Saint-Saens wrote five symphonies between the years 1850 and 1886. The cycle began with the Mozart-influenced Symphony in A but as a precocious composer of 17 he wrote his first numbered symphony, a work much admired by Berlioz and Gounod. He progressed to his most popular piece in the genre, the ground-breaking Symphony No. 3 with its inclusion of organ and piano. This critically admired cycle includes a sequence of atmospheric and dramatic symphonic poems, including Phaeton and the ever-popular Danse macabre.

REVIEWS:

The standard reference versions for these works have been Martinon’s EMI (now Warner) recordings, but Soustrot’s are different enough to justify duplication. In the First Symphony, particularly, Soustrot adopts a very slow, dreamy tempo for the Adagio, but it works very well, particularly in contrast to the bold and brassy finale which follows without a break. Soustrot correctly highlights the adventurous writing for the harps, but never tastelessly, and some listeners may feel that the interpretation finds additional expressive depth in music often denigrated as merely sentimental. It’s good to hear it played with no apologies.

In the Second Symphony Soustrot comes closer to Martinon in terms of timing, but there’s no denying the extra clarity and nimbleness of the Malmö ensemble as compared to the old French National Radio and Television Orchestra for EMI. Soustrot’s exciting and rhythmically sharp reading of Phaéton makes a welcome bonus. This is unquestionably one of the best recordings of the piece, with an especially effective thunderbolt as Zeus hurls the hapless chariot (of the sun) driver from his seat. Attractively natural sonics round out a very promising start to this new series.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz; in an earlier review of the CD release of Symphonies 1 & 2)

Marc Soustrot has some very good ideas about how the music should go. Soustrot prefers urgency even at the expense of some occasionally blurred articulation. The very slow tempo for the introduction followed by that agitated allegro highlights the broad range of contrasts typical of the performance more generally. The organ, excellently played by Carl Adam Landström, is very well balanced by the Naxos engineers. All told, this is a very fine performance of the Thrid.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz; in an earlier review of the CD release of Symphony No. 3)

Exuberant and exciting is the Big Round Records debut of big band pianist and composer Ron Paley. This is not "just another pops album." Paley's work is cool, clever, and ridiculously fun. Seven of the ten tracks on The More You Know are completely composed, arranged, and performed by Ron Paley. "Theme" is energetic, exploring elements of upbeat jazz and classic boogie woogie. Fast-paced, too, is "U of M" where the artist/composer delves into the genres of gospel and rock as well-surprising the listener at the end with his impressive talent for percussing vocally. "A Beautiful Soul," and "P&Q" are exquisite jazz ballads that are par with the perfection of those Weill, Porter, or Gershwin. This is demonstrated, too, in Paley's Ballad Trilogy. "Listen to the Sound," explores the rhythmic character inherent in Latin dance genres. The title track, "The More You Know," is fresh and improvisatory. Paley's mash-up arrangement of Dietz and Schwartz's "Alone Together" an Orbison's "Pretty Woman," is the most experimental track on the album and demonstrates Paley's gift for transforming the expected into something altogether new. Paley's arrangement of Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers," is a lounge treat, unlike any other interpretation of the favorited Nutcracker tune. Paley brings the same sort of originality to his fabulous arrangement of Chopin's Prelude in C-Minor, which concludes this treasure of a recording.

...Rutter distils even more drama from dynamic contrasts than Dutoit, the balance between voices and instruments in his performance sounds natural, not carefully achieved, his boyish-sounding sopranos (above all the touchingly ethereal Caroline Ashton in the Pie Jesu) seem as incontrovertibly right for the colour of this work as the solitary, silvery violin that the Rutter edition employs in the Sanctus... [F]or truth to Faure's luminous conception Rutter's version is still unapproached, and it still heads my list.

-- Michael Oliver, Gramophone [1/1989]

"One must defend the Hungarian Rhapsodies on two fronts: First against musicians of the 'serious' brand who look down on them as showpieces, and secondly, against the piano maniacs who abuse them as showpieces." By these words, great pianist Alfred Brendel characterizes the Hungarian Rhapsodies S 244 by Franz Liszt, which have now been recorded for Gramola by the young Bulgarian pianist Martin Ivanov. The thin line between overwhelming virtuosity on one hand and poetic finesse on the other seems to be tailor-made for Ivanov, who already showed great success with his recordings of Chopin, Schumann and lately with his recording of Liszt's Sonata in B minor.

This is Volume 6 in Centaur's complete traversal of the organ works of Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937), performed on classic American organs by Joby Bell. Joby Bell brings to his performances a contagious affability and a keen sensitivity toward increasing an audience's appreciation for organ music. His recital programming demonstrates a varied and interesting repertoire, always enhanced by illuminating program notes designed to emrace all audiences. Bell is featured on several recordings. Born in 1968, Joby Bell attended high school at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studied piano with Marian Hahn and Robert MacDonald. He earned the Bachelor of Music degree in organ and piano from Appalachian State University and the Master of Music and Doctor of musical Arts degrees in organ from Rice University.

IDIS continues in its mission of reviving some of the most extraordinary Karajan recordings made during the Fifties and Sixties with this Karajan Spectacular VI volume. This album presents some extraordinary Beethoven and Wagner works of which Karajan has been an insurmountable interpreter, becoming obligatory point of reference for the two composers’ discography. Beethoven Symphony Overtures recorded by Karajan with D.G. during the Sixties were one of the milestones of their discography; but in the Fifties the great conductor created with EMI records an incredible series with the legendary Philharmonia Orchestra. During the Sixties Wagner’s recordings with the Berliner Philarmoniker were no less valid and culminated with the incredible Tetralogy; after Wagner’s rhetorical and heavy interpretation during the Nazi period, Karajan’s performance and interpretation has been rightly received as a complete rediscovery of a composer used only for propaganda purposes. This is a real do not miss album recorded in high quality.

Classical Music

Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore, a staple of the operatic repertoire and long a popular success with operagoers and lovers of Italian opera, received the casting it rightfully deserves in this 1961 live performance from Berlin, 1961. The all-Italian, all-star lineup of singers includes Ettore Bastianini as Count di Luna, Fedora Barbieri as Azucena, Franco Corelli as Manrico and Mirella Parutto as Leonora. This recording has been called the best live version of the opera on record. The fiery conductor Oliviero de Fabritiis leads the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro dell' Opera di Roma.

After the success of his album of the 2nd Concerto of Brahms, Joseph Moog follows with a superb recording of the turbulent 1st Concerto, coupled with the late Piano Pieces op.119.

Gramophone said of the 2nd concerto, “Moog’s technical aplomb is abundantly apparent... the scherzo sounds almost inhumanly easier here.” Pizzicato said “Moog plays with imagination and individuality... peerless accompaniment and brilliant, virtuoso playing.”

Some music lovers are familiar with Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne, Liszt's symphonic poem based on Victor Hugo. But who knows that, ten years earlier, C�sar Franck was inspired by the same poem? This early piece is recorded here by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Mikko Franck. They couple it with the famous Symphony in D minor, dedicated to Henri Duparc and premiered, without much success, in 1889. Even if the score is quite well-known today, in the end it is performed quite rarely, which is a pity, because it really has all the characteristics of a masterpiece: melodic and harmonic inspiration, refined orchestration, variety of mood, an ingenious structure. Two works by Franck... by Franck! This album marks the beginning of a collaboration between Alpha and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, which will focus on very varied repertories

The contents of this release present a selection of roughly a century of Czech choral works performed by Prague Mixed Choir and soloists. The wealth of choral works left to us by Czech composers is very rich and amazing - this new album features pieces of Antonín Dvorák, Vítezslav Novák, Bohuslav Martinu and Zdenek Lukáš. Prague Mixed Choir has long been one of the top Czech non-professional choirs. It has enjoyed much success at home and abroad and has won several awards at prestigious choral competitions, including the international competition Praga Cantat. In addition to its domestic concerts, the choir proudly performs Czech music on foreign concert tours, of which it has completed more than sixty to date. These include visits to most European countries, the United States, Canada, Japan, Israel, China, and Egypt.

The available information concerning Colombo, ossia La scoperta dell'America is dubious. Various hypotheses have been put forth in the last years, including the suggestion that the work is a fragment of an unfinished opera composed on a text by Felice Romani. The most recent research, however, seems to support the theory that the composition was originally conceived as a scenic cantata, that is, a cantata which was destined for the stage. This genre, quite in vogue in the first half of the century, usually served to celebrate a particular event (royal birthdays and weddings, state visits, illustrious funerals, various commemorations). For these occasions, the composer on hand would be called upon to provide his patron with an undemanding work designed to highlight the vocal prowess of one or more soloists, but without particular aesthetic aspirations, in light of its "disposable" nature. Colombo, cantata for baritone, chorus and orchestra, was first staged at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples on 25 April 1838. It was part of a larger spectacle including dances and operas scenes by various authors and starred the singer Paul Barroilhet, who had successfully impersonated many of Donizetti's roles. The poetry - perhaps attributable to Donizetti himself, who had been his own librettist on more than one occasion - are not unlike those typical of an opera libretto. They establish a veritable dialogue between the soloist (Christopher Columbus)and the chorus (the sailors of his ship), and are complete with stage directions aimed at an actual theatrical performance in costume (see, for example, the opening: "The sailors are lying on the ground and others are standing in great distress"; and toward the end: "Colombus runs to see the land, then kneels down and remains in this position, thanking the heavens, until the cabaletta"). The version reproduced in this release is based on the autograph manuscript of the cantata preserved today in the San Pietro a Maiella Conservatory Library in Naples.

Classical Music

This delightful album of Spanish music arranged for strings and celebrating the 150th anniversary of Enrique Granados, was recorded by legendary conductor Jose Serebrier and Concerto Malaga String Orchestra founded in 1996. The orchestra is now one of the foremost ensembles in Spain, best known for its dedicated research into string repertoire ranging from the 17th century onwards. Ther recording pays tribute to one of Spain's most important composers, Enrique Granados and also includes works by Granados's contemporaries and successors who played active roles in promoting Barcelona's and Madrid's musical life in the middle of the 19th century. Over a century after his tragic death, Granados's music continues to entertain and inspire performers and listeners the world over. He spent his entire life in Barcelona and contributed to its musical life as apianist, composer, teacher, conductor, and concert organizer. He was thus only a true champion of Spanish music but he was also a leading figure in the Catalan movement known as modernisme which was on display in much of Barcelona's architecture from around 1900. Granados's best-known collection of 12 Danzas espanolas was premiered in Barcelona in 189. No. 5, Andaluza, transports us to the south of Spain with its suggestion of an impassioned song supported by an energetic guitar accompaniment. Orienta is an all-purpose adjective that suggests anything associated with Andalusia or the Middle East. The Intermezzo from his opera Goyescas and the hauntingly beautiful Pequena Romanza are eloquent examples of his broad stylistic range.

Brahms: The Symphonies, Haydn Variations & 8 Hungarian Dance

Highly regarded as soloists as well as chamber musicians, Frank Peter Zimmermann and Martin Helmchen are also known for an unostentatious and selfless musicianship which never obscures the music they are performing. When they started their collaboration in 2018, it was with the aim of playing and recording Beethoven's 12 violin sonatas. A series of recitals at prestigious venues and festivals was followed by the first recording sessions, which took place in September 2019. Enjoy the results!

Frank Peter Zimmermann is widely regarded as one of the foremost violinists of his generation. Martin Helmchen has established himself as one of the most prominent pianists of the younger generation. 

REVIEWS:

How elegantly unforced these works come over today. Zimmermann’s sound is light, flexible, and finely shaded, with Martin Helmchen delivering effortless virtuosity. The opening of the First Sonata brings an unleashing of exuberant energy, while the opening of the Second is the epitome of mercurial high spirits. These recordings are conversations by a perfect instrumental pairing.

– BBC Music Magazine

They’re never afraid to express themselves poetically or to linger over an expressive moment. Yet there’s a briskness and momentum about all four performances. These performances wed classical verve to a profoundly Romantic spirit, and I suspect that Beethoven would have rather enjoyed the result.

– Gramophone

Slavonic Reflections, recorded by Nelly Akopian-Tamarina in recital at Wigmore Hall, is a highly personal collection of piano music containing Mazurka’s by Chopin, Janácek’s cycle In the Mist, as well as encores by Medtner and Liadov. The programme breathes a melancholic air of sadness, while simultaneously showing an equally Slavonic inclination to dance, as well as a fascination for nature. Nelly Akopian-Tamarina belongs to a distinguished tradition of playing stretching back to the great Russian school of Scriabin, Rachmaninov and Medtner. Slavonic Reflections is her second PENTATONE release, after a 2017 Brahms album that The Guardian praised as “enchanting, intimate and irresistible”, while BBC Music Magazine described it as “revelatory Brahms from another age”.

Classical Music

The monumental 'Archduke' Trio Op.97 represents Beethoven at the peak of his creativity in the genre. Sketches for all four movements of this 'symphony scored for a trio' are included in a sketchbook of 1810 containing also drafts for the Egmont music and the String Quartet in F minor Op.95. The manuscript score was written out between 3 and 26 March 1811. Three years elapsed before the work's public premiere, by Beethoven, Schuppanzigh and Linke, on 11 April 1814 as part of a charity concert in the hall of the 'Hotel zum R�mischen Kaiser' in Vienna. This concert sounded the death knell of Beethoven's public career as a pianist, owing to his profound deafness. The work's critical reception was understandably mixed, but the celebrated pianist Ignaz Moscheles. Praised it's originality while expressing reservations about the 'clarity and precision' of Beethoven's pianism. Significantly, a repeat performance of the work a few weeks later was Beethoven's final public appearance as a pianist. Inspired by the sinfonie concertante for two or more soloists and orchestra, Beethoven transports the piano trio into an orchestral context with his Triple Concerto in C major Op.56. His choice of this particular solo combination was unprecedented in the literature and, in his words, 'really something new'. The piece is performed with panache on this release by the Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch.

Classical Music

The 200th anniversary of the birth of Stanislaw Moniuszko, which occurred in 2019, prompted many musicians and concert and festival organizers to promote, in particular, the forgotten works of the Polish Romantic. Performed for the first time on 12 December 1869, the opera The Pariah met with severe criticism during the composer’s lifetime. Almost 50 years later, during Warsaw’s reopening, The Pariah also did not get much sympathy from the audience and reviewers. This album, including a concert recording made during this year’s Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival, is a great opportunity to get acquainted with this little-known work.

The Altomonte Ensemble, consisting of Rémy Ballot, violin, the violinist Iris Schützenberger, the violists Stefanie Kropfreiter and Peter Aigner and the cellist Jörgen Fog, presents two chamber music works by Anton Bruckner: the string quartet, composed 1861/62 at the suggestion of Joseph Hellmesberger, and the string quintet, composed in 1878/79, which is considered the highlight of Bruckner's chamber music oeuvre. The latter work was premiered by Hellmesberger and his extended quartet only after prolonged hesitation, since he originally had considered it in part as unplayable. The quintet has quite symphonic dimensions in terms of length and complexity. After the mentioned performance in 1884, a music critic wrote about the 3rd movement of the work: "This Adagio has an effect as if were something that had only been now unearthed in the vestiges of Beethoven's papers... a deeply felt work, inspired by inspiration and stemming from the composer's final years."

Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il Trovatore, based on the eponymous play by Spanish playwright Antonio García Gutiérrez, takes us to 15th c. northern Spain to witness the tragic destiny of those under the control of Azucena, who is seeking to avenge the death of his mother. + The first percussion notes are solemn, setting the tone for Verdi’s masterpiece, whose main themes include abandonment, passion, power, love for one’s parents and vengeance. + This production marked the debut of Russian stage director Dmitri Tcherniakov at La Monnaie and the first Verdi interpretation by Marc Minkowski.

Both on the concert platform and in the recording studio, pianist Daniel-Ben Pienaar is a completist. Following complete cycles of piano sonatas by Beethoven and Mozart, he presents 12 Great Piano Sonatas by Franz Schubert – the composer’s 11 finished sonatas and the seminal fragment D840. Pienaar relishes in these revelatory works, their extraordinarily detailed possibilities of characterisation, their call for immense energy and abandon, and navigating the vast dreamscapes that unfold in the course of this six-hour musical journey. “dazzling precision and clarity ... he communicates an individual and convincing vision for each piece, enough for every one of them to give delight. Brilliant.” (Gramophone, Editor’s Choice on The Long 17th Century) “dizzying virtuosity ... fresh, spontaneous, original readings that shed new light on the keyboard player’s Bible” (BBC Music Magazine on J. S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier)

 

REVIEW:

 

These readings for me capture the spirit of Schubert’s piano style. It is only when you set Pienaar next to the established greats that he lacks something in presence and imagination, but only by a small degree. His playing is at once natural and sympathetic, and blessedly free of artifice. It is also necessary to qualify my generalization that Pienaar’s approach is lively and alert. He recognizes the greater ambition and amplitude of the opus posthumous sonatas and changes his approach accordingly.

 

– Fanfare

Composed in 1803, while Beethoven was also writing the ‘Eroica’ Symphony, Christ on the Mount of Olives (Christus am Ölberge) is the composer’s only oratorio and combines the emotive force of his later Missa Solemnis with the theatre of a Bach Passion. With orchestra, chorus and soloists, it tells the story of Jesus’ prayer and arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane and also reflects the emotional pressure Beethoven was under at the time.

This recording by Sir Simon Rattle, with acclaimed singers Elsa Dreisig, Pavol Breslik and David Soar was made during the London Symphony Orchestra’s celebration of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary.

“When I came to the Mount of Olives, I immediately was simply puzzled. Why isn’t this piece played? Of course, it’s a mixed piece and there are weird flaws and edges but so there are in the Ninth Symphony, they’re part of the personality.

“It’s a fascinating moment in his life when he was starting really to deal with his hearing loss. He’d written the Heiligenstadt Testament, where he really confessed to his suicidal thoughts on losing the single-most important ability a musician could have. There is a kind of unearthly, underground sensation of some of it, there’s also a real feeling of naive belief in the possibility of things being better. I think it is completely heaven.” - Sir Simon Rattle

“What Rattle made clear is that the music is full of life. It is hard to imagine this performance being bettered.” - Financial Times ? “Backed by London Symphony Chorus, the soloists in this performance are well up to the challenge, bass David Soar providing the grounding over which tenor Pavol Breslik, as Jesus, sings out with noble plangency, while the sound of soprano Elsa Dreisig, as the Seraph, rings angelically through the hall.” - The Independent

“Christ on the Mount of Olives is full of things to appreciate: there’s an anticipation of the heroism in the face of darkness that would characterise Fidelio, but there are also passages that hark back to the best of Mozart” - Bachtrack

Together with the Berlin based Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Mari Kodama and her husband Kent Nagano have now completed the recording of all of Beethoven's piano concertos by jumping, as it were, back in time twice: the last element of this recording series that has spanned more than 13 years was Beethoven's concerto "number nought” WoO 4- personally edited by Mari Kodama from the autograph score. The original manuscript of this piano concerto is kept at the State Library in Berlin. This is not a completed score, because there is no orchestration. That said, Beethoven annotated the short score, especially in the first two movements, with indications as to which instrument was to play which part. The orchestra score which is available today was written in the early twentieth century based on those annotations. The only problem is "armed with the knowledge we now have acquired about the young Beethoven, we would perform this concerto quite differently in places," explain Mari Kodama and Kent Nagano in unison. They therefore present a very personal adaptation that emerged during rehearsal with the orchestra and at the recording sessions, and which reflects Kodama's and Nagano's individual image of Beethoven. They aim to make audible the exuberant freshness and urgent sense of awakening in the young, almost childlike Beethoven's writing shortly before his artistic powers were to burst forth, the joie de vivre and vital energy in a style that owes something to the playfulness of both Haydn and Mozart. That is Mari Kodama's intention, and she plays it in precisely such a versatile manner.

Formed in Hamburg in 2006 by Karla Haltenwanger (piano), Birgit Erz (violin) and Ilona Kindt (cello), the Boulanger Trio is now based in Berlin. The trio has gained an excellent reputation in the world of chamber music and is regularly invited to prestigious venues across Europe. In addition to Classical and Romantic repertoire, the commitment to contemporary music is also an important focus for the trio. This new, all-Beethoven release, the centerpiece of which is his last, and greatest, trio, the “Archduke”, also features the “Kakadu” variations and an Allegretto in B flat.

Classical Music

Includes work(s) by Gabriel Fauré. Soloists: Christian Poltéra, Kathryn Stott, Priya Mitchell.

It's hard to focus the chaotic discography of Richter, that has not left complete editions of his favorite composers. We got only scattered recordings both studio and live. With this release, Urania wants to collect two composers less frequented by the Russian pianist. Fortunately we have the great piano sonata of Schubert and the extraordinary Wandered Fantasy. Unfortunately there are not organic editions of the piano works of Liszt, but this anthology contains famous compositions - for example the Piano Sonata - and it can give a general idea of Richter's approach to the masterworks of the german repertoire of the XIX Century.