"For this May 1973 concert, the two veteran instrumentalists, Josef Suk and János Starker, chose the then only 27-year-old Rudolf Buchbinder as their pianist to complete the trio. The performances are full of sensitive – and when necessary – forceful music-making. Three famed soloists playing masterworks from the piano trio repertoire A further highlight from the Schwetzingen SWR Festival concert series Musically outstanding presentations"

With “Aus Italien”, sketched while on a tour of Italy suggested to the young composer by Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss (1864-1949) began his decisive journey into the musical form that would come to define his orchestral output, the tone poem. In this work, Strauss‘ orchestral mastery is already plainly evident. Honoring the composer’s sesquicentennial, François-Xavier Roth couples this work on his third volume of the complete Strauss tone poems with the monumental “Also sprach Zarathustra” – a work inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophic prose poem.

Norrington conducts the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra in works by Wagner, Tchaikovsky, and Berlioz. This invaluable set also explores the creative and controversial interpretive choices of Norrington through a interviews.

With some unusual takes on the standard repertoire already in their catalogue, the Duo D'Accord (pianists Lucia Huang and Sebastian Euler) set out to do something very special: an "Hommage à Weber" - as the title says. It not only contains the complete works for piano duet but also arrangements of some opera overtures and a special adaptation of the 2nd piano concerto for piano four hands by Weber’s friend and biographer Friedrich Wilhelm Jähns: a first recording and a masterstroke of artistic curiosity. Two Weber tribute encores by Ignaz Moscheles and Leopold Godowsky also appear.

REVIEW:

Remarkable as it may seem, this is the only available at present CD of Weber’s complete music for piano 4-hands. Now I’m sure, having said this, that a dozen others will show up in short order. There were two rather poor discs kicking around for a bit at the dawn of the CD era, but they are long gone. The complete works consist of three collections: the Six Pieces Op. 3, Six Pieces Op. 10, and Eight Pieces Op. 60. Not only are they interesting and enjoyable in their own right, for modern listeners they are fascinating as the sources of three of the four movements in Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis. The amazing thing about Hindemith’s arrangements is just how little he had to do to make the music sound modern (sound clips). The concluding march (in the orchestral work) is particularly interesting, stern and strong in Hindemith’s realization, but slinky and rather creepy in Weber’s original. Two of Hindemith’s movements come from Op. 60, and one from Op. 10.

These performances by Duo d’Accord, are far better than any previously released, being fresh, rhythmically supple, and lyrical expressive by turns. They also provide a whole range of interesting couplings, from transcriptions by various parties–including themselves– of three overtures (Abu Hassan; Silvana; Der Freischütz), to a four-hand version of the Second Piano Concerto. Then there are two original compositions based on Weber that are just splendid: Godowsky’s characteristically insane Contrapuntal Paraphrase on Invitation to the Dance for two pianos, and Ignaz Moscheles’ Hommage à Weber, based on music from the operas and subtitled a “Grand Duo”–and so it is. The sonics are a little bit lacking in openness on top, but otherwise capture the players well. This is a great set, and a splendid opportunity to fill out your collection.

— ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz

Centered around accordionist Vincent Peirani, the ensemble Living Being presents this new, extended album. The works on these two discs were recorded at the November 2013 SWR NEWJazz Meeting. For this meeting, Peirani expanded his core quintet to include Mathias Eick and Leila Martial. The extended group performed three concerts, in Tubingen, Mainz, and Karlsruhe.

This is the first release ever of all the Bruckner symphony recordings that Hans Rosbaud made for SDR (now SWR). Hans Rosbaud is remembered chiefly as a committed performer of contemporary music. This resulted from his regular appearances in Donaueschingen, where he conducted either the world or regional premieres of works by Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and many others. Crucially important was his conducting of the first concert performance of Arnold Schönberg’s opera Moses and Aaron in Hamburg on 12 March 1954. However he devoted equal attention to the works of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler. which is all the more reason to take a closer look also at his other recordings, in this case, at his Bruckner interpretations. Rosbaud produced performances of all Bruckner's symphonies for the radio broadcasting company Sudwestfunk (SDR), apart from the First, which he never conducted.

Here we present a new installment in the complete recording cycle of Dvor�k's Symphonic Works with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, containing not only the symphonies but also rarely recorded opera ouvertures of the Czech composer. The new chief conductor of the orchestra, Finnish maestro Pietari Inkinen, continues the Dvor�k Cycle begun under the baton of Karel Mark Chichon. In September 2017 Pietari Inkinen became Chief Conductor of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbruecken. Inkinen is also Chief Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, a post he has held since the beginning of the 16-17 season. He has also been Chief Conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra since 2015. Also an accomplished violin soloist, Inkinen studied at the Cologne Music Academy with Zakhar Bron, winning various awards and prizes for his solo work, before taking further studies in conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He continues to enjoy play-directing and performing chamber music with his regular musical partners.

On the occasion of conductor Georges Prêtre's 100th birthday in August, the label SWRmusic will release an 8CD box-set containing a wonderful collection of representative orchestral works by eleven composers, thus showing the fruitful collaboration between the French conductor and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSO). Most of the recordings are being released for the first time, with the exception of the works by Maurice Ravel and Richard Strauss, which have previously been released by this label.

The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1945 and has developed into one of Germany’s most important musical ambassadors over the following seven decades. World-renowned conductors, as well as some of the world’s greatest soloists, have been guests of the Stuttgart RSO, including Carlos Kleiber, Ferenc Fricsay, Karl Böhm, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Hans Knappertsbusch, Sir Georg Solti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Kurt Sanderling, Gary Bertini, and Herbert Blomstedt, as well as Maria Callas, Mstislaw Rostropowitsch, Maurizio Pollini, Yehudi Menuhin, Alfred Brendel, Hélène Grimaud, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Elina Garanca, Rolando Villazon, Hilary Hahn, Sol Gabetta, and Lang Lang, to name just a few.

Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 7 Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Eliahu Inbal.

In 1910, the Italian poet Gabriele D'Annunzio wrote a play about the martyrdom of St. Sebastian. He enlisted Claude Debussy as the composer and the "Mystère en cinq mansions composé en rhythme français" already premiered in 1911. The text combines and overlaps Christian and pagan traditions, playing with both the flair of antiquity and the fascination of the exotic. The Catholic Church took offense concerning the portrayal of Sebastian, who was played by a female Russian Jew, the dancer Ida Rubinstein, and the audience also reacted hesitantly, so that neither D'Annunzio's play nor Debussy's music to it remained in the repertoire of the concert halls. Debussy himself was very fond of his work and soon put together an orchestral suite, the "Fragments symphoniques", which adapts some of the central numbers of the incidental music for orchestra. Additionally, Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht created a kind of concert version that radically shortened the text and reduced it to around 15 minutes of recitation in addition to Debussy's music. The same applies to the present recording, which juxtaposes Debussy's original music with texts by the writer Martin Mosebach. These texts do not necessarily reflect the course of D'Annunzio's piece, but rather summarize central aspects of the Sebastian legend, sometimes more directly, sometimes more abstractly.

The present version, a studio recording from 2005, is enriched with (German) text additions by the writer Martin Mosebach, making it thus unique among other recordings of Le Martyre.

Ida Haendel (1928–2020) was one of the violin legends of the 20th century, a true individual whose seven-decade performing career reached back to the golden age of violin playing. This 3-CD collection brings together concertos by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Dvorák, Khachaturian and Bartók, all of which Haendel played during the years leading up to 1967 under the baton of Hans Müller-Kray and the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart. These recordings are among the most valuable treasures in today’s SWR archive.

From the beginning, their strength lay in the balance. For although Oregon was actually a soloist ensemble, the musicians acted as a band. This was because of the unusual combination of talent and curiosity. None of the participants was content with just one instrument. Stylistically, there were connections to classical Indian and European music, bluegrass, folk, jazz and experimental avant-garde. With so much background and substance, the Oregon four needed little more than themselves, a zeitgeist that allowed for improvisational and chamber jazz sounds, and an audience that valued this wild mix of characters and compositional talents. Soon after the band's formation in 1970, Oregon became well known, did a lot of performing and recorded even more. In time they have developed from the style laboratory of the early years into a chamber jazz authority whose special appeal unfolded above all in the pyrotechnics of concerts like the one in Ludwigsburg.1990 they performed there a colourful mix, a cross-section of two decades of experimental sound work.

Originally recorded and released in 1990 for Koch Schwann.

Ferruccio Busoni began his career as a child prodigy, studying piano and composition at the Vienna Conservatory at the age of 9. As a composer, he initially dedicated himself to the tradition of Schumann, Chopin and Mendelssohn, but soon also created works with extended tonality and sometimes bitonal approach. Busoni regarded his monumental piano concerto neither in the style of the brilliant virtuoso concertos nor in that of the symphonic concertos by Beethoven and Brahms. He rather aimed at a subtle intertwining of piano and orchestra, which manifests itself in the fact that the piano hardly ever presents a theme in its original form, but mostly decorates and transforms the material introduced by the orchestra.

The French-American pianist David Lively is familiar with technically daunting symphonic concertos, that due to their monumentality are hardly ever performed. His innate virtuosity makes him a champion of New Music and he identifies particularly with twentieth-century American music. He was assisted in this recording by conductor Michael Gielen, a lifelong advocate of Busoni's work and also a specialist of modern music. The SWR Symphony Orchestra has recorded over 600 works spanning three centuries, many of which have won awards such as the German Record Critics' Award (Ehrenpreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik), the Special Achievement Award of the International Classical Music Awards and a Grammy nomination.

In 1884, Antonín Dvořák undertook his first concert tour to England. This was to become a highlight of his career to date and brought him international recognition and economic security. It was a time of private and professional bliss. It is interesting to note, however, that the Seventh Symphony by no means reflects a consistently pastoral, idyllic atmosphere. On the contrary, the music often has a dramatic and sombre effect. It is possible that Dvorak was coming to terms with the blows of fate he had suffered: he had lost his mother and three children. Four years after the premiere of the Seventh Symphony, Dvorak set to work on his Eighth, which differed substantially from it. In the Seventh, he still adhered to the form of the classical symphony according to Beethoven, but here he gave preference to melody over form. It leads through the work, creating the impression of a “sequence of atmospheric poetic pictures.”

Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen has been chief conductor of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie since 2017 and Music Director of the KBS Symphony Orchestra in Seoul since 2022. He has conducted many renowned orchestras, including the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a winner of numerous national and international youth competitions, Robert Neumann (born 2001) was awarded with the International Classic Music Discovery Award 2017. In 2018, the Jury of the SWR (radio broadcasting corporation in Southwest Germany) chose Robert as the"SWR New Talent". For his debut CD at SWRmusic, Robert was awarded the OPUS KLASSIK Young Artist of the Year 2021. The young pianist made his orchestral debut with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra when he was eight, and since then he has appeared with other orchestras, including the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, German State Philharmonic Ludwigshafen, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Liechtenstein Symphony Orchestra, SWR Symphonieorchestra, Praga Philharmonic Camerata and the Gewandhaus Orchestra. For his second album, Robert Neumann chose two works which can easily be placed side by side and that are both close to the pianist’s heart. Robert Schumann‘s Kreisleriana is about a character from several tales by E. T. A. Hoffmann and Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition describes walking from one work of art to the next. Both are programme music pieces with somewhat comparable ideas but, as Neumann puts it: „One idea deals with a real character, the other one doesn’t […]. And I think both show in an exemplary manner how flawlessly and also in different ways a great Romantic cycle can be structured, formed.