The Mahaviscu Orchestra

Conductor Shea Lolin and composer/producer Christopher Hussey have returned to Prague to record with the Czech Philharmonic Wind Ensemble, carefully curating an album of premiere recordings spotlighting the woodwind orchestra, capturing its kaleidoscopic colours and symphonic potential in order to deepen and broaden appreciation of the medium’s power.

The three works by Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky that Christoph Eschenbach and the Philadelphia Orchestra perform on this Ondine twofer are usually found as filler pieces on other albums, often coupled with one or another of the symphonies or concertos, so this combination is a bit out of the ordinary. The fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet and the symphonic fantasy Francesca da Rimini are often paired and work fairly well together because of the similarity of their stormy Romantic music and tragic subjects, even though Romeo and Juliet is plainly the superior piece of the two. But the Serenade for strings is possibly Tchaikovsky's most Classically balanced work, and it stands in stark contrast to the other selections for its cool beauty and elegance.

Pianist Daniil Trifonov releases Destination Rachmaninov - Departure, the first of two albums comprising Trifonov's cycle of the great Russian composer's piano concertos. The album features Concertos Nos. 2 & 4, recorded with Yannick Nezet-Seguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra (the same orchestra with which Rachmaninov recorded this set of concerti over 80 years ago), along with Rachmaninov's solo piano transcriptions of three movements from Bach's Violin Partita in E Major.

To mark his debut on Deutsche Grammophon with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin pays tribute to his legendary predecessor on the podium, Leopold Stokowski. The transcriptions of Bach's organ music are among Stokowski's most celebrated achievements, and none is more famous than his expansive arrangement of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, which was prominently featured in Walt Disney's Fantasia. It's a classic showpiece for the orchestra, as are Stokowski's fulsome orchestrations of the "Little" Fugue in G minor, and the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor.

1931 was the breakthrough year for 32-year-old Hungarian immigrant Eugene Ormandy. First, he was engaged by the Philadelphia Orchestra to deputize for his idol Toscanini, who was briefly indisposed. Then, a few months later, he was asked to step in for the conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, also indisposed – but in this case permanently. Soon Ormandy was hired to take over that rising Midwestern orchestra. At the end of his five-year tenure in Minneapolis, which produced a considerable discography for RCA Victor (available in an 11-CD Sony Classical box set), Ormandy was called back to Philadelphia, this time to become its co-conductor with Leopold Stokowski. In 1936, he began recording regularly for Victor with his new orchestra, picking up the pace in 1938 when he became its sole music director.

It's hard to believe that it's almost 30 years since Joshua Bell recorded these concertos with Ashkenazy and the Cleveland Orchestra. They still sound very good, and I was particularly taken by the Wieniawski because I had enjoyed Heifetz's performance from the early 1950s, but the quality of the orchestral sound here made me realize what the earlier recording lacked. The Tchaikovsky is excellent too, and Ashkenazy's accompaniments are alert and well-integrated with the solo part, and the recording, thankfully, does not spotlight the violin unduly the balance seems just right to me.