Bach / Couperin / Widor / Kaiser - Orgemusik aus der Christus Erloser Kirche Baunatal - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The recording of such a complex and ambitious work as Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony by the Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra (OFM in Spanish) is a demonstration of the determination and enthusiasm with which the group is facing his 30th anniversary. Highly artistic work, Mahler's Fifth Symphony is of great extension and expressive intensity; it is full of deep symbolism and evident spirituality. It is a musical and intellectual monument testing the quality of an orchestra and it's conductor. It is a challenge that, in a market full of references to the Austrian composer's masterpiece, the OFM faces with all the potential the work demands. In his first four symphonies, Gustav Mahler tried to identify with four ideas the first, the power of will against destiny; the second, hope in the resurrection; in the third a certain InchNietzscheanInch pantheism, and the fourth is a musical manifesto about innocence. There is in all of them that kind of youthful lyricism which it's first songs have, a style that is nipped in the bud in his Fifth Symphony, completed in 1902 and premiered in Cologne by the Gürzenich Orchestra on 18 October 1904 under the direction of the author. The language he uses in his Fifth Symphony seems to be anticipating the future, in a kind of progressive tonality tending towards a certain harmonic instability and reinforcing the words of the composer himself who, sure of his technical mastery, goes so far as to say InchThere will be no romantic or mystical elements in my work; it will simply be the expression of an unparalleled power of the activity of a man in the light of the sun, who has reached his vital climaxInch.

Frank Merrick was a tireless champion of the causes in which he believed and these causes extended well beyond the field of music. Although his name is associated with the piano music of a range of composers as diverse as John Field and Prokofiev, Schubert and Arnold Bax, he also campaigned with the suffragettes, was imprisoned during the First World War as a Conscientious Objector and over many years advocated the use of the universal language Esperanto. Between 1898-1901 Frank Merrick studied in Vienna with the celebrated teacher, Theodor Leschetizky, and he made his London debut aged 16 in 1903. This features a selection of the best performances transferred from the 'Frank Merrick Society' and the 'Rare Recorded Edition' LPs of the 1960s.

Bach, J.S. / Hans Jurgen Kaiser - Organ Works [COMPACT DISCS] date 03/04/2005