Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, who appeared as “W. A. Mozart Son” or “W. A. Mozart fils”, possibly was trained as a pianist from 1795 on, but at the latest from 1798. In addition, he received composition lessons from Haydn’s favorite student Sigismund Neukomm and from Johann Georg Vogler. In 1803 his mother wrote to the Offenbach publisher André: “He composes small sonatas and variations for my festive days.“ Following his public debut on April 8, 1805, Mozart‘s youngest son perfected his piano playing with Johann Nepomuk Hummel and learned about composition with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and Antonio Salieri. He left Vienna, the city of his birth, in 1808 and went to Galicia, which at that time belonged to the Habsburg Empire (today the region is divided between the territories of Poland and Ukraine). After two jobs as a piano teacher for Polish aristocrats in the Galician province, he moved to the state capital Lviv (now Lviv) in 1813. Here he stayed - apart from a concert tour of several years and a few short trips in 1818 - until 1838, devoted himself to extensive teaching and conducted a choir between 1826 and 1829. Mozart spent his last years in Vienna, where he increasingly appeared as a pianist. Mozart’s work primarily includes piano solo music and piano-accompanied vocal music. The works gathered on this album and on the two previous albums in this series provide an overview of the former. It is interesting to see how in one of the main works in this recording, the Sonata op.10, which was composed in 1807, he did not deal with the sonata form that his father had further developed, but with the thematic and harmonious construction principles of the Mannheim School.
As a pianist, Mozart performed at many concerts and music academies, for which he had to build a repertoire; similarly, he was in need of educational repertoire for his students. Between 1782 and 1786, Mozart composed, in addition to piano sonatas and variations, fourteen new concertos for piano with orchestra. He was certainly no novice in this field, already having no less than ten piano concertos under his belt (not to mention his violin concertos and his first collection of concertos for wind instruments). As such, Mozart’s Vienna period begins with a remarkable trio of piano concertos, K. 413, 414 and 415. Mozart undoubtedly wrote them for himself. His concert activity in Vienna was extraordinary, especially in the first years, where he met with success as both a soloist and as a composer. He therefore decided to publish this trio at his own expense (on a subscription basis), obviously with an eye towards having another source of income.
Works for Solo Piano, Vol. 1 / Marie-Luise Bodendorff
Dacapo Classical
CD
$17.99May 07, 2021
Friedrich Kuhlau is known as Beethoven’s strongest advocate in Denmark and the man who wrote Elverhøj. But Kuhlau was first and foremost a pianist, one whose works for the instrument have a depth and character of their own. In the first of a new series, Marie-Luise Bodendorff reassesses Kuhlau’s contribution to the piano literature with fresh, muscular performances of music including the previously unrecorded Divertissement, Op. 37. Marie-Luise Bodendorff took her first piano lessons at the age of five and was admitted to the Hochschule fur Musik in Karlsruhe at the age of 10. From 2002 to 2007 she studied with Russian piano authority Vladimir Krainev at the Hannover University of Music, Drama, and Media. She currently resides in Copenhagen, Denmark, and has been a part time professor of piano at the Royal Danish Academy of Music since 2016.
Haydn: The Cello Concertos / Krigh, Traunfellner, Vienna Chamber Philharmonic
Capriccio
CD
$21.99Oct 30, 2012
After her highly appraised debut CD with French Music for cello and piano, Harriet Krijgh presents her virtuosity and technical finesse with the new recording of both Cello Concertos by Joseph Haydn. Harriet Krijgh was born in the Netherlands in June 1991 and received her first cello lessons at the age of five. In 2000 she was admitted into the preparatory young talent class of Lenian Benjamins at the Conservatory of Music in Utrecht. In 2004 Harriet moved to Vienna, where she continued her cello studies with Lilia Schulz-Bayrova and Jontscho Bayrov at the Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität. In June 2012 Harriet will have her own festival at Burg Feistritz in Austria. The event marks the launch of the annual “Harriet & Friends” Chamber Music Festival, where she will play select works with musicians from around the world.
This new album of Beethoven’s late String Quartets by the prestigious Tetzlaff Quartett offers a fitting tribute to Beethoven’s 250th anniversary year. These monumental works which are given fresh interpretations by the quartet are among the greatest achievements in the history of Western art music written by a composer who had already largely lost contact with the world. When writing his final String Quartets (Op. 127–135) Beethoven was quickly becoming increasingly ill and understood that he would never be able to recover fully. Beethoven had just completed his 9th Symphony when he received a commission to write String Quartets. What resulted was a string of totally unique masterpieces highly individual in their language and unusual in their form. String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132 is a work in 5 movements with movements Nos. 1, 3, and 5 being the central bearers of meaning. The quartet’s hub and pivot is the middle part of the work, Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lidischen Tonart (Holy Song of Thanksgiving of a Convalescent to the Divinity, in the Lydian Mode). The biographical context of this title is obvious and specifically refers to the severe bout of illness experienced by Beethoven from the middle of April to the beginning of May 1825. The Grosse Fuge, Op. 133 is a work that has fascinated listeners for two centuries. Originally, String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 130 and Grosse Fuge Op. 133 were part of one and same work. Beethoven had written the Fuge as the final movement for the String Quartet, but his publisher urged him to write a new ending. For this album, Tetzlaff Quartett performs the String Quartet Op. 130 together with the Grosse Fuge, thus bringing the work back to its original form.
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REVIEW:
The immaculate execution prevailing throughout the Tetzlaff Quartett’s earlier Schubert/Haydn release for Ondine similarly yields top tier Beethoven. Before describing the performances, I should address one characteristic (or quirk, if you will) that crosses that tenuous line between painstaking calibration and micromanagement. It concerns an occasional yet slightly irritating tendency to telegraph Beethoven’s sforzandos with tiny gratuitous dynamic swells. At the same time, the ensemble applies infinite degrees of vibrato with the utmost sophistication and specificity, imparting a stinging intensity to unison passages and delicate contrapuntal interplay in Op. 132’s first movement.
They take the lilting second movement’s “ma non tanto” directive to heart, where minimum vibrato and disembodied tonal qualities transform the Trio section into a folk dance. Here, however, I like the Hagen Quartett’s faster pace and suaver ensemble, plus their unusual rendering of the“L’istesso tempo” over the four alla breve bars, where they create a jolting “four against three” effect. The Tetzlaffs conventionally apply the “L’istesso tempo” to the individual notes in these bars, so that the quarter note equals the quarter note throughout. The great central Adagio is on the cool side, yet the slow and sustained writing couldn’t be more beautifully controlled and modulated. But the fourth movement’s rigid dotted rhythms and arch diminuendos reduce the composer’s joy to cuteness.
Every detail of timbre and bowing seems worked out to the proverbial nines in Op. 130’s first movement, and befits the music’s mercurial nature. At first I felt the second movement’s main theme to be held back and self-aware, yet it provides a contrasting context for the faster and more boisterously rendered second theme to flourish. In the third movement the musicians give distinct points of view to the sustained and detached passages as if they were characters in a drama instead of abstract contrapuntal lines. They glibly toss off the fourth movement, as if embarrassed to dance, yet bring a heartfelt, singing sensibility to the swifter than usual Cavatina.
Instead of Beethoven’s revised finale, the Tetzlaff Quartett presents the composer’s original ending, namely the Grosse Fuge. On one hand, their clipped style and bottomless palette of low-level dynamics transforms the gnarly, combative string writing into something quite lithe, transparent, shimmering, and (dare I say it) fun. Not unlike turning a warty frog into a handsome prince! If you want a Grosse Fuge that scratches and screeches and spews venom on each sforzando hammer blow, look elsewhere. However one ultimately responds to these interpretations, the fact is that Christian Tetzlaff and his colleagues realize their conceptions without the least hindrance, hesitation, or compromise.
Old Souls presents masterworks of Beethoven, Dvorák, Wolf and Kreisler in new arrangements for flute and strings, played by a group of outstanding young musicians. Guy Braunstein’s arrangements display these well-known pieces in a fresh new light, while simultaneously expanding the flute repertoire and showcasing the exceptional possibilities of the instrument, here played by Gili Schwarzman. Braunstein and Schwarzman are joined by violinist Susanna Yoko Henkel, violist Amihai Grosz and cellist Alisa Weilerstein. While the arrangement of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata Op. 23 entails a thorough recomposition of the original, the performances of Dvorák’s “American” String Quartet, Wolf’s “Italian” Serenade and Kreisler’s Syncopation stay closer to the source, with the flute taking up the role originally played by the first violin. The use of the flute creates novel sonic sensations through the way it blends with the strings, and at times gives the pieces a sparkle they did not have before. Guy Braunstein expands his PENTATONE discography, after having already released Tchaikovsky Treasures in 2019. Alisa Weilerstein presented Transfigured Night in 2018 as the first fruit of her exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE.
REVIEW:
The first composition on the disc, Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No.4, is a masterful orchestration for flute and string quartet. Braunstein did not merely assign the notes of the piano part, according to their pitch, to the corresponding instruments, but rewrote it for string quartet. One could be forgiven for assuming that it was an original composition by Beethoven himself.
The performances are energetic and nuanced, models of musical artistry. My favourite moment in the entire CD is the second movement of Dvo?ák’s String Quartet Op.96, which sounds absolutely natural played on the flute. The long, languorous melodic line, as played by Schwarzman, is never rushed and at the same time, never loses energy.
As an opera-lover with a particular interest in the ways opera developed and proliferated over the centuries, I’ve sometimes dreamt of a world in which every important composer’s first opera was available to listen to. It’s a fantasy: first operas are seldom as good as later ones and the recording industry, quite naturally, tends to seek out the best, not the earliest. Nevertheless, to anyone like me, first operas always have an intrinsic fascination, for they mark the point at which a particular individual talent joins the larger tradition. They often have much to say about a young composer’s influences and aspirations as well as the standards and expectations of those for whom the opera is written.
Johann Simon Mayr’s Saffo (1794) is a superlatively good and superlatively interesting first opera. Mayr wrote some seventy operas in the course of his three-decade operatic career and the vast majority have not been recorded, nor indeed performed since he enjoyed his final premiere in 1824. Franz Hauk’s decision to excavate the very first is thus both enterprising and unexpected, yet the results fully vindicate the project and the efforts of those involved. Saffo is revealed as an extraordinarily confident and masterful work with the composer’s mature personality already largely developed. A major reason for this, no doubt, is its comparative lateness: Mayr was already thirty when it received its premiere at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice. It is hard to think of any other important opera composer from this era, Beethoven always apart, who waited so long before seeing his work on stage. Cimarosa, the leading Italian opera composer when Mayr’s career commenced, composed fourteen operas before he was thirty; Rossini, the dominant presence at the end of Mayr’s career, managed over twice as many as that.
Delay, in Mayr’s case, appears to have been all to the good. There is something very deliberate about Saffo, a work bearing none of the signs of haste and inexperience that mar so many composers’ first operas. It is carefully planned and beautifully composed with a strong feel for the dramatic potential inherent in Antonio Simeone Sografi’s fine libretto. Gluck was surely a powerful influence and it is easy to suppose that Mayr, a German, may have dreamed of being a second Gluck. A more immediate influence was no doubt Ferdinando Bertoni (1725-1813), Mayr’s teacher in Venice, who was himself influenced by Gluck – to the point where Gluck did not scruple quietly to ‘borrow’ some of Bertoni’s arias. Then there was the larger influence of the Venetian operatic world which had become a hotbed for experimentation with the forms of opera seria – with Paris in turmoil, there was surely no better city for a composer of Mayr’s originality to be making his debut.
Sografi’s libretto is in two acts; as Marion Englhart points out in the Naxos notes, this was itself unusual, as three acts were standard. As each act of Saffo lasts almost exactly an hour on this recording, we thus have the distinctively modern shape of a two-hour opera with a single interval. Nothing seems hurried, yet there are no longueurs either; the pacing and overall dramatic arc of the opera are finely judged. The story is simplicity itself. Saffo, Alceo, Faone and their attendants have come to the Greek city of Leucadia to hear the Pythia, or High Priestess, pronounce an oracle inspired by Apollo. Saffo, the legendary poetess (known in English as Sappho) loves Faone, but it is not reciprocated; he is mourning the death of his wife Cirene. Alceo, a poet, loves Saffo. This much is established in Act One. In Act Two, the oracle is finally pronounced, and as was often the case with oracles, it is not perfectly clear:
Saffo ardisca! Saffo dare! Alceo, gemi! Aleco groan! Tremi Faone! Faone tremble! (The Naxos translation gives ‘Saffo ardisca!’ as ‘Saffo bears it’, which is surely an unfortunate mistake.) This winds the emotional situation up to a higher pitch. Saffo, with some encouragement from the Pythia, believes she should commit suicide by undertaking the famous Leucadian leap. However, at the last moment the tragedy is averted by Faone, encouraged by Alceo, showing some sympathy for Saffo’s sufferings.
I must say this ending came as a complete surprise, and not a welcome one. It has the sort of tacked-on happy ending quality found in so many earlier opere serie — and beautifully sent up in The Beggar’s Opera — but this was certainly not a requirement in Venetian operas of the 1790s. I was taking it for granted that the opera would end with Saffo’s spectacular suicide, in the manner of Giovanni Pacini’s much more famous Saffo of 1840. Interestingly, another Sappho opera of 1794, Jean Paul Égide Martini’s Sapho, did end tragically. The general dramatic movement of Mayr’s opera seems to be towards tragedy, and the sombre colouring of his music prepares one for it. Perhaps, for some reason, he was not allowed to compose the ending he would himself have chosen.
This was my only disappointment with this really exciting release. At no point does Mayr’s score sound routine or turgid, nor is there any of the fluff and padding that make so many eighteenth-century operas much longer than they need be. His recitative is incisively dramatic; his arias strongly shaped, brief and to the point; his choruses noble; his use of the orchestra colourful and inventive. One feels throughout that the subject and libretto were very congenial to Mayr, allowing him to play to his strengths in the alternation of grand ceremonial scenes with the emotionally-fraught conflicts between, and within, the three principal characters. In his 1989 book on Mayr, John Stewart Allitt refers to Saffo briefly as ‘a block-buster of an opera’. He does not elaborate on his grounds for that judgement, but now the evidence is here, such an accolade seems fully justified.
The Naxos studio recording is bright and forward to the point of occasionally being a little claustrophobic, but there is something gripping about its immediacy. Franz Hauk, who has done so much for Mayr (see below) and is surely the greatest living authority on the composer, conducts with authority and panache. The singers are uniformly impressive, with the principals entering into the drama of the opera rather than just singing beautifully.
What’s not to like? Well, you have to download the libretto, which always annoys me, but I haven’t enjoyed a first opera so much for a long time, nor felt so enlightened by the experience of listening to one. Saffo will be an essential acquisition for anyone who loves Mayr’s music and, at Naxos prices, it should prove very attractive to anyone interested in the way opera developed in the crucial period after the French Revolution and Mozart’s death.
After long, thoroughly satisfying years of service at the Esterhazy court, Joseph Haydn was given a well-deserved retirement in 1790 - with an unusually handsome pension. The composer, who was in great demand throughout the world, used his new freedom to travel, especially to London, and to compose string quartets again. With the first of these "Apponyi" quartets, the Leipzig String Quartet continues its Haydn series and presents another remarkable milestone in the quartet repertoire. The quartets were virtually snatched out of Haydn's hands; Count Apponyi eventually secured exclusive rights for one year at a price of 100 gulden. Although popular with dilettantes, the Op. 74 quartets go beyond the limits of what can be performed by amateurs. The first violin in particular repeatedly attracts attention with virtuoso passages, but the other voices - just listen to the finale of the C major quartet - are also demanded to do a great deal. And Haydn remains true to himself: time and again he surprises players and listeners alike with irregular periods, inserted bars, sudden pauses... And there are echoes of folk music, such as drone surfaces or - in the B-flat major quartet - major/minor changes, which evoke associations with Haydn's years-long stay in Hungary and are a pleasure to listen to. The G minor quartet is the only one of this group to bear a nickname: "Reiterquartett" Rider's refers to the lively finale, which the Leipzig musicians present with verve and delight in playing truly "con brio". But many a slow movement in this quartet trias also spoils the discerning listener: great, timeless music of which there can never be enough.
Herbert Blomstedt has made more than 130 recordings with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden. Most of them were made during his time as principal conductor between 1975 and 1985. Thanks to the fruitful cooperation between Denon and MDG, selected gems from this inexhaustible treasure chest are now available again. After the brilliant opening with Bruckner's Symphonies 4 and 7, now follows the legendary interpretation of Mozart's last four symphonies from 1981 and 1982. Blomstedt knows how to make perfect use of the qualities of what is probably the world's most tradition-steeped orchestra with it's "sound of old gold" (Karajan): The Adagio introduction to the Prague Symphony sets in powerfully. The magical sound of the strings fills the famous acoustic of Lukaskirche without any effort, and even in the surprisingly broad tempo, a wide-ranging musical arc develops, which can do without fashionable, superimposed drama. Cleverly and with the overview of a mature artist, Blomstedt arranges the relations between the movements as well as within the symphonic quadriga: the Allegro is fresh without being rushed; this creates space for a Presto that really deserves this name. Out of itself, the Schlager in G minor begins to glow, and the beginning of the "Jupiter" Symphony radiates with almost Olympian grandeur. Herbert Blomstedt is now 94 years old. He is still in demand on the world's most important podiums. His Mozart interpretations are already a historical document and yet timelessly valid. At that time, the Denon sound engineers were already among the best in the world. This also benefits these recordings in immaculate audiophile quality.
On this new recording, two legendary Viennese pianists, Paul Badura-Skoda und Jörg Demus, devote themselves to works by Mozart for solo piano, four-handed piano and for two pianos, such as the well-known D major Sonata for Two Pianos KV 448. Besides the 'Larghetto and Allegro' for 2 Pianos, which was only discovered in 1963, and the Variations in G Major for Fourhanded Piano KV 501, the two pianists, who play on historical Walter fortepianos (and also wrote the texts in the booklet), share Mozart's three famous fantasias for solo piano - Demus playing the two Fantasias in C minor and D minor KV 396 and 397 and Badura-Skoda the great Fantasia in C minor KV 475.
Beethoven: Complete Works for Cello & Piano / Fournier, Gulda
Urania Records
CD
$32.99Jan 10, 2020
This new release features Pierre Fournier in his first recording of Beethoven's works for cello and piano in 1959 with Friedrich Gulda. Pierre Fournier (1906-1986) was born in Paris on June 24, and known in his lifetime as "the aristocrat of cellists," because of his lyrical playing, and for his impeccable artistic sensitivity. Fournier was the son of a French army general, and as a child was taught piano by his mother. At the age of nine he suffered a mild case of polio, and lost some of the dexterity in his legs and feet. No longer able to master the use of the piano pedals, he searched for another musical instrument, and turned to the cello. He quickly made good progress on his new instrument, and was able to win entrance to the Paris Conservatoire, where he became a pupil of Paul Bazelaire, and later Anton Hekking. He graduated at the age of seventeen, in the year 1923. Maurice Marechal called him "the cellist of the future." Even at such a young age, Fournier had tremendous virtuosity, and was famous for his bowing facility. He enjoyed modern music, as well as classical. Many modern composers wrote works for him, including Martinu, Martinon and Poulenc. As a teacher Fournier insisted that his students develop a smooth tone, and a high elbow for the right arm. He believed that the Sevcik violin exercises were valuable for cellists who wanted to perfect bowing technique.
On a previous album, the Chiaroscuro Quartet has recorded the first half of Joseph Haydn’s Op. 76, including No. 3, the celebrated ‘Emperor’ quartet. The release has won great acclaim, with the critic in Gramophone writing: ‘The Chiaroscuros' account of the remaining three Op 76 quartets can't come soon enough.’ Well, here it is – a album which like its predecessor spans a wealth of moods and atmospheres: from the magical sunrise of the opening of 76/4 to the manic minuet and boisterous finale of 76/6, a movement without a tune worth the name but utterly engrossing even so. The Chiaroscuro Quartet was formed in 2005 by the violinists Alina Ibragimova (Russia) and Pablo Hernan Benedi (Spain), the Swedish violist Emilie Hornlund and cellist Claire Thirion from France. Performing music of the Classical period on gut strings this highly international ensemble has a unique sound – described in The Observer as ‘a shock to the ears of the best kind’.
REVIEW:
The Chiaroscuros return, armed with a perfect sound balance and rich, vibrant textures from each player.
Carl Maria von Weber's achievements as a composer were considerable and influential, demonstrating new possibilities in opera and orchestration, particularly in the handling of wind instruments. His attractive, lyrical style is ideal for the making of arrangements, and the impressive and beautifully proportioned Flute Sonata is a virtuoso masterpiece, as is the operatic Grand Duo Concertant. There is a feeling of solemnity in the G minor Trio, an unusual work with an enigma at it's heart: the song-like Schafer's Klage or 'Shepherd's lament'- the origins of which remain a source of conjecture.
Following it's successful full length opera, 'Artaxerxes', Classical Opera return with the first in an epic series of Mozart operas 'Apollo et Hyacinthus'. Classical Opera was founded in 1997 by conductor Ian Page. It specializes in the music of Mozart and his contemporaries, performing with it's own period-instrument orchestra, and is considered one of Britain's most exciting and highly regarded young arts organizations. The company features a mix of seasoned and young performers including Klara Ek (Melia), Sophie Bevan (Hyacinthus), Lawrence Zazzo (Apollo), Christopher Ainslie (Zephyrus), Andrew Kennedy (Oebalus), Marcus Farnsworth and David Shipley (Priests of Apollo). These young singers and a period-instrument orchestra deliver uniformly superb interpretations.
Devienne: Flute Concertos Nos. 5-8 / Gallois, Swedish Chamber Orchestra
Naxos
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Feb 10, 2017
French composer Francois Devienne enjoyed great esteem with his successful operas in the Revolutionary years of 1792-97, but it was as a composer for wind instruments that he has won his place in musical history. The four Flute Concertos in volume 2 of the complete set show a combination of melodic elegance and graceful virtuosity that characterizes much of his work. Especially notable in this respect is No. 6 in D major, a compositional tour de force, rich in thematic material and panache, and one of the finest wind concertos of its epoch.
