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Conductor's Choice
Preview the RSO Season in Your
Home, Office or Car!
Conductor’s Choice Recordings of Works Featured in the
2007-8 Season.
We asked Music Director Andrew Constantine to recommend
recorded performances of the works he’ll be conducting this
season. The following selections—all available from
ArkivMusic—are his choices, accompanied with some brief
comments from the maestro.
Concert One, October 2007
Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto Nikolai Demidenko’s
performance on Hyperion is one I know well and love
enormously. As well as this recording being a critic’s
favourite Nikolai is a great friend and we’ve had some great
times performing this work together.
Rachmaninoff Symphony #2 The incomparable “Yura”.
No one does this music better or more compellingly. Although
recorded in London, RCA have captured the unmistakable depth
of the St. Petersburg strings.
Concert Two, November 2007
Debussy “Afternoon of a Faun” The Bernstein
recording on DG is as indulgent as I think it is possible to
be in this music. That said, I can think of no one better to
convey the sense of satiation and hedonism more
convincingly.
Bruch Violin Concerto Bearing in mind the number of
performances of the Bruch in the catalogue—over 90 on
ArkivMusic’s website!—it’s hard to single out a ‘one off’
favourite. But Oistrakh is my all-time favourite violinist
and he brings immense tenderness to the slow movement and
just the right balance of strength versus muscularity
elsewhere. Added to this could well be your introduction to
one of the most under-rated conductors ever, Lovro von
Matacic!
Vaughan Williams Symphony #6 Bryden Thomson,
or Jack as he was known, brought a sensitivity and panache
to his recordings of the Vaughan Williams symphonies on
Chandos which belied his, at times, slightly rough manner.
Concert Three, January 2008
Holst St. Paul’s Suite A lovely disc which has an
array of works you’ll just love to have on your shelf.
William is a fine exponent of these works and these were
grand times for the English String Orchestra and all my good
friends who played there.
Poulenc Organ Concerto Terrific stuff! A wonderful
coupling and great value in this two disc set. Just about
everything from Poulenc to get you really ‘hooked’
particularly the Organ concerto and the Concerto champêtre.
Dvorak Serenade Sir Colin Davis has always been a
masterful reader of Dvorak and the Bavarian orchestra plays
with immense warmth.
Concert Four, February 2008
Mussorgsky – Night on a Bare Mountain.
These are both razor sharp
performances. Dorati might have the edge in sound but as
said before, there was something very special about Matacic
as a conductor!
Korngold Violin Concerto No one comes to the stage
better prepared to ‘sing’ this music today than Gill Shaham.
Stunning technique and tone and that sort of innate
musicality you can’t question. The coupling of the Barber
and Korngold concertos might have been enough but the
addition of Previn’s Much Ado About Nothing suite is very
welcome.
Concert Five, March 2008
Prokofiev Symphony #1 (the “Classical”) Prokofiev’s
Classical Symphony is a gem of the repertoire and one I love
conducting. Both these performances have merits. Both
conductors knew the composer – Temirkanov only as a small
boy during the war when Prokofiev was evacuated to live with
his family in Nalchik – and bring the perfect mix of wit and
irony.
Saint-Saens Cello Concerto #1.
My favorite cellist and the musician who inspired me to
become one myself. This is clean, perfumed music making of
limitless variety in terms of phrasing and tonal nuance. For
a meaty and, perhaps, more immediate and strikingly intense
account , turn to Jacqueline du Pre.
Mozart Symphony #40 Why are you hesitating? A master
musician, great orchestra, seminal performance – and does it
really only cost $4.49???!
Concert Six, April 2008
Brahms Tragic Overture Evelyn Barbirolli, the conductor’s
widow, once told me how Sir John had loved recording his
cycle of Brahms with the Vienna Philharmonic in the twilight
of his career and how the Third Symphony and this Tragic
Overture were his favourites. It’s not hard to see why –
luminous music making from a conductor loved by every
orchestra he worked with and who had that rare gift of
creating a seamless line and breathing at the same time.
Bartok Viola Concerto. A great introduction to the violin
and viola works of Bela Bartok. Menuhin was one of Bartok’s
most fervent advocates and he brings tremendous verve and
darkness of timbre to this concerto, a work completed after
Bartok’s death by his pupil Tibor Serly.
Shostakovich Symphony #1 To my mind Jansons is probably the
finest all-round conductor working today. This is a
wonderfully tight reading of this early masterpiece and a
great bargain as well with the extra coupling of the
concertos for piano.
All of the above-listed works are available directly
through ArkivMusic.com—just click on the links above and
you’ll be taken directly to the ArkivMusic web page with the
appropriate selection!
When you buy classical CDs and DVDs through the RSO website
ArkivMusic link, you not only get great prices and speedy
service—you also ensure that the RSO receives a percentage
from your purchase. Same low price for you—and welcome
support for the RSO! It’s an unbeatable combination.
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