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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Ravel & Shostakovich: String Quartets
The Navarra String Quartet was formed at the RNCM in 2002, and since then has won numerous awards, including First Prize in the 2005 Florence International Competition and Second Prize in the 2007 Melbourne International Competition. In 2008 the Navarra Quartet won the Outstanding Young Artist Award at the MIDEM Classique Awards in Cannes. They were selected for representation by Young Artist Concert Trust programme in 2006 and in 2007 received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship. “The Ravel...is at times daringly spacious yet always magically fine-spun, the light, silvery tone of leader Xander van Vliet setting the tone for a reading of variety, delicacy and restraint...[the Shostakovich] may suit those who prefer a lighter sonority and a not-so-implacable quality of attack in this music...there's no mistaking the depth of feeling these musicians bring” Gramophone Magazine, February 2011 “The Ravel is bright and breezy, with a lovely sense of texture in the skittering figures of the first movement and deliciously rhythmic pizzicato in the second. The Shostakovich demands a more extensive emotional range and the Navarras don't stint, digging into its ferocious explorations and quirky arguments with passion and enthusiasm.” Classic FM Magazine, February 2011 **** “one is carried along by the highly concentrated effect of the Ravel as a whole...In the Shostakovich Quartet...the playing is attentive and astute...The disc as a whole indicates a strongly unified and sensitive quartet with consistently well-gauged balance and control in two very demanding works.” International Record Review, March 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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Shostakovich’s monumental Symphony No. 10 ranks among his finest works. From the bleak introspection of the extended opening movement, through the graphic evocation of violence in the explosive Allegro, and the eerie dance-like Allegretto alternating between dark and light, to the final movement’s dramatic climax, this is a work of breathtaking musical contrasts. In 2010 Vasily Petrenko was named Male Artist of the Year at the Classical Brit Awards. “The Tenth is a symphony into which many have been tempted to read parallels with Shostakovich's life...The refreshing thing is that Petrenko treats it as a great symphony in its own right...All dynamics and metronome marks are scrupulously observed, but details never impede the progress of this rippling, human tragedy.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2010 ***** “The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s version boasts both finesse and splenetic attack” Financial Times, 5th November 2010 “Petrenko and the RLPO have achieved a triumph. The orchestral playing is ripe, detailed, lithe, concentrated and intense. Petrenko has full measure not only of the symphony’s overarching architecture but also of the individual facets that make it such a fascinating conundrum.” The Telegraph, 5th November 2010 ***** “Petrenko’s masterly performance builds inexorably from the ruminating brooding of the low strings and lamenting wind solos to the most shattering climax, as the full orchestra erupts in howls of anguish and rage. His whipcrack tempo for the scherzo is one of the most menacing I can recall...A thrilling performance.” Sunday Times, 21st November 2010 **** “Petrenko's Shostakovich cycle goes from strength to strength...[his] instinct for pacing enables the power of Shostakovich's symphonic design to register to maximum effect. If there has been a finer account of the Tenth in recent years, I confess I must have missed it.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2011 “Petrenko shapes the long first movement - nearly 23 minutes - very well, paying close attention to phrasing and emphases...The orchestra plays for all its worth at the climaxes...The 'Stalin' Allegro is as brutal as you will find anywhere, and there's plenty of excitement and wit in the Finale.” Classic FM Magazine, January 2011 **** “Petrenko and his band show us that the music has greater timbral interest than we often imagine...there's barely a page of the symphony where we don't hear some telling orchestral detail...Solo work is subtle throughout, especially in the symphony's more introverted passages.” International Record Review, December 2010  BBC Music Magazine
Orchestral Choice - December 2010 |
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| |  | Inner Voice
Peter Minkler (viola), Lura Johnson (piano) | |
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| |  | Shostakovich: Film Music
Byelorussian Radio and TV Symphony Orchestra, Walter Mnatsakanov | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| | | |  | David Oistrakh: Powerful Poet
Bach, J S: | Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major, BWV1042 Trio Sonata in C major, BWV1037 | Beethoven: | Triple Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Cello in C major, Op. 56 | Benda, G: | Trio sonata for two violins and piano | Brahms: | Double Concerto for Violin & Cello in A minor, Op. 102 | Chopin: | Piano Trio in G minor Op. 8 | Handel: | Trio Sonata, HWV 391 in G minor, Op. 2 No. 6 | Mendelssohn: | Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 | Prokofiev: | Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63 | Ravel: | Piano Trio in A minor | Sarasate: | Navarra, Op. 33 | Schubert: | Octet in F major, D803 | Shostakovich: | Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 99 | Smetana: | Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15 | Taneyev: | Suite de Concert Op. 28 | Tartini: | Violin Sonata in G minor 'Devil's Trill' | Tchaikovsky: | Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 | Wieniawski: | Étude-caprice, Op. 18 No. 2 in E flat major Étude-caprice, Op. 18 No. 5 in E major Étude-caprice, Op. 18 No. 4 in A minor |
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| |  | Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5
In 1959, the last season before the opening of the new ‘Great’ Festspielhaus – Leonard Bernstein came as a guest with the New York Philharmonic, of which he was chief conductor. Thus one of the most impressive musical personalities of the age arrived together with one of the American orchestras richest in tradition. Bernstein’s own work The Age of Anxiety, his Second Symphony for Piano and Orchestra (with Seymour Lipkin as piano soloist, negotiating agilely a musical language that ranged from Romanticism to jazz), impressed the public as much as did Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, in which Bernstein realised brilliantly its grandiose climaxes and plumbed its musical depths. “The Austrian take time to settle in Bernstein's own composition...but sit spellbound throughout the fiery, finally hell-for-leather interpretation of the Shostakovich...what a relief to revisit a rendering in which expressive distortions are perpetrated on musical grounds, rather than representing an attempt to dramatise extra-musical opinion!” Gramophone Magazine, December 2010 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Shostakovich: 24 Piano Preludes & Piano Quintet
David Kadouch, aged only 24, is a pianist not to be missed. He was a finalist in the 2009 Leeds Piano Competition and has been nominated as a “Young Talent Revelation” Victoires de la Musique Classique 2010. Only recently, Daniel Barenboim called upon him to replace Lang Lang in Ramallah, Palestine. He is capable of hypersensitive playing and lets the score speak for itself. Live recording. “In the slower Preludes Nos. 14 and 17, Kadouch shows an impressive command of colour and pedalling...[in the Quintet] there are some truly memorable moments. Kadouch seems to come into his own in the Scherzo, showing some real flair and energy...he seems at home in Shostakovich and clearly understands the idiom well.” International Record Review, December 2010 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Shostakovich: Violin & Viola Sonatas
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| |  | Shostakovitch: Piano Quintet & String Quartet No. 12
Switzerland's Amati Quartet has recorded two highly contrasting works by Dmitri Shostakovich: with Bruno Canino, the Piano Quintet of 1940, which still maintains a recognizable tonal structure; and the Twelfth String Quartet, composed in 1968, a prime example of how Shostakovich approached the twelve-tone system in the string quartet. | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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Gramophone Awards 2011
Gramophone Magazine
BBC Music Magazine Awards 2011
