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Brahms: Symphony No 1 / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

BIS

Available as SACD

$21.99

Dec 01, 2012

A weighty symphony, swaying Viennese waltzes and fiery Hungarian dances make up the colourful programme when Thomas Dausgaard and his Swedish Chamber Orchestra engage with Johannes Brahms in Opening Doors, the team's acclaimed series of Romantic orchestral composers. Johannes Brahms was only twenty years old when Robert Schumann hailed him as one whose genius gave rise to the greatest symphonic hopes. It is therefore striking that he didn't complete his First Symphony until more than twenty years later, in 1876 - even though the earliest sketches for it date back to 1855. Brahms - who once said that he constantly heard the 'giant' Beethoven 'marching behind him' - had such a deep respect for what his great predecessor had achieved with the genre that he for a long time doubted that he would ever be able to write a symphony of his own - by the time he did, it must have been gratifying to him that it was hailed as 'Beethoven's Tenth'. While working on the symphony, Brahms composed his Op.52, the cycle Liebeslieder-Walzer 'for piano four-hands (and song ad libitum)'. He kept the forces as flexible as possible: the waltzes were performable with or without voices; if used, the vocal parts could be sung either by soloists or by a choir. Even so, he was soon asked for another version, for choir and orchestra. Brahms initially rejected this idea, but finally agreed to make a partial orchestration: selecting eight of the Op.52 waltzes, he supplemented them with an early version of one of the not yet published Neue Liebeslieder-Walzer, Op.65. Around the same time, he was asked to orchestrate another collection of dances composed for piano four-hands: his first set of Hungarian Dances, which had quickly become a great hit. It took him four years to comply with this wish, and even then he only accepted to orchestrate three of the dances, leaving the field open for various other arrangers (including Dvorák) to satisfy the demand for more.

Brahms: Symphony No 1 / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

$21.99
SACD

BIS

Dec 01, 2012

BIS-1756

Beethoven: Piano Works / Imogen Cooper

Chandos

Available as CD

~~$21.99~~ $16.99

Mar 01, 2019

Regarded as one of the finest interpreters of classical and romantic repertoire, Imogen Cooper is internationally renowned for her virtuosity and lyricism. This recording is her sixth release on Chandos Records, following earlier discs of works by Liszt, Wagner, Brahms, Chopin, and Robert and Clara Schumann. Imogen Cooper writes: ‘Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations are rightly considered to be among the greatest works for solo piano ever composed, by Beethoven or anyone else. It is incontrovertible that there is not one superfluous note in this huge masterpiece – each variation is flawless in construction and imagination, and in depth of characterisation. The breadth of ideas is limitless. Each variation tells a whole story, and for all that some are connected in mood, it is no mean feat as a performer to respect the huge scope of Beethoven’s vision.’ Imogen Cooper plays a Steinway Model D, and was recorded in the concert Hall at Snape Maltings, Suffolk.

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Beethoven: Piano Works / Imogen Cooper

~~$21.99~~ $16.99
CD

Chandos

Mar 01, 2019

CHAN 20085

Brahms & Schumann: Chamber Music / Pressler, Pacifica Quartet

Cedille

Available as CD

~~$19.99~~ $14.99

Mar 10, 2017

The internationally celebrated, Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet joins forces with legendary pianist Menahem Pressler of the Beaux Arts Trio for Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34, a pillar of German Romanticism that opens with one of the most recognizable melodies in classical music. Pressler, a consummate chamber artist, performs the virtuosic piano part with a clarity and transparency that makes the piano seem like a fellow member of the string ensemble. This noteworthy generation-crossing collaboration — a half-century separates the pianist, who is in his 90s, from the quartet members — yields a spacious, sweeping traversal of the Brahms Quintet that sets its own pace to build suspense and drama. While Pressler has performed the Brahms Quintet with marquee string quartets of the past 50 years, this is his first recording of it. The album offers the unusual, perhaps unprecedented, pairing of Brahms’s early Piano Quintet with a string quartet by his champion Robert Schumann, in this case, the String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 41, No.1, which the Quartet has been performing since early in its career. Dedicated to Mendelssohn, this buoyant, sprightly Romantic quartet showcases the Pacifica’s virtuosity and exuberant performance style while offering a contrast to Brahms’s moodier masterwork. This is the Quartet’s first recording of a Schumann work.

REVIEW:

Menahem Pressler was 91 when he recorded the Brahms Piano Quintet for the first time in his long and distinguished career in 2014. He’s clearly up to the task. Admittedly, tempos are slower than usual for the most part, and you won’t find the kind of dynamism and power in loud tuttis commonly served up by younger keyboard hotshots–although Pressler suddenly sheds decades in the finale’s exultant coda, matching the Pacifica Quartet’s urgent sweep note for note. There’s purpose and meaning in every phrase, every gesture, and every nuance on Pressler’s part.

Listen to the tension that the pianist generates in the soft unison rising scales prior to the first-movement exposition repeat, hear the haunting sense of mystery and flexibility in the Scherzo’s Trio, and notice how Pressler’s tonal shadings enhance the conversational lilt in the fourth movement’s main theme. Having so finely tuned and attentive an ensemble as the Pacifica Quartet on hand doesn’t hurt, of course! If the Hough/Takács and Andsnes/Artemis versions score for fluency, assurance, and grandeur, Pressler’s insights are priceless, and we’d be poorer without them.

A 2016 recording of the Schumann A minor Quartet Op. 41 No. 1 fills out the disc. The Pacifica members make a compelling case for this inspired yet arguably sprawling work. They draw out the first movement’s introduction, giving little clue about the fierce Allegro around the corner and the sharply drawn dynamic contrasts with which they’ll characterize the music.

Ferocity also defines the ensemble’s hair-trigger articulation in the “Mendelssohn on steroids” Scherzo. The Presto sounds faster than it actually transpires, due to the players’ sophisticated balancing of lines and ever-so-discreet italicizations of harmonic felicities; rarely do you hear such fusion of forward drive and contrapuntal clarity as the Pacifica Quartet delivers. It’s an absorbing performance, notwithstanding my preference for leaner and edgier versions by the Zehetmair and Eroica Quartets.

– ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)

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Brahms & Schumann: Chamber Music / Pressler, Pacifica Quartet

~~$19.99~~ $14.99
CD

Cedille

Mar 10, 2017

CDR 170

Innovations - Left Hand Guitar Pieces

Musicaphon

Available as CD

$16.99

Feb 28, 2025

Due to an overload of the right hand and the resulting epicondylitis (golfer's elbow), Nicola Stock was initially no longer able to play the guitar normally. Inspired by Lars Wuller's "Left Hand Guitar Challenge" and due to the fact that guitar works for the left hand alone had hardly existed up to that point - unlike in the piano world, where numerous pieces by well-known composers such as Scriabin or Ravel already exist - the idea arose together with Professor Gerhard Reichenbach to commission new pieces from various composers and thus create a repertoire for the left hand alone that combines innovative ideas and old and new playing techniques. Nicola Yasmin Stock (*1998) is a multiple prizewinner in international guitar competitions. As a soloist, she regularly performs at festivals in Asia, Europe and South America and gives master classes. She studied classical guitar with Professor Gerhard Reichenbach at the University of Music and Dance Cologne/Wuppertal and has also taken part in numerous master classes with renowned artists such as Margarita Escarpa, Pavel Steidl, Judicael Perroy and many others. In addition to her current studies in musicology at the Robert Schumann University in Dusseldorf, Nicola Yasmin Stock is the artistic director of the Rotenburg Guitar Week and an instrumental teacher at the Bergische Music School. She is involved in a variety of chamber music formations and orchestras, including as conductor of the Dortmund Guitar and Mandolin Orchestra. Because of her special commitment to the largely unknown guitar repertoire of female composers, she was awarded a scholarship for female guitarists by the Equal Opportunities Commission at the Cologne University of Music and Dance. She is also involved in cross-disciplinary projects, such as the interdisciplinary annual project of the College of Music and Art in Montepulciano/IT.

Innovations - Left Hand Guitar Pieces

$16.99
CD

Musicaphon

Feb 28, 2025

M55728

In Heaven - Songs for a trip to space

Challenge Classics

Available as CD

$16.99

Jan 23, 2026

The third collaboration between mezzo-soprano Olivia Vermeulen and Jan Philip Schulze (piano/synthesizer), In Heaven follows their earlier themed albums Dirty Minds and Hello Darkness, albums which were highly rated and won, for instance, an Edison Award and a Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. While the first two albums explored earthly themes of eroticism and mortality, this programme turns upward toward the heavens. The concept imagines a cosmic odyssey, blending art song, contemporary music, pop, and psychedelic classics into a voyage through utopian visions, distant planets, and the eternal human fascination with space. Interspersed with NASA sound recordings, the album situates the listener between heaven and earth, fantasy and reality, intoxication and transcendence. The repertoire is strikingly eclectic: David Bowie's Life on Mars opens with real Martian storm sounds, while George Crumb, Brahms, Schubert, and Wolf provide lyrical reflections on stars, dreams, and transcendence. The programme flows seamlessly into Augusta Holm�s's exuberant drinking song Le vin, Rebecca Clarke's opium-tinged Lethe, and Grace Slick's psychedelic anthem White Rabbit. French and German masters like Saint-Sa�ns, Mahler, and Messiaen appear alongside Stockhausen's Tierkreis, Monty Python's satirical Galaxy Song, and Pink Martini's Una notte a Napoli. The album closes with Robert Schumann's radiant Abendlied, underscoring the dialogue between the infinite cosmos and human longing. Together, Vermeulen and Schulze create a soundscape that is at once virtuosic, witty, and deeply imaginative. Supported by percussion and bass in selected tracks, their performances draw on colour, theatricality, and stylistic versatility to transform familiar works into cosmic meditations. In Heaven ultimately reflects on humanity's dreams of escape, intoxication, and utopia while acknowledging the grounding reality of earthbound existence. The result is a kaleidoscopic journey-playful yet profound, rooted in classical artistry yet open to pop culture-that challenges boundaries and offers listeners a musical mission into space.

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In Heaven - Songs for a trip to space

$16.99
CD

Challenge Classics

Jan 23, 2026

CC 720038

CHIAROSCURO

Berlin Classics

Available as CD

$20.99

Jun 07, 2019

We are standing in a picture gallery of music. All around us we can hear snippets of the great works for string quartets, along with unfamiliar things to delight the ear; it is truly a music-lover's paradise. "Chiaroscuro" forms the conclusion of a rather special trilogy of albums by the Schumann Quartet and at the same time marks a journey's end. After searching for their own roots in "Landscapes" and engaging with their namesake Robert Schumann in "Intermezzo", the four musicians complete their trilogy with the album "Chiaroscuro", which in itself represents an equally exciting journey through time and temperament. By way of Mozart's arrangements of five selected fugues from Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier II" they look left and right into very different musical rooms. There are two early pieces for string quartet by Shostakovich, Philip Glass's "Company" string quartet, a short fugue by Felix Mendelssohn, and the six Bagatelles op. 9 by Anton Webern. The whole promenade culminates in Janácek’s last work, his Second String Quartet. "A few years ago we were even more inclined to do things 'the right way', or to fulfil other people's expectations of us." In recent years, the young musicians have progressively released themselves from these demands. And perfected their own. "We want our music to exist in the immediate moment, as we lose ourselves in it. For that to succeed, each of us must transcend their individual ego." Their focus is on the concert, and that is the way they have approached "Chiaroscuro": "We recommend everyone to listen to the whole album from beginning to end without a break." "Chiaroscuro" – Italian for "light and dark" – is the name of the programme. The Schumann Quartet combines works that could not be more different. They aim to show that despite the contrasts, the differences and discontinuities between such pairs as Mozart and Webern, Glass and Janácek, there are glimpses of common elements and evidence that many of the composers on display are brothers in spirit. It is a question of the "unity that the album forms", perhaps not in spite of, but just because of the contrasts. And when at the very end of the album, at the very end of the whole trilogy, we hear Gershwin’s "Lullaby", we cannot shake off the feeling that all this is such stuff as dreams are made of.

CHIAROSCURO

$20.99
CD

Berlin Classics

Jun 07, 2019

0301213BC

Imagination / Raphaela Gromes

Sony Masterworks

Available as CD

~~$11.98~~ $8.99

Oct 08, 2021

Raphaela Gromes has received acclaim for her highly virtuoso, brilliant and passionately expressive cello playing. What also distinguishes this exceptional musician is her enjoyment of the musical treasure hunt. With her last Sony Classical releases, she delighted critics and audiences with world premiere recordings of pieces by Richard Strauss and Julius Klengel. Her "Offenbach" album received the Opus Klassik Award 2020. For her new album “Imagination”, Raphaela chose imaginative music, music based on stories, on fairy tales. The wide selection includes a waltz from Tchaikovsky's ballet music "Sleeping Beauty," a "Fairy Tale Narration" by Robert Schumann, the "Evening Prayer" from Humperdinck's popular fairy tale opera "Hansel and Gretel", Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" and other dreamy, magical and highly poetic pieces by Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847), Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) and Franz Liszt (1811-1886). "Imagination" also presents less-known works by David Popper, Paul Juon, and rarities like "Märchenstunde" by the composer Margarete Schweikert, and "Forgotten Fairy Tales" by the New Yorker Edward McDowell.

Most of the pieces are newly arranged by Raphaela's duo-partner Julian Riem for violoncello and piano, but also for piano trio and for complementary harp and saxophone quartet. Raphaela Gromes recorded the arrangements with Julian Riem and musician friends such as Daniels Dodds (violin), Arcis Saxophone Quartet and Anaïs Gaudemard (harp). Raphaela Gromes came up with the idea for this album during a hike in the spring of 2020 - when she came across a particularly enchanted place in a forest at dusk. "The sky was reflected in the pond, and the backlighting caused a magic glow to emerge around the reeds and flowers, as if elves and fairies were floating in the light above the water", Gromes says: "The "Dance of the Elves" by David Popper came into my mind. I was immediately inspired and full of energy, and when I got home, I immediately went in search of more music that would take me into the world of magic and fantasy." The album ends with "The Shire" from "Lord of the Rings" and "Leia's theme" from Star Wars are both recorded in a new cover version for cello and piano.

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Imagination / Raphaela Gromes

~~$11.98~~ $8.99
CD

Sony Masterworks

Oct 08, 2021

19439913882

Elysium - A Schubert Recital / Sampson, Middleton

BIS

Available as SACD

~~$21.99~~ $15.99

Mar 03, 2023

The last years of Schubert’s life were clouded by illness, so thoughts of the afterlife cannot have been far from his mind. For their latest recital for BIS, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton present an all-Schubert recital themed around Elysium, the mythical idea of a blessed and happy eternal future, with texts that explore different states of the afterlife by well-known authors such as Goethe, Rückert and Schiller as well as by lesser-known ones. Opening with a hymn to the divine in nature, this recital in turn evokes distant realms, blissful eternity and dream-filled sleep, before concluding with a farewell to the earth; from the passion and doubt of Die junge Nonne (The Young Nun) to the beautiful and touching Du bist die Ruh (You are peace).

Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton have released several acclaimed discs for BIS, including Album für die Frau, a collection of songs by Clara and Robert Schumann and A Soprano’s Schubertiade, a Schubert anthology, named ‘Recording of the Month’ by MusicWeb International and ‘CD-Tipp’ by BR Klassik.

REVIEW:

I love it when a conceptual framework provides an occasion for performers to program music they might not always prioritize. This sagely programmed and beautifully sung (and played) recital of Schubert Lieder offers an attractive balance between Schubert’s most beloved songs and songs that rarely appear on recital programs – all connected via their texts’ exploration of the blissful attitude toward death exemplified in the concept of Elysium, from which this album takes its title.

This SACD boasts the superb sound quality that one associates with BIS. Hardly a damper sound or an audible breath intrudes on the performance; we are presented with the full dynamic range of each musician; and we hear the kind of warmth and resonance we might enjoy in a private chamber performance. I give this album my highest recommendation.

-- Fanfare

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Elysium - A Schubert Recital / Sampson, Middleton

~~$21.99~~ $15.99
SACD

BIS

Mar 03, 2023

BIS-2573

Romantic Trumpet Sonatas / Freeman-attwood

Linn Records

Available as SACD

$21.99

Feb 01, 2011

Freeman-Attwood's playing is notable for the beauty and freedom of line of his lyrical phrasing.' Gramophone

'He somehow manages to combine ringing clarity with creamy smoothness, pin-point intonation and effortless agility.' International Record Review

'Outstanding playing with a dynamic range of lively dialogue and solo lyricism in virtuoso style.' The Observer

'A multi-talented trumpeter.' BBC Music Magazine

Renowned for his outstanding technical and musical ability, as well as his unique re-workings of chamber repertoire, this latest album from Jonathan Freeman-Attwood introduces some fresh and unusual arrangements of well-known Romantic music for the under-explored medium of trumpet and piano duo.

The choice of Mendelssohn and Schumann, originally written for cello and violin respectively, allows Freeman-Attwood to demonstrate the melodic lyricism of the instrument as well as the thrilling execution a brass instrument can bring to intricate passage-work.

Grieg?s Holberg Suite has attracted arrangers since its composition; the opening Preludium is a brilliant vehicle for the trumpet and piano, fully showcasing the skills of the duo that have honed their skills over three albums.

These new transcriptions are beyond anything previously imagined for trumpet; they expand the boundaries of the trumpet as a solo instrument and deserve to take their place in the standard repertoire for the instrument.

As a trumpet player, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood has performed and recorded both as a soloist and as a member of various ensembles and has attracted plaudits from the press for his solo recordings.

Jonathan broadcasts regularly for BBC Radio 3 and is Principal of the Royal Academy of Music in London.

South African born Daniel-Ben Pienaar is an award-winning pianist whose live performances and recordings have won him widespread acclaim: 'a kaleidoscope of colours and textures' (International Piano).

Track Listing:
Edvard Grieg
1. Holberg Suite, Op. 40 - Praeludium
2. Holberg Suite, Op. 40 - Sarabande
3. Holberg Suite, Op. 40 - Gavotte
4. Holberg Suite, Op. 40 - Air
5. Holberg Suite, Op. 40 - Rigaudon

Robert Schumann
6. Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105 - Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck
7. Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105 - Allegretto
8. Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105 - Lebhaft

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
9. Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 58 - Allegro assai vivace
10. Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 58 - Allegretto scherzando
11. Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 58 - Adagio
12. Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 58 - Molto allegro e vivace

Karl Pilss
13. Sonata for Trumpet and Piano - Allegro appassionato
14. Sonata for Trumpet and Piano - Adagio, molto cantabile
15. Sonata for Trumpet and Piano - Allegro agitato

Total Timing: 70 minutes

Romantic Trumpet Sonatas / Freeman-attwood

$21.99
SACD

Linn Records

Feb 01, 2011

CKD370

Holt: Meandres

Brilliant Classics

Available as CD

$16.99

Jun 14, 2024

A mesmerising piano cycle by the master of Dutch minimalism. 'I write music like this not because I'm isolated,' Simeon Ten Holt once said. 'I'm isolated because I write music like this.' And yet, since his death in 2012, performances and recordings of his music have multiplied like one of his motivic cells, gathering energy and momentum to spread the reputation of a composer who took the rhythmic precepts of American minimalists such as Reich and Glass, and coloured them with a European-Romantic glow of harmony. Composed in 1995-97 for four pianos, Meandres is another monumental yet approachable piano cycle in the mould of his celebrated Canto Ostinato, more complex and more chromatic than the earlier cycle but sharing with it a hypnotic clarity and an improvisatory freedom which leaves a good deal of liberty to the performers. At first, there is no melody, in the usual sense of the word. However, over time, a pattern emerges like a puzzle taking shape before the listener. The title refers to the meandering course of rivers, which takes them to mountain slopes as well as lowlands. 'Because it is like a work in progress which never reaches closure,' remarks the composer, 'the meandering structure of the piece is quite demanding on the performers. It is the condensation of an inquiry into the very limits of time and space.' This recording of Meandres was made in 1999 by a team of Dutch pianists who had all worked with Ten Holt on his music, and accordingly it vibrates with disciplined authenticity. Sharp accents continually break and articulate the line and the restatement of the germinal motif, but it always loops back to a cadence which Robert Schumann would have recognised. Combining Baroque rigour with early-Romantic harmony and late-20th-century form, Meandres is both post-modern and timeless as an extension of piano literature.

Holt: Meandres

$16.99
CD

Brilliant Classics

Jun 14, 2024

BRI97005

Echoes — Bach's Breath and Chopin / Cord Garben

Musicaphon

Available as CD

~~$16.99~~ $12.99

Jan 03, 2025

Chopin is said to have played in time (the metronome was always on the instrument), his left hand relentlessly keeping the tempo. Students also reported that he never played a piece in the same way, and that each performance produced a different result. And yet the composer's rubato playing was by no means as free as it is today. There are no reports of Chopin's playing of Bach in particular, but his admiration for the composer is certain. We therefore put the legend that he himself—according to his own statement—played only Bach for fourteen days before a concert into perspective and simply imagine that he worked intensively on "Bach" before his already rare performances. We can assume that the preludes and fugues of the "Well-Tempered Clavier," some of which are also heard in this project, were the focus of his interest.

A closer look at Chopin’s works, especially those of a smaller dimension, repeatedly catches the eye of modules that we think we already know from Bach. Individual bars of the Préludes op. 28 (1836-1839) and Études (op. 10 no. 4) (1833/1837) could be retransformed into a nucleus in Bach’s character with just a few “hand movements.” Chopin’s veneration of Bach preserved these highly condensed musical tools of the Baroque composer well into the Romantic century. He still used them in his late works, such as his last Nocturne in E major, which in a sense takes stock of “Bach.”

This recording, which feels entirely experimental, aims to create a unique musical experience through the direct connection of tonal, for example key, variations. The sound of some structurally related works clearly shows how much Chopin was influenced by Bach's work, whose formal stability with its geometric structures often prevented him from sowing too much "tinsel, trinkets, and pearls," something Robert Schumann once had the courage to accuse his rival of. The aim of this project tempted us to play "Chopin like Bach" here and there and to achieve the greatest possible transparency with extremely economical use of the pedal. Above all, to breathe Chopin's breath into Bach's melodic beauties with a "romantic" touch. The approximately 40-year-old Steinway B grand piano was chosen because of its slim bass section.

On Sale

Echoes — Bach's Breath and Chopin / Cord Garben

~~$16.99~~ $12.99
CD

Musicaphon

Jan 03, 2025

M56993

Schumann, R.: 8 Novelletten

Thorofon

Available as CD

$18.99

Jun 01, 1988

Classical Music

Schumann, R.: 8 Novelletten

$18.99
CD

Thorofon

Jun 01, 1988

CTH2028

Schubert: Symphony in C, D. 944 "The Great" / Bernstein, BRSO

BR Klassik

Available as CD

~~$29.99~~ $23.99

Nov 01, 2024

Leonard Bernstein conducted regularly in Munich from the 1980s onwards. It was during this time that he came to appreciate and love the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in particular. In October 1976, Bernstein had appeared with an all-Beethoven program, and in 1983 he began a series of annual concerts with the orchestra. In 1987, he rehearsed Franz Schubert's Great C Major Symphony, which was performed in the Congress Hall of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. This BR-KLASSIK CD features not only the live recording of this concert event but also a rehearsal recording on a bonus CD, "Conductors in Rehearsal," which has been preserved in the sound archives of Bavarian Radio. Bernstein's warmth and friendliness, as well as his astonishingly good German, are most impressive.

Franz Schubert most probably composed his Great C Major Symphony in Bad Gastein in the summer of 1825. Chronologically speaking, it is his eighth symphony, although it is still sometimes referred to as his ninth. It can be assumed that Schubert, who had witnessed the first performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna in 1824, wanted to be on an artistic level with his much older colleague. He dedicated his work to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, in whose archives the score can be traced back to the end of 1826. However, it was not until 1839—after Schubert's death—that the history of its performance began, after Robert Schumann became aware of the work and organized its publication. In 1840, after the posthumous first performance by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy on March 21, 1839, Schumann formulated one of the most famous quotations about Schubert’s symphony, that of its "heavenly length." Because of the value the composer himself attached to it, and to distinguish it from the much shorter Sixth Symphony in the same key (therefore often referred to as the "Little C Major"), it was titled "The Great.

"The live recording was made on June 13 and 14, 1987, in the Congress Hall of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. In the rehearsal recording “Conductors in Rehearsal – Leonard Bernstein Rehearses with the BRSO in German,” Friedrich Schloffer (narrator) and Johannes Ritzkowsky (horn) can be heard alongside Bernstein.

On Sale

Schubert: Symphony in C, D. 944 "The Great" / Bernstein, BRSO

~~$29.99~~ $23.99
CD

BR Klassik

Nov 01, 2024

BRK900229

Schumann: Symphonic Études, Kreisleriana & Carnaval (Live)

Orfeo

Available as CD

$16.99

Jul 24, 1992

Classical Music

Schumann: Symphonic Études, Kreisleriana & Carnaval (Live)

$16.99
CD

Orfeo

Jul 24, 1992

ORF-C295921

Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 3; Ballades / Kantorow

BIS

Available as SACD

~~$21.99~~ $15.99

Dec 03, 2021

In 2019, when Alexandre Kantorow, at the age of 22, became the first French pianist to win the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky competition, his program included no less than three works by Johannes Brahms. Two of these, Piano Sonata No. 2 and the Rhapsody in B minor, he went on to record for release on his previous, highly praised recital disc, which was awarded distinctions such as Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice, Diapason d’Or, and Choc de Classica. The Brahms interpretations won Kantorow particular praise – the Guardian (UK) described them as ‘magisterial’ while the website ResMusica placed his sonata ‘among the great reference recordings of the piece – if not the modern one.’ There is much to look forward to, then, when Kantorow releases an all-Brahms album with a playing time of no less than 85 minutes.

He opens with music by a composer of a similar age as himself: Brahms wrote the Four Ballades in 1854 while only 21 years old, taking up a fashionable genre introduced by Chopin as late as 1840. The set is followed by the even earlier Sonata No. 3 in E minor which forms the center of the program. The sonata is of almost symphonic dimensions and it was indeed, along with its predecessors, famously described as a disguised symphony by no one less than Robert Schumann. To bring this stormy, impassioned album to a close, Kantorow has chosen a later, and contrasting work: With a lifelong admiration for Bach, Brahms in 1879 made a piano arrangement, for the left hand alone, of the iconic Chaconne from Partita No. 2 for solo violin – a composition that Brahms himself described as ‘a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful impressions’.

REVIEW:

When he made this recording in 2020, Kantorow was just a couple years older than the 20-year-old Brahms who composed the Piano Sonata No. 3. He finds a youthful quality in the sonata and the Ballades that nobody else has quite touched on. Kantorow's Ballades are mysterious, with ghostly quiet passages and mighty climaxes -- again, not what one thinks of usually for Brahms, but again carefully constructed. Only in the Bach arrangement does Kantorow falter a bit. However, he takes chances, and this is all to the good. If one needed any more evidence that Kantorow is a young pianist to watch, it is here in abundance.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

On Sale

Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 3; Ballades / Kantorow

~~$21.99~~ $15.99
SACD

BIS

Dec 03, 2021

BIS-2600

Widmann: String Quartet No 1 - 5 / Leipzig String Quartet, Juliane Banse

MDG

Available as CD

$23.99

Aug 01, 2008

WIDMANN String Quartets: No. 1; No. 2, “Choral Quartet”; No. 3, “Hunting Quartet”; No. 4; No. 5, “Attempt at the Fugue” 1 • Leipzig Str Qrt; Juliane Banse (sop) 1 • MDG 307 1531 (76:44)

Born in 1973, Jörg Widmann has two careers: as a clarinetist, he teaches at the Freiburg College of Music, performs regularly, and has recorded music by Beethoven, Brahms, Harald Genzmer, and Wolfgang Rihm; as a composer who studied under Rihm, Wilfried Hiller, and Hans Werner Henze, his works are piling up European prizes with remarkable frequency. In the latter role, Widmann exhibits an interesting postmodern (if that word still has any relevance) conceptualism. These five compact, one-movement string quartets, for example, though composed over a period of years (1997–2005), when combined suggest the macro-structure of a single quartet—that is, the individual quartets serve the function of an “introduction,” “largo,” “scherzo,” “andante/passacaglia,” and “finale: quasi-fugue,” respectively. Whether or not Widmann had this scheme in mind from the very beginning is hard to say, but there is internal evidence that unifies and enhances their relationship, thematically and dramatically.

One of the conceptual features of Widmann’s music is a fluid blending of historical sounds and styles. The Quartet No. 3, for instance, takes its nickname from the familiar “hunting” rhythm adapted, in this case, from one of Robert Schumann’s Papillons , which gradually unravels into a more contemporary fabric of melodic fragments and disrupted rhythms (Widmann calls it “splinterizing” and “skeletalizing” the form). Quartet No. 2 is a reflection on death influenced by Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ ; some of the sparse music is recognizable (mournful chords that could be direct quotes) and some indistinct (non-pitched timbral effects), but the effect, while engaging, is more scene painting than movement towards a musical or emotional resolution. The Quartet No. 4 offers a walking bass line and ascending and descending patterns along with chiaroscuro textures; the sounds grow more mysterious as they drift away from the passacaglia’s theme, being somewhat reminiscent of George Rochberg’s interplay of harmonic references in his string quartets. The Quartet No. 5, longest of the sequence and the only one with a vocal component à la Schoenberg’s Second Quartet, deconstructs fugal strategies into episodes of contrasting shapes and tempos, offering close echoes of (if not actual quotes from) the Grosse Fugue and Art of Fugue . As for No. 1, it rises from silence with small Webernesque gestures, turns vigorous and frisky, is interrupted by silences, but builds to a convincing conclusion.

Widmann’s quartets are attractive, thought provoking, and well conceived, and I believe they actually work better when heard together as a connected entity than standing alone, where the occasional missteps, such as the clichéd shouts in No. 3 and the familiarity of material in No. 5, would be isolated and magnified. The benefit of having them on a single disc is the ability to choose which way you’d like to experience them.

FANFARE: Art Lange

Widmann: String Quartet No 1 - 5 / Leipzig String Quartet, Juliane Banse

$23.99
CD

MDG

Aug 01, 2008

3071531-2

Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1 And 2

BIS

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Jan 01, 1987

Classical Music

Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1 And 2

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BIS

Jan 01, 1987

BIS-CD-361

PIANO WORKS: ETUDES SYMPHONIQUES & OTHER

ALTO

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Mar 08, 2011

Classical Music

PIANO WORKS: ETUDES SYMPHONIQUES & OTHER

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Mar 08, 2011

AOTL1136.2

SCHUMANN: CELLO CONCERTO & CHAMBER WORKS (LIVE)

ERATO

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$17.28

Jan 25, 2019

Cellist Gautier Capu�on is the constant presence in this programme of music by Robert Schumann. In the Cello Concerto his partners are Bernard Haitink and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and in a selection of chamber works his violinist brother Renaud and the pianist Martha Argerich. "Bernard Haitink is a wonderfully inspiring guide," says Gautier, "and Martha Argerich carries me along on the composer's waves of romanticism and passion." - Universally recognised as the finest cellist of his generation, Gautier Capu�on has a firm reputation as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. He is a regular performer with the Berlin Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony, NHK Symphony, and at festivals such as Verbier and Lugano, and has won several awards at the ECHOS and the Victoires de la Musique.

SCHUMANN: CELLO CONCERTO & CHAMBER WORKS (LIVE)

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CD

ERATO

Jan 25, 2019

EAO585774.2

Schumann, R.: Violin Sonatas (Complete)

Azica Records

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$18.99

Jan 01, 1995

Classical Music

Schumann, R.: Violin Sonatas (Complete)

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CD

Azica Records

Jan 01, 1995

ACD-71204