![Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Risto Joost – Tõnu Kõrvits: Hymns to the Nordic Lights & Other Works (2020) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2023/01/18/a7hpa3ixzpmyc_600.md.jpg)
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Risto Joost – Tõnu Kõrvits: Hymns to the Nordic Lights & Other Works (2020) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]
Tõnu Kõrvits (b. 1969) is together with Arvo Pärt and Erkki-Sven Tüür among the most interesting Estonian composers of our time. This album by the Estonian NSO and Risto Joost consists of orchestral works written between a period of ten years, from 2007 to 2018. These works have been inspired by a variety of themes and are rich with delicate atmosphere possessing a particularly Northern feel combined with a romantic and Impressionistic touch.
![Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Risto Joost – Tõnu Kõrvits: The Sound of Wings (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2023/07/03/atuxehdw9llka_600.md.jpg)
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Risto Joost – Tõnu Kõrvits: The Sound of Wings (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
Estonian composer Tõnu Kõrvits (b. 1969) belongs to his country’s most prominent composers. His works are rich with delicate atmosphere possessing a particularly Northern feel combined with a romantic and Impressionistic touch. This new album by the award-winning Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and conductor Risto Joost is the final volume in a trilogy of works for choir and orchestra.
![Elisabeth Breuer, Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Aapo Hakkinen – Beethoven: Egmont, Op. 84 (Live) (2019) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2023/01/05/chxpgypxeauec_600.md.jpg)
Elisabeth Breuer, Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Aapo Hakkinen – Beethoven: Egmont, Op. 84 (Live) (2019) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
Beethoven was really following his heart when he chose to set Goethe’s dramas to music. The work is a dream of a utopia of a free humanity; a dream Beethoven had already held up in his opera Fidelio and that reached its culmination in his Ninth Symphony. Written in 1788, Goethe’s piece has the Count of Egmont grappling with a despotic Duke, who represents the Spanish invader in Flanders. Arrested, imprisoned and abandoned, he is condemned to death. But his martyrdom turns out to be a victory against absolutism. For Beethoven, this was a goldmine. With great enthusiasm, he sent his score to the poet… And got no response.
![Dzeraldas Bidva – Balsys: Violin Concerto No. 1, Reflections of the Sea & Dramatic Frescoes (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/12/24/f2mxd9hj7iqsc_600.md.jpg)
Dzeraldas Bidva – Balsys: Violin Concerto No. 1, Reflections of the Sea & Dramatic Frescoes (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
This new album introduces to international audience the music of Eduardas Balsys (1919–1984), a key figure in Lithuania’s music from the 1950s until his death in 1984. This album release by the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Modestas Pitrėnas includes three works from this award-winning composer, including his early breakthrough work, Violin Concerto No. 1, alongside two other orchestral scores. In these works, Balsys reveals himself as a master of rich, colourful orchestral scores.
![Christian Tetzlaff, Tanja Tetzlaff, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin & Paavo Järvi – Brahms: Double Concerto, Viotti: Violin Concerto No. 22; Dvorák: Silent Woods (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 44,1 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2023/10/12/d28jky780a35b_600.md.jpg)
Christian Tetzlaff, Tanja Tetzlaff, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin & Paavo Järvi – Brahms: Double Concerto, Viotti: Violin Concerto No. 22; Dvorák: Silent Woods (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 44,1 kHz]
This album by violinist Christian Tetzlaff and cellist Tanja Tetzlaff together with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Paavo Järvi, is dedicated in the memory of their longtime artistic partner, pianist Lars Vogt (1970–2022). At the heart of this album is Brahms, one of Lars Vogt’s favourite composers, and his late orchestral masterpiece, the Double Concerto. Brahms himself had admired one of Viotti’s violin concertos so much that he included material from the Violin Concerto no.22 into his work. With Christian Tetzlaff’s recording of the Violin Concerto, this album finally brings these two works together. Also included is Dvořák’s beautiful Silent Woods for cello and orchestra, a work by another composer that was very close to Lars Vogt’s heart.
![Christian Tetzlaff, Tanja Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt – Schubert: Chamber Works (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2023/03/01/mxvqmiysyeh1b_600.md.jpg)
Christian Tetzlaff, Tanja Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt – Schubert: Chamber Works (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
This new double-album by pianist Lars Vogt, violinist Christian Tetzlaff and cellist Tanja Tetzlaff includes some of Franz Schubert’s (1797–1828) greatest works of chamber music, including his Piano Trios and the Arpeggione Sonata, in breath-taking interpretations.
![Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt – Beethoven: Violin Sonatas, Op. 30 Nos. 1-3 (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/11/21/f1o4ayk51u8kb_600.md.jpg)
Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt – Beethoven: Violin Sonatas, Op. 30 Nos. 1-3 (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
The award-winning duo ensemble formed by Christian Tetzlaff and Lars Vogt are returning to the masterworks of European chamber music with this new album that includes Ludwig van Beethoven’s (1770-1827) three violin sonatas from Op. 30. The expressive and intimate chamber music recordings by the star duo have gathered numerous awards and their previous album also received an ECHO-Klassik award in 2017. Beethoven wrote his three Violin Sonatas, Op. 30 in 1801 and 1802. They are relatively early works but already pointing towards the direction of Beethoven’s revolutionary 3rd Symphony, “Eroica”, which was completed in 1803. Although the influence of Haydn is still visible, in these Sonatas Beethoven created movements in all the sonatas that are completely untypical and that had never existed before in this way. No wonder that these delightful works belong to the artists’ favourite works by the great composer.
![Christian Tetzlaff, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Robin Ticciati – Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 & Berg: Violin Concerto To the Memory of an Angel (Live) (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/06/sd9t08lxwjz7b_600.md.jpg)
Christian Tetzlaff, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Robin Ticciati – Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 & Berg: Violin Concerto To the Memory of an Angel (Live) (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
In this new concerto album one of the greatest violinist of his generation, Christian Tetzlaff, offers profound interpretations of two deeply dramatic and lyrical concertos – those of Brahms and Berg – together with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Robin Ticciati.
![Christian Tetzlaff, Tanja Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt – Dvořák: Piano Trios Nos. 3 & 4 (2018) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/11/21/ctquktg93v64a_600.md.jpg)
Christian Tetzlaff, Tanja Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt – Dvořák: Piano Trios Nos. 3 & 4 (2018) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
This fruitful collaboration by three eminent chamber musicians, Christian Tetzlaff, Tanja Tetzlaff and Lars Vogt, brings together two Piano Trios by the Czech master, Antonín Dvorák (1841–1904). During the last eight years, artists forming this unique trio have recorded eight albums of chamber music for Ondine with great acclaim, including some of the Romantic standard works. These two chamber music masterpieces by Antonín Dvorák express great emotional depth and dark passion.
![Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt – Brahms: The Violin Sonatas (2016) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/10/0761195128428_60074204536f609bf4a.md.jpg)
Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt – Brahms: The Violin Sonatas (2016) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
Award-winning violinist Christian Tetzlaff together with pianist Lars Vogt offer an exciting program of Violin Sonatas by Johannes Brahms (1833–1897). This new release continues a successful series of recordings of violin chamber works by the artist duo.
![Basque National Orchestra, Robert Trevino – Americascapes (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/08/23/x0jxkcjqzmaka_600.md.jpg)
Basque National Orchestra, Robert Trevino – Americascapes (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]
All four American composers on this new album by the Basque National Orchestra and conductor Robert Trevino wrote music that was known, played and esteemed during their lifetimes, but none of them ever had a huge “hit” and so the pieces here are likely familiar only to musical scholars. Yet while it is uncommon enough to find Charles Martin Loeffler, Henry Cowell, Carl Ruggles and Howard Hanson sharing the same album, the conductor Robert Trevino has taken his exploration still further, into the recesses of their repertory – complete with a Hanson piece, Before the Dawn, that has had to wait a century for this, its premiere recording.
![Basque National Orchestra, Robert Trevino – Ravel: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/11/30/yvpdfwwa8oe4b_600.md.jpg)
Basque National Orchestra, Robert Trevino – Ravel: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
Robert Trevino’s first album together the Basque National Orchestra featuring orchestral works by the great French-Basque composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) received an excellent response. The program in this second volume is perhaps more ‘French’ in nature, but the Basque orchestra is giving dazzling performances of these works by their own national composer. While the first album was focused on some of Ravel’s most popular orchestral works, this album includes some rarities, including Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) in it’s complete ballet version, as well as one world premiere recording: Pierre Boulez’s orchestration of Ravel’s World War I era piano work, Frontispice.
![Lars Vogt – Bach : Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (2015) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/08/21/0761195127322_600.md.jpg)
Lars Vogt – Bach : Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (2015) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]
Many concepts have been applied to the playing of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, on the piano rather than the harpsichord for which it was originally composed. There are readings that attempt to restrict the piano’s dynamic ambit to keep it close to that of a harpsichord, those that go full-on Romantic, and monumental takes that recognize the sheer unprecedented scope of the work. Fewer, though, are those that recognize the original story of the work’s origin, recounted by Bach’s early biographer Forkel: a Russian ambassador in Saxony, named Kaiserling, had trouble sleeping and prevailed upon a young pianist named Goldberg to serenade him to the land of dreams with a harpsichord, asking Bach to compose something for these sessions. The tale has been widely disbelieved, but there is no reason to suppose that quiet, intimate Goldberg Variations are any less valid than an epic one. That’s what’s here from German pianist Lars Vogt, who manages the neat trick of delivering a truly pianistic interpretation without turning it into a Romantic one. He does so by keeping the volume low throughout and by reining in the temptation to make the big minor-key variations at the middle and end into anguished dissonant cries. Instead they are moderate in tempo and quietly dreamy, to delightful effect, and one might indeed imagine the insomniac Russian count drifting off to them. In general Vogt’s treatment is straightforward, with nothing brought so far to the fore that it would interfere with the considerable contrapuntal detail that emerges naturally from the individual variations. With excellent engineering from Ondine, working in the Deutschlandfunk Chamber Music Studio in Cologne, this is a highly recommended tonic to grandiose Goldberg Variations played on whatever instruments.
![Baiba Skride – Eller: Violin Concerto, Fantasy, Symphonic Legend & Symphony No. 2 (2018) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/08/22/hdx6mfxvncyic_600.md.jpg)
Baiba Skride – Eller: Violin Concerto, Fantasy, Symphonic Legend & Symphony No. 2 (2018) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]
With a career spanning two thirds of the 20th century, Estonian composer Heino Eller (1887-1970) can be rightfully considered as one of the founders of the country’s national musical style. His style remains resolutely tonal while taking on board the influences of French impressionism, German expressionism, and of course Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius, but also a certain “nationalism” in the choice of themes. At the outset of his career in the 1920s, his country had been liberated from the grip of the Russian Empire before falling back into the hands of the USSR in 1940. In those twenty years, a feeling of a distinct Estonian culture developed.
![Christian Tetzlaff, Tanja Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt – Brahms: The Piano Trios (2015) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/10/0761195127124_600.md.jpg)
Christian Tetzlaff, Tanja Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt – Brahms: The Piano Trios (2015) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
Award-winning violinist Christian Tetzlaff and pianist Lars Vogt are joined together with Tanja Tetzlaff in this exciting new recording of the Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Piano Trios.
![Anu Komsi, The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu – Lindberg: Accused & Two Episodes (2020) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/06/29/covr997hq8szb_600.md.jpg)
Anu Komsi, The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu – Lindberg: Accused & Two Episodes (2020) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]
This new album by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Hannu Lintu includes two of Magnus Lindberg’s (born 1958) recent compositions featuring soprano Anu Komsi as soloist in Accused. Magnus Lindberg is among the leading figures in today’s contemporary music and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra enjoys a particularly close relationship with the composer.
![Anne Sofie von Otter, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu – Sibelius – Tapiola, En Saga & 8 Songs (2017) [FLAC 24 bit, 88,2 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/18/0761195128954_600.md.jpg)
Anne Sofie von Otter, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu – Sibelius – Tapiola, En Saga & 8 Songs (2017) [FLAC 24 bit, 88,2 kHz]
This new release by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu is an all-Sibelius programme featuring internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. The album includes two major tone poems by Jean Sibelius (1865 1957), Tapiola and En Saga, combined with a set of songs orchestrated by Aulis Sallinen (b. 1935) in 2015. Sibelius’ magnificent tone poem Tapiola, written shortly after the 7th Symphony, may be regarded as the culmination of a period that began with the Fifth Symphony, a period where Sibelius created music that grew organically out of tiny germs into huge processes. It was completed in 1926 and remained Sibelius’ last great orchestral work. In Tapiola, Sibelius appears to equate the primacy of nature with the value of art for its own sake, the unattainable truths of which remain uneroded by time or by the shifting ideals of mankind. Sibelius stated to his private secretary: ”My inspiration for Tapiola came wholly from nature, or even more accurately from something inexpressible in words.” The genesis of En Saga, originally premiered in 1892, is also shrouded in mystery, and even later in life Sibelius was reluctant to go into any detail regarding its content. It is among Sibelius earliest orchestral works, and its original title in Swedish, En saga, refers to ancient Nordic tales of heroes and gods. Although En saga is among the most popular works by Sibelius today, the premiere of the work was not a success and Sibelius revised the score in 1902. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Sibelius s birth in 2015 composer Aulis Sallinen (b. 1935) orchestrated a cycle of songs for mezzosoprano Anne Sophie von Otter. This cycle of eight songs contains several less known songs in a cavalcade juxtaposing human emotions and innermost thoughts with the natural environment and experiences in nature. The recent recordings by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu on Ondine have gathered excellent reviews in the international press.