Franz Liszt’s arrangement of Schubert’s Schwanengesang is very much his own work: while it very clearly retains the musical meaning of the original it also provides a vision of Liszt’s understanding of what lies beyond the black dots on paper. In the young Turkish pianist Can Çakmur’s words, Liszt’s ‘songs without words’ are ‘striking, horrifying, grand, intimate, full of life and yet often as pale as death. The marvel of what a single instrument can attain plays an integral role in all these pieces.’ Published posthumously, Schwanengesang is a collection of songs that Schubert may have intended to be grouped together, but if so he never provided a definitive order. In his arrangement, Liszt adopted an order of his own, and Çakmur takes the same liberty, seeking ‘to arrive at a sequence which presents not a storyline but an emotional journey. Liebesbotschaft and Taubenpost constitute the prelude and the conclusion to the cycle: the one focusing on the poet’s promise to return to his lover while the other embraces longing with glistening tears. Longing (Sehnsucht) is the very feeling that drives the cycle, for it carries both hope and disappointment within itself.’ The Liszt arrangement was first published in 1840, twelve years after Schubert’s death, and Çakmur contrasts it here with the much later ‘forgotten waltzes’, Quatre Valses oubliées. As most of Liszt’s late music they are elusive, and Çakmur describes them as ‘possibly wistful, sardonic or melancholic – or perhaps all at once.’ Winner of the 2018 Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, Can Çakmur released his début album in 2019, receiving praise for his technical prowess and sensibility alike – qualities that come well in hand for his new Liszt recital.

Rusalka is one of the most beautiful Czech operatic works; extremely atmospheric, with an original fairy-tale libretto. It is characterized by the subtlety of the means of musical expression (especially the masterful instrumentation), perfection of the formal structure, as well as the nobility and originality of the melodic invention. Fascinated by the beauty of Antonin Dvorak's work, the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz succeeded with a serious challenge - they conventionally integrated an entirely classical opera performance in a revitalized space of a modern city center, with it's difficult history, stretched out - what the replica of the Old Town Theatre Bridge suggests - between the two reluctant worlds, like the fairy-tale love of the title nymph and prince. The result is this breathtaking performance.

Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich since October 2019, Paavo Järvi continues his complete cycle of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies, following a first volume devoted to Symphony no.5 and the symphonic poem Francesca da Rimini. This second volume features Symphonies nos. 2 and 4. The Fourth, composed in 1878 and nicknamed the ‘Fate’ Symphony because of its somber coloring, which may recall the neuroses attributed to Tchaikovsky, is one of his most frequently performed. The Second Symphony, composed in 1872 and much less frequently performed in concert, is known as the ‘Little Russian’ because Tchaikovsky drew on Ukrainian folk tunes. The very first movement begins with a solo horn version of the folksong ‘Down by Mother Volga’

TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 1 in g, “Winter Dreams.” Capriccio Italien • Christoph Poppen, cond; Southwest German RO • OEHMS 760 (57:57) Live: Saarbrücken 12/2007; Mainz 1/2010


This appears to be a sequel to Tchaikovsky’s Fourth with Poppen, reviewed in Fanfare 33:3. Is it part of an emerging cycle? I don’t know. I was not overly enthused with the earlier release, only because I felt Poppen’s reading of the Fourth, one of the composer’s more nervous-tic-ridden scores, needed a bit more in the way of the frenzied and the frenetic than the performance delivered. I concluded that if Poppen had brought as much urgency to the symphony as he did to the 1812 Overture that complemented it on the disc, the venture would have been more successful.


Tchaikovsky’s “Winter Dreams” Symphony is another animal altogether. Aside from the flash of drama here and there, the work is one of the composer’s loveliest lyrical creations. For Tchaikovsky, this first-born among his symphonies was perhaps his greatest labor of love. He worked on it tirelessly for at least eight years, from 1866 to 1874, making constant and sometime drastic revisions. I’d even go so far as to say that if he had left only four symphonies instead of six, the Second and Third would not be missed, for neither surpasses the First in formal construction, handling of materials, or sheer melodic inspiration.


My last encounter with a “new” Tchaikovsky First was a 1995 Arte Nova recording with Samuel Friedmann leading the Nizhny Novgorod Philharmonic, reviewed in 32:1. I thought it was very good, not quite equal perhaps to my longtime favorite with Michael Tilson Thomas and the Boston Symphony Orchestra on a 1970 Deutsche Grammophon recording, but still quite successful in capturing Tchaikovsky’s musical portraiture.


Much the same may be said of this recent recording by Poppen and his Southwest German Radio Orchestra forces. The recording has excellent perspective and presence, and Poppen’s reading of the score is well balanced and nicely characterized. I especially liked his fantasy-spun Adagio (“Land of Desolation, Land of Mists”), which morphs perfectly from a feeling of finding oneself alone and forlorn into that most human of reactions to such circumstances, escape into a state of semi-conscious reverie.


With so many recordings of the symphony and the Capriccio Italien (nearly 100 of the latter!) competing for your attention and dollars, it would be a tough case to make that Poppen’s, at full price, can lay claim to being better than any number of others. Just saying it’s at least as good as any number of others, and perhaps better than a few, seems to me recommendation enough, should you happen to be in the market for a new recording of these works.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

This album features a recording made during a performance at the Prinzregententheater in Munich on January 18, 1962. It was directed by Rudolf Hartmann and the performance was given, as was usual in those days, in German. The original analogue tapes have been stored at the Fritz Wunderlich Society in Kusel (in the Rhineland-Palatinate), and have been restored by TechneAudio in Baden-Württemberg. Some specialists suspect that the recordings were made by Fritz Wunderlich himself, a great fan of the latest technology. Despite costly and careful restoration of the tapes, some defects and intrusive artefacts on the mono tapes, some of which are damaged, are clearly audible. However, the historic significance of this recording certainly justifies its release. Not surprisingly, Fritz Wunderlich (1930-1966) in the role of Ernesto receives the greatest attention. Probably Germany’s greatest tenor knew just how to cultivate the love-sick bachelor, as he did with all his roles, and to breathe life into the character with his inimitable voice. In addition to lyric qualities, the role demands other skills such as the canto fiorito style of ornamented singing of the nineteenth century.

Includes work(s) by Ferdinand Ries. Soloist: Susan Kagan.

Danish conductor and composer Launy Grøndahl (1886-1960) was the leading figure developing the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra all from the very first beginning of the orchestra in the 1920s until his retirement in 1956. He worked closely with composer Carl Nielsen and his recording of the Nielsen 2nd and the 4th Symphonies are now the benchmark for how these works should be heard. The new series of album releases will contain every single recording which can be found of Grøndahl, both live and studio recordings as well as his commercial releases. New digital transfers and extensive booklet notes. Volume 2 is in preparation for a September 2020 release and will have Launy Grøndahl conducting Grøndahl, 2 albums with his own orchestral works. Another first ever release.

Schubert's String Trio was modeled after the example of Beethoven, and it's transparent textures, Classical structure and fine interplay are capped by a charming Rondo finale. Composed over a decade later, during the period of his final illness, the String Quintet is wholly different in character. Scored for two violins, viola and two cellos, it is one of the most compelling and moving works in the chamber music canon, and stands as the summation of Schubert's writing for chamber forces. Praised by The Strad magazine and The New York Times, internationally renowned cellist Amit Peled is acclaimed as one of the most exciting and virtuosic instrumentalists on the concert stage today. Peled has released over a dozen recordings on several labels including Naxos. The Aviv Quartet made their Naxos debut in 2003, presenting Hoffmeister's Op. 14 String Quartets (8. 555952). It was followed by Schulhoff's String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 on 8. 570965, which received positive feedback from ClassicsToday. Com: 'This music, rhythmically charged and alternately folk-inflected and harmonically contemporary, is absolutely wonderful, and it's very well played... The group is also quite sensitive to Schulhoff's use of tone-color'.

Admittedly, Franz Schubert's biography offers little in the way of great adventures, love affairs, glamour and long journeys. Jörg Handstein – in what is now his tenth audio biography in the successful BR-KLASSIK series - devotes himself here to a composer with an altogether quieter life. Schubert's story still remains an exciting one: no famous composer before him had ever chosen to lead a life in which his musical activities were supported solely by a private circle of friends. This did not succeed without resistance, setbacks, great disappointments and personal tragedies. Schubert's unhappiness in love, his terrible illness, and probably also his early death were, ultimately, the price he paid for this unconventional life. He bravely stood his ground, however, countering an age of cultural and political paralysis with his great and bold art. In this audio biography, Schubert’s creative path can be followed in around 130 musical examples – something impossible in any biography in book form. Alongside Udo Wachtveitl (narrator) and Robert Stadlober (Schubert), many other voices bring the composer’s world and his circle of friends to life. Schubert’s conventional image is encumbered by two clichés. On the one hand, we have the warm-hearted, sentimental man, known to his friends familiarly as Schwammerl (“mushroom”), churning out endless songs and beautiful melodies, and on the other, the incessantly tortured outsider, with music primarily conveying a sense of “brokenness” and “alienation”. This audio biography allows Schubert to speak for himself as often as possible. Despite the sparse documentation, a far more nuanced picture emerges – and the well-known Austrian actor and rock musician Robert Stadlober finds richly contrasting colors for it. We discover a different Schubert here: single-minded, argumentative, philosophical, reflective, and with a wide range of interests. That is also what makes his life story so exciting.

The pairing of the two works on this album is unique in that one comes from the dawn, the other from the dusk of Ludwig van Beethoven’s career. Indeed, whereas the composer wrote the Quintet for winds and piano, Op. 16 when he was only 26- the talented young man also excelled as a successful pianist- he did not finish his String Quartet Op. 130 until a year before his death. The Edding quartet proposes here the original version of the work, with the Grosse Fuge, op.130, as final. The direct comparison of these two works on the same disc intelligently sheds light on the fantastic distance the composer covered between these two points in time. Two years after their successful Schubert album, which was warmly received by the press and public, the Edding Quartet and Northernlight felicitously join together once again on the same album to give new readings of these masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire. Having become major interpreters of the Classical and Romantic repertoires, the two ensembles offer expert performances, refined and precise, of two of the German composer’s finest scores.

On November 8, 2019, at Carnegie Hall, New York, during a tour with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and only a few weeks before his unexpected death, Mariss Jansons conducted his final concert. On the programme was Johannes Brahms’ Fourth Symphony and the latter’s famous Hungarian Dance No. 5 was played as an encore. The live recording in Carnegie Hall, released here for the first time on Vinyl by BR-KLASSIK, is the great conductor’s musical legacy. For the last seventeen years of his life – from 2003 to 2019 – Mariss Jansons was chief conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Bavarian Radio Chorus. Both ensembles and their conductor appreciated each other deeply on an artistic as well as a human level, and this resulted in numerous unforgettable concerts. Jansons’ unrelenting demands on himself and his musicians, his always respectful treatment of his colleagues, and his great devotion to music all played a lead role in their work together. Mariss Jansons occupies a place of honor in the orchestra’s history, and its players will always revere and cherish his memory. With the death of Mariss Jansons one year ago, the music world lost one of its greatest artistic personalities.

Kenneth Woods writes of this release: “The idea for this orchestration of the Brahms Piano Quartet in A Major came to me spontaneously in a flash of inspiration while I was coaching chamber music at the Ischia Chamber Music Festival in 2008. … I listened to a group play through the first movement of the piece in its original form. As I began to work with them, I found myself speaking to the pianist, as I often do, in orchestral terms. “Can you try playing the opening phrase more like…. a quartet of hunting horns?” I asked…After the coaching I had a bit of free time, and found myself listening to an imaginary orchestral version of the entire first movement emerging from that horn quartet. I was fascinated by the ways in which I thought an orchestral realization could bring to the fore some the nature imagery and vernacular music that is present in the original. By the end of that morning, I’d decided to try to undertake a realization of the orchestration. It took several years from that morning on Ishcia to complete this orchestration. After my initial work on it in 2008, the piece was set to one side while I attended to other projects with firmer deadlines. The final version was premiered on 21 November, 2017 with the English Symphony Orchestra in Cheltenham Town Hall. The scores of Brahms’ Four Symphonies are like a sacred text for me. They are among the most studied, most loved, most performed works in my library. In trying to understand his use of the orchestra well enough to translate this Piano Quartet into a symphonic sound world, I’ve found my admiration for Brahms’ achievement continuing to grow.”

Don César de Bazan is an opéra-comique with a narrative of dashing Spanish chivalry and romance. Its plot revolves around deception and comedies of reversed identity, with a struggle between true nobility and wicked selfishness maintaining an animated momentum throughout. This was the young Jules Massenet’s first full-length opera and yet it is filled with the composer’s mature symphonic style, his gift for melody, feeling for the picturesque, and vivacity of rhythm. These distinctive qualities reveal an operatic feast whose time has at last arrived. Conductor Mathieu Romano works within all genres from the Baroque to the contemporary, both on the concert stage and in opera. Romano has worked with ensembles such as the RIAS Kammerchor and the Latvian Radio Choir, and on operatic productions with Les Frivolités Parisiennes and contemporary projects with Ensemble Itinéraire. He also works with the Nederlands Kamerkoor, the Normandy Regional Orchestra, Les Siècles and Sinfonia Varsovia. He regularly appears with Ensemble Aedes, of which he is the founder and artistic director. His discography includes a number of acclaimed releases devoted to choral repertoire.

-----

REVIEW:

The cast is top notch, with Laurent Naoury (a bass-baritone in reality) courageously tacking the high baritone title role and infusing it with humor. Soprano Elsa Dreisig is a charming Maritana, tenor Thomas Bettinger an elegant King Charles, and the honeyed voice mezzo soprano Marion Lebègue a standout in the trouser role of Lazarille. All four principals evidence the high standards of singing prevalent in French opera today.

The haut de gamme Ensemble Aedes and the superb Orchestre des Frivolités Parisiennes are more than ably led by Mathieu Romano, who infuses Gallic panache into the proceedings.

– Rafael's Music Notes

This live recording of Richard Wagner’s Tannhauser was made at the 2014 Bayreuth Festival. “Kober’s conducting… is outstanding and the chorus are superb… The color that Nylund is able to apply… pays dividends with Elisabeth… Keri achieves a good balance between the more lyrical side of his character and the Romantic heldentenor… Musically it’s a glorious affair… that finds the true delicacy and poignancy within what is surely the most Romantic of Wagner’s works on the misunderstood suffering, exiled artist.” (OperaJournal) “Camilla Nylund’s Elisabeth and Kwangchul Youn’s Landgraf deservedly received the most applause at the curtain calls.” (Bachtrack) “Especially in the Singer’s Contest in the second act the performers act with heart and soul. Baumgarten developed a truly animated stage direction.” (Opernnetz)

Herbert Kefer was born in Austria in 1960. At the age of five he received his first musical education on the violin. He continued his studies with Professor Karl Frischenschlager in Leoben and with Professor Karl Stierhof at the University of Music in Vienna. He graduated with distinction in 1986. In 1980 he founded, together with three colleagues, the Artis-Quartett. From 1984 to 1985 they spent one year in Cincinnati, Ohio with the LaSalle-Quartet to profit from their knowledge as much as possible. After that, an international career including concerts at all well known festivals began. The quartet has made more than thirty recordings, some of which have been honored with the Grand Prix du Disque and the Diapason d'Or. In 1991 Herbert Kefer was appointed to head of Viola at the University of Music in Graz. From 2005-2010 he was director of the Weinklang-Festival. He is in demand as a soloist as well as a sought after partner for chamber music groups.

Franz Schubert is perhaps the greatest of all composers of art songs. He left huge body of songs for voice and piano of amazing quality. The song cycle Winterreise stands out even among this literature. Steven Tharp sings with great understanding and sensitivity, beautifully accompanied by Janice Wenger on fortepiano. Steven Tharp has been praised by Opera News for the “bel canto flexibility and sweetness” of his voice, while the New Yorker has described his voice as “strong, free, and forward in tone, verbally sure, lyrical in utterance.”

Also available on Blu-ray

Shakespeare provided lifelong inspiration for the towering operatic genius that was Giuseppe Verdi, but just three of the Bard’s plays ever emerged fully-fledged from the composer’s pen. This trio of landmark productions, featuring a veritable constellation of singers, conductors and directors, are united here under the banner of Verdi’s Shakepeare Operas: Macbeth, which lifted the young composer out of his hard-working ‘galley years’, propelling him to international fame and universal acclaim, and Otello and Falstaff, his final two crowning operatic achievements. Simon Keenlyside and Liudmyla Monastyrska are imposing as the Thane and his Lady in Phyllida Lloyd’s sumptuous production of The Scottish Play for The Royal Opera, conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano, while José Cura interprets the Moor in a profound, intense staging by Willy Decker at Barcelona’s Liceu. By the end of his dramatic opera career, Verdi claimed he had ‘earned at last the right to laugh a little’, and Richard Jones’s Glyndebourne Festival production of Falstaff radiates humour, tinged with bitterness and wisdom and brought to life by an international ensemble cast with Christopher Purves in the title role under the inspiring baton of Vladimir Jurowski.

Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Catalan (Otello), Japanese (Macbeth)

Running time: 170 Minutes (Macbeth), 23 Minutes (Bonus), 151 Minutes (Otello), 136 Minutes (Falstaff)

Sound format: 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS

Isn't it possible to turn some local material into duets, for example Moravian songs? This question was posed by Jan Neff, himself from Moravia, who grew tired of repeating German songs over and over again at the piano with his wife and Antonín Dvorák. His question in fact stood at the birth of Moravian Duets and also marked the beginning of Dvorák's journey abroad. "Why not, find good lyrics and I will take care of the rest." When the composer got the first selection of folk songs from Sušil's collection, he decided to take only the lyrics and provide them with his own tunes. As soon as the duets got into the hands of Johannes Brahms (who was a member of a committee that assessed Dvorák's application for a state scholarship), the well-established composer did not hesitate to recommend them to his Berlin publisher Fritz Simrock. "When you play them, you will enjoy them just as I did, and as a publisher you will especially be pleased by their unique beauty." It was Simrock who initiated the composition of a four-hand version of the Slavonic Dances that led to Dvorák's first major international success. The present recording is unique in another aspect as well: the complete set of 23 Moravian Duets have been played and recorded on Dvorák's original grand piano, a 1879 Bösendorfer that is a pride of the Antonín Dvorák Museum in Prague. The challenge was taken hold of by young musicians who are not only crowned by international laurels but also possess a sensitivity both for the charm of Dvorák's songs and the unique timbres of the instrument touched by the composer's own hands.

This release presents a musical portrait of Johannes Brahms in piano works from his early and later years. The Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor Op. 5 is a masterpiece. Here Brahms is at his most passionate, impulsive and grandiose, a young hero about to conquer the world. Skipping several decades we enter the world of late Brahms, here the passion is tinged with a sweet melancholy, reflective and resigned. Brahms called his later Klavierstücke “Wiegenlieder meiner Schmerz” (Lullabies of my sorrow). Young Russian pianist Philipp Kopachevsky’s musical intuition is the key to enter the musical world of Brahms, his quasi improvisatory playing makes the music come to life under his hands. His sound, from a thundering heroism to a murmuring chiaroscuro, touches the listener’s soul directly. Philipp Kopachevsky is one of the most remarkable pianists of the younger generation. Winner of several international competitions he is in much demand as a soloist, having played with conductors like Rostropovich, Gergiev, Spivakov, Pletnev and many others. This is Philipp Kopachevsky’s third album for Piano Classics. His first CD received rave reviews: “..a rare discovery…extraordinary talent…a great musician..” (Piano World) “..technical mastery and deeply searching musicality…a must…6 Stars..” (Piano News Germany) “…Kopachevsky’s hands communicate real musical thought, he adds a touch of intensity to every bar..personal and intriguing…” (Fanfare)

Classical Music

Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin was a genius who created mainly piano music. All of his creative output is characterized by beautiful lyricism. This new release features Chopin’s piano works transcribed for cello and piano. This project is funded by The Cultural Education Foundation, founded by Roza Paderewska in 2010. The aim of the foundation is cultural animation carried out by varied educational and artistic activities. They also strive to promote Polish culture. This release of transcriptions, performed by outstanding artists Tomasz Strahl and Janusz Olejniczak is the next project which fits into the programme of the Foundation. Tomasz Strahl graduated from the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, cello class of Professor Kazimierz Michalik and completed a postgraduate course at Hochschule fur Musik and darstellende Kunst in Vienna under Professor Tobias Kuhne. Janusz Olejniczak is one of the most outstanding contemporary Chopin interpreters. Born in Wroclaw, he was the youngest prize-winner of the 8th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition and also won a prize in the Alfredo Casella International Competition in Naples.

Bernard Haitink was born and educated in Amsterdam. His conducting career began at the Netherlands Radio where in 1957 he became the Chief Conductor of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. The links between Bernard Haitink and the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra have withstood the test of time, even when his career was taking him all over the world. One fine example of this was Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust in 1998, later issued on CD(CC 72517). He returned on 15 June 2019, when he gave his very last concert in Amsterdam, with Bruckner Symphony no. 7, a work that has always been especially dear to him.

Widor’s cycle of ten organ symphonies underwent profound development and transformation over many years. Classical elements became more obviously virtuosic and, by the time of these Op.42 symphonies, his musical language had become monumental. Symphony No. 5 in F minor is world famous for a single movement, its concluding Toccata, a moto perpetuo of astonishing brilliance, but the whole work is imbued with structural and musical genius. Striking rhythms, dynamic contrasts and technical roulades mark out Symphony No. 6 in G minor. Also included is a graceful movement from Symphony No. 8 (8.574207) that Widor later omitted.

This sparkling opera buffa is a premiere from the 2016 Donizetti Festival of Bergamo, with the part of Pasquale in Neapolitan dialect. It is the story of two rich merchant brothers from Lisbon, who are used to weighing everything against their barganing power. Also the marriage of Pasquale's niece Isabella is a "bargain" to them: she must marry another merchant, so as not to break with family tradition. The gags among the various characters are hilarious - especially those between the two brothers, who have competely different characters - creating an almost surreal atmosphere. Olivo, interpreted by Bruno Taddia, is teh real protagonist: as Isabella's father, he portrays a gruff, inflexible man, and does so with self-assurance and ease but never over the top. No less convincing is Filippo Morace as his brother Pasquale: istrionic and exhilarating as a na ctor, musically precise, and excellent in his Neapolitan dialect performance. Laurea Giordano, also thanks to her physique du role, is perfect as Isabella, the heartbroken girl torn between love for the young Camillo and obedience towards her grouchy father.

Beethoven's Sonatas for Fortepiano and Cello or Horn clearly demonstrate the connection of the transition from Classicism to Romanticism - they were composed throughout his entire creative career and tell a continuous story, a musical and historical testament, of maturity and change. The three sonatas on this CD were created in three different phases - the young, the struggling and the mature Beethoven in an intense and lucid performance.

Celebrated for their only complete recording of Haydn’s string quartets on period instruments, the Festetics Quartet also tackled the world of Schubert, by matching two quartets which since the very first bars depict the twilit, death-haunted atmosphere which is one of the areas peculiar to his imagination. The Festetics Quartet, one of Europe’s most accomplished period instrument quartets, was founded in Budapest in 1982. While the group’s repertoire embraces the complete quartets of Mozart and many of Beethoven and Schubert’s quartets, the group has a special affinity for the quartets of Haydn. They have been widely praised for their perception and unity of style, and the ensemble performs regularly in Hungary and throughout Europe.

Georges Onslow is best known for a body of chamber music that follows the musical lineage of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. A master of the quintet medium, Onslow offered variations of ensemble to players, the two presented here being cast for string quartet and double bass. The tempestuous Quintet No. 23 in A minor is charged with almost ceaseless nervous energy and Schubertian lyricism; the mature Quintet No.31 in A major is both subtle and elegant, with a brilliant assemblage of details such as walking bass and violin-cello duets.

With this recording Dynamic brings to completion the project of recording Nicolo Paganini's entire output. Included in this programme are some absolute rarities, such as the Sonata Napoleon MS. 5, the splendid Maestosa Suonata Sentimentale MS. 51, the Sonata movimento perpetuo M.S 66 and La Primavera MS. 73, all performed faithfully following Paganini's original manuscripts. The set also features an exciting interpretation of the rare Concerto No. 3 in E major MS. 50, perhaps the less frequently performed of Paganini's concertos, and the Caprice No. 24 in an interesting version with piano accompaniment. Mario Hossen received his musical education in Sofia, Vienna and Paris. He made his debut as a soloist with an orchestra at the age of eight. Hailed for his incredible virtuosity and charismatic stage presence, Hossen plays a repertoire that ranges all the way from Renaissance music to Classic music to contemporary works and Jazz. As a concert soloist of international acclaim, Mario Hossen has performed with renowned orchestras such as the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, the Orchestra della Scala di Milano, the Royal Philharmonic, the Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Sofia Philharmonic and the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie. Hossen's musicological and artistic endeavors are focused among other things on source research on Niccolo Paganini. Mario Hossen plays a violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, 1749, on loan from the Austrian National Bank collection.

Krzysztof Ksiazek, born in 1992 in Krakow, was a semi-finalist and recipient of two special prizes at the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. He began his musical education at the age of nine in the piano class of Grazyna Hesko-Kolodzinska at the Stanislaw Wiechowicz State Primary School of Music in Krakow. From 2005 to 2016 he studied with Professor Stefan Wojtas, first as a student of the Fryderyk Chopin State Secondary School of Music in Krakow, subsequently at the Academy of Music in Krakow and finally at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, from which he graduated in 2016. He has won numerous international awards, frequently doing so performing works by Chopin, as he presents on this release. Here, he presents Chopin's playful Mazurkas alongside a Scherzo, Prelude, Waltz, Fantasy, Nocturne, and Polonaise, giving a broad overview of the brilliant composer's oeuvre.

In this new Chaconne release, Trio Goya offers unique accounts of Beethoven’s early piano trios, revealing on period instruments and in the magical acoustic of the Britten-Pears Auditorium at Aldeburgh’s Snape Maltings the extraordinary range of colors and narratives that these pieces suggest. Beethoven’s Opus 1 features amongst Trio Goya’s central repertoire, played regularly in the UK’s most prestigious venues and beyond. After a recent Wigmore Hall concert, Early Music Today wrote that “Trio Goya sent us home spinning on the delights and laughter of early Beethoven. His piano trio opus 1 No. 1 frothed and bubbled down the finale's theme, the musicians swept along by their own hell-for-leather, immaculately kept tempo.” These pieces mark a kind of beginning in Beethoven’s career. They were indeed planned and executed, over a period of two years, with unprecedented care and skill; they mark the start of a new creative period for the young genius, which is distinct from the younger Bonn years and is fully deserving of the label ‘first maturity’ conferred by the musicologist Lewis Lockwood.