PENTATONE Kicks Off 2015

Baarn, Netherlands, February 07, 2015 --(PR.com)-- The first release to kick off the new year is Alfred Schnittke 3rd Symphony with Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin and conductor Vladimir Jurowski, who fell in love with Schnittke’s Symphony at the tender age of sixteen. “So eventually when I had received the invitation from PENTATONE to record this piece in the studio with the superb Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, I said to myself: ‘This is your chance to get it right!’” Jurowski reveals.

Also released today is the powerful "Spirit of the American Range," a recording with the Oregon Symphony under the baton of Music Director Carlos Kalmar. The CD features works by Aaron Copland (Symphony No. 3), Walter Piston (Suite from The Incredible Flutist) and George Antheil (A Jazz Symphony). These works were recorded live at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in April 2013 and January 2014 by Sound Mirror recording engineers John Newton and Blanton Alspaugh.

Music Director Carlos Kalmar said, “It is a great pleasure to share these important American works for which I have the greatest fondness and appreciation. They aren’t widely performed and certainly deserve to be enjoyed by a wider public.”

The third on the list of PENTATONE February releases is the magical “Sacred Songs of Life and Love” from the South Dakota Chorale. Blanton Alspaugh, the Grammy winning producer who has recorded both of the South Dakota Chorale’s albums, notes, “All of us at Sound Mirror are delighted to see two of our most valued collaborators join together in a new partnership. PENTATONE has set the standard for musical and technical excellence among classical labels. The South Dakota Chorale has done the same among American choirs. We are thrilled to be a part of this new venture together.”

The recording features some of the best in contemporary Scandinavian and Baltic choral music including Arvo Pärt’s Sieben Magnificat Antiphonen, selections from Knut Nystedt’s Prayers of Kierkegaard, and Sven David Sandström’s Four Songs of Love. Recorded in January 2014 in the magnificent acoustical environment at St. Joseph Cathedral in Sioux Falls, this disc will be a must have for choral enthusiasts.

February also marks the official beginning of the collaboration between PENTATONE and OXINGALE Records with the debut release of “Beethoven, Period.”: complete sonatas and variations for pianoforte and violoncello with Matt Haimovitz and Christopher O’Riley.

About PENTATONE
PENTATONE is a Dutch classical music label specialising in high-end, multi-channel surround sound recordings. It was founded in 2001 by three former Philips Classics executives. PENTATONE’s catalogue includes performances by conductors Kent Nagano, Marek Janowski, Sir Neville Marriner, Mikhail Pletnev, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Vladimir Jurowski and Lawrence Foster; instrumentalists Julia Fischer, Mari Kodama, Arabella Steinbacher, Nikolai Lugansky, Nareh Arghamanyan, Martin Helmchen, Sa Chen; and orchestras such as the Russian National Orchestra, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the New Dutch Academy and the Bolshoi Theatre.