Conceived thirty years apart, both works on the present disc came into being at difficult times in the life of Arnold Schoenberg. Emotional stress caused by a marital crisis around 1907-1908 is often claimed to have contributed to the break with tonality that the Second String Quartet represents – in the course of the work Schoenberg moves from the post-Wagnerian chromaticism of Late Romanticism to atonality, with the final movement lacking a key signature altogether. Another unusual feature is the inclusion of a soprano in the two last movements. Schoenberg himself later wrote: 'I was inspired by poems of Stefan George, the German poet ... and, surprisingly, without any expectation on my part, these songs showed a style quite different from everything I had written before.'

Almost thirty years later, in 1936, the String Quartet No. 4 was one of the first works that Schoenberg composed in the U.S.A. after having been forced into exile by the threat of the Nazi regime in Germany. He had left Europe in 1933, but the first years in his new home country had been taxing, with health problems and a difficult work schedule involving teaching in both Boston and New York. If the second quartet is a key work of musical modernism, pointing towards an as yet unknown future, String Quartet No. 4 rests securely on the principles of twelve-tone composition that Schoenberg had developed during the intervening years – but makes use of these principles in a somewhat freer, more relaxed manner than his previous twelve-tone works. The two works are given full-blooded performances by the Gringolts Quartet, joined by the Swedish soprano Malin Hartelius in the Second String Quartet.

A unique disc from one of Scotland's most dynamic and versatile groups – the Scottish Ensemble is a tight-knit band of outstanding string players from around Europe who perform regularly together under Artistic Director, Jonathan Morton. This disc – one of their first solo releases following acclaimed discs with artists such as Alison Balsom and Toby Spence – contrasts Vivaldi's timeless Four Seasons with Piazzolla's tango-inspired The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.

Combining Vivaldi and Piazzola together like this underlines the meteorological and cultural differences between Mediterranean Europe and the heart of South America. To have them performed side by side creates a fascinating programme of similarities and contrasts.

In 2006 La Serenissima released it's superb debut recording featuring two world premiere recordings. Now, that album is being reissued. L'Amore per Elvira, written for the Mantuan court around 1716-20, consists of three cantatas, each featuring soprano Mhairi Lawson. In Tremori al braccio, RV 799 the lover, Fileno, trembles at his inability to confess his love to Elvira, only overcoming his reticence in the finale. In the second work Elvira, anima mia, RV 654, Fileno bears the sad tidings to Elvira that he must leave for a while and asks for one last kiss before he leaves. In the final work, Lungi dal vago volto, RV 680, the returning Fileno spies Elvira in the distance and he finally reaches her in the happy concluding aria. The two 'Graz' sonatas, housed in the Diozesanarchiv in Graz, are presented here for the first time. Their brass parts, which were previously missing, have been carefully reconstructed by Adrian Chandler in order to make this recording possible. The final work, the Sonata in C minor for violin and cello, RV 83, represents the only sonata of this type known to have been written by Vivaldi and is notable for it's three-movement concerto layout. Celebrating it's 25th anniversary in 2019 La Serenissima, led by violinist Adrian Chandler, is recognized as the UK's leading exponent of the music of eighteenth century Venice and connected composers.

Naxos’ ongoing complete Liszt piano music cycle reaches Volume 37 with the rarely heard first versions of three Petrarca Sonnets and Venezia e Napoli. The latter’s original incarnation included four rather than three movements. The opening movement features material that Liszt later recycled for his symphonic poem Tasso, with a middle section packed with scintillating arpeggios and rapid unison passages. It is followed by a brief declamatory movement, and then an Andante placido that would grow more elaborate, decorative, fluid, and imaginative as Gondoliera in the revised suite. Similarly, the later Tarantella is tighter and more dramatically cogent than its more diffuse yet no less demanding earlier counterpart. Among the three earlier Petrarca pieces, Sonetto No. 104’s differences particularly stand out from its later, more familiar revision, notably in a long, brooding introduction that Liszt replaced with the terser, agitated short phrases we know today.

Making his Naxos label debut, pianist Jue Wang plays best when his hands are fully occupied, as in the Tarantella’s bravura climaxes and long stretches of repeated notes, although Leslie Howard shapes the slower, rhetorical passagework with a stronger sense of the music’s declamatory nature and dynamic contrasts. While Wang captures the unquiet undercurrents of Schlaflos Frage und Antwort, his relatively heavy touch and general loudness take a back seat to Alfred Brendel’s faster and texturally clearer account on his Philips recording.

However, Wang’s light and supple Toccata points up the work’s foreshadowing similar textures and harmonic ambiguities of Debussy and Bartók. He tosses off the brief, flashy Galop de bal and the more substantial A minor Galop with tremendous character and technical finish, and serves up an ebullient Grand Galop chromatique that takes Liszt’s tempos and accentuations more seriously than the deliciously wacky Cziffra, whose galloping horse is closer to a souped-up bumper car. Keith Anderson’s annotations are up to his usual high standards.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

One of Sweden’s leading composers, Rolf Martinsson had an international breakthrough with the trumpet concerto Bridge, composed for Håkan Hardenberger who has also recorded it (BIS-1208). Martinsson has since gone on to compose solo works for performers including Martin Fröst, Anne Sofie von Otter and Christian Lindberg, and enjoys a particularly close collaboration with the soprano Lisa Larsson. The two started working together in 2011, devising a soprano version of Orchestral Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson, and Lisa Larsson has since performed Martinsson’s music at more than a hundred concerts to date. A number of leading orchestras have commissioned works from Rolf Martinsson, including the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra for which he composed his Concerto for Orchestra. In descriptions of Martinsson’s music, words such as ‘lush’, ‘colorful’ and ‘cinematic’ are often used – qualities which have proved attractive to a large audience, as well as to a number of eminent conductors. Sakari Oramo and Andrew Manze, also heard on this release, are among those who have championed works by Rolf Martinsson, in Sweden as well as internationally.

The Hungarian pianist has won a number of piano competitions in Hungary and abroad, including first prize in the 1973 Hungarian Piano Concours and first prize in the chamber music category at the Sydney International Piano Competition in 1977. He has recorded for Naxos all the piano concertos and sonatas of Mozart. Other recordings for Naxos include the concertos of Grieg and Schumann as well as Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and the complete piano sonatas of Haydn and Beethoven, the complete piano music of Bart�k, and a wide repertoire of chamber music. His critically acclaimed recordings of the Complete Haydn Piano Sonatas are available in a 10-CD Box Set, released to mark the 200th anniversary of the composer's death.

BEETHOVEN Piano Trio No. 5. SCHUBERT Adagio in B?, “Notturno.” SCHUMANN Piano Trio No. 3 • Atos Tr • AZICA 71251 (63:57)


I’ve heard positive buzz concerning the Atos Trio, a young German ensemble that is quickly making a mark for itself just as the chamber-music world mourns the loss of the Beaux Arts Trio after an astonishing half century of concertizing and recording. The field is far more crowded now than when Menahem Pressler assembled his fabled threesome in 1955, and in the past 30 years their principal competition (at least in North America) has been the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. This latter ensemble also sponsors the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award (KLRITA) competition, and after garnering several other prizes, the Atos Trio took top honors in this prestigious contest in 2007. This new disc on Azica is fruit of that milestone.


In fact, this is their third recording, on the heels of one featuring trios by Heinrich von Herzogenberg on cpo and another with Brahms, Beethoven (Trio No. 1), and Kirchner on Ars Musici. The trios on this new disc by Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann are described by annotator Laurie Shulman as “less familiar music,” a conclusion I take issue with, although she is certainly correct that there are other trios by these composers that have a stronger presence on the concert stage.


If Beaux Arts excelled in elegant interpretations of classical fare and KLR blossomed in full-throated, virtuosic readings of Romantic repertoire (an oversimplification to be sure), Atos steps easily between these poles as the music dictates. There are absolutely no technical obstacles they don’t easily vanquish, and their range of timbre and articulation are as complete as that of any chamber musicians working today. Listen to the pointed, almost pizzicato-like crispness of Stefan Heinemeyer’s cello in the first movement of Beethoven’s Trio No. 5, matched with exquisite unanimity later by the bow of violinist Annette von Hehn, then blended with the florid, rapid-fire passagework from pianist Thomas Hoppe, all combining for a fleet and nimble, yet stylish and graceful reading. There is an abundance of Haydnesque elegance in their traversal, but when more weight is called for (as in the main body of the opening movement), they have plenty of decibels in reserve. There is a reticent tenderness to their tone in the opening bars of the work, but they pull out all stops in the finale, which bustles with robust sound and unbridled virtuosity. Still, they often turn on a dime as the mood changes, a trait that seems to be a notable hallmark of their style.


Schubert’s single-movement Adagio in E?, D 897 (“Notturno”), was probably intended as the original slow movement of the Trio in B?, but it would be wrong to imagine it a simple, song-like intermezzo. Atos plays it with appropriate weight, conjuring a nearly symphonic creation that seems designed for larger forces (many have noticed its resemblance to the slow movement of the composer’s String Quintet in C). Again, the range of color and dynamics produced by the threesome is breathtaking. This may be the finest version of the work on disc.


Their sound and flow is utterly different in the Schumann, reflective of the moody impulsiveness that courses through much of the music. Yet they frequently switch gears, leavening the prevailing texture when called for. In general, they take a lighter hand with Schumann than the KLR Trio, but the virtuosic flair is there in reserve. The finest Schumann performances are tinged with moments of hair-trigger abandon that this threesome doesn’t quite attain, but their sense of the idiom is nonetheless fully convincing. Tonal sheen and discreet balance are never sacrificed on the altar of spontaneity, a posture that will please some and perhaps disappoint others.


In short, this trio has the goods to stand with the finest chamber groups on the planet, but their raw talent isn’t displayed simply as a way to prove their mettle. Their understanding of these touchstones of the repertoire is deep and vital, and they should, despite their tender ages, be counted among the very best.


I have mixed feelings about the sound, recorded at Waetjen Auditorium at Cleveland State University. Generally it is clean, well balanced, and tonally accurate, but also somewhat dry, clinical, and close. Balance is often a serious issue for piano trios, as the cello can be easily buried by the left hand of the piano, a pitfall mercifully lacking here. Naturally, the recording process can correct ills of this sort, but my gut tells me that they have solved this festering problem of trio performance, owing no doubt to Hoppe’s sensitivity and Heinemeyer’s full-blooded tone. If this disc is an accurate guide, Atos Trio deserves a major label contract and the engineering expertise that usually follows.


FANFARE: Michael Cameron

Whenever a definition is made in an attempt to distinguish one artistic concept from others, such delineation becomes an art in itself and is sometimes artificial. Music, let alone the musical genre of the art song, is no exception. Catch-all headings make matters easier. The two song cycles on this release certainly qualify as art songs. Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his opus 98 in 1816; musicologists commonly describe An die ferne Geliebte (to the distant beloved) as the first ever song cycle. Franz Schubert wrote his Schwanengesang (swan song) in 1828, the year of his death; the songs were posthumously made into a collection. In terms of its musicological and sociological development, the Lied, having long been considered “inferior,” underwent a kind of emancipation process throughout the early modern period up until the start of the 19th century, when the emergence of the educated middle-class, particularly in the German-speaking world, allowed the new genre to take root. Such songs were performed at small venues too: in salons, small halls and before audiences that were not necessarily aristocratic of courtly. Dynamically versatile and affordable, the piano was now a common keyboard instrument and was often used to accompany the vocalist with supportive harmonies and melodic counterpoint.

Classical Music

BOLLING: Suites for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio

Albert Lortzing was familiar with the stage from his earliest years, for both his parents were actors, and by the age of 18 he too was engaged as both an actor and singer. His career was anything but stable, however; a competent composer, he divided his time between precarious kapellmeister positions – including a stint at the Theater an der Wien – and having to revert to acting in order to support himself. He died impoverished and unhappy in 1851, a few months after securing his third kapellmeister post.

Today he is best remembered for his Singspiel Der Wildschütz, a masterpiece of writing and whose libretto the composer himself fashioned from Kotzebue’s comedy Der Rehbock, oder Die schuldlosen Schuld bewußten, which had been published earlier in 1816. Kotzebue’s work is a whirlwind of character disguise, a piece whose titillating coquetry touches firmly on frivolity but manages to evade full-scale immorality, and Lortzing also added small touches of his own to the story – including the character of the majordomo Pancratius, whose role has traditionally been performed in Saxon dialect. The enduring appeal of Der Wildschütz, however, clearly rests on the score, with Lortzing’s lightness of touch, his memorable and catchy tunes, and the vivid characterisation of comic situations lending his music a charm that appears as fresh as ever. An ardent admirer of Mozart, it is in Der Wildschütz, more than in any other of his operas, that Lortzing succeeded in writing at least a few numbers that are reminiscent of the great composer. This applies particularly to his carefully wrought ensemble passages, which greatly outweigh the arias in terms of number and of which the much-admired Billiards Scene (Act 2) is surely the greatest.

Lortzing’s operas were the most-performed in Germany for about 150 years, and from listening to Der Wildschütz it is easy to understand why. Recorded in the early ‘80s and bringing together many of Germany’s top singers of the period, this version remains one of the finest to date. ‘Edith Mathis is a delightful Baroness and Doris Soffel nicely characterises the Sophocles-besotted Countess…’, while ‘Georgine Resick sings a charming Gretchen, warm but with a will of her own.’ (Gramophone)

Other information:
- Recorded 1980–1982.
- Reissue of one of the gems of the East Germany archive recordings of Berlin Classics: Der Wildschütz by Albert Lortzing.
- Lortzing’s operas were extremely popular in their time, due to their good humour and wit, the memorable tunes and the general romantic nature feeling.
- A star studded cast of the best German voices of the time: Edith Mathis, Doris Soffel, Peter Schreier, Hans Sotin, Gottfried Hornik, and the magnificent Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by Bernhard Klee. - Contains detailed notes on the music and plot synopsis.
- German Libretto available for download

The American pianist Tzimon Barto and the world famous conductor Christoph Eschenbach have had a very long and close friendship together. After their successful Capriccio recording of Tchaikovsky’s B flat Minor Concerto they follow up now with recordings of the Brahms Concertos, cornerpieces of the piano concerto literature and further examples of these two artist’s close working partnership. Mr. Barto and Mr. Eschenbach, iconoclasts both, offer a new focus on these masterpieces. Also to be heard are Mr. Barto’s interpretations of the 4 Ballades, op. 10.

Classical Music

Pulitzer and GRAMMY® Award winner Jennifer Higdon is one of the most performed living American composers, and this program provides a unique opportunity to hear première recordings of her earlier chamber music. The String Trio was written while Higdon was a developing young composer, and the influences of Prokofiev and Copland can be heard in the Sonata for Viola and Piano. The beauty and immensity of the Western US sky was the inspiration for Sky Quartet, while Dark Wood explores the soulful and virtuoso character of the bassoon. Higdon’s “vibrant and individual voice” (Limelight Magazine) can be heard in further chamber works on Naxos 8.559298.

Classical Music

The second volume in Naxos' survey of Schubert's 12 piano sonatas surviving in fragmentary form offers three works whose harmonic adventurousness and memorable melodic content will appeal to anyone who loves this composer. More often than not, the music provides interesting contexts in relation to more familiar works. For example, I can't help but notice how the C major D. 279 sonata's bold first-movement opening theme and declamatory trills foreshadow the Wanderer Fantasy's finale. And listening to the E minor D. 566/506's Allegretto, with its songful lyricism and rolling left-hand accompaniment, I wonder if Schubert knew the finale of Beethoven's Op. 90 sonata, one of the latter composer's most "Schubertian" utterances! As before, pianist Gottlieb Wallisch turns in affectionate, idiomatic, and warmly phrased performances that are hard to beat. His energy often surpasses Wilhelm Kempff's heavier gait while steering clear of András Schiff's occasional mannerisms (such as breaking the hands in the E major D. 459's first Scherzo). Also as before, Wallisch provides informative, well-written booklet notes. A lovely disc.--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

The Turkish pianist Idil Biret was one of the greatest child prodigies of the 20th century. Her recital at the Boston Conservatory demonstrated that she is no less prodigious today. She played a long and demanding program with the power, concentration. 747313127276 NXS8571272.2 14654756 .00 14.99 .20 NAXOS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 09/29/2009 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/1/8/9/6/1556981.jpg 1 1 N SCHUMANN / STRAUSS / FRAGER / SKD / KEMPE STAATSKAPELLE DRESDEN EDITION 28 881488805352 PROL8053.2 14655517 .00 24.99 .48 PROFIL - G HAENSSLER COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 09/29/2009 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/6/4/0/7/1557046.jpg 3 2 N KONTOMANOU,ELISABETH / ALLEN,GERI SECRET OF THE WIND Despite an obvious rapport, singer Elisabeth Kontomanou and pianist Geri Allen were not old friends when they met in France to lay down these tracks Kontomanou is based in Stockholm, while Allen is still in the states, a centerpiece of the University of Michigan's jazz faculty. The two met for the first time for a duet tribute to Billie Holiday in March 2011, at Montreal's annual Jazz en Rafale Festival. Geri Allen has long been considered the greatest jazz pianist since the 1980s, her work focused on furthering the legacy of Herbie Hancock and Thelonious Monk while retaining the gospel fervor of the blues. This program mixes traditional with new undertaking full-scale reimagining of iconic R&B themes like the opener, Marvin Gaye's God Is Love, and Curtis Mayfield's time-honored classic People Get Ready. 3760195730157 ONOT15.2 16491045 .00 20.99 .12 OUTNOTE RECORDS COMPACT DISCS POP JAZZ 05/08/2012 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/6/3/8/1/1971836.jpg 147 1 N RUDNER / WURTTEMBERGISCHE PHILHARMONIE REUTLINGEN FESTLICHES WEIHNACHTSKONZERT 4010276024705 PROL98635.2 16093973 .00 20.99 .22 PROFIL - G HAENSSLER COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHRISTMAS / CHANUKKAH 10/25/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/3/0/8/0/1900803.jpg 10 1 N BEETHOVEN / BIRET / BILSO COMPLETE PNO CTOS Love of Beethoven' works threads through Biret' life like a red ribbon. Her studio recordings and live concerts show this in an unequivocal language... Next to the Piano Concertos, the Triple Concerto and the Choral Fantasy she has also recorded and perfo.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Calefax is an internationally acclaimed ensemble of reed players renowned for performing their own arrangements and newly commissioned compositions for the unique combination of oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bass clarinet and bassoon. Switching genres and periods with consummate ease, this adventurous new release for Pentatone from the reed quintet Calefax is a superb collection of well-honed arrangements of less familiar works, all played with the ensemble’s customary verve, passion, and mellow sound. From the frothy virtuosity of Corelli and Locatelli to the haunting beauty of Gesualdo, Satie, and the heartfelt introspection of Nina Simone, it’s an astonishingly varied and intriguing programme. As well as pieces by Franck and Janácek, it includes one commission, Look for Me by Nico Muhly, based on an American folk song, and an arrangement of the Chinese popular song Er Quan Ying Yue. All these pieces have regularly featured in Calefax’s concerts and they fully showcase the ensemble’s versatility and mastery.

Clarity, rhythmic poise and a light touch are keywords. Nosè lets the music speak.

London-Bach, as he has been called, was the youngest of Johann Sebastian Bach’s sons. He was fifteen when his father passed away and then moved to Berlin, where his half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel was harpsichordist to Frederick the Great. Young Johann Christian studied with his brother and it was during this time he wrote his first concertos. In 1754 he moved to Italy where he was successful as an opera composer and it was in this capacity that he was called to London where he settled. In London he met the young Mozart and was greatly influenced by him as a composer. The six sonatas Op. 17, first published in Paris in 1774 as Op. 12, clearly show his compositional style. It is easy to hear similarities between the two composers, especially the earlier Mozart sonatas. Bach’s sonatas are good representatives of the gallant style with sweet melodics and the care-free and easygoing flow of the music.

Of these six sonatas only two are written in the traditional three movements and the brevity of most of them rather implies that they might have been labelled sonatinas instead. The exception is No. 6, which is on a much grander scale, elaborated and with deeper development of the thematic material. It is also technically the most demanding. Sonata No. 2 is the other three-movement piece and it also stands out as it is the only one in a minor key, which automatically lends it a more ‘serious’ character.

All the sonatas are highly entertaining and I don’t use that word in any pejorative sense. They are well constructed and fairly simple. Dr. Burney wrote about Bach’s keyboard compositions that they were ‘such as ladies can execute with little trouble’. But simplicity doesn’t exclude musical finesse, even though music of this kind shouldn’t be over-interpreted.

Alberto Nosè is a young Italian, who has a long list of prizes in prestigious piano competitions worldwide, most recently First Prize, Gold Medal and Sony Audience Prize in Santander 2005. The year before that I heard him in Florence where I found him better suited to Scriabin’s and Szymanowski’s late Romantic-to-Impressionist sound-world than Schumann’s more sweeping Romanticism. Half a century further back in history he reaps laurels through his clarity, his rhythmic poise and his light touch. He has a formidable technique, to which his prizes are testimony and which I also noted in Florence. He has ample opportunity to demonstrate this in Sonata No. 6, where the rousing finale in particular requires fluent finger-work. He sticks rather strictly to the basic tempos of each movement and keeps the dynamics within a rather limited scope, bearing in mind that these sonatas were composed for harpsichord or fortepiano. In other words he lets the music speak and puts himself in the background. I can’t think of better advocacy for Johann Christian Bach. Next time I would be happy to hear him in Scriabin or Szymanowski but I am afraid that Naxos have already dealt with both composers.

The recording has great clarity without being too analytical.

-- Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

In his ninth and tenth of a total of fourteen releases of Bach’s collected organ works, Kare Nordstoga pulls together much of what was not collected from the composer’s side- preludes and fugues. The double form prelude (or toccata) and fugue has been an established form of composition since the 1600s. The North Germans Dietrich Buxtehude and Georg Bohm made a powerful contribution to this contrastive style in which the freer first part and the more rigorous second part are united in a dynamic whole. The young Johann Sebastian harvested significant impressions from these two composers during his time in Lubeck and Luneburg, and this album was recorded in Luneburg. Kare Nordstoga (b. 1954) studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Following his debut in 1978, he continued his studies in London and he was for a time organist at Ullern Church, before coming to Oslo Cathedral in 1984. He has also been associated with the Norwegian Academy of Music, where he was appointed professor in 1994.

REVIEW:

Nordstoga displays a fine architectural grasp of the works and builds them with convincing inevitability. Integrity is the hallmark of all his playing: He is careful but not cautious; deliberate and determined but not dragging and dour; sure-handed and solid but not showy or superficial. The only thing I do not find here is the uniquely electrifying excitement that Ton Koopman brings to his complete cycle. But if, unlike me, your taste in Bach organ performances runs more towards the older tradition of stately grandeur, then definitely consider investing in Nordstoga.

– Fanfare

Includes work(s) by Maximo Pujol, Marco Pereira. Soloist: Ricardo Cobo.

This selection includes a downloadable bonus track, Vincenzo Bellini's "L'allegro marinaro," from classiconline.com.