Classical Music

The Quartetto di Cremona has spent over three years working on its recording series comprising all twenty string quartets as well as the two string quintets by Ludwig van Beethoven - a gigantic project which most ensembles tackle at a more advanced age. However, the Quartetto di Cremona, founded in 2000, wanted to experience it sooner. The audite Beethoven cycle, with itsexciting blend of spirit, precision and sense of sound - the Quartetto diCremona's trademark - has its finger on the pulse: the success was so immediatethat, following the first volumes, concert halls across Europe and the USinvited the ensemble to perform: in many quarters their recordings enjoyreference status. Thanks to studying Beethoven so thoroughly, the ensemble'sbroad repertoire has gained a new level of intensity and their playing culturehas been honed even further, both in terms of detailed expression and ofoverarching gestures and contours. The final volume of the edition opens withthe third of the Op. 18 Quartets with which Beethoven introduced himself as acomposer in 1800 - six quartets which indeed all tell their own "story". Fromthe tentative beginning, cautiously drawing the listener in,through to the tempestuous concluding tarantella, every bar of the Quartet in Dmajor is replete and carefully considered. Beethoven's debut quartet is contrastedwith the so-called "Harp Quartet" Op. 74, featuring yet another formalsolution. A cunningly conceived first movement with prominent plucked "harpnotes" is answered by the finale, where Beethoven reuses a (discarded) numberfrom his incidental music to Goethe's freedom drama Egmont as a theme and variations - a clear indication of the factthat the composer, in 1809, at the time of the Napoleonic Wars, lived throughpolitically precarious times.

This release features a live concert recording from St Petersburg. Beethoven composed a total of eight works for cello and piano, whose sheer joy and ingenuity are hard to beat and are wonderfully captured in this live recording. The French cellist Marc Coppey and Peter Laul, his St Petersburg partner at the piano, perform these works with great character and energy, creating an impeccable, sparkling sound in the popular variations and substantial sonatas. Even in a live situation, the technical perfection of the performers is impressive. As a venue for their "Beethoven marathon", they opted for the Small Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonia: its historical ambience, steeped in tradition, and the supremely attentive audience create atmosphere as well as inspiration. Both are features of this recording, setting it apart from other complete recordings of these popular works, most of which are studio recordings. The hall's resident Steinway and the recording equipment from the former Melodya studios complete the Saint Petersburg ensemble.

REVIEW:

Coppey and Laul put forward a highly effective case for this great music. Their sound is well balanced, the recording much more satisfying. There seems very little audience noise and no applause, and the players are technically remarkable. These two musicians play together as one, and their sensitivity for when to pause and how to make the most of Beethoven’s music is just as I would wish to play it myself. In a word, these are outstanding interpretations of some of the greatest cello music.

– American Record Guide

"Previously unreleased. This small trove of live recordings from conductor Claudio Abbado from the Lucerne Festival, approved for release by the conductor himself, is being issued in memory of his recent passing (Jan. 2014). The extensive multi-language booklet contains a portrait of Claudio Abbado by Peter Hagmann tracing the conductor’s long-standing activities in Lucerne; also included are previously unpublished photos from the Lucerne Festival archives."

The Divertimento for violin and piano by Stravinsky was written in 1932 as an arrangement of his ballet Le Baiser de la Fee. The sonata for violin and piano by Shostakovich was composed in 1968 on the occasion of Oistrakh’s 60th birthday. The two pieces could hardly be more disparate: Stravinsky’s work is a spirited homage to Tchaikovsky, whereas the Shostakovich is profound and mysterious. Both works, however, share a preference for an allegorical idiom and symbolism.

News of the death of Nikolai Rubinstein came as a great blow for Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky decided to dedicate a piece of music to his late friend - not a classical work for choir or orchestra but one for piano trio. The memory of Rubinstein evidently enraptured him to the extent that he burst all dimensions with his his monumental Trio Op. 50, which encompasses all range of emotion and presents a musical and technical challenge to any piano trio. The Swiss Piano Trio, founded in 1998 with Martin Lucas Staub (piano), Angela Golubeva (violin) and Sebastien Singer (cello) has won numerous prizes at international competitions, including the International Chamber Music Competition Caltanissetta in Italy and the Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria.

Two of the most popular string serenades: Dvor�k's Serenade for Strings is full of melodic ideas and sensual melodiousness in a Bohemian tone. Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings is a sumptuous work, a "symphony without winds" so to speak, and combines rococo elegance with great romantic gesture. The BCO was founded in 2007 by Japanese conductor Toshio Yanagisawa in order to foster understanding among the Balkan nations, shaken by ethnic conflicts. Since then, the BCO has served as a cultural bridge connecting people through music, for many years now also around the world. The BCO consists of excellent musicians who serve as principal string players in orchestras of their home countries and take leading roles in the classical music scene in these Balkan countries. Despite the difficulties to promote classical music during the recovery process after the political conflict, the BCO's has been able to improve it's musical quality tremendously.

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.

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

A young duo introduces itself. The interpretations of Cheng² Duo are steeped in a rare balance of an unfiltered, youthful joy of playing and enthusiasm on the one hand, and mature, profound and advanced interpretations on the other, always demonstrating technical perfection: they command attention from the first note. Bryan and Silvie Cheng are brother and sister; he is a cellist, she a pianist, and together they are the Cheng² Duo (pronounced Cheng Squared Duo), now presenting their debut album. These two Canadian artists are children of Chinese immigrants: she was born in Tokyo, he in Ottawa; today, he lives in Berlin, she in New York - cosmopolitans, therefore, with a diverse cultural background. Both are young, barely or around twenty years of age: audite's youngest artists to date, which also reflects the label's strong commitment to its performers. This first disc makes the panorama of French chamber music written between the 1860s and the 1910s come alive in all its diversity: from multiple-movement works whose composers mainly drew on Beethoven and the German romantic composers, through to character pieces which formed part of the repertoire performed in sophisticated salons. Principal trends, some of which were devoted to one another by way of trenchant polemics, are represented by works of César Franck, Camille Saint-Saëns and his student Gabriel Fauré, as well as Claude Debussy. The performers have not only proved an instant success as Cheng² Duo - stepping in at short notice at Carnegie Hall and impressing both the audience and the promoter to the extent that they were immediately re-invited - but have also won renowned awards as soloists, each in their own right.

The Swiss Piano Trio's sixth and final release featuring works for piano trio by Ludwig van Beethoven presents two early masterworks and real rarities: adaptations for piano trio of Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 and his String Quintet Op. 4, based on his Octet Op. 103 and reworked by the composer himself (this piano trio is therefore a double adaptation of the octet). Both piano trio adaptations were published by Artaria in Vienna in 1806. Whilst it is not documented who arranged the string quintet for piano trio, the Second Symphony was adapted by Beethoven's pupil Ferdinand Ries in collaboration with Carl Czerny and under the supervision of the composer. The result is a resplendent realization of an ingenious orchestral work which greatly astonished contemporary audiences. The magnificent version for piano trio facilitates a renewed encounter with a work which is still unjustly overshadowed by the Eroica Symphony.

This is the fifth release in the series The RIAS Amadeus Quartet Recordings. This installment is dedicated to nineteenth-century Romantic composers. The Amadeus Quartet included a wider repertoire in the broadcasting studio than in the recording studio. Works by Edvard Grieg and Robert Schumann interpreted by the Amadeus Quartet can be heard here for the first time. Five works in this edition represent novel repertoire that the Amadeus Quartet never recorded on LP: Dvorak’s Piano Quintet, Grieg’s String Quartet, Mendelssohn’s String Quartet, and Schumann’s String Quartet and Piano Quintet. Only half the works recorded here belong to the string quartet genre. The Amadeus Quartet enjoyed collaborating with other musicians and did so often. In the three piano quintets by Brahms, Dvorak, and Schumann, they performed together with pianist Conrad Hansen, who had appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic under Wilhelm Furtwangler in the 1940s. In the string quintets by Brahms and Bruckner, the Amadeus Quartet is joined by South African-born Cecil Aronowitz- the musician they always turned to when in need of a second violist. And in Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet we hear Heinrich Geuser, regarded as Germany’s leading clarinetist in the 1950s.

Following Sergei Prokofiev's works for violin and piano, Franziska Pietsch now presents an album featuring both Violin Concertos of the Russian composer, with whose oeuvre and idiom the artist - a former promising star of the GDR - has felt at home ever since her youth. Alongside Cristian Macelaru and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin she presents a thrilling new recording. The two violin concertos represent two phases in, and two sides of, Prokofiev's life and work. The first was written during an era of early successes, stylistically and temporally close to his Symphonie classique, but not premiered until he was in exile. The second mirrors the itinerant existence of his life as a musician in exile, but also his longing to return to Russia. Franziska Pietsch, the "Anne-Sophie Mutter of East Germany" (W. Dulisch). From promising star of the GDR with a burgeoning solo career to boycott, via a new beginning, chamber music and leading orchestras, back to being a soloist and enriched by a transformed understanding of her own role: with this recording of the Prokofiev Violin Concertos, Franziska Pietsch has come full circle. Thanks to her intensive engagement with chamber music and her experience as a concertmaster, Franziska Pietsch's performances as a soloist are not only world-class, but also characterised by an exceptional sense of chamber-like intimacy.

An outstanding violinist of the 20th century - Wolfgang Schneiderhan, born in Vienna in 1915, was concert master of the Vienna Philharmonic for many years before turning to his solo career entirely. Although Schneiderhan possessed enormous technical prowess, he never entered the territory of pure virtuoso concertos or sensational solo pieces. Instead, his dexterity always underpinned a well-articulated tone, a cultivated breath of modulation and a highly differentiated dynamic pallette. The natural and genuine nature of his playing was, justifiably, praised again and again. The range of Schneiderhan's repertoire is also displayed in these three Lucerne live recordings, now released for the first time. His commitment for the music of his time becomes particularly evident: he performs Henze's highly virtuosic First Violin Concerto alongside Martin's Magnificat.

Andras Schiff has been closely associated with Lucerne Festival for 35 years. These live recordings from 1998/99, now released for the first time, present him interpreting two masters of the miniature: Schiff performs the short pieces with a love of risk, a great art of characterisation and a tremendous sense of sound.

Magnificent sacred music with trumpets and timpani, crowns and concludes the five-part series dedicated to the music of Gregor Joseph Werner. The album unites four multifaceted world premiere recordings that present Haydn's predecessor at Esterh�zy Palace as a forward-looking master of his time.

Jean-Baptiste Dupont performs transcriptions of works by Johann Sebastian Bach on the organ of Saint-Sernin. The layering of composition, transcription, instrument, and interpretation emphasizes the polyphonic depth and dynamic colouring of the pieces. Timeless masterpieces merge with the expressive potential of the Cavaille-Coll organ, itself a masterpiece of the 19th century.

Three live recordings from Lucerne, released for the first time, commemorate Vaclav Neumann, one of the most distinguished podium stars of the so-called Eastern Bloc. As chief conductor of the legendary Czech Philharmonic Orchestra for many years, Neumann was regarded as an accomplished advocate of the music of his homeland in particular, which he shaped without sentimentality, but rather with a sense of form, a love of detail and a singing espressivo. "I am a Czech through and through," Vaclav Neumann once confessed - thus subliminally hinting that even in the politically turbulent times of the Cold War, he could not imagine any other homeland than Prague. Czech identity was also his artistic trademark, especially during his years at the helm of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, which he conducted from 1968 to 1990 and established as a cultural ambassador for his country on countless tours. The impetus for his international career, however, came from the GDR, where Neumann worked at Walter Felsenstein's Komische Oper in Berlin and later as Gewandhaus and opera conductor in Leipzig - a position steeped in tradition, which he resigned in 1968 in protest against the events of the "Prague Spring". In the summer of 1969, the Czech Philharmonic was the first orchestra from beyond the "Iron Curtain" to perform at the Lucerne Festival - under Neumann's baton, of course. Four further guest appearances followed between 1984 and 1990, including thrilling interpretations of Dvorak's Eighth Symphony, his late tone poem The Wood Dove and the prelude to Smetana's opera Libuse. Neumann never lapses into national emphasis, instead seeking a balance between richly nuanced lines - the trained violinist and violist spoke of the "singing orchestra" -, strict form and precise realisation of the musical text. All three live recordings are first releases. The 32-page, trilingual booklet contains a portrait of the conductor by Michael Struck-Schloen and shows previously unpublished photos from the festival archive. In cooperation with audite, Lucerne Festival presents outstanding concert recordings of formative festival artists in the "Historic Performances" series. The aim of the edition is to unearth hitherto largely unpublished treasures from the first six decades of the Festival, which was born in 1938 with a "Concert de Gala" conducted by Arturo Toscanini. The audio documents come from the archives of SRF Swiss Radio and Television, which has regularly broadcast the Lucerne concerts since the beginning. They have been carefully restored and supplemented with material and photos from the Lucerne Festival archive: a festival history in sound.

After Salve Reginas, Pastorellen, the C minor Requiem, masses and motets, audite now presents the fourth part of the excursion into the work of Haydn's predecessor. The recording, a multi-faceted compendium of fugue, explores the musical connections between Antonio Caldara and his pupil Gregor Joseph Werner. It culminates in the Requiem in G minor, a retrospective by the composer before his death. Werner used madrigals by Caldara and thus reflects his own artistic career as well as the influence of his teacher, the Venetian vice-chapelmaster Antonio Caldara.

Musical individuality rather than symbiotic fusion: on historical instruments, but with the greatest expressive freedom, the musical details of Beethoven, Schubert, and Vorisek's works from early-nineteenth-century Vienna speak directly to the listener.

An exciting listening adventure: The "Ten Preludes" by Sofia Gubaidulina from 1974 merge with the Allemandes from Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suites into a fascinating dialogue between past and present.

Antonin Dvorak's 'American' chamber music works are the fruits of a happy, carefree time. And this is reflected in the music: colourful, vibrant, imbued with the musical and scenic impressions he gathered in the bustling metropolis of New York and during his summer holidays in rural Iowa. Antonin Dvorak spent a happy time in America in the early 1890s. As director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York, he was generously paid, and concert audiences adored him. Some of his most famous and beloved works were created in the United States, including the 'American' String Quartet, which uniquely combines landscape painting and emotional expression in chamber music. Unjustly overshadowed by this piece is the String Quintet in E flat major, also known as the 'American' Quintet: a colourful, masterfully crafted work in which Dvorak sought to capture the spirit of Native American music. Both works have been among the Mandelring Quartett's favourites for many years. However, the Humoresques, Op. 101 were a new discovery for the ensemble. Presented here in a first recording of an arrangement for string quartet, they include the immortal melody that the Comedian Harmonists made into a hit, titled "Eine kleine Fruhlingsweise".

Bach's trio sonatas, once written as teaching pieces for his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann, show Johann Sebastian Bach at the zenith of his compositional art: three independent voices engage in a captivating dialogue, combining cantabile melodic lines with an artful yet natural-sounding counterpoint - all embedded in an experimental formal design and balanced proportions. Martin Neu makes this core repertoire his own with his lively and eloquent interpretation on the Ahrend organ in Herzogenaurach. The unusual directness and proximity to the pipework of the organ, combined with the excellent acoustic conditions, create a unique sound experience. For the first time, this is also available immersively in Dolby Atmos - a sonic innovation that allows the music to be experienced with unprecedented intensity.

Even their genesis seems mysterious: manuscripts of Johann Sebastian Bach's toccatas have not survived. However, it is assumed that the works were composed in the years of his Arnstadt and early Weimar period, when Bach was gradually working his way up to become a renowned organist. And it is no wonder that he chose the toccata as the playground for his development: since the days of the Roman Girolamo Frescobaldi, the toccata was a kind of musical laboratory in which one could try out anything with impunity. There are virtuosic, glittering improvisations next to strict but extremely energetic fugues, expressive arias next to lively, folksy dances. Bach has thus compiled entertaining suites and potpourris with great freedom, but always allowing them to breathe under great dramatic arcs. Jonathan Ferrucci is certain that the toccatas are among Bach's most interesting piano works. 'He is bubbling over with ideas and always creates abrupt contrasts when you least expect them. There is this wild, youthful energy with which he explores all the affects and formal possibilities of the music of the time. And when I play, I feel as if I'm composing the music together with Bach in the moment - that's because of this incredible spontaneity and his delight in invention.' Born in Florence to Italian-Australian parents, Ferrucci's childhood was already characterised by the glorious history of the Renaissance and Baroque periods and the vast Australian landscape.

Gabriel Fauré, a master of song, piano, and chamber music, particularly appreciated the modulation-rich sound of the Érard grand piano. Its rich overtones and clear bass tones made it the ideal instrument for the French salon. This release presents not only Fauré's musical vision but also the sound world of the Érard grand piano, which played an important role in the musical scene at the time. Marc Coppey fully embraces the fluid rhetoric of Fauré's musical language. His interpretation deliberately eschews stylistically unfamiliar permanent espressivo and instead delves deep into the nuances and facets of Fauré's compositions. "Fauré authentique" thus presents not only musical brilliance but also an authentic journey through the French composer's complete works for cello and piano, embedded in the beautiful sound of the Érard grand piano.