CPO
Founded in 1986, Classic Produktion Osnabrück, or CPO, aims to fill niches in the recorded classical repertory, with an emphasis on romantic, late romantic, and 20th-century music.
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L. van der Pals: Concertos for Violin, Piano & Cello
Piano Works By Israeli Composers / Lessing
Following the great successes of his recently released Czerny albums, Kolja Lessing now dedicates himself to a most highly interesting new project in his capacity as a pianist. He interprets piano music by modern Israeli composers such as Joachim Stutschewsky, Sergiu Natra, Mordecai Seter, and Tzvi Avni. The last-mentioned composer has repeatedly turned to the piano, and his rich oeuvre for this instrument reflects all the changes that he has lived through as well as the diverse personal, artistic, and political experience that he has gathered during the course of his compositional career, which now spans seven decades. Against this background the two piano compositions by Avni from the most recent years, the In Spite of All That: Sonata brevis (2014) and the Dedication composed in 2016 for the hundredth anniversary of the birth of his teacher Mordecai Seter, assume the character of autobiographical statements. Reflection on the thousands of years of the Jewish song tradition and the effort to develop a national identity marked the genesis of music in the new state of Israel, which achieved its independence in 1948, having formerly been the British mandated territory of Palestine. The development of an Israeli music world in the sense of European institutionalization was first made possible by exile and the unbroken pioneering spirit of many outstanding musical personalities in the 1930s. No other land of exile encouraged occupation with Jewish traditions like Palestine / Israel from the 1930s to 1950s; independently of individual positions regarding religion and Zionism, here the question concerning Israeli identity – concerning the creation of a new Israeli music on the basis of many different influences and primarily those emanating from Eastern European Jews – was explored.
Davon Ich Singen Und Sagen Will: Martin Luther Und Die Musik / Bach-Chor Siegen
Martin Luther’s self-description as an “insignificant and ungifted tenor” was modest to the extreme. Schooled in the artes liberales of his time, he had a command of music theory and composition, was a skilled lutenist, and had such a gifted voice that Hans Sachs termed him the “Wittenberg Nightingale.” Whether at table or in the liturgy, music belonged to his life and his faith. As so we are now setting out on a musical journey with top soloists, the Bach Choir of Siegen, and the Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble, all under the renowned music director Ulrich Stötzel, on this CPO release for the Luther Year 2017 featuring works by his friends and by composers active in his environment, with him, or shortly after his life: Werner Fabricius, Hans Neusiedler, Thomas Stoltzer, Heinrich Schütz, Johann Eccard, Michael Praetorius, Johann Sebastian Bach, and others. The four-part cantus firmus motet based on Psalm 118: 17 is even by Luther himself.
Homilius, Stolzel & Rolle: Christmas Cantatas / Willens, Die Kolner Akademie
For more than two thousand years the birth of Christ, the incarnation of God as a child in the manger at Bethlehem, has fascinated and inspired artistic production and reflection. It is precisely in the field of music that thousands of songs and multipart compositions have come down to us attesting to the richness of this body of works and documenting the diversity of artistic expression. Most of these works were composed for liturgical use in the Christian churches. It is a rewarding experience to sift through the repertoire and to edit and record previously unknown works. This year our Christmas album presents recording premieres of five cantatas: one each by Bach's contemporaries Christoph Förster (1693-1745) and Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749) and three by members of the following generation, one by Gottfried August Homilius (1714-85) and two by Johann Heinrich Rolle (1716-85). All the cantatas were composed for use in Lutheran religious services and are based on a similar plan of construction: an extensive opening chorus is followed by recitatives and arias, and a chorale strophe from a church hymn concludes the work. The opening choruses are usually based on short quotations from the Bible, and the festive splendor of the trumpets and timpani forms the dominant tonal element.
Strauss: Symphony, Op. 12, Concert Overture in C Minor / Baumer, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie
During the summer of 1883 Richard Strauss composed two large-format orchestral works in traditional genres, the lengthy Concert Overture in C minor and the Symphony in F minor op. 12, both of them also with the same instruments. The overture is anything but a secondary effort; it also cannot be understood as a simple »work of his youth.« Although the key and the opening stance of the overture clearly point to Beethoven’s Coriolanus Overture, the subliminal irritations, frictions, surprises, and saliencies already present here become even much more apparent in the symphony. As in the overture, so too in the symphony: the composer abstains from any sort of allusions to content, and – even more strikingly – he does not include a dedication, even though the work was immediately published. And the finale pursues an unusual course, not with a breakthrough but over a festive path leading to a hymnic theme followed by an absolutely wild conclusion. Following our release of early chamber music by Richard Strauss, we are now presenting two more significant early works by him!
Draeseke: String Quartets, Vol. 1 / Constanze Quartet
Our first collaborative venture with the Constanze Quartet from Salzburg also marks the production of the first complete recording of the string quartets of Felix Draeseke – a German composer, a representative of the new German school, and a contemporary of Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, and Johannes Brahms. Draeseke’s string quartets are unique in style. In them we often encounter influence from Wagner, even if not in the form of an imitation of Wagnerian compositional style but as a creative continuation of the legacy of Classical composers such as they were transmitted to Draeseke through Wagner. The idea of a “melodic thread” holding the music together while serving as a unifying element is in evidence everywhere in these works. Both quartets impressively demonstrate the words of the Draeseke expert Christoph Schlüren: “Draeseke is primarily lyrical in nature but at the same time has his appealing harshness and explores the dark, introverted expressive worlds with a unique imagination. The far-reaching melos is tailored for contrapuntal suitability, and for German circumstances the rhythm is particularly zestful and highly varied. Stylistically, relations quite obviously exist not only between Draeseke and Beethoven but also between Draeseke and Mendelssohn inasmuch as Draeseke’s highly colorful harmonic language, in part pervaded by surprising modulations, is an individual continuation and development of the New German “progressive” stance proceeding from Wagner and Liszt. Draeseke’s outstanding stature as a string quartet composer rests above all on his entirely original architectonic mastery in a genre in which Beethoven and Schubert created unsurpassable music, but where Draeseke, together with Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and the late Dvorák, proceeding from the experiences of Schumann and Mendelssohn, produced decidedly new music.”
Homilius: Siehe, der Herr kommt - Christmas & Advent Cantatas / Willens, Kolner Akademy
This album marks the recording premiere of four cantatas by Gottfried August Homilius for Advent and Christmas. Homilius was the number-one composer of Protestant church music during the second half of the eighteenth century and during his lifetime was regarded as »perhaps today’s very best church composer. “After his death the lexicographer Ernst Ludwig Gerber expressed the view that he was »without contradiction our greatest church composer.” Homilius’ music already displays elements of early Classicism and the sensibility of the empfindsamer Stil, his cantata choruses are frequently homophonic and songlike in design, and polyphonic sections are rather rare. His cantatas composed around 1776 prove to be works of individual design and conception and attest to his mastery as a composer. Arias of great tonal beauty, the naturalness of their expression, and the dramatic suspense of the numbers continue to fascinate listening audiences even today!
Khachaturian: Violin Concerto & Concerto Rhapsody / Weithaas, Raiski, Rhine Philharmonic State Orchestra
In the 1960s Aram Khachaturian engaged in a number of experiments in which he covered terrain situated at an astonishing distance from the immediately appealing tone of the works that he had composed prior to those years. These experiments included the first of his three concert rhapsodies, in which he completely emancipated himself from the established forms that he had filled out in his concertos for piano, violin, and violoncello, which already then were world famous. While the virtuosic ambitions of the rhapsodies are in no way inferior to the technical demands of their older sister works, he now requires what is perhaps an even higher measure of expressive shared experiencing and solo messaging. The direct juxtaposition of the two concert violin compositions recorded by Antje Weithaas and Daniel Raiskin and the Rhineland-Palatinate State Symphony Orchestra conveys the extraordinarily grand leap into a “modernism” that hardly anybody would have thought possible for the author of the Sabre Dance. In 1971 Aram Khachaturian was honored for his rhapsodic risk-taking when he received the State Prize of the Soviet Union for his second concert trilogy.
Ries: Overtures / Griffiths, WDR Sinfonieorchester Koln [Vinyl]
The Beethoven pupil Ferdinand Ries always holds surprises in store for listeners. Whether considering his symphonic music, chamber works, or vocal oeuvre (a broad selection available on CPO), his vibrant powers of invention, formal mastery and genial talent when it came to multiple paving of his own unique paths for the musical language of his times never fails to enthuse. The concert overture probably took shape in response to specific demands arising from the development of the concert as a public event. Ries’ rousing works of this genre are now rendered audible for vinyl fans!
Wagenseil: Trio Sonatas / Ensemble Klingekunst
The present trio sonatas for transverse flute, violin and basso continuo by Christoph Georg Wagenseil, who was one of the most famous Viennese composers of his time, are all conceived in three movements according to the usual sonata scheme of fast - slow - fast, but they are by no means musical "mass-produced goods", since the music of the 17th and 18th centuries was, without exception, committed to the musical imitation of the so-called "affects", whereby this term was understood to mean any human emotion. This imitation of affect was considered the highest goal of composition in those days. As means for this imitation, the composer had all the parameters of composition at his disposal, such as style, genre or form, key, melody, rhythm, tempo, meter, harmony, dynamics, articulation and instrumentation, whereby he should always choose such means and their combinations that best corresponded to the intended affect. The Ensemble Klingekunst interprets these trio sonata jewels - all first recordings, by the way - expressively and passionately.
M. Haydn: Six String Quartets / Constanze Quartet
Complete Organ Works III
Müller: Flute Concertos Nos. 5, 7 & 8 / Ruhland, Handschuh, Southwest German Chamber Orchestra
Kuhnau: Complete Sacred Works, Vol. 7 / Meyer, Opella Musica
Penalosa & Victoria: Marian Music from Spain / Penalosa-Ensemble
On the present recording the Peñalosa Ensemble brings together works by the two composers whose sacred music forms the chronological frame of the Golden Age of Iberian vocal music: its namesake, the Spanish Renaissance composer Francisco de Peñalosa (motets, Magnificat), and Tomás Luis de Victoria (Missa, motets). If Peñalosa may be said to belong to the first generation of composers who assimilated the Franco-Flemish style of Josquin Desprez, then Victoria’s death in 1611 symbolically closed the Iberian Renaissance through the adoption of Italian influences from the Age of Mannerism. The unique, highly emotional manifestation of Iberian Marian piety also influenced both composers – just as it also left its imprint on the visual arts in Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Compositions by Tomás Luis de Victoria not only experienced successful, rapid, and continuous dissemination over the whole of Europe owing to what was beyond any doubt their sublime quality but also received additional impetus from printed editions of music – so that his music was interpreted without interruption until the nineteenth century and was elevated to the status of a symbol standing for an entire musical epoch.
Telemann: Pimpinone oder Die ungleiche Heirat / Kallweit, Academy for Early Music Berlin
Reicha: Chamber Music / Albert Schweitzer Ensemble
Pez: Duplex Genius
Mozart: Die verstellte Gärtnerin / Piau, J. Prégardien, Parrott, Munich Radio Orchestra
Rarity – German version of Mozart's "Finta gardiniera. 5 years ago, the Munich Radio Orchestra under Andrew Parrott performed Mozart's singspiel "Die verstellte Gärtnerin" - the rarely performed German version of "Finta gardiniera," which can now finally appear on cpo. When this opera was first performed, Mozart was 19 years old - an age at which most composers had not even begun. Wolfgang Amadeus' career as a musician - and as a composer - had been in full swing for several years, however. The work belongs to the genre of opera buffa, within which it follows the type of opera semiseria (half opera) popular at the time. Accordingly, in addition to buffa parts, there are also semi-seria parts and even a pure seria part. The music is of great richness. Mozart shows himself here as a true master of opera buffa. At the same time, the music already points beyond these to masterpieces such as Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni. The first two acts of the opera contain large-scale, effective finales. In the second act, Mozart combines the finale with several preceding arias and recitatives to create a grand scene that transcends the boundaries of contemporary number operas.
Schneider: Three Flute Concertos / Riet, Moesus, Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn
Czerny: Systematische Anleitung zum Fantasieren / Kolja Lessing
For the third time Kolja Lessing, one of the most versatile musicians of our times, dedicates himself to the multifaceted composer Carl Czerny and specifically to his Systematische Anleitung zum Fantasieren auf dem Pianoforte op. 200 (Systematic Introduction to Improvisation on the Pianoforte). “If a finely written musical work can be compared to a noble architectural edifice in which symmetry must predominate, then a successful fantasy is a beautiful English garden, seemingly without rules but brimming with surprising variety and intelligibly, meaningfully, and planfully executed.” It was with this poetic comparison that Czerny, writing in the introduction to his Anleitung zum Fantasieren, characterized the nature of improvisation, contrasting it with a composition elaborated in writing. It is scarcely surprising that Czerny, quite early marked by many years of the closest contact with his mentor Beethoven and his unique art of improvisation, presented this compendium in 1829 in his effort to grasp music encyclopedically. As an instructive work, it systematizes all the different kinds of improvisation then in use and illustrates them with numerous models, often ones honed with the finest artistry. In his compendium Czerny addressed the knowledgeable, technically uncommonly well-versed player. In his accompanying texts he refers to models that at the time were almost completely unknown such as Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and Art of Fugue, to exemplary works by his contemporaries Beethoven, Clementi, Hummel, and Moscheles, and even to his own publications in respect of each improvisational genre. It is thus that Czerny’s op. 200 offers fascinating insights into the musical practice of the early nineteenth century at the crossroads between Classicism and Romanticism – while he himself already belongs to the Romantic period by virtue of his encyclopedic thought bringing together all the epochs of music history.
Wolf: Orchesterlieder & Penthesilea / Appl, Gaudenz, Jena Philharmonic
Sinding: Piano Trios, Opp. 23, 64 & 87
Druschetzky: Oboe Quartets, Vol. 2
Shostakovich, Weinberg: Songs & Trios / Kasper, Trio Vivente
Long before the founding of the Trio Vivente, Anne Katharina Schreiber, the trio’s violinist, heard a radio broadcast about Shostakovich’s Romance Suite and the circumstances of its premiere. She was so deeply moved that she later absolutely wanted to incorporate the suite into the Trio Vivente’s repertoire. However, the search for the right Russian-language female vocalist long remained without success – until she met the singer Kateryna Kasper. While studying Weinberg’s trio, she discovered just how closely the two composers had worked together. It thus seemed only natural to combine their works, and since Weinberg’s Jewish Songs also exist in a version for soprano and trio, a perfect circle was formed. This is how this album featuring trios and songs by these two expressionistic composers came about – and it is filled with expressive power!
REVIEW:
Trio Vivente have produced a most intelligent reading of all the works on this disc. Weinberg’s Piano Trio is the highlight for me but his songs too get remarkable performances. Kateryna Kasper, the young Ukrainian soprano, is a wonderful exponent. I have every admiration for her impressive and convincing achievement in singing in Yiddish. She is a powerful advocate. She also gives a magically beautiful performance of Shostakovich’s songs. They are not easy fare but she manages to inject just the right amount of darkness into them. None of my praise should detract from the excellent performance of Shostakovich’s youthful trio. The entire disc is highly recommended.
-- MusicWeb International
