NDR Radiophilharmonie

NDR Radiophilharmonie & Andrew Manze – Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 40 & 41 (Live) (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:14:47 minutes | 745 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone

Considered to be the highest triumph of instrumental composition in his own day, Mozart’s final symphonies continue to sweep audiences away. From the famous G-minor opening movement of the 40th symphony that cuts straight to the chase to the unprecedented complexity of the 41st symphony’s majestic finale, Mozart displays his vivid melodic invention as well as the maturity of his “old” musical soul. Even if his untimely death came unexpectedly, these two symphonies fill the listener with a sense of culmination, and may be seen as a sublime conclusion of both Mozart’s musical development and of the eighteenth-century symphony in general.

These extraordinary works are performed here by the NDR Radiophilharmonie and Andrew Manze, and will be followed by a recording of Mozart’s 38th and 39th symphonies. With their first Mozart album, conductor and orchestra extend their successful PENTATONE discography that already contains the complete symphonies of Mendelssohn, crowned with a 2017 Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.

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NDR Radiophilharmonie & Andrew Manze – Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 38 & 39 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:11:19 minutes | 705 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone

The NDR Philharmonie and Andrew Manze continue their exploration of Mozart’s late orchestral works with a recording of the composers 38th and 39th symphonies. Nicknamed after Prague, where it was first performed in 1787, the 38th shares with its successor a solemn, “Romantic” slow introduction to the first movement, followed by lighter music that shares a kinship with the playful arias and ensembles of Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, composed in the same period. By playing all repeats, Manze underlines the ambitious, expansive character of these works, but the NDR Radiophilharmonie never drags, offering the same energy and sense of urgency as in their acclaimed interpretation of Mozart’s 40th and 41st symphonies, released in 2019.

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NDR Radiophilharmonie & Andrew Manze – Mendelssohn: The 5 Symphonies (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 03:18:05 minutes | 1,92 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Pentatone

Felix Mendelssohn’s 5 symphonies demonstrate the composer’s extraordinary melodic gift, but also his adventurous spirit. While the First symphony – composed when he was only 15 years old – still reveals the influences of Viennese Classicism, he realized the sound of national landscapes with ground-breaking orchestral effects and harmonies in his Third (Scottish) and Fourth (Italian). The Second (Lobgesang) and Fifth, on the contrary, were inspired by Mendelssohn’s Christian faith, and the former uses choral forces and vocal soloists, stretching the boundaries of symphonic form even further than Beethoven had dared in his “Choral” Ninth. The 5 symphonies are presented chronologically, performed by the NDR Radiophilharmonie and conductor Andrew Manze, who won a Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2017 for their recording of the First and Third symphony.

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NDR Radiophilharmonie & Andrew Manze – Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:14:10 minutes | 733 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone

After their prize-winning Mendelssohn symphonies cycle and acclaimed Mozart symphonies album, the NDR Radiophilharmonie and its chief conductor Andrew Manze now present Beethoven’s Fifth and Seventh symphonies. While Beethoven’s Fifth is arguably the most famous symphony in the history of music, the Seventh counts as one of the most rhythmically-advanced pieces of nineteenth-century music; an “apotheosis of dance”, to quote Richard Wagner. Both works display Beethoven’s mastery of and audacious approach to musical form as well as the richness of his melodic invention, and are generally praised as paragons of symphonic composition. Andrew Manze brings his experience in the field of historically informed performance to the polished symphonic sound of the NDR Radiophilharmonie, providing an ambience that fits these early nineteenth-century works like a glove.

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