MOZART WILLENS (COND.); BRAUTIGAM (FORTEPIANO); DIE KOLNER AKADEMIE PIANO CONCERTOS- PIANO CONCERTO NO. 24 IN C MINOR, K 491; PIANO CONCERTO NO. 25 IN C MAJOR, K 503

Classical Music

Classical Music

Following on the 2015 release of Mozart’s Requiem, Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan has gone on to record the composers Mass in C minor, K427 – the ‘Great Mass’. As the nickname indicates it is a work of unusual proportions for a mass of the Classical period – or would have been so, had Mozart completed it. It is not known for what occasion Mozart intended the work, but a letter to his father Leopold dated 4 January 1783 indicate that he may have committed himself to writing it in connection with his marriage to Constanze and a planned visit to Salzburg. A performance of parts of the Mass did take place in Salzburg in October 1783, with Constanze performing the prominent soprano part. Two years later Mozart reused the music from the Kyrie and Gloria sections in the sacred cantata Davidde penitente, K?469, but the Mass itself was left incomplete. The present performance includes the sections completed by Mozart himself, as well as those sections for which extensive sketches by Mozart provided a basis for completion (by Franz Beyer in 1989). Three of Suzuki’s soloists also took part in the recording of the Requiem, while the Dutch mezzo-soprano Olivia Vermeulen makes her first appearance on BIS, shining in the aria Laudamus te. The disc closes with the celebrated cantata Exsultate, jubilate in which the soprano Carolyn Sampson glitters in the virtuosic solo part. As an appendix to the programme she and the Bach Collegium Japan orchestra also repeats the initial aria, in a less well-known later version with a slightly different text and with flutes replacing the oboes of the original.

So Jin Kim writes of her new release: “Mozart’s music led me to discover my love for music at a young age. His music has been and continues to be a source of calm, inspiration, and motivation throughout my life and career. I hope that this recording conveys my love and appreciation towards his music. Mozart composed his third violin concerto, K. 216at the age of 19, most likely for himself or his father. The concerto explores more adventurous ideas – compared to his first two violin concertos – while still staying true to the classical structure. It displays Mozart’s distinct operatic charm and serenade style that is prevalent in many of his compositions leading up to the violin concertos… As Mozart does so expertly in his serenade writing, expansive melodies and ideas succeed each other in blissful simplicity transcending time and form… The fifth violin concerto, K. 219 is the most adventurous and operatic of all his violin concertos. Widely considered as Mozart’s finest violin concerto, it brims with bold and imaginative possibilities. Following an energetic “aperto” opening of the orchestra, the solo violin enters amidst an abrupt silence of the tutti in ethereal and lyrical recitative. It returns to the original tempo and celebratory mood with arpeggiated opening idea of the movement. In the slow movement, Mozart again dis-plays his music of limitless and expansive melodic material. For a brief moment, the middle section of this movement goes through an unusually darker emotion for Mozart, nevertheless purified in his effervescent narrative that tugs eternal hope of possibilities. The finale, which is perhaps the most inventive and exciting, is a juxtaposition of a graceful rondo theme and an unexpected, exotic “Turkish” episode in the middle of the movement. After sliding delicately back into the original theme, Mozart closes the concerto by evaporating effortlessly as the last surprise.”

In his Divertimento KV 563 Mozart moves between a cheerful, seemingly light tone of voice and the very highest art of composition. From highly concentrated seriousness to wistful melancholy to the typical wink of Mozart's eye, everything is abundantly present. The trio fragment in G major KV 562E, also recorded here by Trio Oreade, proves that this was by no means easy for him to compose that way. With its exciting and imaginative playing the Trio Oreade, based in Zurich, Switzerland, brings to life the masterpieces of the First Viennese School as well as virtuoso early modern music and contemporary music. The group has won several prizes, including at the Munich International String Trio Competition, and the Basel August-Pickhard Foundation’s Chamber Music Competition.

In her musical radio play for children and young adults, Barbara Overbeck, with the musical support of the Sinfonieorchester Munster under the direction of Hendrik Vestman, tells her entertaining version of the origin and history of undoubtedly the most musical chocolate in the world. A wintery travel report with lots of fun and lots of music from the Salzburg composer.

This third volume, five-disc set of early 1950s Amadeus Quartet high-quality radio recordings is dedicated to works of its eponym. These previously unreleased recordings from the archives of the RIAS feature eight of Mozart’s ten great string quartets, complemented by recordings of his four great string quintets with second violist Cecil Aronowitz. Also included is the recording of Mozart's clarinet quintet with Heinrich Geuser, one of the leading clarinetists of his time.

The complete Mozart works for string trio in a new recording with the Jacques Thibaud String Trio: alongside the well-known Divertimento, K. 563, this album contains the Six Preludes and Fugues, K. 404a, as well as the fragment K. Anh. 66. This fragment and the Prelude and Fugue, K. 404a, No. 6 in F minor are available for download as bonus tracks. The Preludes and Fugues are unique documents of Mozart's study of Bach's �uvre. They contain three fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier, one fugue each from The Art of Fugue and an organ sonata, as well as one fugue by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. Four of the preludes are probably Mozart's own, whilst two are from Bach's trio sonatas for organ. Mozart produced his arrangements for private Sunday gatherings at the home of Baron van Swieten, where he would play the viola part. Mozart's study of the "old masters" would prove an important influence on his later compositions. The six-movement Divertimento, K. 563, of 1788 is considered as the string trio par excellence. It is chamber music of the highest order, with rich harmonies and elaborately crafted counterpoint. Here, Mozart makes greater technical demands on the performers than in his violin concertos or his Sinfonia concertante, K. 364, for violin, viola and orchestra. In his three-part writing, Mozart reaches astonishing depths, with double stops at times imitating the sound of a quartet. All three string instruments are treated completely equally, each in turn taking the lead; the viola and cello are given especially rewarding melodic lines. This magnificent work condenses the entire potential of string trio playing into a 50-minute late Mozartian experience.

Classical Music

The first movement of the Serenata is a stately March, in which the smaller and larger groups of instruments are contrasted. There follows a Minuet, and a Trio played by the concertino, leading, after the repetition of the Minuet, to a final Rondo that includes episodes of possible topical reference. Within the framework of the repeated principal theme comes a solemn Adagio, the music of a country dance and a brief and unexpected plucking of strings, before the lively conclusion. The Divertimento in F major is scored for two horns and strings, and was completed in June, 1776, for Countess Antonia Lodron's name-day It starts with a lively movement in all the clarity of classical first movement form. This is followed by a C major Andante grazioso and a first Minuet returning to the key of F, with a contrasting D minor Trio. The next movement, marked Adagio and in the key of B flat, is scored only for strings, the first violin taking the lead. The second Minuet, in F, with a B flat Trio for the strings alone, leads to a final movement with a slow introduction and a varied concluding rondo, all well suited to the occasion of the composition Eine kleine Nachtmusik, the Serenade in G, K 525, comes from a later period of Mozart's life. In 1781 Mozart, who had returned from Mannheim and Paris to the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg, accompanied his patron on a visit to the Imperial capital, Vienna. There he finally broke with his employer and secured his dismissal from the archiepiscopal court. In Vienna there seemed every opportunity, which it seemed his patron was deliberately preventing him from seizing.

Mozart: Idomeneo re di Creta

To the best of my knowledge, Imogen Cooper has come only recently to directing as well as playing concertos. In October last year I heard her at the QEH with the Northern Sinfonia in Beethoven – her playing was as fresh and spontaneous as always. Here she is, on record, in Mozart, a composer clearly very close to her heart.

It is actually the 23rd concerto that we hear first on the disc. The opening is very serene, very unhurried, even slightly Romantic in feel. Maybe one should really start listening with K291 as K488 is almost too comfortable. That said, there are some nicely sprung rhythms later on and the cadenza is simply tremendous, exhibiting real depth. Throughout there is a chamber music feel to it all, the give-and-take between piano and - in particular - winds a joy. The famous F sharp minor slow movement begins with a piano rumination that had me in mind of Daniel Barenboim's early version of this work from his cycle of the 1960s and 1970s with the English Chamber Orchestra. Indeed, all credit to the Northern Sinfonia for sustaining Cooper's intensity so well and losing nothing to their more southerly colleagues. Cooper adds decorations to Mozart's large, bare intervals - towards the end, around six minutes in. The finale begins with Cooper opting for a completely different touch, a harder staccato that delineates the territory immediately. Again there seems to be very slight blurring from the middle frequencies of the orchestra, though.

The so-called Jeunehomme Concerto begins with Cooper rather surprisingly indulging in unnecessary point-making in her initial dialogue with the orchestra. Just one misjudgement – an over-tenutoed note on the orchestra around 1:28 in. But with Cooper's pianistic re-entrance, all is civility and expert balance. Cooper even relaxes enough to give a really cheeky end to the cadenza.

The middle Andantino is peppered with moments of magic; the finale contains large swathes of superbly even passagework, scampering around wonderfully. Perhaps Cooper milks the Menuet that forms the centrepiece of this finale rather, but one can still revel in the beauty of her phrasing. True, I still maintain much affection for Cooper's mentor, Alfred Brendel, in this piece - I refer to the earlier ASMF recording now on a Philips twofer - but Cooper's recording shall now ever be at its side.

There is little doubt that this disc will bring much joy. The applause at the close of both concertos is eminently deserved.

-- Colin Clarke, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Japanese violinist Takako Nishizaki (the daughter of the cofounder of the Suzuki Method, we learn) gets top billing on this disc, part of a complete series of Mozart's sonatas for violin and piano. But for much of the disc, American pianist Benjamin Loeb actually has more to do. The Sonata No. 16 for violin and piano, K. 547, is subtitled "a little piano sonata for beginners, with a violin." Written around the same time as the Piano Sonata in C major, K. 545, that most young pianists learn, this work lacks the unity of it's more famous counterpart. By this point in his career, Mozart was writing violin-and-piano sonatas in which the two instruments played equal roles, but the act of writing a student work seems to have made the composer think in the old-fashioned terms of a piano sonata with optional violin. The K. 547 sonata and the 12 Variations in G major on the French song "La berg�re C�lim�ne," K. 359 are rarely heard, and it's useful for violinists to have them on hand. But the rather dry performance by Nishizaki and Loeb doesn't catch their easy charm. On the other hand, the pair delivers a very strong performance of the one real masterwork on the disc, the concluding Sonata No. 15 in A major, K. 526.. Performing on conventional instruments, they sound somewhat like the classic duo of Henryk Szerying and Ingrid Haebler, seeking smoothness and balance in Mozart over sentimental effect. In the dense, difficult A major sonata, their approach is well considered and nicely executed. This would be an odd choice for a single disc of Mozart violin-and-piano sonatas, but as part of a series it scores well with the major work on the program.