Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Paavo Järvi – Franz Schmidt: Complete Symphonies (2020) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]

Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Paavo Järvi – Franz Schmidt: Complete Symphonies (2020) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]

At a time when many of his contemporaries were exploring more fluid structures, Franz Schmidt while perhaps stretching tonal harmony to its limits, continued to embrace 19th-century form and achieved a highly personal synthesis of the diverse traditions of the Austro-German symphony. His language, rather than being wedded to a narrative of dissolution and tragedy is radiant and belligerently optimistic and reveals this scion of largely Hungarian forebears as the last great exponent of the style hongrois after Schubert, Liszt and Brahms.

His work having fallen from prominence, Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony’s dazzling live performances of all four of his symphonies, and the famous Notre Dame Intermezzo, shine a new light on this fascinating oeuvre and also on an affable and genial soul, and reminds us of the constant need to reappraise and enrich our account of music during the first half of the 20th century.

Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Alain Altinoglu – Franck: Symphony in D Minor – Rédemption – Le chasseur maudit (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 44,1 kHz]

Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Alain Altinoglu – Franck: Symphony in D Minor – Rédemption – Le chasseur maudit (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 44,1 kHz]

This recording marks the beginning of the collaboration between the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and its new music director, the French conductor Alain Altinoglu, who conducts the leading European and American orchestras and has made a reputation for himself in every repertory – not forgetting opera at Salzburg, Bayreuth, and La Monnaie in Brussels, where he is music director. Their first disc pays tribute to a composer whose bicentenary is celebrated in 2022, César Franck, with the famous Symphony in D minor and two less well-known works, presented in new editions: the symphonic poem Le Chasseur maudit (1882) and the large-scale symphonic interlude from the oratorio Rédemption, composed in 1872 after the Paris Commune, performed here in its first version, long considered lost.

Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Pablo González – Tjeknavorian & Sibelius: Violin Concertos (2020) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]

Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Pablo González – Tjeknavorian & Sibelius: Violin Concertos (2020) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]

Viennese rising star Emmanuel Tjeknavorian presents his first orchestral album, featuring an unusual and yet highly personal programme. First there is his signature piece, Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, which brought him not one but two prizes at the 2015 Sibelius Competition, and which has been his debut on international concert stages ever since. Then there is the Violin Concerto by his father, Loris Tjeknavorian, which he gives its world premiere on this recording.

Bruno Philippe, Tanguy de Williencourt, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Christoph Eschenbach – Prokofiev: Sinfonia concertante (2019) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

Bruno Philippe, Tanguy de Williencourt, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Christoph Eschenbach – Prokofiev: Sinfonia concertante (2019) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

With this new album devoted to Prokofiev, cellist Bruno Philippe continues his exploration of Russian music. Having already recorded a recital of Rachmaninov’s and Myaskovsky’s Sonatas with Jérôme Ducros, here he is reunited with his long-time musical partner Tanguy de Williencourt on the piano, but also with his mentor, conductor Christoph Eschenbach leading the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt. On the program, Prokofiev’s (surprisingly?) romantic Cello Sonata, coupled with his Sinfonia concertante, that Mount Everest of technical challenges – both works having been written for the great Rostropovitch, who gave them their first performances in 1950 and 1952.

Anne Gastinel, Nicholas Angelich, Gil Ottensamer, Andreas Ottensamer, Paavo Järvi, Frankfurt Radio Symphony – Beethoven: Triple Concerto, Op. 56 & Trio, Op. 11 (2018) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]

Anne Gastinel, Nicholas Angelich, Gil Ottensamer, Andreas Ottensamer, Paavo Järvi, Frankfurt Radio Symphony – Beethoven: Triple Concerto, Op. 56 & Trio, Op. 11 (2018) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]

The Triple Concerto is recorded here in concert, which is sure to guarantee a bit of spontaneity for a work of great symphonic dimensions – 35 minutes long – which owes as much to chamber music as to concert symphonies. There is still the question of whether it’s better to call in an established trio for the triple soloist part: Anne Gastinel, Gil Shaham and Nicholas Angelich didn’t know each other musically beforehand, and they opted, here again, for spontaneity and stepping out of the routine: which pays off brilliantly, as the orchestra is directed by Paavo Järvi, who can tailor the performances so well. His judicious eye is indispensable to this rather dense work, which tends to move in circles in terms of tonalities. The album closes with the Gassenhauer trio for clarinet (with Andreas Ottensamer), cello and piano (with the same soloists as for the Concerto), recorded in studio. The title Gassenhauer was chosen after the fact, in view of the different themes in the third movement, which came from an opera which was a smash hit in Vienna – and the Viennese slang of the day, a “hit” is called a “Gassenhauer”.