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Lloyd: The Symphonies Nos. 7-12

Lyrita

$32.99 Apr 05, 2024

Lloyd became a symphonist despite himself. When he was in his twenties he seemed destined to be a composer of operas and it is likely that, had the vicissitudes of war not intervened, he would have written music for the stage exclusively. In an article for the June 1939 issue of the Musical Monthly Record, Harry Farjeon wondered why music for Lloyd was ‘not centred in the concert hall but in the theatre’ and quoted the young composer as being ‘interested only in opera’. There are strong traces in the symphonies of what might have been: the intensely lyrical, cantabile nature of the writing, the intermezzo-like movements, the opera buffa qualities of the finales and the feeling for the long line which runs through those supple and sweeping melodies all denote a born opera composer. In the event his operatic aspirations were cruelly cut short and it is to his courageous, life-affirming twelve symphonies that we must look to chart his development, recovery and eventual triumph.

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Lloyd: The Symphonies Nos. 7-12
Lyrita Apr 2024
CD
$32.99

KEEPING SCORE: SYMPHONY NO 5
SFS MEDIA Nov 2009
Blu-Ray
$26.49

Shostakovich, D.: Symphony No. 8
Delos Jan 1997
CD
$18.99

Mendelssohn: Symphony No 4, Etc / Johannes Wildner, Et Al
Amadis Oct 1995
CD
$16.99

Menschheit - Orchestral Works

Challenge Classics

$16.99 Oct 02, 2026

Erwin Schulhoff's Menschheit brings together some of the Czech composer's most compelling and deeply personal orchestral works, written in the aftermath of the First World War. At it's heart are the rediscovered vocal symphonies Landschaften and Menschheit, visionary song cycles that reflect on loss, renewal, spirituality and the fate of humanity through richly expressive poetry and sumptuous orchestral colours. Influenced by Mahler yet unmistakably individual, these works reveal Schulhoff at a pivotal moment in his artistic development, transforming the trauma of war into music of profound emotional depth, culminating in a message of hope and human resilience. Performed by the Residentie Orkest The Hague under the direction of Jun Markl, with mezzo-soprano Barbara Kozelj, this live recording also showcases Schulhoff's dazzling stylistic versatility through his jazz-inspired Suite for Chamber Orchestra and his exuberant orchestration of Beethoven's beloved Rage Over a Lost Penny. Recorded in the exceptional acoustics of Amare in The Hague - one of Europe's most modern and inspiring concert halls and home of the Residentie Orkest - this album celebrates both the rediscovery of a remarkable musical voice and the artistic excellence of one of the Netherlands' leading orchestras.

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Menschheit - Orchestral Works
Challenge Classics Oct 2026
CD
$16.99

Bernstein Favorites - Orchestral Dances
Sony Masterworks Jul 2009
CD
$17.99

Bruckner: Symphony No 7 / Young, Hamburg Philharmonic

Oehms Classics

SACD

$19.99 Apr 14, 2015

The celebrated Bruckner cycle by the Hamburg Philharmonic under Simone Young saw its completion during the 2014–15 season. On 30 August 2014, this mature, practiced Brucknerian orchestra recorded Bruckner’s radiant Seventh Symphony in the Laeiszhalle, heard live on this CD. With the beauty of its themes and its moving homage to Bruckner‘s great, intimidating model, Wagner, this Symphony - ranking among the composer’s finest orchestral statements - offers a particularly impressive listening experience.

REVIEWS:

The most apposite word I can apply to Simone Young's approach to Bruckner is 'fluidity.' She allows the lyrical melodies of the first two movements to unfold naturally and with a good sense of structural cohesion.

-- BBC Music Magazine

I enjoyed this performance very much. I also liked the sound on this SACD which has presence and definition. There’s a good front-to-back perspective and all sections of the orchestra have been well served by the engineers. In particular the brass, so important in Bruckner’s sound-world, register very satisfyingly yet never excessively.

-- MusicWeb International

This is one of those performances where you feel from the opening phrases that everything is just right. The music soars, yet has all the heft and depth one could want. Orchestral balances are excellent… Above all, the spirit of Bruckner, often felt in the concert hall but so elusive in recordings, is present. This is a glorious Bruckner Seventh.

-- Fanfare

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Bruckner: Symphony No 7 / Young, Hamburg Philharmonic
Oehms Classics Apr 2015
SACD
$19.99

Complete Symphonies, Vol. 1

CPO

$18.99 Oct 02, 2026

In 1785, Antonin Reicha went to Bonn with his unchle Joseph to play flute in the court orchestra there. There he met Ludwig van Beethoven, ten months his junior. Soon they started a friendship that survived despite the long distance. Whilst Beethoven established himself in Vienna, Reicha achieved the highest acclaim in Paris as a composer and above all as a teacher. Cesar Franck, Hector Berlioz, Louise Farrenc and Friedrich von Flotow are only a few of his illustrious pupils who learned their trade with the help of Reicha's astute technical prowess. It is not easy to sum up what he achieved. He wrote dozens of wind quintets, string quartets, other works of chamber music, highly original piano works as well as four symphonies and several overtures. His experimentation most likely evoked "Homeric laughter" from his famous Viennese friend. And how could it be otherwise, when pieces such as the overture - which can be heard on the first CD of our complete symphonic recording - throw even modern sensibilities off balance with their constant disruptions of metre without one being able to say why one keeps losing count... Only repeated listening helps!

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Complete Symphonies, Vol. 1
CPO Oct 2026
CD
$18.99

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 8, Job / Boult

ICA Classics

DVD

$26.99 Oct 25, 2011

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony No. 8. Job • Adrian Boult, cond; London PO • ICA ICAD 5037 (DVD: 73:05) Live: London 12/10/1972

To my knowledge, this is the first time this entire concert has been issued intact. Previously the Eighth Symphony appeared on a DVD (now out of print) with a performance from a concert eight months earlier of the Beethoven Violin Concerto with these same forces and violinist Nathan Milstein. That disc was given a very tepid review by Jerry Dubins in Fanfare 31: 1, criticizing the Beethoven as “off skew” due to intonation lapses by Milstein and lack of proper synchronization between the audio and visual tracks, and a “solid but less than rafter-ringing” rendition of the Eighth Symphony. Here the symphony opens the concert, given to mark the centenary of the composer’s birth. While I would agree that it does not equal Boult’s own studio recording with the same orchestra for EMI made almost four years before, it is still an estimable reading in Boult’s distinctive style, which in this particular work is far more low-key and introspective than in the hands of some other conductors. A significant factor in the lesser degree of impact is the recorded perspective, which is rather distant; even turning up the volume knob on my stereo receiver could not give it a presence equal to the studio version. A remarkable feature is that this performance differs notably in conception from that set down by EMI, as can be seen by the respective timings—11:09, 3:55, 8:35, and 4:44 for the studio account versus 10:44, 4:11, 7:26, and 5:47 here, with the 10:44 of the first movement including almost a minute of introductory applause. The change in proportions—significantly faster in the first and third movements, and markedly slower in the fourth—gives the piece a rather different feel, though even after several hearings I am not sure how to describe it, as the variations between the two do not follow a consistent pattern. That there is a substantial difference is a sufficient point of interest in and of itself for admirers of this conductor’s art.

With Job the competition between the 1970 EMI studio version and this live performance is much closer; the overall timings and conceptions of the two are virtually identical, and here the live performance has more presence. This video version does offer one advantage its studio counterpart lacks; at the start of each section, it displays for several seconds the corresponding (and striking) drawings from William Blake’s Illustrations of the Book of Job that inspired the composer. Boult had a unique and authoritative association with this work; in 1934 the composer dedicated the work to him, and he made four studio recordings of it before any other conductor made even one. That alone would make this an invaluable historical document; that value is increased by the fact that, apart from the aforementioned Beethoven concerto and a Beethoven romance for violin and orchestra with Yehudi Menuhin, this disc contains what are to my knowledge the only commercially released filmed performances of the man who ranks alongside Thomas Beecham as one of the two greatest British conductors of the last century.

The film quality itself is excellent for its vintage; images and colors are as sharp and clear as the analog film technology of the periods allows, and there are no signs of film deterioration. Camerawork is discreet, appropriate in focus, and free from the jittery itch of some current film producers to jump about every few seconds. Boult himself, 83 at the time, comes on stage slowly but not at all stiffly. Like Charles Munch he favors a fishing-pole length baton, but unlike the French maestro his movements are restrained, economical, and graceful rather than feverishly energetic, the very image of English patrician nobility. But do not mistake a lack of theatrical demonstrativeness for artistic dullness; this is music-making of great integrity and conviction. To fans of Vaughan Williams and Boult alike, this release is unhesitatingly recommended, particularly for the fine account of Job.

FANFARE: James A. Altena

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Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 8, Job / Boult
ICA Classics Oct 2011
DVD
$26.99

Jones: Symphonies No 4, 7, 8 / Groves, Thomson, Et Al

Lyrita

$20.99 May 01, 2007

JONES Symphonies: No. 4, “In memory of Dylan Thomas” ; No. 7; No. 8 1 • Charles Groves, cond; Bryden Thomson, cond; 1 Royal PO; BBC Welsh SO 1 • LYRITA 329 (78:05)

Welsh composer Daniel Jones (1912–1993) was born in Pembroke and raised in Swansea, where he forged a friendship with the poet Dylan Thomas. After study in Swansea, Jones moved to London’s Royal Academy of Music. His output included concertos for violin, oboe, and cello; choral music, including the Oratorio, St. Peter ; an opera, The Knife ; chamber music; and 13 symphonies. Jones’s musical language is essentially tonal. He originated a rhythmic method for heightened expression—a device that he called “complex meters” involving maintaining and often juxtaposing, complex and often-irregular time signatures over a long timespan. Musically, Jones was influenced by Purcell, Haydn, and Janá?ek, but his language is personal. His symphonies can be broadly divided into three groups: Symphonies Nos. 1–5 (1944–58), conceived within the late-Romantic symphonic tradition and scored for large forces; Symphonies Nos. 6–9 (1964–72) moving towards greater structural experimentation, unusual combinations of instruments, and shorter lengths; and Symphonies Nos. 10–13 (1976–92) concerned with concision and paring down germ ideas to the barest essentials.

Daniel Jones’s Fourth Symphony, considered to be one of the composer’s finest achievements, was composed in memory of the poet Dylan Thomas, who had died, tragically young, in New York on November 17, 1953. Their relationship had been close; they had shared a zest for life. It was Jones who had written the folk-like music for Under Milk Wood. The Symphony is, understandably, elegiac; the opening Maestoso movement speaks bleakly of tragedy and loss, with a sometimes funeral-march tread, but also of defiance. The central Allegro capriccioso scampers along; it is light-hearted and capricious. Its playfulness might suggest the larger-than-life characters from Under Milk Wood , and perhaps the real-life antics of composer and poet, while its slower, sadder, middle section is more reflective, sometimes darkly so; it has a vulnerability, a sadness—and regret? The final Adagio-moderato-adagio is turbulent and disturbing; the music’s violence seemingly released reluctantly in a brief coda that highlights a solo violin with pizzicato cellos and basses.

The Seventh Symphony is cast in five movements, although the fourth and fifth share the same track. Completed in 1972 and dedicated to Sir Charles Groves, it was written as a commission from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The work has an unsettling ambiguity, the music often lurking in dark corners and having many abrupt contradictions. The most immediately appealing material is in the quicksilver Scherzando that employs a xylophone to heighten its puckish, tipsy fun, but even here tragedy stalks. The Eighth Symphony has five movements too. The music is enigmatic and ferocious, lyrical and searching, and not without a sardonic wit. Its extraordinary, arresting opening chords are sounded on marimba. Imaginative orchestrations abound: the often-spectral third movement has some amazing interchanges between piano and vibraphone; the elegiac fourth movement includes harmonic passages for kettledrums under heartfelt music for strings, muted trumpets, and softly played trombones; and the high-spirited finale sounds triumphant trumpets and tubular bells.

Strong performances of some quite original music. A rewarding disc for the adventurous.

FANFARE: Ian Lace

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Jones: Symphonies No 4, 7, 8 / Groves, Thomson, Et Al
Lyrita May 2007
CD
$20.99

Bruckner: Symphony No. 9

CPO

$18.99 Jan 28, 2014

• Anton Bruckner died before completing work on the fourth and final movenment of his 9th symphony. • Conductor Mario Venzago's ongoing complete Bruckner symphony cycle has provoked vehement pro and contra critical reaction. • The Bern Symphony's history dates back more than 125 years.

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 9
CPO Jan 2014
CD
$18.99

Gade: Symphonies Vol 3 - No 3 & 6, Etc / Hogwood

Chandos

$21.99 Aug 01, 2002

Recorded in: Danish Radio Concert Hall, Copenhagen 10 April 2001 (Echoes of Ossian), 17 & 18 August 2001 (Symphony No. 3, incl. discarded first movement), 14 & 19 Novemer 2001 (Symphony No. 6) Producer(s) Preben Iwan (Symphony No. 3, incl. discarded first movement) Chris Hazell (other works) Sound Engineer(s) Jørn Jacobsen

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Gade: Symphonies Vol 3 - No 3 & 6, Etc / Hogwood
Chandos Aug 2002
CD
$21.99

BALLETS: SWAN LAKE / NUTCRACKER / SLEEPING BEAUTY

WARNER CLASSICS

$24.99 Aug 26, 2016

Andre Previn - Tchaikovsky: The Ballets (Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty)(6CD) Tchaikovsky's three sumptuous ballet scores are also three of his supreme masterpieces, as remarkable for their emotional content as for the beauty of their melodies and orchestration. Andre Previn, who has described himself as "a complete romantic", became Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1968. He remained in the role for 11 years - something of a golden era - and in 2016 was named the LSO's Conductor Emeritus.

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BALLETS: SWAN LAKE / NUTCRACKER / SLEEPING BEAUTY
WARNER CLASSICS Aug 2016
CD
$24.99

Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3; Manfred Overture / Gardiner, London Symphony

LSO LIVE

$14.99 Feb 07, 2020

The second album in Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Schumann series with the London Symphony Orchestra travels from glorious fanfare to dream-like passages with the lively Spring and Rhenish symphonies.

From the dramatic first trumpet-call which awakens the frozen landscape, the First Symphony is a celebration of spring. It moves through the season and a gruff folksong Scherzo until finally a jubilant conclusion dances into summer.

Desperate, heartfelt and elegant, the Manfred Overture opens with an urgent impetus that only increases through the work, displaying the intense strife which lies ahead for its protagonist. Schumann’s Third is one of the composer’s most impressive, painting a euphoric picture of the German Rhineland in broad Beethovenian style and closing with an exhilarating finale.

-----

REVIEW:

He brings the values of his period- instrument performances to both works and to the grandiose Manfred Overture, a Byronic tone poem in all but name. The LSO players respond with verve and elan to his impulsive baton.

– Sunday Times (UK)

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Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3; Manfred Overture / Gardiner, London Symphony
LSO LIVE Feb 2020
CD
$14.99

Shostakovich: Symphony no. 14
Challenge Classics Oct 2014
SACD
$20.99

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

WARTIME 1: NIKOLAI Y. MIASKOVSKY - SYMPHONY
NORTHERN FLOWERS Oct 2016
CD
$16.36

SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONY NO. 11

LSO LIVE

SACD

$15.99 Mar 21, 2025

Inspired by a time of war, protest, and a nation on the brink, Shostakovich's Symphony No.11 reflects upon the tumult and tragedy of the 1905 Russian Revolution. Shostakovich was believed to have said the Eleventh Symphony was 'about the people', and the beginning of the work captures the sombre repression felt by many at the time. The work is sometimes dubbed as a 'film score without the film', and this is truly evident as the music unfolds. It begins to embody a spirit of courage-of struggle for a just cause. Eventually, the symphony takes on an overwhelming intensity as it depicts the workers' uprising that ensued-one that the composer's own father and uncle were a part of and, miraculously, survived. Conductor Gianandrea Noseda is known for his mastery of Russian repertoire, and his Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov recordings on the LSO's own label have attracted glowing reviews. This album is the next in a revered cycle of Shostakovich's complete symphonies with Gianandrea Noseda, which already comprises nine of the fifteen symphonies.

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SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONY NO. 11
LSO LIVE Mar 2025
SACD
$15.99

RACHMANINOV: THE BELLS & SYMPHONIC DANCES

LPO

Vinyl

$61.49 Aug 22, 2025

Rachminov's Symphonic Dances was one of the first four releases on the LPO Label. As a celebration of the LPO 20 Anniversariy, they are releasing a new recording of the Symphonic Dances, recorded in March of 2023, paired with Rachmaninov's The Bells. Both recordings are performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of our prinicpal conductor, Edward Gardner. The Bells, a choral symphony incorporates Edgar Allan Poe's namesake poem, with a traditional Georgian melody Dies Irae. Motifs of Dies Irae can also be heard in the final movement of the Symphonic Dance; where the Dies Irae theme represents Death.

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RACHMANINOV: THE BELLS & SYMPHONIC DANCES
LPO Aug 2025
Vinyl
$61.49

SYMPHONY 7
SFS MEDIA Oct 2005
SACD
$21.99

Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2 (Arrangement for Piano & Orches

Brilliant Classics

$12.74 ~~$14.99~~ Save 15% Sep 11, 2026

The opulent Second Symphony of Sergei Rachmaninoff in the compelling guise of a piano concerto: the only available recording, now available as a single CD. Rachmaninoff achieved a breakthrough, both for himself and in the genre of the Russian symphony, with the completion of the Second in 1908. This is music of a positively Brucknerian scale and paragraphing which needs space and breadth to unfold and climax. However, the symphony gained popularity through heavily cut performances and recordings, and it was only in 1973, with the recordings conducted by Ormandy and Previn, that the strength of the original, uncut Second revealed itself to new audiences. Rachmaninoff himself was hardly averse to making radical cuts and alterations both to his own music and the scores of his predecessors. Thus Alexander Warenberg followed suit in a long and distinguished Romantic tradition, when he transformed the symphony into a piano concerto. As completed in 2007, and recorded shortly afterwards by these musicians, this concerto can be compared to a cinematic adaptation of a great novel, as Ates Orga remarks in his booklet essay, 'with the main personalities, scenes and action retained, but subsidiary figures, incidents and detail omitted.' Thus the symphony's four movements are ingeniously condensed into the concerto's conventional three, with the central slow movement enclosing both the Symphony's Adagio, with it's unforgettably lugubrious opening clarinet melody, and the scherzo, as an interlude. With the symphonic argument shared between soloist and orchestra, Warenberg achieves a remarkably smooth idiomatic transition between the genres. The performance itself is driven and passionate in the best Rachmaninoff tradition, as the work of musicians entirely at home in the composer's world. Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy has made many fine recordings for Piano Classics, attracting lavish critical praise. 'Schmitt-Leonardy's collection of the three Chopin piano sonatas is the best single-disc version I have ever heard' (Fanfare). On his album of Schumann, the Etudes symphoniques 'have a formal integrity and sense of connectedness often missing in the hands of lesser artists' (Fanfare).

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Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2 (Arrangement for Piano & Orches
Brilliant Classics Sep 2026
CD
~~$14.99~~ $12.74

Marlboro Fest 40th Anniversary - Mendelssohn: Symphony No 4

Sony Masterworks

$17.99 Jul 07, 2011

Casals was as much at home conducting as he was playing cello, and this performance is imbued with the same bold and emphatic shaping, vigorous rhythmic drive and concern for the overall musical shape of the work being performed.

...The lion's share of the release is taken up by five CDs with Casals conducting. The repertoire is solidly mainstream: Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8, Schubert's Fifth and Mendelssohn's Italian, and the Brahms Haydn Variations. These recordings are important if for no other reason than for documenting the work of one of the most powerful musical personalities of this century, who went on making music until his death in 1973 at the remarkable age of 96.

Casals was as much at home conducting as he was playing cello, and these performances are all imbued with the same characteristics as Casals's solo playing. They are very forthright with bold and emphatic shaping, vigorous rhythmic drive and concern for the overall musical shape of the work being performed. On the other hand, tempos are at times leisurely and there is a tendancy 'to enjoy the view'. This is very much an interpretative style more common to the first half of this century than the second. One feels that Casals is talking the same musical language as some of his great contemporaries such as Mengelberg and Furtwangler if without their personal idiosyncracies.

-- Gramophone [6/1991]
reviewing the Sony series of Marlboro 40th Anniversary CDs, which includes the present disc

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Marlboro Fest 40th Anniversary - Mendelssohn: Symphony No 4
Sony Masterworks Jul 2011
CD
$17.99

Schreker: Complete Orchestral Works, Vol. 2

CPO

$18.99 Feb 14, 2025

Following the first volume in this series, which charted Franz Schreker's developmental path up to the success of his dance-pantomime Der Geburtstag der Infantin (The Birthday of the Infanta; 777 702-2), this second album focuses primarily on the triumphant years that followed the premiere of his opera Der ferne Klang (The Distant Sound) in 1912. The Vorspiel zu einem Drama (Prelude to a Drama) from 1914 and the Chamber Symphony, composed in 1916, are among the gems of musical Jugendstil (Art Nouveau). Originating as offshoots of contemporary stage projects, these two captivating works display a mastery of sound, harmony, and melody that was unparalleled at the time. The Four Small Pieces for Large Orchestra (1931), which separate these older "siblings" on this recording, speak in a new language. These abstract contributions to film music, presented as a compact and multifaceted concert suite, hint at powerful new directions - plans that, sadly, Franz Schreker could never fully realize.

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Schreker: Complete Orchestral Works, Vol. 2
CPO Feb 2025
CD
$18.99

Bruckner: Symphony No. 5 (Organ Version) / Giesen

Gramola Records

$21.99 Sep 06, 2019

Anton Bruckner's Fifth Symphony is one of the most moving and magnificent of his symphonic works. Matthias Giesen, who has been working for more than 20 years as the organist and stablemaster of the Monastery of St. Florian, where Bruckner started his musical training as a choirboy, presents his transcription for organ of this monumental opus on this recording for Gramola. Matthias Giesen refined his rendition of Bruckner's Fifth on the Bruckner organ of St. Florian, which can be heard on this recording, but also on numerous other organs for many years in order to do justice to the work both in terms of technical and musical matters. In 2017, Giesen presented his adaptation of the "Fantastic", which Bruckner himself never heard in orchestral version during his lifetime, for the first time to an enthusiastic audience.

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 5 (Organ Version) / Giesen
Gramola Records Sep 2019
CD
$21.99

Shostakovich: Symphony No 15 Op 141, Hamlet Op 32 / Pletnev, Et Al

PENTATONE

SACD

$21.99 Apr 28, 2009

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Mikhail Pletnev remains a cypher. Remember how rapturously his first major recording as a conductor, Tchaikovsky's Sixth on Virgin, was greeted? Then he went on to do all the symphonies for DG, and the result was the dullest cycle in history. His Beethoven, on the other hand, was simply perverse: not interestingly perverse, but stupidly perverse. Of course this didn't stop equally stupidly perverse critics from praising it, but that's another story altogether.

Now he turns in a very fine Shostakovich 15th. It has something of the balletic grace that made his initial Pathétique so attractive. The lyrical passages in the second movement and the main theme of the finale have a poised beauty that really is quite striking. Similarly, his light textures in the first movement's "toy" music, as well as the scherzo, tickle the ear and keep the music buoyant.

There is a price, of course, in terms of sharpness of focus and power at the climaxes, not to mention emotional intensity. The xylophone and whip don't cut as they might, and the Wagner quotations in the finale lack a certain atmosphere, but the otherworldly textural clarity that Pletnev achieves in the movement's central passacaglia remains very special. In fact, his relative coolness suits this "spacey" music particularly well.

The coupled Hamlet excerpts do not come from the more familiar film score, but comprise a suite taken from the much earlier incidental music. It's typical youthful Shostakovich: pithy, bright, angular, and lots of fun. It requires little beyond sprightly tempos and a literal reading of the notes to make a fine impression, and that's just what the music receives here. PentaTone's sonics are, like the performance, clear, well-balanced, and a touch lacking in body, whether in stereo or multichannel surround formats. A very recommendable disc.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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Shostakovich: Symphony No 15 Op 141, Hamlet Op 32 / Pletnev, Et Al
PENTATONE Apr 2009
SACD
$21.99