Born in Nuremberg in 1564 within a musical family, Hassler received his formative musical instruction from his father and quickly developed into a keyboard player of formidable gifts: in the dedication to his 1591 Cantiones sacrae he noted that he was ‘from a tender age more talkative with the fingers than with the tongue’. In 1584 Hassler left Nuremberg to continue his education in Venice, becoming one of the first in a long line of German musicians who journeyed south of the Alps for study in Italian musical centers. While his motets and other vocal works were widely disseminated during his lifetime and have attracted recordings by period-instrument luminaries such as Philippe Herreweghe, his output for organ and harpsichord has received much less than its fair share of attention. Manuel Tomadin demonstrates that across its range there is no reason for music of this invention and lively originality to be hid under a bushel. In a 1593 portrait, Hassler is described as a ‘most esteemed organist’, and a single-manual chamber organ with pedal is prominently included in the frame. After moving back to Germany, taking a succession of prestigious posts in musical centers across central and southern Germany including his home city, he became known as an expert in organ design, and his own music for the instrument exploits every possible technical and coloristic refinement of the new instruments of his age.

On this set, Manuel Tomadin plays a collection of historically appropriate instruments in Italian churches, and the collection is highly attractive as a gallery of Italian organ-building in its own right. The formal weight of Hassler’s output falls on instrumental paraphrases and elaborations of the Magnificat hymn, complemented as in Frescobaldi with ornate and harmonically adventurous ricercars and more lyrical canzonas.

This boxed set brings together Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra’s cycle of Brahms’ symphonies, originally released as four separate discs. Each symphony is coupled with carefully selected works to provide a well-rounded idea of the composer’s orchestral output.

Favorites such as the two concert overtures are included – the laughing and the weeping one, to paraphrase Brahms himself – as well as the beloved Haydn Variations (on a theme likely not by Haydn at all…). Another perennial favorite is the Alto Rhapsody, here with Anna Larsson singing the solo part, but there are also less-heard works – Brahms’s orchestrations of his own Liebeslieder-Walzer for instance, and of six songs by Schubert.

Throughout the set, the composer’s Hungarian Dances run like a thread. Brahms's orchestrations of Nos. 1, 3 and 10 have pride of place on disc 1, with the remaining 18, in much praised orchestral versions by Dausgaard, spread over the remaining three discs. In reviews of the individual discs, critics used words such as ‘freshness’, ‘transparency’, and ‘urgency’ to describe the performances, with Fanfare expressing pleasure at hearing ‘Brahms from the edge of one's seat’.

REVIEWS:

Exciting in quite a different way is Thomas Dausgaard’s invigorating cycle of Brahms symphonies (with interesting additions) with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. ‘The real purpose of using a small orchestra’, Dausgaard told Andrew Mellor regarding his recording of Brahms’s Second, ‘is to allow us to appreciate all the music that’s there, so that it comes to life in every corner, rather than becoming a mesh of sound'...Dausguaard [conducts] with a sense of style.

-- Gramophone

If you are sympathetic to the ideas that Brahms’s orchestral works can be played successfully by a smaller ensemble, and that the music does not lose its effectiveness when somewhat faster tempos are used, then there is no reason not to explore what Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra have done here. He is an intelligent conductor who infuses his ideas with personality, and Brahms is in good, un-arthritic hands. The recordings, made between 2011 and 2018 in the Örebro Concert Hall, sound wonderful.

-- Fanfare

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

Sony Classical is pleased to announce a new batch of reissues from the CBS/Sony and RCA Victor/BMG back catalogues. This latest instalment of the popular series showcases Mozart and Chopin along with conductor Robert Craft’s pioneering Webern recordings and the global journeys of that irrepressible musical explorer Yo-Yo Ma.

Between 1966 and 1974, Glenn Gould paid repeated visits to Columbia’s New York studio to record the piano sonatas of Mozart. Often revelatory, sometimes quirky, but always stimulating, these controversial readings tell us as much about the performer’s own endlessly fascinating musical mind and his conflicting attitudes to Mozart as they do about the composer’s genius at the keyboard. But no other classical sonatas – not even Beethoven’s – were paid the tribute of an integral recording by Glenn Gould. His delight in playing them can be heard throughout this set. Sony Classical is now reissuing the 18 sonatas and two fantasias in a remastered 4-album box.

REVIEW:

Every time I return to Glenn Gould’s set of the Mozart piano sonatas, I’m both aghast and, in some weird way, inspired. Take K310, where the central Andante cantabile rises to an awesome central climax, played staccato, but where the first movement is less Allegro maestoso than Allegro frenetico! Or there’s that strangest of beasts (in Gould’s hands), K331, the opening theme taken so slowly that it sounds as if a (very) young Glenn is tackling it for the first time, head buried in the music, humming away. Yes, things do return to a semblance of normality, though the finale is less ‘alla turca’ than a proud ‘cock o’ the walk’ Turkish trot. Then there are the two Fantasias, K397 in D minor taken at a deathly slow tempo filled with pregnant pauses, a spooky enactment with dark shadows lurking around every corner. Gould’s approach to Mozart in many respects courts extremes but I challenge you to sample any of it and not want to return, if only for a handful of spot checks. It may be outlandish but it’s also utterly fascinating.

--Gramophone (Rob Cowan)

Sony Classical is pleased to announce a new batch of reissues from the CBS/Sony and RCA Victor/BMG back catalogues. This latest instalment of the popular series showcases Mozart and Chopin along with conductor Robert Craft’s pioneering Webern recordings and the global journeys of that irrepressible musical explorer Yo-Yo Ma.

The supremely versatile Yo-Yo Ma has been aptly referred to as a musical omnivore. In addition to all the significant classical works written for his instrument, the eclectic cellist has passionately embraced the music of Latin America and Asia as well as American bluegrass and jazz. Seven of his most adventurous and acclaimed musical journeys have been collected by Sony Classical in a CD box entitled “Crossing Borders”. They include Appalachia Waltz and Appalachian Journey with Mark O’Connor and Edgar Meyer (Grammy 1998: “Best Classical Crossover Album”); Soul of the Tango – The Music of Astor Piazzolla (Grammy 1997: “Best Classical Crossover Album”); Obrigado Brazil – traditional songs and compositions by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Pixinguinha (Grammy 2000: “Best Classical Crossover Album”); Silk Road Journeys: When Strangers Meet and Japanese Melodies; Anything Goes: the cellist playing mostly Cole Porter with Stephane Grappelli; and, last but not least: Hush, his famous collaboration with Bobby McFerrin.

Review excerpts of previously released volumes included in this set:

Appalachian Journey / Yo-Yo Ma, O'Connor, Meyer

The Mark O’Connor/Yo-Yo Ma/Edgar Meyer power trio took a while to follow up their 1996 hit Appalachia Waltz, yet, no doubt about it, Appalachian Journey was worth the long wait. I love the gnarly funk of the opening cut, “1B”, with hard swinging fiddle and cello lines anchored by Meyer’s earthy, off-center pedal points. The less driving, more reflective reels, and lyrical Duet for Cello and Bass fuse bluegrass, wistful folk tunes, and stark Copland-esque landscapes into organic wholes that sound better with each rehearing. The deliciously virtuosic Caprice for Three proves that players of this caliber can channel their super-chops toward listening out loud. Guest vocal stints by James Taylor and Alison Krauss add the spice of variety to the mix, along with a potential wider audience. And why not? The arrangements are judiciously varied, perfectly paced, and exploit the violin/cello/string bass configuration in ingenuous ways. One wonders how this trio might approach certain pieces over a looser, more extended improvisational time frame. I hope we won’t have to wait another three and a half years to find out. If you’re in a blue mood, this disc will provide an antidote with long-range positive side effects. Fun, fun stuff.

-- ClassicsToday.com (10/10, Jed Distler)

Obrigado Brazil / Yo-Yo Ma:

The music on this enchanting, flavorful CD varies from classical to samba to bossa nova; the combinations range from guitar, flute, and cello to female voice (the remarkable Rosa Passos), cello, guitar, percussion, piano, and bass; to simple cello and piano; to cello and two guitars. The overriding element is rhythm; each selection has a beat which is both infectious and sensual, but the contexts are splendidly varied. It's impossible to get bored or tired listening to this creative CD; it's unique--just like Yo-Yo Ma himself--and endlessly surprising. It may not be quite what we'd call "classical" music, but it is many kinds of music, and they all will delight. The other musicians are as impressive on their instruments as Ma is with his cello, and that's saying a great deal.

-- ClassicsToday.com (Robert Levine)

Silk Road Journeys - When Strangers Meet

Silk Road Journeys is an invigorating, eye-opening ride. To be sure, some pieces fare better than others, but as with any unforgettable trip, you tend to forget the occasional bumps you hit along unknown roads. Our guides are a generally stellar selection of master artists, including the luminary pipa player Wu Man and kemencheh and setar player Kayhan Kalhor. These two musicians in particular can go head-to-head in virtuosity with Yo-Yo Ma any day. Complemented by cleanly articulated sound, Sony Classical has produced a real keeper in its Yo-Yo Ma catalog, but the cellist makes his collaborators the true focus of this album.

Sony Classical is pleased to announce a new batch of reissues from the CBS/Sony and RCA Victor/BMG back catalogues. This latest instalment of the popular series showcases Mozart and Chopin along with conductor Robert Craft’s pioneering Webern recordings and the global journeys of that irrepressible musical explorer Yo-Yo Ma.

Sir Colin Davis was indisputably one of the greatest Mozart conductors of the last century, both in the opera house and in the recording studio. In Munich in the early 1990s, near the end of his tenure as chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, he recorded several of the popular serenades and wind concertos (“Davis is completely at home in this music and brings to it grandeur and delicacy in good measure and judicious balance” – Gramophone). And in 1998, as the Dresden Staatskapelle’s first-ever conductor laureate, he recorded twelve opera overtures (“Beautifully turned string playing, wonderful contributions from the wind section, and transparent textures: it all represents splendid ‘big band’ Mozart in the modern tradition” – Classics Today). These superb RCA recordings are now reissued in a 4-album box set.

REVIEW:

Colin Davis’s RCA Mozart CDs from the 1990s, mostly with the Bavarian RSO, tend towards more relaxed tempos than on his earlier analog recordings, a live coupling of the Posthorn Serenade and the Bassoon Concerto recorded at the Mozartfest in Würzburg in June 1992 claiming among its many virtues textural opulence (Eberhard Marschall’s bassoon is among the richest in tone that I’ve ever heard) and, as Christopher Headington noted in these pages (9/94), an unhurried finale ‘despite the Presto marking that tempts less experienced conductors’. You might additionally note Davis’s Toscanini-like vocalizing at the start of the Andantino, a romantic reading that works wonderfully well. Also included are similarly affecting accounts of Eine kleine Nachtmusik, the Wind Serenades Nos 10-12, the Clarinet Concerto (with a mellifluoussounding Karl-Heinz Steffens), and the one CD featuring the Dresden Staatskapelle, an hour’s worth of overtures. I’d never clocked on previous occasions the strong similarity between the very brief Bastien und Bastienne Overture and the opening of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. As Mozart orchestral compilations go, this is among the best, one that you should return to with constantly renewed pleasure. The recordings are full-bodied.

--Gramophone

Sony Classical is pleased to announce a new batch of reissues from the CBS/Sony and RCA Victor/BMG back catalogs. This latest installment of the popular series showcases Mozart and Chopin along with conductor Robert Craft’s pioneering Webern recordings and the global journeys of that irrepressible musical explorer Yo-Yo Ma.

The Tunisian-born French pianist Jean-Marc Luisada, a prize-winner at the 1985 Warsaw Chopin Competition, has earned an international reputation as a distinctive Chopin interpreter. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Luisada made a series of recordings for RCA: the complete Mazurkas, Waltzes and Ballades, the B minor Sonata and a chamber arrangement of the First Concerto (joined by the Talich Quartet), among numerous other works. MusicWeb International wrote that “the most stunning aspect of his artistry is his exploratory approach to Chopin. He uses every phrase to probe into Chopin’s sound-world and psyche, also displaying a total command of the keyboard’s resources.” As ClassicsToday wrote about Luisada’s Chopin: “The pianist compels you to listen.” All his RCA Chopin recordings are now reissued in a 6-album Sony Classical box.

REVIEW:

Sony/BMG has gathered together nearly all of Jean-Marc Luisada’s RCA Chopin recordings in a budget box. The set includes Luisada’s RCA cycles of the 14 “standard” Waltzes, the Mazurkas, and the four Ballades, along with some of these works in alternate recorded versions.

Luisada’s Chopin B minor sonata flies all over the place metrically, yet his bottomless pit of local details and ravishing legato hold your attention. My comments about Luisada’s Chopin B minor sonata apply to other larger-scaled works like the aforementioned Ballades, the Scherzos Nos. 2 and 4, the Barcarolle, the F minor Fantasie, and the Polonaise-Fantasie.

Luisada’s creative juices and refined fingers thoughtfully coalesce when collaborating with the Talich Quartet and double bassist Benjamin Berlioz in the most musically satisfying chamber edition of the Concerto No. 1 in E minor I’ve heard on disc.

--ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)

This collection brings together Globe Theatre productions dating from 2009 to 2015 – during the artistic directorship of Dominic Dromgoole – of twelve of Shakespeare’s most celebrated Comedies. Featuring the finest actors and leading directors, it is part of a project committed to creating ever wider access to this rich cultural heritage. The films in this set capture the unique atmosphere and theatrical space of the Globe Theatre. The exhilarating sense of interaction between the actors on stage and the audience in live performances is exquisitely maintained on screen.

REVIEWS:

"Dominic Dromgoole's zesty production succeeds in captivating the audience to a degree that I would not have thought possible...It's a treat." (The Independent on Love's Labour's Lost)

"This is a crowd-pleasing production...and the laughs come thick and fast" (Evening Standard on The Taming of the Shrew)

"Eve Best and Charles Edwards are gorgeously well-matched and sublimely ridiculous." (Time Out on Much Ado About Nothing)

"Naomi Frederick's superb Rosalind is a woman of wit and intelligence...Laskey's Orlando is equally bewitched, bothered and bewildered, and the playfulness between the two is a pleasure." (The Guardian on As You Like It)

Rebellion and maturity run through Shakespeare's histories like a single twisted thread, exemplified by the tearaway turned - hero Hal and his forever adolescent associate Falstaff, who deserves and gets a comedy to himself in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Lives real and imagined, nobles and beggars, Tudor history and culture all spring to vivid life on the stage of the Globe Theatre in award-winning productions featuring many fine British actors and original music played by a Shakespearean pit band playing period instruments.

Reviews

"Henry IV is the Shakespeare play that's perfectly suited to the Globe. In Dominic Dromgoole's intelligent, faithful andentertaining new production, Sir John Falstaff, that 'sweet creature of bombast', might have stopped for a pint of sack in Southwark en route for a rendezvous with Doll Tearsheet at the Boar's Head." (The Guardian on Henry IV 1-2)

"A joyous spectacle." (The Sunday Telegraph on Henry VIII)

"Oustanding." (The Guardian on Henry VIII)

"Audiences tend to adore this play, in which Shakespeare genially celebrates his own middle-class English provincial background and seeks to do nothing more than entertain - which he does, splendidly. The Merry Wives, with its ridiculous foreigners, jealous husbands and scenes of low farce, keeps you chuckling almost throughout." (The Daily Telegraph on The Merry Wives of Windsor)

Before Jean-Pierre Rampal appeared on the music scene in the 1950s, wind players were rarely hired as soloists with orchestras. This legendary French flute virtuoso broke through that barrier with his astonishing talent, flair, and commanding stage presence, attaining the kind of visibility previously enjoyed only by pianists and violinists. He regularly filled the world’s largest concert halls for his recitals and chamber performances. Rampal was the father figure of the flute renaissance in the 20th century which restored the instrument to the exalted position it held during the 18th century.

He also became one the world’s most recorded artists, commanding all the essential repertoire of his instrument but equally embracing previously unknown works, his own discoveries, jazz, pop, folk and contemporary works. Virtually anything written for the flute or plausibly adapted for it was grist for his mill. In his autobiography Rampal referred to the discography that brought him numerous prizes and awards as being so enormous that not even he could keep track of it. In 1969, he began recording for CBS, and in 1979 he signed an exclusive contract with the label.

To mark his 100th birthday, Sony Classical released in a 56-CD box set the first complete edition of Jean-Pierre Rampal’s recordings for CBS, RCA, and Sony Classical.

SET CONTENTS:

DISC 1: Mozart: Flute Quartets
DISC 2: Bach Family
DISC 3: Bolling: Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano
DISC 4/5: Rampal and Lagoya in Concert
DISC 6: Vivaldi/Telemann
DISC 7: Bolling: "Picnic Suite"
DISC 8: Mozart: Flute Quartets K. 285 & K. 298/Divertimento K. 334
DISC 9: Carnaval de Rampal (Showpieces)
DISC 10: Schubert: Sonata In A Minor/Moscheles: Sonata concertante
DISC 11: Pastorales De Noel
DISC 12: Dvořák, Feld, Martinů: From Prague With Love
DISC 13: Japanese Melodies, Vol. III
DISC 14: Haydn: Divertimentos
DISC 15: Sonatas of J.S. Bach and sons
DISC 16: Jean-Pierre Rampal plays Scott Joplin
DISC 17: Weber: Sonatas for Violin and Piano
DISC 18: Bach: Concerto for Flute, Strings and Basso Continuo
DISC 19: Vivaldi: Six Concertos for Flute
DISC 20: Fascinatin' Rampal: Jean-Pierre Rampal plays Gershwin
DISC 21/22: Bach: Sonatas and Partita for Flute
DISC 23/24: Haydn: Concertos
DISC 25: The Flute at The Court of Frederick The Great
DISC 26: Night at The Opera: The Magic Flute
DISC 27: Chants de Noel / Children’s Songs
DISC 28: Mozart: Sonatas
DISC 29: Bolling: Suite No. 2 For Flute and Jazz Piano Trio
DISC 30: Mozart: The Flute Quartets
DISC 31: Telemann: Overture/Concertos
DISC 32: Telemann, Kuhlau, Bach, Mozart, Doppler
DISC 33: Kuhlau: Flute Quintets
DISC 34: Mozart: Concerto for Flute and Harp/Sinfonia concertante
DISC 35: Carulli: Flute Concerto and more
DISC 36: Concertos for Two Flutes
DISC 37/38: C.P.E. Bach: The Complete Flute Concertos
DISC 39: Mozart: Flute Concertos
DISC 40: Music for Flute and Harp
DISC 41: Mozart,Telemann, J.C. Bach, Reicha
DISC 42: Vivaldi: 6 Double Concertos
DISC 43: Rameau: Pièces de clavecin en Concerts
DISC 44: Italian Flute Concertos
DISC 45: Mozart: Divertimento, K.334/Adagio And Rondo, K.617/Andante, K.616/Quintet, K.557
DISC 46: Haydn: London Trios
DISC 47: Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
DISC 48: Kathleen Battle and Jean-Pierre Rampal in Concert
DISC 49: Pla: Catalan Flute Music of the 18th Century
DISC 50: Boccherini: Flute Quintets
DISC 51: Collaborations
DISC 52: Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 36 & 38 – Jean Pierre Rampal, conductor
DISC 53: Carulli/Haydn: Guitar Concertos – Jean Pierre Rampal, conductor
DISC 54: Bolling: Suite for Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Piano Trio – J.P. Rampal, conductor
DISC 55: Romantic Harp Concertos – J.P. Rampal, conductor
DISC 56: Mozart: March/Serenade K. 250 “Haffner” – J.P. Rampal, conductor

REVIEW:

Flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal brought the instrument to new prominence, proving its enormous potential in a wide range of repertoire. Sony’s new collection, ‘The Complete CBS Masterworks Recordings’, opens to a benchmark 1969 recording of the Mozart flute quartets where Rampal joins forces with Isaac Stern, Alexander Schneider, and Leonard Rose, and ends with more Mozart – and more Stern – for a keenly played 1994 version of Mozart’s Haffner Serenade. Especially noteworthy are three Kuhlau flute quintets where Rampal joins forces with the Juilliard Quartet: this is superior music, beautifully performed and recorded.

Contemporary repertoire is represented in the first instance by a colorfully inventive and well-performed Penderecki Concerto under the composer’s own direction, surely the best ‘modern’ piece in the set. Rampal enjoyed a fruitful musical relationship with the French jazz pianist, composer and arranger Claude Bolling. Of those pieces included in the set, I’d gravitate first to the Suite for chamber orchestra and jazz piano trio, with its classical resonances; on the other hand, programs devoted to Scott Joplin rags and Gershwin (including a musically pointless abbreviation of An American in Paris) are best left in the box. I’m all for creative crossover but the Gershwin in particular misfires, musically. Still, to be landed with just two ‘duffs’ in a collection of 56 CDs is pretty good going.

As you can imagine, some of the featured repertoire appears more than once but there are sufficient differences in approach between alternative recordings to justify spending time comparing. What’s most interesting is the typically wide range of music on offer, some of it of exceptional quality.

Overall, this is a most enjoyable set, sturdily boxed, with original jacket sleeves that include readable spines, and a hardcover 220-page accompanying book that will give you informative annotations and all the discographical information you need. As diverting collections go, this is certainly one to consider.

-- Gramophone (Rob Cowan)

Rossini drew a line under his hugely successful operatic career at the age of 37 and wrote little until his final years in Paris, where he became renowned for his musical salons. For these he wrote numerous short piano pieces which he jokingly called Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age): sometimes experimental miniatures that can raise a smile or touch the heart, blurring boundaries between the irreverent and the serious. Rossini’s publisher Antonio Pacini considered the composer’s late works as his most illustrious period: ‘what he composes daily is a series of masterpieces that seems as though it will never end.’ Including songs and fascinating novelties, this acclaimed complete edition contains a myriad of rarities and numerous world premiere recordings.

On the occasion of its twenty-fifth anniversary, the L’Orfeo Baroque Orchestra is releasing the present recording of Franz Schubert’s complete symphonies and complete symphonic fragments. It is the most recent gem in this orchestra’s multifaceted repertoire ranging from the suite of the French, German, and Austrian Baroque through the sinfonia of the Mannheim School to Viennese Classicism and Early Romanticism. Although Joseph von Spaun termed Schubert a “song composer” not long after his death, Schubert’s compositional oeuvre may be said to be framed by a symphonic fragment and a sketch for a symphony. The first of these fragments was the score for an overture (D. 2 A) committed to paper around 1810/11 and abandoned in the middle of the exposition, and the last was a draft of three movements for a Symphony in D major (D. 936 A), largely worked out in full, from the last weeks, if not from the last days, of his life. During the period of some eighteen years between these two manuscripts, Schubert occupied himself creatively with almost all the established forms, ensembles, and genres. The symphonic fragments heard here often consist of scores containing only a few measures with the later addition of the instrumentation of a piece, for example, measures 209 to 223 from the first movement of the String Quartet D. 74. Since the composer assigned the date “3 September 1813” to this movement following its final notes, he must have written the fragment immediately prior to beginning his work on the Symphony No. 1 in D major (D. 82).

Joseph Haydn is regarded as the "father of the symphony" and the "father of the string quartet" for his more than 100 symphonies and almost 70 string quartets. Haydn also produced numerous operas, masses, concertos, piano sonatas and other compositions. His oratorios The Creation and The Seasons, both composed in the last decade of Haydn’s active compositional life, are his most widely known and admired choral compositions today, just as they were in his lifetime. Recordings from some of Haydn’s most formidable interpreters are showcased on this extensive release, including the Bach Collegium Stuttgart, Kammerchor Stuttgart, Helmuth Rilling, and more.

REVIEW:

For this set Hänssler have grouped together three major choral works of Haydn from their back catalogue of the many recordings made by the noted German choral conductor Helmuth Rilling. Rilling was the founder of The Oregon Bach Festival, and such musical ensembles as the Gächinger Kantorei and the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, both of whom appear on these recordings. As filler, some works recorded by the lesser-known Frieder Bernius have also been included.

The first two discs contain Rilling’s 1993 Die Schöpfung. With Rilling this great work proceeds naturally with no hint of forcing the music to wring more drama out of it. He provides tempi that are very solicitous towards his singers. His approach presents the work with a more smiling aspect than one usually encounters. In this aspect Rilling comes closer than anyone else to Leonard Bernstein’s earlier recording of the work with the New York Philharmonic. Rilling’s soloists are a fine team topped by Christiane Schäfer’s exquisitely shapely tones. She makes a lively Gabriel, molding the lines of her recitatives with grace. She provides a heavenly account of “Nun beut die flur” and manages to avoid sounding tweety in the process. Michael Schade is a sunny-sounding Uriel, as he was in the John Eliot Gardiner recording two years later. He is especially good at enunciating his text and producing his sound to evolve from the words, a rare achievement these days. His coloratura is perfectly executed, which makes me place him among the most successful portrayals of Uriel in the catalogue. Andreas Schmidt is a fine Rapaehel. His voice sounds warm and pleasing, yet he suffuses his music with sufficient gravitas for an ideal balance. He manages the awkward intervals of “Rollend in schäumenden” with ease. The choir and orchestra play splendidly and there is a decent sense of ambience to the recording.

The fifth disc brings the oratorio version of The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross. Maestro Rilling is definitely back on best form here and he leads a really good team of soloists. The disc is rounded off by two shorter items as filler, which proved to be among the real highlights of the set. Both the Responsoria de Venerabili and the Ave Regina Coelorum are bright and fresh-sounding, led by the sure hand of the accomplished Frieder Bernius. The Württemberg ensemble is wonderfully responsive to his lead with a standout solo by Inga Nielsen in the Ave Regina. Nielsen was still in the coloratura phase of her career when this was recorded and her voice exhibits a glow that would lessen as she started heading into more dramatic roles a few years later. This is a superb example of her voice at its zenith. Hearing it makes me want to search out a copy of the Nelson Mass which accompanied these two works on its original release.

--MusicWeb International

Marin Marais published his Quatrième Livre de Pièces de Viole two years after the death of Louis XIV, establishing himself as the undisputed master of the genre and providing pieces not only for musicians who had achieved some skill on the viol but also for the most virtuoso players. Here Marais reshaped the classical forms, altering the traditional sequence for the suites and making an increasing use of character pieces. The sometimes whimsical imagery and the new freedom of form that these pieces contain reach their peak in the astonishing Suitte d'un goût étranger; these thirty or so pieces employ as yet unheard-of keys and offer a multitude of characters and representations that can tend towards the exotic. Breaking further new ground, and somewhat influenced by the Italian trio, Marais ended the Quatrième Livre with two suites for three viols, a genre he claimed to be new to France.