Klaus Makela & Oslo Philharmonic Shostakovich Symphonies 4, 5 & 6 (2 UHQCD)

Numbered, Limited Edition UHQCD!
Playable on any CD player, the Ultimate High Quality CD greatly surpasses all previous CDs before it!
Klaus Mäkelä is not even 30 years old and has already arrived at the top of the world conductors. Univeral Music Japan and Decca Classics are therefore particularly pleased to release this brilliant-sounding double UHQCD of Shostakovich Symphonies 4 to 6 with Klaus Mäkelä and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded on January 3 and May 2, 2023 at the Oslo Concert Hall in Norway. Commenting on the Oslo Philharmonic's and Mäkelä's performance of Shostakovich's Fifth at the Edinburgh Festival 2023, Bachtrack wrote: "Mäkelä squeezed every drop of energy out of the key moments... he struck the ambiguous balance with exciting perfection." Other critics were impressed: "In this grandiose performance, the low woodwinds, the main horn, the trumpet and the percussion were excellent... the first Leningrad audience is said to have cried during the slow movement. You can hear why..." (The Observer).
Born in Helsinki in 1996, Mäkelä studied conducting with Jorma Panula and cello with Marko Ylönen, Timo Hanhinen and Hannu Kiiski at the Sibelius Academy. Since the 2019/20 concert season, Mäkela has performed with international orchestras such as the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra Hamburg, the Munich Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orquesta Nacional de España, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and many others. The young star currently leads the Orchestre de Paris and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and is designated chief conductor of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
UHQCD stands for Ultimate High Quality Compact Disc and is a joint development of the Japanese CD replication company Memory-Tech and the Audio Quality CD Company from Hong Kong. UHQCDs, unlike conventional CDs, are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. To protect the softer photopolymer from scratching, another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied. The combination results in a significantly reduced reflection of the laser light inside the CD and an unrivalled precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with normal CD players. Musically, the result is a sound that is strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.
While Universal Music Japan's first UHQCD series relied on the DSD data of previous SHM-SACD releases, albums that had not previously been released as SHM-SACD are now being released with increasing popularity. Typically, the master tapes of the Universal Archive are re-converted to DSD for this purpose. UHQCDs are ideal for music lovers who want to get as close as possible to the sound of the recording, but do not have a SACD player.

Features:

• Numbered, Limited Edition
• Made in Japan
• Superior Crystal Sound
• Ultimate High Quality CD
• XRCD-Like Luxury Digipak
• Playable on conventional CD players

Musicians:

• Klaus Mäkelä, conductor, cellist
• Oslo Philharmonic

Selections:

UHQCD 1
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Symphony No.4 In C Minor, Op.43
1. I. Moderato Poco Moderato
2. Presto
3. II. Moderato Con Moto
4. III. Largo
5. Allegro
UHQCD 2
Symphony No.5 In D Minor, Op.47
1. I. Moderato - Allegro Non Troppo - Poco Sostenuto - Largamente - Più Mosso - Moderato
2. II. Moderato - Largamente - Poco Più Mosso
3. III. Largo
4. IV. Allegro Non Troppo - Allegro - Più Mosso
Symphony No.6 In B Minor, Op.54
5. I. Largo
6. II. Allegro
7. III. Presto