Pieces are like seismographs says Adriana Hölszky about her own work - but it could well be applied to all the works recorded on the present CD: Music as a seismograph for a composer's aesthetic premises, musical ideas, and the circumstances of composition or, beyond the period of composition, to provide information about the approaches that musicians and listeners, respectively, adopt toward it, about our changing understanding of music. The combination of works recorded here by Julius Berger and Stefan Hussong demonstrates that for all the historicism of our musical life, the most recent music and older music do not contradict each other, but instead the perspective and experiences provided by the most recent music can provide surprising approaches to older music.

Classical Music

THE HEIFETZ COLLECTION VOL 10

French composer Mark Andre's ...auf... consists of three independent orchestral pieces. Taken together, they can be heard as a cycle or as a triptych. Though they are related, each work begins again the search for new resonances and means for transitions between sounds. Andre studied composition with Claude Ballif and Gérard Grisey at the Conservatoire de Paris. He continued his studies in Stuttgart with André Richard at the SWR Experimentalstudio and with Helmut Lachenmann.

Chamber Music (Baroque) - Frederick Ii / Benda, F. / Bach, C

Ferdinand & Mendelssohn: Piano Quartets

ABBEY ROAD: A CAPELLA

Flute and Guitar Recital: Nicodemus, Heike / Mangold, Maximi

The "For Relaxation" series from RCA Victor offers music that, as the title suggests, creates an atmosphere of calm and serenity. Each disc in the series is dedicated to a single composer or instrument and features well known music of a tranquil, gentle nature. However, in addition to the familiar works, there are many pleasant surprises and unexpected selections all brilliantly performed by masters such as James Galway, Julian Bream, Pinchas Zukerman, and Gerhard Oppitz. Each album in the series is expertly programmed to set the appropriate mood of quiet reflection and, with the combination of superb music and exceptional performances, offers a truly pleasurable listening experience.
PIANO FOR RELAXATION offers works for solo piano from a variety of composers, all eloquently interpreted by Gerhard Oppitz. Edvard Grieg, with five selections including the dreamlike Notturno, is the most prominently featured composer on this compilation. Oppitz gives a graceful account of the Intermezzo in A by Johannes Brahms, also well represented with three additional pieces. The collection is rounded out by Oppitz's sensitive readings of works by Schumann, Liszt, Chopin, and others, including a haunting rendition of Ravel's 'Pavane pour une infante défunte.'

Franck, Debussy & Enesco: Violin Sonatas

UN-BREAK MY HEART

This is a very sprightly Trout. The first movement, a true Allegro vivace, gives a joyful feeling of onward momentum, but poised and well in control so there's no sense of undue hurry. The lively yet easygoing style persists in the Scherzo and finale. The quintet's bright textures suit the clear, picturesque sounds of period instruments admirably: I especially enjoyed the light, seemingly effortless brilliance of the piano's upper register — the third variation in the fourth movement shows this off to perfection — and the way the characteristic 68 Gramophone February 1999 sonorities of the lower strings emerge so clearly. But there are some disappointments; Schubert's many pianissimos rarely sound soft or mysterious enough, and I felt often that the string phrasing should move further away from classical elegance towards romantic breadth. In the two slower movements particularly, the best modern instrumental versions, such as those led by Brendel and Curzon, achieve a more intense expression of Schubert's unique lyricism.

Bylsma plays the Arpeggione Sonata on a five-string violoncello piccolo. The result is wonderfully convincing; the light, reedy tone, often with minimal vibrato, is very appealing, and the high-register passages sound entirely natural and unforced. Immerseel's Viennese-action instrument, too, is especially evocative and sweet-toned here. The Notturno, however, despite some fine playing, slightly misfires, missing the mystery and excitement of La Gaia Scienza (also on period instruments), or the tranquillity and grandeur of Schiff, Shiokawa and Perenyi (their two-disc set of the piano trios also includes a warmly expressive account of the Arpeggione Sonata).

This well-recorded disc is certainly a recommendation for a period-instrument Trout, and as authentic-sounding an Arpeggione as one is likely to hear.

-- Gramophone [2/1999]

LISZT: PIANO CONCERTOS 1 & 2,

BRUCKNER: TE DEUM, MASS NO 2

PAGANINI: VIOLIN CONCERTOS 1 &

..."Dance of the Firebird"...is much more nimble and airy in Leonard Bernstein's performance, possibly because the American opts for the better-known 1919 Suite which uses a reduced orchestration... Bernstein delivers a brilliant account of the score...

-- Erik Levi, BBC Music Magazine [reviewing the Firebird Suite]

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Bernstein treats Scheherazade as the "Symphonic Suite" it's billed as, barely pausing between movements—the old Columbia LP has no bands on either side. This was the kind of personalized, excitable interpretation that made Bernstein beloved to many, though it won't be to everyone's taste... His shaping of the violin and cello statements of the theme in "The Young Prince and the Young Princess" is exquisite. The violin solos are played warmly and effectively by John Corigliano (the composer's father and, for 23 years, concertmaster of the Philharmonic.)... It's difficult to imagine Bernstein devotees not having these performances already. But for others who have missed them in their various incarnations, or want to replace aging LPs—don't deny yourself some considerable pleasure.

-- Andrew Quint, FANFARE [5/1999, reviewing Scheherazade]

The ensemble Hamburger Ratsmusik, under the direction of Simone Eckert has recorded five songs from Luther for Advent and Christmas. These pieces have been arranged by various composers from the Reformation era and they captivate through their diversity in different instrumental and vocal combinations. Vom Himmel hoch is one of the most famous songs by Martin Luther and is still sung today at Christmas time.

ROBERT CRAFT CONDUCTS UNDER TH

The organ of the minster in the Benedictine Abbey of Zwiefalten was built in the fifties by the Biberach organ builder company Reiser. On this recording Franz Lörch presents the instrument with works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Liszt, César Franck and Léon Boëllmann.

Praised by The New Yorker as “a fresh and vital young participant in what is a golden age of American string quartets,” the Daedalus Quartet has established itself as a leader among the new generation of string ensembles. The Daedalus Quartet has won plaudits for its adventurous exploration of contemporary music, most notably the compositions of Elliott Carter, George Perle, György Kurtág and György Ligeti.

This release is volume 1 in a series devoted to the string quartets of George Perle (1915 - 2009).

"The sound and surface of his music is marked by a relative simplicity which is actually the underpinning of a rich and complex language based on principles he has developed and which owe much to the thinking of Bartók, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Berg. He has eschewed serialism, however, and his compositional approach is one which differs fundamentally from most post–Schoenbergian practice." - Paul Lansky, Princeton University

The Lieder project is a co-operative charitable project between SWR2 (Southwest German Broadcasting Company), Carus, over 100 performing artists and now more than 300 children. Following the highly successful "Lullabies" and "Folk songs", SWR2 and Carus have now turned to the German "Children's songs" ("Kinderlieder"). All of the recordings are being released successively as lieder collections in 3 attractive CD boxes. Each box includes a comprehensive book with lied texts and source information.

Classical Music

The Queen’s Six release their third album on the Resonus Classics label with a scintillating and varied programme of music for Christmas. Both modern and traditional carols feature alongside a selection of lighter and contemplative evocations of the festive season. The Queen’s Six bring their trademark flair to this broad range of arrangements for men’s voices, with works from the Renaissance to the present day, including a tribute to the life of the inimitable David Willcocks - forever associated with the Christmas season - and new works by Thomas Hewitt Jones, Richard Madden & Matthew Coleridge.

Classical Music