FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos 1 & 4 'Italian' London Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Eliot Gardiner [ LSO Live SACD + BLU-RAY AUDIO / 2 CD/Blu-ray Disc - released 10/Sep/2016 ] "Gardiner's Mendelssohn is as genial as it gets." (Sunday Times) |
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Symphony No. 5 in D major, Op. 107 'Reformation' / Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage / Ruy Blas London Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Eliot Gardiner [ LSO Live SACD + BLU-RAY AUDIO / 2 CD/Blu-ray Disc - released 1/Jun/2014 ] "Like all of Gardiner's live cycles of the Mendelssohn symphonies at the Barbican, this one comes across with pace, clarity and flaming-eyed conviction" (Financial Times) |
BERLIOZ
Symphonie fantastique & Waverley Overture London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev [ LSO Live SACD CD + Blu-ray / 2 CD/Blu-ray Disc - released 29/Sep/2014 ] Valery Gergiev conducts the London Symphony Orchestra on the first video/audio release on LSO Live. This is the start of a much anticipated Berlioz cycle and features 'Symphonie Fantastique' & 'Overture: Waverley'. |
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN
Scriabin: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev [ LSO Live SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 18/Nov/2015 ] Valery Gergiev conducts revelatory performances of Scriabin's Symphony No 3 'The Divine Poem' and Symphony No 4, 'The Poem of Ecstasy'. This marks the first in a new cycle of Scriabin symphonies, and one of the most significant of all Valery... |
SERGEI RACHMANINOV
Rachmaninov: Symphony No 3 (with Balakirev - Russia) London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev [ LSO Live SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 20/Aug/2015 ] "Gergiev and the LSO capture the score's expressive beauty, and also the sense of its transience as chill winter encroaches" BBC Music |
KAROL SZYMANOWSKI
Szymanowski: Symphonies Nos 3 & 4 / Stabat Mater Sally Matthews (soprano), Ekaterina Gubanova (mezzo) & Kostas Smoriginas (baritone) / London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Valery Gergiev (conductor) [ LSO Live SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 2/Aug/2013 ] For decades Szymanowski's music was rarely heard outside Poland. Today, he is recognised as one of Poland's greatest musical figures. |
SAMUEL BARBER
Barber: Symphony 1 / Essays Nos.1 & 2 / Night Flight/ Music from Scene from Shelley/ Knoxville (Summer of 1915) London Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Molly McGurk (soprano), David Measham (conductor) [ Alto / CD - released 22/Apr/2022 ] "Measham proves a splendid advocate of the Symphony, securing a passionately committed performance… The Essays for Orchestra are also very well played, as is the hauntingly evocative movement Night Flight" © Penguin Guide 3 stars |
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOSVKY / FRANZ LISZT
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Tchaikovsky: The Tempest / Liszt: Symphonic Poem No.1 London Symphony Orchestra, Yondani Butt [ ASV / CD - released 2/Feb/1987 ] Yondani Chak Cheung Butt (January 13, 1945 - August 28, 2014) was an orchestral conductor. He was born in Macao of Chinese parentage. He studied music at Indiana University and the University of Michigan. He also had a PhD in chemistry, on which... |
PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony London Symphony Orchestra, Yuri Ahronovich [ Deutsche Grammophon / CD - released 7/Jul/1984 ] One of the most neglected and powerful Tchaikovsky symphonies! |
SERGEI PROKOFIEV
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Prokofiev: Symphonies Nos 1 "Classical" & 5 / Lieutenant Kije / Cinderella [excepts] / etc Los Angeles Philharmonic & London Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas & Andrew Davis [ Sony Masterworks / 2 CD - released 1/Jul/1997 ] Originally recorded 1976, 1983 & 1992 |
HERBERT HOWELLS
MARBECKS COLLECTALE: Howells: Stabat Mater Neill Archer (tenor) / London Symphony Orchestra, Gennady Rozhdestvensky [ Chandos / CD - released 8/Aug/1994 ] |
KAROL SZYMANOWSKI
Szymanowski: Symphonies 1 & 2 London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergie [ LSO Live / Hybrid SACD - released 3/Jun/2013 ] "Being a natural inheritor of Scriabinesque exoticism, Szymanowski is bound to bring out the best in Scriabin's most imaginative interpreters, which is why Valery Gergiev proves such a convincing interpreter of both works." Gramophone |
LEOS JANACEK
Janáček: The Cunning Little Vixen, Sinfonietta Lucy Crowe (Vixen), Gerald Finley (Forester), Sophia Burgos (Fox), London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, Sir Simon Rattle [ LSO Live / 2 CD - released 4/Sep/2020 ] "All in all, an outstanding release, and a rewarding celebration of this wonderful composer's art." Gramophone Editor's Choice Oct 2020 |
JOHANNES BRAHMS / MAX BRUCH
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Brahms: Concerto for Violin & Cello / Bruch: Violin Concerto No 1 Lydia Mordkovitch (violin) Raphael Wallfisch (cello) / London Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Jarvi [ Chandos / CD - released 23/Jan/1989 ] Recorded in St Jude's Church, Central Square, London, July 1988 |
ANTONIN DVOARK / FRANZ SCHUBERT
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Dvorak: Cello Concerto in B minor / Schubert: "Arpeggione" Sonata Lynn Harrell (cello) / London Symphony Orchestra, James Levine (cond/pianist) [ RCA Papillon Collection / CD - released 26/Oct/1987 ] Lynn Harrell (January 30, 1944 - April 27, 2020) was an American classical cellist. Known for the "penetrating richness" of his sound, Harrell performed internationally as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with major orchestras. |
TRADITIONAL / SCHUBERT / VERDI / RAVEL / etc
Margaret Price in Recital Margaret Price (soprano), London Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado, with James Lockhart & Geoffrey Parsons (piano) [ Decca Australian Eloquence / 2 CD - released 6/Sep/2019 ] A song recital new to CD from a peerless lyric soprano, coupled with classic recordings of Ravel and Verdi. In 1971 Andrew Porter wrote that Margaret Price's voice was among the things that make one 'glad to be alive'. In the 1960s she had... |
DONIZETTI
Anna Bolena (complete opera recorded live in 1957) Maria Callas, Giulietta Simionato, Nicola Rossi-Lemeni / Ambrosian Singers & London Symphony Orchestra, John McGlinn [ EMI Classics / 2 CD - released 20/Feb/2012 ] Live Recording - La Scala, 1957 |
GIACOMO PUCCINI / ALFREDO CATALANI / GIUSEPPE VERDI / OTTORINO RESPIGHI
Maria Luigia Borsi - Italian Soprano Arias Maria Luigia Borsi (soprano), London Symphony Orchestra, Yves Abel [ Naxos / CD - released 10/Mar/2014 ] "The performance that Borsi gives is not just ravishingly beautiful but has a dramatic intensity… It is luxury casting to have the LSO crisply conducted by Yves Abel." Gramophone |
SERGEI RACHMANINOV
Rachmaninov: Symphony No 1 (with Balakirev - Tamara) Mark Padmore, Sally Matthews, Kate Royal, Bernarda Fink, Andrew Staples / London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Sir Simon Rattle [ LSO Live SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 9/Sep/2016 ] "this release completes a superb Rachmaninov symphony cycle…it's a taut, gripping account, Gergiev often pushing the accelerator harder than Mariss Jansons and Mikhail Pletnev" Gramophone |
SIR PETER MAXWELL DAVIES / SIR ANDRZEJ PANUFNIK
Symphonies No. 10 Markus Butter (baritone) / London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Sir Antonio Pappano [ LSO Live SACD / Hybrid SACD - released 20/Aug/2015 ] "It's a big, deeply reflective statement, its matter and form based on the life and work of the Italian baroque architect Francesco Borromini, some of whose words Davies sets. Pappano, the baritone Markus Butter and the LSO perform it brilliantly." |