Seong-Jin Cho CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 2 - Scherzi

 

PIANO CONCERTO No. 2 - SCHERZI

 

Krystian Zimerman / London Symphony Orchestra / Simon Rattle LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Complete Piano Concertos

 

 COMPLETE PIANO CONCERTOS

Renaud Capuçon / Stephen Hough / London Symphony Orchestra / Simon Rattle ELGAR Violin Concerto | Violin Sonata

 

VIOLIN CONCERTO | VIOLIN SONATA

Krystian Zimerman / London Symphony Orchestra / Simon Rattle LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major op. 15

 

PIANO CONCERTO No. 1 IN C MAJOR OP. 15

 

London Symphony Orchestra / Simon Rattle BEETHOVEN Christ on the Mount of Olives

 

CHRIST ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES

 

London Symphony Orchestra / François-Xavier Roth DEBUSSY - RAVEL

DEBUSSY - RAVEL

 

London Symphony Orchestra / Simon Rattle JANÁČEK The Cunning Little Vixen - Sinfonietta

THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN - SINFONIETTA

David Nebel / Kristjan Järvi IGOR STRAVINSKY - PHILIP GLASS Violin Concertos

                                              IGOR STRAVINSKY - PHILIP GLASS

Hauser / London Symphony Orchestra CLASSIC

                                                                            CLASSIC

Sheku Kanneh-Mason / Simon Rattle / London Symphony Orchestra ELGAR

                                                                              ELGAR

London Symphony Orchestra / Gianandrea Noseda SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 4

LSO Principal Guest Conductor Gianandrea Noseda continues his survey of Shostakovich with the monumental Symphony No.4. Extravagant and challenging in equal measure, it's a work of epic proportions, requiring over a hundred musicians - including large percussion and brass sections. Owing to Soviet censure, the work went unperformed for almost thirty years after it was completed, until in 1961 it was revealed as one of the significant milestones of the composer's output - the work that solidified his reputation as a master symphonist.

London Symphony Orchestra / Sir John Eliot Gardiner SCHUMANN Overture Genoveva - Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4

'Every opportunity to perform the Schumann symphonies is an opportunity to marvel at their extraordinary profusion of ideas and poetic expression and to explore their kaleidoscopic originality. Each time it gives one a chance to vindicate Schumann as a master of symphonic form and instrumental colour, contrary to the dreary cliché that he couldn’t orchestrate.' (Sir John Eliot Gardiner)

Following the success of his Mendelssohn cycle, Sir John Eliot Gardiner turns to the music of Robert Schumann, launching an exploration of his symphonic works that begins with his Second and Fourth symphonies and a rare glimpse of his only opera.

London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle BRUCKNER Symphony No. 6

Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony is one of the most original of all the composer’s symphonic works. Its contrasting moods, and overarching theme moving from darkness to light, can be haunting one moment and ecstatic the next, culminating in one of the most enigmatic symphonic conclusions of the 19th century. 

For this recording Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs Urtext edition of the score.

London Symphony Orchestra / Bernard Haitink BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 2 - Triple Concerto

LSO Live celebrates the 90th birthday of one of the conducting world’s greats, Bernard Haitink. 

Few artists have a deeper understanding of the music of Beethoven than the celebrated Dutch conductor, who is known for his mastery of the great symphonic repertoire. This album focuses on Haitink's interpretations of Beethoven's concerto writing, coupling a new recording of Piano Concerto No 2 by Maria João Pires with a virtuosic performance of the Triple Concerto by Lars Vogt, Gordan Nikolitch and Tim Hugh, which was originally made alongside Haitink's now iconic cycle of the composer's complete symphonies.

Nikolaj Znaider, London Symphony Orchestra MOZART Violin Concertos 1, 2 & 3

This stylish and elegant modern-instrument recording rounds off Znaider’s cycle of Mozart’s complete violin concertos—the product of an audibly fruitful musical partnership with the LSO. A greatly slimmed-down orchestra plays with nimbleness and delicacy while Znaider—using his gorgeous-sounding “Ex-Kreisler” Guarneri violin (on which Elgar’s concerto was premiered)—gives these youthful works lightness and grace that melt the heart. The Third is the best-known work here and justifies its popularity with a performance of spirit and great charm.

JOSÉ MARÍA CANO Luna - Canciones, Romanzas y Danzas

José María Cano was born in Madrid, and gave his first concerts as a university student there. There he met Ana Torroja, who would become the lead singer in their pop band Mecano. Their first album, also called Mecano (1981) and produced with the financial backing of his father, included the hit "Hoy no me puedo levantar". Both José and his brother Nacho composed songs for all their albums. In 1984, José began to play piano and changed his method of composition. He began to compose for other singers, such as Ana Belén, Amaya Uranga, Sara Montiel, Julio Iglesias, Miguel Bosé, Alaska, Françoise Hardy, Sara Brightman, Simone, Mario Frangoulis etc. He composed song that would become well known in the Spanish-speaking world, such as Hijo de la luna, Lia, Mujer contra mujer, Me cuesta tanto olvidarte, Aire, Tiempo de vals, Cruz de navajas, Naturaleza muerta, Una rosa es una rosa and several others, which were covered both by Spanish and Non-Spanish-speaking singers. After Mecano separated in 1992, he composed an opera, Luna, which was recorded with Plácido Domingo in the leading role.

Hee-Young Lim / London Symphony Orchestra / Scott Yoo FRENCH CELLO CONCERTOS

The young South Korean cellist Hee-Young Lim won her first competition at the tender age of 11 and has been racking up honors ever since. 

It's little wonder. As she showed at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater on Saturday night, Lim, now 20, is a deeply gifted musician with a full, singing tone, near-flawless technique and a natural lyricism that infused virtually every note she played. 

Performing entirely from memory, Lim clearly had little use for the theatricality that other wunderkinder often indulge in; in fact, she seemed almost self-effacing onstage, and her playing always favored elegance over indulgence. At first, she almost seemed too well behaved; Boccherini's Sonata in A, No. 6, which opened the program, was decorous to a fault. But she quickly moved into more complex depths with Debussy's Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor -- a mercurial, elegantly savage work that she brought off with insight and quiet power.

London Symphony Orchestra / Sir John Eliot Gardiner MENDELSSOHN

LSO Live presents Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s award-winning Mendelssohn series together in its entirety for the first time. Captured over three seasons during critically-acclaimed concerts in the Barbican Hall, this box set offers listeners the definitive account of Gardiner’s unique take on Mendelssohn with the London Symphony Orchestra: a blend between the conductor’s wide-ranging expertise and the Orchestra’s signature sound.

This box set includes celebrated interpretations of the complete Mendelssohn symphonies, as well as three of the composer’s most popular overtures and Gardiner’s landmark version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, all in ultra high-definition stereo and multi-channel audio across four Hybrid SACDs.

Reflecting on this exploration of the great German composer with the LSO, Gardiner said: ‘My admiration for Mendelssohn has gone up enormously as a result of this project... It’s so rewarding working with this group of players; they’re willing to go to the last nth degree, in terms of phrasing and articulation, and that’s a joy.’

Christoph Denoth / London Symphony Orchestra / Jesús López Cobos NOCTURNOS DE ANDALUCÍA

The ever versatile LSO also features on this exceptional album, where the London-based guitarist Christoph Denoth winningly mixes the familiar and the unfamiliar. His account of Rodrigo’s evergreen Concierto de Aranjuez, with the orchestra winningly conducted by the veteran Spanish conductor Jesús López Cobos, is excellent, and can be highly placed in a competitive field. But the real reason for buying this well filled 68-minute album is the fill-ups. Lorenzo Palomo’s Nocturnos de Andalucía is a substantial 40-minute, six movement piece for guitar and orchestra, which revisits the same Spanish themes and moods that so inspired the great late-19th century Spanish guitar virtuoso/composers.

It’s attractive, without ever being too comfortable, and backward looking. It’s very cleverly scored for large orchestra, and will give much pleasure. There’s also a delightful lollipop at the end, with Denoth’s own arrangement for guitar and orchestra of Joaquín Malats’ Serenata Española—4½ minutes of pure joy. (David Mellor)

London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle BERNSTEIN Wonderful Town

Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra pay homage to former LSO President Leonard Bernstein with a new recording of Wonderful Town that captures the energy and excitement of sold-out performances from December 2017. 

Bernstein’s five-time Tony award-winning musical follows sisters Ruth and Eileen on their quest to make it big, pursuing careers in writing and acting from their cramped basement apartment in New York’s bohemian Greenwich Village. Fresh from rural Ohio, the sisters end up getting more than they bargained for, realising that life in the Big Apple is not as glamourous as it may seem.

A bright and cheery love letter to the city that never sleeps and the colourful characters inhabiting it, Wonderful Town draws on Fields and Chodorov’s 1940 play My Sister Eileen, which itself is based on a series of autobiographical short storied by the ‘real-life’ Ruth McKenney.

Bernstein’s infectious score includes classic numbers such as ‘Ohio’, ‘One Hundred Easy Ways’, and ‘A Little Bit in Love’, as well as a riotous conga that had delighted audiences dancing in the aisles of the Barbican hall.