The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works

Krzysztof Penderecki (Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki), born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these works exhibit novel compositional techniques. Since the 1970s Penderecki's style has changed to encompass a post-Romantic idiom.

Herbert von Karajan’s Strauss recordings of the early 1980s, remastered in the 1990s, for the Karajan Gold Edition are a benchmark of lifetime of engagement with the composer in the concert hall and studio, and won unparalleled critical acclaim. For the first time they have been brought together in a specially priced single box. ”The greatest Strauss conductor of his day“ (The Penguin Guide)

In the third CD in his continuing series of the great Swedish late romantic composer, Kurt Atterberg, Neeme Jarvi interprets the two symphonies here in an invigorating manner with tempos that are rather fast and sometimes abrupt. Although the performances by Ari Rasilainen done some 15 years ago to my ears are still the preferred performances of these pieces in terms of bringing out the greatness of Atterberg's musical genius, Jarvi offers the listener a valid interpretation. Although his tempos are often rather too rushed and the adagio moments almost too quiet, the Gothenberg musicians are playing music that is close to their heart with impassioned and soaring string playing and the brass sections brilliant. The slow lyrical introduction to the final movement of Symphony No 1 with concertmaster Sara Troback Hesselink gives us the most moving and beautiful bars Atterberg ever composed.

It would be especially interesting to hear Jarvi's interpretation of Atterberg's older contemporary Peterson-Berger who is mentioned in the booklet notes. Although his role as a music credit affected his reputation in his lifetime, this says little of his melodic qualities and orchestration, which makes him one of the three greatest Swedish late romantic composers to my ear with Atterberg and Wilhelm Stenhammer and a cut above Hugo Alfven and Ture Rangstrom.

This disc is especially valuable for the only performance of the 1947 revised version of the 5th symphony. The book notes are also especially valuable with informative background along with archival photographs. The recording is also the best available in Chandos 24 bit sound. These additional features should give this CD a 4 1/2 star rating.

The 50 Greatest Pieces of Classical Music consists of famous selections performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of David Parry, with additional appearances by violinist Pieter Schoeman, pianist Finghin Collins, and guitarist Craig Ogden. While the term "greatest" may be debatable in the instance of some of the pieces, "popular" is a description that's easier to support, for there's no denying the staying power of these pieces. Indeed, some are so well-loved, they have become obligatory on such collections and are likely found in most listeners' collections.

This programme of 1920s French music is in the hands of a conductor who gets right into the spirit of it, and plenty of spirit there is too. Apart from the Ibert, this is ballet music, and that work too originated as a theatre piece, having been incidental music for Eugene Labiche's farce The Italian Straw Hat. Poulenc's unfailingly fresh and bouncy suite from Les biches is very enjoyable although Chandos's warm and resonant recording takes some of the edge off the trumpet tone that is so central to the writing. The geniality of it all makes one forget that this is remarkable music in which (as Christopher Palmer's booklet essay points out) the twentieth-century French composer evokes eighteenth-century fetes galantes through the eyes of that greatest of nineteenth-century ballet composers, Tchaikovsky.