Audite here presents the second volume of the complete recording of Robert Schumann's orchestral works. The series includes all the symphonies, overtures and concertos. Heinz Holliger and the WDR Symphony Orchestra have recorded the works with an orchestra of the same size available to Schumann. In so doing, they not only uncover the sonic ideal of the composer, but also its consistent and convincing realization. Holliger's performances draw on a lifetime study of Schumann the man and the musician.

The first of a three-part series of the famous Organ Symphonies this release commemorates the 75th anniversary of the death of organist composer and pedagogue Louis Vierne. These earliest of the Organ Symphonies steeped in rich timbres cyclic forms and the mysticism of Vierne's religious background are performed on the Goll organ of St. Martin Memmingen.

The violinist Franziska Pietsch and her Trio Lirico present their debut album on audite. In between the poles of preserving tradition and striving towards fin de siècle modernism, Max Reger composed three works between 1904 and 1914/15 featuring a particular sense of clarity which the composer associated with Mozart. Even at their premieres, the two String Trios and the late Piano Quartet each caused a sensation, not least as their compositional complexity, for which Reger was (in)famous, mostly runs underneath the surface, creating an easier listening experience. These tuneful and harmonically rich works which, at times, enter into direct dialogue with works of the past, are rarely heard, even though they represent important cornerstones of their respective genres. The Trio Lirico was founded in 2014 and soon established itself on the concert scene. The ensemble's varied repertoire ranges from classicism through to contemporary music. The three performers are brought together by their passion for chamber music; in addition, all three also enjoy solo careers. It is this soloistic influence within a chamber music formation that constitutes the trademark of the ensemble: the chamber music dialogue is conducted with soloistic passion without neglecting the ensemble's homogeneity. The result is a unique combination of enthusiastic and spirited music-making and attractive suspense. The Munich-based pianist Detlev Eisinger joins the ensemble for the Piano Quartet.

E. FRANCK Piano Trios: in E; in Eb, op. 22; in D, op. 53 • Swiss Pn Tr • AUDITE 97690 (74:21)


By now, readers should be somewhat familiar with Eduard Franck (1817–1893), following half-a-dozen or so appearances he has made here on recordings mainly of his chamber works. The Audite label, in particular, though not exclusively, has taken up the dual causes of Eduard and his son Richard with 15 or so discs devoted in large part to the two composers’ chamber music output; and, being the compulsive collector of 19th-century chamber music that I am, I’m proud to say I’ve acquired every last one of them. But there’s more to Eduard Franck than quartets, quintets, sextets, trios, and duo sonatas; among Audite’s offerings have been two violin concertos, a disc of concert overtures, and two symphonies.


This latest release, containing three of Eduard’s piano trios, holds no surprises if you’ve already acquainted yourself with one or another previous Eduard Franck release, but like those that have preceded it, this disc of piano trios does hold in store just as many musical felicities.


I use the word “felicity” with intent; for Eduard studied privately with the “Felix” of Mendelssohn fame, and mostly Mendelssohn is what you get with these three trios. It’s really hard to describe how brimming over this music is with sheer contentment in untroubled, joyful song. The nonstop rippling piano parts are shot through with Mendelssohn’s nimble keyboard work, and even Franck’s melodies are consistently constructed from intervals and phrases that are dead ringers for Mendelssohn’s melodic invention. If you find Felix’s two piano trios irresistible, you will be thrilled to know that Eduard Franck composed at least four piano trios just like them.


In fact, this is Audite’s second volume of Franck’s piano trios. The first (92567), on SACD, contained the trios in E Minor, op. 11, and D Major, op. 58, performed by a different ensemble of players than the Swiss Piano Trio on the current disc, which, for some reason, did not come to me on SACD. Also, be aware that if you purchased the Naxos CD containing Franck’s sonatas for cello and violin, plus the Eb-Major Piano Trio I recommended in 36:5, the trio is duplicated on this Audite disc. No matter, though; it’s worth the one duplication to get the two additional trios included on the present CD.


This is now my third or fourth encounter with the Swiss Piano Trio on record, and each one has elicited from me the highest praise. The ensemble’s recent Audite release on SACD of Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio led me to declare the Swiss Piano Trio one of the top ensembles on today’s stage in 36:6; and in a 35:1 review of Robert Schumann’s piano trios, Steven Ritter declared the Swiss Piano Trio’s Audite SACD an essential recording.


It seems only fitting that the Swiss Piano Trio, having already committed Mendelssohn’s two piano trios to disc on another Audite SACD—to which I gave an urgent recommendation in 34: 6—should now turn its attention to Mendelssohn’s musical doppelgänger , Eduard Franck. You cannot love 19th-century piano trios in general, and Mendelssohn’s piano trios in particular, and not love these trios by Franck. Considering Franck’s dates, the skewing of his catalog towards chamber works (though he did pen symphonies and orchestral scores), and his strong leaning towards a Mendelssohnian style, he bears comparison, I think, to his very close “French-though-I-prefer-to-be-German” contemporary, Theodor Gouvy (1819–1898).


I just don’t understand why previous Audite releases have been SACDs and this one isn’t. Perhaps there is a parallel SACD version, and I just happened to receive the standard two-channel stereo CD one. Anyway, with the music, performances, and recording being so beguiling, it would be churlish of me to complain. This is a must-buy recommendation.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

The Trio Lirico has programmed three composers who lived and worked on the Eastern side of the Iron Curtain until 1989: for Franziska Pietsch and Sophia Reuter this is music which - paraphrasing Goethe - they "search with their souls". "As children, we both lived in East Berlin and were close friends already", Franziska Pietsch explains about her violist colleague. "We therefore share personal history, a similar style of playing and a similar non-verbal way of communicating about this music. We just feel it." This personal form of perception, into which the Bremen cellist Johannes Krebs blends empathetically, is not irrelevant for this music which becomes accessible not just via the text but also to a high degree via the cultural and political environment in which it was written. Of course Krzysztof Penderecki (b.1933), following the political liberalization of Polish music from 1956, had the opportunity to tie in with avant-garde developments in the West and to create his very own and unique modernism. On the other hand, his generational colleague Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) and the older Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996) had, until the end of the Soviet Union, to assert their music in the face of massive harassment from the authorities which, in Weinberg's case, went as far as being arrested for anti-Semitic reasons. Born in Warsaw, Weinberg, who fled to the Soviet Union during the Second World War, kept in close contact with his friend and mentor Dmitri Shostakovich. Nonetheless, Weinberg's music is entirely unique, and his string trio of 1950 strikes a balance between popular tunes and references to Yiddish music. Alfred Schnittke, who found it hard gaining acceptance on account of his (Volga) German and Jewish heritage, composed his trio in 1985 for the birthday of his illustrious colleague Alban Berg - and, shortly after completing the work, suffered a life-threatening stroke, retrospectively lending this work a tragic note. The most recent work recorded here is by Poland's most eminent living composer, Krzysztof Penderecki: in 1991 he wrote his string trio as a great improvisation for three performers with a strict and wild fugue.

For this recording, Finnish violinist Elina Vahala and Dutch double bass player Niek de Groot have chosen and performed seven pieces, composed by six Europeans and one Korean. When a violin and a double bass come together, two sound spheres collide: particularly in recent times, many renowned composers have been inspired to create highly original realisations of such encounters. When a violin and a double bass perform chamber music together, it is a case of two instruments encountering each other when normally they are poles apart and play together only alongside additional parts and colours. This is where the composers who have come forward for this adventure of a violin and double bass duo link in: should contrasts be accentuated, or should the two parts be united to form one "super-instrument", as Erkki-Sven Tuur had in mind? Should the two instruments be protagonists in a "narrative", or do they appear as representatives of fundamental principles of human nature - as in the yin and yang, as drawn upon by the Korean composer Isang Yun? Whichever path is chosen, pairing the violin and the double bass is so fascinating that even busy composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki and Wolfgang Rihm have written magnificent and highly individual pieces for this combination. Violinist Elina Va¨ha¨la¨ is one of the most sought-after instrumentalists in the international music scene. She made her debut with an orchestra at the age of twelve with Sinfonia Lahti and was later chosen as Sinfonia Lahti's "Young Master Soloist." Dutch double bassist Niek de Groot is one of today's leading soloists. Originally a trumpeter, he started playing the double bass at the age of eighteen. Within an unusually short time he became principal bass with several European ensembles, including a ten-year tenure as first solo bass with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Franck’s string Quintets were written around 1845 and 1870 respectively, during a time of great demand for high-quality chamber music. Due to rapid development of bourgeois concert life, Franck proves to be one of the most original German-speaking composers of chamber music. The quintets satisfy both connoisseurs and enthusiasts alike thanks to their masterful command of contrapuntal techniques, and memorable melodic and thematic invention.

Classical Music

Audite continues the three-part complete recordings of Louis Vierne's organ symphonies with the third and fourth symphonies. Recorded at the Goll organ of St. Martin in Memmingen, the recording is characterized by the warm, soft sound of the organ. It's sound creates unobtrusive power and fullness, making a symphonic effect in the church interior and yet always remaining clear.

This outstanding new release is Volume 12 in the Lucerne Festival edition produced by Audite. In cooperation with Audite, Lucerne Festival presents outstanding concert recordings of artists who have shaped the festival throughout its history. The aim of this edition is to rediscover treasures- most of which have not been previously released- from the first six decades of the festival, which was founded in 1938 with a special gala concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini. These recordings have been made available by the archives of SRF Swiss Radio and Television. This edition represents a sonic history of the festival. This installment is a sensational archive discovery including two of Wilhelm Furtwangler’s favorites: a live recording of the Manfred Overture (1953), presumed lost until recently and now released for the very first time, alongside Beethoven’s Eroica and Schumann’s Fourth Symphonies, remastered for the first time using original tapes.

Carl Stamitz's Clarinet Quartets Op. 8 and Op. 19 are amongst the earliest compositions for clarinet and string trio and document the increasing significance of the clarinet in the second half of the eighteenth century. These quartets demonstrate Stamitz's profound understanding of the instrument and also allow an illuminating insight into his idiom. With his sensitive interpretations, Arthur Campbell manages to emphasise the cantabile quality of the clarinet, which dominates all the quartets recorded on this SACD.

Arthur Campbell was born in Canada and studied at the Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA, where he was taught by the renowned clarinetist and pedagogue Robert Marcellus. He has won numerous international and national competitions, including the International Clarinet Competition and the National Music Festival of Canada. An internationally sought-after clarinet virtuoso, Arthur Campbell has toured throughout the USA, Canada, Europe and Asia. He regularly presents international master classes at universities, conservatoires and conventions. Arthur Campbell was appointed professor at the Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids Michigan, where he has been teaching a class of clarinet students from across the globe.

The new Bronislav Gimpel Edition presents on three CDs all recordings made by the violinist between 1954 and 1957 for the RIAS Berlin, creating a striking profile of the artist and the broad stylistic range of his repertoire. This Master Release is of the finest audio quality as befits the artist, an "old school" virtuoso who had a profound effect on violin playing.

Sardanapalo, who prefers wine and concubines to politics and warfare, and Mazeppa, who dies with glory, having endured pain and humiliation: dramatic literary models, impressively set to music by Franz Liszt. Written at the same time, these works represent Liszt's ideas striving to unite literature and music, on the one hand modernising Italian opera and on the other advancing towards the symphonic poem in his orchestral writing. The Sardanapalo manuscript comprises the first act. For 170 years the material lay dormant in the Goethe and Schiller archive in Weimar: it was only in 2017 that David Trippett deciphered, edited and orchestrated the manuscript at the University of Cambridge. Kirill Karabits conducts the Weimar Staatskapelle: Liszt's orchestra in the city in which he composed the opera. Audite continues its series of the great Weimar Kapellmeister-composers.

Having already garnered a number of accolades sisters Mona and Rica Bard present a specially programmed pas de deux through eighty years of French piano music. At one and at two pinstruments they create a panorama of piano sound to animate the sometimes playful often elegant but always masterful music of Milhaud Ravel Bizet and Poulenc.

Classical Music

On this release the award-winning Quartetto di Cremona draws on sixteen years of giving concerts and making recordings. Leading Italian pianist Andrea Lucchesini joins the ensemble for the Piano Quintet. These two chamber works of Camille Saint-Saëns represent crucial stages in his oeuvre - the Piano Quintet, a work of early perfection, demonstrates his engagement with German Romanticism while the String Quartet, marks the transition into his late style.

Recorded between 1950 and 1964, these holiday carols are sung by some of the finest recital singers of that time, including Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Rita Streich, Erna Berger, Elisabeth Grümmer. In tandem with exquisite arrangements that transcend the usual sentimental tropes, these famed carols gain a gem-like quality with the RIAS Symphonie Orchester (today known as Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin).

Franziska Pietsch's recent recording of the Prokofiev Violin Concertos with large-scale orchestra is followed seemingly by the opposite: works for solo violin. What appears, at first sight, to be a contrast is in fact a logical continuation of her extensive discography, even an enhancement: whilst in her previous releases, Pietsch demonstrated her expressive range and intensive approach both as a brilliant soloist and as an eloquent chamber musician, she now faces the greatest possible reduction, namely a solo recital. This limitation demands incredible presence, power and intensity, for which Franziska Pietsch is predestined. From isolation, she draws depth and grounding; "less" becomes "more"; soleness transforms into greatness. For her solo recital, she has put together an individual choice of compositions which have accompanied her from an early age and which, for her, represent significant personal and artistic experiences. Prokofiev, to whose works she feels a particular affinity, is also featured here. Once again, Franziska Pietsch displays a compelling combination of technique and interpretation: her irrepressible creative force penetrates all technical challenges, never losing sight of her interpretation, every note forming part of her reading - a deeply personal recording of the solo sonatas by Bartók, Ysaÿe and Prokofiev. Bartók's solo sonata, written for Yehudi Menuhin in 1944, and the six sonatas Op. 27 by Ysaÿe are amongst the most prominent twentieth century compositions for violin. Bach, the great paragon, is present in all these works. From Ysaÿe's cycle, Pietsch has chosen the particularly striking Sonatas Nos 2 and 3 which are dedicated respectively to the violinists Jacques Thibaud and George Enescu. As an "encore" she plays the solo sonata Op. 115 by Sergei Prokofiev which had been intended for ambitions violin students.

This release showcases Jeroen Berwaerts' musical versatility on several levels: he developed the concept of this album, performs as a trumpet soloist and jazz vocalist and directs the ensemble. Jeroen Berwaerts and Salaputia Brass prove congenial partners on the same wavelength. The Belgian musician does not believe in genre boundaries. He performs early music equally naturally as he does new music or jazz. No matter how diverse the musical styles, Berwaerts always looks for, and finds, one element in particular - a soulful profundity. "Signals from Heaven" combines spirituals and spiritual music by Takemitsu, Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Gershwin and Ellington. Historically, stylistically and geographically speaking, these musical styles could hardly be further apart. Listening carefully, however, it becomes apparent how close they can be. Defying the confines of epochs, continents and genres, they form a new harmony. This search for a soulful profundity in music unites all participating artists, as well as the aim of connecting people through music. Jeroen Berwaerts' concept does not represent "crossover" but a combination of voices which have something to say to one another. And they do - the concept is audibly successful.

Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

Edvard Grieg: Symphonic Works Vol. I present two of the composer’s principal collections on 180g vinyl LP: the first Peer Gynt Suite, Op. 46 and his four Symphonic Dances, Op. 64. Eivind Aadland's roots in the tradition of Norwegian folk music influence his interpretations. Grieg's connections with Germany stretched from his Leipzig studies to his numerous concert performances and extraordinary circulation of his works there. This recording, with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Köln, represents on several levels a German-Norwegian synthesis already in existence during Grieg's lifetime.

With seven commissioned works, eight world premieres and first recordings, these new pieces for brass ensemble are worth listening to at every moment, always enjoyable and never aloof or elitist. As dedicatees and performers of the works they themselves commissioend, Salaputia Brass significantly enriches the repertoire and range of recordings for brass ensemble. The members of Salaputia Brass met already as young musicians while playing for the Bundsjugendorchester, before forming the ensemble in 2007. Their success story began when they won First Prize at the Jugend musiziert national competition, continuing with a prize at the International Competition for Brass Ensembles in Passau. Today many of the ensemble's members hold solo positions in such leading German orchestras as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Gurzenich-Orchester Koln, Konzerthausorchester Berlin and several others.

Following the successful release of Volume I in the complete edition of Beethoven String Quartets with the 'Quartetto di Cremona', audite now continues the series. The choice of works for the second volume refers to two periods during which Beethoven turned away for good from the culture of music amateurs of the late eighteenth century. The Quartets Op. 59 of 1806, commissioned by Count Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky, were written for Vienna's most famous professional string quartet, led by Ignaz Schuppanzigh. Beethoven's musical language is no longer balanced and well-seasoned, as that of his contemporaries, but is extreme in every respect: ruthless and with feeling, dramatically operatic and full of contrapuntal finesse. The 'Quartetto di Cremona' contrasts this work from Beethoven's mature phase with his opus 127 of 1824. It is this work in E flat major with which the already deaf Beethoven began his series of late works, received by his contemporaries with alarm, but by posterity with admiration. For a long time after the dissolution of the 'Quartetto Italiano' in the 1980s, no Italian string quartets seemed to come forward to seek international renown. The four young musicians from Genoa, however, who formed the 'Quartetto di Cremona' following their studies in the violin making town of Cremona, have revived Italian string quartet playing. Since it's foundation in 2000, the ensemble has developed into the best quartet of it's country, and also into one of the most prestigious and imaginative quartets within Europe. This status is documented by the audite recording series of the complete Beethoven String Quartets which was started one year ago - a touchstone for all string quartets in it's textual dimension, as well as in it's technical demands.

"•Between 1899 and 1930, Vierne wrote six organ symphonies of hitherto unknown richness in timbres, mysticism and cyclical architecture. • With this volume, the three-part audite recording of the six Louis Vierne organ symphonies is complete. • The St. Martin Goll organ creates unobtrusive power and fullness of sound yet remains clear. • The work's polyphonic structures become distinct and the transparency of sound permits freshly considered tempi. Hans-Eberhard Roß is Director of Church Music in Memmingen."

This debut audite album by the virtuoso PianoDuo Takahashi|Lehmann, focusing on three orchestral and ensemble masterpieces, explores the multifaceted cosmos of piano duet transcriptions. Each arranged for piano duet by their own composers, these Beethoven, Schumann and Schönberg transcriptions come alive thanks to the suspense between the piano's own sound and the suggestion of colors which do not form part of the instrument's spectrum. Founded in Berlin in 2009, the duo has performed in many European countries, South Korea and Japan.