“Music is not a hoax, it is a revelation… It reveals elements of beauty that cannot exist in any other sphere, the contemplation of which reconciles us to life not temporarily, but forever. It enlightens and brings joy.” These words of Tchaikovsky can refer to both of the works presented here.

Tchaikovsky called his Suite No. 3 the most successful of all his works performed abroad and successfully conducted many performances of it on tours. For Dmitry Liss, the chief conductor of the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, “this is one of the most unexpected works by Tchaikovsky and my near-favorite.”

If you look at the final movement from a modern perspective, its hectic stylistic diversity looks almost post-modernist and has been created with subtle and stylish use of irony. The theme of the Suite’s finale is consonant with that of the Rococo Variations, hence our decision to include both works on this album.

”The world-renowned cellist Boris Andrianov performs the Variations on this recording. He considered it “a sacred duty for a Russian cellist who is also a winner of the Tchaikovsky competition not only to record this work, but also to look at it anew.”

Ural Philharmonic Orchestra
Dmitry Liss, Conductor
Boris Andrianov, Cello

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Once again Florian teams up with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine and its young maestro Victor Jacob, who was named a ‘Revelation’ in the conductor category at the 2023 Victoires de la musique awards.

Though not following in that family tradition, Sempey concentrated instead on forging and moulding the metal of his brilliant baritone voice. Now a much sought-after opera soloist at the height of his art, he has devised a program ranging widely through different heroic characters and operas, including Grétry’s Richard the Lionheart, Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas, Meyerbeer’s Le Pardon de Ploërmel, as well as Tchaïkovsky’s opera The Enchantress, Wagner’s Tannhäuser, extracts from Carl Orff’s famous neo-medieval cantata Carmina Burana, and even the premiere recording of a piece by Romain Dumas, Le Chevalier d’Éon, composed in 2019.

Florian Sempey, Baritone
Yoann Le Lan, Tenor (Tracks 2, 3, 16)
Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine
Victor Jacob, Conductor

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This is the 10th release from Michael Kevin Jones at NativeDSD. The album is Exclusively Available in Stereo DSD 512, DSD 256, DSD 128, DSD 64 and the recorded format and bit rate of 32 Bit DXD from NativeDSD.

The idea of Cello Meditation comes from the beautiful opera by Massenet “Thaïs”. You will enjoy here many familiar melodies heard before in a violin piano combination but not that often on a cello.

Our Cello Meditation ranges from Bach and Handel to Rachmaninoff, Fauré, Massenet, Gounod, Schumann. A very special composition closes the program: Max Bruch’s “Kol Nidrei” a feast for cello fans and everyone else.

Michael Kevin Jones, Violoncello
John Bryden, Piano

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My journey with this album began during a challenging period, but it turned out to be an incredible experience.

While I was in the hospital for heart surgery, I started listening to Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata, performed by Barenboim. It lifted my spirits and sparked a thought – wouldn’t it be wonderful to spread happiness through music?

That’s when I began dreaming of becoming a concert pianist.

Liam Nassereddine, Piano

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It is Exclusively Available in Stereo DSD 512, DSD 256, DSD 128 and DSD 64 from NativeDSD.

Because opera unites the arts, it has always been the most ravishing and extravagant entertainment. And from the very beginning of operatic theater, which is rooted in the choral dances of the Greeks, the spectacle of dance has commanded a significant place in the opera house, whether integrated into the drama or offered as a casual diversion. Ballet, the older art of the two, has played its role in opera ever since nymphs and shepherds cavorted on the Baroque stage.

The fusion of opera and dance peaked in the nineteenth century, whose repertoire has generated this collection of exotic pieces—both familiar and obscure — but each capable of standing alone as an orchestral experience.

The album represents triumphs of artistry — musical and technical.
— InTune

Eiji Oue, Conductor
Minnesota Orchestra

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In the 19th and early 20th century, organists of exceptional artistic skill developed organ transcriptions of orchestral music into a true art form. Each of the works on this album is spectacular in its original form. To create The Orchestral Organ, we have chosen works of many different composers, adapted into organ transcriptions of the highest artistic order.

These transcriptions are not intended for comparison with, or replacement of, the original orchestral versions. In presenting them we are offering fascinating new dimensions for these compositions, whether familiar or new to the listener. Within the pieces are a variety of tone colors and compositional details that exhibit the remarkable abilities of organist Jan Kraybill, and showcase the spectacular Julia Irene Kauffman Casavant Organ at the Kauffman Center’s Helzberg Hall in Kansas City.

The Orchestral Organ is exclusively available in Stereo DSD 512, DSD 256 and DSD 128 at NativeDSD thanks to our signature Higher Rates Program. It received 2020 Grammy nominations for Best Immersive Audio Album, Best Classical Instrumental Solo, and Producer of the Year, Classical.

Jan Kraybill, Organ

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The program includes the rarely heard Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967), duo Sonata op.4 in two movements. This sonata was inspired by folk melodies collected by Kodály although its harmonic treat- ment and development show the strong influence of impressionism. Originally conceived as a conventional Sonata in three movements, Kodály withheld the first movement due to his dissatisfaction with it and the sonata was published as a movement work.

The introductory solo cello of the Fantasía-Allegro di molto, leads to a clear folk like development in fourths characteristic of Hungarian popular music. The movement enjoys a general rhapsodic feeling with frequent virtuosic complex free rhythmic ́cymbalistic  style interjections from the piano. Kodály employs a sophisticated notated system of rubato creating the illusion of improvised folk rhythms.

Although Kodály said he was inspired by Beethoven while writing the last movement of this sonata, there is a strong influence of Hungarian folk music patterns. This is an exuberant and fiery finale although Kodály clearly foresaw the structural symmetrical balance needed and added a haunting coda recapitulation of the second movement theme with intense harmonic piano chords bringing the sonata to a surprising and magical ending.

Michael Kevin Jones, Violoncello
Ean Mei Yeoh, Piano

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Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff both enriched this genre with their lyricism and melodic invention. Elevated by Deutsch’s splendid accompaniment, Beczala delivers these songs with a great sense for the Slavic idiom and meaning of the words, combined with colorful lyricism and italianità, perfectly fitting the Russian and cosmopolitan musical language of these two masters.

Piotr Beczala is one of the most sought-after tenors of his age, both on the opera and concert stage. His debut album Vincerò! – also available from NativeDSD – has been one of the most successful and critically acclaimed opera recital albums of the last few years. During the 2021 Opus Klassik Awards, Piotr Beczala was crowned as Singer of the Year for this exceptional recording.

Pianist Helmut Deutsch is a first-class song accompanist, working together with the greatest vocalists of today.

Piotr Beczala – Vocals (Tenor)
Helmut Deutsch – Piano

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This is the 19th DSD album from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra that is available at NativeDSD Music! 

The popular Austro­-Czech composer Schulhoff ’s career ended in a concentration camp during the Nazi’s rise in Germany, but not before composing a number of pieces inspired by Jazz and Dance influences. His 1924 Five Pieces for String Quartet is the most performed. This album was recorded live in 2022 in beautiful and historic Heinz Hall, home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, in superb DSD Stereo and Surround Sound.

Maestro Honeck honors us again with his meticulous music notes, in which he gives us great insight into his interpretation as well as the history and musical structure of Tchaikovsky’s great Symphony No. 5. He gives special emphasis to the recurring “fate” themes so prominent in this symphony and in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Manfred Honeck, Conductor

Read a review from HRAudio site reviewer Adrian Quanjer.

From his instructive notes, it is clear that Maestro Honeck has not only studied the score of the Fifth Symphony in the minutest detail but also that he has set it off against Tchaikovsky’s personal feelings as expressed above. In doing so, he adds what in his view needs to be added to unravel and enhance the intellectual charge of the score.

Featured in blog post Notes on Recent Finds, No. 9 – Endless Bounty from NativeDSD by music reviewer Rushton Paul.

Featured in blog post Reference Recordings ‘Tchaikovsky & Schulhoff’ by music reviewer Rob Pennock.

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