Hans Werner Henze is one of the outstanding composers of the 20th century. To mark his 100th birthday, this edition will contain all the recordings released on the WERGO label, some of which were produced under his supervision - an extensive collection that does not claim to be complete, yet serves as an impressive testament to a versatility that echoes Henze's open-mindedness and cosmopolitan outlook: in terms of cultural history, politics and society, as well as form and composition. Regrouped and divided into groups of works in this edition, the recordings, some of which are no longer available, will be released in five CD box sets in 2026, starting with the symphonies, followed by orchestral works and instrumental concertos, chamber music and piano music, vocal music, and concluding with stage works, including the previously unreleased recording of 'Der Prinz von Homburg'. Almost 50 years passed between the composition of Hans Werner Henze's First Symphony in 1947 and the Tenth, which was completed at the turn of the millennium. The literary and political references are wide-ranging, stretching from ancient mythology to the Cuban Revolution to the Ninth as great choral symphony based on 'The Seventh Cross'. From work to work, one can trace Henze's development as a composer up to the sublime mastery of his late works. With his 10 symphonies, Henze created one of the monumental symphonic cycles of the 20th century.

SOMM Recordings is delighted to release the next CD of it's ongoing, glowingly reviewed Beecham Collection. The label's initiative in issuing this collection is widely regarded by critics and music historians as a superb and invaluable endeavour. Focusing on live performances, radio broadcasts, and rare recordings-often featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra-the series has been described as a "ground-breaking" enterprise that unearths "buried treasure" for enthusiasts of Sir Thomas Beecham. This 36th issue includes live performances from two of Beecham's last concerts in 1959 and 1960, as well as one from 1954. Once again, producer and audio restorer Lani Spahr 'has done wonders with the restoration,' to quote John Quinn, Music Web International. This release opens with two of Beecham's signature musical lollipops, which he described collectively as 'delightful little pieces.' By the River comes from the Florida Suite by Frederick Delius. Though written in Leipzig, the suite was inspired by Delius's sojourn on an orange plantation in Florida, where his father had sent him in a vain attempt to try to dissuade him from pursuing music. Beecham championed the suite, and this piece, recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall on 24 April 1960, is an especially poignant document, as it was taped at what turned out to be Beecham's last concert in London. The second of the four Symphonic Dances by Edvard Grieg is the earliest performance on this CD, recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall on 26 October 1954. Grieg noted on the title page of the autograph manuscript that the dances were 'based on Norwegian motifs,' and this second dance, marked Allegretto grazioso, was an especial favourite of Beecham. The works of Leonard Salzedo, an English composer of Spanish descent, include seventeen ballets, the most successful of which was The Witch Boy from 1956, based on the 'Ballad of Barbara Allan.' Beecham's exciting and clearly committed concert performance three years after the premiere was described on the programme as 'Scenes and Dances from the Ballet, The Witch Boy,' and this recording faithfully reproduces the section titles as they were printed in the original Royal Festival Hall programme on 14 November 1959. That performance also included the Symphony No. 3 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky-his only completed symphony in a major key, and the only one with five movements instead of the traditional four. Nicknamed 'The Polish' after the Tempo di polacca marking of the fifth and last movement, it is a lighter work than his other symphonies and considered by some less masterful. Beecham never saw it that way, and he always made a persuasive case for the symphony. By the time of the present performance, he had been playing the 'Polish' symphony for decades, and his conducting reveals a deep engagement with the work.

This album brings together Andrzej Panufnik's late London works, music shaped by a rigorous search for formal clarity and expressive balance. Symphony No. 10, his final symphony, exemplifies the composer's use of geometric principles, unfolding in a continuous span whose restraint gives it cumulative weight. The Violin and Cello Concertos, written for Yehudi Menuhin and Mstislav Rostropovich respectively, avoid overt display, favouring lucid textures and a direct, vocal approach to solo writing. Love Song, heard in it's instrumental arrangement for solo cello, harp and strings, closes the programme with characteristic economy and poise. John Mills and Božidar Vukotic are partnered by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Alexander Walker.

Classical Music

Nur zwei Mal hat der japanische Dirigent Seiji Ozawa (1935-2024) das Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munchner Konzerten geleitet - doch beide Male wurde nichts weniger als Musikgeschichte geschrieben! I'm Juli 1983 dirigierte Ozawa i'm Herkulessaal der Munchner Residenz Strawinskys Le sacre du printemps und Beethovens Egmont-Ouverture sowie dessen Erstes Klavierkonzert mit Martha Argerich als Solistin, das als CD bereits erschienen ist (CD 900701). Und i'm Januar 1990 prasentierte er sich in der Philharmonie i'm Gasteig mit dem hier erstmals auf CD vorgelegten Programm - mit beispiellos beeindruckenden Interpretationen von Beethovens Funfter Symphonie und Strauss' Tondichtung Ein Heldenleben. In Beethovens funfter Symphonie bestaunte bereits der erste Rezensent E. T. A. Hoffmann das in jener Musik zum Ausdruck gebrachte dramatische Ringen des Menschen durch Nacht zum Licht', das auf rein musikalische Weise gestaltet ist, in struktureller Dichte und auerster Stringenz. Erst in der zweiten Halfte des 19. Jahrhunderts wurde das Werk dann zur Schicksalssymphonie', i'm Sinne jenes heroischen Bildes des Menschen und Kunstlers Ludwig van Beethoven, das sich mittlerweile eingeburgert hatte. Demnach sollte die Symphonie das Leiden und uberwinden des titanisch mit dem Schicksal ringenden Beethoven, insbesondere mit dem personlichen Schicksal seiner Ertaubung behandeln. Eine romantische Anschauung vom Kunstler als leidendem Auenseiter wurde nachtraglich dem Leben und Werk Beethovens aufgepfropft, vor allem seiner funften Symphonie. Um das Leben eines Helden geht es auch in Richard Strauss' Tondichtung, die entstand, als er das Amt des Berliner Hofkapellmeisters antrat. Auch mit diesem Werk wollte er (wie etliche seiner Zeitgenossen) an Beethoven oder die von jenem geschaffene musikalische Ausdruckskraft anknupfen - mit den Mitteln seiner Zeit. Die Tondichtung Ein. Heldenleben, die ihre Urauffuhrung am 3. Marz 1899 in Frankfurt am Main erlebte, liee sich einem Brief Strauss' zufolge als moderne Variante der Eroica deuten, die auch formal auf die klassische Sonatenhauptsatzform zuruckgreift. In der Partitur fehlen die programmatischen Erlauterungen; die uberschriften der sechs Abschnitte wurden erst unmittelbar vor der Urauffuhrung formuliert - vermutlich nicht einmal von Strauss. Trotzdem machte man dem Komponisten, den man als Personalunion seines Helden' sah, den Vorwurf tonender Selbstdarstellung.

Completely forgotten today, Friedrich Schwindl (1737 - 1786) was a highly esteemed violinist and composer in his time. His name appears repeatedly in the writings of Leopold Mozart, Charles Burney, and Daniel Schubart, yet his biography can only be reconstructed in a very fragmentary way. Born in Amsterdam, the stages of his life can be traced along the Rhine, from the Netherlands to Switzerland. The focus of his work was instrumental music, especially symphonies, of which 31 survive. They are influenced by the compositions of the Mannheim School but have a more folk-like character. A fascinating discovery of music history, brought to life virtuously and authentically by the musicians of the L'Arte del Mondo orchestra under Werner Ehrhardt.

The Polish composer Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925) is best remembered for a handful of virtuoso piano pieces, but he also produced a substantial body of orchestral music, most of it unperformed for a century or more. This fourth volume presents his only symphony, a strikingly assured work for a composer in his late teens. Unsurprisingly, it owes a good deal to Schumann in it's dancing rhythms, heraldic bearing and orchestral colours - and the Scherzo might almost be by Mendelssohn on holiday in Poland. The 'Six Episodes' - charming, ingratiating and energising by turn - are all that remain of the lost full-length ballet Laurin. They were saved because Moszkowski excerpted them for concert performance, thereby creating a 'Dance Suite' in all but name.

Between 1972 and 2018 the Ukrainian composer Yevhen Stankovych - born in 1942 and now the senior figure in Ukrainian music - produced a series of seventeen Chamber Symphonies, many of them doubling as concertos. This substantial body of music has remained largely unheard until now, even inside Ukraine, and should prove a major discovery for audiences everywhere. These works cover a kaleidoscopic range of moods - lyrical, rhythmically propulsive, bashfully hesitant, buoyantly assertive, elegiac, optimistic - expressed in a direct language with it's distant roots in the mild modernism of Berg, Britten, Janacek, Shostakovich and like composers. Stankovych's achievement is unparalleled in the history of music not simply because of the sheer number of his Chamber Symphonies - they also contain some of the finest music of the past half-century.

Gianandrea Noseda is clearly one of those conductors who 'are equally at home in both genres', as the 'Neue Zurcher Zeitung' put it in 2021 on the occasion of his debut as General Music Director at Zurich Opera House. 'In hindsight, one cannot even judge whether he is the better opera or symphony conductor.' In his concert performances in Zurich, Noseda focused on the works of Johannes Brahms. Following a highly acclaimed performance of the 'German Requiem', he also conducted the Zurich Opera Orchestra in performances of Brahms's symphonies. The four symphonies by Johannes Brahms were completed between 1876 and 1885 and are regarded as milestones in the Romantic orchestral repertoire. Under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda, they were recorded live at the Zurich Opera House during various concerts and can now be heard together on this album.

Don Quixote' and 'Ein Heldenleben' are two large-scale tone-poems that Richard Strauss composed in Munich and Berlin during the final years of the 19th century. Whilst the first work was inspired by Cervantes' tragicomic novel hero, in the second work he effectively stylised himself as a successful (artistic) hero. Similar characters make an appearance in the two other works on this album: Shakespeare's tragic hero 'MacBeth' in an early overture, and another domestic Strauss hero (named 'Stork') in the opera 'Intermezzo', from which four symphonic interludes are featured here. As General Music Director of the Zurich Opera Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda has conducted these compositions by Strauss, some of which feature a huge orchestra. They are now released together on this album.

Conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste has been conducting the symphonies of Sibelius all over the world throughout his conducting career. Thirty-five years after his first recording of the complete cycle, Saraste returns to the symphonies of Sibelius with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra-the orchestra with which Sibelius conducted the premieres of his symphonies back in the day.

Conductor Robert Trevino's second album release of orchestral music by Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936), together with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, features Respighi's massive orchestral masterpiece, the Sinfonia Drammatica.

SYMPHONY NO. 5

My aim was to convey human feelings and passions in this work, Shostakovich said of his newly completed Symphony No.10 in 1953. And it is clear exactly what it was that he wanted to relate: Stalin was dead, and after his music had been publicly denounced for being too abstract in 1948, Shostakovich had finally plucked up the courage to write another symphony. Ever since Kirill Kondrashin and Bernard Haitink first led performances of Shostakovich's symphonies in the late 1970s, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra has astonished listeners with their level of refinement and involvement in this repertoire. With the tenure of Mariss Janson's, a degree of authenticity is added; like Kondrashin before him, Janson's has experienced himself what it is like to work under Soviet conditions. Following the award winning RCO Live release of his interpretation of Shostakovich's seventh symphony, Janson's's take on the composer's tenth adds another benchmark performance to the orchestra's discography.

Classical Music

A brilliant line-up for this new recording by Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, made during lockdown. The album stars Michael Spyres, Sabine Devieilhe, and Elsa Dreisig. It also features Julie Fuchs, Paul-Antoine Benos-Djian, Cyrille Dubois, and Adriana Bignani Lesca. This is the first recording of this opera of Mozart on the Warner Classics & Erato labels.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt describes Mozart's Requiem as "an intensely personal confrontation, frightening and moving in the case of a composer who normally kept his life and experience divorced from his art to an astonishing degree". This famous recording uses an edition published by Eulenberg in 1972; seeking to come closer to the spirit of the composer himself, it replaces the familiar instrumentation of Franz Xaver S�ssmayr, who completed the Requiem after Mozart's death. For the 40th anniversary of this recording, Warner Classics has newly remastered it from original tapes in High Definition 192kHz/24-bit.

This richly varied collection of meditative sacred music takes it's name, Agnus Dei, from the opening item, a setting for voices of Samuel Barber's celebrated and deeply expressive Adagio for Strings. The hauntingly melodic choral masterpieces that fill these two vinyls span five centuries and are the work of such composers as Bach, Mozart, Allegri, Albinoni, Faure, Rachmaninov, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Elgar and, from nearer our own time, John Tavener and Henryk Gorecki. They are performed by the choir of New College Oxford, an exemplar of Britain's great choral tradition.

Prepare to drift away on the soothing sound of the eternal classics collected on this 2-CD set.

Classical Music

Classical Music

On this exciting release from Hyperion, Stephen Hough performs a collection of exquisite Brahmsian miniatures. The pianist refers to these works as brief meditations on last things before 'the light fades and the final cigar is extinguished.'

Blu-ray. The Vienna Philharmonic, led by Franz Welser-Most and supported by an all-star line-up, among them pianist Yuja Wang, performed a concert of pieces highlighting war and peace in commemoration of the end of WWI. 100 years after the first of the devastating human catastrophes of the 20th century officially ended at Versailles, a group of inspired musicians gathered at the historic site for a concert.

Stanford's eight-part Latin Magnificat was posthumously dedicated to Parry, whose own Songs of farewell are unmistakably valedictory in mood. Personal as well as musical associations run deep in this poignantly expressive program from James O'Donnell and the Westminster Abbey Choir.

This 2-CD release tells the story of Pollinis triumphant reunion with Staatskapelle Dresden in 2011 and 2013 and includes the acclaimed recordings of Brahmss Piano Concertos with Christian Thielemann. Those who admire the intelligent, direct and stylishly lean virtuosity that Maurizio Pollini has long brought to Brahmss Piano Concertos will want to know how the pianists recent recordings with Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden compare with his two earlier versions, both conducted by the late Claudio Abbado.