NDR Sinfonieorchester, Krzysztof Urbański – Lutoslawski: Concerto for Orchestra & Symphony No. 4 (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 55:47 minutes | 511 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Since 2015, Krzysztof Urbanski has been principal guest conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg, one of the leading German orchestras. They are currently preparing together the inauguration in January 2017 of Hamburg’s new concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie, a major musical event in Germany with which Alpha Classics will be associated. Krzysztof Urbanski is also music director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and principal guest conductor of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. A resolutely international career for a young conductor who recently earned praise from the Chicago Tribune for his keen musical instincts and vigorous way of translating his ideas into orchestral sound that has both shape and meaning.For this first recording, he was keen to celebrate a great composer, one of the most eminent of the twentieth century and a Pole like himself, who, like Stravinsky, Bartók, Berg, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, gloried in the sound material of the orchestra and displayed boundless imagination. Though less well known than his illustrious colleagues for the moment, Lutoslawski amply deserves to meet a wider public, for his music can speak as directly to connoisseurs as to simple music-lovers. We hope that this programme will help to further his reputation.
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NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra & Krzysztof Urbański – Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 36:05 minutes | 348 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
One of the big events of 2017 was the opening of the Hamburg Philharmonie. Krzysztof Urbański and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra gave inaugural concerts there that made a lasting impact on audiences and critics alike. On this occasion, the Polish conductor chose to record one of the works closest to his heart, The Rite of Spring: “Stravinsky invented a new language. For me, The Rite is not a score, but a painting: on each page, I see Matisse, Gauguin, the Fauve painters . . . It’s an explosion of colours, emotions, and surprises too: if you don’t know the piece, you never know what’s going to happen. It’s so suggestive that you don’t need to do all that much with the orchestra, the magic is written into the music. . . . When I conduct The Rite, I don’t think: the music penetrates your backbone, it’s inside you . . . It’s a ballet, and perhaps it’s because I was a dancer when I was younger that I can’t control my body when I hear and conduct this piece. It’s a mystical experience for me!”.
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NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra & Krzysztof Urbański – Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 46:57 minutes | 436 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
“Shostakovich’s Fifth is without doubt one of the greatest symphonies ever written, and it is also one of my personal favorites. This genuine masterpiece represents a mirror image of the world around Shostakovich: in it he depicted in music the reality of life in Leningrad in 1937 from his own perspective. For him this was the ‘worst of times’. After the premiere of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and the official denunciation of the opera prompted by Stalin’s stormy reaction to the work, the composer was closely watched by the Party.
(…) This sense of threat however did not silence his need to compose. He had to find a way to cope with the sense of pressure, and to create new music which would please the authorities and keep the danger of public criticism at a safe distance. His Fourth Symphony had been denounced for its dissonances, its bleak atmosphere, and its ending, fading away into silence. So for his Fifth Symphony the composer deliberately simplified his musical language in order to produce a work that might be considered ‘accessible’ by the Party: one that would be perceived as full of positive spirit, with a resoundingly triumphant conclusion.
One might imagine that such dubious circumstances could have destroyed the talented young composer, and turned him into a Soviet propagandist. For on the surface, the piece appears to be full of orchestral bravura, optimistic, ‘happy’. On the contrary, I believe the symphony to be actually extremely tragic…” Krzysztof Urbański
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NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Krzysztof Urbański – Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 “From the New World” & A Hero’s Song, Op. 111 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:01:29 minutes | 552 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Following on from his critically acclaimed Lutosławski programme, the conductor Krzysztof Urbański pursues his collaboration with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester et Alpha. The New World Symphony is a work that has always fascinated Krzysztof Urbański: ‘It was only when I studied Dvořák’s other symphonies that I came to understand the principal characteristic and strength of the Ninth: simplicity. I wanted to dig deeper, and so I examined the manuscript and parts used for the New York premiere. There I discovered things that changed my view of it, like the fact that the first four bars of the third movement shouldn’t be played on the repeat. That gives them a completely different meaning when they recur at the da capo… The coupling, the rare Hero’s Song, shows an entirely different side of Dvořák. The way he transforms the initial four-note motif to evoke so many varied feelings, from joy to tragedy, shows his immense compositional mastery.’ This new album will be released to coincide with the opening of the ElbPhilharmonie hall in Hamburg, where Urbański will be one of the leading figures.
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Jan Lisiecki, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Krzysztof Urbański – Chopin: Works For Piano & Orchestra (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:40 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Jan Lisiecki puts the spotlight on rarely recorded works of the orchestral Chopin, the repertoire that became his calling card and kick-started his international career. Jan’s release of both piano concertos (recorded at the age of 13 and 14) with Sinfonia Varsovia and Howard Shelley was praised as one of the most exciting contributions to Chopin’s 200th anniversary year in 2010. The two live recordings that have earned Jan the prestigious Diapason Découverte award in May 2010, placed him on the map as a promising newcomer and resulted in his exclusive DG recording deal. Now, Jan has fulfilled his dreams of completing the orchestral Chopin repertoire: To record all remaining works for piano and orchestra recorded in the studio with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, conducted by the Polish conductor Krzysztof Urbański.
Read more![Anna Vinnitskaya, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Krzysztof Urbański - Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18 & Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/06/25/p069zxtnrulma_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Anna Vinnitskaya, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Krzysztof Urbański – Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18 & Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 56:33 minutes | 490 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Serge Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto might never have seen the light of day had it not been for hypnosis: before the twenty-seven-year-old composer began work on it, he was on his last legs – financially, artistically and psychologically. Dr Nikolay Dahl hypnotised his patient every day, whispering to him: ‘You will write your concerto. You will work with great fluency. The concerto will be of excellent quality.’ The creative block disappeared, and the concerto’s premiere in Moscow in 1901 was a triumph for Rachmaninov, who played the solo part himself. Anna Vinnitskaya says she feels ‘a spring-like atmosphere’ in this work: throughout there is a sense of movement, of awakening. The music passes through the most contrasting psychological landscapes, but moves towards clarity and light. Rachmaninov composed the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in 1934, ten years before his death. Brahms, Liszt, Lutosławski and Andrew Lloyd Webber are among the remarkable roll call of composers inspired by Paganini’s theme. The Russian pianist and the Polish conductor Krzysztof Urbański have often played Rachmaninoff together, on every continent. The two artists, both of whom present here their third disc for Alpha, were reunited in the NDR studios in Hamburg to record this repertory that fits them like a glove.
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