When one selects the subject of a gay king and his tragic story for an opera, the aspect of homosexuality is naturally at the foreground, as is the question of whether such a subject is still relevant in Central Europe in view of the strivings for equal rights there. Edward II is not the first “gay” opera and will surely not be the last one, either. But most dramas concerning relationships in literature and opera have always focussed on the classical heterosexual constellation. Telling more stories about love between people of the same sex, however, does not necessary have to be due to current political reality. Rather, it is a sign of a growing social variety that is also reflected in contemporary art. (

This purely French program prepared by Wen-Sinn Yang and Michael Hofstetter contains works for cello by Camille Saint-Saens, Edouard Lalo, and Frank Martin. Camille Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor was composed for Belgian viola da gamba player, cellist, and instrument maker, Auguste Tolbecque. Sir Donald Francis Tovey wrote of the piece: “Here, for once, is a violoncello concerto in which the solo instrument displays every register without the slightest difficulty in penetrating the orchestra." Many composers such as Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich, considered Saint-Saens’ concerto to be the finest concerto of all time. Wen-Sinn Yang began his career as principal cellist with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at the young age of 24. Since then he has recorded over 20 CDs, and has won numerous awards.

OehmsClassics acknowledges the 150th anniversary of the birth of Richard Strauss with this release highlighting music for horn from Richard Strauss and his father._x000D_ Franz Joseph Strauss, although far outshown by his prodigy Richard in posthumous fame was one of the best hornists of his time._x000D_ Also included on this release is Hasenöhrl's (1885–1970) cheekily-named Till Eulenspiegel – Differently This Time, Op. 28._x000D_ Hornist Xiaoming Han is currently principal Horn of the German Radio Philharmonic.

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



REGER Fantasy and Fugues: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme; Wie schön leucht uns der Morgenstern. Chorale Preludes: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland; Lobt Gott, ihr Christen alle gleich; Nun freut euch, liebe Christen; Vom Himmel hoch. Kyrie eleison. Gloria in excelsis Deo . Benedictus. Ave Maria. Pastorale. Weihnachten • Harald Feller (org) • OEHMS 644 (77:37)


By the quantity of his output—some 147 opus numbers, some containing more than 50 individual movements—one would hardly assume that Max Reger lived for only the short span of 43 years. Considering the amount of notes per piece, it seems even less likely. To interpret his music, one must first come to master the considerable technical pitfalls of his oeuvre . Just a glance over the Fantasy and Fugue on Wachet auf is enough to make the faint of heart quiver. Often accused of mere note-spinning for much of his career—and indeed, there are moments that seem to go on without end—there are many pieces that show the composer at his creative best: the individual sets of variations and fugues on themes by Bach, Hiller, Telemann, Mozart, and Beethoven; the Ballet Suite for orchestra; and the 100th Psalm all come to mind. It was, however, the organ that was Reger’s instrument, the one for which he wrote and played—and loved—above all others.


The present recital begins with, perhaps, the most technically challenging of all of the works on the recording, the aforementioned Wachet auf Fantasy. Harald Feller, a former student of both Franz Lehrndorfer and Marie Claire Alain, certainly possesses the required technical abilities to play this music well. More importantly, he also brings with him the requisite ability to make the most of the music. He plays here on the Max-Reger-Gedächtnisorgel (Max Reger Commemorative Organ) in St. Michael’s in Weiden, Germany, the same church in which the composer himself played in the earlier part of his career. Built just recently, it is, as the organist says, “the ideal instrument for this program. It unites the color and dynamic spectrum of late German Romanticism with the technical achievements of modern organ construction.” And, indeed, Feller certainly uses these to his advantage. Per Reger’s instructions, Feller creates a dark, brooding sound—gloomy and ominous even—at the opening of the piece. He later lightens this at the entrance of the chorale tune, which at first is just faintly audible. This builds, through all types of menacing variations, to a grand chordal conclusion—one in which the chorale tune is revealed in its full glory. In his hands, this work becomes a veritable tone poem for the organ, as rich in color as any orchestral work by Richard Strauss. Feller handles the other major work on the recording—the Morgenstern Fantasy and Fugue—with equal gusto and bravura, bringing with him an intimacy, refinement of detail, and ability to delineate the many strands of music that make Reger’s music so very rich and complex. The smaller pieces are handled with particular care, from the gentle yet harmonically wandering Ave Maria to the boisterous and lively Vom Himmel hoch chorale prelude.


Though planned as a recital of Christmas organ works, this is some of the best of what Reger has to offer as a composer for the instrument, played in a way that truly brings out the compelling nature of this music. If one has not yet experienced the glory of this side of the composer, this recording makes a wonderful introduction; if one knows this music, then this will make a very fine addition to one’s collection. Regardless of which, get it and enjoy!


FANFARE: Scott Noriega

Max Reger has remained a controversial composer, in a way perhaps comparable to Wagner, Hindemith and Shostakovich. Even today, the presence of his oeuvre is by no means a matter of course in concert life or on recordings. There are still numberous musicians, including serious ones, who reject Reger's work, at times with good reason. Even a trained, experienced listener may find his works difficult to grasp, let alone comprehend. This release does a great deal to compensate for the gap in knowledge of Max Reger.

Classical Music

With the recording of the Symphony No. 3 and the Symphonic Dances, Oehms Classics and the G�rzenich Orchestra of Cologne proudly present this composer's last two works. Rachmaninoff's Third was given it's premiere in 1936 in Philadelphia under Leopold Stokowski. The present recording offers, with Dmitrij Kitajenko, one of the best conductors of our time for this repertoire.

Marimbist Fumito Nunoya has enjoyed international fame as one of the most in demand marimba players of our day. A native of Odate Japan, he is currently based out of Herford in Germany, where he teaches at the Academy of Music in Detmold. In addition to performing across Europe, he frequently gives concerts in the United States and Japan. For this release, he has chosen Astor Piazzolla's Tango Suite I-III, Tangata "Silfo y Ondina," and other well-known works by the tango master. Nunoya is joined for this recording by pianist Momoko Shano, fellow marimbist Hiroya Honda, and violinist Yuka Sato.

REVIEW:

The album works well for what it actually is: a collection of music by Argentine composers who attempted to reconcile the indigenous rhythms of their homeland with new European currents. These range from the semi-popular styles of some of the earlier composers to the avant-garde rhythmic treatments of Alberto Ginastera, who actually benefits from being placed in these surroundings. In a way, the album is a survey of paths not taken by Piazzolla, something that may indeed be of great interest to his devotees, but buyers should know what they're getting into.

– AllMusic Guide (James Manheim)

All the contemporary witnesses owed the deep impression made on them by Pergolesi's church music to the singing of castrati. As often and willingly as Stabat Mater is sung and heard with women's voices today, it was the pure, ethereal voices of two castrati who first lent the proper expression to the gallant pain of Pergolesi's Passion sequence. Michael Hofstetter and the two young singers on this recording liberate his music from the cliche of a thoroughly soft music of sentimental feelings. The vocal lines come to life thanks to the typical manners of the castrati: The short grace notes, slides, trills and the 'messa di voce'. Dr. Karl Behmer.

Classical Music

Sweelinck composed his keyboard music (as much as we know of it today) only after 1605, rather late in his career. The works that have been handed down to us have the eff ect of a summing-up, a written resume of his improvisatory and pedagogical activity. These works, about 60 in number, were widely distributed during his time and much appreciated by colleagues. This recording presents a representative cross-section of his oeuvre for keyboard music played on the organ.

MOZART Piano Sonatas: in F, K 280 ; in F, K 332 ; in c, K 457 ; in C, K 545 ; in D, K 576 • Michael Endres (pn) • OEHMS 563 (73:08)


For this single CD sampler, Michael Endres chooses five of his personal favorite sonatas taken from his five-disc set of Mozart’s 18 sonatas for solo piano. The works range in dates from 1775 to 1789, K 280 to K 576, thus giving us an abbreviated travelogue, as it were, through the composer’s contributions to the genre from beginning to end.


Having listened to the disc three times now, and having compared it to recordings of these works I have by other pianists, I would make the following unorthodox suggestion: skip this teaser and spring for the whole set. Oehms is a midpriced label, and the five-CD set works out to approximately $11 per disc. Besides, once you hear the come-on, you’re going to want the rest of it anyway.


Of Bavarian birth, Michael Endres (b. 1961) has recorded the complete sonatas and all 400 German dances, Ländler, waltzes, and ecossaises of Schubert, as well as the complete piano works of Ravel, and the complete sonatas of Arnold Bax. His affinity for Mozart, however, strikes me as something special. These are non-demonstrative, ruminative readings that mull over Mozart’s scores, particularly the slow movements, as if they were quiet, timeless reveries that put me in mind of the kind of rapt stillness Beethoven achieves in the slow movement of his violin concerto. Endres has all the finger dexterity and technique required to toss these pieces off with bravado if he wanted to, but that’s not what he’s about. Even in the fast outer movements, he holds himself in reserve.


If you’re familiar with Mitsuko Uchida’s Mozart, you will find in Endres a somewhat kindred spirit, except that in comparing them, I hear in Endres a communicativeness that seems to go deeper to the core of Mozart’s soul and that resonates for me on a deeper personal level. Uchida’s beauty has always struck me as being more on the surface.


By no means is this the only way to play Mozart. I also have high regard for the complete set of sonatas played by Maria João Pires on DG, but hers is an entirely different view and approach, one that places emphasis on Mozart’s more extroverted side and on the virtuosic elements of these works. Endres, however, shall occupy a place of high favor in my collection. Strongly recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Michael Endres plays a wide-ranging repertoire including such rarely performed composers as Leopold Godowsky, Gabriel Fauré, Charles Ives and Eduard Tubin. The leading US critic Richard Dyer (Boston Globe ) described Endres as "one of the most interesting pianists who appear nowadays on CD". Michael Endres has recorded an equally wide-ranging repertoire for OehmsClassics, including releases with works of Schumann, Mendelssohn, Gershwin, Weber and the sonatas of Arnold Bax. The present album features works by Franz Schubert, including a special treat entitled the Kupelwieser Waltz. Endres’s playing has often been described as subtle, elegant, and refined, never taking the dramatic elements of the music to the extreme.

MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto. SCHUMANN Fantasy in C for Violin and Orchestra, op. 131. BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1 • Benjamin Schmid (vn); Daniel Raiskin, cond; Rhenish PStO • OEHMS 725 (65:41)


Benjamin Schmid, playing the 1731 Lady Jeanne Stradivari, gives an account of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto that leans to the tough, fibrous side; his energy, though perhaps not so white-hot as Heifetz’s, nevertheless will carry most listeners along willy-nilly. Schmid combines abundant nuance with sensitivity in the first movement’s lyrical second theme (which he enlivens with almost playful accents); all this assures the listener’s continued interest, familiar though the work has become. His bow snaps in the passagework throughout. Daniel Raiskin and the orchestra’s stormy account of the score complements Schmid’s strong-minded reading of the solo. Schmid manages to make the cadenza sound almost like an improvisation, and he brings the movement to a rousing conclusion after his energetic recapitulation of the movement’s thematic material. The slow movement also contains individual nuances that stamp the performance as someone’s (even if it might not be Schmid’s in particular) rather than just anyone’s; the same combination of grit and brilliance that personalized Schmid’s reading of the first movement reappears in the finale, with the orchestra occasionally highlighting passages that might go unnoticed in less personal performances. The conclusion is pure adrenaline.


Schumann’s Fantasy, written in response to a suggestion by Joseph Joachim, offers a vehicle in which a violinist can display both well-stropped technique and musical acumen. Schmid is fully equal to the dual challenge; supported by the buoyant accompaniment, he gives an account at the same time rousingly and confidently virtuosic and musically penetrating.


Schmid seems to strain to communicate a stronger sense of the first movement of Bruch’s First Concerto, though he takes flight in the lyrical second theme. The very strength of his tone robs the second movement of some of the tenderness often associated with it, although in the last passages he winds down to a hushed sense of mystery. The finale is made to order for a violinist of Schmid’s predispositions, and his performance cuts and slashes with abandon.


The engineers for the two recording sessions (in February 2008 for Mendelssohn and Schumann and December 2007 for Bruch) bring the soloist slightly forward without violating what many listeners consider a natural balance. Recommended, most strongly, perhaps for the Fantasy, but for the other performances as well—despite the competition.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham