The Geisterinsel is a masterpiece of poetry and language: nothing more musical could be imagined. This positive judgment pronounced by Goethe in 1798 was seconded by Duke Carl August, the ruling prince in Saxe-Weimar, when he wrote in 1801 that there was "really beautiful music" in this stage work. Both men were championing a singspiel in three acts premiered at the National Theater in Berlin on 6 July 1798 and performed fifty-five more times at this house until 1825. The authors of this successful work were the Gotha-born Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter and Friedrich Hildebrand of Einsiedel and it's composer was the K�nigsberg native Johann Friedrich Reichardt. After a short phase as a brilliant violin virtuoso Reichardt, who was influenced by the philosophy of the Enlightenment, became a pathbreaking "thinking artist" who soon met with recognition in various European countries as a composer and versatile writer active in many fields. With simple means Reichardt's music seeks, in keeping with the particular situation, to do justice to the tension between the "gentle melodies" of delightful spirit voices and the horrors of hell. It is primarily in his ensemble and final scenes that this composer produces a complexity that he had learned from Gluck and Mozart.

On its latest CD the Consortium Classicum presents entertaining Italian serenades by Rossini, Righini, Paisiello, and others. The term “serenade” derives from the Italian word serenata, which designates a musical genre of light, serene and tranquil character but with the potential for brilliance and sparkling wit. They are works of fresh and mirthful character, and Righini’s Serenade for Wind Sextet, here in a world-premier recording, stands out in this department. In contrast to the other sextets on this CD, this work contains demanding passages for the horns, which engage in virtuoso dialogue with the clarinet.

The two great musical dynasties of central Germany, the Bachs and the Abels, were closely entwined. Carl Friedrich Abel, the greatest of his clan, was a pupil of Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig and the friend and business partner of Bach’s youngest son, Johann Christian in London. Abel’s output of symphonies comprises over forty works, most of which were published in sets of six, the standard number for publications of sonatas, chamber works and concertos in the eighteenth century. A concert in his time would have a range of compositions by several composers and it is more likely that only one symphony would be played in a single evening. The present day listener should not feel guilty for indulging in these fine works one by one or out of sequence. They are rich and delicate, and should be savored individually. Die Kolner Akademie is a unique ensemble based in Cologne which performs music of the seventeenth through the twenty-first centuries on period instruments with world renowned guest soloists.They have receieved the highest acclaim for their outstanding performances at major festivals all over the world, many of which were broadcast live and filmed for television.

F. E. FESCA String Quartets: No. 1 in E?, op. 1/1; No. 2 in F?, op. 1/2; No. 3 in B?, op. 1/3; No. 7 in a, op. 3/1; No. 8 in D, op. 3/2; No. 9 in E?, op. 3/3; No. 13 in d, op. 12; No, 15 in D, op. 34. Potpourri No. 2 B? for String Quartet, op. 11 • Diogenes Qrt • CPO 777482 (3 CDs: 207:02)


Reviewing a release (CPO 999869) of two symphonies by Friedrich Ernst Fesca in Fanfare 31:6, Patrick Rucker described him as a “symphonist,” and came to the conclusion that “though it’s doubtful that anyone would argue for an elevation of Fesca’s status above that of a Kleinemeister , this is music of considerable skill and charm.” I think something important wasn’t stated, there—namely, that Fesca wasn’t a symphonist. He was a concertmaster and first violinist by profession in court orchestras and chapels, but his compositional métier was chamber music, and especially the string quartet. As compared to the three symphonies he wrote very early in a highly successful career cut short by tuberculosis, he composed a total of 16 string quartets, not to mention four string quintets, four flute quartets, and a Flute Quintet.


And it was as a composer of string quartets that Carl Maria von Weber praised him in a published article in 1818. He notes that Fesca’s models were Mozart and Haydn, that he is “careful and richly spices” his harmonies, and “often modulates sharply, and swiftly, almost like Beethoven,” which is both shrewd and wide of the mark: both Beethoven and Fesca learned this from Haydn, and beyond Haydn, likely back to the more exploratory quartets of Gossec. Unlike Beethoven, he “feels too soft to … suddenly seize us with a bold, gigantic fist,” but “a certain intelligent deliberation marks his works, and is coupled with depth of feeling, avoids dryness, and brings about an uncommonly fine bearing in the character both of the whole and of the individual parts. He develops his ideas clearly and manifoldly, the four voices are independent.…” Weber notes a tendency towards what we term the quatuor brilliant , with a flashy first violin part, but that the other instruments aren’t demoted to secondary roles.


This first volume in a projected series of Fesca’s string quartets in general confirms Weber’s comments. I find little mature Mozart in the mix. On the other hand, Haydn appears less in the shape of harmonies and themes than in distant modulations, a tendency towards regular motivic transformation, and subtle elements held in common among all four movements of each work. Fesca also has the interesting trick (for lack of a better term) of crafting beautiful galant themes that he tags, either midway or at their conclusion, with short motifs. These latter can be varied and developed at will, as well as making a perfect way to bridge back to the themes, themselves, usually with several transformed elements.


Even the earliest works, believed to date from before or around his 20th year, demonstrate a mastery at handling what were by then the quartet’s movement structures that would remain in place for over a century. There is also at times a sense of playfulness at work—figures reversed, details that suddenly loom out of proportion, bridges that don’t end up where they traditionally should, thematic content from one movement inserted slyly into the accompaniment of another, etc.—though it almost never takes the form of Haydn’s famous false endings. Weber’s comment about four independent voices is only accurate in a limited sense. True, Fesca is willing to give the lead voice at any time to any of his instruments, but his greatest fault (at least, to modern ears) is a willingness at times to fall back on a lead with simple, repetitive bass accompaniment. That, too, was very characteristic of French quartets from the mid-18th through early 19th centuries.


What Weber in turn considers with typically Romantic regard for the individual as personally expressive reticence was probably just a pragmatic matter of writing for the largest audience without compromising standards; for make no mistake, Fesca was extremely popular during his lifetime. (His quartets continued to go through multiple editions after his death and through to the mid-century.) The one stylistic kicker in this three-disc set is the String Quartet No. 13 of 1819. It stands out from the rest both for its concentration on motivic transformation, even in the central movements, and for its tonal instability. Fesca as a rule enjoys exploring distant keys and recasting thematic content with different leads and slightly altered harmonies, but here he deliberately undercuts notions of the tonic not merely in bridges but within the themes themselves, leading to several moments of precarious tonality during the opening movement. Chromatic passages abound. It’s not later Schubert, by any means, but it is a curious sidelight that indicates one direction the composer might have pursued had he lived longer.


The Diogenes Quartet is a new name for me. They are all technically proficient if not expert, but slurs in some faster passagework commendably don’t cause them to take movements marked as presto or vivace any slower. Their tone is commendably lean, and their application of vibrato on held notes, and at cadences, warm. Founded in 1998, they apparently keep to a busy concert and recording schedule. (Their first volume of the Schubert quartets has recently been released on Brilliant Classics.) I’m glad to see that none of this has meant any less attention given to this music, and they perform it with the kind of loving detail one would expect to hear in works by the Bigger Names. They make an eloquent case for this music, and for the volumes that will follow.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

The ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, headed by Cornelius Meister, presents Alexander Zemlinsky's "The Mermaid". Zemlinsky's "The Mermaid" is a rougher orchestral painting, created in the spirit of Jugendstil, according to the romantic fairy tale of Hans Christian Andersen. Teresa Vogl and orchestral director Christoph Becher listen carefully: the glittering colors of the waves, the longing of the enchanted mermaid after a solid ground under her feet, the perfidious suggestion of the water witch, the splendid wedding at the court. It is true that the marriage of the prince and the mermaid is of limited duration, but Zemlinsky gives the listeners a harmonious finale - just as it is for a fairy tale.

Born in the Champagne countryside in 1837, Théodore Dubois developed his talents at the Reims Cathedral, which explains why the Catholic sacred sphere influenced him throughout his life. Even today he continues to be known in France above all as a composing organist and a composer of sacred music for liturgical use who compiled a massive oeuvre. He also continues to be much discussed in educational circles as the author of the standard manuals in music theory of a strictly conservative nature. We are now releasing three of his violin compositions, which, by contrast, have been neglected and wrongly forgotten by posterity. His Violin Concerto was dedicated to none other than the violin legend Eugène Ysaÿe. The quality of this work is manifested most impressively in the Adagio middle movement in the form a long-drawn-out melody with a mighty amplitude; the deepest depths are fathomed with big sound, and iridescent heights are scaled. Here the whole individual value of French violin culture is revealed. And his only Sonata for Violin and Piano also contains the name of a great virtuoso in its dedication – Henri Marteau – and was composed to order for him.

This new release features Carl Reinecke’s Die wilden Schwaene (The Wild Swans). This work in sixteen musical numbers is based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. Performers on this release include soprano Kirsten Labonte, alto Gerhild Romberger, soprano Shuang Shi, baritone Markus Kohler, and more.

Today Hendrik Andriessen is primarily known as the composer of some magnificent works for the organ, a few choral works mainly performed by amateur choirs, and some masses for the Roman Catholic service. In reality, Andriessen was for many decades a driving force in the Netherlands, as a versatile composer, a performing musician, a much loved teacher, the author of articles and books on music, the director of the Conservatories of Ultrecht and The Hague, and finally as a professor of musicology at the Catholic Univeristy in Nijmegen. Within a time span of some seventy years he has written a large oeuvre of instrumental and vocal works, from symphonies to songs, from masses to operas, from chamber music to organ works. The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra is the symphonic orchestra of the Province of Overijssel. This orchestra from Enschede performs with passionate dedication and virtuosity, and its broad, varied, and always exciting programs have earned it a firm place in this region and beyond. With its employmen tof historical instruments instead of modern ones in the performance of classical works, the ensemble has distinguished itself both in its immediate environment, throughout the Netherlands, and in foreign countries as a unique cultural ambassador on behalf of the Province of Overijssel.

This album features a piece from Holland that is highly virtuosic and melodious—a clarinet concerto from the late romantic era of 1885. Rising star Manz has given rebirth to this genuine masterpiece that originally enjoyed great renown and was played from Russia to America. For unknown reasons it at some point or other simply vanished from the not really all that extensive repertoire for clarinet virtuosos.

Hans Pfitzner’s 1901 opera Die Rose vom Liebesgarten sets a libretto by James Grum, which was inspired by an 1890 painting by Hans Thoma, Der Wachter vor dem Liebesgarten. While the premiere of the first act was quite poorly received, the entire opera finally received a successful staging by Gustav Mahler in Vienna in 1905. This production, featuring world-renowned vocalists Andre Riemer, Tiina Penttinen, Jona Buchner, Astrid Weber, and Andreas Kindschuh, is conducted by Frank Beerman. Beerman has gained international renown as a conductor both on the stage and with his many recordings. His always alert interest in new and undiscovered music and in new interpretations of the core repertoire has brought him numerous prizes and distinctions. His recordings feature the core repertoire as well as rediscoveries and contemporary works. They have won several awards, including Echo Klassik prizes in 2009 and 2015.

In 1737 at age 71, after more than four decades serving in numerous positions as a Court violinist, orchestra director, and part-time composer, Jean-Féry Rebel composed his profoundly unique ballet-suite Les élémens (the elements). In his description of the opening movement (included in the notes to Musica Antiqua Köln’s 1995 DG Archiv recording of the work) director/violinist Reinhard Goebel offers a telling assessment as to just how unique, if not important Rebel’s achievement was: “He [Rebel] discarded all formal fetters: neither concerto nor overture, neither sonata nor sinfonia, his ‘Le cahos’ [chaos] is the first free orchestral composition in the history of music, more tone-poem than programme music.”

Indeed, it’s doubtful that anyone new to or even familiar with this remarkable work won’t be shocked (and shocked again) by Rebel’s intention, as he states in his preface to Les élémens, to “dare to undertake to link the idea of the confusion of the elements with that of confusion in harmony”…to depict “Chaos itself, this confusion which reigned between the Elements [earth, air, fire, and water] before the instant when, subject to invariable laws, they took their prescribed place in the order of nature.” Imagine, as Catherine Cessac puts it in her insightful notes to Les Musiciens du Louvre’s 1993 Erato recording, “…a daring ‘cluster’ involving the simultaneous attack of every note in the D minor harmonic scale…”. Of course, by now you realize my point: Rebel’s Les élémens must truly be heard to be believed.

This recent 2014 CPO release featuring L’Orfeo Barockorchester directed by Michi Gaigg was originally issued on Capriccio’s Phoenix Edition in 2008. It’s an excellent performance (that brooding diminuendo and lengthy pause between the initial sustained “cluster” and the remainder of the first movement rivals Musica Antiqua Köln’s intensity) and sometimes quirky, as when the ensemble plays up the wide array of rhythmic and dynamic contrasts for dramatic effect. The tempos by and large are quicker than most, with the exception of the seventh-movement Tambourins where, like The Academy of Ancient Music (L’Oiseau-Lyre), the ensemble favors a more measured pace before gradually gaining momentum near the end. All in all, this is a beautiful and at times spectacular offering.

Rameau’s Castor et Pollux suite also receives an exemplary performance, in some respects bettering my reference recording by Frans Brüggen and the Orchestra of the 18th Century (Philips). Gaigg has better instincts in shaping the suite as a whole, as well as an ability to better draw out instrumental texture and detail (compare their renderings of “Troisième air pour les athlétes” and the “Premier passepied pour les ombres heureuses”, for instance). This makes a nice, fitting choice to conclude the program.

The sound is remarkably good with excellent transparency in the woodwinds, strings, and percussion. Given Les élémens’ relative obscurity, there have been a few wonderful recordings (including a chamber version by the Palladian Ensemble that David Hurwitz favorably reviewed here). The one not to be missed, however, remains the previously mentioned Academy of Ancient Music performance directed by the late period-instrument visionary Christopher Hogwood. It was recorded in 1980, and every performance since that one is still very much indebted to Hogwood’s ground-breaking undertaking. Kudos to CPO for reissuing this worthy successor. Highly recommended.

-- John Greene, ClassicsToday.com

Francis Poulenc is perhaps the composer whose works come the closest to embodying the French esprit, a multivalent term referring to a special blend of brilliance, sensuousness, aestheticism, and above all Frenchness. This is music that is mirthful as well as serious, entertaining and demanding, and superficial as well as profound. It was thus that Francis Poulenc composed, he who called himself »Poulenc-Janus« in an allusion to the Roman god who had two faces and could simultaneously look this way and that. Poulenc’s music is often stamped by this ambiguity, and his chamber music for winds is the ideal repertoire for the cpo debut of an aspiring young ensemble from Denmark: the Ensemble MidtVest. This ensemble is formed by eleven musicians, enthusiasts as well as individualists, who are graduates of leading European and American musical institutions of higher learning, and some of them have repeatedly been honored with prizes. The ensemble was founded in 2002 and has earned a fine reputation for its creative programs, high artistic level, and constant questioning of the conventional concert form. Its core formation for string quartet, wind quintet, and piano promotes flexibility, variation, and rich color in the combination of instruments. The Ensemble MidtVest performs as a duo as well as a sonorous nonet. It is one of the five »basis ensembles« in Denmark.

- CPO

Robert Kahn (1865-1951) and Johannes Brahms formed a mutual admiration society; each respected the other’s work. +For decades he taught at the Berlin Royal Academy until his expulsion by the Nazis in 1934. +Wilhelm Kempff and Arthur Rubinstein number among his most famous students. Kahn’s peak years of creativity, prior to 1918, saw the writing of all four original piano trios. +These works, distinguished by their comprehensibility and concise design, are filled with charm, color and verve.

Joachim Raff's (1822-82) First and Fourth trios exhibit many of the same qualities found on the previous CPO disc of Nos. 2 & 3, reviewed earlier. A consummate craftsman, Raff paid particular attention to such things as motivic and rhythmic development and careful part-writing, which, combined with a flair for expressing genuine emotion, give his chamber works a distinctive sound and compelling character. This is especially evident in Trio No. 1 (1861), the most popular of the four and one of two in the minor mode. A grim introduction soon leads to a roiling, passionate allegro. Next, a galloping scherzo seems to be taking the first movement material out for a night-ride, while the following langsam movement is a song-like rhapsody that once again displays Raff's talent for melodies that speak from the heart. The finale closes the work in a demonically Beethovenian vein, with some dance music thrown in for good measure.


Trio No. 4 (1870) launches in a challengingly fast 12/8 meter, creating an effect not unlike Schubert's Trout Quintet. Most interesting however is the Andante quasi larghetto, with its mournful Venetian Gondola Song first heard on the solo cello. From this opening Raff builds an Elegy of considerable expressive power before closing with a reprise of the plaintive melody. After this exquisite movement, the material of the robust finale seems rather prosaic, and it takes all the energy, imagination, and commitment Trio Opus 8 can muster to hold your interest. That they do is testament to the superlative talent of these three fine musicians, who shine in the remaining movements of both trios as well. As before, CPO's recording is close in perspective but manages to capture more bass information this time around. Both discs in this series are excellent, but this one is the top choice.
--Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com

Robert Kahn was a German pianist, teacher and composer, who wrote a prolific amount of music for chamber ensemble. This release explores his output for violin and piano. Kahn’s style is lyrical and intimate, and resembles the styles of Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms. Finnish violinist Elina Vahala made her concert debut at age 12 with the Lahti Symphony. She was nominated as “Yong Master Soloist” for the 93/94 season with that same orchestra. She is also a founding member of Violin Academy, which is a master class based project for talented young Finnish violinists.

Classical Music

The symphonist Felix Woyrsch (1860-1944) shouldered the burden of the mighty symphonic legacy that preceded him; a tradition he did not aspire to break with but rather seek a negotiable path for its continuance in his own personal manner. His Three Bocklin Fantasies belong to the group of works preparing for his symphonic style, drawing on coloristic instrumental and harmonic resources as in hardly any other work by him. The Third Symphony’s thoroughly chromaticized, frequently dissonant tonal idiom justifies its claim to the status of an ‘Apocalyptic Symphony’ in the context of his oeuvre.

• Anton Bruckner died before completing work on the fourth and final movenment of his 9th symphony. • Conductor Mario Venzago's ongoing complete Bruckner symphony cycle has provoked vehement pro and contra critical reaction. • The Bern Symphony's history dates back more than 125 years.

As the court music director in Zerbst, Johann Friedrich Fasch had to deal directly with current religious trends and was obliged to occupy himself with Pietism. After all, from the beginning of his tenure there his duties had included the composition of the church music for every court religious service and for all the church feast days. Fasch had a special mission in mind when he penned his cantatas: he was very much interested in having hislisteners not remain indifferent to the texts that were sung. And so he employed all sorts of compositional tricks to capture their attention and to emphasize words of special importance to him. This procedure is impressively revealed already at the beginning of the cantata »Ich danke dem Herrn vom ganzen Herzen.« After a short instrumental introduction the opening Biblical text is presented not as usual by the choir but initially by the solo soprano. Then in the Missa in G major almost all the facets of Fasch’s musical talent are shown; from arias with obbligato solo instruments to grandly dimensioned chorale fugues placing the greatest demands both on the singers and the instrumentalists, it was composed in its entirety for the entertainment and edification of his noble employer and to the glory of God. One of Fasch’s overture suites of extraordinary quality rounds off this album. In his autobiography he acknowledged : "On this occasion I cannot avoid publicly acknowledging that I then learned mostly everything from the beautiful work of my most revered and beloved friend, Mr. Music Director Telemann, by constantly taking the same as a model for me, especially in the overtures".

A radically systematic logic stunningly manifested itself quite early in the music of Richard Strauss. He avoided the instrumental genres, was attracted to the tone poem right from the very start, and worked toward the goal of making the opera his central focus. And yet his beginnings lay in chamber music, a fact demonstrated on this release with two examples in new recordings. The Piano Trio No. 2 is lengthier than its predecessor and very ambitious both in its tonal register and execution. The formal norms – sonata form, song form, scherzo, and then another sonata movement – are upheld with completeness and elegance. The piano trio had a long line of tradition going back to Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, but the composer who set standards in the middle of the nineteenth century is particularly clearly recognizable here in a model function: Mendelssohn. Only about seven years passed between this trio and Strauss’s only Piano Quartet, but in 1885 too he was still a very young composer. The quartet displays impressive advances in technique; now Strauss apparently could draw on all the compositional resources then available, and the higher virtuosic demands on the instrumentalists are also quite evident. Strauss attracted the greatest attention with his large-format op. 13 lasting almost forty minutes, a work that even brought him a prize from the Berliner Tonkünstlerverein.

Includes work(s) by Julius Röntgen. Ensemble: Netherlands Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: David Porcelijn.

RÖNTGEN Serenade (Wind Quintet). Serenade (Wind Septet). Trio for Flute, Oboe, and Bassoon • Linos Ens • CPO 777 127-2 (60:15)


As Jerry Dubins reviewed this disc at some length in Fanfare 36:1, I will make this relatively brief, wanting only to register some degree of dissent from his overall negative judgments. Basically, Dubins liked the rather Brahmsian early Serenade, op. 14, but dismissed the later wind quintet Serenade as a “frivolous, frothy fluff piece” and called the Trio “a work of modest means and even flimsier substance.” He concluded, “If you’re new to Röntgen ... I’d strongly suggest that you start with almost anything else by him than the disc at hand.” I must beg to differ with him regarding the latter two works. While these are indeed occasional pieces rather than major masterworks, they are all ingratiating and provide charming and rewarding listening. While the major influence on the late serenade is indeed, as Dubins notes, Richard Strauss—the clarinet at the opening is reminiscent of that in Till Eulenspiegel , and the end of the third movement sounds much like the music for the little Moorish servant boy from the final bars of Der Rosenkavalier —it also follows in the footsteps of Nielsen’s Quintet. Adjectives that spring to mind are saucy, insouciant, cheeky, and mischievous. It is constructed in a cyclic pattern with a return in the last movement to material from the first movement. The Trio is even closer to Nielsen’s ambit in the more craggy melodic contours and unexpected harmonic twists of its three brief movements. The connection is not surprising; not only was Röntgen an enthusiast for Scandinavian culture, who wrote a biography of his friend Edvard Grieg, but he also played in a string quartet with Carl Nielsen in 1892. It would be interesting to know of any further connections between them. I do admit to being less fond of this piece than of the two serenades, as the slow movement is uningratiating.


I do agree with Dubins regarding the high caliber of the playing of the Linos Ensemble, although in the Trio I do find the oboe to be a bit harsh and off in intonation (perhaps the instrument simply needed to be swabbed out). The recorded sound and booklet notes meet CPO’s usual excellent standards. For those who are particularly fond of the genre of wind serenades, this disc is a welcome addition to its not very sizeable repertoire.


FANFARE: James A. Altena

Classical Music

Classical Music