Label: GLOSSA SACD 922201
Our Price: $24.25
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L’Oiseau de Feu (Firebird)(Version 1910); Chant du Rossignol, Poème symphonique pour orchestre

Flemish Radio Orchestra/Yoel Levi
Glossa, primarily known for its outstanding early music productions, now presents two new releases and a new partnership with the Flemish Radio Orchestra (VRO) and Choir (VRK): two superb ensembles focusing primarily on repertoires from the 20th and 21st centuries. Technically speaking, this series also introduces Glossa’s first hybrid SACDs for high-end audio fans. This top quality surround audio approach makes the listening experience even more rich and pleasurable – an exquisitely balanced symphony orchestra and an elite contemporary chamber choir are certainly two examples where the extra production costs make sense. The Flemish Radio Orchestra’s chief conductor is Yoel Levi, who worked for many years with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. This new relationship will also involve frequent collaboration with guest conductors such as Gerd Albrecht, Hervé Niquet and others. In the past few years, strong relationships have been built with the film industry and with film composers such as Maurice Jarre, Howard Shore, Danny Elfman, Ennio Morricone, Michel Legrand and John Debney. This line of work is also expected to yield some exciting results within the Glossa/VRO-VRK partnership in the coming months. The debut recording of the new series comprises Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird (complete 1910 version) and Chant du Rossignol, and was produced with the firm intention of putting benchmark interpretations on the market. For more than 70 minutes, the wide dynamic range, infinite timbrical nuances and expressive depth of Stravinsky’s orchestral music are explored and provide a deeply enriching listening experience. And, last but not least, the breathtaking beauty of the work of Glossa’s designer, Valentín Iglesias and his office, merits mention. It provides the perfect visual basis for this new adventure with two of Europe’s most exquisite and forward-looking ensembles.

Label: MUSICAPHON SACD 56889
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GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL: Sonata in F major HWV 363a; Sonata in C minor HWV 366; Sonata in B flat major HWV 357; Sonata in G minor HWV 364
JOHANN SIGISMUND WEISS: Sonata in E flat major; Sonata in G minor; Sonata in B flat major

Concert Royal Köln: Karla Schröter, baroque oboe; Rainer Johannsen, baroque bassoon; Robert Nikolayczik, viol/cello; Yamato Hasumi, arciliuto; Thomas Synofzik, harpsichord/organ
Why should things be more fair in musical history than elsewhere? Here, too, the wall that stands between fame and obscurity is very thin and, moreover, rather arbitrarily erected. But it can be unsurmountably high. Coincidences, small vicissitudes of life can decide between success and failure in the eyes of posterity. The composers whose works we find on this recording are prime examples of this. On the one hand, George Frideric Handel, the cosmopolitan, widely known composer, chapel master to His Majesty, the King of England, and director of the Royal Academy of Music, who hardly needs any further introduction, and, on the other hand, Johann Sigismund Weiss. Who? The name Weiss only brings to mind Sylvius Leopold, the famous lutenist at the Dresden court, acquainted with Bach – this was the older brother of our Weiss. He, too, was a professional musician, and, as his works show, one who was entirely on a par with his brother, indeed even with Handel – but he never became famous. He was born ca. 1690 in Breslau, and died in Mannheim in 1737. We hardly know anything about his life and work. From 1708 to 1718, he was lutenist of the Electoral Palatinate court chapel in Düsseldorf, subsequently – until 1723 – he held the same position in Mannheim. There he advanced to court Kapellmeister. But his path should cross with that of Handel.