FOUR FROM CHANDOS
SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONIES ONE & THREE ‘THE FIRST OF MAY’, SCHERZO OPUS 1, SCHERZO OPUS 7/ BBC Philharmonic, John Storgårds/Chandos
Apart from a highly committed performances given to Shostakovich’s First Symphony – in many ways the composer’s youthful calling card — and the once neglected Third Symphony (which is by no means the Stalinist agitprop piece it was once considered to be), there are two particularly neglected gems here, the Scherzi Opus 1 and 7. These will be unknown to all but the most dedicated Shostakovich enthusiast, and are dispatched here with an élan that matches their nine minutes or so brevity. It’s encouraging to report that this remarkable sequence of Shostakovich symphonies by John Storgårds remains absolutely top-notch, both in terms of exhilarating performances and the characteristic Chandos sound. Over the years, many recordings have done considerable justice to these dynamic masterworks of the modern orchestral repertoire, but for some time, the readings by Storgårds have come to be regarded as definitive. This is probably the finest ongoing complete set of the Shostakovich symphonies now on the market.
BACH: ORCHESTRATIONS BY ANDREW DAVIS, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Davie & Martyn Brabbins/Chandos
There was a time when recordings of orchestrations of Bach’s matchless organ music were thin on the ground – mostly these were re-dressings of familiar music such as Stokowski’s famous take on the Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Nowadays we have a variety of choices from different labels, but few have shown the dedication to the cause of Chandos. Previously, the company has issued some of the most inventive and colourful Bach orchestrations such as those by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, and now the company’s largesse is extended to some very sympathetic and impeccably musical orchestrations by the conductor Sir Andrew Davis. Several of these pieces are already available in collections of Bach orchestrations, but Andrew Davis’s quirky and imaginative takes on these works means that it doesn’t matter if you already have other composer’s versions — these are particularly collectable, and conducted with great aplomb by Andrew Davis himself and, latterly, Martyn Brabbins.
BACEWICZ: ORCHESTRAL WORKS, Peter O’Donoghue, piano, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo/Chandos
For many classical listeners, the voyage that Chandos records are taking us on to the neglected works of a remarkable female composer is proving to be something of a revelation, as this latest volume attests. Grażyna Bacewitz’s Second Symphony, for instance, is a remarkably structured and persuasive work which makes one keen to hear every note of orchestral music that the composer wrote. If you are overfamiliar with the standard repertoire, it is perhaps time to start reaching out for new discoveries – and the orchestral works of the Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz are proving to be immensely rewarding. Her music has seldom been recorded before and is strikingly interpreted here
TCHAIKOVSKY: ORCHESTRAL WORKS VOLUME 3, Alpesh Chauhan, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Chandos
Another very welcome entry in the Tchaikovsky series from Alpesh Chauhan and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Earlier entries in this much-acclaimed survey of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral works have collected an intriguing mixture of well-known pieces and lesser-known items – particularly as the latter are proving to be invariably very toothsome finds. Oh course, the established repertoire is always welcome, particularly in performances as sympathetic as these. For this third volume, we are granted orchestral excerpts from Eugene Onegin, and the dramatic Marche Slave. Once again, the enterprising Chandos labels come up trumps.
LSO LIVE LATEST
THE PANUFNIK LEGACIES IV, London Symphony Orchestra Jack Sheen/LSO Live
This varied and intriguing disc is a great tribute to a composer whose influence lives on, albeit in something of a reduced fashion these days. All the pieces here have something to offer even though, inevitably, the standard varies from piece to piece. One important element: the recording quality throughout his top-notch even though it is not in the SACD format.
NEW FROM NAXOS
The all-encompassing Naxos label continues to spread its net far and wide for unorthodox issues, such as a new disc including the world premiere recordings of Valentin Silvestrov’s music, including the striking Symphony No. 8, presented by the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Christopher Lyndon-Gee. Also featured on the disc is the composer’s Violin Concerto. This issue is a successor to the earlier recording of Silvestrov’s Symphony for Violin and Orchestra, ‘Widmung’, which enjoyed much acclaim.
FORTHCOMING WARNER CLASSICS
August Highlights: Joyce DiDonato releases a new recording of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, recorded with Maxim Emelyanychev and Il Pomo d’Oro, and a cast including Michael Spyres and Fatma Said; In celebration of his 80th birthday on 31 August, Warner Classics releases the complete Warner Classics recordings of Itzhak Perlman; Cellist-composer Abel Selaocoe releases a recording of his first cello concerto, Four Spirits