For a string player, Beethoven’s 16 quartets are of an importance similar to that of his sonatas to a pianist and for every composer of string quartets they remain a benchmark. The Chiaroscuro Quartet have begun their cycle of these works at the same place as Beethoven did, with the Op. 18 set which occupied him intensively for the best part of two years (1798 – 1800). The effort he put into these quartets was surely due to the fact that he had much to live up to – they would after all be measured against those of Haydn and Mozart. Beethoven was clearly determined that the six quartets of the set should present the widest possible overview of his art.

The Chiaroscuros released the first three in 2021 – a disc which was included among the finest new releases of the year in BBC’s Record Review. The present album opens with the only minor-key quartet of the six, No. 4 in C minor, which in the years that followed became Beethoven’s most popular quartet – to his growing irritation as he felt it overshadowed later works. In No. 5 in A major Beethoven follows closely in the footsteps of Mozart: its third movement and finale are in fact modelled on Mozart’s quartet in the same key (K?464), which Beethoven had copied out before he began work on his own quartet. With No.?6 in B flat major it is rather Haydn that we see hovering in the background: for instance his way of making witty capital out of the most elementary material or the rhythmic games in the third movement Scherzo.

REVIEW:

This is the best recording of any Beethoven Quartets I have heard in a long time, not because it is, unusually, a period performance on gut strings and historical bows, or that it is superbly well recorded in surround, but because these players have dared to completely rethink these well-known pieces and turned them into a series of wonderful surprises.

The set has to be heard no matter how many other recordings one possesses. If it goes on to encompass the whole series - and who knows if it will? - it could become the period performance cycle against which others in the future are measured. Recording, in surround and stereo, notes and presentation are immaculate: an object lesson in how such things ought always to be done.

-- MusicWeb International

This is the first recording on Channel Classics with the Italian based MIB Ensemble. Comprising the best players from the top orchestras of Italy, the ensemble felt the need to create their own ensemble to fill the gap in repertoire and concert possibilities for wind instruments.

Though considered ‘Tafelmusik’ – music for special occasions and street music – the Mozart Serenade is anything but a polite little piece of entertainment. Rather, it is a serious, sometimes threatening eight-part composition full of chromaticism, dramatic leaps, and intricacies.

Please note: the audio narration for this program is in French, with English subtitles.

In his Parisian living-room, music critic André Tubeuf (1930-2021) tells, with his knowledge, his language and his memory, the story of the German Lied. From Mozart and Beethoven to Mahler and Strauss, through Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf, a major part of the European culture and of music history is reborn before our eyes and ears. A series in seven episodes by Martin Mirabel. “Of course, there is much grander music, more sublime music, but there is no music that is more direct or intimate. That is to say, there is nothing we need more.’’ (André Tubeuf)

Jirí Bárta (*1964) is one of the top cellists of his generation and his busy concert career has included collaborations with leading musicians and orchestras around the world. He also boasts an extensive recording catalogue of some thirty solo and chamber albums and is the founder and artistic director of the International Music Festival Kutná Hora. Terezie Fialová (*1984) is one of the most talented young Czech pianists and a sought-after chamber partner of many leading Czech and international soloists. Both Bárta and Fialová are laureates of various international awards. In this new album, they bring a studio recording and a focused and riveting performance of Beethoven’s complete sonatas for piano and cello. As they say of the album’s origin, it was, “paradoxically, precisely thanks to the many months of a stalled concert life that we found the time to get together and withdraw into the studio in order to record this wonderful and rewarding music by Ludwig van Beethoven.”

"The hours I spent learning Beethoven‘s last three sonatas were among the most cherished of my life. They were filled with the exhilaration of being in the presence of something magnificent, something truly meaningful. Over the years, these sonatas have become my intimate companions – a continuous source of learning and an always sympathetic yet mercilessly honest corrective for me…

"I learned Helmut Lachenmann‘s Wiegenmusik (Cradle Music) as a teenager, around the same time I actually met him at my grandfather‘s home. As a young man, Helmut had been a member of my grandfather‘s choir. I will never forget the impression his warm and friendly manner had on me...Much later, in preparation for a joint concert in which I played solo four of his works for piano, Helmut, in his unique way, introduced me to his works and invited me to “listen” – to listen to everything that is acoustically perceptible, to hear the attack of the key and its consequence, and to open up myself more to the beauty of tones, beyond the so-called limits; and ultimately not just with his music, but with all music.

"This juxtaposition of Beethoven and Lachenmann explores the interaction between the works – the field of tension opened up by their proximity. Without alienating the individual masterpiece, a new listening context emerges. The symbiosis of their auras allows us to experience anew what we have become accustomed to. I dedicate this album to my grandfather Gerhard Wilhelm, who dreamed of living life as a pianist like I do now – as a child of a generation that, unlike his, did not have to experience war. Let us hope that this does not change. Both Beethoven and Lachenmann will help in this endeavor." -Soloist Moritz Winkelmann

Beethoven’s Triple Concerto Op.56 for piano, violin, cello, and orchestra was unique in the musical literature at the time, and he knew it: he proudly wrote to his publisher that the combination of a piano trio with an orchestra was entirely new. But the innovations go beyond the combination of concertante instruments, extending as well to the importance accorded the orchestra, elevated to the status of an equal, symphonic protagonist alongside the three solo parts alone, in all possible pairings and as a threesome. This was new, and the audience was indeed perplexed when the work was first performed in Vienna in May 1804. There is no indication that the concerto was performed a second time during Beethoven’s lifetime.

The Piano Concerto in E-flat “Number Zero” (WoO 4) is a work rarely performed and therefore practically unknown to the wider public. Written by Beethoven in 1784, at the tender age of 14, it comes down to us as an unsigned 32-page manuscript with the author’s corrections: the solo piano part and the piano reduction of the orchestra parts are completely preserved, but the orchestral score itself has been lost. This manuscript was discovered in 1890 in the archives of the Artaria Foundation and was transferred to the Berlin State Library. It was published that same year. Beethoven researcher Willy Hess later restored the orchestral parts on the basis of the preserved material. The first outing of this careful, accurate work was given in 1934 by the pianist Walter Frey in Oslo (first part only), and the complete reconstruction was performed in 1968 at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Since 2004, Andreas Haefliger has been presenting Perspectives, a series of recital programs, in concert and on recordings. Each program focusses on one or two Beethoven sonatas, juxtaposed with works by other composers which in some way interact with Beethoven’s music and with each other. Now, for his latest release on BIS, Haefliger has instead opted for an all-Beethoven recital, choosing to present the composer’s three sonatas Op. 31 as a group. In his introduction to the disc, Haefliger describes the set as occupying ‘a very special place in the Beethoven sonata cycle: It preserves a link to the past but gives us also a vision of the works to come, exploring humour and tenderness, nature and the psychology of the human mind.’ The recording took place in the Salle de Musique in La Chaux-de-Fonds, celebrated for its superb acoustics, on a Bechstein concert grand which Haefliger describes as ‘a piano which, while a modern instrument, retains a nostalgic quality in its sound world and was a constant source of inspiration during the sessions.’

REVIEWS:

This is a superb release on all counts, and anyone who cares about these sonatas ought to give it a listen. In addition to Beethoven and Haefliger, the third star of this SACD is the C. Bechstein Concert Grand D 282 that the pianist plays, in a recital hall in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

-- Fanfare

The performances are crisp and meticulous. Everything is worked out precisely, and one can feel the artist’s serious purpose. There is little humor or relaxation; perfection is the goal, and Haefliger gets close. There is little to criticize. These are really very fine performances, and the Bechstein piano with its relatively light bass serves the music well.

-- American Record Guide

Beethoven’s only opera is a masterpiece, an uplifting story of risk and triumph. In this new production, conducted by Antonio Pappano, David Butt Philip plays the political prisoner Florestan, and Lise Davidsen his wife Leonore (disguised as ‘Fidelio’) who daringly sets out to rescue him. Set in strong counterpoint are the ingredients of domestic intrigue, determined love and the cruelty of an oppressive regime. The music is transcendent throughout, with highlights including the famous Act I Quartet, the Prisoners’ Chorus and Florestan’s aria, which conjures hope from the depths of despair. Tobias Kratzer’s new staging brings together the dark reality of the French Revolutionary ‘Terror’ and our own time to illuminate Fidelio’s inspiring message of shared humanity.

REVIEW:

The strong cast is rightly dominated by the splendid Leonore of Lise Davidsen. For a start, she looks the part, being naturally quite tall, and she copes with the difficulties of the role with apparent ease. Her recitative and aria Abscheulicher… Komm, Hoffnung is beautifully done, with the tricky runs and leaps securely negotiated. David Butt Philip is a satisfactory replacement for Kaufmann, and his aria was moving, despite the awkwardness of the setting and his tendency to grimace. Georg Zeppenfeld acted and sang well as Rocco, and Simon Neal made the stage villain Pizarro really alarming. Of the smaller parts, really impressive was Amanda Forsythe’s affecting Marzelline. She appears with what looks like an incipient bruise on her face, the result of a row with Jaquino mimed during the overture, which I suppose adds to the motivation to prefer Fidelio. Her attempted seduction of the disguised Leonore and her appearance in the dungeon are presumably ideas of Kratzer, which she did her best with. The chorus was fine, the orchestra played well, especially the woodwind, and Pappano conducted with verve and commitment.

There are two brief extras, one with comments of the performers on the work and the other with pictures of them in role. The sound and vision are good; I was listening in ordinary stereo. The DVD is slightly difficult to navigate, with the scenes in the second act not appearing in the menu. But that is a small matter. This is worth seeing for the excellent performances, particularly Lise Davidsen’s Leonore, if you can cope with the problematic staging of the second act.

-- MusicWeb International

During the Biedermeier period, the piano gained huge popularity as a domestic instrument, and piano concertos were increasingly arranged for chamber music ensembles. Ignaz Lachner’s superb arrangements of Mozart’s piano concertos are well known, but his brother Vinzenz Lachner’s arrangements of Beethoven’s concertos are a rarity, though equally as valuable. This volume completes the cycle of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos in Vinzenz Lachner’s transcriptions for piano and string quintet.

Seventy years ago, on the 29th July 1951, Wilhelm Furtwängler conducted Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at a concert marking the reopening of the Bayreuth Festival after seven years of silence following the Second World War. It was a momentous occasion, and the concert was broadcast by Bavarian Radio and transmitted across the world, for instance by Swedish Radio. Using the analogue mono tape as digitized by Swedish Radio, the present disc reproduces the broadcast as it would have been heard by listeners in Sweden: we have chosen to not change anything, not to ‘brush up’ the sound, not to clean and shorten the pauses or omit audience noises within the music, but to keep the original as it was. In this way we hope to recreate the feeling of actually sitting in front of an old radio in 1951, listening to this concert – a true historical document.

REVIEW:

Nothing else in the realms of recorded music is quite like it and I would urge you to share the experience...I’m not claiming that this performance will suit every mood or even every taste, but if and when it does hit target it will leave you changed for ever.

-- Gramophone (Editor's Choice, March 2022)