A lieder recital featuring music by C.P.E. Bach and J.C.F. Bach, sung by bass-baritone Gottfried Schwarz with keyboard accompaniment from Sabine Bauer.

Classical Music

Despite the rich tradition provided by the former genre of the Passion of Christ set to music, only two works have been able to establish temselves permanently - the two monumental Passions by Johann Sebastian Bach. The Passion Oratorio by Johann Ernst Bach, the nephew, godson and pupil of Johann Sebastian, is one of the lesser-known works. With his explicit commitment to sacred music, Johann Ernst Bach occupies an extremely isolated position among the Protestant German composers of the second half of the 18th century. Although the religious works of both Telemann and J. S.Bach were, in his opinion, "admirable masterpieces", he strongly criticized the decay of sacred music during his own generation and demanded that this be counteracted by "artistic and regular styles of composition".

Victor Bruns, born 1904 in Ollila in today’s Finland, wrote over 20 solo concertos, 50 chamber pieces and several ballet works. Bruns discovered the bassoon as his true vocation and moved to the Leningrad Conservatory in 1924, until he became bassoonist at Leningrad State Opera in 1927. Bruns completed his studies in composition with Vladimir Shtsherbatshov beside his work in the orchestra and he continued his compositional studies in 1946 with Boris Blacher. He worked as bassoonist of the Staatskapelle Berlin from 1946 until his retirement in 1969 and became a frequently performed composer, popular among musicians and audience alike far beyond the borders of the German Democratic Republic, whose works continue to deserve our attention. In 1960, Victor Bruns was awarded the Art Prize of the German Democratic Republic. In 1971, he was appointed an honorary member of the Berlin State Orchestra, and 20 years later the International Double Reed Society in the USA made him an honorary member.

Capriccio's Encore series features re-releases of the most famous recordings from the Capriccio back catalogue. These legendary recordings are of artists like Sandor Vegh, Ton Koopman, Sir Neville Marriner and the Vienna Boys' Choir. The series spans highlights from the baroque era to the contemporary era. This album showcases the Moscow Virtuosi, led by Vladimir Spivakov in a famous recording of Schnittke's Hieronymus Bosch Fragments.

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)

Mozart, W.A.: Violin Concerto No. 5 / Piano Concerto No. 25

Classical Music

Certainly, the 'quietest time of year' is also the time when music is to be most frequently heard - not only in public, in shops or markets, but also in the countryside, where Christmas is the time when perhaps the most singing is done. The music author Marius Schneider once underlined this fact by writing:"God hungers for songs." And thus the time which celebrates the symbolic birth of the Lord is a great time for music - even for people who may have no direct religious beliefs. With this 5CD-Set Capriccio presents in total 100 Classical Christmas titles, sung by most famous choruses and soloists. And draws a bow from the high classical Christmas Oratorio by Bach to more simple songs from the country side. And of course the most famous song can't be missed: "Silent Night, Holy Night."

This triple disc set includes the most famous recordings of Alfredo Kraus, Lucia Alberti and Renato Bruson with arias by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Mascagni etc. Also included are rare opera scenes such as Donizetti’s “Gemmy di Vergy” and Bellini’s “I Capuleti e I Montecchi. This is a highly recommended collection for fans of opera and these Belcanto artists; 38 beautifully sung selections in all!

“Now I have come across someone who really has a great creative talent.” (Peter Tchaikovsky) Although the originality of his musical language paved the way for Russian modernism, Catoire's work still followed the artistic ideals of Russia and not the new culture of the Soviet Republic. His work is highly expressive and of enormous polyphonic density, greatest expressiveness, fine colors, rhythmic and harmonious scope. Catoire's music was almost never performed and his name remained almost unknown also to expert circles. He left behind 36 works including some symphonic pieces, a piano concerto, chamber music, songs and piano cycles. This music was written in the “fin de siecle”, with its shine and nobility, but also with its fragility.

Classical Music

The present release is the most comprehensive Bruckner Symphonies cycle, including all 19 available versions. Anton Bruckner burst out of the confines of the cathedral using that most secular of musical forms, the symphony. The creator of some of the 19th century’s greatest orchestral music, Bruckner cut a singular figure among his contemporaries. This new complete Bruckner Symphonies edition from Capriccio reassesses these enduringly enigmatic and complex works. Presented by the Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and featuring all 19 available versions, the cycle is scheduled for completion in 2024, Bruckner’s 200th birthday. The second release, of Symphony No. 8 (1890 version) is performed by Bruckner Orchestra Linz conducted by Markus Poschner.

End of the opera. 12 November 1918 (on the day of the declaration of the German-Austrian Republic and the union with the German Reich!). This sentence was written by Schreker at the close of the manuscript full score. The call for the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire and for unification with Germany was a genuine republican position and supported by all political parties.

Start of the most comprehensive Bruckner Symphonies Edition incl. all available 19 versions. Bruckner burst out of the confines of the cathedral using that most secular of musical forms: the symphony. It is with reflexive reoccurrence in music history that supposed performance traditions burn themselves into a score as if they were a given… and the more so, the further we get from the work’s creation. So many clichés and truths about his person and his work are at last being questioned or, if they aren’t yet, are overdue some scrutiny. It is an essential aspect of this album edition to read and understand the text fresh and anew. Whence does Bruckner’s music come and whereunto does it point? With the Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra Capriccio could engage two of the best Austrian orchestras for this in total 19 versions counting cycle. With about 1065 minutes of music this complete symphonic edition will be finished in 2024, when we will celebrate Bruckner’s 200th Birthday.

REVIEW:

This is the first release in what promises to be a complete cycle of all of the Bruckner symphonies in all of their various versions. It would be more exciting if the industry hadn’t already been spitting out Bruckner symphony recordings like a baseball dugout chewing tobacco, but perhaps when this series concludes, in 2024, the 200th anniversary of Bruckner’s birth, the mania will subside for a while and we can move on to other things. Of course, this assumes that the moronic apparatus known as Bruckner “scholarship” stops issuing new editions of the symphonies.

Markus Poschner’s view of the Sixth reminds me of Jochum’s. It’s a lively, rhythmically alert interpretation that permits a welcome flexibility of pulse, reserving the moments of gravity for the Adagio and such intimate passages as those in the finale’s second subject. Poschner’s careful attention to rhythm pays big dividends in the first movement’s development section, and especially in the scherzo, which is unquestionably one of the finest on disc. I do wish he had made a bit more out of the finale’s closing pages. He just plows straight through them, accepting the slight feeling of anticlimax that results; but then, that’s really Bruckner’s fault.

Of course, the Bruckner Orchestra of Linz knows the music as well as any group in existence, but what impresses most is its ability to keep it sounding so fresh. I mean, imagine growing up on a diet of Bruckner and Philip Glass symphonies. Kill me now. So good job all around, including the clean and clear engineering. Up next: the 1890 Eighth in Nowak’s edition. Keep your fingers crossed.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

Mathis der Maler is the central composition of Paul Hindemith’s output for music theater. The reception began with its successful premiere of a symphony of three orchestral parts from the opera, in March of 1934 in Berlin. That was still before the composer was attacked in the National-Socialist press which prompted a defense of Furtwängler’s in a newspaper article titled “The Hindemith Case”. The opera wasn’t premiered until May 1938, in Zurich, where the Hindemith’s had emigrated to, before moving on to the United States. Much as Mathis, who found his political engagement in the Peasant’s War and his calling to paint solely for the glory of God to collide with the expectation to positions himself on religious matters during the Reformation, Hindemith found himself torn between his refusal to propagate for the Nazis, his urge to follow his inner voice, and the demand that he position himself against the regime. These highly acclaimed performances from 2012 at Theater an der Wien with Opera Star Roland Koch in the title role is finally now available as an album release.

REVIEW:

Hindemith wrote his own libretto for Mathis, an exploration of the clash between artists’ responsibility to their art and to the social and political issues of their time. The production is full of telling detail, with the climactic fourth scene depicting the Peasants’ Revolt itself, and Mathis’s vision in the sixth especially vivid. All the protagonists are portrayed with touching truthfulness too. Wolfgang Koch is the conflicted, all-too-human painter, Kurt Streit the cardinal Albrecht von Brandenburg, Franz Grundheber the Protestant Riedlinger and Manuela Uhl his daughter Ursula, with whom Mathis is in love. It’s superbly conducted by Bertrand de Billy, making the most of the opera’s visionary moments, and doing his best with its occasional longueurs.

– Guardian (UK)

One of the modules in the exhibition MusicaFemina – Women Made Music, presented in 2018 in Vienna, featured 100 female composers who have characterized female composition of music from the time of Sappho to the present day. When the exhibition was open for two months and viewed by 56,000 visitors, the poet, filmmaker and composer Sophie Reyer had the idea, inspired by her ancestresses, of composing 100 poetic texts to complement the series of 100 short biographies. She offered the 100 poetic passages as texts or audio portraits to contemporary composers for composition, with the poet eagerly creating postscripts for those particularly forgotten, those whom the female composers particularly wished to be remembered. The compositional work about the ancestresses was a voyage of discovery: into the history of the female composers; into one’s own history. This poetic-musicological project represents an impressive, profound snapshot of female composing, a poetic encyclopedia, a first-time and unparalleled bridging of the chasm between historic and contemporary composing. it is an opportunity to take a look at the history of music and clear the path for further opportunities.

From the diversity of Bulgarian musical culture Pancho Vladigerov stands out as undoubtedly the most important composer for the musical self-conception of modern Bulgaria. In the 1920s he worked as a conductor, pianist and composer in close association with Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater Berlin. He also associated with many German-speaking writers, such as Stefan Zweig, Gerhart Hauptmann, Arthur Schnitzler and Hugo von Hofmannsthal as well as with many fellow composers of the time (including Bartók, Kodály, Strauss, Ravel, Glasunov, Hindemith, Schoenberg, Rachmaninov and Szymanowski). In this light, it is difficult to understand why the imaginative and colorful music by the sound wizard does not possess any appropriate status in European concert halls today. However, in his homeland he held a pre-eminent position up to the end of his life. Irrespective of the prevailing political conditions, he was shown the greatest respect by all sides and granted both personal and state recognition. With these recordings, produced in the 1070s in Bulgaria, Capriccio releases an 18-album Vladigerov-Edition to preserve this colorful music also for the next generations.

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 eleventh release in a set of 12 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. Featured on this album alongside Arimany are Janos Balint, Aleksandra Miletic, Sara Blanch, and more.

Classical Music

Despite a certain inner distance to the Communist regime, Rudolf Wagner-Régeny was considered one of the most distinguished artistic personalities in East Germany. Karl Böhm and Herbert von Karajan were only two of the distinguished conductors to champion his music. Although he himself was not regarded as a stylistic pioneer, the way Wagner-Régeny took up and blended old and new elements formed a highly individual musical diction that might well be defined as a personal style. Genesis (1955/56) is a blend of oratorio and cantata. It was written prior to East Germany’s ambivalent attitude towards the church. The latter represented the strongest opposition to the regime and was discriminated mainly during Walter Ulbricht’s tenure as the chairman of the Central Committee.

Ferruccio Busoni was undoubtedly what can be termed a ‘child prodigy’. His maturity as a young pianist can only be indirectly evidenced by contemporary reports. But in his early compositions, his astonishing command of the meter can be assessed directly. In particular, he demonstrated a sure instinct for part writing and counterpoint, before he had received systematic teaching in these disciplines. Busoni connoisseurs will detect unexpected parallels to the works of his mature period; their germ cells, as it were. And the common music lover may find joy in a wealth of piano pieces, some of which at least need not shy any comparison with Schumann, Mendelssohn, Reinecke and Grieg.

In recent years, the jazz-like, classical and modern music by the Ukrainian composer Nikolai Kapustin (*1937) has become an inside tip on classical concert stages. During a visit to Nikolai Kasputin in Moscow ten years ago, the composer entrusted the cellist Eckart Runge with the notes for his Cello Concerto No. 1 op. 85, which, unlike the second one, had neither been performed nor recorded. The work vibrant with energy combines in unparalleled manner colorful symphonic music with the groovy sound of the big band tradition and the virtuosity of a Charlie Parker with the chamber music intimacy of a Miles Davis into a new and fulminant musical diction. With his fascinating, poly-stylistic realm of sound, mirroring an absolutely personal diction, two decades after his death Alfred Schnittke has become one of the composers of the 20th century permanently established in the repertoire. The Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 1 was commissioned by the City of Munich for the inauguration of the Gasteig Cultural Centre in 1985/86.

Arnold Schönberg founded the Society for Musical Private Performances in November 1918 “to give Arnold Schoenberg the opportunity personally to carry out his intention of providing artists and art lovers with a veritable and precise knowledge of Modern Music”, as Alban Berg described in a leaflet in 1919. Chamber music, solo pieces and songs saw performance, and to a great extent, properly arranged for the available means, original large-scale orchestral works of topical and artistic high-quality were also produced. In the autumn of 1921, Schönberg embarked on an arrangement of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, which, however, he broke off in the middle of the first movement. The continuation was to be taken over by Webern, but this did not happen, evidently as a consequence of the end of the society. It was only in 1982/83 that the German composer, conductor and musicologist Rainer Riehn (b. 1941) was prepared to continue what had been begun.

‘I am an EU singer’, Hermann Prey always said about himself. However, by that he did not mean so much his citizenship of a European Union country as the fact that he felt at home in the fields of ‘E’ and ‘U’, i.e. in ‘serious’ and entertainment music alike. For Prey, this distinction never existed, but only the issue of the quality of music, and he found this not only in opera and Lied, but also in operetta, the musical and the well-made hit. For forty-six years Prey convinced audiences; this five-disc collection reveals his fascinatingly wide-ranging repertoire and interpretative skill.