Ioana Cristina Goicea, André Parfenov, Sinfonieorchester Aachen, Christopher Ward – Tchaikovsky & Parfenov: Orchestral Works (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Ioana Cristina Goicea, André Parfenov, Sinfonieorchester Aachen, Christopher Ward - Tchaikovsky & Parfenov: Orchestral Works (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz] Download

Ioana Cristina Goicea, André Parfenov, Sinfonieorchester Aachen, Christopher Ward – Tchaikovsky & Parfenov: Orchestral Works (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:19:14 minutes | 745 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Naxos

Tchaikovsky stayed in Aachen for six weeks in 1887, during which time he orchestrated his Mozartiana. He also left behind 16 bars of music from his diary, and the Aachener Walzer is André Parfenov’s completion of this otherwise unknown mini-waltz. Further works by Parfenov include a Violin Concerto on the subject of war, peace and human symbiosis, and a reflection on the life of a remarkable avant-garde painter in his Malevich-Suite. Completing the framework for this recording is Tchaikovsky’s orchestral suite Mozartiana, which spotlights Mozart’s little-known smaller pieces to charming effect.
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Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Christopher Ward – Rott – Complete Orchestral Works, Vol.1 (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Christopher Ward – Rott – Complete Orchestral Works, Vol.1 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 51:50 minutes | 810 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CapriccioNR

Hans Rott was a composer from Gustav Mahler’s environment who had been unknown or known only by name even to most pundits. Many people have expressed the opinion, perhaps justifiably, that only his tragic fate prevented him from going down in the annals of music as Mahler’s equal and establishing a permanent position in the repertoire. A member of Bruckner’s circle within the music scene in Vienna, he developed a pronounced antipathy towards Johannes Brahms. In view of many of his works, it is difficult to comprehend that during Rott’s lifetime presumably not one of them was performed in public, but that only presentations took place under the aegis of internal conservatory events. With these recordings Capriccio attend to fill the gap with his (some of them reconstructed) orchestral works and document these fascinating world of music for the eternity.

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Gabriel Schwabe, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra & Christopher Ward – Elgar & Bridge: Cello Concertos (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Gabriel Schwabe, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra & Christopher Ward – Elgar & Bridge: Cello Concertos (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:09 minutes | 1,16 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos Records

These two masterpieces are shadowed by the events of the First World War. Elgar’s Cello Concerto, an intensely poignant, reflective and individual musical statement, has enjoyed unflagging popularity among musicians and listeners for over 100 years. By contrast, Frank Bridge’s Oration (Concerto elegiaco) remained unperformed for decades after its early hearings. Yet it shares spiritual affinities with Elgar’s work and serves as a funeral address of huge solemnity and narrative power in its outcry against the futility of war.

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Gürzenich-Orchester Köln & Christopher Ward – Rott: Complete Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Gürzenich-Orchester Köln & Christopher Ward – Rott: Complete Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:05 minutes | 1,24 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CapriccioNR

The 1989 premiere of Hans Rott’s Symphony No. 1 in E major (it was written more than 100 years earlier) introduced the international music world to a composer who had remained unknown, or known by name only, even among experts. His colleagues and friends included the younger composers Gustav Mahler and Hugo Wolf. Besides Wagner, Bruckner was the most important model for Rotts first symphonic work. Written when he was barely twenty years old, the work stands as his magnum opus, his only completed major work, a synthesis of what he had written to date, and a proclamation of what might have been yet to come.

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Sinfonieorchester Des Hessischen Rundfunks, Sonja Gornik, Christopher Ward, Aachen Opera Chorus – Blech: Complete Orchestral Works (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Sinfonieorchester Des Hessischen Rundfunks, Sonja Gornik, Christopher Ward, Aachen Opera Chorus – Blech: Complete Orchestral Works (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:14:46 minutes | 646 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CapriccioNR

Rarities of a Forgotten Late Romantic: The closest Leo Blech (1880–1959) gets to fame these days is being mistaken for Ernest Bloch, although some might still remember his seminal work as an opera conductor in Berlin, where he worked for almost half a century (except for the Nazi years). But his compositions – either operas or involving the voice in some other way – have disappeared from the repertoire, which is a pity because his music, while less probing than that of his contemporary Bloch, is very much charming in the style of, say, Humperdinck or Rheinberger.

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Anne-Aurore Cochet, Sonja Gornik, Aachen Opernchor, Sinfonieorchestra Aachen & Christopher Ward – Blech: The Alpine King and the Misanthrope (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Anne-Aurore Cochet, Sonja Gornik, Aachen Opernchor, Sinfonieorchestra Aachen & Christopher Ward – Blech: The Alpine King and the Misanthrope (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:04:50 minutes | 1,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CapriccioNR

Around 1902 Leo Blech nabbed the subject of the “original romantic-comic magic” play by Viennese theater manager/actor/playwright Ferdinand Raimund, had it streamlined, and turned it into his fifth opera. A cantankerous misanthrope terrorizes family and servants with his paranoid mistrust. He’s only cured when faced with his own behavior courtesy of supernatural role reversal. Highbrow opera meets folksy farce with unexpectedly gorgeous, splendidly orchestrated music somewhere between Wagner and Humperdinck. The premiere at the Dresden Court Theater was a sensational success. Then all of Blech’s music was banned and once the Nazi horror was over, it never came back. Now you can hear what we missed.

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