WDR Symphony Orchestra reviews
Shostakovich: Cello Concertos
Alban Gerhardt (cello); WDR Symphony Orchestra/Jukka-Pekka Saraste (Hyperion)
Muhly/Helbig/Long • Shostakovich: Cello Concertos
Jan Vogler (cello); Mariinsky Orchestra/Valery Gergiev et al (Sony Classical)
R Strauss: Violin Concerto, plus others
Arabella Steinbacher; WDR Symphony Orchestra/Lawrence Foster (Pentatone)
WDR Symphony Orchestra and Marek Janowski perform Hindemith
Hindemith is sometimes dismissed as a drily academic composer, and it’s true that his vast output is uneven in quality. Yet at its best his music could be dazzlingly inventive, as it is in the three pieces recorded here. Two of them were written for virtuoso American orchestras – the Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber for the New York Philharmonic, and the Concert Music for Strings and Brass for Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos 5 & 6 (WDR/Janowski)
WDR Symphony Orchestra/Marek Janowski (Pentatone)