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Kozeluch: Three Scottish Piano Trios / Trio 1790
Leopold Kozeluch enjoyed such an outstanding reputation in 1781 that he received an offer from the Archbishop of Salzburg to succeed Mozart as court organist. Kozeluch’s piano trios must have been very popular since more than sixty of them appeared in print from 1781 to 1810. The three trios presented here were published in 1798 / 99 and had been preceded by forty other such works by him. The special feature of these three piano trios lies in his use of melodies from Scottish folk songs in their middle and last movements. Toward the end of the eighteenth century the Edinburgh publisher George Thomson had the idea to have Viennese classical composers set Scottish, Irish, and Welsh folk songs to music with an accompaniment for piano, violin, and violoncello and contacted Haydn, Kozeluch, Pleyel, and (later) Beethoven in the hope of winning them for this project. They gratefully accepted the offer and produced settings in rich supply – in Beethoven’s case alone, more than two hundred – that unfortunately are almost completely forgotten today. The works are presented here by Trio 1790, consisting of cellist and violist Imola Gombos, violinist Annette Wehnert, and pianist Harald Hoeren.
Brahms: Serenades Nos. 1 & 2 / Martin, Gavle Symphony
REVIEW:
Anyone who champions Brahms’s gloriously eccentric, lyrical, and capacious Serenades deserves full attention. Here they get it. There’s some lovely playing, with warm woodwind and horns and nice, crisp syncopations. Martín does not allow the tempi to drag: important in works that need to be kept agile and alert to reveal their special charm.
– Guardian
Handel: St. John Passion & Ach Herr, Mich Armen Sünder / La Capella Ducale, Musica Fiata
Roland Wilson enjoys great esteem as a trumpeter and a cornett player who performs with his own ensemble, and as a musicologist his name stands for the rediscovery of many an early music rarity. On our new recording we hear two highly interesting works that once were (and today still are) ascribed to George Frideric Handel. Johann Mattheson, who was working on the setting of the same libretto in 1723, wrote a detailed review of this Passion probably first performed in 1704 and published anonymously. Although Mattheson does not mention the “world-famous” man by name, his choice of words repeatedly offers clear references, for example, when he states that the inscription Pilate had put on the cross caused him “new business” (“neue Händel”). Mattheson doubtless knew exactly who the composer was, and everything that he describes is a perfect match for Handel. For me, there is a lot in the score that recalls the mature Handel while sounding very much like a young man who was then in quest of his individual style. The same applies to the chorale cantata “Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder,” a work certainly suggesting an even earlier date of composition. This new recording by the early music specialists of Musica Fiata and an ensemble of soloists brings this wonderful music to life with fantastic tonal homogeneity and balance, technical finesse, and historical knowledge.
Pas de deux / The Royal Ballet
This unique collection celebrates the pas de deux: the ‘steps for two’ or partner dances so central to ballets both modern and classical. It brings together 16 exceptional pas de deux from The Royal Ballet’s unequalled repertory, in outstanding performances by Company dancers past and present. Representing The Royal Ballet’s heritage works and recent creations, as well as 19th-century classics, Pas de Deux demonstrates the choreographic diversity, technical brilliance, show-stopping spectacle and artistry for which The Royal Ballet is acclaimed around the world. Included in this collection are Frederick Ashton’s Voices of Spring and pas de deux from his La Fille mal gardée; from Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, Concerto, Elite Syncopations, Manon and Mayerling; from Wayne McGregor’s Limen; from Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale; and from the 19th-century classics Giselle, Don Quixote, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. All captured in high definition and recorded in true surround sound.
Druschetzky: Oboe Quartets, Vol. 1 / Grundmann Quartet
Georg Druschetzky is a name that people who know their music history associate with charming but innocuous wind partitas and truly out-of-the-ordinary concertos for six, seven, or eight timpani and orchestra. The latter category comes as no surprise; after all, Druschetzky was an “Upper Austrian Regional Timpanist” (a title actually bestowed on him in Linz in 1776), and so why shouldn’t he offer compositional tribute to his instrument? But there’s more: Druschetzky enjoyed a successful career that took him all the way to the court of the Palatine of Hungary, Archduke Joseph von Habsburg, in Ofen (today’s Buda), where he held the posts of court composer and music director and wrote masses, symphonies, two operas, and numerous chamber compositions. His chamber works include a cycle of ten oboe quartets (1807-8) from his late years that make an astonishing and lasting listening impression – because of his rich imagination and his compositional wit and spirited harmonic daredevilry that we otherwise encounter only in the “surprise artist” Haydn. This discovery is so significant that we in any case intend to present all ten quartets in congenial recordings by the Grundmann Quartet on historical instruments. The present release is volume 1 in this project.
Kavanagh plays Kavanagh
Dale Kavanagh writes: “This is the first album that I have made that features my own compositions. Although some of my pieces were released on various discs, this is the first which only included my solo works, performed by myself.The album opens with Going Nowhere, written in an aphoristic style, ephemeral in nature. Toronto 98, in three movements, is a musical description of the time I lived in Toronto, Canada. This is a wild and rhythmic piece which celebrates the happy life, filled with slurs, scales and rasgueados. The Three Preludes are inspired by some significant people in my life, including my daughter Melissa (Prelude No. 1) and the great guitarist-composer Roland Dyens (Prelude No. 3, ‘Fuoco’). The final work, Fundy, is a short piece describing both the rolling waves and mighty tides of the Bay of Fundy as seen from the Nova Scotian coast, where I grew up.”
Jarnefelt: Song of the Scarlet Flower / Kuusisto, Gävle Symphony
This release includes the world première recording of the full orchestral score written by Armas Järnefelt (1869–1958) for Mauritz Stiller’s silent film Song of the Crimson Flower (1919) performed by Gävle Symphony Orchestra under Jaakko Kuusisto.
Armas Järnefelt – today largely known in music literature only as Sibelius’ brother-in-law – became one of the most remarkable Finnish orchestral composers during the 1890s. The composer wrote several symphonic poems and orchestral suites in his young age which were highly successful and widely performed by various orchestras in his home country. However, for reasons unknown, Järnefelt decided to devote himself to conducting. In the years to follow, Järnefelt moved to Sweden and become a highly-esteemed conductor.
Some of Järnefelt’s miniatures became hits for salon orchestras in Europe, such as his Berceuse, but this recording makes more justice to a largely forgotten Nordic composer. In 1919, Finnish-born film director Mauritz Stiller approached Armas Järnefelt and commissioned him to write an orchestral score for his silent film ‘Song of the Scarlet Flower’ (Sången om den eldröda blomman), based on a novel by Finnish author Johannes Linnankoski. Järnefelt made great efforts for the project and as a result, wrote a large 100-minute orchestral score. The work can be considered as his final orchestral masterpiece and a pioneer work in film music. The film was a huge hit and went on to be screened in more than 40 countries in addition to Sweden. It was also the first ever Nordic feature-length film to have a full-length original score written for it. Järnefelt’s score was lost for a long time, although he did conduct a recording of extracts from the score in 1931. In the 1980s the original score was rediscovered among the possessions of Järnefelt’s relatives. Järnefelt’s score was augmented and restored by Jani Kyllönen and Jaakko Kuusisto for the present recording.
Franck: Hulda / Bollon, Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg, Extrachor des Theater Freiburg
Most of César Franck’s works received scant attention at the time of their composition and Hulda was never performed in his lifetime. The narrative is set in 14th-century Norway at the time of the great tribal kings, with marauding hordes spreading fear and terror throughout the land. Hulda is kidnapped and transferred from one tribe to the other, her family is killed and she herself is humiliated. However, Hulda’s spirit cannot be crushed, and she survives with revenge as her goal in life. Franck’s music portrays raging clans, bloodthirsty murderers and shattered lives, but also moments of exquisite tenderness in this acclaimed revival of a forgotten masterpiece that places the role of Hulda among the great tragic stage heroines.
Zimmermann: Violin Concerto, Photoptosis & Die Soldaten Vocal Symphony / Lintu, Finnish Radio Symphony
This new release by the award-winning Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu is dedicated to the music of Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918–1970), a leading figure in the music of post-Second World War Germany. This album includes a rendering of the composer’s magnificent violin concerto featuring star violinist Leila Josefowicz, orchestral score Photoptosis, as well as the first album recording of Die Soldaten Vocal Symphony based on an opera that is widely considered as one of the greatest German operas of the 20th century. Zimmermann wrote his Die Soldaten opera, one of his keyworks, during the 1950s and 60s. The premiere of the opera was cancelled, and upon hearing the claim that the opera would be ‘impossible’ to perform, the composer adapted parts of the opera into a 40-minute vocal symphony suitable for concert performance. This work, filled with power and drama, is much more than a description of the apocalypse of modern war, and deserves its rightful place alongside the operas of Alban Berg. Zimmerman’s Violin Concerto is a relatively early work in the composer’s oeuvre. It was premiered in 1950 but has suffered much neglect. The influence of Schoenberg, Hindemith, Bartók, Stravinsky and Prokofiev are visible in this work which we might consider to manifest echoes of war. Photoptosis (1968), ‘Incidence of Light’, is among Zimmermann’s final orchestral pieces. Inspired by a painting created by Yves Klein for the Gelsenkirchen music theatre, this work includes quotations by Scriabin, Beethoven, Bach, and Wagner, among others. Yet, this “Prélude”, as described by the composer, is not a collage, but a study in orchestral sonority and light. Recordings by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu on Ondine have gathered excellent reviews in the international press. Two of their recordings were nominated for Gramophone Awards in 2018.
Eller: Violin Concerto, Fantasy, Symphony Legend & Symphony No. 2 / Elts, Skride, Estonian National Symphony
Heino Eller (1887-1970) can be considered as one of the founders of Estonian professional music culture. Eller’s legacy is twofold – in his prolific instrumental compositions he forged an elaborate style that successfully combined both modern and national elements, and as a prominent professor of composition during half a century he influenced generations of Estonian composers. This new recording by the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Olari Elts and featuring violinist Baiba Skride includes some of the highlights from the composer’s catalogue of orchestral works and is a fitting tribute to the centenary of Estonia’s independence. Heino Eller’s Violin Concerto in B minor was the first in its genre in Estonian music. First written in the 1930s the one-movement work was scheduled to be performed in Tallinn on June 1940. For reasons unknown, the work was withdrawn until March 1965 when Neeme Järvi conducted the premiere. Another work for violin and orchestra, Fantasy, was first written in 1916 and orchestrated in 1964. Fantasy is one of the earliest compositions that bears the hallmarks Eller´s individual style, and its sensitive lyricism and charming simplicity give the work an enduring appeal. The Symphonic Legend is Eller’s largest score prior to the First Symphony (1936). It was premiered on June 1923 in Tartu, and Eller revised the score for performance in 1938. A work with a wealth of musical material and masterly orchestration, Symphonic Legend was next performed only in 2014 by Olari Elts with the Estonian NSO, and the current recording is the first. Heino Eller wrote three Symphonies between the 1930s and 1960s. Unlike his other two Symphonies, the 2nd Symphony has only one movement. The severe and at times tragic nature of the music was incompatible with the demands of the official Soviet cultural ideology.
Per cantar et sonar: Arie e danze rinascimentali
Stockhausen: Klavierstucke I-VIII & XI / Tudor
Stockhausen calls his piano pieces his "drawings", the pieces in which he sketches out ideas without the added color complexity of instrumental timbres. More significantly, in these early pieces you can hear a composer grappling with the challenge of electronic sound, looking for "envelope curves" that will allow the old medium to compete with the new. As played by David Tudor in this historic recording, the piano gives its answer to the synthesizer. David Tudor is without question one of the premier figures in the performance of new music since the middle of this century. As a pianist, Tudor gave highly acclaimed first performances of works by contemporary composers Pierre Boulez, Earle Brown, Sylvano Bussotti, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Christian Wolff, Stephan Wolpe, and La Monte Young, among others. As a composer, Tudor chose specific electronic components and their interconnections to define both composition and performance drawing upon resources that were both flexible and complex.
Eisler: Lieder, Vol. 3 / Falk, Schleiermacher
The program of Vol. 3 of the Hanns Eisler project by Holger Falk and Steffen Schleiemacher- a meritorious endeavor that has already earned them various prizes- features songs from this composer’s American exile. The Hollywood Songbook is a major work, even if measured solely by its length and total of thirty-two pieces. Moreover, the concentration and intensification of the content attained by Eisler while he was residing on the Pacific Coast make this rather loosely organized collection of occasional pieces what is certainly the most important song cycle of the twentieth century. Unlike many other exiles, Eisler was extremely successful in California, both artistically and financially. In the expanding entertainment industry there was an increasing demand for new film music, which Eisler supplied both willingly and reliably. His songs reveal the other side of his life in exile: yearning for home, reluctance to come to terms with his fate, and the insecurity of his life in exile. Once again Bertoit Brecht authored a great many of these impressive texts. The precise length of the Hollywood Songbook and the order of its titles are not entirely clear. The usual order of the thirty-two songs was not presented in full until 1982, forty years after Eisler’s death. Holger Falk and Steffen Schleiermacher complement this extensive cycle with some pieces from their temporal and topical context. The result is a most deeply moving, stellar song performance, presented with profound sympathy but without any edifying kitsch.
Scharwenka: Piano Trios / String Quartets (Uk)
Chamber music fans have long awaited this MDG special edition bringing together two standard-setting recordings of Philipp Scharwenka’s chamber music. These albums created a sensation when they were first released but disappeared from the catalogue many years ago. The press wrote that the recording of his piano trios by the Trio Parnassus offered “an absolutely addictive combination,” while the Mannheim String Quartet was said to convey “ideal balance between expression and structure.” Scharwenka steered clear of fads and modish fancies. Grounded in the tradition of the nineteenth century but hardly reactionary or retrospective, his music counted Max Reger among its very knowledgeable admirers. Scharwenka was an indisputably masterly inventor of catchy themes, and his motivic work and harmonic sophistication make for rewarding listening experiences, and so do our illustrious ensembles. The Mannheim String Quartet magnificently presents Scharwenka’s music in its “greatest formal perfection and tonal beauty” – thus a contemporary review. Moreover, Thomas Duis, a proven chamber music expert, joins the quartet musicians for the Piano Quintet. The Trio Parnassus, an experienced top ensemble, gets down to business with its gripping renderings not only of famous musical warhorses but also of many a new discovery. This is late romantic filigree work that goes straight to the heart and is guaranteed to delight audiophile chamber music fans.
Prokofiev: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 5 / Mustonen, Lintu, Finnish Radio Symphony
This is the second and final disc in a cycle of Sergei Prokofiev’s (1891–1953) piano concertos with pianist Olli Mustonen and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu. The Gramophone Magazine wrote regarding the first volume in the series: "How many times have I regretted a shortage of fantasy, flair and fairy-tale imagination in recordings of the Prokofiev piano concertos? Well, here is a disc that takes all those qualities to the top."
Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos are among 20th century masterpieces. He wrote this magical work just before World War I. The original score was destroyed during the Russian revolution, and Prokofiev had to re-write the concerto in 1923.
Pianist Olli Mustonen has worked with most of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and The Royal Concertgebouw, partnering conductors such as Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Dutoit, Eschenbach, Harnoncourt, Masur and Nagano. As a recitalist, he plays in all the significant musical capitals, including Mariinsky Theatre St Petersburg, Wigmore Hall, Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Symphony Center Chicago, New York Zankel Hall and Sydney Opera House. His many albums for Ondine include Respighi’s Concerto in modo Misolidio with Sakari Oramo and the Finnish Radio Symphony and a critically acclaimed disc of Scriabin’s solo piano music. The recent recordings by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu on Ondine have been a fruitful collaboration gathering excellent reviews in the international press.
QUINTET OP. 81 SEXTET OP. 30
Ravel & Chausson: Piano Trios / Vienna Piano Trio
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REVIEW:
The Trio's finely honed interpretation of the Ravel is charactized by finesse, maturity, and lucidity. Chausson’s Franck-inspired Trio makes a great pairing. There are some breathtakingly lyrical moments in the violin and cello here, and the rich piano figuration never feels laboured.
– Gramophone
A NEW ANGLE
ORCHESTRAL WORKS
STRING QUARTET PIANO QUINTET
Gade: Chamber Works, Vol. 4 / Ensemble MidtVest
"Gade’s chamber music is marvelously written and does not deserve to disappear into the footnotes of musical historiography. The Ensemble MidVest is completely committed to Gade’s cause and performs these works recorded in perfect balance with an open naturalness showing his music in the most favorable light." This is how FonoForum reviewed Vol. 2 of our Gade recordings based on the new historical-critical complete edition of his works. The compositional history of many of these works is long and complicated because he often submitted his earlier works to later revisions. One exception is his String Quartet of 1851, the first complete quartet of his authorship. It is not known why he later distanced himself from this composition inasmuch as it is distinguished by a expressivity stronger than that encountered in his later works. With his one-movement Quintet in F minor he created a work comparable in expression and form to the one-movement dramatic concert overtures with which he had occupied himself ever since his earliest youth.
Rautavaara: Works for Cello & Piano / Tetzlaff, Sussmann
REVIEW:
As a mind-blowing display of technical accomplishment, I can only offer my congratulations to Tanja Tetzlaff who has a gorgeous Guadagnini cello of 1776 and an outstanding long-term piano partner in Gunilla Sussmann. Very good recorded quality and most highly recommended.
– David's Review Corner (David Denton)
The Enrico Cecchetti Diploma
Gál: Das Lied Der Nacht, Op. 23 / Hotz, Osnabrucker Symphonieorchester
After 1933 nobody had the opportunity to hear this opera. Then the Osnabrück Music Theater rediscovered Das Lied der Nacht by Hans Gál and performed it in 2017. This late-romantic opera to a text by Karl Michael von Levetzow premiered in 1926, but since its composer was of Jewish origin, the Nazis prohibited stage productions of it. During his later years Hans Gál was doubly forgotten: as one of the many Jewish artists who were forced into exile by the Fascists and as a conservative "very-latest romanticist" pursuing paths laid out by Brahms and Richard Strauss. He himself described Das Lied der Nacht as a "dramatic ballad" symbolically representing the emotional world of a Sicilian hereditary princess destined for sovereignty. The text set in twelfth-century Palermo evokes a magical, romantic world in which Antiquity and Byzantine and Moorish elements combine to form a synthesis of rare fascination and a lyrical blend of European and Oriental culture. After the premiere at the end of May 2017, the NOZ wrote, "Fantastic music, a good libretto, a marvelous performance, an all-around successful rediscovery that the premiere audience in the Osnabrück Theater celebrated with abundant applause." Now on cpo and an absolute listening must!
Bruchner: Symphony No. 7 / Hindemith, Stuttgart Radio Symphony
Paul Hindemith was an all-round musician. He had a near-professional command of most orchestral instruments, which naturally served as an excellent prerequisite for both composing and conducting. His prominence as a composer meant that the best and most famous orchestras were happy to have him as a conductor, which is why he regularly took to the podium with outstanding ensembles. In the studio, he always conducted his own works, recording them for labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, CBS and Decca. His work as a conductor in the concert hall and his occasional radio studio performances were much more varied, as with the present recording. When we hear Hindemith conducting Bruckner in 1958, we should bear in mind that a grand master is at work, unsurpassed in contrapuntal expertise and musical invention, the product of a vibrant tradition extending from Schütz and Bach to Mozart and Beethoven, and on to Brahms and Reger. Bruckner was a high point on this route from the Baroque to his own contemporary output.
