Gradually and fortunately, for some years now the extensive and highly significant oeuvre of the Polish-Russian composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg has also been discovered and recognized in the West – a process also documented on our internationally highly regarded cpo recordings. During the 1960s Weinberg’s reputation was not only restored but also soared on high – at least in the Soviet Union. Interpreters of the rank of Rostropovich, Gilels, Kondrashin, Leonid Kogan, and the Borodin Quartet joined David Oistrach in his enthusiastic propagation of Weinberg’s music. The Symphony No. 10 is the most stylistically advanced and experimental composition among his purely instrumental works. In conjunction with her research on Dmitri Shostakovich’s life, the Polish violinist and composer Evelina Novicka’s attention was also drawn to the composer Weinberg. Impressed by his compositions, she has recorded several premieres of his works, including the Concertino op. 42 and Rhapsody op. 47 heard on this most recent CD. She herself has arranged the lost version of the Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes for violin and orchestra. - cpo (Translated from German text.)

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

A photograph from around 1896 depicts the musical senate of the Royal Academy of the Arts in Berlin. Ten professors in distinguished academic attire, a who’s who of the contemporary German compositional scene, pose for the camera, including Ernst Rudorff (1840-1916), today the most forgotten among them. As a composer Rudorff remained a romanticist through and through – also in his love of nature. He believed industrialization posed an increasing threat to nature and decided to take action, becoming an important precursor of conservation practices by groups organized in societies.

Classical Music

Holzbauer Flute Concertos: in D; in e; in A; in D • Karl Kaiser (fl); dir; La Stagione Frankfurt (period instruments) • cpo 777 358 (61:45)


I have reviewed CDs by Karl Kaiser in the past, a recording of trios by Matiegka (if I remember well, on that occasion I called Kaiser a master of his instrument, and I stand by my opinion), and a fabulous disc of Telemann wind concertos, featuring the same La Stagione Frankfurt. I have also had the pleasure of listening to some of his many excellent recordings. In all of them he displays the qualities that are amply evident here: beautiful warm tone, impeccable tuning, flexible inflections, inspired phrasing, and great digital dexterity. Any flutist would be happy to cling to these gifts and tread the worn paths, recording more of the usual repertoire; another fine recording of Bach or Mozart would certainly find a ready public.


What sets Kaiser apart, besides being the stunning interpreter that he is, is exactly the fact that he is not afraid to dig where no man has dug before, and his recording projects always bring surprises to the listener. Sometimes, the works he unearths are not unquestionably great, but never mind, they deserve to be heard. And to all of these forgotten compositions Kaiser applies the same winning combination of polished skills and overflowing enthusiasm, establishing a new standard for this repertoire.


Take the present CD, featuring flute concertos by Ignaz Holzbauer (Kaiser’s second foray into the composer’s œuvre , the first being a Camerata Köln recording of Holzbauer’s chamber works). Granted, Holzbauer is not exactly a household name today, but while he was alive he achieved good positions, and was a respected name in Europe. The son of a Viennese leather merchant, Holzbauer was trained in singing, piano, violin, and cello, and was basically self-taught in composition. He traveled extensively, and worked in Ljubljana (for the Count Thurn-Valsassina of Laibach), in Moravia (at the court of Count Rottal of Holešov), in Vienna, in Stuttgart, and in Mannheim. In fact, he is one of the exponents of the famous Mannheim School.


His output is quite impressive and made up of good music, very finely crafted, not exactly staggeringly original, but rich, elegant, fresh—the kind of writing that is usually more fun to play than to listen to. Kaiser and La Stagione Frankfurt sink their teeth in these concertos, and make them sound bright, lively, melancholic, intense, soulful, and energetic, as the mood requires. In the passages where the flute has cadenzas, or at least some freedom from the orchestral texture, Kaiser infuses the lines with sensuality or virtuosic gestures, which bring the music closer to the Classical style, even though the Quantz flute he chose for this CD has a round “Baroque” tone—contrary to many “period” flutists, Kaiser is not afraid to sound admittedly woody, and does not try to emulate a modern flute. The ensemble provides the perfect counterpart for the soloist’s flights of fancy, with a large dynamic scope, supple rhythmic drive, and very crisp articulations. Overall, the sound is so luscious that it takes the mind a while to get around the idea that this is actually only a chamber group (10 musicians, that’s all!). The result of this felicitous combination is music that is permeated with color and flexibility, and which creates a vivid image, one that stays with the listener long after the tunes have faded.


FANFARE: Laura Rónai

Includes work(s) by Philipp H. Erlebach. Ensemble: Les Amis de Philippe. Conductor: Ludger Rémy.

The Austrian romantic composer, Heinrich von Herzogenberg is known primarily through his association with the circle of friends of Brahms. He wrote a variety of works including sacred music.

From the cpo label:

It is a unique case in music history for a composer to have dealt with the theme of dying and death on the basis of three very different texts: the classic subject of the Catholic Mass for the Dead (Requiem), a work best described as a Lutheran cantata drawing on German texts from the Bible and hymn stanzas, and a poem of his own authorship. Heinrich von Herzogenberg, to whom cpo is dedicating an edition containing almost all of his works, took it upon himself to cope with grief in this way. He composed his Requiem in 1890 without a specific occasion in mind, but his other two works represent artistic reactions to two personal and sorrowful strokes of fate. Philipp Spitta, his best friend, unexpectedly died of a heart attack in 1894, when he was only fifty-two years old, and Herzogenberg composed his Begräbnisgesang (Burial Song) for the dedication of the gravestone during the following year. Two years earlier Herzogenberg had experienced a considerably more existential loss when his beloved wife Elisabeth succumbed to a chronic heart ailment at the young age of forty-four. Herzogenberg thereupon plunged into work in order to perpetuate his wife’s legacy in music, writing his grand Kirchenkantate auf das Todtenfest (Church Cantata in Commemoration of the Dead). He himself compiled the texts for the setting from biblical passages and hymn stanzas. In this personal form it became a counterpart to Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem. After the premiere Max Bruch wrote, "Herzogenberg has had the courage to express exactly what he felt in his heart, and the effect did not fail to manifest itself." - cpo

Classical Music

HERZOGENBERG Piano Trios: No. 1; No. 2 • ATOS Tr • cpo 777335 (64:06)


Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843–1900) isn’t exactly a household name, nor are these trios familiar territory for many listeners. I found them to be nice music in the Brahmsian mold, well written and attractive in both mood and expression, just not quite as good as Brahms or as original as the music of Josef Rheinberger. Herzogenberg was by no means an untalented composer; I’d much rather hear these works than a great many by more famous composers that lack their sparkle or charm. And sparkle and charm they most certainly have; though none of the themes are particularly memorable, all are well crafted and developed with fine attention to melodic and rhythmic variance. There are quite a few surprises along the way, too, such as the sprightly 6/8 dance in the midst of the opening Allegro of the first trio. As an original review of the first trio put it, “The main themes . . . do not exactly come forward with compelling force but immediately gain favor, are finely invented and warmly felt, and are conveyed more delightfully to us by an extremely skillful and frequently very appealing elaboration.” That, to me, is a perfect description of that trio, in fact of both trios on this CD.


I personally felt that Herzogenberg’s weakness came in the Andante movements, well made but somewhat old-fashioned, almost Schubertian in language but not as emotionally convincing. The ATOS Trio does a very fine job with them, however, so if you’re looking for rousing good German piano trios to puzzle your friends over in a game of “guess the composer,” these will provide ample surprises indeed. There do not appear to be any other recordings of these works available. Recommended highly for performance and sound quality, which are clean and natural, with the slight reservations noted above for the music itself.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

There is more to the colorful music of George Enescu than the popular Romanian Rhapsody No. 1. The two rare works on this album are scored for orchestra, female choir and tenor soloist.

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

What an odd disc this is. When later Viennese composers write self-consciously referential works on themes of their illustrious predecessors, it often becomes painfully obvious just how woefully they measure up. Franz Schmidt's Concertante Variations are based on the scherzo of Beethoven's "Spring" Violin Sonata, but charming as they occasionally are, nothing in the score rises to the level of the theme. The orchestra remains very subdued throughout, only managing a volume above mezzo-forte at the very end, as Schmidt takes great pains never to cover his left-handed (only) soloist. The music is never less than pleasant, but also never particularly interesting.

That said, the variations offer a thrill ride compared to the concerto: 43 minutes of heavy-duty, relentless, insubstantial filigree--if you can imagine such a thing. Both this work and the variations were composed for, you guessed it, Paul Wittgenstein, who evidently liked them very much. Schmidt, for his part, wrote more music for one-handed pianist than just about any other major composer because, being a cellist, he preferred writing for a melody instrument and piano left-hand was about as close as he could get with a keyboard. He also very much admired Max Reger, and the result here sounds a little bit like the Reger Piano Concerto after liposuction.

The performances are very good. Markus Becker tackles both piano parts, which are far from easy, with fearlessness and conviction. His tone is lovely, his rhythmic precision admirable. Eiji Oue conducts with all of the clarity and discretion that Schmidt demands, but I can't help but think that an awful lot of work has gone into this production for rather little return on the investment. That said, fans of this composer (and he does have some, deservedly) will surely want to add this very well-engineered disc to their collections.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

This is the fourth CD of Dora Pejacevic’s works to come my way in as many years, and this until recently virtually unknown Hungarian-born Croatian composer has turned out to be quite the discovery. Previous releases, all on CPO, have included her Symphony in F# Minor and Phantasie Concertante for Piano and Orchestra (35:2), a Piano Trio and Cello Sonata (35:3), and a String Quartet, Piano Quartet, and Piano Quintet (36: 6). Yet another CPO disc, of Pejacevic’s songs, went to Henry Fogel in 36:3.


Pejacevic(1885–1923) died young from complications following the birth of her first child. Had she lived a more normal lifespan, I suspect we’d have heard from her long before now; for though she produced only 58 documented works, everything I’ve heard so far convinces me that she would have come to be regarded as one of the early 20th-century’s major symphonists and chamber music composers. “Like another, earlier female composer, the French Louise Farrenc (1804–75),” I noted in my 35:2 review, “Pejacevic competed with the boys in the arena of large symphonic, concerted orchestral, and chamber works.”


Of course, she also wrote smaller, salon-type pieces, as did many composers of the period, and we have a number of them on this disc, namely the Canzonetta, Menuet, Romance, Élégie , and Meditation . But additionally, we have two very substantial violin sonatas, once again reinforcing my perception of Pejacevic as a significant composer of chamber music.


The First of Pejacevic’s two violin sonatas, composed in 1909, leads off with one of those arresting, unforgettable melodies that will stay in your head long after it’s over. But here’s what I find really interesting about it. Pejacevics biography tells us that she traveled briefly to Vienna and then lived for a time in Dresden and Munich, but nowhere do I find any indication that she ever visited France. Yet, the musical idiom of this Sonata bears a stamp as French as if it had been written by Fauré. The free-flowing outlines of that opening theme in the violin, with its fluid and unexpected harmonic turns in the piano have much in common with the French composer’s A-Major Violin Sonata of 1876.


Pejacevic herself was not a late-bloomer—she composed this Violin Sonata No. 1 in D Major, already her op. 26, at the age of 24—but as noted in a previous review, she was somewhere around 20 to 25 years behind the modern trends of her time. This, I believe, can be attributed to her physical remove from the main centers of where much of the action was happening in the first two decades of the 20th century, namely Paris and Vienna. Still, as long as you don’t hold the accident of geography against her, and you love gorgeous Romantic music, regardless of when or where it was written, Pejacevic’s works for violin and piano are guaranteed to give you great pleasure.


The Second Sonata in Bb Minor (a cruel choice of key for a violin piece) was composed in 1917, and carries the nickname “Slavic.” Normally, that term would lead one to expect music containing Czech or Russian folk elements, but Pejacevic’s Sonata doesn’t seem to, at least not in any recognizably obvious way. Koraljika Kos’s album note explains it thusly: “The composer lends her support to this idea more by way of declaration (the title of the work) than in the music itself. The individual folkloristic elements isolated from the context, such as the augmented seconds, open bourdon fifths, and simple dance rhythms, are multivalent and not merely specifically Slavic.” Indeed that’s true; the passage commencing at 3:45 in the second movement could just as easily suggest a Middle Eastern setting.


In overall style and approach, Pejacevic’s musical physiognomy hasn’t undergone a radical remake in the eight years that separate her two violin sonatas. There’s perhaps a bit more harmonic and rhythmic adventurousness in the later Sonata, and the violin part is somewhat more virtuosic and sounds more technically taxing (the key alone would present difficulties for any string player), but like her earlier D-Major Sonata, Pejacevic’s Bb-Minor opus is an alluring, ear-pleasing score. Both works are welcome additions to the violin-piano repertoire, which I would expect to be soon taken up by other players.


The remaining pieces on the disc are all short, salon-like encore numbers, described in the booklet as “miniatures.” Substitute a human voice for the violin in the Canzonetta , set it to words, and you’d have a very pretty song. The Romance is a bit less singable in some of its chromatic intervals, runs, and wide leaps, but it’s a perfect fit for its title. With its double stops, the Élégie is definitely not a vocal number, nor does it sound particularly lamenting; wistful and nostalgic is how I’d describe it; likewise the 1919 Meditation , the latest-written on this program. The only upbeat, up-tempo piece among this group of miniatures is the Menuet , a stately neo-Baroque sounding thing that reminds me a bit of the simulated “antique” style one hears in some of Saint-Saëns’s works.


Andrej Bielow is a Ukrainian who studied and settled in Germany, has soloed with a number of orchestras, and since 2005 has led the Szymanowski Quartet. I first heard him partnering with cellist Christian Poltéra and pianist Oliver Triendl in Pejacevic’s C-Minor Piano Trio. Bielow is a fine violinist who sounds very comfortable in and eminently well suited to these works. He doesn’t over-sentimentalize the salon pieces, but has a way of shading his tone from p down to pp that’s very touching. I can forgive him the occasional off-pitch note here and there in the Second Sonata, given the key it’s written in, which forecloses the use of open strings and entails awkward fingerings. Other than that, Bielow is technically secure and a pleasure to listen to throughout.


Oliver Triendl, a familiar chamber music partner on a number of CPO releases, is, as always, an outstanding coequal collaborator. Once again, another winner in the growing Pejacevic discography, and another strong recommendation.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Classical Music

The CPO edition of Pejacevic's compositions continue with a volume featuring songs for voice and piano, some of which number among her top creative achievements. This CD presents almost the whole of this Croatian composer's vocal oeuvre and does so in chronological order. Her songs comprise 14 opus numbers and a total of 33 songs; those involving the setting of poems by one and the same poet are designed as cycles.