Arctic Philharmonic

Arctic Philharmonic & Christian Lindberg – Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 & Swan Lake Suite (2013/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:48 minutes | 779 MB | Genre: Classique
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony was the first symphony Christian Lindberg ever heard, at the age of ten. Nine years later it was the first he performed as a professional musician – in the brass section of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Having embarked on a successful conducting career, the trombonist-turned-international-soloist has since had the opportunity also to conduct the work, most memorably at the Mariinskij Theatre in St Petersburg, the city where the composer himself gave the first performance in 1888. With his Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, based in the Norwegian city of Bodø well north of the Arctic Circle, Lindberg has now recorded this symphony, which has become one of the composer’s best-loved works. Especially the hauntingly beautiful second movement has gripped audiences, while the work’s very clear exposition of the idea of ’ultimate victory through strife’ especially during World War II made it a staple in the concert halls. The symphony is here coupled with the equally popular six-movement suite from the Swan Lake, the first of the composer’s three great ballets. The suite was compiled and published after the death of the composer, but provides a faithful reflection of the atmosphere, colour, melody and, above all, rhythmic invention that made Tchaikovsky such a master of music for the dance.

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Arctic Philharmonic & Christian Lindberg – Olsen: Symphony No. 1 – Trombone Concerto – Asgaardsreien (2011/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:02:56 minutes | 569 MB | Genre: Classique
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

The colourful music of fascinating composer Ole Olsen is portrayed here in the first recording by what must surely be the northernmost of symphony orchestras, the Arctic Philharmonic. The orchestra’s flamboyant chief conductor, Christian Lindberg, also appears as virtuoso trombone soloist on the world premiere of Olsen’s Concerto for Tenor Trombone and Orchestra, written in 1886. A contemporary of Grieg and Svendsen, Olsen regarded himself as holding third place among Norway’s musical elite.

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Arctic Philharmonic, Christian Lindberg – Bernstein: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:43 minutes | 1004 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BIS

At the age of 21, Leonard Bernstein wrote what he described as a ‘Hebrew song’ using a text from the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Three years later the song became the final movement of his Symphony No. 1 and in January 1944 Bernstein himself conducted the première of the work. What is being lamented is the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, but according to the composer, he primarily wanted to convey the text’s ‘emotional quality’. The first movement thus aims to parallel in feeling the intensity of the prophet’s pleas while the scherzo gives a general sense of the destruction and chaos. Being a setting of the biblical text, the third movement is naturally more literary: the cry of Jeremiah, as he mourns his beloved Jerusalem.
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