Classical Music

This CD launches a complete series of recordings of Robert Schumann's orchestral works, performed by the WDR Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Heinz Holliger. Holliger's performances draw on a lifetime study of Schumann's music, thought, personality and fate. His approach imparts lightness and lucidity to these opulent scores through a hierarchical balance of parts, delicately gradated dynamics, and invigorating tempos. The widespread image of this romantic composer as a weak orchestrator receives a refreshing and well-grounded correction. Volume 1 of the series presents the First Symphony in B-flat major (Op. 38), Overture, Scherzo and Finale (Op. 52) and the original 1841 version of the Fourth Symphony in D minor (Op. 120).

Audite here presents the second volume of the complete recording of Robert Schumann's orchestral works. The series includes all the symphonies, overtures and concertos. Heinz Holliger and the WDR Symphony Orchestra have recorded the works with an orchestra of the same size available to Schumann. In so doing, they not only uncover the sonic ideal of the composer, but also its consistent and convincing realization. Holliger's performances draw on a lifetime study of Schumann the man and the musician.

At age 22, Mozart wrote two concertos on commission from Ferdinand DeJean, a wealthy Dutchman. One of those was the Flute Concerto, K313, arguably one of the finest flute concerto ever written. This release features that piece, along with two other concertos performed by the Bavarian Radio Symphony. The 1981 recording of the Flute Concerto K. 313 with Slovenian soloist Irena Grafenauer is one of the few recordings with the great Günter Wand on the conductor’s podium. Oboe soloist François Leleux is featured in a 2001 recording of Mozart’s Oboe Concerto accompanied by “his” orchestra, in which he held the position of principal oboist until 2005, with Sir Colin Davis, the long-standing Chief Conductor of the orchestra.

The Danish composer Hans Christian Lumbye came from a military background and was taught to play the violin and trumpet at an early age. In 1839 he heard the music of Johann Strauss the elder during a visit to Copenhagen made by a Viennese orchestra. This proved to be a lasting influence and one that is abundantly evident in many of the works on this disc. Though Lumbye’s music lacks a truly original voice, it is nevertheless consistently delightful listening.

The most famous piece is "Købehavns Jernbane Damp Galop" or the "Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop" – an unforgettable four minute ride. With the exception of Drømmebilleder and Amélie Vals, all the pieces given here are miniatures but these two more extended works fully justify their extra length. Lumbye could certainly write a good tune and for about thirty years he did just that for the patrons of Copenhagen’s music halls. In 1843 "Tivoli and Vauxhall", an amusement park which was opened and Lumbye became its music director, a position he held until shortly before his death.

This well-chosen program covers most of Lumbye’s career and two works reflect a sabbatical taken in St. Petersburg in 1850. There is also a Polonaise with Cornet solo which dates from fairly early in his career and for which I presume Lumbye would have taken the solo part. With Champagne Galops complete with popping corks to start and finish, the program has the feel of a New’s Year day concert with a difference.

Gennady Rozhdestvensky’s association with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra appears to have been on a guest basis. He seems a slightly surprising choice for this repertoire until you put the disc on when it rapidly becomes clear that he was enjoying himself as much as the players. The readings therefore sound completely idiomatic and they are backed up by excellent, atmospheric sound from the early 90s. The various extra musical effects (e.g. the train guard’s voice in the Steam Railway Galop) are captured most realistically. The documentation is detailed and informative with the Danish titles on the liner (as given above) being translated in the booklet.

Anyone who likes the music of the Strauss family should also try some Lumbye. There is quite a substantial series on Marco Polo (currently running to 11 volumes) but a single disc selection will suffice for most people. At mid-price this one will be very hard to beat given its all round excellence. There is a bargain price collection with an overlapping program on Regis conducted by Peter Guth and the Odense Symphony Orchestra. At least some of that I have heard in a previous incarnation and, although it was good, Rozhdestvensky’s collection is well worth a little extra money. This is a most worthwhile reissue of charm-laden music which should cheer you up on a cold winter’s day.

Patrick C Waller
MusicWeb International

Recording with Chandos for the first time, this album marks the beginning of a new partnership with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. A regular presence in concert halls throughout the US and Canada, this recording also comes as the TSO embarks, in August, on its first European tour since 2000 under the baton of Peter Oundjian, who this year celebrates his tenth anniversary as Music Director. He also conducts in this performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s ever-popular symphonic suite Sheherazade.

Many composers have drawn inspiration from the collection of folklore known as the Arabian Nights but none has captured the imagination so vividly as Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov in Sheherazade, composed in 1888. In the story, Sheherazade escapes the murderous intent of her husband, the Sultan Schariar, by entertaining him with fascinating tales every evening for 1001 nights. Rimsky-Korsakov’s four movements allude to individual episodes and images from the stories in dazzling orchestral colour.

The suite opens with a stern and strident brass theme representing the bloodthirsty Sultan. A winding melody for solo violin that returns throughout the work represents the answering voice of Sheherazade. The kaleidoscopic second movement has the character of a scherzo while the third is tender and lyrical. The finale is a boisterous and exuberant carnival, calmed by the return of Sheherazade’s theme which brings the work to a serene conclusion. - Chandos

Review Quote

"Both conductor and orchestra make a very positive impression in Sheherazade. Oundjian shapes the music with passion and affection and pulls off some powerful climaxes. He is not afraid to go all out when the music requires it. But Oundjian is also a man who attends to details. The precision of the playing is first-class.

Rimsky’s score abounds in virtuoso opportunities for principle players in the orchestra and it is a joy to hear the TSO musicians show off. It is the concertmaster who gets the most opportunities and Jonathan Crow clearly demonstrates why he is such an asset to the orchestra..." - Paul E. Robinson, Musical Toronto

Neeme Järvi is back conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in the third of four albums featuring Henk de Vlieger's bold arrangements of operas by Wagner. Of the first album (CHSA 5060), Classic FM wrote: 'Dutch composer Henk de Vlieger builds a penetrating symphonic poem that reflects the dramatic depths of The Ring.' In Volume 3, De Vlieger turns to Wagner's tragic romantic opera Tristan und Isolde, which is here treated symphonically. The key themes of anticipation, longing, rapture, separation, hope, death, and transfiguration are expressed solely through orchestral forces. A particularly striking feature of the lovers' duet, a movement entitled 'Nachtgesang', is the conspicuous presence of the violin and the clarinet, which pick out the sung parts of the two lovers. The movement ends on an unresolved chord followed by a compelling caesura, which symbolises the painful realisation that it will never be possible for them to fulfil their great love. This disc also includes the overture to Wagner's Die Feen. This was the composer's first great romantic, although less well-known, opera. The overall style of the work, based on La donna serpente by Carlo Gozzi, owes its essentials to Beethoven, Marschner, and Weber - something that Wagner himself never hid in the least. However, the opera also displays clearly audible foreshadowings of the composer's later works, Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, in particular. Wagner based Das Liebesverbot on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, and included on this disc is the overture to the opera. It is perhaps the most Mediterranean-sounding of the composer's operas, something especially apparent in the brimming vitality of the overture in which the tone is set straight away by the sparkling contributions of castanets, triangle, and tambourine. Described as a 'große komische Oper', it was composed in 1834, and Wagner conducted the premiere at Magdeburg in 1836. The first performance poorly attended and involving a lead singer who forgot the words and had to improvise, the opera was a resounding flop and its second performance had to be cancelled after a fist-fight broke out backstage between the prima donna's husband and a leading tenor before the curtain had even risen. The opera was never performed again in Wagner's lifetime.

Recorded in: Detroit Symphony Orchestra Hall 8 & 9 November 1991 (Symphony No. 1) 29 April & 1 May 1995 (Symphony No. 2) Producer(s) Ralph Couzens (Executive) Charles Greenwell (Recording) Leslie B. Dunner (Associate) Sound Engineer(s) Dan Dene Robert Shafer

From a 2012 live performance in Tokyo's Suntory Hall the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra) conducted by Mariss Jansons embarks on a program presenting the 7th and 8th symphonies of Beethoven along with Jörg Widmann’s 2008 piece “Con Brio” commissioned by Jansons with the stipulation to use these Beethoven symphonies as basis and influence. Thus this deeply symbiotic collection unfolds, played with flair and great integrity within the fantastic acoustics of the hall.

"The performance of Elgar's oratorio that John Barbirolli conducted in Rome in November 1957 was briefly available on LP, and acquired a place in history as the only surviving record of the great Jon Vickers in the title role. Now out of copyright and available for the first time on CD, it's a fascinating document, although the shortcomings are considerable. Vickers doesn't disappoint, singing with an intensity and a care for the sound and sense of every word that are well nigh ideal...The orchestra and chorus do their best, which isn't quite good enough; it's Vickers who makes this a must-have." - Andrew Clements, The Guardian, London

A congenial coming together of kindred spirits.



MOZART Piano Concertos: No. 22, K 482; No. 23, K 488 • Daniel Barenboim (pn); Rafael Kubelík, cond; Bavarian RSO • BR 900709 (58:48)


Twenty-eight year old Daniel Barenboim and the esteemed conductor Rafael Kubelík are heard here in two of Mozart’s most profound and appealing piano concertos. Twenty years later, in 1990, Barenboim recorded these concertos with the Berlin Philharmonic, this time as both pianist and conductor. Between these years, Murray Perahia in his early 30s, as both pianist and conductor, recorded these concertos (in the mid 1970s) with the English Chamber Orchestra, and elder statesman Rudolf Serkin recorded them (in the mid 1980s) with Claudio Abbado and the London Symphony Orchestra. Barenboim, while continuing a busy schedule as a pianist, eventually became principal conductor or music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and later of the Berlin Philharmonic. Perahia continues, on occasion, to conduct chamber orchestras from the keyboard. Serkin never, to my knowledge, served as conductor. These facts are a source for interesting performance comparisons of these concertos. I am wary of the practice of conducting from the keyboard when the orchestral demands are equal to those of the piano or of any other keyboard instrument, and these two concertos make such equal demands.


The first and third movements of the E? concerto (K 482) on this CD are played at rather fast tempos, producing an inappropriate tension and a consequent masking of detail, robbing the listener of the ability to savor the beauty of Mozart’s creation. The exception is the andantino cantabile middle section of the third movement, where the tempo is suitable. The second-movement variations, however, are exceptionally well played, but the thrilling effect of the right-hand C Minor against the left-hand C Major (starting at the legato at bar 13 from the end) in the final variation is not discernible. Barenboim’s 20-year-later effort as pianist-conductor is much more successful, principally because of his more relaxed tempos. The C Minor/C Major effect in the final variation, however, remains hidden. Perahia as pianist-conductor produces a more satisfying K 482 than either of Barenboim’s efforts by using not only relaxed tempos but more effective phrasing. The C Minor/C Major effect in the final variation is no longer hidden at Perahia’s command. Unfortunately, Perahia’s decision to use Hummel’s cadenzas in the first and third movements was not a wise one. The Serkin/Abbado K 482 is still my favorite because of its very many virtues. Serkin’s characteristically deliberate tempos benefit this concerto by allowing the listener to hear detail not easily discovered, even in Perahia’s fine account. Abbado’s ability to allow inner part-writing to be clearly heard matches Serkin’s attention to detail. The C Minor/C Major effect in the final variation is crystal clear, and as a result an ecstatic experience. Bars 181–182 (shortly before the andantino cantabile ) in the final movement pass unremarkably from both Barenboim and Perahia, but Serkin plays them with an agogic that allows accenting of the first note of each of the four occurrences of four 16th-note groups. The result (at 4:00 in the Serkin recording) is magic.


The A-Major Concerto (K 488) fares better than its companion concerto under Barenboim/Kubelík and under Barenboim-“squared.” The more relaxed first-movement tempo of Barenboim-squared is initially preferable to that of Barenboim/Kubelík, but the latter has the distinct advantage of more discernible orchestral detail. But Barenboim’s more relaxed tempo in his dual role eventually becomes a bit sluggish. The plaintive F?-Minor Adagio has Barenboim at his best in both recordings, but Kubelík’s independence as conductor produces a more convincing emotional effect. The final movement is a Barenboim/Kubelík triumph in terms of the exuberance demanded by the music and the orchestral detail provided by the conductor. Especially noteworthy are the important bassoon passages, which are never masked, and the three appearances of the passage borrowed from the first movement of the B?-Concerto (K 456), which are gloriously bouncy. The final movement under Barenboim-squared is too subdued—too square, as it were. My preferences for the A-Major Concerto are Perahia-squared (but never square) and Serkin/Abbado. The former is the master of phrase shaping and the latter the master of attention to detail.


This is a disc worth having because Barenboim and Kubelík have something unique to say about these concertos. My preferences may lie elsewhere, but hidden details like bassoon passages and C Minor/C Major superposition are revealed enough by familiarity with the music to free them from complete hiding.


FANFARE: Burton Rothleder


Barenboim first collaborated with Kubelík when the pianist was sixteen. That encounter was in Australia. And K488 was the first concerto he played in public, back when he was eight. The conjunction of that concerto and the Czech conductor comes in this release from BR Klassik, which presents a collaboration made in June 1970 in Munich where Kubelík was music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

This was a compatible meeting of minds. Barenboim is on record as having admired the older man for his seriousness and vitality, and it certainly sounds to have been a congenial coming together of kindred spirits. Kubelík ensures that the string weight in K488 is not too saturated but remains clarified, if not exactly spruce. Meanwhile Barenboim is characteristically attentive in his exchanges with the wind principals – the warmly supple dialogue with the first flute is a case in point. The first movement cadenza is conspicuously well played but contains melancholic introspections that are fully realised in the central movement – the veiled anticipations lead with inexorable logic to the deepening expression that follows. What remains laudable is that this expression comes at no cost to the architectural continuity of the music making. Instead the clarinets offer reprieve in their flowing episodes and the grandeur of the melancholy is adroitly realised by a confluence of soloists, alert orchestral colours and detailed etching of rhythms and contours from the conductor. Released from this spirit, the finale explores more bucolic emotions – bubbling lower winds, clarity and rounded ebullience from Barenboim and if the recording somewhat favours, as so often, the soloist - meaning that some winds writing can be swamped - this deficiency doesn’t materially limit one’s appreciation of a fine traversal, a unanimous one moreover, expressively and intellectually.

These features apply equally to the companion concerto performed here, the Concerto in E, K482. The Military-Janissary quality is welcomingly celebrated by Kubelík, the crisp chording having more than a touch of imperial majesty about them. Barenboim evokes something of his hero Edwin Fischer’s simplicity of expression. His excellently conceived cadenza playing impresses and so too does the austerity and interior expression of the slow movement. The reminiscent reverie cultivated in the central panel of the finale attests to the probing introspection of these collaborations.

Naturally Barenboim’s concerto cycle with the ECO will be the first port of call for collectors of the commercial discography from around this time. But these almost contemporaneous live traversals are of lasting value given the assured and sensitive direction of Kubelík.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Classical Music

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 1. 1 MOZART Piano Concerto No. 18 2 • Martha Argerich (pn); Seiji Ozawa, cond; 1 Eugen Jochum, cond; 2 Bavarian RSO • BR 900701 (63:37) Live: Munich 7/17/1983; 1 Würzburg 6/22/1973 2


If there are two composers not normally associated with the kind of white-heat performances of Martha Argerich, they are Beethoven and Mozart. Though generally thought of as a pianist of the virtuoso repertoire, including everything from the Liszt Sonata to the Prokofiev concertos, Argerich here shows herself to be not only a stylish player, but a profoundly interesting one as well. While some might describe Argerich’s playing here as “holding back,” I would disagree; she has absorbed the style of the music that she’s playing here so completely that, rather than giving less than normal, it sounds like she is giving just enough.


The Beethoven is very good. The orchestra, at times seems a bit sluggish, especially in the opening tutti before the piano makes its entrance, but Argerich has an ability to breathe life into the performance. Her playing has spontaneity; one feels at times that she is almost improvising the figurational patterns. The vitality and the lightness, which Argerich brings out so well, are evident from her very first entry. The balance between orchestra and piano is maintained well throughout; the soloist and instrumentalists of the orchestra always playing off of each other well. The pianist’s dynamic control is, as always, superb. When Argerich plays the trill in the first movement at 12: 14, the notes detached, and pulls back at 12:16 to begin the trill pianissimo and legato, to only crescendo up a few seconds later, the effect is not only breathtaking, but palpable. The movements that follow are equally well done. Argerich’s ability to produce a transparent , mezza voce sound in the slow movement is ideal. The rapid scalar runs are easy for her, and the effect more of a dynamic surge than ornamental filigree. The third movement is taken at a lively pace, and the offbeat accents sound naturally done—never over the top. This recording is similar in conception to another of Argerich’s live performances with the Royal Concertgebouw under Heinz Wallberg (EMI 56974), though I prefer this rendition with Ozawa.


This is the only recording I know of Argerich playing this Mozart Concerto. As good as the Beethoven is, the Mozart is better. The balance here is even finer than in the previous Concerto, and the colors inherent in the orchestration are brought to the fore—Mozart’s mastery is in evidence here and the performers bring this out especially well. One of my favorite moments is in the second variation of the second movement, the Andante un poco sostenuto, where the strings take over the melody and the piano is left to wander about with its figurative patterns. Later, after the Maggiore section, the same treatment of the melody in the strings and the piano with figurative accompaniment is again done perfectly; this time the figurative wandering, in both the left and right hands of the piano, is even more delicately accomplished. Argerich shows her understanding of this passage and does so with sensitivity. The third movement is the epitome of jollity. The tempo, perfectly chosen, again allows Argerich to keep the scalar patterns light and graceful.


These are both fine performances, ones that I would not hesitate to have in my collection. The sound is good, the piano a bit forward at certain moments, but musically made up for in the performances. As these are staples of the concerto repertoire though, I would still recommend owning a few other fine performances: in the Beethoven, Adrian Aeschbacher with Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting the Lucerne Festival Orchestra (Music & Arts 1018), an older recording with less than modern studio sound, but a fabulous performance, and in the Mozart, Peter Serkin with Alexander Schneider conducting the English Chamber Orchestra (RCA Victor Red Seal 35123—now available on arkivmusic.com as an ArkivCD).


FANFARE: Scott Noriega

• An all-Beethoven double-disc set of Herbert von Karajan conducting the first and last symphonies with the New York Philharmonic in late 1958. • The bonus performance of the Beethoven Fifth, with the Vienna Philharmonic, sees its first-ever release. • Leontyne Price heads a stellar quartet of singers for the Beethoven Ninth.

Classical Music

This set presents the complete cycle of Brahms’ symphonies, as performed by the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under the direction of Mariss Jansons. It puts the finishing touch on the complete performance of Johannes Brahms’ symphonic works, compositions oriented around the creativity of his great role model, yet in many ways also forward-looking and innovative.

The beauty of Brahmsian symphonic creativity comes to full fruition in these live recordings from the Musikverein in Vienna and the Herkulessaal in Munich under the direction of Mariss Jansons.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

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

Richard Hickox?s pioneering account of the 1913 version of A London Symphony (CHAN 9902) was Gramophone?s ?Record of the Year? and received many other awards including the Classical Brits ?Orchestral Disc of the Year?, a Rosette in the latest Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and a Grammy nomination. This release features the premiere recording of the reconstructed Norfolk Rhapsody No. 2. Recorded in: All Saints' Church, Tooting, London 16-18 January 2002 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Michael Common (Assistant)

All these works are small in scale and modest in their emotional range, but they make a highly enjoyable collection. John Ireland's wistful, slightly melancholy romanticism is well brought out by David Garforth, and the orchestra respond with warm, sensitive playing. Though the ECO are not a large ensemble they produce considerable depth of tone and their rich string sound has been well captured by the engineers.

Norman del Mar's performance of the Bridge Suite, also on Chandos, is most sympathetic and there is little to choose between his version and that of Garforth. But Del Mar's original 1978 recording is a little pale in comparison with the new issue, and though the strings of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta play well they sound fewer in number and less tonally opulent than the ECO players.

-- Gramophone [5/1987]

This present collection admirably shows the ingenious simplicity of Arne's writing, very much in the mid-eighteenth-century English pastoral school. At the beginning of 1751, when Thomas Arne published his 'Eight Overtures in 8 Parts', he had become the leading exponent of English dramatic music and the only Englishman who could offer Handel serious competition in the theatre. Arne's 'Eight Overtures' belongs to a tradition of making the instrumental introductions of vocal works available for concert use and divide into two types. Nos 1, 2,4,6,7 and 9 are examples of the older French type that was invented by Lully, was used in England from the 1680s onwards and is found in the majority of Handel's operas and oratorios. These overtures begin with dignified movements, often marked 'Largo' that have dotted rhythms, sharp dissonances to push the music along, and ornamental 'tirades' to create a sense of excitement. By contrast, overtures Nos 3 and 6 are really Italian sinfonias. This type of overture was developed in the early eighteenth century by Alessandro Scarlatti and his contemporaries, and usually consists of three movements: a bustling fast movement, a soulful slow movement and a minuet. As Arne's examples show, the Italian sinfonia was markedly more modern in musical style than the French overture. The final two overtures; 'Alfred' and 'Thomas and Sally', rarely recorded works, are also examples of the more modern Italian type.

It is over 15 years since Neeme Järvi and the RSNO made a new recording for Chandos. So it is with great pleasure that we announce this recording which marks Järvi's return to Scotland in his capacity as Conductor Laureate at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. This 67-minute, orchestra-only version of Wagner's famous opera cycle, 'Der Ring des Nibelungen' is arranged by Henk de Vlieger, arranger, composer and percussionist in the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. The work was commissioned by the orchestra ad the result is a 14-section fiery musical spectacle entitled 'The Ring, an orchestral adventure'. this symphonic 'compilation' compresses Wagner's four might Ring operas, yet includes all the major themes and 'leitmotifs'. The result is an overwhelming experience and a must for anyone who loves blazing orchestral colours. The Minneapolis Tribune wrote, 'The way that De Vlieger has created transitions between scenes and acts is quite ingenious...' 'Bits of Rheingold, Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung floated past, melded together as if some Wagnerian superman who understood the whole and articulated it in particular. Highlights were everywhere. Horns, sounded offstage and on, reminded listeners of the great arias, without the singers to sing it...Toward the end, it actually seemed like we had experienced the entire Ring cycle - a tribute to the orchestrator's talents,' wrote the Boston Herald following a performance of the work. Coupled to this mighty work is 'Siegfried Idyll', which is thematically related to the Ring, and although with quite a different subject matter, complements the 'Orchestral Adventure' perfectly.