BRAVO ORKESTER5: BRAHMS - BRITTEN; EN SHAO, STEFAN MILENKOVIĆ, JAMES OXLEY, BOŠTJAN LIPOVŠEK

Classical and Modern Music

Format: CD

Code: 113550

EAN: 3838898113550

Music analysts refer to Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) as the “third B”, after Bach and Beethoven. Although music history frequently labels him as the last German Romantic of the 19th century, his style and his attitude to art need to be understood somewhat more broadly. Compared to Liszt and Wagner, the “New Germans”, Brahms was conservative, but he was in fact the heir to the classical symphonic legacy of Mozart, Haydn and especially Beethoven, while his artistic roots reach even deeper, to the strict Baroque world of Bach.

Brahms composed the Violin Concerto in D major in 1878, when he spent a pleasant summer beside the Wörthersee. The work arose from a deep and warm friendship with the violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim. The latter was a brilliant violinist and the decision to write a concerto for him is unlikely to have been difficult for Brahms, who took into account a great deal of Joachim’s friendly advice, particularly when it came to creating the solo part. In fact, Brahms entrusted Joachim with the creation of the solo cadenza. Thus one of the most beautiful works of the violin repertoire came about, demonstrating an incredible synthesis of Brahms the lyricist and Brahms the vigorous symphonist. Although, unlike other Romantic concertos, Brahms’s work is distinctively non-virtuoso, it is extraordinary demanding technically, and it is no wonder that Hans von Bülow labelled it “a concerto against the violin”. The Violin Concerto was first performed in Leipzig on 1 January 1879, under the baton of the composer and with Joseph Joachim as soloist.

English composer, conductor and pianist Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) studied composition at the Royal College of Music in London. In the second half of the 1930s, writer Wystan Hugh Auden had a powerful spiritual influence over the composer, but of even more significance was Britten’s encounter in 1937 with tenor Peter Pears, who became his closest collaborator, his friend and his lifelong companion. Britten later lived in the town of Aldeburgh, where, in 1948, he initiated the Aldeburgh Festival, an annual music festival that continues to be held today. He devoted a great deal of time to composing, but was above all occupied conducting the English Chamber Orchestra and performing as a piano accompanist with Peter Pears and the Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, with whom he established an enduring and close friendship. Just a few months before his death, Benjamin Britten was given the title Baron of Aldeburgh in the County of Suffolk for his magnificent contribution to English music.
In 1942, Britten commenced work on a set of compositions that he described as “six nocturnes for Peter, the young horn player Dennis Brain and strings”. The texts of the songs are borrowed from the composer’s beloved anthology of English poetry, and reflect the moods of the evening and the night, as well as the contemplations they give rise to. The solo horn frames the six songs with a prologue at the beginning and an epilogue at the end. Britten employs simple, traditional means in the musical structure that underlies the lyrical texts. The solo instrument symbolises the Romantic connection with nature, while the strings are entrusted with the role of sonically and thematically calm accompaniment and support. The first performance of the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings took place in London’s Wigmore Hall on 15 October 1943.

Monika Kartin
Translated by: Neville Hall

Awarded as Serbia’s “Artist of Century” (2002), “Most Humane Person” (2003) and “Brand Personality of the Year” (2010), Stefan Milenkovich is a unique artist with an extraordinarily productive longevity and creativity. His numerous appearances with orchestra include the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Aspen Chamber Symphony, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of Radio France, the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Mexico State Symphony, Orquestra Sinfonica de Estado de Sao Paolo, and the Melbourne and Queensland Symphonies, with conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Lorin Maazel, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Daniel Oren and En Shao. Milenkovich has performed with the five-time Grammy Nominee rock band Gorillaz at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, featured live on MTV, the Grammy Award Nominee lutenist Edin Karamazov, as well as the Balkan ethno guitar legend Vlatko Stefanovski. He has taught at the Juilliard School in collaboration with violinist Itzhak Perlman and is currently on the violin faculty of the University of Illinois.

Tenor James Oxley studied the cello at the Royal College of Music and later gained a scholarship to Oxford, where he studied singing. In 1992, he received prizes in the Mary Garden International Competition and the Grimsby International Singing Competition, and two years later won the prestigious International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. He is currently a guest professor at the Royal College of Music. He has appeared at all of the major London concert halls, as well as at numerous other venues throughout Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Australia, the United States, etc. He has performed Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings more than fifty times, including performances with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and conductor Edo de Waart in Tel Aviv, Hong Kong and Singapore. James Oxley is also very involved in performing Baroque music, and has collaborated with the most important international Baroque ensembles.

Horn player Boštjan Lipovšek had his first music lessons with his brother and father, both of whom were also horn players. He completed his postgraduate studies with Jože Falout at the Ljubljana Academy of Music, and then furthered his studies with Radovan Vlatković at the Salzburg Mozarteum. While studying in Ljubljana, he received the Student Prešeren Prize for his performance of Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1 with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra. He performs regularly as a soloist, primarily with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra but also with foreign orchestras. Thus he has collaborated with numerous Slovenian and foreign conductors, as well as performing with important foreign orchestras as an orchestral soloist. In 2001, he won the “Città di Porcia” International Competition. He has lectured at the Ljubljana Academy of Music since 1999, and he became an assistant professor at the Zagreb Academy of Music in 2005. In 2008, he was awarded the prestigious Prešeren Fund Prize for artistic achievements in the field of music. Boštjan Lipovšek has released five compact discs with the record label ZKP RTV Slovenia, most notably featuring premiere performances and recordings of works by composers Lojze Lebič, Ivo Petrić, Tomaž Habe and Uroš Krek.

Since its foundation in 1955, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra has established itself as an important component of Slovenian culture with archive recordings, concerts and guest appearances at renowned festivals throughout the world. It has been led by conductors Uroš Prevoršek, Samo Hubad, Stanislav Macura, Anton Nanut, Lior Shambadal (2000–2003) and David de Villiers (2003–2006), and in September 2006 the position of chief conductor was taken over by the superb Chinese maestro En Shao, who has thrilled audiences with his penetrating and mature interpretations. The orchestra performs and records an extensive and diverse repertoire embracing almost the entire Slovenian symphonic output and a major part of the international symphonic repertoire, as testified to by the orchestra’s international discography, which has been accompanied with excellent international reviews. In recent seasons, the orchestra has performed numerous resounding concerts at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, the Cologne Philharmonic Hall and elsewhere in Europe. The RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra is a member of the international network of orchestras ONE – Orchestra Network Europe.

Translated by: Neville Hall

TRACKS:
Brahms Johannes: Violin Concerto in D major,  op. 77
1.         Allegro non troppo                                                                25:06
2.         Adagio                                                                                   9:42
3.         Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace - Poco più presto    8:41 (listen!)

Britten Benjamin: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, op.31
4.         Prologue                                                                                1:13   
5.         Pastoral, The Evening Quatrains   (Charles Cotton)  3:19          
6.         Nocturne, Blow, bugle, blow   (Alfred, Lord Tennyson) 3:50
7.         Elegy, The Sick Rose (William Blake) 4:25
8.         Dirge, Lyke-Wake Dirge (anonymous) 3:39
9.         Hymn, Hymn to Diana  (Ben Jonson) 2:09
10.       Sonnet, To Sleep (John Keats) 4:01
11.       Epilogue 1:29

Stefan Milenković – violin (1-3)
James Oxley – tenor (4-11)
Boštjan Lipovšek – horn (4-11)
En Shao – conductor
RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra