Charles Ives’s oeuvre is just as extensive as it is enigmatic. If “The Unanswered Question” and “Central Park in the Dark” have achieved something like cult status, his chamber music and songs are practically unknown. The Ensemble Avantgarde and the soprano Julia Sophie Wagner set out on a journey of discovery to a composer who was far ahead of his times. Almost the same age as Arnold Schönberg, Ives was artistically isolated. Four years of composition lessons with Horatio Parker at Yale clearly left much less of an impression than his boyhood years with his father George Edward, who was an enthusiastic experimenter. As army bandmaster the elder Ives once had several marching bands march into the marketplace of Danbury from various directions – each playing different marches, of course. This seemingly cacophonous alliance of otherwise unrelated parts would also repeatedly be found in the compositions of the younger Ives. For example, in “Old Home Day,” in which a piccolo suddenly joins a somewhat classical song, evidently without having agreed on repertoire and the key. Ives didn’t need to have any concerns – at least financial ones – about the acceptance of his music. With his own insurance company he became very rich. “Why do you write so much that no one ever gets to see? There are many good reasons, but none worth mentioning,” Ives says in the epilogue to his self-published song collection. Many of Ives’s works are available in various versions and instrumentations. The dreamy “Remembrance” can be found in three versions on this album which is both top-class and original. From very romantic (as in “Feldeinsamkeit”) to popular music (“Circus Band”): in Ives we find everything – and sometimes everything at one and the same time.

As a Swiss composer, Arthur Honegger was probably the bird of paradise among the Paris composers of the "Groupe des Six". The fact that he managed to combine the simplicity and plainness demanded above all by Jean Cocteau with his fascination for Wagner and Debussy indicates a strong personality. It is also reflected in his numerous song compositions and can be experienced wonderfully in the selection that Holger Falk and Steffen Schleiermacher have made for their latest album - including many a surprise. As with the other Five of the "Groupe des Six", Honegger preferred to set contemporary poems to music; Apollinaire and Claudel were particularly popular. But older texts also seem to fascinate him: The wonderfully purring stories by Saluste du Bartas and Pierre de Ronsard transport us into a baroque world in which biting irony and the most serious passion can hardly be distinguished. Honegger - unlike his colleagues - was also fond of the large symphonic form, including some stage successes. Some of this can be found in his songs; the early "Quatre Poèmes" surprise with harmonic opulence, far from any neo-classical attitude. Even at a ripe old age, the composer still counted these pieces among his best. The works presented here by Falk and Schleiermacher with an unerring sense for fine nuances span an entire composer's life. The consistently demanding piano part remains a constant and creates an atmosphere with sometimes almost endless, yet never obtrusive ostinati, on which Holger Falk's supple baritone can unfold most beautifully.

The Hungarian dances of Johannes Brahms have always been most popular. Rarely, however, have these immortal evergreens been heard so glowing and full of life as in the performance of Guido Schiefen and Markus Kreul, who for the first time ever recorded the complete arrangement for cello and piano by the Italian cello virtuoso Alfredo Piatti on album. Along with Joseph Joachim, Piatti was one of Clara Schumann's preferred chamber music partners and thus in Johannes Brahms' closest circle. The composer must have been very satisfied with Piatti's version, since the cello adds several dimensions of the most sensitive expression to the score, which was originally written for piano four hands - only a string instrument can lament as painfully as the sixths in No. 11. Schiefen and Kreul joyfully celebrate the emotionally charged music, without ever slipping into cliché. Mischievous elegance (number 3), accentuated rhythm (number 10) and the genuinely Czarda-like juxtaposition of deeply felt melancholy and exuberant cheerfulness (number 4) characterize the music, which was partly composed according to original Hungarian melodies and partly inspired by Brahms in the style of the puszta. Through to the exuberant finale with its never-ending trills, Piatti does not exactly make the cellist's task easy. Yet his arrangement is much more than just virtuoso stuff: in close relation to the four-handed model, a genuine piece of chamber music is created, which the two performers conjure up on the dance floor in almost somnambulistic certainty.

This is male choral song at its finest: the Neue Detmolder Liedertafel enlivens a tradition with fresh spirit and a special sense of beauty. And what its fifteen members and vocal powerhouses can do when they give their best with the four Detmolder Hornisten is a genuine audio delight. The works for male choir by Robert Schumann and Albert Lortzing brought together on this double album represent the height of Romantic song artistry- above all when they are so magnificently rendered. Singing in male circles was initially perhaps only a pretext enabling men to gather together in public without being suspected of engaging in conspiratorial activities. During the metings of the Dresdner Liedertafel, which Schumann led for a time, an hour of musical performance was always followed by an hour of parliamentary debate. It is hard to believe that authorities of the pre-1848 era would have stood idly by if the actually rather unsuspicious pastime of singing had not been part of the deal. The Neue Detmolder Liedertafel has special ties to Albert Lortzing inasmuch as he was active at the local Lippe Court Theater for some time. During difficult later years his male choral works helped him to support himself and his family. Everything is represented in these works, from cheerfulness to contemplation, including surprising reminiscences of Zar und Zimmermann and Der Wildschutz and making Romantic choral song simply irresistible!

From the very beginning fantasies on the famous operas of the nineteenth century belonged to the on-the-road staples of traveling virtuosos. Volker Reinhold knows his way around this genre like no other musician. After his release of Pablo de Sarasate’s complete fantasies and paraphrases on two Super Audio albums, the highly sought-after Schwerin concertmaster now again broadens our horizons with his piano partner Ralph Zedler and presents virtuoso opera arrangements spanning 150 years: discoveries are guaranteed! La traviata of course is a must on every program. Antonio Bazzini transformed Verdi’s famous opera into an intimate character portrait of Violetta and in the process far transcended the virtuosic sequencing of popular hits- the otherwise inevitable “Brindisi” is not at all to be found. It is thus not surprising that both Mendelssohn and Schumann were captivated by the artistic depth of this Italian star violinist, who later became a professor of composition and whose students almost predictably included the budding opera stars Mascagni and Puccini. Two contributions were penned by Henri Vieuxtemps. His fantasy on Bellini’s Norma is to be played in its entirety on the violin’s lowest string. Reinhold and Zedler conclude their entertaining tour through one and a half centuries with two works that may not be so well known but for this precise reason arouse all the most interest. Frantisek Ondricek looks eastward with his arrangement of Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar, and Igor Frolov, who was once David Oistrach’s assistant, supplies the dazzling conclusion with Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and its jazzy touches, of course including “Summertime.”

When orchestras became larger and larger, instrumentations more and more refined, and sound impressions louder and louder, Robert Fuchs composed . . . string quartets. Working in what is certainly the most intellectual musical genre, he had ears for intimate personal statements, while the music business had eyes mostly for showy spectacles. The Minguet Quartet, now a sought-after ensemble, once rescued Fuchs’s four quartets from decades of neglect when it was as aspiring young formation; the newly released special edition even today makes for true listening pleasure. The namesake of the Quartet is Pablo Minguet, a Spanish philosopher of the 18th century who attempted, in his writings, to facilitate access to the fine arts for all sectors of the population – and this idea is a chief artistic concern of the Minguet Quartet particularly while touring for concerts around the whole world. The passionate and intelligent interpretations of the Minguet Quartet always ensure inspiring listening experiences – “for the joy in sound and expression with which the ensemble makes the works speak enlivens even the smallest detail”. (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)

After long, thoroughly satisfying years of service at the Esterhazy court, Joseph Haydn was given a well-deserved retirement in 1790 - with an unusually handsome pension. The composer, who was in great demand throughout the world, used his new freedom to travel, especially to London, and to compose string quartets again. With the first of these "Apponyi" quartets, the Leipzig String Quartet continues its Haydn series and presents another remarkable milestone in the quartet repertoire. The quartets were virtually snatched out of Haydn's hands; Count Apponyi eventually secured exclusive rights for one year at a price of 100 gulden. Although popular with dilettantes, the Op. 74 quartets go beyond the limits of what can be performed by amateurs. The first violin in particular repeatedly attracts attention with virtuoso passages, but the other voices - just listen to the finale of the C major quartet - are also demanded to do a great deal. And Haydn remains true to himself: time and again he surprises players and listeners alike with irregular periods, inserted bars, sudden pauses... And there are echoes of folk music, such as drone surfaces or - in the B-flat major quartet - major/minor changes, which evoke associations with Haydn's years-long stay in Hungary and are a pleasure to listen to. The G minor quartet is the only one of this group to bear a nickname: "Reiterquartett" Rider's refers to the lively finale, which the Leipzig musicians present with verve and delight in playing truly "con brio". But many a slow movement in this quartet trias also spoils the discerning listener: great, timeless music of which there can never be enough.

A whole life, from birth to death, or the whole world, from the rising of the sun to its setting: nothing less than this is Bach's Goldberg Variations for saxophonist Peter Vigh. With the Aria at the beginning and at the end, a circle closes, and in between all sorts of things happen. Vigh orchestrated the monumental cycle for his Berlage Saxophone Quartet and has now recorded it on Super Audio album. The quartet tells of the ups and downs of existence with a sensitive sound: an experience that is as entertaining as it is deeply moving. Whether children playing (Variation 17) or a funeral procession (Variation 21): the associations that Bach's music evokes are intensely savored through the individual perspectives of the four Berlage artists. Ten different instruments are used and provide a colorful range that is second to none. And especially in the polyphonic parts, the work gains a new degree of transparency through the distribution among several players. To achieve this, the four Dutchmen went back to school: Guided by baroque specialist Walter van Hauwe, they intensively studied historical playing practice. And so one hears how surprising sounds with speaking articulation, elegant ornamentation technique and striking phrasing combine with the very highest pleasurable playing culture. With this new release, Lars Niederstrasser, Peter Vigh, Juani Palop and Eva van Grinsven once again demonstrate their extraordinary stylistic range.

For 30 years, Ensemble Horizonte has been intensively engaged in the audience-pleasing performance of contemporary music. On its debut release on MDG, the eight soloists present Japanese-German "Dialogues on Nature". The project, rich in associations, evokes echoes of German Romantic nature poetry as well as finely chiseled Japanese ink drawings; the forces of nature and the magic of nature sometimes lie close together in the new and latest compositions. The diverse biographical interpenetration of cultural areas so far apart from each other creates a dazzling kaleidoscope with great sonic appeal that one can hardly get enough of. The way in which nature enters into musically shaped time varies greatly. Toshio Hosokawa's "Beside the River" refers to Hesse's "Siddharta"; there is a constant invitation to listen: What do you hear? Jörg-Peter Mittmann's "Jenseits der Bläue" hovers in the ethereal borderland of the perceptible before a rhythmically throbbing pulse brings mundane reality back into consciousness. In the most recent works, the memory of the devastating tsunami of Fukushima is naturally present: the juxtaposition of idyllic landscape, raw violence and fragments of folk songs wafting from memory gets deep under the skin in Malika Kishino's "Lamento". Her "Aqua Vitae II", on the other hand, brings the sounds of musique concrète back into classical music-making, which demands a lot from the performers with its extremely differentiated playing techniques and unusual instruments. "Lunar Phases" by Miyuki Ito refers to the moon in the course of the month and the year, with echoes of Eichendorff and Caspar David Friedrich; Ulrich Kreppein, on the other hand, emancipates the playing noise, which unfolds its very own effect, detached from or equal to the played sound.

Paul Dessau composed more than 450 works from all the genres, but scarcely a single one of them continues to meet with recognition and representation in today’s concert world. The go-getters of the Ensemble Avantgarde put an end to this unfortunate state of affairs with an impressive overview of the chamber oeuvre of this composer whose vicissitudinous career vividly reflects the dramatic upheavals and achievements of the twentieth century.

The young Dessau celebrated great successes with his Concertino in the unusual instrumentation for solo violin with flute, clarinet, and horn already in 1925 and even won a composition prize for it. Dessau himself actually wanted to become a violinist, and Gewandhaus concertmaster Andreas Seidel masters with bravura what at times is a wildly virtuosic solo part. The young composer’s very own combination of the linear style of a Hindemith and the expressive and complex harmony of the early Schönberg is the hallmark of his individual musical language. Dessau first discovered his Jewish roots during his forced exile in the 1930s. It was during this time that he also began to regard himself as a “political composer.” The Jewish Dances and Guernica after Picasso’s famous painting both resulted from this development, and in the Suite for Saxophone and Piano his excited emotional state after his uprooting has also left behind clear traces in what is quite literally a breathless compositional texture.

When Dessau returned to Germany’s supposed better half in the East after World War II, he repeatedly got caught in the bind between political conformity and artistic freedom. He increasingly turned to the performance of music with children; the “Variations” and “Grasmückenstücke für Mücke Gras” are particularly fine examples of just how attractive good music with educational goals can be.

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Complete Contents:

Concertino for Solo Violin, Flute, Clarinet & Horn / Guernica / Klavierstück Uber B-A-C-H / Intermezzo Breve / Jewish Dances (11) / Suite for Alto Saxophone & Piano / Jewish Dance / Fantasietta Nr. 2 / Variations on an American Folksong / Fantasietta Nr. 3 / Grasmuckenstucke for Mucke Gras / Pieces (3) for Violin & Piano

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REVIEWS:

The music may occasionally be hard to love, but these vibrant performances are also hard to put down. Ensemble Avantgarde does Dessau a service by bringing so many facets of his style under the same banner. The album also offers even lesser-known works, such as “Jewish Dance” (1940), for piano and violin, which rides an intriguing line between harmonic peculiarity and jovial effervescence.

– New York Times

This fascinating album is full of unknown gems, including a piano suite on Jewish religious themes, written for a US community in 1946, and clarinet-piano variations on ‘an American folksong’, which turns out to be I Had a Little Nut Tree. There is a marvellously smoky suite for alt-saxophone and piano, as well as an early concertino for violin, flute, clarinet and horn, both of which exhibit Dessau as a composer of fizzing vitality and originality. We need to hear a lot more of him. This recital, exquisitely delivered by the Leipzig-based Ensemble Avantgarde, is a tantalising taster.

– Norman Lebrecht

Thomas Zehetmaier gets off to a fantastic start with Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3, the work marking his discographic debut as the principal conductor of the Musikkollegium Winterthur. This prizewinning, richly traditional Swiss orchestra once again offers a compelling performance enhanced by agile flexibility of chamber character. The overwhelming acoustics of the Winterthur Town Church contribute their share to the magnificent Bruckner sound, which here has been perfectly captured in three-dimensional 2+2+2 recording technology and released on a high resolution Super Audio album. Bruckner’s insecurity about his own works is legendary. He repeatedly submitted his symphonies to radical revisions- often because of a few critical remarks. In any event, the “Third” was a genuine disaster when it was premiered; the orchestra’s musicians are even said to have left the stage during the performance. Perhaps the absolutely servile accumulation of quotations from Wagner was then somewhat too much of a good thing. As a consequence, Bruckner eliminated all the excessive Tristan and Ring baggage, and the result was a work of appealing design. What causes difficulty for many a gigantic orchestra is easy for the Winterthur musicians: the realization of Bruckner’s original tempo relations represents a genuine challenge. The syncopated unison passages in the finale assume brute force in the prescribed Allegro that normally would have been beyond the reach of a trim orchestral ensemble. It has been a long time since Bruckner sounded so fresh!

Dai Miyata has been playing the cello since he was three years old and has won all competitions since the age of nine. He was also the first Japanese to win the first prize at the 9th Rostropovich Competition in 2009, thus finally climbing the Olympus of the international virtuoso world. In a current co-production with DENON, MDG presents the artist, who is still far too little known in this country, with a very special programme: Edward Elgar's popular cello concerto meets the "Dark Pastoral", which David Matthews has recreated from unfinished drafts by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The Cello Concerto is Elgar's last completed major work. Begun towards the end of the First World War in a rural idyll, it carries a tone of melancholy that is unusual for the Britishnational composer. The four-movement arrangement is more reminiscent of a baroque concerto grosso than of the romantic virtuoso concertos. And yet - or is it precisely because of this? - it continues to enjoy great popularity with the public. But the circumstances of the 1919 premiere were anything but conducive: there was hardly any rehearsal time, the conductor had his hands full with Scriabin's "Poème de l'Extase", so Elgar himself took the podium of the London Symphony Orchestra. " never, in all probability, has so great an orchestra made so lamentable an exhibition of itself" wrote the "Observer" correspondent, not without praising the work itself in the highest tones. Ralph Vaughan Williams, Elgar's pupil, has left only sketches for a planned cello concert for the legendary Pablo Casals. Only the slow movement is available in a fair copy, which however breaks off abruptly. In collaboration with the RVW Foundation, David Matthews has turned it into a playable piece, which he called "Dark Pastoral" because of it's elegiac character.

The Clarinet Quintet is Max Reger's last completed composition; he survived the mailing of the manuscript to his publisher by only a few days. Paul Hindemith's contribution to the same genre was written a few years later and is the daring work of a young iconoclast. Vladimir Soltan, together with the magnificent Utrecht String Quartet, unites these so contrasting works on a brand new album, which highlights the enormous stylistic range of the first decades of the 20th century. While Reger orientates himself on the great models Mozart and Brahms, whose quintets are still setting standards today, Hindemith rather refers to the tradition of the Divertimento. If Reger's work is laid out in classical four-movements, Hindemith presents five parts, whereby the last movement forms a note for note mirror-image version of the first. What a formal and technical stroke of genius of the 28-year-old! Hindemith composed his quintet without a score, directly into the parts - an intellectual masterpiece that confirms the young composer's planned approach. Remarkable detail: the premiere of both works was provided by clarinetist Philipp Dreisbach, in Hindemith's case with the Amar Quartet and the composer on viola. Vladimir Soltan, together with the Utrecht String Quartet, also manages this artistic balancing act with great mastery. The young Belarusian clarinetist is able to plumb the depths of the old work as well as to implement the carefree freshness of the new.

There is hardly a more perfect musical formula for the beginning of the Christmas season than the festively recited opening motif of Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio. But in his six cantatas, assigned to the individual holidays, the great Thomaskantor goes far beyond pure jubilation. Rainer Johannes Homburg and his Stuttgart Hymnus-Chorknaben have now given a new version of the "musical message" about the birth of Christ, supported by competent soloists and Handel's Company, whose baroque opulence is particularly well expressed in the three-dimensional sound of this album. Timpani and trumpets mark the royal prelude. The multi-award-winning trumpet ensemble Wolfgang Bauer provides a magnificent sound before the extremely agile evangelist Andreas Post takes us into the events of the Holy Night. The fact that the birth of the Savior is not only important for crowned heads, but also for ordinary people is expressed in a particularly touching way by Bach's enchanting Pastoral Symphony in the second cantata. And then there's the matter of death and resurrection. That this is already laid out in the manger is shown by Bach with a trick that gives every sensitive listener goose bumps: Paul Gerhard's Advent chorale "Wie soll ich dich empfangen", actually to sing to a melody by Johann Crüger, sounds in Hans Leo Hassler's manner of "O Haupt, voll Blut und Wunden", which is also used in the St. Matthew Passion. In the Christmas Oratorio, Bach explored the Protestant equivalence of sermon and church music to a rarely reached depth, each cantata reaches its own proclamation and has its own individual instrumentation. In the Stuttgart Hymnus Choir Boys' Choir, this confession of deeply penetrated piety is in the best throats. Historically informed and accompanied by instruments from the time of its origin, the masterly boys' choir develops a Christmas-intimate mood that one cannot escape.

During the nineteenth century Berlin quickly developed from a muddy provincial backwater into a metropolis of world rank. Things went upward at the same pace in the arts and culture, and at their summit Wilhelm Sauer built his magnificent organ, which was dedicated along with the Berlin Cathedral in 1905. Cathedral organist Andreas Sieling has mined some choice nuggets of Berlin organ music from this extremely productive period, including some premiere recordings and an old Berlin hit in a really surprising recording. Mendelssohn of course is a must. The Three Preludes and Fugues op. 37 by this composer who spent his formative years in Berlin are the oldest selections on this lovingly produced Super Audio album. Mendelssohn received instruction in organ from the St. Mary’s organist August Wilhelm Bach, who exerted unrivalled influence on Berlin’s church music over the decades. Otto Dienel was also a Bach pupil; for his popular “Organ Recitals” at midday he skillfully linked classical forms such as the chorale setting with programmatic tones. Today Franz Wagner, August Haupt, and Philipp Rüfer will hardly ring a bell, even among organ experts. However, all three were very successful during their times. Haupt’s Concert Fugue, recorded here for the first time, circulated from hand to hand as a copy until a former pupil in the United States had it published. Rüfer was also in great demand as a teacher; Karl Straube and Albert Becker numbered among his pupils. Andreas Sieling has a full musical arsenal available to him on “his” Sauer organ: 113 stops on four manuals and the pedal enable him to produce unmatched sound color. The outstandingly designed pneumatic action guarantees virtuosic playing even amid heavy-duty chords, and the velvety rich sound of this masterful instrument especially finely brings out the quality of the compositions.