Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras – Zoltan Kodaly: Dances of Galanta / Bela Bartok: Music for Strings, Percussion & Celeste, Divertimento (2004)
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 / 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 01:12:56 + 01:09:38 minutes | 4,04 GB
Genre: Classical | Publisher (label): Linn Records – CKD 234
“Mackerras’ superb interpretation shows how Bartуk was opening up a world of possibilities for the orchestra.” ~ Daily Telegraph
Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta is one of the genuine masterpieces of the 20th century music. It is performed by 2 string orchestras left and right on the stage with the piano, harp, celesta and a battery of various percussion instruments in the middle (piano is a percussion instrument in this case, and harp is part of the ‘strings’). This set-up presents ideal opportunity for surround recording, and Linn take much advantage of it, while not sacrificing sonic quality for 2-channel stereo.
The Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta receives one of the best performances this reviewer has heard as does his All sections of the orchestra make fine contributions, particularly the brass and woodwind sections. The image of the orchestra still has depth and strings woodwinds and brass groups each have clearly delineated space from front to back. All the complex rhythms are well recorded, and sound very sharp and well defined. The second movement of the music for strings, percussions and celesta is the best example of this.
The Bartok Divertimento from 1939 is an example of a mature work written on the cusp of war and at a time when Bartok was starting to clarify and simplify his language which incorporated a range of folk influences from Hungary and the surrounding countries. Unlike the Kodaly piece, this is very idiomatic of the mature Bartok and could not have been written by anyone else.
Kodaly’s beloved Dances of Galentai is a fascinating and beautiful piece, and Mackerras makes such a fine impression with this work that should be available in more orchestras’ repertoire. The slow opening dances with lusciousness and rhythmic flexibility, and the woodwind solos are exceptional. The dances are memories of Kodaly’s childhood and the Mackerras really emphasizes the childish and magical side to this music.
“A sonic triumph” — Hi-Fi News
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Maxim Emelyanychev, Scottish Chamber Orchestra – Felix Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 5 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:04:54 minutes | 2,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
Following their much-praised Schubert recording (‘the most thrilling account of Schubert’s last symphony’, BBC Music Magazine), Maxim Emelyanychev and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra are reunited for their highly anticipated second album on Linn, this time performing Mendelssohn’s Symphonies Nos. 3 & 5. Inspired by the natural beauty of Scotland – and what better way to celebrate SCO’s 50th anniversary in 2023 than the ‘Scottish’ Symphony! – No. 3 has a fiery character well suited for the ‘dynamic, energetic and exciting to watch’ conductor Maxim (The Guardian). Despite its numbering, No. 5 (known as the ‘Reformation’) is an early work which evokes the struggles and triumph of Protestantism. Its final chorale based on Luther’s much celebrated ‘Ein feste Burg’ draws the album to a reaffirming end.
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Robin Ticciati, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Karen Cargill – Berlioz: Les nuits d’ete (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:45 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
Robin Ticciati cements his reputation as an outstanding Berliozian with his latest recording, ‘Berlioz: Les nuits d’été’, which includes excerpts from Roméo & Juliette and La Mort de Cléopâtre. A pupil of Sir Simon Rattle and the great Berliozian Sir Colin Davis, Robin’s reputation as one of this generation’s best conductors was assured when he was announced as the next music director of Glyndebourne, taking over from Vladimir Jurowski in 2014.
Named one of the top ten young ‘conductors on the verge of greatness’ by Gramophone Magazine, Robin delivers fresh insights and vivid colours into this luminous work.
The recording features Kathleen Ferrier prize-winning mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill, who has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, New York and won acclaim as Cleopatra, a role she reprises here: ‘…the core of this stunning concert was a shattering, heart-rending performance by Cargill in awesome voice.’ (The Herald)
The works of Berlioz have featured prominently in Ticciati’s programmes with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra since he became their principal conductor in 2009.
Ticciati’s recording debut, ‘Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique’, received rave reviews: it was named Critics’ Choice ‘Sound of 2012’ (The Independent), ‘Classical CD of the Week’ (The Sunday Times), ‘Disc of the Week’ (BBC Radio 3 ‘CD Review’) and No. 3 in The Sunday Times’ Best Classical Albums of 2012 list.
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra is internationally recognised as one of the finest chamber orchestras in the world with a multi award-winning catalogue of recordings under Robin Ticciati, Sir Charles Mackerras, Alexander Janiczek and Joseph Swensen.
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Robin Ticciati, Scottish Chamber Orchestra – Schumann: The Symphonies (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:13:24 minutes | 2,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
Schumann: The Symphonies sees Robin Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra embark upon their first symphonic cycle together in a programme that they performed in concerts across Scotland.
This is music that is very close to Robin Ticciati’s heart; he describes Schumann as one of his favourite composers and has often spoken about how important poetry, colour and story are to Schumann’s music.
Symphony No. 1 ‘Spring’, blazes and sparkles with joy, Symphony No. 2 finds its way carefully through to the safe haven of its final movement, the much-loved Symphony No. 3 ‘Rhenish’ moves with huge ease and assurance to a resonant and joyful conclusion. Symphony No. 4 is radical in the way each movement attacks the start of the next movement with barely a pause, and in its minute-and-a-half-long, shimmering and horn-call filled-transition to the finale. Under Ticciati and the SCO it is magnificent, the radical, soaring, disturbing and exhilarating symphony Schumann intended.
The SCO’s smaller forces bring a lightness of touch and a clarity to the counterpoint; under Ticciati they achieve a sense of movement that no previous recording has.
This recording was met with critical acclaim: it was named #9 in The Sunday Times’ ‘Classical Album in the 100 Top Albums of 2014’, #23 in the ‘Best Albums of 2014’ by Da Volkskrant, a ‘Critics’ Choice Pick of 2014′ by Andrew Ford on ABC Radio and won a 2015 ‘Discovery’ Classic Edison Award. Sir Simon Rattle commented, “Robin makes a clear case for how the revised version can retain the radical edge of the 1841 version. Still it sounds like a fireball and I take my hat off to him.”
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Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Joseph Swensen – Sibelius: Theatre Music (2003)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:45 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
The foundations of Sibeliuss reputation are his symphonies, tone poems and increasingly his songs but the music he wrote for the stage throughout his creative life includes some of his finest scores. This disc presents his theatre music from 2 distinct periods – the 1900s (contemporary with his Violin Concerto, and the Second and Third Symphonies) and the 1920s, including some of the last works of his to survive.
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Scottish Chamber Orchestra – Beethoven: Music for Winds (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 55:11 minutes | 2,14 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
All around the world, critics cheered the SCO Wind Soloists’ previous album of Mozart Divertimenti: ‘superb in every way’ (Fanfare), ‘a joy from start to finish’ (Europadisc), ‘sparkles with joy and chuckles with good humour’ (BBC Radio 3 ‘Record Review’).
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Robin Ticciati and Scottish Chamber Orchestra – Brahms: The Symphonies (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 02:32:05 minutes | 5,35 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
As Robin Ticciati enters his final season with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Linn celebrates his memorable tenure as Principal Conductor with a recording of four of the most sublime orchestral masterpieces ever written.
The recording legacy of these revolutionary and distinctive works serves to underscore the confidence Ticciati has, not only in his own vision for these symphonies, but also in his partnership with the musicians of the SCO, who relish Brahms’ highly virtuosic orchestral writing. The SCO’s renowned recordings of Mozart Symphonies are a natural predecessor to Brahms, who advances the form’s classicism into the Romantic era.
Ahead of the SCO 15/16 Season, in which all four symphonies were performed, Ticciati set out his aims: ‘The challenge…is to find a Brahms sound with the orchestra. To find something dark, autumnal, yet transparent, fleet footed and steeped in counterpoint.’ By 2017, that Brahms sound was achieved; Ticciati’s interpretations are both muscular and energized, with detail and life in every line. Ticciati’s meticulous control of tempo, phrase shape and balance results in performances of extraordinary transparency and colour.
This recording marks a major landmark in Ticciati’s career.
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Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Alexander Janiczek – Mozart: Divertimento K.334 & Oboe Quartet K.370 (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:46 minutes | 1,24 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
Director and violinist Alexander Janiczek leads principal players from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in this beautifully intimate recording. Mozart’s writing allows each player to shine and demonstrates the depth of talent within the ensemble, illustrating why this orchestra has had such extensive success with its previous Mozart recordings. The works on this disc are full of well-known tunes which demonstrate Mozart’s trademark melodic beauty. Acclaimed oboist, Robin Williams, gives a dazzling performance of the composer’s great masterpiece. This is the fourteenth recording in the orchestra’s hugely successful partnership with Linn Records, a series that includes the award-winning Mozart Symphonies recordings with the late Sir Charles Mackerras.
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Scottish Chamber Orchestra – Mozart: Divertimenti (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:07 minutes | 1,13 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
Following the success of performances and recordings of Weber’s Wind Concertos with SCO principals as soloists, the SCO Wind Soloists that feature on this album have since 2012 started to explore Harmoniemusik repertoire.
Inspired by the legacy of the great Mozartian conductors of the SCO including Sir Charles Mackerras, the Wind Soloists make a fine contribution to the SCO’s distinguished Mozart discography.
This new recording includes four of the five Tafelmusik sextets for pairs of clarinets, horns and bassoons, together with the Serenade in E flat major, the first of Mozart’s three great wind serenades.
The Serenade in E flat major has many unusual features. Its opening fanfare – a series of repeated chords on the tonic in E flat – immediately catches the ear.
The fact that Mozart avoids fatiguing the listener with a surfeit of the same sonorities, in music with a necessarily limited dynamic and instrumental range, bears eloquent testimony to his genius.
This recording captures the wealth of detail in Mozart’s Divertimenti; there is something in each of them for every music lover.
Comprising pairs of clarinet, bassoons and natural horns, the players are dedicated to performing each work in a stylish and informed way, from the masterpieces of Mozart, Beethoven and Weber to twentieth-century works and contemporary commissions.
The SCO Wind Soloists are: Maximiliano Martín clarinet, William Stafford clarinet, Peter Whelan bassoon, Alison Green bassoon, Alec Frank-Gemmill horn, Harry Johnstone horn.
The SCO Wind Soloists have appeared in chamber concerts throughout Scotland. They have also performed at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in the presence of HRH The Prince Charles.
Emma Bell, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Richard Egarr – Handel: Operatic Arias (2005)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 51:19 minutes | 1,00 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
Soprano Emma Bell’s outstanding second solo album, which features the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Creditably, the recital includes a number of less well-known arias from Handel’s operas, with a wide range of emotions and tempos, from the sombre “Sommi dei”, once recorded by Kirsten Flagstad, and two laments from “Rodelinda” to Melissa’s summoning the Furies, with trumpet obbligato, in “Desterò dall empia dite”, which launches the disc with vigour…
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Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Christian Baldini and Elizabeth Watts – Mozart: Opera Arias and Overtures (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:17 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra has established impeccable Mozartian credentials and its previous forays into operatic repertoire have been highly critically acclaimed. Conductor Christian Baldini makes his recording debut with the orchestra in this repertoire that is so close to his heart. They are joined for the arias by award-winning soprano Elizabeth Watts who uses her considerable Mozart experience to create highly memorable performances.
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Scottish Chamber Orchestra – Beethoven Piano Concertos 3, 4 & 5 (2008)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:43:19 minutes | 3,70 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Linn Records
Though pianist Artur Pizarro’s performances of the solo parts in Beethoven’s Third, Fourth, and Fifth piano concertos are consistently superlative, it’s not too much to say that the real draw here is not the soloist but the accompanists. Because as fine as Pizarro’s virtuoso playing is, Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra turn in performances of such force, sensitivity, and balance that they may well be the finest accompaniments for these concertos ever recorded. Pizarro is a strong and supple soloist whose dramatic account on the Third Concerto, lyrical reading of the Fourth Concerto, and imperious elucidation of the Fifth Concerto show his firm grasp of the music’s escalating rhetoric. But Mackerras, a seasoned and canny conductor, not only supports Pizarro unstintingly, but finds the orchestral accompaniments’ depths and beauties by highlighting a solo cello in the Fourth’s Finale, weaving wind lines in the Third’s Largo and blending string sonorities in the Fifth’s Adagio, thereby creating interpretations of ineffable rightness and profundity. Captured in amazingly life-like sound by Linn, these performances will be compulsory listening for anyone who appreciates the fine art of accompaniment. Review by James Leonard
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Alexander Janiczek and Scottish Chamber Orchestra – Weber: Wind Concertos (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:04:27 minutes | 2,43 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
The ‘Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor’ and ‘Concertino for Clarinet & Orchestra in C minor / E-flat Major’ were composed at a pivotal time in the instrument’s development. A new style of playing which was soft, full and rich in tone inspired several composers to write for the instrument, whilst inspiring Weber to write what would become one of the cornerstone’s of the clarinet repertoire. Clarinettist Maximiliano Martín was praised for his performance of Weber on 2009’s Vibraciones del Alma with The Herald admiring his ‘liquid virtuosity, which flows like oil’…
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Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras – Mozart Symphonies 38 – 41 (2008)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 02:19:22 minutes | 2,37 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
This recording was named BBC Music Magazine’s one of ‘5 Essential Works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’ by BBC Music Magazine in 2012 as well as being a winner at the 2009 Classical BRIT Awards (Critics’ Award 2009) and the 2009 BBC Music Magazine Awards (Disc of the Year Award and Orchestral Award) In their original review BBC Music Magazine stated: These performances are so exhilarating that I listened to all four symphonies straight through at a first hearing, mesmerised by the variety and intensity of the music itself, sounding here completely fresh, and the virtually flawless renderings by the excellent Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with Sir Charles Mackerras at his most penetrating.’ This eagerly anticipated addition to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra series sees Mozart specialist Sir Charles Mackerras deliver a truly memorable recording of Mozart’s four last symphonies. This recording was named BBC Music Magazine’s one of ‘5 Essential Works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’ by BBC Music Magazine in 2012 as well as being a winner at the 2009 Classical BRIT Awards(Critics Award 2009)and the 2009 BBC Music Magazine Awards(Disc of the Year Award and Orchestral Award).In their original review BBC Music Magazine stated: These performances are so exhilarating that I listened to all four symphonies straight through at a first hearing, mesmerised by the variety and intensity of the music itself, sounding here completely fresh, and the virtually flawless renderings by the excellent Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with Sir Charles Mackerras at his most penetrating.’ This much-loved recording has received many awards and plaudits since its release in 2008: Best Classical Record of 2008. The Sunday Times. Best Classical Record of 2008. HMV Choice. A disc of the year. BBC Radio 3’s CD Review. A disc of the year. BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. A disc of the year. Classic FM’s The New CD Show. Gramophone Recommended. Gramophone. Classical CD of the Week. The Sunday Times. Orchestral Disc of the Month. BBC Music Magazine. Album of the Month. HiFi News.
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