Rundfunkchor Berlin – Brahms (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 52:59 minutes | 517 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical
Here’s a remarkable recording showcasing a little known aspect of Brahms’ genius: his sacred choral music. As a choirmaster in Detmold, Hamburg and Vienna, he left behind an enormous amount of choral works, both sacred and secular. Composed based on extracts from Hölderlin’s famous epistolary novel Hyperion, the Song of Destiny (Schicksalslied) opens this splendid album with an atmosphere reminiscent of A German Requiem. The first two verses picked by Brahms invoke the carefree and peaceful world of Ancient Gods, while the third ends with a dramatic illustration of human destiny. This contrast is a recurring theme throughout Brahms’ literary choices, and makes up the backbone of this recording.
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Rundfunkchor Berlin & Gijs Leenaars – Bruckner: Mass No. 2 in E Minor – Stravinsky: Mass (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 53:07 minutes | 499 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone
The Rundfunkchor Berlin, led by its chief conductor Gijs Leenaars and accompanied by wind players from the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, presents masses by Bruckner and Stravinsky. The mass is arguably the oldest genre in music history, full of traditions, but also an inexhaustible soil for originality and innovation. This mix of tradition and innovation makes the genre an ideal vehicle for Bruckner and Stravinsky, who were both masters at blending the old and new into a uniquely personal musical idiom. Bruckner’s Mass in E Minor and Stravinsky’s Mass share their unusual orchestrations of almost a cappella voices with a sparse, extraordinary wind accompaniment. While Bruckner was inspired by open air “country masses”, Stravinsky’s Mass is emblematic of his neo-classical style.
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Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Marek Janowski – Richard Wagner – Lohengrin (2012)
3xSACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 9,24 GB | Full Artwork
Label/Cat#: Pentatone # PTC 5186 403 | Country/Year: Netherlands 2012
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Opera
Lohengrin is the third volume of PentaTone’s monumental undertaking of the recording of all 10 major Wagner Operas. The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester und Chor, under the direction of Janowski, accompanies top Wagner soloists in each release. The cycle will be complete in the end of the Wagner year, 2013.
‘Janowski’s Dutchman indicates that he is on course for a triumphant Wagner Cycle.’ – Gramphone Magazine ‘It is a phenomenal achievement of Marek Janowski to have welded his immense forces into a virtually flawless unity.’ – BBC Music Magazine
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Rundfunkchor Berlin, Juri Tetzlaff, Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Steffen Tast – Humperdinck: Der Blaue Vogel (Concert Version Ed. S. Tast) (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:27:51 minutes | 806 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CapriccioNR
Maurice Maeterlinck completed his play The Blue Bird (“L’Oiseau bleu”) in 1908. Several of his previous works had proved popular as operatic subjects (Pelléas et Mélisande and Ariane et Barbe-Bleue) so it’s no wonder that composers jumped at the opportunity to set his latest creation to music.
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![Berlin Philharmonic, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Sir Simon Rattle - Holst: The Planets (2006/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/01/0094635938258_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Berlin Philharmonic, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Sir Simon Rattle – Holst: The Planets (2006/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:24:27 minutes | 701 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Warner Classics
Is it chance or serendipity that Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic timed their new recording of Holst’s The Planets to coincide with the current astronomical upheaval? Though Holst learned of the discovery of Pluto four years before he died, it probably did not occur to him to add another movement, especially since the work’s last section, ‘Neptune, the Mystic,’ ends in an other-worldly, ethereal fade-out, enhanced by an off-stage wordless women’s chorus. He would have been surprised by the latest development in Pluto’s status, but undoubtedly pleased that his ultimately incomplete Suite– which had become more popular than he had expected or thought it deserved–had inspired another British composer, Colin Matthews, to write a successful companion piece, ‘Pluto, the Renewer,’ in 2000. Moreover, the Berlin Philharmonic added to Holst’s galaxy by commissioning four composers to write a movement each for a Suite called ‘Asteroids.’ This is its premiere recording.
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