This release features a selection of works written at the very beginning, and at the very end of Richard Strauss’ career. In a way, it’s not surprising at the consistency of style in these works. In those later years, Strauss became increasingly nostalgic for those earlier times. A good example is the Duett-Concertino for clarinet […]
Concerto
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Explosive performance of Allan Pettersson Violin Concerto
You could consider Swedish composer Allan Pettersson a musician’s musician. His symphonies, though rarely performed in concert halls, are considered ground-breaking masterworks. Since 2009 maestro Christian Lindberg has been moving through Pettersson’s orchestral catalog. This release is but the latest in his string of outstanding Pettersson recordings. The official title of the major work on […]
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Anne-Marie McDermott performs Mozart with exuberance and precision
Volume two of Anne-Marie McDermott’s Mozart series builds on the success of volume one. McDermott’s playing is as beautiful as ever. There’s apparent chemistry between her and the Odense Symphony Orchestra. Though each of the three concertos on this release has a different conductor, there’s a remarkable consistency in the interpretations. Piano Concerto No. 15 […]
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Myroslav Skoryk Violin Concertos 1-4; great music from Ukraine
This is the start of a two-volume traversal of violin concertos by Myroslav Skoryk. Skoryk, a major figure in Ukrainian music wrote a total of nine concerti. He was a prominent composer both in the Soviet and post-Soviet eras. Skoryk uses Ukrainian folk elements in his music, but not in obvious ways. Skoryk wrote his first […]
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Guitar Double Concertos Showcase Spanish Composers
I was a little surprised when this album crossed my desk. I thought it was an album of concertos for two guitars. Not quite. It’s an album of concertos for two instruments, one of which is always a guitar. Each concerto pairs the guitar with a different instrument. Each is written by a different composer, […]
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Hummel Piano Concertos on original instruments. Hmmm
Brilliant Records continues their traversal of Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s piano concertos. It’s a worthy project. Hummel was a major figure in the early 19th Century Vienna. He was friends of both Beethoven and Schubert. He was regarded as near-equal to the former, and more successful than the latter. Hummel was a virtuous pianist (at age […]
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Johann Simon Mayr piano concertos on par with Haydn’s
The German composer Johann Simon Mayr dominated the music scene in northern Italy in the early 1800s. He was the maestro di cappella at the Cathedral of Bergamo and wrote a prodigious amount of music: over 70 operas, 18 masses, and 57 symphonies. Today, he’s best known (if at all) as Gaetano Donizetti’s teacher. This […]
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Leila Schayegh delivers lively performances of LeClair violin concertos
I think I’m seeing a pattern here. This second volume of Jean-Marie LeClair violin concertos features four selections: two each from his Opus 7 (1739) and Opus 10 (1743). And just as they did in volume one, the concertos share the same numbers. In this case, nos. 1 and 3. Violinist Leila Schayegh and La […]
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Raphael Wallfisch continues concerto cycle with Ben-Haim, Korngold, and Bloch
This installment of Raphael Wallfisch’s innovative series features three very different composers. “Cello Concertos by Jewish Composers in Exile” is in its fourth volume. All three composers were Jewish, and all were forced from their homes. But not every work on this album is a concerto (sort of). The outlier is Ernest Bloch, represented by […]