These works share the common key of E flat major but represent two very different stages in the composer’s life. The Piano Concerto No. 0, WoO 4, written when Beethoven was 13 years old, is one of his earliest works. With the orchestral score lost, this extant version for piano solo written in Beethoven’s hand includes the tutti sections reduced for piano. The radiant ‘Emperor’ Concerto shows the 38-year-old Beethoven at the peak of his creative powers, and remains a glorious example of his spirit triumphing over life’s adversities.
The Spaghetti Epic 4 made by The Samurai Of Prog is the continuation of a series of settings or reinterpretations of some Spaghetti Westerns.
Fourth part of The Spaghetti Epic is now released by The Samurai Of Prog. And listening to albums made by them means listening to excellent progressive rock songs dedicated to the golden era of the genre. A tribute to the progressive rock bands of the Seventies. Retro prog in full glory! And of course with lots of Mellotrons, Hammond organs and Minimoogs! Together with the many sound fragments of gunshots, locomotives, and saloon piano parts you certainly get back in the time when the famous Spaghetti Westerns were made. Using instruments such as trumpet, banjo, flute and viola gives the album a Western atmosphere…
Selim Palmgren, a student of Busoni, was one of the leading Nordic composers during the first decades of the 20th century. His wide-ranging music for piano was performed and recorded by some of the greatest artists of the day. This third volume in the first complete cycle of Palmgren’s piano music on disc includes a varied cross-section of works written over a 50-year period. It includes the youthful Lyriskt intermezzo, Op. 8, romantic miniatures of great charm – as well as one of his greatest achievements, the atmospheric suite Kevät (‘Spring’), in which impressionist elements fuse with rich Finnish folk melody.
With over 35 million views, Anna Fedorova's live performance of Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto is the most viewed classical concerto video on YouTube. We are proud to release the long-awaited studio recording of this beloved concerto, together with Rachmaninoff's 4th Piano Concerto.
Spanish Composer Ruperto Chapí was born in 1851 in Villena, Alicante province, where he began his musical studies at an early age. Showing an exceptional talent, he moved to Madrid at the age of sixteen, continuing his studies at the capital’s Conservatorio under the tutelage of Emilio Arrieta. After stints in Rome and Paris (where he met Saint-Saëns), he came back to Spain in 1880, where he began his affiliation with the world of zarzuela (Spanish lyric opera), eventually becoming one of the major exponents of this genre in the history of Spanish music. It is with his zarzuela La Tempestad (1882) that he achieves his first national success. Many more would follow during his lifetime, with over a hundred lyric works, including the one that made Chapí a household name in Spain, La Revoltosa (1897).
After a period-instrument reading of the Symphony no.1 that received unanimous acclaim from the critics, François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles return to Mahler. Joined by the luminous voice of Sabine Devieilhe for the famous finale, they offer us their vision of the Fourth Symphony, which in its own way marks the composer’s transition to modernity, and reveal unsuspected colours and instrumental balances. We still have much to learn about the polyphonic transparency possible within Mahler’s big orchestra!
The London Symphony Orchestra's cycle of Brahms symphonies was Bernard Haitink's first set of recordings on the LSO Live label, originally released individually throughout 2004-05, and then as a boxed set in 2005. This collection of remastered recordings is now available on SACD, and digitally in spatial audio. Bernard Haitink's revelatory Brahms recordings with the LSO have demonstrated why fresh new interpretations of his major works are so important, and why the composer's music is still so relevant today. After struggling for years to come to terms with his fear of comparison to Beethoven, Brahms finally completed his First Symphony at the age of 43. It was hailed as a triumph and the remaining three symphonies followed relatively easily. His Symphony No.2 overflows with a relaxed, pastoral beauty, while the Third Symphony contains some of the most dramatic music Brahms was to compose. Finally, loaded with German Romanticism and including variations on a Bach cantata, Brahms' final symphony is a remarkable example of his mastery of symphonic composition. A rich, warm work that builds on a sense of movement and intensity right up to the final bars. Along with the symphonies, this release also includes Brahms' Double Concerto, Tragic Overture and Serenade No.2.
With over 35 million views, Anna Fedorova's live performance of Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto is the most viewed classical concerto video on YouTube. We are proud to release the long-awaited studio recording of this beloved concerto, together with Rachmaninoff's 4th Piano Concerto.
Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major, WAB 104, is one of the composer's most popular works. It was written in 1874 and revised several times through 1888. It was dedicated to Prince Konstantin of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst. It was premiered in 1881 by Hans Richter in Vienna to great acclaim. The symphony's nickname of Romantic was used by the composer himself. This was at the height of the Romantic movement in the arts as depicted, amongst others, in the operas Lohengrin and Siegfried of Richard Wagner.