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Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra & Susanna Mälkki - Sibelius: Karelia Suite, Rakastava & Lemminkäinen (2024)

Posted By: delpotro
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra & Susanna Mälkki - Sibelius: Karelia Suite, Rakastava & Lemminkäinen (2024)

Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra & Susanna Mälkki - Sibelius: Karelia Suite, Rakastava & Lemminkäinen (2024)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 290 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 191 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:18:27
Classical | Label: BIS

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra can with justification be regarded as ‘Sibelius’s own orchestra’, as it was this orchestra, usually conducted by the composer, that premièred most of his major works. On this disc of three such pieces, the orchestra is conducted by Susanna Mälkki; the recording follows on from their three acclaimed albums devoted to the music of Bartók.

Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra & Pekka Huusisto and BBC Schottish Symphony Orchestra - Pictured Within; Jaakko Kuusisto

Posted By: ciklon5
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra & Pekka Huusisto and BBC Schottish Symphony Orchestra - Pictured Within; Jaakko Kuusisto

Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra & Pekka Huusisto and BBC Schottish Symphony Orchestra - Pictured Within; Jaakko Kuusisto
FLAC (tracks), Lossless | 1:06:25 | 246 Mb
Genre: Classical

This disc is a double tribute. The first work, Pictured Within, is a collective effort conceived as a major project to mark the 60th birthday of conductor Martyn Brabbins, whose reputation in new music and British music is beyond reproach. Following the pattern of Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Pictured Within is a series of 14 variations on a theme, each of which takes up the character of the equivalent variation in Elgar’s work, the difference being that here 14 different composers have each contributed a variation in tribute to Brabbins. Also on the SACD is Jaakko Kuusisto’s Symphony, a fitting tribute to the composer, conductor and violinist who passed away in 2022. Illness left Jaakko no time to complete his work, so it fell to his brother Pekka – who conducts here – and Jari Eskola to finish it. The result is a powerful piece, full of familiar themes and melodies derived from Jaakko’s existing compositions, to which are added autobiographical extra-musical elements. The moving conclusion is a collage of fragmented phrases inspired by the signals emitted by lighthouses and ships, as if Kuusisto’s spirit had been sent out to sea.

Tuomas Ollila, Leif Segerstam, Eri Klas - Jean Sibelius: Music & Art Inspired by Kalevala (2022)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Tuomas Ollila, Leif Segerstam, Eri Klas - Jean Sibelius: Music & Art Inspired by Kalevala (2022)

Tuomas Ollila, Leif Segerstam, Eri Klas - Jean Sibelius: Music & Art Inspired by Kalevala (2022)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 263 Mb | Total time: 62:42 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Ondine | # ODE 1052-2 | Recorded: 1990-1996

Was den deutschen ihr Nibelungenlied, das ist den Finnen die Kalevala. Dieses Nationalepos inspirierte Sibelius zu künstlerischen Höchstleistungen, wie Der Schwan von Tuonela oder Tapiola. Im reich bebilderten Booklet werden zudem die wichtigsten Szenen durch Werke des Nationalkünstlers Aksela Gallen-Kallelas illustriert. Für die Zusammenstellung konnte man aus dem reichhaltigen Fundus hervorragender Sibelius-Aufnahmen des Ondine-Katalogs schöpfen.

Leif Segerstam, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - Rautavaara: Garden of Spaces; Clarinet Concerto; Cantus Arcticus (2005)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Leif Segerstam, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - Rautavaara: Garden of Spaces; Clarinet Concerto; Cantus Arcticus (2005)

Leif Segerstam, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - Einojuhani Rautavaara: Garden of Spaces; Clarinet Concerto; Cantus Arcticus (2005)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 223 Mb | Total time: 59:08 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Ondine | # ODE 1041-2 | Recorded: 2003, 2004

This marvelous disc contains what unquestionably is the finest available performance of Cantus Arcticus, Rautavaara's most popular piece. (…) Excellent sonics, warm and well-balanced (in the concerto).

Christian Tetzlaff, Helsinki PO, John Storgards - Antonin Dvorak: Violin Concerto, Romance; Josef Suk: Fantasy (2016)

Posted By: Designol
Christian Tetzlaff, Helsinki PO, John Storgards - Antonin Dvorak: Violin Concerto, Romance; Josef Suk: Fantasy (2016)

Antonín Dvořák: Violin Concerto, Romance; Josef Suk - Fantasy in G minor (2016)
Christian Tetzlaff, violin; Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra; John Storgårds, conductor

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 285 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 153 Mb | Artwork included
Genre: Classical | Label: Ondine | # ODE 1279-5 | Time: 01:06:30

This performance of the fiery Fantasy in G minor for violin and orchestra, Op. 24, of Josef Suk, with violinist Christan Tetzlaff catching the full impact of the irregular form with its dramatic opening giving out into a set of variations, is impressive. And Tetzlaff delivers pure warm melody in the popular Romance in F minor, Op. 11, of Dvorák. But the real reason to acquire this beautifully recorded Ondine release is the performance of the Dvorák Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53, a work of which there are plenty of recordings, but that has always played second fiddle (if you will) to the Brahms concerto. Tetzlaff and the Helsinki Philharmonic under John Storgårds create a distinctive and absorbing version that can stand with the great Czech recordings of the work. Sample anywhere, but especially the slow movement, where Tetzlaff's precise yet rich sound, reminiscent for those of a certain age of Henryk Szeryng, forms a striking contrast with Storgårds' glassy Nordic strings. In both outer movements as well, Tetzlaff delivers a warm yet controlled performance that is made to stand out sharply.

Vladimir Ashkenazy, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - Einojuhani Rautavaara: Piano Concerto No. 3, Autumn Gardens (2000)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - Einojuhani Rautavaara: Piano Concerto No. 3, Autumn Gardens (2000)

Vladimir Ashkenazy, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - Einojuhani Rautavaara: Piano Concerto No. 3, Autumn Gardens (2000)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 268 Mb | Total time: 67:45 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Ondine | # ODE 950-2 | Recorded: 1999

Like fellow Finn Jean Sibelius, Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928) creates gorgeous music indebted to nature–works that ebb and flow rather than crescendo. But that's where the comparison ends. Rautavaara's works continue to grow and evolve, evoking spirituality, Impressionism, and nonclassical elements; the culmination of which can all be found on the Vladimir Ashkenazy-commissioned Gift of Dreams". From its atmospheric opening to the pounding, bluesy chords that follow, Rautavaara has created something truly original here. A Rhapsody in Blue for the 21st century? You decide. Conducting from the piano, Ashkenazy leads the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra through this and Autumn Gardens, a short symphonic work evoking the melancholy beauty of fall and its many colors. This is a very special disc, the premier of two truly great works that you'll be hearing about for a very long time. Essential.

Leif Segerstam, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - Einojuhani Rautavaara: Symphony No. 8, Harp Concerto (2001)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Leif Segerstam, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - Einojuhani Rautavaara: Symphony No. 8, Harp Concerto (2001)

Leif Segerstam, Marielle Nordmann, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - Einojuhani Rautavaara: Symphony No. 8, Harp Concerto (2001)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 222 Mb | Total time: 52:30 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Ondine | # ODE 978-2 | Recorded: 2001

Good music for the harp doesn't exactly grow on trees, and it would be small compliment to say that of all concertos for harp and orchestra, this one is the finest (…). The performance here makes the strongest possible case for this masterpiece, which deserves the widest possible circulation in concert. Ondine's Rautavaara series has revealed to music lovers one marvelous work after another, and with each new release Rautavaara's stature as one of the greatest composers working today only increases.

Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, James DePreist - Giya Kancheli: Symphonies 1, 4 & 5 (1995)

Posted By: Designol
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, James DePreist - Giya Kancheli: Symphonies 1, 4 & 5 (1995)

Giya Kancheli: Symphonies 1, 4 & 5 (1995)
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra; James DePreist, conductor

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 234 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 144 Mb | Scans included
Genre: Classical | Label: Ondine | # ODE829-2 | Time: 00:59:22

Giya Kancheli is one of Eastern Europe's most important contemporary composers, respected by musicologists and fellow composers alike. Schnittke said of him: 'His most striking quality…is the rare gift of being able to suspend all sense of time. From the very first note we are released from our ordinary, everyday time-sense to float, cloud-like, in eternity.' The political upheavals through which Kancheili has lived have greatly affected his music, which dwells on a complexity of interrelated themes - grief, fear, solitude, vigil, memory, nostalgia, innocence, intolerance, protest. It is profoundly influenced by the spirit of the folk music of his native Georgia.

Susanna Mälkki, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings (2021)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Susanna Mälkki, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings (2021)

Susanna Mälkki, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (2021)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 281 Mb | Total time: 69:09 | Scans included
Classical | Label: BIS | # BIS-2378 SACD | Recorded: 2018, 2019

On two highly praised discs, Susanna Mälkki and her players in the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra have released recordings of Béla Bartók’s three scores for the stage – The Miraculous Mandarin, The Wooden Prince and Bluebeard’s Castle, all written before 1918. The team now takes on two of his late orchestral masterpieces. Composed in 1936 for the Basel Chamber Orchestra, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta is one of the purest examples of Bartók’s mature style, with its synthesis of folk music, classicism and modernism. One immediately striking feature is the unusual instrumentation: two string orchestras seated on opposite sides of the stage, with percussion and keyboard instruments in the middle and towards the back.

Susanna Mälkki, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - Béla Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle (2021)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Susanna Mälkki, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - Béla Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle (2021)

Susanna Mälkki, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - Béla Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle (2021)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 251 Mb | Total time: 60:30 | Scans included
Classical | Label: BIS Records | # BIS-2388 SACD | Recorded: 2020

Composed in 1911, Bluebeard’s Castle is Béla Bartók’s only opera – a radical masterpiece which has secured a place alongside the other innovative music dramas of the same period, from Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande to Berg’s Wozzeck. Planning to write a one-act opera, Bartók settled on a libretto by Béla Balázs with the kind of surreal and/or macabre themes that would soon feature in his two ballets, The Wooden Prince and The Miraculous Mandarin. The main source for the libretto text was a play by Maeterlinck, a retelling of Perrault’s gruesome tale of Barbe-Bleue, the sinister yet strangely seductive wife-killer.

Mika Kares, Szilvia Vörös, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Susanna Mälkki - Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle Op. 11, Sz. 48 (2021

Posted By: delpotro
Mika Kares, Szilvia Vörös, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Susanna Mälkki - Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle Op. 11, Sz. 48 (2021

Mika Kares, Szilvia Vörös, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Susanna Mälkki - Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle, Op. 11, Sz. 48 (Live) (2021)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 247 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 147 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:00:30
Classical, Opera | Label: BIS

Composed in 1911, Bluebeard’s Castle is Béla Bartók’s only opera – a radical masterpiece which has secured a place alongside the other innovative music dramas of the same period, from Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande to Berg’s Wozzeck. Planning to write a one-act opera, Bartók settled on a libretto by Béla Balázs with the kind of surreal and/or macabre themes that would soon feature in his two ballets, The Wooden Prince and The Miraculous Mandarin.