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Edward Gardner & BBC Symphony Orchestra – Lutoslawski: Orchestral Works, Volume II (2012)
SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 & 5.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 01:07:25 minutes | 3,26 GB | Genre: Classical | © Chandos
This is the third volume in the Chandos series devoted to the music of the Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski. It brings together his first surviving orchestral piece (The Symphonic Variations) and his last symphony, as well as two works for piano and orchestra – an early work originally written for two pianos (The ‘Paganini’ Variations), and his very last concerto. The works are performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner, described by Gramophone as a veritable ‘Dream Team’ in Vol. 1. They are joined in this recording by Louis Lortie, the award-winning pianist and exclusive Chandos artist.
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Edward Gardner & BBC Symphony Orchestra – Lutoslawski: Orchestral Works, Volume I (2010)
SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 & 5.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 01:09:56 minutes | 3,35 GB | Genre: Classical | © Chandos
Edward Gardner, the music director of English National Opera and an exclusive Chandos artist, has completed the first disc in a projected Chandos series devoted to Polish music. Also his first purely orchestral CD for Chandos, the disc presents music by one of Poland’s most important twentieth-century composers, Witold Lutoslàwski, including perhaps his most famous work, the Concerto for Orchestra (1950 – 54), a brilliant and highly attractive work.
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BBC Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner, Tasmin Little – Walton: Symphony No. 1 & Violin Concerto (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:26 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
Edward Gardner, a Chandos exclusive artist, conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in two masterpieces by William Walton, the Violin Concerto and Symphony No. 1.
Walton burst onto the British musical scene in his twenties, the success of works such as Façade, the Viola Concerto, and Belshazzar’s Feast establishing him in both the avant-garde and the mainstream of British composers. The obvious next step for Walton was to compose a symphony and he was duly commissioned to do so by Sir Hamilton Harty in 1932. The first complete performance of his Symphony No. 1, in 1935, was a triumph, immediately gaining the work an honoured place in British music which it has never lost. It is a highly virtuosic work with a remarkable expressive range, in turns powerful and broad, malicious, melancholic, and majestic.
James Ehnes, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner – Walton: Viola Concerto, Partita for Orchestra & Sonata for String Orchestra (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:42 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
In this third volume of Edward Gardner’s Walton series with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, James Ehnes leaves his violin to tackle the taxing soloist role in the Viola Concerto. In a recent Strad interview, Ehnes confesses: ‘This is a piece I have loved since I was a teenager, so it is wonderful that the opportunity has come my way to record it… With Walton’s Viola Concerto, none of the writing is impossible but a lot of it is close. And in a way that is exactly where you want it to be: on the edge of technical limitations. There’s a tremendous amount of excitement in that.’ This album in surround sound also features two much later works: the 1957 Partita for Orchestra and the Sonata for String Orchestra, adapted in 1971 from the String Quartet in A minor of 1945 – 47. There is a striking contrast between the uncomfortable modernism of the up-and-coming young composer’s Viola Concerto and the relaxed brilliance of the mature Partita. But the Sonata shows Walton late in his life re-engaging as an arranger with his earlier manner, and so with the characteristic vein of restless unease that runs through most of his output.
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Alexander Ullman, BBC Symphony Orchestra & Andrew Litton – Liszt: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, Sonata (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:48 minutes | 1,08 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RUBICON
Alexander Ullman was the winner of the 2011 Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in Budapest. He studied at the Purcell School, the Curtis Institute and the Royal College of Music. His teachers include William Fong, Leon Fleisher and Dmitri Alexeev. Alexander’s debut album on Rubicon was a recital of great Russian ballet music arranged for piano – Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Stravinsky – and received enthusiastic reviews from around the world. This album is his first concerto recording – the two Liszt Concertos are coupled with the B minor Sonata.
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Ailyn Pérez, Stephen Costello, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Patrick Summers – Love Duets (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:05:44 minutes | 623 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
Richard Tucker Award-winners Stephen Costello and Ailyn Pérez – dubbed “America’s fastest-rising husband-and-wife opera stars” (Associated Press) – look forward to releasing their first album together: a recording of romantic love duets by Verdi, Puccini, Bernstein, and others, recorded with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Patrick Summers’s leadership in London. The album is the couple’s first release as exclusive recording artists for Warner Classics.
Pérez explains: “Given our great love for our art and each other, I’m really looking forward to joining our voices in some of my favourite roles and operatic duets.” Costello adds: “To be on a label for which so many incredible artists have recorded is a huge honour. I am also honoured to share this album with two great artists – my wife, Ailyn Pérez, and Maestro Patrick Summers. I am truly humbled!”
The young American soprano and tenor met at Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts, where an onstage romance in Puccini’s most beloved opera kindled the flames of a real-life passion. This season, Pérez and Costello appear in performance together across the globe, headlining in La traviata in London, Berlin, Hamburg, and San Francisco, and giving concerts in New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.
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