No 戴佩妮

This recording of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony is an event, because it was made with period instruments of the kind the composer used in Vienna. The Mahler Academy Orchestra set itself the task of reconstructing this instrumentarium and researching how musicians of the time played it: ‘We were struck during our rehearsals by the incredibly distinctive characterisation of the woodwinds, the shattering blare of the brass, the perfect balance between the instruments, and the pure and warm sound of the strings…

Out on Glossa is the first-ever recording of one of the most important preserved dramatic works by one of the major figures of the European full Baroque, José de Nebra: Vendado es Amor, no es ciego, a 1744 summertime zarzuela success in Madrid. Alberto Miguélez Rouco conducts an animated vocal sextet and Los Elementos in a production prepared for and executed under the auspices of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Rather than the moralizing plots of the dramma per musica, zarzuelas focused on tales of love, power and slanging matches between mythological figures with commentary provided by comic frequently bawdy characters.

Recorded live in 2016—almost exactly 100 years to the day since Leopold Stokowski conducted The Philadelphia Orchestra in the US premiere of the work—Mahler’s Eighth once again awes and overwhelms. Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s superb musicianship and skill in choral repertoire make this very special indeed. The orchestra plays magnificently, the choirs sing as if their lives depended on it, and the numerous soloists are well chosen, with Erin Wall and Angela Meade the standouts. The recording captures the symphony’s scale as well as its complex spatial demands. A terrific account of a work whose performance still ranks as a major musical event.

Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s revelatory interpretation of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, recorded live at Walt Disney Concert Hall (30/31 May & 2 June 2019) will be released in June 2021. Their new album documents a landmark performance that brought the LA Philharmonic’s centennial season to a triumphant conclusion in 2019. Mahler’s extraordinary ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ spans a universe of emotions, channeled through everything from passages of intimate reflection to overwhelming outbursts of choral and orchestral sound.

May 23rd: centenary of the great pianist Alicia de Larrocha. Iberia was a favorite of Larrocha, who performed and recorded this absolute summit of Spanish piano music very often. This is the original Hispavox recording of 1962, a feverish rendition full of panache that has rarely been equaled in the discography. It comes with some other hits by Isaac Albéniz.