Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky’s ballet compositions are known throughout the world and have become part of the genre of ballet. Here we are immersed in a magical world with works by the greatest Russian composer performed by the USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Svetlanov.

These are stunning live recordings made at the Progetto Martha Argerich Festival, Lugano. This CD is an absolutely must-have for piano lovers. Whilst some might be astonished by the liberties taken by the artists, most will be thrilled by the sheer joy and excitement emanating from these performances.

The International Tchaikovsky Competition symbolises the prestige of world class art and is a true apotheosis of Russian culture. These are the Competition’s first-ever releases featuring the gold winners in each of the four disciplines. Listeners will appreciate exquisite performances by genius musicians.

Here’s a fine conspectus of the Russian choral tradition; its ancient hymns and offices, given new and rich harmonic robes by great Russian composers, and sung by ensembles who have this music in their blood, as indeed they must if its peculiar timbres are to make their haunting effect upon the listener. Clouds of incense swirl around our listening room as we are transported back centuries – whether two or ten – to a style of worship in which beauty is offered to God as an end in itself.

This second of two volumes (Vol. 1 is available on 8111379) completes the repertoire recorded by Jascha Heifetz during his short wartime period with American Decca. Aware of the need for lighter music while touring for the US troops, Heifetz nonetheless refused to play down to his audiences, praising the G.I.s’ ‘interest in good music’. This more classical programme represents the violinist’s staggering virtuosity and range, from a spectacular paraphrase of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville to the lyrical expressiveness of Saint-Saens’s The Swan. The inclusion of four rare V-Disc recordings concludes a remarkable legacy of uniquely vibrant performances.

With this release, distinguished Russian violinist Sasha Rozhdestvensky and acclaimed Swiss pianist Josiane Marfurt offer the only available collection of P. I. Tchaikovsky’s music for violin and piano that can be considered truly “complete.”

The original score to the composer’s transcription of his early song for these instruments – Oh! Chante Encore, Op. 16, No. 4 – was long believed lost, until Rozhdestvensky discovered it recently at the National Library of France in Paris. This delightful and engaging work is offered here in its world premiere recording.

Rozhdestvensky’s playing is noted for its rare technical wizardry, gorgeous tone, and plenty of Russian “soul.” Emerging young pianist Marfurt is rapidly building a glowing reputation as both a top-tier soloist and chamber artist. As regular chamber partners, they form an ideal Tchaikovsky “team” – able to realize the composer’s distinctive melodic-harmonic beauty, lush sound and searing sentiment to perfection.

The Christmas net is cast wide in this captivating collection of seasonal music.

John Fox has crafted a delightful Carol Fantasia. Bryan Kelly’s Scrooge is an action-packed Dickens compression, brought to visceral life by esteemed actor Simon Callow, who also narrates Philip Lane’s Another Night Before Christmas, an update by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy of the classic poem. Lane’s Old Christmas Music is expressively rich, and spans the centuries. Smaller pieces from Liszt, orchestrated by Gordon Jacob, Rebikov and more recent works, complete a delightful selection.

Seattle Symphony’s first holiday album embraces works composed specifically for Christmas as well as other pieces that convey a universal message of peace, love and hope—the essence of humanity’s highest aspirations. Music Director Gerard Schwarz asked two composers, the Symphony’s Composer in Residence Samuel Jones and Seattle Symphony Principal Oboe Ben Hausmann, to “make the music their own” by scoring several of the pieces to retain the unaffected simplicity of these well-known Christmas and concert works. Schwarz joined them in this task, arranging or editing several of the pieces, with the resulting works celebrating the remarkable artistry of the musicians of the Orchestra. In these new settings, recorded entirely in Benaroya Hall, the music emerges with honest, untarnished beauty.

“Michael Spyres has a lovely, liquid tenor, all honey for love duets and some metal for cries of outraged honor.” John Yohalem, from Opera Today

You may well be hard-pressed to name a classic opera that lacks a love-story – or a tenor as the main romantic hero. Accordingly, emerging American tenor Michael Spyres has come up with a fresh and fascinating pretext for A Fool for Love: his new collection of tenor arias on Delos.

Michael has carefully selected thirteen mostly well-known arias by composers ranging from Mozart to Stravinsky, encompassing a staggering array of love-related circumstances and emotions. He then sequenced them so as to tell the love-story of a single romantic protagonist. The album’s booklet contains a two-act “plot synopsis,” in which each segment of our hero’s story is indexed to the corresponding aria.

As Michael puts it in his booklet introduction, “What I seek to present to you in this album is a fanciful musical story of a typical war-torn couple, and their struggle to cope with the raptures and ravages of this intangible enigma called love.”

Michael, a Missouri native, completed his studies at the Vienna Conservatory, and is already well-known to European audiences for his critically-acclaimed work in recital, oratorio, and opera. He has appeared at such distinguished houses as Milan’s La Scala and Deutsche Oper Berlin, and worked with conductors like Ricardo Muti and John Eliot Gardner.

Blessed with a supremely versatile instrument, Michael has successfully performed the music of composers from Bach to Wagner, encompassing music of many periods and styles: Baroque, Classical, Bel Canto, and Verismo. He has recorded Rossini’s La Gazzetta, Otello, and Le Siège de Corinthe for Naxos.