The complete works for piano, including the concerto, played with great sensitivity and elan! If more people had played Schoenberg like this in the early days, you'd see his music appearing on more recital programs. Amazon.com
Tracklist & Credits :
6.9.24
SCHOENBERG : Complete Piano Works (Alexei Lubimov · Estonian SSO · Neeme Järvi) (2008) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
27.4.24
12.3.24
SIBELIUS : Tone Poems (2007) Serie The Sibelius Edition – Vol.1 | 5CD BOX-SET | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
68 discs in 13 thematic boxes containing all the music Jean Sibelius ever wrote, from the symphonies and tone poems to choral works, chamber music and the smallest piano piece.
“Sibelius’s known output over 80 hours and 30 minutes: an edition which gives voice to his music as surely as that music gave voice to a nation.” International Record Review
"Les treize volumes sont de ces entreprises qui honorent l'histoire du disque... Le soin éditorial est remarquable." Diapason
"A landmark in the composer's discography" Special Achievement Award in 2011 at the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA)
All Tracks & Credits
SIBELIUS : Voice & Orchestra (2007) Serie The Sibelius Edition – Vol.3 | 6CD BOX-SET | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
Following up the first two instalments of THE SIBELIUS EDITION, this third volume offers the complete music for voice and orchestra, including orchestral songs, cantatas, melodramas and the composer’s one opera – The Maiden in the Tower. Opening the programme is one of Sibelius’s greatest works, Kullervo. This is his first work of symphonic proportions, and was a huge success at its première in 1892, only to be withdrawn soon after by the young composer. Here, for the first time, Sibelius entered the mythological realm of Kalevala, Finland’s national epos, a world which he would return to on numerous occasions – for instance in works such as Luonnotar, A Song for Lemminkäinen and The Origin of Fire, all included in this collection. Another theme which runs through Sibelius’s output was the yearning for national independence, a yearning which was fulfilled in 1917. The Fool’s Song of the Spider, Sandels, Have You Courage? and The Captive Queen are only some of the included works with a more or less overt political message. As with the previous instalments, several of the works are given here in more than one version, mirroring the composer’s tendency to return to a score even after publication, as well as his willingness, in certain cases, to adapt a work to varying performance conditions. Also included are the composer’s earliest surviving attempts at writing for choir and orchestra: two chorales from his student years. Among the recordings, three have not been previously released, and one of these – the 1912 version of Have You Courage? – is a world première. Assembled in chronological order, the remaining recordings have been collected from a number of earlier discs, released to great critical acclaim. To mention but a few, Osmo Vänskä’s Kullervo has been described as ‘a first-class account, dramatic and powerfully atmospheric’ in Gramophone while the performances of the orchestral songs with Jorma Hynninnen and MariAnne Häggander supported by Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra received a Grand Prix du Disque at the time of their original release. BIS
Tracklist & Credits
SIBELIUS : Theatre Music (2008) Serie The Sibelius Edition – Vol.5 | 6CD BOX-SET | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
11.3.24
SIBELIUS : Orchestral Works (2009) Serie The Sibelius Edition – Vol. 8 | 6CD BOX-SET | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
Sibelius himself is reported to have said: ‘I am a man of the orchestra. You must judge me from my orchestral works.’ After the complete solo songs (Volume 7) and the works for violin and piano (Volume 6), the present instalment of the SIBELIUS EDITION returns us to the field in which the Finnish master has earned the greatest acclaim: that of orchestral music. As is demonstrated here, this ranges far beyond the famous symphonies and tone poems, however: apart from the perennially popular Violin Concerto, Sibelius wrote a number of suites, concert pieces, marches and scores for tableaux. Stylistically these works extend from the lightest of salon miniatures to heartfelt utterances of great profundity; their subjects range from the dance hall to the battlefield. From some of Sibelius’s best-known works (the Violin Concerto in Leonidas Kavakos’ award-winning recording; the Karelia Suite newly recorded by Osmo Vänskä) to rarities such as an early version of Rakastava never previously on disc, Volume 8 contributes seven hours worth of pieces to the fascinating puzzle that we know by the name of Jean Sibelius. Besides Kavakos, soloists include the violinists Dong-Suk Kang and Jaakko Kuusisto, Marko Ylönen (cello) and the baritone Raimo Laukka. The lion’s share of the programme is performed by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä, with memorable appearances by Neeme Järvi conducting the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. BIS
Tracklist & Credits
4.4.22
KABALEVSKY : Violin and Cello Concertos (Mordkovitch, Wallfisch) (2002) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless
Dmitry Kabalevsky
1-3 Violin Concerto, Op. 48 (1948) [16:08]
Conductor – Neeme Järvi
Leader [SNO] – Edwin Paling
Orchestra – Scottish National Orchestra
Violin – Lydia Mordkovitch
4-6 Cello Concerto No. 2, Op. 77 (1964) [29:49]
Cello – Raphael Wallfisch
Conductor – Bryden Thomson
Leader [LPO] – David Nolan
Orchestra – London Philharmonic Orchestra
3.4.22
KABALEVSKY : Piano Concerto Nr. 1 & 4 • Symphony Nr. 2 (Neeme Järvi, Kathryn Stott) (1996) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless
The big news here isn't that Kathryn Stott has turned in another impressive recording of Kabalevsky's piano concertos. The virtuosic English pianist had already done that with her previous recording of his second and third concertos in 2005. The big news here is that Neeme Järvi, once the most recorded conductor in the world, has turned in his third recording for the Chandos label since the two bitterly and publicly parted company more than a decade ago. A talented conductor with a prodigious ability to learn scores, Järvi benefited greatly from the increased popularity of classical music with the introduction of digital technology. By the early '90s, Järvi had recorded enormous amounts of music outside the mainstream -- the complete symphonies of Berwald, Schmidt, and Kalinnikov, for example -- and he came to believe Chandos ought to give him a shot at more standard repertoire. After the artistic and financial disappointment of his Brahms cycle, however, Chandos declined to expand Järvi's territory. Breaking the unofficial code of silence, Järvi took his complaints to the media -- and Chandos let his contract expire.
But following two discs of Busoni's orchestral music, this 2006 Kabalevsky disc reaffirms Järvi's primacy in second-rank repertoire. In the Concerto, pianist Stott tears into the bravura and almost Romantic First with gusto and brio and the brilliant and not quite Modernist Fourth with zest and strength while Järvi supports her with a colorful, characterful, and powerful accompaniment. But in the disc's central C minor Second Symphony, Järvi leads the superb BBC Philharmonic in a performance that makes the "social realist" work sound as much as possible like first-rate music for as long as it's playing. And after it's over, if its themes seem too heroic, its forms seem too dramatic, its rhythms seem too driven, its colors seem too bright, and its gestures seem too familiar to be believed, these doubts do not exist while Järvi is pushing its tempos, inflating its rhetoric, and enhancing its climaxes. With only a handful of other recordings of the Second available -- the antique 1949 recording with Jacques Rachmilovich leading the Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra, the classic 1973 recording with David Measham leading the New Philharmonia, the strident 1977 recording with Erwin Acél leading the Szeged Philharmonic, and the vigorous 1998 recording with Loris Tjeknavorian leading the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra -- Järvi and the BBC's rises right to the top of the list. Chandos' sound is appropriately loud and direct. by James Leonard
Dmitry Kabalevsky (1904-1987)
1-9 First Concerto For Piano And Orchestra, Op. 9* (31:13)
10-12 Symphony No. 2, Op. 19 (24:11)
13-16 Fourth Concerto For Piano And Orchestra, op. 99 'Prague'* (11:57)
Piano - Kathryn Stott*
Orchestra - BBC Philharmonic
Yuri Torchinsky - Leader
Conducted - Neeme Järvi
21.3.22
KHACHATURIAN : Piano Concerto • Gayaneh • Masquerade (Oberlian-Järvi) (1987) APE (image+.cue), lossless
18.2.22
11.2.22
4.1.22
22.1.21
13.1.21
12.1.21
23.4.20
ARVO PÄRT - Collage (1993) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
+ last month
ESBJÖRN SVENSSON TRIO — Winter In Venice (1997) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
Esbjörn Svensson has stood not only once on stage in Montreux. He was already a guest in the summer of 1998 at the jazz festival on Lake Gen...