Ian Bostridge : Autograph (7CD)

Dating from the years between 1928 and 1948, the recordings in this collection were all made during the lifetime of Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). They can be credited with playing a substantial role in propagating his works around the world and in cementing his international reputation as one of the towering figures of 20th century music. The seven CDs constitute a wide-ranging survey of the composer's music. Rightly, the seven symphonies are at the heart of the collection. Symphonies No.s 1, 2, 3 and 5 are conducted by the Finn Robert Kajanus, whom Sibelius described in 1934 as the best conductor my music ever had... he worked and studied and sought unceasingly to play my works exactly as I wanted them to sound. Kajanus was Creating a biographical panorama of his career, the British tenor Ian Bostridge has personally selected each track in this 7CD Autograph collection. With a focus on both song (in German and English) and opera (from Monteverdi to Ads by way of Handel, Mozart and Britten), it demonstrates just why he is recognized as one of today's most distinctive, intelligent and compelling singers. The tenor also complements his performances with an exclusive and illuminating audio interview. This is the fourth release in the Autograph series, launched earlier in 2015 with collections devoted to Angela Gheorghiu, Thomas Hampson and Jos van Dam. Each box focuses on a single artist, providing a biographical panorama of his or her career through a series of thematically programmed CDs and fascinating documentation. Each collection is devised in collaboration with the featured artist and includes a newly-recorded exclusive interview, Illustrated with musical extracts and conducted by the distinguished journalist and broadcaster Jon Tolansky, discussing his or her life and work. Bostridge, a former Oxford academic who has written three books and has been described as something of a polymath by the New York Times, can be relied upon to provide articulate and stimulating opinions on his career and the music he performs. Bostridge is a highly distinctive artist, an interpreter of exceptional intensity who uses his fundamentally lyrical voice to powerful dramatic effect. When he appeared in recital at Carnegie Hall in 2011 the New York Times wrote: ... this was a Dichterliebe in which an insightful vocal artist had a compelling idea about the words and music of every phrase. [Schumann's song cycle Dichterliebe appears on CD6 of this collection.] Bostridge expressed his philosophy as a performer to the Financial Times in an interview in 2013: It may not be obvious at first why such music is enjoyable but it is consciousness-raising. It makes you think about what is valuable in life - the things music ultimately wants to address... Art is part of the good life but it's also part of what it means to be a human being... Art has transcendent value and if you live in a democratic society, you want to bring it to as many as possible.