Brilliant Classics proudly presents the brand-new 5-album sets series: QUINTESSENCE, attractively priced compact box sets containing essential core classical repertoire in outstanding performances. Aimed at attracting both the discerning classical connoisseur and the classical newcomer it presents the pillars of classical music: Bach Famous Cantatas, Dvorák Complete Concertos and Symphonic Poems. Mozart Complete Wind Concertos and Serenades, Beethoven Complete Violin Sonatas and Cello Sonatas and Sibelius Complete Symphonies and Symphonic Poems. World class performers include Staatskapelle Dresden with Herbert Blomstedt, Netherlands Bach Collegium with Pieter Jan Leusink, Klára Würtz, Timora Rosler, Kristóf Baráti, Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester with Kurt Sanderling and others. The fresh and colorful artwork is eye-catching while the booklet contains liner notes in English. A new series at an unbeatable price! The present release features Beethoven’s complete violin sonatas and cello sonatas, performed by Timora Rosler, Klara Wurtz, and Kristof Barati.

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REVIEW:

This is not something I’ve ever said before, and I don’t say it lightly now, but no matter how many other sets of Beethoven’s complete violin sonatas you may have—unless you’re a die-hard fan of versions by Heifetz or Grumiaux, Francescatti/Casadesus, Menuhin/Kempff, Stern/Istomin, Szeryng/Haebler, or one of the more recent period-instrument renditions—you might as well give them away to friends or Goodwill, because once you’ve heard Baráti and Würtz, you’ll never listen to anyone else again.

– Fanfare

Ivan Fischer makes his DNO debut. He conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Pierre Audi, artistic director of DNO and the Holland Festival, directs his firest new DNO production since Saint Francois d'Assise (2008). For Parsifal Audi once again joins forces with the British scultpr Anish Kapoor. Alejandro Marco-Buhrmester previously sang the role of Amfortas at the Opera National de Paris and the Bayreuther Festpiele. Kurt Rhdl made previous DNO appearances as Hagen/Hunding in Der Ring de sNibelungen and as Heinrich in Lohengrin. Kurt Rydl has been an honorary member of the Wiener Staatsoper since 1999. Falk Struckmann has frequently sung the role of Amfortas, but now makes his first DNO appearance in his role debut as Gurnemanz. The title role is sung by Christopher Ventris, who previously appeared at DNO as Steuermann in Der fliegende Hollander. Petra Lang previously sang Brangane in Tristan und Isolde and Venus in Tannhauser at DNO. ''There were no weak links in teh cast. Amfortas sounded suitably pained, very wobbly vibrato for it, but this very much worked. Gurnemanz was stoic and powerful. Klingsor was a rounded and full bass. Kundry has a truly bewitching voice, very powerful. Parsifal was definitely the stand out, always rising above the orchestra, his voice conveyed each emotion perfectly but was always perfectly clear and pure. Ivan Fischer's interpretation is calm, subdued, crystal clear, chamber-like. It is generally brisk, but extremely flexible, and follows Wagner's tempo changes to the letter. Nonetheless, one cannot help but be carried along with the waves of music, so that the final chords are absolutely overwhelming. The Concertgebouw, characteristically played stupendously. Beautiful phrasing, incredibly unity, and they just sound so incredibly beautiful. (Operalively.com)

Sir Roger Norrington has been chief conductor of the former Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (today the SWR Symphonieorchester) for thirteen years. During this time he has caused a stir internationally with what has come to be termed ‘The Stuttgart Sound’: a synthesis of historically-informed performance practice with the technical capabilities of a modern orchestra. Whether in Mozart, Haydn, Bruckner or Brahms, Norrington has sought to capture the performance experience of the time, adjusting the orchestra’s size and seating plan to create an authentic sound without vibrato. The present reissue of Brahms' four symphonies, recorded back in 2005, is no exception to Norrington's artistic credo of keeping as close as possible to the composer's expectations. And one of the main features – beside the "pure sound" without vibrato – are the quick tempi. Brahms left no metronome indications in his symphonies. However, the overall timings left by the Brahms conductor von Bülow are so short, compared to today, that there can have been no very slow tempi in his interpretations. Additionally, Norrington considered also one of the many hints left by another admired conductor and friend of Brahsm, Steinbach: “By all means conduct the opening of Brahms First Symphony in 6. But it must sound in 2.” 'A German Requiem' is one of the most popular compositions by Johannes Brahms. Although the texts are taken from the Bible, the piece is not part of any ecclesiastical-liturgical tradition, it is aimed – as Brahms himself expressly emphasized – at people “who are in mourning” and unlike the “Requiem”, the Catholic Mass of the Dead, it is not a liturgical prayer for the souls of the deceased, but rather intended to console the bereaved.

Gunter Wand conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

On his new solo album, Russian star pianist Denis Kozhukhin presents a personal and colourful collection of character pieces taken from Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte and Edvard Grieg’s Lyric Pieces. Combing these miniature gems by two outstanding poets of music, Kozhukhin provides a shining example of how disarmingly touching and penetrating a simple song or a vision of nature captured in sound can be. The programme features classics such as Mendelssohn’s Venetian Gondola Song and Grieg’s Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, as well as less famous but equally enchanting pieces. Kozhukhin lifts out the noble simplicity of these works with his delicate playing. Denis Kozhukhin has established himself as one of the greatest pianists of his generation. He now presents the fifth chapter to his exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE, after albums with the piano concertos of Grieg and Tchaikovsky (2016), Brahms Ballades and Fantasies (2017), Ravel and Gershwin piano concertos, as well as Richard Strauss’ Burleske (both 2018).

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REVIEW:

Once in a while a piano recording comes along that really plucks at the heart-strings. Denis Kozhukhin's compilation of miniatures by Mendelssohn and Grieg is one such. He brings to the table a perfect balance between spontaneity and control, teamed with infinite variety of touch and timbre. Every phrase is imbued with sensitivity and luminous beauty.

– Gramophone

Classical Music

Classical Music

In May 2019, pianist Mathieu Gaudet completed his ambitious series of twelve recitals presenting Franz Schubert’s complete piano sonatas. This important project now sees the light of day on album and the first chapter is the album Schubert: The First Romantic - The Complete Sonatas and Major Piano Works, Volume 1. Recorded in June 2019, this album proves beyond any doubt that Mathieu Gaudet one of the great interpreters of Schubert's repertoire. A versatile, passionate musician, Mathieu Gaudet has pursued a remarkable career as a soloist, chamber musician, and conductor for the past 20 years. He commands a vast repertoire of works and has performed across Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia. His concerts and recordings are regularly broadcast on the French and English services of the CBC.

Classical Music

Carl Czerny’s instructional exercises may be his lasting legacy but there remain numerous largely forgotten pieces that reveal important elements of his compositional range. The four Romantic Fantasies named after Sir Walter Scott’s famous Waverley novels are piano duets of epic breadth. In them Czerny ingeniously develops popular Scottish melodies, including the use of the ‘Scotch snap’, to generate a vivid programmatic quality that explores numerous genres. Scherzos, fugal passages, chorales and marches are all featured, and raise the music – full of beauty, virtuosity and unpredictability – to orchestral proportions.

REVIEW:

Though the majority of Czerny's more than 800 works were for solo piano, there were also works intended for use in public concerts, such as the four Romantic Fantasies for piano duet composed in 1832. Each is of sizeable proportions and based on a novel by Sir Walter Scott, Czerny having been an avid reader. They used the stories that were recounted in Waverley, Guy Mannering, Ivanhoe and Rob Roy, and in his thematic material he appropriately used Scottish and English traditional melodies. Technically they are highly demanding, particularly in the many mercurial passages for the right hand of the ‘Primo’ pianist, and proved a very testing time for Pei-I Wang in Waverley. The second Fantasy, in a mood of quiet suspense, leads to the military atmosphere that opens Ivanhoe, and finally he cast Rob Roy as a weighty finale. Mid-way through the disc the North American-based duo exchange places, Samuel Gingher becoming the ‘Primo’, the young duo here offering World Premiere Recordings made in 2019. A discovery that has given me considerable pleasure.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

The Mighty Handful, also known as The Five, were a group of prominent nineteenth century Russian composers who strived to produce a specifically ‘Russian’ style. The group consisted of Mily Balakirev, Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Alexander Borodin. The Russian Guitar Quartet has chosen works by The Mighty Handful for this new release, reviving the lost tradition of seven-string Russian guitar quartet. These accomplished performers, all with solo careers of their own, perform these arrangements with purpose and passion, leading the listener on a journey through nineteenth century St. Petersburg.

Winner of the prestigious Premio Venezia prize, Vincenzo Maltempo 'rides high among many young and gifted Italian pianists.' (Gramophone, January 2015). His recordings on Piano Classics have won critical acclaim for their technical finesse and musical sensitivity. His latest release is a timely one, celebrating the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth in Bonn with the two major variation sets and the ever-elusive, whimsical Bagatelles which have taxed the hands and imaginations of all the greatest pianists. All the works here derive ultimately from the composer's instincts as an improviser and thinker at the keyboard: playing continually with ideas both physical and intellectual, working them over and around the body of the instrument that was his own principal medium of expression. The Op. 34 variations marked a seachange in the composer's treatment of his form, sharing the expressive reach of his sonatas and concluding with an ambitious fugue. Even the Eroica Variations, however, give little notice of the visionary transformation wrought upon an upbeat but modest waltz, sent to him by his publisher Diabelli, in his final work in variation form. They occupied Beethoven on and off for five years, during which time he explored every possibility of the theme and of variation-form itself. The result is, in the words of Alfred Brendel, 'the greatest of all piano works.' Here and in the final Bagatelles we find Beethoven challenging even the outer limits of his own prodigious imagination as well as the fingers of his performers and the minds of his listeners. Amid the cavalcade of Beethoven releases in 2020, Maltempo's new album is a big event.

In the 1970s LP cycles of Liszt’s transcriptions of Beethoven symphonies exercised some fascination. Those first forays by Cyprien Katsaris have been emulated by a fair few pianists since then.

August Stradal, whose life overlapped with that of the composer by some 26 years, has done a similar service for Liszt in making thoroughly grown-up versions of Liszt’s thirteen tone poems. Stradal was not the first – Malcolm Macdonald in his extended liner essay mentions that Carl Tausig prepared solo versions of eleven of the twelve works but some of these have been lost and what survives lacks the worked-through finesse and burly grandeur of Stradal’s efforts. Liszt made his own two piano version of these works but Stradal’s inspired efforts open the door to a much wider constituency. It is interesting to note that the orchestral versions themselves were prepared by Joachim Raff from Liszt’s piano manuscripts.

If you have already been drawn to Risto’s earlier Toccata volume then you will have acquired this one long before this review appears. Others dipping their toes into the cycle cannot fail to come away from the experience impressed.

The diminutive Orpheus drips self-absorbed romance and ominous atmosphere. Much of this mood-concentrated music exercises a sort of hypnosis on the listener – try the sustained slow-swirling introduction to Tasso. Hamlet establishes a similar spell. It has plenty of gloomy clouds but also grumbles, cascades and raves with Mephisto fury. In these aspects it is redolent of Malediction and Totentanz. Contrast the poetry with the Francesca da Rimini-style storms that follow. Risto is not short on panache as we can hear in the often resplendent final pages of these works. Hungaria follows Tasso. Alongside its struttingly rustic chivalry even the bombast works well. The shrill bagpipe whistle at the end of the poem comes off far more splendidly than it has any right to do from a ‘mere’ piano.

I am not at all sure that these solo versions do not work better as pieces of music than the orchestral editions which in Haitink’s (Philips) hands often had my attention drifting. Masur (EMI) was better as was Solti (Decca) but even they struggled.

Roll on Risto’s cycle of the Stradal Bruckner symphony arrangements. Stradal’s version of Bruckner 8 played by Risto is something I would very much like to hear. I can live in hope.

Meantime keep scanning the skies for vol. 3 of this eminent Liszt entry.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Goethe’s Faust exerted a powerful influence on Romantic composers, offering Robert Schumann a number of unforgettable scenes drawn mainly from the mystical second part of the epic poem which he incorporated into this immensely moving large-scale cantata. Opening with the first love scene between Gretchen and Faust and concluding with the climactic scene of Faust’s redemption, Schumann created a sweeping panorama of dramatic episodes with Mephistopheles’ trickery ultimately overcome as legions of celestial beings bear Faust’s soul to heaven.

Classical Music

To mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, Russian born arranger Paul Struck has arranged two of the composer’s great mid-period chamber masterpieces for soloist and string ensemble. Expanding the sonorities of the ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata – Beethoven’s most important chamber work for violin – allows the sonata’s concertante quality to emerge in a new light. The Cello Sonata No. 3 equally succeeds in conceiving the piano part for ensemble, while exploring fullness of sound and maintaining transparency of texture.

Electrifying clarinetist Eli Eban and the Alexander String Quartet celebrate the two masterpieces widely considered the preeminent works in their form: the clarinet quintets by Mozart and Brahms. Eric Bromberger writes: “Composers have been drawn to the combination of clarinet and string quartet ever since the clarinet began to take shape in the eighteenth century. The mellow sound and agility of the clarinet make it an ideal complement to the resonant warmth and harmonic richness of the string quartet, and the range of composers who have written for this pairing is extraordinarily diverse, including Weber, Meyerbeer, Reger, Busoni, Hindemith, and — more recently — Carter and Widmann. Yet all these compositions, varied as they are, exist within the shadow of the two towering masterpieces composed for clarinet and string quartet, the quintets of Mozart and Brahms. Those two quintets are invariably paired in recordings, as they are on this album. And it is quite right that they should be. They are two of the finest chamber works by two of the greatest composers, and there are many parallels between them: both were written late in their creators’ lives, both were inspired by contact with a particular clarinetist, and both beautifully integrate the quite different sonorities of clarinet and string quartet. Neither work is in any way valedictory, yet — coming near the end of each composer’s life — they represent some of the most refined and expressive music of Mozart and Brahms.”

The Etudes of Frederic Chopin certainly need no introduction. Italian pianist Sebastian Di Bin plays these magnificent works with wonderful elan. Sebastian Di Bin was born in Udine. He is considered internationally one of the greatest pianists of his generation. He formally debuted at 11 years old with Ljubic’s Slovenicum Orchestra at a concert in Udine’s Parliament Hall. He has won numerous awards including the Golden Price First Prize at the San Jose International Piano Competition in California and the Fourth Prize at the prestigious Twelfth UNISA International Piano Competition in Pretoria in South Africa. His previous album for Centaur, released in 2015, received worldwide critical acclaim.

Saint-Saëns composed many original works for the violin. He also took the art of arrangement to new heights of refinement, believing his transcriptions were independent of their models, following the precedent of composers such as Liszt. This album presents early or alternative duo versions of some of Saint-Saëns’s most popular works, in which the declamatory style of the originals – such as the ever-popular Danse macabre or the habanera-infused Havanaise–is made more intimate and subtle. Composed for the exclusive use of Queen Elisabeth of Belgium in 1918, the Airde Dalila here receives its world premiere recording.

Classical Music

Brahms’s complete sonatas for piano and violin (Op. 78, 100, 108 and Scherzo from the F.A.E Sonata) are the monumental works that inspire and intrigue chamber musicians as well as classical music audiophiles. With a fresh view of these important pieces, this recording puts the composer first, allowing the protagonist to meet the composer's requirements for the scores. With differentiated phrasing and tempi, Darvarova & Chen rediscover Brahms' violin sonatas in a completely different and new way. GRAMMY®-nominated, award-winning (Gold Medal at the Global Music Awards in 2017 and 2018) and a concert violinist since the age of four, Elmira Darvarova caused a sensation, becoming the first ever (and so far only) woman-concertmaster in the history of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. As MET concertmaster she has performed with the greatest conductors of our time, including the legendary Carlos Kleiber. Hailed as “brilliant” by Fanfare Magazine, multi-award winning pianist-composer Zhen Chen has performed as a soloist and chamber music artist at prominent music venues in USA and China, such as Stern Auditorium, Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall of Lincoln Center, and China National Centre for Performing Arts.

The piano trio holds an important place in the history of Russian chamber music and to follow the development of the genre is to accompany the fascinating history of Russian music in the 19th century. Its beginnings can be found with Alexander Alyabiev, a student of John Field, whose unfinished but elegant and vivacious Piano Trio in E flat major is paired with the yearning Romanticism of the Piano Trio in A minor. Mikhail Glinka’s Trio pathétique bears the inscription ‘I have only known love through the sorrow it causes!’, while Anton Rubinstein’s elaborately acrobatic piano writing in his Piano Trio in G minor reminds us of his own virtuosity, and reveals his magnificent skills as a melodist.

Classical Music

This is the first recording of Antonio Pappano conducting two of Schumann’s most popular symphonies, No. 2 in C major and No. 4 in D minor. Pappano brings his customary energy to the ensemble, while drawing out the magnificent beauty of the string section and the delicacies of the woodwind. His careful approach to detail makes this a commanding interpretation. Antonio Pappano began his conducting career as assistant at the Bayreuth Festival. He became music director of the Den Norske Opera in Oslo in 1990. Since 2005 he has been music director of this ensemble, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He was knighted in 2012, and was made a Knight Grand Cross of Italy’s Order of Merit.

Johann Strauss II’s operetta Waldmeister(‘Woodruff’) was staged for the first time in December 1895.The plotline – a case of mistaken identity somewhat reminiscent of Die Fledermaus– is lively, but the libretto itself proved to be less than satisfying. However, the vivacious and immaculately orchestrated music featuring several pieces that would go on to become famous, including the waltz Trau, schau, wem and the polka Klipp-Klapp-Galopp, earned Strauss immense admiration. Attending the opening night with Johannes Brahms was Vienna’s leading critic Eduard Hanslick who hailed the new work by asserting that ‘Mozart’s golden sound reigns in [Strauss’s] orchestra’.

What a man, what a violin, what an artist! […] And his expression, his manner of phrasing, and finally his soul!’ Franz Liszt, 1831 (about Paganini). The transcriptions and arrangements of Paganini’s études represent a special case and, besides a bow before the great colleague, demonstrate demands on extreme technical skills. In his études, the pianist Liszt is quite evidently endeavouring to place alongside the Devil’s violinist Niccolò Paganini a Devil’s Pianist, which he completely succeeds in doing. In general, recourse is taken to the second version (1851) today, as it seems to be in keeping with Liszt’s definitive desire. However, all the more interesting on this new release is a direct comparison with the earlier version (1838), which exhibits an even more dense notation and difficulties transcending technical borders.

Le retour à la vie - this extraordinary work, half-literary, half-musical reflected much of the thoughts and ideas also found in his letters of the time, using music that was largely written earlier in Paris. The genesis of the work was yet another love-affair gone wrong. The six musical numbers of Lélio are wholly diverse in subject and treatment, yet a sense of order is imposed by the literary format. It is a unique assemblage, there is nothing else quite like it in all musical history. Roméo et Juliette is counted third among Berlioz’s 4 symphonies. Another uniquely constructed work, it moves away from the purely symphonic towards the realm of opera. But Berlioz keeps the formal structure of a symphony firmly in his mind: the three principal instrumental sections – Fete chez Capulet, Scene d’amour, and La reine Mab – making a first movement, slow movement and scherzo encircled by elaborate vocal sections to begin and end.

The title of this album comes from the Thelonius Monk piece, Round Midnight. At the time of the song’s publication, Monk was labeled an outsider. His intense harmonies and the complexities in his music put others off. The virtuosic performances on this recording, however, present an acceptable medium for such elaborate polyphonies.; Alongside this composition from a jazz great, this album also includes a wide range of moods, from the gloomy Saint-Saens Dance Macabre, to Purcell’s Fairy Queen. This album of “nighttime” themed music is performed with ease, agility, and fervor.; Performers are Falk Maertens and Raphael Mentzen, trumpet, Paolo Mendes, Horn, Andreas Klein, Trombone, and Johannes Lipp, Tuba. All are members of the Deutschen Symphonie-Orchesters Berlin.

Despite his young age, Emmanuel Tjeknavorian is already one of the great artists of his generation. The Austrian, born in 1995, inspires audiences and critics with his depth, his technical brilliance and his great versatility. He has made a name for himself both as a violinist and as a conductor – he is simply "an exceptional talent," as the Tagesspiegel attested. Radio Klassik Stephansdom recognized Tjeknavorian's strengths as an eloquent music communicator early on; since 2017, he has been hosting his own show there, "Der Klassik-Tjek." Tjeknavorian's musical family heritage is also of note: as the son of composer and conductor Loris Tjeknavorian, Emmanuel has been making music from an early age and combines musical as well as cultural worlds in his art. On this release, he presents a program of works by Brahms.