Christian Elsner, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Marek Janowski – Franz Schubert: Lieder (2015) DSF DSD64

Christian Elsner, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Marek Janowski – Franz Schubert: Lieder (2015)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz  | Time – 01:02:55 minutes | 2,49 GB | Genre: Classical
Source: ISO SACD | © Channel Classics Records B.V. | Front Cover, Booklet

Given his magnificent achievement in the field of art song, and the vast volume and consistently high quality of his Lieder oeuvre, it is not surprising that Schubert’s songs have been recorded numerous times. It is not surprising either that many composers, such as Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Benjamin Britten, Hector Berlioz, Max Reger and Anton Webern made arrangements of Schubert’s songs. What is surprising, however, is the fact that these arrangements —made by some of the greatest composers in musical history—are so seldom heard either in concert or on record.

With the release of this album, hopefully that situation will change. It combines 17 Schubert compositions, of which 13 were orchestrated by late-romantic German composer Reger Max, and four by a member of the Second Viennese School, Anton Webern. When listening to these songs, the listener will discover that these arrangements are made with such craftsmanship that they themselves became unparalleled works of art. The performers on this SACD are the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and German tenor Christian Elsner, conducted by Maestro Marek Janowski. The album’s accompanying booklet contains the lyrics to the songs both in German and English, as well as programme notes and artists’ biographies.

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Marek Janowski & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra – Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn & Symphony No. 1 (2007/2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Marek Janowski & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra – Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn & Symphony No. 1 (2007/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:26 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone

A live recording from the Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh, March 2007.

“Well, rather than mincing my words and having to hold you in suspense while you read the entire paragraph, I’ll cut to the chase and tell you that this has become not only my favourite performance of the Haydn Variations, but I’m having a hard time thinking about any other performance of the Brahms 1st beyond this new Janowski recording.” (Richard Foster, HiFi+magazine)

“PentaTone’s reviting “you”-are-there” recording makes it a winner…If you are looking for a new, uncontroversial, and trustworthy reading of Brahms’s First Symphony in fantastic sound, I can recommend Janowski and Pittsburgh to you with little hesitation.” (Jeery Dubins, Fanfare)

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Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Marek Janowski – Richard Wagner – Lohengrin (2012) MCH SACD ISO

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Marek Janowski – Richard Wagner – Lohengrin (2012)
3xSACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 9,24 GB | Full Artwork
Label/Cat#: Pentatone # PTC 5186 403 | Country/Year: Netherlands 2012
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Opera

Lohengrin is the third volume of PentaTone’s monumental undertaking of the recording of all 10 major Wagner Operas. The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester und Chor, under the direction of Janowski, accompanies top Wagner soloists in each release. The cycle will be complete in the end of the Wagner year, 2013.

‘Janowski’s Dutchman indicates that he is on course for a triumphant Wagner Cycle.’ – Gramphone Magazine ‘It is a phenomenal achievement of Marek Janowski to have welded his immense forces into a virtually flawless unity.’ – BBC Music Magazine

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Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Transylvania State Choir, Marek Janowski – Verdi: Un ballo in maschera (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Transylvania State Choir, Marek Janowski – Verdi: Un ballo in maschera (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 02:11:02 minutes | 4,53 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone

Maestro Marek Janowski, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and the Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir present Giuseppe Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera (1859), together with a stellar cast, headed by Freddie De Tommaso (Riccardo), Lester Lynch (Renato) and Saioa Hernández (Amelia). Un ballo in maschera is Verdi’s tragicomic masterpiece, in which the composer skilfully switches gears between the light and tragic, as well as between his earlier and more mature style. As such, it is both an entertaining and highly sophisticated work. The three main soloists are all seasoned Verdi interpreters, while Janowski approaches this ingenuous score with his eye for symphonic architecture, resulting in a performance that is lively and balanced. The international cast of this recording is completed by Elisabeth Kulman (Ulrica), Annika Gerhards (Oscar), Kevin Short (Samuel), Adam Lau (Tom), Jean-Luc Ballestra (Silvano), and Samy Camps (Giudice/Servo).

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Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Marek Janowski – R. Strauss: An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64, TrV 233 (2009) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Marek Janowski – R. Strauss: An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64, TrV 233 (2009)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:11 minutes | 1,19 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone

Technically speaking, Eine Alpensinfonie (= An Alpine Symphony) is not a symphony. For after 1911, Richard Strauss rejected his original plan to write a four-movement symphony based on the theme of a Tragedy of an Artist, and instead sat down to write a one-movement symphonic poem. He concentrated on the part he had first designated as the opening movement of the symphony and in which he provided a programmatic description of “the Alps”. The first sketches were made in 1911; in 1913 the work existed in the form of a partichelo (= reduced score); and two years later, the full score was completed. Some scholars have interpreted the prolonged period of time spent by Strauss in the composition of the Alpine Symphony, with very little progress at times, as “an indication that he had exhausted his capacity to portray instrumental programme music” (Wagner). The work was lacking a “truly significant musical core thought”, which was apparent for instance from the enormously expanded length of the Alpensinfonie (not only is this Strauss’ last, but also his longest tone poem, with an average duration of about 60 minutes), as well as from its relinquishment of certain categories employed in other symphonic poems, such as humour, irony and persiflage.

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Marek Janowski – Weber: Der Freischütz, Op. 77, J. 277 (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Marek Janowski – Weber: Der Freischütz, Op. 77, J. 277 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:55:35 minutes | 1,97 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone

We have Marek Janowski to thank for this studio version of Weber’s masterpiece, recorded in 1994 in Berlin, and painstakingly remastered by RCA in 2017. Here the German conductor returns to a work which he knows in minute detail. Marking a bridge from the tradition of the “singspiel” in the style of the Magic Flute and the young Wagner of the Flying Dutchman, Freischütz represents the starting point for German romantic opera.

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Dresdner Philharmonie, Marek Janowski, Heike Janicke, Ralf-Carsten Brömsel – Schubert: Unfinished & The Great Symphonies (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Dresdner Philharmonie, Marek Janowski, Heike Janicke, Ralf-Carsten Brömsel – Schubert: Unfinished & The Great Symphonies (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:19:00 minutes | 2,73 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone

Marek Janowski presents his first purely-orchestral Schubert recording, together with the Dresdner Philharmonie, performing the composer’s two final, groundbreaking and most famous symphonies.

While the two movements of the “Unfinished” symphony in B Minor reach a level of perfection despite the work’s apparent incompleteness, Robert Schumann praised the “Great” symphony in C Major for its “heavenly length”. Janowski’s interpretation combines a sense of tradition with vitality and intensity.

This is a San Francisco Classical Recording Company production from Pentatone.

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Lise Davidsen, Marek Janowski – Beethoven: Fidelio, Op. 72 (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Lise Davidsen, Marek Janowski – Beethoven: Fidelio, Op. 72 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:49:15 minutes | 3,68 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone

… She [Lise Davidsen] is radiant in Act II’s sublime O Gott, Welch ein Augenblick and completely secure at the top, heading a fine cast including Georg Zeppenfeld (Rocco), G”unther Groissb”ock (Fernando) and Kr”anzle (Pizarro), a character baritone who oozes malevolence. Janowski is a swift, vital Beethovenian, and the Dresden Opera Chorus sings with breathtaking beauty in the Act I finale.”

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Dresdner Philharmonie & Marek Janowski – Puccini: Il tabarro, SC 85 (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Dresdner Philharmonie & Marek Janowski – Puccini: Il tabarro, SC 85 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 49:40 minutes | 888 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone

After their acclaimed Cavalleria rusticana recording, Marek Janowski and the Dresdner Philharmonie now present Puccini’s Il Tabarro. Puccini composed this piece as the first panel of his Trittico (1918), a novel work combining three one-act operas, and also containing Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. The explosive story about illicit love and revenge on the banks of the Seine recalls the Verismo of Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana. Beneath the Verismo surface, however, Il Tabarro is a highly modern piece, full of Impressionist harmonies, allusions to Stravinsky and dramatically significant self-borrowings.

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Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Marek Janowski – Brahms: Complete Symphonies (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Marek Janowski – Brahms: Complete Symphonies (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:44:01 minutes | 2,80 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone

Johannes Brahms’ four symphonies were greeted by his contemporaries as the most promising answer to Beethoven’s legendary legacy, and they have remained at the core of the symphonic repertoire ever since. Steering clear of poetic titles and adhering to traditional forms, they are nonetheless full of drama and musical innovation. This digital boxset presents the symphonies in chronological order, performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony under the baton of Marek Janowski, one of the greatest interpreters of German Romantic repertoire.

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Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski – Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 9 (2008) DSF DSD64

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski – Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 9 (2008)
DSD64 (.dsf) 1 bit/2,8 MHz | Time – 01:02:00 minutes | 2,44 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Digital Booklet | © Pentatone Music B.V.

If one includes the F minor study symphony dating from 1863, and the Symphony no. ‘0’ dating from 1869, then Anton Bruckner composed a total of 11 symphonies. However, Bruckner weeded out both early works from his definite canon of symphonies, and therefore the symphony which received the conclusive number of 9 was also most emphatically his ‘Ninth’. His ‘farewell’ work. Principally due to the legacy left by Beethoven, the term ‘Ninth’ made him overly feel awkward, perhaps even somewhat fearful. Otherwise, it is impossible to explain why Bruckner laid aside his work on the Symphony No. 9 so shortly after beginning with such commitment, and consciously turned to other projects.

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Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski – Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 8 (2010) DSF DSD64

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski – Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 8 (2010)
DSD64 (.dsf) 1 bit/2,8 MHz | Time – 01:19:48 minutes | 3,15 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Digital Booklet | © Pentatone Music B.V.

With the Eight Symphony, Anton Bruckner completes a kind of sonorous apotheosis of the Romantic era. A summit resurrected by the haughty conducting of Marek Janowski at the head of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Partner of this grandiose project which looks increasingly like a current integral, Espace 2 welcomes this release perpetuating the action of a public service specifically mandated to relay the cultural and musical richness of the French-speaking Switzerland. If the recording is –by definition- not central in the mission of a broadcaster, it nevertheless constitutes a kind of freezeframe sealing again the long relationship between the OSR and “its” radio station. I recall that the Radio Télévison Suisse and the great Swiss orchestra are contractually linked for more than 70 years and that they nourish together, day after day, new projects, new exchanges that allow the sonorous immediacy lived at the Victoria Hall of Geneva to be propagated throughout Switzerland, and worldwide through the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

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Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski – Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 7 (2011) DSF DSD64

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski – Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 7 (2011)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:06:03 minutes | 2,6 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Digital Booklet |  © Pentatone Music B.V.

In the more than 100 years since his death in 1896, the appraisals by musicologists, critics and the public at large of Anton Bruckner, the man, and Anton Bruckner, the composer, have consistently been radical in character. From the beginning, the standpoints of Bruckner disciples and Bruckner haters have been virtually irreconcilable. Few cases in musical historiography have featured such a diversity of standpoints regarding the importance of an oeuvre and its creator for European music. For the longest time, clichés and stereotypes set the tone of Bruckner reception, with Bruckner himself tending to be the focus of attention. This approach was typically accompanied by questionable characterisations which stood in the way of any objective investigation, e.g., ‘God’s musician,’ ‘Upper-Austrian peasant,’ ‘hero of German composition’ and ‘half genius, half idiot.’ It was not until the 1980s that Bruckner’s musical oeuvre, as such, started being subjected to greater scrutiny (than its creator). In particular Germanspeaking musicologists, with the help of detailed work analyses, began to approach the phenomenon of Anton Bruckner using a method which set aside the questionable anecdotes and speculations surrounding the personage, Bruckner, and concentrated above all on the facts: i.e., the surviving musical texts (in which connection the version problem became the foremost priority).

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Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski – Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 6 (2009) DSF DSD64

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski – Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 6 (2009)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 00:57:36 minutes | 2,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Digital Booklet |  © Pentatone Music B.V.

As this symphony is the first not to be subjected to extensive revision by the composer, an interested person scrutinising or listening to Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6 in A major is not forced to deal with the complex aspect of the various versions available. Consequently, for a change, it is available in just the one version. Thus one might conclude that this positive fact facilitates the access to the Symphony No. 6. After all, in the past, musicologists, conductors and audiences alike have struggled – and still struggle to this day – with the tangled web of versions in numerous other symphonies written by Bruckner. Nevertheless, we are still a long way from giving the work a straightforward and unconditional reception – indeed, the Symphony No. 6 receives rather shabby treatment in the concert hall and in Bruckner discographies, despite the fact that it is the shortest symphony ever written by Bruckner. Then why is the Sixth allotted the role of a “hanger-on”? Perhaps because it does not tie in with our image of Bruckner – perhaps due to its novel structure, its patently obvious complex of themes, or the massive upgrading of its slow movement?

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Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski – Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 5 (2010) DSF DSD64

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski – Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 5 (2010)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:13:53 minutes | 2,91 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Digital Booklet |  © Pentatone Music B.V.

In his novel “The Discovery of Slowness”, the German writer Sten Nadolny describes the life and death of the English naval officer and Arctic explorer John Franklin. The book is a subtle study on time. Franklin was a slow human being. He spoke slowly, thought slowly, and was slow to react. And even if he failes outwardly at the end, he yet emerges victorious, as in the old paradox of the race between Achilles and the tortoise. Because, from the perspective of slowness, the world does change. And the reader feels this. So what has that got to do with Anton Bruckner and his Fifth Symphony in B flat major? Well, at first glance, not a lot. But if we look more closely, it is not so difficult to credit this late Romantic composer with the “discovery of slowness”. The Fifth, like Nadolny’s book, is a deeply personal study on time.

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