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Christian Sinding
THE SYMPHONIES Nos. 1-4
Norrköping Symphony Orchestra · Karl-Heinz Steffens
2CD-Set · C5540 PC: 22 UPC: 845221055404
Remembered by ambitious amateur pianists for his Rustle of Spring, Christian Sinding was a more important figure in the music of his native Norway than this might suggest; there, in his time, he was second only to Grieg. Trained in Leipzig, he fell under the influence of Liszt and Wagner, producing a large quantity of music that, although it enjoyed contemporary popularity, remains forgotten in today's concert programmes. In revealing the inherent fervour of his four symphonies, this album enjoys sensitive and enthusiastic interpretations from the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra under Karl Heinz Steffens, for whom Sinding has become a composer close to his heart.
Dmitri Shostakovich - Film Music Edition
The Fall of Berlin Hamlet · New Babylon King Lear · The Gadfly Five Days - Five Nights Golden Mountains · Odna
DSO Berlin · RSB Berlin
7CD-Set · C7450 PC: UPC: 845221074504
Dmitri Shostakovich is best known for his symphonies and string quartets, which paint him as a very serious composer, indeed. But he was also one of the most prolific film composers of the 20th century, with 36 films for which he wrote the music and which span virtually his entire professional career. It’s a fascinating panoply that shows Shostakovich from a side that sometimes gets lost when we think of him merely as tormented and dark. There is the truly unburdened humour and coy delight in quirkiness, which we assume must be “ironic” in his concert works. Still, Shostakovich never took composing lightly, and whether he wrote music for cartoons or symphonic “tombstones”, the musical merits are always impeccable.
Weitere Bilder
Dmitri Shostakovich - The Symphonies
Marina Shaguch Arutjun Kotchinian Prague Philharmonic Chorus
GÜRZENICH-ORCHESTER KÖLN · DMITRIJ KITAJENKO
12CD-Set · C7435 PC: UPC: 845221074351
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphonies are arguably the most impressive symphonic cycle of the 20th century – certainly, if you don’t count Gustav Mahler. The depth and variety of these 15 Symphonies, so closely tied to Shostakovich’s personality and the times he lived in, make it particularly rewarding to listen to varying interpretations. Dmitrij Kitajenko’s survey, recorded between 2002 and 2004, has found its place among the great such cycles, both for its artistic merits and its reference sonics, the wide dynamics and the impassioned playing from the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne that the native Leningrad native Kitajenko gets from his musicians.
Weitere Bilder
Karl Weigl - Symphony No. 3
SYMPHONIC PRELUDE
Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz · Jürgen Bruns
C5489 PC: 21 UPC: 845221054896
The two works recorded on this disc both come from a creative period at the beginning of the 1930s. In terms of style, with his works linked to basic tonalities Weigl drew on the sound realm of late Romanticism, from whose aesthetics he never departed in favour of more progressive contemporary trends. Weigl’s knack for orchestration shows both in the hymnic climaxes as well as the chamber music-like passages. Weigl never lived to hear any performances of either his Third Symphony or the Symphonic Prelude. Like so many of his larger works, these scores were not (re-)discovered until interest in Weigl’s music resurged, decades later. This release allows audiences to hear both works for the first time on record.
