Scottish National Orchestra / Neeme Järvi PROKOFIEV The Complete Symphonies

 

THE COMPLETE SYMPHONIES

 

Royal Scottish National Orchestra / Neeme Järvi DELIBES Ballet Suites

 

BALLET SUITES

 

Triin Ruubel / Estonian National Symphony Orchestra / Neeme Järvi ELGAR Violin Concerto STENHAMMAR Two Sentimental Romances

VIOLIN CONCERTO - TWO SENTIMENTAL ROMANCES

Gothenburg Symphony / Neeme Järvi STENHAMMAR Sången - Reverenza - Romeo and Julia - Two Sentimental Romances

The collaboration between Gothenburg Symphony, Neeme Järvi and BIS began in 1982 with the recording of Wilhelm Stenhammar’s First Symphony, originally released on vinyl and then re-released on CD in 1986. By that time, Neeme Järvi and the orchestra had already started on the many Sibelius recordings that would contribute to the team’s rise to fame. In total, the orchestra and Järvi would go on to record some 45 discs for BIS, including several with music by Stenhammar. It would however take until 2018 – 36 years after that first disc – before the opportunity arose to record that late, great work of his – the symphonic cantata Sången (The Song) for four vocal soloists, mixed choir, children’s choir and large orchestra. 

Because of the large forces involved, Sången is a rarity in the concert hall as well as on disc – there has only been one previous commercial recording, made in 1988. As might be expected there was a sense of occasion in the Gothenburg Concert Hall during the concert and recording of this all-Stenhammar programme – a sense of occasion that audibly comes across in this present disc. Also included are the well-loved Two Sentimental Romances for violin and orchestra with the orchestra’s eminent leader Sara Trobäck as soloist and the rarely heard suite from the music to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

London Philharmonic Orchestra / Neeme Järvi DVORÁK Stabat Mater

Dvorák's Stabat Mater, Op. 58, was finished in 1880, wrenched out over several years after the death of the composer's daughter. It is a sizable setting that has been largely overlooked in favor of Dvorák's later works, but increasing interest in Romantic-era choral music has brought new performances. It has few specifically Czech elements, gaining its interest partly from its combination of a rather formal quality with strong personal feeling. This reading, conducted by Estonia's Neeme Järvi, is hard to beat. Start with the live engineering from the London Philharmonic Orchestra's new Royal Festival Hall, getting clarity from very large forces. Continue with the soloists: the Verdian sound of soprano Janice Watson is a standout; the thick, intense mezzo Dagmar Pecková may not be to everyone's taste (you can sample it in the "Inflammatus," track 9), but is absolutely distinctive. Järvi deserves his share of the credit as well, with perfect balances in which the soloists are never buried in complex choral-orchestral textures, and fine control over the big climaxes. The London Philharmonic shines in Dvorák's extensive sections of wind writing. But the ones who really carry the performance are the members of London Philharmonic Choir, who maintain perfect blend, pitch, and momentum at double-forte dynamic levels in the magnificent opening "Stabat mater dolorosa" and in the Handelian final fugue on "Amen": even the chords that have the choral singers going at full throttle are shaped and crisp. Exciting, a fine introduction to a neglected Romantic masterpieces, and altogether highly recommended. (James Manheim)

Dvorak - Stabat Mater.pdf

Vadim Gluzman / Estonian National Symphony Orchestra / Neeme Järvi SERGEI PROKOFIEV Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 - Sonata For Solo Violin

A quite extraordinarily good disc. The performances are exemplary in every respect and the recordings are absolutely beautiful too. I had to go back and revisit this issue after a few days to check that it really was as good as I thought - it is!

Vadim Gluzman takes a lyrical view of these pieces compared to the likes of Heifetz in the 2nd Concerto, but it is just as valid as any other. There is plenty of evidence from the time of the first performances that both concerti were viewed as lyrical as much as dramatic. The liner notes mention Oistrakh being attracted to the cantabile themes in the 1st Concerto, and of audience members at the US premiere being moved to tears by the slow movement of No.2. All this emotional reaction is quite understandable; these are among the most beautiful of 20th Century violin concertos and have attracted the attention of all the top virtuosi. Listeners to this disc who own other performances may notice that the orchestra is a little recessed, so that details do not tell as they sometimes do. However, in a concert performance this is often the case, unless one is very close to the platform, and this seems to be the view taken by the engineers who give us a centre-of-the-front-stalls perspective. The recording venue appears to be a classic shoe box hall and certainly it endows this recording with a spacious but clean and clear acoustic space. There is no instrumental spotlighting in the final mix so, whilst Prokofiev's delicate use of the percussion is there, it never jumps out at the listener. The down side is that the orchestra does not get much opportunity to show off its skills. During the moments where the violin stops - and there are not many of these - it is evident that Neeme Järvi and the Estonian NSO are very much at one with the soloist. The liner notes by Horst Scholz are thorough and well written. I do hope the violinist was looking where he was going when the unappealing cover photo was taken: it looks like the sort of place where his violin might go missing.

In the lovely Sonata for solo violin, Gluzman has our undivided attention. He is recorded, this time, in Bremen's small recording hall, which appears to be a rather lovely wood-lined space. It is a nice acoustic and Gluzman seems to be placed at a moderate distance in front of the listener. The piece was written for violins in unison and was intended as a teaching vehicle. In common with other such works by great composers (Bartók's Mikrokosmos for instance) it is far more than that and Gluzman gives a committed performance. Incidentally there is another splendid SACD of this piece on the erratically available Caro Mitis label, played by Mikhail Tsinman. (Dave Billinge)

Neeme Järvi / Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra TCHAIKOVSKY The Sleeping Beauty

This two-album set marks the beginning of a new project devoted to Tchaikovsky’s ballet scores. We start the survey with the complete score of The Sleeping Beauty, recorded on SACD. Swan Lake and The Nutcracker will follow in 2013 and 2014, respectively. 

Tchaikovsky was approached by the Director of the Imperial Theatres in St Petersburg, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, in 1888 about a possible ballet adaptation of Charles Perrault’s La Belle au bois dormant (The Sleeping Beauty). The vision was to stage the production in the style of Louis XIV, allowing the musical fantasy to run high and melodies to be written in the spirit of Lully, Bach, and Rameau. This proposal for a fairy-tale ballet rooted firmly in both the rococo and baroque periods appealed to Tchaikovsky, and The Sleeping Beauty was premiered in 1890, with choreography by Petipa, the principal choreographer of his day.
Elaborately constructed, the ballet places its focus undeniably on the two main conflicting forces of good (the Lilac Fairy) and evil (Carabosse). Each has a representative leitmotif, which runs through the entire ballet, serving as an important thread to the underlying plot. Tchaikovsky’s use of what, at the time, were considered new and unorthodox instrumental combinations went on to inspire a new generation of composers, among them Stravinsky, who declared The Sleeping Beauty to be Tchaikovsky’s chef d’œuvre. 
The Sleeping Beauty is here performed by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra under Neeme Järvi, who is celebrating two major milestones this year: a thirty-year recording career with Chandos Records, and his own seventy-fifth birthday. Orchestra and conductor are joined by the pre-eminent violinist James Ehnes, one of the most dynamic and exciting performers in classical music today. (CHANDOS)

Neeme Järvi / Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra TCHAIKOVSKY Swan Lake

This is the second instalment in our series devoted to Tchaikovsky’s three great ballets. Neeme Järvi and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra initiated the project last year with the complete score of The Sleeping Beauty. Here they present another, equally well-loved work: Swan Lake. Once again they bring us the complete uncut version of the score, with the pre-eminent James Ehnes lending his magic to the violin solos. The complete score of The Nutcracker will follow in 2014.

In Swan Lake, the Swan Queen takes her melancholy, oboe-led place among the composer’s many heroes and heroines destined never to know lasting fulfilment in love. The story tells of Odette, a princess turned by an evil sorcerer’s curse into a swan, and thus caught between the human and supernatural worlds, until she is finally released from the spell, and united in death with her true love.

This was Tchaikovsky’s first full-length ballet, but its premiere in 1875, staged at Moscow’s Bolshoy Theatre, was by no means a resounding success. According to most accounts, the choreography was inept, the shabby sets and costumes were borrowed from other productions, and the orchestral playing was poor.

As such, most ballet companies today base their productions on the 1895 revival by the pre-eminent choreographer Marius Petipa, staged for the Imperial Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. For this revival, Tchaikovsky’s score was revised by the composer Riccardo Drigo, also the chief conductor of the St Petersburg Imperial Theatre. Although these amendments may have served the conventional 1890s notion of ‘danceability’, one may argue that the overall cuts and reordering ultimately destroyed Tchaikovsky’s ground-plan of drama and tonality.

In this recording, we present Tchaikovsky’s original score of twenty-nine numbers and four acts, written for the Bolshoy Theatre, along with several supplementary numbers provided not long after the initial 1875 premiere. (CHANDOS)

Neeme Järvi / Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra TCHAIKOVSKY The Nutcracker

This is the concluding recording in Neeme Järvi’s series with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra devoted to Tchaikovsky’s three great ballets. This complete, uncut version of The Nutcracker follows The Sleeping Beauty (CHSA 5113(2)) and Swan Lake (CHSA 5124 (2)), both of which have been much awarded.

The Nutcracker draws its influences from both Hoffmann’s and Dumas’s tales of the same name, and makes delightful use of ‘le joli’, i.e. ‘the pretty’, in music – vivacious themes decked out in ingenious orchestration – already mastered by Léo Delibes in Coppélia.

The Nutcracker relates the dreams of Clara Silberhaus on Christmas Eve, aroused by the nutcracker which her mysterious godfather has given her. Then the guests’ lulling and languishing waltzes take her on a fantastic journey from a mystical snowy forest to the princely kingdom of Confiturembourg. Tchaikovsky illustrates this journey with various musical themes, such as confectionary, flowers, and Mirlitons, as well as Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian dances.

Commissioned by the director of the Imperial Theatres, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, and originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, The Nutcracker was premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg in 1892. It came in a double-bill with the opera Iolanta, also commissioned by Vsevolozhsky. For this recording, Neeme Järvi and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra have re-explored Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece together, in order to offer a completely new experience of one of the most-performed ballets in musical history. (CHANDOS)