‘From a musical point of view, but especially with regard to the stageworthiness of the work, these cuts represent an absolute improvement’ Bartok wrote to his publisher when he had finished his definitive revision of his Wooden Prince – cutting out much of the music relating to specific stage action, but also generally tightening the symphonic structure, making its large-scale mirror form appear clearer. Normally performed and recorded in its non-revised full-length version, it has been a joy now to follow Bartok’s inspired last wish revision of this mystic, vital, otherworldly, and grotesque fantasy music. (Thomas Dausgaard)

Composed in 1915, Szymanowski’s Mythes is a three movement work consisting of miniature tone poems based on Greek mythology. Late romantic and impressionist in style, the composer’s travels to Sicily and North Africa without doubt influenced the exotic and sumptuous sound world he created in this work. Mythes is the opening work on this eclectic recital album from James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong. Also on this programme is Handel’s D major violin sonata – a once popular staple of the violin repertoire, now sadly seldom encountered. The album concludes with a selection of short and sparkly miniatures and encores. There are some old favourites here as well as new – James Newton Howard’s ‘133…At least’ is dazzling!

Awarded the Royal title in 1957, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra presents its schedule of concerts under the aegis of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society, which offered its first event on March 12, 1840. Alone among Britain's orchestral societies, the RLPS owns its own concert hall, a 1939 art deco structure designed by Herbert J. Rowse. It is the U.K.'s oldest continuing professional symphony orchestra. Vasily Petrenko was appointed principal conductor of the orchestra in September 2006 and in September 2009 became chief conductor.

This release by violinist Viktoria Mullova and pianist Katia Labèque (their labels, Labèque's KML and Onyx, which Mullova helped found) sees both these well-known artists stepping out from their usual roles. Mullova has been an impressive exponent of the major violin concertos who has moved into Baroque music in recent years with some success, while Labèque is known for her duo-piano work with sister Marielle (KML stands for Katia and Marielle Labèque). They fill their new roles not just adequately but spectacularly.

Not autumnal, not reflective, not reserved, and definitely not restrained, this coupling of Brahms' two string sextets may seem to some to be at best wrong-headed and at worst simply wrong. After all, isn't Brahms the composer for whom the adjective autumnal was coined and to whom the adjectives reflective, reserved, and restrained are reflexively applied? Yes, but that doesn't mean all of Brahms' music is autumnal: he was young once, too and the expansive and exuberant young Brahms is emotionally far from the reflective, reserved, and restrained composer of later years.

Three pianist-composers from the first half of the last century form the program for Joseph Moog's new album. For this recording he is joined by pianist Kai Adomeit in three works for two pianos - Rachmaninoff's late 1940 Symphonic Dances, York Bowen's 1951 Theme & Variations, and Rachmaninoff's friend and compatriot Medtner's Two Pieces. York Bowen had many works by Rachmaninoff in his extensive concert repertoire, and he became known as 'The English Rachmaninoff' without much reason. As strange as that sounds, like the two Russians on this recording (with Prokofiev), he represents the last of the great pianistic composers of the 20th century.

The outstanding young German pianist Joseph Moog makes his debut on ONYX with a superb disc of two great Russian piano concertos that have had very different fates. Anton Rubinstein s 4th was once one of the most famous and popular concertos in the repertoire, and many of the major virtuosos performed this work into the early years of the 20th century when the composer s other works vanished from the concert hall.

Augustin Dumay returns to the Mendelssohn E minor concerto after a gap of over 30 years since his first and only recording of the work for EMI. On this new version he directs the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in a refreshing new look at this ever-popular masterpiece. The rest of the program comprises the late violin sonata in F, which the composer worked on at the same time as the violin concerto, but left unpublished. The program is completed by a selection of Songs without Words arranged for violin and piano by David Walter. He is accompanied by pianist Jonathan Fournel, who recently won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition and has been studying with Louis Lortie since 2016.

Recorded at home during lockdown, after midnight, James Ehnes made a series of recordings of the six sonatas for solo violin by Eugène Ysaÿe , the great Belgian virtuoso violinist and composer. These sonatas are the greatest addition to the solo violin repertoire after those by J. S. Bach, and are a supreme challenge for the performer.

Premiered in the same concert as his brother-in-law Schoenberg’s Pelleas und Melisande in 1905, Zemlinsky’s Die Seejungfrau (after Hans Christian Andersen) was almost ignored by the reviewers. Considered too conservative for the progressives, and too progressive for the conservatives, Zemlinsky struggled to overcome the negative reviews of this masterpiece and withdrew it in the immediate aftermath of the premiere. stroke.

Il y a de quoi se perdre dans la multiplicité des orchestres allemands tant la vie musicale reste active dans ce grand pays de musique pourtant contraint à de multiples fusions rendant la réalité un peu opaque. C’est le cas de la Deutsche Radio Philharmonie qui nous propose ici un nouvel enregistrement du Premier Concerto pour piano en ré mineur de Brahms avec Joseph Moog, faisant suite à l’enregistrement du Second paru en 2017. Cet orchestre, fondé en 2007 est le résultat de la fusion entre les orchestres de la Radio de Sarrebruck et de Kaiserlautern avec un effectif total réduit de 152 à 98 musiciens aujourd’hui.Né en Allemagne en 1987, le pianiste et compositeur Joseph Moog fait partie de la relève des pianistes allemands. Au pupitre, le chef australien Nicholas Milton donne à la longue et fameuse introduction orchestrale un climat serein plus proche du Brahms mélancolique des dernières années que de la fougue juvénile et rageuse du Premier Concerto, ce que confirme le jeu de Joseph Moog qui prend son temps en donnant un climat rêveur plus qu’échevelé à l’ensemble de l’œuvre. Dans cette approche, les quatre ultimes Klavierstücke, Op. 119 proposés en complément semblent de la même encre.