SACDs - Shchedrin

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Shostakovich: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

Shostakovich: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2


Shchedrin:

Piano Concerto No. 5

Shostakovich:

Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor for piano, trumpet & strings, Op. 35

Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102


Since winning the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998, Denis Matsuev has established a reputation as one of Russia’s leading pianists. His first release on the Mariinsky label, featuring Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and 'Paganini Variations', received widespread acclaim. He has toured throughout Europe and North America with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra, as well as performing with the LSO, Berlin and New York Philharmonics. For his second Mariinsky release with Gergiev he turns to music by Shostakovich and Shchedrin.

Despite being a prolific symphonist, Shostakovich only wrote two piano concertos. His first features a prominent solo trumpet part which provides dialogue with the piano and an independent voice ‘commenting’ on the music of the piano and orchestra. Shostakovich draws in numerous musical styles within the work and displays his usual wit and sardonic humour.

The Second Concerto, by contrast, is more unified and is unusually happy and optimistic in nature for Shostakovich. This may be because it was written for his son, who gave the première, and has been described as showing “the composer as though his own youth had returned to him”. The slow movement contains some of Shostakovich’s most achingly beautiful music – almost Rachmaninov-like in its Romanticism.

Rodion Shchedrin has so far composed six piano concertos, each signifying a new phase in his compositional development, as well as a double concerto for piano and cello and a substantial corpus of solo piano works. His Fifth Concerto is influenced by the music of both Shostakovich and Prokofiev.

“these new accounts of the two Shostakovich Concertos must be among the best currently available. He is brilliant and mercurial in the fast movements of both works, creatively negotiating tempo and style and bringing a sense of elan to the Second's outer movements...This unfamiliar coupling offers added value for any collector of Russian music.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2012 ****

“everything comes easily together in Shostakovich's Second Concerto, where both soloist and conductor reveal the music's disarming meoldic wit in a relaxed, unpressured manner and deliver a heartfelt, touchingly inflected reading of the Andante that allows the cellos plenty of room to sing out.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

LSO and Mariinsky - up to 25% off

Mariinsky - MAR0509

(SACD)

Normally: $15.50

Special: $11.62

In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day.

Shchedrin - The Enchanted Wanderer

Shchedrin - The Enchanted Wanderer

DSD recording, Mariinsky Concert Hall, St Petersburg, July 2008


Shchedrin:

The Enchanted Wanderer

Sung in Russian

Little Humpbacked Horse (Four Fragments)

Concerto for Orchestra No. 1 'Naughty Limericks'


Sergei Aleksashkin, Kristina Kapustinskaya & Evgeny Akimov

Mariinsky Orchestra & Chorus, Valery Gergiev

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

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

LSO and Mariinsky - up to 25% off

Mariinsky - MAR0504

(SACD - 2 discs)

Normally: $26.25

Special: $19.68

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Shchedrin: The Sealed Angel

Shchedrin: The Sealed Angel

Russian liturgical music based on the works of Nikolay Leskov


Sophie Klußmann (soprano), Judith Simonis (alto), René Vosskühler (tenor), Lorenz Wüsthof & Richard Schwennicke (boys), Gergely Bodoky (flute)

Berlin Radio Choir, Stefan Parkman

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

Coviello - COV60504

(SACD)

$18.75

Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days.

Composers

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