed with the world’s top orchestras. The present recording was realized in 1978 by the famous production team of Joanna Nickrenz and Marc Aubort from the appropriately named "Elite Recordings". Many of their projects have achieved collector status, especially those with American orchestras.

REVIEW:

Collectors of a certain age may remember this attractive pairing of Mozart’s 17th and 27th piano concertos through its original LP release on Vox’s subsidiary label Candide. It also turned up on CD as part of Vox’s long gone budget Prima series. Newly remastered for Vox’s new Audiophile Series, this 1978 Elite Recordings production supervised by Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz retains its vivid impact and vibrant detail.

Notice the orchestral ritornellos’ ebb and flow under Stanisław Skrowaczewski’s leadership, and how the forward woodwinds and singing strings conversationally interact. Even in loud tuttis one can take dictation from each orchestral strand. Pianist Walter Klien’s Mozart playing is a model of clarity, projection, poise, and proportion, and he never puts an unbalanced or uneven phrase forward. He’s also one of the few pianists on disc who doesn’t approach Mozart’s final concerto with kid gloves, meaning that his slow movement is full-bodied and fluent rather than ethereal and wispy, and that he doesn’t underplay the finale’s scampering thrust. Sometimes Klien’s phrasing falls into square and tinkly assembly line patterns.

You won’t find the witty inflections and dabs of color that you hear from Peter Serkin or Maria-João Pires in K. 453’s wonderful theme and variations finale. Nor does Klien’s clean yet regimented articulation in K. 595’s first-movement development section match Richard Goode’s harmonic subtlety and feeling for chamber-like repartée. Still, these interpretations won’t steer you wrong. And while I have the floor, we need a truly complete boxed set edition of Skrowaczewski’s Vox recordings!

-- ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)

Osmo Vänskä has been described as ‘our greatest living Sibelian’ (The Sunday Times, UK), a reputation which is founded not least on his two symphony cycles on disc, both released by BIS. The first one was recorded in 1996-97 with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, and firmly established Vänskä as a force to be reckoned with. 14 years later he returned to the studio for a second cycle, now with the Minnesota Orchestra, of which he has been music director since 2003.

The Minnesota recordings were released on three discs during the years 2012 – 2016 to critical acclaim: besides top marks from reviewers around the world, the series garnered distinctions such as Editor’s Choice (Gramophone), Orchestral Choice (BBC Music Magazine) and Recording of the month (MusicWeb International). The disc of Symphonies Nos 2 and 5 was included on the New York Times list of the Best Classical Music Recordings of 2012 and nominated to a Grammy for Best Orchestral Recording, an award which its sequel (Nos 1 & 4) received the following year. Recommended by the German web site Klassik.com upon its release, the final album, with Symphonies Nos 3, 6 and 7, was recently included on Gramophone’s list of ‘Top 10 Sibelius recordings’. The three releases have now been gathered into a box set, with the addition of the same team’s 2016 recording of Kullervo, Sibelius’s first large-scale orchestral work and sometimes called his ‘choral symphony’.

Past praise for previously released volumes included in this set:

Sibelius: Symphonies No 1 & 4 / Vanska, Minnesota:

The passion and sweep of the First is even more electric than in the Lahti First. The Fourth emerges equally well as a hugely powerful utterance. With superb sound as always from BIS, this new disc has set the bar for all to follow and past ones to be measured against.

– Gramophone

Sibelius: Symphonies No 2 & 5 / Vanska, Minnesota:

These fearless, magnificently played performances, recorded in astonishing detail by the BIS engineers, and accompanied by an authoritative note by Robert Layton, join a very exclusive and elevated class of the finest recordings of these works.

– MusicWeb International

In Gustav Mahler's first four symphonies many of the themes originate in his own settings of folk poems from the collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy's Magic Horn). A case in point, Symphony No.?4 is built around a single song, Das himmlische Leben (The Heavenly Life) which Mahler had composed some eight years earlier, in 1892. The song presents a child's vision of Heaven and is hinted at throughout the first three movements. In the fourth, marked ‘Sehr behaglich’ (Very comfortably), the song is heard in full from a solo soprano instructed by Mahler to sing: ‘with serene, childlike expression; completely without parody!’ The symphony is scored for a typically large, late-romantic orchestra (though without trombones and tuba) and an extensive percussion section which includes sleigh bells as well as glockenspiel. However, Mahler mostly deploys his forces with a transparency and lightness more akin to chamber music or eighteenth-century models like Mozart or Haydn. The Fourth has become one of his best-loved symphonies and is here performed by Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä, joined by the angelic voice of English soprano Carolyn Sampson.

REVIEWS:

This is a difficult symphony to hold together and far too many performances are let down by indifferently realised finales. Vänskä connects it very well to the closing mood of the third movement, but an immense responsibility lies on the soprano soloist in the closing Das himmlische Liebe from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The Klemperer studio recording was fatally undermined by Elizabeth Schwarzkopf’s too-knowing, overly sophisticated, rendition: the work needs a mixture of radiance and simplicity – this is a child’s vision of heaven, with Saint Martha in the kitchen. I have never heard the piece as I hear it in my head, but Carolyn Sampson captures very much of the radiance, despite some darkness in the lower register and some indifferent articulation. Perhaps the ideal voice would be that of a younger Emma Kirkby, and she certainly performed the piece, notably with Norrington at the Carnegie in 2001, but, to the best of my knowledge, never recorded it.

The first two movements are splendidly realized, combining poetry with a sense of momentum, and just the right touch of the spectral in the soloist’s tuned-up violin in the second movement.

The quality of recording is beautifully clear – as one expects from BIS – and I like very much their robust, bio-friendly, slim packaging, a huge improvement on easily-broken jewel cases.

Make no mistake: this Mahler 4 ranks with the very best, and I shall return to it very often.

– MusicWeb International

This cast does not generate as dreamy, airy, wafting textures as those of Szell and Bernstein; the textures here are plainer but make something no less convincing: the matter-of-fact clarinet, the barely-poco-vibrato string tone, and Sampson’s warm but never sugary tone.

Some will complain that Vänskä still doesn’t conduct Mahler as we know and love; judging by only the second movement, I would agree. But for the rest, I find his approach perfectly subjective and cinematic. The outstanding recording quality and superb musicians combine with Vänskä’s light touch to make a wonderful addition to this cycle.

– TheClassicReview