Classical Music

Pianist Alexander Schimpf writes: “Mozart’s music poses special challenges to performers, and they have often been pointed out. As it would seem, certain fundamental tensions or contradictions inherent in music making are taken to extremes: many works by Mozart require that the instrumental process and conditions responsible for producing the sound should retreat into the background in favor of the musical result as we hear it. No expenditure of energy should be noted or heard. Fine, precise timing adjustments should never sound organized or deliberate. This music should ideally be presented as something that emerges entirely naturally, of its own accord. All the mental and technical effort in the background should be eliminated from the forefront of perception. Otherwise, the typically ‘floating’ Mozartian natural effect, that magical inner balance, cannot emerge… On this recording we make use of the version specifically authorized by Mozart: eschewing additional wind parts. Although the wind parts composed by Mozart for these concertos can indeed provide some color, they do not have anything essential or indispensable to add in terms of musical substance.”

Classical Music

Classical Music

The Armida Quartet is holding an unusual kind of rehearsal, skimming through three Mozart string quartets with musicologist and Henle's publishing director Wolf-Dieter Seiffert. The focus this time is not on sound quality, musical character, or developing an extended formal overview- all qualities for which the Armida Quartet is well-known- but on achieving a good match between philological accuracy and practical music-making. Seiffert is working on a new edition of the Mozart string quartets for his publishing house in Munich, and has sought out direct contact with the members of the Berlin string quartet to clarify doubts regarding dynamics, ties and tempi. When a case is truly difficult, the most technically feasible or desirable alternative helps him decide which variant will ultimately figure in the new Urtext edition: will it be a variant from Mozart's autograph, or from the first printed edition? This method is particularly productive when an editor can work with ensembles as well-versed in historical performance practice and aesthetics as the Armida Quartet.

When it comes to Mozartian perfection on the opera stage, one needn't always seek it in Milan, Vienna, Salzburg or New York! At the Sferisterio Opera Festival in the central Italian city of Macerata, a rapt audience was treated to a production of Don Giovanni "that will enter the annals of opera" (ForumOpera. Com). This magnificent reading of Mozart's timeless masterpiece sweeps the viewer into a libertine, 18th- century society dominated by sensuality and erotic impulses. They are acted out on the stage's main prop, a large, unmade bed, not only by Don Giovanni, but also by just about everyone else in the "nearly faultless cast" (ForumOpera. Com). In his role debut as the title hero, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo is "incandescent" (Gazzetta die Parma) and "doesn't do Don Giovanni; he is the Don. Unsurpassable"(24 Ore).

W.A. Mozart's timeless masterpiece at the Salzburg Festival is always an event! Especially when Die Zauberfl�te (The Magic Flute) receives such a "spectacular and virtuosic staging" (Le Figaro) by director Lydia Steier. Steier introduces the role of the grandfather, a narrator reading the opera like a fairy tale to his three grandchildren, performed by the famous actor Klaus Maria Brandauer (Out of Africa, James Bond). This 'trick' in combination with the gigantic moveable sets by stage designer Katharina Schlipf, allows new views on Mozart's magical opera, with it's different worlds. Thanks to conductor Constantinos Carydis, who "seems to breath with the music" (Tagesspiegel), there is a new Mozart to be heard too: Carydis draws "precise phrasing and plenty of crisp articulation" (Financial Times) from "the musicians of the great Vienna Philharmonic" (New York Times).

Le nozze di Figaro is Lorenzo Da Ponte's and Mozart's first of their three jointly created operas about attempts at interpersonal relationships: a turbulent comedy with erotic entanglements, which was not a harmless comedy even in Mozart's day. Director Martin Kusej moves the drama of love and jealousy to a mafia-like urban milieu where conflicts are fought out with pistols. Young French conductor Raphael Pichon, "original sound expert" (Der Tagesspiegel) and for the first time on the podium of the Wiener Philharmoniker, leads a young ensemble of singers around clan boss Almaviva ("vocally flawlessly brilliant: Andre Schuen", Hamburger Abendblatt). "Kusej's staging is musical, Pichon's conducting theatrical; the two work together to a degree that is far more rare than it should be. Every detail has been carefully thought through, and the symbiosis is breathtaking." (Financial Times) "Martin Kusej's new Figaro is slick, dark and grimly entertaining." (Financial Times) "One will rarely, if ever, hear 'Le nozze di Figaro' so well balanced on stage, with such a homogeneous ensemble of such class, with such a precise Mozart sound." (Frankfurter Rundschau)

One of Gubaidulina's special merits is that at the end of the 1970s she discovered the sound characteristics and expressive possibilities of the bayan, a button accordion that had previously only been popular as a folk music instrument in Russia, and established it as an instrument of contemporary music through numerous inspired compositions. She was supported and accompanied in this endeavour by bayan performers such as Friedrich Lips in Moscow and the Swiss Elsbeth Moser, who taught in Hanover. The creation of the Triple Concerto for violin, cello and bayan can be traced back to a suggestion by Elsbeth Moser. For the five movements of the duo composition Rejoice! For violin and cello (1981), Gubaidulina chose various quotations from the writings of the Ukrainian 'travelling philosopher' Grigori Skoworoda (1722-1794), who called for poverty and self-deepening as a prerequisite for finding God. The composer explained: "The theme of my work is the metaphorical representation of the transition to another reality, expressed through the juxtaposition of normal sound and harmonics." Due to the unmistakable religious references it was not possible to premiere the work until 1988 and the premiere took place in Finland.

Le nozze di Figaro is Lorenzo Da Ponte's and Mozart's first of their three jointly created operas about attempts at interpersonal relationships: a turbulent comedy with erotic entanglements, which was not a harmless comedy even in Mozart's day. Director Martin Kusej moves the drama of love and jealousy to a mafia-like urban milieu where conflicts are fought out with pistols. Young French conductor Raphael Pichon, "original sound expert" (Der Tagesspiegel) and for the first time on the podium of the Wiener Philharmoniker, leads a young ensemble of singers around clan boss Almaviva ("vocally flawlessly brilliant: Andre Schuen", Hamburger Abendblatt). "Kusej's staging is musical, Pichon's conducting theatrical; the two work together to a degree that is far more rare than it should be. Every detail has been carefully thought through, and the symbiosis is breathtaking." (Financial Times) "Martin Kusej's new Figaro is slick, dark and grimly entertaining." (Financial Times) "One will rarely, if ever, hear 'Le nozze di Figaro' so well balanced on stage, with such a homogeneous ensemble of such class, with such a precise Mozart sound." (Frankfurter Rundschau)

KATSARIS LIVE IN MOSCOW: THE INTERNATIONAL TCHAIKOVSKY COMPETITION, 1970 • Cyprien Katsaris (pn) • PIANO 21 029-A (55:17) Live: Moscow 6/3/1970; 1 6/12/1970 2


CHOPIN Etude in b, op. 25/10. 1 LISZT Etudes d’exécution transcendante: Feux follets. 1 RACHMANINOFF Etude-tableau, op. 39/1. 1 TCHAIKOVSKY The Seasons: October. 1 Dumka. 2 BACH Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I: Prelude and Fugue in c?. 1 HAYDN Sonata No. 48 in C. 1 SHOSTAKOVICH Preludes and Fugues: No. 24 in d. 2 RÄÄTS Toccata 2


MOZART Concerto for 2 Pianos in E?. 1 Concerto in F K 242 for 3 Pianos. 1,2 Concerto in F K 242 for 2 Pianos 2 • Cyprien Katsaris (pn); Eueng-Gu Kim (pn); 1 Mari Ota (pn); 3 Yoon Kuk Lee, cond; Salzburg CP • PIANO 21 031-N (72:54) Live: Salzburg 6/4/1999


First prize in the 1970 Tchaikovsky competition was shared by Vladimir Krainev and John Lill. Further down on the list (in fact, eliminated before the final round) was 19-year-old Cyprien Katsaris. Forty years after the fact, it’s easy to second-guess the judges. After all, despite Lill’s distinguished discography, Katsaris has developed into a more wide-ranging and more interpretively interesting pianist; and despite the fierce concentration of his best work, Krainev’s career has not matched his promise. Still, even Katsaris (who befriended Lill during the competition and who considers Lill’s victory “amply deserved”) was “not satisfied” with his own performances; and listening to this CD (which includes everything he played except the third movement of Boulez’s Second Sonata, which somehow never made it on to the original Soviet tape), it’s easy to see why. The virtuoso elements are sometimes pushed to the limit (or even beyond the limit), while the nod to Bach (required by the competition) is dutiful and dull.


Yet whatever the weaknesses, this is agile and often thrilling playing that—the Bach aside—should keep a strong grip on your attention. The furious, highly accented outer sections of the Chopin, the keen edge of the Liszt (played at a furious pace), the heart-on-the-sleeve “October”: the playing may be slightly unseasoned, but the enthusiasm is contagious, as is the technical facility. Even when Katsaris’s exuberance courts incoherence (as in his aggressive charge through the Rachmaninoff), he carries you along through sheer conviction.


In sum, it’s impossible not to regret that Katsaris didn’t get to the final round, where he would have played the Tchaikovsky First and the Rachmaninoff Third: the Moscow disc suggests that he would have seared the ears of his listeners. (You can hear slightly later performances of those concertos—the Tchaikovsky from 1973, the Rachmaninoff from 1978—on his Russian album, P21 020-A, reviewed in 31:5. They more than fulfill the expectations raised by the competition performances.) But even given his chipper reading of the Haydn—popular with beginning pianists, but hardly one of his more challenging works—this is not a pianist you’d want to hear in Mozart.


Then again, he’s not the pianist we hear in the 1999 Mozart performances, at least not in anything but the most literal sense. The Katsaris of 29 years later is a far richer musician, one who hasn’t lost his youthful delight in music-making, but who sees a lot more variety in the music before him, and who shades his playing accordingly. Writing about earlier installments in this complete run of the Mozart concertos (this is Volume 6), I called it “slightly old-fashioned Mozart that takes advantage of the modern piano’s range of color and articulation” (31:5)—and the same basic approach is heard here. But, as on the earlier releases, the interpretations steer a canny route between preciousness and romanticization: they’re elegant, tactful, and consistently less acidic than many period-instrument accounts, but they never condescend to the music. What’s most striking here—even more than on the solo concertos—is the conversational interplay: I don’t know how this sounded in the hall, but on these sharply focused CDs, the spiffy back and forth among the artists provides consistent pleasure.


Indeed, until now I’ve always found K 242 a dull affair, even in the hands of such experts as the Fleischers (I’ve not heard the recording praised by Mortimer Frank in 33:1, but I found it hard to stay awake when I heard them perform it live in Syracuse). Indeed, many first-rank pianists—for instance, the youthful all-star team of Kocsis, Ranki, and Schiff (see 29:4)—seem utterly bored when they take it on. But the exchanges in these recordings of K 242 by Katsaris and friends are so vital and alert that the music sounds considerably better that it actually is.


Note the plural in recording s . A few issues back (30:5), Jerry Dubins got his knickers in a twist over a recording of the two-piano version of the three-piano concerto, insisting that he “was not aware that [Mozart] had written more than one concerto for two keyboards,” and berating the record company for not clarifying who had made the arrangement. In fact, Jerry was just being ornery, since as he admitted, the program notes did offer clarification. To set the matter straight: Mozart himself both made and performed the two-piano compression of the three-piano K 242. The two-piano version has been played and recorded numerous times by, among others, Badura-Skoda and Gianoli, Perahia and Lupu, and the Fleischers. What’s unusual here is that Katsaris gives us both redactions—the first time, in my experience, that they’ve shared a single disc. In lesser hands, this would be too much of a not-very-good thing, especially since the arrangement is not especially adventurous (the original third-piano part was fairly rudimentary). But I doubt anyone listening will regret the repetition. The orchestral playing is tight and committed, and as I’ve said, the sound is exceptional. An unalloyed delight.


FANFARE: Peter J. Rabinowitz

This album of Mozart Sonatas is presented by pianist Diana Boyle. This two-disc set contains eight of the beloved composer’s piano sonatas, perfected by Boyle at her secluded hilltop home in Portugal. These works were recorded in England in 2014.

The clarinetist and composer Jorg Widman said in an interview that as musician you cannot be distanced from the music you are playing. Instead, you have to make it your own. Depending on his own state of mind or, for example, in response to the orchestra, his performance is always different. Within the framework set by the composer, of course - and he masterfully achieves this balance between his own interpretation and faithfulness to the work. Widmann has performed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's clarinet concerto numerous times. He is impressed about how the composer, toward the end of his life, made music apparently sound so simple, yet contain multiple hidden layers which are not obvious at first glance. Conductor Peter Ruzicka is also a successful composer. Additionally, he worked for many years as artistic director of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and later of the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra. As a conductor, he has performed with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig and many other important orchestras. The present LP is a partial re-release of ORFEO C897151.

Takahiro Yoshikawa, a Japanese pianist who has settled in Milan, presents this new release, which is a double date with Mozart. The concert took place in November 2019 at La Scala alongside the ballet Petite Mort by choreographer Jiri Kylian, which was written in honor of the bicentenary of Mozart’s death. After highly acclaimed romantic and modern recordings dedicated to composers like Beethoven and Liszt, this is Yoshikawa’s first recording dedicated to Mozart. Alan Becker of American Record Guide wrote of this album: “I’m impressed. This Japanese artist storms through the music as if a born Lisztian. There is an abandon here that keeps you on the edge of your seat—and a larger-than-life technique to wow you with his digital gifts. Still, he is also attuned to moments of reflection, and there is nothing shallow about his interpretations…”

The Sacred Works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart including Händel´s Messiah - transcription by Mozart. Reference recordings of various artists: Helmuth Rilling, Thomas Quasthoff, Christian Oelze, Gächinger Kantorei, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor, Münchener Bach-Orchester, WDR Sinfonierochester, Günter Wand.