A world-premiere recording of elegant, courtly French harpsichord suites by a forgotten name of the early 18th century. The early life and formation of Charles-Alexandre Jollage is shrouded in obscurity. By the time he enters the historical record in the 1720s, he had become organist for the King of Poland, Stanislas Leszcznski, at that time exiled to France and settled at the castle of Chambord in the Loire region of France. In 1733 Stanislas left Chambord for Warsaw where he claimed the throne of Poland; meanwhile Jollage seems to have settled in Paris, where his only known set of work was published in 1738, and dedicated to the Marquise of Clermont d’Amboise. After that point, it has been established with greater certainty that he remained in Paris as an organist, and died there in 1761. This ‘First Book’ of Jollage’s harpsichord works was never followed by a second, but the two suites therein have rewarded the investigation of Fernando De Luca, who has already revived the little-known harpsichord music of Christoph Graupner (96131) and Christophe Moyreau (96285) for Brilliant Classics. Jollage’s refined and elegant idiom reflects the predominant taste in France during the first half of the 18th century, enlivened throughout with touches of originality. Take, for example, the penultimate piece of the First Suite: L’italienne, which is written in an entirely contemporary style perhaps emulating Domenico Scarlatti and even resembling the sonatas of Haydn. In his booklet essay, Fernando De Luca makes a pertinent comparison between Jollage and the contemporary master Watteau. ‘By combining dance, music and painting, while suspending time and movement, Watteau captures a snapshot of human life… He combines lightness and tragedy to capture a fleeting moment. Jollage draws his creative lifeblood from the same source, while retaining all the characteristics of harpsichord music of his period.’ ‘A monumental enterprise… Listeners will want to dip in and out, perhaps taking one partita at a time, admiring both Graupner’s and De Luca’s facility and being rewarded with some attractive music confidently delivered.’ Early Music Review February 2022 (Graupner)

Dona Nobis Pacem – give us peace. This title is of great importance to me – even at the risk of seeming naïve; sentimental or even pretentious. In light of the constant and growing tensions in our world; this thought remains an important aspiration and inspires me to approach Johann Sebastian Bach's multifaceted composition with conviction. In my 50th season as artistic director; I consider this creation a great opportunity. John Neumeier; A Historic Document - The film version of “Dona Nobis Pacem” takes us close to the creative evolution of this ballet. Even though there were very high expectations; John Neumeier agreed for the first time in his career to have one of his ballets filmed during the week of the world premiere. Thus; the film became an impressive document of the outstanding quality of the Hamburg Ballet ensemble. It excels not only in terms of technical brilliance; but also expressive intensity and wholehearted dedication.

The German composer Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832) fled to Denmark as a young man and with his strong cosmopolitan personality became a loner – and at the same time a key figure – in the Danish Golden Age. Kuhlau championed new tones in Danish music, and his melodically appealing violin sonatas were the first Danish sonatas in the Romantic style. With this recording Duo Åstrand/Salo lends new luster to music that has only rarely been performed in our time.

Three of these marvellous quartets for flute and string trio were composed in 1777/78 during Mozart’s first extended tour without his father. The three quartets K. 285; 285a; 285b are undoubtedly among the most outstanding works in the genre. They share a lightsome; carefree quality with the typical shades of melancholy in the slow movements. The sparkling Quartet in D K.285 is a virtuoso outing for all four instruments. Although the flute has the upper part in the lightning-fast opening concertante movement and the spirited concluding Rondeau; the string trio are also given strikingly brilliant; soloistic parts; creating a dense web of spirited; dazzling sallies and engagements. The central movement is a Romance with a melting flute melody against string pizzicatos – a sort of serenade with guitar accompaniment for his then love (future sister-in-law) Aloysia Weber; Constanze’s sister. The elegant second Quartet in G K.285a is indebted to Johann Sebastian Bach’s youngest son; Johann Christian; who wrote quartets that were very similar in concept and idiom. At the age of eight Mozart had taken lessons with J.C. Bach while in London; and as late as 1778 he wrote: ‘I love him… with all my heart and feel deep respect for him’. Following the ‘London’ Bach’s example; the quartet comprises a substantial opening Andante in sonata form and a lively minuet. The third Quartet in C K.285b is also in two movements. An effervescent movement in sonata form is followed by an elegant set of variations providing a solo variation for each of the four instruments. There follows a dreamy slow variation; before the music snaps back out of its metaphysical mood and into the here-and-now with a clownish minuet-cum-scherzo. The Quartet in G K.370; though originally an oboe quartet in F; was first published in 1801 by the Bureau de Musique; Leipzig; in the G major arrangement for flute and strings. Transposing an oboe piece up a full tone was then common practice in flute adaptations; but in this instance; we are dealing with a genuine arrangement involving substantial modifications. The Quartet in A K.298 is very different. It is of the Quatuor d’airs dialogués type; a popular Parisian form where each movement quotes an aria by a fellow composer or a tune that is widely known. The theme of the first movement is Franz Anton Hoffmeister’s song ‘An die Natur’. The central section of the ensuing minuet quotes the old French song ‘Il a des bottes; des bottes Bastien’. Finally; in the last movement; the theme is taken from Giovanni Paisiello’s opera Gli schiavi per amore. He used the aria ‘Chi mi mostra dolce amore’ (Who will show me sweet love) as the theme for the final movement. This piece completes our cycle of five Mozart chamber works; taking us from Mannheim to Vienna via Munich. Their five different conceptions and characters represent the quartet for flute; violin; viola and cello in its noblest form and set the benchmark for all subsequent quartets composed for these forces.

No more Bruckner under Haitink, that's a cut in the history of interpretation (Wiener Zeitung) To end his active conducting career after 65 years, maestro Bernard Haitink together with the Wiener Philharmoniker gives a farewell concert at the Gro�es Festspielhaus at Salzburg Festival, leaving no doubt of being one of the best Bruckner interpreters ever. The Dutch conductor, who was appointed honorary member of the Wiener Philharmoniker shortly before the concert, is joined by star pianist Emanuel Ax in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4: a musical interaction "of a depth of sentiment and an agreement in making music together that sounds wonderfully natural" (Salzburger Nachrichten). The concert ends with Bruckner's monumental Symphony No. 7 with it's famous second movement, which marked the composer's breakthrough and remains one of his most popular symphonies. The Wiener Philharmoniker play under Haitink's masterful baton completely focused, but dynamic and with deepest sensation. The atmosphere of this last performance is without doubt exceptional and a visibly emotional Haitink was celebrated by the audience with long standing ovations. "You shouldn't throw terms like 'magic moments' around easily. But what could be heard in Salzburg was certainly one" (Klassikinfo. De)

Classical Music

Classical Music

RENAISSANCE AM RHEIN • Singer Pur Ens • OEHMS OC 820 (66:39 Text and Translation)


Music of JEAN DE LATRE, ZANGIUS, PEVERNAGE, HAGIUS, PEUDARGENT, JOHANNES DE CLEVE, LASSUS, MANGON, CASTRO, ANON


The occasion for this recorded program was an exhibit in Bonn (just concluded) devoted to the art and culture of the Renaissance as it flourished in the lower Rhineland, from Liège and Aachen to Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Cleves. The program mixes seven Latin-texted works, some with unfamiliar texts, with eight secular songs in German or French. The works are mostly obscure, but certainly one of the most obscure is O Dee cunctipotens by Martin Peudargent (active at the court of Cleves), which the notes describe as “one of the few works [of his] that has not been released on CD.” Since I couldn’t find his name in any record catalog before this, this seemed strange, but it turns out that a full SACD of his music appeared on an obscure German label a couple of years ago. Petit Jean de Latre, who served in Liège, had a whole LP devoted to his sixth book of chansons ( Fanfare 7:4), but none of his three selections here duplicate that program. These composers are poorly represented on discs, nothing here being duplicated. Such names as Konrad Hagius and Johannes de Cleve are totally obscure. Even the single Lassus motet seems to be a first recording.


Singer Pur, graduates of the Regensburg choir school (with a soprano added), have been recording regularly. This is one of their more imaginative programs, interesting for its variety, the rarity of the selections, and the special occasion that resulted in its production. Pevernage’s Salve Regina is interesting for its alternation between the solemn chant setting and polyphony, considerably more than simply intoning the first phrase in chant. Lassus’s meditation on death, O mors quam amara , is exquisite. The program ends on a lighter note with two German songs, hard to appreciate fully in the German dialect without English (only the Latin texts are translated into German). The Bonn museum exhibit focused on art and culture as well as music, emphasizing the distinct character of the Renaissance in northern climes, inconsistent with the familiar Italian models. This program will not duplicate anything in your collection.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber

It was in the 1960s, with the opera Die Soldaten and his Requiem für einen jungen Dichter, that Bernd Alois Zimmermann became known as one of the leading composers of the German post-war generation. These and other works from the period were examples of what the composer himself called musical pluralism – a highly individual collage-like technique involving quotations and superimposed metres, rhythms and time levels. The works on the present disc – Zimmermann’s complete production for solo piano - predate this, however. Composed over a period of only 17 years, they trace a journey which begins in a neo-classicism à la Hindemith – as radical an idiom as a young student at the Cologne University for Music could adopt during the Nazi regime. After serving in the war, Zimmermann worked as a freelance composer for the radio, theatre and television, and this has left a trace in both Extemporale and Capriccio, which weaves together seven traditional children’s songs. In Enchiridion II we begin to clearly hear the influence of Schoenbergian twelve-tone technique, which a few years later, in Konfigurationen, has blossomed into serialism, with its subtle gradations of dynamics, articulation and rhythm. Commemorating the 50th anniversary of Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s death in 1970, the acclaimed Spanish pianist Eduardo Fernández makes his first appearance on BIS, showing us little known aspects of the composer.

REVIEW:

This music is played to perfection by the superb prize-winning young Spanish pianist Euyardo Fernanez (his fellow countryman with the same name is a famous guitarist). This is a delightful release in every way, an important addition to the catalog.

– Classical CD Review

Federigo Fiorillo (1755-1823) is principally remembered now as a composer, and in particular the author of a set of solo Caprices which formed a method of which formed a method of instruction for every advanced violinist. Until now, however, they have never been recorded on Fiorillo’s ‘second’ instrument of the viola; and indeed complete recordings of the set, even on violin, are very few.

With this new recording, Marco Misciagna demonstrates that these 36 pieces have much more than pedagogic interest to them. While they systematically address technical issues in the bow arm and fingering, testing the player’s technique for playing octaves, multiple stopping, passagework, chromatic scales and so on, Fiorillo was a Italianate melodist who naturally wrote and thought in long, cantabile lines which are as grateful to hear as they are to play.

Born in 1984, Marco Misciagna studied in Bari and Rome and then with Salvatore Accardo; he now lives and works in Spain. Among his previous recordings is a Brilliant Classics album of a similar undertaking, the 41 Capricci for viola by Bartolomeo Campagnoli (1751–1827).

Terhi Dostal studied piano at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where she received her Doctor of Music degree in 2010. In 2005 she completed another soloist diploma at the Piano Academy of Imola, Italy. Concerts and tours have taken her to many European countries and the USA. Numerous prizes and grants in Finland and abroad also prove her artistic path. Terhi Dostal is also known as a fine interpreter of Finnish music. She has recorded many romantic and modern masterpieces from her native country for various radio stations (YLE1, BR, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Kulturradio RBB, NDR) and has released CD recordings of works by Finnish composers.

Sinuously beautiful solo motets by a little-known contemporary of Cavalli, imaginatively programmed with instrumental interludes by their Italian contemporaries.

It has been said before now that Cazzati's instrumental music was more inspired than his sacred-vocal work, but this album demonstrates otherwise with a sequence of motets which evolves from the more liberal style of the 1640s to the more severe style of the late 17th century. He was among the pioneers of the instrumentally accompanied motet in which violin lines are skillfully woven around the sung text. On the other hand, the two solo motets show a stark contrast, with the intimate Salvum me fac against the virtuoso war-like Qui bella geritis.

Three organ sonatas are also included, two of which were written by Cazzati’s own organists in Bologna: Giovanni Paolo Colonn, and Cazzati’s great enemy Giulio Cesare Arresti. A sonata by Bernardo Pasquini affords further contrast with the mostly grave devotions of the motets. All four performers here have extensive experience in the revival of little-known composers from the Baroque, and their stylish performances demand a reappraisal of Cazzati in the round.

For many people Christmas time has come when the broadcasting stations start playing the specific music everybody knows and hears each year. However, not always music performed around Christmas has originally been composed for Christmas too. Especially our earliest and therefore most emotional memories are closely related to this festivity. The music we associate with these emotions does not necessarily have to be Christmassy, but should intensify and reflect those feelings. In December 2022 the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie under chief conductor Pietari Inkinen performed a festive concert in the main broadcasting studio of the Saarländischer Rundfunk in Saarbrücken. Entitled "Festklänge" (Festive Sounds), the concerto was a compilation of Christmas music and music associated with Christmas, featuring the soprano Sarah Romberger and the mezzo-soprano Elsa Benoit as soloists. It contains next to Hely Hutchinson's excerpts from Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel as well from Tchaikovskys' The Nutcracker.

Within this album the “Insolito 8cento” duo (Angelo de Magistris, violin and Rosaria Dina Rizzo, piano) is rediscovering a little-known feature of the great Belcanto master Gaetano Donizetti: his chamber works dedicated to the violin, an instrumental production little mentioned and often completely ignored. In fact Donizetti never ceased to deal with the composition of instrumental chamber music, giving life to brilliant works that, same as for his vocal works, testify his extraordinary creative vein in which one can recognize great inspiration, almost like a continuous improvisation, yet always refined and elegant as well as completely devoid of those formal negligence typical of the ‘utility music' or composed for mere exercise or pastime.

Janáček’s opera Káta Kabanová is set in a small Russian town and is based on the play The Storm by Aleksandr Ostrovsky. The story revolves around the central character, Káťa – sung by “the phenomenal Corinne Winters” (Neue Musikzeitung) – who is trapped in a loveless marriage to an abusive man named Boris. Despite her unhappiness, she is bound by the strict societal norms of her time and is unable to escape the situation. However, when she meets and falls in love with a young man named Vána Kudrjáš, she finally experiences happiness and passion. But their relationship is short-lived, as Boris finds out and forces Káta to confess her infidelity in front of the entire town.

Overwhelmed by the shame and guilt, she drowns herself in the nearby river. The opera explores themes of social conformity, oppression, and the consequences of forbidden love. Janáček’s use of musical leitmotifs and repetitive themes reflect the characters’ emotions and psychological states, adding depth and nuance to the story. Stage director Barrie Kosky managed to create an intimate but impressive setting in the magnificent Felsenreitschule. “Jittery and balletic, ecstatic and anxious, Winters has a child’s volatile presence, and her livewire voice conveys Kát'a’s wonder and vulnerability.” (The New York Times) “Corinne Winters is “Kát'a Kabanova”: a great, luminous longing from head to toe. With director Barrie Kosky and conductor Jakub Hruša, she makes the opera in Salzburg a triumph.” (Der Tagesspiegel)