BEETHOVEN : Complete Concertos (Daniel Barenboim · Gidon Kremer · Anne-Sophie Mütter · Maurizio Pollini) 5CD BOX-SET (2011) Serie Collectors Edition | FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

Alle Beethoven Konzerte in einer Sammlung vereint. Das bietet diese Edition: Alle Klavierkonzerte mit Maurizio Pollini, das Violinkonzert mit Anne-Sophie Mutter, das Tripel Konzert mit Mutter, Yo-Yo Ma und Mark Zeltser. Zusätzlich finden sich auf den 5 CDs Raritäten und Arrangements mit Daniel Barenboim, Gidon Kremer, Gil Shaham, Sviatoslav Richter, Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, den Berliner Philharmonikern, Wiener Philharmonikern und dem London Symphony Orchestra deutschegrammophon.com   Tracklist & Credits :

MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG - Kremerata Baltica, Gidon Kremer (2014) 2CD / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer has proven a near-infallible guide to the neglected music of the former Soviet bloc. In the case of Polish-born Soviet Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg, the revival was well underway even before Kremer came along, but this beautifully recorded two-disc set makes for a tasty sampler. Weinberg's career roughly paralleled that of Shostakovich, and he suffered the slings of history to an even greater degree than Shostakovich did. The influence went both ways: Shostakovich's embrace of Jewish themes was probably due to Weinberg's example. The Symphony No. 10 on disc two gives a good indication of why Weinberg's symphonies are showing up so often on orchestral programs. The tonal language, flirting with dodecaphony, is not simple, but the five compact movements, rooted in Baroque dances, are arresting, especially with a crack string section such as the one Kremer has at his disposal (check out the cello acrobatics). The work is similar tonally but of a different flavor from Shostakovich's more atonal works of the 1960s. Even more intense is the late Sonata No. 3 for solo violin, Op. 126, played by Kremer himself. The other three works all date from the late 1940s and early 1950s. These are pleasing pieces in the Soviet vein of enforced simplicity. They're probably better than Shostakovich's works of the same period, but with an album that seems to aim to be a survey of Weinberg's music, one will wonder why the full range of the composer's music wasn't exploited. But this is really the only possible complaint in this fine collection. by James Manheim  

Sonata No. 3 Op. 126    22:14
Trio Op. 48
Sonatina Op. 46

Concertino Op. 42
Symphony No. 10 Op. 98
All Credits

WEINBERG : Chamber Symphonies • Piano Quintet (Kremerata Baltica, Gidon Kremer) 2CD (2017) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica ensemble may be best known for Piazzolla, but they have also specialized in the rediscovery of neglected East Bloc composers. The Polish-born Mieczyslaw Weinberg, a follower of Shostakovich who was much championed by his mentor, doesn't quite qualify as neglected, but much of his music, including the late chamber symphonies recorded here, has awaited persuasive performances. The chamber symphonies aren't quite a genre in themselves, the first three are arranged from earlier Weinberg string quartets, while the 1992 Chamber Symphony No. 4, Weinberg's last completed work, is original. It's a fascinating piece, with a triangle sounding the strokes of approaching death at the end. The Piano Quintet, Op. 18, of 1944, is presented in an arrangement for string orchestra and, notably, percussion; the word "arrangement" doesn't seem strong enough for what's happening. This is the place to start sampling, for there are all kinds of junctures where the music sounds like Shostakovich, but veers off into something decisively different. The work is, like Shostakovich's roughly contemporaneous piano quintet, in five movements, but they are not Shostakovich's five. Sample one of the two scherzo-like movements for the superficially Shostakovich-like effect. The substantial 14-plus-minute "Largo" does not have Shostakovich's bitter grimness, but an altogether nonpareil, very subdued lyricism. The performances, conducted by Kremer except for the final chamber symphony, are wonderfully sensitive, and the engineering, from Vienna's venerable Musikverein, is, as you expect from ECM, superb. If you were thinking of passing this up because it consists mostly of arrangements of obscure repertory, well, the arrangements make sense (and have precedent in the realm of Shostakovich), and the repertory isn't going to be obscure for much longer. by James Manheim  

Chamber Symphony No. 3 Op. 151    
Chamber Symphony No. 2 Op. 147
Chamber Symphony No. 1 Op. 145
Piano Quintet Op. 18
Arranged By – Andrei Pushkarev, Gidon Kremer
Percussion – Andrei Pushkarev
Piano – Yulianna Avdeeva
Viola – Santa Vižine
Violin – Dainius Puodžiukas, Džeraldas Bidva
Violoncello – Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė
Chamber Symphony No. 4 Op. 153
Clarinet – Mate Bekavac
Conductor – Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla
Triangle – Andrei Pushkarev

Bass – Iurii Gavryliuk, Kristaps Pētersons
Music Director [Artistic Director], Violin [Principal Violin] – Gidon Kremer
Orchestra – Kremerata Baltica
Percussion – Andrei Pushkarev
Viola – Ingars Ģirnis, Vidas Vekerotas, Zita Zemoviča
Viola, Leader [Group Leader (Viola)] – Santa Vižine
Violin – Agata Laima Daraškaitė, Aliona Rachitchi, Anna Maria Korczyńska, Dainius Peseckas, Lina Marija Domarkaitė, Madara Pētersone, Marie-Helen Aavakivi, Miglė Marija Serapinaitė, Sanita Zariņa, Semen Gurevich
Violin, Concertmaster [Violin] – Džeraldas Bidva
Violin, Leader [Group Leader (Violin)] – Andrei Valigura, Dainius Puodžiukas
Violoncello – Maruša Bogotaj, Pēteris Sokolovskis, Pēteris Čirkšis
Violoncello, Leader [Group Leader (Violoncello)] – Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė

WEINBERG : Symphonies Nos. 2 & 21 (Gražinytė-Tyla, Kremer) 2CD (2019) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg has received renewed attention, especially as the centenary year of his birth in 2019 approached. He has hardly received better advocacy than he gets here from the sensational young conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla in her first recording for Deutsche Grammophon, and first as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Weinberg lost most of his family in the Holocaust; he himself fled to the Soviet Union, where he wasn't exactly well treated, but survived and became closely acquainted with Shostakovich. The two mutually influenced each other, but it is surprising how individual Weinberg's style remained. The Symphony No. 21, Op. 152 ("Kaddish") was worked at by Weinberg for some time and was completed in 1991, a few years before his death. The work is dedicated to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto in World War II and has the feeling of a personal memorial. It is almost unrelievedly grim, although it has an episodic quality deriving partly from its association with a film about the ghetto. You would not pick the youthful Gražinytė-Tyla as an interpreter, but this is an extraordinary reading. The finale has a kind of wordless keening for soprano, which Gražinytė-Tyla takes herself. There is no way to know what Weinberg had in mind for the work, but the effect of her chorister's voice is extraordinary here. A factor adding a personal quality to the performance is the presence of violinist Gidon Kremer, who has championed Weinberg's music, and who here appears not only as the leader of his Kremerata Baltica in Weinberg's Symphony No. 2 for string orchestra, Op. 30, but also takes the violin solo part in the Symphony No. 21. It is as though the Weinberg baton was being handed on to the next generation. The Symphony No. 2 itself is an elegant string serenade that draws more on interwar Czech and Polish music than it does on Shostakovich. The work of Kremerata Baltica and the CBSO here seems almost to mesh, and this is an extraordinary debut overall. How is Gražinytė-Tyla going to follow it up? by James Manheim

Symphony No. 2 (Opus 30, 1946) (34:21)
Conductor – Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla
Orchestra [String] – Kremerata Baltica

Symphony No. 21 (“Kaddish”, Opus 152, 1991) (54:38)
Clarinet – Oliver Janes
Conductor, Soprano Vocals – Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla
Double Bass – Iurii Gavryliuk
Orchestra – City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra [String] – Kremerata Baltica
Piano – Georgijs Osokins
Violin – Gidon Kremer

ANTON WEBERN : Complete Webern (Pierre Boulez) 6xCD Box-Set (2000) APE (tracks+.cue), lossless

Those who are familiar with Pierre Boulez's earlier "Complete Webern" on Sony will notice that his new Deutsche Grammophon edition contains six discs to Sony's three. That's because Sony only included works for which Webern assigned opus numbers, plus the composer's Schubert and Bach arrangements. DG fleshes out the picture with all of Webern's posthumously published music, mostly dating from his apprentice years. Virtually all of these recordings already have been available. Discs one through three are given over to orchestral, choral, and chamber works with Boulez leading the Berlin Philharmonic, BBC Singers, and the Ensemble Intercontemporain. Soprano Christiane Oelze's survey of Webern's lieder with voice and piano occupies disc four, with the addition of three unreleased songs set to poems by Ferdinand Avenarius. On disc five, the Emerson Quartet plays all the string trio and quartet works. The final disc brings together the cello and piano music, the four pieces Op. 7 for violin and piano, and the piano works. Gianluca Cascioli's traversals of both 1906 movements for piano were previously released, while Krystian Zimerman recorded two tiny pieces and the Op. 27 Piano Variations especially for this collection.

We first encounter Webern writing music in a style that resembles Brahms with a little Grieg mixed in for good measure. Soon his harmonic palette blossoms with chromatic complexity and takes a refined turn during studies with Arnold Schoenberg. Finally, Webern's singular voice emerges by way of pocket pieces whose ascetic contours sport asymmetrical rhythms, canonic lines that leapfrog from instrument to instrument, and rigorously organized pitches. There's no filler, no fat, and every note counts.
Sometimes it's hard to grasp such fleeting, fragile, and texturally exposed music in a single hearing. When I hear a Webern work in concert, for instance, it's usually over before it begins. Imagine passing a Joan Miró painting while riding a bicycle and you'll understand what I mean. You need to find quiet listening space and know that you can play a movement or even a whole piece more than once.
Performing Webern well demands the utmost in precision and concentration, yet without negating the music's passionate undercurrents. Boulez has lived with this music a long time, and the refinement of his latest interpretations beggar description. The sonic advantages of the DG recordings play no small part, in that fine-tuned dyanmic adjustments at quiet levels can be heard with no compromise. The conductor's tempos have broadened since his 1967-72 recordings in the aforementioned Sony set, and instrumental balances are smoother, more blended than before. Yet the ferocity and edginess of the earlier versions haven't been superceded. Nor is the elemental force and dynamism of Dohnanyi's superb Cleveland Webern readings surpassed here.
No qualms, though, concerning Christiane Oelze, who negotiates Webern's treacherous, leaping lines as if they were nursery rhymes. Similarly, the Emersons leave no little detail unscrutinized, and make a lean contrast to the more opulent, aristocratic Quartetto Italiano Webern recordings from the 1970s. I'm sorry the not-so-famous Cascioli wasn't brought back to record the piano works assigned to the better-known Zimerman, whose mincing, overwrought Variations lack the grace and eloquence of Peter Serkin's recent Koch version.
An excellent booklet includes an introduction by Boulez, numerous photos of Webern at work and play, an informative essay by Paul Griffiths, a comprehensive Webern timeline, and complete texts and translations. Whatever reservations one might harbor about this or that individual performance, it is unlikely that this set as a whole will be surpassed in the near future. It belongs in every serious music library, private or public. by Jed Distler

CD1
Passacaglia . 5 Movements op. 5
6 pieces op. 6 fuga
german dances Inm smmerwind

CD2
5 pieces for orchestra
3 orchestral songs . symphony op. 21
cantatas . variations op. 30

CD3
piano quintet . lieder
5 pieces op.10 + quartet op. 22
concerto op. 24

CD4
lieder

CD5
works for string quartet & string trio

CD6
works for solo piano, violin & piano, cello & piano
All Tracks & Credits

BARTÓK : Boulez Conducts Bartók (2009) 8xCD BOX-SET / FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

 CD1
Four Orchestral Pieces • Concerto for Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra

CD2
Dance Suite • Two Pictures
Hungarian Sketches • Divertimento
Chicago Symphony Orchestra

CD3
Piano Concerto Nrs 1-3
Zimmerman • Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Andsnes • Berliner Philharmonikér
Grimaud • London Symphony Orchestra

CD4
Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra
Stefanovich • Aimard • Thomas • Percy
London Symphony Orchestra

Violin Concerto Nr. 1
Kremer • Berliner Philharmonikér

Violin Concerto Nr. 2
Bashmet • Berliner Philharmonikér

CD5
Violin Concerto Nr. 2
Rhapsodies for Violin and Orchestra Nr. 1 & 2
Shaham • Chicago Symphony Orchestra

CD6
Bluebeard's Castle
Norman + Polgár • Chicago Symphony Orchestra

CD7
Cantata Profana • The Wooden Prince
Aler • Tomlinson
Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

CD8
The Miraculus Mandarin
Music for Strings, Percussion and celesta
Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

ALBAN BERG : The Alban Berg Collection (Abbado, Levine, Boulez ...) 8CD (2003) APE (image+.cue), lossless

 CD 1:
Three Pieces For Orchestra Op. 6 / Three Pieces From The "Lyric Suite" / Violin Concerto "To The Memory Of An Angel" (64 Mins)

CD 2:
Chamber Concerto / Piano Sonata / Four Pieces For Clarinet And Piano Op. 5 / Adagio For Violin, Clarinet And Piano (From Chamber Concerto) / Wein, Weib Und Cesang (Transcr.) (75 Mins)

CD 3:
Lyric Suite For String Quartet / String Quartet Op. 3 / Seven Early Songs (With Piano) / Schliesse Mir Die Augen Beide / An Leukon / 4 Lieder Op. 2 (75 Mins)

CD4:
Seven Early Songs (With Orchestra) / Altenberg-Lieder / Der Wein / "Lulu" Suite (73 Mins)

CD 5:
Lulu: Prologue, Act I (61Mins)

CD 6:
Lulu: Act II (53 Mins)

CD 7:
Lulu: Act III / Wozzeck: Act I, Scene 1-3 (79 Mins)

CD 8:
Wozzeck: Act I, Scene 4-5 / Act II - III (66 Mins)
Credits :
Baritone Vocals – Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (pistas: 3-19 to 3-22)
Clarinet – Sabine Meyer (pistas: 2-5 to 2-8, 2-9)
Conductor – Claudio Abbado (pistas: 1-1 to 1-6, 4-1 to 4-7, 4-8 to 4-13, 4-14 to 4-18, 7-15 to 7-17, 8-1 to 8-13), James Levine (pistas: 1-7 to 1-8), Pierre Boulez (pistas: 2-1 to 2-3), Pierre Boulez (pistas: 5-1 to 5-12, 6-1 to 6-10, 7-1 to 7-14)
Ensemble – Ensemble Intercontemporain (pistas: 2-1 to 2-3)
Mezzo-soprano Vocals – Anne Sofie von Otter (pistas: 3-9 to 3-15, 4-1 to 4-7, 4-13)
Orchestra – Orchestre National De L'Opéra De Paris (pistas: 5-1 to 5-12, 6-1 to 6-10, 7-1 to 7-14), The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (pistas: 1-7 to 1-8), Wiener Philharmoniker (pistas: 1-1 to 1-6, 4-1 to 4-7, 4-8 to 4-13, 4-14 to 4-18, 7-15 to 7-17, 8-1 to 8-13)
Piano – Aribert Reimann (pistas: 3-19 to 3-22), Bengt Forsberg (pistas: 3-9 to 3-15), Daniel Barenboim (pistas: 2-1 to 2-3, 2-4), Geoffrey Parsons (pistas: 3-16 to 3-18), Oleg Maisenberg (pistas: 2-5 to 2-8, 2-9)
Soprano Vocals – Juliane Banse (pistas: 4-8 to 4-12, 4-16, 4-18), Margaret Marshall (pistas: 3-16 to 3-18)
Strings – LaSalle Quartet (pistas: 3-1 to 3-8)
Violin – Gidon Kremer (pistas: 2-9), Pinchas Zukerman (pistas: 2-1 to 2-3)

SOFIA GUBAIDULINA : Canticle of the Sun (Gidon Kremer · Kremerata Baltica) (2012) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Sofia Gubaidulina doesn't designate either of the pieces on this recording as concertos even though they feature a solo and ensemble, and that logic is evident in the sound of the music itself, which integrates the soloists organically into its texture and structure. Gubaidulina is unquestionably a modernist and employs a wide spectrum of contemporary techniques, but she is also a mystic, so her music tends to convey a striving for transcendence that's expressed in luminous warmth. She wrote The Lyre of Orpheus for violin, percussion, and string orchestra for Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica, who deliver a radiant, shimmering performance. In her notes on the piece, Gubaidulina deals only with her somewhat arcane strategies for deriving pitches and chords, but the music itself glows with timbral ingenuity and sweetness, and almost inevitably invites the listener to call to mind the poignancy of the myth of Orpheus. She does not mention it in the notes, but she wrote the piece as a memorial to her daughter, which certainly accounts for the music's intense depth of feeling. The Canticle of the Sun for cello, chamber choir, percussion, and celesta was dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich, who gave its premiere in 1998. The unique orchestration gives it an atmosphere of luminous, ethereal mystery. She wanted to pay tribute to the cellist's famously sunny disposition, and it has sections that make one of her most exuberant works; the cello sends major chords rocketing through the first movement and there is a furiously powerful roar of ecstasy at the end of the second movement. The piece ends in the major, in an exquisitely delicate filigree of interwoven lines. Nicolas Altstaedt gives a distinguished, deeply committed performance, and the Riga Chamber Choir "Kamer…" sings with lustrous tone. ECM's sound is perfectly clean, realistic, and beautifully balanced. Stephen Eddins
Tracklist :
1     The Lyre of Orpheus 23:41
Sofia Gubaidulina
Orchestra – Kremerata Baltica
Violin – Gidon Kremer
Violoncello – Marta Sudraba
The Canticle of the Sun
Celesta – Rostislav Krimer
Choir – Riga Chamber Choir "Kamēr..."
Conductor – Māris Sirmais
Lyrics By – St. Francis Of Assisi
Percussion – Andrei Pushkarev
Violoncello – Nicolas Altstaedt
Vocal Percussion – Rihards Zaļupe    
2     Glorification of the Creator, and His Creations: the Sun and the Moon 10:13
Sofia Gubaidulina
3     Glorification of the Creator, the Maker of the Four Elements: Air, Water, Fire and Earth 13:20
Sofia Gubaidulina
4     Glorification of Life 14:29
Sofia Gubaidulina
5     Glorification of Death 7:23
Sofia Gubaidulina

Gidon Kremer & Naoko Yoshino - Insomnia (1999) FLAC (tracks), lossless

This is a handsome-looking compact disc release, with strikingly muted graphics in cool purple tones, featuring Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer and Japanese harpist Naoko Yoshina. Here the pretty graphics go a little too far: the buyer finds no listing of compositions on the outside of the package and has no way of knowing what is played aside from a bare mention of the names of the 11 composers featured. That's where the All Classical Guide comes in. The works were all written in the twentieth century. They are: Michio Miyagi's Haru no umi (Ocean in Spring, a calming, melodic piece); Kaija Saariaho's Nocturne for violin solo (a somewhat avant-garde coloristic piece); Toru Takemitsu's Stanza II for harp and tape (also pretty far out and very Japanese-sounding); Yuji Takahashi's Insomnia for violin, voices, and kugo (strange, but oddly soothing); a movement from Satie's Le fils des étoiles as arranged by Takahashi (austere); Jean Françaix's Five Little Duets (100 percent charming); the Étude for violin from Richard Strauss's Daphne (also charming); Six Melodies by John Cage (simple and pleasant); Arvo Pärt's Spiegel im Spiegel (even simpler and not startling); Nino Rota's love theme from The Godfather (you know this one); and the final movement from Schnittke's Suite in the Old Style (gently Classical except for one deliberately horrendous dissonance). So there you have the emotional progression of this carefully planned album. Much of it could cure insomnia; three or four pieces could cause it. The mood is nocturnal throughout. The recording was made in 1996 in Kioi Hall, Tokyo, with Wilhelm Hellweg as producer and engineer. It completely succeeds in what was intended; the microphones are close enough to Kremer that bowing sounds are very evident, but apparently only when the producer wants them to be.  by Joseph Stevenson 

All tracks

Harp – Naoko Yoshino
Violin – Gidon Kremer

GEORGE ENESCU : Octet, Op. 7; Quintet, Op. 29 (2002) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Featuring the first recording of two works by George Enescu -- the String Octet, Op. 7, and the Piano Quintet, Op. 29 -- this album introduces the listener to the fascinating, multifaceted, and intriguing world of the Romanian master's chamber music. Enescu's music is expertly performed by members of the extraordinary KREMERata BALTICA under the direction of Gidon Kremer, who plays first violin in both pieces. Kremer wisely chose the music, for the two works in many ways exemplify the salient features of the Enescu's musical language and reflect his development from an eclectic, post-Romantic style to a richer, more complex and personal idiom. Composed in 1900, the lush, colorful, and dynamic octet is played with remarkable subtlety, balance, and sense of nuance. The string players find the exact tonal color to perfectly conjure up Enescu's polychromous musical imagery, also impeccably expressing a wide range of moods from lyrically intimate to ardently symphonic. In the piano quintet, which Enescu composed in 1940, the players rise to the challenge of interpreting a work presenting many technical and artistic problems, many stemming from the composer's austerely sophisticated idiom. Indeed, the KREMERata, completely mastering the many complexities of Enescu's style, rewards listeners with the shared experience of highly significant, albeit lesser-known, works of twentieth century chamber music. by Zoran Minderovic  

ARVO PÄRT : Arbos (1987) APE (image+.cue), lossless

Pärt's 1987 release, Arbos, shows the composer working within his medium, bringing forth a body of music sacred in sound and message and presenting new compositional techniques. Utilizing a limited palette of tones, arranged in repeating patterns, these works are often (understandably) categorized with the works of Glass, Reich, and Riley. The tonal palette is often borrowed from European medieval styles, and this, in conjunction with the liturgical subject matter, make these new compositions feel centuries old. His Pari Intervello, originally scored in 1978 for wind instruments, is here recorded for solo organ. One of his more famous pieces, Stabat Mater, is presented here -- an airy piece that floats just on the threshold of awareness. Scored for vocal trio and string trio, this is a simply beautiful piece -- very expressive and lilting. by Mark Allender

BEETHOVEN - Complete Edition Vol. 7 [Violin Sonatas] DG [4CD] FLAC

Performer: Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Label: Deutsche Grammophon

BEETHOVEN - Complete Edition Vol. 2 [Concertos] DG / 5CD / FLAC

Performer:

Myung-Whun Chung, Daniel Barenboim, Peter Gulke, Patrick Gallois, Gidon Kremer, Eva Ander, Maurizio Pollini, Anne-Sophie Mutter 

Composer:
Ludwig van Beethoven
Label: Deutsche Grammophon

BEETHOVEN -[1770-1827]

 Complete Edition Vol.2 - Concertos

1997 / DG [5CD] FLAC / scans

O Púbis da Rosa