FRANZ SCHUBERT
Schubert: Winterreise / Schwanengesang Gerard Souzay (baritone) with Dalton Baldwin (piano) [ Testament / 2 CD - released 13/Dec/2002 ] A whole life is encapsulated here; and only by experiencing it can we possibly understand the meaning of vocal simplicity |
JOACHIM NIKOLAS EGGERT
Eggert: Symphonies Nos. 2 and 4 Gävle Symphony Orchestra, Gérard Korsten [ Naxos / CD - released 1/Oct/2015 ] "Kraggerud revels in [the Halvorsen's] exuberance and easy melody. His advocacy for the Nielsen is justly famed, Svendsen's Romance an exquisite encore." Sunday Times |
JOACHIM NIKOLAS EGGERT
Eggert: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 Gävle Symphony Orchestra, Gérard Korsten [ Naxos / CD - released 1/Oct/2015 ] Welcomed overwhelmingly on its première, Eggert's largescale First Symphony hints at Mozart and Haydn but foreshadows Mendelssohn in its wind textures and rich harmonies. |
CHARPENTIER
Tristes Deserts Il Seminario Musicale / Gerard Lesne [ Zig Zag Territories / CD - released 20/Jun/2007 ] "Gérard Lesne sings beautifully throughout, whether the music is light-hearted or serious, and II Seminario Musicale provide excellent support." Gramophone Magazine, July 2007 |
DAVID DIAMOND
Diamond: Symphony No. 1 / Violin Concerto No. 2 / The Enormous Room Ilkka Talvi (Violin) / Seattle Symphony / Gerard Schwarz [ Naxos American Classics / CD - released 30/Sep/2009 ] "The music's directness and overwhelming sense of nostalgia causes much of the piece to sound like a romantic historical film score. It's all very pleasing…The chamber recording is clear and bright." Classics Today |
Inva Mula, soprano / Valerie Millot, soprano / Claire Brua, mezzo-soprano / Gerard Theruel, baritone / Laurent Naouri, baritone / David Abramovitz, pi
Ravel - Songs for Voice and Piano (Chanson espagnole Noel des jouets Si morne! and others) [ Naxos / 2 CD - released 28/Nov/2003 ] From his father, a Swiss engineer, Ravel inherited a delight in precision and, incidentally, in mechanical toys, while from his Basque mother he acquired a familiarity with something of Spanish culture. |
THIERRY LANCINO
Violin Concerto & Prelude and Death of Virgil Isabelle Faust (violin) Orchestre national de France, Gerard Schwarz / Matteo de Monti (baritone) Orchestre philharmonique du Luxembourg, Arturo Tamay [ Naxos / CD - released 1/Sep/2014 ] Lancino writes of his Violin Concerto that his imagination was fired by 'the thought of a little piece of wood (in reality a 1704 Stradivarius), played by Isabelle Faust, confronting a gigantic machine (the full orchestra)'. |
GABRIEL FAURE
Faure: Requiem (with Verdi-Four Sacred Pieces) Janet Baker, Gerard Souzay / Philharmonia Chorus & Orchestra / Carlo Maria Giulini [ BBC legends / CD - released 27/Jan/2008 ] This 1962 broadcast of a gala occasion at the Royal Festival Hall brings together two of Carlo Maria Giulini's choral specialities, the Fauré Requiem and Verdi's Four Sacred Pieces. |
DAVID DIAMOND
Symphony No. 3; Psalm; Kaddish Janos Starker (cello); Seattle Symphony Orchestra / Gerard Schwarz [ Naxos American Classics / CD - released 15/Sep/2004 ] "Fresh, devoted performances of music fully worthy of continued attention would be a fair reaction to this disc." MusicWeb Sept 2004 |
HINDEMITH
Nobilissima Visione (complete ballet) / 5 Stücke, Op. 44/4 Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz [ Naxos / CD - released 15/Dec/2014 ] "Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony prove ideal exponents, capturing the essence of the music in a searing performance, and making the Five Pieces - despite their pedagogical origin - more than a mere filler." (BBC Music) |
Jean-Claude/Ens.Villa Gerard
Mozart:cpte.Flute Quartets [ Naxos / CD ] |
VARIOUS
The American Trumpet Jeffrey Silberschlag (trumpet), Deborah Greitzer (bassoon) / Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz [ Naxos / CD - released 20/Nov/2012 ] The unique qualities of the American trumpet tradition are celebrated in this wide-ranging disc. From the drama of Leo Eylar's dazzling Dance Suite to the wit of William McKinley's Miniature Portraits, virtuosity and brilliance are assured. |
HONEGGER / LAZAROF
Gerard Schwarz conducts Honegger & Lazarof Jeffrey Silberschlag (trumpet) / Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwarz [ Naxos / CD - released 10/Jul/2012 ] "The mournful tone of the introduction to the first movement is overwhelming in its description of the oppressiveness of the Occupation. This feeling continues in the Allegro proper and Schwarz and the Seattle strings forcefully convey the movement's... |
W. A. MOZART / SPOHR
Clarinet Concertos Jon Manasse (clarinet) / Seattle Symphony / Gerard Schwarz [ Harmonia Mundi Musique d'Abord / CD - released 20/Feb/2010 ] American clarinetist Jon Manasse delivers a buoyant reading of the clarinet concertos by W.A. Mozart and Ludwig Spohr (the second of four such works). Manasse receives nimble support from the Seattle Symphony led by Gerard Schwarz. |
RICHARD STRAUSS
Symphonia Domestica / Eine Alpensinfonie / Oboe Concerto / Duett-Concertino Jonathan Small (oboe) Nicholas Cox (clarinet) Alan Pendlebury (bassoon) / Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Gerard Schwarz [ Avie / 2 CD - released 30/Nov/2007 ] "It is a tribute to the recording that even the most cacophonous climax makes sense, and there is no impression at any time of any loss of detail. What an advert for the RLPO this set is! The cultural life of Liverpool is clearly thriving" (MusicWeb) |
W. A. MOZART
Le Nozze di Figaro [The Marriage of Figaro] (complete recorded in 2006) La Scala Opera / Diana Damrau, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Pietro Spagnoli, Marcella Orsatti Talamanca / Gérard Korsten (cond) [ Arthaus Legendary Performances DVD / DVD - released 1/Jul/2016 ] "The availability on (Blu-ray) of any production by Giorgio Strehler, even one recorded many years after it was new, is automatically a major event. But this film - a 2006 revival of Strehler's Le Nozze di Figaro from 1980 - is much more than a... |
HANSON
Merry Mount, Op. 31 Lauren Flanigan / Walter MacNeil / Richard Zeller / Northwest Boychoir / Seattle Girls' Choir / Seattle Symphony Orchestra / Gerard Schwarz [ Naxos American Opera Classics / 2 CD - released 13/Jun/2007 ] The plot of his 1933 opera, Merry Mount, set in New England in 1625 during a conflict between the Puritans and the Cavaliers, is anything but merry. However, the composer described the music as “warm-blooded…essentially a lyrical work [that] makes... |
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, conductor
Janacek - Idyla (Idyll) for string orchestra; Mladi (Youth) for Wind Sextet [ Nonesuch Apex / CD - released 21/Apr/2002 ] "there is some magically beautiful and expressive playing" (Music Web) |
PROKOFIEV
Symphony-Concerto for cello and orchestra in E minor (with Shostakovich-Cello Concerto No. 2 in G major, Op. 126) Lynn Harrell (cello) / Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Gerard Schwarz [ Avie / CD - released 12/Jun/2006 ] "a generous coupling of two masterworks, both of which are delivered in performances of distinction and personality." (MusicWeb may 2006) |
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
Scheherazade / The Tale of Tsar Saltan Suite / Flight of the Bumble Bee Maria Larionoff (violin) / Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwarz [ Naxos / CD - released 4/May/2011 ] "In this new recording I hear all the good of Ansermet, and more. It is even more powerful, even more beautiful...if I'm asked for my pick, this will be it. It's the best one I've heard." (MusicWeb Bargain of the Month June 2011) |