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The International Classical Music Awards ICMA announced the nominations for their Awards 2024, celebrating the best musicians and recordings. Alessandro Crudele’s Britten & Elgar CD, with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Michael Barenboim, has been nominated in the Assorted Programs category. 

Last year Alessandro’s debut album with music by Respighi had also been nominated for a very important award (Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik – German Record Critics’ Award), while both recordings are still receiving enthusiastic reviews.

On 12th October, Alessandro Crudele returns to London for a special event presented by the Italian Cultural Institute. He will conduct the world-class Philharmonia Orchestra at the Britten Theatre.

The programme includes Benjamin Britten’s Sinfonietta Op. 1, Edward Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, Ottorino Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite III (Antiche danze e arie per liuto Suite III). These great pieces from the early 20th century demonstrate the youthful exuberance of the two English composers along with the search for popular themes, their variations, and the rediscovery of early music, as in Respighi’s piece.

The 7.30 pm concert will be introduced at 7 pm by Andrew McGregor, of BBC Radio, in conversation with Alessandro, discussing the relationship between late Italian and English Romantic music.
On this occasion, he will present his latest album at the UK audience, featuring music by Elgar (Violin Concerto) and Britten (Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes).

The first impressions from the international press about Britten & Elgar‘s album on Linn Records are staring to arrive and they are enthusiastic.

Andrew McGregor said on BBC Radio 3:

It’s an excellent recording, you don’t miss a detail… it’s a warmer Sunday morning than some but the storm still has vicious teeth.

Ralph Moore wrote on Music Web International:

The depth, clarity and balance achieved here are impeccable and the conclusion is wonderfully released and cacophonous. […] the homogeneity of the string sections and the sonority of the brass are especially impressive but every section of the orchestra is flawless. […] I cannot imagine it better played.

Sven Kerkhoff wrote on Musik an sich:

The violin and the orchestra offer a noble sound and a tendency towards symbiotic fusion […] in a sympathetically unagitated and orchestrally transparent manner, until Crudele knows how to let the pack off the leash at the right moment in the finale.

Colin Clarke wrote on Classical Explorer:

The “Moonlight” third movement is very beautiful, and notable for its delicacy.

Crudele’s flinking movements are his finest. The fragility of “Dawn” balanced the robust “Storm”. And listen to how, in the latter, Crudele highlights Britten’s many, many felicities of scoring.

Crudele again finds a multitude of touches in the score that so often go under the radar.

Malcom Hayes of BBC Music Magazine rated the album 4 out of 5 stars and wrote:

The alternating poetry and drama of ‘Dawn’ are memorably captured […]

MusicWeb International wrote:

The violence of the outer sections of Storm is underlined by the impact of the percussion section and the brilliance of sound produced by the Linn production team further enhances its appeal; the depth, clarity and balance achieved here are impeccable […] I cannot imagine it better played; the homogeneity of the string sections and the sonority of the brass are especially impressive but every section of the orchestra is flawless.

In this month of important events, Alessandro Crudele will be in England for the opening concert of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s season in Eastbourne.

The concert will take place on 24 September 2023 at the Congress Theatre in Eastbourne. The programme includes Mendelssohn’s Calm sea and prosperous voyage, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, with violinist Chloë Hanslip. 

Info and Tickets here:

https://lpo.org.uk/event/tchaikovskys-fourth-eastbourne/

Alessandro Crudele’s second album on Linn Records – featuring Britten’s Four Sea Interludes and Elgar’s Violin Concerto performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra with Michael Barenboim as soloist – is released worldwide today, 8 September 2023. It is available on streaming platforms and in stores:

Apple Music
Spotify
Amazon Music
Idagio
Linn Records
Outhere Music
Other platforms and stores

The album was recorded exactly one year ago at the Blackheat Halls in London. Read how Linn Records describes this second discographic project with Alessandro Crudele:

After an acclaimed Respighi recording, Alessandro Crudele makes his second appearance on Linn, this time teaming up with violinist Michael Barenboim who makes his Linn debut, and the Philharmonia Orchestra. The programme offers a glimpse of two contrasting, yet defining figures of British music. Depicting an outsider within an isolated community – very much reflecting Britten’s situation at the time of its composition – Peter Grimes remains his most performed opera. Following its success, Britten extracted four ‘interludes’: brilliantly orchestrated portraits of the North Sea, performed here with Crudele’s distinctive mastery of orchestral colours. The self-taught Elgar was somewhat reluctant to compose a concerto for violin, but after meeting the great Fritz Kreisler he came to create ‘an immortal work’, the Austrian violinist’s own words. Benefiting from recent live performances, the execution brings all the facets of the work to light and successfully blends the solo part with the orchestral accompaniment in a show of perfect symbiosis.

Alessandro has been happily living his paternity leave for a few months now, enjoying the first moments of life of his first-born daughter Ambra.
In the meantime, some concerts have been announced for his next season, which will be full of great highlights:
On 24 September 2023, Alessandro will open the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Eastbourne season with a programme that includes Mendelssohn’s Calm sea and prosperous voyage, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, with violinist Chloë Hanslip.
On 12 October 2023, he will conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra in a concert at London’s Britten Theater with music by Britten, Elgar, and Respighi.
Again, with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Alessandro will be engaged in the closing concert of their season in Bedford on 10 May 2024.
The programme will include Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony and Mozart’s Piano concerto K451 with Martin Helmchen.
Other numerous engagements, to be announced soon, will see him travel to Germany, the Czech Republic, Turkey, and see him return to Asia, after the long break due to the pandemic.

On September 7^th and 8^th, Alessandro Crudele will conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Blackheath Halls (London) for his second discographic project with Linn Records.

He will record a programme with an English flavour: Four Sea Interludes (from Peter Grimes) by Benjamin Britten and Edward Elgar’s majestic Violin Concerto, along with Michael Barenboim as soloist.

This recording follows Alessandro’s very successful discographic debut with Linn Records: his Respighi album with the London Philharmonic Orchestra – released in June 2022 –  was extremely well received by the international press. 

You can stream or download it here.