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Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1 & Orchestral Works / Gimeno, Luxemburg Philharmonic

PENTATONE

SACD

$21.99 May 05, 2017

Gustavo Gimeno conducts the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg in a fascinating survey of confident, assured and striking orchestral works by the young Shostakovich. This new recording from Pentatone includes his breathtaking Symphony No. 1 Op. 10 - the student work which brought Shostakovich international fame. While indebted to the Russian masters, Shostakovich's early works nevertheless demonstrate his precocious brilliance, originality and falir and they offer an intriguing glimpse at the evolution of his distinctive, mature style. From the easy going and good humored Scherzo Op. 1, the Tchaikovskian Theme and Variations in B-flat major Op. 3, or the Stravinskyan Scherzo Op. 7, his youthful vitality is never in doubt. But with his Symphony No 1 Op. 10 he produced his first masterpiece and found his own distinctive voice. It's a thrilling work full of sardonic edginess, pained introspection and dramatic outbursts, and closes with a barnstorming finale. Composed 10 years later, the aptly titled Five Fragments for orchestra Op. 42 are short, pungent and austere pieces; the arresting style is modernist but the sound is unmistakeably Shostakovich. Following his acclaimed conducting debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2014, Gustavo Gimeno took up the post of Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg with the 2015-2016 season. An auspicious collaboration with Pentatone followed in 2016 and three releases with the orchestra are planned in 2017. "His musical rhetorics are refined, his grip on the structure of the compositions is accurate and convincint" observed Joep Stapel in the NRC Handelsblad, "Gimeno knew how to keep the tension and made the musicians...excel." Elsewhere in a busy international schedule, Gimeno has debuted with major orchestras in Europe and America, and toured with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to Taiwan and Japan.

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Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1 & Orchestral Works / Gimeno, Luxemburg Philharmonic
PENTATONE May 2017
SACD
$21.99

John Williams: Flute Concerto – Bernard Herrmann Souvenirs d

PENTATONE

$19.99 Jul 24, 2026

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Darrell Ang and Joshua Tan, presents a compelling programme that explores the rich and often unexpected dialogue between film and concert music, featuring works by John Williams, Bernard Herrmann, and Hugo Friedhofer. Once considered distinct spheres, these worlds are brought together through compositions that reveal the breadth and depth of three composers whose artistry extends far beyond the screen. At the centre of the programme is Williams' Concerto for Solo Flute, Strings and Percussion (starring Singapore Symphony Principal Flutist Jin Ta), a work of striking imagination and expressive range, complemented by his Essay for Strings (1965), an early yet already assured statement of his concert voice. Alongside these works, Herrmann's Souvenirs de Voyage for clarinet quintet, here heard in the late Hans Sørensen's adaptation for clarinet and string orchestra, receives it's world premiere recording with clarinettist Ma Yue, offering a vivid example of the composer's distinctive harmonic language in a concert setting. Friedhofer's Suite for 5 Woodwinds, also presented in a world premiere recording, further enriches the programme with it's inventive textures and stylistic range. Together, these works highlight a shared spirit of exploration, brought to life with clarity and refinement by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in a release that continues it's distinguished collaboration with PENTATONE.

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John Williams: Flute Concerto – Bernard Herrmann Souvenirs d
PENTATONE Jul 2026
CD
$19.99

Mix & Match

TISHCHENKO: SYMPHONY NO. 7
NORTHERN FLOWERS Sep 2016
CD
$16.36

William Schuman: Symphony No 3 & 5 / Schwarz, Seattle

Naxos

$19.99 Dec 12, 2006

SCHUMAN Symphonies: No. 3; No. 5. Judith • Gerard Schwarz, cond; Seattle S • NAXOS 8.559317 (67:45)

In the early days of the LP, reviewing was a snap. The Schwann Catalog was the size of a pamphlet, a reviewer therefore had a pretty easy time assessing all that was out there, and in harmony with the Consumer Reports function of a magazine like Fanfare , could easily make his or her case for the best possible (implying definitive) recording of this or that work. Now it’s a whole different universe, with firms like Naxos attempting to record the entire and ever-expanding world’s worth of music—possibly even music not yet composed. To continue my reviewer’s lament for a moment: those of us who review only recordings work at a disadvantage. Critics who deal with live concerts know that a performance is merely a single event in an ever-evolving landscape. On the other hand, those of us who basically deal with recordings often fall into the trap of regarding their first-acquired recording of a particular work as a legitimate template. A live concert is a fleeting affair; a recording will be listened to over and over again until the gray matter of the auditor’s brain is thoroughly grooved and ossified. Add to this that my first exposure to the symphonies of William Schuman were from Leonard Bernstein’s 1960s landmark LP of Schuman’s Third and Fifth Symphonies, which inspired me to acquire his subsequent 1985 recording of Schuman’s Third Symphony paired with Harris’s Third Symphony on DG (similarly impressive, and captured in more impactful sound), one can easily understand my initial reaction when I found this Naxos release in my mailbox: “Why is Schwarz even bothering?”

Listening to this offering, my first reaction was to focus on what Schwarz missed—the snare drum rim shots at the end of the finale were not loud enough and the overlaying brass and woodwinds didn’t provide enough crescendo; his wind solos in the second movement were not as well characterized as Bernstein’s in both his recordings; his opening of the first movement was not nearly as bard-like as Bernstein’s, etc. etc. A good deal of this has to do with recording technology. That earliest 1960 Columbia Masterworks Bernstein offering was, by modern standards, dynamically compressed, making the score’s pianissimos louder, and leading to a more effectively detailed registration of the symphony’s opening bars. In the realm of recorded music, if it’s louder, it’s de facto more impressive. In Bernstein’s subsequent DG go around, the dynamics were more realistic and the resulting sound is closer to Schwarz’s. Nonetheless, Schwarz’s opening still sounds comparably weak and undercharacterized. But what follows does not.

Schwarz takes the symphony’s structure more literally than Bernstein. Its two movements are given Baroque sub designations—Passacaglia and Fugue; Chorale and Toccata. Schwarz is Baroqueishly strict in terms of tempo, and revealingly evenhanded in his instrumental balances; Bernstein is more episodic, projecting the Amerikanisch hymnody underlying so much of Schuman’s thought.

In sum, Bernstein’s two recordings are indeed hard acts to follow, but Schwarz does so with distinction. He achieves, throughout, stunning brass balances. He infuses the music with a wonderfully heady forward momentum, and his more modern recording conveys the loud low percussion with lease-breaking power. Over the years of his tenure as music director of the Seattle Symphony, Schwarz (himself a trumpet virtuoso, which accounts for his expertise in conducting his brass) has forged a fine ensemble able to rise to any and all musical demands.

In Schuman’s “Symphony for Strings,” also designated as the Fifth Symphony, Schwarz again comes head to head with Bernstein. In this piece Schuman proves that he can fugue with the best of them. Bernstein’s 1966 Columbia Masterworks (now Sony) recording is a typically in-your-face effort—viscerally exciting indeed. Here, Schwarz’s recording is more realistically balanced. When all is said and done, Bernstein emerges as the winner. His recording conveys more internal detail than is found here. That aside, Schwarz’s offering, in terms of tempos, is almost identical to Bernstein’s. Here the palm, alas, goes to Bernstein, but Schwarz’s effort is a commendable reading of the score.

The ringer is the last piece— Judith, a choreographic poem for orchestra—commissioned in 1949 by the Louisville Orchestra, which asked Martha Graham to create a ballet dealing with the beautiful Jewish widow who liberated her people from Nebuchadnezzar’s army by seducing and killing its general, Holofernes. The result was a typically Technicolor score from Schuman. Here it is realized most vividly.

As to which recording will I go to when I want to hear Schuman’s Third Symphony—well, it’s a toss up, and that says a lot.

FANFARE: William Zagorski

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William Schuman: Symphony No 3 & 5 / Schwarz, Seattle
Naxos Dec 2006
CD
$19.99

Hartmann: Orchestral Music

Nimbus

$20.99 Jun 03, 2022

Thomas de Hartmann's output as a composer included four symphonies, several operas, concertos, sonatas, and songs with texts by Marcel Proust, Paul Verlaine, James Joyce, and Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as fifty-three film scores. The turbulent historical events through which he lived may, however, have kept de Hartmann's music from reaching a wider audience. With the de Hartmann papers now widely available for scholarly examination, the opportunity is ripe for a new look at this composer's unique contributions. Elan Sicroff is one of the leading interpreters of the Gurdjieff/de Hartmann music, which was a result of a unique collaboration in the 1920s in which the sacred and folk music of the East was arranged for piano.

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Hartmann: Orchestral Music
Nimbus Jun 2022
CD
$20.99

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, Op. 64 - Janácek: Taras Bulba,

ICA Classics

$14.99 Nov 19, 2013

Rozhdestvensky is considered to be one of the greatest Tchaikovsky conductors today. Given his Russian background and his outstanding leadership of the Bolshoi in the past, it is not surprising that his performances of the composer's works are entirely idiomatic. This live performance of Tchaikovsky's popular Symphony No.5 comes from the 1978 Flanders Festival in Belgium and has been recorded in excellent stereo. It is both exciting and poetic, and it confirmed Rozhdestvensky's new appointment as music director of the BBC Symphony the same year. The fill-up consists of Jan+ícek's rhapsody Taras Bulba recorded at the 1981 Proms. This work is a new addition to Rozhdestvensky's discography. Taras Bulba is arguably Janacek's most powerful and dramatic work. Here, it is given a searing performance in superb stereo, which fully captures the large orchestra used, complete with organ, brass and percussion.

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Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, Op. 64 - Janácek: Taras Bulba,
ICA Classics Nov 2013
CD
$14.99

Symphonic Psalms & Prayers

Signum Classics

$19.99 Feb 02, 2018

Tenebrae return to recording on Signum in performances exploring the Psalms in Music. With trumpets and well-tuned cymbals, the musical and prayerful richness of The Book of Psalms inspires vastly differing offerings from composers with a myriad of approaches to combining the two worlds of the symphonic and the choral. The results are works which defy categorisation and stand the test of time with audiences and performers alike. Joined by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the choirs director Nigel Short, they perform iconic works by Stravinsky (Symphony of Psalms), Bernstein (Chichester Psalms), Zemlinsky (Psalm 23), as well as Schoenberg’s final significant tonal work Freide auf Erden. Described as “phenomenal” (The Times) and “devastatingly beautiful” (Gramophone Magazine), award-winning choir Tenebrae, under the direction of Nigel Short, is one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles renowned for its passion and precision.

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Symphonic Psalms & Prayers
Signum Classics Feb 2018
CD
$19.99

Bruno Walter Edition - Schubert: Symphonies 5 & 8, Etc

Sony Masterworks

$17.99 Apr 29, 2009

Poised and patrician interpretations that concentrate on lyricism, warmth, and spacious breadth rather than incipient tension.

Walter’s 1960 B flat recording hasn’t Beecham’s geniality or élan but it does have an unhurried and patrician affection that is hard to gainsay. The generosity of the phrasing never descends to Casals’s rather heavy-handed loving kindness; the sectional balance is fine, the direction remains crisply understated but affectionate. The wind and horn principals distinguish themselves in the slow movement where Walter brings out detail with candour but without any kind of finicky over-scrupulousness. Genial and leisurely – and without any crunching tutti weight – the finale is of a piece with Walter’s mature perception of the symphony. It’s a young man’s work but seen somewhat through avuncular and retrospective eyes.

The Unfinished was recorded two years earlier, this time in New York. Poised and patrician once more this is a reading that concentrates on lyricism rather than incipient tension or internal dynamic contrasts. The orchestra sounds notably fine and Walter’s direction retains a grand seigniorial approach, one that will perhaps disappoint those who might have missed the spirit of his fiery wartime performances with this orchestra, a time when he seemed on occasion hell bent on recreating Toscanini’s sweeping dynamism. Nevertheless his later approach certainly makes up in warmth and spacious breadth – especially the second movement – what it lacks in velocity and power.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International [reviewing Sony 78741]

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Bruno Walter Edition - Schubert: Symphonies 5 & 8, Etc
Sony Masterworks Apr 2009
CD
$17.99

DVORAK: SYMPHONY NO.9 'FROM THE NEW WORLD
IMPORTS Mar 2014
CD
$16.49

Symphonie Nr. 6: Tschaikowsky, Shostakowitsch

BR Klassik

$19.99 Apr 29, 2014

SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 6 1. TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6 2 • Mariss Jansons, cond; Bavarian RSO • BR 900123 (75:25) Live: 1 Münich Herkulessaal 3/21/2013; 2 Münich Philharmonie 6/7/2013

Mariss Jansons is not new to either of these scores. Between 1988 and 2005, he recorded all 15 of Shostakovich’s symphonies, most in live performances, with more than half-a-dozen different orchestras in as many different venues. It could hardly be called an integral cycle, though EMI assembled all 10 discs into a boxed set, which it put out in 2006 at a budget price. Truer to the definition of “cycle” was Jansons’s traversal of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies. All six were recorded with the same orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, over a two-year period between 1984 and 1986, and put out as a budget-priced boxed set by Chandos in 2008.

I’m not familiar with Jansons’s Tchaikovsky, but I do have his Shostakovich, so I’m able to compare his 1991 Oslo performance of Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony to this new one with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. As always, timing differences are interesting, though seldom determinative in judging the relative merits of one performance vs. another. In this case, the differences between each of the symphony’s three movements are fairly small, but incrementally, they add up to a total of two minutes, with the biggest difference occurring in the score’s Presto finale.

1991	2013
15:20	15:41
5:47	6:21
6:39	7:42
27:46	29:44

Unusual in structure, Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony, completed in 1939, begins with an expansive Largo , longer than the following two scherzo-like movements combined. Those who expected another large-scale tragic-triumphant work along the lines of the preceding Fifth Symphony must have been nonplussed, but no more so than Shostakovich himself, who had planned on composing a monumental choral symphony on a poem extolling Lenin. Whatever the reason, Shostakovich changed his mind and came up instead with this strange piece that pits a dark, brooding first movement against two careening, cartwheeling, clownish-sounding fast movements that skate on the thin edge between comic and manic.

The concluding Presto should sound like it’s about to come unhinged, and in Jansons’s 1991 performance it does. But in 1991, the Oslo Philharmonic was not quite the world-class orchestra it has become today, while in 2013, when Jansons took up his baton to conduct Shostakovich’s Sixth again, this time with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, he led an ensemble that had already achieved world-class status. Jansons’s new account may be more detailed and distinguished by better playing, especially in the woodwinds, but his slower Presto sounds more cautious and controlled than it did in the earlier performance. As for the recording, the new BR Klassik CD may have a slight edge over the older EMI disc when it comes to resolution and depth of field, but EMI’s sonic image is actually more dynamic and has greater impact.

Jansons’s new Shostakovich Sixth is a very good one, but I wouldn’t rate it better than his Oslo effort. In fact, in my recent review of Vasily Petrenko’s Sixth on Naxos in 37:4, I stated that Gergiev and Jansons were my current favorites, but that was before I received this new release, so I had to be referring to Jansons’s Oslo performance on EMI.

That brings us to Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique,” which may well be the deciding factor for you in whether you wish to add this disc to your collection. As I said at the top, I’ve not heard the conductor’s earlier version with the Oslo Philharmonic on Chandos, but Howard Kornblum reviewed it in 10:6, and gave it very high marks, writing that Jansons “has an uncommonly deep feeling for the composer, shaping each movement with a fresh and unswerving sense of continuity, with great expressiveness and energy.”

Those same qualities are abundant in this new performance as well. Jansons definitely has a way of teasing Tchaikovsky’s melodies into long-spun lines of great beauty. Having only recently completed reviewing the lion’s share of four different Tchaikovsky cycles, among which Pletnev and Kitaenko emerged as my favorites, I can’t honestly say that Jansons whips up the tumultuous first-movement development section to quite as frenzied and frightful a pitch as either of them, and I’ve heard the development launched with a more incisive, impactful wallop than it receives here. But on the other hand, Jansons makes more of the menacing Furies that visit their wrath on the lower strings in swirling counterpoints of dire warning. One doesn’t usually hear these string rejoinders brought to the surface quite as clearly as they are here.

The more I listen to this performance of the “Pathétique,” the more convinced I become that it’s one of the great ones. It’s highly dramatic, without being theatrical, which was something I was slightly critical of Pletnev for, and it’s emotionally quite draining, which is what any really good “Pathétique” should be.

If Jansons’s Shostakovich Sixth is not necessarily a first choice, it’s still very, very good; and coupled as it is with a better than very, very good Tchaikovsky Sixth, I think this release deserves a very, very strong recommendation.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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Symphonie Nr. 6: Tschaikowsky, Shostakowitsch
BR Klassik Apr 2014
CD
$19.99

SYMPHONY NO. 4
MDG Nov 2007
CD
$23.99

Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 2, 5, 7 & 8

Andromeda

$21.99 Jun 10, 2014

Austrian-born conductor Hans Rosbaud (1895-1962), noted champion of contemporary and Austro-German late romantic-era music, features here with an orchestra he came to be associated with and much-identified late in his career, the Southwest Radio-Symphony, Baden-Baden, in these mid-1950’s performances of four of Anton Bruckner’s monumental symphonies. +Includes the early Second, the lesser-known Fifth, the sublime Seventh, and the last fully completed, and towering, symphony, the Eighth.

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Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 2, 5, 7 & 8
Andromeda Jun 2014
CD
$21.99

Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 2, 4 & 5; 3 Lieder / Borg, Rosbaud, Southwest German RSO

SWR

$26.99 Oct 08, 2021

The Austrian conductor Hans Rosbaud (1895–1962) is known for his interpretations of Mozart, Mahler and Bruckner and the Second Viennese School, but his readings of Sibelius are less familiar. Rosbaud made acclaimed Sibelius recordings for Deutsche Grammophon between 1948 and 1962 including Finlandia, Karelia and Tapiola. With this collection, SWR Classic presents studio recordings from 1955 and 1961 of Symphonies Nos. 2, 4, and 5 and Three Songs for Bass and Orchestra featuring Kim Borg. Rosbaud’s lean and forensic approach to conducting is well suited to the Finnish master’s music as these recordings from the SWR archives attest.

REVIEW:

Happily, this two-disc set is all good, and hardly conventional. It’s useful to remember that when these versions of symphonies 2, 4 and 5 were recorded (1955-61), Sibelius interpretation hadn’t become as standardized as it is now. In Germany, especially, the composer’s symphonies were hardly known, so Rosbaud was very much exploring virgin territory.

Consider this performances of the Second Symphony, with its very measured opening movement and extremely quick finale. It’s certainly different from what we expect to encounter today, but Rosbaud’s control of pacing and careful attention to accent and phrasing is such that it all sounds perfectly natural and convincing. The Fifth Symphony, too, moves effortlessly, with a surprisingly acceleration at the very end.

The Fourth Symphony, however, is simply stunning. Rosbaud’s handling of texture reveals layers of color in the first movement, string parts especially, that you’ve never heard before, while the tragic finale is unflaggingly gripping. Rosbaud is not a literalist. He ignores Sibelius’ indication to take the closing bars in tempo, and mezzo forte, opting instead for a darker, sadder, softer conclusion that replaces cold indifference with a measure of human despair. As I said, it’s hardly conventional, but perfectly valid and masterfully done.

As a bonus, the three orchestral songs sound splendid as performed here by Kim Borg. These are all studio recordings, captured in good, broadcast quality mono. If you collect Sibelius, you will need to hear these performances, no question about it.

-- ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

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Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 2, 4 & 5; 3 Lieder / Borg, Rosbaud, Southwest German RSO
SWR Oct 2021
CD
$26.99

B. TISHCHENKO - SYMPHONY NO. 6 OP. 105
NORTHERN FLOWERS Oct 2016
CD
$16.36

Fritz Reiner Conducts Richard Strauss

Sony Masterworks

$24.98 Jan 01, 2014

Reviews of some of the earlier releases that make up this set:

Symphonia domestica, Le bourgeois gentilhomme
"Fritz Reiner’s 1956 performance of Richard Strauss’s Symphonia domestica was essentially its first recording in modern stereo sound. As such, it probably introduced the work to many American listeners. Prior to this, recordings conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Clemens Krauss and the composer himself with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra were undoubtedly authoritative, but hardly competitive from a sonic standpoint. Subsequently, fine stereo versions by Rudolf Kempe (EMI), Herbert von Karajan (Deutsche Grammophon), and Zubin Mehta (Decca-London) have been released, but none of them are superior to Reiner’s justly famous Living Stereo interpretation. This represents the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at its peak, and Reiner had no peer as a conductor of the orchestral music of Richard Strauss. If anything, Reiner’s no-nonsense style is even more suited to the charming, chamber-like Le bourgeois gentilhomme Suite."

-- Arthur Lintgen, Fanfare [1/2008]

Scenes From Salome And Elektra
"Solti's now-infamous comment that the Chicago Symphony was a provincial orchestra before he appeared is further discounted by the reissue of these unrivalled performances. None of Reiner's successors as a Strauss conductor, neither Solti himself, Kempe nor Sawallisch, seems quite to achieve the clarity of texture, mastery of line and intensity of feeling displayed in these recordings of 35 years and more ago, nor has any orchestra, certainly not the CSO of Solti's day, evinced the richness and brilliance of sound found here. Above all, Reiner brought to these scores, especially Elektra, a classic grandeur of utterance, a saturated sound that overwhelms the ear without ever deafening it. Perhaps these impressions are enhanced by the superb recording, preferable to so much that passes for good sound today. The fidelity, even balance and deep sonority of this early stereo in Chicago is truly amazing. Just as arresting is the perfect placing of the voices in relation to the orchestra."

-- A.B., Gramophone [5/1993]

Also sprach Zarathustra
"Reiner's 1954 Also sprach is arguably more characteristic than his 1962 RCA remake. That is to say, it is even more intense and extrovert. In his second year with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the conductor was already getting a thrilling response from the strings, although woodwind intonation could be a problem. Confident and well played as it is, the spectacular opening sunrise inevitably lacks the impact of, say, Preyin's Telarc recording (the organ is particularly disappointing). Nor is there the dark solemnity of and detail in the bass familiar from Karajan's DO versions. What we have instead is a measure of raw passion and forward thrust unequalled on disc. In reflective passages, conductor and/or engineers display some reluctance to achieve a real pianissimo, but as the tempo builds Reiner invariably creates great excitement and the orchestral playing is marvellous."

-- David Gutman, Gramophone [12/1992]

Don Quixote, Burleske
Throughout his career Fritz Reiner showed a particular affinity for the music of Richard Strauss. Here he delivers an exceptionally vivid account of Don Quixote – each bizarre episode from the eccentric knight’s adventures is portrayed with razor-sharp insight. One notices, in particular, Reiner’s miraculous attention to detail, his unfailing grip on the structural direction of the work and the superb response from both soloist and orchestra. With its flashes of sardonic wit, the earlier Burleske makes for an excellent coupling, and illustrates Reiner’s formidable prowess as a concerto accompanist. By any standards, a self-recommending issue.

-- Erik Levi, BBC Music Magazine

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Fritz Reiner Conducts Richard Strauss
Sony Masterworks Jan 2014
CD
$24.98

MAHLER: SYMPHONY 6 / KINDERTOTENLI
UNIVERSAL JAPAN Jul 2018
CD
$24.49

MAHLER: SYMPHONY NO.4
LPO Jul 2019
CD
$15.99

Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 & Extracts from the rehearsals

BR Klassik

$29.99 Sep 04, 2026

The distinguished Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt, long associated with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra as a regular guest, conducted Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 in d Minor, in concerts on May 7 and 7, 2009 in the in the Philharmonie i'm Gasteig in Munich. This new BR-KLASSIK CD presents not only the live recording of this compelling interpretation but also a live orchestral rehearsal recording from May 2009. The latter forms part of BR Klassik's acclaimed series Conductors at Rehearsal, offering a glimpse into their artistic work with the orchestra. "It seems that the Ninth is a limit. He who wants to go beyond it must pass away. [...] Those who have written a Ninth stood too close to the hereafter." Arnold Schoenberg wrote those words in reference to Gustav Mahler, who had just died without ever having heard his own Ninth Symphony performed. Bruckner was apparently afraid of the fatal number as well: "I don't want to start on my Ninth at all, I don't dare'. However, very soon after the completion of his Eighth Symphony in September 1887, Bruckner started on his first drafts. Overall, work on the Ninth then dragged on over the long period from 1887 to 1896, having to be constantly interrupted because of the composer's deteriorating health. Bruckner finally died while working on the fourth movement - and his masterpiece dedicated to "the beloved God' remained unfinished. Even without a finale, the three-movement torso that survives is, of course, extremely impressive. The completed movements were first performed in Vienna on February 11, 1903, in an unusual personal version by the conductor Ferdinand Lowe. The actual first performance of the original score with it's three movements only took place on April 2, 1932 in Munich. Ever since, Bruckner's Ninth has been an essential part of the Late Romantic symphonic repertoire - above all in it's original version. The detailed rehearsal recordings on the CD provide a deeper insight into this magnificent work. Listeners can experience first-hand how the conductor's wishes, ideas and instructions are implemented, how his explanations and his temperament change the resulting sound, and what thoughts lie behind the interpretation of the work. Thanks to this series, which is now also available on CD, the unique artistic partnership between Herbert Blomstedt and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra can be documented. Blomstedt's seemingly inexhaustible source of energy - music itself - is palpable in every word and every bar. ? Herbert Blomstedt conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in concerts on May 7 and 8, 2009 ? Live recording of Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 ? Includes "Conductors at Rehearsal": live recording of the orchestra rehearsal May 7 and 8, 2009 for the Munich concerts

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 & Extracts from the rehearsals
BR Klassik Sep 2026
CD
$29.99

Mahler: Symphony No. 10 / Storgards, Lapland Chamber Orchestra

BIS

SACD

$21.99 Apr 05, 2019

Left unfinished at the death of the composer, Gustav Mahler's Tenth Symphony has exerted an enormous fascination on musicologists as well as musicians. Whether fully orchestrated in specific passages, or a sole melody in others, there is one continuous line throughout the surviving manuscript pages and over the years a number of different completions or performing versions have seen the light of day. One of the latest is this 'recreation' of the work for chamber orchestra by composer and conductor Michelle Castelletti. In her liner notes to the recording, Castelletti describes the symphony as 'possibly one of Mahler’s most passionate emotional outbursts and autobiographical creations'. The decision to make an orchestration for chamber forces was inspired by the example of the Viennese Society for Private Musical Performance, established by Arnold Schönberg in 1918 with the goal of performing newly composed music. Among the works performed by the Society were chamber orchestra versions of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and Das Lied von der Erde – the latter made by Schoenberg himself – and in her version of Symphony No. 10, Castelletti uses a similar instrumentation. This new completion appears on album for the first time, in a performance by the acclaimed Lapland Chamber Orchestra under John Storgårds, the ensemble’s artistic director since 1996.

-----

REVIEW:

Having taken Deryck Cooke’s completion as the basis for her edition, Michelle Castelletti slims down the orchestra, not the argument. Meanwhile John Storgårds always cultivates legato, connects notes and episodes, privileges coherence over discontinuity and reminds us that the composer’s sketches preserved at least a single thread of melody running through almost the entire symphony. However you hear the Tenth, you’ll hear it differently after experiencing this one.

– Gramophone

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Mahler: Symphony No. 10 / Storgards, Lapland Chamber Orchestra
BIS Apr 2019
SACD
$21.99

Rouse: Symphony no. 5, Supplica & Concerto for Orchestra / Guerrero, Nashville Symphony

Naxos

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Jul 24, 2020

Winner of a 2020 GRAMMY Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition

Champions of new American music, the Nashville Symphony and its music director Giancarlo Guerrero had premiered numerous works and received 13 GRAMMY Awards including two for Best Orchestral Performance. Among their award-winning recordings include works by Michael Daugherty (Metropolis Symphony on 8.559635; Tales of Hemingway on 8.559798), Stephen Paulus (Three Places of Enlightenment on 8.559740), and Jennifer Higdon (All Things Majestic and Viola Concerto on 8.559823).

Rouse's Concerto for Orchestra is a ‘hyper-concerto’ that gives each player a chance to shine, while the mournful intimacy and passion of Supplica unfolds somewhat like the slow movement of a Bruckner or Mahler symphony. Rouse’s Fifth Symphony fondly recalls Beethoven’s mighty Fifth but blurs the lines between tradition and modernity, transporting the listener from turbulence to serenity. It was described as “brilliant, exciting and at times hauntingly beautiful” in The Dallas Morning News.

REVIEW:

This latest issue of music by the late Christopher Rouse contains some really splendid music. Both the Fifth Symphony and the Concerto for Orchestra exploit Rouse’s ability to juxtapose music of supercharged turbulence and rhythmic bite with passages of deeply expressive lyricism. Both take the form of a single, continuous movement some thirty minutes long, but the internal structures are quite different. The symphony features two quick outer movements enfolding a mix of adagio and scherzo, while the concerto starts like a rondo with alternating fast and slow sections, before a genuine slow movement gradually gives way to a brilliant conclusion. Rouse’s music is always so effectively scored that you might call all of it “concerto for orchestra,” and both pieces are full of arresting ideas, both melodic and gestural.

Supplica is relatively brief (twelve minutes) slow movement that sounds exactly like its title suggests: supplication, prayer, or entreaty. Its scoring is quite restrained: strings harp and brass, but Rouse’s imaginative handling of sonority is everywhere in evidence, proving conclusively that he was much more than a master of splashy instrumental effects (though he was that too). It’s a lovely, passionate piece whose lyricism never sounds trite or facile. All three works here receive excellent performances by the Nashville Symphony under Giancarlo Guerrero, and they are very well engineered. Rouse was an extraordinary composer whose career ended too suddenly (he died of renal cancer in 2019, and was only 70), but his work surely deserves to endure. This release does him proud.

-- ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

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Rouse: Symphony no. 5, Supplica & Concerto for Orchestra / Guerrero, Nashville Symphony
Naxos Jul 2020
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Beethoven Symphonies, Vol. 6

SOMM Recordings

$18.99 Feb 21, 2025

SOMM Recordings brings it's major six-volume series of Franz Xaver Scharwenka's transcriptions of Beethoven Symphonies to a close with his 9th Symphony, the monumental Choral Symphony. Since the first volume, listeners have eagerly awaited each new release in the series from duo pianists, Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman. As Ates Orga has noted in International Piano Magazine, "What in July 2021 began as something of a curio outing has blossomed into a major recording landmark." Beethoven first conceived the idea of setting Schiller's Ode to Joy to music when he was in his twenties; an early iteration of the theme in the song, Returned Love, comes from before 1795. His Choral Fantasy for piano, vocal soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra followed in 1808, when he was thirty-eight. By the time he conducted his Choral Symphony No. 9 in D minor in Vienna on May 7, 1824, aged fifty-four, Beethoven was completely deaf. One of the iconic images in music history is that of the soprano gently turning him around, so he could see the rapturous response from the audience that he was unable to hear. The work had broken all barriers in terms of conception, duration, compositional power, and the incorporation of voices in the finale. The impact of the Choral Symphony was instantaneous and lasting. It was printed by Schott and Company within 18 months, and there were immediate demands for keyboard transcriptions. Given the forces that Beethoven employed in his 9th Symphony, transcribing the work for piano is challenging to say the least. The German pianist and composer, Xaver Scharwenka, was a student of Theodor Kullak, who had studied with Beethoven's pupil, Carl Czerny, thus providing Scharwenka with a singular musical line leading back to Beethoven. His duet transcriptions of all nine Beethoven Symphonies, published in 1905, still remain a touchstone for musical understanding of the cycle. The Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman Piano Duo began their in-concert exploration of Scharwenka's four-hand Beethoven transcriptions in 2015. Their recording of these transcriptions for SOMM began in 2023 with volumes 1 to 5 receiving ecstatic reviews. Vol I (SOMMCD 0637) "Utterly beguiling, " BBC Music magazine. Vol 2 (SOMMCD 0650) "The performances are state-of-the-art, " BBC Music magazine. Vol 3 (SOMMCD 0666) "Clarity, conviction and impressive unanimity, " Gramophone; "CD of the Week, " Sunday Times. Vol 4 (SOMMCD 0677) "so musical... so Beethovenian as to defy criticism, " Musical Opinion. Vol 5 (SOMMCD 0687) "remarkable ensemble synchronicity, " Jed Distler, Gramophone. Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman have long-established careers. Uys has been awarded the MacFarren Medal by the Royal Academy of Music, where she is an Associate, and she has an impressive reputation as a concert and broadcasting performer at major venues throughout the world. Schoeman is a Steinway artist who has performed in prestigious concert halls on several continents. Both pianists are past winners of the Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition.

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Beethoven Symphonies, Vol. 6
SOMM Recordings Feb 2025
CD
$18.99

Rauchenecker: Symphony No. 1 & "Phantasie" / Griffiths, Musikkollegium Winterthur

CPO

$18.99 Oct 21, 2022

Although almost completely forgotten today, Georg Wilhelm Rauchenecker was an exceptionally versatile musician of European stature: as founder and conductor of the first professional orchestra of the city of Winterthur (1875), composer, ardent Wagnerian, city organist, music dealer and pedagogue, he left weighty and far-reaching traces in Germany, Switzerland and France. The two orchestral works presented on this album were written for "his" Winterthur City Orchestra (as the Musikkollegium Winterthur was called until 2000), while the Oriental Fantasy is an early work by the 21-year-old. Rauchenecker's symphonic debut seems in some ways to have been his artistic calling card: Few of his other works were performed as often, and the piece remained in the repertoire until at least 1932.

Despite Rauchenecker's close contact with the works of the New German school and his personal acquaintance with Richard Wagner, this work shows the composer to be a preserver of the symphonic tradition. In a certain sense, the work speaks of a commitment to "absolute music," for programmatic allusions as well as explicitly coloristic instrumental effects are completely dispensed with. His technically extremely demanding Oriental Fantasy combines the virtuosic demands of a solo concerto with a rhapsodically free form, and was one of Rauchenecker's own showpieces as a violinist.

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Rauchenecker: Symphony No. 1 & "Phantasie" / Griffiths, Musikkollegium Winterthur
CPO Oct 2022
CD
$18.99

Nielsen: Helios; Clarinet Concerto; Symphony No. 5

Chandos

SACD

$21.99 Sep 05, 2025

Edward Gardner's series of Nielsen symphonies with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra continues with this recording of No. 5, complemented with the overture Helios and the Clarinet Concerto, featuring Alessandro Carbonare as soloist. Nielsen composed Helios in 1903 on a trip to Greece, as his wife, Anne Marie, a sculptor, had won a grant to copy sculptures on the Acropolis. Over it's ten-twelve-minute duration, the work depicts sunrise, noontime, and then sunset over the Aegean Sea, and is one of the composer's most performed works. The Clarinet Concerto dates from 1928 and is cast in one long movement falling into four sections. It is dedicated to Nielsen's friend Aage Oxenvad who gave the first performance. Composed between 1920 and 1922, the Fifth Symphony is unusually laid out in just two movements - the only piece by Nielsen to adopt this structure. Unlike his other mature symphonies, the fifth lacks a subtitle, and so could be considered to be more 'pure music' compared to the descriptive nature of the others. Nielsen described the symphony as 'the division of dark and light, the battle between evil and good' and the opposition between 'Dreams and Deeds'. Considered by many as a "war symphony", Nielsen insisted that he had not been thinking of World War I whilst he was composing the work, but also commented "not one of us is the same as we were before the war".

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Nielsen: Helios; Clarinet Concerto; Symphony No. 5
Chandos Sep 2025
SACD
$21.99

Shostakovich, D.: Symphony No. 11, "The Year 1905"
Delos Jan 2003
CD
$18.99

SYMPHONY NO 3 / THREE PIECES IN OLDEN STYLE
ALTO Nov 2012
CD
$11.01