When Gdańsk, then German-speaking and protestant Danzig, under the reign of the Polish king, was an independent and prosperous center of trade and commerce, it also enjoyed the status of a magnificent and multifaceted music center. However, many of the sources documenting its rich cultural heritage are no longer extant, most of them destroyed by war. Andrzej Szadejko has researched the historic holdings of the Gdańsk Library of Polish Academy of the Sciences and made surprising discoveries. On this world-premiere recording he leads the Goldberg Baroque Ensemble in performances of seven Baroque cantatas in every way equaling the originality and mastery of works by much more famous composers of those times. The names of the composers - Meder, Pucklitz, Freislich, and du Grain - surely will be known to only a few music experts Johann Balthasar Christian Freislich's cantata "Gott ist die Liebe" demonstrates that he is a match for even the greatest Baroque masters. The fine art of the aria "Gott gleichet einem grossen Meere" puts the soloists to the ultimate test, and teh style and melodic sumptuousness of "Wer in der Liebe Gottes bleibet" might have been born of an opera by Handel. Johann Daniel Pucklitz displays a personal signature and originality. The tenor aria "Lass mich Jesu dir entgegen" forms an absolute high point on this album. Even the accompaniment with the obbligato bassoon and basso continuo makes us sit up and listen, and when at teh end of his life the singerrepresenting humankind surrenders his spirit to his Creator in a peaceful idyll, the chorus joins in to the sound of the trumpet and with "Ende gut, alles gut" - thereby producing a magnificent sound impression.

Samuel Barber began his compositional career as a genuine child prodigy. At the age of nine he knew that he wanted to be a musician, and a year later he wrote his first opera - or at least the first act, after which the cook, his librettist, ran out of ideas! He initially worked as an organist, and even though he later focused on other areas, organ compositions are found throughout his oeuvre. Rudolf Innig's complete recording of these works offer enthralling insights into the development of Barber's full and rich life as a composer. Barber generally displayed a predilection for fine emotionality. His last organ work is a chorale prelude to ''Silent Night, Holy Night,'' a carol also very popular in the United States. However, whether the floating 7/8 time and bi-tonal harmony really gets us into the Christmas spirit - now that is another matter!

Heinrich Baermann is quite well known today as Carl Maria von Weber's source of inspiration. The famous virtuoso, for whom Weber personally created his clarinet concertos, repeatedly took up the pen on his own - and did so with great success. Several dozen works by Baermann have been transmitted to us. Here Rita Karin Meier and the Belenus Quartet turn to his three quintets for clarinet and strings and with them very outstandingly bring back to life his much-acclaimed cantabile playing as well as his legendary virtuosic capabilities. Especially in the Quintet in F minor, Op. 22 Baermann's closeness to Weber cannot be missed. The tempestuous beginning, in which the strings introduce the yearning and urgency of the Allegro non troppo, is pure romanticism from the very start. The magnificent opera scene in the second movement offers Rita Karin Meier outstanding opportunities to display her wonderfully warm tone in all sorts of different shadings. The Adagio of the Quintet Op. 23, which even today is quite frequently performed, acquired unsual fame. After its rediscovery in 1922 it was initially regarded as a work by Richard Wagner - which absolutely certifies its high quality!

Johann Sebastian Bach revised his St. John Passion several times. Which one to choose? Rainer Johannes Homburg selected the last version for this performance with his Hymnus Choirboys of Stuttgart and Handel's Company. Why? It combines the carefree expressivity of Bach's initial years at St. thomas, eliminating unnecessary second thoughts from his middle years, with an experienced and mature master's instrumental tonal sophistication - which Homburg fully exploits. The richly colored continuo group, here even including a contrabassoon, makes us sit up and listen. While the St. Matthew Passion focuses on Jesus' human suffering, in the St. John Passion, Christ presents himself above all as the divine Redeemer. Bach captures the dramatic reduction going along with this depiction; the carefully balanced symmetry of the composition is a genial reflection of the architecture of the Gospel of St. John, from the initial "Herr unser Herrscher" to the concluding "Dich will ich preisen ewiglich." In this way the narrative of the suffering and death of Jesus - very much as Martin Luther saw it - becomes a message full of happy hoep for all people. Bach repeatedly conveys the special core of this message with special instruments. The viola d'amore is used, and so are the lute, oboe da caccia, and oboe d'amore. However, one of the high points is doubtless the gripping alto aria "Es ist vollbracht," which calls on the solo viola da gamba to express the most highly personal sorrow. The repeated employment of a contrabassoon must have made Bach's contemporaries take special notice. And even today its grumbling in the bass depths results in fascinating shuddering.

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

Johann Sebastian Bach composed almost two hundred chorale preludes and chorale arrangements, but they have rarely been interpreted on viola and piano. On this recording, violist Hariolf Schlichtig and pianist Yumi Sekiya perform some of these familiar works as well as the three beautiful gamba sonatas from Köthen.

This is the third complete cycle of J.S. Bach's sonatas and partitas for violin solo BWV 1001-1006 transcribed for a plucked instrument to be released within the last few years. Paul Galbraith's transcription for his modified 12-string guitar was issued first in 1998 by Delos (3232). A year later Hopkinson Smith recorded his cycle for Astrée Naive (E8678) performing on a 13-course baroque lute. On this new MDG recording Frank Bungarten offers his ideas performing on a modern guitar. All are beautiful; all are passionately performed by artists who obviously regard their respective undertakings as labors of love; and all remind us again and again how inspired and sublime this most perfect music for solo instrument is, however transcribed.


So what are the differences besides the instrumentation? Of the three, Galbraith generally chooses the swiftest tempos, which when combined with his cello-like performing posture alludes more to the way we're accustomed to hearing the works performed on violin. Galbraith obviously is familiar with the capabilities of this instrument of his own invention--enough to describe his set as the most "virtuosic" of the three. Smith's acount has much going for it too. For one, Smith's is the most historically informed cycle, since he performs on a copy of a period lute, and this often-intimate music admittedly benefits from its almost clavichord-like sound. Smith's performances also are the less mimetic of the three, in the sense that he seems to be interested less in imitating what a violin can make of this music and more with what a lute can. In turn, Smith also takes many more liberties than Galbraith and Bungarten. Listen, for example, to the way he enters the first sonata BWV 1001. Rather than simply imitating the violin's sharp rise, he begins quietly, slowly allowing the integrity of each string to be heard as only a plucked instrument can.

Which now brings us to this MDG set. Frank Bungarten is a fine guitarist whose transcriptions fastidiously attempt to "let the music speak for itself"--meaning that the only liberties he takes are technical ones that make it possible for this violin music to be performed on a guitar. Listen for instance to the way he articulates the final Allegro of Sonata No. 2. Here Bungarten's imaginative use of note for note chordal progressions sustains the dance with remarkable clarity. Equally impressive is Bungarten's clever use of shading and dynamics, particularly in the Tempo di Borea movement of Partita No. 1. The elongated lines that establish the opening theme are given more than enough emphasis without sacrificing any of the quieter intricacy of the inner details.

Bungarten's deft, expertly executed performances certainly are the most straightforward--which is not to say uninflected--of the group. I'm sure that most of us already have at least one recorded cycle of Bach's sonatas and partitas performed on violin. I'm equally sure that far fewer listeners possess one of these fine sets of transcriptions. It's a pity, because to hear this music rethought and applied by such capable musicians as Galbraith, Smith, and Bungarten truly heightens the miracle of it. MDG's sound and overall presentation are as fine as ever. Bungarten also provides informative notes in the multilingual booklet.
--John Greene, ClassicsToday.com

Ben van Oosten has been virtually showered with awards and honors for his recordings of French romantic organ music, for which he has even been dubbed a knight. In this light the historic audio achievement now being released by MDG for the first time on album is all the more interesting: four organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach performed by the Dutch virtuoso on the organ in the Grote Kerk in Breda when he was only 28 years old. Van Oosten got off to a magnificent start with the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor. One can imagine how the members of selection committee were blown away when Bach applied for the post of organist at Hamburg’s Jakobikirche with a performance of this work. It was certainly not because of the “Kaffeewasserfuge” that Bach was not successful: he withdrew his application when he learned that the business-minded authorities expected the payment of a larger sum of money from the lucky winner. The six Trio Sonatas number among the highlights of Bach’s oeuvre. It is with the finest art that the organ assumes the independent voices otherwise assigned to several instruments- a form of chamber music loved during Bach’s time. And then a little bit of French influence also ends up being felt: Marcel Dupre’s organ transfer of the Sinfonia from the “Rathauswahlkantate,” once derived by Bach from the Prelude of the Partita in E flat for violin solo.

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

Composer and organ builder very nearly get equal billing on this CD. Bach’s name is in larger letters than Silbermann’s on the cover, but the latter gets twice the column inches inside.
 
Craig Humber is happy for the organ to be the star of the show, or so it seems from the fact that it was he who penned the comprehensive notes about its history and construction. They are an interesting pair J.S. Bach and Gottfried Silbermann; almost exactly contemporaries and equally distinguished, and yet there is no evidence they ever worked together or even met.
 
Issues then of authenticity, or at least historical verisimilitude, ought by rights to be the starting point for a project like this. They are certainly important motivations for Humber, but he is also at pains to emphasise that traditions of organ building in the 18 ^th century were as diverse as those of performance. So, where Bach borrows freely from courtly dance styles of France, so Silbermann borrows the designs of ‘fiery reed and powerful mutation stops’ from his Gallic contemporaries.
 
But historical issues aside, the most valid and obvious justification for recording this music on this instrument is that it works supremely well. Bach’s lyrical counterpoint in these, for the most part gentle, works ebbs and flows beautifully when rendered in these warm, restrained timbres. Humber claims to use every stop of the organ at some point on this recording, but he mixes the colours subtly, and his restraint with the mutation stops in particular makes their few appearances all the more effective.
 
Two discs of Chorale Preludes, even if they are by Bach, can be excessive for a single sitting, and this is music best appreciated in small, but regular, doses. Almost any recording of works in a single genre by a single composer risks monotony, and that can be a particular problem here, as almost every work is slow, quiet and made up of unbroken contrapuntal textures. On the other hand, Humber is to be congratulated for not attempting to sex it up for the sake of impatient listeners. Each of these works functions as a perfect artistic entity, whether heard in a liturgical context or heard in succession, and Humber is happy to present them just like that, with nothing added or subtracted. It is quite a conservative approach, even for an organist, but it’s ideal.
 
The SACD sound is good, almost too good. The liner-notes make much of the imperfections of the organ, statements which sit uneasily with the balance and evenness of tone in the recording. And how have they managed to avoid excessive resonance from the cathedral acoustic? MDG make a big thing out of their opposition to any kind of digital manipulation, so it can only come down to astute sound engineering on the day – or on the night rather, if the stories I’ve heard about organ recording sessions are anything to go by.
 
Craig Humber is clearly passionate about the work of Gottfried Silbermann, and he demonstrates on this recording that he has the artistic skills to show off the organ-builder’s work at its very best. A recording project that makes such a feature of its instrumentation is always going to require the highest possible standards of recorded sound. Fortunately, that’s exactly what this one gets.
 
-- Gavin Dixon, MusicWeb International

Helmut Walcha’s legendary Bach recording from the 1950s for Archiv made the Cappel organ world- famous. Erich Thienhaus, the founding father of Detmold’s school of musically and technically well- versed sound engineers and thus a legend in his own right, was the recording director. After many years on the recording sidelines (the installation of a heating unit caused technical problems) the famous Schnitger organ is now once again in the best condition. Harald Vogel and the MDG team have seized the opportunity to present this instrument in the latest, most finely balanced 2+2+2 recording technique on a Super Audio CD featuring early works by Bach. Its high point is formed by what is probably the most famous organ work of all times: the Toccata in D minor.

Harald Vogel is number one when it comes to Northern German music. He is in international demand not only as an organist and a teacher but also as an expert in matters of organ design. With the Organeum in Weener he has made the Frisian organ landscape familiar to a broad public beyond expert circles. And his recording of the complete organ works of Dietrich Buxtehude on original instruments set international standards.

It must be difficult to make a disc on such a famous and intensively recorded organ as that at Norden, and say anything new, even despite the organ's superlative quality. But this is a really excellent CD by the husband and wife team now responsible for Arp Schnitger's masterpiece and it’s one which I can very highly recommend.

Norden is Schnitger's second largest surviving instrument after the Jacobikirche in Hamburg. It gained instant fame after Jurgen Ahrend restored it in 1985 and has been featured in countless recordings since. Part of its fame is due to its unique position in the church on the south side of the chancel, its one pedal tower to the right of the player, its distantly enchanting Oberpositiv also unique. The nucleus of the surviving instrument is by Schnitger dating from 1692 and incorporating stops from an earlier instrument by Edo Evers. Now, all the reeds and the majority of the compound stops are by Ahrend and his characteristic perfection is very evident. That Ahrend has left his stamp on all the organs he has restored must be acknowledged; I don't believe Schnitger's reeds ever spoke as promptly and perfectly as Ahrend's. But in a sense it doesn't matter a jot, Jurgen Ahrend is the most talented organ builder of his generation, and every bit as great an artist as was Arp Schnitger. Whatever, the famed Norden instrument here justifies every crumb of its reputation. It sounds, as ever, breathtakingly beautiful.

Agnes Luchterhandt and Thiemo Janssen are both former students of Harald Vogel and Wolfgang Zerer. Here they present an attractive and imaginative programme, and present it with love and great musicality. Neither player is afraid to bend the pulse to an expressive end, and both play with a very highly sophisticated vocabulary of articulation. For me the highlight is Janssen's performance of Scheidt's Echo ad manuale duplex, initially contrasting the plena of Hauptwerk and Oberpositiv and ending with the Ruckpostiv Principal 8' against the 8' flutes of Hauptwerk and Oberpositiv, a feast for the ear! Elsewhere Janssen proves his versatility with a gorgeously flexible chunk of Correa. I find the Buxtehude Toccata too bitty for me, too many registration changes, fugues with 8' pedal, very much in the Vogel mold, but as I have commented many times, Vogel’s approach is for me too personal to be so constantly imitated. Luchterhandt also plays with great control and expressiveness. Her massive approach to the Weckmann is spot-on and contrasts well with her delicate and poised Buxtehude Canzona. I question the concept of playing BWV 540 in Norden, the temperament (modified meantone) may "add spice to the work" to quote the performer, but for me it is too much, despite the beautifully paced performance. In addition an 8' chorus without the 16 pedal reed doesn't seem ideal for Bach's more monumental sound-world. Schlick's ten voice verse, 'Ascendo ad patrem meum' is divided between the players.

This is fabulous music played on one of Europe's greatest organs with panache and flair. Presentation is first rate. Congratulations to MDG on a gorgeous release.

-- Chris Bragg, MusicWeb International

KLUGHARDT Piano Quintet. 1 String Quintet 2 • 1 Olga Gollej (pn); 2 Julian Steckel (vc); Leipzig Qrt • MDG 307 1652-2 (70: 07)


The piano quartet and quintet seem to be forms that brought out the very best in the lesser-known German Romantic composers, by following the exemplars of Schumann and Brahms. In Fanfare 34:1 I raved about the two quintets of Friedrich Gernsheim and placed that CD on my 2010 Want List, and in 25:2 Raymond Tuttle called the E?-Quartet by Heinrich von Herzogenberg “one of the best works Brahms never wrote.” Now yet another CD revives another such neglected work by a largely forgotten figure.


August Klughardt (1847–1902) earned his living primarily as a conductor; he spent the last 20 years of his life in that role as the director of music for the city of Dessau, where his family had moved when he was 16. He became a disciple of the Liszt/Wagner New German School after meeting Liszt in 1873, but despite that allegiance continued to compose in traditional forms. (Wagner rejected the dedication of Klughardt’s Symphony No. 1, “Leonore,” in 1873 with the ungracious comment that he “perceived the whole merely as a study very much in need of correction in terms of style.” Despite the snub, Klughardt conducted an entire Ring cycle in Dessau 20 years later.) In addition to the two works featured here, Klughardt’s output includes six symphonies (the first unnumbered), concerti for violin and for cello, four operas, an oratorio, two string quartets, a piano trio, and a string sextet later arranged to become his Symphony No. 5. The cello concerto and a wind quintet (which at present has as many recordings as all his other pieces combined) are the most often heard of his infrequently played works.


Three patron spirits hover over Klughardt’s music: Brahms, Schumann, and Liszt. From the first two Klughardt derived the shape of his thematic materials and use of traditional structures, from the latter two a rhapsodic treatment of thematic development that departed from strict sonata form. The Piano Quintet is dominated by its first movement, which lasts for more than 16 of the work’s almost 40 minutes. It opens with a brief, ruminative Lento introduction, which gains momentum and then suddenly erupts into an Allegro con fuoco main section. After the energetic initial theme is stated, there follows a lovely lyrical second subject, and then a boldly arresting, memorable third subject that immediately captures the imagination. The three themes are freely interchanged in a highly dramatic development that leads to a fiery conclusion. While substantial and engaging, the remainder of the quintet is markedly smaller in scale than its Promethean opening. A gentle, songful Adagio provides contrasting repose, followed by an amiable, rather Schumannesque Scherzo and a vigorous Brahmsian finale with a brief and somewhat pedestrian contrapuntal episode.


The Lisztian influence is more to the fore in the String Quintet, which seizes the listener’s attention at its start with a triplet fanfare figure and immediately succeeding violin cadenza redolent of a Hungarian village violinist. While the thematic material of the first three movements has an overall Brahmsian feel, a Hungarian flavor permeates it as well, and this erupts full force in a finale obviously inspired by the czárdás folk dance. The formal development of the whole is very loose and highly reiterative in nature; the work seems almost more of a serenade than something akin to the two quintets of Brahms. It is definitely lighter fare than the Piano Quintet, but quite enjoyable on its own terms.


The celebrated Leipzig Quartet obviously needs no introduction from me, and it plays here with its customary excellence, though it could perhaps use a little more energetic thrust in the finales of both works. Pianist Olga Gollej is completely en rapport with her partners. The recorded sound is clear, albeit a bit disembodied spatially. If the remainder of the disc does not quite live up to the spectacular promise of its opening track, this is nonetheless still a most worthwhile acquisition that makes one curious to hear more of Klughardt’s art, and is warmly recommended.


FANFARE: James A. Altena

The Arp Schnitger organ in St. Ludger’s Church in Norden numbers among the most important baroque instruments of its kind and has remained practically unchanged over the centuries. In addition, the organ’s unique and complex resonance into various church spaces makes every recording a special challenge. On what is now their third SACD Agnes Luchterhandt and Thiemo Janssen present “their instrument” with a highly appealing and representative program sequence quite literally showing the instrument from all its best sides. They obtain superb support from the outstanding room-related 2+2+2 reproduction enabling the instrument and the space to be experienced in genuine three-dimensional sound.

What a genial solution! The great organ, middle pipes, and choir organ resonate diagonally into the crossing, and the pedal division into the Romanesque great organ, and the upper unit into the Gothic choir. No wonder that Bach was enthusiastic about Northern German organ design and the organ works of Buxtehude, Samuel Scheidt, and Georg Böhm.

Mozart’s famous variations on “Ah, vous dirais-je, maman” then offer a surprise. Agnes Luchterhandt avails herself of these magical variations in order to take us through the characteristic registers – a guided organ tour of a special kind and a welcome expansion of the classical repertoire, which can be presented surprisingly well in Norden.

Unusual Registration:
But the first surprise occurs right at the beginning of the SACD. “Brande champan-je,” a dance song from the sixteenth century, is performed true to the original in a version for two organists with percussion. The original drum stop is no longer extant on today’s organ; a Calcant whose work today is done by the organ motor substitutes for it.

-- MD&G (Dabringhaus & Grimm)

JEAN-MARIE LONDEIX: PORTRAIT • Jean-Marie Londeix (sax, cond); Ens International de Saxophones; 15 Jacques Murgier, 1 Marius Constant, 2 Edouard Ciavane, 3 André Ameller, 4 Marc Boneur, 5 Pierre-Max Dubois, 6 Pierre-Philippe Bauzin, cond; 7 Unknown orchs & ensembles; 8 Lucie Robert, 9 Anne-Marie Schielin, 10 Carmen Picard, 11 Maurice Chancelade, 12 France Jénicot 13 (pn); Marc Eychenne (vn); 14 Ens Jean Courtioux 15 • MDG 642 1416 (4 CDs: 283:06)


MUGIER Concerto. 1 CONSTANT Concertante. 2 MAURICE Tableux de Provence. 3 AMELLER Concertino, op. 125. 4 BERNIER Hommage à Sax. 5 DUBOIS Concerto. 6 BAUZIN Poème, op. 20. 7 Saxophone Sonata. 7 KOECHLIN Etudes, op. 188/8,2,9,3. 9 DESENCLOS Prelude, cadence et final. 10 HINDEMITH Sonate. 11 DENISOV Sonate. 11 GOTKOVSKY Brillance. 11 ROBERT-DIESSEL Cadenza. 10 EYCHENNE Cantilène et danse. 12, 14 ALLA Polychrome for 12 Saxophones. 15 MARKOVICH Complainte et danse. 10 LACOUR Divertessement. 15 DUBOIS Le lièvre et la tortue. 4 Les ecureuils. 10 DELVINCOURT 3 croquebouches. 10 MILHAUD Scaramouche. 10 BERNIER Capriccio. 13 CRESTON Toccata. 13 REUFF Chanson et passepied. 10 AUCLERT Comme un vieux. 10 Noël. SCHMITT Songe de coppelios. 10 IBERT L’age d’or. 10 BONNEAU Caprice en forme de valse. DEBUSSY Syrinx (trans. Londeix)


The history of music is dotted with virtuosos who legitimized their instruments as serious concert vehicles by realizing their hitherto unimagined possibilities. In Mozart’s time, the clarinet was thought to be a utilitarian band instrument whose tone was considered too stridently common for orchestral work. Enter Anton Stadler, a clarinetist who was able to produce an eerily beautiful tone which was said to have approximated the sound of the human voice in its variegated colors and suppleness. Mozart was inspired, and the result was his Quintet for Clarinet and Strings and his incomparable Clarinet Concerto. Roughly a century later, a “retired” Brahms was coaxed back into composition by clarinetist Richard Mülfeld who proved to be the catalyst for Brahms’s autumnal op. 114 Clarinet Trio, his op. 115 Clarinet Quintet, and his two Clarinet Sonatas, op. 120. Instrumental virtuosos need music to serve as concert vehicles, and composers need virtuosos to champion their works. Closer to our own time, Pablo Casals and later Mstislav Rostropovich did much the same for the cello, as did André Segovia for his beloved guitar. The latter was a particularly active commissioner of new works for his instrument.


The saxophone has had a less than checkered career. Conceived by Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax around 1840 as an instrument that would bridge the gap between the woodwinds and the brass, it ended up neither there nor there. A few French composers used it fleetingly—Bizet in his incidental music for Daudet’s L’arlésienne , Debussy in his Rhapsody for saxophone and orchestra (which he grudgingly composed and never got around to orchestrating, that was done by Roger Ducasse), and Ravel in “The Ancient Castle” from his orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. A few Russian composers toyed with it, most notably Glazunov in his Saxophone Concerto of 1931. So much for the composers of that generation. They could be counted, as Nabokov said in one of his novels, “on the fingers of one maimed hand.” The saxophone was quickly adopted as a band instrument and later became a mainstay in the worlds of jazz and big band. And so it seemed to remain, until this enlightening release crossed my desk. As is apparent from the headnote, the French have subsequently proven to be the saxophone’s best advocate. Apparently, I speculate, they never saw jazz as a lowly art form. Composers as far back as Debussy, Satie, and Ravel saw and paid homage to its musical validity.


Jean-Marie Londeix’s articulation, tone coloration, control of dynamics, and sheer musicality are mind-boggling. The fact that virtually each piece on this four-disc release has either been premiered by or written for him shows that the composer/instrumentalist synergy alluded to above is still blessedly in force.


The stylistic range of this release is impressive—from Paule Maurice’s disarmingly tuneful Tableaux de Provence , Pierre-Philippe Bauzin’s Chaussonesque Poème , op. 20, and Ibert’s sweetly melodic L’age d’or , to Thiery Alla’s post-Darmstadt-inspired Polychrome for 12 saxophones (employing quarter tones). In between one finds such magical scores as Marius Constant’s Concertante, Pierre Max Dubois’s Le liévre et la tortue , Jeannine Reuff’s Le Six-like Chanson et passepied , and Ida Gotkovsky’s beyond brilliant Brillance , whose demands in rapid legato articulation are effortlessly met by Londeix—to give just four random citations. Of the non-French composers, Hindemith makes a fine showing in his Sonate of 1943 which swings between vervy virtuosity and poignant Innigkeit , and Paul Creston’s Toccata from his Suite, op. 6 sounds, given Londeix’s account, quintessentially American. On a historical note, Edison Denisov, a composer quite dear to me, composed his sassily spiky Sonata for Saxophone for Londeix, who premiered it in Chicago in 1970 and has championed it ever since, bringing Denisov out of the Soviet musical gulag and to our “decadent” Western ears. What a gift!


A caveat: these are all private recordings made between 1957 and 1995 in a variety of locations on both sides of the pond. To be expected, the quality is variable—the undocumented orchestras often sound a bit dull and remote and the piano accompaniments will be, from time to time, shallow and percussive. Whatever the sonic shortcomings, Londeix’s sound—not merely that of a surrogate human voice, but of a transcendently musical one—comes through whatever the limitations of the recording media; and his accompaniments, orchestral and piano, prove to be completely simpatico. Given the widely varying times and places of these recordings, MDG has, in its subsequent re-mastering, achieved an admirable and highly communicative consistency.


My advice to the purchaser of this release, given its hugeness and the terra incognita quality of so many of its composers: go to the fourth disc, program Londeix’s transcription of Debussy’s Syrinx followed by Ibert’s L’age d’or and Milhaud’s Scaramouche . Sit back and play them. It will only cost you about 17 minutes of your life. Now that your ears are adjusted to the largely French glories of this offering, either select any work whose title or composer captures your fancy, or just go back to the first disc and play the whole thing in sequence. I dare say, for many of you, it may prove to be a life-altering experience.


FANFARE: William Zagorski

The mezzo forte has a full and warm sound – a gentle crescendo, swelling only a little, before the music fades away into a murmuring pianissimo. Changing colours develop without the slightest break, and the queen of instruments builds up endless suspense on its way to the magnificent fortissimo in Georg Muffat’s passacaglia. Andreas Sieling presents the Alte Meister collection in Karl Straube’s romantic edition on the historic Sauer organ in the Berlin Cathedral.

Andreas Sieling, the cathedral organist in Berlin, has a “home organ” enabling him to draw on immense resources to his heart’s desire. With its more than a hundred stops assigned to four manuals, Ru?ckpositiv, and Pedal, the instrument offers an absolutely endless wealth of sound. When the organ was constructed by the famous Wilhelm Sauer Workshop in 1905, it was Germany’s largest organ. Fortunately, it has maintained its original form until the present day, so that this room-filling multichannel 2+2+2 Recording indeed is able to offer an authentic look at the interpretation history of baroque organ music at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Mallorca - Seville - Granada - Co?rdoba - mentioning these cities conjures up memories and imaginations that are associated with the magic of Spain. Nobody knew better how to capture these pictures in music than the piano virtuoso Isaac Albe?niz. The American- Italian guitarist Stephen Marchionda who lives in Spain, a renowned interpreter of Spanish music, lends new colours to this musical declaration of love.

Stephen Marchionda resides in Barcelona and is a proven expert in the field of Spanish music. This production is his second release on MDG, once again in the finest 2+2+2 SACD technique, which makes the listener feel that he or she is there in person. A fine and opulent result!