George Szell, The Cleveland Orchestra Mozart* – Symphonies Nos. 39 & 40 Exsultate, Jubilate

Claudio Abbado was undeniably the supreme Mahler conductor of our time. With his Lucerne Festival Orchestra he has set new standards in the field of classical music, especially in the interpretation of works by Gustav Mahler. The core of the orchestra is provided by the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, itself an élite body of players. Soloists like violinist Kolja Blacher, clarinettist Sabine Meyer, oboist Albrecht Mayer, violist Wolfram Christ, cellist Natalia Gutman, the Hagen Quartet and members of the Alban Berg Quartet to name just a few, make the Lucerne Festival Orchestra a star-studded ensemble.

The Cleveland Orchestra is the "aristocrat among American orchestras" (The Telegraph), and the ensemble's music director Franz Welser-Most, leads them with verve and precision. These three discs from Belvedere (DVD and Blu-ray) feature six and a half hours of music, presenting a cycle of all the major orchestral works of Johannes Brahms. Included are the complete Symphonies and Piano Concertos, the Violin Concerto, the Tragic Overture, the Academic Festival Overture, and the Haydn Variations. Soloists include violinist Julia Fischer and pianist Yefim Bronfman.

Valery Gergiev is widely recognized as the greatest modern interpreter of Tchaikovsky's music and the Mariinsky Orchestra holds a peerless reputation in the repertoire. These acclaimed performances were filmed at Salle Pleyel in Paris during January 2010 and directed by Andy Sommer. The themes of fate and death pervade Tchaikovsky's final symphonies. The composition of the fourth symphony coincided with the breakdown of Tchaikovsky's marriage and a failed suicide attempt and the sixth symphony premiered shortly before Tchaikovsky's death. The disc includes a bonus interview of Maestro Gergiev directed by Tommy Pearson.

Known to Tchaikovsky as the ‘Russian Brahms’ and to Rachmaninov as ‘a master composer [and] a pinnacle of musical Moscow’, Sergey Taneyev was one of the most highly regarded and influential musical figures of his time. His unfinished Symphony No. 2, begun while Taneyev was a student at the Moscow Conservatoire, was recognised by his teacher, Tchaikovsky, as a work of considerable promise. It is heard here in Vladimir Blok’s edition, first performed in 1977. Taneyev’s Symphony No. 4, composed twenty years later, is a large-scale masterpiece considered by many to be his finest orchestral work.

London Symphony Orchestra - Sibelius Symphonies Nos 3 & 7 - Sir Colin Davis (2018) {B&W Society of Sound LSO96 16-44.1}
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© 2018 LSO / B&W Society of Sound | LSO96
Classical / Early 20th Century

With his Third Symphony, Sibelius began a process of innovation that was to culminate in his Seventh and final symphony. He discarded the conventional structure of a symphony, and into each work condensed a unique aura that evokes beauty, mystery, colour and light together with his love of his Finnish homeland.

Laurence Equilbey, conducting her period-instrument Insula Orchestra, champions the composer Louise Farrenc, a prominent and pioneering figure in 19th century Paris.