Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

SAINT-SAËNS Piano Trios: in F, Op. 18; in e, Op. 92 • Vienna Pn Tr • MDG 9421763 (SACD: 64:07)


These are two of Saint-Saëns’s most engaging chamber works. Still an early effort, completed by the 29-year-old composer in 1864, the F-Major Trio seems to take its cue from Mendelssohn, though Saint-Saëns spins a somewhat lighter, airier confection, with a first movement that has a distinctively dance-like character. The second movement, said to be based on a folk tune from the Auvergne region of France, begins in a furtive, almost foreboding tone, claimed by note author Elisabeth Deckers to recall “similarly pallid movements by Schumann.” Mendelssohn makes a comeback in the brief Scherzo, while the last movement turns to Schumann once again, with a fugato episode reminiscent of the last movement of Schumann’s Piano Quintet.


Saint-Saëns was by no means old when he composed his Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor in 1892, but almost 30 years had passed since its older sibling had been born. Saint-Saëns was surely one of music’s more outré personalities. They say that as we grow older we regret the things we didn’t do more than the things we did. Saint-Saëns, I think, was a man who had no regrets. Writing to a friend about his new piano trio, he said, “I am working quietly away at a trio which I hope will drive to despair all those unlucky enough to hear it. I shall need the whole summer to perpetrate this atrocity; one must have a little fun somehow.”


The “atrocity” turned out to be a work in five movements, which exhibits a greater complexity and sophistication than are found in the earlier trio. Two fairly substantial outer movements frame three relatively short inner ones. The dark and somewhat brooding first movement is thought to have been inspired by Tchaikovsky’s A-Minor Trio—the two composers had been friends since the 1870s—while the second and fourth movements are characteristic of Schubert’s German and Viennese dances. Schumann makes another appearance in the brief Andante , while the last movement, unusual for Saint-Saëns, seems to nod in the direction of Brahms.


The catalog is not exactly overfull with recordings of these two trios, but the ones listed are very, very good. In 29:3, I reviewed and strongly recommended the Trio Wanderer’s version for Harmonia Mundi, and a subsequent release by the Florestan Trio, reviewed in 30:1, made a choice between the two difficult. With the arrival of this latest version by the Vienna Piano Trio, choice becomes even more difficult, for not only do the performances by this estimable ensemble match the excellent playing of the Wanderer and Florestan Trios, but MDG offers an extra incentive with its outstanding SACD recording. All else being equal, I’d have to say that if presented with these three recordings side by side, this new one with the Vienna Piano Trio is the one I’d choose.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

The infinite cosmos of French organ music is Ben van Oosten's realm, and he now has recordd the complete organ works of Camille Saint-Saëns in a sump-tuous box set. He performs on the Cavaillé Coll organ in Ste. Madeleine in Paris, one of the most beautiful instruments of its kind and an organ with a big orchestral sound on which Saint-Saëns himself left his traces for more than two decades.

Excellent playing - gloriously committed, fresh, confident and perceptive. This deserves a wider circulation.

Camille Saint-Saëns was one of the major Romantic composers in nineteenth century France. Regarded as a pioneer in his early years after the Great War and then in his eighties Saint-Saëns was still writing in his familiar late-Romantic style and his music had become regarded as anachronistic. Throughout his long life of eighty-six years Saint-Saëns wrote in most genres, including symphonies, concertante works, sacred and secular choral music, a ballet Javotte and incidental music, chamber music, numerous songs and pieces for piano and organ, and numerous arrangements. Saint-Saëns much cherished his thirteen operas all written during the period 1872-1911. Despite being prolific the fame of Saint-Saëns rests largely on just a small number of works most notably: the Symphony No. 3 Organ; the Symphonic Poem: Danse macabre; Softly awakes my heart and the Bacchanale from the opera Samson and Delilah; the Introduction and Rondo capriccioso and Havanaise for violin and orchestra, and The Swan from The Carnival of the Animals. Although of high quality the majority of his works are hardly known. A concert pianist himself a substantial number of Saint-Saëns’s rarely heard solo piano scores are a case in point. Even in his home country his piano scores soon became lost among the piano works of his European predecessors Liszt and Chopin and the impressionism of his successors Debussy, Ravel and Satie.

This MDG release serves as a excellent showcase for the solo piano scores. Presented here are three collections of six piano works. For some reason they are not placed in chronological order. The first is the Album pour Piano, op. 72. These are pieces tailored for virtuoso display in the fashionable Parisian salons and concert halls. The Album opens with an urgent Prélude with passages of calm; sounding somewhat Lisztian. A peaceful work tinged with melancholy the Carillon adopts a more serious quality at its centre. The rapid and darting Toccata has considerable appeal and the Valse is another attractive piece that develops a fervent core. Rocking and undemanding, the Chanson Napolitaine evokes the motion of the gondola. The concluding Final is a dazzling and exuberant showpiece.

The next two collections comprise Études ( Studies). These are spacious, polished and appealing in style and at times strike the classical approach of Mendelssohn. The Six Études pour le Piano, op. 52 commence with an upbeat and extrovert Prélude. Titled Pour l'independance des doigts this is melodic and encompasses a sighing and romantic mood. A brisk and determined Prélude and Fugue in F minor is followed by the tricky Etude de rythme so movingly gentle and delicate with an almost pleading quality. The Prélude and Fugue in A major is very fine being both melodic and dramatic, The set culminates in the popular En forme de Valse, sweeping and scatty.

The closing set is the Six Études pour le Piano, op. 111. Opening the set is the short Tierces majeures et mineures which is big-boned and extrovert. Reminding me on occasions of Rimsky-Korsakov’s famous Flight of the Bumblebee is the rapid Traits chromatiques followed by the Prélude et Fugue notable for its broad and dramatic gestures. Saint-Saëns was a great lover of the sound of bells and wrote several bell-inspired scores. A repetitive piece Les Cloches de Las Palmas contains prominent bell-like figures that could easily be ringing out a warning to townsfolk. The attractive, penultimate and scurrying Tierces majeures chromatiques is only brief. To crown this collection comes the dramatic and boisterous Toccata d'après le cinquième concerto a title that refers to the finale of the Piano Concerto No. 5, op. 103 known as ‘ The Egyptian’ .

Korean pianist Mi-Joo Lee provides excellent playing with a beautiful tone drawn from her Steinway concert grand (model D). There were only a couple of minor examples of poor technicality otherwise the soloist was gloriously committed, fresh, confident and perceptive. Virtually everything that Saint-Saëns wrote is appealing and of high quality whilst not making any claims for these splendid and interesting scores to be classed as masterworks. They deserve a wider circulation.

-- Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International

An Echo Klassik for Hofmann, an Opus d'or for von Bausznern, and now for the third time the Berolina Ensemble steps into the spotlight with a spectacular discovery - and once again we are at a loss to explain how it was that such magnificent works could ever be forgotten. The ensemble's newest release is dedicated to Ernst Rudorff. His opulent String Sextet, Romance for Violin and Piano, and a series of enchanting piano pieces offer extensive documentation of the chamber oeuvre of this Berlin composer, who also numbered among the pioneers in the field of conservation.

Anton Rubinstein was a celebrated piano virtuoso, sought-after conductor, and - on the side - one of the most successful composers of his times. His Symphony No. 2, the ''Ocean Symphony,'' experienced more than two hundred performances when it was first written, statistics matched by hardly any other work. MDG is now re-releasing this symphony and other top-quality compositions by this Russian romanticist from the rich repertoire of its many years of extremely successful cooperation with the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra. Alban Gerhardt, largely unknown at the time, created a tremendous sensation with Rubinstein's Cello Concerto. The Wuppertal Symphony absolutely has what it takes when it comes to unleashing such energy on the concert stage. George Hanson gives his musicians free reign, and the legendary acoustics of Wuppertal's Historische Stadthalle am Johannisberg do their part to overpower music fans with original musicality even in their own living rooms - bravi, bravissimi!

Remarkable and significant.



DE ROOS String Quartets: Nos. 5, 2, 7, 3 • Utrecht Str Qrt • MDG 603 1613-2 (64:39)


Robert de Roos (1907–76), where have you been all my life? Although I have been devoted to Dutch music for half a century—browsing such sources as the Donemus Foundation—I don’t believe I had ever encountered even the name of this busy composer, who wrote well over 100 works in almost every form but opera. Yet nothing in his music suggests a reason for it not being well known; it is listener-friendly without being easy, thoroughly absorbing without being difficult. The earlier quartets presented here (1942, 1944–45, and 1951) are basically tonal works that overstep the bounds just often enough to pique the interest; melodies are plentiful, clear, and memorable. Formal structures are unusual, however: The music gives an impression of being post-classical, but sonata form never fits; fugues are common, as are what we would define (at least at first) as free-form movements. That parenthetical out is because all the movements eventually demonstrate an inner logic, often a forward-moving progression of ideas and variants thereof. Quartet No. 3 is perhaps the most conventional, having four movements—Allegro, Lento, Scherzo, and Fugue (Grave) – Allegro. Its 32 minutes also match our expectations more closely than the eight to 12 minutes of the other works. Late in life, de Roos investigated 12-tone music, yet even there he refuses to follow the rules. The Seventh Quartet has much of the 12 tones (sometimes only 10 or 11 of them), but it maintains winning surfaces, avoiding the harsh, dry feeling common to the Second Vienna School. There is great variety among these 11 movements, and yet each convinces this listener that it is genuine string-quartet music, worthy of attention from all who love the medium.


There have been earlier recordings of at least two of these quartets (No. 5 twice), none of which I have heard. The Utrecht String Quartet (Eeva Koskinen, Katherine Routley, Joël Waterman, Sebastian Koloski) is a superb group that has made many recordings for MDG—Glazunov, Gretchaninov, Tchaikovsky, and Van Delden discs are featured in the booklet. Its performances—like the music it plays—strike me as ideal: clear, honest, well disciplined, and communicative. The sound is equally honest and clean. Interest in this CD should go well beyond the limits of Dutch music; I for one shall treasure it.


FANFARE: James H. North


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As a long term resident of The Hague, I am truly embarrassed to have to admit not knowing very much at all about Robert de Roos. His profile is not exactly high, and he is not well represented either on recordings or concert programmes, but this impressive CD from the Utrecht String Quartet will do his reputation no harm whatsoever. Born in The Hague, he studied at the Royal Conservatoire there, receiving instruction in composition from Johan Wagenaar. He then moved to Paris and took private lessons with Darius Milhaud, as well as learning counterpoint with Charles Koechlin and Roland Manuel. He later also studied orchestration and fugue technique with Sem Dresden. De Roos never became a professional musician, having instead a distinguished diplomatic career, acting from 1946 to 1956 as Cultural Attaché at the Dutch Embassy in Paris, and in 1957 he was appointed as Principal Secretary for Press and Cultural Affairs at the Embassy at Caracas in Venezuela, taking on the same position in 1961in Bogotá, Quito, La Paz and Lima. After important posts in London and Buenos Aires he returned to The Netherlands in 1973, dying there in 1976.


Initially influenced by the German and French schools, De Roos found a personal style which responded to the training in counterpoint he had sought in earlier years. As a student of the violin in The Hague, De Roos acquired the technical knowledge in string writing which made the string quartet a natural medium for some of his best work. Taken in chronological order, the String Quartet II brings us at once into a musical world which is remarkably expressive and technically highly proficient. Influenced by the technical approach of his country man Willem Pijper, this piece arguably has some sonorities in common with Paul Hindemith, whose scores De Roos could conceivably have studied in The Hague public library – I only know this as I’ve bought some of stock from the period complete with wartime date stamps, sold off in the early 1990s when the collection was moved to a shiny new building on the Spui.


The String Quartet III also dates from the war years, started during the ‘hunger winter’ of 1944-45. By far the most substantial piece on this disc at over 32 minutes, the relatively cheery nature of much of the music in the piece is a remarkable reflection of the fortitude with which De Roos took to being evacuated twice in this period, finally finishing this four movement work in the summer house of his friend August Mees in Oegstgeest. This piece achieved recognition with the award of the Willem Pijper prize in 1961, and is full of moments of remarkable beauty and expressive potency. The Grave fugal introduction of the final movement is the real emotional centre of the piece, and carries the weight of the tragedies of war in as noble as way as anything by Shostakovich.


The CD opens impressively with the dramatic opening of the String Quartet V, a movement of 1:20 duration marked Allegro brioso where the sparks leap from the instruments as the musical material is thrown between members of the quartet in virtuoso style. The subsequent Grave is another powerfully expressive fugal statement, and with the fugal final movement another striking achievement you will look back at the 11:32 timing for this piece and wonder at how much monumentality of scale and emotional strength can be contained in such a compact piece. The late String Quartet VII is subtitled ‘Quartettino’, but again its compactness is only applicable to its duration. This is if anything the most intense of the pieces on this disc and certainly the most ‘modernist’, if that term can be applied at all fairly with regard to the works here. The booklet notes suggest that De Roos’ precariousness of health and impending heart surgery were responsible for the sense of restless and ‘gruesome collective tremolo’ in this piece, and comment on a poignant rehearsal of the piece in 1976 with the composer just before his death.


As per usual, MDG present a remarkably vibrant recording, communicating every sonority and expressive inflection of the excellent Utrecht String Quartet. The presentation is also striking, the cover painting being a 1965 work by Robert de Roos himself. I have been suitably impressed by this creative spirit, and chastened by my ignorance of his music. With this remarkable recording we can now all redress this shortcoming, and I urge all to broaden their horizons in De Roos’ direction.


-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

Wolfgang Rihm is number one among contemporary composers when it comes to creative reflection on the fascination inspired by the human voice. His oeuvre ranging from the intimate song to the opulent opera places enormous demands on the interpreters but never loses sight of the vocal element. Holger Falk has performed principal roles in several operas by Rihm and has repeatedly worked closely with this composer, while Steffen Schleiermacher numbers among the most distinguished pianists in the field of modern classical music. Their selection of songs by Rihm ranges from the early Wölfli-Liederbuch to the Six Poems by Friedrich Nietzsche of 2001 and offers compelling insights into the artistic development of one of today’s most sought-after composers.

Creativity, openness to new musical horizons, and zest: such were the personal traits that earned Bohemians the reputation of being the Mediterraneans of Central Europe and enabled them to occupy top positions throughout the European musical world of the eighteenth century. The Mannheim Court occupied the center of this musical universe, and it was there that Franz Xaver Richter, along with Johann Stamitz, rose to prominence and paved the way for Viennese classicism. - Dabringhaus & Grimm

This is a disc I could listen to again and again and again. Heck, I probably will—excuse me while I hit the back button on my CD player!

RHEINBERGER Sextet, op.191b. Nonet, op. 139 • Consortium Classicum • MDG 301 1453 (68:22)


This was my very first exposure to the music of Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (1839–1901), a composer who, I confess, I had never even heard of before. Born in Lichtenstein, he was apparently a great organist and the composer of several marvelous organ sonatas as well as a doctor of philosophy. Perhaps the extraordinarily high quality of the performances has something to do with it, but I found this music utterly charming, relaxed, and beautiful, much in the vein of the Schubert Octet or the Brahms Serenades. Like those works, there is nothing startling or innovative about this music melodically or harmonically. It is echt -German Romanticism in all its glory. Yet the warm autumnal colors and relaxed, flowing rhythmic contours of the works held me in thrall from the very first note of the Sextet to the very last note of the Nonet.


I attribute much of my being charmed to the extraordinarily warm playing of oboist Gernot Schmalfuss (in the Sextet) and Pavel Sokolov (in the Nonet), hornist Jan Schroeder, and especially pianist Stefan Irmer, whose consistently light, airy tone and flowing sense of rhythm kept things moving without ever sounding aggressive. Nevertheless, Rheinberger’s music put me in mind of a leisurely stroll through the countryside, in which one’s ramblings are occasionally interrupted by a sight or a thought that shifts one’s reality sideways for a few diverting moments. In a world of gushy, overproduced “relaxing classics,” this is genuinely music of relaxation, but it works not because of its soft contours but because, despite its leisurely quality, it continually engages the mind. His feeling for rhythm is uncannily natural, his occasional emphasis on secondary themes in the foreground creative yet playful. And how this music sings ! The only other composer whose works have had such an arresting effect on me is the vastly underrated York Bowen.


Unlike other music in this genre (Schubert’s and Mendelssohn’s, of course, excepted), Rheinberger is not intent on making or proving a point. He is not trying to convince us that he really is a Great Composer. He just reveals the workings of his mind in music that is tonal and romantic, but also fresh, vital and wholly delightful. Analysis of these sorts of pieces rather withers in the face of the extreme aesthetic pleasures they bring, much as an analysis of Leo Delibes or Paul Dukas rather dissipates in the extraordinary charm of their music. It has been said that Rheinberger’s wife and former pupil, Franziska von Hoffnaass, had a significant influence on his compositional style. I am inclined to believe this; these two works, at least, seem as much feminine in their outlook as they do masculine.


As the disc went on, I rather felt that the sonics were also partly to credit for the music’s impact. For those reactionaries who love to claim that music in the days of vinyl sounded fuller, warmer, more realistic, I commend you to a careful listen of MDG’s sonics. Recorded in 2006 at the Fürstliche Reitbahn Bad Arolsen by engineer Holger Schlegel, there is all the fullness of a real-time concert hall. Everything is clearly articulated, despite the group’s wonderful penchant for ensemble blend, yet absolutely nothing sounds artificial. The only older recordings I can compare these to are the magnificent New York Woodwind Quintet discs of the late 1950s and early 1960s on Everest’s 35-mm recording film. If you liked the sound of those records—and what true musician didn’t, as they were best-sellers among professionals—you will absolutely fall in love with MDG’s sonics. This is a disc I could listen to again and again and again. Heck, I probably will—excuse me while I hit the back button on my CD player!


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

Although Rudolf Innig concluded his 12-disc cycle of Rheinberger’s complete organ works in 2005, it has taken nearly a decade for MDG to bring it out as a boxed set. For comprehensiveness alone, it has no competition. Every solo organ piece Rheinberger composed is here, from the 20 sonatas (he intended to write 24 sonatas, one in each key, but death intervened) to collections of short works and miscellaneous pieces. Once past the first disc’s rather academic-sounding preludes, fugues, and miniatures that Rheinberger composed as a student, his mature craftsmanship and contrapuntal mastery quickly come into focus, fusing the formal rigor of Mendelssohn and Brahms, Franck’s adventurous modulations, and Dvorák’s melodic appeal. Rheinberger’s style remained remarkably consistent, although inspiration goes up and down, sometimes within the same work.

My own preference leans toward the later sonatas, particularly No. 14’s exciting Toccata finale, the expressive simplicity of No. 16’s middle movement, and the “fantasy sonata” No. 17’s uplifting fugue. While individual releases in this cycle have met with mixed reviews over the years, I generally warm to Innig’s fluency, command, and tempo choices. To be sure, the closer engineering and marked contrast of registrations characterizing Wolfgang Rubsam’s 8-disc Naxos cycle primarily devoted to the sonatas and Wolfgang Stockmeier’s CPO series of short pieces might be more attractive and easier on the ear to some listeners. The organ-based label Raven also has released a brilliantly engineered Rheinberger sonata cycle featuring Bruce Stevens’ dazzlingly flamboyant performances on a wide variety of American instruments. Still, Innig often fares well via comparative listening.

Take the Eighth Sonata’s large Passacaglia finale, for example. Rubsam’s leaner timbre befits the music’s inherent grace, but Innig’s generally faster basic tempo imparts more drive and drama to the decorative arpeggiated variations. In the charming and unpretentious Op. 174 Miscellaneen, Stockmeier’s sparse registrations in the Scherzoso give its lyrical inner voices and ländler-like character genial due, whereas Innig’s massive sonorities and rhythmic drive suggest something more intense and larger of scale. By contrast, Stockmeier’s slightly square reading of the eloquent lento Betrachtung cannot compare to Innig’s legato control, subtle rubato, and well contoured phrasing between feet and hands. MDG’s table of contents provides online PDF links to the original booklet notes for each volume, plus specifications for each of the six Swiss organs used for these recordings. If Stevens ultimately warrants first choice for the sonatas, Innig nevertheless deserves serious consideration.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com