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Salon Orchestra Favourites, Vol. 3
Naxos Feb 2004
CD
$19.99

Offenbach: Le Royaume de Neptune & Other Works / Griffiths, Deutsches Symphony Orchestra Berlin

CPO

$18.99 Nov 01, 2019

On his recently released Offenbach album featuring some of this composer’s unknown overtures, “Howard Griffiths is able to generate sparkling moments, dramatic buildups of suspense, highly expressive lyrical designs, and frequently suddenly occurring shifts of mood with absolutely outstanding success” (klassik-heute. com). And the latest Offenbach interpretation by Griffiths also does perfect justice to this composer’s highly effectively instrumented and melodically very appealing music while transmitting infectious zest for life. Orphee aux Enfers was Offenbach’s first international success and perhaps his most performed opera throughout the world – a landmark establishing a new genre known as the “Offenbachiade” and standing for societal satire in the form of music theater. The present album offers the essence of the orchestral numbers and ballet inserts composed for the version of Orpheus in the Underworld from 1874. The rediscovery of the magnificent ballet L’Atlantide or Le Royaume de Neptune (The Realm of Neptune) and its recording premiere on this album qualify as nothing short of sensational. Found under incredible circumstances by Jean-Christophe Keck in an old storage box, this music from the recently published volume of Keck’s Offenbach edition for Boosey & Hawkes / Bote & Bock accomplishes a very important task ranking first on the list of every composer’s desiderata by making available score material in its uncorrupted form. These gems are finely orchestrated and filled with magical melodies!

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Offenbach: Le Royaume de Neptune & Other Works / Griffiths, Deutsches Symphony Orchestra Berlin
CPO Nov 2019
CD
$18.99

Lehár: Der Rastelbinder / ORF Vienna Radio Orchestra

CPO

$36.99 Oct 19, 2004

REVIEW:

CPO continues to show admirable enthusiasm for issuing the works of Lehár. Der Sterngucker (The Stargazer) was issued in Spring 2003 and now along comes this performance of his first operetta. It is a recording of a large-scale radio broadcast made 25 years ago.

The work was staged as a Christmas piece at Vienna's Carl-Theater in December 1902. Despite poor initial reviews its strong cast managed to achieve a long run for the piece. Incidentally, the conductor of the première was the young composer, Zemlinsky. Der Rastelbinder travelled through Europe and reached America in 1909, but now is largely forgotten.

The plot concerns a Slovak child engagement, with children who find it difficult to get on together when grown up. A Prelude is set 12 years earlier than the main action to provide a vehicle for the audience to be given background information of the childhood betrothal. The Prelude and Acts shift the action from Slovakia to Vienna and then to a Viennese army barracks. The settings allow Lehár plenty of scope to introduce different flavours of music appropriate to the action. In this early operetta, we hear, for the first time, a slow waltz that indicates the distinctive viennese style that was to follow and become a Lehár hallmark, 'Wenn zwei sich lieben'.

Helga Papouschek and Elfie Hobarth sing confidently as Mizzi and Suza and the young tinker boy (uncredited) provides a purity of tone, naïvety and innocence. Both Heinz Zednik (the grown up tinker boy) and Adolph Dallapozza (corporal) are strong tenors, the latter having a particularly high register.

The booklet is provided in German, English and French and contains interesting background notes by Stefan Frey as well as a synopsis for the vocal numbers.

-- MusicWeb International

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Lehár: Der Rastelbinder / ORF Vienna Radio Orchestra
CPO Oct 2004
CD
$36.99

Rudolf Moser: Orchestral Music / Triendl, Bach, Sinfonietta Rīga Sinfonietta

Haenssler Classic

$20.99 Mar 15, 2024

Rudolf Moser composed works across a wide range of genres for a variety of instrumentation. He was particularly interested in historical musical styles and borrowed forms and phrases, ecclesiastical compositional modes, and historical instrumentation from the past. This CD focuses on Moser's orchestral music. The compilation of works from his middle and late periods reveals a mature artist who has found his style.

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Rudolf Moser: Orchestral Music / Triendl, Bach, Sinfonietta Rīga Sinfonietta
Haenssler Classic Mar 2024
CD
$20.99

Reinecke: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2

CPO

$18.99 Oct 18, 2024

Anyone interested in Romantic music will inevitably come across the name Carl Reinecke. Countless aspiring composers from Germany and Scandinavia went to him to learn their craft. To those who wanted to make it in the city of the famous Gewandhaus Orchestra, he was an institution. Reinecke the composer enjoyed great success during his lifetime. However, as a preservationist of musical traditions, he was quickly forgotten after his death. The inevitable course of musical development swept him out of the way. This was not due to the quality of his music. Not only does his compositional technique stand up to scrutiny, but also his music as a sonic experience. This is particularly true of his three symphonies, all of which are now available in our catalogue with the release of the powerful Second in C minor

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Reinecke: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2
CPO Oct 2024
CD
$18.99

Offenbach: Die schone Lurette / Kassowitz, Leipzig Radio Choir and Orchestra

Relief

$32.99 Jan 17, 2020

BELLE LURETTE is Jacques Offenbach's last work. He did not get to see or hear the world premiere or that of his fantastic opera "Hoffmanns Erzählungen", which he worked on at the same time. This publication is a recording by Radio Leipzig from 1958. The tapes were only rediscovered in the archive in the summer of 2019 and are thus offered for the very first time on album. The performance features top GDR radio stars, the Grand Radio Orchestra and the Leipzig Radio Choir under the musical direction of Vienna conductor Gottfried Kassowitz, who makes the score sparkle with precision and transparency, yet with great temperament. The arrangement by Walter Zimmer is characterized by subtle interventions and allows all music numbers to be played, with three exceptions. The encore section has been extended to include 10 music numbers from the French O.R.T.F. production of 1965, making it possible to make meaningful comparisons between the original version and the German version. The accompanying text is by Matthias Käther, well-known and popular, among other things, for his music broadcasts on Radio rbb Kultur ("Opernführer" and others).

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Offenbach: Die schone Lurette / Kassowitz, Leipzig Radio Choir and Orchestra
Relief Jan 2020
CD
$32.99

Wellesz: Die Opferung Des Gefangenen / Friedrich Cerha, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra

Capriccio

$21.99 Oct 02, 2020

‘This West Indian tragedy has remained the sole dramatic work of a heroic world in pre-Columbian times that, after a flourishing heyday, was abruptly terminated by foreign violence.’ Egon Wellesz (1925). In musical terms, the Opferung shows Egon Wellesz at the zenith of his creativity. In this music, Wellesz’ emancipation from his mentor Schoenberg and his aesthetics has progressed even further, as throughout his life Egon Wellesz was interested in evolving his own, unmistakable musical diction. The events of 12 March 1938 put a sudden end to this so successful career: As a Jew, monarchist and the writer of ‘degenerate music’, the 53-year-old musician was immediately removed from all of his posts and wanted by the police after ‘the seizure of power’. Following a long illness, Egon Wellesz died in Oxford in 1974.

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Wellesz: Die Opferung Des Gefangenen / Friedrich Cerha, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Capriccio Oct 2020
CD
$21.99

Orchestral Music - Mozart, W.A. / Handel, G.F. / Pachelbel,
Haenssler Classic Mar 2009
CD
$12.99

Alla turca: Orchestral Works by Romberg, Mozart & Haydn / Griffiths, Collegium Musicum Basel

CPO

$18.99 Jul 06, 2018

Andreas Romberg explored new musical territory when he got the idea to include Turkish color in his fourth symphony. It was not until the romantic era that Oriental or Arabian color very deliberately was incorporated into symphonic music, whether in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade (1888) or in Engelbert Humperdinck’s Maurische Rhapsodie (1898). Right in the first movement of his symphony Romberg used the title “A la turca” to get his audience to anticipate Turkish color. The gradually intensified initial part goes over into a passage with the expected percussion accents and swiftly whirling violin figures. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Violin Concerto in A major, the last of his five violin concertos, is also regarded as a concert piece with Turkish color. In the rondo finale there is a famous interlude in A minor in which the violoncellists and double bassists beat the rhythm on the strings with their bow sticks. This too produces the popular “Alla turca” flair. Our soloist is the young Swiss musician Julia Schroder, and it is not least in the swift main part of the Haydn overture that things sound “Turkish”; here not only the timpani but also the bass drum and cymbals accentuate the rhythm. This album also marks the inauguration of our complete recording of the symphonic music of Andreas Romberg.

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Alla turca: Orchestral Works by Romberg, Mozart & Haydn / Griffiths, Collegium Musicum Basel
CPO Jul 2018
CD
$18.99

Mozart: Piano Concertos Vol 3 / Zacharias, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra
MDG Jan 2008
SACD
$24.99

Schubert: Impromptus D. 899; Drei Klavierstucke D. 946; Allegretto in C minor D. 915

Gramola Records

$24.99 Jan 12, 2024

Ingrid Marsoner dedicates her latest recording to Franz Schubert’s late piano works and contrasts the “Four Impromptus D 899” with the more intimate and much less frequently performed “Three Piano Pieces D 946”. The Impromptus D 899 were composed in 1827, around a year before Schubert’s death and close in time to the “Winterreise” D 911. The composer was in a particularly gloomy mood at the time and it was certainly no coincidence that he chose such distant keys as G-flat major for the third piece, in keeping with the eerily moving beauty of these works. The “Three Piano Pieces, D 946” were composed in 1828, the year of Franz Schubert’s death. They were not published during his lifetime and were only discovered and published by Johannes Brahms. At the end of his life, Franz Schubert studied counterpoint intensively and even attended a lesson with Simon Sechter, Vienna’s first music theory teacher. In the middle section of the first piano piece in particular, one can discover a surprising polyphony for the composer. The CD concludes with the Allegretto in C minor D 915, also composed shortly before his death at the age of 31.

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Schubert: Impromptus D. 899; Drei Klavierstucke D. 946; Allegretto in C minor D. 915
Gramola Records Jan 2024
CD
$24.99

Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1-4 / Orozco-Estrada, Tonkünstler Orchestra

Oehms Classics

$35.99 ~~$47.99~~ Save 25% Jun 09, 2015

This Oehms Classics 2CD set presents a complete edition of the four symphonies of Johannes Brahms by the Tonkünstler Orchestra led by Andrés Orozco-Estrada. The Tonkünstler Orchestra is among the most important institutions on the Austrian music scene. The orchestra maintains a concert repertoire from Viennese Classicism to the Romantic period through to music of the 21st c. Mr. Orozco-Estrada, born in Colombia and active on the Viennese music scene since 1997, concludes his music directorship of the Tonkünstler Orchestra, which he’s held since the 2009/2010 season, in September 2015.

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Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1-4 / Orozco-Estrada, Tonkünstler Orchestra
Oehms Classics Jun 2015
CD
~~$47.99~~ $35.99

Bach & Pärt / Steinbacher, Koncz, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester

PENTATONE

$14.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 25% Feb 10, 2023

Arabella Steinbacher presents works for violin and orchestra by Johann Sebastian Bach and Arvo Pärt, together with violinist Christoph Koncz and the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester. Bach’s violin concertos have had a very special significance for Steinbacher ever since hearing the A Minor Concerto at the age of four, an experience that made her decide to become a musician. This seminal work is performed here alongside the E Major Violin Concerto and the Double Concerto in D Minor, on which she is joined by violinist Christoph Koncz. The Bach concertos are framed by two of Arvo Pärt’s most profound and enigmatic pieces: Fratres and Spiegel im Spiegel; the former in the version for violin, string orchestra and percussion, the latter rendered in a version for violin and piano, together with Peter von Wienhardt. Bach and Pärt may be centuries apart, but for Steinbacher, they have a spiritual and sacred origin in common, and their music resonates deeply with her. Arabella Steinbacher is a multiple award-winner with an extensive Pentatone discography, including Mozart’s complete violin concertos (2014 and 2021), Four Seasons (Vivaldi & Piazzolla, 2020), Mendelssohn & Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos (2015) and many others. Christoph Koncz and the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester make their Pentatone debut.

REVIEWS:

I’ve long been a fan of Steinbacher’s; I’ve raved about her playing in a wide variety of repertoire: Bartok, Brahms, and Hindemith and Britten. Here she plays two Bach Violin Concertos: in E major and A minor, and a Bach Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, with another fine violinist, Christian Kontz. Once again Pentatone provides fine accompaniment: the agile and stylish Stuttgarter Kammerorchester.

Two Arvo Pärt pieces bookend the three Bach concertos. His Fratres comes in many versions; this one, for violin, string orchestra and percussion, is from 1992. This is a suitable prelude to the meat of the program: hushed and reverential, but in the end as dramatic a curtain raiser as a Rossini overture. The final piece, Spiegel im Spiegel, in its original 1978 version for violin and piano, acts as a kind of valedictory encore. Once again, Arabella Steinbacher has a fine partner, in pianist Peter von Wienhard.

-- Music for Several Instruments (Dean Frey)

From the evidence of this new Pentatone album of Bach concertos, Steinbacher's artistry of the violin reveals an ever-increasing maturity. The lovely slender tone, flawless cantabile and sheer love of melody she has displayed in her earlier recordings is still there, along with an increased awareness of the harmonic basis of the great works of music she performs. And her sure hand in shaping the graceful contour of a given melody is more skilled and knowing than ever.

-- Audio Visual Club of Atlanta (Phil Muse)

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Bach & Pärt / Steinbacher, Koncz, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester
PENTATONE Feb 2023
CD
~~$19.99~~ $14.99

Schubert: Orchestral Works

BIS

SACD

$21.99 Oct 14, 2014

On the final disc of a complete cycle, Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra offer Franz Schubert's first two symphonies as well as two fillers, of which one is the rarely heard Funeral March from the unfinished opera Adrast. Both youthful symphonies betray influences of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven; nevertheless, they contain abundant proof of Schubert's burgeoning melodic genius. The previous discs in the cycle have met with critical acclaim and distinctions, with reviewers welcoming the fresh approach towards the undisputed masterpieces and the less familiar works.

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Schubert: Orchestral Works
BIS Oct 2014
SACD
$21.99

Schreker: Christophorus, Oder Die Vision Einer Oper (Live) / Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra
CPO Apr 2005
CD
$36.99

Mozart & Haas: Choral Works / Salzburg Mozarteumorchester, Salzburg Bach Choir

Belvedere Edition

$20.99 Feb 08, 2019

At the end of April 1791, Wolfgang Amadé Mozart applied for the position of second Kapellmeister at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, hoping to inherit the position from Leopold Hofmann, the incumbent Kapellmeister, the City Council of Vienna accepted Mozart’s petition in a strongly worded decree as a basis for the text in the vocal passages of his Sieben Klangräume Accompanying the Unfinished Fragments of Mozart’s Requiem KV 626. All of the parts of the Requiem composed by Mozart himself exist in a complete four-part vocal score with organ bass - only the first movement is fully orchestrated - and contain virtually all of the key musical aspects: theme, harmony, melody, dynamics and modulation. According to Haas, “Mozart sketched out the main musical voices for the whole piece, producing almost a skeleton to the work” – in other words, fragments of sound. This was the approach used by Haas for his Klangräume (Sound Spaces): “ In between these fragments of sound, I was able to add a different sound world - one in the style of the early 21st century.” Haas responds powerfully to the nature of the fragments. Haas regarded the Requiem fragment as “sacrosanct”. The only aspect that Haas adopted from Mozart was his orchestration: mixed choir, mostly with four voices, but also extended to include as many as 16 voices for the spoken passages, but no vocal soloists. Haas does not use any musical material written by Mozart. He only uses the key signature of D minor on which he builds a series of harmonics for his composition. However, Haas responds powerfully to the nature of the fragments. The choir does not sing any of the words from the Requiem. Haas used the letter from the City Council of Vienna answering Mozart’s petition for the Position of assistant to the Kapellmeister at St. Stephen’s Cathedral. “Although Mozart is offered the position, he is granted it with such administrative brutality, which shows a total lack of understanding of everything related to art.” Haas uses the orchestral instruments to echo and foretell the moods in Mozart’s fragments, adding intricate tonal contrasts to the polyphonic richness of Mozart’s music. He adopts completely different compositional methods to establish connections to Mozart’s composition.

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Mozart & Haas: Choral Works / Salzburg Mozarteumorchester, Salzburg Bach Choir
Belvedere Edition Feb 2019
CD
$20.99

Mozart: Symphonies, Vol. 3 - Nos. 9, 14, 20 & 24 / Klumpp, Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen

Genuin

$20.99 Feb 16, 2024

As a rising star, Wolfgang was just 13 years old when he wrote the first of the brilliant symphonies that the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra Essen is presenting on its new GENUIN CD under the direction of Johannes Klumpp. The outstanding ensemble enters the third round of its Mozart recordings with four early symphonies from 1769 to 1773 – the period in which the young composer wrote most of his symphonic oeuvre. With a slender sound and historically informed means of expression, the top-class ensemble interprets the works of a teenager that still leave you amazed even after 250 years!

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Mozart: Symphonies, Vol. 3 - Nos. 9, 14, 20 & 24 / Klumpp, Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen
Genuin Feb 2024
CD
$20.99

Vocal Recital: Anders, Peter, Vol. 3
Berlin Classics Sep 1994
CD
$18.99

Sibelius Edition Vol 8 - Orchestral Music

BIS

$59.99 Apr 01, 2009

Click here to view all 13 volumes of The Sibelius Edition

3332860.az_SIBELIUS_Orchestral_Works_Osmo.html

SIBELIUS Orchestral Works • Osmo Vänskä, cond; 1 Neemi Järvi, cond; 2 Jaakko Kuusisto (vn); 4 cond; 3 Leonidas Kavakos (vn); 5 Dong-Suk Kang (vn); 6 Marko Ylönen (vc); 7 Lahti SO; 1,3 Gothenburg SO 2 • BIS 1921 (6 CDs: 420:41)

Overture in E. 1 Scène de ballet. 1 Karelia: Complete music; 1 Overture; 2 Suite. 1 Impromptu. 2 Presto. 1 Press Celebrations Music. 1 Menuetto. 1 Coronation March. 1 March of the Pori Regiment. 1 Overture in a. 1 Romance in C. 1 Cortège. 1 Pan and Echo. 1 The Countess’s Portrait. 1 Violin Concerto: (1903–04); 1 (1905). 5 Rakastava. 1 2 Serenades. 2,6 2 Serious Melodies (2 versions). 1,2,6,7 6 Humoresques. 2,6 Academic March. 2 March of the Finnish Jäger Battalion. 1 3 Pieces, op. 96. 1 Suite mignonne. 1 Suite champêtre. 1 Suite caractèristique. 1 Morceau romantique. 1 Suite for Violin and Strings. 1,6 Andante festivo. 1 Processional. 1 Preliminary and alternative versions 1,3,4

Sibelius wrote a colossal amount of music for the orchestra. Already issued in BIS’s Sibelius Edition are boxes devoted to the tone poems (Vol. 1), theater music (Vol. 5, including the full scores plus the suites drawn from the composer’s incidental music), and voice and orchestra (Vol. 3); still to come, of course, is the volume of symphonies (Vol. 12, projected). That makes 21 or 22 well-filled CDs. Then there’s the present set, Vol. 8, which consists of everything else: works for violin and orchestra (about two CDs), music for patriotic pageants (one-and-a-half discs), and various occasional pieces, suites, and other works that don’t fit any of the above categories. The Sibelius quote with which annotator and project advisor, Andrew Barnett, begins his program notes could well serve as an epigram for the entire project: “I am myself a man of the orchestra. You must judge me from my orchestral works.”

Most of the contents of this set were first issued on single CDs: the Karelia music on BIS 915, the Press Celebrations Music on 1115, the two versions of the Violin Concerto on 500, the remaining works for violin and orchestra on 472, and various smaller works on 1265, 1445, 1485, and 1565. Items appearing here for the first time are the Karelia Suite, Menuetto, Romance, March of the Finnish Jäger Battalion , the three French-titled Suites, opp. 98 and 100, and the Processional , as well as several preliminary and alternative versions.

The sheer quantity of material here makes it most practical to discuss the works by category. Along with the Violin Concerto, the most important music in this set is that provided by Sibelius for two patriotic pageants during the Russian crackdown of the 1890s. Thinly disguised as benefits, the first in 1893 for education in the Viipuri district, the second in 1899 for the Press Pension Fund (the Russians had banned a Finnish newspaper), the Karelia and Press Celebrations pageants in reality served as nationalist rallies. The Karelia music, written the year after Kullervo and only two years after Sibelius’s first orchestral works, consisted of an Overture and music for eight tableaux; the Eighth Tableau quotes the song that would later become Finland’s national anthem. The Overture was published independently as op. 10, and three of the eight tableaux were adapted to form the Karelia Suite , op. 11. The remaining music—the entire score totals 50 minutes—is well worth hearing; particularly striking are the runic singing of Tableau 1 and the “siege” music of Tableau 6. In the runic singing, I prefer the earthy female voices used in Tuomas Ollila’s recording for Ondine to the bland baritones used here; otherwise, Vänskä’s version is more compelling. BIS includes Järvi’s energetic 1982 recording of the Overture (to avoid redundancy, one supposes), but gives the Suite in a new recording by Vänskä. I’m not sure why: there are plenty of fine recordings of the Suite already, and Sibelius collectors serious enough to consider this volume doubtless already have their favorite versions; mine is the RCA/Decca recording by Alexander Gibson, not currently available.

The Press Celebrations Music is almost as extensive, comprising a prelude and music for six tableaux; the final movement, “Finland Awakes,” with a new ending, became Finlandia , published as op. 26/7 in the expectation that the entire score would follow. In fact, only three other tableaux were published in revised form as Scènes historiques I , op. 25. The various stages of revision of Finlandia can be heard in Vol. 1 of the Edition; in the original, instead of the familiar apotheosis of the hymn tune, the ending consists of a series of bombastic fanfares. The Press Celebrations score is also included on the Ondine disc, but Vänskä is the clear winner.

The other major work here, of course, is the Violin Concerto. Kavakos and Vänskä give a compelling performance of the familiar 1905 revised version; it’s a performance of extremes, with the many technical challenges met head-on and the more lyrical music played with great sensitivity. Fans of Oistrakh on the one hand or Heifetz on the other won’t want to discard their favorites, but Kavakos offers yet another good option. The real story, though, is the 1991 version of Sibelius’s original score by the same artists; I believe it remains the only recording of the 1903–04 version. The comparison is intriguing; longtime Fanfare subscribers can find David K. Nelson’s detailed review in 14:6. It is impossible to discuss the two versions at length here, but two points should be made: first, the original is both longer and more difficult, including several fascinating passages that were later cut; second, as is almost invariably true, Sibelius’s final thoughts are his best. The revised version eliminates some interesting digressions and much extraneous detail, making it more cohesive and giving it more impact. The original version is still well worth hearing, not only because the comparison is so interesting, but also because it does include a good deal of music later eliminated. The two versions were originally issued in tandem, but here the original version is placed in an “appendix” on the last disc of the set, along with early or alternative versions of other works.

Kang and Järvi give sympathetic readings of the Two Serenades and the Serious Melodies ; the latter are also given, in the appendix, in Sibelius’s cello version by Ylönen and Vänskä. Only the Humoresques are a bit of a letdown. These superb pieces, written in 1917–18 when Sibelius was working on the Fifth Symphony under horrible conditions, are technically demanding and musically complex; they should be far better known, but their format—six short pieces totaling about 20 minutes—seems to have no niche in today’s concert programs. Kang and Järvi are less volatile, less exciting than Aaron Rosand on an ancient Vox LP. I have not heard the recordings of the violin-and-orchestra works by Tetzlaff or Kuusisto; Robert Maxham gave the former a mostly favorable review in 26:6, but the latter does not appear in the Fanfare Archive.

The many other pieces in this set can be addressed only briefly. Sibelius’s first orchestral works were the Overture in E Major and the Scène de ballet , both written in 1891; in 31:1, I preferred Järvi to Vänskä in the former, the reverse in the latter. The Overture in A Minor was written to fill out the program for the premiere of the Second Symphony; supposedly it was composed in a single evening. It certainly is far thinner in substance than the Symphony; its introduction, striking in its use of the trumpets, fails to go anywhere. The well-known Romance in C Major is given a rather perfunctory reading; Pan and Echo , a “Dance Intermezzo” sometimes grouped with the tone poems, is a striking miniature.

Rakastava (“The Lover”), a three-movement work for string orchestra with triangle and timpani written in 1911, the time of the Fourth Symphony, is a small masterpiece. It actually grew out of a much earlier choral work (thus perhaps explaining the anomalous opus number 11), and it was revised in 1912, Sibelius being dissatisfied with the arrangement. Again the final version is far superior to the earlier one, included in the appendix. Vänskä gives a sympathetic account.

Most of the remaining works are of minor importance; the Three Pieces , op. 96, and the three suites that followed, written between 1919 and 1922, are all essentially salon music; the Suite for Violin and String Orchestra, written in 1929 and thus one of Sibelius’s final compositions, is likewise not consequential. The Andante festivo , a 1938 arrangement of a work composed in 1922 for string quartet, is notable not only for its noble formality, but also because the recording of Sibelius’s live broadcast for the New York World’s Fair is the only surviving document of his conducting. That recording shows that almost everyone, including Vänskä, takes the piece too quickly; Vänskä’s version here has a timing of 5:10 versus Sibelius’s 6:55. Finally, the Processional is an arrangement of one of several songs Sibelius wrote for the Finnish Masonic lodge in 1927, again making it one of his last works.

The contents of this set range from some of Sibelius’s finest, most important works to some of the least significant products of his mature years. If you don’t have the single CD of the two versions of the Violin Concerto, or either of the pageant scores, or if you absolutely must have every scrap of orchestral music he created, this set’s for you. Collectors who have been acquiring each volume of the Edition as it is released will find this one of the more rewarding ones. Essential for Sibelians.

FANFARE: Richard A. Kaplan

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Sibelius Edition Vol 8 - Orchestral Music
BIS Apr 2009
CD
$59.99

Antonio Rosetti: Bassoon Concertos, Vol. 2 / Hubner, Kurpfaelzisches Kammerorchester

CPO

$18.99 Oct 30, 2012

Antonio Rosetti began his career as a double bassist at the Oettingen-Wallerstein court but then slowly but surely rose to the post of chapel master of this court ensemble and to the status of a widely renowned orchestral conductor. His seven extant bassoon concertos, four of which Eckart Hübner recorded some years ago for cpo (cpo 999 936-2 / 7172829), show that even as a composer he continued to be especially fond of bass instruments, and the three new productions on this CD now mean that a complete recording is available.

Once again the concertos are stamped by wonderful melodic invention and exhibit part writing of the highest virtuosity in the solo part as well as a refined instrumentation. Hübner once again plays »with a wonderfully well-rounded, very noble tone and lyrical cantabile reflection« (Financial Times). Rosetti’s concertos are presented together with Mozart’s earliest concerto for a wind instrument. The then eighteen-year-old composer immediately succeeded in producing a work doing complete justice to the character of the solo instrument and was already at the height of his compositional powers.

- CPO [Translated from German]

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Antonio Rosetti: Bassoon Concertos, Vol. 2 / Hubner, Kurpfaelzisches Kammerorchester
CPO Oct 2012
CD
$18.99

Beethoven: Orchestral Works
MYTO Historical Apr 2009
CD
$10.99

BRANDENBURGISCHES KONZERT NO.3
Archipel Jan 2012
CD
$10.99

Martinů: Short Operas / Meister, Stuttgart State Orchestra

Capriccio

$21.99 Nov 04, 2022

Martinů is a musical chameleon. On the one hand, there’s an unmistakable from to his output, on the other hand, he would adopt and adapt just about any style that happened to be en vogue or to his liking. These two one-act operas, presented on record for the first time in their respective versions, are a case in point. There’s that cracking little shocker that is Knife Tears (in its original French version), in which Martinů set an absurdist libretto to the sounds of Le Jazz Hot, Stravinsky, and anything in between. This is juxtaposed with the English version of his Comedy on the Bridge (the one that helped this work to brief fame), which is wildly different (if anything more in the style of Hanns Eisler), despite being separated by a mere seven years.

REVIEW:

Martinů’s short one-act operas make for a bright and entertaining double bill, and they receive bright and entertaining performances on this new recording from the Staatsoper Stuttgart under its music director Cornelius Meister. First up is Les larmes du couteau, a surreal farce from 1928 and the height of Martinů’s Paris period...A banjo strums drolly through the chamber-size score; there are the usual foxtrots and at one point the heroine Eléonore slides into a sultry and distinctly Weill-ish song to the moon. This is the first time, apparently, that the opera has been recorded with the original French text and Elena Tsallagova, as Eléonore, makes it sound effortless.

The Comedy on the Bridge is a more substantial proposition, composed as a Czech radio opera in 1935 but revised and staged in the USA in 1951 in the English version that is recorded here. Václav Klicpera’s plot – four characters, in wartime, are given permission to step on to a bridge but are forbidden from leaving it – must have had a personal resonance for the much-exiled Martinů. And yet the musical-dramatic world that he creates is recognisably kin to Smetana and Janáček: the bickering sweethearts, the querulous schoolmaster and the lyrical, dancing warmth that offsets what might otherwise have been a very black comedy indeed. The ensemble cast here sounds fresh and committed, enunciating clearly while Meister finds both the bite and the tenderness in Martinů’s lilting melodies and toytown march tunes. A little gem.

-- Gramophone

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Martinů: Short Operas / Meister, Stuttgart State Orchestra
Capriccio Nov 2022
CD
$21.99

Brahms: Symphonies No 2 & 3 / Skrowaczewski, German Radio Saarbrucken Kaiserslautern Orchestra

Oehms Classics

$12.99 ~~$25.99~~ Save 50% Nov 13, 2012

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski is successful both as a composer and as a conductor. In 1946 he became the Director of the Breslau Philharmonic. After that, he occupied the posts of Principal Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestras in Katowice, Krakow and Warsaw. When he won the International Conducting Competition in Rome in 1956, his international career was assured: George Szell invited him to conduct the Cleveland Orchestra for several weeks in 1958. In 1960 Skrowaczewski became Principal Conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, remaining there for 19 years.

In late 1994 Skrowaczewski was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra, with which he has enjoyed a close collaboration for many years, both in the concert hall and in the recording studio. In Japan, Skrowaczewski is honored almost like a saint. Oehms Classics is proud of the extent of the recordings and is delighted to be able to continue the Brahms Cycle with the Second and Third Symphonies. - Oehms

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Brahms: Symphonies No 2 & 3 / Skrowaczewski, German Radio Saarbrucken Kaiserslautern Orchestra
Oehms Classics Nov 2012
CD
~~$25.99~~ $12.99

TCHAIKOVSKY

DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON

$23.49 Oct 03, 2025

Daniil Trifonov - "Tchaikovsky". Star pianist Daniil Trifonov burst on to the international scene winning the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011. With this album, Trifonov returns to the music of Tchaikovsky in a beautiful selection of solo works evoking youth and family. The selected pieces include the rarely performed Sonata Op.80, the Children's Album, the Variations Op.19/6 and Pletnev's Concert Suite from Sleeping Beauty. They reflect Tchaikovsky at his most effervescent and intimate and contain some of Trifonov's most electrifying playing to date. 2 CD Digipak.

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TCHAIKOVSKY
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON Oct 2025
CD
$23.49

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