The term Harmoniemusik is of a somewhat unclear origin, but it is usually attributed to a chamber ensemble consisting of wind players from a Viennese classical era orchestra, and it was precisely at this time that the clarinet found its place in the orchestras of Vienna. The ensemble, consisting of two oboes, two clarinets, two horns, two bassoons, and a double bass made art music even more accessible than before. In a way, Harmoniemusik was a kind of classical portable stereo system! Everything suggests that Mozart embraced these new possibilities, including the works on this release. Oslo Kammerakademi performs chamber music for winds with the historical Harmoniemusik instrumentation as a foundation. Founded by artistic director and oboist David Friedemann Strunck, the ensemble has established itself as a leader in Europe, with critically acclaimed recordings and invitations to prestigious festivals. The ensemble utilizes historical brass instruments in repertoire from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods. This contributes to the ensemble’s authentic sound and historically-oriented performances.

When orchestras became larger and larger, instrumentations more and more refined, and sound impressions louder and louder, Robert Fuchs composed . . . string quartets. Working in what is certainly the most intellectual musical genre, he had ears for intimate personal statements, while the music business had eyes mostly for showy spectacles. The Minguet Quartet, now a sought-after ensemble, once rescued Fuchs’s four quartets from decades of neglect when it was as aspiring young formation; the newly released special edition even today makes for true listening pleasure. The namesake of the Quartet is Pablo Minguet, a Spanish philosopher of the 18th century who attempted, in his writings, to facilitate access to the fine arts for all sectors of the population – and this idea is a chief artistic concern of the Minguet Quartet particularly while touring for concerts around the whole world. The passionate and intelligent interpretations of the Minguet Quartet always ensure inspiring listening experiences – “for the joy in sound and expression with which the ensemble makes the works speak enlivens even the smallest detail”. (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)

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Mozart’s trilogy of operas composed to librettos by Lorenzo Da Ponte delight and entertain audiences with their combination of sublime music and their mix of humor, romance and drama. Cosi Fan Tutte, also known as ‘the school for lovers,’ stars a cast of young rising stars, conducted by Semyon Bychkov, in this 2016 production playfully set in a theatre. Kasper Holten’s production of Don Giovanni reveals the inner turmoil of the eponymous antihero, sung by Mariusz Kwiecien. Erwin Schrott, Miah Persson and Gerald Finley star in David McVicar’s production of Le nozze di Figario, one of the world’s most beloved operas."Kwiecien’s eloquently sung Giovanni heads a strong cast. Particularly impressive is Malin Byström’s Donna Anna, whose moving Non mi dir is addressed not to Don Ottavio but first to her dead father (via his bust) and then to Giovanni himself. Véronique Gens offers a sympathetic Donna Elvira, impassioned rather than hysterical in her inability to give up on Giovanni. Even in Leporello’s Catalogue Aria she embraces Giovanni, willing it not to be true. Alex Esposito’s resourceful Leporello also seems to be smitten by Giovanni, as is Elizabeth Watts’s lively, engaging Zerlina. Nicola Luisotti draws sensuous playing from the ROH orchestra, he and Paul Wingfield generating daring and witty dissonances in their keyboard continuo." (The Evening Standard - Giovanni) "…This success is no doubt also down to a shining cast: Corinne Winters’s rich-toned Fiordiligi contrasts with Angela Brower’s lighter lyrical Dorabella; Daniel Behle fetchingly adopts gentle head-tone colouring in Un Aura Amorosa and Alessio Arduini is a virile Guglielmo. Sabina Puertolas exudes street-smart confidence as Despina and Johannes Martin Kranzle delights in his role as social architect. Semyon Bychkov draws richly varied colours from the Royal Opera Orchestra, though occasionally favours slow tempos." (The Stage)

Mozart's early bassoon concerto KV 191 is one of the best known of it's kind, offering the soloist a lot of opportunities to show off their virtuosic skills effectively. Together with the popular Piano Concerto KV 467, the soloists and the Argovia Philharmonic present themselves as outstandingly well-rehearsed team players on this recording. "Hisako Kawamura is a brilliant talent. In contrast to the majority of pianists who blind you with technique, she is able to listen to the music in new way and has impeccable taste and sensitivity. Such quality is very rare: Kawamura is born for the stage." (Elisso Virssaladze) Bassoonist Andrea Cellacchi performs with orchestras across Italy and abroad, and most recently was awarded the Medal of the Italian Chamber of Deputies in recognition of his great talent.

On it's 60th birthday, the Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen is giving itself and it's audience a youthful present: virtuoso orchestral music by the ever-young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The elite chamber orchestra's second GENUIN release, following the highly acclaimed recording of Mozart's Horn Concertos with Christoph Ess as soloist, features symphonies from all phases of Mozart's life: from early works to the great symphony in G minor. The award-winning conductor Johannes Klumpp let's his ensemble play this filigree yet passionate music extremely fast and at the same time with deep feelings. A real pleasure! Energetic concerts, bold and inquisitive programming and musical excellence are the trademarks of the Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen. In it's concerts, the young international ensemble under the direction of Principal Conductor Johannes Klumpp explores musical boundaries and introduces experimental formats, genres, and styles with considerable success.

Warning: this recording is not intended for musicological purists. But if you love spontaneous music making in the most select of company, this is definitely the right recording for you. Radek Babor�k, for example, does not hesitate to arrange a discarded movement from a symphony to add as the missing movements of an unfinished horn concerto. Of course, to tell the truth, didn't Mozart himself do the exact same thing countless times? In this way, the preserved fragments are turned into two "new horn concertos." The Sinfonia concertante for four wind instruments and orchestra, K 297b is a work surrounded by many mysteries, and it fits beautifully in this context of discovery. Here, it is recorded in Babor�k's arrangement for Mozart's original instrumentation. Playing the solo parts are virtuosos from Europe's best orchestras. For the 12 horn duets - the only completely extant composition on this album played in it's original instrumentation - Babor�k's partner is another of today's legendary horn players, Radovan Vlatkovic. Radek Babor�k and his friends are inviting you on an excursion to the world of their elder colleague Wolfgang Amadeus - with his inexhaustible supply of jokes, ideas, and colors.

SOMM Recordings announces the launch of a major new series surveying Mozart's complete Piano Sonatas featuring the acclaimed "lion of the keyboard" Peter Donohoe in his highly-anticipated first-ever recordings of the composer's solo piano works. The landmark six-volume series launches with two early Sonatas - Nos.2 (K280) and 6 (K284) - and a later masterpiece - No.17 (K570), the first composed when Mozart was 18 in 1774, the last, described by Alfred Einstein as "the ideal" of the composer's sonatas, in 1789 at the age of 33. Mozart's 19 Piano Sonatas, as music critic Christopher Morley comments in his booklet notes, "cover so much of his short life... and a huge range of styles and genres, from quasi-concertos without orchestra to simple study pieces... There are generic dance-movements, there are movements of exquisite contemplation, there are explorations of searching counterpoint, there are the most exquisite melodies, and there is the perfume of opera". The sonatas in this first volume include the early, harpsichord-accented Second in F major (K280), the dignified ceremonial of the Du�rnitz Sonata, No.6 in D major (K284) and the Sonata No.17 in B-flat major (K570), a work whose surface brilliance disguises it's inner complexity. The impressive and sombre Fantasia No.3 in D minor (K397) completes the release. Described by BBC Radio 3 as "one of our greatest home-grown performers", Peter Donohoe's previous recordings for SOMM have attracted substantial critical approval and include the complete sonatas of Scriabin and Prokofiev along with works by Stravinsky. His recent partnering with Valerie Tryon and Mishka Rushdie Momen in Mozart's solo, duo and trio Mozart concertos prompted Gramophone to remark "it's good to be reminded just how much fun Mozart's works involving multiple pianos are".

"• Reissue. • Takes the listener on a chronological journey through • Mozart’s operatic canon, featuring an aria or ensemble from fifteen of his operas. • Selected for Gramophone magazine's annual Critics Choice, 2007."

Mozart: Complete Solo Piano Music, Vol. 10

Classical Music

The sonatas on this album (except K311, this sonata was written in Mannheim) were composed in Munich as part of a cycle encompassing six sonatas. Mozart found himself in the Bavarian capital over the winter of 1774-1775 to produce his opera La finta giardiniera. The degree of imagination that Mozart, as a youth of 18 or 19, drew upon in his approach to the sonata genre is truly astounding. Each of these works - which based on their extensive virtuoso demands were presumably written for his own use - offers an individual and profoundly original solution to the specific problems of the genre, and if the young composer perhaps lacks something in his mastery of the form compared with his later works, it is well compensated for by his sheer wealth of imagination. What is more, we read in Mozart's correspondence that he repeatedly performed the works himself from memory, which was not a given in those days.

Apollo descends to earth and proposes marriage to Oebalus' daughter Melia. But when he goes to play discus with her brother Hyacinthus and his friend Zephyrus, a tragic accident occurs, after which nothing will ever be the same again... Classical Opera's series of Mozart's complete operas on Signum continues with the addition of Apollo et Hyacinthus, the second of his two stage works from 1767. The opera is sung in Latin, and is based on a colourful story from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Mozart was only eleven years old when he wrote this remarkable work, but the music is astonishingly accomplished, frequently anticipating the wonders of his maturity.

The Trio A Cordes Fran�ais was founded in 1959 by violinist G�rard Jarry (1936-2004), violist Serge Collot (1923-2015), and cellist Michel Tournus (1922-2006), and was active for over thirty years. They toured the world and made many notable recordings. At the age of fourteen, G�rard Jarry gained a Premier Grand Prix at the 1951 Concours Long-Thibaud. In addition to his many years performing with the Trio, he was concertmaster of the Orchestre de Chambre Jean-Fran�ois Paillard, and a noted soloist. He was also a professor of violin at the Conservatoire de Paris. Serge Collot studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Maurice Vieux, one of the greatest viola virtuosos. Graduating with a Premier Prix in 1944, he had a long and distinguished career as a chamber musician. As well as his long tenure with the Trio, he was principal violist with the Orchestre de l'Opera National de Paris from 1957 to 1986, and also was a member of several string quartets - the Parrenin, the Radiodiffusion Francaise, and the Bern�de. He was particularly influential in encouraging the composition of contemporary works for viola by such composers as Boulez and Berio. Like his colleague Jarry, he was professor of viola at Conservatoire de Paris for many years. Michel Tournus gained Premiers Prix in cello and in chamber music from the Conservatoire de Paris. Like his colleagues, he was also a member of several other chamber ensembles, including the Quatuor Indig and the Octuor de Paris. Like Collot, he was first cello with the Orchestre de l'Opera National de Paris. Active as a teacher at the Conservatoire de Musique de Versailles, and was the author of a cello method. This set contains many of the Trio A Cordes Fran�ais' recordings of Mozart.

Classical Music

Classical Music