Classical Music

The three composers of the works selected for this recording represent, each in their own way, the synchronicity of the asynchronous during the 20th c. These contemporaries experienced most of the century, in particular the years surrounding WWII, as a formative musical period. While operating internationally they spent their lives maneuvering between different musical spheres and in the shadow of a constantly reiterated critical disdain for their music, whilst being commercially successful. The Vogtland Philharmonie and Stefan Fraas accompany pianist Donka Angatschewa.

These works for “mistuned” violins provide a programmatically unique and musically very satisfying foray into repertoire that was very popular in the 16th to early 18th centuries. There’s nothing stylistically groundbreaking here–it’s all well within the framework of Baroque practice; however the sound of the string instruments has an exceptional, undeniable vibrant quality owing to the special tunings, for instance re-setting the violin’s usual G-D-A-E tuning to A-E-A-C-sharp for works by David Pohle, Telemann, and Johann Kindermann. While you may not have heard of composers Jan Ignáz František Vojtz, David Pohle, or Johann Erasmus Kindermann, if you love Baroque instrumental style you will enjoy an immediate bond with their works, and the Telemann selections are the proverbial icing on the cake, especially the dazzling disc-closing Concerto in A major. The five-member Der Musikalische Garten gives uncompromising, energetic, technically faultless performances throughout this very generous (71-minute) program. Highly recommended, a gift for baroque music fans. -- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

It is important to Yunus Kaya to let his interpretation seem spontaneous, almost improvisational, with all the care of rehearsal. Ilona Eibenschütz, a student of Clara Schumann who met Brahms personally and visited him during his summer stay in Bad Ischl, was allowed to hear his Opera 118 and 119 by the composer himself. In her memoirs, she describes his piano playing as "very free-spirited - as if he were improvising - with heart and soul..." During the recording, Kaya wanted to make these two aspects palpable: the loneliness and introversion on the one hand, and the openness to the spontaneous in sound and tempo shaping on the other. No feeling, no pain can be felt and described in the same way every day. From this basic attitude, Yunus Kaya has sought the balance between fidelity to the musical text and artistic freedom of the performer.

The saxophone, especially the alto saxophone, is not necessarily a very busy instrument in the symphony orchestra. However, in addition to its formative tracks in jazz, in quite a few cases it has also left sound traces in the field of so-called ""classical music"" that are worth listening to. These traces are followed by the album ""Gravity Groove"" by the Finnish saxophonist Joonatan Rautiola. In addition to an interesting arrangement detour to Mozart's ""Kegelstatt Trio"", it also brings to life impressionistic or neo-classical gems such as Claude Debussy's Rhapsody for Alto Saxophone and Paule Maurice's Tableaux de Provence. With Charles Wuorinen's Divertimento and the title sonata by Tuomas Turriago, ""Gravity Groove"", Rautiola enters contemporary sound spheres with virtuosity and tonal refinement.

An album on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Astor Piazzolla. The arde Trio offers two world premieres on its debut release: Fresh and new arrangements by Omar Massa, which are congenially embodied by the unusual instrumentation of the arde Trio, allow not only the great "classics" of Tango Nuevo music to resound anew on this album, but also the new compositions of Omar Massa, who leads Tango Nuevo into the 21st century and is described by the press as the secret successor of the great Astor Piazzolla. Experience a fascinating journey through time!

The production with Reinhold Friedrich, Eriko Takezawa and Alisa Kratzer unites original works for trumpet and piano as well as arrangements for this instrumentation. One can only share Friedrich's regret that despite numerous, sometimes even exposed orchestral solos, there are no virtuoso solo concertos for trumpet by these composers. Reinhold Friedrich, a prolific performer on major stages around the world, is a professor of trumpet at Karlsruhe, a sought-after lecturer for master classes, honorary professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid and also in Hiroshima. Many of his recordings were awarded international prizes and got high press acclaim. Together with the versatile pianist Eriko Takezawa they form a perfectly harmonized duo whose repertoire reaches from Teleman over Gershwin to works by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

The world premiere of the Yiddish operetta MAZELTOV RACHEL'E became a sensational success at the Cologne Opera in June 2021. For this piece, the director and author Christian von Götz had musically collaged various numbers from the era of the New York YIDDISH OPERETTA between 1900 and 1920, given them new Yiddish lyrics and placed them in their own play context. Christian von Götz studied opera directing at the “Hochschule für Musik und Theater“ in Vienna and the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler“ in Berlin. He staged productions at Komische Oper Berlin, Oper Köln, Hamburgische Staatsoper, Oper Leipzig, Gärtnerplatztheater München, the opera houses in Lisbon and Odessa as well as at the Edinburgh International Festival, amongst others. His productions were repeatedly nominated as the seasons’s “Best production” in polls by the journal Opernwelt. In addition, he is one of the founding members of the ensemble MUSIKDEBATTE KÖLN, which presents contemporary cross-cultural issues on the opera stage. Christian von Götz and Musikdebatte Köln were nominated as “Young Artists of the Year” in the critics’ poll by the journal Opernwelt.

Of the six works recorded here by J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach and G.F. Telemann (father, son and godfather), only two of them were specifically composed for the oboe, namely the g-minor sonata by C.P.E. Bach and the a-minor sonata by Telemann. However, as Emma Black proves on this new release, each of these works translates beautifully to the oboe. Australian born Emma Black is the principal oboist with the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble (Thomas Hengelbrock) and principal and soloist with the Wiener Akademie (Vienna) and Le Concert de la Loge (Paris). With all of these orchestras she has performed in all the major European festivals and can be heard in numerous album and radio recordings.

Florian Klaus Rumpf’s new release A Mandolin’s Guide to Hamburg showcases music as lively and impressive as the port city in northern Germany. Florian Klaus Rumpf decided to put the mandolin at the center of his life at the age of seven. He studied under Professor Caterina Lichtenberg, Valerij Kisseljow, and Silke Lisko at the Wuppertal campus of the Academy for Music and Dance in Cologne (Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln). His solo work has focused on the versatility of the mandolin – from baroque mandolins through to the octave mandolin and liuto cantabile. Florian Klaus Rumpf works with composers, composes pieces himself, does research, and arranges in order to ensure that the literature for this array of instruments is constantly expanding.

When looking at the trusting musical encounter between flute and harp, it appears that a large number of scores have been unjustly neglected. This long list of works that have been hidden in the shadows underscores the perfect match between the two instruments and lends further legitimacy to their amicable bond. The ensemble Les Connivences Sonores was born in 2014 from the meeting between two musicians with inexhaustible curiosity, Odile Renault, flute and Elodie Reibaud, harp. From their common passion is born a whole project of discovery and rediscovery of a rich and magnificent original repertoire of chamber music. At its center is quite naturally the flute and harp duo, of which Odile and Elodie explore the astonishing extent of the repertoire, which goes from the 18th century to the present day, by means of extremely organic playing. The great romantic repertoire allows them to devote themselves to the carnal and virtuoso dimension of their respective instruments. The 20th century, meanwhile, never ceases to amaze them with its diversity of languages. Contemporary creation brings them the wealth of contact with composers and all aspects of research related to creation.

The present release is a showcase of chamber music for oboe, bassoon, and piano by Jean Francaix, Daniel Schnyder, Francis Poulenc, and Heitor Villa-Lobos. Christoph Hartmann began his career as an orchestral musician in 1991 with the Stuttgart Philharmonic, and the following year moved to Berlin. A teacher since 1993 in the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Orchestra Academy, in 1999 Hartmann, together with colleagues, founded the Landsberger Sommermusiken (Landsberg Summer Music), out of which evolved the Ensemble Berlin. Matthias Racz serves as Principal Bassoon for Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra since 2003, Principal Bassoon for Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Professor at Hochschule for Music and Theatre in Zurich, & artistic director for bassoon for The Muri Competition in Muri, Switzerland. Anna Kirichenko studied piano and composition at the Neshdanova University in her home town of Odessa, Ukraine. She continued her studies in piano with Professor Hans Leygraf at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Since her debut with the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra, she has worked in close collaboration with orchestras throughout Russia and Ukraine.

Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss were united by their deep relationship to literature and especially to poetry as a source of inspiration for it's musical interpretation and transcendence into a sphere of expression that reflected their own feelings about life. Nevertheless, both composers worked on their texts in very different ways. While Mahler adjusted the texts through a multitude of interventions - omissions, rearrangements, and even his own additions - according to need and expressive demand, Strauss stuck strictly to the poems. On this release Alois Muhlbacher performs an exciting program combining the lieder of both of these composers. He is joined by pianist Franz Farnberger.

Guy-Claude Luypaerts completed all his musical training at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris (Conservatoire National de Musique - CNSM). There he was awarded 7 prizes, including 1st prize for flute in the class of Jean-Pierre Rampal and 1st prize for composition in the class of Tony Aubin. His first works already reveal his outstanding talent as an orchestrator and his preference for concert performances and for wind ensemble. On this recording we experience Guy-Claude Luypaerts as a composer and musician. Together with the soloists Anne-Sophie Bertrand (harp), Jean Dub� (piano) Guy-Claude Luypaerts plays the flute. The Vogtland Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by himself, as well as by Pascale Jeandroz and Nathanael Carr�.

The three Preludes ex-Opus 19 recorded here - a world premiere - as well as the three Preludes Op.1, date from 1924 and 1925 respectively, when Kabalevsky was just beginning his composition studies at the Moscow Conservatory. Although the style of these pieces does not have much in common with that of the Preludes Op.38, composed 18 years later, they nevertheless testify to a great sensitivity and the composer's preference for the small form. They also tell us about the fascination that Scriabin presumably had for Kabalevsky, which is especially noticeable in these youthful works.

REVIEW:

Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-1987) composed several sets of preludes, of which the Chopin-inspired volume of 24 pieces is the most comprehensive. These 24 preludes were composed in 1943 and 1944 and are dedicated to Kabalevsky's teacher Nikolai Myaskovsky. It is one of many examples of music written in all 24 major and minor keys. They are rhythmically and melodically varied. The moods also vary constantly between gaiety, enthusiasm, humor, or wistful melancholy, tenderness and sadness. The Parisian pianist Raphael Epstein has brought out this diversity well, and the result is impressive. He differentiates the moods very well and leaves nothing to be desired technically.

-- Pizzicato