Minnesota Orchestra's Beethoven Piano Concertos 4 & 5 Released by BIS

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Yevgeny Sudbin performs the Fourth and Fifth (Emperor) Concertos;
Osmo Vänskä conducts; Album available in stores and at minnesotaorchestra.org

The Swedish label BIS Records has released the first recording of the Minnesota Orchestra’s Beethoven piano concertos series, featuring the composer’s final two piano concertos, the Fourth and Fifth (Emperor), conducted by Music Director Osmo Vänskä and featuring Russian soloist Yevgeny Sudbin at the keyboard. The disc, the newest chapter of the highly-acclaimed collaboration between BIS , Mr. Vänskä and the Orchestra, is now available through the Orchestra’s website at minnesotaorchestra.org. It will also be available in stores and as a download on major internet music sites.

Mr. Vänskä, Mr. Sudbin and the Orchestra recorded the concertos at Minneapolis ’ Orchestra Hall in sessions during January 2009 and June 2010. The BIS team, led by producer Rob Suff, recorded the album as a Super Audio CD (SACD), using surround sound recording technology to reproduce the sound of the concert hall as faithfully as possible. BIS Hybrid SACDs are playable on all standard CD players.

Mr. Vänskä and the Orchestra have earned high praise for their prior recording projects together, including a five-disc Beethoven symphony cycle with BIS that The New York Times wrote “may be the definitive [cycle] of our time”; the recordings earned honors including a Grammy nomination for the Ninth Symphony CD and a Classic FM Gramophone Award nomination for the disc of the Second and Seventh. In addition to the Beethoven piano concertos project, the Orchestra will record the complete Sibelius symphonies for BIS , beginning in June 2011.

The Minnesota Orchestra, founded as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, issued its first recording in 1924, and has since recorded more than 450 works.

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