2013

"Trånsjuk Stemme fullkomligt magisk - Briljerar med Svenska kammarorkestern på Wagner-album. Hon sjunger fullkomligt magiskt. Trånsjukan dryper, och jag blir alldeles förförd. En av sångerna, Träume, gjorde Wagner också om för soloviolin och orkester. Lika förföriskt smeker Katarina Andreasson fram denna läckra raritet på sin violin."<br/> <br/>Lennart Bromander (Aftonbladet)<br/><br/>Nina Stemme belönad med priset som "bästa sångerska" vid den första "International Opera Awards" i London 2013!

Berlioz: Grande messe des morts (Colin Davis) [2 SACD Hybrid]

Savall Jordi: Orient-occident II - Syria [Digibook / SACD Hybrid]

"Naturligtvis ska en stråkkvartett som tagit sitt namn efter Stenhammar spela in hans sex kvartetter. För svenska kvartetter är de samma sak som Bartóks för ungerska och Sjostakovitjs för ryska. Det innebär också att de propsar på samma utrymme som sina föregångare, i fallet med Stenhammarkvartettens första skiva - med den tredje och fjärde kvartetten - främst Gotlandskvartettens lysande inspelningar från 1983. Faktum är att valet fallit på exakt samma inspelningsrum, Petruskyrkan i Stocksund. <br/><br/>Ändå är det just klangrummet som ger upphov till ett uns invändning: det är lite konturlöst. Akuratess, detaljarbete och subtiliteter saknas annars inte, för Stenhammarkvartetten tillhör Sveriges elit. Lyssna till den spelmansartade inledningen till fjärde kvartettens final, där det nästan låter nyckelharpa understrykande det originella hos Stenhammar, trots den stora avhängigheten av den dyrkade Beethoven. Det de fyra musikerna bidrar med är synnerligen välljudande, skimrande tolkningar. Kanske är det dags för Stenhammar att bli lite berömd utomlands."<br/><br/>Erik Wallrup (SvD)

Royal Swedish Orchestra (Kungliga Hovkapellet) / Lawrence Renes<br/><br/>Henk de Vlieger's orchestral arrangement of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle boils down this monumental music drama in four parts to a symphonic poem with a duration of a fifteenth of the original score. Unlike certain other arrangements, de Vlieger's follows the chronology of the operas so that the irrevocable process towards the twilight of the gods is clearly delineated. His method has been to select and link together the most important orchestral passages in the score, already closely interconnected as a result of Wagner's leitmotif technique The excerpts have in most cases been taken over without alterations; only occasionally has an essential vocal line been replaced by wind instruments. Quite possibly, Wagner himself would have objected to the undertaking, but in fact one of his own strongly held convictions was that the text - or rather its content - should be continuously present, by means of the hidden-away orchestra exploring the dramatic background to the action presented on stage. With this orchestral arangement the turn has thus come for the Royal Swedish Orchestra to take its place on centre stage, in music which has been part of its repertoire for close to 120 years at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm. (Some of that impressive history is reflected in the CD booklet through images from Ring productions past and present.) The conductor Lawrence Renes, recently named music director at the Royal Swedish Opera, has admired de Vlieger's arrangement since it was premièred, in 1991, by his own mentor, the conductor Edo de Waart. The arrangement has been recorded previously, but never before by a bona fide opera orchestra. The result is indeed an adventure, as well as a sonic spectacular, and an excellent calling card for a fine orchestra all too often relegated to the shadows.<br/><br/>"Hovkapellet stryker sångpartierna och rensar bort 86 procent av musiken. Så här har ni aldrig hört Wagners operor förr." <br/>/CarlHåkan Larsén (Sydsvenskan) <br/><br/><br/>.

Polina Leschenko, piano<br/>Richard Tognetti, violin<br/>Australian Chamber Orchestra<br/><br/>Among the many child prodigies that have made their mark in the history of music, Felix Mendelssohn is, along with Mozart, possibly the most impressive. By the age of fifteen he had already composed 13 string symphonies and a number of concertos, and his first 'proper' symphony was not far away. He wasn't just highly productive, however - his contemporaries already recognized the high quality of the works he produced: 'Felix Mendelssohn composes with the greatest conceivable ease and with inextinguishable abundance of spirit, the most difficult pieces...' wrote a German reviewer in 1822. Both pieces recorded here were composed with Mendelssohn's friend and violin teacher, Eduard Ritz, in mind. Felix himself premièred the Double Concerto in D minor with Ritz in May 1823 at one of the famous Sunday concerts at the Mendelssohn residence in Berlin, but except for a second outing later the same year, the work remained unperformed until 1957. Here the piano part - in turn quick-silvery and lyrical - is defended by the Russian-born pianist Polina Leschenko, making her first appearance on BIS. She is partnered by Richard Tognetti, artistic director and leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Tognetti also leads seven of his colleagues from the ACO in the String Octet in E flat major, which Mendelssohn composed as a birthday present for Eduard Ritz. Written two years after the concerto, the octetonly received its first public performance in 1836 but quickly became immensely popular. Although it belongs to the genre of chamber music, Mendelssohn himself underlined that it was to be played by all the instruments 'in symphonic orchestral style'. He also explored the orchestral potential of the work at a performance of his Symphony No.1 in 1829, replacing the symphony's minuet with an expanded arrangement of the Octet's scherzo.<br/><br/><br/><br/>.

If there is one Swedish composer in the early 20th century who in some way can compare with Sibelius and Nielsen, it is Wilhelm Stenhammar - incidentally a personal friend of both these towering figures in Nordic music. And in Stenhammar's production - which includes songs, piano music and large-scale orchestral works - his string quartets form a special chapter. The seven quartets (of which one, in F minor, was withdrawn by the composer soon after its first performance) were written over the space of 22 years, and mirror Stenhammar's development, from full-blown Romanticism to a more sparse and formally concentrated idiom. As a pianist, Stenhammar worked closely for many years with the Aulin Quartet, the finest Swedish string quartet of its time. (It was the Aulin Quartet that gave the first performances of all Stenhammar's quartets up to and including No.4 in A minor, Op.25.) <br/><br/>His familiarity with the medium is evident in these works which have been described as 'the most important written between those of Brahms and Bartók', but which still remain less well-known internationally than they deserve. In a bid to change this, the Stenhammar Quartet here present the first disc in a trilogy which will include the six quartets published during the composer's lifetime, as well as the F minor quartet - for the first time on disc - and other music for string quartet. Making its first appearance on BIS, the Stenhammar Quartet was formed in 2002 and has made a name for itself in Sweden and internationally as interpreters of Stenhammar's music, as well as of core repertoire and contemporary works.<br/><br/><br/><br/>.