This deluxe remastering of three albums includes the three most famous songbooks of the Golden Age (1451-1595). The Sevillian Cancionero de la Colombina and Cancionero Musical de Medinaceli are samples of a musical humanism with a distinctly Hispanic stamp, in which the cultured and the popular come together. The Castilian Cancionero de Palacio is the most valuable and representative jewel of the repertoire performed in the itinerant Courts of the Catholic Kings, including songs, Christmas carols, ballads and 'extravagances' by authors such as Encina, Mill�n, Escobar, Anchieta, and Pe�alosa. La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Hesp�rion XX and Jordi Savall made them known to the world through these famous recordings made between 1991 and 1992.

Songs by Warlock & Howe - Anna Harvey / Mark Austin - This delightful recital of English songs brings together one of the form's most distinctive and prolific composers, Peter Warlock, with a composer born in 1951 who continues very much in the tradition of the older composer - Frederick Howe, whose selection of his own folksong arrangements dovetail neatly this aspect of Warlock's output. Howe's songs are receiving their world-premiere recordings. Magpie by Warlock is also a world-premiere recording using the original text. Rubicon

Birth of the symphony: Handel to Haydn' explores the development of the symphony in the eighteenth century, surveying groundbreaking musical advances across Europe. (AAM)

This ‘2-for-1’ reissue brings together the best performances by Neeme Järvi of the music by Bartók, taken from his extraordinarily prolific recording career with Chandos Records. The four works span Bartók's career and include some of the greatest music he ever wrote.

The Concerto for Orchestra has remained one of Bartók’s most popular orchestral works since its triumphant premiere in 1944. Its title signals that each section of instruments is treated in a soloistic and virtuoso way. According to Bartók himself, ‘the general mood of the work represents, apart from the jesting second movement, a gradual transition from the sternness of the first movement and the lugubrious death-song of the third, to the life-assertion of the last one’.

The ballet The Miraculous Mandarin is heard here in its complete form. Set in a seedy urban underworld, it tells the tale of a prostitute, the three thugs that control her, and their mysterious encounter with the eponymous Mandarin. In portraying this scenario Bartók creates an astonishingly vivid score with some of the most colourful music he ever wrote.

The Wooden Prince, an earlier ballet, could not on the surface be further from The Miraculous Mandarin. Lacking its daring modernism, it instead shows the influence of Debussy, Strauss, and Wagner. However, its outwardly sunny character obscures a strange and surreal undertone.

The Hungarian Pictures are skilful and imaginative orchestrations made in 1931 of five earlier piano pieces. Each with its own distinct character, these pieces give the impression of being an authentic folksong arrangement, although this is true only of the last of the five. - Chandos

PentaTone continues the collaboration between Marek Janowski and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande with the release of the 3rd Symphony of Anton Bruckner.

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

This outstanding performance was recorded as part of the Philharmonia Orchestra’s 70th concert season. Led by Honorary Conductor for Life Christoph von Dohnanyi, this recording was taken live at the Royal Festival Hall in October of 2015. Believed by many to be Schubert’s greatest symphony, this work is interpreted by Dohnanyi beautifully, and with grandeur and intensity.

Leonie Karatas' debut album is dedicated to the solo work of the Czech composer Vitezslava Kapr�lov� and is the prelude to a series of further recordings which will be dedicated to the work of individual female composers.

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

'The Tales of Hoffmann' is considered as the masterpiece of Jacques Offenbach’s work and mixes love, pain and whim. The intrigue settles around three stories about a broken love. Told by Hoffmann, narrator and hero, these tales paint a portrait of three feminine figures: Olympia the automaton, Antonia the dying opera singer and Giulietta the courtesan. This triptych allows the development of very different universes, and colour. It’s also a declension of the image of woman and of evil.

Christoph Marthaler signed this creation for the Teatro Real. This was Gerard Mortier’s last commission for this stage: the Swiss director has proven his ease in many different registers. An essential capacity needed for a work as rich and subtle as 'The Tales of Hoffmann'. Music is conducted by Sylvain Cambreling and the cast includes Eric Cutler, Anne Sofie von Otter, Measha Brueggergosman and Jean-Philippe Lafont.

Running time: 193 minutes
Subtitles: French, German, English, Spanish
Format: 16/9, NTSC, Sound Dolby digital 2.0/5.1

SYMPHONY NO. 1

Members of the Brodsky Quartet meet the internationally famous flautist Lisa Friend in an album of key works of the flute repertoire: Mozart's flute quartets. Highly praised for previous recordings, her own compositions, solo recitals in Europe, the US, and Asia, as well as appearances with prestigious orchestras, Lisa Friend devotes her very first recording on Chandos to witty, colorful interpretations or Mozart. The flute quartets of Mozart are central to the classical flute repertoire - and deservedly so: the composer's characteristic charm, wit, beauty, and elegance are in evidence throughout. These works convincingly embody Mozart's desire to compose music that engages trained musicians, while also entrancing lay listeners without their necessarily knowing, precisely why.

Also available on Blu-ray

The highly praised Mahler Cycle with Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra continues with the release of the 7th and 8th Symphonies.

PAAVO JÄRVI CONDUCTS MAHLER SYMPHONIES

Gustav Mahler:
Symphony No. 7 in E Minor
Symphony No. 8 in E-Flat Major, “Symphony of a Thousand”

Erin Wall, soprano
Ailish Tynan, soprano
Anna Lucia Richter, soprano
Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano
Charlotte Hellekant, mezzo-soprano
Nikolai Schukoff, tenor
Michael Nagy, baritone
Ain Anger, bass

Limburger Cathedral Boys Choir
Czech Philharmonic Choir, Brno
Europa Chor Akademie
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
Paavo Järvi, conductor

Recorded at the Rheingau Musik Festival, 2011 (Symphony No. 7) and 2013 (Symphony No. 8)

Bonus:
- Introductions to the Symphonies by Paavo Järvi

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Latin, German, English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese / English, German, Korean, Japanese (bonus)
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 149 mins (concert) + 20 mins (bonus)
No. of DVDs: 2 (DVD 9)

Classical Music

"I’m sure that Nielsen’s time is coming, and I’m looking forward to sharing this wonderful music with the audience." - Alan Gilbert 2011 = "Mr. Gilbert drew colorful, glittering and full-bodied playing from the musicians." - The New York Times, concert review of Nielsen's Symphony No. 3, June 2012 = “Music is life, and like it inextinguishable,” said the Danish composer Carl Nielsen (1865-1931). With indomitable courage and infinite curiosity Nielsen developed into one of the 20th century’s greatest symphonists, after being raised in the Danish countryside as the son of a poor folk musician. With this new series of recordings, Nielsen crosses the Atlantic as the New York Philharmonic and their Music Director Alan Gilbert shed new light on the composer's uniquely Nordic symphonic sound. = ABOUT THE NIELSEN PROJECT = This is the first volume of the new recording series of Denmark's national composer Carl Nielsen's complete symphonies and concertos by The New York Philharmonic and their chief conductor Alan Gilbert. All works are recorded live during the New York Philharmonic's concert series in Avery Fisher Hall which has already impressed critics and audiences alike.

REVIEW:

As already suggested, Gilbert’s interpretations take no prisoners, and frankly that is just what Nielsen needs. The Allegro collerico opening of “The Four Temperaments” is really ferocious, the finale almost giddy. And yet, Gilbert’s tempos in the Andante pastorale of the “Espansiva”, or the Andante malincolico of the “Temperaments”, are also perfectly judged, sensitive, and expressive. The former, especially, reveals a combination of tranquility and flow unique in the work’s discography. The string playing is particularly beautiful here, and the Philharmonic’s woodwinds, solo oboe especially, do themselves proud in music that often relies on their artistry and character. Gilbert also very convincingly paces the tricky finale of the same work, with its hymn-like main theme that still has to sound “allegro”.

Dacapo, of course, already has an excellent Nielsen cycle—indeed, the reference edition—in its catalog, featuring Michael Schønwandt and the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (also available on Naxos). So the question must be whether or not this newcomer is distinctive enough to warrant the duplication, and the answer is a definite “yes”. Gilbert reveals a genuine affinity for the music, and Nielsen’s athleticism suits the orchestra very well indeed. If this series keeps up as it has begun, it’s going to be stupendous.

-- ClassicsToday.com

Includes work(s) by Kara Karayev. Ensemble: Russian Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Dmitry Yablonsky.

KARAJAN: COLUMBIA YEARS

In celebration of the Britten anniversary year, Richard Farnes, Music Director of Opera North, conducts an all-English cast in Britten's the Turn of the Screw - his most ingeniously crafted opera. Soloists include Andrew Kennedy, Sally Matthews, and 11-year old Michael Clayton-Jolly in the role of Miles. Originally scheduled to be conducted by Sir Colin Davis, Farnes was the natural replacement, having been mentored by the late conductor. Premiered in 1954, Britten's opera sets Henry James's remarkable ghost story about a governess and a housekeeper who vow to protect two children from the strange happenings that occur in the grounds of their home.

A year before his pinnacle opus, Orpheus and Eurydice, Gluck was already largely renewing another musical genre, the ballet, by adapting in 1761 a play by Moli�re for the Viennese public: Don Juan. Another ballet, S�miramis, would follow the next year, these two works innovate in that they offer a coherent narration where all the resources of the orchestra are put at the service of expressiveness. Jordi Savall and the Concert des Nations restore all the colors and remind us that a quarter of a century before that of Mozart, another outstanding personality haunted the stages of Europe with all the evocative power of which music is capable.

In a program packed full of great drama and theatricality, Harry Christophers and the Handel and Haydn Society present a new live recording devoted to the master of the symphony. This disc showcases Haydn's Symphony No. 7 "Le midi" which is amongst the most striking of his early symphonies and one of the very first the composer wrote as Kapellmeister to Prince Paul Anton Esterh�zy. It is set alongside the much later Paris Symphony No. 83 "La poule", named as such because of it's famous clucking dotted note motif. Completing the program is the Violin Concerto in C major performed by HH's fiery and expressive Concertmaster, Aisslinn Nosky. Handel and Haydn Society is America's oldest continuously operating arts organization. It's Bicentennial celebration began with the 2014-2015 Season and continues into the 2015-2016 Season. Harry Christophers has been Artistic Director since 2008.

From the New York Philharmonic's in-house label come three separate and distinct albums of orchestral fare that highlights the trumpet, including eleven complete concertos, all featuring the orchestra's longstanding and recently retired principal trumpet chair, Phillip Smith, in performances stretching across the more than thirty years this most distinguished and honored musician occupied the position, 1979-2013. Album 1, available on CD and digital download, is a 21-track offering that boasts highlights from four of Gustav Mahler's nine symphonies, as well as works by Bernstein, Copland, Stravinsky, Ives, Bach, and others, in whole or on part. Album 1 also includes a 32-page booklet containing photos, notes and essays. Albums 2 & 3, available as digital downloads only, boast complete concertos by Vivaldi, Molter, Haydn and Zwilich, among several other important trumpet-centric concerted works. "For the past 36 years, Philip Smith has presided over orchestral trumpet playing, with a resonant, clarion sound and a reputation for never missing a note." (The New Yorker)

Josef Still, cathedral organist at the Hohe Domkirche Trier since 1994 and the expert authority on organs of the diocese of Trier, is the successor to the long-time cathedral organist Wolfgang Oehms and has recorded an extraordinary music programme to celebrate the Christmas festivities on the present album. The works of selected Polish composers appear on the recording, together with works of J.S. Bach and Max Reger performed on the Beckerath Organ in the Lebensbaumkirche in Manderscheid. The Beckerath Organ, which was moved to Manderscheid from the former institute of Church Music of the diocese of Speyer and renovated by Mayer Organ Builders, has found a new home in the Lebensbaumkirche. Here it can resound in a new-found brilliance.

Classical Music

Limited Edition 7CD Box Set. The late chamber recordings made by the great Catalan cellist with longstanding friends and colleagues, including two versions of Beethoven's 'Ghost' Trio, the 1956 'Hommage � Pablo Casals' LP, and the Schubert String Quintet with the V�gh Quartet. Includes CD premieres. In September 1958, the 81-year-old Pablo Casals took part in the (now annual) Beethovenfest held in the composer's home city of Bonn. His music-making had lost none of it's carefree spirit, and Philips quickly issued these live recordings of Beethoven sonatas and piano trios made in the intimate space of the music room of the Beethoven House. They preserve the cellist on liberated and exhilarating form in a transcription of the Horn Sonata and the Second and Fifth Cello Sonatas, accompanied by the Polish pianist who had been a chamber-music partner since the 1930s, Mieczyslaw Horszowski. These understated masters of an essentially 19th-century playing style were joined in three piano trios - including the 'Ghost' and 'Archduke' - by a Hungarian violinist from a younger generation, S�ndor V�gh, whose sweet tone and supple rubato also comes from another age. Three years later, at the cellist's festival in his adopted Pyreneean home of Prades, Philips captured an equally spontaneous account of the First Cello Sonata with Wilhelm Kempff (a mere 66 at the time) and another 'Ghost' with V�gh and the Swiss pianist Karl Engel. These are performances embodying Casals's wise and patrician personality as a musician, yet never solemn and always responsive to his colleagues and the spirit of the occasion. Also captured at the 1961 festival, the account of the Schubert Quintet featured gains special warmth from the Hungarian line-up, in which V�gh leads his compatriots S�ndor Z�ldy, Georges Janzer and Paul Szabo, with Casals taking the second cello part. The 'Ghost' Trio with Horszowski receives a first release on CD in this box, along with another Philips LP made live at the Sorbonne in Paris in October 1956. Casals conducts the Lamoureux Orchestra in a deeply felt performance of Faure's El�gie, with the solo part taken by the orchestra's fine cello section in unison. A 25-minute rehearsal sequence brings fascinating insights into Casals's working methods and his passionate but practical engagement with the music at hand. Casals as conductor in Paris also neatly rounds off the set: the 1960 LP of concertos by Haydn and Boccherini with his pupil Maurice Gendron: aristocratically moulded versions that retain their musical virtues in these period-aware times, and the first-ever recording of the Boccherini to return to the original score rather than the heavily rewritten Gr�tzmacher edition. Tully Potter's new essay completes a set which should appeal to Casals enthusiasts, collectors and cellists alike.

This newly re-mastered 20th anniversary edition CD features over 500 vocalists and instrumentalists from Brigham Young University combined in a concert celebration of beloved American folk hymns. A bestseller since it's inception, A Thanksgiving of American Folk Hymns has been seen throughout the years on over 200 public television stations. The program features arrangements of beautiful hymn melodies in performances that inspires a spirit of gratitude all year long and leaves audiences profoundly moved. The BYU Concert Choir of 100 advanced singers has acquired an outstanding reputation for captivating performances of a wide variety of repertoire taken from the great choral literature, encompassing many different styles and genres. The 180 voiced BYU Men's Chorus, founded in 1958, are thought to be the largest collegiate male choral organization in the country. The Women's Chorus is a large group of select, versatile singers well known for it's beautiful, blended sound from pristine, quiet unison to the majesty of large textured sonorities.

Classical Music