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

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
Recording information: Tampere Concert Hall (10/14/2008-10/21/2008).

Some of this music has been recorded before, by BIS, but the overture and the complete Kalanus Suite aren't otherwise available. Christian Horneman (1840-1906) wrote comparatively little music, most of it for the theater, and all of it (that I've heard anyway) is of high quality. The idiom is late romantic, the melodic invention consistently attractive, the scoring colorful and ear-catching. The music leaves you wanting more. The Gurre-Suite follows the same basic story as Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, except that in this version Tove gets locked in a sauna and steamed to death rather than poisoned by the jealous queen. The four concise movements consist of an overture, a love scene, Tove's funeral procession, and a brief Entr'acte as a finale.

The other major work here is the suite from Kalanus, in five relatively substantial movements--but arguably the most fun comes from the two dances (of satyrs and a bacchanal, respectively) in "Contest with the Muses". Trust me, it's all good, and the performances are absolutely terrific, with Johannes Gustavsson encouraging his players to give their very best. Dacapo's SACD engineering is also excellent. It may be that Horneman's entire life's work can be summed up on a single CD (not necessarily a bad thing in these days of mega-boxed sets), but it's one you won't want to miss.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The poems by Gustaf Fr�ding are well known to Swedish poetry and music lovers and many of them have been set to music before. Fr�ding belonged to the same generation of authors "the 1890's" that also included Nobel Prize winners Selma Lagerl�f, Verner von Heidenstam and Erik Axel Karlfeldt. Fr�ding was and is probably the most popular of them all. These fifteen Fr�ding songs cover a wide spectrum of emotions, from folksy humoristic rural stories via satirical portraits, good-natured but biting to deeply philosophical and serious personal and universal analyses. Matti Borg varies the expressivity of the music depending on the content of the texts. The very first song, for instance, Jonte Och Brunte, describes graphically the old farm-hand and the aged horse on their way home from the field at the end of the day.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Most pianists who record both Chopin concertos tend to ignore the composer’s other concerted works for piano and orchestra. As a result, the catalog contains few complete cycles, and they’re uneven at that. Those by Abbey Simon (Vox), Garrick Ohlsson (Hyperion), and Kun-Woo Paik (Decca) consistently satisfy. So does the present release with pianist Oleg Marshev.

Aside from his tone turning slightly metallic and strident in loudest passages, Marshev’s vibrant, fluent, and tastefully inflected pianism fuses power and poetry at every juncture. Listen, for example, to the First Concerto Rondo’s elegantly racing octave runs, to the sustained drama in the central minor episode of the Second Concerto’s Larghetto, or to the perky runs and roulades throughout the Grande Polonaise and you’ll hear what I mean.

Neither Krakowiak’s knotty passagework nor the glittery bravura of the Là ci darem la mano variations pose problems for Marshev’s fingers. What is more, the South Denmark Philharmonic under David Porcelijn offers alert and vividly detailed support that belies any received notions that Chopin’s orchestrations are humdrum. Both soloist and orchestra unify the potentially piecemeal Fantasy on Polish Airs with sharp accents, darkly shaded modal twists, and a real chamber-like repartée. Notice also the gorgeous textural interplay in the Krakowiak’s introduction, with sustained strings, solo horn and clarinet, and the piano’s haunting unison lines. Marshev won’t cause collectors to jettison favorite individual performances, yet his high standards add up to an easy recommendation for those who want all of Chopin’s concerted works together, not to mention Danacord’s superb engineering and Jeremy Nicholas’ succinct, information-packed booklet notes.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This selection contains both DDD and ADD recordings.

Classical Music

Classical Music

The Spiritual Revival Choir of Moscow was created in 1992, at the end of the Soviet era, a time when religious freedom was once again permitted in Russia. The choir's repertoire includes music of the renaissance, baroque, classical and romantic periods, as well as music by contemporary composers such as Alfred Schnittke. 'Serene Ecstasy' features the choir in sacred music by Russian composers from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The choir opens the program with "The Russian Soil," a hymn dedicated to Russian saints that is memorable for its rhythmic drive and exalted tone. Two sacred pieces by Tchaikovsky are marked by drama and, in "Eucharist" from the 'Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom,' a sense of joy. The group's lush tonal quality is ideal in Ippolitov-Ivanov's pacific "Praise the Lord, O My Soul."
This recording consistently impresses with its excellent singing and fascinating repertoire; surely it's an ideal recording for all lovers of sacred music.

Anton Rubinstein’s Symphony No. 4 in D Minor, Op. 95, emerged in 1874 – ending a dry spell of roughly 20 years since his previous efforts in the genre. It came at a time when the future of the purely instrumental symphony was in doubt, reflecting the notion of Wagner and his disciples that Beethoven had exhausted the possibilities of symphonic development – and that the day of “synthetic” art (the “Gesamtkunstwerk”), with its blend of symphonic, vocal and theatrical elements, had arrived. Rubinstein did not agree, and composed his fourth symphony in an apparent effort to prove that Beethoven’s methods were still valid. This marks Delos’ second re-release of Russian Disk’s acclaimed series of Rubinstein’s orchestral music, as performed with authentic idiomatic flair by Igor Golovchin and his Russian State Symphony Orchestra.

Västerås Sinfonietta and Johannes Gustavsson present fantastic music of the composer trio Britta Byström, Ylva Skog, and Andrea Tarrodi. In 2011 these composers released their works for piano trio on dB Production. Now they offer selected orchestral works for volume 4 in the listener-friendly contemporary music series “Total Tonality.”

A winning assortment of time-tested and drug-free musical remedies for a wide variety of common ailments... ranging from mental and physical lethargy through a bad case of the blues to that up-tight, jittery feeling (among many other maladies). It's good for what ails you! This box set includes Laugh with Classical Music (DE1627), Classical Caffeine (DE1628) and Classical Chamomile (DE1629).