Germany’s oldest Mozart festival celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2021. The present jubilee boxed set presents previously unpublished treasures from the archive of the Bavarian Broadcasting. All live recordings from the Baroque Imperial Hall at Würzburg Residence are digital remasters.

Mark Wigglesworth recorded his cycle of Shostakovich’s symphonies between 1996 and 2010, collaborating with two different orchestras, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. In spite of the long gestation and the change of orchestra midway, the cycle was described as one never ‘compromising its particular characteristics of high seriousness, fine detailing and a certain fierceness of articulation’ (Gramophone). Already the first instalment – Symphony No. 7, ‘Leningrad’ – raised expectations, for instance with the reviewer in The Sunday Telegraph: ‘There is plenty of competition among Shostakovich cycles, but this one will deserve serious consideration.’ And 17 years later, on the release of the final album, The Guardian could report that ‘Wigglesworth's cycle emerges as one of the finest of recent time’. What particularly impressed reviewers was Mark Wigglesworth’s faithfulness to the score and sharp ear for detail, and the structural clarity he achieved even with the most complex works – without sacrificing any of their impact and emotional power.

Excerpts from reviews ofpreviously released volumes included in this set:

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13, "Babi Yar"

This is outstanding in every way. You only have to hear the violins’ slashing accents at figure 4 in the first movement, where the soloist sings “and fine ladies with their lacey frills shriek and poke their parasols in my face,” to know that Wigglesworth & Co. are fully attuned to the music’s expressive world. The menacing second subject, with its description of a pogrom, erupts with an impressive sense of menace, while the big climaxes in the first, third, and fourth movements are as powerful and intense as anyone could ask. Bass soloist Jan-Hendrik Rootering has the range for the part and an evenness of tone unmatched by most Russian singers, while the men of the Netherlands Radio Chorus sing as though their lives depended on it, with a genuine understanding of the words.

– ClassicsToday.com (10/10; David Hurw1tz)

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11

Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony has fared well on disc, even on SACD. It doesn’t ask for much more than great playing and sound, and an interpretation that keeps the music flowing and lets the climaxes achieve the necessary intensity. Mark Wigglesworth certainly delivers in this respect. If you’ve been collecting this series, which has developed handsomely over the years, you can purchase this release with complete confidence.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 15

The performance of the First Symphony gets better as it goes. The first movement, crisp and clear though it undoubtedly is, lacks that element of exaggerated humor that it ideally needs—it’s a function perhaps of less than characterful woodwind solos combined with a slightly low-level recording. The scherzo, swift and pointed, also could do with more devilry, but the Lento movement and finale remain impressive on re-hearing.

The Fifteenth Symphony features an interesting interpretation, deliberate and deadly serious even in the lighter moments, rather like Sanderling’s for those of you who know it. The performance makes an imposing conclusion to a cycle that, quietly and without much fanfare, ranks among the best.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

This 7-disc box set comprises award-winning documentaries and concert recordings produced and released by Accentus Music that shine the light on the lives and works of a few of the most important and most well-known composers of the 20th century: Erik Satie, Charles Ives, John Cage, Isang Yun, Krzysztof Penderecki, who died in 2020, and Arvo Pärt. Award-winning filmmakers are featured, including Anne-Kathrin Peitz, Allan Miller, Paul Smaczny, and Maria Stodtmeier. Also included are live performances from the Ruhrtriennale 2018 and the Teatr Wielki Warsaw, 2013

“The last great father-figure of Western music” was how Leonard Bernstein eulogized Igor Stravinsky in 1972 before his homage concert in London a year after the composer’s death. Stravinsky’s works, he asserted, “sum up and embrace all of music itself – from primitive folk art to highly sophisticated serialism, from rarefied church music to outspoken jazz.”

In fact, Bernstein performed surprisingly few selections from Stravinsky’s vast output, recording most of those for Columbia Masterworks and RCA Victor, yet they include some of his most indelible interpretations. And he also delivered eloquent and revelatory lectures on the composer. Sony Classical is now pleased to collect these performances and talks in a new 6-CD box set.

One of Bernstein’s earliest passions was Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale). He studied the droll score at Tanglewood with his mentor, Serge Koussevitzky, first performing it in 1940 at a Koussevitzky family picnic. Then in 1947, after conducting it again at Tanglewood with Boston Symphony players, he recorded it, along with the enchanting Octet, on 78s for RCA.

His most celebrated Stravinsky recording came a decade later, Le Sacre du printemps with the New York Philharmonic in 1958, and it elicited the composer’s famous reaction: “Wow!” When Bernstein conducted the Sacre in the USSR the following year – with nine Moscow Symphony Orchestra players augmenting the Philharmonic – the stunned Russian audience exploded in wild cheers. The New York studio recording, wrote Classics Today just a few years ago, still has “an excitement, spontaneity, and primal fury that no other version quite matches. It fully deserves its legendary status. The remastering has been excellently done … This has to be one of the most detailed and realistically engineered performances available.”

From around the same time comes Bernstein’s “compelling and viscerally exciting” (ClassicsToday) New York Philharmonic recording of the Firebird Suite (1919 version): “a must-have” (MusicWeb International). In 1962 there followed recordings of the seldom-heard Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments (with soloist Seymour Lipkin), which Bernstein had performed in Moscow on that visit with the Philharmonic, and the suite from Pulcinella (“A very enjoyable rendition by any standard … It’s good to be reminded of how much sheer fun all of this music really is, and how much warmth of feeling it contains” – ClassicsToday).

After that he didn’t return to the studio with Stravinsky’s music until 1970, but it was worth the wait. As ClassicsToday’s reviewer wrote not long ago: “As time goes on, Leonard Bernstein’s New York recording of Petrushka only gains in stature … There are two ways to perform this music: as a brilliant but somewhat abstract orchestral showpiece, and as a vivid theatrical experience. The former predominates today, but as his typically enjoyable lecture-demonstration included with the recording makes clear, Bernstein opts for the latter, and projects it as few have. And so the fair music explodes with earthy vitality, Petrushka himself comes across as touchingly pathetic, the Moor as truly angry and nasty, and the conclusion genuinely spooky. All of this is contained within an interpretation that catches the score’s rhythmic punch as few have before or since, thanks to the virtuoso response of the New York Philharmonic. Really, if you are going to do the work complete, then this is the way to go.”

Two years later, this time with the London Symphony Orchestra, Bernstein revisited Le Sacre du printemps. “This later version, wrote ClassicsToday in comparing it with the New York recording, “has similar dynamism and energy”. And in the same London Symphony sessions, joined by the English Bach Festival Chorus, he recorded the Symphony of Psalms. Gramophone’s reviewer wrote: “He never softens the pungency or the rhythmic attack of the music. His chorus, bigger and more accomplished than Stravinsky’s, has the sort of ‘straightness’ of tone that the composer was obviously aiming for, and the recording is excellent.”

That autumn, Bernstein took up residence at his alma mater, Harvard University, as Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry for the academic year 1972–73. He regarded this appointment as the greatest academic honour ever bestowed upon him: “Everything I do is in one way or another teaching,” he told an interviewer. His duties included delivering a prestigious series of lectures, which he crowned with a two-hour discussion of Stravinsky and his central position in modern music.

The heart of that memorable last Harvard appearance, entitled “The Poetry of Earth”, was an “outstanding” (ClassicsToday) performance of the opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex, recorded earlier at Symphony Hall with Bernstein conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Harvard Glee Club, and featuring René Kollo as Oedipus, Tatiana Troyanos as Jocasta and Tom Krause as Creon. When it was first released on LP in 1976, Gramophone’s Stravinsky specialist wrote: “It is amazing what dramatic truth emerges from the score if only the details of vocal writing, instrumentation, dynamics, are observed accurately and with feeling for their meaning. That happens, I think, almost throughout Bernstein’s new recording, which has the strongest cast of soloists that I can remember hearing in the work.”

This shattering performance of Stravinsky’s massive work, which conveys the same undiluted savage intensity as Bernstein’s Sacre, is aptly presented in Sony’s new edition within the original context of his “Poetry of Earth” lecture. Like every item in this indispensable new edition of Bernstein’s Stravinsky – also containing the conductor’s spoken introduction to Petrushka from 1970 – it is offered in the newest remastering from analogue tape.

Among the most significant composers of guitar duos in the early 19th century, Antoine De Lhoyer was born in September 1768 in Clermont-Ferrand. His musical talents manifested themselves from early on, and he trained in Paris. His teacher Vidal paid tribute to him as ‘the finest guitarist in Europe’. However, at the age of 20, de Lhoyer embarked on a military career as a member of the King’s Guards, shortly before the French Revolution. Life in France rapidly becoming uncongenial for someone with his loyalties, he left France in a hurry and eventually settled in Hamburg, where his compositions were first published at the turn of the 19th century. De Lhoyer’s travels were by no means over, and over the following decades he took up posts as a professional music teacher and performer in St Petersburg, Paris, Corsica, Aix-en-Provence and Alger, the new capital of the French colony in north Africa. Eventually returning to the French capital, he died there in 1852, at the age of 84. The extant duos on this album were composed between 1814 and 1826, and they comprise a substantial proportion of his total output. One would expect the style of his music to reflect the lively, cosmopolitan nature of his career, and so they do, often cast in three- and four-movement sonata forms with picturesque interpolations such as the ‘hunt’ movement of Op.35 No.2 and the graceful Sicilienne of Op.35 No.5. The eight-movement Fantasie Concertante Op.33 is like a Mozartian serenade, with a superbly flowing Andante con variazioni directly succeeded by a brief but tranquil Adagio.

Sergey Prokofiev’s seven symphonies are acknowledged as one of the major cycles of the 20th century, and these recordings with Marin Alsop and the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra have received widespread critical acclaim. From the crisp vitality of the youthful ‘Classical’ Symphony to the viscerally exciting Third, the Fifth Symphony which for Prokofiev represented ‘the grandeur of the human spirit’ and the deeply moving and heartfelt Sixth Symphony, this is an unforgettable collection crowned by the bittersweet Seventh Symphony, the composer’s final significant work.

Past praise of previously released volumes included in this set:

Prokofiev: Symphonies No 1 "Classical" & 2 / Alsop

Without minimizing the Second’s violent energy, Alsop plays the piece with a vivid sense of its long melodic lines. The first movement, in particular, has plenty of excitement but also a certain lyrical emphasis that gives the music something to be excited about. It’s very convincing.

As for the Classical Symphony, well, just about everyone does it well, and while I can imagine a first movement with a touch more snap to its rhythms, the performance picks up steam as it goes, culminating in a delightfully crisp account of the finale. The early tone poem “Dreams” drifts about prettily for ten minutes, sounding like Debussy or Scriabin or basically anyone but Prokofiev. Does it deserve greater exposure? Perhaps not, but this lovely performance makes as strong a case for it as you might imagine possible. Vivid sonics make this the best release in this series so far.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 7 & Other Orchestral Works / Alsop

Alsop captures the lyrical aspects of the Seventh work really well. She also has the advantage of a superior recording in the acoustically friendlier Sala São Paulo. The orchestra is superb throughout, but special mention should be made of the woodwinds that have notable solos in the work.

– MusicWeb International

Sony Classical is pleased to announce the release of a 17-CD box set collecting the recordings made between 1940 and 1956 for American Columbia by the renowned Hungarian violinist Joseph Szigeti.

Szigeti had a remarkable career. Born in 1892 in Budapest, where he studied with Jenő Hubay, one of most celebrated virtuosos and teachers of that golden era of violin playing, he was praised by the iconic German violinist Joseph Joachim at his Berlin debut in 1905; lived in London for several years following his acclaimed 1907 debut and played chamber music with, among others, Myra Hess and Ferruccio Busoni; was a frequent visitor after the war to the Soviet Union, where he introduced Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto; made his triumphant American debut at Carnegie Hall under Stokowski in 1925; toured the world during the 1930s before finally settling in the US in 1940.

It was in that year that Szigeti renewed his friendship with fellow Hungarian émigré Béla Bartók, and in April the two gave a now-legendary recital in Washington which featured Bartók’s First Violin Rhapsody of 1928 – a work dedicated to and premiered by Szigeti in Europe. In May 1940, Columbia recorded their interpretation of this “vehicle for Szigeti’s biting and wholly magnificent fiddling” (MusicWeb International) in New York. That performance appears here for the first time on CD, along with another important work by Bartók, the classic first recording of his Contrasts for clarinet, violin and piano, written for and performed with Szigeti and Benny Goodman.

The rest of the new collection displays many more treasures of Szigeti’s passionate dedication to chamber music: in Bach, Handel, Tartini, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Dvořák, Debussy, Ravel, Bloch, Busoni, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Henry Cowell, collaborating with such artists as Andor Foldes – another Hungarian émigré – as well as with Mieczyslaw Horzowski, Myra Hess, Pablo Casals and Igor Stravinsky.

There are, of course, major orchestral works represented in the new Szigeti edition, including two towering concertos in D major – the Brahms, recorded in 1945 with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Beethoven, recorded in 1947 with Bruno Walter and the New York Philharmonic (“an account of impassioned grandeur” – MusicWeb International) – along with Busoni’s early Violin Concerto in D major, recorded in 1954 with Thomas Sherman conducting the Little Orchestra Society. Szigeti’s numerous Bach concerto recordings for Columbia are here as well, conducted by Casals, Fritz Stiedry and George Szell.

As Nathan Milstein, one of his great colleagues, said in a touching tribute to Szigeti, who died in 1973: “He was an incredibly cultured musician. Actually, his talent grew out of his culture. … I always admired him, and he was respected by musicians.” In his late years, Joseph Szigeti finally got the appreciation he deserved from the general public as well. Sony Classical’s new collection his Columbia recordings, many never before released on CD at Sony Classical, can only further enhance that appreciation.

REVIEWS:

Joseph Szigeti (1892-1973) was the violinistic equivalent of a “kunst diva”, just as Gidon Kremer is today. He never had a particularly beautiful tone, while his bowing and intonation grew less dependable with age. Yet Szigeti never put a wrong musical foot forward. His phrasing communicated form, character, architecture, and astute harmonic awareness, with musical considerations always taking precedence over physical expediency.

Sony/BMG’s 17-CD collection of Szigeti’s complete Columbia Masterworks recordings stands out for exemplary remasterings that stem from the best possible source material. His intense yet thoughtful collaborations with Mieczyslaw Horszowski in Beethoven’s Sonatas Nos. 1, 5, 6, and 10 have never sounded so full-bodied and detailed as they do here. The same goes for the 1947 Beethoven Concerto, where the New York Philharmonic turns in firm and insightfully aligned playing under Bruno Walter’s direction. It contrasts to the conductor’s relatively casual and deferential backing in Szigeti’s 1932 recording, which, however, finds Szigeti on far better form.

Rehearing Szigeti’s 1949 Bach Sonata No. 3 in C major for violin solo reminded me just how much more fluent and controlled this performance is in comparison to the violinist’s relatively tenuous Vanguard remake. Likewise, his masterful 1940 account of the D minor concerto based on Bach’s keyboard concerto BWV 1052 is technically, musically, and sonically superior to the bloated 1950 reading under Pablo Casals’ direction. Szigeti’s Casals Festival contributions are admittedly uneven.

His collaborations with Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, and Henry Cowell are both historically important and musically illuminating. Somehow the older Szigeti’s wiry tone imparts welcome character and tension to sonatas by Hindemith, Ravel, and Busoni, as well as the rarely heard Prokofiev solo sonata and Busoni concerto. It must be said, though, that the latter’s final scherzando-like passages are heavy going for the veteran violinist, as are the Busoni sonata’s overextended fugal sequences.

Listeners expecting suaveness and elegance in Brahms’ G major Op. 78 and D minor Op. 108 sonatas with Horszowski may wince at Szigeti’s tremulous and effortful execution. Still, he makes every note count, and the aching fragility that emerges from Op. 78’s outer movements and Op. 108’s deliberately unfolding third movement compels my undivided attention. Yet this Brahms D minor pales next to the power and authority of Szigeti’s great 78 rpm edition with pianist Egon Petri. As for the short encore-type pieces favored in the shellac era, Szigeti plays them dutifully rather than lovingly; he wasn’t a charmer like Kreisler, Elman, Milstein, or Ricci. Or Heifetz, for that matter.

The booklet includes full discographical data, an informative essay by Tully Potter, and Szigeti’s own notes for a 1970 Japanese reissue of his Schubert recordings. Even if just half of this collection represents Szigeti at his best, Sony/BMG’s comprehensive and meticulous production values deserve the highest accolades. In the meantime, a complete edition of Szigeti’s pre-war European 78s is long overdue.

-- ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)

The 31 works, from sonatas to chamber works to concertos, span Bach and Beethoven to Debussy, Ravel, Busoni and Henry Cowell. Bartók is pianist in his own Rhapsody No 1 for Violin and Piano. All the Brahms, including the Trio No 2 in C major with Hess and Casals, is to treasure. Szigeti plays Dvořák with grace and melancholy, and gives bite and attack to Stravinsky. The style may be redolent of another era, yet still this playing speaks to us.

– Guardian (UK)

This is a quite wonderful set, one of the highlights being an all-Busoni disc, the Second Sonata with Mieczysπaw Horszowski and the Violin Concerto with the Little Orchestra Society under Thomas Sherman. No one listening could fail to grasp the profound level of Szigeti's musical understanding.

– Gramophone

SET CONTENTS

DISC 1:
Bartók: Violin Rhapsody No. 1, Sz.87 (Remastered)   
Bartók: Contrasts for Clarinet, Violin and Piano, Sz.111   
Bloch: Three Pictures of Chassidic Life for Violin and Piano (Remastered)   
Milhaud (arr. Lévy): Saudades do Brasil, Op. 67: No. 9, Sumare (Remastered)   
Falla (arr. Levy): El Sombrero de Tres Picos, Parte I, Danza de la molinera (Remastered)   
Mozart: Divertimento No. 15 in B-Flat Major, K. 287, "2. Lodronsche Nachtmusik" (Remastered)   

DISC 2:
Mussorgsky-Rachmaninoff: Sorochintsy Fair, Act III: No. 5, Gopak (Remastered)   
Dvorák (arr. Kreisler): Slavonic Dance in E Minor, Op. 46, No. 2 (Arr. in G Minor) (Remastered)   
Dvorák (arr. Kreisler): Slavonic Dance No. 3 in A-Flat Major, Op. 46, No. 3 (Arr. in E Minor) (Remastered)   
Hubay: Scènes de la Csárda No.4, Op. 32, "Hejre Kati", I. Lento ma non troppo. Allegro moderato (Remastered)   
Hubay: Scènes de la Csárda No.4, Op. 32, "Hejre Kati", II. Allegro molto (Remastered)   
Kodály (arr. Szigeti): Háry János Suite, IZK 26: V. Intermezzo (Remastered)   
Brahms: 21 Hungarian Dances for Orchestra, WoO 1: No. 5 in G Minor (Remastered)   
Debussy: Violin Sonata No.3 in G Minor, L. 140 (Remastered)   
Hubay: The Zephyr, Op. 30, No. 5 (Remastered)   
Schubert, Francois: Bagatelle Op. 13, No. 9, "Die Biene" (Remastered)   
Stravinsky: Duo Concertant for Violin and Piano   
Stravinsky: Pastorale, Song without Words for Violin & Woodwind Quartet   
Stravinsky: Russian Maiden's Song   

DISC 3:
Beethoven (Cadenza: Joseph Joachim): Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61   

DISC 4:
Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77   
Brahms: Violin Sonata No.3 in D Minor, Op.108: II. Adagio   

DISC 5:
Beethoven: Violin Sonata No.1 in D Major, Op. 12, No. 1 (Remastered)   
Schubert: Violin Sonata in D Major, D.384   
Schubert (arr. Friedberg): Piano Sonata No.17 in D Major, D.850: IV. Rondo. Allegretto moderato (Remastered)   
Beethoven: Violin Sonata No.7 in C Minor, Op. 30, No. 2 (Remastered)   

DISC 6:
Prokofiev: Violin Sonata No.1 in F Minor, Op. 80 (Remastered)   
Prokofiev: Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 94bis (Remastered)   

DISC 7:
Bach, J.S.: Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1005   
Bach, J.S. (arr. Reitz): Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 1052   

DISC 8:
Schubert: Fantaisie for Piano & Violin in C Major, Op.Posth. 159, D. 934   
Corelli (arr. H. Leonard): Violin Sonata in D Minor, Op.5 No.12 "La Folia" (Variations Serieuses)   
Debussy (arr. Roelens): Suite bergamasque, L. 75: No. 3. Clair de lune   
Lalo (arr. Szigeti): Aubade from "Le Roi d'Ys" (Act III)   
Tchaikovsky: 6 Pieces, Op. 51: No. 6, Valse sentimentale   
Bach, J.S. (arr. Szigeti): Violin Partita No.3 in E Major, BWV 1006: VI. Bourrée (Remastered)   

DISC 9:
Bach, J.S.: Concerto for Flute, Violin and Keyboard in A Minor, BWV 1044 (Remastered)   
Bach, J.S.: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, (arr. BWV 1052/1056) (Remastered)   
Bach, J.S.: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050   

DISC 10:
Schubert: Rondo in B Minor for Piano and Violin, D.895 (Op.70) "Rondeau brillant"   
Beethoven: Violin Sonata No.10 in G Major, Op. 96 (Remastered)   
Schubert: Violin Sonata in A Major, Op. 162. D. 574 "Grand Duo" (Remastered)   

DISC 11:
Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 60   
Brahms: Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major Op. 87   

DISC 12:
Cowell: Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano (1945) (Remastered)   
Shapero: Sonata for Piano Four Hands (1941) (Remastered) (Harold Shapero, piano; Leo Smit, piano)
Cowell: Celestial Vision: How Old Is Song? (Remastered)   

DISC 13:
Beethoven: Violin Sonata No.5 in F Major, Op. 24 "Spring"   
Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 6 in A Major, Op. 30, No. 1   

DISC 14:
Bach, J.S. (arr. Szigeti): Violin Concerto in G Minor, BWV 1056 (Remastered)   
Handel: Violin Sonata in D Major, HWV 371 (Remastered)   
Tartini (Cadenzas: Szigeti): Violin Concerto in D Minor, D. 45 (Remastered)   
Tartini: Violin Sonata in G Major, B. G19 (Remastered)   

DISC 15:
Ravel: Violin Sonata No.2 in G Major, M. 77   
Hindemith: Violin Sonata in E Major (1939)   
Prokofiev: Sonata for Solo Violin in D Major, Op. 115 (Remastered)   
Prokofiev: Five Melodies for Violin and Piano, Op. 35bis (Remastered)   

DISC 16:
Busoni: Violin Concerto, Op.35a, BV 243   
Busoni: Violin Sonata No.2, Op.36a, BV 244   

DISC 17:
Brahms: Violin Sonata No.1 in G Major, Op. 78 "Regen" (Remastered)   
Brahms: Violin Sonata No.3 in D Minor, Op.108 (Remastered)

Long regarded by Danish musicians as their secret treasure, the songs of Peter Heise perfectly represent the unique qualities and achievements of the Danish Golden Age. Though mostly not in direct contact with each other, these artists and writers shared a profound interest in exploring and understanding their personal life and experience, and left a body of introspective work which has had a huge impact on European culture. No longer a secret, these songs can now take their rightful place alongside the works of Hans Christian Andersen, Christen Kobke, Soren Kierkegaard and so many others.

REVIEW:

The Danish composer Peter Heise 1830-1879 composed about 300 songs, most of them on Danish texts, a few also on German poems. Dacapo now presents the complete recording of those songs. Anyone loving lieder will appreciate these romantic and melodically fine songs in consistently good interpretations. The producers must be given credit for always finding the right voice type for the songs with a variety of male and female voices.

– Pizzicato

While composers like Schumann and Brahms held fast to the classical concept of the symphony, it was composers of the New German School, such as Wagner and Liszt, who preferred the tone poem as a modern means of expression for orchestral music. It tries to convey non-musical topics, like legends, tales, myths, and sometimes novels, in musical terms: programme music in its best sense. Strauss’ boisterous self-confidence allowed him the conviction that a different ‘formula’ would enable him to roll out his musical imagination with inimitable style. His success in doing so has ensured the popularity of these works to the present day. The SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden and Freiburg under the baton of its former chief conductor François-Xavier Roth recorded all ten tone poems, as well as Strauss’ musical epitaph Metamorphosen, between 2012 and 2016. These recordings are now re-released as a collector’s item in an exquisite 5-album box set .

REVIEW:

With music as wonderful as this, we are all liable to develop our personal favourites that we will always remain loyal to. But it is hard to imagine a conductor and orchestra who could bring greater commitment and sheer intensity to a collection such as this. As you can see from the dates above, the CDs were issued over a period of four years or so; but the standard of playing and direction is high from the first to the last; a tremendous achievement by all involved.

-- MusicWeb International

This superpowered set of Richard Strauss’s ‘Complete Tone Poems’ with the SWR Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden and Freiburg under François-Xavier Roth (recorded 2012-15) makes its mark right from the lunging first bars of Ein Heldenleben and carries through a series of performances that for drama, energy, and commitment, has few if any equals, certainly not in the post-Fritz Reiner era.

Just listen to the timps in Also sprach Zarathustra—the way they hurtle towards us at Sunrise—and Till Eulenspiegel, or Roth’s skill at holding Aus Italien together, his affectionate yet energetic handling of Symphonia domestica, the epic aural vistas of his Alpine Symphony and an account of Metamorphosen that because of Roth’s sense of urgency sounds swifter than it actually is.

The recordings are spacious, full-bodied and pretty aggressive (the brass especially) but do the music and its performers proud. This now surely has to be the top-rating digital set of Strauss’s tone poems. Tod und Verklärung, Don Juan, Macbeth, and Don Quixote, all superbly played, complete the deal.

-- Gramophone

On the dark side of fame awaits the slide into obscurity. That’s certainly true for a number of operas that, while popular and highly lucrative during their composers‘ lifetime, soon followed their creators into the shadowy realm of oblivion. Operas, for example, that only ever get mentioned in connection with some much more famous sibling. Giuseppe Gazzaniga’s Don Giovanni – premiered half a year before Mozart’s masterpiece – is such an example, as is Ruggero Leoncavallo’s La Boheme and George Bizet’s Djamileh, widely considered the predecessor of Carmen. Other operas just do not stand out among other works by a composer – Jules Massenet’s operas for example are hardly a footnote of music history, his opera Therese, a thoroughly forgotten work, however, is. Two examples for works that are scarcely performed or even known outside of what is now the Czech Republic are also included in this collection of Opera Rarities on ORFEO: Antonin Dvorak’s last opera Armida and Zdenek Fibich’s Sarka.

REVIEW:

Containing radio performance recordings of six works by Dvorak, Massenet, Leoncavallo, Bizet, Gazzaniga, and Fibich mentioned often in histories of music but almost never on the bill, this is a box certainly precious for those who love opera.

– Classical Music Daily (Giuseppe Pennisi)

Rossini had a truly explosive effect when, at the age of eighteen, his comic one-act farce La cambiale di matrimonio was staged at the San Moisé theatre in Venice, on the evening of November 3rd, 1810. From that moment, Rossini’s career would be a series of masterpieces, with triumphs and flops. It was in the comic genre that he achieved his greatest successes, with works such as L’Italiana in Algeri (1813), Il Turco in Italia (1814), Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816), and Cenerentola in 1817, which was Rossini’s last great comic work in the traditional sense. Between 1817 and 1819, year of that Guillaume Tell that prematurely cut short his operatic career, Rossini composed fifteen serious operas and only three comic ones; but he had already given his best in his incomparable youth, with the four incredible masterpieces that are in this box set. In this release DYNAMIC assembles some of the most famous opera buffa by Rossini, played by great performers, conductors and directors, including some rarely performed works such La Gazzetta, L’Equivoco stravagante, La Cambiale di matrimonio.

On the occasion of his 50th anniversary, Avishaï Cohen offers a sumptuous present: 50 titles selected by his fans in a luxurious box set including 6 golden 180g vinyls. Deluxe edition limited and numbered to 2.000 copies worldwide! Each title has been commented by Avisaï Cohen in a beautiful 32-page hardcover book. Avishai Cohen, born in Kabri, Israel on April 20th, 1970, grew up in a multicultural family whose roots were found in Spain, Greece and Poland. At home, music was always in the air, with his mother Ora, an artistic influence, listening to both classical and traditional music. Avishais musical journey began when he was nine years old, when he began playing the piano. After moving to St. Louis, Missouri with his family at age fourteen, he continued to study the piano and began to play the bass guitar. The electric bass put a spell on him when his teacher introduced him to the music of luminary bassist Jaco Pastorius. Back in Israel, Avishai joined the Music and Arts Academy in Jerusalem to further explore the bass universe.

In the 1960s and in the decades following, the Budapest String Quartet’s mantle at Columbia was passed on to the Juilliard String Quartet. Over the years, with some changes in personnel, the ensemble repeatedly set down its famously lean, energetic and expressive interpretations of the Beethoven quartets in New York recording studios. These have remained catalogue staples. Less well known is the Beethoven cycle they recorded live in Washington at the Library of Congress in 1982. Gramophone singled out this complete traversal for its special depth and flexibility. Presented here on 9 albums, this is its first Sony release.

REVIEW:

The slow introduction to the C Major Quartet No. 9 is handled wonderfully, which sets up well for the rest of the movement and the work as a whole. These are followed by nice recordings of the “Harp” and “Serioso” quartets, thus bringing the middle period to an end.

The late quartets open with a really nice recording of the Nos. 12 and 13, with the first of these being particularly fine. The final disc of the nine houses the 15th and 16th quartets, which again receive fairly good recordings. Overall, the tempos selected here tend to be slower than in their earlier recording, which is usual for live recordings.

Overall sound quality is, at times, a bit of an issue here, even taking into account the live nature of these recordings, and overall isn't up to the sound quality of the quartet's highly regarded 1960s studio cycle of these works for RCA.

– MusicWeb International

David Goode performs the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach on the renowned Metzler Söhne organ of Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge, in a new a set spanning 16 albums and over 17 hours and 40 minutes of music. Covering the multiplicity of genres and stylistic influences that typified Bach’s organ music, the set includes complete recordings of the Chorale preludes, the six Sonatas, and the many preludes, toccatas, fugues, fantasias, chorales and partitas. The accompanying 136-page booklet includes background information on each work by organist George Parsons, along with an introduction to the set by David Goode. As well as a tracklisting, the booklet includes indexes to the works by BWV number and alphabetical order. “This series is notable for the flair, clarity and spontaneity that Goode brings to this timeless music” (Gramophone)

REVIEW

This cycle of Bach's Complete Organ Works occupied David Goode between January 2015 and August 2016 and was originally issued as separate volumes, but now Signum Classics have released them as a 16 CD set. Centre stage is the magnificent Metzler organ of Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge, which ranks as one of the finest in the UK. The Signum engineers have done a sterling job with the sound quality. The cycle certainly stands shoulder to shoulder with some of my favorite traversals, including those by Christopher Herrick, Peter Hurford, Lionel Rogg and André Isoir.

--MusicWeb International