Composer
SACD · 1 disc
CD · 1 disc
One hundred years of Romanticism, about sixty years of postromanticism and another sixty of filologic research and adhesion to "original versions" of past musical compositions got used to us badly. Romanticism conditioned us to think that what was written by the hand of a composer has to be untouchable, a sacred document that's perfect like it is; postromanticism convinced us that this idea had to be applied to any artwork, even the ones that were written before the '800s; lastly, the meritorious and sacrosanct philologic enforcement to the research of the 'original text' have definitely forced us to believe that the only 'original version' of a composition is the one that reproduces exactly the text, recovered with all the tricks modern and performed with instruments as close as possible to the 'original' instruments of the time in which the composition was, in fact, composed. These three elements, put together, even if they seem contradictory to each other, actually go to form a perfect storm, a kind of explosive mixture that makes people look askance artistic achievements such as the one proposed by the program of this CD. But fortunately, for some, very little indeed, time, we have awakened from these paths so tremendously binding, starting right from the end, from the last step. And so 'historically informed' executions, those in which, that is, the performers tell you “I know very well that I am playing with a modern instrument an ancient music, but I also know that…”. Music has always been there, especially chamber music, which is done at home, among friends with the mere pleasure of playing together, is written for variable organics. And even if we find the name of one or more instruments on the title page of the critical edition, the author is actually giving the eventual executor only an 'executive suggestion', as if he was telling us: “check the range of your instrument, and if with it you can play the notes that are written, this song is for you”. Be it melodies or accompaniment chords. This has always been the meaning of chamber music. Making music together for someone to listen to, or just for the pleasure of making it. Maria Chiara Mazzi
The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and soprano Christina Landshamer present a Telemann monography, consisting of his cantata Ino and instrumental works composed in the same period. Despite, or perhaps actually thanks to, Telemann’s use of just one singer, Ino is highly dramatic, depicting a desperate woman trying to save herself and her son from her husband turned mad, eventually throwing herself off a cliff and then transformed into a goddess. Telemann composed it two years before his death, and the score is exceptionally rich and colorful. The cantata is combined with his Overture in D Major, Divertimento in E-flat Major, and Sinfonia melodica, each underlining the exceptional liveliness of this composer well into the ninth decade of his prolific life.
The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin is generally seen as one of the best period-instruments ensembles of today, and has a substantial Pentatone discography, including CANTATA with Bejun Mehta (2018), Handel’s Concerti grossi Op. 3 and 6 (released in 2019 and 2020). Telemann’s Miriways (2020), Handel’s Messiah (2020), Haydn’s L’isola disabitata (2021) and Mozart Symphonies (2023). Christina Landshamer collaborated with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin on La Passione (2022), and also featured as Marzelline on Beethoven’s Fidelio (2021).
Vox Luminis has teamed up with the Freiburger Barockorchester again, and together they celebrate music for Ascension Day. This topic inspired great composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, four of whose Ascension cantatas have been preserved. The festive and colourful Cantata BWV 128 was composed towards the end of Bach’s second year in Leipzig. The Ascension Oratorio BWV 11 was written for larger forces and ends with a triumphant chorus. In the case of Georg Philipp Telemann, more than thirty cantatas for Ascension Day alone have survived. The cantata Ich fahre auf zu meinem Vater (I ascend unto my Father) was composed in 1721. Lionel Meunier’s ensemble and the FBO give a fervent rendering of this captivating music with its texts focusing on the afterlife.
The impressively rich instrumental legacy of Georg Philipp Telemann, one of the most prominent German composers of the late Baroque era, was a complement to the main area of his activity, which was church and opera music. The composer found great satisfaction in running collegium musicum associations, popular in Germany. They were groups of people interested in making music together, most often recruited from the academic youth and the bourgeois ‘middle class.’ Telemann founded his first collegium in 1702 in Leipzig, where he studied law. At the same time, he significantly transformed the traditional status of such institutions, which so far had been aimed at making music in their own group. Telemann quickly made the collegium musicum an institution organizing more or less regular public concerts in municipal halls, cafes, merchant social clubs, and aca-demic auditoriums; the collegium musicum would also support church ensembles on more important occasions. Telemann continued his co-operation with student collegia throughout his compositional activity, also in Frankfurt and Hamburg, zealously creating new pieces for them. On the present release, the Altberg Ensemble presents a selection of Telemann’s Suites and Concertos.
CD · 2 discs
Awarded a Diapason Découverte, André Lislevand’s debut album Forqueray Unchained (Arcana A486, 2021) celebrated one of moments of greatest splendor for the viola da gamba: that of the ancien régime in France. In this repertoire, the young musician proved to be "absolutely on top of his game and not afraid to explore the extremes of his instrument’s aesthetic world, though without ever losing touch with le bon goût" (Early Music Review). The same youthful freshness and energy can be found in his second album, though here he explores the German repertoire of the central decades of the 18th century, a period that witnessed the gradual decline of the instrument, but was still capable of expressing unexpected treasures and developing an idiom that often seems to anticipate the years to come.
In the program are sonatas for gamba and basso continuo (C.P.E. Bach’s WQ 136 and C.F. Abel’s B93 in A minor), Telemann's Fantasia XI for solo viol, two pieces by Abel from the Drexel Manuscript, and finally, the lesser-known Suite BWV 1025 by J.S. Bach, presented here in a version for viola da gamba and concertante lute. Also featured and playing a vital role in this project are the Duncumb brothers, two extraordinary chamber musicians: Emil on the fortepiano and Jadran, who played on the debut album, on the lute.
As the progenitor of a style whose influence more or less came to define the instrumental music of the High Baroque, Arcangelo Corelli (1653 - 1713) occupies a position in music history as unenviable as it is to his great credit. Just what made Corelli’s style seem strikingly novel to his contemporaries is a tricky question. To be sure, his standardization and popularization of certain formal tropes – most notably the succession of movement types in Sonate da Camera and Sonate da Chiesa – was a significant part of what his followers considered the ‘Corellian’ manner.
But Corelli’s actual compositional style, his way of organizing musical thoughts into phrases and motives, is fundamentally derived from the expressive capabilities of his chosen instrument, the violin. Certain melodic patterns used to modulate and to effect sequences (e.g., chains of sevenths and fifths) basically derive from specificities of violin technique that amplify an instrument with origins primarily in dance music into one that in Corelli’s hands, could imitate the rise and fall of the sung and spoken human voice. This tension between idiomatically instrumental techniques and the evocation of the voice is the defining characteristic of Corelli’s style throughout all his surviving works and would establish the “Roman School” as the supreme measure of musical taste for generations.
For this exploration of the 18th century’s Corelli Craze, the dynamic star trio of Mahan Esfahani, Hille Perl and Michala Petri unite to trace the Roman’s influence, (sometimes in name only...) on the musical legacies of Bach, Händel and Telemann, and of course two works from the pen of the celebrated Italian Master, himself. Gramophone about the Petri/Perl/Esfahani Trio’s Bach recording: “While the tonal and expressive range of the recorder, viol and harpsichord may appear constrained in comparison to, say, flute, cello and piano, in the hands of foremost players such as these, even a relatively lightweight work such as the C major Sonata, BWV1033, comes over as the ideal demonstration of a particular facet of the composer’s style and the performers’ abilities.”
Vinyl · 2 discs
To mark the 250th anniversary of the death of Georg Philipp Telemann, mandolinist Alon Sariel presents a diverse compilation of remarkable works by the great German composer. The compilation is enriched with works by three of Telemann’s contemporaries: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Carl Friedrich Abel and Johann Friedrich Fasch, all three of whom engaged in the creative spirit of the Hamburg composer and his works. Together with his ensemble Concerto Foscari he recorded repertoire that has never been heard before in this musical form. This recording is now available on Vinyl.
CD · 10 discs
Since the beginning of Capriccio's catalog, the sacred repertoire has held a very special place among the label's recordings. Started with the most famous boys' choirs in the former German Democratic Republic (such as the Dresden Boys' Choir and Thomanerchor Leipzig), continued with boys' choirs in the West (including the Vienna Boys' Choir, Tölz Boys' Choir, and Regensburger Domspatzen), and up to artists like the Rheinische Kantorei with Hermann Max, top-tier ensembles have filled the gaps in recording history. Here, long-silent cantatas and oratorios by Zelenka, Hasse, Telemann, and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach appear having been revived by Capriccio. This 40th Anniversary Box includes several remastered versions of long-out of print records, as well as a representative selection of niche- and standard repertoire productions.
REVIEW:
It must not have been easy to select which music to include in this commemorative package for the 40th anniversary of the Capriccio label, but the truth is that the more than 10 hours of music that they offer us is exquisite and an excellent example of the trajectory of this record label...which has always opted for the opening of new territories.
Let's highlight the obvious: the ten albums are dedicated to religious music mostly performed by groups of German origin, such as Das Kleine Konzert and La Stagione. They offer works by authors who are consecrated today, but were not always so much when Capriccio bet on them, as in the cases of C.P.E. Bach and Telemann.
The care of the sound recording (from the first minute of the beautiful first disc with Monteverdi's Vespers) makes it possible to distinguish all the flourishes of this music, either with its melodic ornaments, or with its intricate contrapuntal textures, such as in Bach's Motets, given by a boys' choir, the Rostocker Motettenchor. And it also has a section dedicated to 19th century music, with Schubert's Hymns, Brahms's German Requiem, and music by Saint-Saëns and Mendelssohn. All recorded between 1983 and 2002, this music is a living testimony of the good work of this still-active label. Long live Capriccio!
-- Ritmo
Matthias Hofs (trumpet) and Matthias Janz (organ) present a program of works by English masters from the Renaissance to the late Baroque. The instrumental combination of trumpet and organ let this repertoire resound in festive splendor. The musical performance is historically informed and played on modern instruments. Among the works on this album are songs from “The Musical Entertainer 1737”, English Dances and Trumpet Voluntaries by George Frideric Handel, John Stanley and many more.
KultBlech is the brass ensemble of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra. KultBlech presents an album with subtly arranged and masterfully played Christmas music for brass! Under the baton of Steven Verhaert the one of a kind arrangements written especially for KultBlech Dresden by Markus Höller & Hans Reiner Schmidt make the christmas time humorous, lively and emotional! KultBlech Dresden takes you on an extraordinary Christmas musical journey around the world - and this every year! An album for the whole family!
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