• Historic concert recordings of the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra from 1959 and 1961, led by its first and chief conductor for 24 years, Carl A. Bünte.
• Carl A. Bünte was a pupil of the mercurial Sergiu Celibidache and has led a distinguished international career.
• These two symphonies, both their composer's second, are considerably less volatile, but no less rousing fare, than there more famous later symphonies.
Complete on CD for the first time, the Deutsche Grammophon legacy of cult violinist Johanna Martzy, and of violist Michael Mann. Five original DG albums complete on two CDs. The brilliant tone and discriminating taste of the recordings made by Johanna Martzy (1924-79) mark her out among the finest violinists of her generation. Her EMI albums, supervised by Walter Legge, were once highly prized rarities. However, her recording career began with DG, who partnered her with two of their star conductors, Ferenc Fricsay and Eugen Jochum, in concertos by Dvorak (1953) and Mozart (No 4, from 1955). She had performed the Dvorak with Fricsay in concert, and their recording preserves a harmonious meeting of two fierily temperamental artists, widely rated among the best of the non-Czech recordings of the work. Plans for Martzy to record Tchaikovsky's concerto were abandoned when Legge poached her for HMV/EMI but subsequently lost interest. We are left with a small, precious legacy which opened in 1951, in the dying days of 78rpm recording, with her most constant recital partner, Jean Antonietti, at the piano. Encore pieces by Ravel, Milhaud, Falla and Szymanowski capture her Hungarian fire but do not represent her inclination away from virtuoso repertoire and towards the great sonatas and concertos. Mozart's F major Sonata followed, and then Beethoven's Op. 30 No. 3 as a coupling for the Mozart. When Martzy's encore pieces were reissued on LP, they were coupled in original fashion with two modern viola sonatas played by Michael Mann (1919-76), son of the novelist Thomas Mann. Mann's DG recordings were completed a few months later in May 1952 with the Quatre visages of Milhaud, issued on a seven-inch 45rpm disc; with this release they reach CD for the first time. In his time Mann was recognised as a fine musician in his own right and not merely his father's son. He played in the San Francisco Symphony before teaching German literature at the University of California, Berkeley. Tully Potter provides the fascinating background note.
This new recording brings together violinist Gil Shaham, conductor Eric Jacobsen, and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra in a program exploring the violin concerto as a vehicle for cultural memory and continuity. The album pairs Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 80, and Antonin Dvorak's Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53, with the world-premiere recording of "F. Harper," from The Famous People by Curtis Stewart. Coleridge-Taylor's concerto reveals a Romantic voice shaped by lyricism and rhythmic vitality, while Dvorak's work reflects folk influence and communal musical expression. Stewart's F. Harper responds through a contemporary lens, engaging questions of naming, lineage, and identity. Inspired by the layered meanings of "Slavonic," the work draws parallels between European histories of enslavement and the ways Black Americans continue to shape pride and cultural legacy today. Together, these works connect past and present through sound.
Anton Rubinstein’s Symphony No. 4 in D Minor, Op. 95, emerged in 1874 – ending a dry spell of roughly 20 years since his previous efforts in the genre. It came at a time when the future of the purely instrumental symphony was in doubt, reflecting the notion of Wagner and his disciples that Beethoven had exhausted the possibilities of symphonic development – and that the day of “synthetic” art (the “Gesamtkunstwerk”), with its blend of symphonic, vocal and theatrical elements, had arrived. Rubinstein did not agree, and composed his fourth symphony in an apparent effort to prove that Beethoven’s methods were still valid. This marks Delos’ second re-release of Russian Disk’s acclaimed series of Rubinstein’s orchestral music, as performed with authentic idiomatic flair by Igor Golovchin and his Russian State Symphony Orchestra.
The penultimate release in Angela Hewitt's cycle of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas features the Piano Sonata in F minor Op.2 No.1. The listener's understanding is again enhanced by Angela's illuminating booklet notes, in which she sets out her approach to performing these most canonic of works in the entire piano literature.
Rachmaninov, considered by academics to be a late romantic, often draws on Baroque models: an eclecticism of languages. He experiences music as a memory of affection, and in few places, as here, his insatiable Faustian aspiration to 'stop the moment' reaches a similar intensity. Op. 19 breathes a sense of a return to life and the otherworldly cello calls shatter according to a principle of hallucinatory suspension which is already the Rachmaninov of the Symphonic Dances op. 45. Piano Sonata No. 2 in E-flat minor, Op. 36 had a complex gestation, culminating in a 1931 revision in which the Maestro reduced a certain 'pleasant storytelling' in the style of Liszt, moving closer to the neoclassical matrix, but 'Russian-style', of his later works. As an ideal encore, the programme also features the Danse orientale Op. 2, No. 2, the adolescent Sergei's homage to that narrative of exotic landscapes, musical scales infused with chromatic enchantments.
The album features two string quartets which thematically deal with the subject of death. Schubert's 'Death and the Maiden, No. 14 in D Minor', a key piece in chamber music repertoire, dates from 1824. Mendelssohn's 'String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80' was composed in 1847. He composed the piece as an homage to his beloved sister Fanny who had died on 17 May 1847 and it bore the title 'Requiem for Fanny'. Vision String Quartet have won awards in numerous competitions, have studied with members of the Artemis Quartet and the Alban Berg Quartet. They are known for their excellent interpretations and for their innovative concert formats, working with choreographers, light designers, etc.
The monumental 'Archduke' Trio Op.97 represents Beethoven at the peak of his creativity in the genre. Sketches for all four movements of this 'symphony scored for a trio' are included in a sketchbook of 1810 containing also drafts for the Egmont music and the String Quartet in F minor Op.95. The manuscript score was written out between 3 and 26 March 1811. Three years elapsed before the work's public premiere, by Beethoven, Schuppanzigh and Linke, on 11 April 1814 as part of a charity concert in the hall of the 'Hotel zum Römischen Kaiser' in Vienna. This concert sounded the death knell of Beethoven's public career as a pianist, owing to his profound deafness. The work's critical reception was understandably mixed, but the celebrated pianist Ignaz Moscheles. Praised it's originality while expressing reservations about the 'clarity and precision' of Beethoven's pianism. Significantly, a repeat performance of the work a few weeks later was Beethoven's final public appearance as a pianist. Inspired by the sinfonie concertante for two or more soloists and orchestra, Beethoven transports the piano trio into an orchestral context with his Triple Concerto in C major Op.56. His choice of this particular solo combination was unprecedented in the literature and, in his words, 'really something new'. The piece is performed with panache on this release by the Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch.
THE ORIGINAL SOURCE is a new series of celebrated albums reissued on vinyl. The renowned Berlin-based Emil Berliner Studios are remastering 4-track recordings from the 1970s, using their own cutting-edge and 100% pure analogue techniques (AAA) to create versions of the highest possible audio quality. More clarity, more details and a better frequency response, the highest possible audiophile quality which gives listeners the chance to enjoy this repertoire like never before. LP pressed on 180g virgin vinyl at Optimal Media.
Beck' symphonies have long been regarded as among the most striking works of their kind from the mid-18th century. Remarkable for their dramatic flair, rich harmonic language and fluid, inventive part writing, Beck' Op. 3 Symphonies display a rare le.
After a period-instrument reading of the Symphony No.1 that received unanimous acclaim from the critics, Francois-Xavier Roth and Les Siecles return to Mahler. Joined by the luminous voice of Sabine Devieilhe for the famous finale, they offer us their vision of the Fourth Symphony, which in it's own way marks the composer's transition to modernity, and reveal unsuspected colors and instrumental balances. We still have much to learn about the polyphonic transparency possible within Mahler's big orchestra.
Ernst von Gemmingen: Violin Concertos 3 & 4; Francois-Joseph Gossec: Symphony Op. 6,2
CPO
CD
$18.99Jan 08, 2016
At long last CPO is now releasing Ernst von Gemmingen’s Violin Concertos Nos. 3 and 4 as world-premiere recordings, again interpreted by one of the most versatile musicians of our times: Kolja Lessing, who both as a violinist and a pianist has lent strong impulses to music culture with his interpretive and musicological insights. CPO also has him to thank for the exemplary interpretation recorded here. In his booklet text he himself writes: "We as yet know only a little or almost nothing about the human being and artist Ernst von Gemmingen, whose extant music library, however, offers eloquent testimony to his select taste. An autodidact and a visionary, borne by a wealth of violinistic invention almost boundless for his times with respect to double-stop and bel-canto playing, no less in view of sophisticated figurations up to the highest registers, in his four broadly dimensioned violin concertos he created what practically amount to theatrical scenarios. The Violin Concertos Nos. 3 and 4 recorded here for the first time reveal these scenic qualities, paired with violinistic character and expressive eloquence surging far head into early romanticism – in even greater measure than in his first two concertos." A symphony by François-Joseph Gossec, Gemmingen’s contemporary and the principal composer of the French Revolution, complements the two concertos.
Gerhard: Symphony No 4, Violin Concerto / Neaman, Davis
Lyrita
CD
$20.99Jan 01, 2008
Music of dissonant discontinuity and conflagration.
In this disc Lyrita steps about as far away as you can go from their accustomed heartland. This is music of dissonant discontinuity and conflagration – especially in the symphony. Its upheavals and eruptions are expressed in pointillistic silvery fragments and vertiginous stop-starts and mood-swings.sample We are immersed in this pool of imaginative effects immediately in Gerhard's Fourth - and final completed - Symphony. It stutters, creeps, excoriates and bawls. Previously recorded by Naive and by Chandos this its world premiere recording. In that sense it is an awesomely honest document recorded in the last year of Gerhard's life. In addition however it shouts the ultima thule of 1970s exclusivity and ivory towers.
The Violin Concerto is written in more beguilingly compromising tones. Here there is a connection with melody and an evident allegiance for the long melodic line even if it does have an astringent after-taste. Yfrah Neaman with his unmistakable silver thread of tone is as dedicated and fluent an interpreter as his BBC colleagues. In the finale Gerhard gives us a buzz-saw pell-mell climactic display - not above borrowing from Sarasate in mood rather than detail. Overall the concerto can be loosely and rather unsophisticatedly bracketed with the two Rawsthorne concertos, the Frankel and the Fricker; the latter reissued this month on Lyrita. The silence at the end of the concerto demands a burly if misty-eyed cheer from even the most impassive of listeners.
The BBCSO and its then conductor Colin Davis put this music through the hoops. Did anyone at the time think that these works would be recorded more than once. In the studio they must have thought they were recording these works for all time. The results certainly suggest that.
The completely satisfying notes are by MusicWeb writer Paul Conway one of the rising and risen authorities on twentieth century British music. Paul’s article on the Gerhard symphonies is well worth your attention … and mine. However don’t miss Guy Rickard’s article while you are here.
Abel: Symphonies, Opp. 1 & 4 / Willens, Kolner Akademie
CPO
CD
$36.99Mar 23, 2018
The two great musical dynasties of central Germany, the Bachs and the Abels, were closely entwined. Carl Friedrich Abel, the greatest of his clan, was a pupil of Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig and the friend and business partner of Bach’s youngest son, Johann Christian in London. Abel’s output of symphonies comprises over forty works, most of which were published in sets of six, the standard number for publications of sonatas, chamber works and concertos in the eighteenth century. A concert in his time would have a range of compositions by several composers and it is more likely that only one symphony would be played in a single evening. The present day listener should not feel guilty for indulging in these fine works one by one or out of sequence. They are rich and delicate, and should be savored individually. Die Kolner Akademie is a unique ensemble based in Cologne which performs music of the seventeenth through the twenty-first centuries on period instruments with world renowned guest soloists.They have receieved the highest acclaim for their outstanding performances at major festivals all over the world, many of which were broadcast live and filmed for television.
The Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä first came to my attention with the superb series of Kalevi Aho recordings he made for BIS. I came to his Lahti Sibelius a little later and, more recently, I heard his Minnesota remake of the Second and Fifth symphonies. At the time of writing the Minnesota Orchestral Association’s lock-out – which began in October 2012 – has resulted in the cancellation of all concerts and recordings until at least the end of April 2013. That’s very bad news for Vänskä, the orchestra’s music director since 2002, and for BIS; the latter are also affected by the turmoil at the Malaysian Philharmonic, with whom they’ve already made a brace of fine recordings.
Given that Vänskä’s Lahti Sibelius set was so well received one might wonder why BIS deemed it necessary to embark on a second one. For the most part concertgoers and music buyers have responded well to Vänskä’s latest thoughts on the Second and Fifth symphonies; indeed, my colleague William Hedley made the SACD a Recording of the Month. No question, these are supremely assured performances and, in the case of the Second, very spacious too, yet for all that they miss the fallible, all-too-human perspectives that inform the earlier cycle.
To a certain extent it’s about the orchestral ‘sound’; on both new discs the Minnesota band are highly polished – chromium-plated, even – but these dry, not very tactile Orchestra Hall recordings lack the warmth and breadth of the Ristinkirkko, Lahti, ones. Balances are rather different too, so that the gorgeous harp figures that start around 8:08 in the first Andante of No. 1 – Lahti version – are not so easily discerned in Minnesota. That said, Vänskä is never less than thrilling, and in both versions of this symphony it’s clear he has a rare and wonderful sense of the work’s architecture. What pulls me back to Lahti though is the conductor’s proselytizing zeal – a fire in the belly – that makes the music burn with a magnesium light and heat.
There are many instances in the Lahti First where one is drawn deep into the music – from the eloquent clarinet solo at the outset and those sheer cliffs of brass to that powerful accelerating passage at the end of the first Andante – a feat the Minnesotans can’t begin to emulate. Take the sense-alerting start to the second Andante of the Lahti version; such eloquence and inwardness are absent from the new recording, as is the timbral sophistication and presence of the older CD. In short – and thanks in no small part to a very well engineered, sympathetic recording – the Lahti performance breathes and palpitates in a way that the cooler, more metropolitan Minnesota version never does.
I didn’t intend this to be a panegyric to Vänskä’s earlier reading of No. 1, but hearing it in this comparative context underlines just what a superbly realised and deeply affecting version it is. The Minnesota sound – both the orchestral sheen and the closer recording – drains all the colour and character from the gloriously emphatic Scherzo. Not only that, but the unfolding narrative of the last movement is so much easier to grasp in the Lahti performance; also, at the close of the latter the athletic, forthright Lahti timps strike just the right note of finality.
If you must have Vänskä’s Sibelius in multichannel – it seems many die-hard SACD fans across the pond simply don’t listen in stereo any more – this new First will be a no-brainer. However, if performance is the most important part of the audio equation the Lahti recording wins hands down. In fact, I’ll wager that in years to come this landmark recording of the First – made in 1996 – will be regarded as a classic.
That said, the Minnesota Fourth has an unexpected trenchancy and power that is very persuasive, and there’s a glow to the sound that I don’t hear in their version of the First. Moreover, the weight and amplitude of this fine orchestra seems better caught than before. In the opening Tempo molto moderato I was transfixed by the quality of the Minnesotans’ yearning strings and louring bass, not to mention those Brucknerian brass chorales. As for the Allegro molto vivace it’s darkly skittish, and the In tempo largo is winningly phrased and remarkably well sustained. As fine as the more pliant Lahtians are in the Fourth they don’t always have the seamlessness and focus of their American counterparts.
The concentration of the Minnesotans really pays dividends in those long, gyre-like unwindings of the Largo; and for once I can’t fault the recording when it comes to nuance and detail. Perhaps the pared-down textures of this symphony – it’s central tranquillity and poise always a joy to hear – are much better suited to BIS’s recording set-up in Orchestra Hall. It’s only in the big moments that the lack of depth and ‘air’ had me longing for the fullness and three-dimensionality of the Lahti Fourth. I daresay the multichannel layer offers more spatial information, and that the sound is more immersive, but given that the vast majority of listeners are still wedded to two channels I’d welcome a more natural, involving stereo mix.
Anyone hoping for a neat either/or choice here will be disappointed, for the honours are quite evenly divided; the Lahti First is a clear winner, but despite the felicities of the earlier Fourth the formidable focus of the newer one makes it a front-runner too. That means serious Sibelians will have to own both. Now we can only hope that the hiatus in Minneapolis comes to an end soon, so that this impressive – if not always supplanting – cycle can be completed.
Vänskä’s latest thoughts on Sibelius are certainly worth hearing, but the splendid Lahti cycle remains his greatest achievement yet.
Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1-4 - Overture to Manfred
Nimbus
CD
$16.99Jul 07, 2017
Yondani Butt was born in Macau. He studied conducting with Wolfgang Vacano (1906-1985) at Indiana University, majoring in chemistry. He continued to study conducting with Josef Blatt (1906-1999) at the University of Michigan while pursuing his chemistry degree. Hailed by Robert Marsh of the Chicago Sun Times as ''an outstanding talent'', Yondani Butt has received acclamation from critics and audiences for his many recordings and concert performances. He died on August 28, 2014. ''Anyone seeking these two symphonies on one disc, together with a generous 'filler' into the bargin, could hardly do better than to acquire this eminently recommendable issue'' Robert Matthew-Walker, International Record Review on the original release of Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4.
London Symphony Orchestra Principal Guest Conductor Gianandrea Noseda continues his survey of Shostakovich with the monumental Symphony No.4. Extravagant and challenging in equal measure, it's a work of epic proportions, requiring over a hundred musicians - including large percussion and brass sections. Owing to Soviet censure, the work went unperformed for almost thirty years after it was completed, until in 1961 it was revealed as one of the significant milestones of the composer's output - the work that solidified his reputation as a master symphonist.
