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Tchaikovsky: The Tempest, Francesca da Rimini, The Voyevoda, Overture and Polonaise from 'Cherevichki'
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Symphonies - Released May 19, 2023 | Chandos
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Qobuzissime
The first album from the young British conductor Alpesh Chauhan is an instant Qobuzissime! When the Chandos stable signs an emerging artist, we already know that their first release will be full of pleasant surprises. Here, the Birmingham-born conductor and an ardent defender of Russian music chooses Tchaikovsky’s most beautiful pages, skilfully avoiding the overplayed The Nutcracker, Eugene Onegin and Sleeping Beauty. It goes without saying they are classics for a reason, but the rest of Tchaikovsky's repertoire is well worth a deeper look. At the head of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Alpesh Chauhan dwells at generous length on the more expressive side of the Russian composer, who excelled in the projection of heart-rending pathos. From the Overture and Polonaise from the opera Cherevichki to the fantasy The Tempest and the Francesca da Rimini suite, Chauhan displays a visionary and circumspect intelligence of the different sections of the orchestra and the sudden diegetic changes, always executed with a hallucinating fluidity. Even more fascinating is the perfect legibility of the different timbres, impeccably individualised while they maintain great coherence within the ensemble. One leaves this disc with the feeling they’ve returned from a long journey, and with the conviction that one has witnessed the birth of a tremendous conductor. Rarely has Tchaikovsky resounded with such a sense of drama or with such inflections of immensity. Alpesh Chauhan will be creating dreams for much time to come. © Pierre Lamy/Qobuz
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Dvořák: Symphony 9, Smetana: The Moldau, Liszt: Préludes
Ferenc Fricsay
Classical - Released March 1, 1988 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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The Qobuz Ideal Discography
Only a chosen few can captivate listeners with a work that has been brought out over and over again hundreds of times. But that is what is achieved here with a Symphony "From the New World" byAntonin Dvořák which doesn't seem to have aged a bit. Recorded in 1959 in Berlin in excellent stereo, this feverish performance also shows the miracle that an invited leader can create. In a few short recording sessions, Ferenc Fricsay was able to bring forth from the Berlin Philharmonic a sound that was the polar opposite to Karajan's softness. Everything here, with the exception of an irresistibly dreamy Largo is sharp as a knife and whip-smart, in the the style of the Czech Philharmonic. It is the magic of an orchestra that can instantly adapt itself to the personality of a leader who knows how to convince. Recorded in 1960, but with Fricsay's Berlin RIAS (Radio in the American Sector) Orchestra, the symphonic poem by Franz Liszt, Les Préludes, is cut across by an epic gale, reinforced by a slow and majestic tempo. As for The Moldau (Vlatva) by Bedřich Smetana, so close to Czech hearts, Fricsay recorded it several times, most notably in 1960, with the Südfunk Orchester, the film of a rehearsal of which is one of the few visual records of the great Hungarian conductor. It was over the course of that same year that he made this recording, at the head of the Berlin Philharmonic. In 1948, Ferenc Fricsay had signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, becoming one of the few artists never to record for another label. On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the conductor's birth in 2014, the yellow label published an impressive box set (available on Qobuz) which brings together all of his recordings. It is a treasure trove for music lovers, because among the records which remain famous to this day, we find a whole series of forgotten works. The recordings were mainly de in the Titania-Palast in Steglitz in Berlin, which was the only concert hall which was spared the Allies’ bombs. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Mercury - Acts 1 & 2
Imagine Dragons
Alternative & Indie - Released July 1, 2022 | Kid Ina Korner - Interscope
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After the catharsis of 2021's Act 1, Imagine Dragons complete the story with Mercury: Act 2, a whopping 18-track journey that examines the time after the shock and grief of loss has begun to settle. While part one processed those messy emotions with some of the rawest and most vulnerable moments in the band's usual radio- and gym-friendly catalog, part two loses focus by biting off more than they can chew. There are plenty of great songs here -- fully expected for a band as hook-savvy as Imagine Dragons -- but there's simply too much going on and not enough editorial trimming to make this as impactful an experience as Act 1. Starting strong with irresistible singles "Bones" and "Sharks," Act 2 soon takes a turn to the pensive and reflective, with frontman Dan Reynolds lamenting his shortcomings on "I Don't Like Myself" and pleading for relief on "Take It Easy." The second half of the album is weighed down by similar moments, snuffing the momentum of the handful of classic stompers peppered throughout. Of this introspective bunch, the country-dusted acoustic gem "Crushed" is on par with "Wrecked" as a tearjerking standout, as "Sirens" merges the group's usual radio-friendly ear with a deep well of emotion. While the buoyant handclaps-and-synths highlight "Younger" and the riffs-and-breakbeats blazer "Blur" come closest to joining their array of mainstream smashes on a future Greatest Hits set, the bulk of Act 2 is truly for the dedicated fans who care to patiently sit with Reynolds and his feelings until everyone's ready to pump out a more focused and immediate set. [Compiling both parts on Mercury: Acts 1 & 2, the band presents the full experience across an expansive 32 tracks, which joins Act 1 and 2 as well as the hit single "Enemy" with JID from the Arcane League of Legends soundtrack.]© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo
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Sibelius: Symphony No. 4 - The Wood Nymph - Valse Triste
Santtu-Matias Rouvali
Classical - Released January 19, 2024 | Alpha Classics
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Choc de Classica
The Sibelius Symphony No. 4 in A minor, Op. 63, is a classically gloomy work, received coolly by its original audiences even though the composer was enormously popular. Sibelius wrote it while suffering from throat cancer that could easily have killed him; as it happened, surgery was successful, and he lived for another 46 years. It is generally taken to exemplify a peculiarly deep kind of Nordic gloom. Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali has gained quite a reputation for shaking up conventional interpretations, and interested listeners put this album on classical best-seller lists in early 2024. Here, he delivers more of the same, with a reading of the Fourth that is nervous and even a bit action-packed rather than gloomy. His performance is actually slightly slower than average, but it doesn't seem like it with all the little climaxes Rouvali inserts into the work. It is almost as if he is coming down on the side of the Sibelius contemporaries who argued for a hidden program in the symphony, something Sibelius himself denied. It is not a typical Sibelius Fourth, but it is intriguing, and the Gothenburg Symphony follows Rouvali effectively through unknown territory. In a work that does indeed have a program, The Wood Nymph, Op. 15, Rouvali offers a highly persuasive performance. He closes with a familiar work, the Valse triste, Op. 44, No. 1, but here again, he pushes the tempo; it is not an encore-type Valse triste. It is hard to know what to think of Rouvali's readings; perhaps he will set new standards, or perhaps they will be interpretational blips. Sample and decide.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, 12 & 13
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released October 20, 2023 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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This triple album wraps up the Shostakovich by conductor Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The series has had much to recommend it, and Nelsons, by his own admission as a Latvian, has as strong a grasp of Shostakovich's ambivalent attitude toward the Soviet state as anyone. Left for last here are possibly the four least-performed Shostakovich symphonies: two early rather avant-garde pieces, the Symphony No. 12 in D minor, Op 112 ("The Year 1917"), and the Symphony No. 13 in B flat minor, Op. 113 ("Babi Yar"). All of these works are programmatic, and most of them have voices. The Symphony No. 13 is a vocal-choral-orchestral work (baritone Matthias Goerne and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and New England Conservatory Symphonic Choir join Nelsons and the Symphony). The best is saved for last; Goerne approaches this tragic work, marking the massacre of Ukrainian Jews in 1941, with deep soberness, and Nelsons maintains the elevated tone. The rest is not quite top-level. The Symphony No. 12 is as close as Shostakovich ever came to a pro-Soviet potboiler, and Nelsons seems unexcited by it. The early Symphony No. 2 in B major, Op. 14 ("To October"), and Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 20 ("The First of May"), have a nice edge, and Nelsons keeps things under control in the massive 13-part fugue at the end of the first part of the Symphony No. 2. This is brash, youthful Shostakovich at its best and the album as a whole will satisfy followers of Nelsons' series and, in the "Babi Yar" symphony, anyone else.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 & Schulhoff: Five Pieces
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released July 28, 2023 | Reference Recordings
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Gramophone: Recording of the Month
This release made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2023. It might seem that few listeners would be moved to add yet another version of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64, to their collections, but this is one of the strongest readings to come along in some years. Conductor Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony have specialized in big, bold interpretations of traditional Romantic repertory, and this one is no exception. It is an intense, brooding Tchaikovsky Fifth in the vein mined by the great Russian conductors of the middle 20th century (Honeck is not afraid to let the brass blare), and parts of it are really transcendent. After a bleak, moody first movement, hear the perfectly suspended horn solo in the second movement, sneaking in quietly at first, almost beneath notice. This is a virtuoso piece of playing, and even those not enamored of everything Honeck does will be hard-pressed to contend that he has not raised the Pittsburgh Symphony, which he has led since 2008, to the top rank of American orchestras. The work that rings down the curtain of this live recording is also unusual; the orchestration of Erwin Schulhoff's Five Pieces for String Quartet is by Honeck himself, with Tomás Ille. Another draw here for physical album buyers is the set of detailed booklet notes by Honeck; few conductors do that, and they offer plenty of insight into his interpretations. Top it off with clean live sound from Pittsburgh's Heinz Hall (no audience noise or applause), and the result is a superior Tchaikovsky recording.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Mahler: Symphony No. 1
Czech Philharmonic
Symphonies - Released September 8, 2023 | PentaTone
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Semyon Bychkov's series of Mahler symphonies with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra seems to be getting better and better as it proceeds, and this absolutely superb 2023 release landed on classical best-seller lists in the late summer of 2023. There are other great recordings of Mahler's Symphony No. 1 in D major ("Titan"), going all the way back to Leonard Bernstein, but Bychkov's concept is unique. The general approach to Mahler, including by Bernstein, emphasizes the garish Viennese decadence. Bychkov is different; he holds the scene in perfect control, allowing chaotic intensity to flower only at carefully chosen moments (the end of the first movement and certainly the finale). In Bychkov's hands, all the Viennese songs, the bird calls, the marches, and fanfares appear as natural parts of a giant tableau of Central European life. The use of the folk song known as Bruder Martin (or Jakob) in German and Frère Jacques in French, in the minor key, is not belabored with a ghostly mood (and apparently in minor is how the Viennese normally sang it). Instead, it is a bit of dark shade to balance the sunny first movement. The level of detail in the orchestra is absolutely unparalleled; clearly, Bychkov has done nothing to damage the bred-in-the-bone familiarity the Czech Philharmonic has when it comes to Mahler. However, that would be nothing without an overall plan, and Bychkov has that. He shifts the emphasis overall to the finale, which here has a truly shattering effect. One can now understand the shock with which audiences initially greeted the symphony, even though it is not particularly atonal. There is much more to discover, and PentaTone's strikingly clear engineering treatment of the Rudolfinium in Prague has it all on crystalline display. One of the best recordings of 2023.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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A Night At The Symphony
Laufey
Jazz - Released March 2, 2023 | Laufey
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Carl Nielsen: The Symphonies
Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released April 21, 2023 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Fabio Luisi and his musicians from the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, for which he has been the musical director since 2014, worked extensively to play the vast corpus of Carl Nielsen's Six Symphonies before recording them for Deutsche Grammophon over three sessions in 2022. We immediately revel in the beauty of the sound recordings made in the warm acoustics of the Copenhagen Symphony Hall built by Jean Nouvel. With a reverberating sound giving an airy sense to the entire ensemble, the sound plans are clearly defined and always remain readable, without overloading or saturating the ears.In the Scandinavian countries and Northern Europe, the symphony took some time to really take off. In the 19th century, the Swedish recluse, Franz Berwald, did not have a following despite the very original and personal style he gave to his four symphonies. While a few adventurous composers have made attempts, it wasn’t until after the two masterful cycles by Sibelius and Nielsen that the genre really came into its own.Composed between 1892 and 1925, Carl Nielsen's Six Symphonies are, like those of Sibelius, six masterpieces. They represent an immense field of research, with an expressive power of great force. While the first two remain somewhat dependent on the Brahmsian model, they already demonstrate a very personal fearlessness, combining both style and harmony. The array of moods expressed in these works did not escape Maestro Fabio Luisi, who endeavoured, above all to exalt the dark and dramatic, even violent, side of Nielsen's music, demonstrating similar levels of drama previously created by Bruckner, Mahler, and Shostakovich. He is accompanied by an all-encompassing orchestra of exceptional quality, endowed with a great richness of tone and incredible sound power resources. It represents an essential gateway for appreciating a great composer’s music, one who’s symphonic repertoire can be considered somewhat “off the beaten track,” in a world where we usually say “well-worn.” © François Hudry/Qobuz
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My 21st Century Symphony.
Raye
Pop - Released October 16, 2023 | Human Re Sources
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Camille Saint-Saens : Symphony No.3 "Organ" - Bacchanale from "Samson et Dalila" - Prélude from "Le Déluge" - Danse macabre
Daniel Barenboim
Classical - Released January 1, 1987 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10
Berliner Philharmoniker
Symphonies - Released June 16, 2023 | Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings
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The Resistance
Muse
Alternative & Indie - Released September 10, 2009 | Warner Records
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Bruckner: Symphony No. 8
Paavo Järvi
Classical - Released August 18, 2023 | Alpha Classics
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With the approaching 200th anniversary year of Anton Bruckner's birth in 2024, recordings of the master Romantic symphonist's works have become even more prolific. Conductor Paavo Järvi and the Tonalle-Orchester Zürich continue their symphony cycle with Bruckner's mighty Eighth, following the release of the Seventh earlier in 2023. Järvi is no stranger to recording these works, as he has already issued a complete cycle relatively recently with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. This reading of the Eighth is more deliberate overall than his earlier venture, coming in five minutes slower yet just slightly longer than an average duration. This is not a detriment, as Järvi and the Zürich orchestra are able to maintain forward motion throughout. Bruckner enthusiasts will likely be happy that Järvi chose the Novak critical edition of the 1890 revised version. As expected, the conductor has this orchestra well-drilled and gets some strong performances from the musicians, especially from the large French horn group. While some will miss (and many prefer) the extra weight of the Berlin or Vienna Philharmonic, this interpretation is worthy of hearing and continues the promise of this ongoing survey. The sound from the orchestra's home hall is ideal, and Alpha does well to capture the full orchestral landscape.
© Keith Finke /TiVo
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Maestro: Music by Leonard Bernstein
London Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released November 17, 2023 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Qobuz Album of the Week
The tale of American composer Leonard Bernstein is at the centre of the film Maestro, released in September 2023 on Netflix and starring Bradley Cooper. The biopic retraces the immense career of a man who first became familiar with classical composers like Schumann, Strauss, and Beethoven, before skyrocketing to worldwide fame as Broadway’s star composer. Musical theatre, film music, ballets, symphonic works…this musical eclecticism is transcribed in the soundtrack for Maestro, created by one of his greatest fans, conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin of Québec. Much of the music features Bernstein’s own works, such as “On the Town” (1944) and “Fancy Free” (1944), as well as “West Side Story” (1957) and “Mass” (1971). The album also includes the likes of Mahler and Beethoven, composers that greatly influenced Bernstein: the legendary 1973 “Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’” concert with the London Symphony Orchestra is presented in the film, conducted by director and lead actor Bradley Cooper, who reincarnates this legend of 20th-century music. © Lena Germann/Qobuz
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ARCHORA / AIŌN
Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released May 26, 2023 | Sono Luminus
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This release pairs a rising young conductor, Eva Ollikainen, with one of the hot composers of the day, Anna Thorvaldsdottir. A third partner is the audiophile Sono Luminus label; producer Ragnheidur Jónsdóttir, working in Reykjavik's Harpa Concert Hall, achieves awesome depth and transparency that will reassure high-end stereo buyers about the value of their investments. (A Pure Audio Blu-ray disc is also included with physical album purchases.) Thorvaldsdottir's music is sometimes held to be allied to the Scandinavian nature-inspired school stretching back to Sibelius, but it is a bit more abstract. A better comparison might be the orchestral music of Ives (who was, of course, also deeply inspired by nature). She offers large, slow-moving masses of sound, with frequent use of drones, punctuated by decisive events that set her firmly apart from the minimalists. The opening ARCHORA, just shy of 21 minutes long, involves two metaphysical realms; one is called "Primordia," and if that is not a good name for a Star Trek world, it is not clear what might be. AION is in three movements, and, Thorvaldsdottir writes, "is inspired by the abstract metaphor of being able to move freely in time, of being able to explore time as a space that you inhabit rather than experiencing it as a one-directional journey through a single dimension." This music is quite compelling when played as cleanly as it is here by what might be called the home team, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and the performances here bode well for Ollikainen's young tenure there; she has the group punching a bit above its weight. This is a good introduction to the work of this increasingly popular orchestral composer.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Countdown To Extinction
Megadeth
Metal - Released July 14, 1992 | Capitol Records
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Mendelssohn: Italian Symphony
Jordi Savall
Classical - Released September 22, 2023 | Alia Vox
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Bruckner: Symphony No. 3 (First Version, 1873)
Gürzenich-Orchester Köln
Classical - Released December 8, 2023 | Myrios Classics
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Bruckner performances already began to arrive in advance of the bicentennial of the composer's birth in 2024. Conductor François-Xavier Roth has entered the competition with a symphony series at the helm of the Gürzenich Orchester Köln, where he is chief conductor. Roth is also the conductor of his own historical performance ensemble, Les Siècles, and while his Bruckner is performed on modern instruments, there are more than traces of his specialty here in the Symphony No. 3 in D minor, WAB 103. Roth's string section is medium-sized, his brass measured, and his textures transparent rather than hefty. Those enamored of the mighty readings by a Christian Thielemann or an Andris Nelsons may find this version underpowered, but by the same token, it is an encouraging bicentennial sign that Bruckner can inspire divergent interpretations, and Roth's version is well worth hearing and comparing to others. Sample the very beginning, where Roth makes the music into an analog to the opening of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, a field of fragments out of which themes emerge. His treatment here is exceptionally subtle. His finale is also quite strong, with bits of the musical world, such as a polka, jumping out of the symphonic background; his sound is quieter, but he paradoxically creates a larger musical space. The Gürzenich Orchester Köln responds well to Roth and punches a bit above its weight. This is a promising kickoff to the rounds of Bruckner recordings.© James Manheim /TiVo
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