Catalogue | Orchestra

The Russian cultural scene, although largely unnoticed in the West, offers an almost inexhaustible potential in terms of first-class musicians and valuable interpretations. On the present SACD audite presents for the second time the Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra (NASO), an orchestra more or less unknown in the West but nonetheless highly renowned: Could it be due to this region’s geographic remoteness and exoticness, or to the negative connotation of Siberia, that Russian musical culture ends with the Ural Mountains as far as the culturally interested West is concerned? Despite numerous concert tours and major successes in the West, this Siberian orchestra has remained largely unknown up until the present day. This is completely unjustified, for the NASO need not fear comparison with the best-known European orchestras.

Founded as long ago as 1956 in Novosibirsk as the result of a government decision to enliven Siberian cultural life, the Orchestra is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Arnold Kats was then appointed Music Director and has occupied this position uninterruptedly ever since. At first, alongside Novosibirsk, its concert activities were limited to cities in the eastern provinces of the former Soviet Union. Later on, concert organisers in the western Russian provinces discovered the Orchestra as well. Following successful performances in Moscow and Leningrad, the Orchestra undertook its first concert tour in the allied country of Bulgaria. Already in 1978, the Orchestra was permitted to undertake its first concert tour in the West – in Italy. Since then, numerous tours have regularly taken the orchestra to the great concert halls of the West European capitals and to Japan. Since 2002 Thomas Sanderling is the Permanent Guest Conductor of the orchestra.

Following the production of the Symphony No. 2 and the Caprice bohèmien by Sergei Rachmaninov with the NASO under Arnold Kats audite now releases a second SACD with this unique orchestra under Thomas Sanderling. Once again the orchestra is presented with a truly Russian repertoire: The beloved Fantasia-Ouverture “Romeo and Juliette” by Peter Tchaikovsky takes the listener to the world of the Shakespear-drama about love and hatred; the Symphony No. 5 by Sergei Prokofiev gives us an impression of the “new simplicity”, an idea promoted by the composer himself: rich melodic invention and rhythmic vitality with a colouration at once objectively hard and romantic are united to form a heroic monumental style.

In honour of the Orchestra’s 50th anniversary, audite presents a second production which attains the highest standards in interpretative and sound quality, motivating listeners to make further discoveries in the Russian musical scene.

• Audio | Otto P. Burkhardt | January 8, 2006

  Das Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra (NASO) zeigt zum 50....

• Audiophile Audition | Gary Lemco | February 13, 2007

  The huge orchestral forces and diverse coloration of Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony (1944) make it a natural vehicle for the surround-sound medium. Thomas...

• Deutschlandfunk | Simone Wien, Sylvia Systermans | May 25, 2006

  Nowosibirsk liegt im Zentrum Westsibiriens. Mit 1,5 Millionen Einwohnern nach Moskau und St. Petersburg die drittgrößte und eine der jüngsten...

• Diapason | Christian Merlin | January 10, 2006

  Thomas Sanderling a gardé des contacts privilégiés avec cette Russie dans laquelle son père s'était installé pour fuir le nazisme quand elle...

• Fanfare | Peter J. Rabinowitz | January 3, 2007

  Here’s a low-wattage performance of Prokofiev’s second-most-popular symphony, played with confidence by an orchestra that sounds (no surprise) as...

• Le Monde de la Musique | Jean-Christophe Lemoine | January 11, 2006

  Dans le premier mouvement (« Andante ») de la Symphonie n° 5 de Prokofiev, Thomas Sanderling cherche une voie médiane dans la polyphonie et...

• opushd.net - opus haute définition e-magazine | Jean-Jacques Millo | April 9, 2006

  Composée en 1944, alors que la guerre prenait un tournant décisif, grâce notamment à la résistance sur le front russe, la cinquième symphonie de...

• Pizzicato | Rémy Franck | January 9, 2006

  Transparenz kann Musik abtöten. Doch das ist es nicht allein, was die Fünfte Prokofievs mit Sanderling so schlapp werden lässt: es fehlt ihr vorne...

• www.anaclase.com | Hervé Koenig | January 9, 2006

  Contemporaine de la Huitième de Chostakovitch, la Symphonie en si bémol majeur N°5 Op.100 de Sergeï Prokofiev fut écrite en 1944. Contrairement...

• www.classicalcdreview.com | R.E.B. | January 10, 2006

  Recently on this site we reviewed Audite's SACD of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 played by the Novosibirsk Academic Symphony conducted by Arnold Katz,...

• www.ClassicsToday.com | Victor Carr Jr | January 7, 2007

  To say that Thomas Sanderling's new Prokofiev Symphony No. 5 recording is totally unnecessary would be an understatement--it's so frustrating that it...

• www.classicstodayfrance.com | Christophe Huss | September 19, 2006

  Déception et satisfaction. La satisfaction est de voir Audite maîtriser de mieux en mieux l'enregistrement SACD: belle image frontale, soutien...

• www.new-classics.co.uk | John Pitt | June 22, 2006

  Mily Balakirev, one of the ‘Mighty Five’ amateur Russian composers of the mid-eithteenth century, encouraged Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to write a...

• Zeitzeichen | Ralf Neite | January 7, 2006

  Ins Herz
  Prokofiev und Tschaikowsky begegnen sich in Novosibirsk
  Es liegen 75 Jahre zwischen Tschaikowkys Fantasie-Ouvertüre „Romeo und Julia“ und Prokofievs fünfter Symphonie. 75 Jahre, in denen die Musik von...