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

The ensemble WorldBrass was founded by members of the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra in 1995 during a tour in Southeast Asia. One of the most respected and well known brass ensembles in Europe, the group presents this new release of compositions for brass and percussion. Composers on this release are some of the best of our day, including Marcin Blazewicz, Tom Harrold, Hannu Kella, and more.

On her first Pentatone album, pianist Tamara Stefanovich presents a highly personal selection of solo works by Bach, Bartók, Ives and Messiaen. Influences shows how these extraordinarily original and idiosyncratic composers let themselves be inspired by the exterior world, thereby demonstrating how authenticity comes from looking outside as well as inside. The repertoire spans from Bach’s embrace of Italian musical elements in his Aria variata alla maniera italiana, Bartók’s incorporation of folk elements in his Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs, and Messiaen’s use of Hindu rhythms in Cantéyodjayâ to the collage of marching bands, sounds of trains and machinery, church hymns, ragtime and blues in Ives’ first piano sonata. In all cases, the exterior influences lead to deeply original and personal sonic galaxies. In that respect, the pieces presented here underline how identity results from a constant dialogue with our surroundings, ever changing and enriching our perceptions of ourselves and the world.

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REVIEW:

The overall excellence of Tamara Stefanovich’s interpretations is enhanced by a superb multichannel recording characterised by full-bodied ambience an concert-hall realism. Stefanovich voices Ives’s thick and ringing choral dissonances from the bottom up, taking full measure of the music’s spaciousness and resonant potential. After more than an hour of substantial 20th-century fare, the appearance of Bach proves a veritable tonic in Stefanovich’s hands.

– Gramophone

Featuring works by Abel, Reichardt, Zelter, Storace, Mozart and Paisiello, this album follows the musical “jet set” of the 18th century as they “do” the splendid cosmopolitan cultural epicentres of the time, including London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna and St Petersburg. Exploring the intertwining stories of these leading lights as they criss-cross the European Continent, the album watches the sparks fly as they inspire each other in this period abuzz with creative fervour, international cultural exchange and mindblowing talent. With several world-première recordings of new discoveries (Abel, Reichardt, Storace) alongside some well-loved classics, this journey features music which abounds in enlightened positivity, radiance, inventiveness, energy and inspiration. This outstanding programme is presented by conductor/violist Simon Murphy and his New Dutch Academy, with soprano Gudrun Sidonie Otto providing the vocal contributions. JET SET! is the seventh PENTATONE release of Murphy and his ensemble, after having presented albums performing the works of Corelli, Stamitz, Richter, Schmitt, Zappa, Bach, Handel, Telemann, Vivaldi and Van Wassenaer.

This timeless collection is pretty much every piece you would expect to be included, and then some; a good variety of music to please every palate. PENTATONE has some of the finest interpreters in it's catalogue to draw from and over 150 surround-sound albums - each and every one a top-quality DSD recording. This compilation will be enjoyed by both the curious beginner and classical aficionado.

This album of Russian Dances is beautifully performed by Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, under the baton of Kazuki Yamada. The album contains masterful works from brilliant conductors, including Tchaikovsky’s Suite from Swan Lake, Glazunov’s Two Concert Waltzes, Shostakovich’s The Golden Age, and Stravinsky’s Circus Polka. The album does an excellent job of preserving the important role that ballet has in Russian musical culture.

Classical Music

Violinist Arabella Steinbacher and pianist Robert Kulek continue their vital collaboration together with a new Pentatone release: César Franck’s Sonata for Piano and Violin in A coupled with Richard Strauss’ Sonata for Violin and Piano in E-flat, Op. 18. While Franck’s violin sonata is epic in character, Strauss’ work is full of jovial energy, hope and anticipation, a stimulating fusion of elements for these musicians. Both artists possess superb technique. Ms. Steinbacher often demonstrates a delicate yet fiery touch in her playing, while Mr. Kulek’s resolute intonation, steadfast tempi and broad dynamics are his trademarks. As has often been heard in their recital performances, this synergistic duo is a partnership of equals at the service of the music they play.

Classical Music

Steinbacher plays these enchanting scores with a refined elegance, interpretative warmth, and captivating, jewelled sonority reminiscent of the great Josef Suk. For playing that retains a strong sense of contact with the 20th century's golden age, Steinbacher has few serious contemporary rivals.

– BBC Music Magazine

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



WAGNER Der fliegende Holländer • Marek Janowski, cond; Albert Dohman ( Dutchman ); Matti Salminen ( Daland ); Ricarda Merbeth ( Senta ); Robert Dean Smith ( Erik ); Silvia Hablowetz ( Mary ); Steve Davislim ( Steersman ); Berlin RSO & Ch • PENTATONE PTC 5186 400 (2 SACDs: 126:30 Text and Translation) Live: Berlin 11/13/2010


This release marks the beginning of an SACD traversal from PentaTone of the 10 frequently performed Wagner operas. In a charmingly old-fashioned gesture, PentaTone will provide with each of the first nine sets a voucher that, if you collect them all, entitles you to a 50-percent price reduction for the final item ( Götterdämmerung, due in November 2013) or—for free—a “special CD collection box.” A cool marketing idea. I wonder if other Wagnerian promotion schemes were kicked around: “Collect them all, kids, and get a free Tarnhelm!”


Something can be said for concert performances of Wagner’s operas. (Studio recordings, for economic reasons, are largely a thing of the past.) There’s no possibility of directorial malpractice, something that these works seem to attract. I just returned from the 100th Bayreuth Festival where I encountered, among much else of questionable merit, a Lohengrin where the good citizens of Brabant were all laboratory rats, a Parsifal with a transvestite Klingsor sporting black fishnet stockings, and a Tannhäuser set in a chemical plant for no good reason. The focus in concert, by default, is on the music, and this inaugural release has got the goods. Marek Janowski provides dramatic impetus to the proceedings but also assures that the orchestra’s role is never slighted. He lingers appealingly as he plays the excerpt from Senta’s Ballad heard in the overture, and there’s a joyous swing to the Entr’acte leading into Holländer ’s final two scenes. Janowski makes the most of the Italianate aspects of the score, including a lovely, lyrical Steersman’s Lied in act I (courtesy of the excellent Australian singer Steve Davislim) and, of course, the very Verdian finale of act II. The chorus, prepared by Eberhart Friedrich, director of the Bayreuth Festival Chorus since 2000, does its job with an incredible precision that would be impossible in the context of a staged production.


An excellent cast was assembled for this live recording that documents a single performance at the Berlin Philharmonie on November 13, 2010. Leading the charge are Albert Dohman, highly regarded for his Wotan (as heard on Et’Cetera SACDs with Harmut Haenchen, and on Opus Arte with Christian Thielemann from Bayreuth) and Matti Salminen, one of the world’s go-to basses for Gurnemanz, Marke, Hagan, and Hunding. Salminen sings a hearty Daland and makes the most of Wagner’s songful passages. His aria toward the end of act II (“Mögst du, mein Kind”) has a Mozartean grace and fluidity. Dohman’s performance is equally impressive. His voice, like Salminen’s, is inherently appealing yet imbued with the tortured quality the role demands; we sense the same anguish that Wotan radiates in act II of Die Walküre or the beginning of Siegfried ’s last act. The Dutchman’s bitterness and sorrow are powerfully portrayed without scenery-chewing.


To my taste, Ricarda Merbeth’s soprano is a bit squally and insufficiently youthful-sounding. There could be more of a sense of “ever-increasing agitation” (“immer zunehmender Aufregung fort”) as she progresses through the three stanzas of Senta’s Ballad. On the other hand, Kansas-born Robert Dean Smith’s handsome Heldentenor instrument—he’s been Bayreuth’s Tristan since 2005—assures that Erik is a more compelling character than is often the case.


As usual, PentaTone’s high-resolution sonics are superb. Multichannel makes clear a mid-hall audience perspective that still provides plenty of involving impact, but places offstage horns way off in the distance. (Spatially, the sound is still more than satisfactory in stereo.) PentaTone’s 140-page booklet is bound into the cardboard package and there are heavy paper sleeves attached as well to hold the two discs. There’s a German/English libretto that, unfortunately, isn’t indexed to the tracks on the discs. The booklet also includes substantial liner notes by Steffen Georgi, the dramaturge for the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, which is to say that he gives lectures before many of the ensemble’s concerts. Recommended—and don’t lose that voucher!


FANFARE: Andrew Quint

Gustavo Nunez currently serves as principal bassoon with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and is considered widely to be one of the greatest bassoonists of his generation. Born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1965, he began learning bassoon, the instrument that his father is also skilled in, in 1976. Academy of St. Martin in the Fields accompanies Nunez for this recording. They have been called "One of the world's most admired chamber orchestras" (The West Australian) and are said to have "... brooding power, poetic sparkle, dramatic attack" (The Times). Antonio Vivaldi (1687-1741) may be singled out as the pioneer of the bassoon concerto. Used as a basso continuo instrument until the beginning of the 17th century, it's part was rarely written out, much less featured as a solo instrument. In his concertos, Vivaldi uses the full range and all technical possibilities of the instrument. In his career, Vivaldi wrote 37 bassoon concerti.

Acclaimed for their adventurous and wide-ranging recording projects – from Beethoven Sonatas on period instruments to genre-bending arrangements of Radiohead and Arcade Fire – the endlessly inventive duo of cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O’Riley returns to explore music of the Slavic soul. Anchored by the cello sonatas of the iconic triumvirate of Russian composers –Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich – and inspired by the subversive irony of Shostakovich’s Sonata, TROIKA also delves into more recently-written, unexpected, and popular works. Whether subtle or blatantly rebellious, each work potently reveals the strength of the artistic voice in the face of political repression in mother Russia.

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REVIEW:

Haimovitz and O’Riley really go to town—specifically, Moscow. The ‘Troika’ of their stylishly presented double-disc set comprises the three cello sonatas by Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev, as well as a dizzying transcription of the eponymous lollipop from Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé—one of a series of spectacular virtuoso transcriptions that range from Shostakovich’s now ubiquitous Waltz No 2 to explosive versions of songs by Pussy Riot and The Beatles (‘Back in the USSR’, naturally).

Apparently there’s a political thesis behind these choices, but what really speaks is Haimovitz and O’Riley’s playing in the three sonatas. These are emotionally charged readings on the grandest scale. Haimovitz in particular plays with an articulate, vibrato-rich tone that he can refine down to an almost viola-like mellowness in, say, the Andante of the Rachmaninov, or send soaring and swooping (no shortage of portamento here) round O’Riley’s mountains of piano sound.

– Gramophone

Gentle and haunting spirits from distant spheres meet in a surging world of dreams and lullabies in 'The Girl and the Angel, a musical narrative'. This work interweaves a new story by bestselling author Cornelia Funke with expressive new compositions by Luna Pearl Woolf and familiar and popular songs by Irving Berlin, Lennon / McCartney, Jake Heggie, Engelbert Humperdinck, Gordon Getty and others. Cornelia Funke herself captures her story with rousing songs by Frederica von Stade, Daniel Taylor, Lisa Delan and Zhen Cao, accompanied by the lush cellos of Matt Haimovitz and his Uccello ensemble. Exquisite images from the award-winning creative studio Mirada visually shine the story. The Girl and the Angel was originally released in 2013 under the title Angel Heart with accompanying concerts in Los Angeles and New York's Carnegie Hall, first released internationally in 2018, and now appears in a German-language version. The New York Times described The Girl and the Angel as 'a story that penetrates directly into the imagination of young people, with the simplicity and dark pull of a fairytale.'

Matt Haimovitz is considered a musical pioneer. A Grammy-nominated cellist, he is renowned for his visionary approach, innovative collaborations, and groundbreaking recording projects. He also regularly tours and mentors at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music.

Christopher O’Riley is a pianist who has stretched the instrument far beyond its conventional boundaries. He regularly transcribes the likes of Radiohead, Elliot Smith, and Nick Drake. His transcriptions of Radiohead earned him four stars from Rolling Stone.

The first disc of this set contains well loved pieces from standard repertoire. Bernard Herrmann, Leos Janacek, and Igor Stravinsky are featured here. The second disc is intriguing, featuring O’Reiley’s arrangements of Radiohead, Arcade Fire, and Cocteau Twins.

Gustavo Gimeno conducts the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg in a fascinating survey of confident, assured and striking orchestral works by the young Shostakovich. This new recording from Pentatone includes his breathtaking Symphony No. 1 Op. 10 - the student work which brought Shostakovich international fame. While indebted to the Russian masters, Shostakovich's early works nevertheless demonstrate his precocious brilliance, originality and falir and they offer an intriguing glimpse at the evolution of his distinctive, mature style. From the easy going and good humored Scherzo Op. 1, the Tchaikovskian Theme and Variations in B-flat major Op. 3, or the Stravinskyan Scherzo Op. 7, his youthful vitality is never in doubt. But with his Symphony No 1 Op. 10 he produced his first masterpiece and found his own distinctive voice. It's a thrilling work full of sardonic edginess, pained introspection and dramatic outbursts, and closes with a barnstorming finale. Composed 10 years later, the aptly titled Five Fragments for orchestra Op. 42 are short, pungent and austere pieces; the arresting style is modernist but the sound is unmistakeably Shostakovich. Following his acclaimed conducting debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2014, Gustavo Gimeno took up the post of Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg with the 2015-2016 season. An auspicious collaboration with Pentatone followed in 2016 and three releases with the orchestra are planned in 2017. "His musical rhetorics are refined, his grip on the structure of the compositions is accurate and convincint" observed Joep Stapel in the NRC Handelsblad, "Gimeno knew how to keep the tension and made the musicians...excel." Elsewhere in a busy international schedule, Gimeno has debuted with major orchestras in Europe and America, and toured with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to Taiwan and Japan.