BRAHMS - SYMPHONIES/GERMAN REQUIEM       WARNER 2564-62768-2

Johannes Brahms wrote four symphonies, as well as other major works for orchestra a great deal of chamber music. He never wrote an opera and in his lifetime was best known for his small-scale compositions, including the Hungarian Dances and some songs such as the Wiegenlied, op.49 no.4 (otherwise known as ‘Brahms’s Lullaby’). A marble bust of his revered Beethoven looked down on Brahms as he composed and his works contain a number of apparent imitations. The main theme of the finale of Brahms’s First Symphony is reminiscent of the one in the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth. When this resemblance was pointed out to Brahms, he replied, ‘Any ass can see that’. In the process of creating a symphony, Brahms had long been plagued by self-doubt, and rather than identify his first effort as a ‘Symphony’ he opted for the more modest title ‘Serenade’. His large choral work, A German Requiem (Ein deutsches Requiem), is not a traditional, liturgical requiem but a setting of texts which the composer selected from the Luther Bible. All four of his symphonies, together with the German Mass, Tragic & Academic Festival Overtures, Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny) and the masterful Variations on a theme of Joseph Haydn, are included in this excellent 5-CD box set of live recordings made in 1994 by German conductor Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Kurt Masur has been the distinguished music director of this orchestra since 1991, producing consistently high quality of playing and artistic spirit. Since 2000, he has also been principal conductor of the London Philharmonic and is frequently a guest conductor with many of the world’s leading orchestras. Brahms has long been a specialty of Kurt Masur and his interpretation of the Requiem here is both authoritative and wonderfully jubilant.

SHOSTAKOVICH - SYMPHONY NO. 5         BERLIN CLASSICS 0017922BC

Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in D minor was written in 1937 and first performed in Leningrad later that year by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. This performance was a great success and received an ovation of half an hour (a whole hour, according to Mstislav Rostropovich) and the symphony remains one of the composer’s most popular works. The Soviet authorities gave it the subtitle, A Soviet Artist’s Reply to Just Criticism, referring to the denunciation of Shostakovich in 1936. It was officially interpreted as a Bildungsroman describing ‘the making of a man’, with an appropriately optimistic conclusion. However, the final movement is really a parody, representing ‘forced rejoicing’. The movement includes a quotation from the composer’s song ‘Rebirth’, in which a ‘barbarian painter’ blackens the genius’s painting, suggesting that the barbarian and the genius are Stalin and Shostakovich respectively. The work is largely sombre despite the composer’s official claim that he wished to write a positive work. The internationally acclaimed conductor Günther Herbig began his musical training with Hermann Abendroth at the Franz Liszt Academy in Weimar and was one of the few students chosen for intensive study with Herbert von Karajan. In 1972 he became Music Director of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, and from 1977 until 1983 held the same position with the Berlin Symphony. In 2001 he became Chief Conductor of the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra. This new release (along with his recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8 BERLIN CLASSICS 0017932BC) mark the composer’s hundredth birthday as well as the start of a Herbig series on Berlin Classics. The spectacular Fifth Symphony receives an emotionally charged performed in this live recording, where the ambiguity of the finale becomes clear through the choice of tempo: very fast at the beginning and almost excruciatingly slow at the end. The dark Eighth Symphony, in which the contrasts of mood are particularly apparent, comes together under Herbig to form a cohesive unit. He has a sure feel for portraying the opposing forces in a context of lyrical intensity, and both these CDs make essential listening.

FRANZ SCHMIDT - SYMPHONY NO. 1     QUERSTAND VKJK 0503

The unjustly neglected Austrian composer Franz Schmidt (1874-1939) was born in Pressburg (known as Poszony in Hungarian). A gifted pianist and cellist as a young man (he won a place in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra), he also composed four first-class symphonies ‘in the spirit of Brahms and Bruckner’, two operas, a magnificent oratorio, as well as much chamber and organ music. Although usually regarded as a conservative composer, his harmonic language is often quite complex, bordering on atonality. Nevertheless, his superb gifts for melody and brilliant orchestration make his music wonderfully accessible. In recent years there has been a revival of interest in the work of this relatively little heard composer, whose expressive music is among the undiscovered treasures of twentieth-century composition. His first symphony, premiered in 1902, is typically opulent, with a beautiful and melanchly slow movement. Much of Schmidt’s music is deceptively difficult to perform but on this CD the MDR Orchestra, conducted by Fabio Luisi, plays with both technical accomplishment and commendable warmth. It forms one of a series from Querstand by the MDR featuring all of the Schmidt Symphones; the Second (VKJK 0504), the Third (VKJK 0505) and his best-known, the elegiac Fourth (VKJK 0506), composed as a requiem for his daughter, who had died in childbirth.

BRUCKNER/BARENBOIM - NINE SYMPHONIES   WARNER CLASSICS  2564-61891-2

Daniel Barenboim is an acclaimed conductor, pianist and chamber musician, born in Buenos Aires in 1942 to parents of Jewish-Russian descent. He started playing piano at the age of five and went on to become an outstanding concert performer on tours of Europe, the United States, South America, Australia and the Far East. He also began conducting, often with the English Chamber Orchestra, and is currently Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where he succeeded Sir Georg Solti. Barenboim made his first gramophone recordings in 1954 and soon began recording the most important works in the piano repertory, including complete cycles of the piano sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven and concertos by Mozart as both conductor and pianist, Beethoven (with Otto Klemperer), Brahms (with Sir John Barbirolli) and Bartók (with Pierre Boulez). The music on this elegantly produced set of nine CDs was recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic between 1990 and 1997, all but Symphonies No. Four and Seven being live concert performances. The spectacular sound is thrillingly captured, especially in the conductor’s masterly readings of the last two great symphonies. Bruckner’s symphonic chorus for male voices and orchestra, Helgoland, is also included, making this box set even more of a bargain.

BRAHMS - SYMPHONIES NOS. 3 & 4   TELARC CD-80465

Mozart composed his first symphony at the age of eight but Brahms did not finish his first until he was forty-three. Brahms had previously been intimidated by the musical genius of Beethoven, who revolutionised the symphonic form and set the standard by which everyone thereafter would be compared. When Brahms’ First Symphony eventually appeared, it was inevitably dubbed ‘Beethoven’s Tenth’. His Second was later compared to Beethoven’s Pastorale and his Third Symphony was referred to as ‘Brahms’ Eroica’. Annoying though these descriptions were to Brahms, he was spurred on to greatness by the example of his predecessor and all his symphonies met with critical and public success. The Third in particular, written when he was fifty, was highly acclaimed, although the frequency with which this masterpiece came to be performed may have irked the composer. This recording is one of a series made by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Sir Charles Mackerras, a scholar and musicologist as well as a conductor. He did extensive research into the performance practices and size of the orchestra as it was during Brahms’ lifetime, taking as his model the Court Orchestra of Meiningen, which had just 49 players and with which the composer was associated for much of his life. Brahms was a Romantic in spirit but a classicist in style, and Mackerras gives both these aspects of the music their due. Other CDs in the series feature the Symphony No. 1 and Academic Festival Overture (CD-80463) and Symphony No. 2 and Variations on a Theme by Haydn (CD-80464). ‘A spring cleaned Brahms...to make the music fresh, lithe, and new’ - Sunday Times.

BENJAMIN BRITTEN - SIMPLE SYMPHONY             NAXOS 8.557205

Benjamin Britten was born in Lowestoft on St Cecilia’s Day (22 November) in 1913. Such an auspicious birthday perhaps encouraged him to become a brilliant pianist and conductor as well as the most outstanding English composer of his time. Despite being a ‘modern’ and sometimes radical composer he succeeded in reaching a mass audience, achieving a great international reputation while remaining unmistakably English. He composed his delightful Simple Symphony when aged only twenty, basing it on music written when he was even younger. The piece has four movements, each with a memorably descriptive name: Boisterous Bouree, Playful Pizzicato, Sentimental Sarabande, and Frolicsome Finale. The other works on this CD include his poignant string arrangement of Lachrymae completed in the last year of his life, the Suite on English Folk Tunes (his final orchestral work), and world première (1998) recordings of Temporal Variations and A Charm of Lullabies, both arranged by Colin Matthews. The excellent  Northern Sinfonia is conducted by Steuart Bedford and the soloists are Nicholas Daniel. (oboe), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzo-soprano) and Philip Dukes (viola).

POPOV - SYMPHONY NO. 1                     TELARC SACD-60642

The neglected Russian composer Gavriil Nikolayevich Popov (1904-1972) studied piano and composition at the Leningrad Conservatory. He went on to write operas, chamber music, highly dramatic choral works, film scores and much orchestral music, including six completed symphonies. His First Symphony is in the grand tradition of Borodin and Glazunov and is written in the system of dissonant counterpoint then fashionable in Western Europe. This work was heartily condemned by the Soviet authorities, forcing the composer later to change his style towards more accepted principles of the ‘Soviet realism’. Popov was a contemporary of Shostakovich so it is appropriate that this disc should also include a performance of the latter’s early piece, Theme & Variations, scored for strings only. These two little-known works are played with great conviction by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, and this excellent SACD recording is particularly effective in eliciting the depth and complexity of the Popov Symphony. This valuable and rewarding release provides a fascinating comparison between two of the twentieth century’s most gifted composers.

PETER RUZICKA - CELAN SYMPHONY     BELLA MUSICA CTH 2490

The versatile composer, musician and conductor Peter Ruzicka was born in Düsseldorf in 1948. He received his early musical training (piano, oboe and composition) at the Hamburg Conservatory and later studied law and musicology in Munich, Hamburg and Berlin. His compositions have received numerous prizes, including one at the Bartók Competition, Budapest, for his string quartet ‘... fragment ...’ and an award for an orchestral work, ‘Metastrofe’, at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. Peter Ruzicka was appointed professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg in 1990 and is Artistic Director of the Salzburg Festival. As a conductor of his own and other works, he has directed, among others, the German Symphony Orchestra in Berlin, recording works by Mahler, Pettersson and Schreker. The tragic Paul Celan was orphaned when the Nazis deported his parents to a concentration camp - an episode from which the author never recovered and which led  to psychological problems and ultimately his suicide. Ruzicka’s opera, Celan, was commissioned by NDR and premiered in 2001 at the Semperoper in Dresden. On this CD, the composer conducts the NDR in a moving version of the work, as well as his Errinurung, written for orchestra and clarinet (the soloist here is Sharon Kam). This is challenging and thoughtful music from an important contemporary composer.

PHILIP GLASS - SYMPHONIES NOS. 2 & 3             NAXOS  8.559202

Marin Alsop conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in performances of two challenging works by the controversial American composer, Philip Glass. A pupil of Nadia Boulanger, Glass was influenced by the Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar and is one of the leading contemporary exponents of minimalist music based on the repetition of a motif, modified or extended. His idiosyncratic Second Symphony and the smaller scale Third Symphony (written for chamber orchestra) show true scope, structure and seriousness of purpose. Marin Alsop was appointed Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in 2002 and in the following year she was voted Gramophone magazine's ‘Artist of the Year’. She is also currently Conductor Laureate of the Colorado Symphony and has appeared as guest conductor with, among others, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, and the Orchestre National de Lyon. She was born in New York City, studied at Yale University and the Juilliard School, and was a pupil of Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa and Gustav Meier. ‘The Bournemouth’s American chief conductor Marin Alsop is the perfect champion for these powerful, charismatic pieces’ - The Observer.

BEETHOVEN - ORCHESTRAL WORKS, VOL. 5       SIMAX  PSC 1184

The excellent Simax series featuring the complete orchestral works of Ludwig van Beethoven continues with his Symphony No. 6, performed by the  Swedish Chamber Orchestra Örebro and conducted by Thomas Dausgaard. The ‘Pastoral’ symphony, perhaps his most popular work, reveals Beethoven’s great affection for nature and his sublime ability to express this in musical form. It is part of a long tradition going back to the renaissance where the composer seeks to represent nature and his experience of it. This outstanding album also includes the first three overtures Beethoven wrote for his only opera, Fidelio. Known as the Leonore overtures, they were performed, together with the final overture known as the Fidelio, by Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig in 1840. As part of their commendable Beethoven project, Thomas Dausgard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra Örebro have toured Germany, played in Chicago and New York, and performed to great effect at the BBC Proms in London. ‘The clarity of texture on every level makes for an exceptionally fresh reading’ - Gramophone.

MAHLER - SYMPHONY NO. 5         QUERSTAND VKJK0413

Gustav Mahler wrote his Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor in 1901 and 1902, mostly during the summer months spent at his cottage at Maiernigg. The piece is scored for a large orchestra made up of four flutes (two doubling piccolo), three oboes (one doubling cor anglais), three clarinets (one doubling bass clarinet), three bassoons (one doubling double bassoon); six French horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba; four timpani, cymbals, bass drum, side drum, triangle, glockenspiel, tamtam, wood clapper, harp and strings. Generally regarded as Mahler’s most conventional symphony up to that point, it nevertheless marked the beginning of a new phase for the composer and represented a break with the ‘Wunderhorn’ of previous symphonies. The long Scherzo is one of the most powerful of his symphonic movements and the famous Adagietto has acquired a life of its own, achieving worldwide recognition as film music for Luchino Visconti’s ‘Death in Venice’. In this latest addition to Querstand’s excellent MDR Edition, the MDR Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Fabio Luisi.

SAINT-SAENS - SYMPHONY NO. 3     TELARC SACD-60634

The American-born Michael Murray, together with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, gives a wonderfully warm and satisfying performance of the Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3. This excellent SACD also includes rousing accounts of nine French encores dating from the 1600s almost to the present day, including Franck’s Piece Heroique, Widor’s Toccata, Symphony No. 5 and Couperin’s Chacone in G minor, all played on the organ at acoustically superb Symphony Hall in Boston. The music is made all the more exciting by Telarc’s Soundstream recording system, based on a sampling rate of 50kHz compared to a standard compact disc, which has a sampling rate of 44.1kHz. The higher rate offers an extended frequency response and increased detail, revealing the true sound of the original recording. ‘Here is playing of great skill, artistry, and above all, integrity’ - Gramophone.

LISZT - DANTE SYMPHONY/TASSO           TELARC SACD-60613

Leon Botstein conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in recordings of two profound works by Franz Liszt: Eine Symphonie zu Dantes Divina Commedia (also featuring the London Oratory School Schola, directed by Michael McCarthy) and Tasso, Lamento e Trionfo. The ‘Dante Symphony’ is based on the poetic masterpiece by Dante Alighieri and has two movements: ‘Inferno’ and ‘Purgatory’, charting the jjourney of the soul toward Paradise, with some of the musical ideas taken directly from Dante’s text. ‘Tasso, lamento e trionfo’ was originally written as an overture to a stage production of Goethe’s drama Torquato Tasso held in honour of the writer’s 100th birthday celebration in 1849. The play recalls the life and passions of Torquato Tasso (1544-1595), whose literary masterpiece about the first Crusade, La Gerusalemme Liberata, made him arguably the greatest Italian poet of the late Renaissance. Byron looms in the background to this work as well, for it is his Lament of Tasso which strongly suggests itself in the symphonic poem’s subtitle and in the exploration of an artistic soul wracked by doubt which opens the work. Liszt transforms these doleful themes into radiant melodies in the second half of the piece, heralding the artist’s ultimate victory beyond the grave. These exemplary recordings are captured in superb SACD sound.

BRUNO WALTER IN STOCKHOLM         TAHRA TAH 508/509

This double album contains an entire live concert that the legendary Bruno Walter gave in Stockholm in 1950, featuring works by W. A. Mozart and Franz Schubert. The concert was formerly out on LP but has never been available in its complete version, as here. The first CD includes Mozart’s Serenade No. 13 (Eine kleine Nachtmusik) as well as his Symphony No. 39, both recorded in 1950 with the excellent Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. The Stockholm concert continues on the second CD with an exemplary performance of Schubert’s Ninth Symphony (the Great). The first CD also features Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, recorded by Walter live in 1952 with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. These remarkable recordings reveal the conductor at the height of his powers and this is a most valuable addition to the historical repertoire now increasingly available on CD.

THE ART OF PAUL VAN KEMPEN, VOLS 2 & 3     TAHRA TAH 514-515/TAH 516-517

These two latest double CDs from Tahra continue a series that explores the extensive work of the gifted conductor Paul van Kempen. In Volume 2 he is featured directing the splendid Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra in recordings from 1943 of symphonies by Haydn (No. 104), Sibelius (an impeccable version of the 5th) and Schubert (No. 8). In Volume 3 van Kempen conducts the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio Hilversum in early 1950s recordings of Bruckner’s 4th Symphony and Dvorak’s 9th (a prevously unissued performance), as well as two overtures by Wagner played by the Orchestra of La Scala, Milan. The sleeve notes contain the first publication of an invaluable discography of Paul van Kempen’s recorded work between 1929 and 1955, including his contributions to the Polydor, Decca, Telefunken, Deutsche Grammophon and Philips labels.

BEETHOVEN - SYMPHONY NO. 9           TELARC CD-80603

Donald Runnicles conducts the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a stirring performance of Beethoven’s magnificent Symphony No. 9, the ‘Choral’ Symphony. The soloists include Mary Dunleavy (soprano), Elizabeth Bishop (mezzo-soprano), Stephen Gould (tenor) and Alastair Miles (bass).  Beethoven’s 9th was inspired after the composer read Fredrich Schiller’s ‘To Joy’ and subsequently included Schiller’s words in the rousing choral movement that follows three purely orchestral movements. Donald Runnicles is the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s principal guest conductor and is also music director of the San Francisco Opera, where ina ddition to the usual Mozart, Strauss and Wagner repertoire, he has conducted a wide range of works from Gluck to Michael Tippett's King Priam.

BAX - TINTAGEL/SYMPHONY NO. 7         NAXOS  8.557145

In 1917, Arnold Bax spent an idyllic six-week holiday at Tintagel, on the north coast of Cornwall, and was inspired by this to write his well-known, evocative tone-poem. Tintagel creates a stirring impression of the castle-crowned cliff and Atlantic on a sunny summer’s day, and features some of the most vivid sea music ever written. Bax’s final symphony, his seventh, has three movements, the first largely characterised by surging energy, being by turns optimistic, playful,  exuberant. richly lyrical, wistful and mysterious. The third movement conprises a series of variations, which range in mood from violent to tender, from ebullient to skittish. Bax never quite recovered the creative impulse that drove him on during the inter-war years, and never again achieved the moving serenity and poise to be found in his seventh symphony. On this CD, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra is conducted by David Lloyd-Jones.

MARTINU - THE SYMPHONIES             BIS CD-1371/1372

This bargain-priced box set features the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Neeme Järvi, performing all the symphonies by the prolific Bohuslav Martinu, including his Symphony No.6, ‘Fantaisies symphoniques’ These three discs were originally released in 1987-88, to great critical acclaim. All Martinu’s symphonies were written in the USA, where he arrived in 1941 as a fugtive from the Nazis, and their success was immediate as the works were taken up by some of the finest conductors of the time, although they have since been unjustly neglected. Neeme Järvi’s interpretation, enhanced by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra’s playing, make this a most welcome collection of recordings. ‘The Bambergers play for all they are worth for Järvi, who brings out Martinu's individual qualities…balance is excellently judged almost throughout and massive climaxes are thrillingly caught’ - Gramophone.

BENJAMIN LEES - SYMPHONY NOS. 2, 3 & 4/ ETUDES       ALBANY TROY 564/65

This album features three symphonies and fine work for piano and orchestra from one of the best contemporary American composers, Benjamin Lees. Born in China on January 8, 1924, he spent his early years in San Francisco before moving to Los Angeles and (for seven years) Europe. On returning to the USA, he taught composition and his Second  and ‘surrealist’ Third  Symphonies were performed by the Louisville Orchestra in 1958 and 1969, respectively. Symphony No. 5 (premiered in 1998) has a one movement structure and commemorates the arrival of Swedish immigrants to Delaware in the 1600s. On this double CD set the excellent Staatsphilharmonic Rheinland-Pfalz is conducted by Stephen Gunzenhauser. The Etudes for Piano and Orchestra, played by the Texas Festival Orchestra conducted by Robert Spano, are dedicated to James Dick, the outstanding pianist who performs them here with virtuoso aplomb. ‘The “Lees Style” is instantly recognizable and every work is possessed of lofty grandeur’ - Tempo Magazine.

HOVHANESS - SYMPHONY N0. 23 “ANI”          CRYSTAL  CD809

Alan Hovhaness is an exceptionally prolific composer, having written 67 symphonies, 22 concertos, 67 sonatas for various instrument combinations, and 7 operas. The Ani Symphony is one his finest works for winds and is performed on this recording by the Highline and Shoreline College Bands, conducted by the composer himself. The CD also features Spirit of Ink, written for three flutes and performed here by flute virtuoso Samuel Baron, playing all three parts. Originally released on the composer's Poseidon label in the 1970s, this re-issue completes the transfer of Poseidon's Hovhaness catalogue to CD. ‘Because of his ability to produce beautiful sounds from whatever combination of instruments he is working with (right up to full orchestra) and the unabashedly melodic character of his works, his music possesses instant appeal’ - New York Times.

ALAN HOVHANESS - MYSTERIOUS MOUNTAINS           TELARC  CD-80604

The distinguished American conductor Gerard Schwarz directs the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in assured performances of three symphonic works by the highly individual American composer Alan Hovhaness: No. 2 (Mysterious Mountains), No. 66 (Hymn to Glacier Peak), and No. 50 (Mount St. Helens). Also included is a short, exciting piece, Storm on Mount Wildcat, written when Hovhaness was only twenty years old. Born in Massachusetts in 1911, he was of Armenian descent (original name Chakmakjian) and made a lifelong study of Asiatic and Middle-Eastern music. As well as being exceptionally prolific he had a unique musical style that resulted from following his own ‘instinct and voice’. This is an excellent introduction to a remarkable composer.