The Berolina Ensemble scored a sensational success with its discovery of Waldemar von Bausznem’s music- and not without reason. Bausznern’s music is distinguished by individual wit and instrumented with rich imagination, and what the young Berlin chamber ensemble gets out of the unusual instrumental combinations is an absolutely listening must. Now the Berolinas have unearthed yet another treasure trove: a quintet and a trio frame Bausznern’s Chamber Songs, which Maria Bengtsson interprets with a fine feel for the traditional French, German, and Italian melodies. Bausznem, who grew up in Transylvania, quite early developed an interest in the folk music of his Hungarian surroundings. He was influenced by the New Germans, educated in the Brahms tradition in Berlin, and went on to develop a most highly individual personal style that is always good for surprises. However, it seems to have been too “far out” for the conservative Berlin public of his times, whose members evidently were irritated by its great artistic freedom. All of which makes it all the more enthralling today: the works recorded here offer exemplary illustrations of the very different aspects in Bausznern’s oeuvre.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Subtitled 'Original Compositions for Player Piano from the 1920s'

Beethoven’s Piano Sonata op. 106, the “Hammerklavier Sonata,” is regarded as the most complex and demanding piece among the complex and demanding works from his late period. It was not until Franz Liszt, decades after Beethoven’s death, that a pianist was able to master this sonata’s madcap technical challenges. The version for string quartet prepared by David Plylar, a curator at the Library of Congress, was initially intended as a guide through the structural thicket of this gigantic opus. In this rendering by the Leipzig String Quartet, however, it also turns out to be an extremely revealing expansion of our musical horizons. The extended polyphonic passages quite naturally profit from the new opportunities offered by ensemble playing: the canon at the beginning of the development section in the first movement or the mighty fugue in the finale. Beethoven calls for the use of all eighty-eight piano keys, which at the time was a sensational demand. The extreme registers are also represented in the quartet version. Only a top ensemble like the Leipzig String Quartet has the magic and mastery it takes to bring its gigantic leaps, flageolet chords, and intricate harmonic relations to the concert stage. Two transcriptions by Beethoven’s contemporary enrich the program. Along with the Gewandhaus violist Peter Michael Borck, the quartet members present Beethoven’s third attempt to write an overture for his opera Leonore. At the very latest when Borck reaches for the famous offstage trumpet, the last skeptic will become a firm believer in the quintet’s symphonic qualities. The considerably trimmer final version of the Fidelio overture impressively rounds off this extraordinary project.

Classical Music

Classical Music

The grand Arp Schnitger organ in St. Jacobi (Church of St. James) in Hamburg is remarkable in several respects. This instrument with four manuals boasts of the largest extant inventory of original pipes from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the Trompete 16’ in the great organ is the very oldest of its kind. Harald Vogel, the Nestor of the Northern German organ tradition and the recent recipient of the Buxtehude Prize of the Hansa City of Lübeck, presents this magnificently restored organ in conjunction with an unusual Hamburg “family reunion.” Hieronymus and Jacob Praetorius, Joachim Decker, Matthias Weckmann, Heinrich Scheidemann, and Dietrich Buxtehude- they were all closely associated with St. Jacobi and its organ and stood for the towering significance of Hamburg’s music culture over several generations. And, as luck would have it, Arp Schnitger, certainly the most important organ builder of the Northern German school, refrained from renovating some qualitatively superb stops by his predecessors Scherer and Fritzsche. Consequently, the development of the Northern German style can also be traced with special authenticity in the sound dimension. From individual flute stops to Schnitger’s famous reed-based plenum, Harald Vogel presents this album featuring numerous examples of the special tone-color richness of this extraordinary instrument.

Classical Music

“Sing a new song unto the Lord!” What motto could be more fitting for this debut by the BachWerkVokal? Framed by Bach’s festive New Year’s Day Cantata and his double-choral motet on Psalm 98, this recording by the instrumentally and vocally multifaceted Salzburg ensemble presents works by Buxtehude, Telemann, and Handel – and as a special treat two previously undiscovered solutions to Mozart’s Puzzle Canon on the same text. Along with this premiere, two other recording firsts enrich this meticulously produced Super Audio album. Telemann’s cantata has never been released in recorded form- which is not at all understandable in view of his interpretation rendering the text with absolutely onomatopoetic Baroque splendor. Now the ocean surges, now the streams of water jubilate, and the harps, trumpets, and drums mentioned in the psalm also make themselves heard. Gordon Safari, the ensemble’s founder, has completed the Cantata BWV 190, a work transmitted in fragmentary form. This versatile conductor is now presenting this festive work for the first time. Truly a “new song!” As we gather from Buxtehude’s Latin psalm setting, both Handel and Bach learned from him. His Novum!-The Lord! seems to have been tailor-made for the BachWerkVokal. The remarkable room impression of this three-dimensional recording shines with Baroque splendor even in the secular setting of the home- and lends Bach’s double-choral motets the radiance of a live performance.

Classical Music

Classical Music