Chen Reiss - Immortal Beloved - Beethoven Arias - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Various Artists - Music of Elliott Carter 5 (9 Compositions 1994-02) [COMPACT DISCS] date 06/24/2003

Vienna at the turn of the 20th century was a at the cutting edge of artistic and musical creativity. The Vienna Secessionist movement, led by Gustav Klimt had, in equal measure, shocked and fascinated the art world. Composers such as Schoenberg, Berg and Webern (the Second Viennese School) had burnished their romantic credentials, and launched a brave new 12 tone musical world that confounded and perplexed the public. This was a city with a sizeable and flourishing Jewish artistic community. Not just Schoenberg, but Mahler and Zemlinsky, and of course the wunderkind that was Eric Wolfgang Korngold. The transition from the late romantic world to modernism in Vienna created some extraordinary art and music, and the composers on this album were at the centre of this extraordinary firmament. This album brings together some of the composers of this age, including lesser-known names such as Josephine Winter, who was murdered by the Nazis in 1943, and Alfred Grünfeld, whose Klein Serenade is a real ear-worm of a tune. The Adagio from Mahler's Symphony No.10 in an arrangement for chamber orchestra forms the centrepiece of this delightful orchestral lieder recital from soprano Chen Reiss with the Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich conducted by Daniel Grossmann.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra and it's Music Director Jader Bignamini present Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, one of the most electrifying works of the twentieth century. Drawing on thirteenth-century manuscripts from Benediktbeuern Abbey, Orff transformed the exuberant, irreverent texts of wandering scholars and rebellious clerics into a monumental scenic cantata. From the iconic opening of InchO FortunaInch to the exuberant outdoor dances, tavern scenes, and courtly love interludes, the work pulses with elemental rhythms and striking orchestration, with chorus, percussion, two pianos, and celesta playing central roles. Motifs from InchO FortunaInch recur throughout, linking the contrasting worlds of humour, erotic longing, and the inexorable wheel of fate.Orff balances diatonic simplicity with rhythmic ostinati, while movements such as the flute-timpani duet, castanets solo, and piano-percussion passages evoke primal energy and recall Stravinsky's Les noces. From the introspective soprano arias in InchIn trutinaInch to the sardonic baritone tavern numbers, the score alternates between joy, melancholy, and satire, culminating in the final return of InchO FortunaInch to close the cycle. Following their acclaimed of Marsalis' Blues Symphony in March 2025, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Jader Bignamini return to PENTATONE, reaffirming their mastery of landmark repertoire.