Gurzenich Orchester Koln Dmitri Kitayenko Wdr Rundfunkchor Koln - Symphony 2 in C Minor - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Inspired by the American poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), the symphonic poem InchThe BellsInch was written in 1913. In four parts, it describes the different features of bell ringing children's sleigh bells in the first section, the wedding bells of a young couple in the second, alarm bells for a misfortune in the third and mourning bells in the fourth one. In his work, Rachmaninoff uses the text version by Konstantin Balmont (1867-1943), who freely rewrote the text by Edgar Allan Poe. Rachmaninoff adeptly avoided onomatopoetically emulating the sounds of bells with carillons and similar percussion instruments. Between counterpoint and Russian church hymn Escape from the world and faith in a moving cantata Taneyev had learnt his technique of composition from Bach's and Handel's polyphony and pursued the idea of combining counterpoint and Russian folk music. The cantata Ioann Damaskin (InchJohannes DamascenusInch), created 1883-84, refers to a longer poem by Aleksej K. Tolstoj (1817-1875). It deals with the flight of the world from John of Damascus (around 650- before 754) from the worldly crowds to the spiritual retreat. However, from this very long poem Taneyev selected merely 16 lines as the source for a church cantata without reference to the biographical background. It is purely about man's path through life in darkness and fear and redemption at The Last Judgement. The counterpoint of the work, learnt from Baroque music, takes a special position in Russian late Romanticism.

In the Czech generation of composers after Antonín Dvorák, Josef Suk was probably the one who travelled the furthest in terms of style, and certainly, next to Leoš Janácek, the one who retains the highest claim to international standing, wrote the musicologist Ludwig Finscher in the classic encyclopedia InchDie Musik in Geschichte und GegenwartInch. The music of Suk - violinist, composer and one of the most important Bohemian symphonists - is still relatively rarely heard in Western European concert halls, a situation that should definitely change. With this recording of his second symphony, InchAsraelInch, BR-KLASSIK makes a strong case for Suk's impressive and compelling music. In 1891, Josef Suk, having started out as a violinist, became a master student of the world-famous Dvorák. He was regularly invited to the composer's country house, where he fell in love with his teacher's daughter and married her. - The InchAsraelInch symphony was written after Dvorák's death, and the death soon afterwards of Suk's own wife gave the work a new direction - it is dedicated to both of them. The title of Asrael refers to the angel of death from Islamic-Persian mythology he is a mysterious companion of the human soul from this world to the next. - Suk developed his own musical language in which the solo violin is often involved (as here in the gentle central section of the Andante) The violin was indeed his instrument, and until 1933 he played in the InchBohemian String QuartetInch. With the InchAsraelInch symphony he consciously took up the tradition of a Inchfate symphonyInch - associated since Beethoven's Fifth with the key of C minor moving at the end into radiant C major. Ever since it's premiere on February 3, 1907 at the Prague National Theatre, InchAsraelInch has ranked as Suk's most important symphonic work - and as a visionary glimpse into the future.

Bruckner's Third - a creative history that is unique even for the great Austrian romantic. No other of his symphonies has been revised, reshaped and reissued more often. Yet the first version from 1873, which François-Xavier Roth has chosen for this recording, bristles with boldness and the joy of experimentation. Here, the reminiscence of Beethoven's Ninth and the works of the dedicatee Richard Wagner is almost tangible. With this recording, François-Xavier Roth and the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln continue the highly acclaimed Bruckner Symphonies cycle and, with great attention to detail, once again present the InchunvarnishedInch Bruckner, groundbreaking, virtuosic and refined.