Search results: Search results

1000 results

Products

Ye: Symphony No. 5 "Chu" & The Last Paradise / Serebrier, Royal Philharmonic

BIS

$21.99 Jun 10, 2016

Xiaogang Ye (b. 1955) is one of China’s foremost contemporary composers. His compositions have gained international acclaim over his thirty year career. For this release, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Jose Serebrier, performs Xiaogang Ye’s works Symphony No. 3 ‘Chu’, Op. 46, and The Last Paradise, Op. 24 for violin and orchestra. Joining the Royal Philharmonic are violinist Cho-Liang Lin and soprano Hila Plitmann.

View Full Page

Ye: Symphony No. 5 "Chu" & The Last Paradise / Serebrier, Royal Philharmonic
BIS Jun 2016
CD
$21.99

Guarnieri: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6 - Suite Vila Rica
BIS Feb 2004
CD
$21.99

Tchaikovsky: Symphonies 4, 5, 6 / Rafael Kubelik, Vienna Philharmonic

Urania Records

$32.99 Jan 15, 2021

Tchaikovsky's Symphonies are strangely not included in Kubelik's discography. This Album proposes a rare live recording with the same quality as that of a studio. Kubelík was the sixth of the eight sons of the distinguished Czech violinist Jan Kubelík and the Hungarian-born Countess Marianne Csaky-Szell. Between 1921 and 1929 he studied the orchestral repertoire daily by playing four-hand piano arrangements with his uncle František Kubelík, prompting this comment from his father in 1926: ‘He could realise great things. He is eleven, plays splendidly violin, piano, sight-reading scores and has a good knowledge of the orchestra. Some time ago he had a look to one of my orchestral works and asked me to add a horn to a particular part: he was right!’ He entered the Prague Conservatory in 1929 where for the next four years he studied piano, violin and composition. The present release showcases Kubelik with the Weiner Philharmonic, as they perform Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, and 6, as well as Romeo and Juliet. The original recordings were made in 1960 and 1955.

View Full Page

Tchaikovsky: Symphonies 4, 5, 6 / Rafael Kubelik, Vienna Philharmonic
Urania Records Jan 2021
CD
$32.99

H. Andriessen: Symphonic Works, Vol. 4 / Porcelijn, Netherlands Symphony

CPO

$18.99 Jun 23, 2017

Today Hendrik Andriessen is primarily known as the composer of some magnificent works for the organ, a few choral works mainly performed by amateur choirs, and some masses for the Roman Catholic service. In reality, Andriessen was for many decades a driving force in the Netherlands, as a versatile composer, a performing musician, a much loved teacher, the author of articles and books on music, the director of the Conservatories of Ultrecht and The Hague, and finally as a professor of musicology at the Catholic Univeristy in Nijmegen. Within a time span of some seventy years he has written a large oeuvre of instrumental and vocal works, from symphonies to songs, from masses to operas, from chamber music to organ works. The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra is the symphonic orchestra of the Province of Overijssel. This orchestra from Enschede performs with passionate dedication and virtuosity, and its broad, varied, and always exciting programs have earned it a firm place in this region and beyond. With its employmen tof historical instruments instead of modern ones in the performance of classical works, the ensemble has distinguished itself both in its immediate environment, throughout the Netherlands, and in foreign countries as a unique cultural ambassador on behalf of the Province of Overijssel.

View Full Page

H. Andriessen: Symphonic Works, Vol. 4 / Porcelijn, Netherlands Symphony
CPO Jun 2017
CD
$18.99

Gardner: Piano Concerto, Symphony No 1, Etc / Donohoe
Naxos Sep 2007
CD
$19.99

Mahler: Symphony No. 1; Ruckert-Lieder
Capriccio Apr 2010
CD
$21.99

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

View Full Page

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

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5; Creatures Of Prometheus: Excerpts / Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra

ICA Classics

DVD

$26.99 Feb 22, 2011

Available for the first time since original broadcast!

R E V I E W:

All of a sudden, Charles Munch's star seems to be once again in the ascendant. Sony has recently reissued a swathe of his RCA back catalogue on its new Sony Originals label, including his Debussy orchestral works and his recordings of the Dvorák and Walton cello concertos with Piatigorsky. Coming soon in April is an eight disc box set on RCA Classical Masters that brings together recordings of Brahms, Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn symphonies and other orchestral works … and at a ridiculously low price. Meanwhile, the new independent label, ICA Classics, has brought to market three DVDs of Munch in concert with his Boston Symphony Orchestra. This Beethoven DVD and its companions (a DVD of Debussy and Ravel, and a DVD of Franck, Faure and Wagner) capture live broadcasts that have not been seen since they first went to air in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

I have always been in two minds about Munch's Beethoven. His Boston Beethoven 9 for RCA - one of those new Sony Originals reissues - 88697702992 - is one of my favourite recordings of the work. It is unsubtle, oddly up close and spotlit and never plumbs the depths of piano let alone pianissimo, but it is absolutely thrilling from first note to last and very moving. His Beethoven 5, however, is one of the most enduring disappointments of my CD collection. I pull it out every year or so to see if this time I will find something magical in the performance, and each year I hear scrappy and dynamically flat orchestral playing and an interpretation lacking in nuance.

What a delight it was, then, to listen to and watch the performance of the 5 ^th that closes this DVD. Here is the Munch reading I had been listening for in vain: a dramatic and rhetorical performance; a performance that builds inexorably towards the final peroration; a performance of contrast held together by flexible but fundamentally solid tempi; a performance abounding in spontaneous touches, like the extra space and freedom he affords his oboist, Ralph Gomberg, for his solo in the first movement. It is wonderful to hear, and also great fun to watch Munch's facial expressions and the way his baton drops when the dynamics do so that he seems to be conducting with shoulder movements rather than the invisible stick that is beating time around his knees.

As good as the 5 ^th is, it is the 4 ^th that for me is the highlight here. Munch cuts an unexpectedly dour figure in the adagio introduction to the first movement of the Fourth Symphony. If it weren't for the expansive baton strokes and the white hair, you could almost believe you were watching Fritz Reiner. The allegro ignites, and Munch seems himself once more. Is it a trick of the lens, or is his baton bent a little towards its tip? My goodness, he does shake it about a bit in the allegros! Beethoven's games with rhythm in this symphony are right up Munch's street. His knack of pushing a performance forward and building momentum suits this symphony beautifully. There is a bounce and swagger to the third movement that you just won't hear elsewhere and the finale fizzes.

The music from Beethoven's Prometheus ballet is an interesting inclusion. The liner-notes make much of the fact that Munch hardly ever played this music, so the conductor's most ardent admirers will no doubt need to acquire this DVD to round out their collected discographies. The Overture receives a scintillating performance, right from the whip-crack of the opening staccato chords. I was less impressed by the other two selections from the ballet, though the adagio shows off the orchestra's flute, bassoon, cello and harp. The mono sound does their magnificent playing full justice.

The picture quality of the monochrome source tapes is variable. The Prometheus footage has a tendency to fog and fish bowl curvature. The opening of the Fourth Symphony is disfigured by static lines. The camera work itself is conventional, but the editing strikes a fair balance between footage of the orchestra and the man on the podium. Fortunately the mono sound is clear and carries fair detail. Only at the close of the 5 ^th does the music sound a little cramped in its single channel.

Anyone with an interest in Munch and his magnificent Boston band will find this DVD fascinating.

-- Tim Perry, MusicWeb International

View Full Page

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5; Creatures Of Prometheus: Excerpts / Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra
ICA Classics Feb 2011
DVD
$26.99

Bruckner: Symphony No. 8

Accentus Music

$31.99 May 27, 2016

This recording of Anton Bruckner’s eighth symphony is performed in its original version completed in 1887.; Because of the piece’s boldness, Bruckner’s contemporaries criticized the work, and convinced him to revise the piece.; Here, Fabio Luisi leads the Philharmonia Zurich in this “huge cathedral” of a work, bringing out the perfections in the original, unrevised version.

View Full Page

Bruckner: Symphony No. 8
Accentus Music May 2016
CD
$31.99

BRUCKNER: SYMPHONY NO. 1
MUNCHNER PHILHARMONI May 2018
CD
$16.49

Stanford: Symphonies no 2 and 5 / Lloyd-Jones

Naxos

$19.99 Oct 30, 2007

If you bought the earlier issue, do not hesitate to add this disc to your shelves

Hot on the heels of the first volume of the projected Naxos Stanford symphony cycle (see review) comes Volume Two, which again features David Lloyd-Jones at the helm of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

The Second symphony was premièred, under the composer’s baton, in Cambridge in 1882 and there’s a passing link with the subsequent première of the Fourth symphony in Berlin. In that latter concert Joseph Joachim was the soloist in Stanford’s Suite for Violin and Orchestra. Joachim also participated in the Cambridge concert of 1882, playing the Brahms concerto on that occasion. Following the first performance in 1882 there was another airing of the Second symphony at the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival in the following year. However, in his notes for Vernon Handley’s 1991 recording, Lewis Foreman states that he had been unable to trace any further performances until 1990, when the Ulster Orchestra gave it, presumably as a precursor to the Handley recording for Chandos.

The symphony bears the title ‘Elegiac’ and Stanford prefaced the score with four stanzas from Tennyson’s poem, In Memoriam. However, I’m bound to say that I find it hard to detect any elegiac tone in the music itself. The first movement is marked Allegro appassionato. It’s a vigorous movement in which one feels the music is moving forward pretty constantly, culminating in a dramatic coda.

The main theme of the second movement, a Largo espressivo, is rightly described by annotator Richard Whitehouse, as “both graceful and expressive.” This is rather lovely music, which consistently displays a singing quality. This is followed by a genuine scherzo. The outer sections of this quite short movement display a drive that is Beethoven-like. In between is encased a brief lyrical trio but it’s noticeable that even here the timpani maintain the rhythmic pulse underneath the music, albeit quietly, for much of the time.

The finale opens with an adagio introduction that has a decidedly Brahmsian feel. Once the main allegro is reached that section opens with some delightful wind writing after which the music surges along with no little purpose. This finale has genuine drive and momentum and it builds to a jubilant coda in which, once again, I hear the influence of Brahms.

The Fifth symphony dates from 1894 and Stanford drew his inspiration from two poems by John Milton (1608-1674). He inscribed several stanzas from each in the score and, helpfully, Naxos include these verses in the English version of the booklet notes.

The principal subject of the first movement, ushered in by the woodwind at 1:45, is rather jolly. However, there had been quite a degree of urgency to the brief introduction and this urgency remains as a kind of background presence underpinning the essential joviality of the movement as a whole. The music has constant vitality and is fresh and enjoyable to hear. For the second movement Stanford follows the precedent of Brahms by writing an intermezzo, which bears the Brahmsian indication Allegretto grazioso. Lewis Foreman described this movement in his note for the Chandos-Handley recording as “a gently pastoral minuet”. That’s not quite how it comes across in this present performance, however. Lloyd-Jones adopts a slightly faster speed than Handley – he takes 6:28 against Handley’s 6:56 – and thereby gives the music quite a different character. I wouldn’t presume to say which approach is better. To be truthful, I think both work in their own way though I have a marginal preference for the way the movement goes in Handley’s hands. The bottom line is that both conductors are successful in bringing out the genial character of the music.

The third movement, Andante molto tranquillo, was inspired by Il penseroso. Richard Whitehouse describes this movement as “searching” and I agree. It begins with some fine, expansive string writing, which is gradually enriched by the addition of woodwind and horns. This is Stanford at his noble, expansive best. At 3:47 Stanford introduces new material, with flute and clarinet appropriately to the fore as he responds to Milton’s lines about the nightingale, beginning “Sweet bird that shunn’st the noise of folly.” This material is developed for a while until, after a majestic passage for brass (around 6:00) the opening lyrical material returns, but this time in even richer guise and it’s with this that Stanford brings a most impressive movement to a close.

There’s a strange opening to the finale, featuring quiet, stabbing chords. At 0:33 a restless melody in dotted rhythm appears, first on the strings and then taken up by the winds but the music doesn’t really seem to get into its stride until about 1:20. As the movement unfolds the tone becomes more assertive though those stabbing chords keep cropping up. The last of Milton’s stanzas quoted by Stanford begins “There let the pealing organ blow” and Stanford does indeed add an organ to the orchestral palette (at 8:10) though its initial entry is quiet, just gently underpinning the orchestra. At 10:34 the full orchestra and organ intone a majestic chorale and one thinks that this is the Big Finish. Not so. The music winds down and Stanford brings the movement instead to a rich, luminous but quiet conclusion, which I find very satisfying and which aptly echoes Milton’s words:

Dissolve me into ecstasies, And bring all Heav’n before mine eyes.

It’s not easy to place these two symphonies. Neither is the equal of Elgar’s symphonies but they are far from negligible and these admirable performances under the convincing leadership of David Lloyd-Jones confirm that they do not deserve the neglect into which they have fallen. Lloyd-Jones obtains fine playing from the Bournemouth orchestra and, as with the previous issue in this series, they have been accorded warm yet detailed sound.

This is another distinguished instalment in this Stanford cycle. Vernon Handley’s pioneering set (Chandos) is most certainly not displaced but these Naxos recordings, and this latest one in particular, can stand proudly shoulder to shoulder beside them. Collectors who bought the earlier issue of the Fourth and Seventh symphonies should not hesitate to add this companion volume to their shelves. More please!

-- John Quinn, MusicWeb International

View Full Page

Stanford: Symphonies no 2 and 5 / Lloyd-Jones
Naxos Oct 2007
CD
$19.99

Schmidt: Symphony No 2, Fuga Solemnis / Sinaisky, Malmo SO

Naxos

$19.99 Sep 29, 2009

Admirably bracing and sympathetic, excellently recorded.

The second instalment of the Naxos Schmidt symphonic cycle is with us. It preserves another impressive performance, this time of the E flat major Symphony. As before, the major competition comes from the Detroit Symphony and Järvi on Chandos CHAN9568 -- a four-disc collection.

The Symphony lasts around forty-eight or so minutes -- in this performance -- and is cast in three movements. Written between 1911 and 1913 it opens in genial fashion before some hefty Straussian brass calls puncture the amiable laissez faire. Schmidt is a minor master at alternation of brass fanfare and diaphanous gauzy textures; there’s even an Elgarian contour to his melodic way of thinking, a product of late-Romantic brio, surely, rather than anything else. Those Brucknerian caesuri are another strong influence. Pliant and neat, the second movement moves off into variational waters. These range from the lissom and fast to evocative, if ghostly, ballroom scenes. The baroque-leaning finale with its Bachian Fugue, solenelle style, has a grandly developing sense of space and drives onwards to a stirring and invincible chorale conclusion. The playing is splendid, and the interpretative decision-making vis-à-vis Järvi is a matter of individual taste. The latter has the more virtuosic orchestra but Sinaisky handles the thematic development of the symphony with equal authority.

The bonus, if one can call it that, is the 1937 Fuga Solemnis for organ, sixteen wind instruments and percussion. The organ begins its nobly reserved soliloquy whilst the orchestral forces are only allowed to enter with their stirring blocks of sound at around the mid-point of its 14 minute length. Again a stirring climax is ensured by Schmidt and whilst this one sounds a touch forced, its impact can’t be doubted.

Once again these forces prove to be fully conversant with Schmidt’s own personalised brand of late-romanticism, and its allied harmonic richness. The results are admirably bracing and sympathetic, and have been excellently recorded by the Naxos team.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

View Full Page

Schmidt: Symphony No 2, Fuga Solemnis / Sinaisky, Malmo SO
Naxos Sep 2009
CD
$19.99

Schubert: Complete Symphonies & Fragments / Gaigg, L'Orfeo Barockorchester

CPO

$66.99 Nov 19, 2021

On the occasion of its twenty-fifth anniversary, the L’Orfeo Baroque Orchestra is releasing the present recording of Franz Schubert’s complete symphonies and complete symphonic fragments. It is the most recent gem in this orchestra’s multifaceted repertoire ranging from the suite of the French, German, and Austrian Baroque through the sinfonia of the Mannheim School to Viennese Classicism and Early Romanticism. Although Joseph von Spaun termed Schubert a “song composer” not long after his death, Schubert’s compositional oeuvre may be said to be framed by a symphonic fragment and a sketch for a symphony. The first of these fragments was the score for an overture (D. 2 A) committed to paper around 1810/11 and abandoned in the middle of the exposition, and the last was a draft of three movements for a Symphony in D major (D. 936 A), largely worked out in full, from the last weeks, if not from the last days, of his life. During the period of some eighteen years between these two manuscripts, Schubert occupied himself creatively with almost all the established forms, ensembles, and genres. The symphonic fragments heard here often consist of scores containing only a few measures with the later addition of the instrumentation of a piece, for example, measures 209 to 223 from the first movement of the String Quartet D. 74. Since the composer assigned the date “3 September 1813” to this movement following its final notes, he must have written the fragment immediately prior to beginning his work on the Symphony No. 1 in D major (D. 82).

View Full Page

Schubert: Complete Symphonies & Fragments / Gaigg, L'Orfeo Barockorchester
CPO Nov 2021
CD
$66.99

Mahler: Symphony No. 5 & Des Knaben Wunderhorn / Nelsons, Goerne [Blu-ray]

Accentus Music

Blu-Ray

$41.99 Mar 21, 2016

Also available on standard DVD

Andris Nelsons conducted the Lucerne Festival Orchestra for the third time in August 2015, the orchestra’s second summer without founder and guiding spirit Claudio Abbado. The first half of his concert was already a highlight: the baritone Matthias Goerne seemed completely at home in a selection of songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. His warm, dark voice allows him to capture the somber and tragic atmosphere of this music like no one else. Its shaded timbre is most perfectly suited to the work’s melancholy and nocturnal moods, where one can directly experience how an artist of this caliber can bring music to the edge of the abyss. The Lucerne Festival Orchestra, renowned for its unique Mahler sound, had last played Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in the summer of 2004 with Abbado – a flowing, transparent, and ethereal interpretation. Nelsons finds a completely different approach to the work. His Mahler is fiery, expansive, and powerful. In spite of the introductory funeral march, his reading is more positive than tragic, radiating an intense vitality. It is breathtaking to observe the orchestra’s response to Nelsons’s energetic, physical, and emotional conducting style. The relationship between orchestra and conductor is one of giving and taking, nothing else.

Picture Format Blu?ray: NTSC 16:9, Full HD

Sound Formats Blu?ray: DTS HD Master Audio, PCM Stereo

Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Running Time: 123:12 min

Disc Format: BD 25

Subtitles: German (Original), French, English, Japanese, Korean

View Full Page

Mahler: Symphony No. 5 & Des Knaben Wunderhorn / Nelsons, Goerne [Blu-ray]
Accentus Music Mar 2016
Blu-Ray
$41.99

SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONY NO.8

WARNER CLASSICS

$17.28 Jul 31, 2020

The first album of our new collaboration with ONTC, Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, and their Ossetian musical director, Tugan Sokhiev, features Shostakovich's 8th symphony: an "opera for the Orchestra" composed with an unheard dramatic power. ONTC world famous for their work on French repertoire, is opening up to new horizons under the influence of their Ossetian chief conductor, Tugan Sokhiev. The 15 symphonies of the soviet composer are a major common theme throughout the seasons for the ONTC & Tugan Sokhiev. Tugan Sokhiev was one of the lasts students of the conductor and excellent pedagogue, Ilya Musin, who was one of the first conductors to conduct Symphony n° 7 « Leningrad » (Ilya Musin also trained a generation of Russian chefs like Valery Gergiev, Teodor Currentzis, Yuri Terminakov).

View Full Page

SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONY NO.8
WARNER CLASSICS Jul 2020
CD
$17.28

BEETHOVEN: Octet / Piano Quintet / Symphony No. 7 (arr. for
Chandos Jun 1996
CD
$21.99

Scriabin: Symphony No. 2 / Ono, Brussels Philharmonic

Evil Penguin

$18.99 May 17, 2024

Can a composer like Alexander Scriabin be associated with any tradition at all, given the uniqueness of his musical language? Initially focusing on piano compositions, Scriabin later expanded to larger orchestral works, crafting five symphonies between 1899 and 1910. A noticeable evolution in composition unfolds, transitioning from a late Romantic style to a more modernistic approach. Evolving from late Romanticism to modernism, Scriabin drew inspiration from symbolist poetry and philosophical figures. Envisioning himself as a musical messiah to change the world, his Second Symphony provides a glimpse of this eccentric vision.

View Full Page

Scriabin: Symphony No. 2 / Ono, Brussels Philharmonic
Evil Penguin May 2024
CD
$18.99

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 / Vänskä, Minnesota Orchestra

BIS

SACD

$21.99 Feb 01, 2019

Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony started life as a single-movement tone poem called Todtenfeier (‘Funeral Rites’). Completed in 1888 – one year before Richard Strauss's Death and Transfiguration – it echoed the composer's vision of seeing himself lying dead in a funeral bier surrounded by flowers. Deciding to use it as his opening movement, Mahler didn't finish the complete five-movement symphony until more than six years later, the longest time he spent on any work. The huge scale of the work apart, its weighty subject matter may well have contributed to the slow progress: Mahler himself outlined a scenario making references to the ultimate meaning of life and death (first movement), recollections of lost innocence and the desperation of unbelief (second and third movements), the return to naïve faith (fourth movement) and final redemption from the last judgement (finale). To convey this he took recourse to the human voice: incorporating a solo alto in the 4th movement Urlicht, he went on in the finale to risk comparison with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony by introducing a choir, as well as a soprano and alto soloist.

Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä have received praise for their previous Mahler recordings (‘Vänskä and the orchestra are among the finest exponents of Mahler’s music...’, allmusic.com). The team is here joined by soloists Ruby Hughes and Sasha Cooke and the Minnesota Chorale in the deeply moving close to the vast and tumultuous panorama that is his Second Symphony.

REVIEW:

[Vänskä] adopts a nicely relaxed approach – and pace – for the second movement. The strings play very stylishly and the recording differentiates very well indeed between the various string parts. The third movement is also largely a success; the sardonic humour comes across quite well – as is in keeping with the original Knaben Wunderhorn song on which the movement is based. The orchestra points the music very effectively with special praise for the woodwind in this regard. The wild premonition of the finale (8:03) is projected with dramatic force and urgency. Sasha Cooke sings "Urlicht" very well indeed.

The huge finale is unleashed in dramatic fashion and the vivid impact of the bass drum stroke is typical of the quality of the BIS recording. Vänskä handles this vast musical fresco pretty well. The drama is projected strongly, not least in the huge march episode that follows those two apocalyptic percussion crescendi (9:21). The grosse Appell is impressive (17:16): the distant brass is very well handled in the recording and the solo piccolo and flute distinguish themselves. When the choir begins to sing (20:01) their sound is hushed but distinct, which is as it should be. Ruby Hughes’ silvery voice rises gently and sweetly from the midst of the singers at the end of the first long phrase. Miss Hughes does very well, too, in the ‘O Glaube’ duet with Sasha Cooke.

The performance is highly accomplished. Vänskä has a good choir at his disposal and two excellent soloists. As for his orchestra, they play the music marvellously. There are many idiomatic touches such as string portamenti while accents – so crucial in Mahler – and dynamics are scrupulously observed.

– MusicWeb International

View Full Page

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 / Vänskä, Minnesota Orchestra
BIS Feb 2019
SACD
$21.99

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 (Complete Symphonies, Vol. 2)

Alpha

$20.99 Oct 23, 2026

Basically, I only have two symphonies: the Fourth and the Eighth.' Shostakovich is said to have remarked. Yevgeny Mravinsky, to whom Symphony No. 8 is dedicated, wrote in his diary: 'I spent the whole evening reflecting on and sketching out the form and dramatic arc of Shostakovich's Eighth. It moves me ever more deeply each time. Especially the "Great Terror" section of the first movement!!'. The themes of martyrdom and the transformation of the human being into a manipulable puppet run through this unsettling and monumental work. This recording constitutes the second volume of the complete Shostakovich symphonies by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by it's music director, Alain Altinoglu.

View Full Page

Pre-order

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 (Complete Symphonies, Vol. 2)
Alpha Oct 2026
CD
$20.99

Schacht: Symphonies, Vol. 2 / Schmalfuss, Evergreen Symphony

CPO

$18.99 Nov 19, 2021

Andreas Blau and his orchestral colleagues of the Berliner Philharmoniker are to be admired for discovering the treasure that is Anton Hoffmeister’s Flute Quartets, and they play them superbly well, while placing Hoffmeister’s output in close proximity to Mozart and Haydn, and in the vicinity of early Beethoven. The solo parts are evidently tailormade for the flute, and their virtuoso passages seem modeled on cadenzas from Mozart piano concertos. Their musical sensitivity, evident enjoyment and great orchestral experience ensure the recordings do not just document the artistry of socalled minor masters, but are a valuable addition to our view of the brilliant epoch of Viennese classicism.

View Full Page

Schacht: Symphonies, Vol. 2 / Schmalfuss, Evergreen Symphony
CPO Nov 2021
CD
$18.99

Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 / Haitink, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic

Challenge Classics

$10.49 ~~$20.99~~ Save 50% Oct 15, 2021

Bernard Haitink was born and educated in Amsterdam. His conducting career began at the Netherlands Radio where in 1957 he became the Chief Conductor of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. The links between Bernard Haitink and the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra have withstood the test of time, even when his career was taking him all over the world. One fine example of this was Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust in 1998, later issued on CD(CC 72517). He returned on 15 June 2019, when he gave his very last concert in Amsterdam, with Bruckner Symphony no. 7, a work that has always been especially dear to him.

View Full Page

Sale

Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 / Haitink, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic
Challenge Classics Oct 2021
CD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Alfvén: Symphonic Works, Vol. 3 / Borowicz, German Symphony Orchestra Berlin

CPO

$18.99 Aug 26, 2022

“Here loving service is done to a composer who is perhaps Sweden’s most important symphonist and certainly its most popular one.” This is what FonoForum wrote of Vol. 2 of our edition of symphonic works by Hugo Alfvén, who numbers among the most productive and most versatile Swedish cultural personalities. Alfvén’s Symphony No. 2 brought him a success that he termed his definitive artistic breakthrough. A second performance was held during the same year, and it was not long before it was also being presented in foreign countries. This work became his most popular symphony and the first of his compositions to appear in print (1900). At the time national Romantic tones had long dominated music by Swedish composers, while Alfvén adopted a taste that was more Continental – a fact that reviewers registered with astonishment. His Swedish Rhapsody No. 3, a composition featuring impressive work with motifs from Swedish folk music, rounds off this album.

View Full Page

Alfvén: Symphonic Works, Vol. 3 / Borowicz, German Symphony Orchestra Berlin
CPO Aug 2022
CD
$18.99

Franz Ignaz Beck: Symphonies Op. 4, Nos. 4-6 & Op. 3, No. 5

Naxos

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Dec 09, 2014

The court at Manneheim, one of Europe’s great 18th-century musical centers, provided myriad opportunities for creative development. Having absorbed the ideas of his teacher, Johann Stamitz and other luminaries, Beck wrote a series of symphonies notable for their dramatic contrasts, breadth and sweep, the progressive inclusion of the woodwinds and a willingness to explore expressive intensity. His progressive use of woodwind instruments in the Symphony in G major, Op. 4 No. 5 is among the notable developments to be heard in this second recording of Beck symphonies by Marek Štilec and the Czech Chamber Philharmonic.

View Full Page

Sale

Franz Ignaz Beck: Symphonies Op. 4, Nos. 4-6 & Op. 3, No. 5
Naxos Dec 2014
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Kalinnikov: Symphony No. 1 - Glazunov: The Sea, Op. 28 - Spr
Chandos Feb 2008
CD
$21.99

Santoro: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7 "Brasilia" / Thomson, Goiás Philharmonic Orchestra

Naxos

$13.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 30% Mar 11, 2022

Claudio Santoro was one of Brazil’s most eminent and influential composers. Over a 50-year period, he wrote a cycle of 14 symphonies that is widely acclaimed as the most significant cycle of its kind ever written in Brazil. The two selected works in this inaugural volume of the first complete recording of his symphonies focus on the 1950s, a period when Santoro sought a more direct and communicative idiom using Brazilian elements. His use of folk-based material is nonetheless highly creative, sometimes indeed abstract, as in key moments of Symphony No. 5. The Symphony No. 7 is one of his most complex and intense works, a celebration of his country’s new capital Brasília in music of striking modernity.

REVIEWS:

Claudio Santoro (1919-89) composed fourteen symphonies over the course of about fifty years, making him one of the most noteworthy twentieth-century Brazilian composers in large forms. On evidence here, they are uneven in quality, with the problems occurring when you might expect – in the larger, more complex outer movements. I’m thinking especially of the Fifth Symphony, whose opening Andante mosso–Allegro moderato consists of a series of crescendos leading, essentially, nowhere. The thematic material isn’t too memorable either. The situation improves in the central scherzo and slow movement (a set of variations), but the same “sound and fury signifying nothing” returns in the finale. Santoro’s style incorporates obvious Brazilian elements without ever turning blatantly “folksy.” Clearly the idiom is his own.

This is even more evident in the Seventh Symphony, subtitled “Brasilia,” and designed for the dedication of the country’s new capital city. A more ambitious and successful work than the Fifth, this time with the scherzo played third rather than second, the music evolves from the relative harmonic simplicity of its opening to a more challenging language in the finale–from rural to urban, you might say. Whether this was Santoro’s intention I have no idea, but I like the result. There’s a good bit of stomping and pounding in this symphony–indeed in both works–with some enthusiastic use of the bass drum, but it all seems to be part and parcel of the music’s boldness and energy, and its confrontational gestural language never sounds merely gratuitous.

Certainly the Goiás Philharmonic under Neil Thomson has every reason to be proud of its achievement here. This is not easy music to play. Santoro’s writing for the violins, in particular, sounds positively wicked, with lots of passage-work at high speed, often reaching upwards into the nether regions of the instrument. The scherzos too offer plenty of rhythmic kinks to keep everyone alert, and the crispness of the orchestra’s response can only provoke admiration.

-- ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

Neil Thomson conducts strongly committed readings of these fine works, and Goiás Philharmonic Orchestra play with confidence. The recording is very fine and the notes are exemplary. This first instalment of the Naxos cycle of Santoro’s symphonies augurs well indeed.

-- MusicWeb International

The journey is navigated with aplomb by Neil Thomson and the Goias Philarmonic Orchestra. Deftly woven counterpoint is contrasted with off-beat rhythms and expansive melodies that showcase each section of the orchestra to effect.

-- BBC Music Magazine

View Full Page

Sale

Santoro: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7 "Brasilia" / Thomson, Goiás Philharmonic Orchestra
Naxos Mar 2022
CD
~~$19.99~~ $13.99