AUG-SEP 2012 NEW RELEASE GUIDE THIS MONTH’S HIGHLIGHTS: LIMUHD060LE / LIMUHD060 BISCD1789 8.572207 Gustav MAHLER The Super Telarc Sound 1 Pipe Dreams FIMLP005LE / FIMLP005R GP619-20 LPO-0064 TCHAIKOVSKY Pyotr Ilʼyich TCHAIKOVSKY BEETHOVEN 1812 (DVD) OA1085D / (Blu-ray) OABD7108D (DVD) 2058728 / (Blu-ray) 2058724 (DVD) 711308 / (Blu-ray) 711404 (DVD) 711308 WAGNER A Tribute to Frederick the Great Gala from Berlin 2011 Naxos International (Far East) Limited 5B, Blue Box Factory Building, 25 Hing Wo Street, Tin Wan, Aberdeen, Hong Kong Tel: 2951 9557 Email: [email protected] Hector BERLIOZ (1803-1869) Gustav MAHLER (1860-1911) Le corsaire – Overture, Op. 21 Symphony No. 1 Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14 Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (including an alternative version of Marin Alsop Un bal with cornet obbligato) Orchestre National de Lyon This remarkably original work, Leonard Slatkin with its recurring quotations from the composer’s own songs, Immensely influential, the remarkable notably Lieder eines fahrenden Symphonie fantastique was Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) composed while Hector Berlioz and Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The was suffering an intense and Boy’s Magic Horn), is the perfect unreciprocated passion for the Irish actress Harriet Smithson. Its expression of one of Mahler’s most quoted sayings, “The symphony autobiographical tale describes a young musician’s opium-poisoned is a world; it must contain everything”. The opening movement, filled nightmares of jealous despair and fatal justice following the murder with sounds that Mahler remembered from his childhood, depicts of his beloved. Berlioz wrote a second movement cornet solo into a “Nature’s awakening from the long sleep of winter”, and is followed by subsequent revision of the score, here included as an optional extra. an exuberant scherzo and trio based on a Ländler. The disturbing slow He wed his sweetheart actress but, recuperating in Nice, wrote Le movement funeral march, based on the children’s song Frère Jacques, corsaire after the final breakup of their marriage. is unlike anything that had been heard before, and the symphony CLASSICAL MUSIC CLASSICAL concludes with music of thrilling dramatic intensity. Internationally renowned conductor Leonard Slatkin began his tenure as Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in the 2008- 2009 season. He was recently named Music Director of the Orchestre Marin Alsop has been Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony National de Lyon, beginning with the 2011-2012 season. He completed Orchestra since 2007, a relationship now extended to 2015. Currently his twelfth and final season as Music Director of the National Conductor Emeritus of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra in June 2008, and finished his three-year Music Director Laureate of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, since commitment as Music Advisor to the Nashville Symphony Orchestra 1992 she has also been Music Director of California’s prize-winning in June 2009. Slatkin continues as Principal Guest Conductor of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. 8.572886 8.572207 Heitor VILLA-LOBOS Felix MENDELSSOHN (1887-1959) (1809-1847) Symphony No. 6 ‘On the Choral Music Outline of the Mountains of Peter Holder, Organ • St Albans Brazil’ • Symphony No. 7 Abbey Girls Choir • Lay Clerks of São Paulo Symphony Orchestra St Albans Cathedral Choir • Tom Isaac Karabtchevsky Winpenny Heitor Villa-Lobos is generally Compared with large-scale oratorios such as St Paul, which includes the acknowledged as Latin America’s lyrical chorus How lovely are the foremost nationalist composer and his messengers, Mendelssohn’s smaller best known works, such as the Bachianas Brasileiras (Naxos 8.557460- sacred choral works were influenced by Palestrina, ranging from short 62), have tended to overshadow the rest of his work. Symphony No. liturgical motets such as the Sechs Sprüche to the canticle settings of the 6, which launched his mature symphonic style, derives some of its Magnificat and Nunc dimittis. The famous sacred melody ‘O for the wings themes from the contours of Brazilian hills and mountains, in a process of a dove’ is to be found in Hear my prayer. The fine choristers of devised by the composer to obtain a melody from an image by means St Albans Cathedral can also be heard ‘on sparkling form’ (Gramophone) of a graphic chart. The Symphony No. 7 is scored for a huge orchestra in John Rutter’s Gloria (8.572563). and is one of the composer’s most ambitious and significant statements. Both works represent the composer’s powerful desire to invent a Tom Winpenny is Assistant Master of the Music at St Albans specifically Brazilian idiom. This is the first volume of a complete cycle of Cathedral, where he accompanies the daily choral services and directs the Abbey Girls Choir. Previously, as Sub-Organist at St Paul’s the Villa-Lobos Symphonies. Cathedral, London, he performed with the Cathedral Choir at the AGO National Convention, with the London Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s 8.573043 Symphony No. 8, and played for great state occasions. 8.572836 Krzysztof PENDERECKI (b. 1933) Sir Peter MAXWELL DAVIES Hymne an den heiligen (b. 1934) Adalbert • Song of the Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 Cherubim • Canticum Scottish Chamber Orchestra Canticorum Salomonis • Philharmonia Orchestra Kosmogonia • Strophen Peter Maxwell Davies Olga Pasichnyk (soprano) • Rafał Bartmiński (tenor) • Tomasz The orchestra used by Peter Maxwell Konieczny (bass) • Jerzy Artysz Davies for his Fourth Symphony is of (narrator) • Warsaw Philharmonic Classical period proportions, but this Choir and Orchestra • Antoni Wit relatively compact framework belies a richness of ideas and sonorities. The range of Penderecki’s music is exemplified by this disc, which With its starting point in the tone poem Chat Moss, the single- presents five works written over a period of nearly 40 years. Hymne an movement Fifth Symphony utilizes a more varied orchestral palette den heiligen Adalbert was composed in 1997 and evokes the martyred than its predecessor, with a large percussion section often in evidence. eighth-century Bishop of Prague through spare but fervent gestures. Both works are performed here by the orchestras for which they were More austere, but intense in its focus, is Song of the Cherubim, whilst Canticum Canticorum Salomis is a richly sensuous exploration of written. The First Symphony can be heard on 8.572348, the Second the Song of Songs. Kosmogonia explores a complex sound tapestry. Symphony on 8.572349, and the Third Symphony on 8.572350. Strophen (1959) was a breakthrough work – spare, intricate and marvellously tensile. Universally acknowledged as one of the foremost composers of our time, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has made a significant contribution These are among Penderecki’s most interesting and important works to musical history through his wide-ranging and prolific output. He for orchestral and vocal forces, written over a near four decade lives in the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland, where he period of growth and renewal. Wit and his forces have been highly writes most of his music. commended in this repertoire and are among Penderecki’s most ardent and experienced interpreters. 8.572481 8.572351 2 AUG-SEP 2012 Claude DEBUSSY Franz Joseph HAYDN (1862-1918) (1732-1809) Préludes (orch. Peter Piano Trios, Volume 3 Breiner) Kungsbacka Piano Trio Royal Scottish National Orchestra Jun Märkl Joseph Haydn’s long-term employment as Kapellmeister at the Debussy completed his two books palace of Eszterháza in Hungary of Préludes in 1910 and 1913 is reflected in the dedication of respectively, and they contain some his set of three Trios, Hob. XV:21- of his most visionary and poetic 23 to Princess Marie Ermenegild writing for piano. There are evocations of calm seascapes, delicate wind Esterházy, though these were tracery, and snow-covered landscapes. Some moments are steeped published in London during the second of Haydn’s visits. These in antiquity, such as La cathédrale engloutie, others in expressive delightful works are notable for the dexterity required of the pianist, portraiture, as in La fille aux cheveux de lin. There is even a cake- and all, including the Trio No. 14, involve lively and innovative use of walk. The Préludes are performed here in the subtle and colouristic tonality. Previous volumes in this series have been acclaimed for their “taste and stylistic insight”. (Daily Telegraph on Volume 1, 8.572040) orchestrations of much-admired Slovak-born composer Peter Breiner. The Kungsbacka Trio takes its name from the Swedish town in which MUSIC CLASSICAL Throughout its history, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra has it gave its first performance and where it has established an annual played an important part in Scotland’s musical life, including performing festival. Winner of First Prize in the Melbourne International Chamber at the opening ceremony of the Scottish Parliament building in 2004. Music Competition, it has since appeared at numerous festivals and Jun Märkl has appeared as a guest conductor with the orchestras of venues throughout Europe, North and South America, Australia and Philadelphia, Cleveland, NHK Symphony, Tonhalle Zurich, and the New Zealand. Munich, Oslo and Czech Philharmonics among others, and at the Met, Covent Garden, Vienna State and Dresden Semper Operas. 8.572584 8.572063 Piotr Il’yich TCHAIKOVSKY Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856) (1840-1893) Piano Quintet in E flat major, Swan Lake, Op. 20 (Highlights) Op. 44 • Piano Quartet in E Russian State Symphony Orchestra flat major, Op. 47 • Dmitry Yablonsky Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tchaikovsky was ideally equipped to Tale Narrations), Op. 132 write the music for the ballet Swan Fine Arts Quartet Lake. His gift for vivid theatricality, Xiayin Wang (piano) for lively, memorable melodies, and for rich characterisation was allied to Between 1841 and 1843 Schumann a mastery of dance rhythms. These wrote some of his greatest chamber qualities were augmented by his command of orchestral colour.