{"id":1473,"date":"2018-04-30T12:26:33","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T11:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/?p=1473"},"modified":"2018-04-30T12:26:33","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T11:26:33","slug":"new-bis-chandos-pentatone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/?p=1473","title":{"rendered":"New BIS, Chandos, PENTATONE"},"content":{"rendered":"

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RACHMANINOV: PIANO CONCERTOS 2 & 3, <\/strong>Yevgeny Sudbin, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo\/BIS 2338SACD\u00a0 <\/strong>From the composer himself onwards, recordings of Rachmaninov’s two most popular piano concertos (1 and 4 remaining less celebrated) have done considerable justice to these titans of the piano repertoire, and any new entry has to have a persuasive reason why it should be a contender. While Yevgeny Sudbin may not displace some of the talents of the past, this is a powerful, dramatic reading of both works, with the inestimable advantage of a typically impressive surround sound recording from BIS. Over the course of almost 10 years, Sudbin has been recording Rachmaninov\u2019s works for piano and orchestra. The journey began in the U.S.A. in 2008 with the Fourth Piano Concerto, and what Classic FM Magazine <\/em>described as \u2018a glorious recording\u2019 with the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra under Grant Llewellyn. For the Paganini Variations <\/em>and Piano Concerto No. 1, Sudbin continued to Asia and highly praised collaborations with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and conductor Lan Shui. The grand finale of Sudbin\u2019s Rachmaninov cycle combines the two best-loved concertos \u2013 No. 2 in C minor and No. 3 in D minor. His partners in these are the BBC Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor Sakari Oramo, the perfect companions.<\/p>\n

BIZET: LES P\u00caCHEURS DE PERLES, <\/strong>Soloists, Orchestre Nationale de Lille, Alexandre Bloch\/ PENTATONE PTC 5186 685 (2 discs)<\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong>The confusion over the various versions of Bizet’s colourful (if absurd) operatic masterpiece continues to this day, but those seeking the most authentic version will find that the new PENTATONE recording amply fulfils their needs. What’s more, it’s sung with great conviction and passion, doing full justice to those sinuous vocal lines. Les P\u00eacheurs de Perles contains a quintessentially French blend of lyricism, exoticism and drama, and the four soloists (Julie Fuchs as Le\u00efla, Cyrille Dubois as Nadir, Florian Sempey as Zurga and Luc Bertin-Hugault as Nourabad) belong to today\u2019s best performers for this specialist repertoire. Their vocal excellence is matched by the choral contributions of Les Cris de Paris. The rich sound palette of Les P\u00eacheurs is fully brought to life by the inspired playing of the Orchestre National de Lille under the baton of its new Music Director Alexandre Bloch.<\/p>\n

WALTON: VIOLA CONCERTO, etc. James Ehnes \/ BBC SO \/ Edward Gardner CHANDOS SACD CHSA 5210 <\/strong>(See also Graham Williams\u2019 review opposite) <\/strong>\u00a0The Edward Gardner series of recordings for Chandos have proved consistently excellent, maintaining the company’s long commitment to this glorious British composer. The selection on this latest disc, is particularly cherishable, given that none of the works on offer have been massively over-recorded. What is certain, however, is that these are among the most striking readings the pieces have ever enjoyed on disc, even stretching back as far as George Szell. \u2018With Walton\u2019s Viola Concerto, none of the writing is impossible but a lot of it is close. And in a way that is exactly where you want it to be: on the edge of technical limitations. There\u2019s a tremendous amount of excitement in that.\u2019 So says James Ehnes, who switches from his violin to tackle a monument in the viola\u2019s literature, all superbly captured in surround sound<\/p>\n

KORNGOLD: SYMPHONIC SERENADE, OP. 39 IN B FLAT MAJOR; SEXTET, OP. 10 IN D MAJOR (ARR. FOR STRINGS BY HARTMUT ROHDE), NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, Hartmut Rohde\/CPO 555138-2<\/strong>\u00a0 It’s not difficult to spot the key reason for buying this disc: an orchestration of Korngold’s Sextet which does full justice to the composer\u2019s full-blooded manner (if without that final ounce of mastery that he himself might have provided). For lovers of the ripely romantic music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, this is something of a treat. Not only is the performance of the Symphonic Serenade by Rohde and his forces more pointed than the otherwise admirable one by the BBC Philharmonic under Bamert (Chandos), we are given what is essentially a new Korngold orchestral piece: <\/strong>a sympathetic orchestration of the Sextet Opus 10. The arrangement for string orchestra by the conductor is perfectly attuned to the composer’s Straussian (but still highly individual) compositional character, and it’s a delightful piece — without replacing the original.<\/strong><\/p>\n

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: THE PASSIONS OF VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, <\/strong>Philharmonia Orchestra, Richard Hickox, Rachel Roberts, Alistair Mackie, Schola Cantorum of Oxford, James Burton\/<\/strong>CRUXGZ001DVD\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>The days when Vaughan Williams\u2019 achievement as one of the great English composers had slightly slipped out of modern favour are, thankfully, in the past. Almost every note that he composed has found (or is finding) its way onto disc. This Crux selection is a particularly enjoyable collection, performed with great affection by a variety of artists (including the late Richard Hickox) \u2013 and make for an intriguing programme.<\/p>\n

MESSIAEN: CATALOGUE D\u2019OISEAUX, Pierre-Laurent Aimard<\/a> PENTATONE SACD PTC 5186670: Triple SACD + BONUS DVD <\/strong>\u00a0Classical CD Choice ran an interview with the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard<\/a> last month about this very set, and it’s heartening to report that the discs themselves do full justice to the pianist’s vision of his teacher Messiaen\u2019s work. The performances are full of nuance (with perhaps a slight caveat that the pianist’s vocal interjections sometimes interpose themselves over the music). The renowned French pianist inaugurates his PENTATONE commitments with Olivier Messiaen\u2019s Catalogue d\u2019Oiseaux<\/a>. The pianist had intimate ties to the composer himself and his wife, Yvonne Loriod, for whom Messiaen wrote the Catalogue. This is Aimard\u2019s first recording of Messiaen\u2019s most extensive, demanding and colourful piano composition. The luxurious CD box set contains an accompanying bonus<\/strong> DVD<\/strong>, on which Aimard shares his vast knowledge of and love for Messiaen\u2019s work from behind the piano.<\/p>\n

BIZET: DJAMILEH – COMIC OPERA IN ONE ACT,\u2022 <\/strong>Jennifer Feinstein,<\/strong> Eric Barry, George Mosley, Poznan Chamber Choir, Pozna\u0144 Philharmonic Orchestra <\/strong>conductor <\/strong>\u0141ukasz Borowicz\/DUX 1412\u00a0 <\/strong>While PENTATONE have supplied an exemplary reading of Bizet’s more familiar opera The Pearl Fishers (see above), it’s good to see the more neglected Djamileh appearing in a fine new reading on disc. And this is a very charming take on the one-act opera with a libretto by Louis Gallet. Djamileh tells an oriental love story between the title slave Djamileh and Cairo sultan Haroun. The plot, bringing to mind the atmosphere of One Thousand and One Nights, is a quite typical example of Romantic fascinations with the East. From the very beginning it raised Bizet\u2019s doubts, who considered it to be too difficult for a stage adaptation. However, the artistic craft of the creator of Carmen balanced the libretto\u2019s deficiencies, surrounding the story of oriental lovers with a suggestive sound aura, achieved thanks to an original instrumentation and bold, chromatised harmonic language. The craftsmanship of Jennifer Feinstein, performing the title part, allows the listener to enjoy all values of this little known opera.<\/p>\n

MORYTO: WORKS FOR ORCHESTRA,<\/strong>\u2022 The Witold Lutos\u0142awski Chamber Philharmonic in \u0141omza, Jan Mi\u0142osz Zarzycki, DUX\u00a0 <\/strong>For those with adventurous tastes, this could be a CD well worth their time. This DUX CD is a review of Stanis\u0142aw Moryta’s latest orchestral work, an outstanding contemporary composer, organist and teacher. Born in 1947, professor Moryto can boast of an exceptionally versatile artistic publishing activity, focused on Polish organ music and rich compositional output. Listening to the recording made by members of the Chamber Philharmonic Witold Lutos\u0142awski in \u0141om\u017ca, under the direction of Jan Mi\u0142osz Zarzycki, the listener will encounter original elaborations of motifs from Kurpie music and then follow the extensive dialogues of solo instruments in the Concerto for percussion, harp and string orchestra. Four Pieces in Polish Style for String Orchestra, Seven Kurpie Sings for Soprano and Orchestra, Suite for String Orchestra, Concerto for Percussion<\/p>\n

BARTOK & KODALY: CONCERTOS FOR ORCHESTRA, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Jakub Hr\u016f\u0161a\/PENTATONE<\/strong> PTC5186626<\/strong> \u00a0For a long time, Georg Solti\u2019s readings of Bartok\u2019s Concerto for Orchestra were nigh-definitive, but in the SACD years, we have been provided with new and dramatic readings. That’s the case here, although earlier readings (such as the recent Hungaroton recording by Kocsis) are not displaced. The Kodaly Concerto for Orchestra is more of a rarity, although listeners new to the piece should be aware that it is minor work by him, unlike the Bartok which is one of the composer\u2019s key pieces. These exuberant pieces are collected in vivid performances from the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by the podium sensation Jakub Hr\u016f\u0161a on this release.<\/p>\n

GRIEG: PIANO CONCERTO IN A MINOR, OP. 16; SKETCHES FOR PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 IN B MINOR – PREMIERE <\/strong><\/p>\n

FREDERICK DELIUS: PIANO CONCERTO IN C MINOR (1907), <\/strong>Mark Bebbington, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Jan Latham-Koenig\/<\/strong> Somm 269 <\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>While the well-known the first concerto of Grieg is given a strong reading here, it is the orchestrated sketches \u2013 and solo piano passages \u2013 of the composer\u2019s unfinished second piano Concerto which is the drawing point here. In the event, rather disappointingly, it turns out to be only eight minutes or so of music, and hardly indicates what the finished work would have been had the composer completed it. Nevertheless, it is intriguing listening for those who love Grieg, and the other piece here, the Delius piano concerto, is given any very sympathetic reading.<\/p>\n

KARAYEV: SYMPHONY NO. 1, VIOLIN CONCERTO *, <\/strong>Janna Gandelman, Violin <\/strong>*,Kiev Virtuosi Symphony Orchestra, Dmitry Yablonsky\/Naxos <\/strong>8.573722\u00a0 While many music lovers are content to spend their listening time in the company of old favourites from Beethoven to Respighi, there are those of us who are always on the lookout for something new to tickle the ear. New, that is, in the sense that while the music may be composed sometime in the past, it has largely remained unfamiliar. Case in point? Kara Karayev was one of the most prominent figures in the music of 20th-century Azerbaijan, and an inspiration to subsequent generations of Azerbaijani composers. His eloquently expressive and tautly dramatic First Symphony <\/em>is a significant work in Karayev\u2019s output, reflecting both the harmonies and melodic characteristics of the South Caucasus region and, in its orchestral brilliance, the influence of his mentor Shostakovich. The Violin Concerto <\/em>shows a notable shift in style, exploring the serial techniques that add astringency and inventive depth to Karayev\u2019s already richly coloured and vividly diverse palette.<\/p>\n

VIVALDI: THE QUATTRO STAGIONI, Brecon Baroque, Rachel Podger\/Channel Classics SACD CCSSA40318 (See also Graham Williams\u2019 review opposite)<\/strong>\u00a0 Not another Four Seasons, I hear you cry? Yes \u2013 and a very welcome one, given the absolute (and very typical) commitment to the music shown by Rachel Podger and the Brecon Baroque. Earlier readings by these forces have made very persuasive cases for the various scores that they have tackled, but they have set themselves a particularly challenging task in this case, with the music so overfamiliar for most listeners that a truly fresh and energetic approach is required \u2013 precisely what The Red Priest gets here. The sheer athletic prowess of the players provides music-making that banishes all thoughts of those interminable waits on phone lines with \u2018Spring\u2019 on a perpetual loop. We can hear it afresh in this new recording, which becomes one of the definitive readings at a stroke. Together with the star players of Brecon Baroque, Rachel Podger guides us through the seasons of nature and life. The musical range is sensational and matched all the way by Jared Sacks\u2019s luminous and emotionally engaged recorded sound.
\nOTHER NEW DISCS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Also worthy of attention are a brace of new discs with notable individual qualities. The Audite label has a colourful and idiomatic quartet of readings of Strauss (RICHARD STRAUSS: MACBETH, DON JUAN, TOD AND VERKLARUNG AND THE FESTMARSCH IN C<\/strong>) with the Staatskaplle Wein conducted by Kiril Karabits, while the Alpha imprint boasts a very competitive reading of Scandinavian works (SIBELIUS, RAUTAVAARA: VIOLIN CONCERTOS<\/strong>) played by the virtuoso Tobias Feldmann and the Orchestre Philharmonique conducted by the authoritative Jean-Jaques Kandorow; there are many impressive readings of the Sibelius in the catalogue, but this is a real contender. From Linn, BIBER: THE MYSTERY SONATAS<\/strong> is granted an emotional reading by the Boston Baroque with Christina Day Martinson and Martin Pearlman, while from Les Soloistes de L\u2019OSM, we are given intriguing versions of the BEETHOVEN’S SEPTET<\/strong> and a chamber version of STRAUSS\u2019S TILL EULENSPIEGEL<\/strong> on the Analekta label. Finally, impressive readings of RAVEL, FRANCK, LIGETI AND MESSIAEN: CHAMBER WORKS<\/strong> from the Duo Gazzana on the ECM New Series imprint; the attention to detail on this fine disc is fastidious, with highly impressive results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RACHMANINOV: PIANO CONCERTOS 2 & 3, Yevgeny Sudbin, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo\/BIS 2338SACD\u00a0 From the composer himself onwards, recordings of Rachmaninov’s two most popular piano concertos (1 and 4 remaining less celebrated) have done considerable justice to these titans … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-classical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1476,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions\/1476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}