Stenhammar: Symphony No. 2 / Serenade

Stenhammar: Symphony No. 2 / Serenade cover $35.00 Out of Stock
6+ weeks
add to cart

WILHELM STENHAMMAR
Stenhammar: Symphony No. 2 / Serenade
Gothenburg Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt (conductor)

[ BIS SACD / Hybrid SACD ]

Release Date: Tuesday 20 November 2018

This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.

It was in 1953, 65 years ago, that Herbert Blomstedt conducted the Gothenburg Symphony for the first time. Since then he has been back on numerous occasions, performing a wide range of works - only not those by Wilhelm Stenhammar. Blomstedt has told of how an international career gave him little opportunity to study and conduct Stenhammar's music. At the age of 85, however, when he no longer had any obligations as a chief conductor, he thought 'now or never' and began to study the composer's major scores in earnest. And when the time came to perform and record them, what other orchestra could he choose but the Gothenburg Symphony - Stenhammar's 'own' orchestra which he conducted between 1907 and 1922.

The works on this disc are possibly the finest orchestral music that Stenhammar composed and he gave the premieres of both with the orchestra, Symphony No. 2 in 1915 and the revised version of the Serenade in 1920. In fact, he even dedicated the symphony to the members of the orchestra, his 'dear friends'.

GRAMOPHONE AWARD NOMINATION 2019 TOP THREE - Orchestral

"This is an outstanding disc which all lovers of the music of Wilhelm Stenhammar should hear. I think that both works are new to Herbert Blomstedt's discography and I'm thrilled not only that he's now recorded them but also that he's given us performances of such distinction. As usual with a BIS release, production values are high. As I've indicated already, the recorded sound is excellent and despite the long playing time of the disc I detected no diminution in sound quality." MusicWeb Recommended Recording Jan 2018

Tracks:

Symphony No. 2,
Serenade