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London Symphony Orchestra, Aaron Copland – Copland: Symphony No. 3 (1958/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 40:19 minutes | 1,44 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Everest
Aaron Copland composed his Third Symphony on a commission from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation. He formulated initial plans for it in 1943, but actual work on the symphony was not begun until August, 1944, while he was staying in a little village in Mexico. The symphony was completed on September 29, 1946, barely in time for its premiere by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra on October 18 of that year. The score bears a dedication “To the memory of my dear friend Natalie Koussevitzky.”
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Andrei Gavrilov, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle – Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1 / Ravel: Concerto for the Left Hand (1977/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 42:56 minutes | 390 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
In March 2015, after months of lively speculation in the media, the London Symphony Orchestra formally announced that Sir Simon Rattle would become its Music Director in September 2017. This news made headlines in the UK, where Liverpool-born Rattle, despite his departure in 2002 to become Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Berliner Philharmoniker, remains a national cultural hero. As Rattle told The Times: “I am leaving a world-class orchestra and coming to a very different sort of world-class orchestra.” In a video interview, he added: “The LSO and I share so many of the same ideals – it just made complete logical sense, and emotional sense as well … This can be the greatest orchestra in the world. Everybody is pointing in the same direction.”
No appearance by Rattle and the LSO is ever likely to reach as many people as their performance at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, watched by an estimated one billion people worldwide, but it was just the highest-profile date in a relationship that goes back to 1977. At that time, Rattle was only 22 years old and not yet Principal Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra – he took up that role in 1980 and, as Music Director, left Birmingham 18 years later. While his concert debut with the LSO took place in October 1977, he had in fact already made his first recording with its players. In July of that year, at London’s famous Abbey Road Studios, he conducted them and soloist Andrei Gavrilov – born, like Rattle, in 1955 – in a pairing of two compact, concentrated works: Prokofiev’s high-octane Piano Concerto No 1 and Ravel’s brave and intense Concerto for the Left Hand. Gavrilov, who trained at the Moscow Conservatory, had achieved widespread recognition in 1974 when he won the International Tchaikovsky Competition and went on to make his international debut at the Salzburg Festival.
The album, which represented both the conductor’s and the pianist’s debuts on the HMV label, is the earliest Rattle recording in the Warner Classics catalogue. When it was originally released in 1978, Gramophone said: “… However high your expectations may be, I would be surprised to learn that they were disappointed … This newcomer is second to none in both works,” and praised the young Rattle as “a conductor of keen responsiveness and sensitivity.” The recording went on to win a Gramophone Award in 1979.
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London Symphony Orchestra & Sir Eugene Goossens – Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (1960/2007)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 37:46 minutes | 705 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Everest
State-of-the-art audio reproduction at the beginning of the 21st century may be the finest ever achieved, but the increasing reissues of historic audiophile recordings provide ample evidence that the search for spectacular sound has been going on for many years. In 1960, Eugene Goossens and the London Symphony Orchestra recorded Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps on 35mm three-track magnetic film, and the quality of the recording is so close-up and realistic that the term “almost palpable” is not an exaggeration. Using 35mm film had several advantages, insofar as it accommodated three times the space of standard quarter-inch recording tape, its thickness allowed the recording of higher sound intensity without printing through to other parts of the film, and the sprocket holes along its sides permitted smooth playback with minimal wow or flutter. Because of this innovative recording method, the sound is so immediate and powerful that the listener viscerally feels the impact of the percussion, and the winds and strings are so vibrant that they seem to have physical dimensions. Aside from the slight bending of the bassoon’s opening pitch, which is apparently due to some stretching of the film, the intonation is accurate and the tone is startling in its clarity, and the music is as focused and clean as anything that can be found on a DSD recording or a multichannel hybrid SACD. Because this recording is such a feat of engineering and a feast for the ears, the stereo CD is packaged with a bonus two-sided DVD-10 that allows playback on DVD audio and DVD video players. Highly recommended.
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Valery Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra – Ravel. Daphnis et Chloe, Pavane, Bolero (2010)
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 78:36 minutes | Scans included | 4,15 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 1,38 GB
The first thing that will strike you when listening to this recording is its huge dynamic range. The opening bars of ‘Daphnis and Chloe’ (recorded in September 2009) emerge almost imperceptibly from inky black silence, and you may be tempted to immediately increase the volume setting, but beware, because as the music of the introduction rises to its climax (around 2’28”) the sound expands hugely, with the LSO trumpets cutting thrillingly through the massive orchestral and choral texture. Nevertheless this disc does need to be played at a high level to achieve the most realistic sound from it.
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Valery Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra – Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 (2010)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 60:51 minutes | Digital Booklet | 3,65 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Digital Booklet | 1,2 GB
Features Stereo and Multichannel Surround Sound
Rachmaninov’s vast Second Symphony was composed when he was at the pinnacle of his career as a composer, pianist and conductor. Filled with emotion and brimming with beautiful melodies, it is a masterpiece and the epitome of the Romantic symphony. It is presented here in its entirety. All sympathetic listeners agree that the Second Symphony contains the very best of Rachmaninov. Deliberately paced and rhythmically flexible, it is, above all, propelled by the wonderfully fertile melody of which he was such a master. The orchestral sound is full and rich, but unlike such contemporaries as Strauss and Mahler, Rachmaninov is relatively modest in his orchestral demands.
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Valery Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra – Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances – Stravinsky: Symphony In 3 Movements (2012)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 58:33 minutes | Digital Booklet | 3,48 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Digital Booklet | 1,12 GB
Features Stereo and Multichannel Surround Sound
The Symphonic Dances, an orchestral suite in three sections, was the last work Rachmaninov completed and proved one of his most popular compositions. Although rarely sentimental, it draws on many of the composer’s reminiscences of Russia, from where he emigrated in 1917. Gergiev couples the Symphonic Dances with another work in three movements by a Russian émigré to the USA. Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements was written between 1942-45 and was the first work Stravinsky completed after his arrival in the USA.
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Valery Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra – Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet (2010)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & DST64 6.0 >1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Front Cover | 7.78 GB
FLAC tracks 2.0 24bit/88.2 kHz | Front Cover | 2.14 GB
This 2008 live recording with the London Symphony Orchestra is Valery Gergiev’s 2nd complete recording of Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo & Juliet, the 1st being a 1991 Philips release with the Kirov Orchestra. This performance, like his 1st, is notable for its refinement & lyricism. It’s perhaps surprising that Gergiev, known for the wildness & ferocity of his performances of other Prokofiev works, like The Fiery Angel, shows such restraint here. Gergiev clearly understands the ballet as a work in which Prokofiev, writing originally for the Bolshoi, a theater known for its conservatism (although that production was canceled), tailored his score to follow in the tradition of the 3 great Tchaikovsky ballets. The composer certainly cuts loose when appropriate, as in the fierce Introduction to Act III & the various fights, but the score is exceptional in its delicacy & finely calibrated orchestration. Because it is a “numbers” ballet, made up of a series of discrete movements or sections, it’s easy for the complete, nearly 2.5 hour ballet to come across as episodic, especially without the visual element to hold the narrative together. Gergiev does an excellent job of keeping the dramatic momentum going at the same time as he gives loving attention to its many exquisite details, & even though his approach is refined, that doesn’t mean that it in any way lacks passion, intensity, & suspense. Another strong recommendation for this performance is the fact that it is the 1st recording of the ballet as the composer originally conceived it. In preparation for the ballet’s Russian premiere at the Kirov Theatre in 1940, Prokofiev reluctantly cut or altered some numbers & added others. This version, prepared for the Mark Morris Dance Group by Princeton musicologist Simon Morrison, restores the composer’s original intentions for the scenario & the music. Gergiev led the LSO in accompanying Morris’ British premiere of the restored version in 2008, & went on to conduct it in concert, the source of this recording. The sound of the SACD is clean, clear, & brilliant. This is a recording that should be of strong interest to Gergiev’s fans & anyone who loves the music.
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Erika Grimaldi, Daniela Barcellona, Francesco Meli, Michele Pertusi, London Symphony Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda – Verdi: Requiem (1874) (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:55 minutes | 1,47 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
Recently appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda gathered together an outstanding cast of Italian stars for these searing performances of Verdi’s Requiem to open the LSO’s 2016/17 season.
Originally destined to be a collaboration of movements from Italian composers to honour the death of Rossini, the Requiem evolved into a memorial for the Italian writer and poet Alessandro Manzoni, whom Verdi revered, and premiered on 22 May 1874 — exactly a year after Manzoni’s death.
The most complex and dramatic sequence is the ‘Dies irae’ (Day of wrath). The vivid text of the Last Judgement allows Verdi’s operatic talents to flourish amidst the drama and pathos. The main theme erupts in violent fury of brass and percussion while the chorus roars a descending scale pattern of intimidating catastrophe and fear. In a momentary lull, a single trumpet in the orchestra opens a simple fanfare, answered quietly by a trumpet out in the concert hall. The fanfare builds in intensity and numbers until the four trumpets on stage and four house trumpets, often spatially arranged for maximum effect, join the full orchestra for a blazing opening to the choral entrance of the ‘Tuba mirum’ (The trumpet shall sound).
Whilst not a devout Catholic, Verdi was influenced by a profound sense of higher power: combining his gifts for the theatrical with his admiration for the great Italian liturgical music of the past, he created a passionate and deeply moving masterpiece, beloved of performers and audiences alike.
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Leontyne Price, Plácido Domingo, Grace Bumbry, Sherrill Milnes, Ruggero Raimondi, Hans Sotin, Joyce Mathis, Bruce Brewer, John Alldis Choir, London Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf – Verdi: Aida (1971/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:22:11 minutes | 2,52 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical
Sony Classical is delighted to offer lovers of singing another ten complete recordings from the RCA Red Seal, CBS/Sony Classical and Eurodisc catalogues. The latest instalment of this wide-ranging series not only features some of the greatest voices of the last century but also spotlights once popular works that have been unduly neglected in recent times. At the Metropolitan in the second half of the last century, the core Italian repertoire was dominated by a formidable triumvirate of stars: soprano Leontyne Price, tenor Plcido Domingo and baritone Sherrill Milnes. Two of their most memorable recordings were set down by RCA in London in the early 1970s, both conducted by Erich Leinsdorf. “Price, the supreme Verdi soprano of her time,” declared the BBC Music Magazine, “is unsurpassed as Aida … [with] Domingo and Milnes on top form and Grace Bumbry as a formidable Amneris.” Gramophone also lauded Leinsdorf’s contribution: “He catches the grandeur of the public scenes, the delicacy of the intimate ones and carefully judges the weight and pace of each scene.”
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London Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox – Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony (2001)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:48 minutes | 1,26 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
“It was during the summer of 1911 that George Butterworth, whose enchanting 1913 idyll, The Banks of Green Willow, comprises the achingly poignant curtainraiser here, first suggested to Vaughan Williams that he should write a purely orchestral symphony.
VW dug out some sketches h’d made for a symphonic poem about London, while at the same time deriving fruitful inspiration from HG Wells’s 1908 novel, Tono-Bungay. Geoffrey Toye gave the successful Queen’s Hall premiere in March 1914, and VW subsequently dedicated the score to Butterworth’s memory.
Over the next two decades or so, the work underwent three revisions (including much judicious pruning) and was published twice (in 1920 and 1936). In his compelling 1941 recording with the Cincinnati SO, Eugene Goossens employed the 1920 version, which adds about three minutes of music to that definitive 1936 ‘revised edition’. Now Richard Hickox at long last gives us the chance to hear VW’s original, hour-long canvas – and riveting listening it makes too! Whereas the opening movement is as we know it today, the ensuing, expanded Lento acquires an intriguingly mournful, even worldweary demeanour. Unnervingly, the ecstatic full flowering of that glorious E major Largamente idea, first heard at fig F in the final revision, never materialises, and the skies glower menacingly thereafter. Towards the end of the Scherzo comes a haunting episode that Arnold Bax was particularly sad to see cut (‘a mysterious passage of strange and fascinating cacophony’ was how he described it). The finale, too, contains a wealth of additional material, most strikingly a liturgical theme of wondrous lyrical beauty, and, in the epilogue, a gripping paragraph that looks back to the work’s introduction as well as forward to the first movement of A Pastoral Symphony. Sprawling it may be, but this epic conception evinces a prodigal inventiveness, poetry, mystery and vitality that do not pall with repeated hearings. Hickox and the LSO respond with an unquenchable spirit, generous flexibility and tender affection that suit VW’s ambitious inspiration to a T, and Chandos’s sound is big and bold to match. An essential purchase for anyone remotely interested in British music.” ~~ Gramophone Classical Music Guide 2010
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Valery Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra – Mahler : Symphony No. 7 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:11:58 minutes | 653 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Musical Concepts
Few conductors turn in tightly controlled and coherent renditions of Gustav Mahler’s sprawling Symphony No. 7 in E minor, “Song of the Night,” and it often comes across either as a jumble of ironic distortions or as a strange riddle that needs to be deciphered. It would hardly seem as direct and powerful as its predecessor, the Symphony No. 6 in A minor, “Tragic,” which most conductors take at face value and frequently bring off with satisfactory results. Following his stunning 2008 success with his LSO Live recording of the Symphony No. 6 (one of the finest that work has ever received), Valery Gergiev presents the Symphony No. 7 in an equally convincing manner and avoids the unnecessary exaggerations that can make this work seem bizarre or incomprehensible. Gergiev is a straightforward interpreter, and he treats the symphony as any other big-hearted, post-Romantic masterpiece, not as a special case full of esoteric secrets, but as inventive and exciting music brilliantly laid out in an intelligible five-movement form. Taken boldly and played with steady energy, Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra make the piece hold together quite solidly, and the progression from the brooding opening through the nocturnal middle movements to the exuberant finale makes sense in symphonic terms. Recorded with crystal-clear DSD sound and presented in the super audio format, the recording is vividly detailed and surprisingly clean for being live, and the sonorities of the orchestra are absolutely true. Along with Gergiev’s spectacular performance of the Symphony No. 6, this SACD is highly recommended as one of the best releases of 2008.
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Valery Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra – Brahms: German Requiem (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:06 minutes | 1,29 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra present Brahms’ greatest choral work, the ‘German’ Requiem, featuring soprano Sally Matthews and baritone Christopher Maltman. Gergiev’s first Brahms release on LSO Live, Symphonies Nos 1 & 2, Tragic Overture & Haydn Variations was awarded 5/5 by BBC Music Magazine.
Intended to be for ‘all humanity’, Brahms’ ‘German’ Requiem is a powerful work – its central themes of melancholy and comfort are universally applicable. Non-liturgical, yet sacred and devotional in spirit, it showcases the great romantic melodies for which Brahms was renowned, and has become a popular work with choirs all over the world – admired for its mystical, consolatory and contemplative tone.
Composer: Johannes Brahms
Performer: Christopher Maltman, Sally Matthews
Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Orchestra/Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus
![London Symphony Orchestra, Bernard Haitink - Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 in E flat major 'Romantic' (2011) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/15/tfp2hht3vdvqa_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
London Symphony Orchestra, Bernard Haitink – Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 in E flat major ‘Romantic’ (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:09:10 minutes | 645 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © LSO Live
Bernard Haitink is internationally renowned for his interpretations of Bruckner and is widely recognized as the world’s leading Bruckner conductor.
Bruckner’s Symphony No 4 (‘Romantic’) conjures up visions of mediaeval knights, huntsmen and enchanted woodland, particularly through the prominent use of the horn in the work. One of his most popular pieces, it was treated to many revisions by the composer and this recording features the second version of the 1877/8 Nowak edition (published 1953) with the 1880 Finale.
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![Elizabeth Joy Roe, London Symphony Orchestra, Emil Tabakov - Britten, Barber: Piano Concertos & Nocturnes (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/12/0002894788193_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Elizabeth Joy Roe, London Symphony Orchestra, Emil Tabakov – Britten, Barber: Piano Concertos & Nocturnes (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:28 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Decca Music Group Ltd.
This solo release, a unique coupling of two of the 20th Century’s greatest piano concertos marks Decca’s first-ever recording of the Barber concerto and the first of the Britten since the classic Richter account conducted by the composer in 1970.
Elizabeth Joy Roe has been performing both works since a student at Julliard and has written extensive booklet notes which detail the intriguing parallels between the two composers. Her New York concerto debut was in the Britten conducted by James Conlon at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center and in 2003 she was invited to replace the Barber concerto’s dedicatee, John Browning, at a performance with the Delaware Symphony shortly after Browning’s death.
The album is completed with two solo piano nocturnes by each composer: Britten’s ‘Night Piece’ and Barber’s ‘Nocturne – Homage to John Field’, widely-considered the father of the nocturne.
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