Ural Youth Symphony Orchestra - Myaskovsky: Alastor, Symphony No. 7 & The Kremlin by Night - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The German composer Felix Woyrsch was born in 1860 in Troppau (then the capital of Austrian Silesia and now, as Opava, in the Czech Republic) but became prominent in the musical life of Altona, now part of Hamburg, as organist, choirmaster and teacher; he died there in 1944. Woyrsch's late-Romantic organ music, with distant roots in Bach's counterpoint, inhabits a harmonic world somewhere between Brahms and Reger, it's dark colors reflecting the upheavals in the times through which he lived Album Tracks 1. Festpraeludium Über Den Choral 'Nun Danket Alle Gott', Op. 43 (1895) 2. Zehn Choralvorspiele, Op. 59 (1909-18) 3. Passacaglia Über Das 'Dies Irae', Op. 62 (Publ. 1921)

Alexander Rudin and the Ural Youth Symphony Orchestra here present two symphonies by Nikolai Myaskovsky - one of the most undiscovered composers of the 20th century. In his creative legacy, Myaskovsky equals his more famous contemporaries - Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Rudin has been deeply attached to Myaskovsky's works for a long time; InchI have been playing and recording his compositions for more than thirty years... Myaskovsky hardly ever lowered his standards of sincerity, noble taste, extraordinary depth and tragedy. He is an amazing composer, whose works cannot perhaps be immediately understood by everyone. You have to enter into his music and listen to it with an open heart. There is nothing funky about it and many of it's connotations are encoded; the music is introverted and thus reflects the personality of the composer. It nonetheless makes a very strong impression and can provide the answers to the questions we face todayInch Album Tracks 1. Symphony No. 17 in G Sharp minor, Op. 41 2. Symphony No. 20 in E Major, Op. 50

Ed Harcourt has released music under his own name that blends raw emotions, impeccable songwriting and visionary flights of imagination. He made his debut with the Mercury Prize-nominated, Here Be Monsters, in 2001, and a succession of ten rich, enthralling albums have followed including the intoxicating addictive Strangers (2004); the breathless Back Into The Woods (2013), which was recorded in just eight hours; and Furnaces (2016) which compellingly and entreatingly envisioned family ties confronted by the small matter of the apocalypse. Harcourt then moved onto explore the instrumental sphere with recent soundscape albums Beyond The End (2018) and Monochrome To Colour (2020). While recognizably bearing all the hallmarks that have made him such an admired and prolific songwriter, his new record, El Magnifico, also finds him striving for something new. It is an Ed Harcourt record, but one with a desire to seek fresh reward. InchI think as a songwriter you do get to a point where you're aware of your past and what you've done,Inch suggests Harcourt of the album's mixture of assuredness and aspiration. InchIt's knowing what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are, but also knowing how to better yourself by doing things you haven't done before.Inch The record was produced in his studio at the bottom of his garden, while also making use of the natural resonance of his local church to capture the album's array of string parts. It was completed with the input of friend and producer Dave Izumi Lynch at Eastbourne's Echo Zoo studio. El Magnifico's spirit owes much to Harcourt's initial writing and recording approach, an experience that saw him revel in creative freedom as he indulged his impulses and tried not to outthink instincts. Though it's title was coined in jest, as his new album attests what Ed Harcourt does is proving to be fittingly magnificent. Album Tracks