![Nektar - Remember The Future (Deluxe Edition) (1973/2023) [High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-Ray Disc]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2024/05/01/NjktMTk3MS5qcGVn.jpg)
Czech National Symphony Orchestra – Fibich: Symphonic Poems (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:06 minutes | 1,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
Composer Zdenek Fibich, Dvorák’s near contemporary, has until the last few years been known mostly for a large set of piano pieces he wrote toward the end of his life, programmatically depicting in sometimes explicit detail his relationship with a young piano student. Fibich also wrote a good deal of orchestral music, however; Neeme Järvi recorded one of his symphonies with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and now Naxos has embarked on a complete cycle of the orchestral pieces with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra under a genuine Fibich specialist, Marek Stilec. The five tone poems included here are a mixed bag. Othello, Op. 6, and Boure (The Tempest), Op. 46, might be of interest to those occupied with the reception of Shakespeare in eastern Europe if they weren’t for the most part rather pedestrian. It would take a keen ear to guess the subject matter of the former work from the music alone, and the titular storm of the latter lacks inspiration. Fibich was more oriented toward Germany than was Dvorák, but he seems on surer ground with more nationalistic themes: Toman a lesní panna (Tomas and the Wood Nymph), Op. 49, adumbrates the magical realism of Dvorák’s later works, and Záboj, Slavoj, and Ludek, Op. 37, based on a story in an old Czech manuscript, is said to have influenced Smetana’s Má vlast. Vesna (Spring), Op. 13, is a short, luminous interlude that could open any symphony concert profitably. The music is uneven, but in truth so is much of Dvorák’s output, and these strong performances might cause more listeners to give Fibich’s music a second look.
Read more
Jan Mrácek, Lukáš Klánský, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, James Judd – Dvořák: Violin Concerto (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:32 minutes | 1,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Onyx Classics
“Jan is a worthy winner. He has fascinated us from the first round. Not only with his technical skills, but also with his charisma on stage” the chairman of the jury of the 2014 Fritz Kreisler Competition announced after Mrácek’s performance with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra was met with thunderous applause. Prior to this Mrácek has studied with the great Czech master Václav Hudecek, as well as with Levon Chilingirian, Gavriel Lipkind and Ida Haendel.
Read more
Czech National Symphony Orchestra & Carl Davis – Carl Davis: The Great Gatsby (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:14:12 minutes | 770 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Carl Davis Collection
In 1924 there occurred an extraordinary coincidence: George Gershwin composed his Rhapsody in Blue and F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote his third novel The Great Gatsby. Gershwin’s score was bright, tuneful and optimistic. Fitzgerald’s novel was brilliant, funny and sad. Both defined the 1920’s as what Fitzgerald dubbed “The Jazz Age”. I knew and loved both book and music from a very early age. I had an opportunity to express this when in 2019 the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre commissioned a new score for a ballet based on the novel. I wanted this ballet to sound like an expensive Broadway musical of the period: a small group of strings but plenty of saxes, pinging brass and holding it together that jazz beat and the throb of the Blues, but I also had a story to tell and characters to delineate. The novel darts about in time, only gradually revealing Gatsby’s story. In choosing selections for concerts and CD, I chose to mix it up and look for a musical logic. I also wanted to pay tribute to the popular dances of the day: sentimental waltzes, the Argentine tango and Paso Doble, Foxtrots and above all, the Charleston but central to the book is the classic love story of Daisy Fay and Jay Gatsby. What starts as a wartime romance in 1917 ends tragically with their reunion five years later.
Read more
Czech National Symphony Orchestra & Steven Mercurio – New Jewish Music, Vol. 1 – Azrieli Music Prizes (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:30 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Groupe Analekta, Inc
Brian Current : The Seven Heavenly Halls
Canadian composer Brian Current’s The Seven Heavenly Halls is the result of his being declared winner of the inaugural Azrieli Commission in September 2015. The work premiered on October 19, 2016 at the Maison symphonique by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal with tenor Frederic Antoun as soloist and Kent Nagano conducting.