The first recording of the David Oistrakh Quartet received much praise from the press ("No sooner formed, this young quartet already reaches excellence.") Achieving comparison with the Borodin and the Beethoven Quartets, this young group offers an impassioned performance of Grieg and Mendelssohn: a powerful, contrasted, physical and always subtly emotional performance. The David Oistrakh Quartet features today's most outstanding Russian musicians. In 2012 the family of the legendary 20th century violinist honored the quartet with his name. Over the years, artistic friendship and a passion for the art of the quartet brought the young soloists and the grand masters of quartet together to form this extraordinary ensemble. All four musicians play on exemplary Italian instruments made by Antonio Stradivari, Niccolo Amati, and Francesco Ruggeri.
Felix Mendelssohn's Lieder ohne Worte (Songs Without Words), comprising 8 volumes and 48 individual works, are delightful solo piano miniatures that, although not so intended by the composer in most instances, have come to embody certain descriptive characteristics of people, places or things with the help of publisher's attaching names to some after-the-fact. Michael Endres award-winning (Diapason d'or; Choc du Musique) discography is an extensive one, amounting to 30 albums; for OehmsClassics he has recorded works of Schumann, Schubert, Weber, Ravel and Gershwin, among others.
MENDELSSOHN String Symphonies • Michael Hofstetter, cond; Stuttgart CO • ORFEO C 763093 D (3 CDs: 221:27)
The well-publicized childhood musical genius of Mozart and Schubert was surpassed by that of Mendelssohn, as witnessed by the 13 string symphonies he completed by age 15. The third of these string symphonies already shows mastery, by this mere child, of the art of contrapuntal writing. This and other signs of precocious musical genius increased as the composer matured through each of the succeeding 10 string symphonies. The first six are imitative of Schubert and Beethoven, but in the Seventh String Symphony in D Minor, Mendelssohn begins to express his individuality. From the Ninth on, Mendelssohn moves forward at a galloping pace, with glorious fugal movements and fugal passages proliferating. The 11th String Symphony, in F Major/F Minor, is my favorite. Mendelssohn augments the second movement, marked Commodo (Schweizerlied), with percussion at its conclusion. The 13th String Symphony is incomplete, consisting of only a single movement that shows further mastery of contrapuntal writing.
Michael Hofstetter, the principal conductor of the renowned Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and follower of a line of succession that started with the orchestra’s founder, Karl Münchinger, gives us a commendable set of these early Mendelssohn masterpieces. But the playing is relatively subdued and the conducting is characterized by too weak a beat for my taste. Other listeners may prefer this approach, which uses a small chamber orchestra, to my favored version by Kurt Masur and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra with its fuller string complement. In terms of the era, Hofstetter’s approach is Baroque in character—small ensemble with restrained vibrato—whereas Masur’s is contemporary and closer to late 19th century. The latter seems to me to be more in line with what Mendelssohn meant to convey, closer to Beethoven than to Bach, but who really knows? In the first movement of the 11th Symphony, Hofstetter fails to take the very important exposition repeat, whereas Masur wisely observes it. This is the only textual difference that I found.
This disc is a very good Baroque-style alternative to Masur’s exceptionally fine modern performances. On that basis, it is recommended.
When the ORFEO label was established in Munich forty years ago, surely no one with the music scene back then would have predicted that the record company would develop into a firmly established player on the classical music market. One of the label’s main priorities in the early years was vocal music, with opera rarities top of the list and since the mid 1980s the re-use of historic tape recordings. Big names featured on the label’s own productions, while ORFEO also developed into a talent factory by discovering and nurturing young artist. This “ORFEO 40th Anniversary” 2-album sampler well reflects these two sides of the label by combining highlight tracks of historical recordings with today’s global stars.
Jan Kraybill- Sonic Splendor! Her amazing pipe organ performances give new dimensions to beloved orchestral favorites. In the 19th and early 20th century, organists of exceptional artistic skill developed organ transcriptions of orchestral music into a true art form. Each of the works on this disc is spectacular in its original form. To create "The Orchestral Organ", we have chosen works of many different composers, adapted into organ transcriptions of the highest artistic order. These transcriptions are not intended for comparison with, or replacement of, the original orchestral versions. In presenting them we are offering fascinating new dimensions for these compositions, whether familiar or new to the listener. Within the pieces are a variety of tone colors and compositional details that exhibit the remarkable abilities of organist Jan Kraybill, and showcase the spectacular Julia Irene Kauffman Casavant Organ at the Kauffman Center’s Helzberg Hall in Kansas City.
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REVIEWS:
Kraybill's performance has a nice balance of verve and control. The overall impression is of joy and pleasure in the music, which flows from her understanding and touch. Her selections allow her to explore various moods and emotions, which is always quite pleasant. The progression of the album shows a sound sense of movement.
– Poaitive Feedback (David W. Robinson)
The recorded sound is thrilling. The Julia Irene Kauffman Casavant 102-rank organ at the Kauffman Center’s Helzberg Hall is big and brawny, the performances precise and committed, and the label has done their usual audiophile magic. The lower pipes of the organ are very deep, and will test your system.
The Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1962. Principal conductors over the years include the well-known names Hiroshi Wakasugi, Heinz Rogner, Gerd Albrecht, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski. Sylvain Cambreling joined the YNSO in April 2010 as the ninth Principal Conductor and has energetically pursued a broad range of activities. The French-born conductor is a musician with big ideas. A thought-provoking, colorful and dramatic artist, he has a flair for grabbing the attention of audiences, yet his originality is rooted in thorough knowledge of musicology. Following the initial release of this album, in March 2015, the YNSO embarked on its first European tour in 12 years, with concerts scheduled in vibrant classical music centers such as Berlin, Cologne and Brussels. The tour was met with astounding aplomb.
Edward Gardner and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra present Volume 2 in their series Mendelssohn in Birmingham; this time they perform Symphonies Nos 1 and 3 and the Overture to Ruy Blas. The impressive first volume was roundly praised, International Record Review commending the ‘powerfully engaging and alert performances’, while The Sunday Times made it their ‘Album of the Week’.
Among the fruits of his prodigiously gifted youth were thirteen string symphonies, which Mendelssohn composed privately as ‘practice’ pieces. At age fifteen he returned to the last of these, expanded the orchestration, and published it as the first of his mature numbered symphonies. As heard here, this energetic work, bursting with youthful high spirits, shows the influence of Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber, but that influence is always absorbed in a personal way.
Although numbered as the third of five, the ‘Scottish’ Symphony was actually the last which Mendelssohn composed. Inspiration for it had come while Mendelssohn was visiting Edinburgh in 1829. He was immediately moved to compose the brooding melody that begins and ends the work, but not until 1842 did he actually finish this masterpiece.
No such time span was needed to complete the Overture to Victor Hugo’s tragedy Ruy Blas, which was commissioned only three days before the production’s opening night. Mendelssohn loathed Hugo’s drama and though the opening is suitably sombre, the rest of the overture disregards the play’s form and character, concluding in celebration where Hugo’s story culminates in murder and suicide.
Review:
Gardner conducts these pieces with a highly satisfying blend of freedom and discipline. In some of Mendelssohn's more lyrical moments you need a metronome to judge his rhythmic flexibility, so naturally does he apply it, and throughout the disc the strings articulate with splendid vigor.
Music critic Charles Rosen has called Mendelssohn the greatest child prodigy the history of Western music has ever known," which is indeed evinced by the fact that he wrote for the organ from the age of 11. Mendelssohn's less well-known works are receiving new appraisal and attention. This disc of organ gems is sure to excite.
