Milhaud

Henryk Górecki is best known for his now, fortunately for us, fairly frequently performed 3rd Symphony "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs'. And while his other music is less often heard, even in the symphony halls, this recording gives the opportunity to experience yet another of this great Polish composer's major works - O Domina Nostra for soprano and organ.

Cellist János Starker with the complete concertante recordings he made under the baton of Walter Susskind, a conductor praised for his abilities as an accompanist and with whom Starker shared close aesthetics conceptions. Their refined, chamber rendition of masterpieces of the repertoire by Dvořák, Dohnányi or Prokofiev is a superb token of Starker’s deep inwardness.

Here presenting his debut album, Oleg Shebeta-Dragan came to international attention in the spring of 2022 as winner of the clarinet category at the Carl Nielsen International Competition in Odense, where he also claimed the Special Prize of the Odense Symphony Orchestra and the Junior Jury Prize. For his debut recording, Oleg Shebeta-Dragan is once again joined by the Odense Symphony for works by Busoni, Milhaud and Françaix, along with Nielsen's dynamic, intense, unpredictable and emotionally charged Clarinet Concerto.

The music of the Milhaud's Symphony No. 10 is typical of the composer's work at the time. Its polytonality and frequent recourse to spiky melodic lines makes it a work that often moves in jolts rather than smooth flow. Its harmonic language is polytonal, meaning that different lines of the music are in different keys from one another. This results in a high level of dissonance whose effect ranges from charmingly spicy to dense and hard-edged. The work remains tonal, though the almost constant presence of tones ………

Among the 443 compositions (and more) to which Milhaud appended opus numbers in the course of his long and prolific composing life (from 1910 to 1973) can be found a large number of original works and arrangements for two pianos and piano duet. The majority of the two-piano works appear on this CD (along with his duet arrangement of Le Bœuf sur le Toit), and among them are some of the most popular of all Milhaud's works.

Darius Milhaud - Ensemble Villa Musica - Kammer-Symphonien No. 1-6 / Suite D'Après Corrette / Les Rêves De Jacob
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 233 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG # L 3449 | Country/Year: Germany 1992
Genre: Classical | Style: Contemporary

Milhaud’s six little symphonies are brief, lighthearted experiments in sound combinations, and they are also very charming. These performances are delightful … precise, spirited, brilliant …
I don’t see how anyone could go wrong with these performances, which MDG captures in bright, characterful sound.

Darius Milhaud - Ensemble Villa Musica - Kammer-Symphonien No. 1-6 / Suite D'Après Corrette / Les Rêves De Jacob
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 233 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG # L 3449 | Country/Year: Germany 1992
Genre: Classical | Style: Contemporary

Milhaud’s six little symphonies are brief, lighthearted experiments in sound combinations, and they are also very charming. These performances are delightful … precise, spirited, brilliant …
I don’t see how anyone could go wrong with these performances, which MDG captures in bright, characterful sound.