The Finnish Baroque Orchestra’s second release of Christoph Graupner’s (1683–1760) music continues to reveal delightful masterpieces by this famed-in-his-day Baroque master. + Possessing a unique personal style of writing music and often favoring certain rarer instruments in his works, Graupner’s immense catalogue contains over 2,000 works varying from orchestral works to cantatas, concertos and chamber music. + The FBO plays music from the 17th c. to the early Romantic era. It also seeks novel perspectives on early instruments by performing new music on Baroque instruments.

}Gramophone (1/97, pp. 93-5) "...Levinsky's record chiefly consists of the '16 Children's Songs', the best of them delightful pieces in Tchaikovsky's most direct and well-crafted vein....excellent series..."{

Includes chanson(s) by Alexander Agricola. Ensemble: Ensemble Unicorn. Conductor: Michael Posch.
Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Ensemble Unicorn. Conductor: Michael Posch.

HANDEL (tr. Gibley) Sonatas: in G, HWV 365; in a, HWV 367a; in C, HWV 369; in d, HWV 362; in F, HWV 377; in d , HWV 360 • The Brook Street Band • AVIE 2118 (55:58)


Handel wrote cello sonatas? Surprisingly, he seems to have written none. Nevertheless, composers and musicians of the Baroque era freely transcribed music as the desire or need arose, and so it is not an outrageous idea to make cello sonatas out of six of Handel’s sonatas for recorder and basso continuo. In the present case, this has been done by harpsichordist Carolyn Gibley, who is half of The Brook Street Band. (The other half is cellist Tatty Theo.) Gibley has transposed the sonatas into keys more suited for the cello. Sensibly, she has chosen to accompany the cello with harpsichord alone (Handel also suggested bass violin), presumably because the cello and the bass violin would make a poor match—and also because there are only two musicians in The Brook Street Band, I imagine!


Although I love the sound of the recorder, I was not displeased to hear these sonatas played on the cello. This is some of Handel’s most intimate and salubrious music, and while there is a good variety of tempos, moods, and textures, the music works consistently to unknot whatever tangles the workday has introduced into the soul. This is true whether it is played on the recorder or on the cello. Obviously the two instruments affect listeners in different and personal ways, but there’s nothing about Gibley’s transcriptions that falsifies Handel’s originals, at least as far as my ears are concerned.


Theo plays a Baroque cello dating from circa 1741 (probably 10–20 years after Handel composed these sonatas), and Gibley plays a 1990 Alan Gotto harpsichord based on an instrument built by Mietke circa 1710. The instruments blend together nicely. Theo’s cello has a lean, attractive sound, with more muscle and sinew than modern instruments. Even when Theo’s playing is at its most energetic, her cello sings. As the sole continuo player, Gibley is very much an equal partner, and she fills out Handel’s harmonies with imagination and period-style grace. Together, Theo and Gibley make a joyous noise, even if the joy is of the more mellow variety.


The engineering is wonderful, and Theo’s booklet note helpfully clarifies some of the confusion related to the provenance of the original sonatas. I can’t imagine anyone disliking this CD, unless they are opposed, in principle, to its underlying concept.


FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle

Classical Music

HAYDN String Quartets: op. 50/1, 4, 5 • Leipzig String Quartet • MDG 307 1585-2 (67:48)


From the six string quartets of op. 20 (preceded by 31 string quartets) to the two of op. 77, there are 45 remarkable works (excluding the Seven Last Words, which itself is also remarkable) in this form from Haydn’s pen. My familiarity with these quartets began relatively late in life, leaving me with the ambivalence of regret for being so tardy and of thankfulness for not being too late. The six op. 50 quartets lie at about the 40-percent mark of the total 45, and the three offered here are in my view the most attractive of this group of six. All six, however (all 45, for that matter), are strongly attractive pieces—remarkable in invention, distinctiveness, and musicality.


In these performances, the Leipzig String Quartet uses moderately restrained vibrato and observes all repeats (except those in the da capos ). Both of these practices are important contributors to the success of these performances. The Leipzigs approach the music cautiously, sometimes soulfully, yet know to let loose when appropriate, for example, in the memorable Vivace final movements of No. 1 and No. 5. At all times, each of the four voices is discernable. While Haydn’s string quartet part-writing was not as consistently developed as Mozart’s, its importance remains. Haydn was more open than Mozart in his use of humor, and he was more daring than Mozart in resorting to unconventional keys; e.g., E? Minor in the second variation of the op. 50/1 Adagio and F? Major to conclude the first movement and to begin the Menuetto of op. 50/4 (which is in the un-Mozartean key of F? Minor, the slow movement of Mozart’s K 488 piano concerto notwithstanding).


In competition, the Lindsays have recorded all 45 quartets in performances that excel in their verve and in the success of that group’s willingness to take chances in its interpretive approach, but intonation weakness is too often its principal failure. In its op. 50/4, there is too much out-of-tune playing by the first violin to make it a competitor to the Leipzig performance of that quartet.


The members of the 21-year-old Leipzig String Quartet on this disc are Stefan Arzberger and Tilman Büning (violins), Ivo Bauer (viola), and Matthias Moosdorf (cello). Three of its members were first chairs of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. The quartet has concertized throughout the U.S. as well as throughout the world. It has recorded the complete string quartets of Schubert and of other composers. I can only hope that a “complete” (op. 20 and above) Haydn would be one of its eventual goals.


This is a Haydn quartet disc that I highly recommend.


FANFARE: Burton Rothleder

Classical Music

Sibelius: Complete Violin and Piano Music, Vol. 1

In 2000, I reviewed Wergo's mid-price edition of Conlon Nancarrow's complete studies for player piano, where you can access my comments about this unique and extraordinary body of music. While the late composer programmed each of the five Wergo discs by mixing earlier and later studies, MDG's new Nancarrow edition will present the pieces in numerical order that by and large corresponds to their chronology. In essence, jazz and blues inform Studies 1 through 10, yet roots of the multi-ratio canonic writing and sudden velocity shifts that characterize Nancarrow's later studies already are present, especially in the lively, complex counterpoint of Nos. 7 and 8. Newcomers to Nancarrow's music probably should start with the remarkable five-movement Study No. 3a-5, the Boogie-Woogie Suite. Its outer movements sound like Albert Ammons, Professor Longhair, and Jimmy Yancey trapped in Cecil Taylor's body, with the rhythmic layers sounding as if organized by Milton Babbitt on LSD.

The Wergo box stems from 1988 digital recordings made in the composer's Mexico City studio on his own custom-modified Ampico instruments. By contrast, the first volume of MDG's Nancarrow edition utilizes a Bösendorfer grand piano with an Ampico player-piano mechanism owned by Jürgen Hocker, whose hammers were modified with leather strips and metal parts according to Nancarrow's direct specifications. This way you get the percussive clarity Nancarrow favored together with the sonorous and resonant advantages of a first-rate concert grand. Furthermore, the vibrant church acoustic of MDG's recording offers a listening experience altogether different from the close microphone placement and dry acoustic of Nancarrow's studio.

For this reason, I hesitate to claim that MDG is better than Wergo, or vice versa. However, I find that the wiry, harpsichord-like sound that emits from certain registers on Nancarrow's instruments adds a degree of timbral diversity missing from the more evenly regulated Bösendorfer, while Wergo's close-up engineering gives additional clarity to the composer's terraced dynamics and frequent aggregates of rapid notes. Then again, the Bösendorfer's tuning holds up much better under Nancarrow's hypervirtuosic demands. The bottom line is that no new music fan should go through life without at least hearing Nancarrow's amazing studies, while Nancarrow devotees should know that MDG's series eventually will include previously unavailable works.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

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

"Schumann [in the Piano Quintet] knew what he was writing for, and the balance among the strings with the piano is well-nigh perfect. The dark and burnished tone of the Leipzigers is perfectly suited to this piece, and their practiced and well-judged tempos only add to the desirability of this release. I have been recommending the Bernstein/Juilliard as my benchmark, and I suppose that still stands, along with Argerich and the Takács/Marc-André Hamelin on Hyperion. This release joins those distinguished efforts.

And the good news continues. MDG advertises this as the first recording of the first two of the string quartets in the original version. Schumann made a lot of changes regarding dynamics, tempo, and even a number of excised passages after the first performances. But as the notes admit, the only authorized versions are the ones that included these changes, the composer again knowing exactly what he wanted when he embarked on the changes, tightening up the work and making it more cohesive. But the Leipzig Quartet decided that it would be worthwhile to record the first thoughts of the composer, and I think the decision is correct, even though hearing them in this form will not change any minds about the commonly accepted text. But what excites me is that I may have just found a modern-day equal to the Juilliard Quartet’s trend-setting version from the 1960s. The Leipzig is expressively superior and technically on par, while MDG’s recording greatly advances the depth and width of the soundstage. Well, let me calm down a moment—the Juilliard still plays the authorized version, and as such remains in top place. But these discs are just too good to pass, as playing like this demands an audience, and a frequently attending one at that. Want List qualifications definitely met."

FANFARE: Steven E. Ritter

Mallorca - Seville - Granada - Co?rdoba - mentioning these cities conjures up memories and imaginations that are associated with the magic of Spain. Nobody knew better how to capture these pictures in music than the piano virtuoso Isaac Albe?niz. The American- Italian guitarist Stephen Marchionda who lives in Spain, a renowned interpreter of Spanish music, lends new colours to this musical declaration of love.

Stephen Marchionda resides in Barcelona and is a proven expert in the field of Spanish music. This production is his second release on MDG, once again in the finest 2+2+2 SACD technique, which makes the listener feel that he or she is there in person. A fine and opulent result!

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

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

LOUIS FERDINAND Trio in E?, op. 3. Piano Quartet in f, op. 6 • Tr Parnassus; Thomas Selditz (va) • MDG 303 1361 (69:35)


This excellent trio has made an important contribution to the classical music discography in seeking out forgotten and neglected works from the rich treasury of 19th-century music. Among the most polished and innovative composers early in the century is Louis Ferdinand, the gifted Prussian prince who died on the battlefield in 1806 at the age of 34. Under the tutelage of Jan Ladislav Dussek, who was in his royal entourage, Louis Ferdinand composed a small body of works, almost entirely for chamber ensembles including piano; all were published during his lifetime. Volume 1, containing two of the trios, was reviewed in Fanfare 29:3. Since there are only three trios all told, the Parnassus players extended the scope of this integral set to include one of Louis Ferdinand’s two piano quartets.


The Parnassus now has a new violinist, Yamei Yu, who recently replaced the original violinist of the trio, Wolfgang Schröder. She appears to share their excellent qualities as chamber musicians—precise ensemble and intonation—but her sound is not very intense, and lacks nuance. The writing for the cello does not appear to be very challenging, and the cello part blends nicely but lacks a real profile. As in so much chamber music of that period, the piano is the dominant instrument, and although pianist Chia Chou modulates his brilliant playing in the true spirit of a considerate ensemble player, he is the true leader of the group, with a flexible command over expressive fluctuations in tempo and dynamics. The finale of the op. 6 quartet presents some tricky ensemble problems, which are solved pleasingly in the pianist’s capable hands.


As noted in the review of Volume 1, Louis Ferdinand’s music is amazingly forward-looking, anticipating the harmonic and structural freedom of the early Romantics such as Mendelssohn and Schumann. But above all, we hear Schubert in his style—harmonic surprises, expressive melodies, rich but lucid textures. The Quartet, on the other hand, shows some Beethoven influence, for example, in the terse, abrupt style of the Menuetto movement. The op. 6 Quartet, incidentally, was well known to the Romantics; Schumann composed some variations for piano four hands on a theme from the quartet; Archduke Rudolph used another theme for a set of violin variations; and Liszt published an Elégie sur des motifs du Prince Louis Ferdinand de Prusse in 1847.


The Parnassus Trio has little competition in its Louis Ferdinand project; the trios recorded several years ago by the Horst Göbel Trio on Thorofon are no longer available. Zephyr Records has a two-CD project titled “The Poet and the Prince,” pairing chamber works by Schumann and Louis Ferdinand, but I have not heard either of the CDs.


Simply on the basis of their polished, tasteful music-making, the Parnassus Trio is strongly recommended.


MDG boasts—and rightly so—about their “sound ideal,” produced in the natural acoustics of concert halls without the use of any “sound-modifying manipulation.” Their success is evident on this recording; the sound is vivid and natural, the balance among the trio members just as one would expect it to be in a concert hall.


FANFARE: Susan Kagan

Classical Music

For quite some time the composer and music educator Ludwig Thuille (1861-1907) seemed to stand in the shadow of his friend Richard Strauss, three years his junior. Nevertheless, in the end their friendship and the exchange between them contributed to artistic development on both sides. Thuille's chamber music, including mature contributions representing the high point of his composing, occupies a very great place in his overall oeuvre. Here we find tonally beautiful works full of swing and rich in thematic invention guaranteed to enthrall listeners even today.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Includes work(s) by various composers.

Classical Music