Orchestra of the Swan & Kenneth Woods
Release Date: 20 June 2011
Label: Avie
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 822252223026
Genres: Classical Orchestral
Description
Avie continues to bring to light the music of Hans Gál – "music well worth championing," according to The Sunday Times (London) – with the world premiere recording of the Third Symphony conducted by committed advocate, American conductor Kenneth Woods with the enterprising Stratford-based Orchestra of the Swan.
Written in the post-war years, after the "continental Briton" had settled in Edinburgh, the work ranges from lyrical tranquillity to a densely contrapuntal and rhythmically complex style. Gál's compositional pedigree is strongly linked to the Austro-German tradition going back to the 18th century Viennese classical masters. The pairing of Schumann's Third Symphony is appropriate, presenting Gál's music alongside symphonic repertoire that represents its roots and core values.
Woods made headlines with his first recording of Gál's music on Avie with orchestral and concertante works conducting Northern Sinfonia (AV2146). Here he conducts Orchestra of the Swan, where he is Principal Guest Conductor, in the first of a projected cycle of all four of Hans Gál's symphonies.
Personnel: Orchestra of the Swan, Kenneth Woods (conductor)
Critical acclaim:
"Gloriously tuneful late-Romantic masterworks … music that compels attention." – Gramophone
"Highly polished account, with orchestral playing throughout most assured." – Gramophone
"Music well worth championing...plenty of rich tonal harmony and adventurous harmonic excursion, together with a ripe sense of the lyrical." – The Sunday Times
Tracklisting
Danbi Um; Juho Pohjonen
Christopher Tyler Nickel, Sarah Jackson
Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford
Bruce Wolosoff
Charles Owen
Proteus Ensemble; Stephen Shellard
Benjamin Hochman
Apollo's Fire; Jeannette Sorrell
Orchestra of the Swan & Kenneth Woods
Orchestra of the Swan & Kenneth Woods
Orchestra of the Swan & Kenneth Woods
