Classical Music

SOMM celebrates Christmas this year with Carols from Chelsea, a delicious offering from the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea under their Director, William Vann. The Royal Hospital, founded in 1682 by Charles II, is the home of the iconic Chelsea Pensioners, who are all retired soldiers of the British Army. The Chapel Choir sings for the Sunday morning Matins service in the Royal Hospital's Wren Chapel during the year, but in December provides the music for carol services and other Christmas-themed events almost every day. This recording showcases some of the Choir's most cherished carol repertoire, alongside solo organ music performed by the Royal Hospital's Organ Scholar, James Orford, and a very special performance with Chelsea Pensioner and George Hatton. Many of the Royal Hospital's carol services begin wtih Franz Gruber's spine-tingling carol Stille Nacht, an especially moving carol to hear in the original German, given it's celebrated performance in the trenches on Christmas Day, 1914. Once in Royal David's City is the first of three carols that are usually sung with the full congregation, opening with the famous solo that captures the mood of Christmas like nothing else.

Brubeck and Brass - music of Chris and Dave Brubeck / Gramercy Brass, John Henry Lambert Dave Brubeck was a major composer in American music. As a jazz musician, pianist, and writer of many great tunes he was indisputably on a level of his own. But there was much more to Dave's music and his talents as a composer. This recording provides a glimpse into the depth of Dave's vast and wonderful musical world, which ranged well beyond the world of jazz in which he is most well-known. Dave's output also included a broad catalog of written out classical compositions, which always provide windows into the sound world that was uniquely his own. Dave's son Chris Brubeck is a monster musician in his own right, having grown up playing piano bass trombone and bass, with his father's band and with his own as well. In Dave's later years Chris and he continued their onstage collaborations, as well as composing together, and it was under guidance of Chris that this recording was made, just prior to the death of Dave in 2012. Chris's music and performances have been well represented on Entertainment One's classical and jazz labels.

LA TRAVIATA
Mireille Delunsch • Matthew Polenzani • Zeljko Lucic
Orchestre de Paris, Conducted by Yutaka Sado
staged by Peter Mussbach
Recorded at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (2003)

AIDA
Nina Stemme • Salvatore Licitra • Luciana D’Intino Juan Pons • Matti Salminen
Zurich Opera Orchestra, Conducted by Adam Fischer
staged by Nicolas Joel
Recorded at the Opernhaus Zürich (2006)
BBC Magazine DVD of the month (august 07)
Gramophone DVD of the month (august 07)

MACBETH
Dimitris Tiliakos • Violeta Urmana • Ferruccio Furlanetto • Stefano Secco
Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris, Conducted by Teodor Currentzis
staged by Dmitri Tcherniakov
Recorded at the Opéra national de Paris (2009)

Three masterpieces by Verdi in a limited edition 5-DVD box set: internationally acclaimed productions from Aix Festival, Zurich Opera House and paris Opera, by Peter Mussbach (Traviata), Nicolas Joel (Aida) and Dmitri Tcherniakov (Macbeth). Artists as Mireille Delunsch, Nina Stemme, salvatore Licitra, Violeta Urmana and world famous conductors as Yutaka Sado, Adam Fischer and Teodor Currentzis.

"•The particularity of this edition of Donizetti’s masterpiece is in its reconstruction of the 1845 Saint Petersburg version. Along with some key transpositions, this 2010 performance presents the alternative finale adopted at the same time. • Bass-baritone Lorenzo Regazzo is an acclaimed “bel canto” and “coloratura” singer and renowned Mozart and Rossini interpreter. Giovanni Battista Rigon is considered “one of the best Rossini conductors...spirited...never tiring” (Il Corriere della Sera)."

It's usual to say, somewhat condescendingly, that Leroy Anderson was a great "light music" composer, but the fact is that he was a great composer. Period. The ability to write a memorable tune is priceless, as Brahms (no slouch in the tune department) recognized in speaking of Dvorák, and it more than compensates for any amount of failings in other departments. Anderson had remarkably few of those: his orchestrations are masterly, his craftsmanship always top-notch. The three suites included here (Scottish, Irish, and Alma Mater) are beautifully put together and incredibly catchy.

The vocal items (see work list above) are fetchingly sung by Kim Criswell and William Dazeley, and here receive their world premiere recordings. The program ends with one of Anderson's larger works, the dazzling Christmas Festival. Leonard Slatkin, an old hand in this music, conducts with unassuming mastery, and the BBC Concert Orchestra sounds entirely at home in the idiom. Very good engineering completes this delectable package. Like the rest of this series, this is definitely worth collecting.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Kondrashin's Fourth was made shortly after the first performance and is altogether outstanding. It is both spontaneous and imaginative... it's intensity of feeling and refinement of detail are matched by recording quality of striking range for it's period." (Gramophone) "Of the film scores... Hamlet was made of sterner stuff. This music is close in spirit to the major works he was working on at the time, you'll find many of the same textures and sometimes even the same music here." (Gramophone)

Rübezahl storms wildly through the Riesengebirge, and the elves in Oberon's retinue scurry like the wind. At the height of the romantic era Carl Maria von Weber composed musical pictures of suggestive power. He produced emotional suspense of the highest concentration not only in his opera overtures but also in the purely instrumental music of his clarinet concertos - as Martin Spangenberg impressively demonstrates to the ear in his debut with the Orchestra M 18. And this in the 3D sound of 2+2+2 recording technique - a virtuosic sound feast for the senses!

Classical Music

For the last seventeen years of his life – from 2003 to 2019 – Mariss Jansons was chief conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Bavarian Radio Chorus. Both ensembles and their conductor appreciated each other deeply on an artistic as well as a human level, and this resulted in numerous unforgettable concerts. Jansons’ unrelenting demands on himself and his musicians, his always respectful treatment of his colleagues, and his great devotion to music all played a lead role in their work together. Mariss Jansons occupies a place of honor in the orchestra’s history, and its players will always revere and cherish his memory. With the death of Mariss Jansons one year ago, the music world lost one of its greatest artistic personalities.

Born the son of conductor Arvids Jansons in Riga in 1943, the young Mariss studied at the Leningrad Conservatory before completing his studies with Hans Swarowsky in Vienna and Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg. In 1971 he was a prizewinner at the Karajan Conducting Competition and began his close collaboration with today's St. Petersburg Philharmonic. From 1979 to 2000, Jansons was Music Director of the Oslo Philharmonic; from 1997 to 2004 he conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; and in the 2003/04 season he became Chief Conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Bavarian Radio Chorus. The 2004/05 season marked the start of his tenure at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, which ended in 2015. As a guest conductor, he worked with all the leading orchestras of Europe and the USA, and his discography includes many award-winning recordings.

The beauty that the Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks evokes in his works would not be possible without the experience of violence and cruelty in this world. He grew up in a country deprived of liberty, and because of his faith and his artistic convictions he was exposed to reprisals from Russian cultural doctrine. His father, a Baptist pastor, was regarded as an “enemy of the people”, and his homeland was under Soviet control. As a result, Vasks developed a vision of freedom and subtle protest in his music. In the so-called “singing revolution”, the countries of the Baltic region with their traditional love of choral music initiated their independence from Soviet rule. Vasks' expressive, direct and often deliberately simple music quickly became the mouthpiece of the long-suppressed Latvian people, giving the nation a proud voice that can be heard worldwide.

Today, alongside Arvo Pärt, Vasks is one of the most famous composers from the Baltic states of the former Soviet Union. The works on this release are for chamber-music string ensembles: his first symphony "Balsis - Voices" (1991), the haunting violin concerto "Tala gaisma - Distant Light" (1996/97), and the piece "Viatore” (the traveler; 2001), dedicated to Arvo Pärt, here in a version for eleven solo strings by the conductor, church musician and arranger Stefan Vanselow. The Münchner Rundfunkorchester plays under its chief conductor Ivan Repušic, and the concerto soloist is Stanko Madic, first concertmaster of the MRO.

REVIEW

Distant Light's heartfelt, rooted performance may well prove a front runner in a field more competitive than that of any other concerto by a living composer. There is a strong sense of narrative sound from Repušić’s orchestra but also from Madić, whose control of vibrato and tone colour ranges from nervous intensity to still radiance. The cantabile movements retreat without exactly relaxing, the cadenzas are determinedly articulate and the overall power is cumulative more than choreographed. The difficult-to-record ending comes off well.

Recommended as a string-only immersion in Vasks’s world, a competitive account of his most famous work or just something to keep you going until the light actually returns.

–Gramophone

Hailed as "Four of the Best" by the British press after their Wigmore Hall debut, the Philharmonia Quartet Berlin have long been acknowledged as ranking among the world's premier string quartets. Founded in 1984 by the principal concertmaster and string section leaders of the Berlin Philharmonic, the quartet appears regularly at the world's most prestigious concert halls and annual international festivals. The ensemble's substantial Thorofon Classics label discography includes quartets by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Shostakovich, Reger, and now, Brahms complete string quartets.

Braithwaite has conducted British music to very good effect, and this shows him in equally favourable light... recorded sound is first class, and the orchestra of a high standard... (Suite) 'Nocturne' is the most deeply felt movement, and he conducts in a very expressive fashion. Cherry Ripe and Sir Roger de Coverley - Braithwaite brings out their cheerful, extrovert qualities effectively... He conducts sensitively in There is a willow... (Holst) The melancholia of the Lyric Movement is deeply felt... Fugal Concerto has more to offer than originally recognized (Gramophone)

Iain Sutherland was awarded the Gold Badge of Merit by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors for Lifetime Achievement and his unique contribution. His others, also in superb sound: ALC1192- The Merrymakers - 20 British Light Classics, ALC 1392 - Sailing By - 25 more British Light Classics, ALC1206- Manhattan Playboys - 20 American Light Classics, ALC 1250 Orient Express - 20 Europe & Beyond Light Classics, ALC 1324 'Blue Tango' - Very Best of Leroy Anderson

Composer-Producer William Perry Has Played a Major Role in the Revival of Interest in Silent Films, Both Through His 100 Silent Film Scores and His Emmy Award-Winning TV Series 'The Silent Years', Hosted By Orson Welles and Lillian Gish. The Critically-Acclaimed Naxos Recording 'Music for Great Films of the Silent Era' (8.572567) Presented a Rich Array of Perry's Film Music; This Companion Volume Offers a Further View of Perry's Colorful, Exuberant Writing, Including His New Silent Film Heroines Song-Suite for Mezzo-Soprano and Orchestra, Celebrating Eight Legendary Silent Cinema Actresses. Perry's Supremely Melodic Sense of Period and Style Captures Perfectly the Romance, Grandeur and Humor of Those Entertaining Days When Movies Were Movies!

RACHMANINOV: ISLE OF THE DEAD SYMPHONY 1

So Fragile, So Blue is about something we all have in common; this beautiful planet Earth that we all call home. At the core of this project is William Shatner and his remarkable talent for storytelling. In 2021, Shatner made a historic journey into space on Blue Origin's rocket, New Shepard. Just before the launch, Shatner shared a meal with two old friends, Robert Sharenow and Dan Miller. For many years the trio had written songs together-firstly in person, and later over Zoom throughout the pandemic. "I met Robert and Dan for dinner and of course began to talk about writing a song about going up into space and made some notes. But then I went up and I came down and then I made some phone calls. One of the phone calls was to Robert and Dan. I said "You know, that song we started to write about space? Forget about it. It doesn't work." The experience was beyond anything we could have imagined. We have to write a song about it, but it's not the one we jotted down that Sunday. So, we started to write a song, encapsulating, distilling what I experienced going up into space. We called it 'So Fragile, So Blue' and it does distil everything I felt and saw." Later, the songs would take on a new form thanks to another long-term friend, Ben Folds, who was fascinated by Shatner's experience going into space. Folds, who is Artistic Advisor at the Kennedy Center, brought new collaborators to the project-the wonderful composer and orchestrator Jherek Bischoff and bluegrass violin virtuoso and composer Gabe Witcher, who wrote original underscoring for the songs to create new orchestral works. The friends' creation was brought to life by it's final contributors, conductor Steven Reineke and the National Symphony Orchestra, at the Kennedy Center in April 2022.

Classical Music

Classical Music

The NFM Wrocław Chamber Orchestra LEOPOLDINUM brings together high-calibre musicians and has earned substantial critical and popular acclaim with its appearances at such venues as the Philharmonie and Schauspielhaus in Berlin, the Tivolis Koncertsal in Copenhagen, the Teatro Victoria Eugenia in San Sebastian as well as numerous prestigious events.

There are a lot of performances of this remarkable symphony available now, but this one stands out as having a truly distinctive and persuasive point of view. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, however well it plays, isn’t an orchestral powerhouse like the Chicago Symphony (Previn) or Kondrashin’s Moscow Philharmonic, but Vasily Petrenko more than compensates for any lack of sheer heft with an extra jolt of energy and a razor-sharp rhythmic attack. Listen to the strings dig into the music right after the first movement’s “climax of fugal insanity”. If the preceding din isn’t exactly paint-peeling, it’s still very exciting, and as you can hear, Petrenko sustains the tension very well, providing an unusual degree of continuity to a movement that easily tends to break up into a sequence of disconnected episodes.

The scherzo also is unusually characterful—slower than the norm, which only makes it more gaunt and spooky. The “tick-tock” percussion at the end is especially clear, and disturbingly mechanical. As for the gripping finale, not only is the wacky ballet suite interlude remarkably fun, but Petrenko really unleashes the hounds in the form of some magnificently braying brass in the final chorale. This is one of those performances that justifies purchasing yet another recording of what is becoming a relatively well-known work. It confirms the piece as a true classic, in the sense that a variety of approaches reveals an endless series of valid interpretive possibilities. The performance is also extremely well recorded, naturally balanced, and vividly present. Wonderful.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

This CD comprises works by 19th and 20th century composers whose roots are in jazz, tango and Spanish folklore. Paul Schoenfield's Cafe Music is one of his most popular pieces, often played in concert. The Gelius Trio's version of Astor Piazzolla's 'Four Seasons' is based on Argentinian cellist and composer Jose Bragato's arrangement. Works by Turina andeniz are also featured. The Gelius Trio are known for their beautiful, impassioned, deeply sensitive sound and diverse repertoire.

Starring Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Konstantin Krimetz, Capella Istropolitana.

Few Russian musicians in the second half of the nineteenth century could match the eminence of Anton Rubinstein. As a piano virtuoso he was internationally admired, as a progressive educator he had profound influence, and as a composer he was both significant and successful. The Symphony No 6 in A minor, Op 111 was his last symphony, composed in 1866, and fully revealing those qualities of grace and energy, as well as clever scoring, that make his works so appealing. Don Quixote, described by Tchaikovsky as “very interesting, and perfect in places”, is an inventive and charming musical portrait of Cervantes’ fictional knight. This release completes the reissue of all six Symphonies previously available on Marco Polo.

Get ready to enjoy music from the Indiana Jones films, The Mummy, Angels and Demons, The Adventures of Tintin and Lawrence of Arabia with music by John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Hans Zimmer and many more.