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Rott: Complete Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 / Ward, Gurzenich Orchestra Koln

Capriccio

$21.99 Sep 04, 2020

‘It simply cannot be gauged what music has lost with him’ (Gustav Mahler) Hans Rott was a composer from Gustav Mahler’s time who had been unknown or known only by name even to most pundits. Many people have expressed the opinion, perhaps justifiably, that only his tragic fate prevented him from going down in the annals of music as Mahler’s equal and establishing a permanent position in the repertoire. A member of Bruckner’s circle within the music scene in Vienna, he developed a pronounced antipathy towards Johannes Brahms. In view of many of his works, it is difficult to comprehend that during Rott’s lifetime presumably not one of them was performed in public, but that only presentations took place under the aegis of internal conservatory events. With these recordings Capriccio attend to fill the gap with his (some of them reconstructed) orchestral works and document these fascinating worlds of music for the eternity.

REVIEW:

The young British conductor Christopher Ward directs Cologne’s Gürzenich Orchestra in Capriccio’s first volume of Rott’s orchestral works with obvious commitment and makes no attempt to batten down the Wagnerian elements that course so freely; nor should he. With a thoughtfully balanced recording and concise notes this is a revealing document of Rott’s music, and the reconstruction of the Hamlet overture has the advantage of being heard in its world premiere recording.

– MusicWeb International

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Rott: Complete Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 / Ward, Gurzenich Orchestra Koln
Capriccio Sep 2020
CD
$21.99

Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Works

Urania Records

$32.99 Jan 27, 2017

With the famous Symphony No. 6, this album contains a lesser-known part of Tchaikovsky's repertoire - the Sérenade mélancolique, with the extraordinary Leonid Kogan playing the solo violin - the Variations Rococo, with Danil Shafran playing the cello and especially the Suite No. 3 for Orchestra, a composition wrongly forgotten by the common discography of the Russian composer. This release is a tribute to one of the biggest Russian conductors of the 20th century, gathered at the top of his career.

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Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Works
Urania Records Jan 2017
CD
$32.99

Schubert: The Symphonies / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

BIS

SACD

$44.99 Aug 05, 2022

It was only after his death that Franz Schubert’s symphonic works made an impact in music history. In fact, the first public performance of any of Schubert’s symphonies took place at a memorial concert held a few weeks after the composer had passed away, on 19th November 1828. The work that was heard at that occasion was Symphony No.6, D589, the ‘Little C major’, while the two undisputed master works of the series – the ‘Great C major’ and the ‘Unfinished’ – had to wait until 1838 and 1865, respectively, before being performed. The six symphonies that precede them in the list of completed works were all composed between 1813 and 1818, while Schubert was still only 21 years of age. In a style above all oriented on Haydn and Mozart, they are youthful in the best sense of the word and display a disarming freshness which the present performances convey to perfection.

The four discs gathered here were released singly between 2010 and 2014, receiving critical acclaim in the international music press: the reviewer in The Daily Telegraph (UK) described the experience as ‘having a layer of varnish removed from a much-loved painting’ while his colleague in Fanfare wrote that the approach by Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra ‘changes the landscape’, proposing that the cycle ‘could become a first choice among any available.’ The set also include some shorter orchestral works, among them the much-loved Rosamunde Overture.

Excerpts from reviews of previously released volumes included in this set:

Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9 / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Dausgaard somehow manages to approach the surviving two movements of Schubert's B minor Symphony as though we didn't all know that it remained 'unfinished. For once it was hard not to regret the absence of an energetic scherzo or finale.

-- BBC Music Magazine

Schubert: Symphony No. 6 / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Dausgaard dexterously manages the internal balance within the orchestra. His pacing of the opening Adagio instills confidence, the line shaped by phrases stretched and contracted, dynamics thoughtfully graded, the interpretation of the whole work thoughtfully considered.

-- Gramophone

Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 3, 4 & 5 / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Even if not in his mature style, and showing the influence of Rossini, as well as of Haydn and Mozart, they are pure Schubert, not least in harmony and scoring, and they stand up well to the high-powered approach of Dausgaard and the splendid Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

-- The Sunday Times (UK)

Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

The definition and dynamism that these forces have been bringing to their Schubert symphony cycle are qualities that are radiantly replicated in the performances here.

-- Gramophone

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Schubert: The Symphonies / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra
BIS Aug 2022
SACD
$44.99

Haydn: String Quartets Op 33 Nos 3, 4, 6 / Kodaly Quartet
Naxos Oct 1994
CD
$19.99

Complete Piano Quartets & Piano Sextet, Op. 5

CPO

$36.99 May 15, 2026

Caspar Joseph Brambach, who was two months younger than Johannes Brahms and survived him by almost five years, once basked in the glow of considerable attention. He studied and later taught at the Cologne Conservatory and was music director in Bonn for eight years before he dedicated himself solely to his own compositions, in which vocal music played a predominant role. His works for male chorus were especially well received, but his instrumental works were also popular. Brambach, who was from the Rhineland, left no doubt that the masters of the Romantic era, above all Robert Schumann, played an important role in his musical world. This first recording includes the sextet for piano and strings from his last year in Cologne and just as he moved to Bonn (around 1860). Also featured are his three piano quartets, the last of which the composer used to champion his ideals shortly before the turn of the 20th century.

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Complete Piano Quartets & Piano Sextet, Op. 5
CPO May 2026
CD
$36.99

Mahler: Symphony No. 6 / Vänskä, Minnesota Orchestra

BIS

SACD

$10.99 ~~$21.99~~ Save 50% Apr 06, 2018

Albert Camus once wrote ‘when I describe what the catastrophe of modern man looks like, music comes into my mind – the music of Gustav Mahler’. If asked to specify a particular work, it is quite possible that Camus would have proposed Symphony No. 6 in A minor – the symphony that Bruno Walter claimed portrayed ‘a terrifying, hopeless darkness, without a human sound’. Nevertheless, the period during which Mahler wrote his Sixth was one of the most successful and happiest of his life – prior to any marital difficulties, at the time of the birth of his second daughter Anna, his professional reputation growing. Alma Mahler, in her memoirs, suggested that the symphony was in fact predicting instances of future distress in the composer’s own life, and she and various commentators have proposed various interpretations of different elements. Most famous of these are possibly the hammer strokes in the Finale, falling, according to Alma, like ‘blows of fate’ on the ‘hero’ of the symphony. But Osmo Vänskä has a reputation for engaging with even the most iconic scores at face value, avoiding preconceived ideas and ‘time-honored’ traditions.

His and the Minnesota Orchestra’s recording of Mahler’s Sixth follows upon the 2017 release of the composer’s Fifth Symphony. Nominated to a 2018 Grammy Award, that interpretation has been described as ‘at once committed and detached, intense and transcendentally timeless’ (Norman Lebrecht) and ‘an exceptional performance that promises great things to come’ (allmusic.com).

REVIEWS:

The Finnish maestro opts for the revised order of middle movements, the searing andante preceding the scherzo, with its “old fatherly”, Ländler-like trio. The Minnesotans shine in the eerie sonorities of the finale, building to another allegro energico, but ending, movingly, in the minor tonality.

– Sunday Times (UK)

The interpretation here is intensely focused and utterly compelling, and the playing is impassioned and unnervingly vivid in the multichannel format, so listeners who loved the exceptional analog versions by Solti and Tennstedt or modern digital recordings by Abbado, Tilson Thomas, and Pappano can be sure that Vänskä's audiophile version ranks just as high in quality. The integrity of the performance and the expressive heights that are achieved carry the day and make Vänskä's recording essential for Mahler buffs.

– All Music Guide

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Mahler: Symphony No. 6 / Vänskä, Minnesota Orchestra
BIS Apr 2018
SACD
~~$21.99~~ $10.99

Kalman: Die Bajadere / Daumm, Bonynge, WDR Funkhausorchester

CPO

$36.99 Feb 24, 2017

The Bayadere celebrated its premiere in Vienna in December, 1921. A few months later, in February, 1922, the Metropoltheater in Berlin staged this operetta by Emmerich Kalman. His music brings together Hungarian folk melodies and the Viennese waltz, displays operatic and melodramatic elements, and illustrates the American dance rhythms of its times. In addition, it offers exotic tone colors like those of the tarogato and specific rhythms designed to satisfy the longing for the faraway, foreign India. These ingredients came with the guarantee of musical success. This work numbers among the genuine highlights in the Hungarian composer Kalman's oepretta oeuvre. In 2014, the WDR presented a concert performance of The Bayadere and then went on to produce this work in the studio. The great Richard Bonynge opened the operetta's vibrant introduction with plenty of energy and stormy drive, astonishing for this world-renowned Australian conductor who is now in his seventies. The elegant, slender gentleman with a full head of white hair who has always loved the operetta and whose discography includes many recordings in this field led the WDR Orchestra and the WDR Chorus with precisely trimmed conductor's gestures, so that here Emmerich Kalman's famous Bayadere experienced the right interpretation.

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Kalman: Die Bajadere / Daumm, Bonynge, WDR Funkhausorchester
CPO Feb 2017
CD
$36.99

Fritz Kauffmann: Piano Trios, Opp. 9 & 20

CPO

$18.99 Jan 16, 2026

Fritz Kauffmann was a composer who never fully realised his natural potential because he "suffered" from so many different talents. Specifically, this son of a Berlin businessman, after completing his studies and spending some time as a private tutor, worked to reform musical life in Magdeburg from 1889 onwards, performing there as a conductor and pianist while neglecting his own creative work. The regret expressed by some contemporaries is easy to understand when listening to the two piano trios from the 1880s recorded here. He was a powerful romantic who expressed subtle originality within familiar forms. His expression and creativity range from dramatic force to subtle humour, and - as can be heard in the "Barcaruola" from Opus 20 - he was not above the use of catchy tunes.

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Fritz Kauffmann: Piano Trios, Opp. 9 & 20
CPO Jan 2026
CD
$18.99

Mix & Match

Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. "0"–9 / Poschner, Linz Bruckner Orchestra, ORF VRSO

Naxos

$99.99 Sep 13, 2024

Anton Bruckner 200 (1824-2024)

Released to coincide with Bruckner's 200th birthday in 2024, this 18-CD set brings together the entire recorded cycle of Bruckner's symphonies in the Capriccio label's The Complete Versions Edition. Markus Poschner's acclaimed recordings of Bruckner's symphonies feature all of the versions identified as having significant revisions and changes in the authoritative Neue Anton Bruckner Gesamtausgabe (New Anton Bruckner Complete Edition), making this the most comprehensive Bruckner Symphonies cycle available today.

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Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. "0"–9 / Poschner, Linz Bruckner Orchestra, ORF VRSO
Naxos Sep 2024
CD
$99.99

Mahler: Symphony No 6 / Chailly, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

Accentus Music

DVD

$41.99 Nov 19, 2013

MAHLER Symphony No. 6 & • Riccardo Chailly, cond; Gewandhaus O • ACCENTUS 20268 (DVD: 86:25 + 18:28)

& Panel discussion with Riccardo Chailly and Reinhold Kubik

A Mahler Sixth in which the Andante movement comes second? And where the last movement has two hammer blows, not the three that Mahler himself included at the premiere)? Well, yes, and those are just two of the things that make Riccardo Chailly’s interpretation of this over-familiar work sound new. Another is the incredibly swift, truly scherzo-like tempo with which Chailly takes the (now) third movement, not at a pace mimicking the first, as usually happens when it comes second.

Some of the mystery is explained in the 18-minute conversation that Chailly holds in the bonus feature. The “wrong” order of the movements (Allegro energico, Andante moderato, Scherzo, and Finale: Sostenuto) is how they appeared in the conductor’s score that was actually published in March 1906. By the time a second score was published in November of the same year, the Scherzo now came second, and this is how it was premiered. In addition, the premiere had three hammer blows in the last movement, not the traditional two; that came later, too. Early in the interview Chailly admitted that he had copiously studied the scores owned by conductor Willem Mengelberg, who had known Mahler and who wrote down all sorts of things, including metronome markings (usually not in Mahler’s symphonies), that he slavishly followed for years. “But now,” Chailly says, “I am no longer such a slave to tradition.” Musicologist Reinhold Kubik of the Mahler Society mentions that when Mengelberg wrote to Alma Mahler about the order of the movements, she said that the Andante came second—and she stuck by that judgment even as late as 1957. Was she wrong? She did mention that he had conducted it that way in a city where he never played this work, but memory is a tricky thing, and the fact that she emphatically insisted that the Andante came second in letters written some 40 years apart should count for something.

Whatever your judgment of these decisions, there is no question that Chailly’s Sixth is simply mind-boggling. The first movement itself is taken at an Allegro that is certainly more energico than I’ve ever heard it before in my life. In a certain sense, this new, brisker tempo rather eliminates the feeling of jackboots marching that most other conductors bring out in it; rather, it sounds like the blind rush of a madman, interrupted by the calmer middle section.

But there is much more to Chailly’s Mahler than just faster tempos. There is a much stronger feeling of organic unity and structure in the music, a more songful legato line in each and every movement, and the playing of the Gewandhaus Orchestra is staggeringly beautiful and dramatically effective. Chailly seats the orchestra the way Mahler himself wanted it: first and second violins split left and right, cellos in the middle right behind them, other instruments spaced out so as to create the balances Mahler so carefully constructed. (Michael Gielen seated his orchestra the same way when he conducted Mahler in Cincinnati during the 1980s.) The “traditional” seating used by most orchestras, Kubik tells us, originated from that used by Leopold Stokowski when he conducted Mahler in America in the early-to-mid 20th century. And in the last movement, which runs 34 minutes, Chailly creates a world-within-a-world. His hammer blows are not just some bangy little hammer on an anvil, but a HUGE wooden mallet that looks like it needed Thor to handle it.

On the podium, Chailly presents the image of an excited schoolboy, jumping up and down, raising his arms and slicing his baton through the air like the drop of a guillotine. Perhaps it is a bit overdone, especially if you are accustomed (as I am) to watching such conductors as Kempe, Böhm, Toscanini, Gielen, and Ormandy conduct, but it doesn’t really seem like an affectation, either. Most of what he does is either in response to the music or in anticipation of how he wants the next attack or the next phrase to go. He is simply emotionally involved in each and every bar of the score, and he wants it just so. Considering the great results he gets, I can’t really find much fault with that. After all, he does ask all the principal wind players to stand up and take a bow at the end.

So often, for me, watching a conductor perform an orchestral concert is a bit like watching paint dry, unless you are a really big fan of conductor X and you want to study the way he moves on the podium, but in this case I found myself completely caught up in watching Chailly and the orchestra because they’re so deeply into what they are doing. In the trailer on this disc for his video of the Fourth Symphony, Chailly mentions that both he and the Gewandhaus Orchestra musicians have come to an understanding of how to best play Mahler: They get involved but always remain in control. “If you let Mahler control you,” he warns, “you’re heading for trouble.” In addition to all this, the high-resolution digital sound is as spectacular as Chailly’s interpretation, capturing the slightest rustle of harp strings and the sound of stays on the oboe with astounding clarity.

Looking at the trailers, there are also DVDs out of Chailly conducting the Second, Fourth, and Eighth Symphonies. The snippets I’ve heard of all of them sound amazing. I recommend looking for all of them, and also awaiting the rest of the series.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

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Mahler: Symphony No 6 / Chailly, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
Accentus Music Nov 2013
DVD
$41.99

MOZART: Serenades No. 6 and 13, 'Eine kleine Nachtmusik' / D

Naxos

$19.99 Jan 17, 2006

The first movement of the Serenata is a stately March, in which the smaller and larger groups of instruments are contrasted. There follows a Minuet, and a Trio played by the concertino, leading, after the repetition of the Minuet, to a final Rondo that includes episodes of possible topical reference. Within the framework of the repeated principal theme comes a solemn Adagio, the music of a country dance and a brief and unexpected plucking of strings, before the lively conclusion. The Divertimento in F major is scored for two horns and strings, and was completed in June, 1776, for Countess Antonia Lodron's name-day It starts with a lively movement in all the clarity of classical first movement form. This is followed by a C major Andante grazioso and a first Minuet returning to the key of F, with a contrasting D minor Trio. The next movement, marked Adagio and in the key of B flat, is scored only for strings, the first violin taking the lead. The second Minuet, in F, with a B flat Trio for the strings alone, leads to a final movement with a slow introduction and a varied concluding rondo, all well suited to the occasion of the composition Eine kleine Nachtmusik, the Serenade in G, K 525, comes from a later period of Mozart's life. In 1781 Mozart, who had returned from Mannheim and Paris to the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg, accompanied his patron on a visit to the Imperial capital, Vienna. There he finally broke with his employer and secured his dismissal from the archiepiscopal court. In Vienna there seemed every opportunity, which it seemed his patron was deliberately preventing him from seizing.

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MOZART: Serenades No. 6 and 13, 'Eine kleine Nachtmusik' / D
Naxos Jan 2006
CD
$19.99

Graener: Orchestral Works, Vol. 4 / Sinkevich, Raudales, Dohn, Schirmer, Munchner Rundfunkorchester

CPO

$18.99 Mar 15, 2019

Paul Graener was a “latest romanticist” with a strong inclination for French impressionism – which as a composer in the Germany of the first half of the twentieth century makes him a unique case. This month cpo is presenting three of his concertos on our fourth Graener album. Once again it is shown that this music more than deserves to be rediscovered. Hardly any other companion of Paul Graener’s so intensely supported his oeuvre as did the cellist Paul Grümmer, the dedicatee of this composer’s Cello Concerto and the soloist at its premiere in 1927. The critic Adolf Diesterweg wrote in a review: “Graener’s new Cello Concerto contains naturally invented, succinctly formed music enabling the cellist, thanks to the transparent orchestral part, to sound his instrument effectively. In my view the most beautiful movement is the highly cantabile and atmospheric Adagio. The Violin Concerto has harmonically original, fascinating sound elements showing us Graener at an absolute creative summit. The time of composition of Graener’s last finished composition, his Flute Concerto, coincides with the increasing bombardment and destruction of Berlin. Here it is above all the last movement that stands out and attracts our attention – and does so not so much because of its neoclassical guise, something already to be encountered in Graener’s works of the 1930s, but rather on account of his choice of the life-affirming folk song, which displays a cheerful mood that can be harmonized neither with the difficult circumstances of Graener’s life nor with the wartime events taking place at that time.”

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Graener: Orchestral Works, Vol. 4 / Sinkevich, Raudales, Dohn, Schirmer, Munchner Rundfunkorchester
CPO Mar 2019
CD
$18.99

Symphony 3

Kontrapunkt

$22.99 Apr 15, 1995

The increasingly popular Nielsen symphony series reached its fifth volume here including two pieces for string orchestra: Andante Tranquillo and Scherzo which are premier recordings. Earlier releases received a number of favourable reviews: KPT 321771 “...one of the most interesting interpretations available in the market now...the orchestra presentation is absolutely impeccable...” (The Jutland Post) KPT 32178 “...The Odense orchestra play with sensitivity and a total commitment throughout...” (The Gramophone)

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Symphony 3
Kontrapunkt Apr 1995
CD
$22.99

J.S. Bach: Complete Orchestral Works, Vol. 3

CPO

$18.99 Jan 03, 2025

This third release marks the end of the recording of all the orchestral works written by Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz over the course of her not exactly long life. And once again, the WDR Symphony Orchestra under Lukasz Borowicz unfolds a representative range that extends from the phenomenal artist's early neoclassical works to her late phase, in which tonal innovations were at the forefront of her creative work, without losing the indispensable communication with the audience. As a world premiere recording, this album contains the composer's first symphony, while the early Polish Overture and the late In una parte, with which Grazyna Bacewicz created a final "sonoristic" marvel in 1967, two years before her death, can also be heard as concert hall rarities.

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J.S. Bach: Complete Orchestral Works, Vol. 3
CPO Jan 2025
CD
$18.99

Mahler: Symphony No. 6 / Kondrashin, SWR Orchestra Baden-Baden

SWR

$13.99 Apr 13, 2018

Kirill Kondrashin was one of the most prominent Russian conductors in the generation following Mravinsky. He was born in Moscow in 1914 into a family of musicians, studied at the Moscow conservatory under Boris Khaikin, went to Leningrad in 1936 to be the conductor of the Maly Theater and to the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in 1943. At the same time, he was conducting various Russian concert orchestras. In 1956 he left the Bolshoi Theater to devote himself entirely to the concert podium. He became the preferred partner of such great soloists as Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, David Oistrach, Sviatoslav Richter, and Mstislav Rostropovich. Tully Potter called him “probably the best concert accompanist of the twentieth century.” After Kondrashin’s work had increasingly shifted out of the country, he emigrated to the Netherlands in 1978 and became permanent conductor of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra along with Bernard Haitink. From his home in Amsterdam, he kept up with his duties as guest conductor, including many at various West German radio stations. His concerts left a deep impression in Munich, and Kondrashin succeeded Rafael Kubelik as new Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1982. Before he was able to take over his new position, however, Kondrashin died of a heart attach shortly after a concert in Amsterdam in March 1981.

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Mahler: Symphony No. 6 / Kondrashin, SWR Orchestra Baden-Baden
SWR Apr 2018
CD
$13.99

Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 50, No. 2, 3, 6 / Leipzig String Quartet

MDG

$23.99 May 01, 2015

The Leipzig String Quartet continues its Haydn edition with three more works from his op. 50, and once again the members magnificently succeed in combining classical perfection with surprisingly fresh esprit.

For more than twenty years the Leipzig String Quartet has been playing in the Champions League of chamber music. Showered with prizes and awards, this world-class ensemble again and again has azzled listening audiences with their sensational recordings and concerts.

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Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 50, No. 2, 3, 6 / Leipzig String Quartet
MDG May 2015
CD
$23.99

BRUCKNER: SYMPHONY 6
WEA JAPAN Jun 2018
CD
$16.49

Beecke: Piano Concertos / Veljkovic, Moesus, Bayerisches Kammerorchester Bad Bruckenau

CPO

$18.99 Nov 18, 2016

Today nothing remains of Ignaz von Beecke's former renown as apianist and composer. The early music lexicographers Gerber and Lipowsky were among those who celebrated his renown, but his many works have all been forgotten. And yet he created music of great originality very much absolutely worth getting to know again in the concert hall and on sound carriers. This release, featuring Beecke's piano concertos is a genuinely pioneering effort inasmuch as it represents one of the first commercial releases wtih works by this composer. Beecke's early works continued to be obliged to early classicism, while his late oeuvre of the 1790's began opening the door wide to romanticism. During the 1750's he initially served as an officer and in 1759, he made his way to the Wallerstein court as an adjutant to Hereditary Prince Kraft Ernst von Oettingen-Wallerstein. It was also here that he celebrated his first successes as a pianist and wrote his first compositions.

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Beecke: Piano Concertos / Veljkovic, Moesus, Bayerisches Kammerorchester Bad Bruckenau
CPO Nov 2016
CD
$18.99

Offenbach: Folies symphoniques & Ouvertures / Griffiths, Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt

CPO

$18.99 May 03, 2019

As Adolf Tegtmeier, the alter ego of Jürgen von Manger, knew quite well, overtures exercise an important function in the opera: “They begin, you see, right off with the curtain and start by playing all the melodies in a row, everything that happens to come up later. But this is just to give you the chance to familiarize yourself with the music. And of course it’s important … so that later on you don’t get such a big shock.” The orchestral overtures brought together on the present recording make the listener eager to hear each of the particular works following them. Even those who do not recognize the fine details of their design will enjoy the inexhaustible wealth of their melodies, the irresistible rhythms and lyricisms, and the skilled details of their instrumentation. In their entirety the works on this album invite us to approach Jacques Offenbach’s sumptuous oeuvre by way of unknown paths on the occasion of the two hundredth anniversary of his birth – without having to worry about “later getting such a big shock.”

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Offenbach: Folies symphoniques & Ouvertures / Griffiths, Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt
CPO May 2019
CD
$18.99

Fuchs, R.: Orchestral Music, Vol. 1 - Opp. 59, 63, 79
Thorofon Apr 1995
CD
$24.99

History of the Russian Piano Trio, Vol. 6 - Rachmaninoff: Tr

Naxos

$13.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 30% May 09, 2025

Sergey Rachmaninoff's two Elegiac Trios became the pinnacle of Russian musical symbolism, forming an epigraph to the revolutionary upheavals that split Russian civilisation and Rachmaninoff's life in two. The moods of nostalgia and echoes of soulful longing found in these works are infused with ideas of death. The beautiful theme of the Trio elegiaque No. 1 in G minor transforms into a funeral march in the epilogue, while the complex Trio elegiaque No. 2 in D minor is a memorial to Tchaikovsky filled with powerfully prophetic symbols most notably the Dies irae motif.

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History of the Russian Piano Trio, Vol. 6 - Rachmaninoff: Tr
Naxos May 2025
CD
~~$19.99~~ $13.99

Corelli: 6 Concerti Grossi / Orchestra Barocca Di Cremona

Urania Records

$31.99 Nov 20, 2020

Giovanni Battista Columbro and the Orchestra Barocca Di Cremona perform Corelli's 6 Concerti Grossi, Op. VI. The Opus number VI presents itself as the 'quintessenza di una ben altrimenti fluida e ricca prassi orchestrale' ('quintessential fluent and rich orchestral practice). On the wave of the transcriptions of opus VI, in this album the musicians employed wind instruments in addition to the strings. This choice is a filological one seeing that, after years of research it has been proved that in the Corellian orchestras there was a significant presence of wind instruments. In this version, the original tonalities have been maintained (which does not often happen in other transcriptions) and the original parts of the two solo violins have been assigned to two transverse flutes as it happened in the first decades of the XVIII Century.

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Corelli: 6 Concerti Grossi / Orchestra Barocca Di Cremona
Urania Records Nov 2020
CD
$31.99

Mahler: Symphony No. 6
Dreyer Gaido Feb 2009
CD
$26.99

Lehar: Zigeunerliebe [Operetta] / NDR Radiophilharmonie

CPO

$36.99 Jun 21, 2005

REVIEW:

Although the "golden age" of operetta has come and gone, composer Franz Lehár isn't in any real danger of being neglected so long as The Merry Widow continues to tread the boards of the world's stages. But as his first major "hit," and as an operetta stylistically limited by the constraints of contemporary fashion and tradition, The Merry Widow does not provide a full measure of the extent of Lehár's mastery as a composer. Zigeunerliebe (Gypsy Love) is a far better candidate for that qualification, and its first complete recording, now available from CPO, is reason for operetta fans to celebrate. Premiered in 1910, this three-act operetta is closer to being an opera and draws into the musical texture an odd admixture of influences ranging from Wagner to Richard Strauss to pop-styled Hungarian Romani music. Although no one would give credit to Lehár the distinction of being an "experimental composer," he does nonetheless present an experimentally conceived blend of styles here, confirming his own otherwise bewildering comment that "I have always experimented, reached out to something new, often enough against the intentions of directors and publishers." That the middle act is set out in the form of a dream, and that Lehár matches the story to a musico-stylistic pastiche that progresses in the same manner as a dream, shows how far Lehár was willing to go with his experimental ideas.

The music is ravishing, challenging, and extraordinary in every way, and we can be thankful that CPO's recording of Zigeunerliebe is close to ideal. The male singers are the weakest element, but these men are coming from a different tradition of singing related to grand opera and are not comfortable with the less forceful and vibrant requirements of operetta. The women are much better, with Dagmar Schellenberger, in the secondary role of Ilona, being excellent in particular, but Johanna Stojkovic is well more than just adequate in the important lead part of Zarika. The NDR Radiophilharmonie under Frank Beermann is splendid in every bar of this music, and this is important as Lehár's orchestration is in this case particularly ambitious and colorful. True operetta fans will so love Zigeunerliebe that even the relatively minor shortcomings of this set will not matter a great deal. If you have an operetta fan in your family who "has everything," CPO's Zigeunerliebe should probably move to top of one's potential gift list.

-- AllMusic

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Lehar: Zigeunerliebe [Operetta] / NDR Radiophilharmonie
CPO Jun 2005
CD
$36.99

Schumann: Symphonies / Gaudenz, Odense Symphony Orchestra

CPO

SACD

$36.99 Jun 09, 2015

In recent years the young Swiss conductor Simon Gaudenz has made a name for himself, particularly as an interpreter of the Classical-era repertoire. A fresh, new approach against the background of historically informed performance practice characterizes his recordings and concerts. During this same time he was associated with the Odense Symphony based on the island of Funen (the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen and Carl Nielsen!), serving as its principal guest conductor. This orchestra, one of Denmark's premier musical bodies next to the Danish Radio Symphony in Copenhagen, immediately felt that extraordinary things could be realized with this baton-wielding revolutionary. It was agreed that he and the orchestra take on Schumann, the results being this 2CD set of the complete symphonies.

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Schumann: Symphonies / Gaudenz, Odense Symphony Orchestra
CPO Jun 2015
SACD
$36.99