Arnold Schönberg founded the Society for Musical Private Performances in November 1918 “to give Arnold Schoenberg the opportunity personally to carry out his intention of providing artists and art lovers with a veritable and precise knowledge of Modern Music”, as Alban Berg described in a leaflet in 1919. Chamber music, solo pieces and songs saw performance, and to a great extent, properly arranged for the available means, original large-scale orchestral works of topical and artistic high-quality were also produced. In the autumn of 1921, Schönberg embarked on an arrangement of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, which, however, he broke off in the middle of the first movement. The continuation was to be taken over by Webern, but this did not happen, evidently as a consequence of the end of the society. It was only in 1982/83 that the German composer, conductor and musicologist Rainer Riehn (b. 1941) was prepared to continue what had been begun.

The string quartets of Beethoven are among the greatest works of their kind, but he composed other works for quartet which have been neglected. This album is dedicated to these intriguing rarities. Alongside the wild and monumental Grosse Fuge, in many ways the culmination of Beethoven’s achievements in the string quartet genre, this recording further displays his mastery of counterpoint by bringing to light brilliant yet forgotten original versions of his quartets Op. 18, No. 1 and Op. 131, plus six virtually unknown miniatures, including his Preludes and Fugues.

On her PENTATONE debut album, young German star soprano Anna Lucia Richter explores the heart-wrenching, timeless and universal feeling of Heimweh (homesickness) through a collection of extraordinary Schubert songs. Richter approaches the notion of Heimweh from several perspectives: from that of queens, young girls and shepherds to that of soldiers, dwarfs and gravediggers.

The repertoire consists of the original, German-language version of Ave Maria, three Mignon songs (Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt, Heiss micht nicht reden and So lasst mich scheinen), the sinister Der Zwerg, the expansive flower ballad Viola and many others. Richter is accompanied by pianist Gerold Huber, with whom she has formed a congenial Lieder tandem in the last years. They are joined by clarinetist Matthias Schorn on the final song of the program, the quasi concert aria Der Hirt auf dem Felsen.

REVIEWS:

The soprano Anna Lucia Richter has recorded a CD with a running time of almost eighty-one minutes. The program consists exclusively of songs by Franz Schubert. It begins with "To the Moon" and ends with "The Shepherd on the Rock". The CD was released by Pentatone (PTC 5186 839). On the beautifully rendered cover, the young singer falls from heaven like an angel from Tintoretto. It has become customary to place song productions under a specific theme; this time, it's about homesickness. A wide field, and Schubert and his lyricists promise a rich harvest. For the foreword in the booklet, the artist even consulted Grimm's dictionary and found out that the word homesickness entered general usage at the beginning of the 18th century. And she wonders if homesickness is "not actually the desire" to find something on the outside that can actually only be created on the inside.

The lyrical titles suit her better than the ballad-like “Zwerg”, in which the voice reaches its limits in the effort to colorfully embellish the dramatic events...the so-called flower ballad "Viola," based on a text by Schubert's friend Franz von Schober, consists of nineteen verses, which Richter joins together with a discreet design, so that the thirteen minutes fly by. This work is rarely heard and sounds like a major discovery in the context of the album. The singer, who impressively takes on a speaking part with the melodrama "Farewell from the Earth", elevates the entire recital.

-- Opera Lounge

For pianist Victor Rosenbaum's fourth album on Bridge Records; the artist turns to the last three piano compositions of Johannes Brahms. Rosenbaum's Schubert release was described as a “powerful and poignant record of human experience”, and much the same can be said of these profound readings of Brahms's late masterpieces. Pianist Victor Rosenbaum, former chair of the New England Conservatory piano department for more than ten years, has performed widely as soloist and chamber music performer in the United States, Europe, Asia, Israel, and Russia, in such prestigious halls as Alice Tully Hall in New York and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has collaborated with such artists as Leonard Rose, Arnold Steinhardt, Robert Mann, and the Cleveland and Brentano String Quartets, among others. Festival appearances have included Tanglewood, Rockport, Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall, Kfar Blum (Israel) and Musicorda, where he is on the faculty. He has been soloist with the Indianapolis and Atlanta symphonies and the Boston Pops.