The third and final volume of the Berlin radio recordings by Cuban-born American pianist Jorge Bolet on audite presents repertoire novelties. With the exception of the Fledermaus paraphrase, all recordings are released for the first time. Once again, Bolet's performances document his universality and unceasing inquisitiveness, as well as his phenomenal musicianship and ability to adapt his virtuosity to diverse works. These recordings are therefore invaluable documents of a musician who today is justly considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. This selection comprises works of Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Dello Joio, Franck, Godowsky, Grieg, Liszt and Schumann. Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto did not form part of Bolet's regular repertoire: it is the only live recording on this edition. Further highlights include Schumann's Third Piano Sonata as well as major works by Chopin, such as the complete Op. 25 Études, in Bolet's masterful, lyrical interpretations. As an "encore", Bolet plays Godowsky's Concert Paraphrase of Strauss' Die Fledermaus.

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REVIEW:

As with its predecessors, Audite’s third and apparently final release surveying Jorge Bolet’s Berlin Radio recordings largely captures the great pianist in more congenial and communicative estate than revealed in his often diffident Decca releases from his last decade. It also contains works new to Bolet’s commercial discography, including a splendidly stylish and virile 1974 account of Beethoven’s “Emperor” concerto with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Moshe Atzmon. The pianist especially shines in the finale, where his runs and scale passages have both angular tension and poetic nuance.

Tonal and technical finesse thoroughly distinguish Bolet’s 1968 broadcast of Chopin’s complete Op. 25 Etudes; you’ll rarely hear No. 6’s double thirds so limpid and evenly dispatched (sound clip), nor such pearly legato articulation of No. 10’s octaves. In Chopin’s two Op. 40 Polonaises and the “Heroic” Op. 53, Bolet lets the music’s surface swagger take care of itself as he focuses on subtle variations of voicing.

A 1971 Chopin Op. 22 starts promisingly with an animated and gorgeously spun-out Andante spianato, yet the sectionalized and stiffly phrased Grande Polonaise that follows never gets off the ground. Neither does a 1961 Debussy Masques, but the Images Book II from the same broadcast taps into the allure and suggestion of this composer’s sound world. Bolet’s masterful performance of Norman Dello Joio’s Second piano sonata ought to make this inventive and cannily crafted work better known than it is. Another “new” Bolet work is Schumann’s Sonata No. 3, captured in a scintillating red-hot 1964 broadcast of the four-movement version. At the risk of offending purists, I welcome Bolet’s rather large cut in the admittedly rambling finale!

By and large, Bolet’s early-’60s versions of the Grieg Ballade, Franck Prelude, Aria et Final, and the Godowsky/Strauss Fledermaus transcription generally seem more incisive and spontaneous than in his later recordings. Throughout these archival recordings you get a realistic picture of Bolet’s luminous sonority and his sense of projection. This is the real Jorge Bolet.

– ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)

This new release is a live recording of one of the greatest conductors of the twentieth century, Paul Kletzki. Recorded at Lucerne, Kunsthaus, on September 7, 1946, this concert includes Brahms’ Symphony No. 4, Schubert’s Symphony No. 7 Unfinished, and Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3. The original recordings of this concert have been impressively remastered to preserve all of the nuances of this concert.

Andrea Lucchesini has called Franz Schubert’s late piano works his “recent great love.” Now he acts out this love in three albums for audite- masterful performances by the renowned Italian pianist whose interpretations are informed by his expertise in Beethoven as well as musical modernism. Trained under the guidance of Maria Tipo, Andrea Lucchesini gained international recognition at a very young age when he won the Dino Ciani International Competition at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Since then he has performed throughout the world with leading orchestras under conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, and others. In addition to his vast performing career, he is passionately dedicated to teaching. He currently teaches at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole where he also served as artistic director from 2008 to 2016. He serves as a jury member at numerous international piano competitions and was appointed Accademico di Santa Cecilia in 2008.

This third volume, five-disc set of early 1950s Amadeus Quartet high-quality radio recordings is dedicated to works of its eponym. These previously unreleased recordings from the archives of the RIAS feature eight of Mozart’s ten great string quartets, complemented by recordings of his four great string quintets with second violist Cecil Aronowitz. Also included is the recording of Mozart's clarinet quintet with Heinrich Geuser, one of the leading clarinetists of his time.

Deep emotions and sombre laments, the torments of Hell and the radiance of Paradise, and the sounds of celebration: the Staatskapelle Weimar and Kirill Karabits are continuing their partnership on the Audite label with Franz Liszt's symphonic poem Tasso: Lamento e Trionfo, his Symphony to Dante's 'Divina Commedia' and - a world-premiere recording - his K�nstlerfestzug zur Schillerfeier. Their three previous releases have all been acclaimed by the press. The works that Liszt wrote for the Weimar Hofkapelle in the 1850s are the very embodiment of a Romantic ideal, combining literature, philosophy and the visual arts to create emotionally intense music that is turned both towards tradition and to the future. As a bonus download (15 tracks) Audite presents Liszt's melodrama Vor hundert Jahren, for which his K�nstlerfestzug was initially meant as a prelude.

Andrea Lucchesini is one of Italy's most prominent pianists who has established his reputation with a recording series of the complete Beethoven sonatas as well as of chamber music (including for audite). His latest project is dedicated to the late piano works of Franz Schubert - a multifaceted musical cosmos in which Schubert liberates himself from Beethoven's influence and pushes forward far into the modern age. This is also true of the two works that Lucchesini now presents in the third and final volume of his highly acclaimed Schubert series. They could not be more different: whilst the G major Sonata, D. 894, opens with tender sounds which only gradually die out and seem improvisatory, the Sonata in C minor, D. 958, with it's robust opening chords reminds us of Beethoven's pianistic style. Schubert had deliberately opted for this as his point of departure, from which he then developed his own concept for a contemporary sonata. Andrea Lucchesini, born in Tuscany in 1965 and a student of the legendary Maria Tipo in Florence, magically does justice to both these contrasting works by immersing himself into the oscillations of one work and conjuring an urgent, dramatic force in the other.

As artists we are chroniclers of the emotions of a particular time, and if we are lucky our chronicles radiate a little, illuminating the path. Moritz Eggert's new disc shows how diverse are the paths he endeavors to illumine. With works both traditional and experimental we see the dramatic and aesthetic range of a great voice in 21st Century composition.

Continuing the recording series of instrumental music by Eduard Franck which already includes his Violin Concertos Op. 30 and Op. 57, and also his Symphonies Op. 42 and Op. 47, now presents Franck's orchestral works. Once again, we hear music of the highest technical quality as well as a characteristic idiom. All were written during the 1840s when Franck set out on his career as a composer, attracting the interest of the music critics who from this time onwards were increasingly to influence musical history. The works recorded here reveal an attractive amalgamation of classicist and progressive trends, referring on the one hand to Schumann and Brahms, and on the other to Wagner and Liszt. They more than hold their own as original contributions to nineteenth century instrumental music.

Classical Music

Jimin Oh-Havenith's interpretation of Franz Schubert's great Sonata in G major and Liszt's solitary Sonata in B minor reveals the elective affinity between two masterpieces of Romantic piano music. The program of this album not only juxtaposes major piano works by Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt, but also provides the opportunity to explore the relationship between two great composers of the nineteenth century who were unable to meet in person, but who had much more in common than merely their first name. Jimin Oh-Havenith was born in Seoul, South Korea. In 1979 she began her piano studies with Jin-Woo Chung at the Seoul National University. From 1981 to 1984 she continued her studies with Aloys Kontarsky at the Musikhochschule K�ln. In addition to her concert activities as a soloist, radio and album recordings, she also performed as a piano duo with her late husband Raymund Havenith. Jimin taught at the Hochschule f�r Musik, Mainz and the Hochschule f�r Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Frankfurt am Main. Since 2013 she is active as a soloist again.

Classical Music

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.

Joseph Haydn’s string quartets, often rated as the basis for playing quartets, represented far more than an obligation to the Amadeus Quartet. During their entire career, which spans four decades, they thoroughly and continually dedicated themselves to these works, especially those of Haydn’s middle and late periods. Most of their concert programs featured a quartet by Haydn and in their sonic legacy, Haydn’s string quartets make up more than a fifth of the total. The musicians held these works in such high esteem due, on the one hand, to their relative technical ease and, on the other, their high musical demands.

REVIEW::

This batch is devoted entirely to Haydn, and includes works that the Amadeus never recorded commercially: Opp 9/3, 20/5, and 33/2 (The Joke). For the last, the Amadeus cut a forceful profile in the scherzo and make an affectionate beeline for the gentle ‘joke’ at the close of the finale. Their playing of the F minor Quartet (Op 20/5) suggests implied parallels with Mozart’s G minor Quintet in the scherzo, while the lilting Adagio is given the loveliest reading imaginable. The C major Quartet Op 54 No 2 features a brief Adagio that can only be described as cantorial: the solo violin wails expressively over supportive chords, the effect not unlike the ‘beklemmt’ passage in Beethoven’s Cavatina (the Quartet Op 130). We’re given a complete recording of the Quartet from 1969 and that movement alone as recorded in 1950, both extraordinarily moving. Fifteen works are included overall (the majority originating in Haydn’s later period), including The Seven Last Words which is additionally available as a downloadable ‘extended version’ with German texts. An unmissable collection.

— Gramophone

January 8th, 2017 marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Carl Schuricht. This release of two live recordings made in 1961 and 1962 pays tribute to a renowned conductor who was only to enjoy great international fame in his old age - as one of teh last representatives of the generation of the old German conductors, and as a master of the classical and romantic repertoire. ''Neither recreating a facade nor exposing feelings'' was how Carl Schuricht once summarized his artistic credo. These two Lucerne live recordings document the compelling persuasiveness and the intensity that Schuricht's interpretational style - his tremendously inspired objectivity, entirely at the service of the music - could develop: in Mozart's final Piano Concerto, K 595 in B flat major, Schuricht proves to be a sensitive accompanist. Together with the French pianist Robert Casadesus he manages to strike the distinctive tone of this concerto between simplicity and noblesse, innocence and wisdom, buffa nad elegy. In cooperation with Audite, Lucerne Festival presents the ''Historic Performances'' series featuring outstanding concert recordings of artists who have shaped the festival throughout its history. The aim of this album edition is to rediscover treasures - most of which have not been released previously - 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, which has broadcast the Lucerne concerts from the outset.

Classical Music