Bruckner Symphony No.5 in B flat major

The Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major (WAB 105) of Anton Bruckner was written in 1875–1876, with a few minor changes over the next few years. It was first performed in public on two pianos by Joseph Schalk and Franz Zottmann on 20 April 1887 at the Bösendorfersaal in Vienna. The first orchestral performance - in a non-authenticated version ('Schalk-version'), a.o. with a changed orchestration in a Wagnerian fashion and with omitting 122 bars of the finale - was conducted by Franz Schalk in Graz on 8 April 1894 (Bruckner was sick and unable to attend: he never heard this symphony performed by an orchestra). It was dedicated to Karl von Stremayr, minister of education in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The symphony is sometimes referred to as the "Tragic", "Church of Faith", or "Pizzicato" symphony. WIKIPEDIA VIDEO: Bruckner Symphony No.5 in B flat major 00:00 1. Introduction. Adagio - Allegro 20:50 2. Adagio. Sehr langsam 39:38 3. Scherzo- Molto vivace (Schnell) - Trio. Im gleichen Tempo 53:08 4. Finale. Adagio - Allegro moderato Giuseppe Sinopoli , Conductor Staatskapelle Dresden

MAHLER, Kondrashin

Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 is not only Mahler’s longest work, but is the longest symphony in the standard repertoire. A typical performance lasts between 90 and 105 minutes. The six-movement piece is regarded as one of Mahler’s greatest, and has been recorded by all of the major orchestras. This recording of Mahler’s 3rd symphony was taken in Moscow, 1961, and features contralto Valentina Levko as well as the Ladies of the Moscow State Choir and Children’s Choir. Alongside Mahler’s work is Prokofiev’s October, Cantata Op 74, in a recording taken in Moscow in 1966. Both of these works feature the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Kirill Kondrashin. VIDEO: Great presentation of the legendary american conductor Leonard Bernstein, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Christa Ludwig (contralto solo), the Vienna State Opera Chorus and the Vienna Boys Choir playing the Symphony No. 3 of Gustav Mahler, at 1973.

Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique’s explosive performance under Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Beethoven composed his Second Symphony between 1801 and 1802, at the time he discovered that he was going deaf. In 1801 he wrote to his friend, the physician Franz Gerhard Wegeler: ‘I must confess that I am living a miserable life. For almost two years I have ceased to attend any social functions, just because I find it impossible to say to people: I am deaf. If I had any other profession it would be easier, but in my profession it is a terrible handicap.’ It was during in the summer of 1802, while he was staying in Heiligenstadt, a village outside Vienna, that Beethoven added the finishing touches to his Second Symphony. With four movements, the Second is not as revolutionary as the Third ‘Eroica’ symphony, but it does demonstrate how Beethoven was breaking new ground all the time. The first movement is memorable for a recurring two-note motif that frames the main melodic theme and the Second is the first example of Beethoven’s use of a scherzo for the third movement of a symphony (the miuet had been the convention before this).

 

Viola de Hoog plays Bach’s six Cello Suites

The original manuscript for JS Bach’s Six Cello Suites is lost, making it difficult to know exactly when they were written. Four copies were made of score, including one written out by Bach’s wife Anna Magdalena, which dates from between 1727 and 1731. At this time the cello was not a fashionable solo instrument and was often overlooked in favour of the gamba, which boasted a longer tradition and was considered nobler. So Bach’s Six Suites were among the first technically challenging pieces written for solo cello. ‘Dutch period-instrument musician Viola de Hoog has played at the highest level for three decades before undertaking the cellist’s “rite of passage”: recording JS Bach’s six Cello Suites,’ writes George Pratt in his review of this recording in BBC MUSIC Magazine Christmas issue. ‘The prelude of the first suite is unusually spacious, its arpeggiated harmony building up unhurriedly … Fine original instruments and bows, and first-class recording, puts this among the very best of the versions I have accumulated.'

   VIDEO: Bach's magnificent Six Cello Suites (BWV 1007-12) played by renowned Dutch period instrument cellist Viola de Hoog. Viola de Hoog plays an exceptionally fine cello made in 1750 by G B Guadagnini for the first five suites. In the sixth suite, which requires a five-string cello, she plays an equally remarkable five-string instrument made in Bavaria during the later eighteenth century.

A new release from Manfred Honeck and The Pittsburgh Symphony; Bruckner Symphony 4

Anton Bruckner is known as a deeply religious composer whose Catholic spirituality is prominent in his music, particularly his later symphonies. However, his Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major (“Romantic”) is one of his most secular, most influenced by nature and most popular works.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Manfred Honeck [photo] offer a bold new interpretation of this great music, breaking Bruckner out of the strictly interpreted box in which he is often placed. Here, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Honeck present the 1878/80 version, the same version that was used for the symphony’s premiere in 1881. This release is the third in the highly acclaimed “Pittsburgh Live!” series of multi-channel hybrid SACD releases on the FRESH! Series from Reference Recordings. The previous release, “Dvořák/Janaček” (FR-710SACD), has received a Grammy® nomination along with numerous critical accolades. For more than 119 years, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has been known for its artistic excellence, a rich history of the world’s finest conductors and musicians, and a strong commitment to the Pittsburgh region and its citizens. Past music directors have included many of the greats, including Fritz Reiner (1938-1948), William Steinberg (1952-1976), Andre Previn (1976-1984), Lorin Maazel (1984-1996) and Mariss Jansons (1995-2004). This tradition of outstanding international music directors was furthered in fall 2008, when Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck became music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

 

Pictures at an Exhibition and Night on Bare Mountain Mussorgsky

Valery Gergiev and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra celebrate Mussorgsky with the release of two of his most cherished works, Pictures at an Exhibition and Night on Bare Mountain (performed here in Mussorgsky’s original version). Gergiev is at his finest conducting these paragons of Mussorgsky’s work, featured alongside which are the seldom heard Songs and Dances of Death, composed during the years 1875 to 1877 and left languishing unpublished during the composer’s lifetime. One of Mussorgsky’s most powerful compositions, each song deals with death in a poetic manner reflecting experiences not uncommon in 19th century Russia: child death, death in youth, drunken misadventure and war.
 

Gilbert, NY Philharmonic play Nielsen on new release

The early First Symphony is no makeweight. For all its momentary echoes of Brahms and Dvořák, it’s full of Nielsen’s characteristic turns of melody and harmony and his volatile transitions, framed in one of his purposeful key-schemes,' writes Anthony Burton in his review of this recording in our Christmas issue. 'Gilbert interprets it flexibly and sympathetically, and is rewarded by whole-hearted playing.' Burton adds: ‘I’m already impatient to hear how Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic tackle the towering Fifth and the enigmatic Sixth symphonies.’ Nielsen dedicated his First Symphony to his wife Anne Marie Brodersen, a Danish sculptress he fell in love with in Paris and married in Florence in 1891. The second movement, which you can download here, is an expressive andante full of passionate sweeping melodies and rich wind and string textures.
 

EMMANUELLE HAIM conducts Handel: Messiah, HWV 56

Emmanuelle Haïm (French pronunciation: ​[emanɥɛl aim]) (born in Paris, France, 1967) is a French harpsichordist and conductor with a particular interest in early music and Baroque music.WIKIPEDIA
 Following several acclaimed albums of Handel’s operatic and choral masterpieces (including a triumphant Giulio Cesare with Natalie Dessay as Cleopatra and the oratorio La Resurrezione with British soprano Kate Royal), French harpsichordist and conductor Emmanuelle Haïm at last brings her fresh, expressive approach to Messiah. Joining her on a musically and spiritually uplifting journey for this long-awaited recording is Haïm’s own choir and period-instrument orchestra, Le Concert d’Astrée, with four of the UK’s finest Handelian singers. Having begun her career as a brilliant harpsichordist and protegee of Baroque pioneers William Christie and Christophe Rousset, Haïm has a long history with Messiah. She is invited regularly to conduct the work in France (this album was recorded during performances at the Opéra de Lille in December 2013) and the United States – as in 2012 with the New York Philharmonic. For this complete recording, Haïm opted for an intimate Baroque sound, without reducing the power and impact of this perennial seasonal favourite. “I made the choice of four British singers, with a single countertenor rather than two altos – the configuration used in 1752 at Covent Garden,”


Bach: Magnificat; Handel: Dixit Dominus, HWV 232 Natalie Dessay, Karine Deshayes.....

Sakari Oramo conducts Elgar

Sakari Markus Oramo OBE (born October 26, 1965) is a Finnish conductor.WIKIPEDIA ‘Oramo and his Stockholm orchestra follow their acclaimed recording of the Second Symphony with an account of the First that is about as far from the starchy Edwardiana of Elgarian cliché as one can imagine,’ writes Erica Jeal in her review of this recording in the November issue of BBC Music Magazine. She continues: ‘Oramo has secured a vibrant, electric orchestral sound that underpins everything, making even the slow introduction seem exuberant underneath its finely judged nobilmente breadth.’ Elgar began sketching material for a symphony in 1900, but this was absorbed into three shorter pieces – the first two Pomp and Circumstance marches and the Cockaigne overture. The First Symphony came eight years later. By the time the London premiere arrived on 6 December 1908, there was much anticipation surrounding the performance. That, and the world premiere in Manchester, were conducted by the renowned Hans Richter, who said: ‘let us now rehearse the greatest symphony of modern times, written by the greatest modern composer.’ The London performance was fully-attended and proved a great success.

 

Robert Smith, viola

Robert Smith is an English viola da gambist and baroque cellist. In 2012 he won the Bach-Abel Viola da Gamba Competition in Köthen, taking the First Prize, Audience Prize and Special Prize. His performance of a heavy-metal transcription of a Metallica song was especially noted. more

Baroque Bass

NEW CD Manfred Honeck and The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra play DVORAK and JANACEK

This release is the second in the "Pittsburgh Live!" series of multi-channel hybrid SACD releases on the FRESH! series from NEW release from Reference Recordings...to be featured on our MUSIClassical Concert radio stream. For more than 116 years, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has been known for its artistic excellence. The PSO has a rich history of the world’s finest conductors and musicians. Past conductors include the legendary names of Reiner, Steinberg, Previn, Maazel, and other greats. Reference Recordings. com

This tradition was furthered in fall 2008, when celebrated Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck became Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The PSO is critically acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest orchestras, and has completed more than 36 international tours, including 20 European tours, eight trips to the Far East, and two to South America. The PSO was the first American orchestra to perform at the Vatican in January 2004 for the late Pope John Paul II, as part of the Pontiff’s Silver Jubilee Celebration. The PSO also has a long history in the areas of recordings and radio concerts. As early as 1936, the PSO broadcast coast-to-coast, receiving increased national attention in 1982 when it began network radio broadcasts on Public Radio International. The PRI series with the PSO can be heard on classical WQED-FM 89.3 in Pittsburgh. Many PSO recordings remain in print and available, and they have won critical acclaim and many awards. This release and the entire "Pittsburgh Live!" Series are recorded and mastered by the team at Soundmirror, whose outstanding orchestral, solo, opera, and chamber recordings have received over 70 GRAMMY nominations and awards! Soundmirror has recorded for every major classical record label, now including Reference Recordings. FRESH! is part of Reference Recordings’ mission to encourage our artists and give them a strong platform for promotion and sales nationally and internationally.

Dvorak: Symphony No. 8 - Janacek: Jenufa Suite

Rachel Barton Pine: Violin Lullabies The Chicago violinist (and new mom) plays pieces from around the world specifically composed as lullabies,

Selections by violinist Rachel Barton Pine newly added to the playlists of several of our radio stations from her new album VIOLIN LULLABIES from Cedille Records. Pine and her sensitive pianist, Matthew Hagle, include several famous lullabies, including those by Brahms, Schubert, Faure and Gershwin (“Summertime”). Others may come as a surprise: the “Berceuse Écossaise (Scottish Lullaby)” by Ludwig Schwab is a delightful Scottish accent; Oror (Lullaby), by a young Alan Hovhannes is colored with Eastern exoticism; and the lullaby from Stravinsky’s Firebird may not soothe a child to sleep, but it’s certainly enthralling on its own terms. The album’s dramatic centerpiece may be William Grant Still’s Mother and Child, full of sweep and drama. Excellent liner notes complete the package.

buy it at amazon.com and support our radio station broadcasts

Jennifer Higdon An Exaltation of Larks BRIDGE 9379

The Lark Quartet with: Gary Graffman, Blair McMillen, Todd Palmer

Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962) is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and Grammy award, and is one of the most performed living American composers working today. Ms. Higdon's upcoming work includes an opera on Charles Frazier’s book, “Cold Mountain”, for Santa Fe Opera and the Opera Company of Philadelphia. This recording feature three recent chamber works: In Scenes from the Poet's Dreams (composed for the performers who play it here) the piano left hand (virtuoso Gary Graffman) takes a prominent part in the unfolding of this highly contrasted work, bearing unusually descriptive titles: "Racing Through Stars", "Summer Shimmers Across the Glass of Green Ponds" etc.. Light Refracted is a meditation on light. The composer describes a first movement "that reflects on our inner light, and how we take that light in; and a second movement that is the opposite, our projection of light out to the world." She also writes about An Exaltation of Larks: "The first time someone told me that a collection of Larks is called an “Exaltation”, I immediately thought, 'What a sound an exaltation of larks must make!'--How to capture the beauty of the idea of exalting and singing? A string quartet seemed perfect!" This disc marks the debut of the Lark Quartet on Bridge.

Lugansky plays Rachmaninov Piano Sonatas

NIKOLAI Lugansky is one of the great Rachmaninov pianists of his generation, and his new recording features breathtaking performances of the composer's two Piano Sonatas. The second is by far the better known, and Lugansky's performance is launched with a thrilling plunge to the depths of the bass register. It's a fantastic rendition marked by Lugansky's intellectual mastery of the structure of the music and profound understanding of its dark emotional contours; the slow movement is a haunting masterpiece here, while the finale is a demonstration of glittering virtuosity with no scrambling, just lucid articulation. The First Sonata exists in two versions: Rachmaninov left the choice of which version to the pianist. (Maybe his dinner was on the table.) Lugansky plays a hybrid, leaning more towards the first (more difficult and lengthy) version. There's a Faustian theme, with some characterisation of the main figures, but frankly, in this glorious performance, which demonstrates how underrated the sonata is, I prefer to listen in the abstract.

A Magnificent New Symphonic Recording

ELGAR Enigma Variations
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS The Wasps / Greensleeves
REFRENCE RECORDINGS RR-129HDCD
A new symphonic tour-de-force from the Kansas City Symphony! This colorful, beloved English music has been captured in brilliant HDCD sound by GRAMMY®-winning engineer Keith O. Johnson
The Kansas City Symphony garnered tremendous critical acclaim for their first project on Reference Recordings, incidental music for The Tempest by Sullivan and Sibelius (Shakespeare's Tempest, RR-115). Their second release on RR, Britten's Orchestra, received a GRAMMY for Best Surround Sound for both the engineer and producer, as well as rave reviews everywhere! (Britten's Orchestra, RR-120 is now unfortunately out of print).
Conductor is Michael Stern, the son of famed violinist Isaac Stern. Now in his eighth season as music director, the Kansas City Symphony has been much praised for its remarkable artistic growth and development since his tenure began. He is also the founder of the Iris Chamber Orchestra in Memphis, Tennessee, and in addition to RR, has recorded for Sony, Hyperion, Denon, Arabesque and Naxos. Producer David Frost has won Grammy awards in 2005,2009 and 2011 for Classical Producer of the Year. He has produced a large roster of stars and Grammy-winning titles.

Alisa Weilerstein Plays Elgar

The celebrated young American cellist walks us through her recording of this "devastating" concerto written just after the end of World War I. She collaborated with conductor Daniel Barenboim, whose late wife, Jacqueline du Pre, was the standard-bearer for this work. Alisa Weilerstein Plays Elgar on NPR
Weilerstein started playing the cello at age four. She made her debut at age 13 with the Cleveland Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme. As a soloist she has performed with a number of other major orchestras on four continents. She also is active in chamber music and performs with her parents, violinist Donald Weilerstein, and pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, as the Weilerstein Trio. More from Wikipedia

Well Tempered Clavier Books I & II Andras Schiff

New Release on ECM

As a young pianist, Andras Schiff earned wide esteem for his 1980s recordings of the major keyboard works of J.S. Bach; in recent years, as part of his long-term relationship with ECM, he has gone back to Bach as a sage veteran, earning more acclaim for his New Series recordings of the Goldberg Variations (2001) and the six Partitas (2007). The New York Times said, Mr. Schiff is, in Bach, a phenomenon. He doesn t so much perform it as emit, breathe it. In August 2011, Schiff turned his focus to the 48 preludes and fugues of The Well-Tempered Clavier, making studio recordings of both books in the Auditorium Radiosvizzera Italiana, Lugano. An iconic inspiration for composers from Mozart and Beethoven to Chopin and Brahms and beyond, The Well-Tempered Clavier has long been considered the Old Testament of the keyboard literature (with Beethovens piano sonatas as the New Testament). In his liner notes to this four-CD set, Paul Griffiths underscores the suitability of Bach's timeless keyboard work for the modern piano: Bach s inquiry into so many nuances, of touch, of interplay between hands and between contrapuntal lines, of character and of expressivity, has helped form keyboard technique as we know it, and his music belongs to the instrument of Beethoven, of Chopin, of Debussy, of Kurtág especially when that instrument is played with the mastery and sensitivity of Schiff in these performances. . . Noteworthy is his floated melody and his rhythmic sense his realization that so much of Bach s music is song or dance. Grandeur and intimacy are also here. Wit, too. (TEXT reproduced by permission Amazon.com sales) 

Venetian Dreams Music of Antonio Vivaldi REBEL Jörg-Michael Schwarz Matthias Maute, recorder BRIDGE 9377 Quite a musical dynamo, this recording, enough to convince me that another full-blown “Vivaldi revival” marks our times! --Audiophile Audition Venetian Dreams This recording features Vivaldi's six immensely entertaining recorder concerti, Op. 10, in performances of stunning panache and virtuosity. Praised by the Los Angeles Times for their "astonishingly vital music-making", the New York-based Baroque ensemble REBEL (pronounced "Reh-BEL") has earned an impressive international reputation. Matthias Maute, a native of Germany, is widely regarded as one of the finest recorder and traverso players of his generation. Since winning First Prize in the renowned Early Music Competition in Bruges, Belgium in 1990, his illustrious career has taken him far and wide. 

Lang Lang's hero... Liszt

SHOP Lang Lang

In celebration of his piano hero s bicentenary, Lang Lang has selected some of the most famous, virtuosic and poetic solo pieces, concluding with a stunning new recording of the Piano Concerto No. 1 - accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic and Valery Gergiev. Lang Lang has had a special relationship with the composer following his very first encounter with his music at age two when he watched a Tom and Jerry cartoon featuring Liszt s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

Anne Sophie Mutter 35 years performing

To celebrate Anne-Sophie Mutter's 35 magnificent years on stage and her brilliant recording career, this extravagant limited edition box set is filled with her complete discography on Deutsche Grammophon plus 2 additional discs of previously unreleased material.



Also included is a 288-page hardcover book featuring essays by those who inspired Anne-Sophie, an exclusive interview with the icon, and over 150 photos chronicling her life in pictures – all housed in a beautifully designed case as colorful as her music.