Valery Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra – Scriabin Symphony No 2 (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Valery Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra – Scriabin Symphony No 2 (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 41:01 minutes | 903 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live

As a composer of orchestral music, Alexander Scriabin is best known for his last two idiosyncratic symphonies, the Poem of Ecstasy and Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, which are essentially symphonic poems, not symphonies in the conventional sense. The Symphony No. 1 (1900) and the Symphony No. 2 (1901), however, are more recognizable as symphonies in their multiple-movement forms, and their durations are comparable to the expansive symphonies of Scriabin’s contemporary, Gustav Mahler. They also share the post-Romantic tendency toward Wagnerian harmonies, rhapsodic melodies, and lush orchestration, which, in Scriabin’s case, were developed to express heightened emotional states and mystical transcendence. This 2016 double SACD by Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra presents each of the symphonies on its own disc, and the high-quality multichannel sound is ideal for bringing across the subtle nuances of tone color and the shifting of dynamics that are characteristic of his style. Listeners who are daunted by the sheer density and intensity of Scriabin’s later works might find these symphonies more approachable, and the live interpretations by Gergiev and the LSO are hard to improve on. Highly recommended.

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The Mariinsky Orchestra & Valery Gergiev – Stravinsky: Petrushka, Jeu de cartes (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

The Mariinsky Orchestra & Valery Gergiev – Stravinsky: Petrushka, Jeu de cartes (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 57:51 minutes | 1,18 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mariinsky

The Mariinsky Label presents Valery Gergiev’s first recording of Stravinsky’s iconic Petrushka score, paired with one of the composer’s hidden gems, the witty Jeu de cartes.

Stravinsky’s score to Petrushka is one of his most celebrated works and a product of his famous collaboration with Diaghilev that also produced The Firebird and Rite of Spring. Presented here in the composer’s original 1911 version, it tells the story of the loves and jealousies of three puppets who are brought to life during the 1830 Shrovetide Fair in Saint Petersburg. Its colourful music typifies Stravinsky’s work during the period and is characterised by the famous bitonal ‘Petrushka chord’.

A ballet in ‘three deals’, 1937’s Jeu de cartes stems from Stravinsky’s life-long enthusiasm for cards; poker in particular. A commission by Lincoln Kirstein and his newly formed American Ballet Company, it was composed during Stravinsky’s neoclassical period. The whimsical music focuses on the deceitful Joker who thinks himself unbeatable, thanks to a chameleon-like ability to become any card. During the work the Joker wages battle with other hands, but after two victorious rounds and the appearance of a third, he is vanquished by a Royal Flush of Hearts. Stravinsky regularly read La Fontaine during the composition of Jeu de cartes, choosing this quote to include in the score: ‘We must wage continual war against the wicked. Peace in itself is a fine thing, I agree, but what use can it be with enemies who do not keep their word?’

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London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos. 1-3 (2012) DSF DSD64

London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos. 1-3 (2012)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 02:05:56 minutes | 4,97 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Digital Booklet |  © LSO

Tchaikovsky was well into his twenties when he abandoned an unpromising career as a civil servant in the Russian Ministry of Justice and began to study music seriously, at first privately and then at the newly-established St Petersburg Conservatory. Immediately after graduating, he was offered a teaching post at the even newer Moscow Conservatory, and it was during his early months there that he composed the First Symphony. Its birth was accompanied by the anxiety and self-doubt that Tchaikovsky was never to overcome, even as a mature and established master.

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Mariinsky Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture, ‘Moscow’ Cantata, Marche Slave (2009) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Mariinsky Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture, ‘Moscow’ Cantata, Marche Slave (2009)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:17 minutes | 1,16 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mariinsky

Unlike the majority of his Russian predecessors, Tchaikovsky’s fame meant he received regular commissions for new work—he was the first ‘professional’ Russian composer. A new generation followed in his footsteps including Stravinsky and Prokofiev; for them, commissions were the norm.

Many of the works for which Tchaikovsky was commissioned were required to celebrate great state and political events. The Danish Overture was written to mark the marriage of the future Tsar Alexander III to the Danish Princess Dagmar. He was later commissioned to to produce the rarely-heard Moscow Cantata and Coronation March as part of the celebrations to mark Alexander’s coronation.

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Mariinsky Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker & Symphony No. 4 (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Mariinsky Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker & Symphony No. 4 (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:09:02 minutes | 2,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mariinsky

On the 18th December, 1892 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, The Nutcracker was first introduced to the world. Now, almost 125 years since that opening night and from the very same hall, the Mariinsky’s current Artistic Director, Valery Gergiev, reveals a perfectly judged interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s ballet masterpiece.

Tchaikovsky was a pioneer, his music a new style that combined developments of the Western European musical tradition while remaining distinctively Russian. From an early age he had relished stage works involving magic or fantasy such as Weber’s Der Freischütz and Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and after seeing Adolphe Adam’s Giselle he became a ballet devotee.

Based upon E.T.A. Hoffmann’s tale of a young girl’s magical Christmas Eve, as a whole The Nutcracker was poorly received at first. But Tchaikovsky’s spellbinding score proved simply too good to lose and The Nutcracker has become an essential part of festive celebrations the world over. Adored for pieces like The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and The Waltz of the Flowers, it contains some of Tchaikovsky’s most popular work and is perhaps the most famous ballet music ever written.

Closing the album is Tchaikovsky’s powerfully emotional Fourth Symphony. As the composer wrote, it is ‘patterned after Beethoven’s Fifth’ and is well known for its theme of ‘fate’, announced by the ominous recurring fanfare that holds the unique symphonic form together.

Tempering the sweetness of The Nutcracker, this coupling displays two very different sides of Tchaikovsky’s music, illustrating him as a complex man who battled to balance inner turmoils as well as utmost joys. Perhaps summed up by the final line of his famous programme note: ‘Reproach yourself and do not say that all the world is sad. Simple but strong joys do exist. Rejoice in other’s rejoicing. To live is still bearable.’

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Denis Matsuev, Mariinsky Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Tchaikovsky: Piano Concertos Nos.1 & 2 (2013) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Denis Matsuev, Mariinsky Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Tchaikovsky: Piano Concertos Nos.1 & 2 (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:32 minutes | 1,42 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mariinsky

Since winning the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998, Denis Matsuev has established a reputation as one of Russia’s leading pianists. His début release on the Mariinsky label featuring Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3 and Paganini Variations, received widespread acclaim. His second Mariinsky release featured piano concerts by Shostakovich and Shchedrin, which was awarded Clef du Mois by ResMusica and ***** by Audiophile Audition. For his third release, Matsuev turns to the music of Tchaikovsky, with the two Piano Concertos. His first Piano Concerto is one of his most popular works: Tchaikovsky balances core motivic elements with a sense of lyrical spontaneity to create a technically challenging but instantly appealing work.

The Piano Concerto No.2 was dedicated to pianist Nikolai Rubinstein, with whom the composer had a close working relationship. Tchaikovsky wrote, “I want to dedicate it to N. G. Rubinstein in recognition of his magnificent playing of my First Concerto and of my Sonata, which left me in utter rapture after he performed it for me in Moscow.” After a tremendous piano cadenza in the first movement, Tchaikovsky allows other instruments to shine, with prominent solos for violin and cello in the second movement.

Other Tchaikovsky recordings on the Mariinsky label include a DVD/Bluray release of his last three symphonies, and 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition winner Daniil Trifonov’s interpretation of the first Piano Concerto on SACD.

In March and April Denis Matsuev joins the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev for a European tour, with concerts in London, Paris and Turin.

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London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Strauss: Elektra (2010) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Strauss: Elektra (2010)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:48:12 minutes | 2,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live

The divine retribution element of Greek tragedy is largely absent. Strauss and his librettist Hugo von Hofmannstahl concentrate on the characters and their own bloody actions, which perhaps accounts for the outrage voiced by opera critics of the time. An obsession with violence was an uncomfortable experience in the opera house and not something Strauss was known for. Interestingly, Alban Berg would begin composing his equally disturbing opera Wozzeck just a few years later, though the work was not performed until 1925. Greek mythology aside, Strauss was anticipating a similarly dark world – one to which he would not return, though his collaboration with von Hofmannstahl would last some thirty years.

Strauss himself was uncomfortable with the subject matter, believing it too close to that of his earlier opera Salome which had recently been performed. It was von Hofmannstahl who insisted on pursuing the project after Strauss voiced second thoughts. The opera was first performed in Dresden in 1909. It is in one act lasting just under two hours.

The characters exist in their own palace hot house. A vast orchestra provides a menacing emotional surround for the singers, reaching extraordinary dramatic climaxes before reducing down to a murmur, notably when Klytämnestra makes her first appearance in scene six. If the vocal lines are notoriously angular and difficult, the musical score nonetheless blossoms frequently into something more lyrical. And its recurrent motifs give the ear something to hang onto in a score whose melodic fragments and harmony are fluctuating non-stop.
This recording shows the combination of Gergiev and the LSO at its wonderful best, with the orchestra breathing as one huge organism whilst contributing an astonishing level of detail. The excellent cast includes Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet in the title role, with Dame Felicity Palmer as Klytämnestra and Matthias Goerne in the part of Orest. It was made from performances given in London in 2010.

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Valery Gergiev, Mariinsky Orchestra – Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 15 (2009) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Valery Gergiev, Mariinsky Orchestra – Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 15 (2009)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:15:52 minutes | 1,16 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © The Mariinsky Label

Over 45 years separate the composition of Shostakovich’s first and final symphonies and yet both exude the same creativity and dark wit for which the great composer came to be known.
The First Symphony owes much to the influence of the composer’s Russian predecessors including Tchaikovsky and Scriabin. However, it also reflects contemporary artistic life and the optimism of the early years in the Soviet Union. By contrast the final symphony is a much more bitter work, which draws on many of the themes that recur throughout Shostakovich’s career, yet never resorts to melodrama.

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Valery Gergiev, Mariinsky Orchestra, Mariinsky Chorus – Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 11 (2010) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Valery Gergiev, Mariinsky Orchestra, Mariinsky Chorus – Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 11 (2010)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:04 minutes | 1,42 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mariinsky

Shostakovich’s Second and Eleventh Symphonies are both inspired by Russian revolutions. The Eleventh Symphony, “The Year 1905”, marks the bloody revolution of its namesake year. It is an astonishingly atmospheric symphony, of cinematic breadth, especially the second movement which depicts the Bloody Sunday massacre in St Petersburg.

Symphony No 2 was written to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. Though it is a much shorter work than the Eleventh, clocking in at less than 20 minutes, it is by no means any less dramatic. Although dismissed as an experiment by the composer later in his career, it remains an important step in the development of one of history’s greatest symphonists. Here Valery Gergiev, along with the Mariinsky Orchestra and Chorus, delivers definitive performances of both works.

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Mariinsky Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60 ‘Leningrad’ (2012) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Mariinsky Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60 ‘Leningrad’ (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:22:21 minutes | 1,36 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mariinsky

Valery Gergiev continues his Shostakovich symphony cycle with an emotionally-charged performance of the Seventh Symphony. Shostakovich dedicated his Symphony No 7 to the defiance shown by the citizens of Leningrad in the face of Nazi totalitarianism. Despite the widespread reassessment that has since taken place regarding the inspirations for his symphonies, the ‘Leningrad’ symphony remains a highly-potent symbol for the residents of modern-day St Petersburg.

Previous releases in Gergiev’s Shostakovich cycle have included Symphonies Nos 1 & 15, 2 & 11 and 3 & 10. Between them they have received two Grammy Award nominations, as well as Chocs from Classica (France) and Editor’s Choices from Gramophone.

Gergiev will conduct Shostakovich symphonies with the Rotterdam Philharmonic in December, and complete the Brahms & Szymanowsky cycles with the LSO in London. In January the Mariinsky orchestra will perform a number of Shostakovich symphonies with Gergiev in France and in February they return to Russia for performances of Shchedrin’s ‘Dead Souls’ and Strauss’ ‘Elektra’.

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Valery Gergiev, Mariinsky Orchestra – Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 10 (2011) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Valery Gergiev, Mariinsky Orchestra – Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 10 (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:20:25 minutes | 1,57 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mariinsky

The Third Symphony was first performed in January 1930, its final movement setting a text by Semyon Isaakovich Kirsanov praising May Day and the revolution. Shostakovich stated that the work “expresses the spirit of peaceful reconstruction” and yet much of the music is dark and sombre in tone.

The Tenth Symphony is one of his most popular and frequently heard works. It was first performed in December 1953 following Stalin’s death earlier that year, although Shostakovich had been working on much of the material incorporated in the symphony for many years. The great Russian soprano Galina Vishnevskaya claimed that the symphony was “a composer’s testament of misery, forever damning a tyrant”.

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London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Scriabin: Symphony No. 1 (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Scriabin: Symphony No. 1 (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 50:08 minutes | 951 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © London Symphony Orchestra

Scriabin’s Symphony No 1 first saw the light of day in a two piano version, which was used to premiere the piece to various important musical figures of the day. These included the composer Lyadov, a member of the Russian committee that decided which music might or might not be published. Unfortunately for Scriabin, the choral finale of his symphony did not find favour, and though Lyadov conducted the symphonic premiere soon after, the finale was omitted from the first performance in 1900. It would be five months before the work was performed complete.

The symphony is in six movements and runs for almost fifty minutes. It owes something to Mahler and Wagner with its languid Largo opening, slow moving harmonies and lush orchestration. There is, however, something unusually dramatic about the concentrated solo violin at the start, and the primacy of the melodic line which threads its way through is oddly modern. The second movement marked Allegro drammatico enters more complex territory. There is greater interplay between instrumental parts, with the mobility of the bass line evoking other late romantic music of the period.

The music oscillates between slow and fast movements and culminates in the choral finale Lyadov didn’t care for. Here Ekaterina Sergeeva and Alexander Timchenko are the vocal soloists, Scriabin combining mezzo-soprano and tenor to interesting effect (anticipating Mahler’s combination of singers in Das Lied von der Erde). It would have taken quite an imagination to detect a work this colourful in the original piano score Lyadov heard.

This recording was made from performances given in the spring of 2014 in London. As with all the LSO’s recent Scriabin releases, the work is played with the kind of intensity and assurance one would expect from a world-class orchestra under the authoritative direction of Valery Gergiev.

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London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 3; Balakirev: Russia (2015) DSF DSD64

London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 3; Balakirev: Russia (2015)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 56:28 minutes | 2,23 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Digital Booklet |  © LSO

Sergei Rachmaninov Symphony No 3 in A minor Op 44 (1935–36) :: Each of Rachmaninov’s three symphonies sums up one of the three main periods of his life. The First (1897) is the outpouring of a passionate and adventurous young man steeped in the climate of late 19th-century Russian music and literature. The Second (1907) is an expansive, opulent work composed when Rachmaninov was at the peak of his triple career as composer, pianist and conductor. The Third, written three decades later, comes from the years of exile when Rachmaninov was cut off from his native culture and traditions. He had become a world-famous piano virtuoso, but outside Russia was generally less highly regarded as a composer.

Rachmaninov began the Third Symphony in the summer of 1935 in his villa on the shores of Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. The first two movements were written relatively quickly, but he had to interrupt work for a major concert tour in the United States that autumn and winter. It was only in June 1936 that he was able to return to Switzerland to compose the finale. The premiere took place in America that November: ‘I was present at the first two performances’, wrote Rachmaninov, ‘it was played wonderfully (The Philadelphia Orchestra—Stokowski conducting). Both audience and critics responded sourly. Personally, I’m firmly convinced that this is a good work. But … sometimes the author is wrong, too! However, I maintain my opinion’.

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London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 1;Balakirev: Tamara (2016) DSF DSD64

London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 1;Balakirev: Tamara (2016)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:01:22 minutes | 2,31 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Digital Booklet |  © LSO

Symphony No 1 in D minor Op 13 :: Rachmaninov’s star shone brightly at the beginning of his career. He was barely twenty when his oneact opera Aleko, composed as a graduation exercise from the Moscow Conservatory, was praised by Tchaikovsky and performed at the Bolshoi. He had also already composed his First Piano Concerto. Following two smaller-scale orchestral pieces, The Rock and the Fantasy on Gypsy Themes, he felt ready to tackle the most demanding orchestral form. He devoted most of 1895 to composing his enormously ambitious First Symphony, a work that would surpass everything he had yet achieved. ‘I believed I had opened up entirely new paths’, he recalled many years later.

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London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances; Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements (2012) DSF DSD64

London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev – Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances; Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements (2012)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 58:29 minutes | 2,31 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Digital Booklet |  © LSO

Did Rachmaninov realise that the Symphonic Dances would be his last work? Whether he had such a premonition or not, few composers have ended their careers with such appropriate music, for the Symphonic Dances contain all that is finest in Rachmaninov, representing a compendium of a lifetime’s musical and emotional experience.

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