The Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks has already performed Beethoven symphony cycles on several occasions. Mariss Jansons has now extended the cycle concept in two respects: with works specially commissioned from contemporary composers, who have contributed their own musical reflections on Beethoven symphonies, and by presenting these outstanding concert events on the record market as a series of live recordings. Following the excellent response from critics and audiences for the award-winning Complete Edition (BR-KLASSIK, 900119), BR-KLASSIK now also presents Beethoven's symphonies on individual CDs. In addition to the live recording of the "Pastorale" by Ludwig van Beethoven from Munich's Herkulessaal in 2012, the production includes a contribution from the Georgian composer Giya Kancheli (born 1935), whose work "Dixi" ("I have spoken") for choir and orchestra is oriented towards Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and was first performed in 2009.

Drawn from the worldwide catalog holdings of Sony Classical, which includes both the Columbia/CBS and RCA Victor label imprints, the SONY Classical Originals, SONY Classical Masters Singles and Box Sets, and SONY Opera House series offer an extensive selection of highly desirable and collectible EU (Germany) pressed import editions, smartly-designed and graphically-pleasing, featuring the most sought-after recordings by the world’s preeminent, legendary artists both past and present, with many titles newly re-mastered in 24bit High Resolution Audio.

As well as for EMI and DG, the two labels harboring the lion’s share of his discography, Herbert von Karajan also worked and recorded for Decca for a time in the 1950s and 1960s, exclusively with the Vienna Philharmonic, bringing the orchestra to a peak in performance following the inflicted personnel ravages that dimmed its luster. The unforgettable Brahms First Symphony was recorded in 1960, the Tragic Overture in 1964. The very sensitive and gentle performance of the Haydn Variations was realized in 1955 with the Philharmonia Orchestra. All recordings were newly re-mastered in 2015.

This Chandos re-issue of Max Bruch’s Violin Concertos Nos. 2 and 3, recorded in 1998 by Lydia Mordkovitch (1944-2014) with Richard Hickox and the LSO is released in tribute to the late Russian-British violinist. • In the Violin Concerto No. 2, “Hickox draws radiant sounds from the LSO, and Ms. Mordkovitch ... plays with rapt dedication [and] breathtaking beauty…” (Guardian) • The third Violin Concerto’s robust, heroic opening concertante movement precedes a slow movement reminiscent of the same in the famous First Concerto and a rondo Finale dominated by a strongly rhythmic perpetuum mobile.

Also available on Blu-ray

Fierrabras of 1823 is the last of Franz Schubert's stage works. Rarely performed to this day, this heroic-romantic opera has now been staged for the first time ever at the Salzburg Festival by famous director Peter Stein. The strong cast includes the "marvellously expressive miracle Dorothea Röschmann" (Die Zeit) and "Michael Schade, who exudes his exceptional tenor in Fierrabras's heroic arias" (Der neue Merker). Under the energetic baton of lngo Metzmacher, the Vienna Philharmonic unfold "the melos, the poetry, the sweetness and the dramatic force of Schubert's highly refined and atmospheric sound worlds" (Kleine Zeitung) in highly romantic fashion. Bonus: The Making of Fierrabras.

Franz Schubert
FIERRABRAS

König Karl - Georg Zeppenfeld
Emma - Julia Kleiter
Roland - Markus Werba
Eginhard - Benjamin Bernheim
Boland - Peter Kálmán
Fierrabras - Michael Schade
Florinda - Dorothea Röschmann
Maragond - Marie-Claude Chappuis

Vienna State Opera Chorus
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Ingo Metzmacher, conductor

Peter Stein, stage director
Ferdinand Wögerbauer, stage designer
Annamaria Heinreich, costume designer
Joachim Barth, lighting designer

Recorded live during the Salzburg Festival, 2014

Bonus:
- The Making of Fierrabras

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format:PCM Stereo / DTS 5.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 164 mins (opera) + 10 mins (bonus)
No. of DVDs: 2 (DVD 9)

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REVIEW:

Peter Stein's Salzburg Festival production sets Fierrabras more or less in its historical period. All four main roles are convincingly taken, with the palm going to Julia Kleiter's Emma, alluringly voiced and phrased, and soaring without shrillness into the stratosphere.

– Gramophone

This release is a delicious offering of Villa-Lobos' clear and expressive works, unique pieces reflecting the transitional period between the classic and the romantic of Giuliani, bound together with the melodious and lush works of Castelnuovo-Tedesco. How mind-blowing it is to be able to enjoy the compositions of one of the most underrated guitar maestros of all time next to the creations of one of the leading guitar virtuosi of the early 19th C., tied up together with the works of one of the most fascinating modern composers - all in one recording. Now on SACD, you get to indulge in the Mauro Giuliani, Maria Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Heitor Villa-Lobos guitar concertos in the intended sound quality as when they were recorded.

Flight is a new album of works from British composer Oliver Davis (b.1972), composed for and in collaboration with violinist Kerenza Peacock. Flight captures the spirit of movement and energy present in many of Davis’s compositions. On disc, Kerenza performs alongside the London Symphony under conductor Paul Bateman. Since graduating Royal Academy of Music, London in 1994, Mr. Davis has composed and produced numerous albums, soundtracks, concertos and television scores while working with all the major London orchestras and the Royal Ballet, among other arts groups and organizations.

Jack Gallagher continues his association with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by JoAnn Falletta with Symphony No. 2 ‘Ascendant,’ a robust, colorful work of dramatic contrasts and expansive architecture that seeks to express the aspirations and strivings of the human spirit. Quiet Reflections is a calm, serenely lyrical meditation which evokes a sense of longing for past tranquility. Gallagher’s previous Naxos release Orchestral Music (8.559652) with the LSO conducted by JoAnn Falletta was awarded five stars by BBC Music Magazine and hailed as “fresh and exuberant” and for “its explosions of sound and colour” by Gramophone.

Richard Strauss’ Metamorphoses for 23 solo strings, his last great orchestral work, was given its premiere on 25 January 1946 in Zürich, Switzerland under the direction of the work’s dedicatee, the eminent Swiss musician Paul Sacher (1906-99). + Here, the conductor Eugen Jochum (1902-87) conducts the dynamic Bavarian Radio Symphony, the orchestra he helped found. + The Concerto for Oboe in D, also one of the composer‘s late works, received its premiere a mere one month after Metamorphoses, also in Zürich. + The performers here are once again the BRSO and their solo oboist Stefan Schilli.

Composer and pianist Jeffrey Jacob depicts the experiences of struggle and pain, and of triumph and joy on his debut Navona Records release Darkness To light. Death and Transfiguration (Sym. No. 3), a contemporary version of Richard Strauss’s tone poem, expresses the emotions of a dying man, who, fearing death, later finds in it exaltation. String Qrt No. 2 and Elegy portray turmoil and conflict, and their overcoming. Sym. No. 1 presents ideas about timelessness, taken from T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. Mr. Jacob is currently Artist-in-Residence at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, IN.

Following Mahler's Ninth and Bruckner's Fifth, this live recording of Joseph Haydn's "The Creation" is already the third CD recording to feature master conductor Bernard Haitink at the helm of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, an orchestra he’s been guest conducting for over 50 years. The BRSO and its Choir joined forces for this recording, together with a team of renowned soloists - soprano Camilla Tilling, tenor Mark Padmore and bass-baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann. This is the first and only currently available recording of "The Creation" featuring Bernard Haitink.

This set contains 2 DVDs, 1 Blu-ray Video Disc, and a 7-day Digital Concert Hall pass.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle was one of the outstanding events of the past season.

As before with the St. Matthew Passion, star director Peter Sellars succeeded in creating a staging which made the spiritual and dramatic content of the Passion story even more intensive. The New York Times also praised the “brilliant and energetic” playing of the orchestra, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung the “haunting, almost unsurpassable singing of all those involved.”

The top-class ensemble of singers was led by Mark Padmore, one of the leading Evangelist interpreters of our day.

The edition features both a DVD and a Blu-ray version, making it playable on all popular video players. Added to this, it is exclusively presented with a linen hardcover, a comprehensive booklet and numerous photos. The extensive bonus material includes an interview with Simon Rattle and Peter Sellars, an introduction to the work by chorus master Simon Halsey, and a voucher for the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Digital Concert Hall.

"The follow-up [to the St. Matthew Passion], Mr. Sellars’s “St. John Passion,” has been eagerly anticipated. Granted a luxurious amount of rehearsal and a nearly intact cast from the “Matthew” performances … the simmering performance lives up to the high expectations. ... The Philharmonic was lucky to have once more the tenor Mark Padmore, one of the great Evangelists of our time, and superb here." – The New York Times

2 DVDs [NTSC 16:9 / PCM Stereo • DTS 5.1]

Blu-ray Disc in high definition video [1080i Full HD 16:9 / 2.0 PCM Stereo • DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1]

Playing time - Concert: 135 mins • Bonus: 52 mins

Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean

Region: 0 (All region)

7- day pass to the BPO's Digital Concert Hall video streaming service

Composer Kenneth Fuchs and conductor JoAnn Falletta completed their fourth recording with the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios, August 30–September 1, 2013. The recording features baritone and Naxos artist Roderick Williams and is produced by Grammy Award-winner Tim Handley. The repertoire includes Falling Man (for baritone voice and orchestra); Movie House (seven poems by John Updike for baritone voice and chamber ensemble); and Songs of Innocence and of Experience (four poems by William Blake for baritone voice and chamber ensemble). Fuchs’ music continues to find its visual counterpart in the work of Abstract Expressionist artist Helen Frankenthaler, whose art adorns the cover of this disc.

Appearing here in her début solo album, Italian lyric soprano Maria Luigia Borsi has been acclaimed for her ‘grace, beauty, animation and variety’ (The Sunday Times). Her Willow Song from Verdi’s Otello has been described as ‘gorgeously sung’ (Opera News) and her rôle in Puccini’s Turandot as demonstrating ‘extraordinary communicative skills’ (Opera Magazine). This program includes some of the most moving and dramatic arias from Italian opera, including the tragic heartbreak of Madama Butterfly and the shimmering beauty of Catalani’s Ebben? Ne andrò lontana from La Wally.

Pilar Lorengar, the Spanish singer whose adopted home city was Berlin, especially owed her worldwide but unobtrusive fame to the operatic stage. She was famous for a repertoire ranging from the youthful heroines of Mozart, the youthful dramatic heroines of Verdi and Puccini to tragic girlish figures such as Tchaikovsky's Tatiana and Janá?ek's Jen?fa. The three CDs of the present compilation with arias and Lieder contain sound documents from the singer's first Berlin years, studio and live recordings made between 1959 and 1962.

Lorengar shows herself from a rather unusual side in them, both in the field of opera and in the Lieder: she is not heard here in her established Mozart role of Donna Elvira, but as Donna Anna; in addition, she can be heard singing repertoire that was unusual for her, e.g. the prayer „Casta Diva" from Bellini's Norma, „Piangerò la sorte mia" from Handel's Cleopatra and a Handel cantata, an aria from a Scarlatti opera, the „Ernani, involiami" of Elvira from Verdi's early opera „Ernani" and the role of Rosario from the opera „Goyescas" by Granados.

The Mozart singer also reveals herself here to be an agreeable Lied singer; where she already brings her sensitivity for this genre into play with Mozart, she then enriches her programme with the inclusion of a love lament by Bellini and Lied-like aria sketches - four canzonette by the young Verdi.

With two thirds of this anthology, Pilar Lorengar then covers an area that pays homage to the musical traditions of her homeland. As a young schoolgirl in Madrid, she acquired extensive theatrical practice and presence in the music cafes and the zarzuela theatre. In her contributions to the present release, she unfolds a panorama of Spanish music history extending over five centuries, ranging from the vocal art of the 16th-century vihuelistas to the folklore collections and adaptations of Federico García Lorca. The modern guitar is the legitimate successor to the time-honoured vihuela, and Siegfried Behrend is Pilar Lorengar's congenial partner in theseart songs.

This release is furnished with a "producer's comment" by producer Ludger Böckenhoff.