Richard Strauss spent nearly a decade and a half writing Eine Alpensinfonie, a work describing the impressions of a mountain hike with such clarity that the score could almost be considered film music sans film. Don Juan's premiere (1889) established the reputation of the 24-year-old Strauss as the most important composer since Richard Wagner. Francois -Xavier Roth, one of the most charismatic and enterprising conductors of his generation, took on the role of Principal Conductor of the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg in September 2011.

In many ways, this album represents the debut recording of ACME, American Contemporary Music Ensemble. The collection of pieces here was chosen for very pure and simple reasons; each work is a piece we love and to which we feel quite intimately connected. The performance of this music is an expression of affection and closeness, not just to each other as performers, but also to the composer who wrote it. Three of the four composers featured are also performers in ACME. It is music that feels very close. The privilege of performing this music for others has shaped each of us individually and as an ensemble, and these pieces occupy a good part of the music ACME has performed as concert music. It was also chosen for this album, to exist on recorded media, because it is work that should exist in other scenarios beyond the concert experience: a long, slow walk; a frenetic commute; a late evening at home... The American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) is dedicated to the outstanding performance of masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries, primarily the work of American composers. The ensemble presents music by living composers alongside the classics of the contemporary. ACME’s dedication to new music extends across genres, and has earned them a reputation among both classical and rock crowds. NPR calls them “contemporary music dynamos,” and The New York Times describes ACME’s performances as “vital,” “brilliant,” and “electrifying.” Time Out New York reports, “Jensen has earned a sterling reputation for her fresh, inclusive mix of minimalists, maximalists, eclectics and newcomers.” ACME was honored by ASCAP during its 10th anniversary season in 2015 for the “virtuosity, passion, and commitment with which it performs and champions American composers.” "This curated selection of pieces comes from different but rhyming sonic worlds and is some of the music we have grown to love the most in this varied and fast-changing world." - Clarice Jensen, ACME Cellist & Artistic Director

SYMPHONIES 3 & 5 EGMONT OVERTURE CORILIAN OVERTURE

For this second collaboration with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Emmanuel Krivine and Zig-Zag Territoires, two major Russian works were chosen. Both make the orchestra sound sumptuous with the complicity of that fantastic colorist and orchestrator Maurice Ravel, and the skill of a composer nicknamed 'the magician of the orchestra.' Emmanuel Krivine excels in these demanding works that necessitate as much commitment as perspicacity from the conductor, at the service of scores magnifying the fantastic musical instrument that is the modern symphony orchestra.

Musical America’s ‘Conductor of the Year’ for 2015 Gianandrea Noseda continues his Chandos ‘Musica Italiana’ series with select works of Niccolò Castiglioni (1932-96), an intellectual and an aesthete who occupied a singular place in the profound renewal of Italian and European musical life of the 1960s-‘70s.Having a predilection for clear sonorities and airy, transparent textures, Castiglioni created his own unique and original artistic philosophy, from tonal harmonies to the more fragmented and experimental.Mr. Noseda leads the Danish National Symphony and guest vocalists.

"None of the performances on this new release is less than superb; moreover, no one who has been using the Naxos series to build his library of Barber works risks being disappointed by this or any of the other releases...this new Naxos release is especially notable for its extremely rich yet transparent sound quality and for painstakingly shaped phrasing by the Scottish National Orchestra."

-- Walter Simmons, Fanfare

Classical Music

Classical Music

With this recording of the Third Symphony, the GRAMMY winning combination of Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra completes their Brahms Symphonies Cycle on Channel Classics. The recording commenced one day prior to Hungary closing its borders on September 1st, 2020. Engineer/Producer Jared Sacks had just arrived from The Netherlands. Despite the lockdown, the venue remained accessible, and the recording could be completed. It is coupled here with the Serenade No.2.

VENICE

The Places
A city built on an archipelago of 117 islets, Venice is remarkable in many ways. Unsullied by modern traffic, its buildings retain much of their historic character and something of the magic of the place is reflected in our tour which starts and ends with the lagoon, after visiting the islands of Burano, Murano, Torcello and San Michele.
The Music
Violinist, priest and most prolific composer, Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678 and spent most of his life there, associated for much of the time with the Ospedale della Pietà, a charitable institution for girls, with a strong musical tradition. The music for the tour is taken from his collection of twelve concertos, L’Estro Armonico (Harmonic Inspiration), published in Amsterdam in 1711.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 57 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

R E V I E W:
Of all the tourist traps I have managed to visit, from China’s Great Wall to Paris via Granada, Rome, Florence and many other venues, Venice is the one that really blew me away. As one of the great Italian city-states of the medieval period it could be said to vie with Florence as a major centre of art and culture in the Renaissance with affluent families supporting the arts as well as wars. Now capital of the Veneto region, it is located at the very head of the Adriatic 4 km from the mainland of Italy to which it is joined by a causeway. It comprises more than one hundred small islands traversed by canals, there is no road traffic. Between the city and the Adriatic are the lagoons, expanses of water sheltered from the open sea by sandbanks and by the longer island of the Lido, the beach resort of the city. The lagoons are divided into Laguna Viva and Laguna Morta, alive and dead, the latter only underwater during spring high tides.
 
In the Venice lagoons are found several of the major islands included in this musical journey. The start is in the city itself with views of the Grand Canal at dusk and then seen as a boat looks back at the mighty Campanile of St. Marks. On the island of San Michele is the earliest Renaissance church of Venice, dating from the 15th century. This is the cemetery island where the city buried their dead. For some time demand has exceeded supply of space, and bones are removed. Despite this, elegant marble and colourful floral tributes abound with the sight of snow on the ground to remind the viewer that it is cold around here in winter (CH.1). The booklet reminds us that among the more permanent of the graves are those of the great Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev, the composer Igor Stravinsky and the American poet Ezra Pound.
 
The music throughout this journey is taken from Vivaldi’s set of twelve concertos known as L'Estro Armonico, first published in 1711. Himself a violinist of ability, his music receives due string sonority and grace of phrasing by the instrumentalists of Capella Istropolitana under Josef Kopelman. There are serious attempts to match changes of tempi in the various movements to change of venue.
 
After the cemetery island the journey continues to the still canal waters of Torcello and the Cathedral Santa Maria Assunta (CH.2). Its elegant interior houses a timeless mosaic of Madonna and Child and also an extensive Last Judgement, both from the late twelfth century but having received restoration. The early twelfth century Church of Santa Fosca is only interesting as regards its octagonal shape
 
The island of Burano (CH.4), the home of the composer Galuppi, has a certain timelessness too, with its visually dated shops, colourful fishing boats and lace-making. However it is the visit to the glass-making factory on Murano, for which the island is famous, that will draw the eye and the stirrings of covetousness (CH.5). To see the production of such things of beauty and intricacy is a delight; to be able to afford to buy one, or even a few of them to adorn one's home would be pleasant indeed.
 
The journey concludes (CH.6) with a return to Venice itself, past the Arsenal (built 1104) and a brief view of the Academia Bridge and the backwater canals and warehouses. Venice is now a city of industry as well as Grand Palaces such as that of Francesco Da Mosta whose series of programmes for the BBC is now available on DVD (BBCDVD2145). The programmes may lack music, but make up for it in informed narrative and superb photography. The latter is normally a strength of this series but, made in winter as indicated by the snow scenes and leafless trees, a little too much depends on the atmosphere of half-light and that of the lagoon directional buoys.
 
-- Robert J Farr, MusicWeb International

Beethoven's first Sonatas for violin and piano Op. 12/1-3, composed during the years 1797 and 1798, contain unmistakable elements of his later composition style, which challenged his contemporaries’ critical taste accordingly. The violin sonatas No. 4 Op. 23 and No. 5 Op. 24 and their composition correlate, according to findings of musicologists, closely with Beethoven’s own relationships. The former one seems to portray the darker side of love, its unfulfillment, whereas the later so-called ‘spring sonata’ – as a sort of characterization of a loving heart’s feeling of spring – references the sweet, beautiful aspects of love. The three sonatas Op. 30/1-3, composed in 1802, the year when he also wrote the ‘Heiligenstädter Testament’, reflect Beethoven’s emotional state and are characterized by heavy mood swings. Maybe the most famous work is the ‘Kreutzer’ sonata No. 9 in A major Op. 47, once termed unplayable by its dedicatee, the French violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer. By contrast, Beethoven’s final violin sonata No. 10 in G major Op. 96 seems more heartfelt in tone and was praised by critics as the ‘most poetic and musically most sensitively crafted’ of his sonatas. Thomas Albertus Irnberger and Michael Korstick furthermore present the variations ‘Se vuol ballare’ WoO 40 on a theme from the opera Le nozze di Figaro by W. A. Mozart. The Rondo in G major, WoO 41, and the Six German Dances, WoO 42, were written in 1794/96 and convey ease and almost juvenile cheerfulness – a trait also prevalent in the interpretation of Irnberger and Korstick.

Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra continue their critically acclaimed Elgar project with Sea Pictures and The Music Makers, featuring Kathryn Rudge as soloist. Sea Pictures is one of the composer's most popular works, and as an orchestral song cycle, stands alongside those by Mahler and Strauss. The Music Makers has had a more troubled history. Elgar worked on it on and off from 1903 until it's premiere in 1912. Both the words and music received criticism. But for Elgar it was a personal work. He wrote on the manuscript, "This is the best of me; for the rest, I ate, and drank, and slept, loved and hated, like another. My life was as the vapor, and is not; but this I saw, and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory."

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REVIEW:

This glowingly idiomatic account of Sea Pictures can only enhance Rudge's growing reputation. With her sensitivity to the text, freshness of timbre and secure vocal technique, she once again proves herself a strongly intuitive interpreter of this repertoire. Under Petrenko’s malleable lead the joint RLPO forces give of their fervent, articulate best. No question about it, Petrenko’s abundantly communicative conception demands to be heard.

– Gramophone

This new and highly-anticipated release of three symphonies of Franz Joseph Haydn follows the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Rebecca Miller's acclaimed recording of the works of CPE Bach with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment: "Self-critical perspective is clearly not a problem for these artists... The unfurling description of a lover's kisses permit all kinds of glorious opportunities for the singers' seemingly telepathic understanding for chiaroscuro, impeccable tuning and innate grammatical sense" (Gramophone, Editor's Choice, May 2015)

No, it’s not the title of new horror flick. Swanwhite and The Lizard remain two of Sibelius least known incidental scores, here played in their complete original versions. As is often the case with these works, the suite that Sibelius made from his Swanwhite music is far more satisfying then the original score. The augmented orchestration for the suite, especially the important part for harp, adds tremendously to the music’s appeal, especially in a piece where that instrument gets mentioned all over the place but had to be left out of the theatrical version for reasons of economy (the original used only thirteen instruments, but the strings are intelligently padded even here). Still, there are plenty of extended bits as initially conceived and the music itself is really, really lovely.

Sibelius never made a suite out of The Lizard, and for good reason. It would have been nearly impossible. The score consists of two movements: a three-minute Adagio followed by a twenty-two minute Grave, both scored for strings. There’s very little actual music here: it’s all atmosphere and repetition of brief melodic patterns. It is, in short, background music, probably perfect for its intended use, and pretty good at home too if you need something moody that never forces you to pay attention. And as always with Sibelius’ string writing, Segerstam’s performance is gorgeous. It’s not often recalled that Segerstam was himself a violinist of considerable ability in his youth, and he pays a great deal of attention to the orchestral string sections in all of his recordings, to excellent effect.

A Lonely Ski Trail and The Countess’ Portrait are both poetic recitations for narrator and strings. I truly loathe spoken text over music, but Riho Eklundh has a very pleasant, mellow voice, and I find Swedish fun to listen to because it sounds like it ought to be in English but, obviously, it isn’t and you’re left wondering why what you are hearing makes no sense. For example, the opening line of A Lonely Ski Trail, “Ett ensamt skidspar” (with a little circle thing over the “a” in “skidspar”), sounds just like someone saying in English “And in some cheap sport.” It’s fun. So is this beautifully played and recorded ongoing series more generally.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Leif Segerstam directs all this material with unhurried authority, abundant perception and heaps of character. Likewise, his willing Turku colleagues are with him every step of the way. Admirable production values and useful notes, too. A job well done.

- Gramophone Magazine

Lorin Maazel and the Philharmonia Orchestra perform Mahler’s Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Symphonies. This four-disc box is the second set in a series that will encompass Mahler’s Nine Symphonies, featuring live orchestral recordings from London’s Royal Festival Hall of Maazel and the Philharmonia’s much-lauded Mahler Cycle.

Brahms: The Symphonies, Haydn Variations & 8 Hungarian Dance

Mahler: Symphony No. 3 - Wagner: Götterdämmerung & Wesendonc

Classical Music

Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Respighi, Stravinsky, Mussorgs

British-German tenor, Rufus M�ller, was acclaimed by The New York Times following a performance in Carnegie Hall as "... easily the best tenor I have heard in a live Messiah". His unique dramatic interpretation of the Evangelist in Bach's Passions confirmed his status as one of the world's most sought-after performers. On this recital, he performs Beethoven's Scottish Folksongs Op.108 alongside the Hammer Clavier Trio.

Vanish is the engaging and highly innovative follow-up to Yarlung's original and equally compelling Smoke & Mirrors release, presenting a wide tapestry of rhythms and harmonics skillfully arrayed across a broad and deep soundstage. There's an immediacy, clarity, and transparency to this modern classical percussion recording that seemingly brings the performers to your living room.' -Jim Hannon, Publisher, the Absolute Sound, November 2013.

Norrington conducts the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra in works by Wagner, Tchaikovsky, and Berlioz. This invaluable set also explores the creative and controversial interpretive choices of Norrington through a interviews.

Classical Music

This is "as good a performance and interpretation - and technical recording - of Also sprach Zarathustra as one would expect to find" (Gramophone). Inspired and inspiring, Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra is one of a series of tone poems which pushed the form to it's limits. The famous opening introduces a musical interpretation of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical treatise, taking Zarathustra on a complex search through human aspirations. Based on an incident in Strauss's own life, the suite from Intermezzo distills domestic strife and misunderstanding into four jocular vignettes.

Jack Gallagher continues his association with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by JoAnn Falletta with Symphony No. 2 ‘Ascendant,’ a robust, colorful work of dramatic contrasts and expansive architecture that seeks to express the aspirations and strivings of the human spirit. Quiet Reflections is a calm, serenely lyrical meditation which evokes a sense of longing for past tranquility. Gallagher’s previous Naxos release Orchestral Music (8.559652) with the LSO conducted by JoAnn Falletta was awarded five stars by BBC Music Magazine and hailed as “fresh and exuberant” and for “its explosions of sound and colour” by Gramophone.