Inner City Unit - The President's Tapes - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The Czech-born Eduard Nápravník (1839-1916) became one of the pivotal figures in the musical life of nineteenth-century Russia as conductor of the Imperial Mariinsky Opera in St Petersburg, he gave the premieres of some of the most important Russian operas, among them Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, six by Tchaikovsky and nine by Rimsky-Korsakov. But his own music has largely been lost from sight - a fate it emphatically does not deserve, as these three works for violin and piano prove big-hearted and big-boned, replete with passionate Tchaikovskian melody, they reveal a composer ripe for rediscovery.

Inner City Unit - New Anatomy [COMPACT DISCS] date 09/04/2015

Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphonies are arguably the most impressive symphonic cycle of the 20th century - certainly, if you don't count Gustav Mahler. The depth and variety of these 15 Symphonies, so closely tied to Shostakovich's personality and the times he lived in, make it particularly rewarding to listen to varying interpretations. Dmitrij Kitajenko's survey, recorded between 2002 and 2004, has found it's place among the great such cycles, both for it's artistic merits and it's reference sonics, the wide dynamics and the impassioned playing from the Gurzenich Orchestra Cologne that the native Leningrad native Kitajenko gets from his musicians.