Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro (Highlights)

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The Mass in C minor reflects Mozart's current preoccupation with the music of Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach, explored with the encouragement of Baron van Swieten, an important patron. The work is scored for pairs of oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets and timpani, with three trombones, strings and organ continuo. After a brief orchestral introduction, the four vocal sections enter in contrapuntal imitation and the movement continues in the monumental and generally conservative style that the Salzburg Archbishop would certainly have discouraged. The soprano soloist introduces the florid Italianate Christe eleison and the contrapuntal choral texture is resumed with the return of the Kyrie. The Gloria opens in affirmative C major, leading almost at once to energetic fugal writing, relaxing momentarily at the words pax hominibus bonae voluntatis (peace to men of good will). Laudamus te is in F major, marked Allegro aperto. It is scored for solo soprano, oboes, horns and strings and is in operatic style. Trombones and bassoons return for the A minor Adagio of Gratias agimus tibi, now with a five-part choir. To this the D minor Domine Deus, Rex caelestis, scored for strings and two soprano soloists, offers an immediate contrast. In Salzburg the second soprano would presumably have been sung by one of the castrati employed by the court musical establishment. There is a return to a more traditional Baroque style in the solid dotted rhythms of the G minor Qui tollis peccata mundi, for two four-part choirs with the full orchestra. The two soprano soloists are joined by a solo tenor for the E minor setting of Quoniam tu solus Dominus, scored without trombones or horns. The solo voices enter in energetic contrapuntal imitation, over which the spirit of Handel seems to loom, seen through a Mozartian prism. There is a brief C major choral Adagio for the words Jesu Christe, before the splendid formal Baroque fugal setting of Cum Sancto Spiritu, in the same key. The unfinished Credo starts with a movement for five-part choir, scored without trombones.

Philippe Graffin’s enterprise and ingenuity have been borne out in the world-premiere recording of the Violin Concerto by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (AV 0044), a disc of commissions and premieres by Lithuanian composer Vytautus Barkauskus (AV 2073), and the first recording of the original manuscript versions of Elgar’s Violin Concerto and Chausson’s Poème (AV 2091). He proves himself an equally eminent Mozartian on his latest Avie release, a two-disc set marking his second collaboration on Avie with the leading Japanese violist Nobuko Imai.

In the sprightly Sinfonia Concertante, two delightful Duos, the Third Concerto plus an Adagio and a Rondo, the multi-tasking Graffin takes on the roles of soloist, chamber musician, director, and composer of his own cadenzas. He is backed by the versatile Brabant Philharmonic Orchestra of Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The stylish packaging features another typical twist by the resourceful Graffin, who commissioned leading journalist and novelist Jessica Duchen to write a short story for the booklet, which also includes Avie’s trademark comprehensive documentation in three languages.

REVIEWS:

His playing combines Grumiaux’s elegance, Oistrakh’s warmth, Francescatti’s piquancy, and Stern’s élan. With nuances so plentiful and rhythms so zesty, even proponents of period performance shouldn’t cavil. The Third Concerto opens with an orchestral thematic statement that almost bounces off the disc; and it’s propelled by deeply dimensional recorded sound that allows the bass to resonate fully. Never in this movement, or in the others for that matter, does either soloist or orchestra indulge in self-conscious mannerism, even in Graffin’s reworking of Eugène Ysaÿe’s romantic cadenza, which Graffin makes fit into the work’s general aesthetic (Graffin himself wrote the cadenzas to the other movements and for both the Adagio and the Rondo). In fact, the finale clips along at a tempo that avoids any excessive seriousness; and Graffin’s ornaments add to the momentum. The Adagio benefits in the same way from Graffin’s refined approach, as does the Rondo, in which his passagework sparkles even more brightly than that in the Third Concerto’s finale.

Graffin and the orchestra imbue the opening passages of the Sinfonia concertante with pregnant excitement and expectation; and Graffin and Imai’s entrance doesn’t disappoint that expectation; the later tuttis renew the forward motion, if that were necessary after the brilliant solos. So this familiar courtesan has been transformed into a vigorous acrobat in the first and third movements, and into a poet in the second. Celebrity duos who have played Mozart’s duets for violin and viola sometimes include a part-time violist (Pinchas Zukerman and David Oistrakh, for example). But these later works benefit from Imai’s focused yet fully viola-like approach to her instrument, especially perhaps in the darker opening of the second in the set. Graffin doesn’t shy away from portamentos—which Imai doesn’t always duplicate when she answers his statements—but any stylistic differences hardly compromise the partnership that renders these performances so appealing.

[With] lifelike, reverberant recorded sound to complement the robust orchestral playing and the intimate dialogues of the duos, Avie has served up one of the tangier offerings—if not the tangiest of all—of the last several years. Urgently recommended, especially to those to whom Mozart may have grown too familiar (if that’s conceivable) during this period.

-- Fanfare

Following it's successful full length opera, 'Artaxerxes', Classical Opera return with the first in an epic series of Mozart operas 'Apollo et Hyacinthus'. Classical Opera was founded in 1997 by conductor Ian Page. It specializes in the music of Mozart and his contemporaries, performing with it's own period-instrument orchestra, and is considered one of Britain's most exciting and highly regarded young arts organizations. The company features a mix of seasoned and young performers including Klara Ek (Melia), Sophie Bevan (Hyacinthus), Lawrence Zazzo (Apollo), Christopher Ainslie (Zephyrus), Andrew Kennedy (Oebalus), Marcus Farnsworth and David Shipley (Priests of Apollo). These young singers and a period-instrument orchestra deliver uniformly superb interpretations.

MOZART : In Vienna

Classical Music

Classical Music

The Brentano Quartet, in their second release for Azica Records, present the Mozart String Quartets No. 19 in C Major, K. 465, "Dissonance", and No. 16 in E Flat Major, K. 428. Since it's inception in 1992, the Brentano String Quartet has appeared throughout the world to popular and critical acclaim. "Passionate, uninhibited and spellbinding," raves the London Independent; the New York Times extols it's "luxuriously warm sound [and] yearning lyricism"; the Philadelphia Inquirer praises it's "seemingly infallible instincts for finding the center of gravity in every phrase and musical gesture"; and the Times (London) opines, "the Brentanos are a magnificent string quartet... This was wonderful, selfless music-making." Within a few years of it's formation, the Quartet garnered the first Cleveland Quartet Award and the Naumburg Chamber Music Award; and in 1996 the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center invited them to be the inaugural members of Chamber Music Society Two, a program which was to become a coveted distinction for chamber groups and individuals. The Quartet had it's first European tour in 1997, and was honored in the U.K. with the Royal Philharmonic Award for Most Outstanding Debut. That debut recital was at London's Wigmore Hall, and the Quartet has continued it's warm relationship with Wigmore, appearing there regularly and serving as the hall's Quartet-in-residence in the 2000-01 season.

Mozart: Violin Sonatas, Vol. 3

Mozart: Violin Sonatas, Vol. 2

MOZART: String Quintets, K. 406 and K. 516

Classical Music