V7: PIANO CONCERTOS

Mozart's five Violin Concertos are each lovely and endearing works, with the fourth and fifth being acknowledged masterpieces of the genre.Veteran violinist Nils-Erik Sparf inhabits the dual role of solo performer and conductor of the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra on this two-disc set of Mozart's complete Violin Concertos. Current concertmaster of the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra and principal violinist of the Uppsala Chamber Soloists, Mr. Sparf has garnered a number of distinctions and awards for his unique interpretations and has made a great number of CD recordings.

There is hardly any other major work in the history of music where there are as many secrets about it's genesis as in Mozart's Requiem: from the ominous masked client to the repeated criticism of the completion of the fragment by Mozart's pupil S��mayr (which has nevertheless established itself as a common version in concert life) to the speculation that the composer knew that he was writing his own requiem mass. The source situation is confusing, perhaps there were other "completers" besides S��mayr working at the mass, which the widow Constanze wanted to publish as one of Mozart's alone. Some stylistic breaks in the common version that are untypical of Mozart reinforce the doubts. After a thorough study of sources and comparative stylistic analyses, Michael Ostrzyga now presents a carefully corrected version, which brings him closer to the "most probable compositional solutions for November/December 1791" that Mozart would probably have chosen. Chorwerk Ruhr presents a first reference recording.

Visually, it's a theatrical feast of eccentricity... witty, irrepressible, unforgettable... (The Guardian) One of Mozart's most enchanting works, Die Zauberfl�te is a fairytale that uses familiar archetypes to ask provocative and difficult questions about religion, the nature of power, the bonds of family, and of course love. Premiered just months before Mozart's death, Die Zauberfl�te in many ways represents a new departure for the composer. Catching the spirit of revolution in the air, Mozart turned his attention for the first time from court opera to popular opera, writing this singspiel ('sung-play') for a new and much broader audience. Celebrated Canadian directing duo Barbe & Doucet make both their British and Glyndebourne debuts here with their new Die Zauberfl�te, a veritable "theatrical feast of eccentricity." (The Guardian). Ryan Wiggleworth conducts an outstanding cast including Russian soprano Sofia Fomina as Pamina, David Portillo as her beloved Tamino, Brindley Sherratt as Sarastro, and the ebullient Bj�rn B�rger as Papageno.

In her third Mozart recording for Musica Omnia, the distinguished fortepianist, Trudelies Leonhardt, presents a programme of three of the composer's finest solo sonatas from the early 1780s, as well as the haunting and mysterious Rondo in A minor, K. 511, composed in 1789. Trudelies Leonhardt is of Dutch-Austrian parentage and comes from a family of musicians, her brother being the well-known harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt. She studied in Amsterdam with Johannes R�ntgen and Nelly Wagenaar and was awarded the Soloist-diploma cum laude and the Elisabeth Everts-prijs. She also worked in Paris with Yves Nat and Marguerite Long. Numerous orchestras have engaged Trudelies Leonhardt as soloist, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, The Tonhalle-Orchester of Zurich, The Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and The London Mozart Players among them. She has long been especially interested in fortepianos of the late 18th and early 19th century and nowadays she devotes her musical activity entirely to these. She has recorded about thirty albums, the majority of which feature works of Schubert and Beethoven. This is the third release of works by Mozart for Musica Omnia.

The third volume of Peter Donohoe's acclaimed survey of Mozart's Piano Sonatas for SOMM Recordings focuses on three works from the second half of the 1780s - including his last exercise in the form, Sonata No.18 (K576) - together with two exquisite miniatures. Although likely composed as teaching materials, the sibling Sonatas Nos.10 (K330) and 11 (K331) eloquently push their intended student- players with considerable technical challenges that point to Mozart's own development as a composer. The C major Sonata No.10 opens in an unabashedly didactic frame of mind before blossoming into a rich and satisfying work, by turns playfully intimate, operatic and always testing the abilities of soloist and piano. As Christopher Morley notes in his informative booklet notes, the Sonata No.11 in A major, with it's tradition-defying structure, seems "more like a suite than a conventional sonata". Opening with variations on Rechte Lebensart ('The right way of living'), a song from southern Germany where Mozart's father Leopold had his roots, it ends with the effervescent, ever- popular 'Rondo Alla Turca'. Interspersing the sonatas, the K574 Gigue pays homage to Bach and echoes the finale to Mozart's own Symphony No.40 while the K540 Adagio is, says Morley, "one of the most inwardly personal of Mozart's compositions". This new release follows critical acclaim for Volume 1 (SOMMCD 0191) including the accolades of MusicWeb International's Recording of the Year and BBC Music Magazine's Recording of the Month which declared: "It was high time someone blew the cobwebs off this still under-appreciated repertoire, and Donohoe is clearly the person to do it". Musical Opinion described Donohoe in Volume 2 (SOMMCD 0198) as "an ideal interpreter", adding "no finer accounts of these still neglected masterpieces will have been offered to the public".

Cheerfulness and depth, youthful urgency and ageless serenity: all this is found not only in Mozart’s most famous works. We also encounter these astonishing contrasts at every turn in the enchanting duos presented by renowned violinist Annette Unger and her piano partner Robert Umansky on their new GENUIN release. The program features sonatas and variation cycles from “middle-period” Mozart to the years of maturity. The interpretation offered by the two Dresden musicians impresses with its vividness and transparency together with a great love for the details of these musical gems.

So greatly did Ignaz Lachner venerate Mozart that he arranged twelve of the 27 piano concertos for performance by small ensembles. Lachner, who had known Schubert in Vienna and had met Beethoven, was superbly equipped for these arrangements ensuring that the string quintet of soloists, with the double bass largely doubling the cello role, sounds thoroughly idiomatic. The three selected works represent the different sized orchestras Mozart employed, K. 246 being the most lightly scored, and K. 488 the most complex. The anonymous arrangement of excerpts from Die Zauberflote proves equally vital and attractive.

After a cycle of Beethoven Piano Concertos, solo albums of works by Bach and Schubert in addition to a number of award-winning recordings of piano chamber music on Ondine label, pianist Lars Vogt releases an album of Piano Sonatas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). In this album, two baroque-influenced and virtuosic early sonatas are coupled together with a touching A minor Sonata K. 310 - written at the time of the composer's mother's death - and a delightful, Haydnesque Sonata K. 333. Mozart wrote Piano Sonatas K. 280 and K. 281 (Nos. 2 & 3) most likely in 1774, at the age of 18. The elements of Baroque influence are clearly evident in the K. 280 Sonata. A prominent feature in the K. 281 Sonata is, besides it's virtuosity, the beautiful slow-movement, "Andante amoroso". The K. 310 Sonata (No. 8) was written four years later, during the summer of 1778, and is written in a minor key: a rarity among Mozart's Sonatas. The K. 333 was published in 1784, but the time of it's composition might have been earlier. This joyful work with virtuosic passages can be described almost as a Piano Concerto for the solo piano. Lars Vogt was appointed the first ever "Pianist in Residence" by the Berlin Philharmonic in 2003/04 and enjoys a high profile as a soloist and chamber musician. His debut solo recording on Ondine with Bach's Goldberg Variations was released in August 2015 and has been a major critical success.

A special, connecting and autobiographical element for this recording is the beautiful city of Salzburg, a place steeped in legend and music history, which became the hometown of all those involved in the production - from the composer to the conductor, the soloist to the orchestra musicians and the orchestra director - at least for an important period of their lives; in the actual as well as in the artistic sense. In addition to well-known repertoire, Rafael Fingerlos' recording also offers delightful trouvailles such as the rarely performed aria of Allazim from Zaide "Nur mutig mein Herze! ", the little concert aria Un bacio di mano and even a veritable world premiere recording: the so rarely performed and extremely Mozartian-daredevil cabaletta of the Conte Aria, comprising fourteen (!) high Gs, which Mozart composed especially for the Conte singer in the Viennese Figaro premiere. Beautiful, virtuosic, wild and spectacular. The following applies to this recording: less is more. Less editing, always opting for natural and musical phrasing. And the aim is always to achieve a sound that is as close as possible to the live experience and that can also be reproduced in concert at any time. As authentic and above all as natural as possible.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Originally released in 2006. Directed by Phil Grabsky. Starring Julian Rachlin, Jonathan Miller, Juliet Stevenson.

KLAVIERSTÜCKE KV 1-5/540/355/3

Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, K. 620