Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This release is the continuation of the Wiener Symphoniker's Road to Beethoven project, an undertaking in preparation of the 250th anniversary of the birth of the Viennese by choice and patriarch of classical music in 2020. Following the huge success of the respective releases of the cycle so far, the expectations are high indeed. The third part featuring Symphonies No. 2 and 7 received numerous accolades and ranked high in the annual best lists of international critics. The German classical music magazine Concerti, for instance, praised: "There, Philippe Jordan with the Wiener Symphoniker succeeded in creating something amazing: The symbiosis of the fine Viennese sound and the directness and transparency of historical performance practice, dynamically flexible and driven by emphasis." The Wiener Symphoniker wrote music history with the premieres of works by Bruckner, Ravel and Sch�nberg. Under the direction of such illustrious conductors as Wilhelm Furtw�ngler, Herbert von Karajan, Carlo Maria Giulini or Georges Pr�tre, it gained worldwide fame for it's Viennese sound style. In light of this more than hundred-year magnificent history, it is all the more astonishing that the Orchestra has never so far recorded Beethoven's nine symphonies, which are often described as the peak of the symphonic repertoire. This gap in the Orchestra's discography has been in the process of being closed since autumn 2017: The Orchestra is releasing all nine symphonies of the great Viennese by choice at half-yearly intervals on a total of five albums. The whole cycle will then be available on the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth in 2020. They were recorded live under the direction of Music Director Philippe Jordan in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein during an acclaimed cycle in spring/summer 2017.

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Beethoven’s 9th Symphony remains to this day the only work that does not belong to the Bayreuth canon – “Wagner’s Ten”, so to speak – and yet has nevertheless been performed on the Green Hill along with them. Both within and without the Bayreuth walls, the performance history of this symphony is associated with no conductor more than with Wilhelm Furtwängler. The opening performance of the first post-War Bayreuth Festival in 1951 was of Beethoven’s Ninth under Furtwängler, and there already exists an Orfeo release based on the original radio broadcast. Several technical hurdles had to be overcome before the performance of 1954 could also be released on CD, however, for none of the accessible sources could be prepared satisfactorily without employing the most modern mastering possibilities. The result is undoubtedly a vital document: both for those interested in the history of the Bayreuth Festival and for those who are enthused by the concurrent continuity and constant change that is a hallmark of Wilhelm Furtwängler’s style of interpretation. This Ninth would be his farewell to Bayreuth and was in fact one of his very last concerts anywhere, for it took place just three months before his death. Its interpretation is more direct and less ceremonial than in earlier recordings under this great conductor. In the last bars of this symphony’s famous choral finale he achieves a climax not just through his scorching pace, but also through a well-nigh breathless intensification of the musical content. The Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra and the solo quartet (led by the Dutch soprano Gré Brouwenstijn, here in magnificent voice) follow the maestro’s beat even here with an unmistakeable sense of tension and the utmost, unrelenting attention. It is surely herein that lies the secret of the fascination that Furtwängler exudes to this day. As perhaps no other conductor he always understood how to avoid the routine in the works that he conducted so many times. Instead he was time and again able to summon up and maintain an awareness of them as something extraordinary and unique: for himself, his fellow musicians and his listeners.

Garrick Ohlsson completes his survey of Beethoven's monumental thirty-two sonatas, a project that the great American pianist has been working on for more than a decade. (Volume 3 of this series, won the 2008 Grammy for "Best Instrumental Performance".)

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BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas: No. 11 in B?, op. 22; No. 13 in E?, op. 27/1; No. 31 in A?, op. 110 • Garrick Ohlsson (pn) • BRIDGE 9266

(62:21)


BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas: No. 29 in B?, op. 106, “Hammerklavier”; No. 16 in G, op. 31/1 • Garrick Ohlsson (pn) • BRIDGE 9262 (69:15)


A recital of Beethoven piano sonatas that includes early and late music, as is the case with both of these new releases from Garrick Ohlsson’s series of the complete sonatas, should make the listener aware of the degree to which Beethoven evolved as an artist, but also those elements that marked him as a singular genius throughout his career. Some pianists do this by underlining elements in the earlier pieces that point to the unique, even eccentric nature of the composer; highlighting an odd harmony or an exuberant melodic structure, as examples.


Ohlsson takes a different tack. Although Beethoven was well into his so-called first period by the time of the Sonatas Nos. 11, 13, and 16, they are still classically conceived constructions, more so in mold of his teacher Haydn than Mozart, especially in his frequent use of humor. Ohlsson does not downplay the brilliance of this music, or even its boldness, but hears it as a continuation of a tradition rather than anything radical. Beethoven’s music, from the outset of his career, is filled with surprises and wonderful dramatic twists, but in this playing, they are always neatly within the context of the overall logic of the music. It is an equally good prescription for playing Mozart and Haydn.


The Piano Sonata No. 31 is full of extraordinary imagination, but is familiar enough to our ears to be considered the most accessible of the late sonatas, especially because of its magnificent neobaroque counterpoint writing. And the “Hammerklavier” is simply sui generis as a work of art. So somehow tying this music to earlier Beethoven isn’t really necessary, and Ohlsson plays them for their own sake. As has been noted in previous reviews, his tempos are on the broad side, which, in the case of both these late sonatas accentuates the grandiloquence of the music. This approach makes for an especially rewarding rendition of No. 31, which can sound rushed in less-mature hands.


The tempo question gets a bit sticky in the case of the “Hammerklavier.” Ohlsson makes no attempt whatever to play the first movement at the composer’s supposed metronome marking, but few do. Many have questioned the veracity of the marking, which seems ridiculously fast. A few pianists, notably Peter Serkin, can bring it off, with exhilarating results, but it is hard to deny that the more measured tempo of Ohlsson ultimately gives us a more musical and sensible interpretation. But for the full measure of what Ohlsson contributes to an immense and storied recorded legacy, one needs only to turn to his superb rendition of the hulking slow movement to this work. It is one challenge to gather up the furious notes of the outer movements of this behemoth, but in some ways even more daunting to hold together the oceanic center, which Ohlsson does with supreme grace and intelligence. It reflects everything else he plays. I can only echo previous Fanfare commentary from Boyd Pomeroy and Jerry Dubins to say that despite the multitude of excellent choices already available in this music, great artistry like this is always welcome.


FANFARE: Peter Burwasser

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Beethoven repeatedly described the Missa solemnis as his greatest work, intended to affect and move people. His labor on the composition was long and intense; the work is not regarded as the most important mass setting of the 19th century in vain. In terms of its scope and musical demands, it reaches far beyond what is liturgically usual – not without reason did the premiere take place in a concert hall. The Kammerchor Stuttgart and the Hofkapelle Stuttgart under the leadership of Frieder Bernius master the challenges of the Missa with bravura. All the sonorous groups work together intensively, creating an organic and homogeneous flow of interpretation. The young quartet of soloists Johanna Winkel, Sophie Harmsen, Sebastian Kohlhepp and Arttu Kataja complement the ensembles.

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When viewed with the distance of time, the album confirms its importance in the repertoire of the two great artists. The famed tone of Josef Suk’s violin is completely in the composer’s service, the instrument talks and sings, while Panenka’s take on Beethoven still astonishes with its wealth of articulation, purity of style and crystal-clear tone.

Beethoven: Sonatas - Appassionata, Les adieux, Pathétique &

PIANO CONCERT NR. 1

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2008 Grammy Winner! - "Best Instrumental Soloist Performance"

The god of inspiration sprints hand in hand with Garrick Ohlsson as the pianist nears completion of his Beethoven sonata cycle. The present disc opens with one of Op. 2 No. 3's finest recorded performances. Ohlsson's lean, propulsive first movement incorporates distinctly contrasted themes and subtle tempo modifications. Everything hangs together so well that when Ohlsson leans on the accelerator for the movement's final octave outburst the effect is conclusive rather than vulgar.

Ohlsson also plays Op. 14 No. 1 beautifully, bringing a refreshingly terse quality to the Allegretto by underlining its sudden dynamic shifts. The pianist's genial, expansive account of Op. 14 No. 2's opening movement evokes memories of Claudio Arrau's likeminded mid-1960s recording, yet Ohlsson stresses different details, such as the left hand's chromatic broken octaves. Ohlsson's crisp yet full-bodied shaping of the second movement's detached chords brings out the music's Haydn-like wit, to say nothing of the finale's aptly timed, elegant fingerwork.

Excellent sound and notes.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Just Released -
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol 5 / Garrick Ohlsson
The newest volume in Garrick Ohlsson's impressive and illuminating cycle.

BEETHOVEN String Quartets, op. 18/1–6 • Budapest Qrt • BRIDGE 9342/AC (2 CDs: 135:18.


This set completes Bridge’s offering, in three installments, of a complete live Beethoven cycle by the Budapest Quartet, drawn from concerts at the Library of Congress over the period of its long residency there, from the war years to the early ’60s.


As a fixture of the American musical scene in the mid 20th century, the Budapest Quartet was in many ways the chamber-music equivalent of what Toscanini and the NBC Symphony represented on the orchestral scene: a similar “high Modernist” approach of score-based rigor, with virtuoso execution characterized by tonal luster, rhythmic brio, and expressive intensity. Although the sound and interpretations are familiar from the quartet’s studio recordings from the 1930s (CDs on Biddulph) and early and late 1950s (mono cycle on United Archives, stereo remakes recently collected in a bargain box in Sony’s Masters series), these live versions consistently score in their extra keenness, freshness, and the kind of spontaneous risk-taking only possible at a live event.


Quartets Nos. 1–3 are taken from concerts in 1944, with Edgar Ortenberg on second violin (the notes inform us that No. 3, from March 9 of that year, was actually his debut appearance with the group); No. 5 dates from a year earlier, when Alexander Schneider still occupied that seat. First movements are tightly coiled, with perfectly balanced tonal weight, knife-edge attack, and a wonderfully supple molding of the themes within a rigorously classical conception of unified tempo. (Exposition repeats are consistently omitted throughout.) Slow movements have great expressive immediacy, luxuriant tonal fullness, and often a penchant for dynamic and articulative extremes—for two examples, hear first violin Joseph Roisman’s breathtaking emergence from inaudibility in the messa di voce beginning of his melody in the Adagio of No. 1, and the radiant textural saturation the group achieves in the last variation of the Andante cantabile from No. 5. Scherzos leap off the page with rapier-like cut and thrust; finales are forcefully projected with trenchant, weighty brilliance (No. 1), blistering brio (No. 2), and mercurial group reflexes at an extreme tempo (No. 3).


Two late performances (No. 4 from 1962, No. 6 from 1960) undeniably display evidence of a collective hardening of the arteries, with thicker sonorities, less responsive interplay, and some moments of less than perfect tuning (though these should not be exaggerated). Even so, there is ample compensation in a lifetime’s accumulated interpretive wisdom, with a dramatic and emotional engagement that remains highly compelling—in No. 4 in C Minor, hear the richly affecting consolation they draw from the first movement’s contrasting major-mode theme, or their highly original conception of the third movement’s Trio, with a long-breathed gradual acceleration.


The sound is close-miked and clear, vividly transferred at a high level. There is some distortion in the loudest passages from the 1940s recordings, though this will present no obstacle to the set’s obvious target audience of historic collectors.


As a bonus we have a nine-minute rehearsal fragment from 1944, a fascinating glimpse of the quartet at work on the exposition of the E-Major Molto Adagio from the Second (E-Minor) “Razoumovsky” Quartet. There is a lively back-and-forth (in Russian—naturally—with no translation provided), with painstaking attention (as one would expect) to tuning and rhythmic control, and the vivid sense of an interpretation being hammered out among four strong-willed individuals. The atmosphere is highly concentrated, with no hint of comfortable routine.


Besides being a mandatory purchase for those collecting the cycle, this set will be self-recommending to chamber-music aficionados and historic collectors generally.


FANFARE: Boyd Pomeroy

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The Quartetto di Cremona have completed another stage in their adventurous journey through the cosmos of Beethoven's String Quartets, visiting the Quartet in G major from the Op. 18 set and the last of the Op. 59 Quartets. The performance culture and market for the string quartet in the late eighteenth century was markedly different to that of later times: the young Beethoven wrote his Quartets Op. 18 for amateurs. The G major Quartet, the second in the collection, was one such work that could bemastered by talented aristocrats and bourgeois connoisseurs - which is not tosay that its complexities or musical challenges are in any way diminished. With the so-called "Razumovsky" Quartets,the string quartet reached adulthood. And one only needs to compare the technical and intellectual demands of Op. 59 to contemporary works (such as the quartets of the young Franz Schubert) in order to recognise that Beethoven no longer composed for able amateurs, but for highly professional specialists.This becomes particularly obvious in the finale, an extended and extremely virtuosic fugue. The Quartetto di Cremona have combined these two works from Beethoven's early and middle periods for the seventh volume in their Complete Beethoven String Quartets recording series. Both works end with an "earworm" - one in the classical spirit and one in the form of a rapid fugue - finale furioso!

Bringing together hundreds of performances commercially recorded over the course of 48 years (from 1928 to 1976), the Arthur Rubinstein Collection is a handsome and smartly executed achievement. Its 81 volumes chronologically chart Rubinstein's studio legacy, with each volume serving up liner notes and photographs that place the recordings in satisfying context.
Rubinstein was 88 years old when he recorded Beethoven's last piano concerto. It is a truly wonderful thing to hear the meeting of these two great musical minds in this performance. There is the composer who had, by the time of the "Emperor," thoroughly mastered and transformed the genre of the piano concerto. And there is the pianist who had, by this point in his long and prolific career, mastered and transformed the art playing the piano. Rubinstein's technique is as sure as it ever was, and his sound is unmistakable, especially in the utter refinement with which he ends a phrase. Never, however, does he overpower Beethoven's music with his own musical personality. No, this is a true collaboration between composer and interpreter, one which conductor and Rubinstein protegé Daniel Barenboim fosters with appreciative verve at every turn.

BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY NO 6, EGMO

Beethoven, L. van: Complete Cello Music

This set is offered at a special price: 5 discs for the price of 4.

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Classical Music

Classical Music