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Schubert: Symphonies, Vol. 4

Chandos

SACD

$16.99 ~~$21.99~~ Save 20% Mar 14, 2025

Edward Gardner's Schubert cycle concludes with the 'Great' Symphony No. 9 in C major. Having (remarkably) composed a symphony a year between 1813 and 1818, the onset of syphilis and it's intrusive treatment seemed to shake the composer's confidence as a symphonist - the Ninth is the only symphony after those first six that he actually completed. This is attributed by many to a wonderful holiday with friends in the high Austrian Alps that seems to have re-ignited his enthusiasm. The nickname 'Great' may originally have arisen to distinguish it from the 'little' C major Symphony (No. 6), but is apt, as the Ninth is on so much greater a scale than any symphony before it, which can run to almost an hour in some performances. The soprano Mary Bevan joins Edward Gardner and the CBSO in a selection of orchestral songs that complete the album. One was orchestrated by Schubert himself, the others are settings by Britten, Berlioz, Brahms, and Reger.

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Schubert: Symphonies, Vol. 4
Chandos Mar 2025
SACD
~~$21.99~~ $16.99

SYMPHONY NO.9
Sony Masterworks Jan 2005
SACD
$11.98

Handel: Messiah / Davis, Toronto Symphony

Chandos

SACD

$21.98 ~~$43.99~~ Save 50% Nov 18, 2016

Experience the transcendent glory of Messiah in Sir Andrew Davis’s majestic, must-hear edition of Handel’s beloved classic. Recorded live on SACD, this unique version makes use of all the colours available from the modern symphony orchestra to underline the mood and meaning of the individual movements. Without detracting from the innate power of the original, the conductor’s score calls for moments of drama, pathos, and even, sometimes, whimsicality. It is supported by substantial brass and woodwind forces, and several percussion instruments (including marimba!).

REVIEW:

The performance is lightly cut, mainly toward the ends of Parts II and III, and both da capo arias (‘He was despised’ and ‘The trumpet shall sound’) have only the A section. Most of the ornamentation, including simple appoggiaturas, is omitted, as well as most occasions for what I call justified rhythms, where, say, upbeat eighth notes are taken as sixteenths to match other parts. Where choices are available, the common ones prevail, as in the 4/4 ‘Rejoice’ and the duet version of ‘He shall feed his flock’.

Tempos are crisp and modern, and the performers are all very good. The four soloists (with mezzo, not countertenor) are first rate; and the choir, which must number around 150, sings with the agility of much smaller groups. This is a “big” Messiah with none of the problems we normally associate with such endeavors. I guess we could call it “historically informed” because tempos are brisk and the spirit is not at all romantic. It also struck me as a gentle repudiation of Musicological Correctness—and that is no doubt a good thing. I dare say that if you had a contest lining up all the approaches to Messiah and had a review panel consisting of people with no musicological prejudices, this would be the winner.

-- American Record Guide

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Handel: Messiah / Davis, Toronto Symphony
Chandos Nov 2016
SACD
~~$43.99~~ $21.98

Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 3 and 4
Challenge Classics Jan 1996
CD
$11.99

SYMPHONY NO.3, METAPHYSICA HARP CONCERTO

DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON

$17.49 Aug 07, 2026

SYMPHONY NO.3, METAPHYSICA HARP CONCERTO Internationally acclaimed Japanese composer and conductor Joe Hisaishi leads the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with celebrated harpist Emmanuel Ceysson, in a major world premiere recording that pairs his Symphony No. 3 'Metaphysica' with his new harp concerto - a virtuosic, genre-defying work.

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SYMPHONY NO.3, METAPHYSICA HARP CONCERTO
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON Aug 2026
CD
$17.49

Mix & Match

SYMPHONY NO 3
NONESUCH Jan 2016
Vinyl
$30.99

Bruckner: Symphony No. 9

Halle

$27.99 May 02, 2025

Taken from a rapturously received and critically acclaimed performance at The Bridgewater Hall (with The Times' 5* review describing a 'splendid night' and hailing the magnificent sound of the 'blazing Halle) this recording will prove essential for those wishing to hear the work in the intended four movement form. The recording is accompanied by a booklet containing a personal introduction from Kahchun Wong and a note from Dr. John A. Phillips, surveying the material Bruckner left for the Finale and detailing the work done on reconstructing it for performance.

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 9
Halle May 2025
CD
$27.99

Wordsworth: Orchestral Music, Vol. 1 / Gibbons, Liepaja Symphony

Toccata

$20.99 Jun 01, 2018

The music of London-born William Wordsworth (1908–88) – a great-great-grandson of the poet’s brother Christopher – lies downstream from that of Vaughan Williams and Sibelius; like that of his contemporary Edmund Rubbra, Wordsworth’s music unfolds spontaneously, as a natural process, with a sense of grandeur perhaps enhanced by his move to the Scottish Highlands in 1961. Three of the four works recorded here display the sober dignity of the instinctive symphonist; the Variations on a Scottish Theme reveal a sly sense of humor behind the serious countenance. John Gibbons has conducted most of the major British orchestras. He has been Principal Conductor of Worthing Symphony Orchestra- the professional orchestra of West Sussex- with which he has given many world premieres of neglected works. He studied music at Queens’ College, Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, winning numerous awards as conductor, pianist and accompanist. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, vice chairman of the British Music Society, and choral director at Clifton Cathedral. His own music has been performed in various abbeys and cathedrals as well as on the South Bank, London.

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Wordsworth: Orchestral Music, Vol. 1 / Gibbons, Liepaja Symphony
Toccata Jun 2018
CD
$20.99

SYMPHONY NO. 6
MDG Sep 2007
CD
$23.99

SYMPHONY NO. 6
MDG Sep 2007
CD
$24.99

Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Works, Symphonies 1-6 / Jarvi, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

BIS

$59.99 Dec 01, 2010

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Gothenburg Symphony OrchestraNeeme Jarvi, conductor Symphony no 1 in G minor "Winter Dreams", Op. 13; Romeo &Â?JulietSymphony no 2 in C minor "Little Russian", Op. 17; Overture in FSymphony no 3 in D major "Polish", Op. 29; The Snow Maiden, Op.12Symphony no 4 in F minor, Op. 36; Symphony no 5 in E minor, Op 64Symphony no 6 in B minor "Pathetique", Op. 74; The Tempest;Overture on the Danish National Anthem; Voyevoda Dances;Dmitri Pretender and Vassily Shuisky; Serenade for N.Rubinstein;Capriccio Italien; Francesca da Rimini; etc.

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Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Works, Symphonies 1-6 / Jarvi, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
BIS Dec 2010
CD
$59.99

SYMPHONY IN G MINOR

ZARATHUSTRA MUSIC

Vinyl

$31.99 Sep 01, 2017

Zarathustra Music is proud to present the world premiere recording of Elliot Goldenthal's 'Symphony in G# Minor' performed by Pacific Symphony under conductor Carl St. Clair. Composer, conductor, and orchestra previously collaborated 20 years before when Pacific Symphony commissioned and recorded Goldenthal's highly acclaimed 'Fire, Water, Paper - A Vietnam Oratorio. ' For the occasion of the orchestra's American Composers Festival 2014, Goldenthal composed his 25 minute symphony, in the obscure yet autobiographical key of G# Minor, especially for the occasion. The work premiered immediately after the composer's 60th birthday in May 2014 and represents Goldenthal's first large-scale concert work since Fire, Water, Paper. In the past 20 years, Goldenthal has garnered three Academy Award nominations (Interview with a Vampire, Michael Collins) and won and Oscar and Golden Globe for his score to Frida. In 2007, Goldenthal was finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his opera Grendel which premiered at Los Angeles Opera and Lincoln Center Festival. In 2013 composed his String Quartet No. 1 'The Stone Cutters' as well as music for Julie Taymor's stage production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' that opened a new theater in Goldenthal's hometown of Brooklyn, NY. In 2013 the Joffrey ballet produced his large-scale three-act ballet Othello at the 4, 000 seat Auditorium Theater in Chicago, and in 2015 the American Ballet Theater revives Othello for it's fourth time at the Metropolitan Opera House. Meanwhile, downtown the composer is providing 'Music & Soundscapes' for the new one-woman show Grounded starring Anne Hathaway at the Public Theater. Goldenthal remains one of the most highly acclaimed and dynamic composers working today.

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SYMPHONY IN G MINOR
ZARATHUSTRA MUSIC Sep 2017
Vinyl
$31.99

Mahler: Des knaben Wunderhorn, Adagio from Symphony no 10 / Boulez, Cleveland [Blu-ray]

Accentus Music

Blu-Ray

$37.99 May 31, 2011

Note: This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

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Also available on standard DVD

Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra
Soloists: Magdalena Kožená and Christian Gerhaher

Gustav Mahler: Adagio from Symphony No. 10
Twelve Songs from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn"

“Boulez’s Mahler has surely gained a degree of intensity over the years. Rather than sacrificing his legendary intellectual rigor, he has wedded it to a profound visceral understanding of this music.” -- WCLV classical FM

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Mahler’s birth and just one month short of his own 85th birthday, composer-conductor Pierre Boulez marked his forty-five-year collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra by directing this very special Mahler-only concert at Ohio’s splendid Severance Hall. Following the Adagio from the unfinished Tenth Symphony, he presented Twelve Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn with soloists Magdalena Kožená and Christian Gerhaher, both much-sought-after opera and concert singers on the world’s leading stages.

Bonus:
- Interview with Pierre Boulez

Picture format: 1080i Full-HD
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 88 mins
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 25)

R E V I E W:

The performances heard on this video are identical to the program released on CD by DG and reviewed by me in Fanfare 34:4. It therefore behooves me to suggest that the only reason to acquire the video is the dramatic difference in the respective sound productions.

The beautiful interior of Severance Hall, with its Art Deco accents, makes a very pleasant backdrop indeed. In contrast to the CD, the program starts with the Adagio from the 10th Symphony. The performance, a very good one, is greatly improved in its surround-sound version, especially on Blu-ray. It must be said, though, that watching Boulez with his minimal gestures and dour expression is not terribly exciting.

The occasional clever use of split screen provides a discrete frame each for the singer’s and conductor’s faces, though in this case the contrast between the animated vocalists and the stone face of the conductor is somewhat unnerving. As I wrote in my review of the CD, this is not my ideal version of this program, though Magdalena Kožená can hold her own with the best of the competition. Christian Gerhaher is a fine baritone but is not as dramatically convincing and lacks the heft of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau or Thomas Hampson, two of my preferences for the male voice. Of the two singers, Kožená is more fun to watch, too, as her facial expressions bring character to her songs.

The bonus interview program provides Boulez’s thoughts on Mahler’s music and the specific program performed in Cleveland, his observations on the orchestra and its hall, the future of classical music, and some personal observations. The questions appear written on the screen (typos and all), and then Boulez is shown answering. The interview can be heard in English, German, and French. Also included (from the Severance Hall stage) is a short tribute to the conductor on his 85 birthday with Franz Welser-Möst and the management of the Cleveland Orchesta, which includes an audience-particapatory sing-along.

FANFARE: Christopher Abbot

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Mahler: Des knaben Wunderhorn, Adagio from Symphony no 10 / Boulez, Cleveland [Blu-ray]
Accentus Music May 2011
Blu-Ray
$37.99

Ives: Symphony No 3, Etc / Slatkin, St Louis So

RCA

$17.99 May 30, 2008

This is a splendid set of Ives classics with two novelties. It says something forhis stature these days that this is the fifth recording of Three Places in New England in the current British catalogue. The opening march is slightly disappointing in Slatkin's over measured treatment, but there are plenty of fireworks (literally, since it depicts a Fourth of July outing) in ''Putnam's Camp'' and real intensity in the sound of hymn-singing across the river which is built into ''The Housatonic at Stockbridge''.

It is good to have The Unanswered Question and Central Park in the Dark where they belong—together. The separate layers of activity in both pieces, with the strings static and the other instrumental textures dynamically changing, create the quintessential Ives experience in the simplest form. The spacing is carefully engineered in this recording and the detail at all levels is clear.

I have compared the Tilson Thomas recording of the Third Symphony unfavourably with that by Sir Neville Marriner. Slatkin, in this third recording in the British catalogue, now has the edge on both of them, with an affectionate treatment of this hymn-saturated score. Tilson Thomas used a new edition. I think Slatkin does too, and there are extras in the strings at the end of the second movement which I have never heard before.

The two novelties are both early, from the 1890s. The March is all infectious razzle-dazzle and the Fugue in four keys is experimental for its period but smoothly contrived and haunting in its ending. They complete a well planned and competitive Ives release.

-- Peter Dickinson, Gramophone [4/1993]

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Ives: Symphony No 3, Etc / Slatkin, St Louis So
RCA May 2008
CD
$17.99

PROKOFIEV: SYMPHONY NO. 5
RCO LIVE HOLLAND Apr 2016
SACD
$21.99

Mahler: Symphony No 6, Piano Quartet / Eschenbach, Philadelphia Orchestra

Ondine

SACD

$13.49 ~~$26.99~~ Save 50% Oct 03, 2002

REVIEW:

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s first two releases for Ondine under Christoph Eschenbach (Bartók and Tchaikovsky) were extremely good, no doubt about it, but this Mahler Sixth is really extraordinary. Part of its success must stem from the fact that the best German conductors usually do misery especially well, finding the dark side of just about everything. If you don’t believe me, check out Kurt Sanderling’s startlingly deep and edgy rendition of Poulenc’s Concert Champêtre on Supraphon. So you can just imagine what can happen with a piece like Mahler’s Sixth. Anyone fortunate enough to have heard Eschenbach’s performances of this work with the NDR Orchestra in Hamburg will know that he has a special feeling for its harrowing intensity and expressionistic instrumental palette. Toss in the collective virtuosity of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the result is, to put it mildly, pretty special.

As a coupling, the early piano quartet movement is more appropriate than you might at first think. First of all, it shares the same key as the symphony, and second, it’s useful to have it along as part of an all-Mahler program, allowing collectors to round out their collections without having to search for an acceptable all-chamber-music program. The engineering also represents the best in this series so far, with virtually no audience noise, tremendous presence in both stereo and multichannel formats, and extremely natural balances between orchestral sections. I know that Mahler Sixes seem to be a dime a dozen these days, but this one, a first for Philadelphia, belongs among the elite few (Bernstein I and II, Chailly, Levi, T. Sanderling, and Gielen). It’s just bloody thrilling.

— ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

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Mahler: Symphony No 6, Piano Quartet / Eschenbach, Philadelphia Orchestra
Ondine Oct 2002
SACD
~~$26.99~~ $13.49

Rachmaninoff: Concertos Nos. 1 & 4 / Simon, Slatkin, St. Louis Symphony

Vox

$19.99 Dec 15, 2023

Learn more about Elite Recordings and the revival of their VOX Classics albums on the Naxos Classical Spotlight Podcast!

Abbey Simon and Leonard Slatkin’s much-admired set of Rachmaninoff’s works for piano and orchestra makes a welcome return to the catalogue with this release of Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 4 plus the Paganini Rhapsody. These classic performances originally issued on the Vox label in the late 1970s were produced by Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz whose recordings are considered by audiophiles to be amongst the finest available. Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 with Simon and Slatkin are available on VOX-NX-3014CD.

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Rachmaninoff: Concertos Nos. 1 & 4 / Simon, Slatkin, St. Louis Symphony
Vox Dec 2023
CD
$19.99

Saint-Saens: Piano Concertos / Descharmes, Soustrot, Malmo Symphony

Naxos

$19.99 Mar 10, 2017

Listen to the Naxos Podcast to learn more about this release

Soustrot’s Saint-Saëns symphony cycle was quite good, and this new project looks to be similarly successful. For my money, the five piano concertos remain one of the most underrated groups of major works in the entire romantic repertoire. Yes, Nos. 2 and 4 get played more often than the rest, but there isn’t a dud in the bunch. It’s really only prejudice against the French aesthetic–the formal freedom, love of color, flash, and the dance–that prevents the music from getting the recognition that it deserves. That, and perhaps the fact that the melodious ease that informs all of Saint-Saëns’ writing makes a mockery of German pretensions to ownership of instrumental music in large forms.

These performances demonstrate a thoroughly “French” sensibility. Romain Descharmes savors the music’s charm and brilliance without indulging in excessive sentimentality. The First Concerto, with its surprising wiring for horns, has a breezy freshness that completely disarming. It’s played with joyful directness and a complete lack of affectation. I enjoy fast and dazzling versions of the Second Symphony, with its whirlwind finale, but Descharmes treats the piece with almost epicurean relish, nowhere more so than in this sassy, witty account of the central scherzo. There’s no lack of virtuosity, but also time to savor the music’s many harmonic delights.

Through it all, Soustrot accompanies with total confidence, and the sonics are terrific. A disc to savor.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

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Saint-Saens: Piano Concertos / Descharmes, Soustrot, Malmo Symphony
Naxos Mar 2017
CD
$19.99

Bruk: Orchestral Music, Vol. 4 / Resnis, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra

Toccata

$20.99 Jun 02, 2023

This fourth instalment of the recent symphonic output of Fridrich Bruk (born in Ukraine in 1937 but a Finnish resident since 1974) brings two earlier works – from when Bruk was merely in his late seventies. His Symphonies Nos. 15 and 16 – both predicated on Bruk’s concern for the environment – inhabit the soundworld that has become familiar from his more recent symphonies: almost a stream of consciousness expressed through wildly inventive orchestral writing in a kaleidoscope of colour and counterpoint, sitting somewhere between Villa-Lobos and Pettersson in its profligate abundance.

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Bruk: Orchestral Music, Vol. 4 / Resnis, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra
Toccata Jun 2023
CD
$20.99

Stravinsky: Symphonies; Divertimento / A. Davis, BBC Philharmonic

Chandos

SACD

$21.99 Nov 11, 2022

The Symphony in C was conceived in Paris in the late 1930s, but completed in America in 1940, and is dedicated to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary. Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and premièred in 1946, the Symphony in Three Movements presents us with movements that also manifest different ways of moving: a march, a slow dance, and a march-jog-race. The Greeting Prelude was written as an eightieth birthday tribute to Pierre Monteux, conductor of the premières of Pétrouchka and The Rite of Spring, and was first performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra on the very day: 4 April 1955. The other two pieces on the album reflect Stravinsky’s lifelong involvement with ballet. The Divertimento is an orchestral piece extracted by Stravinsky from his ballet The Fairy’s Kiss. The ballet was a homage to Tchaikovsky, based on songs and piano pieces by him, stitched together and orchestrated with Stravinskian cool. The Circus Polka was a commission from Stravinsky’s long-time collaborator George Balanchine, who had been asked by the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to create a dance for elephants. The version heard here is the composer’s own orchestral version; the original was scored for circus band and organ by David Raksin, and performed by fifty elephants and fifty female dancers!

REVIEW:

It’s easy to underestimate the depth and breadth of Andrew Davis’s repertoire and indeed his sterling qualities as a conductor – his ebullience, robust sense of rhythm and razor-sharp ears. All of which are much in evidence in this generous compendium of Stravinsky.

-- Gramophone

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Stravinsky: Symphonies; Divertimento / A. Davis, BBC Philharmonic
Chandos Nov 2022
SACD
$21.99

SYMPHONY NO.3

DUX

$21.99 Jun 25, 2013

Krzysztof Penderecki is one of the most famous and prominent living Polish composers. Symphonies have a special place in his legacy, but until now have never been recorded in a series under his artistic direction. In celebration of his 80th birthday, DUX presents the best performances of his works with the Sinfonia luventus. His great musical authority influences the young musicians' energetic and fresh sound.

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SYMPHONY NO.3
DUX Jun 2013
CD
$21.99

SYMPHONY NO 6
RCO LIVE HOLLAND Jun 2006
SACD
$25.99

Haydn: Symphonies No 54, 56 & 57 / Müller-brühl, Cologn Co

Naxos

$19.99 Jun 12, 1997

"In vivid, full-ranging recordings made by German Radio, Müller-Brühl conducts lively performances with his excellent chamber orchestra of three symphonies frrom around 1774. Müller-Brühl uses modern instruments, yet reflects period practice in asking for ery limited vibrato and light articulation from the strings."

-- Penguin Guide [2003/4]

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Haydn: Symphonies No 54, 56 & 57 / Müller-brühl, Cologn Co
Naxos Jun 1997
CD
$19.99

Boccherini: Cello Concerti & Symphonies / Bylsma, Tafelmusik

Deutsche Harmonia Mundi

$17.99 Sep 16, 2010

Tafelmusik are a Canadian period-instrument group who bring plenty of spirit and enthusiasm to their performances. I have chiefly heard them before in baroque repertory, to which their rather direct and even slightly edgy tone may be better suited than it is to the more suave Boccherini. The B flat Symphony they offer here, Op. 21 No. 4 in Boccherini's numbering, is not to my knowledge otherwise available; the chief interest resides in the first movement, a typically exuberant piece, full of repeated notes and dashing off every now and then into brilliant semiquaver passages, though there is some characteristically charming pathetic music in the andantino. The players here make a hairsbreadth pause before each accent in the first movement (and there are rather a lot of them), which seems to me disturbing to the rhythm. They also offer the D minor Symphony, La casa del diavolo, based in part on Gluck's Dance of the Furies from Orphee. They play the first movement at a tremendous speed and with great vigour, the slow movement rather dully and the finale, again, very fast and duly diabolically. Here, however, they run into competition with the disc by Ensemble 415 (Harmonia Mundi), which offers a superior performance; tighter and more controlled, more graceful as well as sweeter-toned in the middle movement and less reliant on breathtaking thrills to make the fast movements effective.

But with Anner Bylsma playing two concertos, this is certainly a disc to be considered seriously. His performance of the G major work is far more appealing than that of the relatively staid Wouter Willer on the EMI disc cited above, its quick movements quicker, its slow movement slower— and played with remarkable control (you cannot hear the changes of bow) and with much poetry. And there is some dazzling playing at the very top of the instrument in the finale. The D major work is perhaps slightly more ordinary, but that vein of pathos is again much in evidence in the andante lentarello (a typical Boccherini marking, whatever it may mean), where the cello duets with a solo oboe. A record, then, that in spite of some flaws the Boccherinian will want to have.

-- Stanley Sadie, Gramophone [2/1990]

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Boccherini: Cello Concerti & Symphonies / Bylsma, Tafelmusik
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi Sep 2010
CD
$17.99

Brotons: Symphony No. 5, 'Mundus Noster'

Naxos

$13.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 30% Jul 30, 2013

Internationally renowned and award-winning composer Salvador Brotons brings classical music into the here and now, depicting our contemporary world in his Fifth Symphony. It's first three movements are musical representations of the more negative aspects of the human condition, before the slow, final section offers a positive resolution. The Oboe Concertobrings out both lyrical expressiveness and virtuoso thrills from the soloist, and the Four Pieces for String Orchestra was the prize-winning work which brought acclaim and recognition to Brotons at the age of seventeen.

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Brotons: Symphony No. 5, 'Mundus Noster'
Naxos Jul 2013
CD
~~$19.99~~ $13.99