Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

A fine production which sheds light on a composer whose violin concertos need to be further explored.

The Graun brothers, Carl Heinrich and Johann Gottlieb are important representatives of the generation of composers between the baroque and classical eras. Johann Gottlieb attended the Kreuzschule in Dresden and later studied at Leipzig University. He received lessons on the violin from the then most prominent violinist in Germany, Johann Georg Pisendel. He also travelled to Italy, where he became acquainted with Giuseppe Tartini. Back home he was appointed concertmaster of the orchestra of the Prussian Crown Prince Frederick, while Carl Heinrich secured the position of Kapellmeister. Graun held this position until his death. He was also active as a violin teacher; among his pupils were Franz Benda - from 1733 onwards also a member of Frederick's orchestra - and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.

Graun composed many concertos, mostly for violin, which were to be played by himself and reflect his own skills as a violin virtuoso. Burney reports that he was greatly admired as a composer who combined pleasant melodies with counterpoint and was generally considered "one of the greatest violinists of his day".

The concertos on these two discs show that he gradually moved away from counterpoint. The Concerto in c minor is the earliest piece in this set and was written in 1730 or even earlier. Particularly beautiful is the largo in which the violin moves over a tutti which is dominated by a motif of three notes. Although the scoring includes two oboes they have no independent parts but play colla parte with the violins.

That is also the case in the Concerto for two violins in G. The scoring includes two parts for horns, and these are independent and play a noticeable role in the fast movements, but are silent in the adagio. This movement is dominated by Seufzer and descending figures, both in the solo parts and in the tutti.

Graun's acquaintance with Giuseppe Tartini has had a strong influence on his compositional style. The Italian master didn't avoid virtuosity, but gave priority to expression. That is also the main feature of Graun's concertos, and it is no coincidence that in two concertos the slow movements are the longest. In the Concerto in F the second movement, mesto, is almost twice as long as the fast movements. That is different in the Concerto for viola in E flat. It is one of only two concertos for this instrument which are known from Graun. It is a particularly beautiful work, with a magnificent cantabile solo part in the middle movement, with the character indication 'adagio, un poco andante'.

The only piece which is not by Graun is the Concerto in A, which is attributed to Markus Heinrich Grauel. He is an almost completely unknown quantity, and has no entry in New Grove. The concerto is to be found in the archive of the Berlin Singakademie, and it says 'del Sigr. Grauel'. The man to which it is attributed was cellist in the court orchestra in Berlin from 1763. Considering his style he is thought to have been a pupil of Graun. It is less virtuosic but quite beautiful. The first movement is dominated by drum basses, a feature of many compositions from the mid-18th century.

Ilia Korol and Piroska Batori give excellent performances of the solo parts. The dialogue between the two violins is very well worked out and there is a good balance between the two violins. The viola concerto is definitely one of the highlights of this set, and the viola is brilliantly played by Ilia Korol. The horn parts are impressively executed by Oliver Kersken and Stefan Oetter, and also well recorded as they are clearly audible.

In short, this is a very fine production which sheds light on the oeuvre of a composer whose violin concertos need to be further explored.

-- Johan van Veen, MusicWeb International

In these new reconstructions of Delalande's all-too-rare "table music" for the French court of Louis XIV - on CD for the first time - the music is performed in the original five-part textures and on period instruments. Immediately after starting in his post as Superintendent of the House Music in 1689, Delalande began composing instrumental movements. These suites were chiefly intended for the king's suppers which, in reality, were "performances" before an audience. It was an honor to be allowed to watch the king eat, a greater honor to be spoken to during the meal, and a supreme honor to be invited to serve him his food or eat with him. In this context, instrumental music played an important role, it's magnificence reflecting the regent's powerful self-image. Since new works were continually being demanded, this practice resulted, over the course of the years, in an impressive body of works.

Classical Music

Beethoven’s primary reason for settling in Vienna in 1792 was to study with Joseph Haydn, who at the time was widely considered the greatest living composer. Beethoven’s three Piano Trios op. 1 were the first compositions that he deemed important enough to give an opus number. They were dedicated to Prince Karl Lichnowsky, a patron of Beethoven in whose house he lived for some time. According to Beethoven’s lifelong friend Ferdinand Ries, Haydn was complimentary about the set of trios. The trios combine various elements that would have been familiar to Beethoven’s contemporaries. Less familiar, however, would be the fact that the trios contain four movements rather than the three that had been traditional in this genre. Although changes from major to minor had been common in the music of previous generations, where they would normally apply to just the last chord, Beethoven employs this technique more extensively here than was probably common at that time. This recording was made using a Chris Maene Concert Grand built in 2017. This remarkable instrument combines the knowledge and materials used in modern piano building with those found in older historical instruments.

This debut album of L’Estro d’Orfeo ensemble takes its title Altri Canti d’Amor from a madrigal found in Claudio Monteverdi’s Eighth Book of Madrigals. The program focuses on the music of the Italian Seicento and more precisely on the schools of northern Italy; mainly the Venetian school. It combines both instrumental and vocal pieces- the latter in instrumental versions- connected to the subject of ‘love’. Using instruments instead of the voice may initially seem perverse for such a title, but to the ensemble it suggests the idea of “other ways of singing about love.” This album thus reaffirms the great value and importance that instruments started gaining in the first half of the 17th century, where they ceased serving merely as accompaniments to the voice and gradually became the main protagonist of the musical scene, attaining a level of virtuosity that had never been explored before.

Raaf Hekkema writes of his new release: "Since I started teaching at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, I have become more conscious of my self-chosen mission: to create a place for the saxophone within the classical music tradition. One way to do this is to forge a stronger bond between the players and the classical tradition, in the knowledge that the saxophone repertoire too is indebted to the great composers of the past. The most influential of them all is, without a doubt, Johann Sebastian Bach. The path to this recording was long, windy and fascinating. It started with the awareness that the cello suites provide exceptional playing material for saxophonists. But I long felt that for playing Bach on the saxophone, only the light-sounding soprano saxophone would do- which was, I believed, incompatible with the instrument for which the suites were written. During preparations for my previous recording of Bach's partitas for violin, I discovered that the alto sax- fitted with an old-style mouthpiece- could reproduce the refined articulation of the violin. Vintage mouthpieces represent the sound ideal of days gone by. Then came the idea to play the suites on six different saxophones, each of which holds a unique place in the history of the instrument. After that, much time went into working out a usable assignment of transpositions and an appropriate choice of instruments, the resulting sound character being the deciding factor.

The voluminous oeuvre of Fritz Kreisler for violin and piano includes many themes of composers from the Baroque to the beginning of the twentieth century and pieces composed by the great violinist himself. We were especially interested in the last category, from which the three Viennese dances Liebesleid, Liebesfreud and Schon Rosmarin are the most famous ones. For this album we chose to record the complete collection of original pieces, no adaptations of other composers. When composing the list of original pieces we had concerns about two pieces not being sure that they are purely Kreisler. The theme of the Rondino in the style of Beethoven could possibly be a lost piece for winds, but we could not find any proof of that. In the Grave, in the style of Friedemann Bach it was also impossible to find the hand of Bach. Thus we included these pieces. The most curious piece on this album is the song, Op. 6. We found it in a collection of works where it seemed untouched. Until now we have found no recording or even a record of a performance. Be it so, we recorded thi smelancholy little piece as a premiere. With this recording, we tried to follow as many notes he made regarding bowings and finger positions. Violin playing has changed since the time of Kreisler and the knowledge of period style performances influences the way we play. Inevitably, our own ideas and taste also influence the way we perfrom on the album.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Here we present the follow-up to the critically acclaimed first volume of Bach's Harpsichord Concertos by Fabio Bonizzoni and his group La Risonanza. This second volume includes a more varied range of works as it starts with the most famous Brandenburg Fifth, which is the first ever harpsichord concert. After the BWV 1054, we have the rather rare BWV 1057, which is the harpsichord version of the Brandenburg Fourth. To end Bonizzoni's survey of all Bach's harpsichord concertos, we find the famous and beloved Triple concerto, with violin and flute. Of the first volume, critics wrote: "Harpsichordist Fabio Bonizzoni does a credible job in integrating the concertos so that they appear not as a soloist versus the ensemble, but rather as an integral part." (Fanfare) "Bonizzoni achieves the difficult task of combining subtle artifice and interpretative joie de vivre with a manner that appears natural and uncomplicated... enticing for it's musical strengths." (Gramophone)

Classical Music

REVIEWS:
"...Lisa Larsson and Klaus Mertens are superb, and Koopman directs with an appropratiely light touch....all round a strong recommendation for persuasive performances of Bach's too-seldom-heard early Leipzig cantatas."

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

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A superb, satisfying Schwanengesang that’s up there with the greatest

There are singers who seek to imbue Schubert Lieder with more gravitas, often accompanied by a sense of the world about to end. Christoph Prégardien is not of that ilk. For him, it seems, Schubert was a life-affirming optimist. In this world you can endure the slings and arrows and still be certain that the future will be better. So this marvellous Schwanengesang is essentially a honey-toned, sunny experience.

-- Gramophone [4/2009]

Schulhoff’s music remained a well-kept secret for many years, due in part to its apparent eclecticism. Fortunately, that situation has changed over the last twenty years of so. This release from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam contains piano works from the period 1920-1931, an extremely fruitful period during which Schulhoff gave vent to his fascination for the new jazz and dance music without entirely losing signt of classical tradition. He was a brilliant pianist himself, making frequent appearances in the concert hall and later in radio studios, renowned for his immaculate technique, fabulous memory and prowess as an improviser. The combination of classical foundations and more decorative jazz elements in Schulhoff’s music suits Daahoud Salim Alvarez down to the ground, as he studied both classical and jazz piano at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Schulhoff constantly faced the dilemma of respecting traditions while at the same time being keen to distance himself from them. This is illustrated, for instance, by his Concerto for piano and c chamber orchestra- February 1923.

Classical Music

Mendelssohn’s piano trios are among the most popular and frequently played works within the genre. Both trios are such recognised works and display such perfection of form and content that one might well imagine that they flowed effortlessly from the composer’s pen without a moment’s doubt or hesitation. But was this actually so? In the course of recording the two Mendelssohn trios we had the opportunity to examine a copy of the manuscripts of both works. We were astonished to discover that the manuscript of the first trio displayed considerable differences from the work that we were familiar with as the celebrated Trio in D minor. Further investigation revealed that this was an early version of the same trio, completed in July 1839, nine months before the first edition of the definitive version. To our even greater astonishment it turned out that this version was not just a rough sketch but a complete work, which had undoubtedly stood the test of time even without Mendelssohn’s later revisions. It was incredible to discover a masterpiece by his hand that was unknown to us. To be sure, it was largely the same as or closely related to the trio that we were familiar with, but there were also wonderful passages that were totally new to us.

Second volume in the ongoing series of Beethoven's Piano Concertos with Hannes Minnaar and Jan Willem de Vriend conducting the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra. Surely among the most interesting and sought-after pianists of his generation, Hannes Minnaar received international acclaim after winning prizes at the Queen Elisabeth Competition (3rd Prize) and the Geneva International Music Competition (2nd Prize). Volume one of this series received raves from Gramophone, Fanfare, Crescendo, Classical Candor, and more.