Théodore Géricault’s larger-than-life painting The Raft of the Medusa has stimulated a great many artists ever since its creation in 1819. Hans Werner Henze and his Librettist Ernst Schnabel were inspired by Géricault and wrote a political oratorio on the painting’s tragic historical subject in 1967. Notable for its harsh and bright sounds, tender depiction of suffering, scathing irony, and gripping dramaturgy, the agitation at the failed premiere lifted the work into the canon of great classical scandals.

If you know the cellist-professor-composer Georg Goltermann (1824-1898) and his eight (!) cello concertos, you’re either a cellist or married to one. In his lifetime and for a while thereafter, the instrumental virtuoso-cum-composer was popular and well-liked enough to have the Cantilena of his Cello Concerto recorded by Pablo Casals – but not much since. That’s a shame because that lyrical-melancholic, never gratuitously virtuosic op.10 is a picture-perfect, delightful romantic cello concert. The symphony, then well received and Goltermann’s pride, too, goes down nicely in a post-Brahms vain rather à la Bruch or Gernsheim, especially the exquisite, lively hunting Scherzo with its sweeping Trio.

REVIEW:

The Symphony, the third of the works in the key of A minor, is receiving its first recording here. It was premiered in Leipzig, and I think that is quite significant, because it owes much to the memory of the recently deceased Felix Mendelssohn, in particular his Scottish Symphony. It was very well-received by public and reviewers. I was amused by a quote in the notes from a newspaper report of the premiere, which stated that even in 1851, critics were bemoaning that the quality of melody was no longer being adequately appreciated by composers (but Goltermann was excused from this criticism).

I’d not heard of Turkish cellist Jamal Aliyev before, but he has performed at the Proms and won a number of prizes at international competitions. It is not hard to see why; he is very good, giving these little-known works his fullest efforts. Under the assured direction of Howard Griffiths, such a champion of the unsung composer, the ORF Vienna orchestra sound superb. My only quibble with the sound quality was the occasional sharp intake of breath from Aliyev (but hey, he’s got to breathe).

This is one of those unsung composer discs that really does “sing”. Goltermann might not have had the most original of compositional voices, but he knew how to write concentrated, melodic pieces, and now we know that even in the mid-19th century, melody was in short supply (what would those critics have thought of the 20th century, I wonder?).

-- MusicWeb International

It took Frank Martin a long time to heed his deep-seated inner calling to write a Requiem: 'What I have tried to express here is the clear will to accept death; to make peace with it.' The Requiem was composed in 1971/72, Martin utilizes the whole bandwidth of orchestral sound and explores all opportunities for interplay among the vocalists, as well. Leoš Janácek’s setting of the Otcenáš, the Lord’s Prayer, is not a conventionally religious work. The Czech composer was more interested in its social aspects than any theological musings. Conductor Leif Segerstam, Chief conductor of ORF Vienna radio Symphony Orchestra from 1975-1983 loved to surprise his public with non-mainstream repertoire. Two of these live recordings are now restored, re-mastered and first time published for the future.

REVIEW:

Frank Martin’s operatic background is to the fore in his setting of the Requiem. Written towards the very end of his life he had apparently delayed setting the text and once completed declared that his work was now done. Some decidedly 20th Century techniques, such as semi-spoken passages, can be heard in this music which is full of drama and displays a real affinity with the text. Janacek’s settting of the Lord’s Prayer is apparently written from a more detached view, with the composer apparently less committed to the meaning of the text in itself. However, this is still moving music, making for a fine pairing of lesser known liturgically inspired 20th Century (the Janacek only just!) works.

-- Lark Reviews

In 1914, Franz Schmidt staged his opera Notre Dame at the Vienna State Opera to great acclaim. Immediately afterwards, he was looking for new material for another project and came across the novel Fredigundis by Felix Dahn, which is loosely based on historical events from the 6th century. From 1916 to 1921, Schmidt worked on his project, which was premiered in Berlin in December 1922. Franz Schmidt's music for Fredigundis marks the end of a development that runs through the so-called “classic Romantic” period. The work is characterized by numerous chromaticisms and an expansion of the major-minor system in the music that pushes the boundaries of tonality, as well as dense counterpoint and perfect compositional artistry in the vocal parts.

The dramatic mezzo-soprano Dunja Vejzovic, who got famous for her Wagner roles in Bayreuth and Salzburg, performed on all major opera and concert stages of the world. The excellent set of singers in this performance is supported by the Austrian conductor Ernst Märzendorfer, who mastered several instruments and also composed piano concertos, incidental music and a ballet. On this recording, he conducts the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, which has established itself as an opera orchestra through its continuously successful collaboration with the MusikTheater an der Wien.

This recording brings together two of the biggest sacred works written by Mozart and Haydn, the friends and contemporaries caught at opposite ends of their musical lives. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed the substantial Mass in C minor (K. 139) for the consecration of the Waisenhaus (Orphanage) Church in the Rennweg when he was just twelve years old. The Mass received its first performance on 7 December 1768. While Mozart was overseeing the consecration of the Waisenhaus, Joseph Haydn was in the third year of his promotion to Kapellmeister at the palace of Esterházy, under Prince Nikolaus I. It was a post to which he returned in 1795, serving under Nikolaus II on a part time basis. This second term saw the composition of six Masses, with the penultimate – nicknamed the ‘Nelson Mass’ – widely regarded as his finest setting.

The story of the discovery and resurrection of Britten's Double Concerto for Violin and Viola is one of those rare moments of musicological spice that can capture the interest of even the more casual music lover. Unlike it, the Violin Concerto Op. 15 found itself thrust onto the world stage of music right away, its genesis having been rather straightforward – if hardly smooth.

Winner of the first prize of the Queen Elisabeth Competition (2001) Baiba Skride displays a natural approach to music-making that has endeared her to many of today’s most prestigious conductors and orchestras worldwide. She performs the Double Concerto with violist Ivan Vukcevic, who has appeared in some of the most important venues and festivals in Europe. They are accompanied by the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop, whose performances won her many Gramophone Awards.

Meditative sound magic from New York City: Together with colleagues and friends such as John Cage, Christian Wolff and Earle Brown, Morton Feldman formed a circle of pre-eminent individualists within the American avant-garde movement of the 20th century, which, commencing in New York, founded a current of international significance. Crucial for his artistic development was undoubtedly his meeting with John Cage (1912–92), with whom he was in close contact after 1950. They mutually inspired each other to create music away from the compositional techniques conventional up to then, which particularly applied to the definition of specific notes, pitches and note durations or regular rhythm. It was also a commission from the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and its Principal Conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas that led to the composition of String Quartet and Orchestra in 1973. Feldman’s final completed work Coptic Light, written in 1986, displays an even more gigantic orchestra than that in String Quartet and Orchestra. In his sensitive works we always gain the impression that they are cautious attempts to achieve coherent musical results, without running against the character of the instruments.