Robert Trevino's complete Beethoven Symphonies cycle is released, launching the conductor's relationship with Ondine (05.06.2020)


On 5th June, starting their new, multi-year recording relationship on a grand scale, Ondine Records releases the complete Beethoven symphonies conducted by Robert Trevino, conducting the Malmö Symphony Orchestra. The symphonies were all recorded during a sold-out Beethoven Festival held in Malmo last year, under the watchful eye and ears of producer Ingo Petry, and are released online and as hybrid SACDs (also playable on regular CD players).

 

 

For the fast-rising young American maestro and his orchestra, recording all nine symphonies in such a short space of time was both a deliberate artistic approach a and a mammoth undertaking. “To traverse these great masterpieces in such close proximity – and to play them with the absolute focus and intensity they demand – is both immeasurably enriching and an immense physical and spiritual task,” says Trevino, “But by doing it that way you play the music at white heat, the journey that Beethoven takes you on is presented with no barriers and you undertake it in such a way that it becomes one great arc from beginning to end. You live it in that way, so do your audience, and it is an unforgettable experience.”

 

 

Asked if there is room for ‘another Beethoven cycle’, even in this year when the world celebrates the composer’s 250th birthday, Trevino is clear in his answer. “Every artist can find new things in this music, and the listener can hear new things in every recording. The possibilities are infinite. If someone says that they never want to hear a new Beethoven cycle again, then they should stop listening to Beethoven, and I don’t want to live in that world! Because we need this music to speak to us anew, to reflect our world of today to us, to reflect our own selves back to us. To me that is vital, and this set is a snapshot of right now. Of me and the orchestra and the listener and how we perceive the world, for this moment.

 

 

“And just at this moment, the world also needs hope, and comfort, and empathy and, yes, an ode to joy and freedom.”

 

 

“We are very proud to start our association with Robert Trevino with this excellent Beethoven cycle,” says Ondine’s Managing Director Reijo Kiilunen, “It is fresh and yet grounded in tradition, and if you ask me which collection of the symphonies I’d want with me on a desert island – well, this one would be a very strong contender! Robert Trevino is one of the most talented of today’s new conductors, an artist thinks deeply about the works he conducts and has a great deal to say, and we are excited for this release and the others to follow.”

 

 

The soloists for the Ninth Symphony are Kate Royal (soprano), Christine Rice (mezzo), Tuomas Katajala (tenor) and Derek Welton (bass). The choir is the MSO Festival Chorus.

 

 

Future Ondine releases with Robert Trevino will also feature the Basque National Orchestra, of which he is Music Director.

 

 

 

Robert Trevino’s star has risen rapidly since he burst into the international spotlight at the Bolshoi Theatre in December 2013, leading a new production of Verdi’s Don Carlo. He was nominated for a Golden Mask award, and one reviewer wrote, ‘There has not been an American success of this magnitude in Moscow since Van Cliburn.’

 

 

Trevino himself has risen from humble origins in Fort Worth, Texas,to become one of America’s most exciting and fastest-rising conductors. Recent seasons have seen an ever-growing number of major debuts – among them the London Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, London Philharmonic, Tonhalle Zurich, San Francisco Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Sao Paulo Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre Nationale de France, Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, and Helsinki Philharmonic.



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