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Honegger: Symphonies Nos 1-5, Pacific 231, Mouvement symphonique No. 3
Serge Baudo, Czech Philharmonic
Classical - Released January 1, 1991 | Supraphon a.s.
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Alkan: Paraphrases, Marches & Symphonie for Solo Piano, Op. 39
Mark Viner
Classical - Released January 29, 2021 | Piano Classics
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The latest volume in a revelatory Alkan series from an English pianist with a string of critically acclaimed albums of rare repertoire from the Golden Age of the piano virtuoso to his credit. Perhaps the most enigmatic figure in the history of music as a whole, let alone the 19th century, Charles-Valentin Alkan remains one of the most intriguing and alluring names among the pantheon of pianist-composers. According to Franz Liszt, Alkan possessed the finest technique he had ever seen yet preferred the life of a recluse. The outstanding masterpiece of the album is the Symphonie for solo piano which Alkan drew from his set of 12 Studies, Op. 39. It opens with an Allegro which is one of the composer’s most darkly impassioned conceptions, in which declamatory rhetoric, passionate outbursts and towering climaxes are all bound by a tightly organised structure. The piano writing is distinctly orchestral in nature, hence the ‘symphonic’ designation, demanding that the intrepid soloist make his or her way through towering conglomerations of sometimes ten note chords, thick, chordal tremoli and volleys of double octaves: only fully accredited virtuosi need apply! The Symphonie is placed on this album as the climax to a sequence of grand marches conceived on a similarly grand scale. They include the Three Cavalry Marches, Op. 39, which find Alkan at his most concise, in the Berliozian No. 1, his most eccentric (the trio of No. 2) and whimsical (No. 3). Like them, the Marche funèbre, Op. 26 bears witness to Alkan’s ability to channel a latent and, at times, menacing power through material of the slightest substance. The following Marche triomphale, Op. 27 is a massive, swaggering affair, in contrast to the ruminative melancholy of the opening paraphrase Op. 45 on a poem by Legouvé set in a cemetery and cast in Alkan’s most elegiac vein. A profound sadness also inflects the opening section of the composer’s ingenious instrumental setting of Psalm 137, ‘By the waters of Babylon’. The booklet contains an excellent essay on Alkan and his works by the artist himself. © Piano Classics
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La Playlist Classique
Classical Music: 50 of the Best, Radio Musica Clasica, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Johann Strauss II, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms
Classical - Released October 19, 2019 | Armasi
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Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
Bernard Haitink
Classical - Released January 1, 1979 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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Franck, Ravel and Debussy: Piano Works
Ivan Moravec
Classical - Released October 29, 2001 | Supraphon a.s.
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Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 In E Major
Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released January 1, 1988 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Because of his many years of experience directing the Berlin Philharmonic, and his determination only to record works when he felt his understanding of them had fully matured, Carlo Maria Giulini became esteemed in the 1970s and '80s as a conductor one could turn to for practically any repertoire, whether it was Classical, Romantic, or modern. His thoughtful interpretations made him an ideal choice for recording the symphonies of Anton Bruckner, a composer often misunderstood for the many versions of his symphonies and for the eccentricities in his music that seemed to defy logic. Giulini was able to bring a calmness and coherence to Bruckner's music that made it approachable and earned him a reputation as a leading Brucknerian conductor, despite having few actual recordings of the symphonies available. This live concert recording of the Symphony No. 7 in E major is a valuable document of Giulini's work, and since this performance was recorded at the Philharmonie, the orchestra's own concert hall, it has just about all the right ingredients working for it: a world-class orchestra playing a work it had played countless times before, in an acoustic setting it knew intimately, and under a conductor who had the respect of all present. By any standard, this is an exceptional interpretation of the symphony, and its clarity and cogency admirably serve Bruckner. Testament's digitally remastered sound is incredibly focused and detailed, which is a boon for picking up even the softest instruments in the orchestra, such as the often drowned-out flute, but also a bane for capturing every instance of the conductor's humming, which is a serious liability throughout the recording. Still, this will not be a stumbling block for devoted Bruckner fans who will relish the many wonderful nuances and sonorities Giulini drew out of his musicians and appreciate the intelligence that guided this performance.© TiVo
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Symphonie n° 5
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Classical - Released September 21, 2016 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
Booklet
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The Qobuz Ideal Discography
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Alkan Grande Sonate, "Les Quatre Ages", Symphonie Pour Piano Solo
Vincenzo Maltempo
Classical - Released May 2, 2012 | Piano Classics
Booklet
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5 de Diapason
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Hommage à Auguste Tolbecque
Jean-Luc Ayroles
Chamber Music - Released December 6, 2019 | Passacaille
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Born in Paris in 1830, Auguste Tolbecque arrived in Niort, in the Deux-Sèvres department, 26 years later after marrying a woman from the very same town. This is where he laid down his roots and started a family, spending his time organising and enlivening the musical goings-on of the small town in in Western France. Auguste Tolbecque’s dedication to baroque music and instruments from the past would nowadays have made him a totally contemporary musician. He was fascinated by a past that Mérimée and Viollet-le-Duc were indeed dedicated to preserving with their work on masterpieces of Roman, gothic and Renaissance heritage. But while the musician may have preserved instruments, he appeared to resist playing them, the fact being that it was not yet in fashion to experiment with the styles of playing from past times. It’s thanks to the initiative of cellist and Tolbecque connaisseur Christophe Coin that this album saw the light of day with the presentation of over twenty of the forgotten composer’s works. An instrument-maker, composer and cellist, (Saint-Saëns dedicated his First Concerto to him), author of operettas and operas that have since faded away, Tolbecque has waited a long time for his moment in the spotlight since his death just after the end of the First World War. Inaugurated in November 2019, a century after his death, the brand new Conservatoire Auguste Tolbecque in Niort prolongs this event with this release dedicated to his chamber music, mainly his work for cello and piano, but also for the organ and 2 and 4 hands on the piano, in keeping with the style of the Second Empire. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 3-5; 7-9
Sergiù Celibidache
Classical - Released September 15, 2004 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
Sir Georg Solti
Classical - Released March 1, 1988 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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Symphonie n° 7
Anton Bruckner
Symphonic Music - Released January 1, 2007 | Analekta
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Rachmaninoff: The Piano Concertos & Paganini Rhapsody
Yuja Wang
Classical - Released September 1, 2023 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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It’s almost as if Yuja Wang were playing at home in her second collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the conductor Gustavo Dudamel. The music of Rachmaninov has no secrets left for the Chinese piano virtuoso, who strolls happily along these formidably difficult concertos. It’s the “Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18”, the most iconic, that leads. Composed in 1901, at the time when Rachmaninov was just beginning to recover from the depression caused by the failure of his first symphony, this concerto became one of the centrepieces of the Russian composer’s work, when it was notoriously sampled in the legendary pop hit “All by myself”. Yuja Wang moves with alarming ease along a score rife with traps, starting with the tenth intervals that are every pianist’s worst nightmare. Wang offers a sublime variety in her playing, marvellously befitting of the very distinct moods of the three movements: raging and bold attacks in the “moderato”, languid legatos in the “adagio sostenuto”, and finishing with a triumphant and luminous “allegro scherzando”. “Concertos No. 1” and “No.4” are served with the same mastery, and the album closes with a “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” where the orchestra proves to be of tremendous precision. An impeccable record. © Pierre Lamy/Qobuz
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Karol Szymanowski: Piano Works
Krystian Zimerman
Classical - Released September 30, 2022 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Diapason d'or -
Choc de Classica
Recordings by Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman are a rare event, and eagerly awaited by his many fans. They surely won’t be disappointed with this new opus that brings together Szymanowski, Zimerman and legendary pianist Arthur Rubinstein.Returning to his roots, Krystian Zimerman pays tribute to his compatriot Karol Szymanowski on the 140th anniversary of the composer’s birth. This selection of little-known works testifies to the importance of Szymanowski within the piano repertoire. A long twenty-eight years separate Zimerman's recording of Masques, Op. 34 (made in 1994 in Copenhagen) from the rest of the programme, which was recorded in 2022 in the exceptional acoustics of the Fukuyama Concert Hall near Hiroshima.Nevertheless, the considerable lapse of time between these recordings doesn’t detract from the album's coherence. This is thanks to Zimerman's fluid, clear and readable sound, which—as we know—leaves nothing to chance. This fascinating recording reveals various facets of Szymanowski's compositional genius and features both his mature and early works, all of which were influenced by the great Chopin.Composed during the First World War whilst staying at the family estate in Ukraine, the three parts of Masques evoke Debussy, Scriabin and Stravinsky. However, each movement is overlaid with the orientalist perspective so typical of the Polish composer. A few carefully chosen Préludes and Mazurkas stand alongside the splendid Variations on a Polish Folk Theme for piano, Op. 10, composed by a young Szymanowski still in the process of mastering his mother tongue. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Rachmaninov Variations
Daniil Trifonov
Classical - Released June 15, 2015 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik
The long-awaited new album from Daniil Trifonov is finally here! It comes fully dedicated to the music of Rachmaninoff, and, more specifically, to his three cycles of variations for piano. First of all, we have the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43, a late work composed in the summer of 1934, which stands as one of Rachmaninoff’s great scores, alongside the Third Symphony, The Bells, the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom , and the Symphonic Dances. For this recording the Philadelphia Orchestra, working under the leadership of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, focus on the young Russian virtuoso with rapt attention, who then proceeds with another of the Russian composer’s great cycles, the underappreciated Variations on a Theme by Chopin , whose main theme resumes on the opening bars of the 20th Prelude of Op. 28, in C minor. Rachmaninoff designs from a highly polyphonic basis a work of rare complexity, and shape, through its harmonies. He has Chopin in mind, of course, for his lyrical side (Variations 6 and 21), but also J.S Bach (Variation 1), and Schumann – for the big Finale – whose epic touch ghosts the Symphonic Studies Op. 13. This partition, which allowed Trifonov to remove some passages, is believed by some performers to be an immense lyric poem in which notes turn literally into words (notably Jorge Bolet, and his magical phrasing, for Decca in 1986!). Others wish to unify it, like the young Trifonov himself, whose gesture is aimed primarily at a sense of fluidity. After a relatively brief, bright, tribute to Rachmaninov composed by the pianist himself, the album closes with the famous Variations on a Theme by Corelli, which is in fact the theme of "La Follia", which was used ceaselessly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, all over Europe. © Qobuz
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Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-4, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released January 1, 2014 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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Rachmaninov : 24 Preludes
Nikolai Lugansky
Solo Piano - Released February 16, 2018 | harmonia mundi
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5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik
Unfortunately no, dear reader, there is no such thing as a cycle of “24 Preludes” by Rachmaninoff; however there are indeed 24 Preludes: a collection of ten Op. 23 from 1903, 13 other Op. 32 from 1910 and one isolated Prelude from the Morceaux de fantaisie Op. 3 (Fantasy Pieces) from 1893. In total: 24 Preludes, in which as a simple count shows Rachmaninoff − much like Chopin and of course Bach − illustrated all major and minor tones. Deliberately random, or the involuntary drive to create a reasonably coherent cycle? Contrary to his two illustrious predecessors, Rachmaninoff didn’t order his Preludes according to a specific tonal plan: the musician’s fantasy develops bit by bit. Nikolai Lugansky – described by the famous magazine Gramophone as “the most innovative and transcendent interpreter of all” (so much for the others…), truly an extraordinarily deep and polyvalent pianist – decided to present the Preludes in the order prescribed by partitions, rather than reorganising them according to some hypothetical tonal logic, without knowing if Rachmaninoff would even have recommended or even considered it, particularly as the constant alternation of moods, independently of any tonal consideration, gives the piece a sense of perfect coherence. Finally it’s worth mentioning that Lugansky offers a very “original” interpretation of this divine music, which may feel like a re-discovery to some listeners. © SM/Qobuz
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Profesión
Sean Shibe
Classical - Released November 17, 2023 | PentaTone
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Booklet
There are certainly contemporary guitarists who can match Sean Shibe for technical facility, but very few can match him for an ability to entrance an audience with a single stroke or strum. He has recorded Spanish music in the past in strikingly unusual ways, but this is his first album of South American works. It is splendid. There is a "bonus track" included on the physical album and, in some online versions, a recording of Villa-Lobos' Prelude No. 3 in A minor (Homage to Bach); recordings with this are recommended, for it makes an arresting beginning. Shibe proceeds to the three-movement La Catedral of the underrated Agustín Barrios (here, Agustín Barrios Mangoré), whose mysterious, mystical style fits Shibe beautifully. The album title, Profesión, comes from a poem, Profesión de Fé ("Profession of Faith"), by Barrios, reproduced in the booklet. The 12 Studies of Villa-Lobos are dispatched with a suitably commanding style, and when they seemingly reach an absolute peak of intensity with the final one, Shibe deftly steps into new territory with Alberto Ginastera's Guitar Sonata, Op. 47. That, too, is a somewhat underrated work; it is Ginastera's only composition for guitar, despite the popularity of the instrument in Argentina, and it deftly fuses the folk and modernist strands of his musical character. It makes an elegant finale to an album that fascinates from beginning to end. An added attraction is the double set of notes by Shibe and Hugh Morris, delving into the history of the repertory. The church sound, one feels, is not quite right, and yet producer Matthew Swan does succeed in capturing Shibe's larger-than-life quality. This release made classical best-seller charts in the holiday season of 2023; it will be around long after that season is over.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No. 1 (Original Version) & Preludes Op. 32
Lukas Geniušas
Classical - Released October 13, 2023 | Alpha Classics
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Choc de Classica
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Shostakovich & Kondrashin: Complete Symphonies
Kirill Kondrashin
Classical - Released January 1, 2006 | JSC Firma Melodiya
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