Lloyd Symphonies

British Conductor Steven Lloyd-Gonzalez makes his debut recording for First Hand Records with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the 6th & 9th Symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich; two of the composer's more enigmatic and intimate works. The scale and breadth of the 6th Symphony's opening nocturnal Largo contrasted with the livelier and shorter 2nd and 3rd movements emphasises the work's unique form and place in the 20th century symphonic oeuvre.

Philips's collection of major works that have propelled Gavin Bryars to New Music stardom is an effective overview of his music. The longest work is his Cello Concerto, handsomely played by Julian Lloyd Webber with a big, colorful tone and sustained intensity throughout its contemplative half-hour. A comparable mood pervades the bright tintinnabulating textures of the whimsically titled One Last Bar, Then Joe Can Sing. Similar as well, in their attractive serenity and suppressed sadness, are many of the other works here, prime among them the viola concerto in all but name, The North Shore, a tone painting of the rugged cliffs of northeast England. Adnan Songbook, settings of six poems by Lebanese poet Etel Adnan, are beautifully sung by soprano Valerie Anderson and delicately scored for a small ensemble. Bryars's biggest hits, The Sinking of the Titanic and Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, have inspired him to numerous reworkings and capsuled fragments. They're represented by Titanic Lament, depicting a hymn tune dissolving into gray, watery textures, and two very different four-minute versions of Jesus' Blood, both with Tom Waits.

THE ANALOGUE YEARS presents a 50-Album overview across 54 CDs, in original jackets, of the celebrated international recordings that emerged from the London-based record label in that pre-digital era.

Here are three 20th-century violin concertos written within a 30-year period in three totally different styles, played by a soloist equally at home in all of them. Bernstein's Serenade, the earliest and most accessible work, takes its inspiration from Plato's Symposium; its five movements, musical portraits of the banquet's guests, represent different aspects of love as well as running the gamut of Bernstein's contrasting compositional styles. Rorem's concerto sounds wonderful. Its six movements have titles corresponding to their forms or moods; their character ranges from fast, brilliant, explosive to slow, passionate, melodious. Philip Glass's concerto, despite its conventional three movements and tonal, consonant harmonies, is the most elusive. Written in the "minimalist" style, which for most ordinary listeners is an acquired taste, it is based on repetition of small running figures both for orchestra and soloist, occasionally interrupted by long, high, singing lines in the violin against or above the orchestra's pulsation.

Leonard Bernstein was an American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist. His music was an eclectic mix of theatre music, jazz and neoclassicism. This diverse Modern period composer created works in virtually all genres. As already stated, Bernstein was an eclectic composer whose music fused elements of jazz, theatre music and neoclassicism, the latter inspired by composers like Copland, Stravinsky, Milhaud, and Gershwin. Some of his works, especially his score for West Side Story, helped bridge the gap between classical and popular music.

Celebrated as the musical poet of the English landscape, Vaughan Williams was also a visionary composer of enormous range: from the pastoral lyricism of The Lark Ascending and the still melancholy of Silent Noon to the violence of the Fourth Symphony and the grand ceremonial of All people that on earth do dwell, he assumed the mantle of Elgar as our national composer. This edition, released to mark the 50th anniversary of his death, presents all the major orchestral, chamber, vocal and stage works, as well as many lesser pieces and rarities, in the finest interpretations. All your favourite Vaughan Williams is here, in over 34 hours of music on 30 CDs.

Ultimate Dvorak: The Essential Masterpieces. The title alone lends itself to all kinds of problems. Who decides which of Dvorák's compositions are indeed his "essential" ones? Are the performances of these masterpieces also the ultimate? This five-disc collection by Decca is certainly an adequate introduction to some of Dvorák's most popular works: the final three symphonies, the cello concerto, and the Serenade for Strings. What's more noticeable is what's missing; despite Dvorák's rather significant contribution to chamber music, this genre is passed up in favor of lesser-known works like the Op. 44 Wind Serenade or both the Op. 46 and Op. 72 Slavonic Dances.

Curated by leading musicologist and writer Nigel Simeone, Decca and DG's 20C series is devoted to the compositional high points of the 20th Century, presenting a comprehensive overview of classical music from an often-turbulent era. Volume One is a 28-CD set that features 26 iconic works by 26 composers from 1900-1949 and includes a timeline of musical premieres from that period with repertoire notes by Simeone.