Bamberger Symphoniker & Jakub Hrůša – Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:00:06 minutes | 1017 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Accentus Music
The sincerity and at the same time emotionality of Anton Bruckner’s musical thoughts create an inimitable magnetism that makes one “forget” time in the very best sense of the word. Anyone who wants to approach Bruckner only analytically will find their mind boggled, especially at the first encounter. His great power is a certain “transcendental charm” that is common to all his symphonies. In 2024, the music world celebrates the 200th anniversary of Anton Bruckner’s birth on September 4, 1824. On this occasion, the Bamberg Symphony – an orchestra well-versed in the interpretation of Bruckner’s symphonic cosmos – and their music director Jakub Hrůša present a new recording of the composer’s last and unfinished symphony, his Ninth. On 30 November 1894, Bruckner completed the third movement of his Ninth symphony, which, like all of its predecessors, was laid out in four movements. Work on the finale began on 24 May 1895, around 16 months before his death. He composed the first 172 bars of the movement in full, after which the score is at least partially orchestrated for a further 200 bars. Although a playable version of the finale of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 is now available, in practical life the three-movement torso has become the norm. It seems as if the non-completion paradoxically claims its place. The Austrian critic and musicologist Walter Weidringer wrote that the Ninth “may be taken as one of those examples from music history that prove that even fragments can display a degree of completion which no longer seems capable of improvement.”
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Frank Peter Zimmermann, Bamberger Symphoniker & Jakub Hrůša – Stravinsky, Bartók & Martinů: Works for violin and orchestra (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:56 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
Stravinsky, Bartók and Martinů were established international figures when they wrote these works for violin, travelling across Europe as well as the United States. With the onset of World War Two, all three composers would ultimately emigrate because of their rejection of fascism. In an age of political upheaval and cultural displacement, each of them found an individual approach to reinventing the language of tonal music, laying down roots in the west without abandoning their Eastern European identities. While the Russian-born Stravinsky was experimenting with possibilities of modern violin technique in his concerto, Martinů took these efforts a step further in his Suite concertante by blending the sounds of his native Bohemia with the colours of French neo-classicism. In the Rhapsodies, Bartók turned to the folk music of Hungary and Romania. Frank Peter Zimmermann, joined here by the Bamberger Symphoniker and its conductor Jakub Hrůša, continues his exploration of the great violin works of the 20th century after his acclaimed recordings of works by Hindemith (BIS-2024), Shostakovich (BIS-2247) as well as Martinů and Bartók (BIS-2457), a recording unanimously acclaimed by the critics, gaining a Diapason d’or and named ‘Concerto Choice’ by BBC Music Magazine, ‘Editor’s Choice’ by Gramophone and one of Classica’s ‘Chocs de l’année’.
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Ulrich Witteler, Bamberger Symphoniker & Jakub Hrůša – Schelomo – Rhapsodie hébraique (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 22:39 minutes | 386 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Genuin
A tremendous song without words: Ernest Bloch’s Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra Shelomo is one of the most important solo works of the 20th century, in which the quality of the cello, its likeness to the human voice, is condensed with overwhelming artistic expression. Ulrich Witteler, the principal cellist of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, recorded Shelomo for GENUIN with “his” orchestra under the direction of Jakub Hrůša. The outstanding cellist and the world-class orchestra under its principal conductor play this impressive testimony to Jewish intellectual life, cast in a musical language from around 1915 that, with moving intensity, combined elements of Jewish sacred music with the latest stylistic elements!
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Gerhard Oppitz, Bamberger Symphoniker, Marc Andreae – Schumann: Works For Piano & Orchestra (2012)
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 3,57 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 1,19 GB | Full Artwork
Label/Cat#: Tudor # 7181 | Country/Year: Switzerland 2012 | 3% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic
Coming on a generously filled disc, this contains many accounts that must be held in the highest regard. In the concerto, despite the use of a full symphony orchestra, the wonderful direction of Marc Andrae (clearly living up to his billing as Schumann specialist) makes light of the many difficulties that face the orchestra (arguably more challenging than for the pianist!) and of the textures so that all aspects of the score are easily heard. Big, bold and full of Romantic ardour in the first movement, Oppitz and Andrae find plenty of tenderness in the slow movement before dancing away in the finale. All memories of Perahia/BPO/Abbado (Sony RBCD) are eclipsed, especially by employing antiphonally placed violins, and the sound is of course, far preferable. The only account still lingering in my memory is that of Lipatti’s but (sound apart) the orchestral contribution is not recognisable as Schumann as we hear it best today.
Included as encores are all Schumann’s concertante works for piano and orchestra including the Konzertstuck Op. 86 that is more normally heard for 4-horns instead of piano. First up is the Konzert-Allegro Op. 134 which shares something of the stormy nature of the concerto’s first movement despite the gap of 8 years that had elapsed. The contribution of Oppitz is similarly committed as in the concerto as is that of the Bamberger Symphoniker (also granted the title of Bayerische Staatsphilharmonie but it’s only one orchestra playing!) under Marc Andrae.
The Konzertstuck Op. 86 has been very effectively transcribed by Schumann for piano instead of the four horns. Indeed one suspects that this is an embellished version of the original “working copy” of the manuscript from which he transcribed parts for the horns. The sheer range of orchestral texture that Andrae obtains here is exemplary with weight in the opening before a much lighter, clearer texture later in the opening movement. Oppitz gives a barnstorming account here in the opening movement, lyrical when called but the virtuoso passages take ones breath away! The yearning of the Romanze is perfectly captured by the orchestral soloists and neatly reflected in the piano playing of Oppitz – beautiful stuff indeed. Back into the faster material of the finale finds all the protagonists on their mettle and it’s a joy to listen to such fabulous teamwork. The final “encore” is given equally vivid treatment, both in the probing Introduction and the dramatic and (again) virtuostic Allegro appassionato.
The sound is every bit as good as the playing – all players are just “there” and all the highlighting of textures and balance adjustments are obviously not the work of the engineers.
Enormously recommended.
Copyright © 2012 John Broggio and SA-CD.net
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Bamberger Symphoniker – Liebestod – Wagner | Mahler | Strauss (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:43 minutes | 1,20 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Accentus Music
The music of Wagner, Mahler and Strauss is very close to the heart of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and also a little in their blood, as the multiple award-winning recordings of Mahler 4 with Jakub Hrůša and Mahler 9 with Herbert Blomstedt impressively testify. With this concept album they deal with the subject of death, which Jakub Hrůša by no means understands only as a moment full of despair and tragedy. Rather, he sees in death an element “that gives meaning to our lives.” And it is precisely this idea that the orchestra and its principal conductor convey with their interpretation of four key works by Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. The result a kind of dialogue between the composers, who build on each other historically and stylistically. A dialogue that, says Hrůša, “enchants our ears and touches our hearts.”
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Bamberger Symphoniker, Jonathan Nott – Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (2009)
SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 01:23:29 minutes | 3,6 GB | Genre: Classical | © Tudor
This recording is perfectly timed for the centenary of Mahler’s 9th Symphony. Jonathan Nott and his Bamberger Symphoniker have added a moving, powerfully expressive interpretation to the extensive discography. By choosing measured tempi for the outer movements, Nott and this totally committed orchestra achieve a fantastic sound.
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Bamberger Symphoniker, Jonathan Nott – Mahler: Symphony No. 8 (2013)
SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 + 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 01:18:24 minutes | 3,6 GB | Genre: Classical | © Tudor
“the verdict is ‘decent but not world-beating’, with shortcomings in his soloists pulling him up well short of the best available. There is uplift and impulse in the opening movement, with brilliant details…The great peroration is impressive” – Gramophone MagazineDecember 2013
”Lucky Bamberg…This reading of the Eighth makes a perfect climax to its Mahler cycle under its Solihull-born conductor, who is surely one of the most underestimated musicians on the planet.” – Sunday Times, 20th October 2013
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Bamberger Symphoniker, Jonathan Nott – Mahler: Symphony No. 7 (2012)
SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 + 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 01:19:4 minutes | 4,08 GB | Genre: Classical | © Tudor
Jonathan Nott and the Bamberger Symphoniker have written a special chapter in recording history with this series. Currently nominated in the 2012 BBC Music Magazine Awards, their recording of Mahler Symphony No.3 (TUDOR7170) was a BBC Music Magazine Orchestral Choice; “a recorded spaciousness which lets every ensemble and solo spiritually resound.”
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Bamberger Symphoniker, Jonathan Nott – Mahler: Symphony No. 6 (2013)
SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 01:20:32 minutes | 3,71 GB | Genre: Classical | © Tudor
“It’s not only as compelling as this team’s Seventh and Ninth Symphonies, it also counts among the most bracing, revelatory Sixths on disc…The all-embracing theatricality is equal to Leonard Bernstein’s first New York recording…the torrents around the fallout from the hammerblows of fate in the colossal finale.” – BBC Music Magazine, January 2014
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Bamberger Symphoniker, Jonathan Nott – Mahler: Symphony No. 5 (2005)
SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 + 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 01:12:19 minutes | 3,3 GB | Genre: Classical | © Tudor
“…a clearly-textured but very exciting conclusion, distinguished by first-rate work from wind principals – bassoon especially – and cutting-edge trombones. …much in Nott’s reading… sounds genuinely fresh.” – BBC Music Magazine, September 2005
“Jonathan Nott leads a meticulously detailed performance of Mahler’s Fifth. Every accent, dynamic marking and hairpin crescendo/diminuendo indication in the score is accounted for and – thanks to his careful attention to orchestral balance – perfectly audible.” – Gramophone Magazine, December 2005
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Bamberger Symphoniker, Jonathan Nott – Mahler: Symphony No. 4
SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 00:55:26 minutes | 2,78 GB | Genre: Classical | © Tudor
The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, under their Principal Conductor Jonathan Nott, present another release in their Mahler Symphonic Series. Their recording of the Symphony No. 1 (TUDOR7147) was a Gramophone Editors Choice and this glorious release is highly recommended. Soprano Mojca Erdmann sings the beautiful setting of poems from “Das Knaben Wunderhorn” in the final movement.
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Bamberger Symphoniker, Jonathan Nott – Mahler: Symphony No. 3 (2011)
SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 01:44:10 minutes | 5,33 GB | Genre: Classical | © Tudor
Jonathan Nott has been the principal conductor of the Bamberger Symphoniker since the year 2000 and this has been a very successful partnership. Their recording of Mahler’s 9th Symphony (TUDOR7162) won several awards “This is a fine achievement in a towering symphony.” – BBC Music Magazine
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Bamberger Symphoniker, Jonathan Nott – Mahler: Symphony No. 2 (2010)
SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 01:24:10 minutes | 3,79 GB | Genre: Classical | © Tudor
Jonathan Nott continues his very successful Mahler series with Symphony No.2. The soloists are Anne Schwanewilms soprano and Lioba Braun contralto. BBC Music Magazine described Nott’s recording of Mahler’s Symphony No.9 as “a fine achievement in a towering symphony.”
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Bamberger Symphoniker, Jonathan Nott – Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (2009)
SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 00:55:23 minutes | 2,81 GB | Genre: Classical | © Tudor
It took Mahler over four years to complete his first symphony. The composer conducted the first performance in 1889 and received a hostile reception from press and public alike. It is now a favourite in concert halls around the world. The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra is led by their star conductor, Jonathan Nott, a conductor who is leading the orchestra to new heights. Their performances and recordings receive unprecedented praise wherever they are played.
…this one of the best recorded accounts we’ve had since Kubelík and Bernstein… Nott, you feel, has got under Mahler’s skin; Gergiev is merely offering an impersonation. – Gramophone Magazine, August 2008
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Christiane Karg, Bamberger Symphoniker, David Afkham – Parfum (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:14:29 minutes | 691 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Berlin Classics
You might gravitate toward French singers in this repertory, but to overlook this release of French Impressionist orchestral songs sung by German soprano Christiane Karg would be a serious error. For one thing, she hits some rather unusual repertory; the Quatre chansons françaises of the teenaged Benjamin Britten are already characteristic, but quite rare, and the big orchestrations of Debussy’s Le Livre de Baudelaire by none other than John Adams are also unusual, making a perfect foil for the transcendent Baudelaire settings of Henri Duparc at the end. And the main attractions are Karg’s voice and interpretations themselves. Her singing in Ravel’s Shéhérazade sets the tone for the whole, mixing just a bit of sultriness into these radiant evocations of the global East. Start sampling right at the beginning, with Karg’s riveting reading of Asie (Asia), surely one of the most intense on recordings. Karg moves over the course of the program from dreamy to sensual to, in the Duparc, almost mystically beautiful, and the shades of her approach are followed faithfully by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under David Afkham. The sound is distinctive, with BR Klassik opting for the Konzerthalle Bamberg and miking Karg close up, catching her effective occasional use of a low, breathy tone in these sometimes highly sensuous texts. A real joy, and a major step for this artist who has recorded French repertory only occasionally in the past.
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