Dvorák: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7

Zemlinsky: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2

Martinu: Epic of Gilgamesh (The)

A bird dancing, an ox on a roof, flowers doing a waltz, a swan twirling about…what world is this? This is the magical world of ballet. The stage is full of people in colourful costumes, but nobody speaks. All the stories are told by music and dancing. Composers have written such exciting pieces for ballet: listen to this collection and see which ones you like best!

This light-hearted classical collection will appeal to dog lovers as we celebrate 'man's best friend'. Music from the great composers is themed around dogs and some of the things that they do and some of their typical characteristics and traits. The accompanying booklet includes some famous personality quotes referencing man’s best friend and brief notes about the works included in this collection.

This recording, unlike the previous two albums, was made in the newly renovated Slovak Philharmonic Hall. Reflecting the bright and festive atmosphere of this hall, this performance changes the heavy impression of anguished "Destiny" which has prevailed until now. The progression of this symphony, starting with the first movement which inspires violent anxiety, to a reversal in the warm and friendly second movement, to the wrenching third movement, and finishing with the strong resoluteness of the fourth movement, is testimony to the lifetime of Beethoven. The two works of Johann Strauss let you enjoy the good old Vienna atmosphere, appropriate to the home of this orchestra. Without aggressive pressure, with a characteristic generous and spacious tempo, this performance dispels the stern image which tends to follow this work around.

The Places � Ludwig II of Bavaria followed family precedent in undertaking an extravagant building program during his relatively short reign from 1864 to 1886. The castles constructed on his orders included the romantic Neuschwanstein and the magnificent Schloss Linderhof, with it's elaborate formal gardens, grottoes and fountains. The tour ends with a brief glimpse of the mountainous Southern Tyrol in winter snow. The Music � Richard Wagner's innovative and immensely influential musicdramas were largely based on older German legend, notably on the Nibelungenlied, the basis of his tetralogy the Ring. Ludwig II was fascinated by Wagner and by his operas, on subjects that had long been dear to him. These include the opera Lohengrin, which Ludwig first saw in 1861, the beginning of his preoccupation with Wagner, and the earlier opera Tannh�user. The music chosen also includes an overture by Heinrich Marschner to an opera based on the old Bohemian legend of Hans Heiling, son of an Earth Spirit.

Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

The Places:

The tour starts in Uzbekistan, of which there are later glimpses. There is a visit to the historic Russian town of Suzdal and scenes from St Petersburg as well as from Ukraine. It would be impossible to avoid the Russian winter, which appears in various guises, providing entertainment for some and for others a seemingly enchanted snow-bound landscape.

The Music:

The music for the tour is taken from Russian composers who were, by and large, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of their country. This is reflected in Lyadov's arrangement of a series folk-songs and his translation of Russian legend into music. Other composers represented are Ippolitov-Ivanov, Kabalevsky and Anton Rubinstein, with two well known excerpts from unfinished operas by Mussorgsky.

RUSSIA The Places
Our visit starts in Moscow, with the Kremlin, the famous Conservatory of Music and the Tretyakov Art Gallery, with its unrivalled collection of Russian paintings. We see the splendour of some of the Metro stations in St Petersburg and much of the winter landscape in Moscow and in St Petersburg. We end with commemoration of Napoleon’s defeat in 1812 and his retreat from Moscow during a bitter winter.

The Music
Tchaikovsky’s disastrous marriage to an infatuated admirer in July 1877 ended after just a few weeks, when he left for his brother-in-law’s estate at Kamenka to escape from a wife to whom he had taken an invincible aversion. By the end of September, after attempted suicide, his marriage was at an end, and in October he left Russia to find relief in travel. In these extraordinary circumstances he nevertheless continued to work on the fourth of his six symphonies, completing it in early January 1878. Its first performance was given six weeks later in Moscow under the direction of Nikolay Rubinstein, attended by his new patroness Nadezhda von Meck, to whom it was dedicated, but in the composer’s absence.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 60 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

ITALY: A Musical Tour of Tuscany, Rome and Perugia (NTSC)

The Places
The journey starts in the countryside near Arezzo, and passes from there to other districts of Tuscany, to the wine-producing fields near Montalcino, and thence to Rome and to the volcanic Lake Bracciano. The tour ends in the ancient town of Perugia, for long an artistic centre.

The Music
The music of the tour consists of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 of 1812 and two overtures, Coriolanus and The Consecration of the House. The Coriolanus overture was written for a play by Heinrich von Collin on the plot familiar from Shakespeare, and the second overture for the opening of a new theatre in Vienna in 1822.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 54 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

The Sinfonietta is entitled 'Symphonic Phantasy' on the unpublished manuscript (echoes of the original title of Sibelius's Seventh Symphony) and it remained unperformed during the composer's lifetime. He was unsure of it and told the conductor Christopher Whelen, to whom he gave the manuscript in 1950, that he didn't want it played. Whelen faithfully obeyed this injunction until 1983, when he was very reluctantly persuaded to let it be performed during Bax's centenary year. (He had previously refused a request from Robert Ponsonby to allow it to be premi�red at a Prom in 1980, where it would have shared the program with the first performance of Rubbra's Eleventh Symphony under Nicholas Cleobury.) Vernon Handley and the BBC Welsh Orchestra eventually gave the first performance at a recording session in Llandaff on 25 June 1983 for broadcasting later that year. (Odd to think that it has only ever been played in Wales and Czechoslovakia.)

FRANCE

The Places
The places visited include Arles, with its Roman arena, the mill made famous by Alphonse Daudet in his Lettres de mon moulin and the celebrations of the guardians of the Camargue, with its wild horses. Accompanying the Zoological Fantasy of Saint Saëns are scenes from zoos, the nature reserve at Sigean, near Narbonne, and the Swiss children’s zoo at Rapperswil.

The Music
The music is taken from the orchestral suites derived by Georges Bizet from his music for Alphonse Daudet’s melodrama L’Arlésienne (The Girl from Arles), the story of the vain love and suicide of a young relative of the Provençal poet Mistral. Camille Saint-Saëns composed his Carnival of the Animals to entertain his friends. The procession of animals ranges from lions to fish, pianists, critics and fossils.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 60 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

Rubinstein: Symphony No. 2, "Ocean"

Our tour of Italy starts in the countryside near Orvieto, moves to the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, then to Montalcino and it's ancient abbey. We see the Tuscan landscape around Montepulciano, glimpse Siena, and finally see something of the historic building.

SUCHON : Metamorphosis / Suite Balladesque

ALPHORN CONCERTOS

Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky: a great Russian name for a great Russian composer! Tchaikovsky was not always a happy man. He didn’t laugh a lot. But he wrote music that is full of good melodies. He often felt sad, but sometimes this made him write music that was even more special. This CD is all about Tchaikovsky. Imagine the ballet dancers twirling around to his tunes: you can twirl around too, if you like!

DVORAK: Rhapsody Op. 14 / Overtures

Peter Breiner is one of the world’s most performed composer/arrangers, with a boundless musicality that has led him to create fusions of music from a variety of genres. Drawing on traditions established by Brahms and Dvo?ák and showcasing leading folk music soloists, his Slovak Dances are an exuberant and kaleidoscopic monument rooted in Slovak musical folklore. It comprises 16 symphonic fantasias on songs that evoke varying emotions with an autobiographical element that follows Breiner’s life from his origins in Humenné and Košice to New York. Peter Brenier boasts over 200 albums released and multiple streams and downloads. Known as a conductor, composer, pianist and arranger, he has conducted, often doubling as a pianist, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bournemouth, Jerusalem, New Zealand, Moscow and Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France, to mention just a few. His compositions and arrangements have been played in concerts and broadcast worldwide, and some of the most prestigious ballet companies have used his music in numerous performances.

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REVIEW:

The basis of Breiner’s suite is native folksong and one might easily suppose, therefore, that its themes might be catchy and easily remembered. Slovak listeners, certainly, will be humming happily along as they recognise such traditional ditties as My father is but one big headache, My mother told me not to sit in the dark, I must have been crazy and Oh, mother dear, it itches (Slovakian peasant life was clearly no bed of roses).

Anyone born west of Bratislava or east of Humenné is, however, unlikely to be familiar with the original melodies and, bereft of that anchor, may well find that the dances come and go without making that much of a memorable impression. Moreover, I’d imagine that the composer’s distinctly contemporary musical palette risks disconcerting or even alienating a few tradionally-minded listeners who prefer their music delivered in an orchestration more characteristic of the late 19th century.

In spite of any such potential issues, the suite certainly offers plenty of pleasurable moments. Many of them occur, as already suggested, during the dances featuring the “domestic ethno-traditional” solo instrumentalists whose contributions deliver frequent titillation to ears unfamiliar with the sound of fujaras or jew’s harps. Thus, no. 3, the jaunty You enchanting girl, you…, is marked by effective and attractive contributions from the violinist, the accordionist and Ms Friedl’s whistles, as too is no. 9 My little whistle – ititi, ititi. Meanwhile, no. 11 I must have been crazy exhibits an engaging and sinuously oriental atmosphere that perhaps reflects the influence of intermittent Mongol and Ottoman invasions of Slovakia over the centuries. The final dance You little gate with bars is the shortest of the whole set but brings the suite to a close with an appropriate burst of vitality.

– MusicWeb International

The journey starts in Switzerland, in the canton of Thurgau, leading from Steckborn and the Bodensee to the Rhine Falls. From Styria, in Austria, comes Hochosterwitz Castle and from Bavaria Weikersheim Castle, the latter intercut with wild life from the Austrian Assling Nature Park. The tour ends amid the strangely shaped mountains of the Dolomites in Southern Tyrol, a region divided between Austria and Italy. In a remarkable way Mahler, in his symphonies and songs, has seemed to reflect the world of today in all it's bewildering variety and has now won an established place in concert repertoire. Distinguished as a conductor, his fame as a composer has grown over the years since his death. The music included here is Mahler's ymphony No. 1, nick-named Titan, not for it's massive power, but after the book by Jean Paul, a strong influence over earlier romantics and over Mahler at this stage in his career. The symphony breathes the spirit of the Austrian countryside, reflected in Mahler's songs.

Classical Music

The journey starts in Switzerland, in the canton of Thurgau, leading from Steckborn and the Bodensee to the Rhine Falls. From Styria, in Austria, comes Hockosterwitz Castle and from Bavaria Weikersheim Castle, the latter intercut with wild life.

Antonin Dvorak's success in Europe during the 1880s led to invitations to visit England and the commissioning of his oratorio Saint Ludmila for the Leeds Festival. It tells the moving and turbulent story of Ludmila's conversion to Christianity, an important event in Bohemian history that led to her becoming Bohemia's patron saint. Written for large forces and with a predominant part for the chorus in the tradition of Handel, Saint Ludmila is full of Dvorak's typical warmth and melodic beauty, and stands alongside his Stabat Mater and Requiem as one of his greatest works. Here, the piece is interpreted by the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, led by Leos Svarovsky. Leos Svarovsky studied flute and conducting at the Academy of Music in Prague as the last student of the renowned professor Vaclav Neumann. He started his career at the National Theatre in Prague as assistant to Zdenek Kosler and subsequently went on to hold principal positions with the Prague Chamber Opera, the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava, the Brno Philharmonic, the Zilina State Chamber Orchestra, the Czech Chamber Orchestra, and others.

Art and Music: Masters of the Modern Age, Vol. 1 Description CD with full-color, illustrated, explanatory booklet. Edgar Degas (1834-1917) is remembered as the painter of ballet dancers, but the scope of his genius ranged widely. An acute and witty observer, he depicted his native Paris in it's many diverse aspects, often hinting at a social isolation and unease hidden beneath the colorful surface. On this CD, the world of Degas is given a musical perspective with a carefully chosen selection of pieces by the finest composers of his time. Inside, Hugh Griffith provides explanatory notes on his life and musical environment Disc Two Description Paul C�zanne (1839-1906) received almost no recognition until the last years of his life, but is now widely regarded as one of the key figures in the development of modern art. His structural use of color was the starting point for the Fauve painters; his strongly geometric approach to composition led directly to Cubism. On this CD, the world of C�zanne is given a musical perspective with a carefully chosen selection of pieces by the finest composers of his time. Inside, Hugh Griffith provides explanatory notes on his life and musical environment. Disk Three Description During the past 20 years, Arvo P�rt has consolidated his reputation as one of the most significant contemporary composers with a sequence of magnificent sacred choral works. Dating from between 1990 and 2001, the works on this recording exemplify P�rt's mature idiom at it's most harmonically expressive. If Triodion represents his music at it's starkest and most unadorned, Kanon Pokajanen, the composer's largest work after the 1982 St John Passion (Naxos 8.555860), is music of a dark-hued and intensely felt contemplation. P�rt's emotionally-charged Bogor�ditse Dj�vo, is a vibrant tribute to the Virgin Mary. The Elora Festival Singers' recording of P�rt's Berliner Messe can be heard on Naxos 8.557299.

Is there any music more instantly recognisable and beautifully scored than Tchaikovsky’s wildly popular ballet Swan Lake? These and other works have become enduring classics, yet they were not uncontroversial in Tchaikovsky’s day, and there are those that still wonder if his style is fundamentally European or ardently Russian. Find out more about Tchaikovsky’s childhood obsession with music, his turbulent relationships with friends and colleagues, and how he overcame the deepest of personal crises to transcend all with a creative ambition that has left us with some of the greatest music ever written. The narrative is illustrated with musical excerpts from Piano Concerto No. 1, Symphonies Nos. 4 and 6, the 1812 Overture,The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, among others.

"I sense a deep humanity in Dvorák's music. He was a great master of orchestration, and he composed unusually beautiful melodies and harmonies. But at the forefront he always presents honesty and generosity. And when we listen to this music, this penetrates deep into our hearts. I consider Dvorák's Violin Concerto to be unique, and it occupies a very special place among all of the violin concertos of this period. Behind its creation lies a very unusual story. The composition dates back to 1879, but its premiere did not take place until 1883, exactly four years later. The reason for this was that the concerto was dedicated to Joseph Joachim, who repeatedly requested a number of changes in the piece. The story subsequently ended in such a way that Joachim, despite the changes and his years of collaboration with Dvorák, ignored the piece when it was completed, leaving it to be premiered instead by Czech violinist František Ondrícek."
-Mikhail Pochekin

Strauss II: 100 Most Famous Works, Vol. 3

STRAUSS, R.: Symphony No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 12

GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue / Piano Concerto

Dvorak: Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World' - Symphonic Var