Producent, wytwórnia Brilliant Classics - Muzyka. - strona 20

Rimsky-Korsakovs tenth opera, The Tsars Bride moves away from the fairytale tableaux-style of opera in which he had triumphed. This is a grand narrative in the Verdian style. That said, the musical language is unmistakably Russian, with a motif...

On this, the largest set ever compiled of one of the last centurys most popular composers, we may not only renew our familiarity with the Concierto de Aranjuez, or perhaps with one of the other ever-melodious guitar concertos that sustain his...

It was by chance in 1900 that Dvorák came by the libretto for Rusalka by the poet Jaroslav Kvapil. It had been declined by two of Dvoraks pupils, Nedbal and Suk, as well as J.B. Foerster. Dvorák was delighted with the libretto, and completed the...

Accepted onto the early admissions programme of the University of Chicago, Philip Glass graduated aged just nineteen with a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy, practising the piano in his spare time. Subsequently studying at the Juilliard...

Like Borodin, Nikolai Rimsky- Korsakov was not set on a career as a composer until he too met with Mili Balakirev, who made him abandon his career as a midshipman in the Imperial Russian Navy. Just as well he did switch direction, as his...

The latest in this important historical series presents performances by the legendary Russian conductor Evgeny Svetlanov. Svetlanov claimed to have recorded practically the entire corpus of Russian orchestral music, and this set covers the gamut...

This is a very recent recording of one of Mozarts early operas. For this work 11 year old (!) Mozart used a story from Ovids Metamorphoses. The text by Father Widl is in Latin. A delightful piece which is testimony of Mozarts early maturity. Of...

Born in 1923, Simeon ten Holt was a leading Dutch composer who came to attention following studies in Paris with Honegger and Milhaud. His music is best described as minimalist, and draws on the principles of Western harmony as well as those...

Parisian composer Georges Bizet was enrolled in the Consevatoire at the age of nine and won a premier prix in solfege within six months of his arrival. He later received prizes for his skill as a pianist, gaining particular renown for his...

An unusual juxtaposition of the original and thearrangement. These two CDs offer an interesting combination of some of the Medieval Carmina Burana and Carl Orffs interpretation. The original Carmina date from the 12th en 13th centuries and deal...

The Late Romantic Swedish composer, pianist and conductor Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927) was a leading musical personality of his time. His earlier music was influenced by Wagner, Liszt and Brahms, but later in his career he wrote in a more...

Mahlers Fifth Symphony was completed in 1903, and subjected to immediate revision before the composer conducted the premier in Cologne in October the following year. For such a brilliant conductor and composer for the orchestra, the Fifth appears...

Although Girolamo Frescobaldi is said to have had a beautiful singing voice, it was his talent as a keyboardist that brought him into the spotlight in Italy in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and which allowed him the opportunity to...

Did Richter give more concerts than any other pianist of the 20th century Its certainly possible. He shunned the high life and lights to set up a festival in a barn in southwest France; to drag himself across the plains and mountains of Soviet...

Great Liszt interpreters play Liszt: Lazar Berman Sviatoslav Richter Emil Gilels Earl Wild Alfred Brendel Gyorgy Cziffra Vladimir Ovchinikov Artur Pizarro Klara...

One of the most influential and revolutionary works of the 19th century, Tristan und Isolde, Wagners music drama of 1865, more than any other work shaped the course of music right up to the early years of the 20th century. The famous Tristan chord...

Franz Liszt was the greatest piano virtuoso of his time, and his enormous solo piano output includes some of the most taxing music for the instrument ever written. He was influenced by a vast range of composers, but none more so than Paganini. Liszt...

John Cage (1912--92) is regarded as one of the most influential and controversial composers of the 20th century. It is not only his music that this reputation is based on -- his ideas were revolutionary, and he cast doubt on the supremacy of...

Gabriel Faure composed his requiem in 1887/8 after a period of intense personal grief. His father had died in 1885, and his mother died two years later. The early version was scored for violas, cellos, organ, harp and timpani. A later version...

In the field of choral music Tchaikovsky is known as the first Russian composer to have composed cycles of the Liturgy and the Vespers, but his considerable output of secular choral music is less well-known, and a delightful surprise. These...