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Classical Music

Caroline Goulding presents her debut CD along with pianist Danae Dörken. Caroline Goulding, a Boston, MA native has received the Kempinsky Young Artists Fellowship, the Avery Fisher Career grant and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. She appears throughout the world, performing solo repertoire. German newspaper Die Welt describes Dörken as "a poet on the piano". Dörken is one of the most sought-after soloists of her generation, playing regularly at festivals and concert halls around the world.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Includes concerto(s) for piano by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Ensembles: Czech Chamber Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Václav Neumann. Soloist: Ivan Moravec.

TELEMANN HIGHLIGHTS

Includes quartet(s) for strings by Antonín Dvorák. Ensemble: Panocha String Quartet. Soloists: Pavel Zejfart, Miroslav Sehnoutka, Jaroslav Kulhan, Jiri Panocha.

As a composer, he was evidently inspired by Vivaldi’s concertos, which he was thoroughly familiar with. Yet Benda’s concertos are singular works in their own right, abounding in invention, naturally flowing and extremely forcible melody.

This recording, although relatively new, is one of the rarest gems in the Supraphon archives. After the initial positive reactions the extraordinary quality of the recording was confirmed by prestigious Gramophone Awards; in addition to winning the chamber music category, the young ensemble also brought home from London the top prize: Recording of the Year. Eight years after the first edition, Supraphon is releasing this delicacy for true audiophiles. Dvorák's mature works perhaps best mirror the ensemble's extraordinary qualities: the equilibrium between precision and spontaneity, the remarkable ensemble playing, and the solo potential of all of the individual players. At the end of the draft of his Quartet Op. 96, Antonín Dvorák wrote the comment: "I'm satisfied; it went quickly..." Soon after the "New World Symphony", he composed one of the most beautiful of all string quartets while still in America - and the critics were unsparing in their praise. For the Pavel Haas Quartet, both the "American" Quartet and the following Quartet Op. 106, the first work composed after the composer's return home from America, are literally affairs of the heart. According to the Sunday Times: "In this repertoire, they are simply matchless today." Dvorák might even have written his comment "I'm satisfied" about this recording as well.

Czech roots and international careers are the connecting link between the creators of all the three featured concertos. Antonín Kraft, first cellist in Prince Esterházy’s orchestra, was according to Haydn, who initiated him into the art of composition, “one of the most superb masters of this instrument”.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The Pavel Haas Quartet, of late, has been the focus of much hype and excitement, and I was curious to know what all the fuss is about. Having lived with and listened to these CDs several times over the past week, I now know. Quite simply, not to put too fine a point on it, this recording is a sensation. I was aware when I asked to review this, that it had garnered several rave reviews, and being a lover of both chamber music and Schubert’s in particular, I had great expectations. I’ve not been disappointed.

Founded in 2002, the quartet was named after Pavel Haas, a Czech composer and pupil of Leoš Janá?ek. Tragedy befell Haas; he spent his last days in the camp at Terezin, and died in Auschwitz in 1944. The Quartet has been the recipients of numerous awards and accolades, including the Gramophone Recording of the Year 2011 for a CD of Dvo?ák Quartets. It also has other fine recordings under its belt. There have been several personnel changes along the way before the current line-up. They have recorded all three of the Haas string quartets, pertinently coupling them with those of Janá?ek. I’ve already placed my order.

The pairing of these two works is a very intelligent one. Both are preoccupied with the notion of death and finality. The String Quartet in D minor, D 810 was composed in 1824, four years before Schubert’s death. It is entitled Death and the Maiden; the song of the same name (D 531) provides the theme for the second movement variations. The composer had already been suffering from syphilis for two years and that same year wrote: “Each night when I go to sleep, I hope never to wake again, and each morning serves only to recall the misery of the previous day." From the first declamatory chords of the opening movement you realize that the Pavel Haas mean business. I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a dramatic opening and you are literally kept on the edge of your seat for the rest of the movement. High-powered, passionate and thrilling are the adjectives which best describe this playing. The intense, underlying tension is contrasted with the fervent, heartfelt lyricism of the second subject. Throughout, these young players imbue the music with light and shade. It is not a cosy performance yet ensemble and intonation are faultless.

The dark theme of the second movement is haunting, funereal and filled with pathos - heartfelt and sincere. As the variations unfold, an eloquent dialogue between the individual instruments emerges. Each variation is thoughtfully nuanced and sensitively sculpted, with the players highlighting the dramatic contrasts between the variations. The third movement Scherzo is a rhythmic tour de force. The finale, marked Presto, is almost a tarantella, a dance to ward off the spider’s bite and thus flee from death, with the Pavel Haas conjuring up a musical exorcism. The dotted rhythmic patterns are crisply incisive and the movement is carried off with velocity and élan.

The String Quintet in C major was composed in 1828. This was the last year of Schubert’s short life and a prolifically fruitful year by any standards. During it he composed, amongst other things, the Mass in E flat, the last three Piano Sonatas, the F minor Fantasie for piano duet and this String Quintet. Benjamin Britten, no less, considered this year to be the most miraculous in the history of music. Danjulo Ishizaka is an excellent choice as second cello in the Quintet and blends into the ensemble well. Of German/Japanese origin, he was described by none other than Rostropovich as ‘phenomenal in his technical ability, perfect in his musical creative power’. He certainly brings these gifts to the performance of the Quintet.

I consider this work to be the most sublime piece of chamber music ever written, and the Pavel Haas enter a very crowded playing field, with many outstanding recordings. Some of my favourites that spring to mind are the Lindsays, the Belceas, the Alban Berg and not forgetting, the Hollywood’s 1951 account.

For me, the performance here ticks all the right boxes. From the opening chords, you feel that these young players are taking you on a journey. Having a clear vision and understanding of the structure of the music, they explore its full emotional range. Warmth and expressive phrasing are a distinguishing hallmark. The second movement, the emotional core, is well-paced. There is a tranquillity, an other-worldliness and a sense of resignation in the playing. They bring out the dark and anguished character of the dramatic section. Here one becomes aware of Schubert’s terror of approaching death. The Scherzo is imbued with gusto and energy, the trio, in contrast, being subdued. The finale is truly marked with a gypsy swagger.

Chamber music lovers, I am sure, will want these recordings, and I have no doubt that they will become benchmarks for these two glories of the chamber music repertoire. Recorded sound and balance is second to none; the Domovina Studio, Prague provides an ideal acoustic. Booklet notes by Vlasta Reiffererova supply the essential information. These young players are a force to be reckoned with, and the anticipation and enthusiasm they have earned with the listening public is here proved beyond doubt.

– Stephen Greenbank, MusicWeb International

There is hardly a better way to approach Ludwig van Beethoven than through his piano concertos. Beethoven’s own instrument was the piano, and in his improvisations – which made him the darling of the Viennese salons – he merged virtuosity and unbridled expression. The piano concertos give a clear idea of these performances. At the same time, they are prime examples of Beethoven’s ability to create large orchestral works with seemingly endless arcs of tension. The complete recording of all five works with Mitsuko Uchida and Sir Simon Rattle was one of the most spectacular projects of the Berliner Philharmoniker during the Rattle era – and at the same time the highlight of the collaboration between the orchestra and the pianist, which began in 1984. The performances were given a rapturous reception in the auditorium and in the press – as one critic wrote, the audience was overwhelmed by a “collective sense of happiness”. With vibrant freshness, the performances brought the whole combative energy of these works to life. At the same time, they revealed Beethoven’s incomparable spirituality, which – according to Mitsuko Uchida – “allows us to see to the end of the universe”.

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REVIEW:

Uchida takes enormous care over articulation, clarity, voicing and dynamics. And this is true in the simplest passages as well as the most virtuoso. Uchida’s fastidious articulateness makes every stitch count, yet her phrasing is generous, so the detail always remains in its rightful place as part of a larger unfolding. What’s most valuable about these performances, I think, is their exploration of the music’s dramatic potential.

– Gramophone

Classical Music

Classical Music

With God's help and favour, I will one day be a Liszt in technique, a Mozart in composing, so wrote Smetana in his diary in January 1843. This sentence reflects the sheer determination and confidence in his own talent that compelled the 19-year-old composer - in defiance of his parents - to leave for Prague so as to continue his studies and eventually become one of the best-known Czech music creators. The beginning of his journey was fraught with tough, uncertain material conditions, and the young Smetana had to be tenacious indeed. Jitka Cechová's new recording features early pieces written in 1845 and 1846, years of intensive study and the outset of Smetana's independent artistic career. Many of them are being released on CD for the very first time; some of them were used by the composer in his later works or revised. The pianist Jitka Cechová has completed the seventh instalment of the currently most comprehensive recording of Bedrich Smetana's piano works. Owing to her zest and faultless interpretation, we now have the opportunity to savour this remarkable and still underestimated layer of Smetana's oeuvre within the context of the greatest 19th-century composers of piano music.

CANTATAS: BOX 2

Classical Music

SCALES FROM WEIMAR: ORGAN WORK

"This is a convenient recital, presenting—unusually, it turns out, in a single program—the clarinet-and-piano works of Debussy and his contemporary Florent Schmitt, plus those of the demi-Six Honegger, Milhaud, and Poulenc (the other three were Auric, Durey, and Tailleferre), who were more or less a generation younger. Despite a name that sounds as German as, say, “John Barbirolli,” clarinetist Ralph Manno is a native German, making the program all the more atypical. This disc follows soon after Oehms’s release of a two-CD set featuring Manno and Alfredo Perl in music of Brahms; both that and the present disc, however, turn out to be reissues of 1995 recordings.

Manno’s performance of Debussy’s Rhapsodie (there never was a deuxième) is languorous at first, then fluid and dynamic as the music demands. His sound, appropriately international rather than characteristically German, is attractive and well focused, and his technique and control are impressive. The aptly named Petite pièce, written as a sight-reading exercise, is smooth and expressive.

The Lorraine-born Florent Schmitt (1870–1958) should be better known; he is remembered today mostly for the extravagant, almost expressionistic La Tragédie de Salomé. The present Andantino, by contrast, is brief, modest, and perhaps even a bit sentimental...

If the composers who made up Les Six had any musical trait in common (and Milhaud, for one, denied that they did), it is a quintessentially French irreverence, even impudence. (Two of the movements of Milhaud’s sonatine are marked Très rude.) The Honegger and Milhaud sonatines were both composed in the 1920s; the former is an aphoristic work in three movements lasting only six minutes all together; Manno plays with impressive command here... The late, folksy Duo Concertant is an attractive example of Milhaud’s Provençal style; the slight Caprice, running under two minutes, serves as a sort of encore...this disc can be recommended for its overview of the core French clarinet recital repertoire."

FANFARE: Richard A. Kaplan

Arthur Honegger’s seven-part La Danse des Morts, the music of which he composed to words by the French dramatist and poet Paul Claudel who he’d previously collaborated with for the oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, forms a sort of huge “ascension”: the first four parts provide the human basis, God replies in Part Five, followed by Faith in the Cross and the Lord’s promise to the children of Israel (Affirmation). Two earlier orchestral works, the Pastorale d’eté (1920) and the Nocturne (1936), complete the disc. Henri Vachey conducts Le jeune orchestre symphonique de Douai.