Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The embodiment of the most serious and most sacred artistic will of our time,' said Thomas Mann after the premiere of the Symphony No. 8 to Gustav Mahler. The impressive Mahler Symphony cycle from the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra continues, with a new recording of the Seventh and it's famous 'Night Music' movements. 'The Germans and their conductor Jonathan Nott are proving to be a dream team for Mahler, so we've been eager to hear the latest installment.' - David Nice, BBC Music Magazine.

Jonathan Nott is since 2000 principal conductor of the Bamberg Symphony. Such a lengthy collaboration is rare nowadays, and it has produced unique results with this Schubert-Cycle and the Mahler Symphonies. Successful concert tours, guest performances and engagements as orchestra-in-residence at such festivals as Edinburgh and Lucerne are proof of the international reputation of the Bamberg Symphony and their principal conductor, a success not solely based on the classical and romantic standard repertoire but also on works by Boulez, Berio, Lachenmann and Ligeti.

Undeservedly overshadowed by his two string quartets and piano trios, the small pieces for violin or cello and piano are among the best of their genre from the “Moscow School”, differing mainly by having partly salonesque titles and a more intimate expression. The Quintet in D major Op. 51 (1900) for piano, two violins, viola and cello exemplifies the 40-year-old composer’s mature style, its cyclic elements and formal density heralding a new departure. The priority given to the piano and the variation movement suggest the influence of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor Op. 50.

Regarded as the most all-encompassing clarinettist of recent decades, Eduard Brunner was first clarinet of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra during Rafael Kubelik's tenure, as well as a virtuoso soloist in concertos by composers from Carl Stamitz, Mozart and Spohr to Lachenmann. This passionate chamber musician's partners included Alfred Brendel, Gidon Kremer, Aur�le Nicolet, Gerhard Oppitz and Natalia Gutman. The musical landscape and the repertoire for solo clarinet was enlivened by Italian opera composers. The wonderful melodiousness of bel canto operas is superbly suited to the natureof the clarinet, which can be both lyrical and virtuous.

•The deep theological reasons for participation in sacred music were inherent in boys‘ voices – their purity and innocence suggestive of angelic choirs. The boys choir tradition in medieval cloisters and schools was reinforced after the Reformation, voice training being thought an important component in their personality development.This interpretation of the “Stabat mater” offers an update on the debate about historic performance practice.

The protagonists of this recording - Elisabeth Kulman, Bo Skovhus and Sebastian Weigle - have brilliantly rescued from oblivion a composer whose works have retained their capacity to move us. Hans Sommer's compositions speak a vivid and personal language which, while close to Wagner and Richard Strauss, already points to the orchestral songs of Mahler, Wolf and Berg. Above all, this is sensuous music, thrilling from beginning to end.

•Walter Auer and Karl-Heinz Schütz, both solo flutists of the Vienna Philharmonic, offer a program of virtuoso flute duos originally composed by the 19th century brothers Franz and Karl Doppler.“What can one say about the brothers Doppler’s art, except that it is consummate, combining...purity and clarity, security and agility in all kinds of playing with the most refined, expressive and tasteful delivery, and that it is hard to know what to admire most..." - Neue Wiener Musikzeitung, 1856

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music