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Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante - Violin Concerto No. 5, "Turkish" / I. Pochekin, M. Pochekin, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester

Haenssler Classic

$10.49 ~~$20.99~~ Save 50% Jul 02, 2021

Although Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s first instrument was the piano, even as a child he revealed himself to be a highly gifted violinist. In this domain too he was encouraged by his father Leopold, well-known violin teacher in his own right and author of a violin method widely respected at the time. Even when Wolfgang was already 21, father Leopold reaffirmed his son’s violinistic talent, on 8 October 1777. ‘You don’t realize how good you are on the violin when you put your mind to it, playing with character, conviction and spirit, just as if you were the best violinist in Europe.’ That letter was written in the period between 1773 and 1779, when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed numerous works requiring string soloists. From April to December of 1775 alone, the 19-year-old penned 5 violin concertos, in an unbroken process as it were. At that time Mozart was employed as concertmaster by the archbishop’s court in Salzburg, where instrumental music was highly prized. He had, however, previously got to know the Italian tradition and art of the violin in situ, frequenting students of the famous Giuseppe Tartini there, such as Pietro Nardini and Gaetano Pugnani. On several occasions during his three journeys to Italy, he also met the Bohemian composer Josef Myslivecek, who cultivated the violin concerto genre intensively. Synthesizing the influence of Italian masters with that of Joseph Haydn, Johann Christian Bach and French violinists, Mozart composed his own concertos, which sparkle with vitality but are at the same time both intimate and graceful.

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Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante - Violin Concerto No. 5, "Turkish" / I. Pochekin, M. Pochekin, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester
Haenssler Classic Jul 2021
CD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Bruckner: Early Orchestral Pieces Arr. For Organ / Rudolf Innig

MDG

SACD

$24.99 Sep 04, 2020

Throughout his life, Anton Bruckner was initially highly regarded as an organist. Rudolf Innig demonstrates with a spectacular listening experiment how much the great symphonic composer was also influenced by "his" instrument: Innig transferred early orchestral works by Bruckner to the organ with loving attention to detail. The result: astounding. And equally good. Bruckner was 39 years old when he completed his two-year composition course with Otto Kitzler, ten years younger than him, with some orchestral pieces and a full symphony. The works already show Bruckner's preference for irregular periods, as he also used them in his organ improvisations, and his preference for sequencing rather than complex motivic processing, and the great dynamic developments. Thus the "Three Orchestral Pieces", which use motifs from Beethoven's piano sonatas, among other things, are given the typical Bruckner tone; with a grand gesture, Bruckner avoids the so obvious stylistic copy of the classical model. Extended organ points, also and especially in the G minor overture, do the rest, and in Innig's organ adaptation, the journeyman pieces acquire an astonishingly convincing plausibility. Rudolf Innig chose the Goll organ in the Marktkirche in Hanover for his Bruckner project. The sound of the large four-manual instrument is perfectly adapted to the needs of the 19th century.

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Bruckner: Early Orchestral Pieces Arr. For Organ / Rudolf Innig
MDG Sep 2020
SACD
$24.99

Schwarz-Schilling: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1

Naxos

$19.99 Aug 26, 2008

Inspired by the vast potential of the tonal foundation of music, at a time when many of his contemporaries were embracing the twelve tone ideology, the eminent German composer Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling produced a rich, varied and highly personal body of work.

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Schwarz-Schilling: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1
Naxos Aug 2008
CD
$19.99

Wolf-Ferrari: Die Vier Grobiane / Schirmer, Munich Radio Orchestra

CPO

$36.99 Aug 07, 2020

The conductor Ulf Schirmer has a special knack for the light Muse – as his regular operetta performances with the Munich Radio Orchestra, many of them documented on cpo, have shown over the years. Munich was also the site of the 1906 premiere of Die vier Grobiane / I quatro rusteghi by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, a work answering to the description of a modern comic opera and displaying this composer’s typical combination of marvelously chatty parlando and charming melodicism. There are two sides to the conflict fueling the plot: four curmudgeonly husbands who believe that they can and should exercise absolute rule over their wives and children and female characters who engage in intrigues. The action of the opera is set in Venice and elaborates a source text by Carlo Goldoni (1760). The composer scores his points with a tone of considerable lightness, a small orchestral ensemble entrusted with the presentation of a famous intermezzo, and spirited melodies in part based on folk songs. The wealth of ideas developed in his harmonic scheme remaining within tonal limits is also surprising.

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Wolf-Ferrari: Die Vier Grobiane / Schirmer, Munich Radio Orchestra
CPO Aug 2020
CD
$36.99

Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos. 3 & 4 / Fischer, Kreizberg, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra

PENTATONE

$19.99 Sep 09, 2022

Pentatone re-issues Julia Fischer’s epoch-making Mozart Violin Concertos recordings, starting with her readings of the famous 3rd and 4th concertos, as well as the Adagio in E Major and Rondo in B-flat Major, first released in 2005. Fischer performs them together with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Yakov Kreizberg, with whom she developed a highly congenial partnership. When first released, Gramophone praised these performances as “full of disciplined subtlety and astonishing interpretative maturity.” After many years, this legendary recording now returns to the market in an attractive Stereo version.

REVIEW:

These performances are full of disciplined subtlety and astonishing interpretative maturity. The G major Concerto, K216, is lush and spirited, the traditional-style performance lacking nothing in warmth. The relaxed, cantabile style of her playing in the final movement serves the dancelike nature of Mozart's music.

-- Gramophone (reviewing the 2005 SACD version of this release)

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Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos. 3 & 4 / Fischer, Kreizberg, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra
PENTATONE Sep 2022
CD
$19.99

Kaminsky: Fantasy / Oppens, Cassatt String Quartet, ASU Orchestra

Cedille

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Apr 09, 2021

Pianist Ursula Oppens, stalwart champion of 20th- and 21st-century American music and recipient of multiple Grammy nominations and other honors, celebrates her decades-long friendship and professional association with composer Laura Kaminsky on an album of world-premiere recordings. The program includes two recent works written for the pianist: Kaminsky’s Piano Quintet, performed with the Cassatt String Quartet, “a concise work of considerable substance and atmosphere” (New York Classical Review) and the turbulent Reckoning: Five Miniatures for America for piano four-hands, with pianist Jerome Lowenthal, created expressly for this recording. A large-scale Fantasy for solo piano explores sonorities from French Impressionism to jazz. Oppens gave the New York premiere in 2017.

Kaminsky’s Piano Concerto was inspired by visual images of sunlit rivers in New York City and St. Petersburg, Russia, where Oppens gave the world premiere with the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic led by its artistic director Jeffery Meyer. On this world-premiere recording, Meyer, who is also director of orchestras at Arizona State University, conducts the ASU Symphony Orchestra.

REVIEW:

The solo piano Fantasy is just that, an imaginative fantasia piece that moves in unexpected directions at Kaminsky’s whim. A few hints of jazz rhythm come and go in it as well as a remarkable passage in which the two hands play completely different and opposing lines against each other. Interestingly, this Fantasy is longer than the entire Piano Quintet and only eight seconds shorter than the entire Piano Concerto that ends the disc. More and different permutations follow within that time span, all of them unexpected and interesting. These performances, all first recordings of these works, are all excellent, which helps us to appreciate Kaminsky’s sound world. Highly recommended.

– The Art Music Lounge

Titan of the contemporary keyboard, Ursula Oppens is a rarity among artists living today. She is the stalwart bearer of a mid-century musical torch that apparently burns eternal. How fortunate we are to have such musicians as Oppens still making music with fortitude, passion and tireless faith.

Oppens wields her piano at the album’s centre, steering a varied vessel with consistent skill and surety. Even in brief piano passages, as she peeks out from dense ensemble material, Oppens’ artistry sings unmistakably. The 20-minute solo Fantasy (2010) should be considered a tour de force in and of itself. When it comes to a career such as Oppens’, dedication and staying power carry the day. May she always urge us to listen close and listen well, ever compelling our ears toward the future.

-- The WholeNote

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Kaminsky: Fantasy / Oppens, Cassatt String Quartet, ASU Orchestra
Cedille Apr 2021
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Mozart: Symphony No. 40 - Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 / Nelsons, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig [Blu-ray]

Accentus Music

Blu-Ray

$40.99 ~~$53.99~~ Save 25% Mar 15, 2019

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

The festive series of concerts to celebrate the inauguration of Andris Nelsons and the 275th anniversary of the Gewandhausorchester concluded with a riveting performance of two of music history’s great symphonic works. Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 is one of only two that Mozart wrote in a minor key, which only adds to its singular reception in his canon of symphonies. Tchaikovsky was an admirer of Mozart’s music and paired the premiere of his Sixth Symphony, which he himself conducted, with dances from Mozart’s “Idomeneo”. The “Pathétique” would become his legacy as Tchaikovsky died only a few days after its premiere. Andris Nelsons is Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and is Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. With these positions, and in leading a pioneering alliance between two such esteemed institutions, Grammy Award-winning Nelsons is firmly underlined as one of the most renowned and innovative conductors on the international scene today.

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Mozart: Symphony No. 40 - Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 / Nelsons, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig [Blu-ray]
Accentus Music Mar 2019
Blu-Ray
~~$53.99~~ $40.99

Schwarz-Schilling: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2

Naxos

$13.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 30% May 29, 2012

The so-called 'lost generation' of German composers includes many whose lives were shaped by events after 1933. Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling: Violin Concerto; Partita; Polonaise buy CD music One such was Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling, a composer of strong spiritual depth whose 1953 Violin Concerto was rooted in his wartime experiences. Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling: Violin Concerto; Partita; Polonaise songs Ingeniously constructed, it subtly evokes the influence of Bach, without at all embracing neo-classicism. Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling: Violin Concerto; Partita; Polonaise album for sale Its moving slow movement is followed by a finale that marries virtuosity with dance-like magnetism. Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling: Violin Concerto; Partita; Polonaise CD music The Partita is much admired for its color and vitality, whilst the Polonaise is a lighter work, brimming with high spirits. Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling: Violin Concerto; Partita; Polonaise buy CD music GRAMMY--winner conductor and composer Jose Serebrier is one of today's most recorded classical artists. Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling: Violin Concerto; Partita; Polonaise songs He has received 39 GRAMMY- nominations in recent years. His First Symphony (8.559648) was premiered by Leopold Stokowski (who premiered several of his works) when Serebrier was 17, as a last-minute replacement for the then still unplayable Ives Fourth Symphony.

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Schwarz-Schilling: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2
Naxos May 2012
CD
~~$19.99~~ $13.99

Brahms: Complete Symphonies - A German Requiem / Landshamer, Boesch, Norrington, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR

SWR

$28.99 ~~$37.99~~ Save 25% Sep 10, 2021

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.

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Brahms: Complete Symphonies - A German Requiem / Landshamer, Boesch, Norrington, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR
SWR Sep 2021
CD
~~$37.99~~ $28.99

Mahler/Berio, Strauss: Orchesterlieder / Andreas Schmidt
RCA Feb 2009
CD
$17.99

Franz Ignaz Beck: Symphonies Op. 4, Nos. 4-6 & Op. 3, No. 5

Naxos

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Dec 09, 2014

The court at Manneheim, one of Europe’s great 18th-century musical centers, provided myriad opportunities for creative development. Having absorbed the ideas of his teacher, Johann Stamitz and other luminaries, Beck wrote a series of symphonies notable for their dramatic contrasts, breadth and sweep, the progressive inclusion of the woodwinds and a willingness to explore expressive intensity. His progressive use of woodwind instruments in the Symphony in G major, Op. 4 No. 5 is among the notable developments to be heard in this second recording of Beck symphonies by Marek Štilec and the Czech Chamber Philharmonic.

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Franz Ignaz Beck: Symphonies Op. 4, Nos. 4-6 & Op. 3, No. 5
Naxos Dec 2014
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Bach: Orchestral Works
Haenssler Classic Jun 2016
CD
$20.99

ROMANTISCHE ORCHESTERMUSIK
Berlin Classics Apr 2013
CD
$21.99

LOCATELLI/KO.CPE.BACH
Berlin Classics Jan 2005
CD
$21.99

Berlioz: Concert Overtures / Cambreling, SWR Sinfonieorchester

SWR

$9.99 May 11, 2018

The present release contains Hector Berlioz's complete concert overtures, including the one written for his early opera Les francs-juges, superbly performed by the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg directed by the French conductor Sylvain Cambreling. French composer Hector Berlioz wrote a number of overtures, many of which remain concert staples. They include not only overtures intended to introduce operas, but also independent concert overtures. The album opens with one of the most popular overtures, Waverly, Op. 1. Composed in 1828, it was inspired by Sir Walter Scott’s Waverly novels. Also included are Le Carnaval romain, Op. 9, a standalone overture intended for concert performance made up of material from the opera Benvenuto Cellini, Le Corsaire, Op. 21, and others. This album is part of a new re-release series (Century Classics) consisting of SWR music bestsellers. The series is competitively priced, optically highly attractive and contains acclaimed SWR recordings mostly of the SWR orchestras and their chief conductors.

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Berlioz: Concert Overtures / Cambreling, SWR Sinfonieorchester
SWR May 2018
CD
$9.99

Bartók: The Piano Concertos / Barto, Eschenbach, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

Capriccio

$21.99 Oct 11, 2024

Béla Bartók is one of the unquestionably “great” composers and one of the few modern composers who established themselves in the repertoire. His three piano concertos are central to his biography and musical output, but only the Third, with some generosity, could be considered “popular.” Although well represented on disc, the first two are rare concert program guests. Tzimon Barto sees a problem in an all-too-mechanical approach to these two percussive works: “Even Bartók needs a supple touch. If you bang away at it, without rhythmical buoyancy, of course it will become tedious.” These recordings are his attempt at doing justice to his Bartók-ideal.

REVIEW:

Christoph Eschenbach and Tzimon Barto have a long history of collaboration. Bartók, too, has long been a frequent composer on Eschenbach’s programs.

In these recordings, the two musicians offer very special, unconventional interpretations. They are not interested in motoric coolness, in hard-edged virtuosity, but in a very interesting way they search for moods and a narrative that cannot be found in the many other good interpretations of the Bartók concertos. Not with Zimermann/Boulez, not with Bavouzet/Noseda, not with Kocsis/Fischer, and, going back even further, not with Anda/Fricsay.

Eschenbach and Barto take their time with the music and, with remarkable transparency and many warm colors, create sometimes very mysterious and exciting passages, such as in the slow movement of the first concerto, or a wonderfully atmospheric Allegretto, which, at nine and a half minutes, lasts up to two minutes longer than with other interpreters. Even more astonishing is the greatly extended Adagio religioso, which at nearly 14 minutes is up to four and a half minutes longer than other recordings used for comparison.

All in all, however, this new recording is definitely interesting and worth listening to, because it brings out new aspects and gives Bartók a variety of expression that cannot be found anywhere else.

— Pizzicato

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Bartók: The Piano Concertos / Barto, Eschenbach, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Capriccio Oct 2024
CD
$21.99

Bruckner: Ten Symphonies / Ballot, Altomonte Orchester St. Florian

Gramola Records

$80.99 Nov 17, 2023

Anton Bruckner and Sankt Florian, an incomparable and authentic relationship: In the monastery of Sankt Florian, Bruckner’s home and resting place, not a single stone has changed since Bruckner’s time. Conductor in Residence Rémy Ballot and the Altomonte Orchestra of St. Florian have been using the annual gathering at the St. Florian Brucknertage festival for more than ten years now to devote themselves intensively to a selected Bruckner symphony and to present it to the audience in one or two celebrated concerts. From the live recordings this 10-part cycle was created and in 2023 completed with the recording of the “Nullified Symphony WAB 100” and is now being released as an exclusive complete edition. In the entire history of Bruckner’s reception, this is the only cycle to have been performed live in its entirety by a single conductor – Rémy Ballot – exclusively in Sankt Florian. The acoustics of the St. Florian Abbey Basilica are problematic due to their reverberation time of up to ten seconds, and are only suitable for a few works, as there is a danger of “harmonic mush” if the tempo is too fast and the harmonic changes too rapid as a result. Far from this trap, on the contrary, music is made in alliance with the acoustics in the present recordings. The architectural and acoustic conditions of the basilica require a consciously specific articulation and dynamic shaping. The Altomonte Orchestra, made up of local musicians reinforced by members of the most important Austrian orchestras, is traditionally deeply familiar with these, as well as is the Upper Austrian Youth Symphony Orchestra, which has been performing Symphonies VI and VIII for this edition.

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Bruckner: Ten Symphonies / Ballot, Altomonte Orchester St. Florian
Gramola Records Nov 2023
CD
$80.99

ORCHESTRAL WORKS

MDG

$32.99 Jun 21, 2019

Max Bruch bequeathed three violin concertos to posterity - but only one of them continues to be present in today's concert halls. The composer himself regarded his op. 58 in D minor as much more finely composed than the popular G minor concerto. This benchmark recording by Andreas Krecher and the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra disappeared from the catalogue many years ago, but now the D minor concerto is being re-released in an attractive double box featuring orchestral works by Bruch. Along with it's rarities repertoire, the phenomenal acoustic dimensions of the historic Wuppertal Stadthalle and MDG's legendary natural sound make this double album a musical feast for the ears. "Schon Ellen," a heroic ballad to a text by Emanuel Geibel, was one of the most frequently sung choral works during the nineteenth century. Even though Bruch had no qualms about transferring the action from the Indian colony to the Scottish highlands, the dramatic appeal is absolutely irresistible. The 'Swedish Dances' are a genuine discovery. Bruch unfolds an overpowering widescreen spectacle with a Nordic atmosphere in the two suites; with highly imaginative instrumentations and musical magic he evokes magnificent soundscapes. Bruch's Symphony No. 2 rounds off this program of rarities. In it Schmalfuss presents the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra as an ensemble that produces a big sound and outstandingly captures the slightly melancholy tone of Bruch's music.

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ORCHESTRAL WORKS
MDG Jun 2019
CD
$32.99

Prokofiev: Violin Concertos / Cristian, Pietsch, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

Audite Musikproduktion

$20.99 Nov 03, 2017

Following Sergei Prokofiev's works for violin and piano, Franziska Pietsch now presents an album featuring both Violin Concertos of the Russian composer, with whose oeuvre and idiom the artist - a former promising star of the GDR - has felt at home ever since her youth. Alongside Cristian Macelaru and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin she presents a thrilling new recording. The two violin concertos represent two phases in, and two sides of, Prokofiev's life and work. The first was written during an era of early successes, stylistically and temporally close to his Symphonie classique, but not premiered until he was in exile. The second mirrors the itinerant existence of his life as a musician in exile, but also his longing to return to Russia. Franziska Pietsch, the "Anne-Sophie Mutter of East Germany" (W. Dulisch). From promising star of the GDR with a burgeoning solo career to boycott, via a new beginning, chamber music and leading orchestras, back to being a soloist and enriched by a transformed understanding of her own role: with this recording of the Prokofiev Violin Concertos, Franziska Pietsch has come full circle. Thanks to her intensive engagement with chamber music and her experience as a concertmaster, Franziska Pietsch's performances as a soloist are not only world-class, but also characterised by an exceptional sense of chamber-like intimacy.

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Prokofiev: Violin Concertos / Cristian, Pietsch, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Audite Musikproduktion Nov 2017
CD
$20.99

Hermann Meier - Kammermusik und Orchesterwerke
Musiques Suisses Jan 2010
CD
$20.99

Reger: Orchestral Works / Segerstam, Norrkoping Symphony

BIS

$39.99 Mar 25, 2014

“Everything that is included is substantial… the hugely impressive Symphonic Prologue to a Tragedy is dark, brooding and intricately wrought. It's invaluable to have these works available in such lucid, well-played and committed performances.” – The Guardian (UK)

REGER Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Mozart, op. 132. Symphonic Prolog to a Tragedy, op. 108. Piano Concerto 1. Suite in Olden Style, op. 93. Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Beethoven, op. 86. A Ballet Suite, op. 130. Four Tone Poems after Arnold Böcklin, op. 128 • Leif Segerstam, cond; 1 Love Derwinger (pn); Norrköping SO • BIS 9047 (3 CDs: 203:54)

This new compilation of Leif Segerstam’s Reger recordings, originally issued on three separate CDs in the 1990s, makes an outstanding introduction to the work of a composer still largely known by many classical lovers for his organ music and one song, Maria Wiegenlied. When I reviewed the 2-CD Guild set of historic Reger recordings ( Fanfare 37:6), I said how much I liked the works presented there. I can say much the same thing of this set, despite Segerstam’s penchant for slower tempos, simply because as a composer himself he approaches each work from a structural standpoint and brings out many subtleties.

Surprisingly, only two works are duplicated in the two sets, the Mozart Variations and the Ballet Suite . The Guild collection also included the Lustpielouvertüre, Serenade in G, Romantic Suite, and Eine vaterländische Ouverture. Possibly one may also want to hear Reger’s Violin Concerto, Sinfonietta, and the Variations on a Theme of Hiller, but otherwise, between these two sets, you have the bulk of Reger’s orchestral oeuvre . Early on in life, Reger became infatuated with both Bach and Wagner, and from these twin fonts of Teutonic culture he created remarkably interesting structures in music. And, surprisingly, his music is not only interesting but also fun to listen to, a point I made in regards to the Guild set.

Of the music new to me via this release, I was particularly impressed with the Symphonic Prelude to a Tragedy (which one might describe as a more modern, and more tragic, incarnation of Brahms’s Tragic Overture ), the piano concerto, and the Beethoven Variations and Fugue. My sole complaint of the recordings, and this probably has more to do with the engineering than with Segerstam, is that in quiet passages the music sometimes fades out of earshot. Unless you are listening with your ears very close to the speakers or, on headphones, with the volume turned up high, you will miss some of those softer passages. Other than that, however, I was very pleased overall with Segerstam’s readings. As usual with this conductor, transparency of texture is paramount, often revealing details that go unnoticed in others’ readings, and his subtle plasticity of phrasing keeps the music fluid and moving forward. Thus in a work like the Mozart Variations, one may prefer the more straightforward conducting of Eduard van Beinum in the Guild set, but one will find much more to hear in the Segerstam performance.

I was not particularly impressed by the Suite in Olden Style, which just toodled along and sounded nice but not much else. The Variations on a Theme of Beethoven is based on the last of the op. 119 Bagatelles. He originally wrote it for two pianos, but when preparing the orchestral score he eliminated four of the 12 variations and, according to the notes, changed both the playing order and the arrangement of keys. When he finished this score in August 1915, he had less than a year to live. In this case, I felt that Segerstam’s performance was a bit too airy for my taste, making the music sound less energetic that it might have, but the Ballet Suite came off pretty well. Segerstam’s problem, like the famous criticism of Bruno Walter, is that “when he comes to something beautiful, he melts.”

The liner notes suggest that the reason Reger’s Piano Concerto has failed to gain a place in the standard repertoire is that it is technically demanding but does not allow the soloist to “show off.” I would also suggest that the dark, brooding quality of the music is another reason. Most people like their piano concertos to sound cheerful or dramatic or, if somewhat brooding, then brooding in a Romantic Russian (read: Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninoff) sort of way, neither of which Reger gives us. This is a very complex piece, too, continually evolving yet knitting together its various sections within each movement with consummate mastery. (I would particularly commend this concerto to many modern American composers who write “clever” music that does not develop properly.) Derwinger is a committed interpreter, throwing himself into this complex score with emotional fervor, and Segerstam, too, is particularly dramatic here.

What makes this packaging even more attractive is that BIS is selling the 3-CD box at a special price. I found it listed for $32.75 at Presto Classical and $38.49 at ArkivMusic, an excellent bargain considering BIS’s normal price tag for single discs, which run around $21.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

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Reger: Orchestral Works / Segerstam, Norrkoping Symphony
BIS Mar 2014
CD
$39.99

Bruch: String Quintets & Octet / WDR Sinfonieorchester Chamber Players

Alpha

$20.99 Jun 25, 2021

Max Bruch was eighty years old when, in 1918, he decided to return to the chamber music genre he had frequented in his early years. Stimulated by the violin virtuoso Willy Hess, he composed two string quintets and an octet, monuments to beauty and harmony, at the end of a tumultuous personal life and in the midst of a western world on the brink of collapse. After an album devoted to Beethoven’s chamber music, the Chamber Players of the WDR Sinfonieorchester now tackle one of the last chapters of German Romantic music, with pieces that constitute Bruch’s swansong.

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Bruch: String Quintets & Octet / WDR Sinfonieorchester Chamber Players
Alpha Jun 2021
CD
$20.99

Dohnanyi, Weiner: Works for Orchestra

Capriccio

$21.99 Aug 06, 2021

Ernst von Dohnanyi was one of the most versatile and influential musicians of his time but his works are now seldom played. A gap which Capriccio want to fill now with this fifth recording of his late romantic, sensual music, deeply rooted in the Austro-German classical tradition. An appetizer is the overture of the one-act opera Tanta Simona, which has plenty of that Italian flair to show for that runs through the opera’s plot. After its premiere in 1910, the Suite in F-sharp minor Op.19 became one of the most performed Dohnányi’s works, whereas the American Rhapsody Op.47, which is full of quotations with American folk melodies, was his last orchestral work, first performed in 1954 at Ohio University. Finally his 8 years younger colleague Leó Weiner shows us in his early composition, the Serenade in F minor (1906) apart from the influence of the German and Austrian romantics, typical Hungarian colors and rhythms.

REVIEW:

Ernö Dohnanyi’s one-act comic opera Aunt Simona was premiered in Dresden in 1913. This aunt was once abandoned by her lover. Having become misandrist, she warns the younger generation against any relationships. The overture is already full of melodious inventions and is a pleasing start to this CD, on which the Suite op. 19 is the longest work.

With its variation movement, a scherzo, a romance and a rondo, it is a particularly attractive work, full of beautiful melodies and imaginative orchestral touches. Roberto Paternostro lovingly allows the melodies to blossom, but also sharpens the contrasts, making for an exciting performance overall.

The American Rhapsody, Dohnanyi’s homage to the United States, where he settled in 1949, is based on various American melodies without ultimately sounding truly American. Paternostro does well not to search uselessly for an Americana character, but to make the music simply vital or, for long stretches, with a lot of genuine poetry too.

– Pizzicato

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Dohnanyi, Weiner: Works for Orchestra
Capriccio Aug 2021
CD
$21.99

Beethoven: Triple Concerto - Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 / West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

UNITEL Edition

DVD

$16.49 ~~$32.99~~ Save 50% Jan 15, 2021

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra celebrates its 20th anniversary by giving a concert at the Berlin Philharmonie with world-renowned artists: Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yo-Yo Ma perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto together with Maestro Barenboim and the young musicians. Yo-Yo Ma, who played with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra at their first concert 20 years ago, and Anne-Sophie Mutter, who made her debut with the orchestra only this year, were named as honorary members of the orchestra on the occasion of this event. “It is fascinating to experience how brilliant, concentrated and at the same time relaxed these three world stars make music together and listen to each other. A masterpiece of harmony“ (RBB24). The second part of the concert features Bruckner's 9th Symphony, transcendental music which the composer himself dedicated to “the dear God“. The symphony is unfinished not only because Bruckner died during the process of composition, but especially because it seems to perish in nothingness. The musicians of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra are excellently prepared and play technically and tonal flawlessly. A magic moment.

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Beethoven: Triple Concerto - Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 / West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
UNITEL Edition Jan 2021
DVD
~~$32.99~~ $16.49

Mahler: Orchesterlieder
Analekta Apr 2013
CD
$20.99