Chandos

Arvo Pärts fyra symfonier komponerades under en period av fyrtiofem år och har liten eller ingen inbördes koppling - fyra självständiga verk som speglar hans skapande i olika skeden av hans konstnärliga utveckling. Här tolkas de av Eva Ollikainen, tidigare elev till Leif Segerstam och Jorma Panula och chefsdirigent och konstnärlig ledare för Islands symfoniorkester sedan 2020.

Howells: Music for strings [CD]

Liveinspelning från Bergen i december 2023, med Edward Gardner som dirigent för en ensemble ledd av den stora svenska dramatiska sopranen Iréne Theorin, en av vår tids främsta Elektra-tolkare.

Borodin: Symphonies Nos 1 & 3 [CD]

Phoenix Chorale / Charles Bruffy<br/><br/>The critically acclaimed, Arizona-based Phoenix Chorale (formerly Phoenix Bach Choir) originally focused on music of the Renaissance and baroque periods, but today is equally dedicated to the creation and performance of new music. On this disc the Choir performs choral works, and settings of sacred texts by the Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo.<br/><br/>When he first heard Gjeilo's Ubi caritas, Charles Bruffy was instantly hooked, finding the music 'refreshing and magnetic'. Bruffy brought Gjeilo's music to the Chorale and its audiences, and the response was immediate. Soon after, Gjeilo was invited to be the Chorale's first Composer-in-Residence.<br/><br/>Phoenix, a setting of the Agnus Dei, is dedicated to Charles Bruffy and the Phoenix Chorale in honour of its fiftieth anniversary. When Gjeilo first visited the choir in Arizona, he had never been to the desert before, and the 'quiet beauty and barrenness of the landscape' moved him deeply. He describes Phoenix as 'symphonic in nature... one of those pieces where the text is very much the servant of the music, not the other way around'.<br/><br/>In contrast, Northern Lights takes its inspiration from Gjeilo's homeland, Norway, and the 'terrible beauty' of the natural phenomenon that may be observed there. The music reflects the powerful and electric quality of the northern lights, which must have seemed both mesmerising and terrifying to people in the past when no one knew what they were, and superstition prevailed.<br/><br/>The Phoenix Chorale made its first appearance on Chandos in 2004 with Shakespeare in Song. Since then it has released several joint recordings with its sister choir, the Kansas Chorale, featuring among others Alexander Grechaninov's Passion Week, the disc nominated for a Grammy in no fewer than four categories, including Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance, winning in the Best Engineered and Classical album categories.

Gramophone Editor's Choice: April 2026<br/>"Early orchestral music, some from his first three operas, by Puccini, conducted by someone whose love of the composer's vivid and sweeping sound world is evident in every bar." (Gramophone)

John Storgårds och BBC Philharmonics Shostakovich-projekt som inleddes 2020 har kommit fram till sin sjätte volym. Nya albumet innehåller Symfoni Nr. 2 "Till oktober" samt en av de mest spelade, Symfoni Nr. 5.