Mozart: Piano Quartets Nos. 1 & 2

Formosa Seasons is based on a series of Haiku-like poems, and is dedicated to the celebrated Taiwanese-American violinistCho-Liang Lin.

Principal Harpist of the Philadelphia Orchestra Elizabeth Hainen's first release for AVIE spanned three centuries of Harp Concertos (AV 2221). Her new Kickstarter-funded release, Les Amis, features a rare pairing of works by Claude Debussy and André Caplet, exploring the composers' friendship through their respective works Danse sacrée and Danse profane, and the evocative Masque of the Red Death, with Michael Stern and the IRIS Orchestra. Rounding out the recording, Elizabeth solos with a transcription of Debussy's Petite Suite, originally for solo piano, and Caplet's Divertissements, and is joined by her own amis, fellow Philadelphia Orchestra principal flautist Jeffrey Khaner and violist Roberto Diaz, President of the Curtis Institute, in Debussy's Trio Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp. critical acclaim for Elizabeth Hainen's Harp Concertos (AV 2221) "The entire production has class and great aural resonance, a real delight to add to an otherwise neglected body of music." ¬- Audiophile Audition "Hainen plays with impressive virtuosity." - Fanfare "The tonal range of Hainen's playing, coupled with her technical finesse and sense of style, bring allure to the entire disc." - The Daily Telegraph

Rather than parachuting in any headline-catching international soloists, the Kansas City Symphony has enlisted its concertmaster and principal cello as protagonists in two of the Saint-Saëns works. Noah Geller is soloist in the Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, and he is joined by cellist Mark Gibbs in the once rarely heard but now almost ubiquitous La muse et le poète. Backed by airy orchestral textures, Geller exudes lyrical warmth and a perky rhythmic spirit in the first work, and in the second he uses the violin’s wily flights of fantasy to engage Gibbs’s poetic cello in an intimate dialogue.

Then comes the big beast of the programme, but, as always, the crucial test is not so much the volume of the organ but the way in which the orchestral context of the symphony as a whole is established. Here Michael Stern impressively injects impetus into the first section’s sinewy fabric, alert to instrumental colour and the contrapuntal discipline and intrigue of the writing. The organ, making its muted first entry in the Adagio, is a 5,548-pipe Casavant Frères instrument, an integral part of Kansas City’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts where the recording was made, as indeed is Jan Kraybill who plays it. Stern crafts a proper, stately Adagio but an Adagio with momentum and shapely contours, and he ignites real fire in the Allegro moderato of the symphony’s second part. When the tempo changes to presto, the piano’s arpeggios and scales are prominent enough to make their point without leaping out at you, just as the organ in the finale asserts its grandeur without overwhelming the orchestral palette.

Even in a competitive market, this version has a distinct edge.

– Geoffrey Norris, Gramophone

When it rains, it pours. This is the third recording of Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony in nearly as many months, and like the previous ones, it’s remarkably good. The Kansas City Symphony under Michael Stern withstands comparison to any of the competition. My only quibble with the interpretation comes in the first movement, where Stern’s concern for precision of rhythm, otherwise admirable, seems to preclude that last bit of intensity at the tops of those crescendos that propel the principal theme onward into the second subject.

Otherwise, this is an unusually vivacious and texturally transparent reading, recorded with welcome clarity in an acoustic that never permits detail to get obscured by excessive reverberation. The balance between organ and orchestra in the finale, even when everyone is blasting away, could not be more perfect. In the serene Adagio too, which flows with impressive poise, the soft tones of the organ add just the right touch of color to support the strings and solo woodwinds. In the scherzo, Stern keeps the rhythm taut, and he doesn’t drag out the quiet coda to the point where one’s patience begins to run thin. In the finale everyone really does pull out all of the stops, literally and figuratively, bringing the work to a thrilling conclusion.

The fillers are welcome, and not the usual stuff. Le muse et le poète is a rarely heard late tone poem with parts for solo violin and solo cello, more than ably taken by orchestra principals Noah Geller on violin and Mark Gibbs on cello. Geller also plays an excellent, sunny Introduction and Rondo capriccioso. And let’s not forget organist Jan Kraybill in the symphony. I do wish, though, that Reference Recordings had included a stop list in the booklet. The instrument has some interesting timbres and I would have liked to know what resources it calls upon to make them. Audiophiles will want to hear this for the superb sonics, but the musical values are just as strong..

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

The G minor Quartet is one of the most fervently passionate of all Mozart’s chamber masterpieces – so much so that the publisher who commissioned a set of three piano quartets was utterly taken aback by the uncompromising style of this first work in the series, and Mozart agreed to release him from the remainder of his contract. By that time he had already composed the more genial E flat major Quartet, but he never completed the set. What is immediately striking about these new performances is how stylish they are, with Emanuel Ax providing discreet ornamentation for the repeats, as well as a tasteful cadenza leading into the return of the rondo theme in the finale of K478. But they are much more than that: what they reflect above all is a real joy in music-making and a willingness to allow the music its full expressive range. At first, I regretted the lack of the long second repeat in the opening movement of the G minor quartet – one of Mozart’s great second-half repeats – but the playing generates such intensity that a further hearing would have been emotionally draining. No Mozart lover should miss this.

Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- Misha Donat, BBC Music Magazine

A chamber-music ensemble of star instrumentalists is an oxymoron; this foursome proves to be the exception. Isaac Stern is the key: His thrilling tone may have diminished and impeccable technique eroded, but his innate musicality has grown into wisdom. He is the Rudolf Serkin of our day, influencing innumerable young artists to become musicians rather than superstars. Which is not to slight the three others here: Each fits the mold perfectly, and Laredo and Ma have been strongly influenced by both Serkin and Stern. The four play as one, with youthful exuberance as well as the wisdom of age. The playing is filled with rhythmic vitality and avoids any touch of sentimentality. That it also has little Czech warmth is emphasized by rather clinical recorded sound. There have been more emotional performances (Josef Suk and colleagues) and more elegant ones (Artur Rubinstein with Guarneri members, Menahem Pressler with Emerson), but this sturdy reading is well worth hearing.

The duo performances are in a similar mold. The Sonatina is a delight, a blend of spirit and ease. The Romantic Pieces need a more luminous tone and vivacious expression than Stern provides. He receives sympathetic support from pianist Robert McDonald.

-- James H. North, FANFARE [9/2000]

Isaac Stern's career as a solo artist, chamber musician, and much else (he led the movement to save Carnegie hall) was remarkable. This album of his live performances is an eloquent testament to his musical insights, technical command and his gorgeous, luminous tone. Isaac Stern was born in 1920, in Krimieniecz, now in Ukraine. A year later his parents came to San Francisco. Violin lessons began at eight, with Naoum Blinder. Two years later he made his debut, playing Bach double concerto with his teacher. His Town Hall debut in 1937 was followed by a Carnegie Hall debut in 1943. He was the first American artist to tour the former Soviet Union-and as a result became a deeply respected figure there. The campaign to save Carnegie Hall began in 1960. The Six-Day War of 1967 saw his iconic performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with Leonard Bernstein on Mount Scopus. His involvement with Hollywood, which began in 1948 with his performance in the film Humoresque, was followed up in 1971, when he played on the soundtrack of "Fiddler on the Roof". His travel to China in 1979 led to a resurgence of classical music in that country, documented in "From Mao to Mozart". He recorded prolifically and received countless honors and tributes. Isaac Stern passed away at the age of 81 in 2001.

Tchaikovsky has long maintained his position as among the most popular of all composers, his unequalled gift for melody and colorful orchestration given added depth through a rich Russian soulfulness. The Second Piano Concerto has always lived under the shadow of the famous First but, played here in the composer's original version, is full of life-enhancing character and emotion. Both this and the Concert Fantasia also contain beautiful chamber music sections allowing unique interaction between soloist and orchestra.

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REVIEWS:

Nebolsin opts for a reading that is refreshingly mellow, almost intimate and, above all, profoundly lyrical. His focus is on the shape of the phrase, inflected with the most delicate rubato. Stern and the New Zealanders mirror this rhetorical flexibility with great skill and subtlety. The finale has a fleet lightness, heightening the overall golden bravura of the concerto.

– Gramophone

Nebolsin hardly puts a foot wrong, and Michael Stern secures rhythmically vibrant playing from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

– BBC Music Magazine

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REVIEWS:

Turning 40 this year, Jonathan Leshnoff is proving to be one of the most gifted traditionalist composers of his generation. Born and raised in New Jersey, he is a graduate of the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, and cites as his most important teachers Moshe Cotel and Thomas Benjamin. He seems to have settled in Baltimore, and is currently Composer-in-Residence of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, and on the faculty of Towson University.

This is Naxos’s second release devoted to the music of Leshnoff. I reviewed its predecessor favorably in Fanfare 34:3; that one featured a violin concerto and a string quartet. Looking back at that review, I see that I wrote this about his Violin Concerto: “Flagrantly and unabashedly tonal and melodic, its conventional and accessible style calls to mind the music of Lowell Liebermann, though it reveals a greater sense of expressive urgency.” Funny, I was thinking exactly the same thing as I listened to this CD, except that I find this more recent release even more appealing by quite a margin. Like the earlier CD, each piece falls into a slightly different stylistic category, yet each remains satisfying in its own way.

Almost immediately after composing his Violin Concerto, Leshnoff was asked to write a Double Concerto featuring violin and viola. He completed the work later the same year, in 2007. This ambitious four-movement concerto grabbed me immediately. Its style is thoroughly traditional and clearly tonal in the late-romantic sense. That is, the listener will hear nothing that couldn’t have been written by a neo-romantic composer 50 years ago. This is, of course, a bold and courageous posture for a composer to take, because not only does he place himself in direct comparison with many celebrated figures of the recent past, but his chosen language makes it virtually impossible for him to avoid the “sounds like” references that so many critics use to diminish the stature of traditionalist composers and their works. I must emphasize that “sounds like” references in this review are provided solely to give the reader a frame of reference that might facilitate his forming a mental impression of what the music sounds like, not a criticism or accusation of “derivativeness.”

Lasting nearly half an hour, the Double Concerto is a serious, passionate work in four movements. Its opening movement is fraught with a grim, heartfelt pathos strongly reminiscent of Ernest Bloch. The second movement is a lively, exciting scherzo with no shortage of lyrical moments. The third movement is a mysterious nocturne that returns to the somber cast of the opening. The finale is a perpetual-motion affair that calls Shostakovich to mind; despite its continuous vigor, it ends the work on a subdued note. The solo performances, featuring violinist Charles Wetherbee (who excelled in the aforementioned Violin Concerto) and violist Roberto Díaz, are truly masterly, while the orchestra, under the direction of its founder, Michael Stern, provides the solid, confident support one might expect of a far more seasoned ensemble. The IRIS Orchestra, formed in 2000 as the resident orchestra of the Germantown Performing Arts Center in Tennessee, is extraordinarily fine, and Stern appears to be a committed advocate of Leshnoff’s music.

Leshnoff’s Symphony No. 1 was commissioned by Stern, and is subtitled, “Forgotten Chants and Refrains.” It was completed in 2004—earlier than the Double Concerto—but is more obviously a work of the turn of the 21st century, in its emphasis on sonority and gesture reminiscent of the music of Joseph Schwantner, as well as in its passages of rhythmic stasis. The work comprises five movements, played without pause, and is supposedly a “Brotherhood of Man” sort of statement. Lately I find myself on a campaign against references to extra-musical content and meaning that are not borne out by the music itself. I have no particular criticisms of Leshnoff’s Symphony, which I enjoyed greatly; I just think that its pretense of “[speaking] to all humanity in an uplifting way” is irrelevant. The Symphony opens with a slow introduction that produces a great sense of anticipation, which is released in the energetic movement that follows. The third movement—the centerpiece—is the longest, and after an eerie opening, becomes more hymn-like, with quotations from earlier religious music, including Gregorian chant (presumably for purposes of spiritual uplift), before returning to its initial mysterious character. The fourth movement also includes quotations and, like the second, provides rapid activity through swirling gestures. The finale, “Resolution,” is solemn and chant-like, bringing the work—like the Double Concerto—to a subdued conclusion. Despite my carping about extra-musical meaning, this is a satisfying work with potentially broad appeal, demonstrating that there is still plenty meaningful to say within the symphonic genre.

Rush is a relatively short, very animated work dating from 2008 that partakes of the post-minimalist manner of John Adams and Michael Torke. It is quite successful in generating the kind of excited exuberance for which such pieces seem to strive, although Rush offers quieter moments as well.

As indicated earlier, the performances presented here are superb, and the music provides just less than an hour of fully enjoyable listening.

-- FANFARE (Walter Simmons)

Includes work(s) by Franz Krommer. Soloists: Nancy Ambrose-King, Solomia Soroka, Natalia Khoma, Eva Stern, Joseph Kam.

Even composers such as Rossini and Verdi revered and valued Johann Simon Mayr (1763-1845) highly. Known for a long time only as Donizetti's teacher, his oeuvre has experienced a well-deserved renaissance in recent years. The Belgian-Israeli pianist Edna Stern and the Georgisches Kammerorchester (Chamber Orchestra) Ingolstadt under Ruben Gazarian present piano concertos nos. 1 & 2. Intellectual curiosity, a questing spirit and an uncompromising rigorousness in the service of music are the three major aspects of the personality of Edna Stern and of her conception of musical interpretation. Her repertoire ranges from J.S. Bach and his son Carl Philipp Emanuel to Luciano Berio and contemporary composers, playing on period instruments as on modern ones. She has been invited to play recitals and chamber music at the Festivals la Roque d'Anthéron, Colmar, MDR, Ludiwigsburg Festsspiele, at the "Moments Musicaux" of Châtelet or at the Palais des Beaux-Arts of Brussels. She has also appeared, both with an orchestra and in solo recitals, at the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam and at the Tonhalle of Zürich. She has also played chamber music with the quartets Ebène and Lotus, The Oxalys ensemble, as well as with Alban Gerhardt, Magali Mosnier, Alexandre Tharaud and the violinist Amandine Beyer.

The soprano Ania Vegry, the recipient of many prizes, was nominated by Opernwelt as the Young Artist of the Year in 2009 and has been an ensemble member at the State Opera of Lower Saxony in Hanover since 2007. The Online Musik Magazin certifies that “her soprano voice, most highly fluent in the coloraturas, possesses warmth and substance, expressive power, and flawless intonation” – which makes her the ideal choice for the rich affections of the arias of Florian Leopold Gassmann, an Austrian composer on the cusp between the Baroque and Early Classicism. After two years of study with Giovanni Battista Martini, Gassmann became an organist in Venice. In 1757 he composed his first opera, and through 1762 he composed an opera every year for the Carnival season In Venice. The musical settings heard on this recording include arias belonging to the genre of the opera seria, the Italian-language serious opera of the eighteenth century. Others are exit arias in da capo form and typical of the genre: after the action – designed as a recitative in the music during the course of a singer’s time on stage – has advanced, one of the protagonists expresses his state of heart and mind in an aria before he exits from the stage. The da capo form (A-B-A) underscores the fact that dramaturgically the static unity of the affection to be expressed occupies the foreground. In his later vocal works Gassmann goes much farther in his elaboration of textual nuances, so that the works have the effect of vocal arias for an opera buffa. The text is bursting with emotional excitement, which Gassmann sets in a relaxed tone and with long coloraturas composed with fine art.

14.99

When Kent Tritle and Nina Stern first devised this recording project of music from the Four Quarters of the Old City their aim was to create a soundscape that reflected Jerusalem's reality as well as it's role in the dreams and ideals of the great Abrahamic religions. Our program offers music one might hear in walking through Jerusalem today, but it also interposes visionary works from other times and places. Both remind us of what Jerusalem has meant to generation after generation of believers. Some gritty historical truths reveal themselves at once, while others may be glimpsed as through a haze of memory and desire. The Choir of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Kent Tritle, director, and the ensemble Rose of the Compass, Nina Stern, director, combine musical talents to present a program that speaks of common ground and unity among the various faiths found in the four quarters of the city of Jerusalem. This album is modeled after a concert performance given by the ensembles at the New York City Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 2015.