For some time, writes viola virtuoso Mathis Rochat in the preface of this new release, he had been thinking to adapt Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Cello Concerto in B-flat Major for his own use. He calls it a "somewhat audacious transcription", but the range of the solo part is well-suited for the viola and can be performed on the instrument with great ease. Which had to be proven first! Indeed, the young Swiss artist lends the "higher-pitched" composition a power of momentum and elasticity from which the already supple, melodious music can only benefit. All the more, since it is a superb "overture" to both of the following works, which Johann Gottlieb Graun, eleven years Bach's senior, had intended for the viola. Sometimes flanked by its little sister, as in the quiet Sturm und Drang C Minor concerto, then alone in sole competition with the string orchestra, this under-appreciated instrument shows in the music of the Berlin Court a wealth of expression that need not hide behind its higher and lower rivals.
Schneider: Three Flute Concertos / Riet, Moesus, Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn
CPO
CD
$18.99Jun 17, 2022
Georg Abraham Schneider was born in Darmstadt in the same year as Beethoven. His musical talent became apparent at a very early age, and after an educational trip to Rheinsberg, he was engaged by Prince Heinrich of Prussia as a horn player for the Rheinsberg Chapel. The composer Schneider is a representative of the spirit of Haydn and Mozart, who wanted to be understood as their preserver. In the reviews, he was attested to compositional skill and a dignified artistry that was committed to the bourgeois taste of the time. Schneider wrote a remarkably large number of compositions for flute, including four flute concertos, about 90 flute duets, and 60 quartets for flute and string trio. The charming, very light-hearted, three-movement Flute Concerto op. 12 is in classical concerto form, and the Mozart model is clearly audible. His Concerto op. 53 conforms to the classical scheme of the instrumental concerto, with ample opportunity for soloist Gaby Pas-Van Riet to display her virtuosity. The work charms with lovely delicate themes that offer the flute every opportunity to explore the instrument's tonal spectrum. In the Concerto op. 63, printed in Leipzig in 1812, the orchestra is augmented with two trumpets and timpani in addition to the double instrumentation of oboes, bassoons and horns. Schneider here demonstrates his ability to orchestrate a concerto well and to use the winds effectively.
Scriabin: Piano Concerto, Etc / Scherbakov, Golovchin, Et Al
Naxos
CD
$19.99Aug 17, 1999
Scriabin seems to be an "in" composer all of a sudden, what with numerous new recordings of his youthful Piano Concerto and late tone poems/symphonies. In the past few months, we've had new recordings by some real "heavyweights", including Boulez and Pletnev on Deutsche Grammophon, Rozdestvensky on Chandos, and Ashkenazy on Decca. This budget-priced production from the composer's compatriots certainly holds its own against all comers. Konstantin Scherbakov plays the concerto with steel and sensitivity in equal measure, and he's particularly successful in knitting together the loose architecture of the outer movements, while at the same time making the filigreed piano writing sound like real Scriabin, rather than Chopin on steroids. The performance of Prometheus is predictably less smooth than the recent Boulez/Chicago, and not as sumptuously recorded. But despite the slower overall tempo, the performance is much more physically exciting and has a naturalness of flow that Boulez doesn't quite match. The couplings, orchestrations of various short piano pieces, are also captivating and unique. In all, the disc is definitely worth a listen, even if you think you've had enough of this music.
Hummel: Piano Concerto Op. 34a, Rondo Brillante Op. 56, Op. 98 / Shelley, London Mozart Players
Chandos
CD
$21.99Jun 01, 2004
"Howard Shelley has made a project of recording Hummel’s eight piano concertos. This C-Major concerto is the composer’s first mature work in this genre, written in 1809—the same year that Beethoven wrote his “Emperor” concerto. There are surface resemblances between the two concertos. In their outer movements, we catch a whiff of the military parade ground (if not the battlefield). The middle movements are long-breathed songs of limpid beauty. Of course, the difference between the two is that Beethoven’s concerto is surprising and innovative, while Hummel’s is (for the most part) safe and rather predictable. Let’s face it, though: aren’t there times when you are relieved by things that are safe and predictable?
The Rondos brilliant date from approximately 1814 and 1822, respectively. Each is just over 16 minutes long. The first one is musique pour les dames, and the second is based on Russian folk material. (Hummel was touring Russia when he wrote it.) If the relatively lengthy C-Major concerto (34:49) is a panoramic canvas, these two works are concertos in miniature—perfectly formed, thoughtfully appointed, and precise... Shelley’s performances, leading the London Mozart Players from the keyboard of a Steinway concert grand, do not attempt to make Hummel into the firebrand that he was not. This is stylish, always genteel playing, reminding us that Hummel was a young protégé of Mozart. Although Hummel’s slow movements sometimes anticipate Chopin, particularly in the decoration of the piano part, that sort of pre-Romantic freedom is not emphasized here. The musicianship overall is small-scaled, but not disappointingly so. Chandos’s engineering is bright, and Derek Carew’s booklet notes are informative."
Dohnanyi: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 / Matiakh, Gulbadamova, German State Philharmonic
Capriccio
CD
$21.99Apr 03, 2020
Ernst von Dohnanyi was one of the most versatile and influential musicians of his time but his stage works, orchestral compositions including symphonies, concerti as well as his numerous chamber music are now seldom played. A gap which Capriccio wants to fill now with this fourth recording of his late romantic, sensual music, deeply rooted in the Austro-German classical tradition. There is nothing in the musical language of these Piano Concertos (rhythm, melody, harmony as well as in the traditional orchestration) which Brahms would have found unfamiliar. With Sofia Gülbadamova, who turned out to be an expert in Dohnanyi’s piano music as she has already released his complete Solo Piano Works (Capriccio C5332), this recording was in good hands, carefully accompanied by Ariane Matiakh who also recorded Dohnanyi’s The Veil of Pierrette some months before (Capriccio C5388).
Mozart composed his violin concertos in 1773 (K 207) and 1775 (K 211, 216, 218 and 219). These five works and the three single movements recorded here have been passed down complete and verified as authentic. The genesis of these works is closely linked to Mozart’s work as Kapellmeister at the Salzburg court, ending with the probably most important kick-out in music history. Mozart scored no solo cadenzas for his violin concertos; in the practice of the time, they were improvised. All the cadenzas on these recordings derive from Baiba Skride. Eivind Aadland writes: “Baiba is such an intuitive player. She has this rare quality of discovering the music as we play. So she never plays exactly the same. There is a wonderful sense of creating, discovering, of going finding new ways.“ Baiba Skride about her new album: “I know that there are so many different and super recordings of Mozart, but I think it is important to enjoy the music you have heard a thousand times and will hear a thousand times more with new eyes and simply allow the music to play.”
Burgmüller: Piano Concerto, Op. 1 & Entr'actes, Op. 17
Carus
CD
$20.99Oct 29, 2013
With this recording Bernius concludes a series featuring Burgmuller's instrumental music. For the astonishingly mature Piano Concerto he was able to engage as a soloist Tobias Koch, the renowned pianoforte specialist. In addition, with the four Entr'actes op. 17 and the Overture op. 5, the recording contains two of Burgmuller's works which are definitely worth discovering. The complete orchestral music of this extraordinary talent is now available on CD, performed on historical instruments.
A new recording of Beethoven masterpieces by a Hungarian pianist acclaimed for her 'intelligence, technical finesse, and innate musicality' (Classics Today). As issued by Brilliant Classics in 2025, a 34CD box of music from Bach to Bartok demonstrated the impressive range of Klara Wurtz's musical affinities, in recordings which span over two decades. According to Rob Cowan in Gramophone, the box testified to a career of consistent excellence in the studio, 'her performances attentive to detail, sprightly and invariably at one with her chosen repertoire'. Such praise amplified the enthusiastic reception accorded to her long-pondered recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, made for Piano Classics, and which was given an Editor's Choice by Gramophone for it's 'selfless commitment and personality, bringing delicacy, drama and architectural splendour to this great music.' In her latest recording, Klara Wurtz turns to equally canonic repertoire by Beethoven: the Third Piano Concerto, the 'Pathetique' and 'Moonlight' Sonatas. This illuminating combination allows the listener to trace Beethoven's development in a concentrated span of three years on the cusp of the 19th century, and specifically through his special feeling for the tragic-heroic key of C minor, which reached it's most celebrated expression in the Fifth Symphony. The slow movement of the 'Pathetique' Sonata has achieved hardly less iconic status in the popular imagination. It's mood of inward contemplation transports the listener to a space inside the mind of the 28-year-old Beethoven, which the outer panels of the sonata further heighten with their high and noble drama. From three years later, the C sharp minor of the 'Moonlight' Sonata further intensifies those contrasts of serenity and struggle with it's sublime opening movement followed by a pair of intricate and fiendishly demanding movements. In 1800 - the year before the 'Moonlight' - Beethoven addressed the legacy of Mozart head-on in the Third Piano Concerto, which takes both it's key and the shape of it's opening motif from the earlier composer's Concerto K491. Klara Wurtz is given attentive and lively support by the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice under their experienced Armenian music director, Vahan Mardirossian.
In 1777, Mozart met the wealthy Ferdinand Dejean, an amateur flautist and retired surgeon of the Dutch East India Company. Dejean commissioned a handful of works from the young composer, who termed them 'some simple, short little concertinos'. Nevertheless, these pieces, which actually demand great virtuosity from the soloist, as well as a sensitivity to tonal nuances, have continued to be popular favourites ever since. A short while later, during his stay in Paris, Mozart wrote a further concerto, this time for a flute-playing aristocrat and his harpist daughter to perform as a duo of soloists - both of them 'admirable musicians' according to Mozart. Unlike Dejean, this noble virtuoso had an up-to-date instrument with eight keys, allowing the flute to reach down to middle C, and to play in the - hitherto impractical - key of C. Supported by A Nocte Temporis, the ensemble that she founded in 2016 with Reinoud Van Mechelen, flautist Anna Besson, now one of the most acclaimed instrumentalists of her generation, has recorded these evergreen works, with solo harpist extraordinaire Clara Izambert joining her in the Concerto for Flute and Harp.
Daniel Barenboim continues his acclaimed Mozart concerto cycle with the Berlin Philharmonic, widely acknowledged among the greatest orchestras in the world. Barenboim, conducting from the piano, achieves an effortless collaboration with the orchestra, establishing himself once again as a premier Mozart interpreter. Barenboim's intricate playing and sensitive interpretation misses no detail of these works, and draws a warm and vigorous response from the Berliners.
