Nayler&Co Boekhandel & Modern Antiquariaat*Ramsj-on-Line

Hugo Alfven, 1872-1960, became known as one of Sweden's principal composers of his time, together with his contemporary Wilhelm Stenhammer. This 5 CD Set contains all of Alfven's 5 Symphonies and other orchestral works, among which 3 Swedish Rhapsodies of which the first Midsommarvaka is his best-known piece.

La Muette de Portici

This CD offers a unique oppotunity to compare Berlioz's masterpiece Symphonie Fantastique with key works by his most important predecessors in the history of French music in the 19th century. Markevitch's recording of Symphonie Fantastique is an example of his widely influential style of interpretation. His consciously anti-Romantic stance, which rested on rationality and functionality. The same qualities are found in the performances of the overtures by Cherubini and Auber.

Eugen Jochum gehört zu den herausragenden Dirigenten des 20. Jahrhunderts. Vor allem durch die Interpretation der Symphonien Anton Bruckners machte er sich einen Namen. Er war der erste Dirigent, der alle neun Symphonien von Bruckner einspielte.

Among the 8 monumental symphonies which Anton Bruckner managed to finish, Symphony No. 6 in A major occupies a special place. Written between 1879 and 1881, it had to wait until 1901 for its first complete performance. The Sixth has justly been described as Bruckner's Pastoral. He composed 4 movements of which the sun-lit slow movement and the airy, fantastical scherzo with its chamber music delicacy make it clear why he referred to it as the most audacious of the lot.

Bruckner's Symphony No. 7, which he completed in 1883, has remained one of the best-loved of all of his 11 symphonies. 1883 was also the year of Wagner's death, and Bruckner who had owed so much to Wagner, wrote the Adagio in anticipation of Wagner's approaching end. It is music of a gravity and dignity, yet also a lyrical intensity. After a Scherzo whose pounding energy is balanced by a more lyrical Trio, he embarks upon a finale that makes use of his composing in blocks of material.

Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major was written in 1874 en was revised several times through 1888. The symphony's nickname of Romantic by Bruckner himself, however it does not refer to the modern conception of romantic love but the medieval romance depicted in Wagner's operas Lohengrin and Siegfried.

Pairing Debussy and Ravel may cause us to reflect on the relationship between these two composers considered to be the two pinnacles of the musical movement sometimes known as Impressionism. This 5 CD box contains Debussy's central orchestral impressionist wok La Mer, the set of three Images, his final orchestral masterpiece Jeux, Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune and Ravel's Bolero, Daphnis et Chloe, Fanfare, Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, La Valse, Sheherazade a.o.

Although the 8 Slavonic Dances of Op. 46, published in 1878, captivated music lovers in Germany and England and introduced Dvorak's name to the international world for the first time, they are the work of a composer of considerable experience and maturity. The Dances of the First Series offer a rare compilation of Bohemian folk dances, although the melodies are wholly original. The Second set of Slavonic Dances, 8 years later, is more expressive and serious in general character.

Gorecki's Third Symphony, subtitled Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, caused a sensation in 1992 when it became a worldwide commercial and critical success, selling more than a million copies. Its spiritual minimalism struck a chord and put the Polish composer firmly on the map some 16 years after the work's composition. The words of the central movement are the opening to a prayer scratched on a cell wall by a Polish teenage girl while improsined during WWII.

Prolific in many genres, Hans Werner Henze has amassed a symphonic output over the years that is impressive at least in bulk; ten symphonies so far, including a Choral Ninth. But he has always stood at a slight angle to this most hallowed and ambitious of instrumental forms. He regarded all his early orchestral compositions as 'symphonies or stepping stones to symphonies'.