The fifth and final installment of the Géza Anda's SWR recordings, and the first performance (and first recording) by Anda of Bartok’s Second Piano Concerto, which he later helped to receive worldwide recognition. Géza Anda is a representative of artistic honesty, a pianist with deep insight into the works he performed. These are the first and last concert recordings Anda recorded with the SWR - from 1950 and 1973 – available for the first time on a single CD!

REVIEWS:

Géza Anda gave these concerto performances with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, almost a quarter of a century apart. The disc thus documents a musician who had developed and matured over a period of a generation, playing two works strongly associated with him. But one concerto was as yet not solidly part of his repertoire—it had yet to be stabilised interpretatively. It is thus fascinating to hear his performance of his compatriot Bartók’s Second Concerto, here given with conductor Hans Müller-Kray in November 1950.

This 1950 visit was Anda’s first to the SWR orchestra but he was to return several more times. In 1973 he and Ferdinand Leitner performed the Tchaikovsky First—the same year the BBC taped him in Bartók’s Second [BBCL 4247-2]. As ever in this work—witness, say, another of his German broadcasts in his earlier collaboration with Solti and the Cologne Radio Symphony in 1958 [ICA Classics ICAC5092]—he marries poetic finesse and triumphant virtuosity. There are moments of spellbinding lyricism, as well as dramatic flourishes, none of which are marred by thumping. He was ever a natural poet of the keyboard, but one who could roar with the best of them. Fortunately the recorded sound here is excellent, and whilst some orchestral detail is smudged and there are some passing ensemble incidents this is a galvanizing reading through and through.

For Anda admirers here is an opportunity to hear his Bartók concerto in embryo, and to take pleasure in his Tchaikovsky.

-- MusicWeb International

• A 10-CD box set of Romantic music in honor of the 80th Birthday Sir Roger Norrington (March 16th, 2014) • Contains the most famous works by Romantic composers • Interpretations featuring what has been called the "Stuttgart Sound"

• First release in hänssler CLASSIC's CPE Bach 300th Anniversary Edition • First CD of the recording of the complete symphonies by CPE Bach • First recording using a fortepiano continuo instrument • The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra has maintained a long tradition of Bach interpretation

This recording takes a look at the lesser known side of Paul Hindemith's works. In addition to the Little Sonata, this CD contains the Kammermusik No. 6 and works by Stamitz and Biber with the basso continuo parts realized by Hindemith. Gunter Teuffel plays Hindemith's own viola d'amore, giving the whole production a 'personal' sound.

This is the second installment in the recording of Richard Strauss' symphonic poems with Francois-Xavier Roth and the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg. His 'transparent orchestral balance' has been praised by BBC Music Magazine.

A new treasure from the archives of the Southwest German Radio! Hänssler Classic is proud to present a rare historical recording of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra with Lorin Maazel from 1958. Lorin Maazel is one of the most famous conductors in the world. Born in 1930, he received early lessons on the piano and violin at the age of seven and soon thereafter began to conduct. His program includes Beethoven's often neglected Second Symphony, which has always been in the shadow of it's "bigger brothers", especially the "Eroica" Symphony. Also included is the Coriolan Overture and Bartók's "Concerto for Orchestra". It is an extraordinary experience to hear how Maazel builds the suspense and consistency in these interpretations from early in his career. An important recording both for Maazel fans and those who want to become one. - Hanssler Classic

This is the newest release in the popular series the Musical Advent Calendar. Featuring the best professional and amateur ensembles of the SWR, this release includes the most famous Christmas songs.

This fourth installment of the Geza Anda edition in the SWR music / haenssler CLASSIC historical series presents the first and the last of Beethoven's piano concertos. As in other recordings before, Anda performs in the First Concerto as both soloist and conductor. These recordings of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Piano Concerto No. 5 are areal enrichment of the Anda discography - no other recording of this concert has ever been released.

Last year Andrey Boreyko’s recording of Shostakovich’s Symphonies Nos. 9 and 15 was released to worldwide acclaim, and he now returns with his third installment with the RSO Stuttgart. Boreyko’s intense, highly emotional yet carefully controlled interpretations reveal Shostakovich at his most profound.

Although not blessed with a wide literature, numerous composers have written duets for violin and violoncello. The present collection of works by Hungarian composers not only provides both a wide overview, but above all else, many musical pleasures! Here two full blood-musicians Friedemann Eichhorn and Alexander Hulshoff have a knack for these musical partnerships.

The first volume of the complete recording of Debussy's piano works by Michael Korstick has been compared favorably with those of the legendary Arturo Benedetti Michelangelo. The second volume presents Book Two of the Preludes and the rarely recorded "La boite a Joujoux", better known in Debussy's orchestral version of this work.

This CD marks the beginning of a new recording cycle of the complete symphonic poems of Richard Strauss as performed by the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg and their principal conductor, Francois-Xavier Roth.

Although Marilyn Horne was 58 years old at the time of this concert, no weakness clouded the beauty of her voice. Among the recordings over the course of Horne's career, there are many Rossini operas. This all-Rossini program shows that she could convincingly dominate the smaller forms as well.

REVIEW:

Little needs be said about Marilyn Horne, one of the greatest singers of all time, with a highly distinctive voice, immediately recognizable and colorful, a deep sense of musicality, and a vocal technique that is awe-inspiring. No ornamentation, no roulade, no trill, not the longest phrase, were beyond her phenomenal breath control. Add to this her almost magical personality.

Liederabend does need a word of explanation. The Liederbands (Liederabenden) were an extensive series of vocal recitals (over 60 years) performed at the Schwetzingen South- West Radio (Germany) Festivals. For all its touting as a Liederabend Horne’s program is all-Italian, all-Rossini (a Horne specialty). 19 songs, early and late, familiar and unfamiliar; all musical delights. Among the better known are ‘La pastorella’, ‘Bolero’, ‘La molinara’, the arias ‘Cruda sorte!’ (Italiana in Algeri and ‘Di tanti palpiti’ Tancredi. A few from ‘Sins of my Old Age’ are included.

Here is a great singer at the top of her form with most entertaining music. No texts, but a biography of Horne and a history of the Festival are included.

-- American Record Guide

REVIEW:

Among quartets that dominated the recorded chamber music scene during the period from the 1960s through to the 1990s, two in particular stand out for their refinement and perfectionist attention to detail. Although the Juilliard Quartet has in general fared well on CD, much of Sony’s ‘Epic’ Juilliard legacy has yet to reappear. Like the Juilliards, the Tokyo Quartet excelled in Bartók. Their superb 1975-80 set of the quartets for DG, recorded in London and New York, has just come out on DG Eloquence (480 7120) but a rival version of the First Quartet, recorded some eight years before the DG version—just two years after the ensemble was formed—has recently been released by Hänssler Classic as part of a recital from the 1971 Schwetzingen Festival. Personnel-wise, only the second violinist is different (Yoshiko Nakura would be replaced by Kikue Ikeda). The performances of Bartók’s First Quartet are conceptually similar: if you cast an eye across comparative timings, the third ‘movement’ opens at different points of the score on each disc, though in general the 1971 live performance trades pointillist precision for a more robust approach. Likewise Beethoven’s Harp Quartet, where the Presto tears off at a terrific lick, though much else is poised and the work’s closing moments have impressive panache. My favourite performance, though, is Berg’s Quartet, Op 3, the second movement awash with shifting textures and expressive gestures. That one item alone makes the CD a pretty enticing prospect.

-- Gramophone

Conductor and Strauss expert Rudolf Kempe is heard in his element, conducting Strauss with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra as well as filling a gap in his discography with Bartok.