The marvelously affecting Italian Duets have long remained favorites among Handel's oeuvre distinct markers of the influences of the young Saxon's early trips to Rome and studies of the chamber duet master Agostino Steffani. The grand Hamonices Mundi is joined here by rising stars of Baroque singing Gemma Bertagnolli and Susanne Ryden.

Korngold’s music for Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado about Nothing, premiered in Vienna in 1920, enjoyed instant success and soon spread around the world. But the music has not been heard as Korngold intended since the 1st production. For this recording, made in conjunction with a staged US premiere, Korngold’s complete score was reconstructed from the original Viennese materials and is played here by the chamber-orchestral forces for which it was written.

REVIEW:

This is indeed a worthy and welcome addition to the Korngold discography. At long last we have a further complete performance of the composer’s delightful incidental music to Shakespeare’s comedy. It joins the sequence recorded by Ondine with John Storgards conducting. The music was first performed in Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace when Korngold was just 21. It was very successful and the composer would later go on to adapt the music for various chamber ensembles and as an orchestral suite. Now we have the music as it was performed at Schönbrunn together with choice dramatic overlays including Balthasar’s Song, ‘Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more; Men were deceivers ever’, Beatrice’s soliloquy as she yields to love, and the two sets of lovers’ happy uniting in the final wedding scene.

The orchestra is the same size and specification as that at Schönbrunn with a string quartet rather than a string section so that proper balances with all the other instruments can be assured. With the string quartet are: solo flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet and trombone with two horns, a piano, harmonium, harp and three percussionists plus solo timpanist. The original parts were available so that each player could replicate the bowings and articulations used in Vienna. Furthermore, all the composer’s own recordings of the work were made available too, so questions of tempo and portamento could be addressed. Conductor John Mauceri was a very apt choice for he has had much experience conducting Korngold and is a stalwart champion of film music, an asset that might well be regarded as not being far removed from the spirit of this work – in fact the March of the Watch could be considered a pre-echo of Korngold’s Sherwood Forest scenes from his The Adventures of Robin Hood. Mauceri also contributes the erudite notes for this album.

Korngold’s conception works very well in his chosen ensemble. It points up the comedy and irony such as that in March of the Watch and in the dreamy romanticism of the Garden Music. All those intimate glistening string-harp-and-harmonium figures, and rippling piano arpeggios, suggest birdsong and flowers nodding in zephyr breezes. It’s all in gentle romantic waltz time, plus the contrastingly intense almost Mahlerian Funeral Music. Although I would have thought it unnecessary, five of the pieces that have dialogue are repeated again in purely instrumental dress.

There have been a number of recordings of Korngold’s purely orchestral suite from Much Ado About Nothing. Of these I would unhesitatingly recommend Caspar Richter’s 2002 reading originally released on CD DCA 1131. This is not only because it included, for the first time, the enchanting Garden Music but also for the other items on this album which had great appeal especially Korngold’s divine Abschiedlieder Songs  (Songs of Farewell). A delight for committed Korngold fans.

-- MusicWeb International (Aan Lace)

Arnold Schoenberg's a cappella folksong settings are among his least-appreciated--and most easily listenable--works, excellent examples of his pre-12-tone harmonic style, with masterfully crafted polyphonic textures. For one thing, they're rarely heard, and although not especially a breeze to sing, they're effectively and soundly written--Schein uns, du liebe Sonne being the standout among the six works. The Op. 10 string quartet performed here is its original 1908 version rather than the one for string orchestra that the composer produced in 1929. It's craggy and difficult--but also offers a multitude of lyrical and beautiful moments that the Fred Sherry String Quartet fully exploits. Soprano Jennifer Welch-Babidge adds poignancy, sensitivity, and knowing style to the solos in the final two movements, using her thoughtful inflection to capture the music's colorful, moody impressionistic elements.


The 1934 Suite in G for String Orchestra is another gem--solidly tonal yet occasionally stretching the boundaries of traditional harmony, rich in melodic ideas and exciting rhythmic touches. Its five movements demand the highest level of technique from the players, even though it originally was written for developing student musicians. Again, this outstanding piece is rarely played or recorded, but this first-rate performance by Robert Craft's Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble is all you will need. The same goes for the rest of the program--and Naxos' engineering, from London's Abbey Road studios (choral works) and New York's premiere chamber-music recording venue, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, matches the disc's fine musical values. Informative notes by Craft, along with texts and translations for the vocal works, crown this much-needed addition to the Schoenberg catalog. [1/5/2006]
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Conductors Profiles: Réne Leibowitz

Richard Strauss revived some of his less well-known scores in later years, turning his richly imaginative fairytale opera Die Frau ohne Schatten into an attractively compact orchestral tone-poem. Strauss preserved the storyline and tuneful highlights of both this and his Diaghilev-commissioned ballet Josephs-Legende, which describes a biblical drama in soaring themes and splendid orchestral effects. The charming and lyrical Serenade for Winds, written when Strauss was only 17, drew the composer to the attention of Hans von Bulow, whose support and influence was of importance to Strauss's early career.

Giving new impetus to the genre of the symphony in the nineteenth century, after the achievements of Ludwig van Beethoven, was a just as ambitious as problematic undertaking. Even Robert Schumann did not find it easy to deal with hearing "the giant marching behind oneself". At the end of the 1830s Schumann formulated the dilemma: "When a German speaks about symphonies, he is speaking about Beethoven: the two names are one and indivisible for him, are his joy, his pride. Just as Italy has it's Naples, the Frenchman his Revolution, the Englishman his navy, etc., the German has his Beethoven symphonies. Now that the creations of this master have coalesced with our heart, some of the symphonic [creations] even having become popular, one might think that they must have left behind deep marks that would show in the first of the works of the same genre from the immediately following period. This is not the case. We indeed find echoes; preservation and mastery of the great form, where ideas appear one after the other, stroke upon stroke, and yet only seldom linked together by an inner spiritual bond, with a few exceptions. "It is clear here that the path back to Haydn and Mozart is not an option - and picking up the thread of the exemplary individualism of Beethoven's symphonies appears impossible. The knowledge of the problems of innovative symphonic design also characterizes Schumann's path to the large form. Early attempts remained unfinished; nevertheless, in 1829 he reported to his piano teacher and later father-in-law Friedrich Wieck: "But did you know how it agitated and egged me on, and how I could already have gotten to op. 100 in my symphonies, had I written them down, and how I actually feel so at ease in the whole orchestra."

The cembalo-obbligato sonata reached its zenith in the middle decades of the eighteenth century; thought to date from the last fifteen years of J.S. Bach’s life, the composer was a pioneer of this compelling form, and for the soloistic role of the harpsichord in ensemble music. Critically acclaimed Amsterdam-based viola da gamba player Robert Smith joins with the celebrated Italian harpsichordist Francesco Corti to present a new recording of four prime examples of this genre, Bach’s three Sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord along with a sonata by his close contemporary Christopher Schaffrath. Completing the album is a new work by Robert Smith – based on Henry Purcell’s Dido’s Lament this innovative new work for the instrument absorbs broad influences from both the eighteenth century and the heavy-metal band Metallica.

Spirit, Strength & Sorrow, the staggering result of the Sixteen's third collaboration with the Genesis Foundation, demonstrates once again their joint commitment to nurturing new artistic talent. This CD features three brand-new settings of the Stabat Mater from emerging composers Alissa Firsova, T�nu K�rvits, and Matthew Martin alongside those by Claudio Casciolini and Domenico Scarlatti.

.Born in Warsaw but forced to flee to Minsk and then Tashkent before finally settling in Moscow, Mieczyslaw Weinberg was, as Shostakovich remarked, �one of the most outstanding composers of the present day� and a close friend of the older composer. His Cello Sonatas, the second of which was composed for Rostropovich, make masterful use of the cello�s expressive capabilities, while his sonatas for solo cello have been likened in importance to the suites of J.S. Bach. The first and third of these in particular, dedicated to Rostropovich, are significant contributions to the instrument�s repertoire.

RUSSIAN EASTER FESTIVAL OVERTU

SCHUBERT Piano Sonatas: No. 1 in E, D 157 ; No. 8 in f?, D 571/D 570/D 604 ; No. 15 in C, D 840 “Reliquie.” Fragments: in c?, D 655; in e, D 769a • Gottlieb Wallisch (pn) • NAXOS 8.570118 (72:23)


The young Viennese pianist Gottlieb Wallisch confirms the favorable impression he made on an earlier set of Schubert’s fragments and unfinished piano sonatas, reviewed in Fanfare 30:1 last year. The works on the present CD include sketches, fragments, and unfinished works from 1815–25, and once again, Wallisch enhances his performances with insightful and illuminating notes. He does not offer any “completions” of these fragments, as many pianists have attempted, but simply stops playing when the music breaks off. There is no completely satisfying explanation of why Schubert left so many of the piano sonatas unfinished, but Wallisch’s concluding words offer some consolation: “These fragmentary works very often breathe a special mysterious poetry. They provide a fuller view of Schubert’s creative process and musical thinking and at the same time bring to life for us his journey and quest.” Nowhere are these words better exemplified than in Wallisch’s haunting performance of the fragmentary first movement of the F? Minor Sonata, D 571.


The so-called “Reliquie” (all the unfinished works are “relics,” after all) is the most complete, as well as the most important of this group of works. Schubert finished the first two movements and the Trio section of the Menuetto and Trio, but left the Menuetto and the final Rondo incomplete. The loss is even more significant because, as Wallisch notes, this sonata inaugurated a new creative stage with a return to sonata-writing after a two-year pause. Schubert was, according to one of his letters, preparing through his instrumental compositions to pave the way for “great symphonies,” and the “Reliquie” exemplifies this ambition to a great extent. Quoting Wallisch’s notes again, “the piano-writing is laid out very orchestrally, and the individual sections and formal structures take on . . . symphonic dimensions.” Wallisch’s interpretation does full justice to the grandeur of Schubert’s vision; it is as eloquent as the performance by the fine Finnish pianist Ralf Gothoni, who made a magnificent recording of the “Reliquie” many years ago on the Ondine label (now unfortunately out of print).


Wallisch, who was a finalist in both the Queen Elisabeth and Clara Haskil competitions, is an accomplished and sensitive Schubert-player. The warmth in his playing complements Schubert’s poignant and expressive writing, while his sparkling touch brings lightness and gracefulness to livelier movements. Recorded in England in 2005, the piano sound is rich and real.


There is no mention of a continuation of the sonata cycle, but I urge Schubert-lovers to keep an eye out for future recordings as Wallisch approaches the great sonatas of Schubert’s maturity.


FANFARE: Susan Kagan

On May 21, 2016 at the Bonn Opera House in Germany, the fifth Opera Gala for the German AIDS Foundation took place. At this performance, some of the world’s most illustrious vocalists performed, such as Simone Kermes, Roberto De Biasio, Marina Prudenskaya, and Robin Johannsen. This release features all of the very best highlights of that outstanding evening. Conducted by Stefan Blunier, music from Mozart, Gounod, Beethoven, Verdi, Delibes, Donizetti, Offenbach, and Rossini is included. This production was filmed in high definition and mastered from an HD source, and includes over an hour of music. This is the next best thing to being present at the fantastic concert.

Throughout his life, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart repeatedly devoted himself to the genre of the accompanied piano sonata. He wrote the earliest works at the age of eight, to perform them either with his sister on the harpsichord and himself on the violin or with his father, the famous violin teacher, and sitting at the harpsichord himself. Leopold Mozart himself assured his son in a letter that he would count him among the best violin players in Europe - the composer himself preferred to see himself as a piano virtuoso and (of course) above all as a 'compositeur' who had a lot to say. The works recorded here also move within this area of tension. If the violin still plays a clearly subordinate role in the youth sonatas to the brilliant harpsichord part, which also leads in the cantabile slow movements, this distribution of roles changes over the time in favor of the violin. In the 'middle' phase of Mannheim, the renunciation of the violin would mean a painful loss, and in the later Vienna sonatas there is finally a true partnership between the two instruments with equal rights. The joyful virtuoso part is still reserved for the piano.

Also available on Blu-ray

Stravinsky in Hollywood, a film by Michael Capalbo, tells the story of an "old school" European artist knocking heads with the brash New World. The documentary uses a combination of existing archival footage (some never before seen), interviews with Stravinsky and his assistant Robert Craft, and premieres several big studio film scenes of the 40s with music Stravinsky wrote for them.

The third of this four-volume series unites distinguished composers of the older generation with some of the most promising voices in Spain today, amply justifying claims for a modern Spanish renaissance of the classical guitar. Performing works dedicated to and commissioned by himself, award-winning guitarist Adam Levin puts his flawless technique and gorgeous tone to the service of music whose soul and poetry are the unmistakable products of a common and illustrious ancestry. Volumes 1 and 2 are also available on Naxos records.

Winner of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Music, Bernard Rands is well established as a major figure in contemporary music. His music has been described as 'plangent lyricism with dramatic intensity', qualities developed since his studies with Dallapiccola and Berio. Inspired in the 1970's by the then new Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, Rands researched and sketched Vincent for the next 40 years. Described by the Huffington Post as Rands' 'crowning achievement', Vincent represents much of the great painter's life and in particular the dramatic setbacks of his later years, contrasting the affection of his brother Theo with intese inner struggles, his vicious conflict with Gauguin, and his tragic and untimely death.

Whether as a solo instrument or as part of the orchestra, today the saxophone seldom appears in concert halls and opera houses. Nonetheless, before it found its true home, it was heard in classical music. Here, Schulte-Burnert skillfully presents three particularly brilliant and virtuosic concertos by John Williams, Michael Nyman and Andrei Eshpai.

Reviews of music by the English composer Pickard (b. 1963) have stated that ‘he has the technique and the temperament to emerge as one of the great symphonists of the 21st century’. These works reveal a powerful rhythmic drive, a feeling for toughly argued drama and a poetic sensitivity to atmosphere.

The sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach as well as the sonatas for cello and piano by Max Reger represent lonely summit heights in their respective epochs. This justifies juxtaposing these works in an overall recording and not only encyclopedically publishing Bach or Reger lively. Recorded for this volume are the two first works of the genre by the young cellist Martin Rummel, who is now represented on Musicaphon with nine albums and who repeatedly creates "fascination with his brilliant playing" (Kronenzeitung) and "concerts of superlatives" (S�ddeutsche Zeitung). He is accompanied by Elizabeth Hopkins, who has already been rated as a "brilliant pianist" by the S�ddeutsche Zeitung.

In a Christmas album that is a gift itself, Jonas Kaufmann – the most acclaimed operatic tenor of the age – echoes his own holiday memories and joys with It’s Christmas!, celebrating the most festive time of the year with a unique selection of beloved songs and carols. This uniquely rich and diverse holiday album features 40 favorites that reflect the many facets of Christmas, from ancient Christian hymns to contemporary pop classics.

“When I think of Christmas, many memories spring to mind,” Kaufmann writes, in his liner note for It’s Christmas! “In this I’m probably like everyone else. Christmas is the festival of contemplation and remembrance, of joy and light.”

Christmas has had a special meaning for Kaufmann ever since he landed on the front page of a Munich newspaper – at the age of eight – after describing his family’s lively, musical Christmas Eve so vividly that he won a school prize. The songs he has chosen for It’s Christmas! reflect that happy experience and the many moods and pleasures of the Christmas holidays, from grateful worship to the exhilaration of celebrating with family and friends.

The most versatile and exciting tenor on the world’s operatic and concert stages today, Jonas Kaufmann brings his all-encompassing style to this one-of-a-kind Christmas collection.

His choices include a rich selection of traditional German holiday songs (“O du fröhliche,” “O Tannenbaum,” “Still, still, still”) the young Kaufmann sang around the Christmas tree with his family every Christmas Eve. Also included are haunting English carols (“What Child is This”, “In the Bleak Midwinter”) and such beloved worldwide favorites as “O Holy Night” and “Silent Night.”

The album’s breadth of variety is also illustrated by the inclusion of rare intimate German-Alpine Christmas songs for voice and harp accompaniment. Then, a highly personal selection of American pop holiday favorites – “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!,” “Winter Wonderland,” “The Christmas Song,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “White Christmas.” For Jonas Kaufmann, these casual, intimate holiday classics bring back a special memory.

“The moment when everyone sat around the tree surrounded by gifts and mountains of wrapping paper, completely exhausted yet overjoyed,” he recalls, “and my father brought out his record collection to indulge his not-so-secret passion for the swinging American Christmas of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and the rest.”

To provide the perfect settings for the songs that comprise It’s Christmas!, Kaufmann collaborates with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, the Bachchor Salzburg and the St. Florianer Sängerknaben, all conducted by Jochen Rieder, as well as harpist Florian Pedarnig and the Cologne Studio Big Band, conducted by Wieland Reissmann with guest artist Till Brönner playing Trumpet and Flugelhorn on two songs.