Frankfurt Kabuff

In 2006, Nicholas Angelich released his first disc of Brahms' solo piano music: a coupling of the ballades, the rhapsodies, and the Paganini Variations. He followed that up in 2007 with a two-disc set containing Brahms' four sets of late piano music. Both releases were simply fabulous. Blazingly virtuosic, deeply expressive, and immensely powerful, these were Brahms' performances to treasure.

Like his father, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi is an internationally renowned classical music conductor of Estonian heritage with a deep catalog of recordings. Born on December 30, 1962, in Tallinn, Estonia, he and his family moved to the United States in 1980. His education includes studies at the Tallinn School of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. For a decade he served as music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra prior to being named music director of the Orchestre de Paris.

As a diehard Mahlerite, I have to say I thought I knew the Seventh fairly well, but Inbal manages to make this familiar (to me) work seem utterly new and strange while holding it firmly together (which too often isn't the case in performances of this problem-child of the Mahler family). And he does this without seeming to impose his personality on the music. This is the only Seventh on disc I know of that can match the Bernstein versions (Sony and DG). And it's better-recorded than either of them. Hey Denon–when are you going to reissue all of Inbal's Mahler recordings in a boxed set, as DG did for Bernstein? This is a missed opportunity.

A beautifully lyrical, mellow and atmospheric performance, recorded with outstanding clarity and fiedlity and clearly benefiting from having been recorded ''live''. Inbal's interpretation comes close to Solti's in its happy blending of the symphony's poetry and drama. Of course, the Chicago Symphony's playing for Solti (Decca), and for Abbado's rather more impersonal approach (DG), is in a class of its own, as is the Decca recording, but the Frankfurt strings have a lovely sheen and the woodwind and brass are superb—many Mahlerians may prefer, as I do, the sound of this fine orchestra in this music to the spotlit brilliance of Muti's Philadelphia (EMI) and the sometimes insensitive though highly-dramatic New Yorkers under Mehta (CBS).

Hertel was born as son of Johann Christian Hertel, a well-respected violinist and composer. He received his first music lessons from a pupil of Johann Sebastian Bach, and he accompanied his father already at the age of 12. In 1744 he became violinist and harpsichordist at the court in Strelitz, which was dissolved in 1752. Two years later he was employed at the court in Schwerin, where he stayed until his death, although the court chapel moved to Ludwigslust in 1767. He remained at the service of the court, and concentrated on composition, organising concerts at the court and musical education.

The Music of Chick Corea's legendary group, Return To Forever… Reimagined the latest coolaboration between multiple Grammy® winner Beasley & the twice-nominated Frankfurt Radio Big Band.

This recording marks the beginning of the collaboration between the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and its new music director, the French conductor Alain Altinoglu, who conducts the leading European and American orchestras and has made a reputation for himself in every repertory – not forgetting opera at Salzburg, Bayreuth, and La Monnaie in Brussels, where he is music director. Their first disc pays tribute to a composer whose bicentenary is celebrated in 2022, César Franck, with the famous Symphony in D minor and two less well-known works, presented in new editions: the symphonic poem Le Chasseur maudit (1882) and the large-scale symphonic interlude from the oratorio Rédemption, composed in 1872 after the Paris Commune, performed here in its first version, long considered lost.

Hilary Hahn's latest album, Eclipse, celebrates the power of authenticity. Recorded with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and its Music Director (2014-2021), Andres Orozco-Estrada, it sees the triple Grammy-winning violinist deliver interpretations of three works charged with universal emotions yet rooted in their composers' musical heritage: Dvor k's Violin Concerto, Ginastera's Violin Concerto, a strikingly original 20th-century gem, and Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy.

This CD features German star violinist Christian Tetzlaff with virtuoso Romantic concertos by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann. The Mendelssohn Concerto is one of the most frequently performed violin concertos of all time, with an unfailing popularity among audiences. Also included is Schumann’s more seldom recorded Fantasy for Violin and orchestra, which he completed shortly before writing the Concerto. One of Schumann’s last significant compositions, the long-lost Violin Concerto saw its première performance only in 1937, and was hailed by Yehudi Menuhin as the “historically missing link of the violin literature.”