Jan Zach, a new name in this editorial series, ranks among the “Czech music migrants” of the 18th century. However, before leaving war-struck Bohemia in 1741when he was twenty-eight years old, he had already composed a substantial amount of music. The focus of his work lies in liturgical music – solely the text of the requiem mass has been set to music by Zach three times. His Requiem solemne in c minor was one of the most frequently performed requiems on Prague church choirs (a fact witnessed by a great number of surviving copies) and could still be heard as late as the 20th century. Today’s audiences can listen to this mass as a resounding textbook of compositional styles used at the time and admire Zach’s impressive array of style elements ranging from strict counterpoint to modern coloratura arias. His Vesperae de Beata Virgine (introduced here in a modern-time premiere) were also widely used in Prague in Zach’s time. Here we can already trace the first echoes of the style of the Viennese classicist school. Both works give us an idea of music that sounded in newly built Prague churches in the 1730s. Members of the internationally renowned ensemble Musica Florea have accomplished this premiere with their characteristic lively engagement.

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New on Wiener Symphoniker this release comprises Schubert’s two greatest and much loved symphonies: Nos 8 and 9. It is worth pointing out that the cover of this release describes the symphonies as No. 7 Unfinished and No. 8 The Great using the numbering of the revised Deutsch catalogue and the Neue Schubert-Ausgabe (New Schubert Edition) complete catalogue of works mainly used today in Austria and Germany.

With regard to the universally esteemed Symphony No. 8 Unfinished its history continues to be a matter of much debate. Schubert authority Nikolaus Harnoncourt recognises the symphony was intended as a four movement score although he is convinced there must have been a point when Schubert decided the two completed movements were perfect on their own. In the first movement Allegro moderato chief conductor Philippe Jordan ushers the listener into Schubert’s enthralling and dramatic sound-world with a reading that maintains a remarkable inner tension. Marked in the Andante con moto is the bitter-sweet quality of drama and breathtaking allure that Jordan imparts. The woodwind playing is top drawer.

Harnoncourt firmly believes that the ‘Great’ C Major is “a colossal edifice in which Schubert remakes the symphony … anyone who has experienced this masterpiece is no longer the same as before.” Schubert’s final symphony is a work the composer described in his personal letters as “a grand symphony.” Here maestro Jordan gives a disarming reading that in turn combines magnificent drama and deep compassion. It is hard to ignore the Beethovenian/Wagnerian influence on the opening horn calls. The resolute playing of the expansive opening movement is tinged with a dark hue. Jordan excels in the Andante con moto maintaining an exemplary pulse throughout. I savour the encounter between the primarily pastoral quality of the fresh outdoors and the dramatic squally extremes. The dignified march theme on the oboe is a highlight. The spirited dance melodies of the Scherzo receive polished playing and resolute bite. Jordan exercises judicious control of the bold and courageous Finale: Allegro Vivace a movement full of colourful incident that feels both compelling and expressive.

Despite its excellence this Wiener Symphoniker coupling has to compete with a wealth of rival accounts. My first choice recording for the Unfinished is from the Berliner Philharmoniker under Günter Wand: raptly beautiful playing engages the listener from start to finish. Wand was recorded live in 1995 from the Philharmonie, Berlin on RCA Victor Red Seal. My single standout recording of the ‘Great’ C Major is from Claudio Abbado with the Orchestra Mozart assembled at live concerts in 2011 at Bologna Auditorium Manzoni and Bolzano Auditorium, Italy. Recently released Abbado’s captivating DG account with a wealth of orchestral detail is quite superbly played and recorded.

On the other hand it may be more sensible to buy a complete set of the Schubert symphonies. Although the competition is extremely fierce I can suggest four recommendable boxes. My first choice is conducted by Karl Böhm and the Berliner Philharmoniker recorded in 1963/71 in the exceptional acoustic of Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin. As a Schubert conductor Böhm has few peers. He conducts typically warm and polished performances on Deutsche Grammophon. On Decca there is an excellently played and recorded set from István Kertész and the Wiener Philharmoniker recorded in 1963/71 at the Sofiensaal, Vienna.

There is a quite outstanding set from the Berliner Philharmoniker under Harnoncourt recorded live in 2003/06 at Philharmonie, Berlin on the orchestra’s own label. Harnoncourt has made lengthy and serious study of Schubert’s manuscripts removing the unauthentic revisions that have become part and parcel of the scores. From start to finish the well prepared Berliner Philharmoniker plays magnificently with a sense of spontaneity that carries the listener along on an enthralling journey. Rather under the radar but well worth investigating is the impressive 2013 release conducted by Lorin Maazel with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. All the symphonies were recorded live by them in 2001 at the Prinzregententheater, Munich and after a decade have finally been issued on BR-Klassik.

Returning to this Wiener Symphoniker release, the recording engineers can be congratulated for a satisfying sound quality that is especially clear and well balanced. Jordan draws expressive yet firmly controlled playing from his Vienna orchestra. The tempi, rhythm, phrasing and dynamics are shaped into one impressive whole. This is an engaging CD that will grace any serious collection.

- Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International

A feast for the ears from start to finish.

These recordings come from four appearances by the late Dame Margaret Price, between 1977 and 1991, at the regular Sunday concerts given by the Münchner Rundfunkorchester. This collection on CD offers a timely memorial to the peerless soprano, who died in January 2011. It’s valuable firstly for reminding us how wonderful she was in Mozart and Verdi and secondly for giving us a glimpse of her in some repertoire with which she was not quite so closely associated.

This is one of those discs where I don’t think it’s necessary to go into huge detail, for it is a feast for the ears from start to finish and all devotees of great singing will admire and relish it, I feel sure. One sometimes hears the comment that such and such a singer was “in sovereign voice” during a particular performance. On this particular occasion I think the phrase is justified for everything on the disc – and note that the performances span fourteen years, yet the quality of the voice remained remarkably consistent.

The singing is characterised at all times by burnished tone, the voice produced evenly throughout its compass. In some of the Verdi items Dame Margaret deploys a strong and completely authentic-sounding chest register for the lower lying passages. Yet in these Verdi pieces, and elsewhere, there’s also an effortless, gleaming and accurate top register on display.

At the start we hear an imperious, outraged Donna Anna and then, a couple of tracks later, as the Countess, Price shows regal dignity, especially in the recit, followed by resigned, aristocratic melancholy in the aria. ‘Come scoglio’ is but one of several commanding performances, reminding us that here was a great and cultivated Mozart soprano.

At the other end of the disc comes Verdi, another Price speciality, and there’s little room for doubt that, as a Verdi soprano Dame Margaret was the Real Thing. In ‘Ritorna vincitor’ she offers some thrilling top notes in a searingly dramatic piece of singing. As Desdemona she tugs at our heart strings, really articulating the heroine’s plight – here, as is the case throughout the disc – Dame Margaret shows tremendous care for the words, really singing off them. The final item on the disc, from Don Carlo, is a truly magnificent, all-encompassing account of Elisabetta’s aria.

I’m not normally drawn to the music of composers such as Bellini but I loved the performance of ‘Casta Diva’. Here, as everywhere else in the collection, Dame Margaret seems to have inexhaustible reserves of breath and, as a result, the line is always maintained. But though she excels in long, sweeping phrases, she’s not found wanting when it comes to vocal agility, as Semiramide’s aria proves. She’s imperious in the opening slow section of the aria but when the faster music is reached (from 3:23) there’s a dazzling, yet seemingly effortless display of dexterity in the rapid passagework. Hearing this item made me long to hear her in Rossini’s Stabat Mater but that’s almost certainly a forlorn hope – I doubt it’s a piece that was in her repertoire.

The orchestra, under three different conductors, gives their distinguished guest good support. There’s little in the way of distracting audience noise, with one glaring exception. At the end of the slow section of the Rossini aria a few people are caught unawares and start to applaud, which is a pity. Ironically, there’s no applause included at the end of this item or, indeed, after anything else. The sound is perfectly satisfactory. The booklet contains a warm appreciation of the singer but no texts or translations.

Dame Margaret Price was one of the finest British singers of the post war era and this disc is a reminder of her tremendous artistry. I loved every minute and I feel confident that those wise enough to invest in this disc will feel the same.

-- John Quinn, MusicWeb International

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Arvo Pärt (b. 1935, Estonia) has succeeded in bringing sacred music back to a broader audience, and away from the confines of the church service, more than almost any other contemporary composer. The meditative character of his works, and his return to the simplest and most basic musical forms, convey moments of intense spirituality. Even before his emigration from the Soviet Union to Austria and then to Germany, Pärt had already invented what he termed the tintinnabuli style of composition (from the Latin word for a bell). He produced an early and important example of this style in 1977 with the "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten", scored for string orchestra and bell, and it is also a key feature of the three great choral works that form the greater part of this new BR-KLASSIK CD "Arvo Pärt: Live", namely the "Seven Magnificat Antiphons" for mixed choir a capella, the large-scale oratorio "Cecilia, vergine romana" for mixed choir and orchestra, and the vocal work „Litany – Prayers of St John Chrysostom for Each Hour of the Day and Night” for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra. Also included on this CD is the "Collage on B-A-C-H" for strings, oboe, harpsichord and piano. Composed in 1964, before Pärt's aesthetic reorientation, it is one of his most famous works.

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REVIEW:

Despite the 11-year span of these live recordings and four different churches used as locations, the album’s aural impression is uniform, the sound very good, and the singing crisp and up to the high standards of this phenomenal professional chorus.

– ClassicsToday

Ten famous composers are represented on this fantastic 10-CD set, with each disc focusing on some of the best-known music from each conductor. You’ll hear some of the most celebrated compositions from Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Frederic Chopin, Antonin Dvořák, Leos Janacek, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Bedrich Smetana, Johann Strauss, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky and Antonio Vivaldi. Selections include the wistful Largo from Dvořák’s New World Symphony, the solemn entrance of the piano in Tchaikovsky’s Concerto in B flat minor, the festive Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the sweet bird song and summer storm from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, and an inexhaustible amount of other musical treasures. This box set is truly a “Best of ” the best—the perfect present for you and your nearest and dearest, who like beautiful music in top quality.

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

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Elgar: Symphony No. 1 in A-Flat Major, Op. 55

At 80 years young, Charles Mackerras remains one of the great conductors of our era, not to mention one of the most unheralded. His unfailing musicality, intelligence, and sheer joy in performing communicates vividly in these two glorious performances, beautifully recorded live in September, 2005. They are the kind of interpretations that make you listen as if for the first time to music you probably know well. This isn't just because Mackerras opts for the Urtext editions of both scores, most noticeable in the finale of the Eighth Symphony, where after the central climax he has the cellos play the variant of the main theme contained in Dvorák's autograph (Harnoncourt and a few others do similarly). What really distinguishes these performances is their sheer excitement and vital sense of flow, a function of rhythmically characterful phrasing allied to ideally transparent textures.


This is as true of the bucolic first two movements of the Eighth Symphony, where the woodwinds are especially delightful, as it is in the tremendously physical and passionate initial allegro of the Ninth. Has this movement's coda ever sounded more stormily agitated? And notice how marvellously Mackerras judges the tempo of the ensuing Largo, perfectly poised between rapt contemplation and easeful forward motion. Rhythmic acuity is the hallmark of both scherzos: a deliciously pointed waltz in the Eighth, and a swiftly vivacious Slavonic dance in the Ninth.


In the two finales, so often turned into stop-and-start affairs by less adept conductors, Mackerras creates an irresistible feeling of culmination, choosing rousing initial tempos and then for the most part sticking to them. The Eighth's concluding variations seldom have come across more cogently, particularly the lazy last three, which never bog down in excessive Romantic reverie. The Prague Symphony Orchestra responds to Mackerras' direction with amazing gusto, as if it doesn't already know the music backwards and forwards, and the audience is admirably silent. There are other wonderful performances of this music out there, but this truly is as good as it gets.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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Felicity Lott's radiant singing has a glistening purity and brightness of tone. Her diction is immaculate and the sheer rapture of her phrasing is glorious to hear.

A distinguished Strauss disc, and how good to find it sponsored by a Scottish commercial firm. The SNO made many fine recordings under Sir Alexander Gibson and this achievement is obviously being prolonged by his successor Neeme Järvi, who has imparted his own precision to the playing. The orchestra now play with a smouldering intensity that can and does, when required, erupt with volcanic force. Em Heldenleben is just the work for this kind of corporate artistic personality and the best tribute I can pay to this performance is that it can stand comparison with Karajan's latest Berlin/DG recording; and Chandos offer better value for money by including the Four Last Songs.

The sound on the LP version is admirable. Recording balance is excellent and even the most complex and forceful sections of the score, such as the Battle scene, never sound congested. .15rvi is kinder to the Adversaries (music critics) than some of his colleagues: the SNO woodwind lack some of the spitefulness that this passage ideally requires. Edwin Paling's playing of the long violin solo depicting Strauss's wife, Pauline, is vividly characterized and technically beyond cavil. I was deeply moved by Jdrvi's interpretation of the final section, where the solo violin and solo horn contribute to his creation of a-truly noble tranquillity. One feature—unique among Ein Heldenleben recordings to the best of my knowledge—is that each of the work's six sections is banded, a very welcome idea.

Those fortunate enough to attend Glyndebourne know how well Felicity Lott sings operatic Strauss, so it is particularly pleasing that wider and larger audiences enjoy her outstanding performance of the Four Last Songs and can now have it on record. I have no hesitation in preferring it to Jessye Norman's over-praised Philips recording; for one thing, Järvi's tempos avoid Masur's ponderous treatment of this score. For another, the songs are sung in the order of the 1950 first performance, with "Beim schlafengehen" first (as on the Delia Casa/13611m classic 1953 Decca disc—nla). Emotionally this seems to me an improvement on the published sequence. Lott's radiant singing reminds me of Sena Jurinac in this music. It has a comparable glistening purity and brightness of tone. Her diction is immaculate and the sheer rapture of her phrasing–in a line like "Sommer lachelt erstaunt" and especially her profoundly moving delivery of "So tief im Abendrot" in the final song—is glorious to hear. The orchestral playing is luminous and rich in detail.

-- Gramophone [10/1987]

CAUCASIAN IMPRESSIONS

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Recorded in: New Broadcasting House, Manchester 21,22 June 1995 Producer(s) Ralph Couzens Brian Pidgeon Sound Engineer(s) Don Hartridge

All tracks have been digitally mastered using 24-bit technology.

Recorded in: New Broadcasting House, Manchester 22-23 October 1998 Producer(s) Brian Pidgeon Mike George Sound Engineer(s) Stephen Rinker Richard Smoker (Assistant)

There are at least four versions of Anton Bruckner's 2nd Symphony; the last one was written in 1892. Frequently, however – as on this recording – the original version is preferred; as usual with Bruckner, this version of 1872 is bolder and longer. Already very early on, the composer changed the order of movements in this work, which was felt by many to be a response to the dramaturgy of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The Scherzo, as the second movement, has changed places with the ensuing Adagio. In the later version, he also almost completely eliminated the most striking characteristic of this creation, probably due to the urging of his friends and supporters, especially Johann Herbeck: eight of the nine famous tutti rests in the first movement disappear completely. Another special characteristic of the original version is the solo horn passage in the Adagio, written in an extremely difficult register for the instruments of that time – but also of moving beauty.

With the recording of the Symphony No. 3 and the Symphonic Dances, Oehms Classics and the G�rzenich Orchestra of Cologne proudly present this composer's last two works. Rachmaninoff's Third was given it's premiere in 1936 in Philadelphia under Leopold Stokowski. The present recording offers, with Dmitrij Kitajenko, one of the best conductors of our time for this repertoire.

The legacy of Sergei Rachmaninov encompasses a staggering plethora of musical styles and sensibilities and a fascinating bridge between the Romantic and modern musical eras. His 2nd Symphony is, at it's core, imbued with the ancestral Russian temperament, and permeated with longing is given a pitch perfect performance by the Dortmunder Philharmoniker (Dortmund Philharmonic) led by the conductor Gabriel Feltz, considered to be among the vanguard of emerging baton masters.

16.99

Hans Jürgen Huber and Norbert Düchtel present the Trumpet and the Organ in a whole new way. In addition to works from the baroque and romantic periods, they also include modern pieces. The far-reaching repertoire ranges from the baroque period to original compositions from the 20th century. The partita "Lobe den Herren" ("Praise the Lord") by L. Graap is a discovery both artists use to showcase new sides to their instruments – with flawless techniques and great tonal cantability. This album is full of interesting works for the popular combination of trumpet and organ — by Mouret, Bach, Rathgeber, Pachelbel, Rheinberger, Handel, Krebs, Stanley, Albrechtsberger, Krebs, and includes three Ave Maria variations by Schubert, Arcadelt and Gounod.

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