Nearly 1,000 kilometres separate Holešov, Moravia, from Strasbourg. Franz Xaver Richter's professional journey started in Count Rottal's court orchestra in Holešov and ended in the prestigious post of Kapellmeister at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame in Strasbourg. He is primarily known as one of the major representatives of the renowned Mannheim School, with his "trumpet" Sinfonia No. 52 in D being a typical example of the late Mannheim form. The grandiose Te Deum, featured on the present album, is Richter's second setting of the hymn and was first performed in 1781 in Strasbourg, during the celebrations marking the centenary of the city's coming under French administration. Along with the motet Exsultate Deo, the piece falls within the composer's vocal-instrumental oeuvre, which has yet to be explored (and, just as in the case of Jan Dismas Zelenka's music, contains many unexpected twists and turns). The virtuoso, engrossing and masterfully balanced Oboe Concerto with the original cadenzas represents Richter's concertante style. Following their premiere recordings of Richter's Requiem and the Passion oratorio La Deposizione dalla croce di Gesù Cristo, the present Czech Ensemble Baroque album maps another part of the remarkable 18th-century composer's work. Newly discovered gems from Franz Xaver Richter's undeservedly overlooked oeuvre.

"Bavouzet’s Haydn is unmatched in its zest and its wit. But it is also substantial, informed and deeply rewarding."

--The New York Times on Bavouzet's Haydn Sonatas cycle, 2022

After leaving the boys’ choir of St. Stephens Cathedral in Vienna, one of the ways the young Haydn found to support himself was as a harpsichord teacher. The three early sonatas featured on this recording were almost certainly intended for his students: short, light pieces with few technical demands. The two larger sonatas, both in the key of E flat major, were written some twenty years later and are far more extensive. Both require significantly greater prowess from the performer, and represent Haydn’s ingenuity and skill to the full. The two additional works included here, whilst single-movement compositions, are substantial pieces. The Adagio ma non troppo would become the slow movement of Piano Trio No. 36 whilst the Variations on ‘Gott erhalte’ is based on the second movement of the ‘Emperor’ Quartet, which is itself a set of variations on an anthem composed by Haydn at the request of an Austrian politician for the 29th birthday of the Emperor, and intended as a patriotic hymn comparable to ‘God Save the King’ in England- and a response against the Marseillaise.

REVIEW:

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is back with the latest volume of his magnificent survey of the Haydn keyboard sonatas...For this latest offering he takes works from three critical periods in Haydn’s life. To make ends meet at 17 he taught harpsichord and some of his earliest sonatas were written for his pupils. These include Nos 5, 6 and 7 – all quite charming and uplifting – which are performed with a sense of affection and delight here by Bavouzet.

The Sonata No 51 in E Flat, which Bavouzet uses to break up the early works, falls into the second critical stage of Haydn’s career. The third momentous turn in his life came when he was befriended by Maria Anna von Genzinger, a mother of six and accomplished pianist and singer...[he] dedicated his Sonata No 59 (often called the Genzinger) to Maria Anna, and it has become one of his most performed piano pieces. Bavouzet does it full justice on this disc, giving a magisterial reading of this gem from the Age of the Enlightenment.

This top-notch disc is filled out with the delicious Adagio ma non troppo, an original version of the slow movement of the Piano Trio No 36, and the variations on the Austrian anthem Gott Erhalte.

--Limelight (Steve Moffatt)

Mauro Giuliani was both a virtuoso performer on the guitar and one of the great figures in early 19th-century composition for the instrument. His variations, studies, sonatas and other works have entered the repertoires of generations of subsequent performers. The six dazzling Rossiniane for solo guitar are fantasias on themes taken from the great Italian composer’s operas. They offer a compendium of the guitar as a miniature orchestra revealing refinements of technique and expressiveness never before achieved on the instrument.

Also available on Blu-ray

The festive series of concerts to celebrate the inauguration of Andris Nelsons and the 275th anniversary of the Gewandhausorchester concluded with a riveting performance of two of music history’s great symphonic works. Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 is one of only two that Mozart wrote in a minor key, which only adds to its singular reception in his canon of symphonies. Tchaikovsky was an admirer of Mozart’s music and paired the premiere of his Sixth Symphony, which he himself conducted, with dances from Mozart’s “Idomeneo”. The “Pathétique” would become his legacy as Tchaikovsky died only a few days after its premiere. Andris Nelsons is Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and is Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. With these positions, and in leading a pioneering alliance between two such esteemed institutions, Grammy Award-winning Nelsons is firmly underlined as one of the most renowned and innovative conductors on the international scene today.

Classical Music

Including premiere recordings, this programme provides us with a privileged opportunity to engage with 36 of Ludwig van Beethoven’s rarely heard sketches, variations and briefest of compositions, even the earliest of which have much to teach us about the emergence of his unique voice and style. The range of Beethoven’s musical experimentation reveals a lasting interest in counterpoint, as well as practical pages such as cadenzas for a Mozart concerto, an incomplete sonata and a second version of the famous bagatelle Fur Elise. A significant supplement to his greatest works, these miniatures bring the full arc of Beethoven’s singular genius into ever clearer focus.

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

Also available on standard DVD

A “touching and magnificent reunion” (Der Standard). The public and press enthusiastically celebrated the long-awaited return of Claudio Abbado to the Salzburg Festival in 2012. The conductor brought with him Mozart’s youthful Mass K. 139, the so-called Waisenhausmesse, and Schubert’s late Mass in E flat major. In a fascinating way, Abbado succeeded in merging the singers and instrumentalists into a total collaborative effort: “Seldom has one heard such a perfect balance between choir, orchestra, and vocal soloists; one has also seldom heard such a beautifully coordinated and perfectly balanced vocal ensemble” (Salzburger Nachrichten).

ABBADO CONDUCTS MASSES BY MOZART AND SCHUBERT
(Blu-ray Disc Version)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Missa solemnis in C Minor, K. 139, “Waisenhausmesse”

Franz Schubert: Mass No. 6 in E-Flat Major, D. 950

Rachel Harnisch, soprano
Roberta Invernizzi, soprano
Sara Mingardo, alto
Javier Camarena, tenor
Paolo Fanale, tenor
Alex Esposito, bass

Arnold Schoenberg Choir
Orchestra Mozart
Claudio Abbado, conductor

Recorded live from the Salzburg Festival, 2012

Picture format: 1080i Full HD
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Latin, English, German, French, Korean
Running time: 104 mins
No. of Discs: 1

Even before Rossini, Giovanni Paisiello was the first composer of the Libretto for The Barber of Seville. It is lovely to compare both versions, however, this release is unique in that it was the work’s first release on any format, and is still regarded as the best. Legendary Italian baritone Ettore Bastianini stars as Figaro. The rest of the cast is also incredible, making this release even more attractive to opera connoisseurs. The production was recorded at the Piccolo Teatro di Musica in March of 1953.

Tafelmusik presents Beethoven's landmark Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" - an heroic and monumental symphony originally dedicated to Napoleon - and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 "Italian." with historical performances Maestro Weil and his players may yet convince you that "Beethoven can sound as radical in 21st century as he must have in the 19th" (Gramophone).

Michael Haydn’s colorful and inventive music is uplifting and expressive in equal measure, but his music has been eclipsed by that of his elder brother Joseph, and by Mozart. Sacred music is central to Michael Haydn’s oeuvre and was considered by some contemporary critics as superior to Joseph’s. Encompassing a broad range of textures and styles, parts of the Missa Sancti Nicolai Tolentini demonstrate Haydn’s music at its most exhilarating and energetic, and his supreme gift for empfindsames (‘sensitive’) lyrical writing is also to be heard in the Vespers.

The Dover Quartet, “the young American string quartet of the moment” (The New Yorker), launches its emerging, three-volume complete Beethoven quartet cycle with the six Opus 18 quartets, often cited as the epitome of the classical string quartet as developed by Haydn and Mozart while foreshadowing Beethoven’s future innovations. 

When Dino Ciani died in 1974 in a car accident in Rome at age 32, the world lost a great pianist. He was described by his teacher Alfred Cortot as "a youth possessing the rarest gifts bestowed by nature.” Today he is considered an icon among classical record collectors. This new release from DOREMI features 1970 and 1973 Live broadcasts of the Beethoven Piano concertos No. 1 and No. 3. This is the first time that these recordings have been available to the public.

The Trio A Cordes Français was founded in 1959 by violinist Gérard Jarry (1936-2004), violist Serge Collot (1923-2015), and cellist Michel Tournus (1922-2006), and was active for over thirty years. They toured the world and made many notable recordings. At the age of fourteen, Gérard Jarry gained a Premier Grand Prix at the 1951 Concours Long-Thibaud. In addition to his many years performing with the Trio, he was concertmaster of the Orchestre de Chambre Jean-François Paillard, and a noted soloist. He was also a professor of violin at the Conservatoire de Paris. Serge Collot studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Maurice Vieux, one of the greatest viola virtuosos. Graduating with a Premier Prix in 1944, he had a long and distinguished career as a chamber musician. As well as his long tenure with the Trio, he was principal violist with the Orchestre de l'Opera National de Paris from 1957 to 1986, and also was a member of several string quartets - the Parrenin, the Radiodiffusion Francaise, and the Bernède. He was particularly influential in encouraging the composition of contemporary works for viola by such composers as Boulez and Berio. Like his colleague Jarry, he was professor of viola at Conservatoire de Paris for many years. Michel Tournus gained Premiers Prix in cello and in chamber music from the Conservatoire de Paris. Like his colleagues, he was also a member of several other chamber ensembles, including the Quatuor Indig and the Octuor de Paris. Like Collot, he was first cello with the Orchestre de l'Opera National de Paris. Active as a teacher at the Conservatoire de Musique de Versailles, and was the author of a cello method. This set contains many of the Trio A Cordes Français' recordings of Mozart.

Sviatoslav Richter was the first pianist of international repute to create in his repertoire a reasonable balance between Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, the quadrumvirate of the Wiener klassik. No other concert pianist has ever included in his repertoire such a conspicuous number of Viennese compositions, nor gone back so far (the early Haydn sonatas are from the 1760s) in his research info the Wiener klassik.Richter is far more interested in the pre-Beethoven aspects of Haydn than in the pre- Schubert ones. The use of the terms “pre-Beethoven” and “pre-Schubert” does not signify that such aspects are exclusive to these composers, merely that we are used to identifying them thus, despite the fact that they are the foundations of the Viennese classical period. Richter has rarely performed Schubert since 1986 - although his interpretation of the Sonata in G major astounds and stupefies those who hear it - and equally rarely performs Mozart; only the Fantasia K475, the Sonata K457 and the Sonata K 533/494. His interpretation of the drama of the Fantasia and the Sonata K457 draws parallels with the darkest moments in Don Giovanni.

Originally published in London in 1771, these six Sonatas for cello and basso continuo were arranged for cello and piano by the influential Italian virtuoso cellist Alfredo Piatti in the 1870s and are performed here on modern instruments.

This release features the 7th and 8th volumes in the Naxos Idil Biret Concerto Edition. "Miss Biret was soloist in an entrancing performance of Mozart's concerto K. 482 with the Halle Orchestra conducted by Mlle Nadia Boulanger. The variety of her playing it's finely-shaded gradations and brilliant but never mechanical figurations, revealed her as already a remarkable artist. Not for many years has a Halle audience heard such perfectly balanced Mozart playing... No words can describe the wondrous finale, with it's mixture of gaiety and anguish. This was a performance in which every note counted for it's full value." (Daily Telegraph UK) "Idil Biret is one of the few women pianists who has been able to assert her position on the world stages for decades. Biret plays here the works of... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with these recordings proves once again that she belongs among the greatest pianists of her time." (Frolich & Kaufmann)

Not only do you get performances to rank with the best, but also a bonus of the splendidly played Rondo.

Beethoven’s first two piano concertos share an abundance of lyric and virtuosic qualities. Concerto No. 1 in C major is expansive and richly orchestrated with a sublime slow movement that is tender and ardent, and a finale full of inventive humor. Concerto No. 2 in B flat major marries energy with elegance, reserving poetic breadth for its slow movement and quirky wit for the finale. Also included is the jovial Rondo, WoO 6, which Beethoven originally intended to be the finale of Concerto No. 2.

-----

REVIEWS:

Here’s a very promising start to what I assume will be a new Beethoven piano concerto cycle, featuring performances not otherwise included in Naxos’ “complete” Beethoven box. Boris Giltburg plays both works with the youthful panache that they require–the kind that makes you forget about any formal issues and just revel in the virtuoso passagework and good tunes. The standard for comparison in this coupling is Argerich/Sinopoli on DG–you might think an unmatchable team, at least pianistically, but Giltburg more than holds his own. Indeed, in Concerto No. 2 he matches Argerich’s fleet timing in the finale (and other movements) almost exactly, and in the First Concerto he’s even a bit quicker, all without sacrificing subtleties of touch, dynamics and phrasing for mere velocity.

Of course there are difference–welcome ones too. In the first concerto, Giltburg adds a couple of minutes to the central Largo, producing a genuine specimen of that particular tempo designation. His legato playing is beautifully sustained, making this early example of Beethovenian lyricism a real gem. Petrenko accompanies with real flair, proving himself a true partner in both concerto first movements. It’s so much more satisfying to have a real conductor working with a gifted soloist, rather than the single-person-at-the-keyboard approach so frequently offered these days. There’s just no substitute for full-time orchestral guidance. Giltburg also includes the original “Concerto No. 2 finale version” of the Rondo WoO 6, a considerable bonus, as are his intelligent and detailed booklet notes. Fine playing, fine conducting, fine engineering–in short, a really fine release generally.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

Giltburg is a subtle artist who, despite his all-encompassing technique, rarely, if ever, engages in virtuosic grandstanding, preferring instead to interpret the music for maximum artistic yield. Nor does he employ radical or eccentric interpretive approaches. Yet, his performances are never bland but rather quite individual, typically rich in nuance and meaningful detail, and containing insights missing in other versions. His accounts of the two concertos feature well-chosen dynamics, main lines and inner voices perfectly balanced, and judicious tempos. In addition, he realizes these are the works of a youthful Beethoven, not of the mature, profound and serious-minded master of the three concertos that followed. Thus, he points up their lighter, more vivacious characteristics, his dynamics appropriately less weighty and his pacing never too relaxed.

Not only do you get performances to rank with the best, but also a bonus of the splendidly played Rondo.

– MusicWeb International

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

The sixth disc in this highly acclaimed series combine two works in which Mozart's powers as an orchestrator come to the fore. Concerto No. 18 in B flat major, K 456, is sometimes referred to as one of the composer’s ‘military concertos’ on the basis of the march-like main theme of the first movement. But more striking is the variety of ways that Mozart employs the various groups of instruments: strings, wind instruments and, of course, the piano. This aspect certainly didn’t pass unnoticed by a listener as initiated as Mozart’s father Leopold: in a letter to his daughter Nannerl he described how his enjoyment of the orchestral interplay had brought tears to his eyes. The performance that Leopold was referring to was by Mozart himself at a concert in Vienna in 1785, but the work is believed to have been written for the blind virtuoso Maria Theresia von Paradis to play on a concert trip to Paris, and the demanding piano part leaves us in no doubt about her abilities as a pianist. Concerto No. 22 in E flat major, on the other hand, is one that Mozart wrote primarily for his own use, completing it on 16th December 1785, and performing it later the same month. It is the first of only three piano concertos in which he uses clarinets, to particular effect in the expressive Andantino cantabile episode of the otherwise ebullient Finale. The orchestra is on the whole unusually large, with trumpets and timpani, and horn parts which are uncommonly independent and important to the musical argument.

The trumpet has been playing a special role as a signaling instrument throughout the centuries and accompanies mankind through war and peace. Consequentially, one associated the brilliant sound of the trumpet with the power and pomp of clerical and secular authorities. The current program of the Schwanthaler Trumpet Consort contains a representative sample of 17th-18th c. trumpet court literature. Besides trumpets, also timpani, percussion, clarinets, trombones and post horns are involved; replicas of historic instruments are paired with historically informed performance practice.

“Youthful and vibrant accounts” of the Mozart Piano Concertos (Classical Net) recorded between 2001 and 2005 by Matthias Kirschnereit, a fine pianist still not sufficiently known outside his native Germany. In this 10-album survey, he is accompanied by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Frank Beermann. A MusicWeb International reviewer has called Kirschnereit “a pianist who is a perfect fit with Mozart’s warm and loving utterances”. Matthias Kirschnereit is counted amongst the most riveting and successful German pianists of his generation. The ECHO-Classic-Laureate performs 50 concerts annually and is celebrated as the "poet on the piano" by the Süddeutsche Zeitung. In this, he is following his artistic ideal of finding and communicating the musical emotions, the story and the human element of the pieces.

Classical Music

In the 1960s and in the decades following, the Budapest String Quartet’s mantle at Columbia was passed on to the Juilliard String Quartet. Over the years, with some changes in personnel, the ensemble repeatedly set down its famously lean, energetic and expressive interpretations of the Beethoven quartets in New York recording studios. These have remained catalogue staples. Less well known is the Beethoven cycle they recorded live in Washington at the Library of Congress in 1982. Gramophone singled out this complete traversal for its special depth and flexibility. Presented here on 9 albums, this is its first Sony release.

REVIEW:

The slow introduction to the C Major Quartet No. 9 is handled wonderfully, which sets up well for the rest of the movement and the work as a whole. These are followed by nice recordings of the “Harp” and “Serioso” quartets, thus bringing the middle period to an end.

The late quartets open with a really nice recording of the Nos. 12 and 13, with the first of these being particularly fine. The final disc of the nine houses the 15th and 16th quartets, which again receive fairly good recordings. Overall, the tempos selected here tend to be slower than in their earlier recording, which is usual for live recordings.

Overall sound quality is, at times, a bit of an issue here, even taking into account the live nature of these recordings, and overall isn't up to the sound quality of the quartet's highly regarded 1960s studio cycle of these works for RCA.

– MusicWeb International

Classical Music

In his Sixth Symphony, the "Pastoral", Ludwig van Beethoven conveys his musical message in such a way that lets the listener literally "see" images of beautiful nature, tempestuous storms, and shepherds singing in the fields, whereas in his Seventh Symphony, Beethoven lets the music speak for itself. The performances of these works by the Gewandhausorchester under its conductor laureate Herbert Bomstedt give the uplifting feeling that the intentions of both composer and performers are united in serving the musical message. In the lively, subtly differentiated interpretation of the works, sincere happiness, deep respect, piety, joyful, serenity and an affinity to nature as well as passion, vitality and spirit can all be felt. This is what the "authenticity" of making music is all about. The humanist and musician Herbert Blomstedt embodies this truth in a unique way, creating an atmosphere where the wonders of music all become true.

Tobias Koch: “This recording of eleven Beethoven sonatas was made during several recitals entitled Beethoven – in search of new paths. These sonatas were written in short succession from 1797 to 1802: one practically led to the next. It was the same period in which Beethoven is said to have revealed to a friend that he was “dissatisfied with his previous works” and intended to “embark on a new path”. Indeed, in those years, the composer seems to have stepped on the turbo accelerator, innovating sonata form in a series of energetically concentrated experiments. Beethoven’s musical propositions are often bold, unconventional, and extreme, something which we often tend to overlook and smooth out with today’s knowledge of all that was to come.

These performances are splendid in every way, and the recording is equally fine. I can't imagine a better introduction to this long-neglected music. - George Chien, Fanfare Magazine.

On this recording, the Engegard Quartet present three of Mozart’s six string quartets dedicated to Haydn, the so-called “Haydn” Quartets. The six “Haydn” Quartets were written between 1782 and 1785, while Mozart enjoyed great popularity in Vienna. Mozart had written a series of quartets in his youth, but it had been almost ten years since he wrote the last one. With the “Haydn” Quartets he makes quite different demands on himself, the musicians, and the audience. The structure is not so surprising- here we find fast first movements in what is today called sonata-allegro form, singable slow movements, minuets with trios, and often finale-rondos. But what he fills them with woke Haydn’s admiration and now awakens ours. Haydn’s admiration for his colleague 24 years his junior was expressed through the following words aimed at Mozart’s father Leopold: “I tell you by God as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer I know in person or by name; he has taste and furthermore the greatest compositional knowledge.” Haydn supposedly uttered this after having heard three of the quartets at a house concert at Mozart’s residence, where both Wolfgang and Leopold most likely contributed.

With her first Chandos recording, the scintillating flautist Katherine Bryan explores the relationship between her instrument and the human voice by providing a new take on some of the world’s most famous opera arias, from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly to Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Recorded in surround sound, her rich and colorful interpretations are conducted by Bramwell Tovey, winner of Grammy and Juno awards, and accompanied by the Orchestra of Opera North, the leading opera company in the north of England, and therefore a perfect fit to the repertoire. In her own words: “My concept behind the [album] is to show how close to the human voice the flute can be, and how, through the sound, I can convey the character and sentiments of the arias, pushing the boundaries of what the flute can do as a solo instrument.”

Russian pianist Daria Gloukhova is one of the most compelling pianists to have emerged the past several years. This is not the kind of flat Haydn performance that often befalls these works. This is Haydn imbued with fire and passion, but always given with taste and charm.

Patrick Gallois' contributions to Naxos' Haydn series have been some of the best, and this latest release is no exception. Symphonies 9-12 are a nicely varied lot, and rare enough on disc to make this release very useful to collectors looking to plug a gap in their Haydn discographies. The first and last have three movements (No. 9 ending with a minuet); No. 10 has the traditional four movements, and so does No. 11, but it begins with an Adagio (so-called "church-sonata form"). No. 12 features a very impressive, dramatic, minor-key Adagio that lasts some eight minutes, and has more than enough musical substance to justify its length, and the repeats.

The performances are stylish, lively, and perfectly played by the Sinfonia Finlandia, and my only criticism (once again) concerns the excessively obtrusive continuo part. Haydn didn't ask for it, the music doesn't need it, and the problem with modern performances, even purportedly "authentic" ones, is that the harpsichord player is always tempted to do too much, to fill out the part like a genuine Baroque figured bass, whereas we pretty much know that by this time any keyboard participation was likely limited to occasional bits of harmonic filler or stiffening of rhythm for ensemble purposes. This is very much a matter of individual taste, and certainly the problem, if it be such, isn't serious enough to undermine enjoyment of these well-recorded performances.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com