You can imagine the scene when listening in stereo: The orchestra, including the soloist, sits in a big circle around the microphones. Of course, the multi-channel version in TACET Real SS is much clearer even than what you would experience were you sitting in the room. What a fun experience for all of the musicians, and now all listeners! Gordan Nikolic, soloist and leader of the recording, captivates everyone. He feels entirely at home with Mozart and he has a love for the unique and eccentric things in the music. While in the fast movements climbing and clambering around on the strings like a child at the playground, in the slow ones he caresses his violin like a hug.

After acclaimed recordings of the great Romantic violin concertos by Brahms, Bruch and Tchaikovsky, Vadim Gluzman takes on the work that in the beginning of the 19th century mapped out a new course for the genre: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op.?61. With this work, Beethoven rejected the idea of a virtuoso display piece with a largely irrelevant orchestral accompaniment. Instead he presented a symphonic reinterpretation of the concerto principle, with soloist and orchestra becoming equal partners in a texture that is interwoven on many levels. Largely forgotten for several decades after the first performance in 1806, it is now considered one of the greatest violin concertos. However innovative Beethoven was in his opus 61, he nevertheless remained true to the tradition of allowing the soloist several cadenzas. Over the years, a number of composers and great violin virtuosos have proposed their own cadenzas for the concerto, with Alfred Schnittke being one of the more unexpected names. For this recording, Gluzman has chosen to perform Schnittke’s cadenzas, as a link to the second work on the disc: the composer’s Concerto No.?3 for violin and chamber orchestra. To Schnittke, the relationship between soloist and orchestra is quite different from that demonstrated in Beethoven’s score: ‘It seems to me that this relationship is never harmonically equitable and balanced… The soloist and orchestra are in fact adversaries.’ However they may be labelled, James Gaffigan and the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester nevertheless provide unstinting support to Gluzman in both scores.

Praised by the New York Times for her 'clear articulation... unequivocal phrasing... [and] expressivity', Ingrid Jacoby has established herself as one of the most poetic and admired pianists of her generation. She began her piano studies with Larisa Gorodecka, herself a pupil of Heinrich Neuhaus. Graduating at sixteen with highest honours from the St Louis Conservatory of Music, Ingrid Jacoby went on to win the National Baldwin Piano Competition, the Concert Artists Guild International Piano Competition and the Steinway Hall Artists Prize. In America, the National Society of Arts and Letters awarded to her (in 1994) one of it's highest distinctions, the Lifetime Achievement Award. Her discography includes the world premiere recording of Korngold's solo piano pieces, works by Gershwin and Bernstein, and a recording of the Shostakovich and Ustvolskaya piano concertos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, which earned the highest commendation from the American Record Guide. This is the third release from Ingrid Jacoby's critically acclaimed Beethoven cycle, featuring Concertos Nos. 1 & 3. The booklet contains notes by Richard Wigmore in addition to personal insights by Ingrid Jacoby on Beethoven interpretation. Her first disc in the series, featuring Beethoven's Concertos Nos. 2 & 4, received the following review: 'Utterly compelling... here is a performance of Beethoven that is well-nigh flawless in every regard' (International Record Review). Her recording of Beethoven's 'Emperor' Concerto was equally praised: 'It's one hell of a performance! Jacoby brings a vitality and drive to the first movement that is compelling and fresh, vividly accompanied' (Colin Anderson in Classical Source).

Classical Music

This ninth volume of the Haydn2032 series focuses on the composer’s psychological subtlety in its focus on a central work: his Symphony no.45, known as the ‘Abschieds-Symphonie’ (‘Farewell’ Symphony), composed in 1772. It is said to have got its nickname from a symbolic message Haydn conveyed to Prince Esterházy when he and his orchestra were required to stay longer than planned in the Prince’s summer residence. On the occasion of the symphony’s first performance, Haydn had arranged for the musicians to leave their places one by one during the final Adagio. The day after the concert, all the musicians were able to return to their families and bid farewell to the Prince, who had obviously taken the point of this poetic request for ‘liberation’ expressed in music. The programme is completed by Symphonies nos. 15 and 35 and a cantata sung by Sandrine Piau, the heart-rending ‘Berenice, che fai?’ on a text by Metastasio that was a real ‘hit’ of the eighteenth century, set by some forty composers.

This new CD in Genuin's Movimentos series features compositions by Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Liszt and pianist/ composer Kit Armstrong, who is a pupil of Alfred Bendel. This new trio also includes Alfred's son, cellist Adrian Bendel. The third member, Andrej Bielow is the first violinist of the Szymanowski Quartet.

For its eighth volume, Haydn2032 invites us on a musical journey that takes the Balkan route. Of all the ‘Viennese Classical School’, Joseph Haydn is certainly the composer closest to folk music, first because he spent his early years in the countryside and also because, unlike his colleagues who worked in the urban centers of the Habsburg monarchy, Haydn was in contact with Croats, Roma and Hungarians throughout his life. These influences were omnipresent in his music, to the delight of Prince Nikolaus I Esterházy and his guests, but by some accounts were not to the taste of many music theorists in Germany. Haydn gave his Symphony no.63 in C major the title of ‘La Roxolana’, from the famous sixteenth-century sultana who was the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent after having been his slave. As usual, Giovanni Antonini, who is reunited here with Il Giardino Armonico, juxtaposes Haydn’s music with that of another composer. The natural choice here was Béla Bartók, who is represented by his Romanian Folk Dances, composed in 1917.

The Beethoven year is about to begin and the first contributions by various artists to the anniversary are already being published The focus will be on the evergreens that will attract the attention of the public As a versatile and extremely productive artist, Beethoven has also created a number of works that are virtually unknown today This extensive 9 album edition is dedicated exactly to these works and its tracklisting reads like a sparkling treasure chest Rarely heard arias in various languages, Contredanses, minuets, Ländlers the Piano Concerto No 0 music for a knight's ballet, fun loving and sometimes not entirely youth free canons Over 10 ½ hours full of works by Ludwig van Beethoven, which were written throughout his life and cast a new, unusual glance on his musical oeuvre and his perhaps sometimes not so serious character.

As a leading virtuoso who premiered Beethoven’s final violin sonata with the Archduke Rudolph, Rode was at the center of European musical life, his compositions sitting at the apex of the French violin school. The final volume in this acclaimed series presents one of his most inspired pieces, the Violin Concerto No. 11 in D major, lyrically expressive and full of good-humored zest. Violin Concerto No. 12 in E major is notable for the ingenious ways in which, through trills, staccato, spiccato and cadenzas, Rode heightens the music’s bravura. Violinist Friedemann Eichhorn studied with Valery Gradow at the University of Music in Mannheim, with Alberto Lysy at the International Menuhim Music Academy in Gstaad, Switzerland, and with Margaret Pardee at The Juilliard School in New York. He performs with many renowned orchestras across the globe, and his previous recordings for Naxos were highly acclaimed.

Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954),one of the greatest of 20th century conductors, leads four equally distinguished mid-century violinists and three eminent European orchestras in live performances of violin concertos by Beethoven (Röhn, Berlin), Mendelssohn (de Vito, Torino), Brahms (Menuhin, Lucerne) and Sibelius (Kulenkampff, Berlin). + Recorded during and after WWII, these performances have been newly re-mastered for this release.

"The young Israeli clarinetist Sharon Kam has now contributed her own interpretation [of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, on CD] to the heap of other recordings on the market, and her entry is a formidable one. Kam's generous lines, gracious phrasing and purity of timbre in the Adagio make this second movement a tender lullaby worth the price of the disc alone." - Time Out New York

"With Ms. Kam the Clarinet Concerto sings. From the rhapsodic tranquility of the first movement through the sweet, wistful, melancholic flow of the second movement to the energetic playfulness of the finale, Ms. Kam and the Haydn Philharmonic are in complete accord with the material, producing a warm, elegant, refined, and moving interpretation. This performance is in every way the equal of several other notable recordings, like the classic one from Jack Brymer (EMI) or more-recent ones on basset clarinet from Richard Hosford (ASV), Thea King (Hyperion), and Michael Collins (DG). Yes, Ms. Kam more than holds her own."

- John J. Puccio, Classical Vandor

"Sharon Kam and her collaborators take the fast movements at a sprightly clip, which gives them added spunk, of course, but also added contrast to the tenderly expressive slow movements, which are played with utmost beauty and sensitivity. Kam, whose earlier recordings of Classical and Romantic works include prize winners, plays with a beauty of tone that would be the envy of most clarinetists. She also directs the Österreichisch-Ungarische Haydn Philharmonie, known in English-speaking countries as the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, famous for its complete series of Haydn Symphonies in UHJ Ambisonic on Nimbus. Predictably, the orchestra does the same kind of justice to Mozart, producing a sweet yet full, rich sound that’s the perfect ground for the richer tones of the basset clarinet. Kam’s partners in the Quintet are all solo-quality musicians who also specialize in chamber music, so you hear as much beautiful tone production from them as from the clarinetist...The Berlin Classics engineers provide a nigh-ideal listening experience: the sound is warm, intimate, perfectly balanced. This recording is a winner on all scores."

— Lee Passarella, Audiophile Audition

"Benny Goodman made this coupling famous on record – and he didn’t play the basset, as Sharon Kam does. The Haydn Philharmonie sound a bit period-abrasive, but the clarinet tone is deliciously liquid in the concerti and tenderly intimate in the quintet. As pleasing as any account I have heard in years."

- Norman Lebrecht, La Scena Musicale

In the last few decades, Haydn's response to Passiontide has become a popular fixture in churches across the globe, most frequently heard in the arrangement he made for string quartet. Commissioned to supply music for chamber orchestra to accompany the Good Friday service at the cathedral in Cadiz on Good Friday 1786, he quickly made the quartet arrangement, doubtless with a lucrative market in mind. The letters written by Haydn to his publisher Artaria between February and June 1787 show that the arrangements for both quartet and for keyboard had their genesis during the preparation of the original orchestral version for publication. The keyboard transcription was not undertaken by Haydn himself, but he approved it for publication, and all three versions were issued by Artaria during the summer of 1787. For years the keyboard version was considered an inferior, second-hand cousin to the quartet, yet there is increasing recognition of both the keyboard version's authenticity and also it's expressive potential, in the hands of a sympathetic artist. In his autobiography, Abbé Stadler (1748-1833) relates that he was with Haydn when the commission arrived from Cadiz. 'He also asked me what I thought of it all. I answered that it seemed to me advisable to fit over the words an appropriate melody and then to have this performed only by instruments, in which art he was in any case a master.' Thus the headings of each movement - 'Pater dimitte illis' (Father, forgive them) and so on - fit the melodies like songs without words.

Leopold Koželuch (1747-1818) was a Bohemian composer-pianist who moved to Vienna in 1778, three years before Mozart settled there. The sonatas (49 in total) share qualities with the work of his teacher Dussek, and Burney’s contemporary assessment of Kozeluch’s music stands true today: ‘natural, graceful and flowing, without imitating any great model, as almost all his contemporaries have done. His modulation is natural and pleasing… His rhythm is well phrased, his accents well placed, and harmony pure.’ Volume 3 covers Sonatas Nos.17-33, written between 1785 and 1791. No less than Haydn’s work in the genre, they invent ever-new and imaginative forms. The two-movement No.18 contrasts a gentle set of variations with a dashing Allegro; the three-movement No.19 in F minor opens with a grave slow movement introducing a passionate, exploratory Allegro agitato; the A major No.20 returns to the free-spirited pastoral idiom of Kozeluch’s background, with a lilting opening Allegro, a reflective but smiling Adagio and freewheeling finale. Such variety of form and temperament continues throughout the collection. ‘Jenny Soonjin Kim plays with an almost Baroque flair well-fitting of the music… The period treatment that Kim brings to the kozeluch Koželuch sonatas gives them a crisp texture and very nearly tactile character... Kim's performance is commanding and authoritative. The sonics are superb… an inspired and inspiring collection.’ (All About Jazz, reviewing volume 1) ‘Kim’s playing is crystalline and lyrical, with exquisitely sensitive phrasing. She is an assured virtuoso who interprets Koželuch’s music beautifully. This set will interest pianists who would like to augment their repertoire with unknown gems from the period.’ (Early Music America) On this album Jenny Soonjin Kim plays a modern German copy of an Anton Walter fortepiano made in Vienna in 1795.

Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony and the musical city of Leipzig are closely intertwined with each other: Felix Mendelssohn, Kapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester, made the work an indispensable part of the concert hall repertoire and Arthur Nikisch, one of his successors, established in 1918 the worldwide tradition of performing this groundbreaking and pioneering work at the end of the year. The phenomenal Herbert Blomstedt, Gewandhaus-kapellmeister from 1998 to 2005, once again conducted Beethoven's Ninth in Leipzig for the 2016 New Year celebrations. With his former orchestra, of which he has been Conductor Laureate since 2005 and with whom he enjoys a close friendship, he achieves a gripping interpretation of this monumental work. Under the direction of Blomstedt, together with his excellent musicians, the choirs, and an outstanding quartet of soloists led by the magnificent voice of Christian Gerhaher, the utopia of global freedom and humanity in Friedrich Schiller's "Ode to Joy," penned in Leipzig in 1785, grows to overwhelming dimensions.

Inspired by hearing performances of Handel’s oratorios during his visits to London, Haydn composed Die Schöpfung (‘The Creation’) in 1798. Through a series of accompanied recitatives, arias, duets and choruses, the music depicts the creation of the universe and the carefree existence of Adam and Eve. Haydn drew on the full complement of his symphonic and vocal prowess which reach peaks of almost operatic intensity. With rich harmonies and sonic magnificence in abundance, Die Schöpfung represents the apex of the Viennese oratorio tradition.

This album is the second release in the Naxos Czech Music Masters from Vienna series, and features the world premiere recording of Kozeluch’s magnificent coronation cantata. The coronation of Leopold II in Prague in 1791 came at a difficult time for European monarchs, although Leopold himself enjoyed a reputation as an enlightened ruler. Two musical works were commissioned for the occasion: Mozart’s opera ‘La clemenza di Tito’ and Kozeluch’s cantata ‘Heil dem Monarchen.’ The cantata, by turns celebratory, serene and darkly dramatic, was well-received and enhanced Kozeluch’s reputation in royal circles. It almost certainly played a part in his appointment in 1792 to the court of Leopold’s son and successor, the last Holy Roman Emperor Franz II.

Haydn, M.: Missa Sanctae Ursulae / Mozart, W.A.: Ave Verum C

On his new album "The Trumpets of Matthias Höfs" trumpeter Matthias Höfs gives an insight into his private trumpet collection. In the course of his career he has not only collected a large number of modern trumpets, but also historical models which he even partly reconstructed himself. "The gigantic variety of trumpet instruments has always fascinated me," says Höfs. "There is hardly any other instrument that is so versatile in sound and expression combined with this enormous dynamic range and possibilities". In cooperation with the Bremen wind instrument manufacturer Thein Brass, a treasure chest of over 30 different instruments has been collected over the years, which Matthias Höfs opens for this album. Meanwhile he plays exclusively on the trumpets he helped develop. "We are constantly trying to improve the intonation and trick the physics in the process, to test the sound characteristics of the most diverse materials and alloys and to make the instruments even easier to play. Every time it is like Christmas for me, when the instrument is then freshly shining and ready for the first concerts. For me it is a great luck to have these possibilities. When composers are interested in it and compose for special instruments, it's fantastic!"

Classical Music

A man of contrasts and dramatic intensity, Beethoven is one of the most striking figures in all music history. He wrote the works presented on this recording during the period in which he was gradually becoming aware of his growing deafness. Upon its release, this debut album of the Beethoven’s clarinet trios by the Ensemble Kheops - clarinetist Ronald Van Spaendonck, cellist Marie Hallynck and pianist Muhiddin Dürrüoglu - earned high critical praise.

Following a highly personal and splendidly reviewed Brahms recording, Fabian Müller follows up with Passionato, an album centering not on a single composer, but on a "central masterwork of Western piano music": Beethoven's "Appassionata". Radiating from this hub, Müller weaves a programme that shows why he is regarded as one of Germany's most promising young pianists. It stands to reason that he is not the first pianist to apply his energies to this great work laid out on the grand scale, and Fabian Müller is well aware of this. "Each generation is entitled to rediscover these pieces for itself. Apart from that, it is simply not possible to play a piece the same way twice. So even if I know my favourite performances back to front, mine will still be the 'Appassionata' of Fabian Müller." This is the starting-point of his new album, geographically as well as musically. Having grown up between the Beethovenhaus and Schumannhaus in Bonn, he sees "much more of the Rhinelander than the Viennese" in Beethoven, flanking the Appassionata with Schumann's G minor Sonata - a work of extremes. When Schumann requires the artist to play "as fast as possible" in the first movement, then "even faster" in the coda, Müller has his own personal answer: "It is more a feeling that is too strong to be expressed in a 'normal' manner. Drop everything and play for your life. That is the key. A feeling that something is flooding out of you."

Zino Francescatti (1902 - 1991) was one of the most loved and admired violinists of the 20th century. His musical lineage can be traced to the legendary Niccolò Paganini. His father, a noted violinist and teacher, studied with Camillo Sivori (1815 - 1894) who was a student of Paganini. He performed internationally with the world leading orchestras and conductors. Francescatti is still considered a violin icon - for his great musicianship and performance style, his amazing virtuosity, and for his unique, distinctive beautiful, warm tone. Included in this release are his Paris 1946 live performances of the Beethoven and Mozart #3 violin concertos, released here for the first time ever.

Wind ensembles saw an interesting development throughout the eighteenth century, both in their scoring and in their function, from musique de table to Harmonie. Mozart, who appreciated all the wind instruments of his time and gave them important roles in his orchestral and chamber music, including writing solo concertos for most of them, also composed important works for wind ensembles. His early divertimenti for six wind instruments were written in Salzburg between 1775 and 1777, mostly to entertain at outdoor banquets. The two serenades for wind octet K375 and K388/384a, composed in Vienna in 1781 and 1782 respectively, coincide with the foundation of the Kaiserliche Königliche Harmonie by Joseph II of Austria, which originated a widespread trend in the Empire and elsewhere. The function of such ensembles was mainly that of playing arrangements of famous opera tunes in the palace. The most sublime example of Harmoniemusik, however, is to be found in the Serenade K361/370a, the so called ‘Gran Partita’, written between 1781 and 1784: this is the most expansive of Mozart's works for wind in duration and scoring. Award-winning ensemble ZEFIRO brings together the world’s leading specialists in performance on historical wind instruments and has gained a reputation in its thirty years of activity for lively, eloquent and expressive renderings of Mozart’s music. This six-album set assembles for the first time its complete Mozart recordings, some of which are now considered as milestones in the discography.

The Essential Opera Collection is an exciting new mid-price series that brings together popular operas and classic productions in simple stylish packaging. The ten launch titles represent the leading opera houses of the world, including the Royal Opera House, Teatro Real, Paris Opera, Glyndebourne and the Netherlands Opera.

Born in Rosenthal, Gottfried August Homilius (1714-1785) was organist at Dresden's Frauenkirche from 1742 onwards, and since 1755 he had been “Kreuzkantor” and music director at the three main churches in Dresden. Among the composer's most fascinating works are certainly his chorale preludes for organ with an obbligato melody instrument, primarily the oboe. This extraordinary practice allowed Homilius to perform the chorale theme more full-voiced and to process the musical material as artistically as he wished, without endangering the clear presence of the chorale melody, which is absolutely necessary for liturgical use, and which here is effectively taken over by the oboe.

Gidon Kremer and Mario Brunello pay tribute to Beethoven by presenting two of his most famous quartets in a version for string orchestra played by Kremerata Baltica. The ensemble’s founder Gidon Kremer directs op.131 from the violin, while Mario Brunello conducts op. 135 and adds two contemporary pieces, one by Leo Ferre, ‘the revolutionary, anarchic, inspired singer-songwriter and great lover of Beethoven’: Muss es sein? Es muss sein! ‘We perform this hymn to ‘free music’ in a version arranged by Valter Sivilotti for cello, strings and percussion with Ferre’s original voice… Note sconte means ‘hidden notes’ in Venetian dialect. Franco Rossi, the legendary cellist of the Quartetto italiano, always invited his students, including me, to look for and give importance to the note sconte in the scores of string quartets. I asked Giovanni Sollima to write a piece in memory of Franco Rossi, of his great passion for Beethoven and his note sconte,’ comments Mario Brunello. ‘These two works form a bridge between Beethoven and our times, giving the expression “Searching for Ludwig” a concrete reality in sound,’ concludes Gidon Kremer.

Resound brings Beethoven’s symphonies and concertos back into the concert halls in which they were performed during the composer’s lifetime. Four of the six venues for the premieres of the nine symphonies still survive, as do the eight Viennese halls and theatres in which Beethoven’s orchestral works were played during his lifetime. The Orchester Wiener Akademie and its conductor Martin Haselböck continue the Resound Beethoven series, performed on period instruments and scrupulously respecting the orchestral layout of 200 years ago. Volume 7 is devoted to the Fourth Symphony, and the Piano Concerto No.4 in G major op.58, first performed in 1807. The recording took place in the Palais Lobkowitz in Vienna, in the venue of their premiere in March 1807. The concerto is performed by the Austrian pianist Gottlieb Wallisch, who was also heard on the previous volume.

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

The late quartets are among the last works that Beethoven completed, and are considered by many as the pinnacle of his achievements as a composer, and among the greatest compositions of all time. The Russian prince Nikolai Galitzin wrote to Beethoven in November 1822, requesting ‘one, two or three new quartets, for which labor I will be glad to pay you what you think proper’. This commission resulted in the Quartets, Opp. 127, 132, and 130, after which he went on to write Quartets, Opp. 131 and 135,and then the substitute final movement for Op. 130, which replaced the Große Fugue that originally had ended that piece –and which Stravinsky described as ‘an absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever’. In this recording the Brodsky Quartet has chosen to include (emulating several other quartets) the Quartet,Op.95. Although this piece significantly pre-dates the others, in terms of innovation and compositional style it points strongly towards the later works. Since their formation in 1972, the Brodsky Quartet has earned –and maintained –a worldwide reputation for excellence and innovation. Exclusive Chandos recording artists, the Brodsky Quartet has won numerous awards and accolades, and remains committed to an extensive programme of educational work in addition to their hectic performing and recording schedules.

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REVIEW:

The Brodsky Quartet certainly have their own distinctive virtues, and the highlights reach very high indeed. Technically, these performances are immaculate, so it all comes down to a question of personal taste. To me, the account of the A minor Quartet Op. 132 is the outstanding interpretation here with its serene Adagio, the Heiliger Dankgesang, taken as slowly as anyone could dare, and the intensity of its finale ratcheted up with perfect sureness. As in any cycle of these inexhaustible works, everyone has to pick and choose what they admire, but there is no doubting that these performances of some of the greatest music ever written are to be taken seriously.

– Guardian (Andrew Clements) - 1/2020

• The piano sonatas of Haydn need no introduction. Russian pianist Daria Gloukhova is one of today's most exciting pianists. She infuses these works with an intensity and poetry that make these performances rise far beyond the norm.