BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Dausgaard – Bartok: The Wooden Prince (Final Version) (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:14:32 minutes | 2,36 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Onyx Classics
‘From a musical point of view, but especially with regard to the stageworthiness of the work, these cuts represent an absolute improvement’ Bartok wrote to his publisher when he had finished his definitive revision of his Wooden Prince – cutting out much of the music relating to specific stage action, but also generally tightening the symphonic structure, making its large-scale mirror form appear clearer. Normally performed and recorded in its non-revised full-length version, it has been a joy now to follow Bartok’s inspired last wish revision of this mystic, vital, otherworldly, and grotesque fantasy music. (Thomas Dausgaard)
This album is the third in Thomas Dausgaard’s survey of Bartok’s orchestral works, and as before, he has recorded a version of a major work seldom heard. The rare and final version of the Wooden Prince is coupled with the masterful Divertimento and the Romanian Folk Dances.
Read moreBBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra & Alpesh Chauhan – Tchaikovsky Orchestral Works Vol. 2 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:07 minutes | 1,26 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
Alpesh Chauhan’s début recording for Chandos – Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 (CHSA 5300) – met with widespread critical acclaim and awards, including recording of the week for both The Times and Presto Music, and the BBC Music magazine’s Orchestral Choice. This second volume – with the same forces – offers equally crisp and attentive playing from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, in another album that mixes well-known and less-heard Tchaikovsky. Three purely orchestral works form the core of the programme: Fatum (an early concert piece inspired by and dedicated to Balakirev), Hamlet (the last of his Shakespeare-inspired pieces), and Capriccio italien. These are interspersed with works conceived for the theatre: the Introduction to his opera The Queen of Spades and excerpts from The Oprichnik (an early opera) and The Snow Maiden (incidental music for a play by Ostrovsky).
Read moreMelani Mestre – Albéniz Concierto fantástico– Granados Concerto Patético (Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto 65) (2015) [24Bit-96kHz] FLAC [PMEDIA] ⭐️
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:56 minutes | 1,15 GB | Genre: Classique
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover
Ludmil Angelov, Vladimir Kiradjiev, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra – The Romantic Piano Concerto – 68 (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:13 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records
The first recording of Moritz Moszkowski’s long-lost—and eagerly awaited—early Piano Concerto makes for a particularly important addition to the Romantic Piano Concerto series. The coupling is another rarity (and recorded premiere): the Russian Rhapsody by Adolf Schulz-Evler.
Read moreThomas Dausgaard, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra – Bartok: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:35 minutes | 1,29 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Onyx Classics
Always keeping one eye on educating tomorrow’s audiences, Danish orchestral conductor Thomas Dausgaard accords great importance to the role that music can play in the lives of young people. That is why he has collaborated with young people’s orchestras like the Baccarelli Institute in Brazil, the Toronto Youth Symphony and the Australian Youth Orchestra. This unique conductor is a real free radical in the often-hidebound world of classical music. His curiosity goes far beyond the borders of music. He is fascinated in particular by the ways of life of faraway peoples: he has visited head-hunting tribes in Borneo, worked on a Chinese farm, and lived with villagers on a remote South Pacific island.
Read moreSteven Osborne, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ilan Volkov – Stravinsky: Complete music for piano & orchestra (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:00:15 minutes | 916 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion
A new album from the Gramophone Award-winning team of Steven Osborne, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov. Here they present Stravinsky’s complete music for piano and orchestra as a rare complete set, plus the Concerto in D for string orchestra. The taut rhythmic brilliance of this music is perfectly suited to the particular artistry of these performers. Volkov’s mastery of Stravinsky’s neo-classical idiom is clear from the ecstatic critical response to his recordings of many of the composer’s orchestral works.
Read moreNatalie Clein, Andrew Manze, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra – Saint-Saëns: Cello Concertos (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:43 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records
Natalie Clein adds a remarkable collection of Saint-Saëns’ music for cello and orchestra to her impressive discography. Clein first came to prominence when she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year award in 1994; it is appropriate that she performs the music of an extraordinary child prodigy.
The first cello concerto has always been one of Saint-Saëns’ most popular pieces, Casals choosing it for his London debut in 1905. It is a gloriously playful piece that carries the listener along on a melodic and emotional rollercoaster, from the jaunty opening to the eloquence of the second movement minuet, with a persistent yearning threading its way throughout. The second concerto will be less familiar to listeners. The soloist for whom it was written, Joseph Hollman, was an energetic, muscular player and Saint-Saëns seems here to turn his back on the suave style of the first concerto. When Saint-Saëns’ pupil and friend Gabriel Fauré chose the concerto as a Conservatoire test piece, the composer was duly grateful, but admitted ‘it will never be as well known as the first; it’s too difficult’. This it certainly is, with many solo passages, huge leaps and runs that require two staves to accommodate them, and a large amount of doublestopping. Natalie Clein meets these challenges with marvellous technique, musicianship and the passion for which she has become so well known.
Read moreSimon Callaghan, Ben Gernon, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra – Rheinberger & Scholz: Piano Concertos (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:11:13 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records
Just what the Romantic Piano Concerto series does best: three works unlikely to be encountered in the concert hall, in performances by artists who wholeheartedly—and justifiably—believe in the music. The high expectations of this series are amply realized in volume seventy-six.
Read moreSteven Osborne; Ludovic Morlot: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra – Ravel: Piano Concertos; Falla: Nights in the gardens of Spain (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:59 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records
Steven Osborne’s solo Ravel for Hyperion has invited comparisons with the distinguished interpretations of the past; this new recording of the concertos is certain to win similar plaudits. The Falla is a generous and appropriate coupling, perfectly complementing these wonderful works.
Read moreNicola Benedetti, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Rory Macdonald – Homecoming – A Scottish Fantasy (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:23:51 minutes | 1,52 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Music Group Ltd.
Nicola Benedetti’s Homecoming: A Scottish Fantasy is the violinist’s tribute to her native land, in celebration of Scotland’s Year of Homecoming 2014. Of primary interest to classical fans is Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy in E flat major, a large-scale Romantic concerto based on Scottish folk music, and Benedetti gives a transparent and brilliant performance that alleviates some of the work’s heavy Germanic character. Bruch’s free use of Scottish folk songs as themes, including some melodies of Robert Burns, suggested the three arrangements that immediately follow it, Ae fond kiss; My love is like a red, red, rose; and Auld Lang Syne, three of the poet’s best-known songs. The rest of the program consists of other traditional Scottish tunes, and Benedetti pours her warmest expressions into these airs. In two songs, Bothan a bh’aig Fionnghuala and Coisich a Rùin, Benedetti is joined by Julie Fowlis, whose fluent delivery in Gaelic gives the songs authentic color and texture. Even though this album has been promoted in connection with public festivities, such as the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup, it is actually a personal and intimate album, thanks to Benedetti’s ingratiating playing and the poignant tone of many of the selections. ~ Blair Sanderson
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