Franco Gulli (1926-2001) was one of the finest violinists of the 20th century. He began his violin studies at five at his father's music school in his native Trieste, Italy. After graduation from the Conservatory of Trieste in 1944, he debuted at the Teatro Verdi, performing Beethoven's Violin Concerto. He was the concertmaster of the Milan Chamber Orchestra and soloist with I Virtuosi di Roma. He performed all over the world with leading orchestras with such artists as Menuhin and Rostropovich. In addition to his solo career, he was dedicated to chamber music. In the 1940s he formed a duo with his pianist wife, Enrica Cavallo, and their collaboration extended for many years. He formed the Trio Italiano d'Archi with violist Bruno Giuranna and cellist Giacinto Caramia. Gulli's discography as soloist and chamber musician is extensive. Equally renowned as a teacher, he taught at Indiana University in Bloomington from 1972 until his death. Born in Milan in 1933, the violist Bruno Giuranna has had a very distinguished career as a soloist and chamber musician. He debuted in 1954 under Herbert von Karajan and further performed with renowned orchestras under such conductors as Riccardo Muti, Sergiu Celibidache, Claudio Abbado, Carlo Maria Giulini, and Sir John Barbirolli. Giuranna was a co-founder of I Musici, and the violist of the Trio Italiano d'Archi from its inception in 1957. Like his chamber partner Franco Gulli, he has recorded widely both as soloist and chamber musician. He has had a distinguished teaching career at such leading music schools as London's Royal Academy of Music and Berlin's Hochschule fur Musik. In 1987 he was named Cavaliere di Gran Croce a Merito della Repubblica Italiana. Giacinto Caramia (1923-2015) was a native of Naples and studied with Enrico Mainardi, graduating from the Academy of Santa Cecilia. He performed and recorded widely in many musical contexts, including performances with I Virtuosi di Roma and the Naples Radio Orchestra under Sergiu Celibidache. He became the cellist of the Trio Italiano d'Archi in 1962.

The Mass in C minor reflects Mozart's current preoccupation with the music of Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach, explored with the encouragement of Baron van Swieten, an important patron. The work is scored for pairs of oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets and timpani, with three trombones, strings and organ continuo. After a brief orchestral introduction, the four vocal sections enter in contrapuntal imitation and the movement continues in the monumental and generally conservative style that the Salzburg Archbishop would certainly have discouraged. The soprano soloist introduces the florid Italianate Christe eleison and the contrapuntal choral texture is resumed with the return of the Kyrie. The Gloria opens in affirmative C major, leading almost at once to energetic fugal writing, relaxing momentarily at the words pax hominibus bonae voluntatis (peace to men of good will). Laudamus te is in F major, marked Allegro aperto. It is scored for solo soprano, oboes, horns and strings and is in operatic style. Trombones and bassoons return for the A minor Adagio of Gratias agimus tibi, now with a five-part choir. To this the D minor Domine Deus, Rex caelestis, scored for strings and two soprano soloists, offers an immediate contrast. In Salzburg the second soprano would presumably have been sung by one of the castrati employed by the court musical establishment. There is a return to a more traditional Baroque style in the solid dotted rhythms of the G minor Qui tollis peccata mundi, for two four-part choirs with the full orchestra. The two soprano soloists are joined by a solo tenor for the E minor setting of Quoniam tu solus Dominus, scored without trombones or horns. The solo voices enter in energetic contrapuntal imitation, over which the spirit of Handel seems to loom, seen through a Mozartian prism. There is a brief C major choral Adagio for the words Jesu Christe, before the splendid formal Baroque fugal setting of Cum Sancto Spiritu, in the same key. The unfinished Credo starts with a movement for five-part choir, scored without trombones.

Tomas Cotik, violin and Tao Lin, piano, continue their series of recordings for Centaur with this new release. Their Schubert recordings have been released to great acclaim. Here they brilliantly perform the complete Mozart Sonatas for Violin and Piano. Hailed by Michael Tilson Thomas as “an excellent violinist,” Tomas Cotik is internationally recognized as a soloist, chamber musician, and professor. A much sought-after recording artist, Dr. Cotik is currently involved in more than fourteen album recordings for Naxos and Centaur records, which have received over a hundred reviews and the highest praises from some of the best-known publications. Committed to passing on his passion for music, Dr. Cotik taught at the University of Miami, Florida International University, and West Texas A&M University. He was appointed assistant professor of Violin at Portland State University in 2016. Described by critics as possessing “Keen musical intelligence and excellent facility” (Miami Herald) as well as “opulent and romantic tone” (Fanfare), Chinese-American concert pianist and Steinway artist Tao Lin has performed in Asia, North America, and Europe. A versatile musician, he is equally at home as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician.

Brilliant Classics proudly presents the 5-album sets series: QUINTESSENCE, attractively priced compact box sets containing essential core classical repertoire in outstanding performances. Aimed at attracting both the discerning classical connoisseur and the classical newcomer it presents the pillars of classical music freshly packaged with eye-catching colorful and booklets containing liner notes in English. A new series at an unbeatable price!

The present installment features Mozart’s complete piano sonatas, performed by pianist Klara Würtz.

Excerpt from a review of a previously released edition of this set:

The Hungarian pianist Klára Würtz's Mozart performances here are, in a word, miraculous. Listening to this set left me almost speechless. By the time I finished auditioning just the first six sonatas, I knew that Würtz’s Mozart was something special. Highest recommendation.

-- Jeffrey J. Lipscomb, FANFARE

In the liner notes to this disc, Swedish clarinetist Martin Fröst is described as a "daring performer" who has "stretched the limits of musical expression", likely owing to his frequent collaborations with several contemporary composers including Anders Hillborg and Krzysztof Penderecki. "Daring" does not leap to mind when describing Mozart, and happily Fröst himself does not flaunt his presumed reputation when tackling these popular works. While some may find Fröst's readings on the "cool" side, it is largely because they are just so perfectly executed and pristine that you are left hopelessly grasping for something that might be missing. After all, what ultimately determines Mozartian performance standards but the expectation of technical perfection? In no small part aided by the redoubtable Amsterdam Sinfonietta and Vertavo String Quartet, Fröst steals the show with his sultry tone, sensitive phrasing, and utterly beguiling pianissimos, momentarily making us forget that several other great performances of the Concerto have graced the catalog for decades.


Fröst's tasteful choice of the basset clarinet in the Concerto (for which the work was originally conceived) provides an added bonus, thanks to the instrument's rich, dark-hued sonority. Fröst is truly at his best in the slow movements of these works where his uncanny dynamic control is on ample display, particularly in the short cadenza of the Concerto and in the scale passages in the Quintet that connect the main themes of the Larghetto (kudos to the fine Vertavos for providing just the right amount of intimacy to the ensemble balance). The outer movements are equally satisfying, played with appropriate jauntiness, flair, and expert technique by all concerned.


Of course, the sonics bear some attention as these works receive their debut here in the new multi-channel SACD medium. In this 5.0 DSD recording the engineers were quite careful not to overexpose the surround channels, which are unobtrusive beyond adding minimal ambience to the overall soundstage. Balances are uniformly excellent, with the soloist never sounding boomy or overbearing. Otherwise, this recording boasts the natural sound for which BIS is famous, and its inherent qualities are heard to similarly pleasing effect in stereo (CD and SACD alike). This is a first-rate and welcome entrant in a decidedly crowded field, as close to perfection as we have any right to expect.
--Michael Liebowitz, ClassicsToday.com

MOZART Piano Sonatas: No. 10 in C, K 330; No. 11 in A, K 331; No. 12 in F, K 332 • Noriko Ogawa (pn) • BIS 1985 (SACD: 76: 00)


Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa has appeared in these pages several times in repertoire ranging from Beethoven to Takemitsu. This, however, is her first foray on disc into Mozart. I suppose there’s a degree of pertinence to Ogawa’s selection of these three sonatas for her Mozart debut, since it’s now believed that they were the first piano sonatas Mozart composed after his permanent move to Vienna in 1781. Some older sources, however, still suggest the late 1770s and Salzburg or even Paris as the time and place of their composition. The middle sonata of the set, No. 11, popularly known as “Alla Turca” for its last movement’s “Turkish”-themed Rondo, is the most unusual of the three works, not because of the Rondo but because the sonata is homotonal—i.e., all three movements are in either A Major or A Minor, thus having the same tonic. If you prefer hearing these pieces on a modern Steinway grand—and I do—it’s hard to imagine them being played any more sensitively, charmingly, expressively, and stylishly than they are here by Noriko Ogawa. The combination of BIS’s crystalline recording and Ogawa’s exceptionally limpid touch and pellucid tone makes this a winning entry in the Mozart piano sonata catalog. Recommended to all Mozart lovers, except those who are unalterably opposed to hearing this music played on anything other than a period fortepiano.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Mozart: Don Giovanni / Barenboim, Cuberli, Meier, Rodgers Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Performer: Lella Cuberli, Matti Salminen, John Tomlinson, Joan Rodgers, Conductor: Daniel Barenboim, Orchestra/Ensemble: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin RIAS Chamber Chorus. For some reason, Daniel Barenboim's recordings of the Mozart-Da Ponte masterpieces have been overlooked. All three have splendid casts and among them, this may be the least spectacular, but it is nonetheless a wonderful performance. Joan Rodgers has a gorgeous voice, and sings Zerlina with radiant and womanly warmth - no voce infantile here, thank the gods. It's a pity she hasn't recorded more. She is, fortunately, in Barenboim's two other Mozart-Da Ponte operas, singing her heart out as Susanna and Despina. Furlanetto has an interesting take on the role of the Don. He usually sings Leprello, but here he sings the part of Don Giovanni with a rather unique interpretation. He plays the Don as somewhat of a fool, with more of a comic slant than I have ever heard. But humor was part of Mozart's original intention, and the Don does have his roots in street theater, so in this case a buffo Don works. Tomlinson as Leporello is more of the Don's straight man, and there seems to be a bit of role reversal going on here between the clownish Don and his more dignified servant. Tomlinson's voice can be, I think, rather boring a kind of voice-in-a-box, like Samuel Ramey. Good, strong, accurate, but not much drama or artfulness. Ewe Heilmann's ravishingly beautiful Mozartian tenor voice adds a welcome dimension of eros to the role of the too-often bland and wimpy Don Ottavio. Waltraud Meier's Donna Elvira, though occassionally a bit on the shrill side, and Leila Cuberli's Donna Anna are both rich, full-bodied, exciting and very womanly. Barenboim seems to have a talent for drawing out highly passionate responses from women.

Mozart was not yet seventeen when Lucio Silla was created in Milan one December evening of 1772, yet we can still distinguish in this youthful composition some of the elements that established the exceptionally-gifted child musician as the greatest composer of all times. Indeed, with Lucio Silla, although a neoclassical "opera seria" in every way, it seems that Mozart was already learning to deconstruct and to free the traditional forms of musical drama from archaic conventions. We can also identify in this work an aesthetic premise that Mozart didn't formulate until ten years later: it falls to music only to express and to reveal the psychological depths of the characters; and the poetry in the libretto should only be it's "obedient daughter". The opera is centered around the love Roman dictator Lucio Silla bears for his enemy's daughter Giunia, who favors the exiled senator Cecilio as the object of her affection. After many twists and turns, the lovers are united in marriage and Silla renounces his crown. Tenor Kurt Streit is Lucio Silla, and soprano Patricia Petibon is Giunia for the last time, after having gained international recognition thanks to her numerous performances in this role, while mezzo-soprano Silvia Tro Santafe is the ardent Cecilio. In this monumental production, Claus Guth finds a way to respect both the classical setting and the formal innovations that make the opera so interesting. Ivor Bolton conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Real.

Previously available on six single CDs, BIS offers Ronald Brautigam's Mozart Sonata cycle in one package. While the music easily could have fit on five discs, you still get six for the price of three. It's wonderfully worth it. To be sure, Brautigam's Paul McNulty fortepiano (modeled after an Anton-Gabriel Walter instrument circa 1795) doesn't match the timbral differentiation between registers we often encounter from other fortepianos. It has the advantage, however, of a clear, resonant sound and, praise be, it holds its tuning. Brautigam's imaginative interpretations capture Mozart's many moods, from the gallant style of the six earliest sonatas to the tensile drama and operatic leanings of the A minor (K. 310) and C minor Fantasia and Sonata (K. 457 and 475). Sometimes Brautigam's tapered diminuendos seem a bit arch and unnatural. At least his occasional mannerisms don't emerge as interpretive tics. If you're looking for a reasonably priced Mozart Sonata cycle played on a period instrument, look no further. Excellent sound and annotations, too. --Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com