Search - Bela Bartok, Hans-Martin Schneidt, Michael Gielen :: Bartók: Orchestral Works

Since its foundation in 1946, the main aim of the SWR Symphony Orchestra has been to increase audience awareness not only of the symphonic repertoire of the previous two centuries, but also of the music of the twentieth century. Born in Dresden in 1927 but reared in Argentina, Michael Gielen began to gain a reputation as a conductor of both the Viennese classics and contemporary music in the fifties. In addition to his many outstanding conducting assignments in Europe, Gielen was Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony until recently. Pianist Russell Sherman was born and educated in New York, beginning piano studies at age six. By age eleven, he was studying with Eduard Steuermann, a pupil and friend of Ferruccio Busoni and Arnold Schoenberg. Sherman graduated from Columbia University at age nineteen with a degree in the humanities. He was a Visiting Professor at Harvard University and is currently a Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at the New England Conservatory. With a brilliant career and creative imagination, Sherman has long been called "a thinking man's virtuoso". Budapest-born Zoltán Peskó has been the General Music Director of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein since 1996. The conductor's uncommon versatility is documented in his many recordings for disc and radio. He was awarded the German Record Prize in August 1993. German organist, conductor, pedagogue, and composer Hanns-Martin Schneidt, born in 1930, has conducted major German orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, but is best known for his many years with the famed Munich Bach Choir. The present recording features these estimable artists in some of Bartók?s greatest orchestral works, including his master, the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta.