Фирма BIS Classics

Born in Prague in 1737, Josef Myslivecek spent most of his short life in Italy, where for a while he enjoyed success with his many operas, and became known as ‘Il Boemo’ (‘The Bohemian’). It was also in Italy – in Bologna – that he first met Mozart, in 1770. Their paths would cross again and in letters Mozart wrote about him with affection, describing him as full of ‘fire, spirit and life’. Myslivecek’s output for keyboard has been somewhat neglected, something which the English pianist Clare Hammond seeks to rectify with her latest disc. The keyboard concertos in particular have barely seen the light of day since Myslivecek’s death and the second concerto is recorded for the first time on this disc which gathers all of the extant keyboard works. Clare Hammond, whose imaginative recording projects on BIS have received international acclaim, is here supported in the concertos by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by no one less than Nicholas McGegan, whose expertise in 18th-century style is undisputed.

Left unfinished at the death of the composer, Gustav Mahler's Tenth Symphony has exerted an enormous fascination on musicologists as well as musicians. Whether fully orchestrated in specific passages, or a sole melody in others, there is one continuous line throughout the surviving manuscript pages and over the years a number of different completions or performing versions have seen the light of day. One of the latest is this 'recreation' of the work for chamber orchestra by composer and conductor Michelle Castelletti.

Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony started life as a single-movement tone poem called Todtenfeier(‘Funeral Rites’). Completed in 1888 – one year before Richard Strauss's Death and Transfiguration –it echoed the composer's vision of seeing himself lying dead on a funeral bier surrounded by flowers. Deciding to use it as his opening movement, Mahler didn't finish the complete five-movement symphony until more than six years later, the longest time he spent on any work. The huge scale of the work apart, its weighty subject matter may well have contributed to the slow progress: Mahler himself outlined a scenario making references to the ultimate meaning of life and death (first movement), recollections of lost innocence and the desperation of unbelief (second and third movements), the return to naïve faith (fourth movement) and final redemption from the last judgement (finale). To convey this he took recourse to the human voice: incorporating a solo alto in the 4th movement Urlicht, he went on in the finale to risk comparison with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony by introducing a choir, as well as soprano and alto soloists. Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä have received praise for their previous Mahler recordings (‘Vänskä and the orchestra are among the finest exponents of Mahler’s music...’, allmusic.com). The team is here joined by soloists Ruby Hughes and Sasha Cooke and the Minnesota Chorale in the deeply moving close to the vast and tumultuous panorama that is his Second Symphony.

Ronald Brautigam has recorded more than 60 discs for BIS, including the complete solo keyboard music by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven on the fortepiano. But his first releases on the label, in the mid-1990s, were Felix Mendelssohns concertante works for piano and orchestra on modern piano. When he now returns to these scores, it is on a copy of a Pleyel grand piano from 1830 the year before Mendelssohn composed his Piano Concerto No.1 in G minor. And the orchestra supporting him is the period band Die Kölner Akademie under Michael Alexander Willens, the same team that he has already collaborated with for an acclaimed 11-disc survey of Mozarts keyboard concertos. The historically informed accompaniments and the clarity of the solo instrument contribute to performances of a great charm and freshness, shedding a new light on these works. Composed between 1831 and 1838, they were all written primarily for Mendelssohns own use as a touring concert pianist, but soon entered the repertoire of many other pianists especially the G minor concerto, which was extremely popular in the composers own time.

Hugely prolific as well as widely acclaimed, Kalevi Aho has composed 30 concertos to date. Many of them are available in recordings from BIS, and the present release features two works from the past decade. The Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra was commissioned for Jörgen van Rijen, who also performs it here. The concerto is actually Ahos second concertante piece for the trombone his Symphony No.9 (1994) included a substantial and very virtuosic solo part for the instrument. In that work, and even more so in the concerto, the composers aim has been to extend the expressive and virtuosic possibilities of the trombone. Composed around the same time, the Trumpet Concerto is scored for the wind section of a medium-sized symphony orchestra, plus two saxophones, baritone horn and percussion. It was given its premiere by the same musicians that perform it here, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins supporting its principal trumpet Alain De Rudder in what is an often surprisingly jazzy work.

Composer: Sergei Rachmaninov; Artist: Yevgeny Sudbin; Artist: BBC SO/ Sakari Oramo Label: BIS RECORDS

Artist: Dvorak; Artist: Escher String Quartet; Artist: Speltz Label: Bis

Komponist: Robert Schumann; Komponist: Johannes Brahms; Artist: Sudbin; Artist: Avanesyan; Artist: Brovtsyn; Artist: Poppen; Artist: Chaushian Label: Bis (Klassik Center Kassel)

Christian Poltéra (cello), Ronald Brautigam (piano)

Estonian Cello Music Allar Kaasik (cello), Kristīne Adamaite (organ) Estonian National Male Choir, State Choir Latvija, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Mikk Üleoja, Māris Sirmais, Peeter Lilje

Komponist: Paul Hindemith; Komponist: Arnold Schönberg; Artist: Trio Zimmermann Label: Bis (Klassik Center Kassel)

Alexandre Kantorow (piano)

Composer: Jonathan Plowright Label: Bis (Klassik Center Kassel)

Artist: J.S. Bach; Artist: Laurin Label: Bis