Classical Music

Just after the 150th anniversary of Richard Strauss's birth, CPO are releasing a concert performance of his rarely performed sung poem "Feuersnot" under the baton of Ulf Schirmer. The satirist Ernst von Wolzogen, who wrote the libretto for this "Bavarian burlesque" founded the first literary cabaret in Berlin, the Ueberbrettl.

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Classical Music

Most of Westerhoff's works today are found in the Burgsteinfurt Music Collection. It was here that Kloecker years ago unearthed a clarinet concerto that he no longer had the opportunity to record for CPO. Now he himself has passed the torch (or in this case the clarinet) on to the young ARD prizewinner Sebastian Manz.

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TELEMANN Trietti metodichi: 42:d1; TWV 42: G2; 42:D2. Scherzi: 42:D3; 42:A1; 42:E1. Quartet in a for 2 Violins and 2 Bassoons, TWV 43:a1. Quartet in d for Flute, Violin, Bassoon, and Continuo, TWV 43:d3 • Parnassi musici (period instruments) • cpo 777 301 (63:21)


The title of Telemann’s 1731 publication of six trio sonatas, III Trietti metodichi e III Scherzi , is unusual. No one had ever published trietti (“little trios”), nor was the term “scherzo” used for a composition in several movements. The “method” in the Trietti metodichi consists of illustration in the art of instrumentation. The slow movements of the three Trietti were published with plain and ornamented parts to illustrate ornamentation method. These six melodic works for two violins and continuo were written for amateurs looking for works that were neither too long nor too difficult. All are in three movements, fast-slow-fast, and full of attractive melodies.


The Quartet in a is the fifth of a set of six “Quartets or Trios for two flutes or two violins, and two cellos or two bassoons” published in 1733. It consists of four movements, an Andante followed by three fast Divertimenti. The Quartet in d has been attributed to Handel as well as Telemann. The theme of the first movement appears to be a variation on Handel’s Oboe Concerto No. 3 in g, HWV 287. For the rest, the music does not sound much like Handel’s chamber music, so it would appear that the association with Telemann is correct. It is in four movements, slow-fast-slow-fast, which, while appealing, are not as attractive as its discmates.


The notes to this recording tell us that “it was sheer joy in the vibrancy and virtuosity of baroque music that brought together the musicians of Parnassi musici,” and these qualities inform their work here. Their playing has been praised often in the pages of Fanfare . The continuo is varied by alternate use of archlute or guitar and organ or harpsichord in addition to bassoon and cello. I doubt that I have ever heard a more-appealing recording of Baroque chamber music.


FANFARE: Ron Salemi

From a performance at the 2015 Valletta International Baroque Festival in Malta, this live performance of the engaging Cologne-based choir and orchestra Die Kölner Akademie led by Michael Alexander Willens aims to refocus attention on the little known Malta born Naples based late Baroque composer Girolamo Abos. The engaging performances of these Maltese Christmas masses with Die Kölner’s impeccable attention to detail bring new attention to this seldom recorded composer whose works are characterized by elegantly constructed forms and spirited contrapuntal thoroughbass that on this collection approach a level of revelation.

Our most recent Telemann album is a special highlight for the Christmas season! It brings together three Christmas oratorios from Telemann’s Oratorischer Jahrgang for the church year 1730/31 and a cantata from the annual cycle Musicalisches Lob Gottes printed in score form in Nuremberg in 1744. The oratorios are new discoveries and premiere recordings. Even if the works concerned are of cantata length, the term “Oratorio” is in this case perfectly justified. Not only the soprano, alto, and other vocal parts sing but also personified allegories such as Faith, Hope, and Love. Telemann’s musical realization of the poetic sources of the writer and musician Albrecht Jacob Zell is distinguished by great imagination and subtle artistry. The affections and emotions contained in the texts penned by Zell and the Biblical texts inserted by him in the arias and choruses are developed logically and with great feeling: here Telemann employs and combines the whole spectrum of compositional techniques at his command. Telemann’s opulent settings were made to order for the rich resources of Hamburg’s church music, for which he had available eight vocalists as well as some twenty instrumentalists.

It is really not at all surprising that a composer of dance music might eventually get around to writing a full-length dance composition. But did you know this: that the music for the full-length ballet Aschenbrödel (Cinderella) amounts to the swan song of Johann Strauss? Unfortunately, he did not live long enough to complete the work. Before his death he had orchestrated the first act and half of the third act. The versed ballet composer Josef Bayer was assigned the task of completing the work, and he used the extensive sketches to produce a performable version. Over the years a lot of new source material has surfaced. On the basis of these sources the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra of Vienna has made a new recording of this work so very rich in melodies. The result is also a sort of rediscovery of Aschenbrödel. Our conductor is the Strauss specialist Ernst Theis.

The Weser-Renaissance Ensemble numbers among the renowned ensembles specializing in the music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The repertoire from Josquin Desprez to dieterich Buxtehude forms the focus of its work. The ensemble regularly makes new discoveries bringing hidden musical treasures to light. Its work has made it a welcome guest at prestigious early music festivals and is documented by an impressive number of recordings that have met with an enthusiastic response in the music press. Manfred Cordes studied music education, sacred music, classical philology, and voice teaching in Hanover and Berlin. After his studies he served as a visiting instructor in music theory in Groningen in the Netherlands. In Bremen since 1985, Cordes took charge of teh vocal ensemble and began extensive concertizing with it.

CPO’s successful Reger edition continues here with the fifth volume in the successful series, even as critics are still raving about the previous release. Musik & Theater wrote of Volume 4: “These recordings number among the best currently available.” The German organist and choral conductor, Gerhard Weinberger, studied organ with Franz Lehrndorfer and church music at the Musikhochschule in Munich. In 1971, he was the prize winner in organ at the renowned international ARD Music Competition. In 1974, after spending three years directing the choir at Saint Lorenz Basilica in Kempten, Gerhard Weinberger assumed a teaching post in organ and church music at the Munich Musikhochschule. He was Professor of Organ there from 1977 to 1983. Currently he is Professor of Organ and Director of the Church Music Department at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold, Germany. He is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and of the Leipzig New Bach Society directorate. Gerhard Weinberger's wide repertoire ranges from pre-Baroque to music of the 20th century, with a special emphasis on the works of J.S. Bach and Max Reger. He has given recitals throughout Europe, Asia and America.

There is hardly a better way to get to know Graupner's individual vocal style than with this disc.

One of the most remarkable things about German composers of the 17th and 18th centuries is the size of their oeuvre. One wonders where they found the time to compose so many works, considering the general slowness of life. It took days to travel from one part of Germany to another, and weeks to go from Germany abroad. Writing a composition by hand, copying parts for all performers, teaching, rehearsing - it is just amazing how much work they had to do. And in addition, there was an insatiable demand for music which they had to satisfy. This is also the main reason they composed so much.

Take Christoph Graupner: the number of his cantatas is estimated at about 1400! He had to deliver a cantata for every Sunday, plus all feastdays, plus special events like the birthday of his employer. And then there was the instrumental music, both chamber and orchestral music, which was played as entertainment. Reusing old material was no option: music which was more than 10 years old was considered old-fashioned. As Graupner worked in Darmstadt from 1709 until his death there was no material his employer hadn't heard before.

But by good fortune he had some assistance. From 1713 to 1738 the cantatas for the first and third Christmas days - one of the busiest periods of the year - were written by his assistant chapel master, Gottfried Grünewald. The second Christmas day was also the birthday of his employer, so the music for that day, which had to be particularly festive, was written by Graupner himself. He also composed the music for New Year, and the following Sundays, including Epiphany and Candlemas.

Four of the five cantatas on this disc date from the 1740s. Graupner used texts which were provided by his brother-in-law, the theologian Johann Conrad Lichtenberg, who for a number of years wrote a cycle of cantata texts every year. The cantatas consist of a sequence of recitatives, arias and chorales, but the texture varies.

Frohlocke, werte Christenheit, begins with a chorus on a free poetic text. This is followed by two pairs of recitative and aria, for bass and soprano respectively, and closes with a harmonisation of two stanzas from the old hymn 'Ein Kind geborn zu Bethlehem'. The vocal parts are embedded in lively orchestral figurations which is typical of Graupner's treatment of chorales. This practice has its roots in the 17th century, and was often used by composers like Johann Kuhnau and Johann Ludwig Bach.

Der Herr hat mich gehabt im Anfang and Das Licht scheinet in der Finsternis both begin with a dictum, a quotation from the Bible. The former has a recitative for bass and a duet for alto and tenor, who mostly sing in parallel motion, which is only broken at the end. The duet is followed by a recitative and an aria for tenor, and closes with a stanza from Luther's hymn 'Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ'.

The latter also contains a duet, this time for tenor and bass. There is a strong contrast in the vocal and instrumental parts between section A and section B, reflecting the juxtaposition of light and darkness in the text. The preceding recitative for bass is a perfect example of Graupner's effective treatment of the text.

Das Licht des Lebens scheinet hell opens with an accompanied recitative for bass, who then sings an aria. This is followed by a chorale - a stanza from 'Ermuntre dich, mein schwacher Geist'. Then the soprano sings a recitative and an aria, and the alto has a recitative which ends in an accompagnato at the last line. The cantata ends with another stanza from 'Ermuntre dich'.

The last cantata of this disc, Von Gott will ich nicht lassen, is the only one which dates from the period that Grünewald was active. It was written for the second Sunday after Epiphany, 18 January 1728. But during the winter season 1727/28 Grünewald was ill. Because of that he wasn't able to compose, and Graupner had to write all cantatas himself. As Grünewald also participated in the performances as a bass, Graupner omitted bass parts in his cantatas. This shows that at that time cantatas were performed with one voice per part, which is also practised in this recording. This particular cantata is the only one from this period that has a bass part. One may conclude that Graupner temporarily had a bass at his disposal, but probably a not very experienced one as he only participates in the three chorale settings.

These are three stanzas from the hymn 'Von Gott will ich nicht lassen' (1563). The cantata opens with the first stanza, which is followed by a recitative for the tenor, who then sings a duet with the alto which is an eloquent expression of the text: "Jesus provides. Now away, you cares!" This is followed by another stanza from the hymn. Next are a recitative and an aria for soprano. In the latter she is accompanied by a trio of two oboes and bassoon which are joined by the strings in the ritornelli. The cantata closes with another stanza from the hymn 'Von Gott will ich nicht lassen'.

During his career Graupner has developed a musical language of his own, which is not comparable with anything written in his time. His compositions are certainly not easy-listening stuff as recent recordings of his instrumental oeuvre show. Of his vocal music very little has been performed and recorded as yet. There is hardly a better way to get to know his vocal oeuvre than with this disc.

These five cantatas are varied in scoring and offer a number of beautiful arias and duets. It is particularly advisable to pay attention to the way Graupner uses the instruments to express the Affekte of the texts. Things could hardly be better. The four soloists are completely congenial and their voices blend perfectly, as the chorale settings show. The individual performances of the singers are also excellent; the delivery is immaculate thanks to good diction and pronunciation. The instrumental parts are engagingly given by the members of Das Kleine Konzert.

The booklet contains extensive programme notes and all the lyrics have an English translation. In tracks the lines are printed in the wrong order.

-- Johan van Veen, MusicWeb International

By his own account, Erasmus Kindermann was pressured by friends into setting poems by Martin Opitz to music and did so in works such as his Opitianischer Orpheus. The poems that he chose for the most part were selections from the Bucher Deutscher Poemata. The texts of the songs mostly focus on themes taken from ancient models: “carpe diem” and “memento mori” as well as love’s joy and love’s grief. Poems with moral and religious content and for special occasions and entertainment are also represented, and the pastoral idyll often provides the scenic background. The instrumental preludes and interludes consist of only a few measures but very skillfully render the character of the particular song and underscore its textual message. In the subtitle of his Opitianischer Orpheus Kindermann terms his poem settings “Musical Delights,” in this way clearly emphasizing his intention not to compose laments on sad times but instead to convey joy, intellectual stimulation, and pleasure. Instead of designing the music for the poems in his Opitianischer Orpheus as an opulent work in multiple voices for a larger concert setting, Kindermann very deliberately chose chamber music as his medium. He presumably had in mind, both in view of the performers and the audience members, a group of music lovers with literary ambitions who had received a humanistic education and met for social gatherings in order to present songs or to listen to their recital. The composer intentionally refrained from including broad melismas in the song melodies. As a result, the individual songs develop a characteristically strong succinctness that continues to resonate and invites listeners to sing and play along in enjoyable social settings.

In 2020, in a fitting contribution to the celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, the Innsbruck Early Music Festival presented a concert performance of the opera Leonora by his contemporary Ferdinando Paër. With this program selection the conductor Alessandro De Marchi rescued from oblivion the counterpart of Beethoven’s opera Fidelio and its model. Spirited recitatives, extended arias, cabalettas, and marvelously mellow duets occur in sequence in Paër's works, including his opera Leonora, premiered in 1804.

During the Napoleonic Wars what he presented here was a heroic liberation opera of French stamp. The action corresponds to the spirit of the times, and the faithful wife displays heroism in her rescue of her unjustly imprisoned husband from a self-complacent tyrant’s dungeon. Dark political intrigues are denounced, and honesty, uprightness, and pure love are glorified. Paër’s musical setting of Fidelio’s heroic story differs from Beethoven’s only opera in many respects. First and foremost because the libretto is in Italian, a language that has very different effects on the melodic, rhythmic, and rhetorical flow of the music and its expressive character. Then there is also the fact that Paër composed considerably more coloraturas for the principal singers than Beethoven did. Here an Italian opera composer of the high Neapolitan school clearly continuing to point back to Hasse and Porpora makes his voice heard.

Telemann’s Wedding Serenata Georg Philipp Telemann never missed the opportunity to delight those around him with countless compositions treating the subject of love and its consequences. The origins of his enormous achievement in this field are certainly to be sought in his personal disposition: in his exuberant joy in composition, combined with an open, optimistic attitude in his dealings with his environment, which in his works not rarely revealed his roguish sense of humor. And so he above all was very much in demand as a composer of wedding pieces. The texts of the wedding serenata »Liebe, was ist schöner als die Liebe« undeniably exhibit mirthful exuberance and belong to the most original and wittiest musical creations of all by this composer. The serenata has the form of a disputatio, a dramatic dialogue in which an advocate of marriage (Ametas, soprano) and a skeptic (Crito, tenor) are in disagreement about the usefulness of the institution of marriage. The album also includes the solo cantata “Lieben will ich,” in which the imponderables of love are celebrated in witty free texts, and the cantata “Der Weiberorden,” which quite clearly was composed in conjunction with a wedding feast and in lighter tones enables to join the young bride in joyous anticipation of her future married life.

“Specializing in unknown repertoire, cpo is now serious about uncovering yet another veritable treasure:” this is what klassik-heute wrote of Vol. 1 of our Wind Overtures by Telemann. This master of all musical trades was also active and extremely successful in the field of Harmoniemusik – the compositional genre for wind ensembles entrusted with military, hunting, and table music. The wind version of the work known as the “Alster Overture” heard along with other works on Vol. 2 is regarded as a model example of this artistic philosophy of Telemann’s. However, what is a more important key to the significance of the work is the knowledge that the movements following the overture are practically to be understood as an audio instrumental preview of the serenata composed by Telemann and going along with them. In this overture suite the “musical artist” presents to our ears highly atmospheric sound depictions of Hamburg and what were then its country surroundings, through which the Alster River flowed. Even the singing swans majestically gliding along the Alster are represented in a wonderfully beautiful sarabande. At the end there is a spirited gigue in which shepherds, hunters, nymphs, and Pan, as it were, gather together again in order to conclude the musical preview anticipating the serenade.

Many works by Camillo Schumann remained unpublished during his lifetime and today are housed in the Saxon State Archive – a fate very different from that of his elder brother Georg Schumann, whose oeuvre has experienced a selective, though continuous renaissance on the recording market during the past decades (e. g., on cpo). And yet Camillo Schumann’s oeuvre covers almost all the musical genres, and more than three hundred works by him have now been documented. The special qualities of Schumann’s compositional capabilities are present in fine fashion everywhere in his sonatas for clarinet and piano: careful, finely balanced architectonic structures with skillfully elaborated transitions between the individual movement sections, attractive dialogues between the voices, congenial use of the resources of the particular instruments, suspenseful intensifications, and neatly proportioned solutions and conclusions. The compositional tradition of Reinecke and Radecke in which Schumann grew up is continued practically without a break into the twentieth century. Along with his fourth sonata, his playful Serenade in F major in five movements for clarinet and piano was his last composition of more than one movement for these instruments. Here too he proves to be a composer who knows what he is doing and knows how to realize his ideas with the greatest technical expertise.

Our fourth release in this series offers listeners the opportunity to enjoy chamber music for piano and strings by Boris Papandopulo. The recording premiere of his Concertino in modo antico presents a little masterpiece of Croatian Neoclassicism. As the title itself indicates, here the composer draws on historical models both in form and content. For example, the Overture, a free rendering of the sonata form, recalls similar forms from the Late Baroque and Early Classical periods. It pulsates in a lively motoric rhythm and is based on the polyphonic imitation of numerous short motifs running through the entire movement and reaching their end in a little Fugato. Masterful motivic work, brilliance, and verve as well as real and true joy of performance distinguish this composition, which easily finds its way into the hearts of musicians and audiences alike – and the same is true of the other chamber pieces heard here. The Rapsodia concertante, to name one example, is not only a highly effective and attractive composition in which three contrasting movements are skillfully linked together; it is also a virtuoso piece representing the summit of technique and worked out to perfection.

No buffo couple, no choruses, no dance scenes, and, most of all, no psychological conflict: the action of Cloclo is not at all typical of Franz Lehár. It is a chamber operetta but more than a mirthful intermezzo for the lyrical opera Paganini: it is its comedic counterpart. The foxtrot “Ich habe La Garçonne gelesen” became the operetta’s hit at the premiere on 8 March 1924. It referred to Victor Margueritte’s novel of the same name about a prototypical young woman of the 1920s who leads an independent existence, wears short dresses and sports a bobbed hairdo, and, to top it all, is a sexual libertine. Unanimously enthusiastic reviews followed last year after the semi-scenic performance on which our recording is based, and the Lehár Festival in Bad Ischl won the coveted “Operettenfrosch July 2019” for this rewarding rediscovery. The Bavarian Radio, full of praise, raved: “Marius Burkhard in the meantime has reached an astonishing level with his Lehár Orchestra. His feel for the right tempos but especially his sense of the tonal values of Lehár’s score attest to his status as one of today’s best operetta conductors. And the most marvelous thing: every member of the orchestra has obvious fun and a smile on her or his face. Don’t be a frog, kiss him. The Operetta Editorial Staff is convinced and offers its congratulations for great operetta courageousness.”

The opera Polydorus penned 289 years ago last found a place in the performance program of the Gänsemarkt Opera in Hamburg in 1735. The libretto by Johann Samuel Müller depicts exchanges of identity, avaricious kings, queens bent on bloodthirsty revenge, and princes who despise their progenitors. The result is a retelling of the Polydorus legend combining Greek mythology and Shakespearean dramatic suspense. Carl Heinrich Graun, one of the best-known opera composers of the eighteenth century, wrote the emotionally moving music. The first performance in modern times by the barockwerk hamburg and the album recording of this opera rarity now being released have once again uncovered this genuinely original work and following the ensemble’s successes in recent years once again guarantee you a very special listening experience.

Hans Eklund numbers among the Swedish composers who gained public notice in the 1950s following his studies at the Royal Music Academy from 1947 to 1952 with Lars-Erik Larsson, one of his country’s most popular composers. Although Eklund was one of the very first Swedish composers whose music was performed at the Darmstadt Summer Courses, his music never abandoned tonality. Eklund wrote a total of thirteen symphonies. With the exception of the fourth, all of these works have richly associative Italian titles. His third symphony was inspired by the landscape and folk music of the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, while in his fifth symphony he deals with the subversive powers of war. The music sounds grey, sharper, not so smooth rhythmically, and hotter. Although Eklund termed his eleventh symphony of 1995 the “Sinfonia piccola,” it is ironically one of his longest such works as well as a memorial tribute to his honored teacher Lars-Erik Larsson. The time to rediscover this important symphonist is now!

Composer Niels Gade ( 1817-1890) is considered to be the most influential Danish musician of his time. He was also a successful teacher, conductor, violinist, and organist. This release is the second volume in the exploration of Gade’s chamber music, and includes his String Quartet in E minor with extra movements, the first movement of a Piano Trio in B-flat major, and Scherzo in C sharp minor for Piano Quintet. “Even in the intricate texture the individual voices remain transparent; the focus on what is essential is more important than everything experimental. The MidtVest ensemble relies on flowing lines, not on leaden ritardandi, on well-rounded formulations instead of roughly delineated blocks.” (FonoForum of Vol. 1).

Spectacular Baroque Opera with the BEMF. The prizewinning Boston Early Music Festival, joined by the choicest soloists, once again presents a spectacular Baroque opera discovery with Christoph Graupner’s Antiochus and Stratonica. Graupner composed the musical play L’Amore Ammalato, Die kranckende Liebe, oder: Antiochus und Stratonica during his time as the harpsichordist at the Gänsemarkt Opera in Hamburg. The core subject of the opera is the love of the Seleucid prince Antiochus for his stepmother Stratonica. This match brings with it highly dramatic moments as well as deeply sad ones inasmuch as Antiochus is supposed to have an incurable illness – but then at the end three old and new romantic couples appear on the stage and everything comes to a happy ending. Graupner’s opulent orchestral ensemble, which prescribes three recorders and four oboes in addition to strings and a large continuo apparatus, offers the most highly nuanced tonal manifoldness – and during his later decades as the Darmstadt court chapel master the composer would continue to expand this element.

Classical Music