A comprehensively and multifariously educated musician, Ludwig Thuille (1861-1907) was until a short time ago a shadowy figure encountering the reader of yellowed books. It is only his correspondence with Richard Strauss that has kept his erstwhile significance alive. Signs of their friendship were the almost contemporaneous settings of specific poems. Campaigned for his Lieder, now, after the first release with Roman Trekel (Capriccio CD C5058), Hartmut Höll presents an additional album of Thuille’s songs with the mezzo-soprano Leila Pfister.

The Goldberg Variations' alternation of connection and freedom, fantasy and strict form, was able to lead in a hitherto unknown way to a higher unity, raising them to the rank of a real compendium of the art of variation, strongly influencing Beethoven, Brahms and Reger. Tzimon Barto's international breakthrough came in the mid-1980s, when he appeared at the Vienna Musikverein and the Salzburg Festival at the invitation of Herbert von Karajan. Tzimon Barto has since performed with nearly every major international orchestra. “…a pianist who particularly cares about poetry." (Piano News)

In his musical aesthetics, Jean Françaix was close to the ‘Groupe des six’ from the outset, and in the connection between cheerfulness and elegance so typical of him to Poulenc in particular. This applies especially to 1965s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, a work he and his daughter premiered. Of the six, the Paris-born Poulenc was probably the ‘most French’. Influenced by Surrealism and Apollinaire, on the one hand, and then to a large degree by Catholicism after roughly mid-life, Poulenc derived his stylistic elements from the greats of music history – from Mozart to Stravinsky.

At the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris there exists a very unusual 17th c. music manuscript for solo viola da gamba (lyra viol), a tiny, leather-bound elongated book of 270 pages. Compiled by at least eight different individual hands, it is generally thought to originate from the Brandenburg region in northern Germany. Never published in a facsimile or modern edition, viola da gambist and Art d’Echo ensemble director Juliane Laake found a way to organize its great number of pieces into a coherent and presentable narrative. What you hear is a record of her exploration, sleuthing and discovery.

With the talent of young pianist Cassandra Wyss, this Wilhelm Stenhammar and Jean Sibelius compilation emerges as a gateway into the world of Nordic musical gems. With her artistic courage to be stubborn – to be understood in the spirit of Hermann Hesse – namely to select precisely those works that suit her as a pianist, Ms. Wyss enables the careful listener to take a new and very personal view of the rich repertoire of Scandinavian music. “... she plays with a smile. Charm is a critical element of this music, and Wyss conveys that winningly“ - Fanfare on Stenhammar CD (C5117)

Claude Debussy’s music, as his String Quartet (1910) illustrates, reveals characteristics justifying the Impressionist painter comparison, creating landscapes of sound that can draw the listener into the middle of the picture. Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet (1903) had to be and was compared with Debussy’s. His musical diction – based on Debussy’s – prepared the way for French Modernism. Briton Thomas Adès (b. 1971) is capable of fusing traditional elements from music history, including existing composition references, with modern sound production into an individual, appealing style.

I first came across the Los Angeles-based Pacific Trio following its 2009 release of American Composers on the Marsyas label. On this new Capriccio release the Pacific Trio - founded in 1979 - has turned to piano trios by three composers who were products of the Austro-German conservatory system. Having Jewish heritage ensured their names were listed in the infamous Lexikon der Juden in der Musik (Encyclopaedia of Jews in Music) leading to their music being banned by the Nazis. At various times all three composers managed to immigrate to America where they continued their careers without fear of persecution.

Brahms was so impressed with Zemlinsky’s Trio for clarinet, cello and piano in D Minor from 1896 that he recommended the work to his publisher Simrock. Shrewdly Brahms suggested that the clarinet part be also written for a violin so a standard piano trio could play the work and increase its scope. The score reminded me slightly of Brahms but without the glorious melodies. Although the three movements have different tempi the overall mood is warm and agreeable with a controlled passion, never unruly but with a rather windswept disposition.

Bloch’s Three Nocturnes for piano, violin and cello were written in 1924 at Cleveland where he was founding director of the newly established Cleveland Institute of Music. Neo-classical in style each nocturne is a character piece said to portray a particular feature of the night. Beautifully drafted and agreeable this work seems over all too soon. Especially delightful is the colourful and rather alluring opening Nocturne - an Andante that sounds distinctly like raindrops. The second reminds me of a Berceuse and the third marked Tempestoso is spiritedly rhythmic somewhat evocative of wind and rain.

A child prodigy, Korngold wrote his Trio for piano, violin and cello in D major, Op. 1 in 1909/10 when he was a mere 13 years old. In 1910 he had written a ballet Der Schneemann (The Snowman) that had been performed at the Vienna Court Opera. Despite the assiduousness of the Pacific Trio everything feels too similar in mood with the different tempi of each of the four movements insufficient to hold the attention. As the product of a boy, albeit a genius, it’s perhaps not surprising there is little emotional depth to the writing.

The engineers provide warm well balanced sound while the dedicated and well prepared players deliver amenable performances displaying satisfying unity and a pleasing timbre. It’s bold of the trio to present three rarely heard works on a single CD but to increase the desirability of the release by not including one well known repertoire score is an opportunity missed.

– MusicWeb International (Michael Cookson)

Johanna Doderer studied composition in Graz with Beat Furrer (composition), later in Vienna with Klaus Peter Sattler (film and media composition) and with Erich Urbanner (composition). Her current work ranges broadly from chamber music to orchestral work and six operas. “Doderer cares about content, not cheap effect. She is able to prove convincingly in her very densely written score that even today you can still create intense music by using sound models deriving from the late romantic period…combined in an ideal way with forms of ‘minimal music’...“ (Die Presse)

Melancholy, that wavering mood Heine aptly captured in his poem Lorelei, has inspired countless artists, especially poets and musicians. This recital program offers many a find that is rather on the periphery of the customary song repertoire. Moreover, the palette of color is expanded by the fact that the accompaniment is not only entrusted to the piano, but also in chamber music versions. Mezzo-soprano Lucia Duchoňová hails from Trnava in western Slovakia. Her first solo CD featuring compositions by Turina was nominated for a Grammy Award in the ‘Best Vocal Performance’ category in 2010.

Whoever watches the Samba Schools parading in Rio de Janeiro nowadays may not perceive the Samba’s musical richness both as a musical and literary genre. The Samba is, however, in its origins a very sophisticated musical form from a poetic, instrumental and harmonic viewpoint. A typical expression of urban popular culture, its origins go back to the most popular styles among Rio de Janeiro’s inhabitants, once the country’s capital city. The classically trained Brazilian singer Cristiane Roncaglio is also an enthusiast of Brazilian music, Bossa Nova as well as Música Popular Brasileira.

In recent years, the focus of the cultural sponsoring of Bank Austria has continuously shifted towards the support of young and talented artists – both nationally in Austria and internationally. The winner of the 2014-15 season is the young violinist Luka Kusztirch. Now Capriccio presents his debut album that was recorded as part of the “Bank Austria Artist Of The Year” prize. The program shows us a big range from Austria and Hungary to Romania where the difficult violin sonata of George Enescu closes this interesting musically trip.

Period instrument keyboard performers, like organists, are severely constrained by the tone of their instruments. Too often we are asked to accept thin, ugly, inexpressive sonorities simply because they allegedly represent historical “truth.” The reality, of course, is that there are good-sounding old instruments and bad-sounding ones. I have had the opportunity to inspect (and play) dozens of them over the years, and having done that I can state categorically that there is simply no excuse for listeners being forced to endure sub-standard instrumental tone whatever the instrument happens to be, especially on recordings.

For this program, Christine Schornsheim has selected an absolutely magnificent tangent piano housed in Schloß Bad Korzingen, one which, along with her scintillating playing, really brings this music to life. Not only does it allow her to sweep up and down the keyboard in those glittering arpeggios with which Bach adorns his Fantasias (try Wq 58/6), but the instrument turns on a dime. It can sustain a tone, or cut it off with amazing abruptness, giving an extra punch to those sudden modulations and changes of timbre and texture that make this music so exciting.

The program is also an unusually interesting one–a selection of Rondos and Fantasias from Bach’s Kenner and Liebhaber series of late keyboard works. The Rondos are supposed to be CPE’s concession to the popular taste, but they are anything but “easy” in the sense that they are often just as virtuosic as anything else that he wrote, and they are not rondos in the classical sense at all. Formally, they are more like variation sets with brief interludes coming between each varied restatement of theme, which may not return in its entirety.

Another noteworthy aspect of this program is that Schornsheim only includes three pieces in minor keys out of a total of thirteen (Wq 59/4, 56/5, and 61/4). So many programs stress the Sturm und Drang aspects of Bach’s music, but this program proves that he could be just as inventive, and unpredictable, writing in a cheerier mood. There are some very substantial works here, packed with colorful contrasts, including the C Major Fantasia Wq 59/6. and the wonderful E Major Rondo Wq 57/1, and Schornsheim plays them all with unaffected mastery and an impish delight in their “what comes next” abruptness. The engineering of her splendid instrument is also drop-dead gorgeous. This is a great recital from start to finish, an aural and expressive delight.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Beside the famous master of Baroque Music – Johann Sebastian Bach – this 2CD set, Baroque Christmas Rarities includes nearly unknown but no less atmospheric treasures of baroque Christmas music by Bach’s talented sons, Telemann, Buxtehude, and others. Most of them were commissioned works for the feast and includes very different styles: from festive cantatas, moody motets to chamber musically solo songs. A “must” for all lovers of Baroque Music as well for listeners that would like to find some extraordinary music for the upcoming feast.

REVIEW:

Seasonal motets and cantatas by Christian Geist, Pal Esterhazy, Buxtehude, and Giuseppe Maria Po del Finale, with a tranch of contributions from Bach family members. Thoroughly engaging.

-- BBC Music Magazine

The American pianist Tzimon Barto and the world famous conductor Christoph Eschenbach have had a very long and close friendship together. After their successful Capriccio recording of Tchaikovsky’s B flat Minor Concerto they follow up now with recordings of the Brahms Concertos, cornerpieces of the piano concerto literature and further examples of these two artist’s close working partnership. Mr. Barto and Mr. Eschenbach, iconoclasts both, offer a new focus on these masterpieces. Also to be heard are Mr. Barto’s interpretations of the 4 Ballades, op. 10.

Ramón Vargas is one of the leading tenors of our time and one of the most sought-after worldwide. His breakthrough came in 1983 with the Mexican conductor Eduardo Mata. (Capriccio)