The fifteenth volume of the Haydn2032 cycle is entitled 'La Reine'. One might think that this nickname refers to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, queen of numerous territories, but in fact the monarch honoured by the popular title of Symphony no.85 is her daughter, Marie Antoinette. It was said to be the favourite of 'La Reine de France', which is the full nickname of the work. The new volume also includes Symphony no.50, which delighted the Empress's ears when she visited Prince Nicolaus Esterhazy at his 'Hungarian Versailles' in 1773. Symphony no.62, which dates from 1780, the fortieth anniversary of Maria Theresa's accession to the throne and also the last year of a life as eventful as it was glorious, rounds off this latest instalment of the complete recording of the symphonies conducted by Giovanni Antonini, here at the helm of the Basel Chamber Orchestra.

With "Beethoven for Flute and Piano - Part II", audite continues it's CD series exploring the composer's contributions to this instrumentation. While the first release, "But in my style!", focused on the late works, this new double album turns to the composer's early Viennese period. Here, the flute does not appear merely as an ad libitum instrument, but takes centre stage as the tonal focus of both original compositions and arrangements. The spectrum ranges from a version revised and authorised by Beethoven himself to adaptations by Friedrich Hermann. In this way, the selection also offers a glimpse into the historical reception of his music. Together with the first volume, it presents a richly varied panorama of Beethoven's oeuvre for flute and piano.

This is the last release of a six-release album series presenting all violin concertos by Mozart. Together with the the Spanish violinist and conductor Robert Gonzales-Monjas, who is the chief conductor of the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, the orchestra proves once again it's unrivaled position as interpreters of the Mozart stylistic. The album will be released during the Salzburg Mozartwoche in January 2026

The guitar is an expressive harpsichord declared the composer Claude Debussy after a concert by the Catalan guitarist, Miguel Llobet. The classic guitar has benefited, more than most other instruments, from arrangements of music of many genres. Renaissance and Baroque music especially suit the timbre and range of the guitar and keyboard music is ideal for playing on the guitar, often direct from the original score. Debussy's comment may be unjust to harpsichordists, but the expressive limits of the guitar may be said to outweigh those of the harpsichord. Girolamo Frescobaldi was born in Ferrara, one of the most musically stimulating cities in Italy at the end of the 1500s. He was organist of St Peter's, Rome and is said to have also been a magnificent harpsichordist. His influence spread not just through Italy, but also north of the Alps. Gaetano Greco (also Grieco) was born and worked in Naples, notably as Maestro di cappella of the Basilica in Naples from 1704-1720. He was an influential figure, numbering Domenico Scarlatti and Nicola Porpora among his pupils. If we know the name Domenico Alberti nowadays it is probably only through the eponymous bass figuration heard in many classical and pre-classical keyboard pieces. The lively Giga, from his collection of Sonatas Op.1 gives way to a more elegant Allegro from a Sonata da camera. As well as being a composer and a pupil of Pasquini, Domenico Zipoli trained for the priesthood as a Jesuit. He emigrated to Paraguay, where he aimed to complete his training, but died before he could be ordained. With Bernardo Pasquini we bridge the gap between Frescobaldi and Domenico Scarlatti. Pasquini made a close study of Frescobaldi's work, especially his early Fantasie and employed some of these ideas in his variations. Moving forward 50 years from Pasquini, Benedetto Marcello proved to be a real polymath, with interests in politics, law and literature. He left behind a substantial number of sonatas, especially for cello and harpsichord. Like Marcello, Domenico Cimarosa's main musical output was vocal music, mainly operas, of which he wrote more than 80, admired by Mozart and performed by Haydn at Eszterhaza. Cimarosa's Sonatas are a refreshing leap into the early classical style, while acknowledging Domenico Scarlatti's influence. Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard output, 555 sonatas, dwarfs all the other composers on this recording. The similarity in range between the harpsichord and the guitar makes transcriptions relatively easy. Paradies was another composer whose music was valued by Mozart, as well as Clementi and Cramer, both keyboard virtuosi of the late 1700s and early 1800s. Played with great commitment and feeling for the style by Antonio de Innocentis, who also signs for the guitar arrangements.

With the three quartets of Op. 55, the Leipzig String Quartet brings Haydn's mature genius vividly to life. These works capture the composer at the peak of the Classical era, blending elegance, wit, and profound musical insight. In the Quartet's hands, every nuance and flourish shines, offering listeners an unforgettable journey through Haydn's timeless artistry.

Daniel Seminara's Fantasticus is a musical journey through different eras, aesthetics and languages. From the improvisational inventions of the seventeenth century to the experiments of the late twentieth century, each selected piece reflects a common impulse: the desire to explore, to amaze, to go beyond the limits of tradition and to give voice, through the guitar and the lute, to music that is born each time as if it were the first. The repertoire spans from works by Kapsberger, Galilei and Piccinini over Sor and Poulenc to Petrassi and D'Angelo, always with the ideas of 'Stylus Phantasticus' in mind.

A quartet of German Baroque masters at their most daring and outlandish, exploring the harmonic quirks of mean-tone temperament on the organ. Manuel Tomadin has assembled an impressive library of Baroque-era albums on Brilliant Classics, including critically acclaimed surveys of Bach and comprehensive documents of the surviving output of lesser-known names such as Christian Erbach and Vincent Lubeck. 'A very attractively conceived and well-executed Bach organ recital disc,' noted Fanfare of Manuel Tomadin's diverse recital (95786): 'All recital discs should be this thoughtfully conceived and well done; cordially recommended.' In the same vein, this new recording leads the listener through both unfamiliar and well-known names and works, drawing out the original meaning of the term Baroque as 'the broken pearl' - something strange and exquisite. At a time before the 'even-tempered' system of tuning homogenised the spaces between different intervals - some of them being narrower or wider than others in what is known as 'mean-tone' temperament - composers such as Buxtehude might exploit those idiosyncrasies to produce harmonies which were deliberately awkward or dissonant. Manuel Tomadin has chosen the Praeludium in E BuxWV141, the Praeludium in F sharp minor BuxWV146 and a chorale prelude, Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist BuxWV208, to illustrate this point. The most unfamiliar name here is Johann Heinrich Buttstett (1666-1727) - Capellmeister in the central-German town of Erfurt - who defended conservative theories of musical evolution as a writer and teacher, but also produced works which sound quite radical for their time, such as an extensive Praeludium and Canzona in D minor. JS Bach is represented here by a pair of organ preludes and fugues (BWV534 in F minor and BEV547 in C major) from his Weimar period - relatively early in his career, but no less experimental for that. The search for harmonic extremes was continued by the most radically inventive of his sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel, and Manuel Tomadin demonstrates this continuity with the chorale prelude 'Ich ruf zu dir'. A fascinating and unique collection, performed on the authentic and historically significant Hinsz organ of 1738 at the Broederkerk in the Dutch town of Kampen.

In the second instalment of Alfredo Perl's complete recording of Beethoven's piano works, the sonatas, variations, bagatelles and individual pieces composed during the so-called "classical" period (1801-1814) take centre stage. Their expressive power and innovative virtuosity constitute a landmark in the history of piano music.

The Chiaroscuro Quartet is now offering us the fourth instalment of their ongoing complete recording of Beethoven's string quartets. This latest release spotlights the first two of the three Opus 59 quartets, known as the 'Razumovsky,' named for their patron, the Russian ambassador in Vienna, Count Andreas Razumovsky, who maintained a house quartet in his palace. Beethoven was particularly proud of these new quartets, despite the initial bewilderment they provoked among audiences, critics, and even performers. Famously, when a violinist complained of their difficulty, Beethoven retorted: "Oh, they are not for you, but for a later age." The first, in F major, was almost certainly the longest string quartet composed up to that point, and it's unprecedented weight and density of argument earn it the moniker the Eroica among Beethoven's quartets. The second, in E minor, is often described as a "close cousin" of the Appassionata Sonata, in that both works-composed at around the same time-are permeated by a profound darkness from start to finish. The Chiaroscuro Quartet's previous instalments in this cycle have already garnered superlative praise from the musical press, hailed as "breathtaking," "bristling with excitement and youthful vitality," and "a very special experience." There is no doubt this latest release is poised to achieve similar critical acclaim

Classical Music

DANZI: Bassoon Concertos

Classical Music

Recorded in: All Saints' Church, Tooting, London 22,23 September 1986 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Trygg Tryggvason Ralph Couzens [Assistant]

HUMMEL: Sonata for Mandolin and Fortepiano / Flute Sonata /

BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto. BERG Violin Concerto • Antje Weithaas (vn); Steven Sloane, cond; Stavanger SO • AVI 8553305 (67:51)


Violinist Antje Weithaas’s pairing of Beethoven’s and Berg’s violin concertos isn’t the first, even in recent memory—Isabelle Faust did so, for example, with Claudio Abbado on Harmonia Mundi 902105 ( Fanfare 35:6). Arabella Steinbacher also programmed the two works, with Andris Nelsons conducting the WDR SO (Orfeo, 778 091, Fanfare 33:4)—which, incidentally, at 75:22, lasted almost eight minutes longer than Weithaas’s performances—and Audite released a pair of older readings by Christian Ferras of the two works with different conductors. Weithaas asks in the booklet notes for the reason for yet another recording of Beethoven’s Concerto and gives a sort of answer—she believes that she’s found something personal to say in (through?) it. She plays a violin made by Peter Greiner in 2001; and, in doing so, joins a number of intrepid artists willing to espouse the productions of contemporary violin makers. That violin itself deserves attention, because of the bright, silvery sound she draws from it, one that’s generally more than captivating (the engineers have made a contribution to its effect, of course). And, with it, she does manage, as she seems to have hoped, to express a message that, while it may in itself not be so original, yet features many nuances that do from moment to moment in the first movement, in passagework and in cantabile, repeatedly bring something unexpected for the listener to ponder. Her tempos in the first movement remain on the quick side, but that’s no hindrance to the music’s profundity, as Jascha Heifetz and Aaron Rosand have shown. She sounds at times commanding and at times like pure quicksilver in the cadenza, which introduces timpani (as did Beethoven’s own for his piano transcription of the concerto), and the effect is electrifying. (Isabelle Faust, Ji?í B?lohlávek and the Prague Philharmonia, Harmonia Mundi 90194, Fanfare 32:4, also gave an electrifying account of the cadenza.) The purity of tone that graced Weithaas’s reading of the first movement plays an even more central role in the slow one. Anne-Sophie Mutter dug for more individuality and depth in the movement’s preternaturally still sections with what sounded like warped tools; Weithaas does so without a trace of eccentricity, either stylistic or timbral. While the soloist combines fluidity in statements of the finale’s main subject matter with confident declamation in the episodes (while interspersing a large number of striking cadenzas), Steven Sloane and the orchestra make the tuttis, as in the first movement, authoritatively explosive, but at the same time achieve admirable clarity of detail. Which would be the greater arrogance, to release yet another recording of Beethoven’s work or to believe yourself capable of doing so? Weithaas may be guilty on both counts, but she acquits herself of all charges with a convincing performance that combines light and dark in a delightfully individual way.


Weithaas and Sloane also adopt a quick tempo in the first half of Alban Berg’s Concerto’s first movement, a tempo that, perhaps surprisingly, does little to disperse its mists and brings passages together for listeners in a fresh way (recall the famous, perceptually ambiguous, duck-rabbit). As in one of the outstanding early recordings of the work, that by André Gertler (Angel 3509, released on CD as Hungaroton 31635), the engineers have placed the violin within the orchestral web, and make a strong case for it belonging there. Sloane and the orchestra revel in the shifting timbres of the first movement’s scherzo-like second half but build to an almost terrifying climax near the middle. Weithaas slashes more savagely than Gertler did in the opening of the second movement’s first half (and Sloane extracts more disturbing dissonances from the orchestra than did Paul Kletzki in that recording). And they create, in the tragedy at the end of that half, a terrifying sense of existential Angst . And in embellishing the chorale tune ( Es ist genug ) that Berg spun out of his tone row, Weithaas and Sloane evince an almost chamber-like intimacy.


Previous experience with Weithaas’s recordings made the arrival of this one for review particularly intriguing, raising the highest expectations. Each and every aspect of the release (including the prepossessing tone of Greiner’s violin) has met, and even exceeded, those expectations. A recording of special merit, it deserves a place on every record shelf. Urgently recommended.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

Elisabeth Schilz Grummer was a German soprano. She has been described as "a singer blessed with elegant musicality, warm-hearted sincerity, and a voice of exceptional beauty" (Gregory Berg, Journal of Singing). BR Klassik presents this historical recording from the years 1956, 1960 and 1962.

This compilation presents a selection of the recordings that were the fruit of the cooperation between the conductor and the orchestra. Sawallisch's programs in Prague repeatedly included pieces by Mozart and Beethoven, as well as major works by Czech composers (Smetana, Janacek, Martinu, Kalabis, Eben, etc.). Sawallisch's relationship to Czech music is probably best described by the following quotation from a contemporary review: 'He apprehends and interprets music by Czech composers as though he himself had been brought up in their language.' the precious Czech Radio live recordings are released by Supraphon for the very first time to mark the 90th anniversary of the late conductor's birth.

It was not so much the hunger for self-education and thirst for knowledge about past eras, distant lands and their customs which were the reason for corresponding themes and locations in Romantic opera, but more a type of escapism from the all too mundane and oppressive aspects of everyday life. The overtures in particular provided plenty of space for vivid imagination, as their purpose was to direct the fantasy of the listener in a particular direction without having to focus specifically on the concrete rigidities of the plot as subsequently depicted on the opera stage. The Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen under the direction of Ola Rudner present a selection of lesser known examples of Romantic overtures on this recording.

Also available on Blu-ray

All are equal before the work, before the mysteries of a score; this was Claudio Abbado’s heart-felt conviction. For him, the willingness to be open to one another and to the independent life of musical processes was the only prerequisite for making music. In the live performances documented here for the first time on DVD/Blu-ray, Abbado could be sure of the devotion of these world-class artists: the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, the sopranos Christine Schäfer and Juliane Banse, as well as the actor Bruno Ganz. They shared his credo of “listening togetherness” (Die ZEIT) that made possible those precious moments of musical truth toward which this great conductor strove throughout his life.

CLAUDIO ABBADO CONDUCTS MOZART AND BEETHOVEN

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Misera, dove son!, K. 369
Ah, lo previdi, K. 272
Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio, K. 418
Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K. 385, “Haffner”

Ludwig van Beethoven: Egmont, Op. 84

Christine Schäfer, soprano
Juliane Banse, soprano
Bruno Ganz, narrator

Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Claudio Abbado, conductor

Recorded live at the Concert Hall of KKL Luzern, 19–20 August 2011 (Mozart) and 8–10 August 2012 (Beethoven)

Picture format: 1080i Full-HD
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Italian, German, English, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 89 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

In 1786 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach presented the greatest musical achievements of his century to a captivated audience and enthusiastic reviewers. The music director from Hamburg arranged a remarkable program for a charity concert, including not only his own music, but also popular and forgotten works by his father J S Bach and works by George Frideric Handel.

As a tribute to the 300th anniversary of CPE Bach, the RIAS Kammerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik in Berlin revive the memorable concert from April 9, 1786 and reawaken a great historic moment in music history.
C.P.E. BACH: THE 1786 CHARITY CONCERT – A Revival

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach:
Introduction to the Credo of J.S. Bach’s Mass BWV 232, H. 849
Sinfonia in D Major, Wq. 183/1, H. 663
Magnificat, Wq. 215, H. 772
Heilig, Wq. 217, H. 778: Herr, wert, dass Scharen der Engel / Heilig ist Gott

Johann Sebastian Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232: Credo

George Frideric Handel: Messiah, HWV 56: Ich weiss, dass mein Erloser lebet / Hallelujah!

Christina Landshamer, soprano
Wiebke Lehmkuhl, alto
Lothar Odinius, tenor
Thomas E. Bauer, bass

RIAS Chamber Chorus
Berlin Akademie für Alte Musik
Hans-Christoph Rademann, conductor

Recorded live at Konzerthaus Berlin, 15 June 2014

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Latin, German, English, French, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 109 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

Donka Angatschewa presents this album of Beethoven’s solo piano works. This recording features Beethoven’s Appassionata, Op. 57, 11 Bagatellen, Op. 119, Sonata, Op. 90, and Rondo a capriccio, Op. 129. Donka Angatcheva debuted with the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra when she was only ten years old. She has won numerous awards at international piano competitions, and frequently performs internationally.

For the 60-year-old Franz Xaver Richter, a composer of Moravian origin living and working in France, the spring of 1769 was a true watershed in his career. When, two years previously, he joined a competition held by Concert Spirituel, a major French music institution, he evidently had in mind being employed as a musician in Paris. The contestants' task was to compose a "motet à grand chœur", encompassing a sequence of arias, ensembles and choruses, set to the Latin text of Psalm 136, Super flumina Babylonis. Although Richter failed to win the competition, his work arouse great interest and on 28 March 1769 it premiered within the Concert Spirituel series at the Tuileries Palace, at the largest music venue in Paris at the time. Less than a month later, Richter was appointed the Maitre de Chapelle de Notre Dame de Strasbourg. The motet Super flumina Babylonis undoubtedly played a significant role in his being named to the prestigious post. Over the first years he spent in Strasbourg (1770-73), Richter wrote three settings of Psalm 50, Miserere mei Deus, intended for the night liturgy of Tenebrae, a religious service held during the three days preceding Easter. In addition to Super flumina Babylonis, the present album features the third setting of the Miserere, in F minor, in a premiere recording. In their fourth album of Richter's music, Czech Ensemble Baroque discover the yet to be mapped legacy of the distinguished 18th-century composer.

Following the triumphant reception of the six ground-breaking London Symphonies Hob. I:93-98 during his first visit to England, Joseph Haydn was at the height of his fame when he embarked on his trip back to Vienna in July 1792. Although he had planned to return to the city on the River Thames within six months, Haydn's second visit to England was delayed for an entire year for unknown reasons. In the meantime, he continued to compose and finished his Symphony No. 99 in Vienna in 1793, although the work did not receive its premiere there. Unlike London or Paris, Vienna did not have an active concert life outside of the world of court music at the time. London's large and capable orchestras did not have their equal in Vienna, and neither did London's music press, which enticed the public with timely announcements and reviews. Bruno Weil and the Cappella Coloniensis inspire also with an enthralling and intelligent play in the third serie.

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

“Nothing is harder to put on stage than lightness. And humor is the sharpest weapon of the desperate. That is why it is an obligation, indeed a must, to enjoy this Figaro by Jürgen Flimm at the Staatsoper to the fullest.“ (ARD Radio) This production of “Le nozze di Figaro” is directed by the former artistic director of the Staatsoper Berlin, Jürgen Flimm, who characterizes it as follows: “Figaro is by far the best work ever devised for the stage; it combines everything that moves the human heart and mind – forlorn hope, pleasantry, satire, profound significance, also much ado about nothing and vain amours.” This production with a star-studded ensemble of soloists was Flimm’s third staging of this musical masterpiece, and this time he places the plot in Count Almaviva‘s summer residence – a place where the count spent his childhood, a place full of memories where time has left its marks. It is in this hot atmosphere of summer that the great day unfolds: holidays, sun, sea, pretty women take a fancy to pretty men and pretty men take a fancy to pretty women. A midsummer night‘s dream full of tangled paths and futile longing where the women pull the strings of intrigue with their gentle hands.

Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

Beethoven's five cello sonatas are the quintessence of his personality and work: they exemplify the creative development of this great composer who is perhaps even more relevant in our modern, ephemeral society in which little time is left for reflection. + Cellist Maja Weber and pianist Per Lundberg have been playing chamber music together for more than twenty years, mostly in piano quartets and quintets. + The idea of forming "Duo Leonore" was thus a natural consequence of their working together.

More than 200 years after its premiere at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Martin Helmchen have congenially mastered the artistic challenge of Beethoven’s gemstone. Under Herbert Blomstedt's sensitive direction, the soloists unite chamber musical intimacy together with virtuoso sophistication – and prove once again that the Triple Concerto is an unduly underestimated, much too rarely programmed masterpiece. With the composer's 5th Symphony, Blomstedt succeeds in achieving an entirely new perspective of this work. In the culmination of his three-year, intensive reenactment of Beethoven’s cosmos, the impressive sound that characterizes the Swedish grand seigneur's conducting is heralded by transparency rather than showmanship, relevance instead of pathos, and tenderness in place of sentimentality.

More than 200 years after its premiere at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Martin Helmchen have congenially mastered the artistic challenge of Beethoven’s gemstone. Under Herbert Blomstedt's sensitive direction, the soloists unite chamber musical intimacy together with virtuoso sophistication – and prove once again that the Triple Concerto is an unduly underestimated, much too rarely programmed masterpiece. With the composer's 5th Symphony, Blomstedt succeeds in achieving an entirely new perspective of this work. In the culmination of his three-year, intensive reenactment of Beethoven’s cosmos, the impressive sound that characterizes the Swedish grand seigneur's conducting is heralded by transparency rather than showmanship, relevance instead of pathos, and tenderness in place of sentimentality.

In a world sometimes tired of contemplating its own treasures, a plethora of discography with immediate and commonplace access can make the release of a new recording dedicated to some of Beethoven's 32 sonatas surprising. More particularly, the choice made by an artist such as Philippe Entremont, after 70 years of a phenomenal career, to focus on one of the Viennese Master's most recorded parts, reflects the complexity and intensity governing the relationship between the performer and the work, the relationship between his instrument and the orchestral aspects of the writing. This year, the exceptional artist celebrates two anniversaries. 70 years on the international stage and his 85th birthday. The few sonatas on this album, milestones in Beethoven's oeuvre, are just a short list for the audience. For the very choice of the works testifies to a passionate commitment, a gourmet and jubilant approach to do justice, with style and elegance, to a long journey initiated in 1957, during a recording made at Pathé.