Classical Music

Includes work(s) by Ludwig Thuille. Ensemble: Bolzano-Trento Haydn Orchestra. Conductor: Alun Francis. Soloist: Oliver Triendl.

Includes work(s) by Francesco Antoni Rosetti. Ensembles: Bavarian Chamber Philharmonic, German Chamber Academy Neuss. Soloist: Lajos Lencsés.

Classical Music

Recording information: Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal (04/19/2008-04/20/2008).

The young violinist Lena Neudauer is a multifaceted and versatile artist who fascinates audiences with the naturalness and straightforwardness with which she plays the violin, as if it were part of her own body. For the Beethoven Year 2020 she now interprets his Violin Concerto and two Romances: “In this concerto I feel like a part of something much greater, which is a very elating feeling. At the same time an enormous reverence for the perfection and beauty of the whole is aroused in me.” Lena Neudauer’s personal impression of the perfect synthesis between soloist and orchestra is shared by many famous violinists, including the Russian violinist Nathan Milstein: “It is a miracle, something that has come to us from the ethereal heights like a divine message. We can engage in endless discussion about the revelations that Beethoven's concerto imparts to us.” And together with the Cappella Aquileia and the conductor Marcus Bosch, the solo and orchestral parts indeed do unite to form a perfect union.

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

As recent recordings on Teldec and Chandos have shown, Antonio Rosetti was a marvelous composer with a fresh, original classical style. Although he used the Italianized version of his name, he was Czech, which is practically a guarantee of superior musical quality, especially in the treatment of wind instruments. These three concertos, two for clarinet and one for two horns, offer eloquent testimony to his high powers of invention and consummate craftsmanship. Rosetti wrote on an expansive scale: all three works feature fully developed opening movements, and the slow movements of the clarinet concertos, both subtitled "Romanze", boast a lyric beauty worthy of Mozart. Toss a couple of folk-inspired rondo finales into the mix, and the result is thoroughly winning. The performers seem to be enjoying themselves immensely. Clarinetist Dieter Klöcker in particular deserves credit for reviving so much unknown wind music of the classical period. A friend of mine remarked recently that he was surprised at just how good the music of some of the "other" classical composers (i.e. not Haydn and Mozart) really is. He was right, and here's further proof.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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.

There are many definitions of “freedom” in music beyond the question of whether a work is tonal or not. Julius Röntgen’s harmonic language is conservative and traditional, but his style regarding form and content is completely free. These three symphonies demonstrate this fact particularly well. Symphony No. 5, inspired by the events of the First World War, has a finale setting a poem (and a melody) from the Thirty Years’ War, “There is a reaper and his name is Death, and he has power from the great God.” The next symphony in line, No. 6 in one movement, the opening of which you can hear below, borrows an early 16th century Dutch tune, “Great God, to whom shall I lament?” Both works ask for a mixed choir to sing the texts, the former also requiring a tenor soloist (here the pure-voiced Marcel Beekman).

Between 1930 and 1932, roughly speaking, Röntgen composed 19 symphonies (!), including his Symphony No. 19 on the BACH theme. He had apparently composed a piece on this theme in 1870 and played it for Liszt, who told its young composer that the work was junk. That episode ended Röntgen’s relationship with and respect for Liszt forever, but not his love of Bach. This symphony is an unpretentious, graceful essay in four tiny movements lasting only about 16 minutes. Only the finale is notably contrapuntal, but the music has a timeless quality somehow evocative of its subject. As with the other issues in this marvelous ongoing series, the performances are excellent. David Porcelijn, always a reliable guide to unfamiliar repertoire, gets impressive results from the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra. The choir sings beautifully, and the engineering is first class. Very highly recommended.

ClassicsToday.com

Includes cantata(s) by Georg Philipp Telemann. Ensembles: Rheinische Kantorei, Das Kleine Konzert. Conductor: Hermann Max. Soloists: Veronika Winter, Lena Susanne Norin, Jan Kobow, Ekkehard Abele, Ingrid Schmithüsen, Claudia Schubert, Howard Crook, Gotthold Schwarz.

While Louis Glass until about 1910 had endeavored to develop a personally colored type of late romantic symphonic music, a new, strange dimension then suddenly opened up in some of his works. This dimension was connected to the influence of theosophy, which began around 1913 and would lead to some works of speculative stamp. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and others had established the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875. One of her pupils, the English author Annie Besant, served as the society’s president beginning in 1907 and established the Order of the Star of the East in 1910. When the Danish section first met, Louis Glass played the organ. It was around this time that Glass began his work on the Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra, as this work is the first that reflects the composer’s relation to theosophy- which is shown above all in the work’s introspective motto alluding to theosophy: “From the spirit’s eternal canopy tones calling man sound down. And man turns away from the world and remains alone in order to find peace.”

Following ballet compositions and works for piano and orchestra, cpo is now presenting to listeners wind concertos by the musical cosmopolitan Alexandre Tansman. This production focuses on concertante works for woodwinds and orchestra composed by the Polish emigrant Tansman during the 1950s and 1960s. This music, thoroughly retrospective but in no way antiquated, mixes the profound layers of origins and manifold influences to which the composer was exposed during his years in Paris and the United States. Consequently, the results of these multifaceted layered structures so well worth hearing are situated in a world between Igor Stravinsky, the members of the Groupe des Six, and the music of the New World, which manifests itself not least in the form of jazz rhythms and styles. For half a century, the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra has been Malta's leading musical ensemble. The orchestra was founded in April 1868, when musicians from the defunct "C-in-C" orchestra of the Malta-based British Mediterranean Fleet regrouped as the Manoel Theatre Orchestra. It continued to serve as the theatre's resident orchestra until September 1997, when it became an independent orchestra, taking up the name National Orchestra of Malta in the process. The ensemble assumed it's present name in 2008, when it was expanded into a full-size symphony orchestra.

Classical Music

Classical Music