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Happy #NewReleaseFriday! Get some #FridayFeeling with Franz Welser-Möst and friends. Usually I just watch the Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Concert on TV, but 2023's was such fun that I'm galloping, waltzing and marching on my #NewReleases playlist too!
Plus a Frenchman conducts Franck in Frankfurt, Poulenc's delightful Sinfonietta and more.
Haydn: Complete Symphonies Vol. 27
Banish New Year blues with high-spirited Haydn! This Heidelberg cycle is as perky, punchy and playful as ever in irrepressible early symphonies by the father of the genre.
Rapier-sharp strings and boisterous brass blow post-Christmas cobwebs away. Expressive andantes really let the music breathe and minuets are delightfully danceable.
Get invigorated by my #RecordOfTheWeek playlist. https://spoti.fi/3GS0cNq
Also on this week's playlist: the latest instalment of the always-invigorating Heidelberg Haydn symphony cycle, Malcolm Arnold from my wonderul local orchestra the BBC Philharmonic, and music by Norwegian Romantic Ole Hjellemo (1873-1938) who will be a new discovery for me.
Happy #NewReleaseFriday! I've long wished for someone to record the four #symphonies by Grażyna Bacewicz. At last my wish is coming true thanks to CPO, whose catalogue is a treasure trove of rediscovered repertoire. Check out Vol. 1 on my playlist of the week's #symphony and #orchestral #NewReleases, updated every Friday https://spoti.fi/3GJ8V4o
#DiscoveryOfTheWeek W. H. Reed is best-known as Elgar's biographer but this lovely recording reveals an excellent composer in his own right. These quartets are gorgeous - passionately expressive, harmonically imaginative and full of fine tunes. A revelation!
#SymphonistsChoice2022 #1
#RecordOfTheYear
After a life devoted to early music Jordi Savall turned his hands to Mozart and Beethoven symphonies. Now here's Schubert that stirs my senses and rouses my emotions like no other recording I know.
His orchestra also sound unlike any other, adding menace to the darkness and pain of the Unfinished and so much rustic brio to the Great that I wanted it to go on forever.
Great music making from a great musician.
#SymphonistsChoice2022 #2
Nielsen: Symphonies 4 & 5
Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Fabio Luisi
Not discovered Nielsen? Get this. Need convincing he's one of the greatest symphonists of all? Get this. Already know he is and own lots of Nielsen symphony records? GET THIS!
If the remaining volumes maintain the standard set here then this may become THE Nielsen #symphony cycle for the 21st-century. That would make me a very happy Nielsen lover indeed.
The only problem with the recording phenomenon that is the Sinfonia of London and John Wilson is which of their phenomenal recordings to choose. The attention to detail, superlative playing and stunning sound has made each new release a revelation whether the music is unfamiliar fayre or firm favourites. All five of their 2022 Chandos albums are magical, but it's in Hollywood that their wizardry is most irresistible of all.
My dream Wranitzky recording is finally here! These magnificent performances quickly make it clear why in his day the symphonies of Paul Wranitzky (1756-1808) were arguably more popular in Vienna than any by Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven. Listen out for impressive special effects including cannon fire, sleigh bells and a thunderstorm complete with howling wind. Storming stuff!
#SymphonistsChoice2022 #5
Thomas de Hartmann: Orchestral Music Vol. 2
Ukraine-born de Hartmann is my #DiscoveryOfTheYear. His music is often as brilliantly scored as his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov's, with an expansive scale and cinematic sweep as wide as the Russian steppes. The Symphonie-Poème No. 1 is painted on a vast 65-minute canvas packed with colour, balletic vitality and dramatic incident. The perky double-bass concerto is a delight.
