![Concertgebouworkest, Antonio Pappano, Javier Camarena – Berlioz: Requiem, Op. 5 (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 192 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/30/v4gvxfio8dyva_600.md.jpg)
Concertgebouworkest, Antonio Pappano, Javier Camarena – Berlioz: Requiem, Op. 5 (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 192 kHz]
Berlioz composed his Requiem at the request of a French government minister to commemorate the soldiers who died in the July Revolution in 1830. The Requiem would become one of Berlioz’s most popular works, among other things because of its imaginative instrumentation and gigantic orchestration, including four brass ensembles distributed throughout the hall. The work was also dear to the composer’s own heart. He once said, ‘If someone were to threaten to destroy all my works, I would beg for mercy on behalf of my Grande messe des morts.’
![Concertgebouworkest – Beethoven: Symphonies Nos 1-9 (2020) [FLAC 24 bit, 44,1 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/30/hdijexm6xomnb_600.md.jpg)
Concertgebouworkest – Beethoven: Symphonies Nos 1-9 (2020) [FLAC 24 bit, 44,1 kHz]
Ludwig van Beethoven’s ‘Nine Symphonies’ are the core repertoire of virtually every orchestra in the world and the Concertgebouworkest is no exception. Until the 1960s the Beethoven tradition of the Concertgebouworkest meant yearly symphony cycles that closed concert seasons. Later on Beethoven ‘Symphonies’ were mainly programmed one at a time, with a different (guest) conductor. This box set offers the finest recorded Concertgebouworkest live performances of the ‘Nine Symphonies’ since the 1970s. With a variety of conductors, from Leonard Bernstein to Nikolaus Harnoncourt it demonstrates the orchestra’s incredible versatility.
The Beethoven symphonies: all nine of them stunning masterworks, all nine performed countless times. Be that as it may, there are conductors who can recontextualise these symphonies in such a way that they sound completely new, as Iván Fischer proved in 2013 and 2014 in his Beethoven Series with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, spread out over two seasons. A veritable journey of discovery through a familiar landscape.
![Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Ivan Meylemans, Kurt Masur – Brass Too (2015) [FLAC 24 bit, 88,2 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/10/vpd7bb3vaacfb_600.md.jpg)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Ivan Meylemans, Kurt Masur – Brass Too (2015) [FLAC 24 bit, 88,2 kHz]
This is the sequel to the highly successful album Brass which put the brass section of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the spotlight. Seven years later comes Brass Too, the pun in the title also pointing to the idea behind this album: the works of Shostakovich and Piazzolla, for instance, were not originally written for brass, but in these arrangements they sound lovely. Although Hindemith is not known as a composer of brass music, he has written for this family of instruments too. The album includes a new work by the RCO’s house composer Detlev Glanert proving that brass can sound completely different.
![Behzod Abduraimov, Concertgebouworkest, Valery Gergiev – Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3 (2020) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/08/29/nmshtf0wgku7a_600.md.jpg)
Behzod Abduraimov, Concertgebouworkest, Valery Gergiev – Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3 (2020) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]
Serge Rachmaninoff himself played his Third Piano Concerto in 1911 in the Netherlands with the Concertgebouworkest and Willem Mengelberg. He noted at the time: “The musicians thought it was beautiful, but the audience and the critics did not.” In the end, pianist Vladimir Horowitz was able to inspire the audience for the work, and today ‘Rach 3’ is considered to be one of the warhorses in the repertoire. With this notoriously difficult concerto the young Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov made his dazzling Concertgebouworkest debut under the direction of Valery Gergiev.
![Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Daniele Gatti – Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique (2016) [FLAC 24bit, 352.8 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/01/qera2adqqvq7b_6007395ec00fbb72960.md.jpg)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Daniele Gatti – Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique (2016) [FLAC 24bit, 352.8 kHz]
With the release of this live recording of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, RCO Live celebrates the start of its collaboration with Daniele Gatti as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s seventh chief conductor on 9 September 2016. His unconventional take on this spectacular score evokes the astonishment audiences must have experienced at the time of the 1830 premiere. It is exactly this sense of surprise and freshness – founded on a thorough knowledge of the score – and the sheer joy of making music together that prompted the members of the RCO to choose Daniele Gatti as their new chief conductor.