Walter Braunfels is a composer whose music died twice: Once when the Nazis declared his music “degenerate art”. Then again when post-war Germany had little use for the various schools of tonal music; when the arbiters of taste considered any form of romantic music – almost the whole pre-war aesthetic – to be tainted. This 7th release of Capriccio’s Braunfels Edition shows again his large range of colorful music and focus this time on his early great Orchestral work Fantastical Apparitions Of a Theme by Hector Berlioz, Op. 25 (1914-1917) - the first complete recording of this amazing composition, compiled with his last orchestral work, the Sinfonia brevis op. 69 (1948).

REVIEW:

Aside from hearing the Berlioz Variations in their splendid entirety, the interpretations here are also worthy. Buhl leads them with dramatic motion, pointing up their considerable orchestral flair.

– American Record Guide

Isang Yun’s works are inconceivable without the East Asian philosophy of the Tao. The more than one hundred works composed by Isang Yun in Europe combine national tradition with international modernity. Yun found his way to an individual sound in Europe through the reminiscence of Chinese-Korean court music. Furthermore, the oeuvre is characterized by the flexible, lively tone of the traditional music of his home, by the art of the flowing transition from the spirit of the Tao. The chamber music occupies an important role in Yun’s oeuvre; the composer experimented with not only the most diverse and also unusual combinations of instruments, but also continued to compose in traditional classical genres. The present release features his East-West-Miniatures, his Quartet for Oboe and String Trio, and more.

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REVIEW:

Yun radically cut sections from his 1991 Sonata for violin and piano shortly before its premiere, ostensibly to reinforce the transparency of the violin part. In Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer’s view this was a mistake, and here Egidius Streiff and Kaya Han deliver a majestic performance of the original version in what is its first recording. By Yun’s standards the opening is rather conventional, with the expressive violin singing over the piano’s chordal, punctuating accompaniment but this soon develops more unpredictably, with a rapid piano episode echoed by the violin in lively, almost neo-classical vein. Essentially the first part of the work is mercurial and turbulent, at times almost Bartokian. But the second part is slow and, reflective. There is a magical passage at 15:00 which is prayer-like in its simplicity, whereby Streiff’s violin almost seems to speak. The sonata’s conclusion is profoundly affecting as the work evaporates into nothingness.

It is largely down to CPO, ECM and Capriccio (three German labels) that Isang Yun’s legacy is primarily being maintained and reinforced. Connoisseurs of the finest modern music have much to thank them for.

– MusicWeb International

The both hailed from Russia, and they were contemporaries. But their biographies could hardly have been more different: Igor Stravinsky and Dmitri Shostakovich. The one was an urbane dandy, and the other an introverted melancholic. Both were deeply rooted in the music of their homeland, Stravinsky in the wealth of myths and folk customs of past centuries, and Shostakovich directly in the historical events that shook Russia to its very core and frequently gave rise to existential fears. Cornelius Meister, just awarded as "Conductor of the year" by the German classical music award Opus, knows again how to handle these different colors of sounds and shows them in an most transparent way. The ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra has been his best disposed partner for these recordings.

Somewhere between the first and second decade of the “short” 20th century, the great Viennese musical tradition of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler supposedly crashed into the limits of tonality and came to a halt. Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg composed anew, now according to what was supposed to be the “historically inevitable” system of atonality. Karl Weigl went on to write marvelously traditional music. Schoenberg wrote in 1938 that “I always considered Dr. Weigl one of the best composers of the old school; one of those who continued the glittering Viennese tradition.” And that is what we hear in abundance in Weigl’s output throughout the genres: His symphonies, his songs, his concertos, his string quartets, and the chamber works for piano, cello, and violin in various combinations.

The Doppler brothers played a dominant role in the K&K Monarchy’s musical life as composers, conductors, musicians and as orchestral soloists. They were on good terms with acknowledged artists of the era, such as Ferenc Liszt, Ferenc Erkel, or Jozsef Bajza. This is the ninth release in a set of 10 albums comprising the Dopplers' complete music for flute(s), including various arrangements. Flautist Claudi Arimany spent decades researching this project, inspiring many famous musicians to become involved in its realization. Flutists Lukasz Dlugosz, Clement Dufour, and Gergely Ittzes are heard alongside Claudi Arimany on this volume, as well as pianists Francesco Nicolosi, John Steel Ritter and Michel Wagemans, violinists Cristian Chivu and Peter Kovats, cellist Michel Wagemans, and the Orquesta Sinfonica de Cordoba. Internationally renowned flautist Claudi Arimany is considered the direct heir, both in style and concept, of Jean-Pierre Rampal, his mentor and colleague. He has been performing alongside leading international orchestras as a guest soloist as well as teaching and studying flute pieces.

Composer Johanna Doderer, who lives in Vienna, was born in Bregenz in 1969. In each piece she composes, Johanna Doderer doesn’t spare her audience. Even when she (rarely) broaches gentler rhythms, above all her work must be stringent. Her catalogue of works is large, and her oeuvre is rich. Audiences new to her work should at least listen in to the operas (with material from Antiquity up to commissions by the Vienna State Opera), sit with the concert music, and comprehend her chamber and vocal music where they should be categorized – Austrian compositions on the edge without currying any favor to styles or harsh avant garde posturing. In addition to numerous other prizes, in 2014 Johanna Doderer was awarded the Ernst Krenek Prize by the City of Vienna, the highest honor the City of Vienna can bestow in this category.

“Miss E. Mayer is a rare phenomenon. [...] here we can see a female composer writing not merely for the pianoforte, but also solving the arduous task of orchestral composition, swarming with thousands of secrets. And how she solves it!” (Neue Berliner Musikzeitung 32, 1878) In the German-speaking area, it was Clara Schumann and Fanny Hensel that towered beyond the borders and, at the turn of the 20th century, it was Amy Beach in the USA and even more so Ethel Smyth in Great Britain that became icons of the women’s movement in music. Still hardly present is the music by the German Romantic composer Emilie Mayer. At the age of five, she began receiving piano lessons, and in the early 1840s none other than Carl Loewe in Stettin was her teacher. In her music, presented here, we encounter familiar classical form patterns, yet the focus is placed on the colorfulness of her music, which constantly holds new phrases and impulses, and with which she presents herself as one of the most important female representatives of Central European music in the 19th century.

REVIEW:

This is a very satisfying collection of works, most of which wouldn’t win any prizes for originality, but which nonetheless make for very enjoyable listening. I would judge the B-Minor Symphony, however, to be, if not a masterpiece, at least an important work and a significant contribution to the German Romantic symphonic literature. Strongly recommended.

–Fanfare

When Kent Nagano assumed the direction of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in autumn 2006, he had intended a new production of Richard Strauss’ Salome as one of the first premieres. He wanted to precede the challenging one-act opera after Oscar Wilde’s drama with a new music theatre work. He turned to Wolfgang Rihm. ‘I replied’, Rihm said in an interview with Die Zeit: ‘There’s only one thing: the final scene from Schlusschor by Botho Strauß. Nagano’s commission became the catalyst in transforming this desire into reality. This is the genesis of Das Gehege. A nocturnal scene for soprano and orchestra. Kent Nagano and Jean-Pascal Beintus (* 1966) met in the orchestra pit of the Opéra de Lyon in 1988. After considering the first orchestral manuscripts, the maestro, known for his openness and great erudition, encouraged the young man to expand his musical career. Several pictorial projects came to Nagano’s mind, which he entrusted to Beintus’ musical imagination: first, Wolf Tracks for recitator and orchestra (recorded with the speakers Bill Clinton and Michail Gorbachov), for which Beintus was awarded a Grammy in 2004, before in 2008 writing for the family concerts of the German Symphony Orchestra in Berlin a suite on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s omnipresent The Little Prince.

The Doppler brothers played a dominant role in the K&K Monarchy’s musical life as composers, conductors, musicians and as orchestral soloists. They were on good terms with acknowledged artists of the era, such as Ferenc Liszt, Ferenc Erkel, or Jozsef Bajza. This is the eighth release in a set of 10 albums comprising the Dopplers' complete music for flute(s), including various arrangements. Flautist Claudi Arimany spent decades researching this project, inspiring many famous musicians to become involved in its realization. Flutists Shigenori Kudo, and Philippe Bernold are heard alongside Claudi Arimany on this volume, as well as pianists Alan Branch, John Steel Ritter and Michel Wagemans, hornist Artur Nogues, and the Orquesta Sinfonica Ciudad de Elche and Orquesta Filarmonica de Malaga. Internationally renowned flautist Claudi Arimany is considered the direct heir, both in style and concept, of Jean-Pierre Rampal, his mentor and colleague. He has been performing alongside leading international orchestras as a guest soloist as well as teaching and studying flute pieces.

Many of the today-distinguished Soviet composers in the second half of the 20th century knew how to steer a middle course, enabling them to supply what was officially desirable all the while remaining faithful to themselves, writing the music they wanted to write. Kabalevsky was a Jack of all musical trades and, as a specialist for children’s music especially, cultivated a highly personal style, keeping easily within the bounds of comprehensible tonal aesthetics. His works are characterized by some of the features typical of Kabalevsky’s overall oeuvre: a cornucopia of melodious imagination, dance rhythms, above all in the fast movements, expansive slow sections and a positive, often cheerful tone. The present release presents a selection of his orchestral works alongside his violin concerto.

“I have given every operetta the style demanded by the space and time in which it is set.” (Eduard Künneke. Driven by success, Künneke committed himself to the genre of the operetta in the 1920s and 1930s. The diversity of his many operettas reveals Künneke’s enormous adaptability to the stylistic currents of entertainment music at that time. He had most international success with Der Vetter aus Dingsda (1921), with which Künneke has almost exclusively been identified up to today. His successful operettas were even adapted for London and New York. Herz über Bord was premiered in 1935, initially at the Zurich Opera and was performed almost 500 times between 1935 and 1937, including in Dresden, Stuttgart, Stockholm and Berlin. The Berliner Zeitung noted: “Once again, we can listen to operetta music written by an artist, a man of taste. Every number has its own weight.”

“Never have I really believed in inspiration by the beauty of nature; I was put right by the ruins of Rome. There my ideas just flew to me.” (Richard Strauss) "Aus Italien" was the first major symphonic poem mirroring diverse moods to be composed by Richard Strauss and that was to be followed by later masterpieces such as Don Juan, Tod und Verklärung, Ein Heldenleben or Eine Alpensinfonie. The Venetian Suite was written in 1935 by then almost 60-year-old Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari. It is the music of an opera composer, accustomed to illustrating events with his music, and yet in his concert works handing over many things to the imagination of the listeners, not wanting to give all the answers in advance. Ariane Matiakh is a promising conductor leading the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin on this recording. The ensemble with Matiakh at the helm has been featured in several other Capriccio productions that have been acclaimed by the press.

The Doppler brothers played a dominant role in the K&K Monarchy’s musical life as composers, conductors, musicians and as orchestral soloists. They were on good terms with acknowledged artists of the era, such as Ferenc Liszt, Ferenc Erkel, or Jozsef Bajza. This is the seventh release in a set of 10 albums comprising the Dopplers' complete music for flute(s), including various arrangements. Flautist Claudi Arimany spent decades researching this project, inspiring many famous musicians to become involved in its realization. Flutists Shigenori Kudo, and Philippe Pierlot are heard alongside Claudi Arimany on this volume, as well as pianists Alan Branch and Michel Wagemans, violinist Cristian Chivu, and hornist Javier Bonet. Internationally renowned flautist Claudi Arimany is considered the direct heir, both in style and concept, of Jean-Pierre Rampal, his mentor and colleague. He has been performing alongside leading international orchestras as a guest soloist as well as teaching and studying flute pieces.

In Stuttgart, 1983 - 1989, Neville Marriner followed Sergiu Celibidache, offering quite the contrast to that willfully prodigious Romanian broodingly charismatic style with his own easygoing, less spectacular but genial manner of music making. His sound wasn’t as dense and carefully crafted, but the ensemble’s playing became lighter and more flexible, agile rather than probing. It is in his Stuttgart period that Marriner increasingly focused on repertoire that went beyond the baroque and classical periods. This compilation offers repertoire which music lovers will be less likely to associate with Marriner: German romanticism, including all of Schumann’s Symphonies, Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, Mahler, Bartók and Gershwin – The fundamental impression that comes from re-listening to these performances, apart from good and fresh music-making, is one of sympathetic music-making. That feels about right as an epitaph for the man and his body of work.

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REVIEW:

A highlight here is a fine digital set of Tchaikovsky’s four orchestral suites, performances that combine geniality, deft playing and, in the finales of the Third and Fourth Suites, a fair helping of the bravura excitement. Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin Suite has plenty of drive and if the finale of Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta sounds a little muddled in places, impressive accounts of Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem and Honegger’s Third Symphony more than make amends. Mahler’s Fourth and Rachmaninov’s Second Symphonies share a certain transparency, a quality that also informs Marriner’s admirable performances of the Schumann symphonies. Also included is music by Beethoven, Richard Strauss, Copland and Gershwin, and rather cheesily put-together compendia of West Side Story and Porgy and Bess ‘melodies’. All the same, the set can be enthusiastically recommended and the sound is excellent throughout.

– Gramophone

With "Il tabarro" Puccini wrote the first part of his projected opera triptych, with which he ultimately intended to parody and reverse Wagner’s Ring tetralogy by stringing together three completely incoherent short stories. Once more, for Il tabarro the composer virtually emigrated to France, to which he had already made declarations of love with La Bohème and Manon Lescaut. This affinity is now mirrored more clearly than in these two operas in the music of The Cloak, which emanates French, well-nigh Impressionist perfume. Bertrand de Billy knows how to make the score come alive with a fantastic cast on his side. World famous tenor Johan Botha was on the top of his career at the making of this album, and the results of the entire ensemble together are historically beautiful.