Cetin Isikozlu Turkish Army Symphony (symphonic Fantasia, Op.6, 1973)

Called Symphonic Dances, this disc serves a four-fold purpose. First, it serves the purpose of returning Keith Lockhart to the catalog. After landing a contract with RCA leading the Boston Pops Orchestra, Lockhart returns here leading the Utah Symphony Orchestra. Lockhart has clearly grown since his time with the Boston Pops: his conducting here is well-judged, well-balanced, and well-executed. Second, it serves the purpose of returning the Utah Symphony to the catalog.

Paavo Berglund (1929-2012) was recognised as a father-figure in modern Sibelius conducting. He notably recorded no less than 3 times his complete symphonies, with the Bournemouth Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic and later with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Besides much music of his homeland and Scandinavia in general he was able to demonstrate his prowess in Russian music, particularly Shostakovich, and flair for British music including Vaughan Williams and Bliss. After his time in Bournemouth and Helsinki he conducted all the major British orchestras as well as the Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Staatskapelle Dresden and the New York Philharmonic and Cleveland Orchestras.

The third and final volume of the Fesca Symphony series by Biermann and the NDR Radio Philharmonic, which received a great welcome! The symphonies and orchestral works of Bohemian composer Friedrich Ernst Pesca (1789-1826), who died at the early age of 37, all show the overflowing power, unique elegance, and ability to bring out the colors of the orchestra in the post-Beethoven era. In particular, Symphony No. 1, which captures the spirit of a 22-year-old young man, makes us realize that the praise he received from his contemporaries was not false. The performance of the conductor and orchestra, which introduced this hidden composer to the world, is full of affection, empathy, and confidence.

This 10-CD box set of British orchestral music brings together a mouth-watering selection from the enterprising series of discs that the English conductor Douglas Bostock has made with various orchestras for the Classico label.
Important British composers are certainly featured - there are CDs devoted to Elgar, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Bax and Arnold - but this imaginative collection also includes many surprises, just waiting to be discovered, such as symphonies by Frederic Cowen and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Alan Bush and Ruth Gipps, concertos for orchestra by Edward Gregson, Alun Hoddinott and John McCabe, plus a host of smaller works. The recordings here, many world premieres, date from 1998 to 2005.

In Bulgaria, both folk and art music evince an ancient tradition that strikes awe even in some of the great music nations today. The way Pancho Vladigerov incorporated these folk-music themes into his concert pieces shows not only his affinity for them but also suggests that he felt something of a calling to promulgate and champion the folk-traditions of his central European homeland. The most-performed work of Pancho Vladigerov’s is undoubtedly his Bulgarian Rhapsody op.16 “Vardar” from 1922. The most outstanding must be his Seven Symphonic Bulgarian Dances op.23 (1931), with which he might have wanted to create a counterpart to Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, Dvorák’s Slavonic Dances, or Grieg’s Norwegian Dances or similar such popular aural nationalistic postcards.