This is, hands down, the best version of these remarkable pieces yet recorded. Wolfram Christ, famous as a solo violist and principal in the Berlin Philharmonic, whips the strings of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra into a frenzy in the quick movements, and wrings every drop of expressive angst from the more brooding slow movements. Consider, for example, the Adagio of Symphony No. 3, ostensibly in C major, with its tritonal shrieks and desolate, almost expressionist harmonies (sound clip). It’s an amazing work, and this recording does it full justice.

The performance style is what you might call “modified period practice.” Vibrato is used minimally–a mistake, of course, but not too serious a one in this context because all other aspects of the playing are so good. More importantly, the continuo part is finally played on C.P.E. Bach’s preferred instrument in lieu of the clavichord: the fortepiano. Truth be told, we have no evidence historically that these symphonies were ever performed with a fortepiano, but then, we have no evidence of how they were performed at all.

What these interpretations reveal, though, is what Tovey said nearly a century ago: that a fortepiano is even better than a harpsichord as an accompanying instrument for the same reason it’s better than a harpsichord at everything else. The variety of touch, articulation, and above all, dynamics makes it possible to accompany the strings without suddenly turning the music into a harpsichord concerto or, on the other hand, forcing the strings to restrict their own dynamics in order to accommodate the limitations of the continuo instrument.

These considerations are particularly valid today when, first, continuo players simply can’t resist embellishing their parts in a way which is wholly inauthentic and, as often as not, unstylish, and second, recording engineers invariably mike the continuo too loudly on the theory that everything the instrument does ought to be heard on the same plane as the folks who have the tune. At least with a fortepiano, sensitively played as here, the embellishments and balance issues never get in the way of the string ensemble. It blends harmoniously and mellifluously at all times. The result is simply wonderful, and surely closer to Bach’s intentions than more avowedly “authentic” versions if only because it’s so much more musical.

The opening of the B minor Symphony (No. 5 in the set) offers an excellent example of how attractive, how modern, the music sounds when performed in this fashion (sound clip). These symphonies were commissioned by Gottfried van Swieten (librettist of Haydn’s late oratorios) in 1773. He told Bach to write whatever he wanted, without regard for conventional stylistic or technical limitations. The result is an astounding series of passionate, spontaneous, and timeless pieces that finally sound that way. Surely you will want to own this gripping, even thrilling disc.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

CLASSICAL OBOE • Lajos Lencsés (ob); Budapest Str; 1 Franz Liszt CO; 2 Auer Qrt; 3 Miwako Nagatomi (vn); 4 Vidor Nagy (va); 4 Dieter Brachmann (vc) 4 • HÄNSSLER 99.277 (66:57)


MOZART Adagio and Allegro, K 594. 1 DITTERSDORF Symphony in F: Adagio non molto. 2 Andantino in G. 2 HAYDN Divertimentos: No. 1 in D; 3 No. 2 in A. 3 VANHAL Quartet in C, op. 7/6 4


It’s been nearly a half century since I had the privilege of witnessing Igor Stravinsky conduct Les noces with Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, and Roger Sessions playing the four pianos. It was a rare assemblage of celebrated composers as performers, but not an unprecedented one. Josef Haydn is known to have invited Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf (second violin), Johann Baptist Vanhal (cello), and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (on his favorite stringed instrument, the viola) to play string quartets with him. Foss and Sessions may have been the Dittersdorf and Vanhal of their time (and vice versa), but I doubt that either Barber or Copland—in their wildest dreams—would have equated themselves with Haydn and Mozart.


This historical footnote is the hook on which Lajos Lencsés, one of our most prolific and imaginative oboe virtuosos, has hung this compilation of mostly recycled odds and ends. Alert readers will notice the array of assisting artists on the disc. Only the Mozart was newly recorded, but the mixture of sources does not intrude. Little, if any, of the program is quite as advertised. The Adagio and Allegro is a transcription of a piece for mechanical organ. Haydn’s divertimentos, composed for his princely employer, were originally scored for baryton trio. The Dittersdorf pieces are slow movements from two of his Six Symphonies after Ovid’s Metamorphoses . I can’t say for sure, but I suspect that the Vanhal contribution was originally a string quartet. No matter. Appropriating music written for another instrument, quite acceptable in Classical Vienna, is hardly unheard of today, and it creates possibilities for programming that would not otherwise exist. Lencsés makes the most of those possibilities. Fanciers of the oboe with a hankering for something a little out of the ordinary (but not too much so) should enjoy this disc.


FANFARE: George Chien

This specially priced double CD features a collection of the beautiful and popular music from the Baroque for the Christmas season. Many of the melodies you will hear are familiar seasonal favorites while other lesser-known works will offer you with an enchanting listening experience.

With performances drawn from the Hänssler Classic catalog, featuring the artistry of Helmuth Rilling and his Gächinger Kantorei, the early music specialists Ensemble Musica Poetica Freiburg, Ulrich Stötzel's Collegium Vocale, and several of Europe's most distinguished organ soloists, this beautiful 2-CD collection captures all the moods of the Christmas season – joyous, festive, reflective and spiritual.

Tracks:

1.1 J. S. Bach, Lobt Gott, ihr Christen alle gleich 00:45
1.2 J. S. Bach, Jauchzet, ihr Himmel, frohlocket, ihr Engel 03:23
1.3 J. S. Bach, Magnificat anima mea 02:53
1.4 J. S. Bach, Brich an, du schönes Morgenlicht 01:05
1.5 J. S. Bach, Zu Bethlehem geboren 01:01
1.6 A. M. Brunckhorst, Sollen wir uns heut nicht freuen 01:32
1.7 P. Nicolai, Zion, hört die Wächter singen 03:51
1.8 A. Hammerschmidt, Freuet euch, ihr Christen alle 04:01
1.9 J. S. Bach, Nun komm der Heiden Heiland 02:47
1.10 J. S. Bach, Wie soll ich dich empfangen 01:18
1.11 G. Schnitter, Sieh nicht an, was du selber bist 04:06
1.12 Ch. H. Rinck, Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe 01:44
1.13 A. M. Brunckhorst, Fürchtet euch nicht 00:55
1.14 J. S. Bach, Seid froh, dieweil 00:53
1.15 Es ist ein Ros entsprungen 03:00
1.16 J. S. Bach, Vom Himmel hoch 00:34
1.17 Ch. H. Rinck, Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe 00:55
1.18 J. S. Bach, Jauchzet frohlocket 07:25
1.19 P. Gerhardt, Fröhlich soll mein Herze springen 05:05
1.20 A. M. Brunckhorst, Nun zeiget der Himmel die schönsten Gebärden 01:50
1.21 J. S. Bach, Wohl mir, dass ich Jesus habe 03:03
1.22 J. S. Bach, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern 00:46
1.23 Wittenberg, Nun singet and seid froh 03:13
1.24 J. S. Bach, Wir singen dir in deinem Heer 01:11
1.25 J. S. Bach, Uns ist ein Kindlein heut geboren 00:53
1.26 Ch. H. Rinck, Auf, Christen lasst uns unsern Gott 01:31
2.1 A. M. Brunckhorst, Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe 00:43
2.2 J. S. Bach, Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ 04:26
2.3 J. G. Herder, O du fröhliche 02:11
2.4 J. S. Bach, Nun seid ihr wohlgerochen 02:58
2.5 G. Joseph, Dies ist die Nacht, da mir erschienen 02:28
2.6 J. S. Bach, Ach, mein herzliebes Jesulein 01:09
2.7 J. S. Bach, Gottes Sohn ist kommen 02:44
2.8 J. S. Bach, Dein Glanz aller Finsternis 00:55
2.9 P. Gerhardt, Kommt, and lasst uns Christus ehren 03:50
2.10 J. S. Bach, Gloria in excelsis Deo 06:40
2.11 P. Strauch, Du Kind, zu dieser heilgen Zeit 03:38
2.12 J. S. Bach, Jesus richte mein Beginnen 02:01
2.13 Ch. H. Rinck, Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe 04:19
2.14 J. S. Bach, Als der gütige Gott 01:14
2.15 J. S. Bach, Lasst uns nun gehen gen Bethlehem 00:41
2.16 Ch. H. Rinck, Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe 00:50
2.17 J. S. Bach, Zwar ist solche Herzensstube 01:11
2.18 J. S. Bach, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland 04:43
2.19 J. S. Bach, Lobt Gott, ihr Christen alle gleich 03:10
2.20 Ch. H. Rinck, Nach seinem gnadenvollen Rat 01:09
2.21 Ch. F. Gellert, Dies ist der Tag, den Gott gemacht 03:23
2.22 J. S. Bach, Ich will dich mit Fleiß bewahren 01:11
2.23 J. S. Bach, Ich steh an deiner Krippe hier 03:45
2.24 J. S. Bach, Nun singet and seid froh 02:19
2.25 J. Mohr, Stille Nacht 02:49

Annika Treutler grew up in Detmold and is now based in Berlin. She studied with Prof. Matthias Kirschnereit at the Rostock College of Music and Drama and Prof. Bernd Goetzke at the Hanover College of Music, Drama and Media. The young artist won third prize at the Montreal International Piano Competition in 2014 and reached the semifinals of the ARD International Music Competition in Munich that year. Annika Treutler has appeared as a guest soloist with such orchestras as the Konzerthaus Orchestra of Berlin, the Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra, the German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. On this release, she presents beautiful solo piano works by Johannes Brahms.

One of the underlying principles of Johannes Brahms’s works is the way the composer creatively engages with a range of musical traditions, from the old German folk song through the madrigal to Viennese Classicism and the Romanticism of the likes of Schumann and Mendelssohn. This tendency has at times led to Brahms being labelled a “conservative”. During the second half of the 19th century, a period that saw Richard Wagner’s music drama and Franz Liszt’s symphonic poems keep the German music scene on tenterhooks, Brahms continued to fly the flag for chamber music in the Classical tradition. Two works from this field are presented on this recording: the two sonatas for cello and piano (interestingly, they were originally called sonatas for “piano and cello” like Beethoven’s sonatas op. 69 and op. 102). In both works, Brahms ingeniously and steadfastly continues the Classical tradition and enriches it with new ideas. What is once again evident here is how the composer contrives to align each of his works with the character of the performing instruments. In the sonatas, Brahms primarily draws on deep, baritonal registers, both in lyrical passages and at dramatic, energetic moments.

Outstanding soloists: Donna Brown (Soprano), Gilles Cachemaille (Bass-Baritone) - A further reference recording of Helmuth Rilling and his Stuttgarter Ensembles Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium belonging to the series “Great Choral Works“ - „Brahms-singing with predictive dimension and forcefullness but in the same way deeply human in each phrase“ Fono Forum This "Requiem" is not based on the familiar text of the Catholic funeral mass, but is instead sensitively and knowledgably assembled from text from the Old and New Testaments by Brahms himself. Indeed, it was not his intention to pattern his Requiem after the Latin mass for the dead, nor to proclaim what he felt were false hopes for resurrection. Instead, “Ein deutsches Requiem” is a work of consolation for those left behind. This aspect is particularly emphasized in Helmuth Rilling’s moving interpretation. Donna Brown (soprano) and Gilles Cachemaille (baritone) are the outstanding vocal soloists, delivering well-profiled performances that are perfectly integrated into the overall balance of sound. Together with his regular collaborators, the Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart and the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Rilling delivers a performance full of gravitas that effectively reconciles the themes of death and mourning with a transcendent sense of spiritual consolation with a sense of immediacy seldom encountered in other performances.

The workmanlike quality I've inferred from many of Gerhard Oppitz's recordings hardly prepared me for the sheer inspiration and commitment the pianist displays throughout his first installment of a projected Beethoven sonata cycle. Indeed, if Oppitz has made a finer disc, I have not heard it. The Op. 10 No. 1 sonata comes alive with brutal resilience and quivering nuance, capped by a finale whose true Prestissimo pulse never lets up in intensity. Some listeners may prefer a lighter touch in the Op. 10 No. 2 sonata's outer movements, yet you can't take issue with Oppitz's rhythmic equilibrium and sure sense of where the lines are going. Interestingly, Oppitz takes a less iconoclastic, more conventional route through Op. 10 No. 3's four movements (more comfortable basic tempos and symmetrical phrasing). Strokes of individuality--such as his surging scales and roulades in the outer movements--lift Oppitz's solidly played "Pathétique" out of the sonata's "regulation model" box. Perhaps the slow movement is a bit foursquare and downbeat oriented, but not ploddingly so. Keep tabs on this Beethoven cycle, and savor its impressive first fruits, despite a recording that's thinner and more constricted than Hänssler's best efforts.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Frank Peter Zimmermann is widely regarded as one of the foremost violinists of his generation. He has been performing with all major orchestras in the world, among which are the Berliner Philharmoniker with whom he made his debut in 1985 with Daniel Barenboim; the Wiener Philharmoniker with whom he played first time in 1983 with Lorin Maazel in Salzburg; the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, all London orchestras, as well as all big American orchestras. Frank Peter Zimmermann is a regular guest at all major music festivals, including Salzburg, Edinburgh and Lucerne.Over the years Frank Peter Zimmermann has built up an impressive discography, and has recorded virtually all major concerto repertoire. On this new release, he focuses on the original and reconstructed violin concertos of J. S. Bach. He plays on the 1711 Antonius Stradivari violin “Lady Inchiquin,” which is kindly provided by the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, “Kunst im Landesbesitz.”

An imaginative player offers an outstanding reading of the violin's 'old testament'

Christian Tetzlaff, always one of the most thoughtful, imaginative violinists, has obviously found Bach’s solo works a stimulating and rewarding challenge. Technically, he’s most impressive: using a modern bow, he can achieve, with each phrase, the kind of subtle give and take that’s normally the preserve of the best Baroque violinists. His chord playing, too, shows wonderful control; in the more densely polyphonic pieces – the Chaconne and the fugues in the three sonatas – it seems there’s often little choice between aggressive accentuation and rhythmic distortion caused by spreading the chords. Tetzlaff, however, manages to avoid both pitfalls, with varied arpeggiation that never fails to take account of the music’s rhythmic requirements.

The performances have a remarkable air of spontaneity, the result of a pervasive rubato especially notable in the ornamented opening movements of the first two sonatas, and in the freer sections of the Chaconne. There’s a sense of line and balance that ensures that each departure from metronomic regularity sounds entirely natural, unlocking the music’s expressive potential. I felt this even when, in a few movements in the partitas, the dance character suggests a more regular, metrical pulse. Apart from this, it’s notable how Tetzlaff realises the virtuosity of Bach’s violin writing – the moto perpetuo finales of the sonatas sound truly thrilling, full of temperament and fire. Even if you’ve fallen for Julia Fischer’s beautifully stylish, polished accounts, or the expressive richness of Richard Tognetti’s gut-strung Guadagnini, I’d urge you to investigate this outstanding set.

-- Duncan Druce, Gramophone [8/2007]

Throughout Bach's treasure of church cantatas, there are many works that sing the praises of God and thank him for his grace. This six CD specially priced collection brings together the finest of Bach's glorius cantatas of praise and thanksgiving, such as "Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König", "Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen" and "Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes."

Few musicians have the intimate experience of performing these works as have Helmuth Rilling, his Gächinger Kantorei and the Bach Collegium Stuttgart and each performance reverbrates with joy and spiritual encouragement.

Few composers throughout history have had such an impact on keyboard music as Baroque giant Johann Sebastian Bach. A prodigious talent at the keyboard, he was well known during his lifetime and after for his technical and improvisational abilities. Many of the works on this release began as improvisations that were eventually written down and have been performed by pianists all over the world for hundreds of years. This enormous release features all of the works that J.S. Bach wrote for keyboard throughout his life. From works from his young years that are rarely performed today to his famous Well-Tempered Clavier that has become a staple in every pianist’s education, each and every work is included. Some of the finest pianists and harpsichordists in the Haenssler Classics catalog are featured, including Robert Levin, Trevor Pinnock, Robert Hill, Peter Watchorn, Edward Aldwell, and Evgeni Koroliov.

In 1741, at the height of his creativity, Bach published on of his pioneering works under the modest title “Keyboard exercise comprising an aria with diverse variations for harpsichord with two manuals.” The title “Goldberg Variations” has attached itself to the work thanks to an unverifiable anecdote by Bach’s first biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel. This story has often led people to the misapprehension that the phenomenal work was conceived to help Count Keyserlingk drop off to sleep. The Goldberg Variations have gained monolithic prominence as the only work of Bach’s oeuvre in this genre. The challenge of composing a piece of considerable length (45-90 minutes depending on how frequently the repeats are played) on top of a single bass line has been superbly met here. It is astonishing how the continuous G major, which is interspersed with just three G minor variations, never becomes the slightest bit tedious for the listener.

"Since Helmuth Rilling has undoubtedly recorded more of Bach's music than anyone else, one may wonder why it's taken him so long to get around to these most popular of the master's scores, and why he did so in Oregon, rather than in his hometown and with his Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, which he founded thirty years ago and has conducted ever since. But Rilling has been associated with the Oregon Bach Festival for nearly as many years, and he made a fine recording of Bach's overtures (orchestral suites) with the Festival Orchestral in 1992 (see Fanfare 16:6). While Rilling has never apologized for using of modern instruments in Bach's music and continues that practice here, he does retain the recorders in Concertos 2 and 4 and a viola da gamba in No. 6. For the present recording, Rilling has assembled a distinguished group of soloists, headed by violinist Kathleen Lenski and including Jeffrey Kahane, harpsichord, Elizabeth Baker, violin (in Concerto No. 2), Judith Lisenberg, recorder, Allan Vogel, oboe, Carol Wincenc, flute, Cynthia Phelps, viola, and far from least, Stephen Burns, trumpet. Contending that Bach would not have inserted a whole piece between the first and last movements of the third concerto, Rilling simply decorates the two chords that make up the second movement with a brief harpsichord flourish. (The timings for the second and third movements are transposed in the booklet.)

As with his overtures, Rilling's Brandenburgs are comfortably familiar in their broad outline and offer a minimum of controversial details. The playing is always accomplished and sometimes much better than that. The Second Concerto—the best of the lot—is an unqualified success."
Review of original release of this recording, Hänssler 98927

Includes work(s) by various composers.

Adam Falckenhagen (1697-1754) could very well have produced a great deal of compositions. Unfortunately, these six sonatas are the only works left intact. In these works, the flute and the lute are treated equally, performing a dialogue that is rarely seen in music from this period. Performers on this album include John Schneiderman on the baroque lute, Jeffrey Cohan on the baroque flute, and William Skeen on the baroque cello.