Mikhail Pochekin writes of this new release: “Both violin concertos have in common that they were composed with great violinists in mind. With Mendelssohn it was the violin virtuoso Ferdinand David. There’s an interesting exchange of letters about the E Minor Violin Concerto and the friendship shared by Mendelssohn and David, which is a highly informative and compelling read. And the Bruch Concerto is unthinkable without Sarasate. Both works are based on a similar foundation. What the works have in common, however, is that they are two completely different masterpieces, each of which tells a completely different “story”. This combination creates many moments full of suspense, at least that’s what I hope when people listen to this album!”

A MusicWeb International Recording of the Month for July 2022!

All in all Maria Bach left more than 400 works to posterity. Most (about 80%) are Lieder and choral works, followed by smaller-scale piano works; not unlike Edvard Grieg or Hugo Wolff, she was an expert in that field, though she did also compose three ballets, made up of small, orchestral piano pieces. Her most ambitious works then, are the few excursions she made into the realms of chamber music (solo cello sonata, cello sonata, piano quartet and quintet, string quintet and two string quartets), in which she ventured a confrontation with the traditions of the grand, established genres. On the present release, Oliver Triendl, Marina Grauman, Nina Karmon, Öykü Canpolat, and Alexander Hülshoff showcase Maria Bach’s chamber works, including the Piano Quintet “Wolga-Quintet”, the Cello Sonata, and the Suite for Cello Solo.

Review

[Maria Bach's] music is infused with French and Russian elements and one can quite hear why it was so appealing to Roger-Ducasse who ensured that her 31-minute Piano Quintet was performed at the Paris Conservatoire when she visited Paris in 1930-31. Like all good music it’s clearly susceptible to strongly divergent interpretive stances. The Hänssler team is anchored by Oliver Treindl, who in my experience is probably one of the most hard-working and often recorded of players. He’s also an athletic figure who ensures forward-moving tempi.

The eminent cellist Paul Grümmer was a family friend and Bach was fortunate he liked her music and played the Cello Sonata frequently. It’s modestly structured – three movements and 19 minutes in this reading by Alexander Hülshoff and Treindl – and has a ripe Brahmsian rhapsodic feel, with a warmly curvaceous lyricism in the Romanze second movement. As with the Piano Quintet the finale is full of dextrous animation.

The final work in the disc is the Suite for cello, a crisp four-movement affair that looks back to Popper, as the notes indicate, rather than [J.S.] Bach. After a sonorous, chordal Praeludium come the registral leaps of an etude-like Scherzo, an expressive Air and then another of her favoured variations for a finale – including a Tango-like one – which call for supple bowing. It’s a deft work, all the more so in not honouring [J.S.] Bach’s legacy in any obvious fashion.

In terms of amplitude and density of sound this disc is an impressive one. The players sound firmly engaged in what must have been unfamiliar repertoire. They’ve been backed up by some classy notes. For overt expression, choose this[.]

Jonathan Woolf 

Viktoria Kaunzner writes of her new release: “The release of this album was preceded by 15 years of study, analysis and performance of Medtner’s works for violin. Concerts, whether in Prague, as part of a Medtner lecture evening at the University of the Arts in Berlin, the inaugural gala of the Medtner Society in Seoul and more concerts in Paris. It was here that his music came before me for the first time in a magical moment with my guest family during my Erasmus studies: I shall never forget all the subtropical plants, the enormous library, paintings being created and films we saw together and how amidst all this I suddenly heard songs by Medtner. From that day on, a golden thread of sound wove its way into my memory and would not let me go. My fourth album entitled “EurAsian Gold”, which highlights the music of Medtner, was prepared in exclusive techno-acoustic conditions.“

“I see the future of Baroque orchestral music in the hands of modern ensembles – the fetish of the ‘original instrument’ has had its day, but not the profoundly trained professional who guides an orchestra into the deeper dimensions of the composition. For it isn’t the instrument that makes the music, but the head!“ (Reinhard Goebel) The Süddeutsche Zeitung reveres him as an ‘icon of early music’, and the New York Times applauds him as a ‘light in a sea of mediocrity’. Reinhard Goebel specializes in the repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries; As an expounder of period performance practice for both early music ensembles and modern orchestras, and as an endless fount of knowledge about gems of the repertoire, he is a world-renowned specialist. In May 2018 he was named artistic director of the Berliner Barock Solisten with whom he pursued an intensive artistic collaboration for years.

The Heidelberger Sinfoniker have named conductor Johannes Klumpp as their Artistic Director for the 2020/2021 season. In so doing, they have chosen him as successor to their founder Thomas Fey, who established the “Heidelberg Symphonists” as one of the leading historically informed orchestras for the Classical and early Romantic periods. Johannes Klumpp was educated in Weimar and is Principal Conductor of the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra of Essen and Artistic Director of the Summer Music Academy at Schloss Hundisburg. As guest conductor, he has stood before notable orchestras such as the Dresden Festspielorchester, the Stuttgart Staatsorchester, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Düsseldorf Symphony, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and many more. Johannes Klumpp has already attracted attention with his interpretations and recordings of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and is regarded as an established expert on period performance practice. Together we aim to focus our eyes on Joseph Haydn and raise the approach to his symphonies to the musicological state of the art. A path to Haydn. A path with Haydn.

Stravinsky suffered from the First World War and its consequences for Europe; Bartok spoke out before and during the Second World War against the nationalist mood in twentieth-century Europe; Bartok’s friend and colleague, the Hungarian violinist Joseph Szigeti, to whom he dedicated his Contrasts trio, had to flee Hungary for the USA in 1939 on account of the dangerous antisemitic climate in the country. Mordechai Zeira and Yaakov Orland suffered from the violence and antisemitic attacks in Imperial Russia at the start of the 20th century; they had to emigrate and found a new homeland in what is now Israel. The German composer Jörg Widmann addresses the political question: “Do the Muses have the right to remain silent when the weapons speak?”. And finally there is the “Poema” trio by Roglit Ishay. It is dedicated to the people of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon (France), who risked their lives to save strangers from their Nazi persecutors. Music in spite of all – that is the principle common to our whole musical program.

The history of the organ stretches back to the ancient world. Until medieval times organ instruments have been considered as secular and were used to accompany songs and dances. Around 600-700 years ago the first organs appeared in churches, probably used for supporting and accompanying liturgical chants. In the 16th and 17th century organ building started a sudden high-speed development. New materials, many stops, smooth-running tracker actions and a capable and stable wind supply opened new horizons. For the first time organs could tonally fill large church rooms, accompany the congregational singing and made virtuoso artistic playing possible. Many famous composers started writing sophisticated works of music for organ. This box is dedicated to this great time.

"This is a thrilling performance, which, like the Tchaikovsky Symphony, shows the indisputably high level of the Stuttgart Philharmonic." (Pizzicato LU) “The Stuttgart Philharmonic, founded in 1924, is in its 6th year under the busy Israeli conductor Dan Ettinger. His regular work at almost all of the leading opera houses in the world makes his approach to the melodies of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff just about perfect." (American Record Guide) The present album is a showstopping production of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony paired with Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The featured soloist in the concerto is Alexander Korsantia, one of the leading pianists of our time. He has been praised for “piano technique where difficulties simply do not exist.” (Calgary Sun). His recordings of works by Beethoven, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, and Copland have won multiple awards.

All Tchaikovsky's works for piano and orchestra exist, as do Bruckner's symphonies for instance, in multiple versions. Traditionally, these works have been played without commentary, mostly in versions shortened in one way or another. The aim of this Edition is to present the unabridged versions of Tchaikovsky's works for piano and orchestra as a box set. Sincere thanks are due to Dr. Polina Vaidman (Tchaikovsky Archive, Klin) and Prof. Lyudmila Korabelnikova, and to Dr. Marina Rakhmanova and Dr. Irina Medvedeva (Moscow). Extended conversations and and teamwork in the archives and on original manuscripts have been a great help. "In the making of these recordings, we have followed the composer's interpretative observations and annotations and his tempo markings, as shown in his manuscripts and his personal conducting scores." (Andrej Hoteev)

"My commitment to the present new recording is not only important because of advanced ensemble techniques, but also because I believe that with a cast of soloists, as in the sixteen-part Hora est, transparency of the polyphonic movement can be achieved that is not so readily feasible with larger forces. A prerequisite here is the existence of ensemble capabilities among vocal soloists, as we also need it for earlier music. In any case, the vocal works which are also particularly interesting to me among those Mendelssohn composed for the Sing-Akademie are those of stylistically ambiguous definition, in which the composer, inspired by the example of the old masters, looks for - and finds - his own path. Our conception of being able to cast soloists from a chorus, as in the Te Deum, is also influenced by this model." (Frieder Bernius)

Commanding a vast repertoire of more than 100 concertos for piano and orchestra by Spanish composers (Granados, Malats, Albeniz, Blancafort, Falla, Cassado, J. Gomez, E. Serrano, Molleda, etc), and others (including Astor Piazzolla, Xaver Scharwenka, Nikolai Medtner and Ignaz Paderewsky), Melani tenaciously champions the little known and often neglected hidden treasures of Spanish and International Classical Music repertoire, showcasing them in his performances as a solo pianist, in Chamber Music, and as an orchestral conductor. Now he releases unknown Spanish Piano Concertos. Recognized as “one of the world’s elite virtuous musicians” by international critics (“The Daily Telegraph” – 1997, London), Melani Mestre studied music at the Superior Municipal Conservatory of Music of Barcelona, They give London the renowned Russian pedagogue Sulamita Aronovsky (piano) and Sir Colin Davis (orchestra conductor). Since his debut with the Dortmund Festival Orchestra in 1998, many have collaborated with some of the best orchestras in the world, both in his role as solo pianist and conductor director.

Brilinsky’s intention is ‘not to emphasize technique, but rather sound, and above all the magnificent music must be paramount. Polyphonic like Bach, Ysaÿe also gives a specific stylistic portrait of each of the six violinists the sonatas were composed for.’ Ysaÿe knew them all personally; several were associated with the Vienna Philharmonic, as he himself was, thus bringing together different European schools of violin playing. Maxim Brilinsky does not, however, approach all the great technical demands, the subtleties and individual portraits, solely in consideration of the expressive virtuosity of their dedicatees. Further highlighting association with the Vienna school, Brilinsky plays a violin made in 1862 by the Vienna luthier Gabriel Lemböck, who was also responsible for string instruments of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1842.

The friendship between Mátyás Seiber and Antal Doráti dates back to their youth, when they were the two youngest students in Zoltán Kodály's composition class in Budapest in the 1920s. Doráti was one year younger than Seiber and held him in high esteem from the beginning. In the memoirs, Így láttuk Kodályt [‘Thus We Saw Kodály’], he writes the following: "The two 'best' were Mátyás Seiber and Lajos Bárdos. Matyi [Mátyás] wrote a great string quartet at the time, which has survived. One of our tasks was to write variations on a Handel theme. In response to one of Seiber's slow-tempo variations, Mr Kodály said: 'That's nice'. In our eyes - at least in my eyes - that was the canonization of Matyi."

Commanding a vast repertoire of more than 100 concertos for piano and orchestra by Spanish composers (Granados, Malats, Albeniz, Blancafort, Falla, Cassado, J. Gomez, E. Serrano, Molleda, etc), and others (including Astor Piazzolla, Xaver Scharwenka, Nikolai Medtner and Ignaz Paderewsky), Melani tenaciously champions the little known and often neglected hidden treasures of Spanish and International Classical Music repertoire, showcasing them in his performances as a solo pianist, in Chamber Music, and as an orchestral conductor. Now he releases unknown Spanish Piano Concertos. Recognized as one of the worlds elite virtuous musicians by international critics (The Daily Telegraph 1997, London), Melani Mestre studied music at the Superior Municipal Conservatory of Music of Barcelona, They give London the renowned Russian pedagogue Sulamita Aronovsky (piano) and Sir Colin Davis (orchestra conductor). Since his debut with the Dortmund Festival Orchestra in 1998, many have collaborated with some of the best orchestras in the world, both in his role as solo pianist and conductor director.

The Te Deum is a Latin Christian hymn that dates to the third centuries A.D. Its name is derived from its incipit, Te Deum laudamus, Latin for “Thee, O God, we praise.” Originally ascribed to Saint Ambrose or Saint Augustine, the hymn has been transcribed hundreds of times over by composers throughout history. The present release is a collection of some of the most popular Te Deum compositions from the last several hundred years, from Baroque to Contemporary, with works by Braunfels, Berlioz, Dvorák, Bruckner, Naumann, Händel and Bizet in reference recordings of leading orchestras and soloists, including the Staatskapelle Dresden, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, and Gächinger Kantorei.