AUG-SEP 2012
NEW RELEASE GUIDE THIS MONTH’S HIGHLIGHTS:
The Super Telarc Sound 1
GP619-20
Pyotr Ilʼyich TCHAIKOVSKY
BEETHOVEN
(DVD) 2058728 / (Blu-ray) 2058724
(DVD) 711308 / (Blu-ray) 711404
(DVD) OA1085D / (Blu-ray) OABD7108D
WAGNER
Pipe Dreams
LPO-0064
FIMLP005LE / FIMLP005R
TCHAIKOVSKY 1812
BISCD1789
LIMUHD060LE / LIMUHD060
8.572207
Gustav MAHLER
A Tribute to Frederick the Great
Gala from Berlin 2011
Naxos International (Far East) Limited 5B, Blue Box Factory Building, 25 Hing Wo Street, Tin Wan, Aberdeen, Hong Kong Tel: 2951 9557 Email: info@naxos.com.hk
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Hector BERLIOZ (1803-1869) Le corsaire – Overture, Op. 21 Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14 (including an alternative version of Un bal with cornet obbligato) Orchestre National de Lyon Leonard Slatkin
Immensely influential, the remarkable Symphonie fantastique was composed while Hector Berlioz was suffering an intense and unreciprocated passion for the Irish actress Harriet Smithson. Its autobiographical tale describes a young musician’s opium-poisoned nightmares of jealous despair and fatal justice following the murder of his beloved. Berlioz wrote a second movement cornet solo into a subsequent revision of the score, here included as an optional extra. He wed his sweetheart actress but, recuperating in Nice, wrote Le corsaire after the final breakup of their marriage. Internationally renowned conductor Leonard Slatkin began his tenure as Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in the 20082009 season. He was recently named Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon, beginning with the 2011-2012 season. He completed his twelfth and final season as Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra in June 2008, and finished his three-year commitment as Music Advisor to the Nashville Symphony Orchestra in June 2009. Slatkin continues as Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. 8.572886
Heitor VILLA-LOBOS (1887-1959) Symphony No. 6 ‘On the Outline of the Mountains of Brazil’ • Symphony No. 7 São Paulo Symphony Orchestra Isaac Karabtchevsky
Heitor Villa-Lobos is generally acknowledged as Latin America’s foremost nationalist composer and his best known works, such as the Bachianas Brasileiras (Naxos 8.55746062), have tended to overshadow the rest of his work. Symphony No. 6, which launched his mature symphonic style, derives some of its themes from the contours of Brazilian hills and mountains, in a process devised by the composer to obtain a melody from an image by means of a graphic chart. The Symphony No. 7 is scored for a huge orchestra and is one of the composer’s most ambitious and significant statements. Both works represent the composer’s powerful desire to invent a specifically Brazilian idiom. This is the first volume of a complete cycle of the Villa-Lobos Symphonies.
8.573043 Krzysztof PENDERECKI (b. 1933) Hymne an den heiligen Adalbert • Song of the Cherubim • Canticum Canticorum Salomonis • Kosmogonia • Strophen Olga Pasichnyk (soprano) • Rafał Bartmiński (tenor) • Tomasz Konieczny (bass) • Jerzy Artysz (narrator) • Warsaw Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra • Antoni Wit
The range of Penderecki’s music is exemplified by this disc, which presents five works written over a period of nearly 40 years. Hymne an den heiligen Adalbert was composed in 1997 and evokes the martyred eighth-century Bishop of Prague through spare but fervent gestures. More austere, but intense in its focus, is Song of the Cherubim, whilst Canticum Canticorum Salomis is a richly sensuous exploration of the Song of Songs. Kosmogonia explores a complex sound tapestry. Strophen (1959) was a breakthrough work – spare, intricate and marvellously tensile. These are among Penderecki’s most interesting and important works for orchestral and vocal forces, written over a near four decade period of growth and renewal. Wit and his forces have been highly commended in this repertoire and are among Penderecki’s most ardent and experienced interpreters.
8.572481
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Gustav MAHLER (1860-1911) Symphony No. 1 Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop
This remarkably original work, with its recurring quotations from the composer’s own songs, notably Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) and Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn), is the perfect expression of one of Mahler’s most quoted sayings, “The symphony is a world; it must contain everything”. The opening movement, filled with sounds that Mahler remembered from his childhood, depicts “Nature’s awakening from the long sleep of winter”, and is followed by an exuberant scherzo and trio based on a Ländler. The disturbing slow movement funeral march, based on the children’s song Frère Jacques, is unlike anything that had been heard before, and the symphony concludes with music of thrilling dramatic intensity. Marin Alsop has been Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2007, a relationship now extended to 2015. Currently Conductor Emeritus of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Laureate of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, since 1992 she has also been Music Director of California’s prize-winning Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.
8.572207
Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847) Choral Music
Peter Holder, Organ • St Albans Abbey Girls Choir • Lay Clerks of St Albans Cathedral Choir • Tom Winpenny Compared with large-scale oratorios such as St Paul, which includes the lyrical chorus How lovely are the messengers, Mendelssohn’s smaller sacred choral works were influenced by Palestrina, ranging from short liturgical motets such as the Sechs Sprüche to the canticle settings of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis. The famous sacred melody ‘O for the wings of a dove’ is to be found in Hear my prayer. The fine choristers of St Albans Cathedral can also be heard ‘on sparkling form’ (Gramophone) in John Rutter’s Gloria (8.572563). Tom Winpenny is Assistant Master of the Music at St Albans Cathedral, where he accompanies the daily choral services and directs the Abbey Girls Choir. Previously, as Sub-Organist at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, he performed with the Cathedral Choir at the AGO National Convention, with the London Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, and played for great state occasions. 8.572836
Sir Peter MAXWELL DAVIES (b. 1934) Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 Scottish Chamber Orchestra Philharmonia Orchestra Peter Maxwell Davies
The orchestra used by Peter Maxwell Davies for his Fourth Symphony is of Classical period proportions, but this relatively compact framework belies a richness of ideas and sonorities. With its starting point in the tone poem Chat Moss, the singlemovement Fifth Symphony utilizes a more varied orchestral palette than its predecessor, with a large percussion section often in evidence. Both works are performed here by the orchestras for which they were written. The First Symphony can be heard on 8.572348, the Second Symphony on 8.572349, and the Third Symphony on 8.572350. Universally acknowledged as one of the foremost composers of our time, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has made a significant contribution to musical history through his wide-ranging and prolific output. He lives in the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland, where he writes most of his music.
8.572351
AUG-SEP 2012
Royal Scottish National Orchestra Jun Märkl Debussy completed his two books of Préludes in 1910 and 1913 respectively, and they contain some of his most visionary and poetic writing for piano. There are evocations of calm seascapes, delicate wind tracery, and snow-covered landscapes. Some moments are steeped in antiquity, such as La cathédrale engloutie, others in expressive portraiture, as in La fille aux cheveux de lin. There is even a cakewalk. The Préludes are performed here in the subtle and colouristic orchestrations of much-admired Slovak-born composer Peter Breiner. Throughout its history, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra has played an important part in Scotland’s musical life, including performing at the opening ceremony of the Scottish Parliament building in 2004. Jun Märkl has appeared as a guest conductor with the orchestras of Philadelphia, Cleveland, NHK Symphony, Tonhalle Zurich, and the Munich, Oslo and Czech Philharmonics among others, and at the Met, Covent Garden, Vienna State and Dresden Semper Operas.
Franz Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809) Piano Trios, Volume 3 Kungsbacka Piano Trio
Joseph Haydn’s long-term employment as Kapellmeister at the palace of Eszterháza in Hungary is reflected in the dedication of his set of three Trios, Hob. XV:2123 to Princess Marie Ermenegild Esterházy, though these were published in London during the second of Haydn’s visits. These delightful works are notable for the dexterity required of the pianist, and all, including the Trio No. 14, involve lively and innovative use of tonality. Previous volumes in this series have been acclaimed for their “taste and stylistic insight”. (Daily Telegraph on Volume 1, 8.572040) The Kungsbacka Trio takes its name from the Swedish town in which it gave its first performance and where it has established an annual festival. Winner of First Prize in the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, it has since appeared at numerous festivals and venues throughout Europe, North and South America, Australia and New Zealand.
8.572584
Piotr Il’yich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893) Swan Lake, Op. 20 (Highlights) Russian State Symphony Orchestra Dmitry Yablonsky
Tchaikovsky was ideally equipped to write the music for the ballet Swan Lake. His gift for vivid theatricality, for lively, memorable melodies, and for rich characterisation was allied to a mastery of dance rhythms. These qualities were augmented by his command of orchestral colour. And yet early performances were disappointingly received. It was only after some structural and choreographic revisions in 1895, two years after the composer’s death, that the work was fully appreciated for the masterpiece that it is. For four years Dmitry Yablonsky has been Principal Guest Conductor of Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and has conducted many other orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, collaborating with leading soloists. He has made more than seventy recordings, many of them prizewinning, as conductor and cellist for Naxos.
8.572932 Alfredo CASELLA (1883-1947) Suite in C major, Op. 13 (À Jean Huré) • Pagine di guerra (‘War Pages’), Op. 25bis Concerto, Op. 61 Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma Francesco La Vecchia World Première Recordings Alfredo Casella identified three different periods in his composing career, and this disc features one work from each. The Suite in C major is early Casella, a fascinating combination of influences from the French Baroque through Domenico Scarlatti to Mahler. War Pages are images of the horrific mechanised warfare of 1914-18, as seen on silent cinema newsreels: among the music’s admirers was Puccini. Casella himself felt that the Concerto, Op. 61 – a commission for the fiftieth birthday of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra – was his ‘most complete achievement in the field of orchestral music’. In 2002 Francesco La Vecchia was appointed Artistic Director and Resident Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma. Under his leadership the orchestra has rapidly achieved success in Europe and in highly successful tours to St Petersburg, Madrid, Belgrade, Brussels, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, London, Athens, Berlin, Beijing and Shanghai. 8.573004
AUG-SEP 2012
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918) Préludes (orch. Peter Breiner)
8.572063 Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856) Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44 • Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op. 47 • Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tale Narrations), Op. 132 Fine Arts Quartet Xiayin Wang (piano)
Between 1841 and 1843 Schumann wrote some of his greatest chamber works, among them the Piano Quartet and the Piano Quintet, both in E flat major. Written in an astonishing five-day period, the Quintet displays both the heroic and the lyric impulses in his music, boldness contrasting with songful tenderness, and march themes with lyricism. The Piano Quartet also exudes such qualities, not least in the ravishing slow movement, and the masterful breadth of Schumann’s expression. The four Märchenerzählungen are happy, energetic pieces. Winning high praise from the American press, pianist Xiayin Wang has toured with the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra in St Petersburg itself, as well as in the United States. Founded in Chicago in 1946, and based at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee since 1963, the Fine Arts Quartet is one of the elite few to have recorded and toured internationally for over half a century. 8.572661
William Vincent WALLACE (1812-1865) • Chopinesque Rosemary Tuck (piano) Tait Chamber Orchestra • Richard Bonynge (piano, conductor)
The scintillating virtuoso pianist and composer William Vincent Wallace wrote a sheaf of memorable compositions for his instrument. He met the huge demand for sheet music by producing a series of waltzes, nocturnes, mazurkas, barcarolles, and other works dazzling in their variety, invention, wit, humour and charm. Their tone ranges from Latin American to Spanish and from seascape to melancholy reflection. Widely admired exponents of Wallace’s music, Rosemary Tuck and Richard Bonynge are joined by the Tait Chamber Orchestra for the brilliant Grande Fantaisie La Cracovienne. In 2001, Rosemary Tuck gave the first official performance in the William Vincent Wallace Millennium Plaza in Waterford, Ireland and has appeared in an all Wallace programme in London conducted by Richard Bonynge. Her previous recordings include music by Liadov, Ketèlbey and Wallace.
8.572776
3
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Simon MAYR (1763-1845) Gioas (Oratorio)
Andrea Lauren Brown (soprano) • Robert Sellier (tenor) • Cornel Frey (tenor) • Andreas Burkhart (bass) Bavarian State Opera Chorus • Simon Mayr Chorus and Ensemble Directed from the harpsichord by Franz Hauk Bavarian-born Johann Simon Mayr achieved renown as an Italianate opera composer, his earlier work taking the form of sacred oratorios. Gioas is a combination of both forms, being a parody-oratorio closely following Mayr’s opera I misteri eleusini, which was considered by Stendhal to be “among [the] most powerful musical works of the age”. This mythical drama of kings, priests and goddesses was ideally suited for its intended devotional use, and it joins other pioneering recordings from Franz Hauk which include David (8.570366-67) and Samuele (8.572721-22).
Hans PFITZNER (1869-1949) Symphony in C major, Op. 46 Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856) Konzertstück, Op. 86
Robert Bonnevie (horn) • Mark Robbins (horn) • David C. Knapp (horn) • Scott Wilson (horn) Seattle Symphony • Gerard Schwarz The musical expression of German Romanticism is the theme of this disc. The trajectory of Schumann’s Konzertstück, Op. 86, written for four horns and orchestra, goes from heroism to introspection. Two of his Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13, were orchestrated by no less a figure than Tchaikovsky, while Albert Parlow orchestrated four of Brahms’ most exciting Hungarian Dances. Mendelsssohn’s Overture to his Ballad Opera Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde (Song and Stranger) embodies classical virtues. Anton Webern’s Langsamer Satz for string quartet has been vibrantly orchestrated by Gerard Schwarz. Hans Pfitzner, one of the last representatives of the movement, is represented by his concise, melodic Symphony in C major.
8.572710-11 (2 CDs) Laureate Series • Cecilio Perera Guitar Recital First Prize • 2011 Michele Pittaluga Guitar Competition • Alessandria
Winner of a remarkable number of awards and acknowledged as one of the most important guitarists to emerge from Mexico in recent years, Cecilio Perera demonstrates the strength and beauty of the guitar tradition in Central and South America in this recital. Manuel Ponce’s evocative Sonata Mexicana contrasts with the exciting meeting of ancient and modern in Leo Brouwer’s Sonata, Julio César Oliva’s Tangomania, ‘a sonata in the style of the modern tango influenced by Piazzolla’, and the haunting and at times dazzling Pieces from Venezuela by Vicente Emilio Sojo.
8.573025
8.572770 Baldassare GALUPPI (1706-1785) Keyboard Sonatas, Volume 3 Matteo Napoli (piano)
Known as Il Buranello after his island birthplace of Burano, opera composer Baldassare Galuppi was also admired as a keyboard player. His sonatas are quiet, refined gems of the utmost elegance and lyricism, with expressive contrasts ranging from poignant operatic aria style movements to the energetic influence of Scarlatti. This selection includes late works from the Passatempo al Cembalo. Matteo Napoli has been praised for his “enviable poise” (International Record Review) in volume 1 (8.572263) and “finely nuanced” playing (Fanfare) in volume 2 (8.572490).
8.572672
Richard WAGNER (1813-1883) Orchestral Excerpts, Volume 3 Alessandra Marc (soprano) Seattle Symphony • Gerard Schwarz
Themes of love and passion dominate these orchestral excerpts from Wagner’s music dramas. The legend of Tannhäuser contrasts the sensual allure of Venus with the ideals of courtly love and religious devotion. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg pits an inspired but rash young singer against the traditions of the old masters in a song competition, with a beautiful girl as the prize. Tristan und Isolde, based on one of the world’s great love stories, is considered Wagner’s most revolutionary work, seamlessly blending themes of love and death into a shattering apotheosis. Gerard Schwarz’s other selections of Wagner excerpts can be found on 8.572767 and 8.572768.
8.572769 Gloria COATES (b. 1938) String Quartets Nos. 1-9 Kreutzer Quartet
“Perched at a sonic event horizon, the nine string quartets of composer Gloria Coates exquisitely warp listeners’ sense of place. The floorboards yield like latex and the supernovae above are seduced to within an arm’s reach through her elongating, microtonal alchemy. In the deft hands of the UK’s Kreutzer Quartet, the nocturnal harmonies found here are rendered not bleak, but radiant.” – Doyle Armbrust, Time Out Chicago
8.503240 (3 CDs for 2)
4
Krzysztof PENDERECKI (b. 1933) The Symphonies and Other Orchestral Works
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra • Warsaw Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra • Antoni Wit “Antoni Wit’s ongoing cycle of Penderecki orchestral works is yet another of those truly outstanding Naxos projects that’s unlikely to get the attention it deserves. The music isn’t easy, or popular, but Wit is a marvellous conductor in this repertoire, and his unfailingly intense and idiomatic performances look to become the standard by which all others will be judged.” – David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
8.505231 (5 CDs for 4)
AUG-SEP 2012
1946-1950 Recordings Mark Obert-Thorn, producer and audio restoration engineer Kathleen Ferrier was one of the greatest British singers of the 20th century. For ten years she enjoyed an unparallelled career, admired equally for the generous warmth and sincerity of her interpretations as for her uniquely splendid contralto voice. This reissue features twelve arias and songs that Ferrier recorded for Decca between 1946 and 1950. In addition there are eight treasurable items from a 1949 Norwegian Radio recital in Oslo, which include her only published recordings of Hugo Wolf.
Great Pianists • Women at the Piano, Volume 5 An Anthology of Historic Performances (1923-1955) Marina A. Ledin & Victor Ledin (producers)
The fifth volume in this much admired series offers another fascinating anthology. Of the 17 pianists, the two oldest are the long-lived Cornelia Rider-Possart (1865-1963) who can be heard on an exceptionally rare, noncommercial 1926 Berlin disc, in the first recording of Scriabin’s Etude, Op. 42, No. 3, and Etelka Freund (1879-1977), a pupil of Brahms, who performs one of his Intermezzos in 1952. Jean Melville, a distant relation of Arthur Sullivan, plays Valse arabesque in London in 1923, whilst Johana Harris who, together with her husband, the American composer Roy Harris, enjoyed a highly successful career, can be heard playing Frescobaldi in Los Angeles.
8.112071
Constantino GAITO (1878-1945) Chamber Works for Piano & Strings Agustina Herrera (piano) Sarastro Quartett
CPO has the pianist Agustina Herrera, the composer’s greatgranddaughter, to thank for calling attention to the chamber music of Argentinean composer Constantino Gaito. His intensive, tireless, and multifaceted activity as a composer, conductor, pianist, music dramatist, and educator exercised an indisputable influence on the history of Argentine music. The Sarastro Quartet proves to be Agustina Herrera’s ideal partner for this project.
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La Bella Mandorla Ballate, Cacce & Madrigale from the Codex Squarcialupi palatino87
The Squarcialupi Codex is an extensive, lavishly decorated manuscript of the Italian Trecento and was compiled around 1410. The manuscript contains works by twelve composers – including Francesco Landini, Giovanni da Cascia, Jacopo da Bologna, and Lorenzo da Firenze – and presents them in chronological order.
777 623-2 Charles-Marie WIDOR (1844-1937) Organ Symphonies Vol. 2 Symphonies opp. 42, 3 & 69 Christian Schmitt • Bamberger Symphoniker • Stefan Solyom
Widor epitomizes the French organ music of the nineteenth century. He quickly made a name for himself as a composer, and his ten symphonies for solo organ are regarded even today as some of his greatest achievements. As with the first volume the symphonies are interpreted by Christian Schmitt, certainly the most distinguished German organist of the younger generation.
777 678-2 (Hybrid SACD)
AUG-SEP 2012
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Great Singers • Kathleen FERRIER (1912-1953) Arias and Songs
8.111219
Dmitri KABALEVSKY (1904-1987) The Complete Works for Piano & Orchestra Michael Korstick (piano) • NDR RADIOPHILHARMONIE Hannover • Alun Francis
Dmitri Kabalevsky is ranked with Shostakovich and Prokofiev among the former Soviet Union’s leading composers, although his music is lesser known. Kabalevsky was not as adventurous as his contemporaries in terms of harmony and preferred a more conventional diatonicism, but his natural talent for catchy melodies and clear structures were appealing to audiences. 777 658-2 (2 CDs)
Antonio Casimir CARTELLIERI (1772-1807) Complete Symphonies 1-4 Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, Gernot Schmalfuss
CPO is pleased to present Cartellieri’s Complete Symphonies performed by the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Gernot Schmalfuss. It is this conductor whom we have to thank for rediscovering two missing symphonies. Cartellieri’s music bears the audible mark of Beethoven’s influence but very much displays early romantic influences of its own. 777 667-2
Hieronymus PRAETORIUS (1560-1629) Complete Magnificat Compositions and other Works for Organ Friedhelm Flamme (organ)
On volume 9 in cpo’s on-going series featuring the organ music of the Northern German Baroque, Friedhelm Flamme interprets works by one of the most esteemed Hamburg musicians of his time: Hieronymus Praetorius. The Magnificat cycles recorded here in full are based on the eight church modes of the particular Magnificat tones then in use in Hamburg. In contrast to Praetorius’ practice in his vocal Magnificat compositions, his organ works display a freer part writing style.
777 345-2 (2 Hybrid SACDS)
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CLASSICAL MUSIC
J.S. BACH (1685-1750) Secular Cantatas Vol. 2
Bach Collegium Japan • Masaaki Suzuki • Sophie Junker (Diana) • Joanne Lunn (Pales) • Makoto Sakurada (Endymion) • Roderick Williams (Pan) • Damien Guillon (Göttliche Vorsehung) • Makoto Sakurada (Zeit) Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki present their long-awaited second volume of secular cantatas by J.S. Bach. The “Hunt Cantata”, composed in 1713, is the oldest of his secular cantatas. The libretto includes a dramatic plot in which four divinities from ancient mythology appear. Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht was intended for the 1719 New Year celebrations in Köthen. The cantata is set as a dialogue between Time (tenor) and Divine Providence (alto), who in the final movement are joined by a chorus wishing ‘glückseligen Zeiten’ (‘joyous times’)
BISSACD1971 (Hybrid SACD)
Pipe Dreams
Sharon Bezaly (flute) Australian Chamber Orchestra / Richard Tognetti (artistic director & lead violin) On a wide selection of recordings – solo, with orchestra, and in chamber music – Sharon Bezaly has demonstrated not only ‘utter commitment to the works’ but also ‘the most technically assured, breathtakingly brilliant flute-playing around’ (Fanfare). On Pipe Dreams, she appears with the eminent Australian Chamber Orchestra and their leader Richard Tognetti in a programme which takes its name from the Australian composer Carl Vine’s work for flute and orchestra. As the composer writes, a basic idea for the work is ‘the folly that a flute – the instrument itself – might harbour its own secret wishes. In a universe where all is possible, what might a flute dream?’ Intriguingly this also offers a key for possible interpretations of the other works on the disc.
SIBELIUS – Saarella palaa Fire on the Island Dominante Choir Seppo Murto
Throughout his career, Jean Sibelius wrote pieces for choir which evince a consistently high standard as well as their creator’s characteristic mode of expression. In spite of this, few of them have entered the international repertoire, largely because of the challenges of the Swedish and Finnish texts to which they are set. Among the best-known ones are Rakastava (The Lover) and the Six Songs, Op.18, a collection which includes Venematka (The Boat Journey) and the piece which has provided the title of the present disc: Saarella palaa – Fire on the Island. Like so many of Sibelius’ compositions (whether instrumental or vocal), they take their inspiration from the two great national texts of Finland – the Kalevala and Kanteletar collections.
BISCD1789
Kalevi AHO – Organ Music
Jan Lehtola playing the 1907/2008 Åkerman & Lund organ of S:t Johannes kyrka, Malmö, Sweden Largely known and admired for his large orchestral scores – including fifteen symphonies to date – the Finnish composer Kalevi Aho has actually written in a wide variety of genres, including chamber music and opera. He did arrive at the organ via the orchestra, however: in 1993, when composing his Eighth Symphony, he decided to let the organ feature in it as a solo instrument. Although he integrated it into the orchestra, it was also provided with three interludes between the separate movements. Encouraged to recast these into a solo work for the instrument, Aho composed a brief introduction for each interlude, functioning as a short summary of what had appeared before it in the course of the symphony.
BISSACD1946
BACH – Cantatas, Volume 51
Bach Collegium Japan directed by Masaaki Suzuki Hana Blažíková (soprano) • Damien Guillon (counter-tenor) • Christoph Genz (tenor) • Peter Kooij (bass)
The four cantatas gathered here were all composed for specific events such as funerals and weddings. Like all the sacred cantatas, they contain biblical references and include chorales, but Bach’s sacred occasional pieces are independent works and did not form part of his cantata cycles for the Sundays and feast days of the church year. This makes it to some extent difficult to place the individual works in context: for instance two of cantatas included here were intended for wedding ceremonies, and one for a funeral, but we do not know the circumstances regarding the fourth piece, Nun danket alle Gott, BWV 192. Similarly, we do know the identity of the person whose death was mourned to the music of Ich lasse dich nicht… BWV 157, but the names of the couples whose weddings were accompanied by BWV 195 and BWV 120a respectively are unknown. BISSACD1961
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BISSACD1889 TCHAIKOVSKY ‘Pathétique’
Swedish Chamber Orchestra Thomas Dausgaard These two works from either end of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s career are linked by their tragic endings – the Sixth Symphony with its concluding Adagio lamentoso descending into the deep and gloomy catacombs of a low string sound, and the ‘Fantasy Overture’ Romeo and Juliet closing with a funeral march. Both of them much-loved staples in the concert halls of the world, they appear here in ‘Opening Doors’ – the series conceived by Thomas Dausgaard and his Swedish Chamber Orchestra in order to provide the opportunity of hearing large-scale Romantic symphonic works in a new way, with the clarity that a chamber orchestra can offer.
BISSACD1959 Allan PETTERSSON Symphony No.6
Norrköping Symphony Orchestra Christian Lindberg Among the symphonies by Allan Pettersson, the Seventh is often accorded a special importance, partly because of the immediate success it enjoyed at its first performance, in 1968, but also because it has come to be perceived as more closely associated than other works with the personal life of its composer. As a result, Symphony No.6, which was premièred less than a year before the seventh, has come to be overshadowed by its successor. It is nevertheless an imposing work: an almost hour-long single-movement symphony in which the composer established a specific, self-contained musical style which would serve as a basis for the three symphonies that followed in quick succession. This work was begun in the late 1940s, but although the composer never completed it, he never abandoned it either.
BISSACD1980
AUG-SEP 2012
Jonathan Aasgaard • Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra • Carl Davis Carl Davis on Ballade: I based my Ballade on the brief synopsis Fauré had used for his Poème d’un jour: a couple meet, swear eternal love and part. As a teenager I thought, “How cool!” The Ballade follows this tale in 5 linked sections: the 1st - searching; the 2nd - restless; the 3rd - a love scene, ending in a minor key; the 4th - stern, passionate; and finally, life carries on. The brilliant cellist Jonathan Aasgaard, principal of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, asked me to compose a work for him after performing my score for Garbo’s sensual silent film Flesh and the Devil and the RLPO commissioned it. Thanks to you both. CDC017
Sergey PROKOFIEV The War Sonatas Boris Giltburg (piano)
Boris Giltburg was selected by the great Zubin Mehta as the winner of the first Pnina Salzman Prize in Israel 2011 and has won many other prestigious prizes, including the top prize and Audience Prize in the Santander International Piano Competition, and second prize and Best Classical Concerto in the Artur Rubinstein Competition. An exceptionally busy and versatile performer, he recently replaced Denis Matsuev at one day’s notice performing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3 on tour in Germany. This CD is the culmination of many months of constant performance and study of Prokofiev’s War Sonatas, and the highly detailed and insightful booklet notes have also been written by Boris.
ORC100023
Nikolay MEDTNER (1880-1951) COMPLETE PIANO SONATAS • 1 PAUL STEWART
Like his near-contemporary Rachmaninov, who called him ‘the greatest composer of our time’, Nikolay Medtner was a composer, pianist and an exile from his native Russia. His portfolio of works includes a remarkable series of pieces for his own instrument, including fourteen sonatas and some hugely evocative, deeply poetic miniatures. Medtner’s gift for melody is immediately discerned in the early Sonatina in G minor. The Sonata No. 1, Op. 5, his first large-scale work, enshrines autobiographical elements and is both intense and spiritually charged. Poetry and nostalgia flood the beautiful Sonata-Reminiscenza in A minor. This is the first volume of a complete cycle of the Medtner Piano Sonatas. Canadian pianist Paul Stewart has appeared in concerts and with major orchestras throughout Canada, the United States (including Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center), Mexico, South America, Europe and Asia. His British début in London’s Wigmore Hall was broadcast by the BBC, and a performance of Rachmaninov’s 4th Piano Concerto with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra was heard throughout Russia and released on a bestselling CD. Other recordings include works by Beethoven, Britten, Honegger, Liszt, Prokofiev, Ravel, Schubert and Strauss. Paul Stewart has championed and performed Nikolay Medtner’s works on four continents. He is a Professor of Piano at the Université de Montréal. GP617
Ludwig Van BEETHOVEN (1770-1872) COMPLETE PIANO DUETS AMY AND SARA HAMANN
Daniel Gottlob TÜRK (1750-1813) KEYBOARD SONATAS MICHAEL TSALKA
Beethoven’s compositions for piano duet embrace works written for students as well as those designed for aristocratic acquaintances and friends. This release presents two recordings of the complete works: the first (CD 1) on a modern Yamaha piano, and the second (CD 2) on chronologically accurate reproductions of the fortepianos Beethoven was composing on at the time. The modern piano was recorded in a concert hall, whereas the period instrument recording was made in a much more intimate space, showcasing the salon performance settings of the past.
Daniel Gottlob Türk is best known for his influential pedagogical treatise Klavierschule (1789). His 48 inventive and varied keyboard sonatas were influenced by Sonatas of other North German composers such as C. P. E. Bach and J. W. Hässler. The five historical keyboards employed in this recording reflect the diversity of the instruments available in Türk’s day. The twelve sonatas encompassed in his first and second collections show how the composer’s sensitive, at times dramatic, oratorical style relates beautifully to the nuanced expressive capabilities of these instruments.
Heralded as “having the eloquence and ability to maintain their audience under their powers*”, duo pianists Amy and Sara Hamann have won international recognition, captivating audiences and critics alike wherever they appear. The Hamann sisters are the first American duo to win the Absolute First Prize in the Fryderyk Chopin Concorso Pianistico Internazionale held in Rome, First Prize in the International Grieg Competition, and First Prize of the Ellis Competition for Duo- Pianists. Their performances have been broadcast on national and international television and radio, including NPR’s Performance Today and Studio 360. The sisters were recently appointed “Yamaha Artists” by Yamaha Corporation of America. GP619-20 (2 CDs)
Michael Tsalka has won numerous prizes and awards throughout his career. A versatile musician, he performs solo and chamber music repertoire from the Early Baroque to Contemporary on the modern piano, harpsichord, fortepiano, clavichord, square piano and chamber organ. Michael Tsalka performs throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia, having appeared at the Boston Early Music Festival, the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Mozart Fest in Austin, the Osaka Festival in Japan, the Hermitage Festival in St Petersburg, the Early Keyboard Series in Buenos Aires, amongst others. Tsalka holds a master’s degree in chamber music/ accompanying, a master’s degree in harpsichord performance and a doctorate in piano performance. GP627-28 (2 CDs)
AUG-SEP 2012
7
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Carl DAVIS Ballade for Cello and Orchestra
CLASSICAL MUSIC
JÖRG SCHNEIDER World Famous Operetta Arias and Scenes
Jörg Schneider (tenor) • Nina Berten (soprano) • Wiener Salonorchester The Austrian tenor Jörg Schneider has enjoyed a career that has flourished in Europe and especially in Italy, where he has sung in almost every important opera house. In this release for Capriccio, Jörg Schneider sings a selection of his favourite arias and scenes from world famous operettas, including Johann Strauss (Jr.): Die Fledermaus, Der Zigeunerbaron and Wiener Blut, Emmerich Kalman: Gräfin Mariza, Carl Millöcker: Der Bettelstudent, Eduard Künneke: Der Vetter aus Dingsda and Franz Lehar: Paganini.
C5109
Piano Rarities Frederico MOMPOU (1893-1987)
Piano Rarities Wilhelm STENHAMMAR (1893-1987)
Olena Kushpler (piano)
“To achieve a maximum level of expressiveness with a minimum of means” was the defined goal of the Spanish pianist and composer Frederico Mompou. He was championed by Enrique Granados, but it was in early 1921 when his piano teacher Ferdinand Motte-Lacroix presented the works of his student to the public that Mompou made his breakthrough. These works are performed by Olena Kushpler, a Ukrainian pianist whose concert performances are regularly greeted with enthusiasm by audiences and the media. C5115
Cassandra Wyss (piano)
Stenhammar was a virtuoso pianist and renowned composer in his day and achieved early success with his piano works, even if he was less well known outside of Scandinavia than his colleagues and friends Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius. On this recording for Capriccio Cassandra Wyss performs three of Stenhammar’s piano works; the frequently played Three Fantasies Op. 11, Nights of Later Summer, one of Stenhammar’s last works, and the Sonata Op. 12.
C5117
HANDEL: SAUL
MOZART CORONATION MASS
The Sixteen • Harry Christophers Renowned for their Handel interpretations, Harry Christophers and his award-winning choir, The Sixteen, add to their glittering catalogue of Handel discs with this new recording of Saul. In his biblical oratorio, Saul, Handel wrote an epic work of great and noble drama and of thrilling musical inventiveness. Saul represents Handel’s first proper foray into oratorio and it is a masterpiece full of great and magical moments. It is bursting with exceptional music, extraordinary orchestration (replete with trombones, deep-sounding drum and perky carillon), extended choruses both profound and ebullient, symphonies, concerto movements for organ, recitatives which explore the varying moods of the characters, and the most stunning arias. In Saul Handel gifted soloists with roles of vivid characterisation and the artists on this disc are some of the finest Handelian interpreters of today including Christopher Purves - a baritone whose talent for dramatic realisation is matched by superb musical craftsmanship - and Sarah Connolly - whose intensely radiant performance of David on this CD confirms her status as one of our most sought-after Handel performers. COR16103 (3 CDs)
Harry Christophers Handel and Haydn Society
Mozart’s Mass in C major is one of his most popular and enduring works. Know as the ‘Coronation Mass’ – a nickname it acquired following a performance conducted by Antonio Salieri in 1791 in Prague at the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia – it includes the beautifully tender Agnus Dei. Alongside the Mass on this CD are Mozart’s soprano solo Exsultate, jubilate, beautifully performed by Teresa Wakim, and Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 85, which was a favourite of Marie Antoinette, leading to the name ‘La Reine’, by which it is still known today. Harry Christophers was appointed Artistic Director of Boston’s internationally acclaimed Handel and Haydn Society in 2008. Founded in 1815, the Society is considered the oldest continuously performing arts organization in the U.S. and has given the American premieres of major works by Handel, Bach and Haydn, has won a Grammy Award, and will celebrate its Bicentennial in 2015.
COR16104
WEILL • IBERT • BERG Baton Rouge Symphony Chamber Players
John Gilbert (violin) • Dmitri Schteinberg (piano) • George Work (cello) • Timothy Muffitt (conductor) The Baton Rouge Symphony Chamber Players is a collection of talented artists taken from the larger parent group, the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. Celebrating its 63rd year, the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra has become an ambassador for the arts in the greater Baton Rouge region and neighboring communities. The BRSO currently offers over 40 concerts a year, bringing in internationally-known guest artists and offering a broad range of programs to the people of the area.
DSL-92161
8
AUG-SEP 2012
Emil Gilels Kolner Rundfunk Orchester • Mario Rossi
The Russian pianist Emil Gilels (1916–1985) was born in Odessa. After completing his studies with Heinrich Neuhaus in 1937, he was awarded first prize at the 1938 Ysaÿe International Festival in Brussels. After the war, he toured the Soviet Bloc countries of Eastern Europe as a soloist. He was one of the first Soviet artists, along with David Oistrakh, allowed to travel and concertise in the West. His US debut in 1955, playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1, was a triumph. His UK debut in 1959 was met with similar acclaim while his Salzburg Festival debut came in 1969. Emil Gilels is regarded by many as one of the most significant pianists of the twentieth century and is universally admired for his superb technical control and burnished tone. His interpretations of the central German-Austrian classics formed the core of his repertoire, in particular Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann as well as twentieth-century music like Debussy, Bartók and Prokofiev.
ICAC 5077
RACHMANINOV: Symphony No.2 • BERNSTEIN: Candide Overture Evgeny Svetlanov Philharmonia Orchestra LSO
The great Evgeny Svetlanov (1928–2002) was music director of the USSR State Orchestra (1965–2000) with permanent positions with the LSO, the Residentie Orchestra in the Hague and with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He frequently guest conducted the NHK Orchestra in Japan and the Orchestre National in Paris, as well as the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. May 2012 marked the tenth anniversary of his death and ICA celebrated this with a coupling of Rachmaninov’s The Bells – from Svetlanov’s last concert – and Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, works by two composers who were very closely associated with the conductor. Rachmaninov was, by his own account, Svetlanov’s favourite composer. This new live recording of his Symphony No.2 from the Royal Festival Hall in 1993 with the Philharmonia Orchestra has never been issued before. The recording is in excellent stereo and Svetlanov was at his most exciting when caught live as opposed to working under studio conditions. This is a riveting performance.
ICAC 5078
GRIEG: Piano Concerto Liszt: Piano Concerto No.1 Fantasy on Hungarian Folk Themes Georges Cziffra Orchestre National de l’ORTF Georges Tzipine André Cluytens
Hungarian born György Cziffra (1921–1994) was one of the most celebrated and individual piano virtuosos of the post-war decades in Europe, especially noted for his powers of improvisation and as a Liszt pianist. In 1950 Cziffra was arrested after he attempted to escape from Hungary’s Soviet-sponsored regime and was severely tortured. When he was released in 1953, Cziffra started to record for the Qualiton and Supraphon labels (ICAC 5008) which began to circulate in Western Europe, propelling him to legendary status. When Russia invaded Hungary, Cziffra fled to Vienna making his debut there in November 1956, with outstanding success. Debuts elsewhere in Europe followed. Cziffra gained international stardom not without critical disfavour, adhering to a nineteenth-century approach to music that allowed for taking ‘liberties’ with the texts. Cziffra settled in France. He retired from recording in 1986 and left the concert platform in 1988. In the same year, France named him a cultural ambassador to a newly liberalised Hungary. He set up the Fondation Cziffra with his wife who runs it today.
MAHLER: Das klagende Lied JANÁČEK: The Fiddler’s Child Gennadi Rozhdestvensky Bela Dekany (VIOLIN) BBC Symphony Orchestra
Only the most eminent and respected Russian musicians were allowed extensive foreign tours in the early 1960s, and Gennadi Rozhdestvensky was awarded this status. He appeared several times in Britain, mainly with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and at Covent Garden. In 1971, he conducted the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra at the Proms. Rozhdestvensky became Artistic Director of the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (1974–77 & 1991–95), and principal conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1978–81) and Vienna Symphony Orchestra (1980–82). He worked with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago and Cleveland orchestras. He also is the honorary conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. Rozhdestvensky was the first Russian-born conductor to perform and record all Mahler’s symphonies in his country. Mahler’s Das klagende Lied is a rarity and here is performed live, complete in the original three-part edition The performance was reviewed by Gramophone magazine as follows: ‘Rozhdestvensky’s highly dramatic account of Mahler’s three-movement drama’.
ICAC 5079
ICAC 5080
SCHUMANN: Symphony No.4 DEBUSSY: Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien – SuiteLa Mer Guido Cantelli Philharmonia Orchestra
The extraordinarily gifted Guido Cantelli (1920–1956) was born in Novara, Italy. After studies at the Milan Conservatory, he returned to Novara in 1941 to become conductor and artistic director of the Teatro Coccia which had been founded by Toscanini. After the war, in which he served in the Italian Army, he started to conduct the La Scala Orchestra in Milan and appeared with other European orchestras. In 1948 Toscanini, who held him in the highest regard, invited him to be a guest conductor with the NBC orchestra in New York. From 1949 each year, Cantelli conducted the NBC, the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony orchestras. In 1950, he was at the Edinburgh Festival and in 1951 Lucerne, Salzburg and Venice Festivals. He started recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra for EMI but was tragically killed in an air crash in Paris in 1956. Walter Legge wrote, ‘no other conductor in the history of the art has established, so early in life, so wide a fame’. While studio recordings validate that encomium, none quite captured the incandescence of his live performances. These important and very rare live recordings featuring the Philharmonia Orchestra derive from the Music Preserved archive and have never been released before. They have been carefully restored by Paul Baily. The Glasgow Herald stated that Cantelli’s Schumann nearly raised the roof with its excitement but it also noted ‘the plasticity of line and transparent textures’. ICAC 5081
AUG-SEP 2012
9
CLASSICAL MUSIC
BRAHMS: Piano Concerto No.2 • DEBUSSY: Images – Book 1 • PROKOFIEV: Sonata No.3 op.28
CLASSICAL MUSIC
BOCCHERINI Guitar Quintets
Massimo Scattolin (guitar) • Franco Mezzena • Stefano Pagliari (violins) • Luca Volpato (viola) • Julius Berger (cello) Boccherini’s works may be undervalued today, but in his time the Italian achieved considerably renown as a lyrical melodist. Set apart from the Austro-German mainstream, he retained an individual and distinctive voice – and for a composer whose most admired traits included expressiveness and intimacy, it should come as little surprise that his major legacy is a fine body of distinctive chamber music. Full of energy and charisma, these are highly evocative pieces that deserve more recognition. Massimo Scattolin’s performances represent an important addition to the Boccherini discography that will help ensure that the unique delights of the composer’s music continue to be treasured.
Giovanni CROCE Missa sopra la battalgia
Motets by Bassano • Croce A. Gabrieli • G. Gabrieli • Willaert Cappella Marciana Marco Gemmani Detailing many an inspiring performance, this release celebrates the rich musical heritage of St Mark’s Basilica through a selection of liturgical works – all of which were written by composers employed at the cathedral during the 16th and 17th centuries. Using several choruses as well as a rich instrumental consort, Croce’s Mass shows how richly developed was the music at St Mark’s by the end of the 16th century. Its glorious traditions continue, as we can hear from the current choir and instrumentalists of St Mark’s, Cappella Marciana.
8802138 (2 CDs)
TARTINI Violin Concertos
Giuliano Fontanella • Enrico Casazza • Sebastiano Maria Vianello • Paolo Ciociola & Cristiano Rossi violins Interpreti Veneziani Born in 1692, in what today is Slovenia, Giuseppe Tartini originally studied law before turning his hand to composition and the violin. Having returned to Padua from Prague, where he spent three years immersed in the musical world of the Hapsburgs, he went on to establish a music school and write treatises on subjects such as the principles of harmony. Today Tartini is regarded as one of the most important composers of his generation. 8802140 (2 CDs)
SAINT-SAËNS Complete Piano Concertos Philippe Entremont (piano) Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse • Michel Plasson
Full of youthful ambition and recalling Mendelssohn’s lively style, Saint-Saëns’ First Piano Concerto was written when the composer was just 23; another ten years followed before the Second, which is generally considered the masterpiece of the set. Written especially for a concert conducted by Anton Rubinstein, No.2 is certainly Saint-Saëns’s most popular: high in spirits and full of invention, it was soon followed by the Third Piano Concerto of 1869 and much later by the Fourth, whose adventurous and novel five-section structure reveals a mature composer at the height of his career. The Fifth is an exotic-sounding work that was written during the composer’s annual vacation to Egypt in 1895.
8802144 (2 CDs)
8802139 TARTINI Violin Sonatas
Alberto Martini, Giovanni Guglielmo (violins) Antonio Pocaterra (cello) Ilario Gregoletto (harpsichord) Born in 1692, in what today is Slovenia, Giuseppe Tartini ranks among the most famous of lateBaroque composers. A colourful figure who was the subject of various scandals during his lifetime, the Italian was forced to flee Padua in 1710 when it was discovered he had secretly married the niece of the city’s Bishop. Tartini sought refuge at the monastery in Assisi, and it was there that he began lessons in both the violin and composition.
8802141 (3 CDs) MOZART Bass Arias
Ferruccio Furlanetto bass-baritone Wiener Symphoniker • Ion Marin The compilation traces Mozart’s four most famous operas and details nine separate characters in the space of an hour. From Figaro’s military-style ‘Non più andrai’ to the Count’s display of jealous insecurity in ‘Hai già vinta la causa!’ – two of four arias from Le nozze di Figaro – Furlanetto also explores the servant-nobleman roles in Don Giovanni, performing the infamous ‘Madamina! il catalogo è questo’ and ‘Champagne Aria’ among others. Così fan tutte, Mozart’s third and final collaboration with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, sees the bass-baritone take on the role of Guglielmo, while in Die Zauberflöte, written just a couple of months before the composer’s death, the singer contrasts the naivety of Papageno the birdcatcher (‘Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja’ and ‘Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen’) with the wisdom and purity of Sarastro (‘In diesen heil’gen Hallen’). 8802179
STRADELLA: Chamber Music
Mario Ferraris • Angelo Ephrikian • Giovanni Adamo • William Bignami • Giuliano Nalesso • Federico Zampieri (violins) • Giorgio Alessandri • Franco Borgatti • Armando Burattin (violas) • Enrico Miori • Antonio Pocaterra • Francesco Bruni • Nazareno Cicoria • Enrico Emiliani (cellos) • Bruno Ferraris • Osvaldo Rizzoli • Artemio Versari (double basses) • Maria Isabella de Carli (harpsichord & organ) • Emilia Fadini (harpsichord) • Edward Hankins Tarr • Holger Eichorn (trumpet & cornets) Born in 1639, Alessandro Stradella stands as one of the most productive and popular musicians of his generation – a composer who enjoyed such a high reputation that he never lacked powerful patrons and commissions. Regarded by some as the Mozart of the 17th century, Stradella wrote most of his works for voices; this set documents Stradella’s other side. Twelve sonatas for violin and continuo, nine Sonatas for two violins and continuo, various other ‘miscellaneous’ compositions such as the Sonata ‘for two choirs’, featuring two violins and two cornets (each with continuo); a joyful cornucopia of styles and instrumental combinations. Although there is little key contrast in each individual piece, variation of tempo and metre offer contrast between movements, and Stradella is deftly inventive in his use of figures based on adjacent notes. For all the density of their counterpoint, these sonatas revel in a continual readiness to push the boundaries of 17th-century conventions.
8802142 (4 CDs)
10
AUG-SEP 2012
Windsbacher Knabenchor (Windsbach Boys Choir) Karl-Friedrich Beringer
The Windsbacher Knabenchor (Windsbach Boys Choir) performs much-loved German folk songs in heart-warming settings. Many of these songs were recorded by the choir in 1982: this makes the present recording one of the first to be produced under the baton of KarlFriedrich Beringer. The production’s first pressing was awarded the prestigious Deutscher Schallplattenpreis. ROP1008
Voci a corde Duette zur Harfe
Christine Wolff (soprano) • Britta Schwarz (alto) • Maria Graf (harp) Together with the soloists Christine Wolff, Britta Schwarz, and Maria Graf, Rondeau Production approaches this Romantic Zeitgeist from a new perspective: well-known and unknown duets are clothed in fresh robes by the accompanying harp, and the spirit of chamber music making in private homes is reawakened.
ROP6061
Johann Sebastian BACH Kantaten BWV 215, 195
Barbara Schlick (soprano) • Klaus Haffke (altus) • Paul Elliott (tenor) • Stephen Varcoe (bass) Windsbach Boys Choir Collegium Musicum des WDR Karl-Friedrich Beringer Bach had performed the congratulatory cantata Preise dein Glücke, gesegnetes Sachsen BWV 215 on 5 October 1734 in celebration of August IIIʼs coronation. Exactly one year earlier, the Elector of Saxony had been crowned king of Poland. The second cantata recorded on this disc, Dem Gerechten muss das Licht BWV 195, was composed for another festive occasion: the marriage of two of Leipzig’s most prominent citizens. ROP2006
Alessandro SCARLATTI Vespro della Beata Vergine Vokalakademie Berlin Frank Markowitsch
The Vokalakademie Berlin under Frank Markowitsch release their debut recording: Alessandro Scarlatti’s (1660–1725) seldom recorded Vespers for the Blessed Virgin consists of psalm settings and motets which had previously been scattered across many different European libraries. They provide sounding evidence of the Italian maestro’s impressive compositional prowess. ROP6062
WIDOR, VIERNE Orgelsinfonien
Organ Symphonies Tobias Frank at the Seifert Organ at St Matthias • Berlin-Schöneberg For his recording, Tobias Frank selected the organ at the St-MatthiasKirche in Berlin: a grandiose instrument with the sound-palette of a pseudo-French cathedral organ. As one of the few large-scale organs of the early years of the West German Federal Republic, until today, it can be considered “en vogue” down to the smallest detail. ROP6063
Claudio MONTEVERDI Marienvesper
Hanover Boys Choir Vox Werdensis • Himlische Cantorey • Concerto Palatino • Musica Alta Ripa • Jörg Breiding The five Psalms of the Vespers are framed by antiphons chosen especially for this performance. The idiomatic sound of a boys’ choir and boy soloists, also available to Monteverdi in Venice, makes the present liverecording even more unique and establishes its unmistakable character and authenticity.
ROP7012/13 (2 CDs)
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5 Symphony No. 7
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 Capriccio Italien
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is one of music’s most recognised and popular pieces, a beloved favourite imbued with palpable spark and energy.
Van Zweden brings the thrill of discovery to these wellknown works, probing each composition for nuance, excitement and interpretive layers.
Dallas Symphony Orchestra Jaap van Zweden
Dallas Symphony Orchestra Jaap van Zweden
DSOLIVE001 TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4 Suite No. 4, Mozartiana Dallas Symphony Orchestra Jaap van Zweden
The Fourth Symphony shows Tchaikovsky’s darker side, the turbulence, despair and hopelessness in his personal life.
DSOLIVE003
AUG-SEP 2012
DSOLIVE002 Steven STUCKY AUGUST 4, 1964
Indira Mahajan • Kristine Jepson • Vale Rideout • Rod Gilfry Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Chorus • Jaap van Zweden This is the world premiere recording of Steven Stucky’s August 4, 1964, a ‘concert drama’ commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
DSOLIVE004
11
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Kein schöner’ Land Deutsche Volkslieder
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Georges ENESCO Impressions d’enfance - Sonata ‘Torso’ - Les 3 sonates
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART Transcriptions for flute and viola Patrick Gallois (flute) Pierre-Henri Xuereb (Viola)
Amiram Ganz (Violon) Alexandre Paley (piano)
Gallois and Xuereb’s playing is well phrased and filled with all the poetry inherent in Mozart’s music and their transcriptions are intelligent and pure in style.
Composed in 1940 Impressions d’enfance is Enesco’s last work for violin and piano. It is less a programme work than a series of tableaux evoking aural and visual memories of the composer’s childhood. LVC 1114 (2 CDs)
LVC 1124
Franz and Karl DOPPLER
Iannis XENAKIS Zyia • Six Chansons Greques • Psappha • Persephassa
Claude Arimany and Friends This disc allows the music lover to discover the richness and variety of the Doppler brothers' compositions. Flautists will discover pieces that are less well known along with others that, up until now, have remained totally neglected.
LVC 1178 (2 CDs)
Angelica Cathariou (mezzo soprano) • Cécile Daroux (flute) • Daniel Ciampolini (percussions) • Nikolaos Samaltanos (piano) • Dimitri Vassilakis (piano) Xenakis’s musical career was striking, unconventional, and far removed from the halls of academia. Regardless of all the admiration one might have for his remarkable scientific knowledge, it nurtures but does not explain the transcendental incantatory, physical aspect of his music. LVC 1168
Piotr Ilʼyich TCHAIKOVSKY Complete works for Violin and Orchestra Régis Pasquier (violon) Baltic Chamber Orchestra Emmanuel Leducq-Barôme
Born into an illustrious family of musicians, Pasquier won his premiers prix in violin and chamber music at the Paris Conservatoire aged 12. Encounters with Isaac Stern, David Oistrakh, Pierre Fournier and Nadia Boulanger were decisive in the affirmation of his concept of music.
LVC 1173
Helmut ROGL: Complete Saxophone Works So Far
4saxess • Gerhard Hofer • Martin Rummel Born in Enns (Upper Austria) in 1960, Helmut Rogl had piano lessons from an early age. Following first compositions as an autodidact, he then started studying composition at what was at the time the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz, learning from Helmut Schiff and Gunter Waldek. Later, he studied at the “Mozarteum” in Salzburg with Helmut Eder. Parallel to his music studies, he studied business at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz and received his PhD, thus now living a dual view of the world between arts and business or avocation and profession.
Alberto Mesirca British Guitar Music
Alberto Mesirca • Martin Rummel Music in England has always had a specific and definite character, from its very early period. Awardwinning guitarist Alberto Mesirca has compiled some of Britain’s finest music to a spectacular album of known and new repertoire. Dowland and Britten are both milestones for any guitarist. Alongside Sir Lennox Berkeley’s relatively newly discovered “Four Pieces” and a transcription of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ “Farewell to Stromness”, this disc also contains two world premiere recordings of works by Graham Whettam (1927–2007).
PMR 0022
PMR 0027
Ferruccio BUSONI Complete Works for Clarinet and Piano Benjamin Feilmair • Florian Feilmair
Benjamin & Florian Feilmair about Ferruccio Busoni: “For our second CD recording as a clarinet/piano duo we are embarking on a special project – Ferruccio Busoni’s complete works for clarinet and piano. In addition to everything in print we are also including here an unreleased Sonata K 138, the fragmentary status of which I have developed, a Prelude K 19 and a track only identified as Piece K 162. For clarinettists the pieces represent an enormous challenge, as the young Ferruccio Busoni enjoyed pushing against the limits of the clarinet’s technical abilities in his compositions and paid little attention to the fact that a clarinettist also needs to occasionally breathe in and out. Nevertheless we have set out to tackle this task and, in doing so, time and again discovered new surprises in the brief, individual pieces.“
PMR 0029
12
AUG-SEP 2012
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 ‘Choral’
Kurt Masur
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig Kurt Masur
0300439BC SMETANA Mein Vaterland
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig Vaclav Neuman
0300348BC Anton BRUCKNER Symphony No. 4 in Eb Major ‘Romantic’ Heinz Rögner RSOB
0300351BC HANDEL Water Music Suites 1–3 & Fireworks Music Helmut Koch RSOB
0300352BC BEETHOVEN Violin Concertos & Romances, Karl Suske
Karl Suske Gewandhausorchester Leipzig Kurt Masur
0300355BC Modest Peter MUSSORGSKY Bilder einer Ausstellung Peter Rösel
0300359BC Amoretti Arias by MOZART GLUCK and GRETRY Christiane Karg Arcangelo Jonathan Cohen
0300372BC
0300389BC
Georg Philipp TELEMANN Fantasias (12) for solo violin, TWV 40:14-25 Ori Kam
0300390BC
AUG-SEP 2012
13
CLASSICAL MUSIC
BEETHOVEN 9 Sinfonie
CLASSICAL MUSIC
John PICKARD Chamber Music
Rupert Marshall-Luck (violin, viola) Sophie Harris (cello) Ian Mitchell (bass clarinet) Matthew Rickard (piano) Reviews of music by the English composer John Pickard (b. 1963) have stated that ‘he has the technique and the temperament to emerge as one of the great symphonists of the 21st century’, even that ‘his place among the greats is secure’. This conspectus of his chamber music traces the evolution of his style over two decades, from the Piano Trio of 1990 to Snowbound of 2010, revealing a powerful rhythmic drive, a feeling for toughly argued drama and a poetic sensitivity to atmosphere among its most prominent characteristics. TOCC0150
David BRAID: Chamber and Instrumental Music
Grace Davidson (soprano) • Peter Cigleris (clarinet) • Yuri Kalnits (violin) • Julia Morneweg (cello) • John Paul Ekins (piano) • Sergei Podobedov (piano) • Jelena Laković (piano) Tippett Quartet (string quartet) Erato Piano Trio (piano trio) • Rossitza Stoycheva and Mikako Hori (piano duo) The British composer David Braid, born in North Wales in 1970, studied in London, Oxford and Kraków, and his music shows something of that double inheritance, bringing together the lyricism of such English composers as Dowland and the dynamism of the Polish school of Lutosławski. This debut CD of his music presents chamber and instrumental works written between 2006 and 2011. Steve Reich described the raga-like Morning for soprano and string quartet – the Pablo Neruda setting which opens this disc – as ‘beautifully done – very honest stuff’; the other works here encompass a divergent range of moods, from the melancholy of Infinite Reminiscence to the energetic drive of Music for Dancers. TOCC0149
Cello Heroics Vol.1: SCHUMANN.R: Concerto for Cello & Orchestra Op.129 in A minor Sinfonia Varsovia (Orchestra) Misha Katz (Conductor) Gavriel Lipkind (Cello)
Leo ORNSTEIN Piano Music, Volume One Arsentiy Kharitonov (piano)
The Russian-born American composer Leo Ornstein (1893–2002) lived long enough – an astonishing 109 years – to see his music both fall into and re-emerge from obscurity. His earliest surviving work dates from around 1905; his last was composed in 1990. Not surprisingly, his music embraces a range of styles, ranging on this first CD – in the first extended series devoted to his piano works – from the atmospheric impressionism of the Four Impromptus via the fiery virtuosity of the Fourth Piano Sonata to the Rachmaninov-like Romanticism of the Cossack Impressions and In the Country.
TOCC0141 The Unknown ENESCU, Volume One: Music for Violin Sherban Lupu, violin (conductor) Masumi Per Rostad (viola) Marin Cazacu (cello) Dmitry Kouzov (cello) Ian Hobson (piano) Ilinca Dumitrescu (piano) Samir Golescu (piano) Enescu Ensemble of the University of Illinois (ensemble) George Enescu (1881–1955) is one of the great composers, although the world has yet to realise the extent of his achievements. Enescu’s small published œuvre of 33 opus numbers belies the amount of music he produced: he composed prolifically but, as he was both a perfectionist and a busy performer, much of his music is still unknown. This CD reveals solo, chamber and concertante pieces featuring the violin, played by his fellow Romanian Sherban Lupu, who understands Enescu’s idiom like few other musicians.
TOCC0047
Cello Heroics Vol. 2: SHOSTAKOVICH Cello Concerto No.1 Op.107 in E-flat major Sinfonia Varsovia (Orchestra) Wojciech Rodek (Conductor) Gavriel Lipkind (Cello)
The Cello Heroics recording series aims to become an exhaustive anthology of the concertante repertoire for cello (“The Heroes of the Cello“), but also serves as a kind of touring diary of solo cellist Gavriel Lipkind. A carefully planned audio documentary over many albums wherein every composition is seen as a “Hero”, and each is celebrated as a stand alone production serving the needs of one specific work.
LP006-H01-ED Cello Heroics Vol.3: SAINT-SAËNS Cello Concerto No.1 Op.33 A minor Sinfonia Varsovia (Orchestra) Antony Hermus (Conductor) Gavriel Lipkind (Cello)
LP012-H03-ED
14
LP009-H02-ED Cello Heroics Vol.4: Dohnanyi KONZERTSTÜCK for Cello and Orchestra Op.12 Het Gelders Orkest (Orchestra) Ivan Meylemans (Conductor) Gavriel Lipkind (Cello)
LP015-H04-ED
AUG-SEP 2012
Magnus LINDBERG (1958) Chamber Works
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra Sakari Oramo
Kari Kriikku (clarinet) Anssi Karttunen (cello) Magnus Lindberg (piano)
This new release features the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sakari Oramo performing Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6.
Magnus Lindberg has written many pieces for clarinettist Kari Kriikku and cellist Anssi Karttunen, two important figures on the contemporary music scene in Finland.
These two symphonies, composed in 1944 and 1947, are very different in mood, but stylistically closely related. The Fifth was written amid the chaos of the Second World War and seeks to find a positive solution; but in the Sixth, completed soon after war, the mood is darker. Both feature Prokofiev’s melodic writing at its best.
ODE 1181-2
The Clarinet Trio – including fine reminiscences of Brahms and Ravel – now brings these two musicians together, joined by the composer himself on the piano. Anssi Karttunen is a passionate advocate for contemporary music. 24 concertos have been written for him and he premiered Magnus Lindberg’s cello concerto. ODE 1199-2
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Sergei PROKOFIEV (1891–1953) Symphony No. 5 & 6
Virpi Räisänen: The Legacy of MAHLER Virpi Räisänen (mezzo-soprano) Marita Viitasalo (piano)
Having already performed as a successful violinist, Virpi Räisänen has since appeared as a singer at the Staatsoper in Berlin, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Netherlands Opera and the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Ingo Metzmacher in Nono’s opera Al gran sole carico d’amore in 2009 and in the premiere of Wolfgang Rihms’s Dionysos in 2010. Virpi Räisänen is equally at home with contemporary and baroque music with her beautiful timbre able to fit well with all genres. ODE 1208-2
Vladimir Jurowski (conductor) London Philharmonic Orchestra
Throughout his life, Tchaikovsky was preoccupied with the idea of Fate, describing it as ‘that fatal power which prevents one from attaining the goal of happiness’. This dark force haunts both the Fourth and Fifth symphonies, which each juxtapose some of Tchaikovsky’s most beautiful and graceful melodies with music of intense power and dark despair. Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski continues his journey through the composer’s six symphonies, leading the London Philharmonic Orchestra in these live concert recordings. Since his appointment as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2007, Vladimir Jurowski has led the Orchestra in some of the finest recordings on the LPO label, including 2011’s popular and critically acclaimed Mahler Symphony No. 2.
LPO - 0064 (2 CDs)
21st century portraits SHIH (*1950)
Ensemble ‘Die Reihe’ • Georg Fritzsch (conductor) National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan • Chien Wen-Pin (conductor) Capriccio releases another instalment of their 21st century portraits series, this time showcasing the work of the Taiwanese-Austrian composer Shih. Shih actively mediates between European and Far Eastern musical cultures and his own mean of expression is sound. His highly individual works are interpreted on this recording by the Ensemble ‘Die Reihe’ and the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan. C5111
AUG-SEP 2012
Jean SIBELIUS (1865–1957) Symphony No. 5 & 6 The Swan of Tuonela Paavo Berglund (conductor) London Philharmonic Orchestra
Finnish conductor Paavo Berglund, who passed away in January 2012, was one of the last remaining conductors with a direct personal connection to Sibelius. With the Second and Seventh Symphonies already released on the LPO Label, Berglund’s Sibelius legacy is further cemented in these live concert recordings with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, in which he vividly captures the natural flight of the Fifth Symphony and the freefall journey of the Sixth. The affinity Berglund felt with the music of Jean Sibelius went beyond shared nationality and personal acquaintance. Berglund revealed a rare physicality in Sibelius’s scores. It was there in his three recorded symphony cycles, but in these late London performances it emerged in a different, darker light. Berglund wasn’t as meticulous about observing marked tempi as some of his younger compatriots are. Instead he was impulsive, rugged and heartfelt. But his instincts always seemed to serve the musical architecture, the curious symphonic meta-flow unique to Sibelius. LPO - 0065
21st century portraits Christian JOST (*1963) Viviane Hagner (violin) Essener Philharmoniker Christian Jost (conductor)
The next disc in Caprccio’s 21st century portraits series features the much sought after German composer Christian Jost. Here his Violin Concerto ‘TiefenRausch’ (Rapture of the Deep) is performed by Viviane Hagner alongside the CocoonSymphony. Both pieces showcase Jost’s musical manifesto – all compositions develop around a nucleus, but musical developments are sound-driven.
C5118
15
CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
Pyotr Ilʼyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-93) SYMPHONIES NOS. 4 & 5
CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
Grey MCMURRAY WHERE (WE) LIVE
SO Percussion • Grey McMurray
Brooklyn-based quartet.
Masters at crafting alluring sonic landscapes from the most unlikely found objects, So Percussion explores the idea of home with a bold experiment in collaborative art-making. Where (we) live is a multi-media, multi-artist, fullystaged theatrical event and album featuring music written by the
As a live event, So Percussion has invited video artists, songwriters, painters, choreographers, directors (including Martin Schmidt (Matmos), Ain Gordon and Emily Johnson) and others to substantively alter their process. The resulting performance contains a society of possibilities: composed pieces, chance elements, visual associations, and theatrical interactions. The core of the experience, however, is the album itself; a distillation of the performance as it has evolved. CA21087
Insofar
Arthur Jeffes • Oli Langford The often mathematically intricate and precise rhythms thrown against warm and emotive melody are the point. It allows for a direct intensity that can apply to any aspect of life. Taking Philip Glass, Wim Mertens and Simon Jeffes’ work into account, Arthur has been working since then on an idea of transparent music that can be both intellectually satisfying and quietly touching. This is a music which, because of its origin, can work happily under any number of names; classical, minimalist, chamber, or electronica. The last track on the new Penguin Cafe album, Coriolis, was the first time Jeffes had recorded something in this vein. Playing violin with him was Oli Langford, who is the other half of Sundog. It is a place where Arthur’s imagination can run wild - whether creating beautiful themes or playing with the old technology of the Fender Rhodes or the even older technology of the dulcitone – he takes strange routes to create gorgeous music.
DPC103
Brubeck & American Poets Pacific Mozart Ensemble
The GRAMMY®-nominated Pacific Mozart Ensemble (PME) and Lynne Morrow have had a long association with Dave Brubeck. Performances of Brubeck’s oratorios and cantatas led to PME’s 2010 recording of his sacred choral works. The Pacific Mozart Ensemble performs in many genres, including jazz. Founded in 1980 by Artistic Director Richard Grant, the Pacific Mozart Ensemble delivers passionate, expert and engaging choral performances of music from Brahms to Brubeck to the Beach Boys. During its time, PME has grown to fill an important role in the cultural life of the San Francisco Bay Area, presenting courageous and innovative programs of many works that have never been performed in concert settings.
AUDIOPHILE MUSIC
DSL-92160
Back to Nature
VIVALDI: The Four Seasons
Seiki Ozawa Boston Symphony Orchestra
16
FIM-UHD-084-LE / FIM-UHD-084
LIM UHD 054-LE / LIM UHD 054
The Super Telarc Sound 1
Ein STRAUSSFEST Blue Danube Waltz Champagne polka tales from the vienna woods and other favourtes
LIM-UHD-060-LE / LIM-UHD-060
LIM-UHD-064-LE / LIM-UHD-064
Jazz at the Pawnshop
Cantate DOMINO Oscar’s Motet Choir
LIM-UHD-071-LE / LIM-UHD-071
LIM-UHD-072-LE / LIM-UHD-072
AUG-SEP 2012
Hui Fen Min, Wei LI
Piotr Ilʼyitch TCHAIKOVSKY 1812
LP
River of Sorrow
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Esther
Esther Ofarim (Vocals) Erich Ferstl (guitar) Munich Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra
ATR LP 01-LE / ATR LP 01-R
The Magus
John Fowles (Unabridged) Read by Nicholas Boulton John Fowles’s The Magus was a literary landmark of the 1960s. Nicholas Urfe goes to a Greek island to teach at a private school and becomes enmeshed in curious happenings at the home of a mysterious Greek recluse, Maurice Conchis. Are these events, involving attractive young English sisters, just psychological games, or an elaborate joke, or more? Reality shifts as the story unfolds. The Magus reflected the issues of the 1960s perfectly, but even almost half a century after its first publication, it continues to create tension and concern, remaining the page-turner that it was when it was first released. NA0108 (21 CDs)
Allan QUATERMAIN
H. Rider Haggard (Unabridged) Read by Bill Homewood We have met the intrepid huntertracker Allan Quatermain before, in H. Rider Haggard’s marvellous King Solomon’s Mines. This time, grieving from the tragic loss of his son, Quatermain longs to return to his beloved Africa. He sets out in search of a lost white tribe, the Zu-Vendis, ruled by two beautiful sister Queens. Once again, Quatermain’s companions are the indefatigable Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, and the magnificent Zulu warrior Umslopogaas. The journey is incredibly dangerous, and thrillingly told. After a fantastic underground journey by canoe, our heroes are embroiled in a bloody civil war when both queens fall in love with the irresistibly handsome Curtis. NA0088 (10 CDs)
FIM-LP-005-LE / FIM-LP-005-R Autumn in Seattle
Tsuyoshi Yamamoto (piano) Ken Kaneko (bass) Oshio Ostumi (drums)
FIM LP 004-LE / FIM LP 004-R
Gulliver’s Travels
Jonathan Swift Retold for younger listeners by Roy McMillan (Abridged) Read by Benjamin Soames Lemuel Gulliver sets out on a series of travels, but each time he finds himself shipwrecked in new and unfamiliar lands. And how unfamiliar! In Lilliput, everyone is tiny, and it takes thousands of them to capture him; in Brobdingnag, they’re huge and treat him as a sort of living toy; in Laputa, they live on a floating island inventing impossibly mad projects; and the Houyhnhnms are horses! But through all his adventures, Gulliver learns to see humans in a different way, too.
NA0073 (2 CDs)
The Captive
Marcel Proust Remembrance of Things Past Volume 5 (Unabridged) Read by Neville Jason Remembrance of Things Past is one of the monuments of 20th-century literature. Neville Jason’s widely praised 36 CD abridged version has rightly become an audiobook landmark and now, after numerous requests, he is recording the whole work unabridged which, when complete, will run for some 140 hours. The Captive is the fifth of seven volumes. The Narrator’s obsessive love for Albertine makes her virtually a captive in his Paris apartment. He suspects she may be attracted to her own sex.
NA0104 (16 CDs)
Boneland
Alan Garner (Unabridged) Read by Robert Powell Boneland is Alan Garner’s continuation of the story thread which began in his first and enduringly popular fantasy children’s novel, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. The Weirdstone was published in 1960 (it has never been out of print since), and The Moon of Gomrath followed, in 1963. This took the story further with the same two children, Colin and Susan. But Boneland is particularly fascinating because it takes the story into adulthood, with Colin again the main proponent. Boneland is read by the experienced actor Robert Powell, at the request of Alan Garner himself.
NA0109 (4 CDs)
AUG-SEP 2012
17
AUDIO BOOKS
FIM LP 002-LE / FIM LP 002-R
DVD / BLU-RAY
AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME ON CD OR DVD The Legacy series from ICA Classics featuring some of the world’s greatest artists and orchestras.
CD
DVD Evgeny Svetlanov
Leonard Bernstein
Benjamin Britten
FIRST DVD RELEASE
Brahms
Piano Concerto No.2
Debussy
Mozart
The Rite of Spring
Symphony No.40
Sibelius
Britten
Symphony No.5
Nocturne
Mendelssohn Symphony No.3 ‘Scottish’ (extracts)
Symphony No.2
Prokofiev
Piano Sonata No.3 Visions fugitives
Bernstein
Kölner RundfunkSinfonie-Orchester Mario Rossi
Philharmonia Orchestra London Symphony Orchestra
Peter Pears English Chamber Orchestra
ICAD 5082
Evgeny Svetlanov
ICAC 5078
Candide – Overture
ICAC 5077
Emil Gilels
Benjamin Britten
Stravinsky
London Symphony Orchestra
Rachmaninov
Images – Book I
FIRST DVD RELEASE
Leonard Bernstein
ICAD 5083
Emil Gilels
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky
Georges Cziffra
Kurt Sanderling
Sir Georg Solti
FIRST DVD RELEASE
NEW REMASTERING
Cziffra’s mercurial performances of Grieg & Liszt from Paris, 1959
‘A highly dramatic account of Mahler’s work’ GRAMOPHONE
Grieg
Das klagende Lied
Mahler
Piano Concerto Piano Concerto No.1 Fantasy on Hungarian Folk Themes
Wagner
Symphony No.4
Der fliegende Holländer – Overture
Richard Strauss
Das Lied von der Erde
Don Juan
Carolyn Watkinson John Mitchinson BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Includes bonus rehearsal footage
Beethoven
The Fiddler’s Child
Symphony No.5
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Guido Cantelli
Klaus Tennstedt
Charles Munch
ICAD 5024
ICAD 5042
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden BBC Symphony Orchestra
ICAC 5080
Georges Cziffra
Sir Georg Solti
Schumann
Janácˇek
ICAC 5079
Lully · Scarlatti Orchestre National de l’ORTF Georges Tzipine André Cluytens
Kurt Sanderling Mahler
Teresa Cahill Janet Baker Robert Tear Gwynne Howell BBC Singers BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra
Liszt
FIRST DVD RELEASE
David Oistrakh
FIRST DVD RELEASE
FIRST DVD RELEASE
Boston Symphony Orchestra Charles Munch Haydn
Cantelli live at the 1954 Edinburgh Festival
Symphony No.98
Bruckner
Schumann
Symphony No.7
Debussy
Symphony No.3
Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien – Suite
London Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra
Klaus Tennstedt
Mozart Sinfonia concertante
Brahms Violin Concerto Sir Colin Davis Yehudi Menuhin Kirill Kondrashin
ICAD 5028
Guido Cantelli
Eton College Boys Choir
ICAC 5033
Philharmonia Orchestra
Concerto for two violins in D minor
Waltraud Meier
ICAC 5081
La Mer
Bach
Mahler
18
Igor Oistrakh
David Oistrakh s
ICAD 5012
Symphony No.4
For all ICA Classics releases please visit www.icaclassics.com AUG-SEP 2012
Sergey PROKOFIEV (1891-1953) The Year 1941, Op. 90 Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 100
Orchestre National de Lyon Leonard Slatkin
São Paulo Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop
24-bit, 96 kHz Stereo and Surround recordings Immensely influential, the remarkable Symphonie fantastique was composed while Hector Berlioz was suffering an intense and unreciprocated passion for the Irish actress Harriet Smithson. Its autobiographical tale describes a young musician’s opium-poisoned nightmares of jealous despair and fatal justice following the murder of his beloved. Berlioz wrote a second movement cornet solo into a subsequent revision of the score, here included as an optional extra. He wed his sweetheart actress but, recuperating in Nice, wrote Le corsaire after the final breakup of their marriage.
NBD0029 A Musical Journey: RUSSIA UKRAINE UZBEKISTAN
24-bit, 96 kHz Stereo and Surround recordings Written in 1944, Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony is one of his greatest and most complete symphonic statements. At its première he himself called it “a symphony of the grandeur of the human spirit”. The first movement couples considerable strength with unexpected yet highly characteristic twists of melody. After a violent scherzo followed by a slow movement of sustained lyricism, with a fiercely dramatic middle section, the finale blazes with barely suppressed passion. The Year 1941 is another wartime work, a symphonic suite written in response to the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
NBD0031
A Musical Journey: FRANCE A Musical Visit to Paris, Versailles, Chantilly and the Pays de la Loire
Music by Mussorgsky and Borodin
A Musical Journey: SPAIN A Musical Visit to Andalusia, Sitges, Seville and Granada Music by Ravel and Albéniz
Music by Beethoven
2.110292
2.110299
György LIGETI LE GRAND MACABRE
Chris Merritt • Inés Moraleda • Ana Puche • Werner Van • Mechelen • Frode Olsen • Barbara Hannigan • Gran Teatre Del Liceu • Michael Boder Barcelona’s Grand Teatre del Liceu presents György Ligeti’s sole opera “Le grand macabre” in a stunningly imaginative and highly theatrical production by La Fura dels Baus - a production that already claimed enormous success in Brussels, London and Rome and - as the British Independent proclaimed - “only comes along once a decade”. Ligeti’s (1923-2006) absurd-tragicomical masterpiece of the highest order blends popular theater, comics, pop art, cabaret, caricature and the Apocalypse with fascinating imaginativeness. The orchestra, for example, is enhanced with “instruments” such as car horns and doorbells. Ligeti himself – one of the great composers of the later 20th century – called his work an “anti-anti-opera.”
101 643 (DVD) / 108 058 (Blu-ray)
Camille SAINT-SAËNS SAMSON ET DALILA
José Cura • Julia Gertseva • Stefan Stoll Orchestra and Choir of the Badisches Staatstheater • Jochem Hochstenbach José Cura (Director) In this saga of hatred and holy war, of power and desire, there is no victor and no truth. The god-like is diminished, power restricted, taboos are broken, love betrayed. Only the composer can afford uninterrupted pathos in the wonderful duet of Samson and Dalila in the second act, which misleads us to believe in a moving story of love. Perhaps it truly is. The story of Samson is contradictory, it is human. Camille SaintSaëns completed the work in 1876, but was only able to bring about its first performance in 1877 through the mediation of his friend Franz Liszt – with pre-eminent success – in Weimar.
101 631
AUG-SEP 2012
2.110310
Gioachino ROSSINI SIGISMONDO
Daniela Barcellona • Andrea Concetti • Olga Peretyatko • Antonino Siragusa • Teatro Comunale • Di Bologna • Michele Mariotti • Damiano Michieletto Early Rossini has something buoyant, vibrant, youthful about it – even when it is a „dramma per musica“ such as Sigismondo, a dark swirl of an opera revolving around a mad king and his delusions, his wife who is allegedly dead but very much alive, the fate of Poland and much more. Premiered in 1814 but rarely played thereafter, the work deserves to be resurrected, if only for its many beautiful and original arias and ensembles, some of which were such brilliant little masterpieces that he reused them in his later successes such as Il turco in Italia, La Cenerentola and Il barbiere di Siviglia.
101 648 (DVD) / 108 062 (Blu-ray) Claudio MONTEVERDI Il Ritorno d‘Ulisse In Patria
Vesselina Kasarova • Dietrich Henschel • Malin Hartelius • Jonas Kaufmann • Rudolf Schasching • Isabel Rey • Martina Jankovà Orchestra La Scintilla Of The Zurich Opera House • Nikolaus Harnoncourt • KlausMichael Grüber • Gilles Aillaud Il Ritorno d‘Ulisse in Patria is based closely on the fi nal books of Homer‘s Odyssey and is hailed as the key work marking the threshold between the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Together with producer Klaus Michael Grüber, Nikolaus Harnoncourt strikes a new balance between musical polish and distillation of the essence of dramatic action. „It is a kind of ‘théâtre pauvre’, which works with a few carefully chosen and powerful symbols“, was how the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung reviewed the production. 101 660
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DVD / BLU-RAY
Hector BERLIOZ (1803-69) Le corsaire – Overture, Op. 21 Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14
DVD / BLU-RAY
Sasha WALTZ Körper
Sergei PROKOFIEV CINDERELLA
Schaubühne Berlin In 1999 Sasha Waltz started working on her three-piece choreographic cycle about the human body. In »Körper«, following up this extraordinary research, she investigates the anatomy and the physical appearance of the human being, relating her dancers‘ bodies to architecture, science, and history. »S« searches for the origin of life, of Eros, and of sensibility. »noBody« asks about the metaphysical existence of humanity.
101 582
Black & White Ballets Czech choreographer Jiří Kylián is one of the most innovative and successful ballet masters on the contemporary dance scene. He always uses classical models as the foundation for his free and imaginative modern style, whose novel fi gures and sequences never fail to astonish. The vitality of his works is supported by an especially highly developed feeling for music, which makes it seem as if his dancers and the music they dance to both fl ow from a common inner impulse. His choreographies always investigate anew the meaning of dance in modern culture and society, and under his direction the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) has thus gained international respect and importance. The series of plotless dance pieces titled Black and White offers six examples of the rich inventive gifts of Kylián’s choreographic imagination.
100 085 Classical Music and Cold War Musicians in the GDR
Helmut Schmidt • Peter Schreier • Kurt Masur • Theo Adam • Otmar Suitner • Jochen Kowalski • Christine Mielitz • Siegfried Matthus • Walter Felsenstein In 1945, after the war had ended, the world split into East and West in political terms. The frontier between the two blocs cut straight through Germany and quickly became a dividing line between contrasting cultural systems. In the Soviet occupation zone, major opera houses and concert halls rose again from the ruins and long-established orchestras and choirs were revived. Once the GDR had been founded, the Socialist Unity Party took over responsibility for cultural affairs and quickly developed the idea of a nation of culture-loving working people in deliberate contrast to their portrayal of “Americanized, western capitalists softened by endless consumptionˮ.
101 655
Giacomo PUCCINI Turandot
Luana Devol • Franco Farina • Barbara Frittoli • Josep Ruiz • Stefano Palatchi Gran Teatre del Liceu • Giuliano Carella Núria Espert (Director) The story of the beautiful but cruel princess Turandot has a unique place among Puccini‘s works, displaying the composer‘s ability to reflect the musical trends of his time more convincingly than any of his other operas. Despite its wealth of inspired melodies (among them Calaf‘s aria “Nessun dorma” in the third act), even today the opera‘s chief fascination remains its imaginative tonality and subtle instrumentation. The title role is performed by Luana DeVol, who has been on the international opera scene for more than three decades and whose versatile, dramatic soprano perfectly suits the character of the despising, yet vulnerable Turandot. Lirico-spinto soprano Barbara Frittoli, one of the best-known Puccini/Verdi performers on the current scene, presents her lyrical vocal qualities in the role of the slave Liù. 107 305
20
Francoise Joullié • Dominique Lainé • Jayne Plaisted • Danièle Pater • Patrick Azzopardi • Nathalie Delassis
here with touching depth.”
Maguy Marin‘s highly original and magical version of the Cinderella story was an unparalleled success through out its world tour. Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times said that Marin‘s “vision reaches back into the universals of everyone‘s childhood - the hurts and joys resonate
100 235 MUSIC IN THE AIR A HISTORY OF CLASSICAL MUSIC ON TELEVISION
Featuring Glenn Gould • Herbert von Karajan • Leonard Bernstein • Anna Netrebko • Igor Stravinsky • Arturo Toscanini • Pierre Boulez • Sergiu Celibidache • Francis Poulenc • Luciano Pavarotti • Plácido Domingo • José Carreras • Jonas Kaufmann • Franz Welser-Möst and the first television images ever of a regular service by the BBC in 1936. Music on television has come in various guises over the last 50 years. It was already part of the programme mix at the very beginning and is still around, more sophisticated than ever, live and event driven and at it’s best reaching millions – at any rate more people than those experiencing music in opera houses, concert halls or other venues. Television has been instrumental in popularizing music, preserving precious moments of music making and helping to create music and performances which would not exist without it.
101 640
Giuseppe VERDI Otello
Renata Tebaldi • Hans Beirer • William Dooley • Mario Ferrara • Sieglinde Wagner Deutsche Oper Berlin Giuseppe Patané • Hans-Peter Lehmann • Wilhelm Reinking When Renata Tebaldi sang Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello at London’s Covent Garden in 1950, it was her first operatic performance outside Italy. It was also the role in which she made her last appearance on the opera stage, at the Metropolitan Opera New York in 1973. Between these two performances she made close to a hundred stage appearances as Desdemona, not to mention two studio recordings with Alberto Erede and Herbert von Karajan. It was Arturo Toscanini who coined for her the moniker “voce d’angelo” (voice of an angel). She made her highly acclaimed debut as Desdemona at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955 and from that moment on made New York the focus of her life. 101 644
Giuseppe VERDI Rigoletto
Leo Nucci, Elena Moşuc • Piotr Beczala • László Polgár • Opernhaus Zürich • Nello Santi Gilbert Deflo (Director) Special Price(Blu-ray)
108 057
AUG-SEP 2012
Takács Quartet, Zoltán Kocsis & András Schiff play Robert SCHUMANN
Evgeny Kissin (piano) Berliner Philharmoniker Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)
Takács Quartet • Zoltán Kocsis • András Schiff
In 2011 the Berliner Philharmoniker and their musical director Sir Simon Rattle welcomed in the New Year with a gala concert programmed with ‘Dances & Dreams’. Spinetingling and inspiring performances of music by Dvořák, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky and Brahms are complemented by the extraordinary talent of the multi-awarded Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin. Kissin’s musicality, the depth and poetic quality of his interpretations, and his extraordinary virtuosity have placed him at the forefront of today’s pianists, and his passionate performance of the renowned Piano Concerto in A minor by Edvard Grieg is mesmerizing.
2058728 (DVD) / 2058724 (Blu-ray)
These magnificent Schumann performances, by some of the finest Hungarian musicians to emerge during the 1970s, illustrate to perfection why the music of this German composer continues to fascinate audiences as much today as it did when it first appeared about 175 years ago. Schumann´s passionate and ambiguous nature is encapsulated in works that range across the entire garnut of human emotions. They are complemented by some of the most popular and delightful works by Debussy and Bartók.
2066828
How to get out of the Cage A year with John CAGE
EUROPA KONZERT 2006
Radek Baborák (horn) Berliner Philharmoniker Daniel Barenboim (piano & conductor)
Documentary by Frank Scheffer With 5 experimental films by Frank Scheffer From 1982 to 1992 Frank Scheffer worked with John Cage on many different occasions, which resulted in a unique archive of historical audio-visual material. Based on this unique archive, including interviews, musical performances and images of different locations related to his life and work - filmed on 16mm - the filmmaker Scheffer created “How To Get Out Of The Cage – A Year With John Cage”.
2059168
An All-Mozart Programme with Daniel Barenboim in his familiar dual role as soloist and conductor. The Estates Theatre Prague is one of the most beautiful historical theatres in Europe Part of its charm, magic and value lies in its historical significance. In 1787 Mozart conducted here the premier of Don Giovanni, a work written specially for Prague.
2055304
MUSSORGSKY Khovanshchina
Paata Burchuladze • Anatoly Kotscherga • Camilla Nylund • Doris Soffel • Klaus Florian Vogt • John Daszak Bayerisches Staatsorchester • Kent Nagano Dmitri Tcherniakov (Director) Kent Nagano superbly masters the challenges presented by this score, shapes the dynamics with subtle intensity, and casts the score in a mellow glow.
2072424
Johann Sebastian BACH St. Matthew Passion
St. Thomas Boys Choir Leipzig Gewandhausorchester Leipzig St. Thomas Cantor Georg Christoph Biller, in St. Thomas Church • Leipzig Christina Landshamer (Soprano) Stefan Kahle (Alto) Wolfram Lattke (Tenor) Martin Lattke (Tenor) Klaus Mertens (Bass) Gotthold Schwarz (Bass) The renowned St. Thomas Boys Choir of Leipzig, which boasts J. S. Bach as a former cantor, celebrates its 800th anniversary with an extraordinary interpretation of the St. Matthew Passion. The Guardian praised how “the harmonic lines interwove with a transcendence that can only be achieved through living, eating and working together”. This Accentus Music production is the only audio-visual release of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, performed by the choir for which it was written, in St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, where the composer worked and is buried.
ACC20256 (2 DVDs) / ACC10256 (Blu-ray)
AUG-SEP 2012
DIE THOMANER A Year in the Life of the
St. Thomas Boys Choir Leipzig A Film by Paul Smaczny & Günter Atteln Founded in 1212 the St. Thomas Choir Leipzig is one of the most famous and prestigious boys' choirs in the world. This documentary accompanies “Die Thomaner”, aged between 9 and 18 years old, over a period of one year. Their unique world, from motets to boarding school and the football pitch, is distinguished by success, pressure to perform, doubt, pride, homesickness, and friendship. The film charts the breadth of the boys' experience from the classroom to traveling on tour to South America. BONUS Two tracks from Johann Sebastian Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” performed by the choir for which it was written - St. Thomas Boys Choir - in St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, where the composer worked and is buried.
ACC20212 (DVD) / ACC10212 (Blu-ray)
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DVD / BLU-RAY
Gala from Berlin 2011
DVD / BLU-RAY
A Tribute to Frederick the Great Flute Concertos from Sanssouci Emmanuel Pahud (flute) Trevor Pinnock (harpsichord) Kammerakademie Potsdam
Emmanuel Pahud, principal flutist of the Berliner Philharmoniker, celebrates the 300th birthday of Frederick the Great with a concert recorded in the historic Royal Theater of the Neues Palais Potsdam, one of the architectural gems within the world-heritage palace ensemble of Sanssouci built by the Prussian king. Trevor Pinnock is one of the pioneers of the modern revival of early music performance and he appears as a guest conductor with many of the world’s leading symphony orchestras. Emmanuel Pahud is one of today’s most exciting and adventurous musicians. Accompanied by the Kammerakademie Potsdam, Phaud and Pinnock perform works by C.P.E Bach, Franz Benda, Johann Joachim Quantz and a composition written by Frederick the Great himself.
711308 (DVD) / 711404 (Blu-ray)
WAGNER DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG
Finley • Jentzsch • Gabler • Selinger • Lehtipuu • Miles • Kränzle The Glyndebourne Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra Vladimir Jurowski • David McVicar (Director) English-speaking audiences have always found Die Meistersinger to be a lifeenhancing celebration of wisdom, art and song. So it proves in David McVicar's production – the first at Glyndebourne – which is updated to the early19th century of Wagner's childhood. At the centre of a true ensemble cast is Gerald Finley, a 'gleamingly sung', 'eminently believable' Sachs (The Independent on Sunday), supported by the dynamic conducting of Vladimir Jurowski which, like McVicar's production, uses Glyndebourne's special intimacy to bring sharp focus to bear on the subtlety of Wagner's musical and dramatic counterpoint.
OA1085D (2 DVDs) / OABD7108D (Blu-ray) La Stupenda The Glory of Joan Sutherland Australian Opera
This unique 6 DVD collection brings together, for the first time, the legendary Australian soprano in four key dramatic coloratura roles that were cornerstones of her repertory – Marguerite de Valois in Les Huguenots, Marie in La fille du Régiment, and the eponymous heroines in Adriana Lecouvreur and Lucrezia Borgia. Accompanying them is the celebrated gala concert she gave in 1983 with her longtime colleague (and one-time protégée), Luciano Pavarotti, featuring extracts from several other major Sutherland roles, including Violetta (La Traviata), Ophélie (Hamlet) and, of course, her signature role, Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor). All four operas and gala concert were filmed in the iconic Sydney Opera House, and conducted by her husband, Maestro Richard Bonynge. OAF4029D (6 DVDs)
BEILLINI I Puritani
Daniel Borowski • Riccardo Zanellato • John Osborn • Scott Hendricks • Gregorio Gonzalez • Fredrika Brillembourg • Mariola Cantarero Chorus of the Netherlands Opera Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Giuliano Carella (Conductor) Francisco Negrin (Director) In Vincenzo Bellini’s last opera, Elvira’s love for Arturo overcomes the power-games in Puritan England, staged with darkly dramatic flair by Francisco Negrin as a world of blind dogma. Mariola Cantarero is compelling as the heroine on the verge of insanity in one of the greatest mad scenes in the history of opera. One of the leading lyric tenors today, John Osborn sings Arturo with fearless commitment and some spectacular top notes. In the pit is the bel canto specialist Giuliano Carella.
OA1091D (DVD) / OABD7111D (Blu-ray) The NUTCRACKER • HANSEL and GRETEL Christmas from The Royal Opera House The Royal Opera • The Royal Ballet Koen Kessels Tiffin Boys’ Choir and Children’s Chorus The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Colin Davis
Settle down and enjoy Christmas fun and fantasy for all the family with these two magical classics from the Royal Opera House. All-time ballet favourite The Nutcracker comes to life in this stunning and captivating production – a real delight for adults and children alike. This is coupled with a spectacular and unforgettable performance of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. Imaginatively staged and with a new and original interpretation, this classic fairy tale provides the ideal seasonal treat.
OA1096D (3 DVDs)
George Frideric HANDEL Sing Along Messiah
Ivars Taurins • Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir • Jeanne Lamon Resplendent in his powdered wig and 18th-century garb, Herr Handel (aka Director of the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir Ivars Taurins) leads the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir, a stellar cast of soloists — soprano Suzie LeBlanc, countertenor Daniel Taylor, tenor Rufus Müller, and baritone Locky Chung — and a mass audience choir made up of some 1,000 Tafelmusik fans as they perform Handel's baroque masterpiece. A beloved Toronto tradition, Tafelmusik’s annual Sing-Along Messiah has become a revered family ritual for many Torontonians over the past 25 years. This unique audience-participation phenomenon sells out every year, and participants are genuinely moved by the experience of joining their voices with hundreds of others to make music. This film was produced by the award-winning 90th Parallel Productions and originally telecast by Bravo!. Ivars Taurins received a Gemini Award nomination for his role in this film. BONUSES: The DVD includes five bonus audio tracks of Tafelmusik Chamber Choir performing music by Handel, Bach, Vivaldi and Mondonville. TMK1008DVD
22
AUG-SEP 2012
Nadia Nerina • Robert Helpmann • Margot Fonteyn • Rudolf Nureyev Philharmonia Orchestra • Robert Irving London Symphony Orchestra • John Lanchbery • Pro Arte Orchestra • Marcus Dods Originally titled ‘Chopiniana’, Les Sylphides uses the music of Chopin to create a short ‘romantic reverie’, which though Romantic in style, demands technical brilliance from its dancers. Nerina – once described by Time Magazine as ‘the company’s most polished virtuoso’ – and her colleagues capture the work perfectly. ICAD 5058
STRAVINSKY: The Rite of Spring SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 5 London Symphony Orchestra Leonard Bernstein
‘Luckily for all of us, it wasn’t enough for Leonard Bernstein to compose music and conduct orchestras. He felt equally compelled to talk about music – to try and explain what made it tick, what made it good, and what made it affect us in all the ways that music does. The other piece of good luck was that Leonard Bernstein and television came along at the same time. They were born for each other.’ (Jamie Bernstein)
ICAD 5082
MOZART: Symphony No. 40 BRITTEN: Nocturne MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 3 ‘Scottish’ (extracts) Peter Pears • English Chamber Orchestra • Benjamin Britten
‘The point of Britten’s conducting was never how he looked when doing it; instead it was about the sheer musicality he brought to the task…’ (Paul Kildea). The revelatory films presented on this DVD feature Britten with his favoured English Chamber Orchestra performing at two very different times of his life, with equal value. Filmed at Christmas 1964, the main programme of Mozart’s Symphony No.40 and Britten’s own Nocturne shows a man in his prime. The Mozart was a particular favourite of Britten’s and his admiration for it certainly comes across in the performance. This DVD release is a major addition to his discography as the symphony was previously only available on LP.
ICAD 5083
Tim Janis An Enchanted Evening
Fionnuala Gill • Lisa Fischer • Jim Cole The Tim Janis Ensemble 1. Danny Boy 2. High Sierra 3. August 4. Sleep with Angels 5. Twin Lights 6. Upon the Sea 7. The Rushing Wings of Dawn 8. White Mountains 9. My Rose of Joy 10. Shine Like a Lighthouse 11. Come Home to Me 12. Ocean Rose 13. The Promise 14. Ocean Ledges 15. Wild Mountain Thyme 16. Star Island 17. Beneath the Wings of an Angel
FIM BR 01
Our Labels
Soli Deo Gloria
AUG-SEP 2012
SIMAX
classics
23
DVD / BLU-RAY
Les SYLPHIDES • COPPÉLIA • GISELLE