Haydn: Die Schöpfung - The Creation - Live Recording / Richter, Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper
Haenssler Classic
CD
$10.49$20.99Save 50%Sep 17, 2021
The present recording is taken from a live transmission of the Academy concert of May 8, 1972, from the Nationaltheater in Munich. The early death of Karl Richter in February 1981 frustrated the intention of releasing one of the great oratorios from his performing repertoire, Joseph Haydn’s “Creation”, in a studio recording. Happily it has proved possible to obtain the present sound recording from the archives of the Bayerische Staatsoper and, with the kind consent of the participants, to prepare a technically enhanced release. Despite a number of remaining technical inadequacies, such as may be considered characteristic for historic recordings of this nature, this audio document gives a particularly fine impression of the ambience and the authenticity of a live performance with conductor Karl Richter – complementing, as it were, the many available studio recordings of his wide-ranging musical repertoire. Special thanks are due to the musicians and all involved at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. For his help in advance preparation of this project, we wish to thank by name the opera house’s former Chief Executive of Administration Dr. Roland Felber!
This is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Francesco Piemontesi's summer 2017 release, Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 25 & 26. This recording finds the 'dream team' of Piemontesi, Andrew Manze and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra back together for two further concertos: the graceful and sunny Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major and the mellow and magnificent Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, which was Mozart's last. When Piemontesi performed No. 27 at the 2018 BBC Proms, The Independent commented: 'Piemontesi gave a definitive performance... his sound was gloriously transparent throughout'. This well-established team garnered multiple accolades for their debut recording together (Benchmark Recording France Musique, Recording of the Year Presto Classical, Excepcional Scherzo, Editor's Choice Gramophone, Album of the Week Classic FM) which increases the weight of expectation for this new recording. In addition the orchestra has recorded the Rondo in A major, K. 386, which only survived in the form of a piano arrangement by Cipriani Potter, whose father was a pupil of Mozart. Fittingly this piece was reconstructed by the SCO's Conductor Laureate Sir Charles Mackerras in 1989 and it is this orchestral version which is performed here. Widely considered one of the world's greatest Mozart orchestras, the SCO finds an ideal foil in the freshness and spontaneity of Piemontesi's playing.
Mozart wrote his Violin Concertos in 1775 while still living in his home town of Salzburg and in service to Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. Mozart had already toured internationally and found his parochial environment restricting, but as ever he rose above circumstances to create sublime and thrillingly unconventional masterpieces filled with wit and elegant charm. The finely sustained melodic expression of each concerto’s slow center provides the perfect foil for inventive sparkle in outer movements that include a cheeky reference to the opera Il re pastore in K.216 to an exotic ‘Turkish’ moment in the finale of K. 219.
Reviews:
In the Fourth Concerto, there’s a lovely singing character to the central Andante, Kraggerud producing a variety of tone which matches the changing intensity of the line. Here, as in all the concertos, he plays his own cadenzas, which are stylish in the best sense, and show off his technique.
– BBC Music Magazine
The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra has something of a reputation for working harmoniously with guest soloist-directors, not least among them Leif Ove Andsnes in concertos by Mozart and Haydn. Their strength lies in the collaborative approach dictated by their modest dimensions and conductorless set-up. Those discs with Andsnes were conspicuously successful, both artistically and critically, and this new project with Henning Kraggerud is no less winning. While these are brisk, no-nonsense performances after the contemporary fashion, the thinking that underpins their shaping right from the very beginning makes these readings of the Third, Fourth and Fifth concertos worth returning to.
Schubert: Schwanengesang - Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte / Williams, Burnside
Chandos
CD
$21.99May 01, 2020
Roderick Williams writes: “Although only twelve years separate the composition of Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte and Schubert’s Schwanengesang, the ethos and sound world of the two works are markedly different. Pairing them on the concert platform seemed an obvious choice on one hand, but I was reminded not to try to perform Beethoven in the way I perform Schubert. For one thing, the former still has the ring of the late classical, while the latter explores the darkness of the early romantic. For this reason, we decided to record the two works in slightly different soundscapes. In An die ferne Geliebte, the inventiveness of Beethoven is best expressed in the piano writing, while the vocal part is deliberately simple, strophic (the music is repeated for each stanza), and folk-like. ...the sixth song states that these songs are offered ‘ohne Kunstgepräng’. And so we have set the voice slightly more distantly in the balance, giving the piano due prominence; the effect is almost as if I were singing over Iain’s shoulder. Schwanengesang is recorded more traditionally: in these most extraordinary and progressive songs the vocal line is supported by the piano, in equal partnership. Roderick Williams.”
Joseph Haydn's Stabat Mater, written in 1767, was the first church work the composer wrote after entering the service of Prince Esterhazy in Eisenstadt. Unlike almost all his other sacred works, it soon circulated in numerous copies and established Haydn's reputation as the leading vocal composer of his day. This recording under the direction of Frieder Bernius - joined by a distinguished line-up of soloists, the Kammerchor Stuttgart and the Hofkapelle Stuttgart - follows the new critical edition of the work by Carus. The Kammerchor Stuttgart ranks as one of the best ensembles of it's kind. In it's 50 years of existence, Frieder Bernius has formed the choir to an exceptional phenomenon that has been acclaimed by both audiences and the press. The choir's repertoire ranges from the 17th to the 21st century, and the ensemble is regularly invited to all the important European festivals and performs in the most prestigious concert halls. The ensemble is led by Frieder Bernius.
Haydn: The Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 9 / Bavouzet
Chandos
CD
$21.99Mar 05, 2021
"Bavouzet’s Haydn is unmatched in its zest and its wit. But it is also substantial, informed and deeply rewarding."
--The New York Timeson Bavouzet's Haydn Sonatas cycle, 2022
Following his acclaimed recording of Beethoven’s concertos with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet returns to his exploration of Haydn’s sonatas, described by the magazine Gramophone as ‘a major modern recording landmark in the Haydn discography’.
As in previous installments, Bavouzet has programmed sonatas from Haydn’s early, middle, and late periods, giving added interest to the recital. Sonatas Nos. 10 and 2, dating from the 1750s and ’60s respectively, share the key of C major, but differ in form. The short No. 2 was almost certainly written for pupils whilst Haydn was working as a teacher. No. 10 is more ambitious and extensive. Sonatas Nos. 41 and 44 date from the early 1770s and show some influence from C.P.E. Bach and the Sturm und Drang [Storm and Stress] movement. More virtuosic than the earlier sonatas, in these the trademark humor of Haydn is also more evident. Sonatas Nos. 52 and 53 were composed a decade later and are conspicuously more demanding, technically and musically. As in the case of the previous volumes, this album was recorded at Potton Hall in Suffolk, on a Yamaha CFX Concert Grand Piano.
REVIEW
I am tempted to set my morning alarm to go off with Bavouzet’s Haydn C major Sonata; it’s guaranteed to fill the room with sunshine and youthful energy...all in all this is another remarkable addition to Bavouzet’s invaluable survey.
--Gramophone (Michelle Assay)
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s ongoing [Haydn] survey on Chandos is one of the glories of the 21st-century record industry, nine volumes and counting of playing that is poised and polished, as well as ideally flamboyant and aptly witty.
--New York Times (David Allen)
As ever in his Haydn cycle, Bavouzet provides a stimulating mix. Listen in turn to a cheerily scampering Sonata 10; a grand, poetic, dazzling personality in Sonata 44; a Sonata 2 in turns imposing and with a rounded melodiousness. All that is before Sonata 52’s sureness of melody, immensely varied rhythmically and in mood, and Sonata 53’s cagey then engaging hurtle.
The Mozartists continue their MOZART 250 project of staging operas by Mozart and his contemporaries with their recording of the UK premiére of Niccolò Jommelli’s Il Vologeso, first performed over 250 years ago on 11 February 1766 for the Stuttgart court in Ludwigsburg. For this eagerly awaited performance The Mozartists assembled a superb young cast, headed by the Irish mezzo-soprano Rachel Kelly, a graduate of the Royal Opera’s Jette Parker Young Artist Programme, tenor Stuart Jackson, a former Mozartists Associate Artist, and soprano Gemma Lois Summerfield, winner of the 2015 Kathleen Ferrier Award. Jommelli was born just north of Naples in 1714 (the same year as Gluck) and died there in 1774. Largely forgotten now, he was one of the most celebrated composers of his day, and during a career which spanned thirty-seven years he wrote some eighty operas as well as a great number of sacred works. He was seen as an important and progressive composer in combining the vocal melodiousness and lyricism of Italian opera with more elaborate and dramatically charged elements of French opera. Set in Ephesus, on the western extremes of the Parthian Empire, in c.164 AD, Il Vologeso centres on Berenice, a woman who becomes caught between two men – the victorious Roman general Lucio Vero, and Vologeso, King of the Parthians (thought dead, but recently returned after his defeat battle). The Mozartists, under the dynamic leadership of conductor and artistic director Ian Page, are leading exponents of the music of Mozart and his contemporaries. Originally called Classical Opera, the company was founded in 1997, and has received widespread international acclaim for its stylish and virtuosic period-instrument orchestra, its imaginative and innovative programming, and its ability to nurture and develop world-class young artists.
IDIS continues in its mission of reviving some of the most extraordinary Karajan recordings made during the Fifties and Sixties with this Karajan Spectacular VI volume. This album presents some extraordinary Beethoven and Wagner works of which Karajan has been an insurmountable interpreter, becoming obligatory point of reference for the two composers’ discography. Beethoven Symphony Overtures recorded by Karajan with D.G. during the Sixties were one of the milestones of their discography; but in the Fifties the great conductor created with EMI records an incredible series with the legendary Philharmonia Orchestra. During the Sixties Wagner’s recordings with the Berliner Philarmoniker were no less valid and culminated with the incredible Tetralogy; after Wagner’s rhetorical and heavy interpretation during the Nazi period, Karajan’s performance and interpretation has been rightly received as a complete rediscovery of a composer used only for propaganda purposes. This is a real do not miss album recorded in high quality.
Salieri: Overtures / Dittrich, Slovak Radio So (Bratislava)
Naxos
CD
$19.99May 01, 2000
What if there hadn't been a Mozart? Although this is an intriguing question for classical music lovers to debate and scholars to ponder, the fact is we'd be paying far more serious--and deserved--attention to Haydn, and beyond that we'd be stuck with the mediocre, very much of-its-time work of composers such as Antonio Salieri. Given all the discussion, much of it sheer nonsense, regarding the Mozart/Salieri rivalry, just a brief listen to any of these 12 overtures tells you what you already know: the monster talent/genius of Mozart had not a whit to fear from the competent Italian technician who was most widely respected for his pedagogical skills (Beethoven, Czerny, Schubert). Of course, the reality of the time and place dictated certain conditions of privilege and position, conferred by circumstances more political than artistically meritorious. Salieri undoubtedly was highly regarded and enjoyed a prominent position in Viennese musical circles, and he was talented, especially in the creation of a certain style of opera that audiences of the time literally ate up. Indeed, in the works on this program Salieri shows a certain dramatic flair, as in the opening of La Grotta di Trofonio--but with a few strokes of the pen, à la Don Giovanni, Mozart wiped out Salieri's best efforts in this genre. This takes nothing away from the very steady and polished musicians of the Slovak Radio Symphony, nor from Michael Dittrich's committed direction. Together they make the most of the music's considerable rhythmic energy, pleasant melodies, and frequent mood shifts typical of the style.
The stature and recognized genius of Mozart’s late operas, including Don Giovanni has forever transcended the considerable changes in performance traditions and audience tastes. Appreciation for a previous generation’s approach to this work can be heard on this live 1952 performance from Aix-en-Provence starring a fine, if not wholly well-remembered singing cast that includes Leonie Rysanek, Léopold Simoneau, Heinz Ruhfuss, Marcello Cortis and Carla Martinis. Hans Rosbaud, a conductor who has undergone some critical reassessment in the last few years, conducts.
Dejan Lazi? is joined by friends for his first recording of chamber music in a long career. Mozart’s two piano quartets are paired with Lazi?'s own arrangement of the Rondo Concertante K333. The result is the joyful, intimate music-making, that can be achieved by musicians who have a lifetime of performing together.
This new and highly-anticipated release of three symphonies of Franz Joseph Haydn follows the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Rebecca Miller's acclaimed recording of the works of CPE Bach with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment: "Self-critical perspective is clearly not a problem for these artists... The unfurling description of a lover's kisses permit all kinds of glorious opportunities for the singers' seemingly telepathic understanding for chiaroscuro, impeccable tuning and innate grammatical sense" (Gramophone, Editor's Choice, May 2015)
Highly regarded as soloists as well as chamber musicians, Frank Peter Zimmermann and Martin Helmchen are also known for an unostentatious and selfless musicianship which never obscures the music they are performing. When they started their collaboration in 2018, it was with the aim of playing and recording Beethoven's 12 violin sonatas. A series of recitals at prestigious venues and festivals was followed by the first recording sessions, which took place in September 2019. Enjoy the results!
Frank Peter Zimmermann is widely regarded as one of the foremost violinists of his generation. Martin Helmchen has established himself as one of the most prominent pianists of the younger generation.
REVIEWS:
How elegantly unforced these works come over today. Zimmermann’s sound is light, flexible, and finely shaded, with Martin Helmchen delivering effortless virtuosity. The opening of the First Sonata brings an unleashing of exuberant energy, while the opening of the Second is the epitome of mercurial high spirits. These recordings are conversations by a perfect instrumental pairing.
– BBC Music Magazine
They’re never afraid to express themselves poetically or to linger over an expressive moment. Yet there’s a briskness and momentum about all four performances. These performances wed classical verve to a profoundly Romantic spirit, and I suspect that Beethoven would have rather enjoyed the result.
By the early 19th century, Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) had already become watchwords amongst classical composers and in the classical music world. Their compositions were widely known and highly appreciated from the onset of their careers and are worshipped among the best, even today. The quartets featured on the present album stand out even from the rich output of chamber music works of these two masters: they are characterized by exuberant energy, diverse colors and are full of imaginative musical ideas.
The monumental 'Archduke' Trio Op.97 represents Beethoven at the peak of his creativity in the genre. Sketches for all four movements of this 'symphony scored for a trio' are included in a sketchbook of 1810 containing also drafts for the Egmont music and the String Quartet in F minor Op.95. The manuscript score was written out between 3 and 26 March 1811. Three years elapsed before the work's public premiere, by Beethoven, Schuppanzigh and Linke, on 11 April 1814 as part of a charity concert in the hall of the 'Hotel zum Römischen Kaiser' in Vienna. This concert sounded the death knell of Beethoven's public career as a pianist, owing to his profound deafness. The work's critical reception was understandably mixed, but the celebrated pianist Ignaz Moscheles. Praised it's originality while expressing reservations about the 'clarity and precision' of Beethoven's pianism. Significantly, a repeat performance of the work a few weeks later was Beethoven's final public appearance as a pianist. Inspired by the sinfonie concertante for two or more soloists and orchestra, Beethoven transports the piano trio into an orchestral context with his Triple Concerto in C major Op.56. His choice of this particular solo combination was unprecedented in the literature and, in his words, 'really something new'. The piece is performed with panache on this release by the Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch.
Greetings from Italy where music is everywhere! Celebrating 20 years of an illustrious international career with their 14th recording and first on AVIE, the multiple award-winning Quartetto di Cremona sends Italian Postcards, assembling evocations of the Mediterranean country by four non-natives. Mozart penned his first string quartet during his first Italian journey to the town of Lodi. Hugo Wolf’s Italian Serenade takes its inspiration from poetry and ancient Italian melodies. Extending the quartet repertoire, the Cremona commissioned British-French-Israeli composer Nimrod Borenstein, whose Cieli d’Italia was inspired by the colors of the Italian skies. The album’s idyllic conclusion is Tchaikovsky’s string sextet, “Souvenir de Florence,” in which the Cremona is joined by violist Ori Kam (Jerusalem Quartet) and cellist Eckart Runge (Artemis Quartet).
REVIEW:
The Quartetto di Cremona have an uncanny knack for sounding like more than just four players, their sound rich, vibrant, and resplendent. These are as sunny, Italianate performances as one could want.
Beethoven: Christ on the Mount of Olives / Dreisig, Breslik, Soar, Rattle, LSO
LSO LIVE
SACD
$14.99Nov 13, 2020
Composed in 1803, while Beethoven was also writing the ‘Eroica’ Symphony, Christ on the Mount of Olives (Christus am Ölberge) is the composer’s only oratorio and combines the emotive force of his later Missa Solemnis with the theatre of a Bach Passion. With orchestra, chorus and soloists, it tells the story of Jesus’ prayer and arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane and also reflects the emotional pressure Beethoven was under at the time.
This recording by Sir Simon Rattle, with acclaimed singers Elsa Dreisig, Pavol Breslik and David Soar was made during the London Symphony Orchestra’s celebration of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary.
“When I came to the Mount of Olives, I immediately was simply puzzled. Why isn’t this piece played? Of course, it’s a mixed piece and there are weird flaws and edges but so there are in the Ninth Symphony, they’re part of the personality.
“It’s a fascinating moment in his life when he was starting really to deal with his hearing loss. He’d written the Heiligenstadt Testament, where he really confessed to his suicidal thoughts on losing the single-most important ability a musician could have. There is a kind of unearthly, underground sensation of some of it, there’s also a real feeling of naive belief in the possibility of things being better. I think it is completely heaven.” - Sir Simon Rattle
“What Rattle made clear is that the music is full of life. It is hard to imagine this performance being bettered.” - Financial Times ? “Backed by London Symphony Chorus, the soloists in this performance are well up to the challenge, bass David Soar providing the grounding over which tenor Pavol Breslik, as Jesus, sings out with noble plangency, while the sound of soprano Elsa Dreisig, as the Seraph, rings angelically through the hall.” - The Independent
“Christ on the Mount of Olives is full of things to appreciate: there’s an anticipation of the heroism in the face of darkness that would characterise Fidelio, but there are also passages that hark back to the best of Mozart” - Bachtrack
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 0-5 & Other Works / Nagano, Kodama, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Berlin Classics
CD
$29.99Nov 01, 2019
Together with the Berlin based Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Mari Kodama and her husband Kent Nagano have now completed the recording of all of Beethoven's piano concertos by jumping, as it were, back in time twice: the last element of this recording series that has spanned more than 13 years was Beethoven's concerto "number nought” WoO 4- personally edited by Mari Kodama from the autograph score. The original manuscript of this piano concerto is kept at the State Library in Berlin. This is not a completed score, because there is no orchestration. That said, Beethoven annotated the short score, especially in the first two movements, with indications as to which instrument was to play which part. The orchestra score which is available today was written in the early twentieth century based on those annotations. The only problem is "armed with the knowledge we now have acquired about the young Beethoven, we would perform this concerto quite differently in places," explain Mari Kodama and Kent Nagano in unison. They therefore present a very personal adaptation that emerged during rehearsal with the orchestra and at the recording sessions, and which reflects Kodama's and Nagano's individual image of Beethoven. They aim to make audible the exuberant freshness and urgent sense of awakening in the young, almost childlike Beethoven's writing shortly before his artistic powers were to burst forth, the joie de vivre and vital energy in a style that owes something to the playfulness of both Haydn and Mozart. That is Mari Kodama's intention, and she plays it in precisely such a versatile manner.
Formed in Hamburg in 2006 by Karla Haltenwanger (piano), Birgit Erz (violin) and Ilona Kindt (cello), the Boulanger Trio is now based in Berlin. The trio has gained an excellent reputation in the world of chamber music and is regularly invited to prestigious venues across Europe. In addition to Classical and Romantic repertoire, the commitment to contemporary music is also an important focus for the trio. This new, all-Beethoven release, the centerpiece of which is his last, and greatest, trio, the “Archduke”, also features the “Kakadu” variations and an Allegretto in B flat.
