London Philharmonic Orchestra Vladimir Jurowski

This recording was taken from a live performance during the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2019/20 season at London’s Royal Festival Hall. The recording captures the thrill and electricity of the live performance.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s celebrated Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski conducts live recordings of Tchaikovsky’s last symphonie. The Sixth Symphony, "Pathétique", is a passionate work whose tragic finale gained significance with Tchaikovsky’s sudden death just days after he conducted its first performance in St. Petersburg.

The first instalment of Vladimir Jurowski’s Tchaikovsky cycle – the Manfred Symphony – was recorded live in December 2004, one of the early releases on the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s own label. With all the classic symphonic, melodic, and ballet elements of a Tchaikovsky composition, this Manfred is haunting, brilliant and seamless, as good a Tchaikovsky symphonic performance as you could want, and the most enjoyable.

The first of three volumes focusing on Stravinsky’s music conducted by Vladimir Jurowski includes his Opus One, the Symphony in E-flat, unmistakably Russian and that young Igor was a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov. It’s a likeable piece, leaning to Borodin in places, confident and imaginative, with a featherlight Scherzo, an intensely eloquent Largo, and a Finale of Imperial swagger, handsomely brought off by the LPO and Jurowski in immediate and clear sound, the very ideal of the Royal Festival Hall. Mezzo Angharad Lyddon is excellent in Faun and Shepherdess, straight out of the Tchaikovsky songbook, and anticipations of the Stravinsky to come (Firebird anyway) surface with Scherzo fantastique, given a buoyant outing, with fantasy and clarity in equal measure. The ‘lost and found’ Funeral Song – interesting because Stravinsky wrote it (in memoriam Rimsky) rather than for its musical worth, although Jurowski finds more than some previous performances (the piece went viral a few years ago). A shame that this first disc does not include Fireworks, Stravinsky’s Opus Four, for then his first five Opuses would be together, although that way of cataloguing his works would cease.

This recording is the second of a highly rated three volume Stravinsky series recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with then Principal Conductor (now Conductor Emeritus) Vladimir Jurowski.

‘This music is absolutely ideally placed to Jurowski’s strengths: his precision and ability to inspire playing of the greatest delicacy, pointing, accuracy and warmth is exactly what’s called for in this score’ Bachtrack.com, September 2012. This release marks the 29th on the LPO label conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, and is the first Jurowski-conducted Richard Strauss release to date. The performances of the three works on this release were also critically well received, with the soloists within the Orchestra noted for their ‘poise’ and ‘exquisite handling’ of Die Frau ohne Schatten and Jurowski’s ‘perfect blending of rich textures’ in Eine Alpensinfonie (The Arts Desk).

Recorded live at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London on 3 October 2014 (The Isle of the Dead) and 14 December 2016 (Symphony No. 1).

After 10 years as Principal Conductor, Vladimir Jurowski made this concerto recording to showcase some of the amazing musicians who play next to each other every day in the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This is especially evident in the Sinfonia Concertante for 4 Winds.

Vladimir Martynov’s Utopia Symphony is a musical tribute to Singapore from a son of the Russian avant-garde of the 1970s. Martynov skillfully combines influences from American minimalism and Russian Orthodox chant with a libretto inspired by the ancient text of the Tao Te Ching to create a sound world which seeks to reimagine the concept of utopia.