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Mozart & Grétry, 1773

Orkester Nord

Symphonies - Released August 26, 2022 | Aparté

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1773 was a key year for orchestral music. Mozart composed his “little G minor Symphony”, no. 25, and began work on the music for the play Thamos, König in Ägypten. In Paris, Grétry perfected the opéra-comique, a genre combining the light and the serious, and completely renewed the musical drama. Is it a mere coincidence that their compositions of that year show the same intensity and dramatic efficacy? Martin Wåhlberg, at the head of his Orkester Nord, thinks not. Here he paints a bold picture: that of a Mozart taking inspiration from the new French theatre music, while retaining his own exceptional inventiveness and sense of form. The works recorded here enable us to trace the evolution of the emerging symphony, from the French theatre, with instrumental music from Grétry’s Céphale et Procris, to the German theatre, with Mozart’s music for the play Thamos, then the Mozart symphony, with his K.183, combining all of those elements in a purely orchestral work. © Aparté
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Mendelssohn: The Six Organ Sonatas

Felix Mendelssohn

Classical - Released December 2, 2016 | Claves Records

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The Tchaikovsky Project - Complete Symphonies - Orchestral Works - Complete Piano Concertos

Semyon Bychkov

Classical - Released August 30, 2019 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

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Studio recordings are rare things today. Orchestras are of such great quality that publishers prefer live recordings, which are much cheaper than long studio sessions, with their complex production workloads. And so this is a rather "old-fashioned" (it's fashionable) publication here from Decca, directed by Smyon Bychkov, a conductor who has rarely appeared on records for some years. Born in the Soviet Union in 1952, Semyon Bychkov was destined for a fine career in his country when, at the age of 21, he was offered the opportunity to replace the titan Mravinski at the head of the Leningrad (today St Petersburg) Philharmonic Orchestra. But his contract was cancelled because of his political opinions: a move that obliged him to seek refuge in the USA, where his career truly began in earnest. Obtaining US nationality, he became the director of the Paris Orchestra for ten years, before accepting a similar post at the head of the WDR Cologne Radio Orchestra. Named the resident at the prestigious Czech Philharmonia following the premature death of its leader Jiří Bělohlávek, Semyon Bychkov started work on this anthology of Tchaikovsky's symphonic works, including the six symphonies, the rare and little-loved "Manfred" Symphony (in its original, uncut version, including the harmonium stipulated by the conductor), the piano concertos and the Serenade for strings. This was marathon job taken at a record-breaking sprint between 2015 and 2019. In the course of this project, the Russian conductor undertook minute work on the scores and studying the personal history of the composer, in particular around the Pathétique Symphony. For him, it wasn't a requiem to Tchaikovsky, but rather a "revolt against death and not the idea of death itself". As for the famous First Concerto, played here by Kirill Gerstein, he presents the more intimate original version, which is less emphatic than the one we are used to hearing. A fine piece of work with what Bychkov has described as an ideal orchestra, which mixes the highest expression of the Slavic spirit with a Western spirit: a synthesis which sums up Tchaikovsky's music itself. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Parry: Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, Blest Pair of Sirens

London Mozart Players

Choral Music (Choirs) - Released September 8, 2023 | Chandos

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Hubert Parry's Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, from 1880, here receives its world-recorded premiere. Perhaps recording companies thought there wouldn't be much of a market for a heavy 19th century choral work with, it must be said, a ponderous text by Percy Bysshe Shelley (Prometheus was a play intended to be read, not performed, just to give an idea). How wrong they were. This release made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2023, and it is altogether enjoyable. At the time, Parry was under the spell of Wagner, whom he traveled to Bayreuth to meet. That influence certainly shows up in Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, with its basically declamatory text, partly through-composed music, wind-and-brass-heavy orchestration, and splashes of chromaticism. Yet what is remarkable is that the music does not come off as an imitation of Wagner at all. Rather, it uses elements of his style to match a specific kind of English literary text. The work gradually disappeared, but it would be surprising if Elgar, whom it clearly prefigures, did not know it well. The performances here are luminous, with William Vann using the lighter-than-expected London Mozart Players to create transparent textures against which he can set the substantial voices of Sarah Fox, Sarah Connolly, and other soloists. Parry did write some shorter pieces that remain in the repertory; one of these, Blest Pair of Sirens, is included here as a finale. However, the Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound are the main news here, and this performance, showing how this kind of thing should be done, may generate a new life for the work. © James Manheim /TiVo
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Rachmaninoff: Reflections

Inon Barnatan

Solo Piano - Released November 10, 2023 | PentaTone

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The major attraction on this release by pianist Inon Barnatan is the opening work, an arrangement by the pianist of Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, for one piano. The composer arranged the work for two pianos and even played it on one himself; the impetus for the new arrangement was that Barnatan, at loose ends during the COVID-19 pandemic, heard a bootleg recording of the composer playing through the work to introduce it to conductor Eugene Ormandy. Barnatan investigated the recording deeply and made an arrangement of his own. It is remarkably detailed, showing the results of the months of work Barnatan put in on it, and it may well inspire other pianists to take it up. That is not the end of the pleasures here, either. The Moments Musicaux, Op. 16, are early works that elaborate upon earlier kinds of short piano pieces with considerable virtuosity, and Barnatan's playing is clear and shows no sign of stress. Two shorter pieces round out the collection. It is a bit odd that so many pianists like to take over the Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14, a work that derives its appeal from the challenges it poses for a singer. However, the final Prelude in G sharp minor, Op. 32, No. 12, leaves the listener in a dreamy mood. Pianists and lovers of the same should absolutely hear Barnatan's new version of the Symphonic Dances here.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Sviatoslav Richter plays Alexander Scriabin

Sviatoslav Richter

Classical - Released January 1, 2017 | Praga Digitals

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Boccherini: Complete Violin Sonatas, Vol. 1

Igor Ruhadze

Classical - Released March 31, 2023 | Brilliant Classics

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Liszt: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 - The Mercury Masters, Vol. 6

Byron Janis

Classical - Released January 1, 1963 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

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Schumann: The 4 Symphonies by Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein

Classical - Released January 17, 2023 | Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording

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Tchaikovsky: The Symphonies & Manfred

London Symphony Orchestra

Classical - Released April 8, 2016 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

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Mendelssohn : Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4

Herbert von Karajan

Classical - Released August 19, 2016 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

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Mozart: The Complete Piano Sonatas & Variations

Daniel Barenboim

Classical - Released August 26, 2022 | Warner Classics

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Beethoven - Complete Piano Sonatas

Muriel Chemin

Classical - Released May 6, 2022 | Odradek Records

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Mendelssohn : Symphonies No. 3 & No. 4

Pablo Heras-Casado

Symphonies - Released January 22, 2016 | harmonia mundi

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Clementi: Sonatas, Op. 1 & Op. 1A

Carlo Alberto Bacchi

Classical - Released September 29, 2023 | Piano Classics

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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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Abel: Ouvertures & Sinfonias

Il Fondamento

Classical - Released June 18, 2002 | Passacaille

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Mozart: Piano Concertos K. 467, 488, 595; Masonic Funeral Music, K. 477; Symphony In G Minor, K. 550

Keith Jarrett

Classical - Released September 30, 1996 | ECM New Series

Keith Jarrett evidently has carte blanche to do anything he wants at Manfred Eicher's ECM label -- and thus encouraged, he takes ample risks in a field that is swamped with able and formidable competitors. Mozart's piano concertos may be relatively easy to play but they are notoriously hard to interpret -- that's where the true music-making comes in -- and brave intentions aside, Jarrett cannot do very much with this music beyond playing the notes accurately and cleanly. He brings nearly nothing of his own to the "Concerto No. 23"; much of it is precious and monochromatic, though he finally does generate some animation in the "Finale." Jarrett's tempo for the opening movement of the "Concerto No. 27" isn't out of line, it just seems much slower than it actually is due to his stolid, doggedly literal playing; the larghetto is actually a bit fast, and the rondo lacks point and wit. The adagio movement of the "Concerto No. 21" has the tune that became famous after being used in the film Elvira Madigan yet Jarrett resists poetry of any kind, pounding out the chords in the left hand stiffly. Next to Artur Schnabel's old yet still-treasurable recordings of pointed, imaginative eloquence -- or Daniel Barenboim's renderings of expression and depth -- Jarrett is simply a non-starter in numbers 21 and 27. Another problem is the way Jarrett's piano is miked; it sounds distant, with little in the way of dynamic contrast, surrounded with a slight halo of reverb. One wonders if the engineering is actually fighting Jarrett's sporadic attempts to characterize the music. Dennis Russell Davies and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra come off somewhat better in the deal, with streamlined, flowing, somewhat soft-focused introductions influenced ever so slightly by period-instrument bowing practices that became prevalent in the late 20th century. But at least they use modern instruments, for which many now turned off by grating period-instrument recordings should be thankful. The two-CD set is filled out by Davies leading sturdy, moderately paced, very well-played performances of Mozart's magnificent "Symphony No. 40" and the dolorous "Masonic Funeral Music."© Richard S. Ginell /TiVo