Orchestral music played a key role in the output of César Franck throughout his career. He accorded an important and innovative place to the symphonic poem, a new genre of the Romantic era: Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne actually dates from 1846, two years before Franz Liszt’s composition of the same name! As a virtuoso pianist himself, Franck also produced a number of concertante works, from early pieces written for his own performance – a few brilliant sets of variations and a youthful concerto – to the famous Symphonic Variations (1885). The Symphony in D minor of 1887 was one of the cornerstones of the renewal of the genre in France, coming between Saint-Saëns’s Third Symphony (1886) and Chausson’s Symphony (1899). The Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège presents here the first genuinely complete survey of this orchestral and concertante repertory, assembling recordings from recent years and some new productions.

REVIEW:

The year 2022 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of César Franck. His orchestral music is not so often heard these days, so this comprehensive collection of performances from his home-town orchestra is quite timely. It would, however, have proved very welcome at any date for the Liège players not only play very well but also deliver the scores idiomatically and with real conviction. This box set usefully and enjoyably reminds us that there is plenty of pleasurable listening to be explored beyond the D minor symphony.

-- MusicWeb International

When Capriccio started out in 1982, still producing LPs and tapes, it was the first digital Beethoven Symphony cycle with the Dresden Philharmonic and Herbert Kegel that first turned heads. Several other key projects were pivotal to the label quickly establishing a reputation as a source of quality music and performances. Foremost among them, never out of the catalogue and still loved today, are the recordings with Sandor Végh. Then, in the mid-nineties those of Sir Neville Marriner’s, who, after long being synonymous with the Philips label, recorded widely for Capriccio, both with his Academy Of St Martin in the Fields and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. Contemporaries of Mozart’s that have emerged on Capriccio include Joseph Martin Kraus, François-Joseph Gossec, and Jan Ladislav Dussek. They are performed by early music and classical period Capriccio-favorites such as Concerto Köln or the CPE Bach Chamber Orchestra. This box set features the label’s most important ensembles, orchestras, and conductors, from the classical period to the 20th century, when, in 2005, Capriccio released the first complete Shostakovich Cycle with the Gürzenich Orchestra and Dmitrji Kitajenko.

Known for his characteristically deep sound and formidable virtuosity, violinist Monte Belknap joins concert pianist Barbara Allen to perform the complete collection of Beethoven's sonatas for piano and violin in this new 4-disc set.

Belknap has numerous film credits, including serval as a soloist. He regularly performs with the Uinta Trio and the Deseret String Quartet. Belknap has been a violin professor at the BYU School of Music since 2003, and his former students concertize and perform with major symphonies around the world.

Allen has concertized widely, playing solo chamber music and concerto repertoire. Also a singer and a conductor, she has been music director of the Utah Lyric Opera and is currently vocal coach for the BYU Opera Theatre.

Capriccio continues to celebrate its 40th anniversary with this retrospective of some of the greatest instrumental recordings in its catalog. The keyboard mavens: Ton Koopman in Bach-Senior, the great Christine Schornsheim in Bach-Sons Concertos, and Tzimon Barto, the muscular master of the soft touch, in Brahms. Wind-aces Burkhard Glaetzner (oboe), Eckart Haupt (flute), and Reinhold Friedrich (trumpet) playing baroque and classical period masters. The trusty Petersen Quartet and the inquisitive Linos Ensemble, who have always been an essential element of the repertoire exploration that soon became Capriccio’s hallmark, and the arch-musician Tabea Zimmermann and Vladimir Spivakov representing true highlights among the high strings. A generous and tasty synopsis of what this plucky label is about!

It was only after his death that Franz Schubert’s symphonic works made an impact in music history. In fact, the first public performance of any of Schubert’s symphonies took place at a memorial concert held a few weeks after the composer had passed away, on 19th November 1828. The work that was heard at that occasion was Symphony No.6, D589, the ‘Little C major’, while the two undisputed master works of the series – the ‘Great C major’ and the ‘Unfinished’ – had to wait until 1838 and 1865, respectively, before being performed. The six symphonies that precede them in the list of completed works were all composed between 1813 and 1818, while Schubert was still only 21 years of age. In a style above all oriented on Haydn and Mozart, they are youthful in the best sense of the word and display a disarming freshness which the present performances convey to perfection.

The four discs gathered here were released singly between 2010 and 2014, receiving critical acclaim in the international music press: the reviewer in The Daily Telegraph (UK) described the experience as ‘having a layer of varnish removed from a much-loved painting’ while his colleague in Fanfare wrote that the approach by Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra ‘changes the landscape’, proposing that the cycle ‘could become a first choice among any available.’ The set also include some shorter orchestral works, among them the much-loved Rosamunde Overture.

Excerpts from reviews of previously released volumes included in this set:

Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9 / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Dausgaard somehow manages to approach the surviving two movements of Schubert's B minor Symphony as though we didn't all know that it remained 'unfinished. For once it was hard not to regret the absence of an energetic scherzo or finale.

-- BBC Music Magazine

Schubert: Symphony No. 6 / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Dausgaard dexterously manages the internal balance within the orchestra. His pacing of the opening Adagio instills confidence, the line shaped by phrases stretched and contracted, dynamics thoughtfully graded, the interpretation of the whole work thoughtfully considered.

-- Gramophone

Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 3, 4 & 5 / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Even if not in his mature style, and showing the influence of Rossini, as well as of Haydn and Mozart, they are pure Schubert, not least in harmony and scoring, and they stand up well to the high-powered approach of Dausgaard and the splendid Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

-- The Sunday Times (UK)

Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

The definition and dynamism that these forces have been bringing to their Schubert symphony cycle are qualities that are radiantly replicated in the performances here.

-- Gramophone

Modernity in Russian music emerged despite its struggles with the Soviet regime in the early 20th century, with the mystical vision of Scriabin’s musical legacy providing a foundation on which to build. In these acclaimed albums we discover Medtner’s life affirming Sonatas, and hear Lourié’s journey from Impressionism to pioneering Cubist conceptions. Mosolov’s works are bold and complex, while Roslavets new tonal system brings ‘fi re and ice’, and Stanchinsky’s sophisticated virtuosity anticipates many aspects of 20th-century style. These remarkable works represent a time of profound change in Russian culture that is still being discovered and assessed today.

Past praise for previously released volumes included in this set:

Mosolov: Complete Works for Solo Piano / Andryushchenko

These are outstanding performances of works that deserve to be heard. The sonatas, in particular, are impressive and, though Scriabin’s spirit runs through much of these compositions they are fine works in their own right.

-- The Classical Reviewer

Louriè: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 1 / Koukl

Arthur Lourie turns out to be a pretty darn good composer—too good to have been left in the attic trunk all these years. The Five Fragile Preludes, Op. 1, have a natural flow to them, and an inevitability that is both rhythmically and harmonically arresting in an impressionism somewhat redolent of Debussy mixed with early Scriabin. While exceedingly brief, they are lovely, perfect jewels. All of this is well described in Anthony Short’s notes, a recording of demonstration quality, and a pianist totally in tune with the music.

-- American Record Guide

Medtner: Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2 / Stewart

Paul Stewart’s love and admiration for Medtner’s music come through strongly in these performances, which require a great range of treatment from the gentlest of touches, sometimes merely brushing the keys, whilst at others displaying a towering emotional intensity. His ability to bring out the poetry in Medtner is impressive and the recording is crisp, which combination makes for a hugely satisfying experience.

-- MusicWeb International

Roslavets: Complete Piano Works / Andryushchenko

For those listeners yet to encounter this fascinating figure, please fear not—Roslavets’ work is appealing on a number of levels and you will find much to enjoy on this terrific pair of discs.

-- MusicWeb International

Louriè: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 2 / Koukl

I am glad to have had the opportunity to hear so much of Lourié’s music which is so interesting and so tuneful and so varied it seems he was a chameleon in more than just his assumed persona but in his music as well and it’s all the better for it; variety is the spice of music as well as of life itself. Giorgio Koukl is nothing if not a consistently impressive advocate of whichever composer’s music he takes it upon himself to focus on and I thoroughly recommend this disc to all lovers of solo piano music.

-- MusicWeb International

Stanchinsky: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 1 / Solovieva

The short-lived Alexey Stanchinsky (1888-1914) has shown up on my Want Lists before, but despite devoted advocacy by a few pianists, his Scriabin-inspired music hasn’t caught on. It’s not clear why: His works are wildly inventive in their treatment of rhythm, harmony, and counterpoint—and while he died before he got to solidify his style, the dizzying sense of adventure in even his earliest works is palpable. May this new release by Olga Solovieva (the first volume of a complete cycle) be the one that turns the tide.

-- Fanfare

In 1970 Kurt Masur took over the direction of one of the best orchestras in Germany and the world: the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. One year later, in 1971, these recordings of the 12 Youth Symphonies by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy were made. They are testimony to the emergence of a fruitful artistic relationship between Kapellmeister and musicians that was to last 26 years. Bold artistic spirit meets musical excellence here, leading to a high level of listener enjoyment. Kurt Masur's masterful interpretation provides a revealing insight into the imagination of a talented young composer. These recordings now shine in new splendor through a loving analog remaster.

“What is really interesting about Geoffrey’s music is that it looks orthodox on the page initially, but is in fact extremely thought-provoking. He has a unique way of combining the familiar with the unfamiliar: Geoffrey’s music is always extremely well crafted and looks deceptively simple on the page, but as soon as you begin to play any phrase from his works you discover that he is always subtly reinventing the wheel! There is subtle originality, extraordinary variety and colourful fascination in his prolific output for the instrument. The recordings...will unquestionably amount to a significant contribution to the development of the 20th/21st century piano sonata.” (Murray McLachlan)

Murray McLachlan’s discography now includes over forty commercial recordings, including the complete sonatas of Beethoven, Myaskovsky and Prokofiev, the six concertos of Alexander Tcherepnin, the 24 Preludes and Fugues of Rodion Shchedrin, Ronald Stevenson’s ‘Passacaglia on DSCH’ the major works of Kabalevsky, Khatchaturian and the complete solo piano music of Erik Chisholm.

Women composers had great difficulty in making their voices heard and gaining recognition during their lifetimes. Even today, they are all too rarely heard in the concert hall or the opera house. That situation obviously cries out for a change in attitude, but then come the questions: all right, let’s programme women composers, but which ones, and which of their works? In this eight-CD set featuring several hundred performers, the Palazzetto Bru Zane offers its initial answer as far as nineteenth-century France is concerned. The selections range over chamber music, orchestral works, piano pieces and songs. They highlight twenty-one female creators, from already identified personalities like Hélène de Montgeroult, Louise Farrenc, Pauline Viardot, Marie Jaëll and Mel Bonis to such completely unknown figures as Charlotte Sohy, Madeleine Jaeger, Marthe Grumbach, Jeanne Danglas, Hedwige Chrétien and Madeleine Lemariey. From now on, there will be no excuse for ignoring Romantic women composers.

Newly signed on with naïve, the Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son immerses herself in the limitless whimsical imagination of Mozart’s sonatas, and with this complete collection takes us on a voyage in a land of contrasts. Yeol Eum Son has always been drawn to Mozart’s style, in her heart and in her fingers, and maintains a special relationship with his music. She likes to translate from this language, which she considers her mother tongue, the incredible ability to express different worlds, atmospheres and feeling. “His music,” she says, “speaks of both sunshine and eternal night, extremes of heat and cold, elegance and farce, Lolita and Madonna.”

Definitive recordings by the leading Frescobaldi performer of our time, now more conveniently packaged than ever.

In 2007, Roberto Loreggian embarked on a project that would see him record every published work by Girolamo Frescobaldi. Issued as a box in 2011, the Frescobaldi Edition was widely recognised as establishing a new standard of textual authority and interpretative understanding for a composer whose own works have never been as appreciated as much as their influence on his successors. Then, in 2022, came a new set which committed to disc for the first time all the surviving unpublished music composed by Frescobaldi and recovered from obscure sources by Etienne Darbellay and Costanze Frey. All these recordings are now coupled with the keyboard collections from the earlier set, to present the most complete collection ever issued of Frescobaldi’s works for harpsichord and organ, both sacred and secular.

This CD set presents the complete organ works and complete harpsichord works by Frescobaldi, an immense collection of Ricercars, Toccatas, Canzoni, Fantasias and Capriccios, played on historic instruments or copies of these.

Played by the eminent Italian Roberto Loreggian, an Early Music specialist with an impressive discography to his name. The recordings in this set were previously issued separately.

The lasting fame of conductor Karl Böhm is based on qualities that were praised by listeners, musicians and critics throughout his long career: his discipline and meticulousness when rehearsing compositions as well as his modesty, his willingness to take second place to work and composer. After many years serving as principal conductor in several opera houses he left his administrative duties behind and embarked on an international career as an acclaimed guest, concert and opera conductor. He was regularly invited by the New York Met and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, to the festivals in Salzburg (as of 1938) and Bayreuth (as of 1962), he gave guest performances from Tokyo to Moscow, from Milan to Buenos Aires, and at the broadcasting corporations in Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt and Stuttgart where he was invited whenever there was something important to celebrate.

The Radio Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart (formerly known under a few different names and since 2016 merged with its sister from Baden-Baden and Freiburg to form the SWR Symphonieorchester) not only played in its home region, the Southwest of Germany, but toured extensively all over Europe. It has a catalogue of several hundreds of recordings and accompanied during its history many famous soloists. Branka Musulin was an extraordinary pianist who worked with some of the most important conductors of her time, among them Willem Mengelberg, Hermann Abendroth, Franz Konwitschny, Georg Solti and Sergiu Celibidache.

A re-release of his critically accalaimed recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach´s Secular Cantatas. Recordings from 1994 - 2000, part of the project The Complete Bach on 172 CDs. hänssler CLASSIC is proud to present Helmuth Rilling's landmark recording of the Secular Cantatas in a new collector's edition. Rilling was the first conductor to ever record the complete Bach cantatas and still, 25 years after they were first released in celebration of the Bach tercentennial in 1985, they remain the standard by which all other interpretations are judged. This box set includes timeless performances featuring many of Europe's finest singers at the height of their careers.

Wieland Wagner's production of Parsifal was performed at the Bayreuth Festival every year from 1951 to 1973. This makes it the longest-running production of Parsifal on the Bayreuth programme following the world premiere of 1882, which ran until 1933. Wagner’s opera opened the first post-war festival on the 30th of July, 1951, the day after the former Bayreuthian Wilhelm Furtwängler had performed Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

REVIEWS:

Hans Knappertsbusch led Wagner’s Parisfal at the Bayreuth Festival in 1951 and 1952, and then annually from 1954 through 1964. For some reason his August 16, 1955 performance has never surfaced on CD until now, and it’s one of Kna’s stronger Parsifals.

Tempos are generally faster and more fluid than in the commercial 1951 recording. Compare the Act 1 Prelude’s Grail theme and the Transformation music, the Act 2 Flowermaiden’s scene, and the Act 3 Good Friday Spell in both recordings, and you’ll hear what I mean. Furthermore, Act 1’s recalcitrant bells had been replaced by 1955 with an electronic version that was reliable in intonation yet made less sonorous and majestic an impact.

One can argue that 1955’s cast is the most consistently satisfying out of all the Kna Bayreuth Parsifals, with no weak links. Ludwig Weber reprises his distinctive and lieder-like Gurnemanz from 1951. Hermann Uhde’s heavy voice is better suited to Titurel’s gravitas here than Klingsor’s malevolence in 1951. 1955 features Gustav Neidlinger’s Klingsor, which is as riveting a piece of vocal acting as his legendary Alberich in Das Rheingold.

Ramón Vinay sings rather than barks the title role, and the unforced lyricism of his top notes seems to spur on Martha Mödl to deliver her best all-around Act 2 Kundry. True, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s Amfortas abounds with sibilantly snarling consonants, but he’s in fresher, more agile voice than in his 1972 studio Amfortas under Georg Solti.

-- ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)

Sir Mark Elder has long been hailed for his interpretation of the works of Sir Edward Elgar. This special release box set celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the Hallé label and marks Hallé’s Elgar oratorios festival at the Bridgewater Hall in June 2023. Elgar’s three major oratorios are brought together in this special release box set. The multiple award-winning recordings feature the highly acclaimed Hallé Chorus and Youth Choir and a stellar line-up of major international vocal soloists.

Zhu Xiao-Mei has taken an important place in the classical music world, not least in view of her valuable interpretations of Bach's music. This CD box set combines other key works by the pianist from Scarlatti, Haydn and Mozart to Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann, testifying to her ability to express a wide range of styles and epochs through her unique artistic vision and tonal sensitivity. These recordings, recorded between 1995 and 2011, are the result of an intense exploration of the different characters of the six composers and are indicative of their interpreter's Œuvre.

Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent have made a lasting impression on the Bach discography with their many recordings devoted to the Kantor. They have also explored other sacred repertoires by Beethoven, Haydn, Dvorák and Bruckner, to which they have brought all their excellence and sensitivity. Here they are together for the first time in a boxed set of 11 CDs.

Sony Classical releases the full cycle of Bruckner’s symphonies recorded by the Vienna Philharmonic under Christian Thielemann on 11 CDs. The box set, featuring the composer’s nine numbered symphonies, his ‘Study Symphony’, his ‘Nullified’ symphony, and a 172-page booklet. This release constitutes the first complete recording of the Austrian composer’s symphonies from the orchestra under a single conductor. Christian Thielemann enjoys a strong rapport with the Vienna Philharmonic and has established himself as one of his generation’s most esteemed interpreters of the Romantic Austro-German repertoire.

Past praise for previously released CDs included in this set:

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 / Thielemann, Vienna Philharmonic

This new Bruckner Fourth deserves a strong recommendation. It is a reading of undeniable power and presence.

-- Fanfare

Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 / Thielemann, Vienna Ohilharmonic

Overall, there’s an aliveness to the music, inspired by the concert setting, which adds another reason this Bruckner Eighth is so satisfying. If you want to hear Thielemann at his best, conducting a stupendous orchestra, that’s precisely what we have here.

-- Fanfare

Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 . Thielemann, Vienna Philharmonic

Thielemann's interpretation has intimacies hard to find in other versions, and a vulnerability movingly communicated in the Vienna Philharmonic’s super-empathetic playing.

-- BBC Magazine

Anton Bruckner and Sankt Florian, an incomparable and authentic relationship: In the monastery of Sankt Florian, Bruckner’s home and resting place, not a single stone has changed since Bruckner’s time. Conductor in Residence Rémy Ballot and the Altomonte Orchestra of St. Florian have been using the annual gathering at the St. Florian Brucknertage festival for more than ten years now to devote themselves intensively to a selected Bruckner symphony and to present it to the audience in one or two celebrated concerts. From the live recordings this 10-part cycle was created and in 2023 completed with the recording of the “Nullified Symphony WAB 100” and is now being released as an exclusive complete edition. In the entire history of Bruckner’s reception, this is the only cycle to have been performed live in its entirety by a single conductor – Rémy Ballot – exclusively in Sankt Florian. The acoustics of the St. Florian Abbey Basilica are problematic due to their reverberation time of up to ten seconds, and are only suitable for a few works, as there is a danger of “harmonic mush” if the tempo is too fast and the harmonic changes too rapid as a result. Far from this trap, on the contrary, music is made in alliance with the acoustics in the present recordings. The architectural and acoustic conditions of the basilica require a consciously specific articulation and dynamic shaping. The Altomonte Orchestra, made up of local musicians reinforced by members of the most important Austrian orchestras, is traditionally deeply familiar with these, as well as is the Upper Austrian Youth Symphony Orchestra, which has been performing Symphonies VI and VIII for this edition.

Franz Schmidt 150 (1874-1939)

“In conversations about Franz Schmidt the recurring theme emerging for many is that listening to a performance of his music at a young age became the turning point in their lives the realization of how powerful music can be,” says Jonathan Berman, whose longtime love of Franz Schmidt’s work has its origins in a performance preparation for his Fourth Symphony.

Berman’s passion for Schmidt’s work and the composer’s upcoming 150th birthday in 2024 were key reasons for the conductor to approach the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to record all four symphonies together – a major project that also marks Jonathan Berman’s CD debut.

The recordings were realized between 2020 and 2022 at BBC Hoddinott Hall, the home of the BBC NOW in Cardiff. In November 2023, Accentus Music releases all four symphonies in a high-quality box set that will also be made available across all digital platforms. BBC Music Magazine wrote about the digital pre-release of the first symphony in March 2021: “Jonathan Berman and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales deliver a terrific performance which provides a fine alternative to the excellent version from Paavo Järvi. […] What really makes this new recording so enticing is the sheer energy and enthusiasm with which conductor and orchestra communicate the vigour and optimism of the opening movement.”

Produced in association with BBC Radio 3 and BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

REVIEW:

Following their highly acclaimed streamed recording of his First Symphony, Jonathan Berman and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales have now completed their Franz Schmidt symphony cycle. Packaged together in this sumptuously designed and luxuriantly recorded set, the performances of all four symphonies, released in celebration of the 150th anniversary of his birth, pay worthy tribute to an undeniably major late-Romantic Austrian composer who, despite the passage of time, continues to divide opinion.

With almost evangelical zeal, Berman staunchly defends Schmidt from his detractors by providing some insightful personal observations in the booklet notes and by investing sufficient energy and dedication in his interpretations to allow the music to speak directly and fervently to the listener.

Violinist Movses Pogossian continues his admirable advocacy for the work of Armenian composers with this extensive 4 disc collection of new works, a follow up to his Modulation Necklace release in 2020 (FCR244). Divided into four volumes that focus on instrumental chamber music, art song, and solo piano music, Serenade with a Dandelion is an invaluable resource to explore 20th and 21st century Armenian repertoire, performed with the utmost sensitivity and commitment by Pogossian and his colleagues.