Major Thomas

The exceptional status of Heidelbergs Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Thomas Fey is impressively documented by the twenty years and more of the ensembles existence. 'The orchestra plays in a relaxed manner, with virtuosity and an attractive, infectious spirit. It plunges into the music in a thoroughly adventurous mood, without ever losing its head.' (Fono Forum) Tours have taken the Heidelberger Sinfoniker to many European countries, South America and Japan. The orchestras repertoire now ranges beyond the Viennese Classical era into the later 19th century, with emphasis on German early Romantic works.

Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5, Op. 100, is his biggest, his grandest, and his greatest symphony, a massive and monumental work that celebrates the triumph of all that is decent and virtuous over all that is depraved and immoral. Fourteen years had passed since Prokofiev's last symphony.

Thomas Schippers was a talented American conductors and a particular champion of the music of Samuel Barber. He played at a public piano recital at the age of six and was a church organist when he was 14. He continued his piano studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (1944-1945). He also studied privately with Olga Samaroff (1946-1947). He went on to Yale University, where he had some lessons in composition with Paul Hindemith.

The Grammy Award-winning team of Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony releases a premium edition two-disc recording of the complete symphonies of Robert Schumann, one of the most evocative composers of the Romantic era. Michael Tilson Thomas' nuanced approach accentuates the tender, simple, and vulnerable side of Schumann's symphonies, which MTT calls a "preserve for endangered emotions." Recorded live, these performances of Schumann's symphonies are hailed as "nothing short of magnificent" by the San Francisco Chronicle. Produced by the Symphony's in-house record label SFS Media in the highest quality audio.

During their long collaboration (1997 - 2019) Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra developed a project they named ‘Opening Doors’, performing orchestral works from the Romantic era with the smaller-than-usual forces of a chamber orchestra. Due to the often revelatory results of this approach, the team went on to present at concerts around the world and on several recordings.
This box set brings together an important chapter of the project: Robert Schumann’s orchestral music, symphonies as well as overtures. In addition to his four symphonies - including both versions of No. 4 - this collection presents the Zwickau Symphony, an early, unfinished work from 1832-33, as well as a divertimento-like sequence of movements, Overture, Scherzo and Finale.

This boxed set brings together Thomas Dausgaard’s and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra’s cycle of Brahms’ symphonies, originally released as four separate volumes. Each symphony is coupled with carefully selected works to provide a well-rounded idea of the composer’s orchestral output. Favourites such as the two concert overtures are included – the laughing and the weeping one, to paraphrase Brahms himself – as well as the much loved Haydn Variations (on a theme which most likely isn’t by Haydn at all…).

Thomas Leininger’s approach to performing late eighteenth-century fortepiano music by Mozart and Beethoven is rooted in the playing styles of the time, as described in the documents that transmit the practices to us. Thomas not only liberates himself from the written page to embrace a powerful form of musical oratory that lays the foundation for his evocative performing style but he also improvises a prelude before each of the three sonatas.

On a number of previous recordings, the 40-odd members of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Thomas Dausgaard have shed a new light on the Romantic symphonic repertoire, with performances described as tight, invigorating, transparent and thrilling. Complete cycles of the symphonies of Schumann and Schubert have appeared alongside individual discs with music by Dvoák, Bruckner and Tchaikovsky, as well as a recording of Johannes Brahmss First Symphony, released in 2012.

Swiss cellist Thomas Demenga returns to Bach's suites. "To me, Bach is the greatest musical genius who has ever lived. His music is pure, sublime. It possesses something divine and each musician has a lifetime in which to discover new ways of interpreting it." Demenga previously recorded the cello suites for ECM between 1986 and 2002, juxtaposing them with contemporary composition in albums that count as milestones in the early history of the New Series.