His 18 piano sonatas can be described as the secret stars of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's extensive oeuvre. They were often important areas of experimentation, which in Mozart's short biography describe a development from early rococo to classical maturity, in which he explored new compositional techniques and then later transferred these to the larger genres. This is exemplified by the three works now recorded by Amy Lin in her familiar sensitive manner: the Sonata K. 333 emphasizes the lyrical and pastoral. In K. 284, the 18-year-old composer establishes the alternation between 'quasi-tutti' based on the orchestral writing and soloistic passages in dialogue-like interplay. The famous C minor Sonata K. 457, which Beethoven admired so much, shows a completely different, darkly dramatic tone and thus Mozart's fascinating stylistic diversity in this genre as well.

‘Mozart, You Drive Me Crazy!’ This is the title that the South African soprano Golda Schultz has decided to give to her new album, devoted to the female heroines of Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte and Le nozze di Figaro, roles that have marked her career from Berlin to The Metropolitan Opera: ‘Why does Mozart drive me crazy? First of all, because his music, which sounds so easy when you listen to it, is extremely difficult to perform… And when I immerse myself in the world of Da Ponte and Mozart, I realise that there’s a deep complexity to their female characters: they endure the toughest trials, but they also display great strength. In fact, these operas explore humanity from the feminine perspective: every single one of these women is constantly evolving. They show how human beings transcend trauma and how grief and pain can be overcome.’ The programme is conducted by another eminent Mozartian, Antonello Manacorda, with the Kammerakademie Potsdam.

The horn concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have always been part of the standard repertoire of every horn player. Tyrolean hornist Hansjörg Angerer presents the four horn concertos with the Ensemble Salzburger Hofmusik under the direction of Wolfgang Brunner on an original instrument by an unknown Bohemian master from around 1800. The natural horn originated from the hunting horn by combining the windings, whereby the natural tone series could be played in all common keys by placing different tuning bows on it and, in addition, the intermediate tones of the natural tone series could be obtained, and the sharp or flat tones could be regulated by inserting the right hand into the falls by “plugging” and “damping”. The complex playing techniques as well as the characteristic sound differ fundamentally from a modern valve instrument and allow a deep dive into the great variety of colors in the music of this era.

With Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Monologues, the piano duo Vincent and Sophie Neeb place a rarely performed masterpiece at the centre of their debut recording. The composer describes his work, first performed in 1965, as "dialogues across the ages of dreamers, lovers, sufferers and praying people", which offers a journey through music history with sophisticated collages.
Following this inspiration, the programme is completed with a contrasting selection of compositions quoted there: Works by Bach and Debussy, creatively arranged for two pianos and percussion by Johannes Xaver Schachtner, and a Mozart arrangement by the piano duo Neeb enter into a unique dialogue via this inner context?

Together with percussionists Christian Benning and Patrick Stapleton, the piano duo Neeb explores surreal dream worlds - playfully light and enigmatically profound at the same time.

He is probably the most famous German "prince of poets" - but music also accompanied Goethe throughout his life: His parents played music and he himself learnt to play several instruments. Naturally, he was interested in having his poems set to music - although he was strict in his requirements. Carl Friedrich Zelter set the poetry to music very "carefully"; in his songs, the rhythm of speech takes centre stage. This obviously corresponded to Goethe's ideas, as he wrote to him in a letter: "I immediately feel that your compositions are identical to my songs, the music only takes the balloon up with it, like an inflowing gas. With other composers, I first have to realise how they took the song, what they made of it." Fortunately, not all of them adhered to Goethe's ideas and thought more independently in terms of composition. This creates a fascinating field of tension between the very different approaches of contemporaries.

As a rising star, Wolfgang was just 13 years old when he wrote the first of the brilliant symphonies that the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra Essen is presenting on its new GENUIN CD under the direction of Johannes Klumpp. The outstanding ensemble enters the third round of its Mozart recordings with four early symphonies from 1769 to 1773 – the period in which the young composer wrote most of his symphonic oeuvre. With a slender sound and historically informed means of expression, the top-class ensemble interprets the works of a teenager that still leave you amazed even after 250 years!

I have always been fascinated by musical settings of literature. This is the background to this project. Transcriptions of literary or musical models are also a favourite topic of discussion with my concert audiences.

Music of the classical and pre-classical periods is the language of ideas and gestures. Musical gesture becomes intelligible by recurrence and recognition. Turning an idea on one’s tongue, trying it out in slightly different wording, with a new intonation and in a changed voice creates the musical discourse — the story told, or the argument held. This is the definition of variation, and variation lies at the heart of musical expression.

The sonata form is sometimes considered nowadays as the greatest achievement of musical thought of that period, but composers of the 18th century were happy to turn to more humble forms. Of these, Variations and Fantasias are probably those with the most distinguished histories. In Variations, an idea is confined to the simplest frame of a musical period, unable to break its own formal boundaries, but free to mutate in all possible ways inside them; in the Fantasia, a musical thought is born, develops and flourishes with no seeming restraint, but for the free will of the composer to structure this flow, and yet, they have in common this constant tension between the urge to repeat an idea and the necessity of altering, transforming it. This hidden conflict feeds creativity and the imagination: it generates, ultimately, the classical style.

From the mid-seventeenth century onwards, the overture became an orchestral piece intended to precede a large-scale dramatic work. This recording brings together twelve overtures from Mozart’s operas. They foreshadow the action, sometimes stylistically, sometimes by quoting themes that will appear later, to create a dramatic impression before we even see anything on stage – think of the memorable overtures to Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte.

The twelve overtures brought together here cover 21 years of Mozart’s career: from Mithridate, composed when he was just 14, which testifies to the young composer’s familiarity with the galant style then in vogue, to La Clemenza di Tito (1791), the high point of his work in the opera seria genre that was to disappear with him, not forgetting masterpieces such as Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte.

The Kölner Akademie, playing on period instruments, and its conductor Michael Alexander Willens demonstrate Mozart’s unrivalled ability to capture the audience’s attention with these brilliant overtures, some of which are among his most famous works, both on stage and in concert.

REVIEW:

The interpretations are very fresh, the playing virtuosic. The historical instruments provide a clear, crisp, and transparent sound, which is reproduced by the sound engineers with good spatiality and balance, with a clean and beautifully present bass.

-- Pizzicato

When Christian Ferras died at age 49. his friend and colleague Yehudi Menuhin wrote that Ferras was"possessed by music, immensely talented, and of both a generous and intense temperament."

Christian Ferras was one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. Born in 1933, he was a guest soloist of the Nice Symphony orchestra in1942. In 1948 he won the First Prize at the International Scheveningen (Holland) Violin Competition and in 1949 won the top prize at the International Long-Thibaud Competition. Thereafter, he pursued a successful career as soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras and in recitals with his long time accompanist, pianist Pierre Barbizet. He recorded for EMI and from 1964 for DG where he recorded the four main repertoire violin concertos, Brahms, Sibelius, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Fortunately, Christian Ferras left behind a rich recorded legacy, that enable us to continue to enjoy his great artistry.

The pianist Andreas Eggertsberger, who studied in Austria and the USA with Karl Heinz Kämmerling and Oleg Maisenberg, among others, deals with the late works of three composers on his new album “Spätlese” (Late Harvest): Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johannes Brahms and Frédéric Chopin. Whether a work is considered a late work has less to do with the composer’s age and more to do with where the breaking points and further developments are in a composer’s oeuvre. Some of the three selected masters were still young when they entered their late phase: Mozart was in his late twenties when he composed his Fantasia K. 475 and Sonata in C minor K. 457, Chopin was thirty-four when he composed his third and final Sonata in B minor, and Brahms was fifty-nine when he composed his Three Intermezzi Op. 117. Many a future is anticipated. Mozart, for example, builds a bridge to Beethoven with his Fantasy and Sonata in C minor. Chopin, on the other hand, takes a look at late Romanticism and beyond with his increasingly bold harmonies, and Brahms foreshadows musical developments that would only become influential in the 20th century.

The Salzburg violinist Benjamin Schmid’s preoccupation with the violin works of W.A. Mozart has now lasted for more than four decades, was initially influenced by the then Mozarteum professors Sándor Végh and Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and received numerous awards as his style of interpretation became increasingly personalised. His first CD recording in 1990 with Mozart’s Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg led by Hans Graf was also celebrated by reviewers as a discovery. 32 years and hundreds of performances later, Benjamin Schmid now completes his recordings of the violin concertos with the Sweden based Musica Vitae, of which he has been the musical director since last year, and describes his journey as follows: “As a violinist who grew up in Vienna and Salzburg, Mozart was ultimately always the most important composer for me; I defined this preference as early as elementary school age, and the interest grew with the discovery of the complete works of this probably at least most gifted of all composers. For me, the key to Mozart interpretation lies in the duality of singing and speaking; singing as immediate emotion and phrasing and articulation as form-giving grammar.”

Nikolaus Harnoncourt is credited with making historical performance practice respectable in Salzburg as well. The memorable debut concert of 1980 was the prelude to a long success story that culminated in the Mozart Week 2006, when Nikolaus Harnoncourt was Artist in Residence and gave his acclaimed ceremonial address on 27 January on the occasion of the 250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadé Mozart. The inaugural concert and rehearsals from 2006 can be heard on this album.This 3-CD edition covers the era of Nikolaus Harnoncourt and his influence on the interpretation of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Between 1980 and 2006, the conductor succeeded in sensitising both musicians and audiences to new playing and listening habits and evolved from a pioneer of historical performance practice to an acclaimed maestro.

When Nikolaus Harnoncourt made his debut at the Mozart Week Salzburg on 27 January 1980, concert audiences were at the feet of conductors like Karl Böhm. In those days, beautiful sound and melody were the central themes of an interpretation. Following instructions in the original scores, Harnoncourt had articulation, tempi, melodies and accompanying parts played with a new style and emphasis. The reactions to the concert in Salzburg at that time were varied. In addition to strong slurs, there were also effusive hymns of praise. 20 years later, Nikolaus Harnoncourt became Artist in Residence at the Mozart Week 2006 and was the keynote speaker on the occasion of the 250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In the meantime, his ideas of historical performance practice had spread worldwide and developed into the basis of a new generation of concerts and musicians. In this CD edition, his inaugural concert of 1980 is juxtaposed with rehearsal recordings from 2006. Both recordings provide fascinating insights into the intentions of the famous conductor.

There is nothing more pleasing to the human ear than the soothing and sweet sound of a velvety smooth soprano voice along with the gentle and soulful sound of the classical guitar. This unique recording features a collection of vocal masterpieces by Schubert, Mozart, Giuliani and several 19th century ballads songs that will gladden the heart and calm the soul.

Find Grimaud's previous DVD release from the Elbphilharmonie on Arkiv as well!

Hélène Grimaud headlines a spectacular evening with the illustrious Camerata Salzburg, directed from the front desk by concertmaster Giovanni Guzzo, at one of the world's most famous contemporary concert halls, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. She selected pieces that are all in minor keys, yet composed during intensely creative periods in both Mozart’s and Robert Schumann’s careers.

Mozart did not write many works in minor tonalities but Grimaud chose to emphasize the minor mode because it “provides a glimpse behind the mask of jollity that surrounds many of his famous works.“ As an encore: a work by a living Ukrainian composer whose music has accompanied Grimaud through much of her career, Valentin Silvestrov.

“Hélène Grimaud and the Salzburg Camerata hypnotise the audience in Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie on this unforgettable evening, with piano concertos of the early Romantic era of Mozart and Schumann that are unique in sound.“ (operaversum.de)