CD/Digital releases

It was a little over two years ago that i was introduced to the orchestral triptych Core – Turn – Boost by Swiss composer Dieter Ammann, on an album of live recordings by the Basel Sinfonietta conducted by Baldur Brönnimann. Recorded in May 2023 to celebrate the composer’s 60th birthday, …

As an epilogue to my excursions in Estonia during the summer and autumn, i want to highlight two albums that are tangentially related to the events i attended. During the Tormis 95 extravaganza in August, i mentioned Olev Muska, an Australian-Estonian composer who among other things was presenting his new …

“Everybody needs more Galina Ustvolskaya in their life.” That’s what i wrote last December, when discussing her Symphony No. 5 in my Advent Calendar, and it’s nice to think that the BIS record label read those words and decided to act on them. i very much doubt that’s the case, …

The last time i wrote about Danish composer Rued Langgaard, it was to celebrate a new recording of his Symphony No. 1, not only one of his own best works but a symphonic masterpiece in its own right (surely the best first symphony by any young composer; he was a …

Neglect has also surrounded the symphonies of Estonian composer Lepo Sumera. He’s generally lauded, loudly, within his homeland, but Sumera’s symphonic cause – comprising six symphonies, the last completed not long before his sudden death in 2000 – has been almost entirely limited to Estonian conductors. Parvo Järvi recorded a …

The second of Czech composer Miloslav Kabeláč‘s eight symphonies has come out in a new recording by the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Jakub Hrůša. i got to know his symphonies a few years ago, in the excellent Supraphon box set, and found him to be a curiously inconsistent …

One of my biggest classical music bêtes noires is the way so much significant music is allowed to be forgotten, with concert programmers snoozing on their laurels as they serve up yet another reheated season of the same old, same old. That’s especially the case where symphonies – and, more …

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To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon’s Patreon at £5 or more