Royal Scottish National Orchestra,Lance Friedel – Great Comedy Overtures (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Royal Scottish National Orchestra,Lance Friedel – Great Comedy Overtures (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:19:40 minutes | 2,79 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos

The flourishing genre of the comic opera had its roots in eighteenth-century Italian opera buffa, whose irrepressible brio was soon taken up outside the country’s borders. In France it produced opéra comique and operetta, and in German-speaking countries Spieloper and Viennese operetta. Some of the world’s most popular comic opera overtures, filled with gorgeous tunes, brilliant orchestration and race-to-the-finish endings, are presented here. They include staples of the concert repertoire such as Hérold’s dramatic Zampa, the textual delicacy of Wolf-Ferrari’s Il segreto di Susanna and the vivid colour of Lortzing’s Zar und Zimmermann.

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London Symphony Orchestra & Lance Friedel – American Symphonies (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

London Symphony Orchestra & Lance Friedel – American Symphonies (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:08 minutes | 1,26 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

The US stage has boasted many symphonists since the days of the founding fathers Ives, Copland and Barber: Morton Gould of course, Howard Hanson without a doubt, Roger Sessions, Virgil Thomson… But Walter Piston whose Sixth Symphony presented here was performed by none other than Charles Munch and the Boston Orchestra in 1955. There’s no avant-garde here, but jubilation at every turn – just listen to the utterly brilliant and witty Scherzo, worthy of a cowboy Mendelssohn – in a “classical” writing style and orchestral in form, but with a completely modern content. Piston, like so many of his contemporaries, didn’t go in for “absolute serialism”, and nor did his most famous student, Bernstein. The second symphony on the album is the phenomenal Third “Palo Duro Canyon” by Samuel Jones, a disciple of Howard Hanson. First performed in 1992, it carries on the tonal tradition of Copland, Barber and Hanson, in a celebratory writing style and, above all, a kind of orchestration which is simply stupefying. The album closes on the Second (and alas the final) Symphony by Stephen Albert – the First had won him the prestigious Pulitzer Prize – a composer who tragically passed away at the age of 51 in a 1992 car crash. The Second had been commissioned by the New York Philharmonic; it was finished by Sebastian Currier, based on manuscripts which were complete but for a definitive orchestration. This is a powerful work, very compact in its conception, which shows that the American stage is alive and well.

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Royal Scottish National Orchestra & Lance Friedel – Great Comedy Overtures (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Royal Scottish National Orchestra & Lance Friedel – Great Comedy Overtures (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:19:42 minutes | 2,79 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © 2xHD – Naxos

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra presents some of the world’s most popular comic opera overtures, filled with gorgeous tunes, brilliant orchestration and race-to-the-finish endings. Led by conductor Lance Friedel, the orchestra performs concert repertoire staples such as Hérold’s dramatic Zampa, Wolf-Ferrari’s Il segreto di Susanna and Lortzing’s Zar und Zimmermann.

(more…)

Read more
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