In a series of interviews with Camille De Rijck, Philippe Herreweghe sums up his musical trajectory by offering the reader his reflections, intermingling musical and personal considerations. A selection of archive illustrations to delight the eyes and an updated biography complete the contents of the book, which is published in four languages. A five-disc compilation of extracts chosen and discussed by the conductor himself provides a musical counterpoint to the text. The selection enables you to explore a whole life through the finest works of such composers as Lassus, Schein, Bach, Beethoven, Mahler, Dvorak and Stravinsky. Thanks to the long-standing close collaboration between Philippe Herreweghe and his favorite ensembles - Collegium Vocale Gent, the Orchestre des Champs-Elysees and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic - this anthology of his most remarkable interpretations is also an opportunity to experience at leisure the extraordinary palette of colors and timbres that he invariably succeeds in obtaining from them, and transports us to the very heart of the Flemish conductor's inner world.

After devoting an album to sonatas by Giuseppe Tartini, for this anniversary year of the illustrious Paduan virtuoso, Evgeny Sviridov offers us a recording of violin concertos. This is his first collaboration with Millenium Orchestra, the ensemble founded by Leonardo Garcia Alarcon in the framework of CAVEMA in Namur. Most of the concertos selected come from manuscript copies made in eighteenth century Germany, where Tartini’s reputation was very high. Evgeny Sviridov has found in these scores cadenzas and ornaments which are very probably in the hand of Johann Georg Pisendel, the great virtuoso violinist of the Dresden court, a friend (and interpreter) of Johann Sebastian Bach! Following a practice that was becoming increasingly common in Germany at that time, one of the concertos has two horn parts in addition to the strings. Of the 130 or so surviving violin concertos, Evgeny Sviridov has selected five.

One of the outstanding composers of his day, Johann Adolph Hasse was seen as possessing "the same qualities of true genius, taste and judgment" as his librettist Pietro Metastasio. Didone abbandonata represents the once hugely popular 18th century genre of opera seria, exploring the same tragic story as Purcell's earlier Dido and Aeneas while expanding the heroine's conflicts between regal duties, love, and helplessness in the face of desertion.

“In the first thirty years of my career, I never wanted to play the Goldberg Variations. I had a strong relationship to Bach – singing mathematics – but did not feel any desire to contribute a further interpretation of this well-beloved work. This changed only when I decided to support the musical education in my son’s school. The aria from the Goldberg Variations was one of the first subjects, and the more I dedicated myself to the aria, the more I felt: this piece is a gold mine of vitality. This recording is the end point of a ten-year-long, personal healing process. For me, this is a reason for great joy – and a moment of hope, the hope that this music brings the listeners as much healing and comprehension as it gave me.” (Jimin Oh-Havenith) Jimin Oh-Havenith’s piano playing is characterized by an exceptional sonority and faithful-ness to the text. Her warm sound, which is always embedded within the rhythmic structure, lets the music come alive in all its richness. The synchronicity of sound and rhythm, not arbitrary changes in tempo and dynamics, inform the clarity of her interpretation, as in, for example, her recording of Beethoven’s op. 111, his last sonata. Jimin Oh-Havenith was born in Seoul, South Korea. In 1979 she began piano studies with Jin-Woo Chung at the Seoul National University. From 1981 to 1984 she continued her studies with Aloys Kontarsky at the Cologne College of Music. In addition to her concert activities as a soloist and radio and recordings, she also performed in a piano duo with her late husband Raymund Havenith (†1993). Jimin Oh-Havenith taught at the Mainz College of Music and at the College of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main. Since 2013 she has again been active as a soloist.

Manfred Huss and the period orchestra Haydn Sinfonietta Wien are internationally acclaimed for their rousing performances of music by Haydn and Schubert. They now bring their indomitable enthusiasm and collective expertise to one of Handel's most famous and popular works, rounding off the disc with the composer's far less well-known, but equally resplendent Ouverture from the Occasional Oratorio.

Ingmar Bergman (1918- 2007) made fifty films, directed more than 150 theatre productions and wrote several books, but the recurrent thread running through his life was music. He often said that if he hadn't become a director he would have wished to become a conductor, and went so far as to claim that ‘film and music are almost the same thing. They are means of expression and communication that go beyond human wisdom and that touch a person’s emotional centre.’ Bergman’s interest in classical music became evident early on in his career. Music in Darkness (1948) is about a pianist who loses his sight in a shooting accident. To Joy (1950) features a violinist who dreams of a solo career and Summer Interlude (1951) takes place at the Royal Swedish Opera. He admired all who could perform music, reserving his greatest love for pianists, and concert pianists are portrayed in Hour of the Wolf, Face to Face and Autumn Sonata. One of Bergman’s favourite Swedish pianists was Roland Pöntinen, who here performs a number of pieces featured in Bergman’s films, by composers including Mozart, Chopin and Schumann. Pöntinen is joined by the Stenhammar Quartet in the second movement of Schumann’s piano quintet, used by Bergman to great effect in the award-winning Fanny and Alexander. Another of the director’s favourite performers, the cellist Torleif Thedéen, also contributes to the project, with the sarabandes from three of Bach’s suites for solo cello.

Vinikour's performances are so buoyant, glistening or noble that you'll likely find yourself glued to your speakers (or headphones). And if you're accustomed to hearing the harpsichord at some distance in a concert hall, be prepared to listen as if you're standing next to the keyboard…” —Gramophone.

Playing with elegance and an innate sense of phrasing that allows lyric inventions to shine through the natural flow of the music, Mr. Vinikour achieves the distinction of offering playing that is genuinely moving.” —Joseph Newsome, Voix des Arts. The six partitas for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach are among the greatest and most inspired works of all keyboard literature. Although they are the first works that Bach decided to publish, they represent the composer's genius at the height of his maturity, matched only by the Goldberg Variations.

Performed on a stunning copy of a North German instrument of Bach's time, rich and expressive, but also clear and incisive, built by Tom and Barbara Wolf, each of the partitas is a microcosm, ranging from the poetic and pastoral (no. 1, in B flat Major), to the epic and tragic (no. 6, in e minor). Bach shows himself to be playful, profound, meditative, theatrical, virtuoso - and always the greatest composer of counterpoint of all time. The six partitas represent the apotheosis not only of Bach's unique keyboard language, and the expressive possibilities of the harpsichord, but in the inherent range of colors and contrasts within the confines of a suite. To a greater extent than in the other sets of suites, each of the six partitas seems to establish its own distinct character, which is developed throughout the suite. As with the English Suites, each of the partitas opens with a prélude. However, these movements are widely varied in form as well as in mood. Although each of the the six partitas contains the standard suite movements (apart from the c minor partita, which foregoes the customary gigue in favor of a Capriccio), these movements show the most striking variety.

REVIEW:

The musical distinction gracing Jory Vinikour’s Bach Partitas should come as no surprise to listeners familiar with this sensitive and cultivated musician. For starters, he gets superb engineering courtesy of Sono Luminus’ home base studios in Boyce, Virginia. The sonics envelop Vinikour’s harpsichord (a 1995 double-manual German model by Thomas and Barbara Wolf, based on a 1738 vintage single-manual instrument by Christian Vater) within a warm, ample, and resonant ambience, with a special ring to sustained bass notes and clarity in all registers. Secondly, Vinikour’s aesthetic evokes that of his late mentor Huguette Dreyfus for its generally conservative tempos and a subtle approach to agogic phrasing that avoids the rhythmic hiccups and lurching mannerisms that we too often hear in the name of “authenticity”.

He never plays faster than one can dance or sing, as the gently ebullient Gigue finales demonstrate, while being quite generous with ornaments and embellishments on the repeats. If the A minor and G major Allemandes tend to sag under their expansive weight, the opposite is true in the D major Allemande’s gorgeously spun legato lines and sustaining power. This Partita’s opening Ouverture, incidentally, receives one of its finest performances on disc; it manages to sound weightily grandiose without sacrificing any forward sweep.

Also worth mentioning are Vinikour’s articulation of the E minor Corrente’s suspended syncopations and his opting to take the Gigue in triple rather than duple meter. Vinikour’s absorption in and commitment to these scores proves further evident in his booklet notes, which are highly informative and vividly expressed. I wouldn’t want to be without Christophe Rousset’s generally brisker pacing, the greater variety of registrations and timbres that Trevor Pinnock serves up in his Hänssler Bach Edition remake, or the late Igor Kipnis’ irrepressible sense of character. Yet Vinikour’s Partitas add up to a serious and major achievement by a serious and major artist.

-- ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)