SWR
294 products
Ravel: Orchestral Works
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 9 & 19 / Haskil, Schuricht
Mahler: Symphony No. 6 / Kondrashin, SWR Orchestra Baden-Baden
Kirill Kondrashin was one of the most prominent Russian conductors in the generation following Mravinsky. He was born in Moscow in 1914 into a family of musicians, studied at the Moscow conservatory under Boris Khaikin, went to Leningrad in 1936 to be the conductor of the Maly Theater and to the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in 1943. At the same time, he was conducting various Russian concert orchestras. In 1956 he left the Bolshoi Theater to devote himself entirely to the concert podium. He became the preferred partner of such great soloists as Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, David Oistrach, Sviatoslav Richter, and Mstislav Rostropovich. Tully Potter called him “probably the best concert accompanist of the twentieth century.” After Kondrashin’s work had increasingly shifted out of the country, he emigrated to the Netherlands in 1978 and became permanent conductor of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra along with Bernard Haitink. From his home in Amsterdam, he kept up with his duties as guest conductor, including many at various West German radio stations. His concerts left a deep impression in Munich, and Kondrashin succeeded Rafael Kubelik as new Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1982. Before he was able to take over his new position, however, Kondrashin died of a heart attach shortly after a concert in Amsterdam in March 1981.
Piano Recital 1960
Mozart: Piano Concerto No 22; Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 3 / De Larrocha, Navarro, Bour
These legendary recordings of Alicia de Larrocha performing Mozart and Beethoven have been digitally remastered from the Original SWR tapes. The Mozart was performed with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester under the direction of Garcia Navarro. The original performance in 1986 proved Larrocha’s intimate relationship with the works of Mozart.; The Beethoven recording was made in 1977 when Larrocha was 54 years old. She performs the work with aplomb, alongside the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, under the direction of Ernest Bour.
Hans Rosbaud conducts Haydn
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REVIEW:
Everything in this set combines elegance, vigour, warmth, and an unobtrusive sense of style. Performance standards are consistently high and the mono recordings (only the Farewell is in stereo) have been very cleanly transferred.
– Gramophone
Mahler: Symphony No. 1 / Norrington, Stuttgart Radio Symphony
This release features Mahler’s First Symphony in a historically informed performance that features a large, modern orchestra and includes the Blumine movement, which was part of the original version of the symphony, the one preferred by the conductor, Sir Roger Norrington. With the inclusion of the Blumine, the listener can appreciate the return of pastoral motifs in the finale movement. Mahler’s First symphony, sometimes titled “Titan,” was written mostly in February and March of 1888, incorporating music that had been written much earlier. The first performance wasn’t well received, but after several revisions over the following years the work has become a staple in symphonic repertoire. Originally, Mahler called the work a “Symphonic Poem in two parts.” But finally he began to refer to the work as a symphony.
Berlioz: Concert Overtures / Cambreling, SWR Sinfonieorchester
The present release contains Hector Berlioz's complete concert overtures, including the one written for his early opera Les francs-juges, superbly performed by the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg directed by the French conductor Sylvain Cambreling. French composer Hector Berlioz wrote a number of overtures, many of which remain concert staples. They include not only overtures intended to introduce operas, but also independent concert overtures. The album opens with one of the most popular overtures, Waverly, Op. 1. Composed in 1828, it was inspired by Sir Walter Scott’s Waverly novels. Also included are Le Carnaval romain, Op. 9, a standalone overture intended for concert performance made up of material from the opera Benvenuto Cellini, Le Corsaire, Op. 21, and others. This album is part of a new re-release series (Century Classics) consisting of SWR music bestsellers. The series is competitively priced, optically highly attractive and contains acclaimed SWR recordings mostly of the SWR orchestras and their chief conductors.
Suk: Asrael - Krejci: Serenada / Ancerl, Southwest German Radio Symphony Baden-Baden
This is the only available official recording of Karel Ancerl conducting Josef Suk’s Asrael. Asrael is central to Josef Suk’s oeuvre and an outstanding work in the Czech music repertoire. The prominent standing of the conductor Karel Ancerl is due mainly to his success in establishing the Czech Philharmonic as one of the world’s most eminent and successful orchestras in only a few years’ time. Under his great predecessor Vaclav Talich, the most significant Czech conductor of the twentieth century, the orchestra was able to flourish primarily in its home country, yet under Ancerl it became, despite the restrictions of the Cold War, an orchestra that was celebrated everywhere, whose 1959 world tour went down in history as the longest and most extensive ever up to that time. A stirring intepretation of the Südwestfunk-Orchestra of Baden-Baden, digitally remastered from the SWR original tapes!
REVIEW:
Firstly, it is doubtful the orchestra was familiar with either score prior to this recording. Secondly, it appears that this was the conductor’s first engagement with them—though, unsurprisingly, he was invited back in 1969. To achieve such committed, marvellously played and eloquent performances of unfamiliar repertoire when conductor and orchestra had no prior relationship is a remarkable achievement.
The sound is pretty impressive, wearing its five decades lightly. It presents a very realistic aural picture of Ančerl’s interpretations. N,o one buying this disc will be disappointed on sonic grounds. What you will definitely get if you buy this disc is a memorable performance of a great Czech symphony. This an important release and a major addition to the Ančerl discography.
Debussy: Piano Music, Vol. 5
From the New World / SWR Rundfunkorchester
This release contains a great cross-section of American music: from ragtime pioneer Scott Jopin to Richard Rodgers, the legendary composer of musicals, together with works by Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin and Aaron Copland. The musicians of the SWR Rundfunkorchester Kaiserslautern play with zest and flamboyance, led by celebrated conductors Klaus Arp, Saul Schechtmann, Ernst Wedam, and Caspar Richter. The Rundfunkorchester Kaiserslautern was founded in 1951 by Emmerich Smola for the Southwest Radio. In 2007 the ensemble merged with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrucken, and the combined group is still performing and recording to this day. This album is part of a new re-release series (Century Classics) consisting of SWR music bestsellers. The series is competitively priced, optically highly attractive and contains acclaimed SWR recordings mostly of the SWR orchestras and their chief conductors.
Dvorák: Slavonic Dances, Opp. 46 & 72
Brahms: Symphonies, Piano Concertos & Serenades / Rosbaud, Southwest German Radio Symphony
Rossini: Petite messe solennelle / Huber, Southwest German Radio Vocal Ensemble
Piazzolla: Le Grand Tango / Gallardo, Berger, Eichhorn
This release features key works by Astor Piazzolla, the king of composed tango, performed by three outstanding musicians. Shifting between fiery and melancholic, the tango nuevo is just irresistible. Born in 1971 in Münster, Germany, Friedemann Eichhorn studied violin with Prof. Valery Gradow in Mannheim, Alberto Lysy at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland and with Margaret Pardee at the Juilliard School New York. He regularly performs with orchestras such as St. Petersburg Philharmonic or the SWR-Radio-Orchestra and has concertized with Yuri Bashmet, Saschko Gawriloff, Gidon Kremer, Yehudi Menuhin and Igor Oistrakh. The German cellist Julius Berger studied at the Musikhochschule of Munich, Germany under Walter Reichardt and Fritz Kiskalt. Later, he studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria under Antonio Janigro and at the University of Cincinnati under Zara Nelsova. When he was just 28 years old he was appointed to the Musikhochschule Wuerzburg and was one of the youngest Professors in Germany. A native of Buenos Aires, José Gallardo started piano lessons at the age of five, at first at the Conservatory in Buenos Aires, later continuing his studies with Poldi Mildner in the Faculty of Music at the University of Mainz, where he completed his diploma in 1997. Since autumn 2008 he has been teaching at the Leopold Mozart Centre at the University of Augsburg.
Fritz Wunderlich - Music of the 20th Century
A Cool Breeze
Sammy Nestico, the composer-arranger known for his contributions to the Count Basie Orchestra library and whose name is familiar to anyone who’s played in a big band since the 1960s, recently has gone through a highly creative and productive phase. The rise of Nestico’s international profile has been sparked by a period of collaboration with the SWR Big Band of Germany that has produced several masterful albums, including No Time Like The Present (2004), Basie-Cally Sammy (2005), Fun Time (2009) and Fun Time And More (2011). The productive streak continues with this year’s A Cool Breeze, which finds the perpetually developing, 93-year-old orchestrator combining swing, soul, funk, fusion and symphonic expressions in a stylistic manner that’s distinctly modern yet undeniably Nestico. Unlike his previous SWR collaborations, Nestico (who’s based in San Diego) wasn’t able to travel to Germany for these recording sessions, but digital technology allowed him to participate via Skype and high-speed audio file transfer. His signature syncopations, volleying counterpoint passages, tensely stacked fourths, dramatic dynamics and tasteful manner of combining instrumental timbres are all manifest in the SWR Big Band’s impeccable, inspired performance. These dedicated musicians have become so adept at finessing and interpreting Nestico’s work that they actually transcend what’s on the printed page. They turn his carefully crafted charts into memorable works of art that will have toes tappin’ and fingers snappin’ for decades to come. - DownBeat Magazine Editors' Pick
Mozart Contemporaries
Liederhalle Stuttgart 1969
The first attempt went awry. When Nat and his older brother Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley tried to start a quintet in the mid-fifties, hardly anyone was interested in the newcomers from Florida. And that, in retrospect, was good. Because the trumpeter Nat landed in this way in the bands of Jay Jay Johnson and George Shearing, and there refined, under expert guidance, his art of elegant blues-bopping ensemble playing. The alto saxophonist Cannonball in turn became Miles Davis' counterpart to tenor saxophonist John Coltrane for a good four years, a time he later described as the most artistically important of his life. When the brothers came together again in 1959, they had both matured and were ready to lead one of the most successful jazz bands of the 1960s. Unlike experimental colleagues who tested the limits of music, but more and more lost their audience, the Cannonball Adderley Quintet managed to reach a large audience with hits like "This Here", "Work Song", "Jive Samba" and above all "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy". No wonder, then, that a wave of applause greeted the Cannonball Adderley Quintet in the Liederhalle Stuttgart in 1969. Completed by bassist Victor Gaskin and drummer Roy McCurdy, they had brought with them just the right repertoire.
Rihm: 2 Other Movements, Abkehr & Schattenstück
Bruchner: Symphony No. 7 / Hindemith, Stuttgart Radio Symphony
Paul Hindemith was an all-round musician. He had a near-professional command of most orchestral instruments, which naturally served as an excellent prerequisite for both composing and conducting. His prominence as a composer meant that the best and most famous orchestras were happy to have him as a conductor, which is why he regularly took to the podium with outstanding ensembles. In the studio, he always conducted his own works, recording them for labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, CBS and Decca. His work as a conductor in the concert hall and his occasional radio studio performances were much more varied, as with the present recording. When we hear Hindemith conducting Bruckner in 1958, we should bear in mind that a grand master is at work, unsurpassed in contrapuntal expertise and musical invention, the product of a vibrant tradition extending from Schütz and Bach to Mozart and Beethoven, and on to Brahms and Reger. Bruckner was a high point on this route from the Baroque to his own contemporary output.
Maria Schneider & SWR Big Band
Concerts with Maria Schneider are something special. They are stylistically not only out of the ordinary, they also manage to bring large orchestras to perform artistically at high voltage, with an energy and at a creative level which is otherwise known only in much smaller ensembles. It is not the music alone that drives the participants, but rather the serene seriousness of a band leader who demands a maximum of intensity from her compositions and passes this premise on to their interpretation. It is impossible to conceive of compositions for jazz orchestras more stringently. The instrumentalists know this too, and therefore feel called upon not only to reproduce the charts accurately but to work out all the contained hints, implications, and visions of sound down to the deepest levels. This original recording was made in May 2000 when Schneider appeared alongside the SWR Big Band. And for the SWR Big Band, those days in May 2000 are some of the highlights of their orchestral history.
Dvorák: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" & Carnival Overt
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 / Sanderling, Stuttgart Radio Symphony
This is a re-release of an SWRmusic-Bestseller. It contains Bruckner‘s most famous symphony heard in an outstanding interpretation. Kurt Sanderling, at that moment already 83 years old, fully demonstrates the experience gained from his long career, at his side an SWR Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart performing at the highest level. More than just a resident of Berlin, Kurt Sanderling has always been very closely connected with the city. It was here that he began his artistic career as voice coach at the Stadtische Oper at the age of eighteen, when Otto Klemperer, Erich Kleiber, Leo Blech and Wilhelm Furtwangler were conducting. Sanderlings guest tours took him almost everywhere in Eastern and Western Europe, to Japan, and the USA, where he conducted the world’s leading ensembles.
