Tennstedt had a genuine affinity for this symphony. He left many live recordings, and his last official release from EMI consisted of the “Eroica” incongruously coupled to Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain. Go figure. This performance, with a palpably energized NDR Symphony Orchestra, is glorious. Tennstedt’s is a very “German” view of the work: solid (but not stolid), sober, richly textured, and epic in expression. The only possible (welcome) exception to this characterization occurs at the start of the finale, which is notably light, lively, and rooted in the main theme’s dance origins.

If any single moment could be singled out as especially telling, it would have to be the fugue in the funeral march. Careful observation of Beethoven’s legato articulation of the principal theme gives the music an unusually passionate, songful, tragic quality as far removed from the abstract contrapuntal exercise it sometimes becomes as you could possibly imagine. But then, the entire movement is magnificently sustained–as is the first movement’s development section, and just about all the other moments that distinguish a great reading from the merely quotidian. Through it all the NDR Symphony plays with world-class commitment and precision.

The performance is aided in no small degree by gorgeous sonics: warm and resonant, but perfectly clear, with magnificently captured bass lines. This really benefits the coupling: Tennstedt’s view of the Coriolan Overture is measured and weighty, the pauses between the opening phrases sounding especially doom-laden in this acoustic. It’s certainly not the only way to play the overture, but it certainly works here, giving the music a bigness and importance that you might never have suspected. This is, in short, essential Beethoven, and a wonderful memento of a conductor whose studio recordings did not reliably find him at his best.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

Johanna Martzy artfully performs Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas, BWV 1001-1006. This set of works, although completed in 1720, was not published until 1802. Even after its publication, it was ignored until the esteemed violinist Joseph Joachim began performing these solo works. Johanna Martzy’s playing had a coolness that bordered on severity, and her straightforward precision gave her a true talent for performing Baroque works. Her unaccompanied Bach works are still sought after, even posthumously.

The Gurre-Lieder occupied various phases in Schoenberg’s life. He explained it to Alban Berg thus: “I wrote the first and second parts and much of the third in March 1900. Then a long break, filled with operetta orchestration. Rest completed March 1901. Then orchestration commenced in August 1901 (again held up by other work). Continued in Berlin mid-1902. Then long interruption by operetta orchestrations. Last worked on in 1903. After that put aside and totally abandoned! Taken up again in Vienna in July 1910. All orchestrated except for the closing chorus. Finished in 1911 in Zehlendorf (outside Berlin).” On this release, the Gurre-Lieder is presented by the Staatskapelle Dresden as the 50th volume in their Edition Staatskapelle Dresden.

The present release is a special live recording of the Staatskapelle Dresden's 1st symphony concert of the season in the Semperoper on September 1, 2017. Christian Thielemann’s engagement with the symphonic work of Anton Bruckner takes him in Vol. 52 to the composer’s early years. The carefree mood of the First Symphony’s last movement prompted the mature Bruckner to comment: “Never was I so bold and cheeky again.” The work was composed from January 1865 to April 14, 1866, in Linz, with the 2nd version adapted in Vienna from March 12, 1890 to April 18, 1891. It premiered on May 9, 1868, in the Redoutensaal in Linz, with the augmented opera orchestra conducted by the composer. The Vienna version was premiered in the Musikvereinssaal in Vienna on December 13, 1891, with Hans Richter conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.

The present recording is part of BRUCKNER2024 – a project which began in 2011 with the goal to record all symphonies of Anton Bruckner in all versions including the intermediate variants until the 200th birthday of the composer in 2024. Bruckner’s search for the ideal symphony is clearly expressed in the various manifestations of his Fourth, which he himself described as the “Romantic”. Having finished the score of his Third on New Year’s Eve 1873/74, he set to work on January 2 of the new year on his sketch of the first movement of the Fourth. Eleven months later, “at half past eight in the evening” on November 22, 1874, the new symphony was complete. But this act of completion was not his last word. Bruckner made changes, replacing his previous Scherzo in 1878 with the version dubbed his “hunting scherzo”. Apart from that, he composed a new last movement known as the “people’s festival”. The next revision, signed off in June 1880, introduced a further, completely new version of the finale. This then, together with the first three movements, comprised the version now usually performed. Hans Richter conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in the inaugural performance of the Fourth on February 20, 1881, followed later that year by Felix Mottl in Karlsruhe on December 10. It was once again Hans Richter who conducted the symphony in January 1888, this time in its final version.

Jean Fournier (1911-2003) was a French violinist and professor of classical music. Fournier’s intonation, while lean, was gentle on the ear. He made an impressive career for himself. He was a soloist with some of the great French orchestras as well as with celebrated international ones. Concert tours took him to many of Europe’s centres of culture (Belgium, Germany, England, Italy, Ireland, Yugoslavia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Spain), as well as to North and South Africa, India and the Far East. In addition to his solo work, Fournier was above all an excellent chamber musician. Together with his wife, the French pianist Ginette Doyen (1921-2002), he performed duets for violin and piano. In the 1950s he founded a brilliant piano trio together with the Italian cellist Antonio Janigro (1918-1989) and the Austrian pianist Paul Badura-Skoda (1927-2019). In addition to his active concert activities Jean Fournier also made many recordings. This 10-album compilation is testament to the violinist’s diversity. It includes recordings such as the Sonatina No. 5 op. 32/1 for solo violin by Jean Martinon (1910-1976), and of course numerous duet works (many of them with his wife Ginette Doyen), piano trios (usually together with his trio partners Antonio Janigro and Paul Badura-Skoda) and violin concertos by Mozart or the Double Concerto op. 102 by Johannes Brahms with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra under Milan Horvat (Mozart) and Hermann Scherchen (Brahms).

Today in the West, Sergei Rachmaninoff is known mostly as a great pianist and composer of piano works. His piano concertos, especially the second, and his Paganini Variations are among the most popular works in their respective genres. Orchestral works, too, such as the Second Symphony, the symphonic poem Isle of the Dead, and the Symphonic Dances are still frequently heard in concerts and on recordings. Less well known is that Rachmaninoff also composed operas, songs and sacred vocal works.

Thanks in part to this recording, Rachmaninoff is no longer ignored as an opera composer.

SET CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS (Complete Works):

• Aleko • Skupoy ritsa (The Miserly Knight), Op. 24 • Francesca da Rimini, Op. 25 • Songs (6), Op. 4 • Songs (6), Op. 8 • Songs (12), Op. 14 • Songs (6), Op. 38 • Russian Songs (3), Op. 41 • Kolokola (The Bells), Op. 35 • Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43 • Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 • Piano Concertos 1-4

REVIEW:

There are a few very old recordings—Rachmaninoff playing `Whiten my Rouged Cheeks’ (1926) and conducting a transcription of his Vocalise (1929); Chaliapin singing Aleko’s cavatina (1929)—but the bulk of the material is from the 1950s, with a few contributions from the '40s and '60s.

The operas are here, all from Bolshoi productions: two Alekos (1951, 1953), The Miserly Knight (1958), and Francesca da Rimini (1956). In addition there is an entire disc of fragments from the operas. We have lots of songs—complete opus numbers 4, 8, 14, 21, 26, 34, 38, but also dozens of individual songs...[several] were orchestrated, so we have a disc of songs with orchestra or instrumental ensemble. Choral music is included, but not the Liturgy or the Vespers; rather, we have The Bells (two performances, 1948 1962), his O Mother of God, Vigilantly Praying, written in 1893, and Spring for baritone, choir, and orchestra.

The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is played by Viktor Merzhanov and the Symphonic Dances were dedicated to Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Then to top it off we have the four piano concertos, played by Richter, Gilels, and Zak.

Only a few of these performances seem to have been available: Concertos 1 & 4 with Richter & Zak were on Appian 6005; the 1962 Bells with Kondrashin appeared on Urania; and perhaps a few more. Much, though, may be considered historical recordings from the Bolshoi Theatre with little-known (to us) Russian artists from the postwar period.

Three of the four opera recordings are appearing for the first time.

The biggest names [among featured singers] are Galina Vishnevskaya and Jussi Bjoerling, but they have only two songs each. You can find the operas and songs in more modern productions, but if you want a sense of Russian performance in the opera house in the '50s, these are invaluable. I got even greater pleasure from the concertos, since the pianists—Richter in particular—are wonderful and exciting.

-- American Record Guide

The musicians of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden were committed to their tradition of staging an annual commemorative concert even under these difficult circumstances and decided to organize a Memento Mori to mark this date that is inscribed in the annals of city history. The program comprised a small ensemble conducted by an expert for Baroque music and two ideally suited voices for the format. The concert was recorded for the Deutschlandfunk Kultur station and broadcast as a message of peace in the world. There were fewer than ten people in the auditorium of the Semperoper, all socially distanced and listening raptly to this unique event. Ultimately this was the first sign of life, the first musical greeting from the orchestra in a concert not open to the public after months of inactivity due to the pandemic. When, barely a year ago, Arnold Schoenberg’s “Gurre-Lieder” (featuring more than 300 performers on stage to a full house!) were performed and produced for album shortly afterwards (Edition Staatskapelle Vol. 50, PH 20052), no one would have predicted that this sonorous performance would be followed by a long phase of silence. May the present recording serve as testimony in the form of a contemporary sign of a cultural reawakening.

Review

With this latest release entitled Stumme Seufzer, stille Klagen (Mute Sighs, Silent Laments) the Edition Staatskapelle Dresden series has reached volume 51. Contained here is a pair of J.S. Bach’s greatest church cantatas from the 2021 anniversary concert held in memory of the destruction of Dresden in 1945. The themes of chosen cantatas are death and hope of salvation seen from the standpoint of their being a gateway to everlasting life.

The city of Dresden was destroyed by three days of Allied bombing raids, in February 1945. It is now an annual tradition for the Sachsische Staatskapelle Dresden to mark the anniversary date with a commemorative concert with no interval and or applause during the performance or at the conclusion. For the 2021 memorial concert, the Staatskapelle Dresden was keen to maintain the tradition and went ahead while observing coronavirus regulations – specifically, without a public audience and players socially distanced players on stage.

Dorothee Mields sings Bach’s original 1714 version of Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut a solo cantata for soprano with obbligato parts for oboe and viola. As the cantata begins with a recitative and aria, Herreweghe has chosen to start the score with the Sinfonia from the church cantata Weinen, klagen, sorgen, zagen (Weeping, lamenting, sorrow, sighing) BWV 12. Such an exquisite lament, the aria Stumme Seufzer, stille Klagen (Mute Sighs, Silent Laments) is sung sublimely by Mields, the overall effect heightened by the accompanying oboe part played by Rafael Sousa. In the following short chorale: Ich, dein betrübtes Kind (I, your troubled child) one senses that Mields is living the words of the penitent sinner while the viola part played by Sebastian Herberg is very much her equal.

Recorded in the outstanding acoustic of Semperoper, the sound has clarity and first-class balance. The second ‘bonus’ CD contains extracts from three huge works for chorus and orchestra appropriate to the theme of death and hope of salvation by Verdi, Berlioz and Mahler, all recorded and previously released for the Edition Staatskapelle Dresden series on Profil. Included on the ‘bonus’ CD are the interviews that Stefan Lang held in German with Philippe Herreweghe and with violist Andreas Schreiber.

Verdi completed his Messa da Requiem in 1874...[the] three chosen extracts, the sections: Requiem, Dies irae and Tuba mirum are from the recording conducted by Christian Thielemann at the Memorial Concert held on 13th February 2014 in the Semperoper, Dresden.

Berlioz wrote his Grande Messe des Morts a massive work using a huge orchestra and choral forces, in 1837...[the] recording here is the Dies irae by Sir Colin Davis, conducting the Memorial Concert given on the 13th February 1994 at the Kreuzkirche, Dresden.

The chosen extract [from Mahler's Symphony no. 2 "Resurrection" [is] the Finale...part of the recording conducted by Bernard Haitink at the Memorial Concert on the 13th February 1995 in the Semperoper.

A valuable feature of this Edition Staatskapelle Dresden series, a bilingual edition in German and English, is the scrupulously produced booklets, produced to a high standard[.] These are exemplary performances. From first to last note, I am totally engaged by Herreweghe’s rewarding accounts of two of J.S. Bach’s greatest church cantatas.

--MusicWeb International (Michael Cookson)

This recording features the works of composers who were outstanding personalities in the musical life of their country during their lifetime: The Violin Concerto in D major, op. 35, by Tchaikovsky and the Violin Concerto in A minor, op. 82, by Glazunov. Each of the two composers wrote only one concerto for violin and orchestra respectively, as did Beethoven or Brahms as well. The two concertos by Tchaikovsky and by Glazunov each quickly gained admirers in the West. The image of Tchaikovsky is well-known, who closely emulated Western European music, especially music originating in Italy, France and Germany. Glazunov, who had no conservatory training, acquired his skills as a composer with Rimsky-Korsakov. He was one of the members of the “Mighty Handful” of five composers who banded together in Saint Petersburg in 1862 and called themselves novators, or innovators. They championed and strongly supported a national style of Russian classical music. There were therefore contrasts in style at the time. Yet Tchaikovsky, who was accused of “Western leanings”, was also an adherent of other contemporary Russian composers and his stance towards the innovators was generally positive, though differentiated. And Glazunov, the pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov? The attitude he upheld was based on the maxim: “I am possessed by music.”

Friedemann Wuttke studied at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart and completed his musical education in master classes given by internationally celebrated soloists such as John Williams, Manuel Barrueco, Pepe Romero, David Russell and Eduardo Fernández. Wuttke has always placed great value on fruitful collaboration with leading artists. He met repeatedly with the great Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo, for instance; he was a guest in his house in Madrid and discussed questions of music with him. Rodrigo was greatly impressed by Wuttke’s interpretation of “Fantasia para un Gentil hombre” in particular and expressly praised the guitarist.

Wuttke’s friendship with the great Russian pianist Igor Zhukov was of great importance for his career. Years of work with Zhukov’s “New Moscow Chamber Orchestra” expressed itself in numerous joint concerts in Russia, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. There were also a number of recordings, for which Zhukov was responsible. Over and above this, Zhukov was a mentor to Friedemann Wuttke, and the guitarist engaged with him intensively not only on tours but also at his home in Moscow. Thanks to his eminent instrumental and musical qualities, satisfying the highest demands, Wuttke soon won an established place in the front rank of German guitar playing. His uncompromising commitment to the Classical repertoire and his well-thought-out program planning are characteristic of a musician always open to new ideas and challenges. Behind all the versatility stands a musician who not only loves his instrument and his music but is passionately committed to communicating that love of music to his audiences. Friedemann Wuttke’s concert activities have taken him to most of the countries of Europe and to South-East Asia, Africa and South America, where he has often performed in great concert halls, both as soloist and with an orchestra.

The Lied or art song, in contrast to the folk song, came into full flower at the dawn of the Romantic era about 1810 in Germany. The art song really was a largely German phenomenon, known in French (le Lied) and English (the Lied) by its German name. It is Franz Schubert, Robert and Clara Schumann, and Johannes Brahms who represent the landmarks and reference points for the composition of Lieder in the German-speaking territories. Soon after the arrival of phonographic recording at the end of the 19th century, they began to sing into the record companies’ recording horns – so that the earliest sound recordings of this Edition date back as far as the year 1901. The duty of the Lied composer, declared the arch-Romantic Schumann, is “to embroider the poem with its more delicate features in a finer musical fabric”. Altogether, Schumann wrote more than 260 Lieder for single voice before his life unraveled in 1854.

The 150th anniversary of Franz Lehár's birth was celebrated in 2021 – an anniversary that the Vienna Symphony Orchestra commemorated with this documentary and concert recording. Lehar himself was the founder of the silver operetta era and was also one of the central artistic companions of the orchestra, which was founded in 1900. In the course of its history, the orchestra has performed more than 120 of his works at over 150 events. And Lehár himself stood at the rostrum of the symphony orchestra more than 20 times. His unforgettable melodies have become the symbol of a Viennese musical culture that is still very close to the orchestra's heart, as well as being one of its main areas of expertise. An important premiere venue for many of Lehár's operettas was the Theater an der Wien, where the Vienna Symphony Orchestra recorded this concert under the expert direction of Manfred Honeck. The recording features such illustrious singers from the Vienna State Opera ensemble as the Finnish soprano KS Camilla Nylund and the tenors KS Piotr Beczala and KS Michel Schade, performing the most popular melodies and rousing numbers from Lehár's The Merry Widow, The Land of Smiles, The Tsarevich, The Count of Luxembourg and Giuditta. The documentary skilfully combines certain periods of Lehár's life with excerpts of works recorded especially for this project by the world class Vienna Symphony Orchestra. The interview with Lehár which forms the framework of the film is fictitious, although the composer's answers were compiled from reliable sources and are therefore authentic. This film provides an interesting insight into diverse aspects of Lehár's life and work based on authentic sources, while the music recordings offer a highly enjoyable experience for music lovers.

Sound and space are mutually dependent. Which works sound best in which environment? Where can the spirit and character of the music most clearly be expressed? These questions are what inspired the conductor Gerd Schaller to embark on an ambitious major project in 2007: in the impressive environment of the abbey church that once formed part of Ebrach's Cistercian monastery in Franconia, he directed his festival orchestra, the Philharmonie Festiva, in recordings of all of Anton Bruckner’s symphonies. Nearly all the recordings were made during concerts in the cathedral acoustics of Ebrach’s abbey church. The location Schaller chose for the recordings of the F minor Symphony, the early D minor Symphony and the Fourth Symphony with its “Volksfest” (fair) finale is the Regentenbau building in Bad Kissingen, which likewise has outstanding acoustics. To crown the previous Bruckner cycle, the unfinished Ninth has been recorded with Gerd Schaller’s own recreation of the final movement.

What is special about this Bruckner cycle is that Schaller in some cases selected less well-known, “interim” versions or variants that had previously never been performed but give revealing insights into Bruckner’s compositional approach. Featured for the first time ever in this CD edition are Bruckner's Third in its first revised form of 1874 and his Eighth in the interim version of 1888. The cycle of symphonies is supplemented by the F minor Mass, the rarely performed Psalm 146 and his organ works as well as Gerd Schaller's organ transcription of the 9th symphony, which he recorded on the Eisenbarth organ of the former Ebrach abbey church.

REVIEW

All eleven symphonies are presented in excellent performances and three of those - the First, Third and Fourth - are each played in two very different versions...the virtuosity and artistry of the dedicated performers concerned are invariably impressive.

The aim of the project is to present the dedicated Brucknerian with the most recent and musicologically sound editions of Bruckner’s symphonies, such that the development of his genius can be explored and appreciated through the constant changes and refinements he introduced into his works. Although Gerd Schaller is meticulous in his research and the production of critical editions, he is certainly no dry academician; he is also an outstanding organist and conductor whose love of Bruckner’s music constantly informs these incandescent performances.

--MusicWeb International

The recordings here by Martha Mödl from 1955 document not only her impeccable rendering of the German, but also her singular singing status. She started out as a mezzo-soprano, but in 1949, with her first Kundry, she switched to the vocal range midway between mezzo and dramatic soprano, and in March 1952 she sang her first Brünnhilde. She was there from the very start in Neubayreuth: From 1951 to 1955, Mödl sang Kundry in all of the Parsifal performances and only began alternating with Astrid Varnay from 1956. She was also cast in the Ring from 1951, first as Gutrune and the Third Norn, and from 1953 also as Brünnhilde and in 1954 as Sieglinde as well. There, too, she alternated with Varnay, who had been performing almost without pause as Brünnhilde since 1951. Mödl sang Isolde in 1952 and 1953. To the director Wieland Wagner she was a “high dramatic soprano free of pathos”. He valued the way her “voice, personality and performance formed an absolutely inseparable whole”. Her stage presence can no longer be experienced through the recordings, but the vocal penetration of the roles can be.