BR-Klassik

Friedrich Schloffer – Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D Minor (Rehearsal Excerpts) (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]

February 10, 2024 0 Comment

Mahler took his idea of “symphonic world-building” furthest in his Third.

As a result, for Mariss Jansons, the art of rehearsing Mahler also consists in retaining an overview – and to do that, a good inner compass is required. Rehearsal for the concerts on December 9 & 10, 2010 at the Philharmonie im Gasteig, Munich.

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Dejan Lazić, Muenchner Rundfunkorchester, Ivan Repušić – Istrian Rhapsody – Dejan Lazić (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

December 30, 2023 0 Comment

“The folk music of the Croatian peninsula of Istria is as characteristic as it is extraordinary. Its melodies, harmonies and rhythms are unique, and sonorously expressed by the sopila – a traditional shawm instrument – as well as through choral singing and folk dances. The music with its asymmetrical rhythms is based on the so-called ‘pentatonic Istrian scale’, which consists of major and minor seconds and is thus clearly different from the other musical styles of Croatia. Numerous non-Istrian musicians and composers have been fascinated by it – among them the Croatian composer Natko Devcic, with his ‘Istrian Suite’ for orchestra (1946), or the young Croatian pianist and composer Dejan Lazic with his ‘Concerto in Istrian Style for Piano and Orchestra’ op. 18 (2014/2021) or his ‘Alterations on the Istrian Folk Hymn’ op. 29 (2022). Natko Devcic was one of Croatia’s most important composers and music educators, leaving a lasting impression on subsequent generations of musicians. His most lasting success as a composer came with his ‘Istrian Suite’ for orchestra from 1946, which uses Istrian folk music as a source of inspiration and as a link between Slavic late Romanticism and the avant-garde. Dejan Lazic’s five-movement ‘Concerto in Istrian Style for Piano and Orchestra’ op. 18 is closely connected to Istrian music, with its melodies, harmonies and rhythms, and features the ‘Istrian scale’ as well as the typical melodies played in thirds. The central movement of the concerto is an extended cadenza in which Lazic – who has already composed cadenzas for piano concertos by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven and also arranged Brahms’ Violin Concerto op. 77 for piano and orchestra – demonstrates his diverse experience in this field. Lazic’s ‘Alterations on the Istrian Folk Hymn’ op. 29 were written for the present CD and are dedicated to the Munich Radio Orchestra and its principal conductor Ivan Repusic. The song ‘Draga nam je zemlja’, composed by Ivan Matetic Ronjgov, was and continues to be sung as a folk hymn in Istria, and in his work Lazic has taken its melody as the basis for a theme and twelve variations with coda for orchestra.

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Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Mariss Jansons – Dvořák: Symphony No. 8 / Suk: Serenade (2016) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]

December 28, 2023 0 Comment

Dvořák’s lyrical and cheerful Eighth Symphony, which premiered successfully in Prague on February 2, 1890, is one of the famous Bohemian composer’s most often-played works. He succeeded here “in writing a work different from my other symphonies, with individual thoughts elaborated in a new way”. Every movement and every melody in this music reflects the fact that it was wholly inspired by the landscape of Bohemia. Dvořák’s close familiarity with and love of Slavonic folk music can be clearly heard, as can his deep preoccupation with the symphonies of Tchaikovsky: the rhapsodic Adagio and the waltz-like Scherzo, for example, in their melodic inventiveness as well as their formal structure, are both highly reminiscent of the famous Russian composer. – Alongside Dvořák’s much-performed Ninth Symphony, his Eighth is a further masterpiece of late 19th-century instrumental music. Josef Suk’s Serenade for Strings of 1892 is far more than a mere time-filler on this CD. The first successful composition by this budding Czech composer – who was Dvořák’s pupil and son-in-law – is audibly influenced by the musical and aesthetic ideas of his teacher and mentor, but is also a highly individual work in its own right and an important example of the genre. In the recordings of the two concerts performed in the Philharmonie im Gasteig on January 29 and 30, 2016, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Mariss Jansons successfully demonstrated that Dvořák’s traditional yet visionary symphonic writing continues to retain all its validity today: the interpretation is sensitive, dynamic and majestic. Suk’s Serenade for Strings was recorded in a studio only a few days beforehand.

Exciting live atmosphere (Dvořák) combined with a studio production (Suk). Programme contains important works of late 19th-century Czech instrumental music. Recording of a concert that took place as recently as January 29 and 30, 2016 together with a studio production on January 25, 2016. The Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under its chief conductor Mariss Jansons, regularly praised for his special sensitivity where Slavonic music is concerned.

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Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Mariss Jansons – Dvořák: Stabat mater für Soli, Chor und Orchester, Op. 58, B. 71 (2016) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]

December 27, 2023 0 Comment

Dvorák’s haunting „Stabat Mater“ for solo voices, chorus and orchestra is not only the most famous work of church music by the Bohemian composer – it is also one of the most impressive ever settings of the medieval hymn in which Mary, the mother of Jesus, gives vivid expression to the pain she feels at the sight of her crucified son. The terrible misfortunes that befell the composer in his private life during the creation of this work may have been a reason for this. It is the continuous expression of deep piety, above all, that gives this music its special dignity. It was precisely this intensity that was conveyed by the concert on March 26, 2015 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz, where the four renowned soloists were in fine voice, and the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks once again delivered the ‘crystal clear sound’ and ‘incredible three-dimensionality’ for which it is highly praised time and again. And the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, conducted by Mariss Jansons, performed Dvorák’s deeply moving music authentically, in keeping with the composer’s intentions: sensitively felt, yet with a resonant, magnificent sound.

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Dieter Traupe, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mariss Jansons – Stravinsky: Petrushka, K012 (Rehearsal Excerpts) (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]

December 26, 2023 0 Comment

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (German: Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, BRSO) is a German radio orchestra. Based in Munich, Germany, it is one of the city’s four orchestras. The BRSO is one of two full-size symphony orchestras operated under the auspices of Bayerischer Rundfunk, or Bavarian Broadcasting (BR). Its primary concert venues are the Philharmonie of the Gasteig Cultural Centre and the Herkulessaal in the Munich Residenz.

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Christiane Karg – Debussy & Hahn: Vocal Works (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]

December 22, 2023 0 Comment

Weightless, floating sounds, far removed from any earthbound striving for a home key and eluding any measurable emphases; a dazzlingly bright play of colors in instrumentation and impressionist tones, combined with that affectionate, softly melodic character of the French language – that is what constitutes the special charm of the French art-song. Audibly very different from the German Lied of the Romantic and Late Romantic periods, its extremes are filled with tensions and delightful contrasts. In the concert repertoire on the German side of the Rhine, however, French solo and choral songs have remained something exotic.

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Howard Arman, Julius Drake, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks – Dvořák: Stabat Mater, Op. 58, B. 71 (1876) [Live] (2019) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]

December 22, 2023 0 Comment

The “Stabat mater” by the Bohemian composer Antonin Dvořák, well-known in its later orchestralversion, was initially composed with piano accompaniment. This rarely-heard original version has now been recorded for this new album from BR-KLASSIK, featuring the excellent Bavarian Radio Chorus under the direction of Howard Arman, and accompanied by Julius Drake on the piano. The young Dvořák was a well-studied and experienced church musician. Having graduated from the organ school in Prague, he spent three pious years as an organist in the city’s St. Adalbert’s Church. The search for a “truly sacred music” preoccupied him from the very start. The contemporary Caecilian Movement for church music reform led him, like many of his colleagues, to re-examine the Palestrina style, which represented a return to the more modest, less ostentatious and yet at the same time contrapuntally ingenious church music of a previous epoch. He duly composed a ”Stabat mater” without orchestral splendour and with a simple piano accompaniment. Shortly before Dvořák wrote down this first version of his ”Stabat mater” between February 19 and May 7, 1876, a heavy blow had struck the young family. On December 19, 1875, his daughter Josefa died two days after she was born. (It was only in August 1877 that the composer returned to the”Stabat Mater” again, orchestrated the work, and completed it on November 13. The premiere of that later version took place on December 23, 1880 in Prague). – Dvořák did not set all the verses of the hymn to music, and chose an ensemble of four soloists, a choir and a piano. This original version from the spring of 1876, with its seven-movement structure, is not a fragment, draft or piano reduction but an independent and self-contained work in its own right. In the autumn of 1877, when he composed the missing four verses and scored his ”Stabat mater” for a large orchestra, he effectively created a new and different work.

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Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Howard Arman – Edward Elgar: Partsongs – From the Bavarian Highlands (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]

December 21, 2023 0 Comment

The Bavarian Radio Chorus conducted by Howard Arman sings Edward Elgar’s song cycle “From the Bavarian Highlands” in the first version for piano accompaniment on this CD from BR-KLASSIK in a live recording of a oncert on October 26, 2019 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz.

The remaining partsongs by Edward Elgar heard on this CD were recorded in the BR studio between July and September 2020.

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Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Riccardo Muti – Verdi: Messa da Requiem (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]

December 21, 2023 0 Comment

Ever since his brilliant first appearance in Munich with the Requiem, he is still a regular guest at the BR. Riccardo Muti is currently regarded as a mature representative of the great Italian tradition. This CD release therefore has to be seen as a “classically polished gem” – a gem that shines and flashes as beautifully and as brilliantly as ever!

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Christina Landshamer, Justus Zeyen, Bavarian Radio Chorus, Howard Arman – Schubertiade (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

December 20, 2023 0 Comment

Schubert sits at the piano in a bourgeois salon in Vienna, surrounded by around 30 ladies and gentlemen applauding him. The painting by Julius Schmidt dating from 1897 captures one of those convivial musical gatherings known even during the composer’s lifetime as Schubertiades. The term was probably coined by Schubert’s friend Franz von Schober, and the first of these gatherings took place in January 1821 in Schober’s Vienna apartment. From then on, until the composer’s death in 1828, the Schubertiades were held on a regular basis with different hosts from Schubert’s circle, and always proceeded in a similar manner: Schubert played either piano solos or accompanied a singer, and usually presented new works; the guests read poetry and fiction to each other and exchanged ideas; a snack was then served, and this was frequently followed by an evening of dancing or even joint gymnastic exercises. The ritual also included Schubert going out on the town with his inner circle at the end of the evening.

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Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Howard Arman – Arvo Pärt: Miserere (Live) (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]

December 19, 2023 0 Comment

The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, born in 1935, has succeeded in bringing sacred music back to a broader audience, and away from the confines of the church service, more than almost any other contemporary composer. The meditative character of his works, and his return to the simplest and most basic musical forms, convey moments of intense spirituality. Before his emigration from the Soviet Union, Pärt had already invented what he termed the “tintinnabuli” style of composition. He produced an early and important example of this expressive style in 1977 with his Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, scored for string orchestra and bell. It is also a key feature of the choral and instrumental works presented by BR-Klassik on this new album: five works for choir as well as two for instrumental ensemble, covering all of the composer’s creative epochs between 1986 and 2019.

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Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Ivan Repušić – Arvo Pärt: Choral & Orchestral Works (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]

December 19, 2023 0 Comment

Time flows and stands still in this contemplative music that sounds old and new and yet neither old nor new, naive art and higher mathematics, a child’s game, a glass bead game, like first steps and last words – all rolled into one. The compositions that Arvo P”art has been writing for almost half a century defy any labelling or ideology. In his anachronistic art, the Estonian composer – who emigrated from the Soviet Union with his family in 1980 and found a refuge in (West) Berlin – chose the path of renunciation, reduction, and voluntary poverty. The most famous testimony to this musical conversion is undoubtedly Fratres (“Brothers”), which was written in 1977 but has appeared in all kinds of different instrumentations and versions over the years. In its ascetic austerity and almost liturgical solemnity, Fratres is reminiscent of a communal prayer or a spiritual act.

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Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Mariss Jansons – Chabrier, Gershwin, Enescu, Ravel, Liszt: Rhapsody (2016) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]

December 19, 2023 0 Comment

This latest recording from BR KLASSIK contains five great rhapsodies, devised and elaborated by very different composers from different regions, with a lot of imagination and local flavour. With his rhapsody ‘España’ the Frenchman Emmanuel Chabrier focused on the Iberian music and folk music so popular at the time, as did his more famous compatriot Maurice Ravel with his ‘Rhapsodie espagnole’, the four-movement structure of which still harks back to long-outdated symphonic forms. From the Hungarian-born Franz Liszt we have the famous ‘Hungarian Rhapsody’ No. 2, and from the Romanian composer George Enescu the scarcely less famous and popular ‘Romanian Rhapsody’. The American George Gershwin created what was probably the most famous example of the genre in the 20th century with his ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ for piano and orchestra…

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Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Howard Arman – Angelus ad Pastores – Weihnachtsgeschichte (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 44,1 kHz]

December 18, 2023 0 Comment

In the Revelation of James, an apocryphal gospel that was not included in the Bible, events and details surrounding the birth of Christ are reported that do not appear in the better-known versions of the Christmas story from the gospels of Matthew and Luke. In particular, it portrays very real people, full of emotions and conflicting feelings. Mary, not Jesus, is the focus of the narrative. The Christmas story is presented by James in a vivid, dramatic and almost theatrical manner. Howard Arman’s Christmas Story follows the tradition of works such as Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, where newly-composed settings of the Gospel alternate with chorales. Here, Gregorian and polyphonic chorales as well as several motets from the 17th century are woven into Arman’s composition and form a second narrative level. They frame the episodes of the Christmas story and can also be understood as musical reactions to the narrated events. This new BR-KLASSIK CD is complemented by the chorales from Peter Maxwell Davies’s Christmas cantata O magnum mysterium.

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Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Kent Nagano – Messiaen: Orchestral Works (Live) (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]

December 18, 2023 0 Comment

Kent Nagano was a close associate of the French composer Olivier Messiaen, whose music is notable for its sense of mysticism and sensuous sonorities. Few conductors know Messiaen’s works as well as Nagano, who is now continuing his Messiaen cycle with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with one of his mentor’s most radical pieces, the colourful Chronochromie for orchestra. Premiered at the Donaueschingen Festival in 1980, it was introduced to Munich audiences two years later by Pierre Boulez. Its title is a portmanteau word derived from the ancient Greek terms for “time” and “colour” – Messiaen was a great believer in the theory of synaesthesia and ascribed particular tone colours to all his rhythmic models. Chronochromie demands a huge battery of percussion instruments and draws its strength from its pulsating rhythms, while the strings contribute an array of birdcalls. Bruckner’s works are no less rooted in Catholicism than Messiaen’s, and it makes sense, therefore, for Nagano to programme Bruckner’s Mass No. 2 in E minor alongside Messiaen’s orchestral study. The Mass No. 2 was first performed in 1869 at an open-air concert to mark the inauguration of the Votive Chapel at Linz’s planned Cathedral. Such were the circumstances of its first performance that the choir could be accompanied only by a wind band, in this case the winds of the Linz Military Band. It is this original scoring that lends the work its very special tone colour. But the work requires no vocal soloists, presenting the Bavarian Radio Chorus with a grateful challenge and allowing its members to savour the score’s indebtedness to Palestrina’s vocal polyphony in all its transcendent beauty.

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Christina Landshamer, Munich Radio Orchestra, John Fiore – Beethoven: Egmont, Op. 84 (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]

December 17, 2023 0 Comment

In September 1809, the Vienna Hofburg Theatre commissioned Ludwig van Beethoven to create new incidental music for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s “Egmont”. The tragedy had premiered in Mainz on 9 January 1789. It calls for incidental music; but various attempts, some commissioned by the poet himself, remained unfinished or were unsatisfactory. In Vienna, however, the production of “Egmont” was to include the music called for in several places. Beethoven set to work. Since the subject matter suited him – the tragedy is set in Brussels, which is under threat from Spanish troops, and deals with resistance against oppression and foreign rule – he made good progress. Nevertheless, the Viennese theatre premiere of “Egmont” on 24 May 1810 still had to do without music; the score was not completed until the third repetition. Beethoven’s music for the play had its premiere on 15 June 1810. The music itself speaks for the fact that the commission was close to Beethoven’s heart; it far exceeds the standard of the stage music of the time. This applies to the compositional demands, but also to the relationship of the music to the drama. Instead of mere illustration, Beethoven provided an interpretation and thus an additional level of meaning. The well-known Egmont Overture, the most dramatically dense piece of drama music, anticipates the plot, introduces the characters. A clear reference to the drama is made in the ending, which corresponds exactly to the symphony of victory called for by Goethe at the end of the tragedy. Five of the ten numbers are directly integrated into the stage action; the other five, in addition to the overture and the four inter-act music pieces, are less closely linked to the drama. A concert performance of the music, conceived entirely for scenic presentation, dispenses with the context to the play. Often only the overture was and is played. – The declamation texts written by Friedrich Mosengeil, authorised by Goethe and revised by Franz Grillparzer, have been supplemented here by passages from Goethe’s Trauerspiel and newly arranged by August Zirner.

Album 1 of the present recording offers the complete version with declamation and music; album 2 features only Beethoven’s music. The box is completed with Beethoven’s overture “Zur Namensfeier”, op. 115.

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Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Concerto Köln, Peter Dijkstra – Bach: Mass in B Minor (2018) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]

December 17, 2023 0 Comment

The Mass in B minor, one of the greatest musical legacies of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), was written from 1724 until two years before his death, and was not premiered until 1835. In addition to the Bavarian Radio Chorus, this live recording features renowned soloists and Concerto Köln, an ensemble celebrated for its historical performance practice and a longtime partner of the Chorus.

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Herbert Blomstedt, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra – Schubert: Die Liebe liebt das Wandern (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]

December 11, 2023 0 Comment

Admittedly, Franz Schubert’s biography offers little in the way of great adventures, love affairs, glamour and long journeys. Jörg Handstein in what is now his tenth audio biography in the successful BR-KLASSIK series – devotes himself here to a composer with an altogether quieter life. Schubert’s story still remains an exciting one: no famous composer before him had ever chosen to lead a life in which his musical activities were supported solely by a private circle of friends. This did not succeed without resistance, setbacks, great disappointments and personal tragedies. Schubert’s unhappiness in love, his terrible illness, and probably also his early death were, ultimately, the price he paid for this unconventional life. He bravely stood his ground, however, countering an age of cultural and political paralysis with his great and bold art. In this audio biography, Schuberts creative path can be followed in around 130 musical examples something impossible in any biography in book form. Alongside Udo Wachtveitl (narrator) and Robert Stadlober (Schubert), many other voices bring the composers world and his circle of friends to life. Schuberts conventional image is encumbered by two clichés. On the one hand, we have the warm-hearted, sentimental man, known to his friends familiarly as Schwammerl (mushroom), churning out endless songs and beautiful melodies, and on the other, the incessantly tortured outsider, with music primarily conveying a sense of brokenness and alienation. This audio biography allows Schubert to speak for himself as often as possible. Despite the sparse documentation, a far more nuanced picture emerges and the well-known Austrian actor and rock musician Robert Stadlober finds richly contrasting colors for it. We discover a different Schubert here: single-minded, argumentative, philosophical, reflective, and with a wide range of interests. That is also what makes his life story so exciting.

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Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mariss Jansons, Friedrich Schloffer – Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 43 (Rehearsal Excerpts) (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]

December 11, 2023 0 Comment

Mariss Jansons ranks among the outstanding podium personalities of our time. His orchestral work is recognized not only because of his busy touring activities but also because of television and radio broadcasts world-wide, also documented by a sizable number of recordings.

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Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Franck Ollu – Wolfgang Rihm, Vol. 40 (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]

December 11, 2023 0 Comment

Wolfgang Rihm is one of the most important contemporary composers of our time. The musician, professor of composition and author from Karlsruhe, Germany is a larger-than-life personality, and the contemporary music scene is impossible to imagine without him. His knowledge of music is all-encompassing, as is his mastery of the arts, literature and philosophy – all of which serve as sources of inspiration for his composing. With more than 400 compositions, he has created a universe that cannot easily be defined. Rihm has written New Music – the titles of his compositions have come to symbolize the musical history of recent decades. Other works by him refer to music history – they include, for example, oratorios inspired by Bach, orchestral works based on Brahms, or chamber music inspired by Schumann.