The Mass in C minor reflects Mozart's current preoccupation with the music of Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach, explored with the encouragement of Baron van Swieten, an important patron. The work is scored for pairs of oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets and timpani, with three trombones, strings and organ continuo. After a brief orchestral introduction, the four vocal sections enter in contrapuntal imitation and the movement continues in the monumental and generally conservative style that the Salzburg Archbishop would certainly have discouraged. The soprano soloist introduces the florid Italianate Christe eleison and the contrapuntal choral texture is resumed with the return of the Kyrie. The Gloria opens in affirmative C major, leading almost at once to energetic fugal writing, relaxing momentarily at the words pax hominibus bonae voluntatis (peace to men of good will). Laudamus te is in F major, marked Allegro aperto. It is scored for solo soprano, oboes, horns and strings and is in operatic style. Trombones and bassoons return for the A minor Adagio of Gratias agimus tibi, now with a five-part choir. To this the D minor Domine Deus, Rex caelestis, scored for strings and two soprano soloists, offers an immediate contrast. In Salzburg the second soprano would presumably have been sung by one of the castrati employed by the court musical establishment. There is a return to a more traditional Baroque style in the solid dotted rhythms of the G minor Qui tollis peccata mundi, for two four-part choirs with the full orchestra. The two soprano soloists are joined by a solo tenor for the E minor setting of Quoniam tu solus Dominus, scored without trombones or horns. The solo voices enter in energetic contrapuntal imitation, over which the spirit of Handel seems to loom, seen through a Mozartian prism. There is a brief C major choral Adagio for the words Jesu Christe, before the splendid formal Baroque fugal setting of Cum Sancto Spiritu, in the same key. The unfinished Credo starts with a movement for five-part choir, scored without trombones.

Ian Hart, Tim Pigott-Smith, Claire Skinner, Jack Davenport, Frank Finlay, Fenella Woolgar, Lucy Akhurst, Leo Bill, Peter Hanson, Robert Glenister, Anton Lesser. Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique / Sir John Eliot Gardiner

By the time the first public performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3 (Eroica) took place in Vienna in 1805, a privileged few had already heard the work at a private play-through at the Lobkowitz Palace in June 1804.
Nick Dear’s award-winning period drama, starring Ian Hart as Beethoven, brings to life the momentous day that prompted Haydn to remark ‘everything is different from today’. Filmed in 2003.

Running time: 129 mins
Region Code: All regions
Picture format: 16:9 Anamorphic
Sound format: LPCM Stereo/DTS
Surround Menu language: EN
Subtitle languages: EN/FR/DE/ES/IT

R E V I E W S:

"You could not hope for a stronger cast." -- The Times

"A clever and beautifully made dramatisation." -- Sunday Times

"This was thrilling stuff, as exciting visually as it was aurally." -- Sunday Telegraph

"Ian Hart is brilliant as Beethoven, a volatile, magnetic figure of genius and uncouth charm…not to be missed." -- Daily Mail

Eroica is a semi-authentic dramatized account of the circumstances under which Beethoven’s Third Symphony was unleashed upon an Austrian aristocracy ill prepared to comprehend it, worried over the politics of the French Revolution, and yet somehow aware that it spoke of a world to come that would no longer be theirs. In this effort, the production is a smashing success....

The backdrop is a first rehearsal of the “Eroica” at the Lobkowitz palace. In a large drawing room, the musicians and illustrious guests assemble. The musicians are none other than the members of the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, gussied up in full 19th-century Austrian costume. It must have been a real challenge to play in those ruffled cuffs, vests, and heavily adorned jackets, but they manage quite well. For the sake of authenticity, I presume, the female members of the ensemble have been sent packing....

The real art of this film lies in its silent acting. For long stretches, there is no dialogue at all. As the music unfolds, the actors in turn are shot up close, reacting to what they are hearing through intense facial expressions. Some are deeply moving, even disturbing, as in the Funeral March movement, where the camera focuses its lens on Count Dietrichstein. Here is the macho military man who has only words of criticism and disdain for Beethoven’s new symphony (which he maintains cannot even be called a “symphony”), fighting mightily to hold back his tears as the music recalls for him fellow soldiers fallen in battle....

I have complained in the past that in many instances DVDs of concert events have not yet figured out what to do with the visual dimension of the medium. This production offers a novel approach, and it is one that I really like. Part concert (Beethoven’s score is given in full) and part movie, it doesn’t really provide a lot of insight into why the “Eroica” is such a revolutionary work, but it does provide a magnificent snapshot of the cultural milieu into which the symphony was born, and the profoundly sublime to the profoundly ridiculous feelings it must have aroused in its first listeners.

Separate tracks in surround sound are included if you wish simply to listen to the symphony without watching the video, although even these tracks display a running score (ostensibly Beethoven’s original manuscript) interleaved with shots of the orchestra playing. I’m not going to rate the performance itself, because that is not the reason for buying this DVD. Gardiner and these same forces already recorded the “Eroica” on regular CD. The DVD is not the same performance.

This Prix d’Italia award-winning film from the BBC is urgently recommended.

-- Jerry Dubins, FANFARE

After a first album devoted to Mozart quartets (awarded a ‘Choc de Classica’ and a ‘Diapason Découverte’), a second to French music (Debussy, Ravel and Chausson) and a third to two quartets by Schubert, nos.10 and 14 (the mythical Death and the Maiden), the group founded by Nicolas Van Kuijk returns to its first love by recording more Mozart. This recording is the second part of an eventual triptych that will contain the six string quartets dedicated to Haydn: no.14 in G major, K387, the first of them, was composed in 1782, when Mozart had just arrived on the Viennese musical scene; no.15 in D minor K421, the second, is the only one in the minor mode and was completed in 1783 while his wife Constanze was in labor – she related that the rising intervals of the second movement recalled her cries from the room next door as he composed.

This newest release from the Naxos Idil Biret archive features the works of Claude Debussy. "For well versed insiders of music, Idil Biret is since years a trusted, respected and beloved artist... The discipline of her powerful grasp and approach of the music has led, especially for works of our century, to a stylistic congruence between the written score and the interpretation...(that) makes us all aware of an outstanding artistic potency of the highest standards of excellence!" (DIE WELT, Germany 1979) "Idil Biret takes the opening movement of Debussy's Children's Corner very briskly and impetuously, but the performance then settles down and is sensitive and well characterized, especially the closing Golliwog's Cakewalk. Good recording and recommendable couplings too." (PENGUIN GUIDE, England 2009) "There is no question whatever that Biret's reading of the Ravel Gaspard de la nuit takes it's place among the most delicately wrought Ravel interpretations by any of the many great pianists renowned for their performances of French piano music." (SOHO WEEKLY NEWS, USA 1977)

Internationally acclaimed pianist Benjamin Hochman brings his new conductorial skills to the impeccable release of two Mozart concertos, the joyful and lithe No. 17 in G major, and the dark and explosive No. 24 in C minor. Directing from the keyboard, Benjamin leads the finest Mozartian orchestra in the world, the English Chamber Orchestra.

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REVIEW:

His rendition of the G major concerto is captivating: fluent and subtly shaded throughout, Hochman directs the English Chamber Orchestra from the keyboard with aplomb. Avie’s sound, as always, is clean and natural, allowing the music to bloom.

– International Piano

A subtle alchemy and a powerful performance.

The association of Robert Craft with The Rake’s Progress spans the 45 years between this recording and his first meeting with Stravinsky in 1948 on the same day that W.H. Auden delivered the completed libretto to the composer. Craft subsequently became involved in what he describes as “the first step” in the composition of the opera, especially in helping Stravinsky master the pronunciation, vocabulary and rhythms of the English text. This involvement is described in an extract from Robert Craft’s memoirs in the booklet. Craft’s recordings of Stravinsky and others, in this case originally on the MusicMasters label, have seen a recent revival from Naxos with their ‘Robert Craft Collection’, and very excellent they are too.

With the label’s bargain pricing position, it seems fairest to compare like with more-or-less like in that department. My main reference has been Stravinsky’s own 1964 recording, now hiding discreetly as discs 16 and 17 in Sony’s bargain 22 CD box Works of Igor Stravinsky . This set is a must-have for any Stravinsky collector, but the recording in this set is not to be confused with the mono 1953 Metropolitan Opera recording, now available on Naxos Historical.

As you would expect, the more recent Craft recording wins in terms of sound quality, but aside from the usual leathery-sounding oboes and some tape hiss Stravinsky’s recording still comes up sounding pretty good. The same goes for the orchestral playing, with Craft more slick, and often more adventurous and energetic in terms of tempi. Stravinsky comes in at just under 141 minutes for the whole opera to Craft’s 128. If I have a minor criticism of both, it is the level at which the harpsichord is set, especially in the Craft recording. Even listening on best-possible hi-fi, the level is arguably too low to hear much of what is being played, and in the recitatives and important card game scene it is easily covered by the voices. This is a tricky aspect of such a recording and may be a fairly accurate representation of what you would hear in a live performance, but it is a shame that detail and harmonic content is missed in some of these recitatives, and I found my ears straining somewhat. By the way, Stravinsky’s recording has some useful riffle sound effects which help the ‘cards’ imagery in that long recitative Duet scene with Tom and Shadow which are absent with Craft. The timps are also a bit boomy in the Naxos recording, such as at the end of Act 3 scene 1, but this is another minor caveat.

While we are dealing with negatives, there is an aspect of the singing which bothered me just a little throughout. Jayne West is a star as Anne Trulove, and I have no complaints about her gorgeously innocent performance. Her gently simple final Lullaby is guaranteed to raise a tear. I am also greatly in admiration of just about everyone else, but for me the principal male characters Tom Rakewell and Nick Shadow, and Father Trulove for that matter, lack vocal variety and therefore remain rather two-dimensional as characters. Tom and Nick both have a hard-edged projection to their voices which softens little, even when the pair of them are supposedly in the hushed atmosphere of the dark and mysterious graveyard. John Cheek as Nick Shadow gives pretty much 110 % of his rich and powerful bass at all times, and comes across as more of an irresistible force than menacing presence. To be fair, Jon Garrison does give us some admirable restraint once he has been struck mad by Nick, and in any case this whole subject might in fact be less of a problem that you might imagine. I don’t wish to put anyone off with these comments - we’re talking bargain purchase territory after all. It is in the nature of Stravinsky’s vocal writing that there is almost always a certain amount of ‘distance’ between what might be expected to develop as a fully rounded theatrical character and the intentional neo-classical or even neo-baroque purity of the music. The Rake’s Progress is a wonderful score, ranging from Broadway musical corn very much to the heights of human expressiveness. There is always more than enough going on to keep us from worrying if this or that line might have been given marginally more colour or inflection. What I really do like about all of the solo vocalists is how clearly they articulate the all-important text, and while there is no libretto in the booklet for this release, you shouldn’t really need it.

With an American cast, you might also wonder if the accents of the singers might intrude to scandalise European sensibilities. This is not often the case, though there are one or two ‘The Waltons’ moments, such as when Trulove calls Anne, Anne! at the end of the Quietly, night aria, Act 1 Scene 3. The choir does very well and are stylishly punchy, but the satellite characters do leap out somewhat, and this is a mixed blessing on occasion. Shirley Love is very wobbly as Mother Goose, though this could easily be intentional. Wendy White begins imperious and perfectly and appropriately unsympathetic as the spoiled Baba the Turk, but mellows nicely for the You love him, seek to set him right scene. I was also glad to hear the smashing of crockery in her tiff with Tom in Act 2 is every bit as juicy as in Stravinsky’s 1964 version. Melvin Lowery’s Sellem is an energetic NYC auctioneer. The brief Keeper’s solo is alas unmemorable, but the part was never likely to steal the show.

There are numerous recordings of The Rake’s Progress around these days, and I still have an affection for the Decca recording with the London Sinfonietta conducted by Ricardo Chailly, though Cathryn Pope’s Anne Trulove leaves a bit of a beige gap in an otherwise strong team of soloists. If it’s the best of the best of modern recording you are looking for at any price, then the critics seem fairly universal in praise of Kent Nagano’s 1995 Lyons Opera recording on Erato, though I don’t have this to hand for comparison. As far as the Sony Box/Naxos competition goes you can easily accommodate both - Stravinsky having a bit more unruly bite and grit, Craft winning in terms of refinement but at the same time losing out in terms of pithy character. What Craft does manage is to bring out the sheer wit in several little moments of Stravinsky’s score - more so than the composer himself did. I laughed out loud in a few places which might not have been intentional, but you simply must find fun in all those corners and cadences - vocal and tonal - which Stravinsky throws in to disarm us and allow us up for air in this most human and intense of dramas.

The Rake’s Progress holds a fascination for us in the 21st century, in the first place as a ‘classic’ and iconic work from one of the last century’s greatest composers, but also as one in possession of the magical tensions one of music’s turning points. In the late 1940s and early 1950s there was a wind of change, many of the protagonists of which both held Stravinsky as a respected statesman of contemporary music making, but who also already knew his style and idiom, and were more than prepared to see the new opera as rather old hat. The opera stands at the cusp of this transition in Stravinsky’s work, between the development or recycling of old formulae, and the decision whether or not to break new ground in order to compete with the new generation of composers. In the end, the intangible alchemy which was Stravinsky’s gift for creating remarkable music, combined in The Rake’s Progress with a penetrating insight into human nature and frailty, created a masterpiece which transcended and survived all of those internal and external musical revolutions. That we have such a direct link to Stravinsky’s living thoughts and intentions in Robert Craft and such a powerful performance makes this recording - even with its imperfections - as much a ‘must have’ as the composer’s own.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

Penelope Crawford presents a program of four of Beethoven's most important transitional sonatas, bridging the gap between his "middle" and "late" periods. Composed against the backdrop of Napoleonic Europe and Metternich's Congress of Vienna, these four works chart Beethoven's growth as a composer in a rapidly changing world. As with her first Beethoven sonata recording (opp. 109-11), Musica Omnia MO 0308), a splendid fortepiano by the great Viennese builder, Conrad Graf, is used here, similar to one of the last pianos owned by Beethoven, also by Conrad Graf.

While offering little suggestion of the symphonic mastery he would attain less than a decade later, the First Symphony, influenced by Mozart's last symphonies and completed in October 1813, is a remarkable achievement. Schubert composed his Third Symphony over a period of about two months, completing the work in July 1815. The Third Symphony is generally characterized by an increased rhythmic intensity, at times bordering on obsession. We may well think of Schubert primarily as a wonderful melodist, but driving, sometimes overpowering rhythm is just as strong a feature of many of his greatest works. The question of why Schubert left this B minor symphony unfinished has continued to exercise scholars. The most convincing explanation is that he simply found himself unable to continue on the same exalted level and resigned himself to leaving the symphony as it was- two movements of breathtaking quality and imagination. There is no evidence that he ever wished, in his remaining six years, to return to the work, or that he regarded it as "unfinished." Beethoven's influence on the historic development of the symphony was staggering. His own examples, widening the expressive range of the genre, opened up a new world. Against this background, Schubert conceived a work of much greater poetry, drama and profundity than he had attempted in his previous symphonies. Over-familiarity may well have blunted our appreciation of this symphony, which is strikingly original from almost every aspect. Apart from the concentrated, expressive quality, there is also an enhanced sense of tone color, with much richer sonorities, and a new spaciousness.

Rising star violinist Simone Lamsma’s first solo recording on Challenge Classics! Hailed by critics and audiences worldwide, the Dutch violinist is respected as one of classical music’s most thrilling young stars. She enjoys a regular collaboration with Maestro Jaap van Zweden, who considers her one of the leading violinists in the world.

"Absolutely stunning." - Chicago Tribune

"Brilliant... polished, expressive, and intense." - Cleveland Plain Dealer