This is Volume 3 in Centaur's cycle of the complete piano sonatas of Hummel, performed by Antonio Pompa-Baldi. This cycle is setting a very high bar for complete Hummel sonata cycles. Born and raised in Foggia, Italy, Antonio Pompa-Baldi won the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 1999 and embarked on a career that continues to extend across five continents. He also won a silver medal at the 2001 Van Cliburn Competition, as well as a bronze medal at the 1998 Marguerite Long Competition in Paris. The New York Times described his playing as “meltingly beautiful.” Pompa-Baldi founded the Todi International Music Masters Festival, of which he is artistic director and faculty member, and sits on the juries of the most prestigious piano competitions in the world.

Award-winning Lithuanian, London-based pianist Indre Petrauskaite makes her AVIE label debut with a selection of Mozart’s piano works with a twist: she uniquely brings together the composer’s solo keyboard works written in minor keys. The nine works offered here represent a fraction of the composer’s overall oeuvre, yet they span a gamut of genres – including improvisatory and emotional fantasies, enigmatic miniatures and complex sonatas. Indre showcases these pieces – much loved staples of stage and studio alike – in a novel and stunning album. “Strong and well-played performances.” (MusicWeb International)

REVIEW:

Petrauskaite has an original voice in Mozart, not something that's so easy to accomplish. She is what's called a strong pianist, generally avoiding the delicately lyrical style in Mozart except in small details. Although this certainly isn't a historically oriented performance, Petrauskaite avoids Romantic gestures and extensive use of the pedal except in the fantasies; her playing is clean, tough, and insightful. The album, as a whole, offers an emotional journey that's rare in Mozart recordings, yet in Petrauskaite's hands, it seems to make sense. A superior Mozart recording.

– AllMusicGuide.com (James Manheim)

Ondine is pleased to announce a long-term recording collaboration with German violinist Christian Tetzlaff, internationally recognized as one of the leading soloists of his generation. The selection of these sonatas for piano and violin by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart demonstrate distinctly the composer's ingeniousness and show a wide range and strong ambiguity of emotions.

During the late 18th century, compositions for string trio with a wind instrument were extremely popular in amateur circles; and in keeping with this highly fashionable trend, Mozart composed four quartets for flute and strings while on a tour of France and Germany with his mother. The 22-year-old composer had lately made the acquaintance of a solo flautist, Johann Baptist Wendling, who was in contact with a rich flute-playing patron. A handsome fee was offered for some concertos and quartets – more than Mozart’s annual salary as a court musician back at home in Salzburg – and so he set to work, completing the first quartet, K385, on Christmas Day 1777. The other works here may have been composed later – perhaps Mozart ran out of enthusiasm for the project – but they all count as examples of refined chamber music conceived for skilled amateur players and domestic consumption, While hardly as complex a showcase of Mozart’s compositional skills as the string quartets he dedicated to Haydn, all four quartets abounding in gentle wit and good humour, and written not as mini-concertos for flute and string trio but as chamber music for equal partners. Every now and then Mozart touches the sublime, as so often he could, such as the slow variation movement of K285b, which recalls the similar movement in the ‘Gran Partita’ wind serenade in its weightless gravity of expression. This new recording of the quartets offers a substantial bonus, in the shape of the Oboe Quartet K370 arranged for the ensemble at hand. The performances are led by the Italian flautist Andrea Manco, who in 2003, at just 20 years old, became principal flute of the Teatro Regio orchestra in Turin under the directorship of Gianandrea Noseda.

Carl Czerny found a continuing source of inspiration in the music of his teacher Beethoven, even after he had established himself with a series of influential pedagogic works, piano exercises and studies. His works for piano trio show a flair for vivacious themes and unusual rhythms, such as the Spanish bolero in the second of the ‘Deux Trios brillants, Op. 211’ as well as opportunities for brilliant display, notably for the pianist. The ‘Trois Sonatines, Op. 104’ are equally lively, showing a transitional style that bridges the period from Mozart to Liszt. Dr. Sun-Young Gemma Shin is an active performer on both Baroque and modern violin as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestra leader. She is presently associate concertmaster of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra. Benjamin Hayek completed his bachelor and MM degrees in cello performance at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Hayek is active as a modern cellist in addition to his frequent appearances as a Baroque cellist. Dr. Samuel Gingher is active as a solo and collaborative pianist, and has performed in piano and chamber festivals all over the world. He is currently a faculty member at Millikin University in Illinois.

For his first release on Alpha, the clarinetist and conductor Jörg Widmann celebrates the music of a composer who wrote some of the finest pieces ever devoted to his instrument: Carl Maria von Weber. With the ensemble of which he is principal conductor, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, he has recorded the Clarinet Quintet (in its version with string ensemble) and the Concertino, composed in 1811 and 1815 respectively, along with the ever-popular Overture to Der Freischütz. The pianist Denis Kozhukhin joins Widmann to perform the Grand Duo concertant. This album is the first in a series of recordings that will also give us a chance to meet Jörg Widmann in his role as one of the most active composers of his generation.