Lutowslawski, Szymanowski, Tschaikowsky (Mariss Jansons) (CD, Br-Klassik)

Mariss Jansons, who died in 2019, put together three works that are particularly close to his heart for this new publication. Karol Szymanowsky’s Third Symphony, which requires a choir and solo tenor in addition to a gigantic orchestral apparatus, creates a fantastic tone painting of an idealized Orient using a Persian text from the 13th century. Witold Lutos awski added local Slavic color to his Concerto for Orchestra from 1954, the title already alluding to Béla Bartók, but characterized by a very unique tone that, despite its immediate perceptibility, extends far into the avant-garde. Alexander Tchaikovsky, who was born in Moscow in 1946, has the same name as a giant of Russian Romanticism, although both are neither related nor by marriage. His Symphony No. 4 is a resounding appeal for peace. The work, commissioned by Yuri Bashmet in 2005, includes onomatopoeic choir passages and an important solo part of the viola, played by the solo violist of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nimrod Guez.