Prices shown exclude VAT. (UK tax is not payable for deliveries to United States.)
See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  |
The penultimate release in Valery Gergiev’s acclaimed Mahler cycle features the composer’s Symphony No 5, recorded at the Barbican in September 2010. Mahler’s Fifth Symphony marked a new direction in his compositions and a step away from the choral elements of the previous three symphonies. Despite the opening funereal trumpet solo and march, the work was completed during one of the happiest periods of Mahler’s life, and the symphony showcases virtuosic orchestral playing, an exquisite love song without words for his wife Alma, and a jubilant finale. Gergiev’s recent releases on LSO Live include an acclaimed disc of works by Ravel. Forthcoming titles include music by Debussy, as well as Strauss’s Elektra. Other recent releases on LSO Live include two recordings from Sir Colin Davis. Verdi’s Otello featuring Simon O’Neill and Gerald Finley was an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone and Nielsen’s Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 marks the first release in Sir Colin’s eagerly anticipated cycle of the composer’s symphonies. “This is a magnificent performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony in every respect. The orchestral playing is consistently of the highest quality, individually and collectively, the musicians clearly inspired by the insight and total conviction of their conductor...No one can afford to ignore this record.” International Record Review, March 2011 “There are no gimmicks in Gergiev's pacing, just clarity and sense in some of the music's most treacherous corners; you do get some nicely pushed/pulled speeds and sculpted details, but they never trespass on the symphony's line.” Classic FM Magazine, April 2011 *** “In some ways this is the most interesting of Gergiev's Mahler to date...[he] is mindful of Mahler's continuing quest for a sparer and purer kind of music...Gergiev clearly takes his cue for the opening of the symphony from Mahler's "Little Drummer Boy" - quiet, desolate, and sad.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2011 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | Ravel: Daphnis et ChloéDSD recording, Barbican September 2009 (Daphnis et Chloé) and December 2009
Music for the theatre has always formed a central part of Valery Gergiev’s concert repertoire. His recent recordings have included an acclaimed performance of Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet and in November LSO Live releases a new recording of Ravel’s score for the ballet Daphnis et Chloé. Ravel was commissioned by Serge Diaghilev in 1909 to write the music for Daphnis et Chloé. Although he subsequently prepared orchestral suites of the score, the complete work is a magnificent orchestral showpiece in its own right. Ravel described it as a symphonie choréographique and it is essentially an extended tone poem. Luscious orchestral colours run throughout the work, portraying the passion of the two protagonists for each other. By contrast, Pavane pour une infante défunte, composed by Ravel whilst he was still a student of Gabriel Fauré, harks back to the simplicity of the eighteenth-century music of Rameau. Boléro, one of his final works, highlights the Spanish influences and passion that pervade so many of his works. Gergiev and the LSO perform in London during November before touring Japan. Gergiev has concerts in Paris with the Mariinsky Orchestra in December and tours again with the LSO in January and February, visiting Germany, Belgium and the US. His forthcoming LSO Live releases include a disc featuring Debussy’s La Mer, Jeux and Prélude à l’apres midi d’un faune. Concert Reviews: ‘a performance which carried the listener breathlessly into a dance of entirely spiritual dimensions. Both demanding and obtaining a control over his orchestra which only pianists should reasonably expect from their instruments, Gergiev has always aimed high with the LSO. With this concert, they hit the bullseye’ The Guardian ‘Gergiev must count himself fortunate in having a Rolls-Royce of an orchestra, with a well-nigh infallible energy ... the sun rose as gloriously as ever, and Gergiev leapt high as dawn swung into the final Danse générale’ The Times ‘The sultry, sensual score of Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe was handled stylishly, Gergiev and the excellent LSO properly holding something in reserve for the magnificent sunrise and exhilarating coda’ The Evening Standard “Those like me who enjoyed this conductor's Romeo & Juliet will not be disappointed with this new recording... the orchestral detail is impressive throughout... highly recommended” Fanfare “Gergiev generates a frisson in everything he conducts, but it is only in French and Russian repertoire that his stylistic antennae seem secure...This Daphnis with the London Symphony Orchestra has everything one could want – atmosphere, languor, superb wind playing. Gergiev generates more high-voltage drama than rival versions” Financial Times, 7th January 2011 **** “High voltage, but not high speed. Gergiev doesn't charge his way through the score. Indeed his measured 'Introduction et Danse religieuse' demonstrates his willingness to linger, but there's drama too. He is aided by superb playing...Boléro has precision and power” International Record Review, December 2010 “The most striking thing about these fine performances is their seductive combination of tonal warmth and sparkling virtuoso finesse...Gergiev conjures up an intoxicatingly languorous soundworld for Daphnis, fully indulging its glittering palette of orchestral colours” Classic FM Magazine, February 2011 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  |
The first release in Valery Gergiev’s Rachmaninov Symphony cycle features a magnificent performance of the Second Symphony, recorded in September 2008 at the Barbican. Rachmaninov’s vast Second Symphony was composed when he was at the pinnacle of his careers as composer, pianist and conductor. Filled with emotion and brimming with beautiful melodies, it is a masterpiece and the epitome of the Romantic symphony. This recording will be followed by the First and Third Symphonies as well as the Symphonic Dances. Forthcoming releases include Stravinksy’s Oedipus Rex and Les Noces on the Mariinsky label. Later in the year Gergiev conducts music by Debussy and Ravel on LSO Live and Wagner’s Parsifal also on Mariinsky. Gergiev conducts a Stravinsky festival with the New York Philharmonic in late April, before conducting the LSO in London, Dublin and Germany during May. Concert reviews: “performance of edge-of-the-seat exhilaration ... This time it was Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 2 that brought out Gergiev’s magisterial best” The Guardian “The LSO’s sound had apt richness, depth and bloom ... a rare blend of freedom, momentum and underlying restless energy” Daily Telegraph “Gergiev is a man who works by instinct. Music that thrives on heart and soul - above all the Russian romantics - brings out the best in him” Financial Times “Gergiev has the sensibility to put on the pressure and to foster flexibility as the natural contours of the music demand...[He] has a feel for the romantic urgency of the music as well as its lyrical impulse and the LSO responds as if its life depends on it.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | Shchedrin - The Enchanted WandererDSD recording, Mariinsky Concert Hall, St Petersburg, July 2008
Following works by Shostakovich and Tchaikovksy, the Mariinsky label turns to music by one of Russia’s greatest living composers for its fourth release. Shchedrin’s ‘concert opera’ The Enchanted Wanderer was premièred in New York in 2002 and did not receive its Russian premiere until 2007. However it has rapidly entered the Mariinsky Theatre’s repertory both in St Petersburg and on tour. Based on a story by the 19th-century Russian author Nikolai Leskov, the opera is steeped in Russian folklore and beliefs. The release also features four fragments from Shchedrin’s 1955 ballet score The Little Humpbacked Horse and his 1963 Concerto for Orchestra Naughty Limericks. 104pp booklet in slipcase Notes in Rusian, English, French and German libretto in Russian with English translation “The Mariinsky's stalwart bass Sergey Aleksashkin is sonorous in the title part, alongside the high tenor Evgeny Akimov in several roles and the dusky-voiced mezzo Kristina Kapustinskaya as the haunting Grusha. Even on a recording she has subtle histrionic magnetism to match her vocal security” BBC Music Magazine, May 2010 ***** “Whatever the intrinsic strengths or weakness of his music, [Shchedrin's] loyalty to those values [of indigenous Russian culture] represents a significant strand in late-Soviet and post-Soviet culture. On that basis...these finely executed and recorded CDs can be counted as an important document.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | DSD recording, live at the Barbican January 2008 Stereo & multi-channel (5.1)
Following recordings of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet, LSO Live returns to Valery Gergiev’s acclaimed Mahler cycle with the release of the Fourth Symphony. Using a reduced orchestra, unusually without any lower brass, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 was influenced by the trend to revive the classical style of Haydn and Mozart, as a reaction against the monumental ‘Wagnerian’ Romanticism of its predecessors. The work is based around the final movement, written some years earlier – its childish and naïve text giving shape to the other movements. CONCERT REVIEWS: “Those who think of Mahler’s Fourth as the gentlest of his symphonies would have found their ideas challenged by Valery Gergiev’s probing interpretation of it. Far from being a sunny, carefree idyll, this was something more prone to anxiety and tension than to tranquil nostalgia. It was perhaps this tussle between serenity and apprehension that made the performance so fascinating and the music so disquieting ... the overall impression was of a Mahler Fourth that was freshly conceived and deeply compelling” Daily Telegraph “In the slow movement, Gergiev achieved something transcendent and genuinely mysterious by propelling the music forward without losing sight of its inherent numinosity. The performance was worth it just for that” The Guardian “No one doubts Gergiev’s supremacy in Russian music, but eyebrows have been raised at his Mahler series. In fact, Gergiev’s febrile intensity lends itself well to the neurotic quality of Mahler’s music...the orchestra is superb.” The Telegraph, 7th April 2010 *** “pacing is almost always emotionally precise, and sonorities rounded and well-judged” BBC Music Magazine, May 2010 *** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | Rachmaninov - Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini & Piano Concerto 3DSD recording, Mariinsky Concert Hall, February 2009
Notes in Russian (cyrillic), english, french, german The Mariinsky label’s fourth release features acclaimed Russian pianist, and Gergiev protegee, Denis Matsuev joining the Mariinsky Orchestra for recordings of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3 and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Since winning the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998 Denis Matsuev has established a reputation as one of Russia’s greatest and most dynamic pianists. Over recent years he has begun to perform regularly on the international scene and recorded for BMG Russia. He has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras and gave his first recital at Carnegie Hall in 2007. During 2010 he will perform the LSO, New York Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonics as well as touring with the Mariinsky Orchestra and Gergiev in the US and Canada. He will also give further recitals at Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris. Matsuev is particular renowned for his interpretations of music by Russian composers and has collaborated with the Sergei Rachmaninoff Foundation to perform and record unknown pieces on the composer’s own piano at the Rachmaninov house Villa Senar in Lucerne. “Here, for once, is the level of artistry that the work needs...for all his seemingly endless reserves of technical power [Matsuev] never makes an ugly sound...Gergiev and his Marinsky Orchestra, too, contribute here on a level so far beyond routine that you would think none of them had played the work before” BBC Music Magazine, April 2010 ***** “...Matsuev holds that most titanic of piano concertos in a passionate embrace, lavish with his rubato, devastatingly certain in his articulation, sensitive to colour and balance, aware of how to pace and thus make coherent the architecture of this massive work.” Sunday Times, 17th January 2010 **** “As one might expect from someone hailed as Horowitz’s successor, Matsuev holds that most titanic of piano concertos in a passionate embrace, Importantly, for all his physical power and energy, he never makes
a hard sound. There’s commensurately sympathetic playing from the Mariinsky, who also match Matsuev’s deft, vibrant musicianship in the brittler Rhapsody.” The Times | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | Gautier Capuçon plays Tchaikovsky & Prokofiev
‘Gautier Capuçon plays the cello with the control and wisdom of a much older musician. The lightness of his touch and the consistent clarity of his bow strokes are quite admirable in themselves, but when combined with an uncanny sweetness of tone in the higher registers they are breathtaking.’ Gramophone A Frenchman in St Petersburg … Gautier Capuçon joins Valery Gergiev (making his Virgin Classics debut) and the Mariinsky Orchestra for works by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev These live performances were recorded in St Petersburg on 24th December 2008 when Gautier Capuçon was the guest of Russia’s leading maestro – and one of the world’s most prominent conductors – the protean Valery Gergiev and his Mariinsky Orchestra. This is Gergiev’s debut on Virgin Classics; Capuçon, of course, is one of the mainstays of the label and this is his third album of solo works with orchestra. His recording of the Dvorák and Victor Herbert concertos was released in early 2009. The Sunday Telegraph reported that: “This is not the first coupling of these works, but it is perhaps the most distinguished. The works have much in common and Gautier Capuçon makes the most of the music's melodic appeal. The Dvorák receives a powerful and intense interpretation with some superb orchestral solos to match the soloist's eloquence,” while The Guardian found that, in the Herbert, Capuçon “captures the work's rhapsodic ambitions and the lyrical charm of its slow movement perfectly … this version just about has it all.” Gautier joined his brother, violinist Renaud for a recording of the Brahms Double Concerto, released in 2007. “There's something totally compelling about this performance of the Double Concerto from the first few bars,” wrote The Guardian, “when Gautier Capuçon launches into the opening cello solo with a rhapsodic freedom and expressive abandon that seems to sweep all before it, gathering first his brother Renaud's violin playing and then the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchestra and conductor Myung-Whun Chung into the same unstoppable flood of lyricism.” Tchaikovsky’s Mozart-inspired Rococo Variations are a mainstay of the cello repertoire, but Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante features less frequently in concerts and recordings. The work was premiered in 1952 by Mstislav Rostropovich, with the equally legendary pianist Sviatoslav Richter deserting the keyboard for the conductor’s baton. Its material is drawn from the composer’s earlier cello concerto, written in the 1930s. “Gautier Capuçon’s French sensibility is ideally suited to Tchaikovsky’s nostalgic backward glance to the era of his favourite composer, Mozart. He also digs deep into Prokofiev’s mid-20th-century angst” Sunday Times, 13th December 2009 **** “The Mozart-inspired Tchaikovsky piece is dispatched with a light touch, Capuçon's bow dancing over the strings but retaining a sureness of tone.” The Independent, 1st January 2010 ** “Mellifluous tones pour from Gautier Capuçon’s cello, even when he’s partnered by conductor Valery Gergiev, usually a firebrand.” The Times, 16th January 2010 *** “Capuçon [plays] with a blend of impeccable taste, Romantic ardour and technical aplomb...Whether quizzical, rapturous, pensive or demonstrative, Capuçon has full measure of [the music] here in a performance of impressive stature.” The Telegraph, 29th January 2010 ***** “Gautier Capuçon and Valery Gergiev take both works very darkly and seriously. This furrowed-browed approach makes their Symphony-Concerto- …unlike any other. No one manages the first movement's withdrawal into dreams more magically than Gergiev with hushed Mariinsky strings, and Capuçon quickly follows pensive suit.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2010 **** “...you can't help but be seduced by the passion and irony of [Capucon's] playing. Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra bring terrific drama and fire to it as well.” The Guardian, 11th February 2010 **** “Even in this crowded field Gautier Capuçon stands out as exceptional, majoring in elegant, pure, singing tone and long lyrical phrasing rather than waspish attack...there are grand and glorious things here” Gramophone Magazine, April 2010 “Capuçon and Gergiev cleave through histrionic superficiality to produce a reading that bites but never barks.” Michael Quinn, bbc.co.uk, 16th February 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture, Moscow Cantata, etc.Mariinsky Concert Hall, St Petersburg, 15-20 February 2009
Following acclaimed recordings of Shostakovich, the third release on the Mariinsky Theatre's new label features a selection of popular and rarely-heard works by Tchaikovsky. Unlike the majority of his Russian predecessors, Tchaikovsky’s fame meant he received regular commissions for new work – he was the first ‘professional’ Russian composer. A new generation followed in his footsteps including Stravinsky and Prokofiev; for them, commissions were the norm. Many of the works for which Tchaikovsky was commissioned were required to celebrate great state and political events. The Danish Overture was written to mark the marriage of the future Tsar Alexander III to the Danish Princess Dagmar. He was later commissioned to to produce the Moscow Cantata and Coronation March as part of the celebrations to mark Alexander’s coronation. The patriotic Marche Slave was written for a charitable concert staged to raise funds for Russian volunteers in the Serbo-Turkish War. Although the 1812 Overture depicts Russia’s earlier war with Napoleonic France, the piece was actually commissioned for the opening of the Christ The Saviour Cathedral in Moscow. The cathedral itself was built to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Russia’s victory in the 1812 campaign of the wars. “…perhaps the most notable feature of these performances is their refusal to undermine the characterful in pursuit of the sensational. The Marche slave, for instance, is resonant and resolute but what you really come away humming are the fife and drum effects and brilliant trumpetings of the orchestration. The 1812 catches one off-guard straight away with its unusually "vocal" phrasing of the old Russian prayer at the outset and throughout the performance the song quotations sound "sung". Tempo (blistering) rather than trenchancy defines the main Allegro with the Marseillaise sounding unusually corny (deliberate?) in the trumpets. Tchaikovsky, though, is most evidently (and gloriously) Tchaikovsky in the Moscow Cantata. A vintage melody turns the first page of Russian history, illuminating it in that inimitable Tchaikovskian way.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2009 “Slavonic March, the most individual of all the pieces, gets the liveliest, quirkiest performance and the best sound.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2009 ***** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | DSD recording, live at the Barbican January 2009
Sung in Hungarian (spoken prologue in English) Text in Hungarian with English translation. Valery Gergiev is joined by two outstanding singers for his latest LSO Live release featuring Bartók's one-act opera. Despite being one of the greatest ever interpreters of the role of Bluebeard on stage, this is Sir Willard White's first complete recording of Bluebeard's Castle. His Judith is the outstanding young Russian-born, Berlin-based mezzo Elena Zhidkova. Sir Willard performs extensively around the world during 2009 including appearances at The Metropolitan Opera in New York and La Scala in Milan. Elena Zhidkova will appear with the LSO and Gergiev at the BBC Proms and make her debut at the Mariinsky Theatre. She also performs in Palermo, Dresden, Leipzig, Amsterdam, Prague and Tokyo as well as returning to La Scala. Bartók's only opera is a dark and intense work, involving only two characters. Bluebeard's young bride persuades him to open seven doors in his castle in order to let light into the grim interior. Behind each she finds increasingly disturbing sights, until behind the final door she discovers Bluebeard's former wives and learns her fate. CONCERT REVIEW: 'Who needs weeping walls and blood-stained jewels when you have the voice of Elena Zhidkova? As Bluebeard's wife she made us see and feel it all' The Times “Sonority wins over emotional display with Willard White’s Duke, but Elena Zhidkova makes partial amends as the anguished Judit.” The Times, 8th August 2009 *** “…Gergiev and his superlative orchestral forces and vocal soloists, supported by magnificent sound quality, present the enigmatic piece with great power, leaving us, as adequate performances always do, feeling stunned and somewhat bewildered. Willard White's Bluebeard, exceptionally firm of tone, implacable but tormented without ever indulging his pain, is magnificent. He needs to be to counter the superb Elena Zhidkova...” BBC Music Magazine, October 2009 ***** “For the perfect introduction to Bartók's Bluebeard look no further. …the pivotal moment is the sombre burbling of the lake of tears… where Judith is transfixed by the water's unearthly hush and Bluebeard explains, "tears, my Judith, tears, tears…". Gergiev sustains a pretty slow tempo while clarinet and low strings embrace both protagonists with long, expressive lines. The opera's later episodes, such as the accelerating blood-rush as Judith susses the shocking truth (Gergiev and his players are on tremendous form here), Bluebeard pondering his past wives and the overwhelming moment when Judith at last joins them, all suggest similar levels of thoughtfulness, sense of theatre and sensitivity to mood.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2009 “Gergiev takes to the potent compound of searing psychology, soaring poetry...with characteristic gusto, at pains to stress the pulsing drama at the heart of the seemingly undramatic premise of the work...White’s Bluebeard is a biting, granite-edged performance of inscrutable and intimidating stature.” Michael Quinn, bbc.co.uk, 1st October 2009 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  |
Massenet’s opera has little in common with that by Richard Strauss (based on Oscar Wilde’s play) or, indeed, the Bible; the title is also misleading as Hérodiade is in no way the central figure and Massenet’s opera ends not with SalomÉ demanding the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter but with them both joining in an ecstatic duet before John is executed, whereupon Salomé kills herself | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |
|
Gramophone Magazine
Building a Library