Anyone interested in Romantic music will inevitably come across the name Carl Reinecke. Countless aspiring composers from Germany and Scandinavia went to him to learn their craft. To those who wanted to make it in the city of the famous Gewandhaus Orchestra, he was an institution. Reinecke the composer enjoyed great success during his lifetime. However, as a preservationist of musical traditions, he was quickly forgotten after his death. The inevitable course of musical development swept him out of the way. This was not due to the quality of his music. Not only does his compositional technique stand up to scrutiny, but also his music as a sonic experience. This is particularly true of his three symphonies, all of which are now available in our catalogue with the release of the powerful Second in C minor
Eastwood Symphonic is a tribute from Kyle Eastwood to his father Clint Eastwood. It takes the form of a contemporary musical walk into the heart of the legendary actor-director's extraordinary career. As a young man, Kyle Eastwood appeared in a few films made by his father, but what has united them above all else is their mutual passion for music. It is precisely that passion, so dear to Clint and such an everyday part of Kyle's life today, which has bound their relationship so closely over the years. As bassist and frontman of a sparkling jazz quintet, he has already released one album, 2009's Cinematic, that takes up themes written for the silver screen. For Eastwood Symphonic, which fully embraces some of the music that has figured so prominently in his father's films, Kyle has chosen to have his quintet join by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra (CNSO) led by Grammy Award-winning conductor, Gast Waltzing. This family collaboration is a unique album that comes alongside a film produced by Arte.
Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra made many highly praised recordings together. Corigliano's Symphony No. 1 is arguably one of the most significant recordings of his tenure; Barenboim's live world-premiere recording winning two Grammy Awards (Best Orchestral Performance and Best Contemporary Composition). His Erato recordings of the complete Brahms Symphonies and Beethoven's Missa solemnis are a milestone too of this era. Barenboim is also a celebrated Wagnerian, and his Teldec discs of overtures and preludes are frequently cited as the pinnacle of the CSO's "brass-and-silk" capabilities. Barenboim frequently collaborated with superstars like Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma to make outstanding albums: Brahms' Double Concerto with both; the Mendelssohn, Prokofiev No. 2 and Stravinsky with Perlman. He also recorded the Brahms and Sibelius concertos with the then-young superstar Maxim Vengerov. Critics at the time were stunned by the electrifying chemistry between the fiery Vengerov and the more seasoned, philosophical Barenboim.
Kammersymphonie presents a compelling journey through the fractured soundscape of early 20th-century Europe, brought to life by the acclaimed ensemble Fin du Temps. This release brings together three landmark chamber works by Arnold Schoenberg, Hanns Eisler, and Paul Hindemith, composers who each responded in radically different ways to a period of intense artistic, political, and social upheaval. At the heart of the programme lies Schoenberg's Kammersymphonie, Op. 9, heard here in Anton Webern's refined chamber arrangement-a masterpiece that condenses symphonic thinking into a single, highly concentrated movement and marks a decisive step toward musical modernism. Eisler's Vierzehn Arten den Regen zu beschreiben, Op. 70, conceived originally for experimental cinema, offers fourteen sharply etched miniatures of striking expressive power, balancing lyricism, irony, and political awareness. Completing the disc, Hindemith's Quartet for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano reveals a contrasting aesthetic: rigorously constructed, communicative, and rooted in an expanded sense of tonality. Recorded at the Auditorio Manuel de Falla in Granada, this album combines intellectual depth with exceptional sonic clarity and interpretative authority. Kammersymphonie is an essential release for listeners interested in modern chamber music, historical context, and performances of the highest artistic calibre.
The third album on The Cleveland Orchestra's label follows the 'old-new' pairing of their previous release, showcasing recordings of Prokofiev and Schnittke that cover both preand post-pandemic music-making. Prokofiev's Symphony No.2 is a beautiful and exquisitely fashioned gem, inspired by the early 20th century's fascination with mechanics and industry, and the everchanging world during that era. Franz Welser-Most sees the work as "a fascinating examination both of the World War itself and a reflection on how it changed people's views. This is a far-sighted view of Modernity, and shows us an Expressionist spirit that is still deeply moving - and disturbing - today." Schnittke's Concerto for Piano and Strings, featuring pianist Yefim Bronfman with the orchestra's strings, was recorded at Cleveland's Severance Hall, during the midst of Covid-19 restrictions, as part of the orchestra's new In Focus digital broadcast series.
Duke Ellington (1899-1974) carries a musical legacy that extends beyond the realms of being a writer or bandleader. His music still stands as a brilliant model of American compositional creativity. Although Ellington had a profound influence in the world of jazz, his mastery extends even further into several other compositional outputs including concerti, tone poems, film scores, ballets, big band arrangements and several operas. The four works found on Duke Ellington: The Symphonic Portrait are some of these masterworks that were eventually arranged for the symphony orchestra. Each selection varies greatly in structure, however Ellington’s visionary compositional style, combined with his discomfort with musical labels such as jazz and classical, resulted in a genre that integrated these distinct styles most effectively.
On Italian Perspectives, the Bamberger Symphoniker and Riccardo Frizza trace the revival and evolution of Italian instrumental music. Giuseppe Martucci's Symphony No. 1 in D minor, completed in 1895, illuminates the Italian symphonic tradition often overshadowed by opera, blending Brahmsian rigor with striking, passionate outbursts. Respighi's Trittico Botticelliano brings Renaissance paintings to life with luminous chamber orchestration, while his masterful orchestrations of Rachmaninoff's *5 Études-Tableaux* reveal a rare synthesis of Italian colour and Russian narrative depth. From desolate seascapes and dramatic funeral marches to the playful, suspenseful tale of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, Respighi transforms piano works into vivid orchestral landscapes, preserving every nuance of Rachmaninoff's originals. Riccardo Frizza, featured on PENTATONE in The Three Queens and Signor Gaetano (2022), leads the Bamberger Symphoniker in their PENTATONE debut, bringing these works to life with precision, colour, and expressive intensity.
Williams: Ballads For Orchestra, Fairest Of Stars, Etc
Lyrita
CD
$20.99Sep 01, 2006
This is Lyrita’s second CD of Grace Williams reissues. My review of the first (6/95) revealed that I had forgotten that the Second Symphony had been recorded back in 1979. Now it is reissued here, an absorbing work whose mix of styles and models serves as a reminder that pluralism in music is not just a phenomenon of the years since 1980. The symphony begins by evoking Shostakovich and Vaughan Williams but, by the finale, it is a late-romanticism recalling both Wagner and Mahler that provides the source for Williams’s most powerful utterances, before the final ‘return to earth’ – and to echoes of Vaughan Williams.
Something of the symphony’s stylistic blend, with its inherent and persistent tensions, can also be heard in Ballads. This is music with a strong narrative drive, full of incident and sturdily constructed, but Ballads and the symphony are quite heavily scored, and these performances, though excellent in many ways, now sound rather congested. A wider sonic canvas is needed, to let more light and air into the textures.
These orchestral compositions reveal a distinctive personality, but Williams is still more impressive in the neo-Straussian opulence of Fairest of Stars, a setting of Milton whose vocal line seems to reflect the wonder and ecstasy of Ariadne auf Naxos. At the same time, the composer’s familiarity with Britten’s music is also recalled in certain turns of phrase. Fairest of Stars has a symphonic expansiveness, yet the rich instrumental commentary never impedes the vocal part, here projected with admirable sensitivity by Janet Price.
SOMM Recordings celebrates the rich cultures of Cyprus with music inspired by this Mediterranean island and the legend of Othello, as conductor-composer Nimrod Borenstein and the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra perform works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Antonin Dvorak, Franz Schubert, and Borenstein himself. Previous Borenstein collaborations with SOMM include his label debut featuring three of his piano compositions [SOMMCD 281], and the release of his Shakespeare Songs, Mandolin Concerto, and Oboe Concerto [SOMMCD 719]. The CySO, is both a strong presence in the musical life of the island and a national symbol that represents the Republic of Cyprus internationally. The album's title work, Legends of Cyprus, composed by Borenstein for the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra in 2025, evokes an entire world of feelings, atmospheres, and magical stories. The composer describes the piece as a continuation of his exploration of richly contrasted orchestral colours and emotional worlds, but within a more concentrated single-movement form-a form akin to 'what the short story is to the novel.' Shakespeare set four of the five acts of Othello on the island of Cyprus, where the tragedy of Iago's manipulation of the Moorish general into believing the infidelity of the innocent Desdemona plays out. The gifted and tragically short-lived Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was commissioned by the actor-manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree to write incidental music for a 1909 production of Othello at His Majesty's Theatre in London. Three years later, Coleridge-Taylor drew from his theatre music a vibrant five-movement orchestral suite. When Antonin Dvorak arrived in New York 1892 to take up the post of Director of the National Conservatory of Music, he brought with him Nature, Life, and Love, a cycle of three concert overtures. He had composed the third, Othello, earlier that year and conducted the premiere of the trilogy as part of a farewell concert in Prague. Although named a concert overture, Othello is close to being a symphonic poem in it's dramatic musical interpretation of Shakespeare's play and it's frenetic climax of the tragic events. Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus by the German playwright Helmina von Chezy concerns the attempts of the heroine to reclaim her throne despite the efforts of the governor to thwart her. The play closed after two performances in 1823 and is all but lost, though the music written by her friend Franz Schubert-which we know as his Incidental Music to Rosamunde-remains an absolute triumph of the Romantic era. It consists of nine numbers, and included on this disc are the famous Entr'acte No.3 and Ballet No.2.
Maxim Emelyanychev's affinity with Mozart is well known, especially when it comes to piano works. In 2018, the conductor and keyboardist treated us to a recording that not only displayed his virtuosity and musicianship, but also revealed his remarkably close understanding of the composer's music. Today, the symphonies are the focus of his first long-term project with Il Pomo d'Oro, an ensemble he has been working with as it's conductor since 2013. As he points out, this project, aiming eventually to provide a complete set of the Mozart symphonies, is unlike anything he has recorded with the ensemble hitherto on period instruments. The approach here is original: each volume will feature an early symphony by Mozart, together with one of his great mature symphonies, which will enable the listener to perceive his many facets, revealed in the course of his development. Each volume will also include a bonus work, featuring a special guest. Inaugurating the series, Maxim Emelyanychev himself provides the hors d'œuvre with Concerto o.23 K.488, played on a fortepiano, before going on to conduct Mozart's Symphonies Nos.1 and 41.
A master Beethoven conductor in his prime - a 12-CD set presenting the 'London' Beethoven recordings of Sir Colin Davis, including the Symphonies, a selection of Overtures, the five Piano Concertos (Stephen Kovacevich), Violin Concerto (Arthur Grumiaux) and the two Masses. These broadly-sung and spacious performances, unexaggerated yet alive, are collected together for the first time. When Colin Davis became it's Chief Conductor in 1967, the BBC Symphony Orchestra was known as the house band for the BBC Proms, specializing in new music, and a radio orchestra first and foremost. With this series of Beethoven recordings the orchestra entered the mainstream commercial market and showed itself the equal of many more glamorous ensembles, not least thanks to the rich and rounded sonority cultivated by Davis. A 1961 recording of the Seventh Symphony with Beecham's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra had gathered much critical praise, but Davis's 1976 remake with the LSO proved that the elemental fire of the early recording was no fluke. These are broadly sung and spacious performances, unexaggerated and yet alive with the strong accents and inner detail that marked out Davis's readings of music from Mozart to Tippett. The five piano concertos with Stephen Kovacevich quickly became a staple of the Philips catalogue, but the symphony recordings fell out of print: they have been compiled here for the first time, receiving new remasterings and first publications on CD, as are several of the overtures. There is an opportunity to compare the young firebrand Davis and his calmer self in middle age with two accounts of the Pastoral Symphony: with the LSO in 1962 (from the same sessions as a previously unpublished Second Leonore Overture - unpublished until now!) and with the BBCSO in July 1974. The First Symphony also receives it's first appearance on a Universal Music label. The BBCSO cycle was left incomplete, and Davis recorded both the Mass in C and Missa Solemnis with the LSO - again, full-bodied readings that have maintained their place in the catalogue and drawn praise for their unaffected, straightforward eloquence - but his first recorded Ninth had to wait until 1985, once he had become Music Director of the Bavarian Radio SO in Munich. The playing here is superbly refined and animated by a springy articulation that was a Davis specialty and set him apart from the German Romantic tradition in this repertoire, as did the observance of repeats. The most complete compilation of Davis's 'London' Beethoven ever issued, the set is published with a new essay by Peter Quantrill, and a tribute by Costa Pilavachi, who worked with Davis during his time at Philips.
Performing music from Baroque to new commissions on both modern and period instruments, Alina Ibragimova has established a reputation for versatility and the "immediacy and honesty" (The Guardian) of her performances. Alina has performed with orchestras including the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, London Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Swedish Radio Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Tonhalle-Orchester Z?rich; and conductors Vladimir Jurowski, Sir John Eliot Gardner, Jakub Hrusa, Robin Ticciati, Daniel Harding, Edward Gardner and the late Bernard Haitink, among others. Her 2020 album of Shostakovich violin concertos with Vladimir Jurowski and the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia 'Evgeny Svetlanov' won a Gramophone Award and Diapason d'Or and was one of The Times's Discs of the Year. This 2-LP set is pressed on 180g vinyl.
Anton Bruckner was undoubtedly Sergiu Celibidache's favourite composer, and with the Munich Philharmonic the great maestro had created the perfect orchestra for his musical ideas. The MPHIL label celebrated Bruckner's 200th birthday with two very special releases: Symphonies No. 7 and No. 8 from 1984 and 1985 - two historical and previously unreleased recordings from the Herkulessaal of the Residenz Munich - genuine rarities from the orchestra's vast archive, and newly remastered.
Vale - A pastoral symphony, Tristan - still, Pluen (feather)
Signum Classics
CD
$20.99Apr 24, 2026
This new album presents three major orchestral works by British composer William Mival, performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins. Spanning two decades, the album features the expansive new symphony Vale, the contemplative Tristan - still, and the Welsh-themed Pluen (feather). Together, they trace Mival's engagement with tradition and landscape. From the concentrated focus of Tristan - still to the folk-song variations of Pluen and the broad, five-movement design of Vale, the recording offers a clear overview of Mival's approach to writing for large forces.
As chief conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali has spent five years recording Sibelius' symphonies and symphonic poems for Alpha Classics, landmarks of the discography which have received numerous awards worldwide. He wanted to continue this cycle with the famous violin concerto, for which he chose the young Swedish violinist Ava Bahari, artist in residence at the Gothenburg Symphony and ECHO Rising Star for 2026/2027... Together, they form a close-knit duo and share the same passion for the music of the Finnish composer who, heartbroken at not having realised his dream of becoming a virtuoso violinist, composed a concerto that would become an essential work in the history of music, in which soloist and orchestra merge... Rouvali and the GSO also recorded another work that demonstrates Sibelius' innovative symphonic thinking: the cycle of Four Legends of Lemminkainen, first heard in Helsinki on 13 April 1896.
Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet, Serenade; Ewald: Quintets / Eschenbach, Philadelphia Orchestra
Ondine
CD
$36.99Mar 30, 2010
Crowning their series of recordings together for Ondine, The Philadelphia Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach are featured here with Peter Tchaikovsky's most popular orchestral pieces, Romeo and Juliet, String Serenade, and Francesca da Rimini. As an added bonus, the Orchestra's brass principals perform two brass quintets by Victor Ewald.
The Philadelphia Orchestra and the music of Peter Tchaikovsky form a relationship on which a legend was built. Enthusiastic press and success followed on the release of the previous recordings of the three final symphonies Nos. 4-6. Romeo and Juliet is Tchaikovsky's first acknowledged masterpiece and today one of the most popular orchestral compositions ever written. The swirling orchestral mastery of Francesca da Rimini makes this a true showpiece for the Orchestra with its legendary "Philadelphia Sound". The Mozart-like String Serenade remains one of the most beloved of all works for string orchestra. Both Tchaikovsky and Ewald were active composers in St. Petersburg's musical life during the same time and familiar with each other's work. Esteemed by all lovers of brass music, Ewald's Quintets are imbued with romantic Russian national feeling.
This is the ninth CD under the "formidable Ondine-Eschenbach-Philadelphia partnership" (Gramophone), which since 2005 has produced discs that have been honored with accolades including BBC Music Magazine's Disc of the Month, Gramophone's "Editor's Choice," The New York Times' "Top Ten Recordings of the Year," and the German Record Critics' Award, among others.
John Joubert, Robert Simpson, Christopher Wright: British Cello Concertos
Lyrita
CD
$20.99Nov 01, 2014
At the heart of this CD is the cellist Raphael Wallfisch. He not only performs these pieces with the utmost musicianship but they were also all written for him. Since the BBC NOW play with their customary skill under William Boughton, about as well established an expert on his native British music as one could wish to have, this CD is home and dry. The Hoddinott Hall is one of the best acoustics in the country and Lyrita's engineers have, as usual, produced a splendid sound. I did wonder about the slight left-placement of the cello but that is where soloists usually sit so it may simply reflect reality.
Joubert's work is, as the title states, in two movements. Each lasts a little over 11 minutes. Considering it is scored for only double woodwind, horns and strings, it displays a wide range of instrumental colours and is not only impressively coherent but also makes a very pleasurable sound. There is plenty of energy in the work. This is not a pastoral idyll one can allow to just wash over you. Joubert keeps one firmly engaged throughout and reminded me that I have neglected my sole Joubert CD prior to this, the First Symphony, also on Lyrita.
The late Robert Simpson was a very important symphonist and composer of string quartets. His musical structures require close attention from his listeners. This concerto, one of a mere handful, is typical of his later style. It was in fact his last orchestral piece. It consists of a theme and eleven variations played without a break and lasting very nearly half an hour. It is by turns lyrical and dramatic, ending quietly. Though the orchestra is large the textures are always clear and I found myself gripped by his typically involved musical argument right up to the 'calm resignation' of the coda, described thus in the excellent notes by Paul Conway.
Finally Christopher Wright has come to my attention only recently, having heard an extract from his lovely Violin Concerto of 2010 (Dutton CDLX 7286), so I was not surprised to discover that his Cello Concerto is also a fascinatingly individual creation full of lovely sounds but also of much energy and momentum.
We do not hear many different cello concertos in the concert hall. Those by Elgar, Dvorak, Schumann and Shostakovich are deservedly the most frequently performed. The three recorded on this CD are of a quality and approachability to match such as Saint-Saëns, Hindemith, Martinu and Walton. They should most certainly not be allowed to lapse into obscurity.
In July 1884, MacDowell and his wife, Marian, spent their honeymoon in England, and were both captivated by performances of Shakespeare plays at London's Lyceum Theatre. The young composer started immediately on sketches based on six characters, but completed only two, Hamlet and Ophelia, which were published the following year. MacDowell recycled some of the music from his sketch for Benedick, from Much Ado about Nothing, as the second movement of his Second Piano Concerto. Having lived in Germany from 1885 to 1888, the couple returned to America and Edward reactivated his career as a concert pianist. The Second Concerto was the perfect vehicle to display his virtuosity, and he gave the first performance in New York in 1889. Composed during the same period as the Second Concerto, the Romanze for Cello and Orchestra was written at Wiesbaden in 1887, and MacDowell dedicated it to the virtuoso Bohemian cellist and composer David Popper. The Suite in A minor was the first work MacDowell composed after the couple's move to Boston, and reflects his lifelong love of nature. Set in five movements, it received it's first performance in 1895 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Emil Paur.
I waited a very long time to record the Beethoven symphonies, said Daniel Barenboim when this cycle was first released in 2000. "I waited for the music to mature in me - or me in it - and to find an orchestra that not only did what I asked it to do, but which really felt every detail in the music exactly as I did at the moment we were playing it. This is the greatest joy that a conductor can have." This is the second set of 3LPs, after the first one released in May (Symphonies 3-5); these recordings are released for the very first time on vinyl.
