Edvin Kallstenius studied the natural sciences prior to receiving musical training from Stephan Krehl in Leipzig from 1904 to 1907. He was a music critic and from 1928 to 1946 served as the Swedish Radio music archivist in Stockholm. Additionally, he was a member of the executive board of the Swedish Society of Composers from 1933 to 1961 and of the Copyright Association from 1932 to 1957. Although as a composer he admired both the sublime and the lyrical Beethoven and was of the opinion that the old forms still had much to say, he filled these old forms with his unique harmonic designs and his own personal content. Throughout his life he held to a personal style that was rigorous but rich in innovations. He avoided rigid commitment to a monolithic tonal language by resorting to melodic intensity reinforced by harmonic expansions and interaction between introverted romanticism and gestures of greater vigor pointing toward expressionism. He was an uncompromising craftsman whose scores contain meticulously precise playing instructions. His music is not always easy to follow; he himself was held to be brusque and obstinate and was nicknamed »Gallsteinius« (Mr. Gallstone). His first symphony is one of the most remarkable symphonies composed in Sweden during the 1920s. After the symphony’s premiere Ture Rangström wrote, »Kallstenius is not a charming composer who invites one to applaud.« But the composer’s honesty, intentionality, and feeling did not escape him: »He does not play the coquette with his modernism.« In any case, in our Swedish discovery series his music always holds in store particularly interesting finds! - cpo

Classical Music

SOLOMON

SYMPHONIC WORKS

RESPIGHI: Gli Uccelli / Il tramonto / Adagio con variazioni

SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 9 / Suite from Katerina Ismailova

WALTON: Symphony No. 1 / Cello Concerto / Belshazzar's Feast

EIN HELDENLEBEN & TOD UND VERK

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Kalevi Aho needs little introduction to people familiar with the BIS label. He is, quite simply, the foremost Finnish composer of his generation as well as the most prolific. This is the ninth disc devoted exclusively to his music and he has contributed single works to numerous other CDs. Aho is unique among contemporary composers in his concern for the music of his immediate forebears and the first half of this disc consists of his homage to the composer Uno Klami (1900-1961). Klami's greatest work, the ballet score 'Whirls' (CD656), was unfinished when the composer died. He was intending to write the definitive Finish ballet based, as one would expect, on stories from Kalevala, the great poem of Finnish mythology that has inspired so much art in Finland. Kalevi Aho undertook to write the missing third act of this ballet so that the ballet could be performed in full and this was the origin of the 'Symphonic Dances' presented here. The second half of the disc comprises Aho's eleventh symphony. Several of Aho's previous symphonies have included a major part for a solo instrument. Here the 'solo' instrument consists of a huge battery of instruments performed by the six members of the Kroumata Percussion Ensemble! Once again Kalevi Aho displays his ability to get under the skin of an instrument and to communicate his insights in a musical language that is readily accessible.

Classical Music

V 7: EDITION FERENC FRICSAY -

STRAUSS I, J.: Edition - Vol. 5

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

"The Concerto for Orchestra was an Ormandy specialty. He was Hungarian-born, of course, and had long been an advocate for Bartók’s music, for example, conducting the world premiere of the Third Piano Concerto with soloist György Sándor, and its first recording, both in 1946. This is his third and last recording of the Concerto for Orchestra, in fine early digital (1979) sound. It was also the final work on the last concert he ever conducted, in January 1984. While overall it is a notch less energetic than the 1963 version on Sony, it is expansive, assured, and effortless-sounding. The solo winds are superb, and the brass chorale in the “Game of Pairs” second movement is gorgeous."

-- Richard A. Kaplan, Fanfare [5/2010]

"...[W]ith his fingers of steel Alexis Weissenberg gives a powerful performance... this disc can certainly be recommended." -- Gramophone [2/1971, reviewing the original LP release of the 2nd Concerto]

"No doubts here about the quality of the orchestral playing which is of a high order... [A] well-prepared and finely disciplined account." -- Gramophone [7/1980, reviewing the original LP release of the Concerto for Orchestra]

Classical Music

Classical Music

Eichberg is the first composer in residence in the history of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. This CD presents the premiere recordings of his Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 2 that was first performed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and concludes an explosive phase of creativity in the young composer.

Like few other works, Beethoven's late string quartets have gained an almost undisputed standing as the very apex of their genre. Not many of Beethoven's contemporaries would have accorded them this: the composer Louis Spohr called them 'indecipherable, uncorrected horrors' and the quartets were widely regarded as the monstrous products of a madness which at best could be excused by the composer's deafness. One of the first to recognize them for the masterpieces that they are was Franz Schubert, who after having heard a performance of Quartet No.14 in C sharp minor is reported to have said 'After this, what is left for us to write?' Composers after Schubert have been as awestruck by this music, with Stravinsky famously describing the Große Fuge as 'an absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever.' The feeling that Beethoven in these works was giving form to a universal music which transcends genre conventions have also inspired many to adapt various of the quartets for larger forces, including the conductors Dmitri Mitropoulos and Arturo Toscanini. On the present recordings, originally released by the Altara label in 2006, it is the Norwegian violinist Terje Tønnesen's adaptations we hear, performed by himself and his Swedish string ensemble Camerata Nordica. Besides providing the greater dynamic spectrum that a larger ensemble can bring to the music, Tønnesen's main aim has been to strengthen the contrasts between intimate passages and fuller textures by employing solo players in certain passages, as in a concerto grosso. He and Camerata Nordica has also reinstated the Große Fuge in its proper context: that amazing 15 minute monolith was originally intended as the finale of Op.130, but proved indigestible to contemporary audiences and critics - one of whom described it as 'as incomprehensible as Chinese' - and was replaced by an easy-going rondo following a request from Beethoven's publisher.

The audience at the wildly successful New Music Festival in Winnipeg has embraced the music of composer T. Patrick Carrabre for well over a decade. The works on this disc offer an in-depth sound portrait of the creative partnership between composer, musicians and audience that ranges from hipsters to veteran symphony lovers.

Sapyegina/Lissovsky/Fedoseyev/Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra.

Folk music has always been an obvious inspiration for symphonic repertoire. The Nordan Suite explores these possibilities according to current trends. Singer-instrumentalist Lena Willemark and multi-instrumentalist Ale Möller, two unique Swedish musicians, have continuously formed ties to other musical worlds that allow new music to arise. This new CD marks a cooperative effort with arranger and composer Hans Ek, who, together with Ale Möller, composed the music. For the past 25 years, Hans Ek has made the symphony orchestra into a meeting place for classical, jazz, pop and folk music.