The recordings of the gifted Shostakovich interpreter Andrey Boreyko have met with great acclaim; his Shostakovich’s Symphonies No. 9 & 15 (CD 93.284) were awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in 2012. Shostakovich completed his Fifth Symphony in July, 1937 as a "response of a Soviet artist to justified criticism" – a critique which befell Shostakovich in 1936 over Stalin’s particular displeasure with “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”.

“America” was the title of the first CD in a new series of recordings, each dedicated to the choral music of a different country, by the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart. What could be better than to have followed “America” than “Russia”?! This CD offers a wide range of Russian composers who composed in the tradition of Orthodox Church music. The outstanding virtuosity of the SWRVokalensemble Stuttgart, offers an opportunity to discover a number of previously under-represented works.

One of the great violinists of the twentieth century, Henryk Szeryng was an artist greatly celebrated during his lifetime, but is sadly known only to experts today. Looking back, his reputation may have been overshadowed by some of his contemporaries, but in terms of his flawless technique and the power and beauty of his tone, Szeryng unquestionably remains one of the great masters of his era. These two live concert recordings from December 7, 1969 feature performances by the South West German Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim. Szerying, as both soloist and conductor, stamps his natural authority on the music from the very first note, with his straightforward approach and clear sense of direction driving the entire ensemble. The soloist’s idiosyncratic nuances of tempo infect the whole structure, while his exuberant playing dominates the entire performance. In Vivaldi’s ever-popular Four Seasons, Szeryng applies clear and often abrupt contrasts: heavy marcato, lively staccato, flawlessly balanced legato and, above all, his consummate tenuto, which seamlessly links every bow change. This last trait also thoroughly distinguishes his Mozart playing from almost anything to which our ears are accustomed today. When it comes to Mozart, we can admire the naturalness of his interpretation and his choice of tempi, which are not adopted merely for effect, but govern the logic and clarity of the articulation.

Live Recording from July 7th, 1988, Karlsruhe (Germany). A Jazz evening that had everything: intimacy and exaltation, subtleties and fireworks, modernism and Old School. With his predilection for the piano trio as a central form of expression, Michel Petrucciani was out of step with the mid-eighties. He was a driven man, playing in his most active period more than one hundred concerts a year, with the feeling deep inside him that, given his illness, he had less time available than other people, a feeling which he repeatedly mentioned in talks with friends and journalists. Petrucciani wanted to condense his music, releasing energy under tension in an awaited discharge. The bassist Gary Peacock and the drummer Roy Haynes were the perfect partners. One had been socialized in post bop, sowed his wild oats in Free-Time and later, as a partner of Bill Evans, Paul Bley and Keith Jarrett among others, perfected his trio playing. The other had personally experienced the birth of bebop and was one of the busiest jazz luminaries in his field.

At his recital in Schwetzingen in 1962, Wilhelm Kempff confirmed his unique ability to connect exploratory, dreamful piano music in a repertoire with a broad radius and to give it clear gradations in all matters of style. In the process, he did not take this opportunity in Schwetzingen to follow a programmatic routine related to season and career, as is common in the risk-free assortment of works by Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert preferred by concert organizers. For the beginning of the series of pieces is likely to surprise even those familiar with Kempff's as a performer of wide-ranging sections of the piano repertoire. Rarely heard miniatures by Jean Philippe Rameau and Francois Couperin, forgotten by most practicing soloists, piano teachers and also the students following in their musical wake, show Kempff to be a musical acrobat and mystic of colors even on French territory.

Haenssler CLASSIC's Ballets Russes series is unrivaled for completeness and will include many works never before recorded. Each booklet includes historic details of the works performance and artwork from the original productions. World-renowned choreographer John Neumeier has overseen the production of the entire series. For 20 years from 1909 to 1929, the Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev and his Russian ballet became one of the 20th century's most incredible artistic adventures, redefining theater, music and dance in every performance.

Anton Bruckner's Sixth Symphony from 1881 and Karl Amadeus Hartmann's Sixth Symphony from 1953 are examples of Romantic and late-Romantic compositions of rare expressiveness. Bruckner's music ranges between the poles of intimacy and triumph, Hartmann's between melancholy and apocalyptic vision. This is a re-release of the SWRmusic bestseller 93.051 which features the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg with conductor Ferdinand Leitner. Ferdinand Leitner studied at the Music School in his home city under Fritz Schreker and Julius Pr�wer from 1926 to 1931, as well as receiving instruction from Artur Schnabel and Karl Muck. Leitner became known mainly as an opera conductor. He promoted 20th-century German opera, especially the works of Carl Orff and Karl-Amadeus Hartmann. His premieres include the operas Oedipus the King by Carl Orff (1959), Don Juan und Faust (1950) as well as Hamlet (1980), both by Hermannn Reutter. He succeeded Erich Kleiber as conductor of the German operas at the Teatro Col�n in Buenos Aires in 1956. From 1969 to 1984, he was senior musical director of the Z�rich Opera and from 1976 to 1980 principal conductor of the Residence Orchestra in The Hague at the same time. From 1988, he was principal guest conductor of the RAI Symphony Orchestra in Turin.

Spider's Egg is a sextet put together by Brasilian guitar player Pedro Martins specifically for the 50th edition of the SWR NewJazz Meeting. For five days the six young, internationally renowned musicians, who come from very different geographical places and stylistic directions, exchanged ideas. They experimented in the SWR studios and developed a concert program that they then presented in three concerts in Germany and recorded for the present release. Pedro Martins,​ Brazilian musical prodigy, and winner of The 2015 Montreux Guitar Competition is well known for his collaborations with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Yaron Herman, David Binney, Jacob Collier, and Genevieve Artadi (Knower), as well as Brazilian jazz greats ​Hamilton de Holanda, ​Gabriel Grossi, and Léo Gandelman.

This is a re-release of the SWRmusic bestseller 93.164, containing Mahler's Symphony No.4 - one of his most famous and beloved works, here conducted by Roger Norrington, famous for his "Stuttgart Sound." Though it was writing in 1899 and 1900, Mahler's Symphony No. 4 incorporates a song that was originally written in 1892, "Das himmlische Leben." The song presents a child's vision of heaven, and it is sung by a soprano in the work's fourth and final movement. Sir Roger Norrington was born in Oxford, and comes from a musical University family. He was a talented boy soprano, studying the violin from the age of ten and singing from the age of seventeen. He read English Literature at Cambridge University, and spent several years as an amateur violinist, tenor singer, and conductor, before attending the Royal College of Music as a postgraduate student of conducting, studying with Sir Adrian Boult. Norrington's work on scores, orchestral sound and size, seating and playing style has had a growing effect on the perception of 18th- and 19th- century orchestral music. He is in great demand as a guest conductor for symphony orchestras worldwide, working regularly with orchestras in Berlin, Vienna, Leipzig, Salzburg, Amsterdam, Paris, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and London.

Lola Bobesco: an admirable and great musician whose name is nowadays not as well-known as that of other important violinists of the 20th century. This might be attributed to the fact that you had to experience her live, on stage, where she was especially convincing. Her compelling and lively playing as well as the way she efficiently dealt with the kinetic energy of music made her audience listen with rapt attention. This is an extensive release which features Lola Bobesco. It contains three albums featuring violin concertos from the Baroque to the 20th century. Some of the recordings featured here are being released for the first time.

In 2020, the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, Gielen’s importance as an interpreter of Beethoven’s symphonies deserves to be acknowledged by a separate box set within our edition. For a long time Gielen’s core competence was seen in connection with the Second Viennese School, though right from the start of his career as a conductor he had paid particular attention to the First Viennese School – Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The new installment of the SWR CLASSIC series is dedicated to the recordings of Beethoven's works. It contains on nine albums the complete symphonies as well as additional recordings of the symphonies 3, 5, 7 and 1 Gielen realized with orchestras other than "his" symphony orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg. Several overtures, the C Major Mass and the Große Fuge arranged for string orchestra are also included.

 

REVIEWS:

 

This complete recording of Beethoven’s symphonies is one of the most interesting on the market: modern, analytical, yet very musical. It is definitely an important release within the Gielen Edition but also within the Beethoven anniversary year.

 

– Pizzicato

 

This could be the first choice for anyone thinking about a Beethoven set updated from the same-old, same-old weighty, routine editions.

 

– The Whole Note

This is a re-release of an SWRmusic bestseller. The SWR Vokalensemble, for many years counted among the top international ensembles for contemporary music, performs here with its chief conductor Marcus Creed one of the most important works in the a cappella repertoire: Rachmaninoff's All-Night-Vigil op.37. The piece consists of settings of texts taken from the Russian Orthodox All-night vigil ceremony. It has been praised as Rachmaninoff's finest achievement and "the greatest musical achievement of the Russian Orthodox Church.” It was one of Rachmaninoff's two favorite compositions along with The Bells, and the composer requested that its fifth movement (Nunc Dimittis) be sung at his funeral.

Conductor and Strauss expert Rudolf Kempe is heard in his element, conducting Strauss with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra as well as filling a gap in his discography with Bartok.

When the Beaux Arts Trio played this concert in 1960, the soon to be world famous ensemble was only 5 years old. During the next 48 years and several changes in membership, the Beaux Arts would become recognized as one of the greatest classical music ensembles in the world, under the constant leadership of Menahem Pressler. In September 2008, the Beaux Arts Trio played it's final concert - but here you can admire their beginnings.

This is a new installment of SWR CLASSIC-series dedicated to Hans Rosbaud. It contains all the recordings the Austrian conductor made for the SWR, some of them being for the first time released on modern recording technology. The recordings were made shortly (days!) before his death. Both Piano Concertos are interpreted by famous pianists of the 20th century: Walter Gieseking and Géza Anda, Gramophone recently remarked that Rosbaud "was one of the unsung heroes of mid-20th-century music, who ... gave thoroughly rehearsed and assimilated performances and premieres of the widest possible range of music". In Fanfare, Peter J. Rabinowitz pointed to range of his sympathies, claiming it was "greater than that of just about any of his contemporaries except perhaps Bernstein, Scherchen, and Stokowski. Rosbaud is best remembered, probably, for his Mahler, his Bruckner, his work with the Second Vienna School ... and especially his commitment to the post-war avant-garde…”