Franz Anton Hoffmeister
14 products
Hoffmeister: Duos for Violin & Viola
Contemporaries Of Mozart - Hoffmeister: Symphonies / Bamert, London Mozart Players
The best-selling Contemporaries of Mozart series with Matthias Bamert and the London Mozart Players is one of Chandos' most long-running recording projects and we are delighted to add three symphonies by the German-Austrian composer Franz Anton Hoffmeister to the collection. His highly appealing music is full of fluent melodies and classical elegance, much admired by Schubert. All the works here are recorded for the first time.
Hoffmeister: Concertos for 2 Horns; 2 Symphonies
The Golden Age of the Horn - Concertos for 2 Horns / Falletta, Buffalo Philharmonic
Hoffmeister: Wind Serenades Vol 2 / Klöcker, Et Al
Includes serenade(s) by Franz Anton Hoffmeister. Ensemble: Consortium Classicum. Conductor: Dieter Klöcker.
6 Flute Quartets Op. 18
SIX SONATAS FOR CLARINET AND P
Hoffmeister: Double Bass Quartets Nos. 2-4
Hoffmeister: Flute Concertos, Vol. 2
Hoffmeister: Sonatas For Piano, Vol. 2 / Biliana Tzinlikova
Franz Anton Hoffmeister occupied an important place in Viennese musical and cultural life. He was much respected as a publisher—his firm published works by Mozart and Haydn, and he was friendly with Beethoven—but also as a composer. He wrote at least eight operas, a substantial number of symphonies, and a large amount of music for the flute, a popular instrument amongst the wealthy amateurs of the time. He also wrote expressively and rewardingly for the piano, which had a similarly wide audience. This is the second of three volumes of the first complete recording of Hoffmeister’s piano sonatas.
Hoffmeister: Flute Concertos, Vol 1 / Meier, Prague Chamber Orchestra
There is no misprint: these really are Franz Hoffmeister's 21st and 24th Flute Concertos, and they are moreover half an hour long apiece. German Hoffmeister was one of the seemingly countless truly prolific composers of the eighteenth century, and the 25 solo Flute Concertos - there are three more double concertos involving the flute - are among around sixty he wrote for various instruments. His two Viola Concertos appeared last year on the last Naxos Hoffmeister release, the third of four to date. See also a review of his Double Bass Quartets.
Though Hoffmeister's music was widely admired in his lifetime, he himself paid as much attention to his music publishing business as to composition, and always had one eye on the hobbyist market. So it is that the Concertos are quite conventional: from their 'safe' D major tonality and archetypal fast-slow-fast structure to their elegant tunefulness, they reflect their creator's canny craftsmanship rather than the hand of artistic genius. That is not to say they are ever dull. In fact, there is much to admire, and fans of the flute and the Classical orchestra will pass many an uplifting, mellifluent hour, especially in the good company of Swiss flautist Bruno Meier and the dependable Prague Chamber Orchestra (PCO). Meier's gold flute has an appropriately luxurious tone, and although Hoffmeister's music does not quite demand "extreme virtuosity" or "place severe technical demands on the soloist" as the notes claim, he has no easy ride either. Yet he flutters and cruises gracefully along like a sunlit fritillary on a summer breeze. The PCO have appeared several times before on Naxos, most usually performing Ji?í (Georg) Benda, so they are au fait with the intermediate demands of this kind of music.
Sound quality is pretty good. The CD booklet is the usual Naxos effort - slim-but-informative, the notes by Stephan Hörner imparting the most significant biographical and musical detail. The disc is available in Germany with the catalogue number 8.551292 and a subtly different cover. The CD running-time is however equally ungenerous all over the world - it seems very likely that a third concerto would have squeezed on. Naxos promise more to come in this series.
-- Byzantion, MusicWeb International
Hoffmeister's Magic Flute, Vol. 1 / Boris Bizjak, Lana Trotovšek, Piatti Quartet
SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce the label debuts of two exciting young Slovenian soloists – flautist Boris Bizjak and violinist Lana Trotovšek – and 2015 Wigmore Hall String Quartet Competition winners, the Piatti Quartet. They come together for revelatory performances of six pieces for flute, violin and string quartet elements by Frank Anton Hoffmeister, all receiving their first recordings. Now overshadowed by his illustrious contemporaries, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven (music by all whom, including the Diabelli Variations, he published), Hoffmeister was himself a prolific composer in every form. Although the flute is often placed centre-stage in these six works, all demonstrate Hoffmeister’s eloquently proportioned, life-enhancing and integrated feeling for chamber music. The two most substantial works here are a taut, dramatically urgent Quartet for flute, violin, viola and cello in C minor, and an E-flat major Quintet for flute, violin, two violas and cello of Mozartian mien and mood. With echoes of Gluck, Mozart and Haydn, two Trios for flute, violin and cello (in B-flat major and D major) and a Duetto in G major for flute and violin offer superbly expressive examples of Hoffmeister’s music at its most effusive and engagingly virtuosic. Hailed in his native Slovenia for his “musicality [and] captivating performance”, London-based Boris Bizjak has won several international flute competitions and is in growing demand around the world. Lana Trotovšek, praised by The Washington Post for her “clean, refined tone with musical sense of phrasing and impeccable intonation”, is also a Professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. The Piatti Quartet – Nathaniel Anderson-Frank and Michael Trainor (violins), Tetsuumi Nagata (viola), Jessie Ann Richardson (cello) – have gained growing recognition for their “ferociously fine form” (BBC Music) and playing of “absolute authority and conviction” (Gramophone).
Laureate Series - String Quartet - Hoffmeister /Aviv Quartet
Hoffmeister: 6 Clarinet Quartets / Vanoosthuyse, Zemlinsky Quartet
Hoffmeister's oeuvre is quite an extensive catalogue with a remarkable number of works for flute. Several flute concertos and numerous chamber line-ups in which the flute predominates, are at the forefront. Since the flute was very popular at the time, not only the composer but also the publisher in Hoffmeister prospered. The quality of his music was high, and Hoffmeister became one of the best-known composers of his time. With nine operas, all performed scenically in the prominent Viennese theatres, he did better than many others. Schubert, for instance, could never attend a performance of one of his own operas during his lifetime. The rediscovery of the six clarinet quartets' first edition by Eddy Vanoosthuyse brought the three temporarily lost quartets back into their initial series of six quartets how Franz Anton Hoffmeister put them together. Also the foreseen release of both volumes scores with three quartets each as it had been edited by Ignace Pleyel is epoch making and it is certainly an important contribution for the completion of Hoffmeister's work list to perform. Therefore, this complete recording of all six clarinet quartets is highly unique. Making recordings with top musicians is no mean feat in times of Corona, but Eddy Vanoosthuyse did not have to go on any complicated journey: the six quartets were recorded in the Chamber Music Hall of the Concertgebouw in Bruges. For the Zemlinsky Quartet, which tours the world without any worry whatsoever in normal times, the situation was decidedly different. Checks, repeated tests in Prague and Brussels, and the utmost caution one very trip were mandatory. In spite of these setbacks, however, the five musicians were gung-ho, and presented themselves in optimal form at their stands.
