Rimsky-Korsakov / Prudenskaya / Garben - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Romances - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Georgy Sviridov's Canticles and Prayers is considered by many as one of the most important works in Russian sacred music. In this new recording the Latvian Radio Choir under Sigvards Klava offers impressive renditions of music from this collection by the Russian master. Sviridov, a pupil of Shostakovich, began writing religious works in 1969. Since then these works have come to form an important part of his oeuvre. In the 1980s Sviridov had several projects to write a liturgy or a mass. In the end, the sketches of his sacred music came to form a cycle titled Canticles and Prayers. The work was created at a turning point in the history of Russia, the perestroika years that ended in the collapse of the Soviet state. The composer was keenly affected by the events of those years, building a monument to his era. The main body of Canticles and Prayers was assembled between 1988 and 1992. In September 1997, Sviridov selected the versions he thought best, approving the final order for the first three parts and making the final edits to the score. This work remained incomplete at the time of his death in 1998. Canticles and Prayers was thus Sviridov's last work. The recording also includes the chorus The Red Easter based on a cycle of Easter hymns. Previous releases of the Latvian Radio Choir on Ondine have been highly successful. For instance, the recording of Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil was chosen as the Record of the Month, Editor's Choice and received a nomination in the Gramophone Awards in 2013. Also, their more recent releases of choral works by Valentin Silvestrov and Eriks Esenvalds received Gramophone Editor's Choice.

This new recording by Gävle Symphony Orchestra with conductor Jaime Martín is a tribute to the work of Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). The art of Brahms has inspired countless of artists and composers since the 19th century up to our times. Arnold Schoenberg was one of the composers who greatly admired Brahms' work. Schoenberg was particularly fond of Brahms' 1st Piano Quartet (Op. 25) and when Otto Klemperer suggested him to orchestrate it in 1937, Schoenberg took the task without hesitation. Schoenberg regarded his reworking of the Piano Quartet - often dubbed as 'Brahms' Fifth' - as an act of homage to Brahms, and he believed he had finally succeeded in addressing the composer's concerns about the original score. No wonder that Schoenberg's masterful arrangement has remained in the concert programs of symphony orchestras. English composer Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918) wrote his orchestral work, Elegy for Johannes Brahms, in 1897 in memory of his recently deceased musical idol. This short symphonic movement, which makes some overt references to Brahms's music, was never performed in the composer's lifetime, and only received it's premiere after Parry's own death in 1918. After that, it languished unplayed until it was again resurrected in 1977. After decades of neglect, this recording is a manifestation of the recent growing interest in Parry's music. Gävle Symphony Orchestra, founded in Sweden in 1912, has a long and exciting history. Since 2013, the orchestra has enjoyed a fruitful musical partnership with principal conductor Jaime Martín, but the orchestra has also collaborated regularly with renowned international conductors. This is the orchestra's fourth album to be released by Ondine. Jaime Martín became the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Gävle Symphony Orchestra in 2013. During recent years orchestral engagements have led the rising conductor to co

Along with Wilhelm Stenhammar and Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, Hugo Alfvén surely ranks with the leading composers of Swedish late romanticism. In the country of his birth he made a name for himself above all with his compositions inspired by Swedish folklore, one of which, Midsommarvaka, his most famous work, is heard on Vol. 1 of our new edition of his complete symphonic works. It is both astonishing and impressive that Alfvén, who previously had composed nothing more than a few piano pieces, songs, and chamber works, suddenly came forward in 1897 with a full-length symphony of some forty minutes in length. This highly regarded Symphony No. 1 exhibits very finely nuanced tone colors, and with it he immediately became known as a capable and experienced composer. Alfvén composed Drapa, a monumental, magnificent, and festive work with the subtitle InchKing Oscar II in memoriam,Inch for a gala event at the Royal College of Music and conducted it's premiere on 18 October 1908. For our ambitious project we have secured the support of the German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin and Lukasz Borowicz - one of Germany's best orchestras and one of today's most promising young conductors. Album Tracks 1. I. Grave - Allegro Con Brio 2. II. Andante 3. III. Allegro, Molto Scherzando 4. IV. Allegro, Ma Non Troppo 5. Drapa, for Orchestra, Op. 27, R62, 'In Memoriam King Oscar Ii' 6. Swedish Rhapsody No. 1, Op. 19, 'Midsommarvaka'