Ondine
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He was a masterly orchestrator, and as a result – as passionately played by the Tapiola Sinfonietta, under Janne Nisonen’s direction – these skilfully-crafted works emerge as noble rediscoveries. —
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It’s every bit as exciting as the first volume...[No. 4] opens with a pungent fanfare, its colours stemming from jazz-band instrumentation and the absence of orchestral violins. Stephen Waarts... —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, December 2020, Concerto Choice
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Special offer. Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius
John Findon (Gerontius), Christine Rice (Angel), Roderick Williams (Priest/Angel of the Agony)
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, various choirs, Nicholas Collon
At times [Collon] inculcates an operatic immediacy, and seldom have the orchestral textures sounded so Wagnerian – as if Elgar had recently been leaf ing through the pages of Parsifal. Indeed... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2025, Editor's Choice
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International Classical Music Awards, 2026, Nominated - Choral
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Gramophone Awards, 2025 Shortlist, Choral
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Special offer. Thomas Larcher: Symphony No. 2 'kenotaph'; Die Nacht der Verlorenen
Andrè Schuen (baritone), Frankurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu
Larcher’s language is rooted in the Austro-German symphonic tradition with use of 21st-century colour (for example, the varied percussion – carefully mixed on the palette rather than splashed... —
Awards:
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International Classical Music Awards, 2023, Nominated - Contemporary Music
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Special offer. Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 & Four Ballades
Lars Vogt (piano)
Royal Northern Sinfonia
[Vogt] may well have conducted the orchestral tuttis, but everything sounds like large-scale chamber music…The pianist’s thinking behind this programme is evidently the way in which this music... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, January 2020, Editor's Choice
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Special offer. Arvo Pärt: Arefa - Piano Chamber Works
Reinis Zariņš, Raffi Kharajanyan, Eva Bindere, Trio Palladio (piano trio), Kristina Blaumane
Zariņš nevertheless excels in Pärt’s pre-tintinnabular works, with the opening Toccatina from the early Partita, Op 2, bristling with rage and vituperative outbursts… pianist and violinist Eva... —
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Special offer. Vasks: Oboe Concerto
Albrecht Mayer (oboe), Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Andris Poga
Cast as a ‘Morning’ and ‘Evening Pastorale’ separated by a ‘Scherzando’, [the Oboe Concerto is] a kind of gentle day-in-a-rural-life and is beautifully played by soloist Albrecht Mayer. —
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Special offer. Beethoven: Triple Concerto & Piano Concerto No. 3
Lars Vogt (piano), Christian Tetzlaff (violin), Tanja Tetzlaff (cello)
Royal Northern Sinfonia
Vogt and the Tetzlaff siblings approach the Allegro [of the Triple] with warmth and a bristling energy…The crucial opening [of the C minor Concerto] just misses utter serenity here, but a devilish... —
Awards:
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Record Review, 18th November 2017, Recording of the Week
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Special offer. Outi Tarkiainen: Midnight Sun Variations
and other works
Nicholas Daniel (cor anglais), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nicholas Collon
In some ways, Ondine’s second disc of music by Outi Tarkiainen paints the composer in a slightly different light – more personal and reflective, less an artist railing against injustice. In... —
Awards:
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International Classical Music Awards, 2025, Nominated - Contemporary Music
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Rautavaara's First Symphony, written in 1955 in four movements, was recast in 1988 – not wholly convincingly – as a diptych. In 2003 Rautavaara added a new slow movement based on a song composed... —
