Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14

“the SCO remains one of the world's great chamber ensembles, with precision playing and clear, detailed articulation few can equal. Ticciati exploits this to create an almost cerebral, un-hallucinatory reading...What's lost in rich textures is regained in clarity and atmosphere...The orgiastic 'Witches Sabbath' feels a little delicate at first, but gathers febrile force in the finale.” --BBC Music Magazine, June 2012 *****

“The clarity, coordination and spectrum of colour in the orchestra are spot-on for Berlioz. The ear can thus readily appreciate the individuality of Berlioz's scoring. This is altogether a performance that has been thought through as an organic entity, a broad, vivid tableau in which images are sharply focused.” --Gramophone Magazine, May 2012

“This is a very worthwhile addition to the vast discography of the Symphonie fantastique...Brass are crisp, bright but never overbearing, and the SCO woodwind are consistently impressive, both individually and collectively. The second reason to explore this disc is Robin Ticciati's conducting...it's unquestionably an impressive debut.” --International Record Review, May 2012

“Ticciati’s version hits the spot. Horns snarl, bassoons strut, drums pound and the trombones are suitably leery. In a work usually played by over-upholstered big bands, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s leaner, crisper sound is a breath of fresh air...Highly impressive stuff, and the wonderful Julio de Diego painting on the sleeve adds to the fun.” --The Arts Desk, 18th August 2012

“The sharp-focus clarity and litheness of this relatively small-scale account will come as a surprise to most listeners...but Ticciati's approach reaps great dividends.” --bbc.co.uk, 21st September 2012

“For me Ticciati’s vision and the playing of his orchestra succeed on every front...Ticciati combines modern instruments with period style and brings out the best of both worlds. This is a version that will blow off the cobwebs for someone who knows the work already and wants to explore something different” --MusicWeb International, June 2012

Vivaldi: Concertos for 2 Cellos

Classic FM’s Albums of the Year 2014: # 20

"Kicking off our 2014 top 20, it’s a poignant release for cellist Julian Lloyd Webber (duetting with his wife), who announced his retirement from performance due to a nagging shoulder injury. This recording, sprightly and full of life, shows that his leaving the industry came very much too soon." --Classic FM, November 2014

 

The first arranger of Vivaldi’s concertos was Vivaldi himself, and Julian Lloyd Webber’s new versions in this recording reflect the composer’s pragmatic attitude and zest for experiment. Vivaldi’s Concerto in G minor RV 531 is his only original concerto for two cellos. Alongside this appear works both popular and recently discovered, the mercurial moods of the cellos representing instruments from mandolins to hunting horns.

Piazzolla’s Milonga displays all of his most distinctive hallmarks. Julian and Jiaxin Lloyd Webber’s acclaimed album A Tale of Two Cellos can be found on Naxos 8573251. This release follows Julian and Jiaxin Lloyd Webber’s highly successful album A Tale of Two Cellos (8573251), with its two cellos “beautifully played and blended together” (Gramophone) and considered a thing of “rare beauty” by The Strad. This recording of Vivaldi concertos will have poignant associations and special value for Julian’s many fans, as he has since been forced to withdraw from performing due to injury. Vivaldi’s ever popular music dressed anew by such an internationally outstanding artist is a guarantee of global interest and very substantial sales.

Album Reviews

Bach: Secular Cantatas IV

“Bach Collegium Japan's trumpets and horns mount a thrilling assault to play without modern drilled holes to fix their intonation to the expectations of modern ears...The outstanding moment is Gratitude's 'Ätzet dieses Angedenken', in which Robin Blaze's gentle singing is accompanied by a lyrical pair of flutes.” --Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2014

The two works on this disc perfectly illustrate a particular type of secular cantata, the so-called ‘dramma per musica’. In such works the libretto is constructed dramatically, and the singers embody various roles, such as gods and other characters from antiquity, and allegorical figures. The parallel with opera is apparent, although the ‘drammi per musica’ do without any scenic element. Bach primarily used the form in works intended for princely tributes or academic festivities: educated audiences could be expected to recognize the characters and literary traditions involved.

Both cantatas recorded here are ‘academic’ cantatas, composed in honour of eminent members of the faculty at the University of Leipzig. BWV 205 celebrates the name day of Dr August Friedrich Müller (3rd August 1725), and takes us to Aeolia, where Aeolus, the King of the Winds, holds the mighty autumn storms captive until it is time to let them loose on the world. To prevent any disruption of the celebrations for Dr Müller, the goddess Pallas, among others, entreats Aeolus to keep the storms in check for a while longer. Grudgingly he concedes to her wish, but only after singing an aria full of splendid bluster (Wie will ich lustig lachen…).

One year later, Bach composed the cantata BWV 207 for the appointment of Dr Gottlieb Kortte as ‘professor extraordinarius’. The young jurist enjoyed particular popularity among the young academics, who probably were the commissioners of the cantata. In this work it is virtues such as Diligence and Honour which take musical shape, singing the praise of the eminent academic. The cantata closes with a chorus, Kortte lebe, Kortte blühe!, wishing the new professor a long and flourishing life – unfortunately to little avail, as Dr Kortte died only five years later, at the age of 33.

Arias for Anna De Amicis

“[Gheorghiu] certainly has the requisite glittering coloratura technique. In accompanied recitatives, especially those for Giunia...Gheorghiu hints at the fiery temperament for which her predecessor was famed...In sum, a recital of mixed pleasures, longer on virtuoso brilliance than on imagination and involvement.” --Gramophone Magazine, February 2012

 

“The recital is a tour de force, extremely demanding of Teodora Gheorghiu's technique...In the excellent recording, there is no suggestion of shrillness or thinness of tone as she takes on high Cs or a top D. Gheorghiu is more than a soubrette, for in its middle notes her voice has a warmth and a fullness...Her singing on this CD should spread her name, for there is some stunning vocalism.” --International Record Review, January 2012

“It's stylishly presented and excellently accompanied by the Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset; a slight letdown, though, comes with young Gheorghiu hersel. Her appealingly bright, agile soprano lacks polish...For the music itself, the disc is worth exploring, even if its interpretation tends to be undercooked.” --BBC Music Magazine, March 2012 ***

Mozart, Schubert & Stravinsky: Piano Duos

“Stravinsky's Rite of Spring prompts several adjectives: brutal, revolutionary, relentless, terrifying...But elegant? Urbane, seductive, sensuous? This astonishing performance is all that and more. Few orchestral accounts equal the colouristic range on offer here...This is keyboard sorcery near the levels reported of Chopin and Liszt.” --BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2014 *****

“the audio experience has its own fire and majesty as these two old friends pitch in and strike sparks...an electrifying live recording.” --The Times, 31st October 2014 ****

“Barenboim's instinct is to sing out, to play to the very back of the hall...[Argerich] acts in a way as a moderating influence on Barenboim's flights, thanks surely in part to her years of experience as a chamber musician...These two-piano bodges always draw from critics the cliche that one misses the orchestral colouring of the work...This shattering performance sweeps away all such notions.” --Gramophone Magazine, October 2014

A reunion of the two classical superstars after more than 15 years.

THE concert highlight from Berlin's fully packed Philharmonie on the occasion of the "Festtage der Berliner Staatsoper 2014"

“Stravinsky originally wrote the Rite of Spring in a two-piano version and one of the first performances was given privately by the composer and Claude Debussy. […] Argerich and Barenboim […] surely possessed even better technique than Stravinsky and Debussy and their commitment could hardly be exaggerated”. (The Guardian)

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5

“[Lindberg] loves this music, knows it inside-out, and drives his players hard in a thriller of a performance full of high romantic emotions... The coupling is the suite from Swan Lake, and it’s definitely well-enough played to merit yet another copy of this music in your collection.” --MusicWeb International, 4th October 2013

“Lindberg's enjoyable interpretation of Tchaikovsky's Fifth is offset by a stylish and elegant approach to the suite from Swan Lake. The Arctic Philharmonic produces some really refined playing.” --BBC Music Magazine, January 2014 ****

Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony was the first symphony Christian Lindberg ever heard, at the age of ten. Nine years later it was the first he performed as a professional musician – in the brass section of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Having embarked on a successful conducting career, the trombonist-turned-international-soloist has since had the opportunity also to conduct the work, most memorably at the Mariinskij Theatre in St Petersburg, the city where the composer himself gave the first performance in 1888.

With his Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, based in the Norwegian city of Bodø well north of the Arctic Circle, Lindberg has now recorded this symphony, which has become one of the composer's best-loved works. Especially the hauntingly beautiful second movement has gripped audiences, while the work's very clear exposition of the idea of 'ultimate victory through strife' especially during World War II made it a staple in the concert halls. The symphony is here coupled with the equally popular six-movement suite from the Swan Lake, the first of the composer's three great ballets. The suite was compiled and published after the death of the composer, but provides a faithful reflection of the atmosphere, colour, melody and, above all, rhythmic invention that made Tchaikovsky such a master of music for the dance.

Music and Lyrics of the late Middle Ages

This programme focuses on the subject of becoming and fading, love, everyday life and death from the point of view of men in the late middle ages. Following the cycle of the seasons, an atmosphere of happiness and melancholy dominates the compositions which range from the boisterous spring song to the gloomy Geisslerlied.

Not only the music, but also the recitations of contemporary letters, read by Klaus Hemmerle (actor at the National Theatre Stuttgart), reflect the life awareness of people living at the transition to the Renaissance.