London Symphony Orchestra & Valery Gergiev – Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 (2010/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:00:55 minutes | 1,06 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
The first release in Valery Gergiev s Rachmaninov symphony cycle features a magnificent performance of the Symphony No.2, recorded in September 2008 at the Barbican. This vast work was composed when Rachmaninov was at the pinnacle of his careers as composer, pianist and conductor. Filled with emotion and brimming with beautiful melodies, it is a masterpiece and the epitome of the Romantic symphony. The recording features the complete version of the symphony and will be followed in future years by the first and third symphonies as well as the Symphonic Dances.
Read moreLondon Symphony Orchestra & Valery Gergiev – Rachmaninov: Symphonies Nos. 1-3 – Symphonic Dances (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 03:34:59 minutes | 4,14 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
This highly anticipated album-set brings together Valery Gergiev’s acclaimed cycle of the complete Rachmaninov symphonies. He leads the London Symphony Orchestra in performances recorded between 2008 and 2015. These masterful accounts are accompanied by his Symphonic Dances and and two symphonic poems by Mily Balakirev that echo the luxurious textures present throughout Rachmaninov’s music.
Read moreLondon Symphony Orchestra, Danielle de Niese, Alysha Umphress, Nathan Gunn & Sir Simon Rattle – Bernstein: Wonderful Town (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:08 minutes | 1,55 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra pay homage to Leonard Bernstein with a recording of Wonderful Town that captures the energy and excitement of sold-out performances from December 2017. Featuring an all-star cast led by Danielle de Niese and Alysha Umphress, this release coincides with worldwide #BernsteinAt100 celebrations marking the centenary of the Orchestra’s former President.
Read moreLondon Symphony Orchestra & Sir Simon Rattle – Bruckner: Symphony No. 6 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:01 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
Bruckner’s Symphony No.6 is one of the most original of all the composer’s symphonic works. Its contrasting mood and overarching theme moving from darkness to light can be haunting one moment and ecstatic the next, culminating in one of the most enigmatic symphonic conclusions of the 19th century. For this recording, Sir Simon Rattle chose the Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs Urtext edition of the score, having conducted the UK premiere of the new publication with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in 2016.
Read moreLondon Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle – Berlioz: La damnation de Faust (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:06:08 minutes | 2,44 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra mark 150 years since the death of Hector Berlioz with his tempestuous oratorio, La damnation de Faust.
La damnation de Faust is a work born of the composer’s obsession with Goethe’s legendary tale. Once a righteous scholar, Faust allows himself to be corrupted by the devil, and drags the innocent around him into desperation and death. It’s a fable that defies definition – both a tragedy and dark comedy, with a central character both wise and despicable, and a play and epic poem in one.
Read moreLondon Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Eliot Gardiner – Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:04 minutes | 1,40 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
Following their award-winning Mendelssohn cycle, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the London Symphony Orchestra embark on a new journey through the symphonies of Robert Schumann.
Gardiner feels the Schumann symphonies are criticised unfairly and with these recordings he is on a mission to dispel the cobweb of myths around these symphonic masterpieces.
Read moreLondon Symphony Orchestra & Sir John Eliot Gardiner – Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:11:40 minutes | 1,20 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
The second album in Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Schumann series with the London Symphony Orchestra travels from glorious fanfare to dream-like passages with the lively Spring and Rhenish symphonies.
From the dramatic first trumpet-call which awakens the frozen landscape, the First Symphony is a celebration of spring. It moves through the season and a gruff folksong Scherzo until finally a jubilant conclusion dances into summer.
Desperate, heartfelt and elegant, the Manfred Overture opens with an urgent impetus that only increases through the work, displaying the intense strife which lies ahead for its protagonist. Schumann’s Third is one of the composer’s most impressive, painting a euphoric picture of the German Rhineland in broad Beethovenian style and closing with an exhilarating finale.
Read moreLondon Symphony Orchestra & Sir Eugene Goossens – Respighi: Feste Romane (1962/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 24:13 minutes | 858 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Everest
Since we were on the subject of Everest and Sir Eugene Goosens, I wanted to bring another early Everest recording to your attention. This was Everest’s forth release from 1958, and like it’s Corroborree by the same forces, it is a sonic spectacular. In fact the engineers were so pleased with the awesome dynamic range captured on the tape, that a highly unusual decision was made. Rather than limit the dynamics, as they would have to be compressed to fit on a single disc, it was decided to spread the work over three sides, allowing the earth shatteing dynamic range that was present on the master tape to be fully realized on disc. The Rachmaninoff “Symphonic Dances” was selected for Side Four, filling out this two record set. Recommended!
Read moreLondon Symphony Orchestra & Sir Eugene Goossens – In Memoriam – The Greatness of Goossens (1962/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:19:09 minutes | 2,52 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Everest
Few works in the entire literature of orchestral music can match Scheherazade for brilliance, appeal or vividness of instrumental coloring. But then, few composers have possessed the wizardry to orchestrate music as did Rimsky-Korsakov. And until now, it has been difficult to reproduce the full spectrum of the composer’s palette on records. Thanks to Everest’s advanced recording techniques on 35 mm magnetic film, every subtle oriental shading, every overtone of this sumptuous symphonic suite can be enjoyed with startling realism in the home. …
Read moreLondon Symphony Orchestra & Sir Colin Davis – Smetana: Má vlast (My Fatherland) (2005/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:15:14 minutes | 1,50 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
Inspired by the mythology and pastoral beauty of his Czech homeland, Smetana’s six tone poems that form Má vlast (My Fatherland) is one of the best examples of Nationalism in music. The stirring second movement depicts the river Vltava as it flows through the countryside and into Prague. Struck with deafness in 1874, Smetana would never hear a performance of what would become his most popular work.
Read moreLondon Symphony Orchestra & Sir Colin Davis – Holst: The Planets, Op. 32 (2003/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 49:47 minutes | 860 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
The Planets became one of the most popular and widely recognised musical works of the 20th century. Holst himself conducted the LSO in two early recordings of his masterpiece. Sir Colin Davis’s blazing performance, recorded over three evenings in June 2002, promises to be one of the classical releases of the year.
“Colin Davis, as might be expected, has no problems, conjuring like Uranus the Magician, the full panoply of atmosphere, stillness and energy from the vitruoso LSO” (Daily Telegraph)
Read moreLondon Symphony Orchestra & Sir Colin Davis – Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini (2008/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:25:18 minutes | 2,97 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
Cellini is inspired by the life of the legendary Florentine goldsmith and Renaissance figure. Its first performances in Paris during 1838-39 were disastrous as it proved too great a challenge for the musicians of the day. Yet even by Berlioz’s high standards it contains music of exceptional inventiveness and beauty.
Read moreLondon Symphony Orchestra & Antonio Pappano – Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 6 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:06 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
Sir Antonio Pappano leads the London Symphony Orchestra in a pair of symphonies by Ralph Vaughan Williams that span the build-up and aftermath of the Second World War.
Throughout the Fourth Symphony Vaughan Williams channels tension and power through the music inamongst moments of light and clarity. It evokes a sense of hardship and persistence, perhaps suggesting the ever-present threat of war in the 1930s.
Written in 1947, the composer’s Sixth Symphony also seems to reflect the hardships and devastation wrought by World War II. Melancholic in some movements, ferocious in others.
Read moreLondon Symphony Orchestra & Nikolaj Znaider – Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos 1, 2 & 3 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:39 minutes | 1,24 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
Taking on the roles of both conductor and soloist, Nikolaj Znaider concludes his Mozart series on LSO Live with the great composer’s first three concertos for the violin.
While they were penned before he was even out of his teens, the music of Mozart’s violin concertos is as characteristically elegant and uplifting as anything he would ever write. Znaider teases out the wit and charm in these delightful pieces, leading the virtuoso players of the London Symphony Orchestra as Mozart would have done, from the violin.
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