After having recorded Mozart’s last three violin concertos in 2014, Arabella Steinbacher, the Festival Strings Lucerne and its leader Daniel Dodds now complete the cycle by presenting Mozart’s less well-known, but equally enchanting Violin Concertos 1 & 2, together with his Adagio in E Major and Rondos in C Major and B-flat Major. Steinbacher plays the cadenzas by Wolfgang Schneiderhan, who co-founded the Festival Strings Lucerne in 1956. Another exciting aspect of this album is that she plays for the first time on the “Ex Benno Walter“ Strad from 1718. Arabella Steinbacher, a multiple award-winner with an extensive PENTATONE discography, is accompanied by the esteemed players of the Festival Strings Lucerne and their leader and artistic director Daniel Dodds.

When deciding on the repertoire for his début disc, James Newby’s first choice fell on An die ferne Geliebte, songs that he had been performing ever since the beginning of his career. But Beethoven’s song cycle – and perhaps even more so the quasi-operatic Adelaide – also sets a tone for the entire disc, that of longing and of wanting to be elsewhere, near the distant beloved. These are emotions that Schubert, perhaps more than any other composer, has plumbed in depth, and Newby went on to select five of his songs that in various ways depict the restlessness and loneliness of the eternal wanderer. Mahler is another composer who knew something about longing – for instance that it can be deadly, which he demonstrated with his Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz, in which a soldier awaits execution after trying to desert to his homeland while the piano imitates the muffled rolling of drums. The military theme continues in the high-strung Revelge, as a young soldier marches towards his death, thinking about his sweetheart with ever-greater desperation. The final song by Mahler, Urlicht, expresses the anguish and pain of earthly life, and the longing for Heaven and, in effect, death. Framing this programme with five folk song arrangements by Benjamin Britten, James Newby and Joseph Middleton explore Man’s never-ending search (geographical or psychological) for that distant object of desire: who, what or wherever it may be.

Die Ruinen von Athen (‘The Ruins of Athens’) was composed to celebrate the opening of the new German theatre in Pest in 1812. Designed to accompany the play of that name by August von Kotzebue, its incidental music is substantial enough to form a kind of one-act Singspiel and is full of attractive arias, duets and choruses and includes the famous Turkish March. Though the work’s theme was rooted in Greek mythology, in reality it was explicitly political in nature, celebrating Pest as ‘the new Athens.’ This is the first ever recording of the work with full narration.

Delos International is proud to announce the next release in its outstanding partnership with Dennis Keene and the Voices of Ascension: 'Hear My Prayer'. Voices of Ascension has come to be recognized as one of the world's finest choral ensembles. Its concerts and recordings receive unalloyed critical acclaim. Artistic Director Dennis Keene has assembled a group of New York's finest professional singers and blended them into a richly satisfying ensemble, unqiue in its command of choral music from every period and style. Featuring the renowned soprano soloist Hei-Kyung Hong, 'Hear My Prayer' is perfectly placed for these often difficult times. This timely recording offers the listener an inspiring and soothing collection of sacred works that are appropriate for all audiences. 'Hear My Prayer' covers the choral genre from Mozart to Casals, embracing the traditional and the sublime with singing and direction second to none.

The second volume of Giovanni Bellucci’s Beethoven cycle for Brilliant Classics takes the listener on a journey of six eventful years, from Op.22 of 1800 to the ‘Appassionata’ Sonata of 1806. During that time Beethoven established himself as Vienna’s pre-eminent pianist-composer. He came to regard Op.22 as the best of his ‘early’ sonatas but a sea-change in the deepening of his expression is already evident in the piano-writing of Op.26, with its funeral march ‘in memory of a hero’. There follow the remarkable formal innovations of the Op.27 pair – No.2 immortally inscribed on the popular imagination as the ‘Moonlight’ – and then the smooth, undulating rhythms of the ‘Pastorale’ Op.28. The trio of Op.31 sonatas present a study in contrasts, from the graceful profile of No.1 in G major to the sound and fury of the ‘Tempest’ No.2 and then the hectic momentum of No.3, presaging the concision of works at the end of his ‘middle’ period such as the ‘Serioso’ Quartet and the Eighth Symphony. The proportions of the two-movement Op.54 are even more tautly circumscribed, before the reach of Beethoven’s expressive range for his instrument expands to hitherto undreamt heights in the ‘Waldstein’ Op.53 and the ‘Appassionata’ Op.57. Giovanni Bellucci is among the most strikingly individual of modern pianists. Described by Italian critic Piero Rattalino as ‘a force of nature, vast and palpitating’, he cultivates an old-fashioned richness of piano timbre while still attending to the letter as well as the spirit of Beethoven’s scores. According to Le Monde, ‘he takes us back to the Golden Age of the Piano’. His recordings have been showered with prizes such as Diapason d’Or, Choc, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, CD Maestro etc.

The award-winning duo ensemble formed by Christian Tetzlaff and Lars Vogt are returning to the masterworks of European chamber music with this new album that includes Ludwig van Beethoven’s three violin sonatas from Op. 30.

The expressive and intimate chamber music recordings by the star duo have gathered numerous awards and their previous album also received an ECHO Klassik award in 2017. Beethoven wrote his three Violin Sonatas Op. 30 in 1801 and 1802. They are relatively early works but already pointing towards the direction of Beethoven’s revolutionary 3rd Symphony, Eroica, which was completed in 1803. Although the influence of Haydn is still visible, in these sonatas Beethoven created movements in all the sonatas that are completely untypical and that had never existed before in this way. No wonder that these delightful works belong to the artists’ favorite works by the great composer.

REVIEWS:

Christian Tetzlaff and Lars Vogt make a formidable team: technically right at the top of their game (Tetzlaff’s bow control is phenomenal), and yet at the same time always managing to convey the notion of taking risks.

-- BBC Music Magazine

This is chamber-playing at its most humane; impossible to hear without feeling a renewed love and admiration for music and performers alike.

-- Gramophone

Mozart wrote only one actual sonata for two pianos. Mozart By Arrangement is the first instalment of six sparkling new Mozart two-piano sonatas. Violinist and conductor Andrew Manze once observed that the frequent concerto-like writing in Mozart's op. 2 (1781) sonatas for violin and piano might make them effective piano duets. The Australian composer Stephen Yates has taken him up on the idea, adding these delightful new works to the two-piano repertoire.

REVIEW:

These transcriptions by British composer Stephen Yates were inspired by none other than one of the world’s foremost interpreters of the original works, violinist Andrew Manze, who suggested that the violin music could effectively be reimagined as piano music. I was dubious of the concept in practice, owing to my supreme respect—wonderment, really—of Mozart’s intuitive sense of instrumental timbre and dramatic intent. Clearly, Manze has better intuition on this matter than do I (no surprise!), because this is a completely charming production. Here is yet another enchanting and novel release from Toccata Classics, an indispensable label for all true piano lovers.

-- Fanfare