Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes – Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 5, 6 & 7 (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes - Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 5, 6 & 7 (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes – Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 5, 6 & 7 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:23:08 minutes | 1,33 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © RUBICON

The final volume of the complete Sibelius Symphonies from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Owain Arwel Hughes contains the ever popular 5th coupled with the beautiful less well known 6th, and the ground breaking single movement 7th, the composer’s final word on the symphony. His 8th, apparently completed, was consigned to the fire by Sibelius.
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Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes – Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 5, 6 & 7 (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes - Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 5, 6 & 7 (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes – Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 5, 6 & 7 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:23:08 minutes | 1,33 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © RUBICON

The final volume of the complete Sibelius Symphonies from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Owain Arwel Hughes contains the ever popular 5th coupled with the beautiful less well known 6th, and the ground breaking single movement 7th, the composer’s final word on the symphony. His 8th, apparently completed, was consigned to the fire by Sibelius.
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Chorus of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC National Orchestra Of Wales, Owain Arwel Hughes, Susan Bullock, Paul Carey Jones, Rhodri Prys-jones – Arwel Hughes: Oratorio Dewi Sant (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Chorus of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC National Orchestra Of Wales, Owain Arwel Hughes, Susan Bullock, Paul Carey Jones, Rhodri Prys-jones – Arwel Hughes: Oratorio Dewi Sant (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:46 minutes | 1,24 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RUBICON

Arwel Hughes (1909-1988) was the tenth son of a Welsh coal miner, and his progress through life was a remarkable one.  Along the way, he studied composition at the Royal College of Music, where his tutors were Gordon Jacob, Gustav Holst and, importantly, Vaughan Williams.

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Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes – Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 43, Symphony No. 4 in A Minor, Op. 63 (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes - Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 43, Symphony No. 4 in A Minor, Op. 63 (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes – Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 43, Symphony No. 4 in A Minor, Op. 63 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:27:04 minutes | 1,44 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RUBICON

Sibelius’s 2nd Symphony of 1902 represents a big step forward in his development as a symphonist. The presence of Tchaikovsky in the 1st symphony has receded, and the big themes, though present, are not so much big statements, but thematic fragments driven by harmonic tensions through which the composer takes the listener on an eventful journey. The tensions are resolved in the opening movements trumpet -capped brass chorale and the finale’s exhilarating hymn-like assurance of the bracing “big tune”.
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Sharon Bezaly, Christopher Cowie, Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes – Schnittke – Concerto grosso No.1 & Symphony No.9 (2009) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Sharon Bezaly, Christopher Cowie, Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes - Schnittke – Concerto grosso No.1 & Symphony No.9 (2009) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

Sharon Bezaly, Christopher Cowie, Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes – Schnittke – Concerto grosso No.1 & Symphony No.9 (2009)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:01:23 minutes | 537 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BIS

The first disc dedicated to the works of Alfred Schnittke on BIS was released in 1987, and has since been followed by 23 other titles, including a large part of his chamber music as well as the symphonies and other orchestral works. That first disc featured Concerto grosso No.1 in the original version for two violins and strings – the work which to some extent became Schnittke’s breakthrough in the West in the late 1970s. On the present disc that same work is heard again, but now in a world première recording of Schnittke’s own version with solo parts for flute and oboe. Soloists are Sharon Bezaly and, on the oboe, Christopher Cowie , making his first appearance on BIS. They are supported by the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes, a team that collaborated already on the most recent Schnittke title in the BIS catalogue. Released in 2007, that disc contained a previously unrecorded youth symphony (‘Symphony No. 0’), and caused considerable attention. The possibility of tracing the very beginnings of Schnittke’s highly original talent intrigued many, and the orchestra’s performance impressed critics all over the world. ‘The Cape Philharmonic Orchestra performs this opulent score in Technicolor’ wrote the reviewer in the French magazine Diapason while his colleague in American Record Guide remarked that ‘the South African orchestra plays its heart out, with the score favoring its very good brass section’, and went on to describe the disc as ‘one of the more interesting releases of the year to date’. Hughes and his orchestra now close a circle by the recording of Schnittke’s last symphony, Symphony No. 9. Written during the composer’s final years, and after Schnittke had suffered a serious stroke, the autograph score was so difficult to decipher that it had to be reconstructed after the composer’s death – a painstaking process which was crowned by a first performance in 2007. With the present recording the full cycle of Schnittke’s Symphonies is available on BIS.
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Hanneli Rupert, Voice of the Nation, Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes – Schnittke – Symphony No.0 & Nagasaki (2007) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Hanneli Rupert, Voice of the Nation, Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes - Schnittke - Symphony No.0 & Nagasaki (2007) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

Hanneli Rupert, Voice of the Nation, Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes – Schnittke – Symphony No.0 & Nagasaki (2007)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:17:35 minutes | 717 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BIS

Alfred Schnittke composed Symphony No. 0 (1956-57) while still a student at the Moscow Conservatory, and it was only performed once during his lifetime, by the conservatory orchestra and with Dmitri Shostakovich in the audience. The influence of Shostakovich – which Schnittke himself willingly acknowledged – is audible, but also that of Myaskovsky and the great Russian Romantics, as well as Paul Hindemith and Carl Orff. Even so, the work contains not only some very mature writing by such a young composer but is also an example of a highly original and individual style.
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