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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Mahler: Symphony No. 3Dmitri Mitropoulos's Last Concert
This is Mitropoulos’s last recording and was made in 1960. The bonus works are La Mer by Debussy, played by the Berlin Philharmonic and Brahms Symphony No.3 played by the Concertgebouw. Mitropoulos is the conductor. | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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This release of a concert performance of Mahler’s Sixth is the third in a very successful series of recordings on Simax by the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra of the composer’s symphonies, and the first to feature its current chief conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste. This recording of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony was made during concerts in March 2010. Previous releases by the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra of the First and Ninth (PSC1270), and the Seventh (PSC1271) have been conducted by Mariss Jansons, but the this new CD features renowned Finnish conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste. The Oslo Philharmonic are playing concerts of Mahler in Europe this season with Saraste, and will perform Symphonies 9, 4 and 8 during this and the coming season. Gustav Mahler made many comments to the effect that his Sixth Symphony should be understood as a highly personal, even autobiographical work. Although It was composed in the summers of 1903 and 1904, one of the happiest times of his life he considered the Sixth his 'Tragic Symphony'. When Mahler composed the symphony he originally placed the scherzo second and the Andante moderato third, but remained unsure if this was the most effective order of movements. After trying both possible orders in early performances however he decided the Andante should come second and the scherzo third. However in 1910 he decided to return to the original order of the movements, as reflected in this recording. “The team's foothold on the first three movement is sure and unexaggerated...But it's the finale, to which all roads must seem to lead, where Saraste pulls all the stops out - utterly compelling...String welters in the wake of the first two hammer blows...have never sounded clearer...Perhaps the sound is a shade reverberant...but it allows all the details in Saraste's magnificently thorough interpretation to shine through.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2011 ***** “He inherited a band that, under Jansons, had become one of the finest in Europe. Standards have slipped not one iota. He negotiates the forbidding psychological and musical terrain of this symphony with the same mix of passion, flair and intelligence Jansons showed, the impact of the work magnified by a sure grasp of its sprawling forms, clarity of inner detail and well-judged tempi.” Sunday Times, 15th May 2011 **** “You can certainly hear right into the tumult, so clear and open is Saraste's layering of the texture” Gramophone Magazine, July 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Daniel Barenboim conducts Mahler Symphony No. 9including a Documentary with Barenboim and Boulez
Video director: Andreas Morell & Christoph Engel Performed as a complete cycle in Berlin, Vienna and New York, the concerts were a tremendous success. The Financial Times even wrote “New York is going Mahler mad.” A fascinating 22 minutes Documentary on the musical world of Mahler as seen by Barenboim and Boulez. 2011 is the 100th anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler. “Barenboim´s reading seethes with subtly controlled passion.” New York Times “A milestone for the Staatskappelle Berlin.” New York Times Running Time Total: 101 minutes Symphony: 79 minutes Documentary: 22 minutes Picture 16:9, color Sound PCM Stereo, DTS 5.1 (Bonus: PCM Stereo) Subtitles Documentary: English Packaging NTSC: Amaray 1 DVD Booklet English, German, French Sticker Yes “The camerawork here is strong, bringing the viewer into the most interesting sections of the orchestra at any given moment and doing so in a particularly musical fashion. For Barenboim and Boulez, the Mahler project was as much about developing a relationship with a particular orchestra as it was with the composer; short of actually being with them in the concert hall, this is probably the best way to experience the results.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Sir John Barbirolli conducts Mahler Symphony No. 9
During the fifties when Gustav Mahler’s name was still unknown, the famous English director of Italian origins John Barbirolli was already proposing his symphonies to the worldwide audience, achieving astonishing excellence in the modernity of their interpretation. | |
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At the beginning of the 2010/2011 season Jukka-Pekka Saraste will become principal conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, having given regular guest performances with it since 2001. Jukka-Pekka Saraste has established himself as one of the most eminent conductors of his generation. His artistic work is equally marked by musical depth and integrity. He has not only done much to firmly anchor the music of Scandinavia in concert life, but has also gained broad acknowledgement for his great affinity with late Romantic and modern classical music. “Mahler is all about weighing and balancing the extremes...and Saraste's judgement in such matters is sharp and instinctive...[he] creates great atmosphere in [the] "lost" moments, time and pulse suspended like an out-of-body experience...it's the tension between defiance and resignation that really shows Saraste's perception and understanding.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2011 “there's much to commend throughout, especially in the Scherzo and Rondo-Burleske where the woodwind have the lion's share of character; the E flat clarinet shrieks are impressive indeed. A pity Saraste had to slip into a lower gear so soon before the trumpet unleashes heaven in the midst of hell, but the last spurt of horror is brilliantly done.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2011 *** | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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This new 2-channel Hybrid SACD recording of the Fourth Symphony in G Major is the second release by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and its new director of music Manfred Honeck in a series of recordings of the symphonies of Gustav Mahler. The singer featured in the last movement is the Korean soprano Sunhae Im. The Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck began his career as conductor of Vienna's Jeunesse Orchestra which he co-founded, and as assistant to Claudio Abbado with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in Vienna. After several highly successful guest appearances as conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, he was appointed its ninth Music Director in 2008. Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G Major was written between 1899 and 1901. The last movement incorporates a song for soprano entitled "Das himmlische Leben" which was originally written in 1892, and presents a child's vision of Heaven. The symphony has a neo-classical structure and, due to the reduced orchestra size, offers a seemingly simple and naive sound world. The effect of the music however is a strange mixture of the eerie and the idyllic, and this brings a distinctive mood to the work. “Honeck begins this performance in breezy fashion...Perky woodwinds are attractive...In the finale Sunhae Im is very pleasing and she does well with quicker tempos” International Record Review, March 2011 “Honeck brings a wealth of insider knowledge and a distinctive Viennese/Bohemian take on expressive content...this freshly observed, full-blooded reading of No. 4 can stand comparison with the very best. Honeck is having no truck with fashionable miniaturisation...Everything seems goal-directed and for once intonation does not falter at the revelation of the gates of Heaven. The rapt stillness thereafter is really quite something.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2011 “some of the counter-melodies from the Pittsburgh first horn [in the Scherzo] sound quite hair-raising...the song finale - sweetly delivered by Sunhae Im without archness or parody - achieves a fine balance between bustle and bliss. Recorded live in Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh, this release has many fresh insights to offer.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2011 **** | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Mahler: Song Cycles
“Fischer-Dieskau is the master, as Mahler - who preferred a baritone in his songs with orchestra - would surely admit had he lived long enough to hear him.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2011 ***** “All these Mahler recordings were made in the 1960s when the great baritone's voice was in superb shape and before a tendency to over-emphatic barking crept into his singing...there's such wisdom in these performances, and the sound of DG's recording has come up very cleanly.” International Record Review, May 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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The legendary Bruno Walter, much associated with the works of Mahler, conducts this live performance, recorded in 1960. | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Thomas Hampson adds a special version of Des Knaben Wunderhorn to his huge discography of works by Gustav Mahler. Released in Mahler Year 2011, this album celebrates the 100th anniversary of the composer's death. It is Hampson’s first ever studio recording of the orchestra version of Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Hampson is joined by The Wiener Virtuosen, a chamber ensemble of the highly acclaimed principal players of the Wiener Philharmoniker. “Mahler’s music is a ‘sound cosmos’ unto itself […] It is a reflection of my own world, something that’s extraordinarily informative to me as human being.” (Thomas Hampson) “[Hampson] refines his forces to those of the Wiener Virtuosen...This has the effect of creating a wonderfully fresh imaginative take on the songs...these slimmer forces really put a spring in the music's step...And his choice of tempos...is often inspired...A constantly absorbing recital.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2011 **** “no performer has ever had a more comprehensive knowledge of the manuscript sources...Instrumentally speaking, the results are fabulous...Long-term admirers should not expect the immaculate finish...of the singer's youth. Instead we have a more autumnal brand of vocalisation, one that arguably suits these feisty, individualistic songs of ordinary folk.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2011 “The principal revelations are instrumental, with sinewy, acerbic textures steering us into a world closer to German expressionism than post-romanticism.” The Guardian, 10th March 2011 *** “Mahler’s whole world is here, rendered in a fabulously piercing and tender performance...It’s partly to do with the reduced chamber scoring used by the Vienna soloists, which makes Mahler’s orchestral colours seem unusually vivid. But Hampson is also on superb form, catching the music’s emotional complication as well as its folk-like simplicity.” The Telegraph, 4th February 2011 ***** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Jonathan Darlington | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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Gramophone Magazine
