Shostakovich Edition

Dmitri Shostakovich - The Symphonies: Symphonies 6, 7 & 9
Gürzenich-Orchester Köln / Dmitrij Kitajenko
2xSACD | ISO (2.0/MCH): 3,92 & 3,49 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 1,14 & 1,01 GB | Full Artwork
Label/Cat#: Capriccio # SACD71-033/34 | Country/Year: Germany 2005 | 5% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Early 20th Century, Contemporary

"Amazing dark, deep, rich string sound. Virtuosic wind playing throughout. Opening Largo slower than usual but intense all the way through. Soft gong strokes toward the end of i are superbly recorded. In all, the best I've heard, easily better than Fedoseev. (Symphony 6)" ~SA-CD.net

Dmitri Shostakovich - The Symphonies: Symphonies 14 & 15
Gürzenich-Orchester Köln / Dmitrij Kitajenko
2xSACD | SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 2,79 & 2,69 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 841 & 976 MB | Full Artwork
Label/Cat#: Capriccio # SACD71-039/40 | Country/Year: Germany 2005 | 5% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Early 20th Century, Contemporary

"Symp 15: Very good performance. A lot of character in I, darkness in II. III is devilish. IV is very powerful, with chilling final percussion chatterings. Sanderling's stereo SA-CD is very good, but the sound isn't as good; Fedoseev's SA-CD has character, but Kitajenko has better sound and performance." ~sa-cd.net

Dmitri Shostakovich - The Symphonies: Symphony 13
Gürzenich-Orchester Köln / Dmitrij Kitajenko
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 3,55 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 1,01 GB | Full Artwork
Label/Cat#: Capriccio # SACD71-038 | Country/Year: Germany 2005 | 5% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Early 20th Century, Contemporary

"Moving, intelligent, and sometimes powerful singing by the bass soloist throughout. Good chorus. Chimes are chillingly reproduced, as are some of the other percussion effects (for instance the woodblock in "In the Store"). Excellent tuba playing in "Fears"." ~sa-cd.net

Dmitri Shostakovich - The Symphonies: Symphony 11
Gürzenich-Orchester Köln / Dmitrij Kitajenko
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 3,62 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 1,07 GB | Full Artwork
Label/Cat#: Capriccio # SACD71-036 | Country/Year: Germany 2005 | 5% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Early 20th Century, Contemporary

"Beautiful, full rich string sound, and great sound overall. I is fantastic. II is slightly slower than I prefer (about 4'30"), but Kitajenko does very well with it, sustaining tension throughout. III is terrific; you can hear and feel the soft percussion toward the end. IV again has a slightly slower basic tempo than usual, but tension is sustained throughout, and the playing responsive." ~sa-cd.net

Dmitri Shostakovich - The Symphonies: Symphony 12
Gürzenich-Orchester Köln / Dmitrij Kitajenko
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 2,32 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 703 MB | Full Artwork
Label/Cat#: Capriccio # SACD71-037 | Country/Year: Germany 2005 | 5% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Early 20th Century, Contemporary

"Full and rich start. Slight transient noise from left front in first movement, about 3 minutes in. Horns at start of IV lack a little nobility, but otherwise performance is excellent throughout; timpani in IV, starting about 6'20", are thunderous." ~sa-cd.net

Gidon Kremer - Edition Lockenhaus (2011) {5CD Box Set, ECM New Series 2190-94}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.22 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 679 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 42 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2011 ECM Records | ECM New Series 2190-94 / 4764509
Classical / Chamber Music / Concerto / Modern / Romantic / Neo-Classical

Five-CD limited-edition box set, issued in time for the 30th anniversary of the Austrian chamber-music festival. “Edition Lockenhaus” returns long out-of-print titles to the catalogue, with some of the finest musicians of the New Series, including Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, Heinz Holliger, Thomas Zehetmair, Thomas Demenga, Robert Levin, Eduard Brunner and many more. Gidon Kremer: “The artistic atmosphere in Lockenhaus soon has everybody speaking on the same wavelength.” The set opens with previously unreleased recordings – from 2001 and 2008 – with Sir Simon Rattle and Roman Kofman conducting Kremerata Baltica in revelatory performances of Richard Strauss’s “Metamorphosen” and Olivier Messiaen’s “Trois petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine”: the committed interpretations convey the spirit of Lockenhaus. Discs two through five focus on music of César Franck, André Caplet, Francis Poulenc, Leos Janácek, Igor Stravinsky, Dmitri Shostakovich and Erwin Schulhoff. Original liner notes, an interview with Kremer, and new texts complete a very special edition.

… you get here is perhaps the best of all worlds: a major symphonic work idiomatically played by a first-rate virtuoso orchestra under the hands of a conductor whose contact with the work looks back to the symphony's very creation, captured in vivid, realistic sound none of the russian maestros mentioned above could ever aspire to.

Alfred Schnittke - Symphony No. 0 & Nagasaki (2007) {BIS Schnittke Edition, BIS-1647} (Item #24)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 366 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 186 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 44 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2007 BIS Records AB | BIS-CD-1647
Classical / Contemporary Classical / 20th Century

The very first recording of a work by Alfred Schnittke on BIS (Cello Sonata No.1, on BIS-CD-336) was done in 1986 and was thus one of the earliest recordings of Schnittke’s music. As the composer’s reputation rapidly grew, so did the Schnittke catalogue on BIS, coming to include the major orchestral works, as well as chamber music. The BIS Schnittke Edition now numbers 24 titles and it is with particular pride that we with this instalment add to it the last – or rather the first – of this iconic composer’s 9 completed symphonies. (Symphony No.9 was left unfinished at Schnittke’s death in 1998.) He composed Symphony No.0 (1956-57) while still a student at the Moscow Conservatory, and it was only performed once during his lifetime, by the conservatory orchestra and with Dmitri Shostakovich in the audience.