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Johann Gottlieb Graun, Carl Heinrich Graun: Trios For Violin Or Viola & Clavier
CPO · Jun 2013CD$18.99 -
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WELL-TEMPERED GUITARS: 24 PREL
Bentzon: The Tempered Piano / Salo
During his own lifetime, Niels Viggo Bentzon (1919-2000) became the very symbol of modern music in Denmark. An unstoppable creative force which, right from his breakthrough in the early 1940s, was in a category of his own, Per Salo, the pre-eminent Danish interpreter of Bentzon, here turns to Bentzon’s huge-scale piano cycle The Tempered Piano, with a personal compilation of preludes and fugues from the many volumes that Bentzon wrote with direct inspiration from Bach. Riotous digressions, musical worlds of unbridled fantasy, loosely constructed blowholes – everywhere Bentzon broke new ground – ground far from the golden mean.
Reger: Organ Works, Vol. 8 / Weinberger
Our successful Reger edition can finally continue, and critics continue to be more than enthusiastic about the previous installments, Musik & Theater even claiming, "These recordings are among the best currently available in organ music by Reger." And now the penultimate volume No. 8. The focus is on Reger's op. 67. In May 1901, Reger informed Straube of his intention to "write 30 chorale preludes to the best-known chorales." Over time, the project grew to 52 preludes. In the letter of October 22, 1902 to the publishing house Lauterbach & Kuhn in Leipzig, Reger wrote with regard to the collection Zweiundfünfzig leicht ausführbare Vorspiele zu den gebräuchlichsten evangelischen Chorälen op. 67 that he could "probably say without arrogance that no such collection has been published since J. S. Bach." In fact, Reger is to be agreed here without any reservations: Reger's op. 67 was a work that can be compared to Bach's "Orgelbüchlein" in terms of content as well as scope and pedagogical intention.
Liszt: Complete Organ Works, Vol. 1 / Ferjencikova
A surprise comes right at the beginning when Ferjencíková presents the famous Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H in the very rarely performed original version premiered by the Liszt pupil Alexander Winterberger at the Merseburg Cathedral in 1856. Fifteen years later Liszt smoothed out the harsh juxtaposition between massive chords and brilliant virtuosity in favor of filigree detail – one more reason to listen with special attention to the rarity recorded here.
Another heavyweight concludes this first SACD: the Introduction, Fugue, and Magnificat from the Symphony on Dante’s Divina Commedia display Liszt’s great compositional mastery. The three realms of the otherworld, which also can be interpreted as an allegory of human striving in general, are closely interrelated motivically and culminate in dazzling magnificence of sound. Ferjencíková registers the funeral song of chorale character after the opening recitative with Mooser’s famous Voix humaine, for which this master of Early Romantic organ design had a special swell box constructed.
Ferjencíková’s program selections demonstrate just how broad Liszt’s interest was in the music of his contemporaries and earlier generations. Here we find transcriptions ranging from Bach to Otto Nicolai and – as a special treat and two-for-one bonus – a Regina coeli laetare by Orlando di Lasso. It is presented twice – and the second time around on the historic Manderscheidt organ from the seventeenth century.
J.S. Bach: Trio Sonatas BWV 525-530 / Tomadin
Highpoints of virtuosity in Bach’s output and the Baroque organ repertoire, in new recordings by an organist with a rich catalogue of success on Brilliant Classics to his credit. As well as a host of obscure composers, Manuel Tomadin has recorded many central figures in the organ repertoire, from Buxtehude to Rheinberger. His Bach discography includes the Leipziger Choräle, BWV 651-667 (94556) and an original ‘Harmonic Seasons’ album (95786) pairing preludes and fugues with chorales that tell a story of rebirth and quiescence through the four seasons. For his latest album, he turns to undisputed highlights of the repertoire: the collection of six sonatas in three parts which Bach compiled in the late 1720s. By then he had settled into his post as Capellmeister in Leipzig, and with this set of works was evidently aiming to leave his contribution to the already rich literature of trio sonatas which had originated some decades earlier in Italy and subsequently spread across Europe, as a means of crossing sacred and secular divides with music conceived for performance by either a single keyboard player or a chamber group of musicians Being Bach, however, he determined to produce not merely another volume in the library. While he drew the material for the trio sonatas from earlier pieces, he refined and adapted them with all the ingenuity and harmonic invention at his disposal, making the finished set among the most demanding pieces ever written for the organ, then or now. The trio sonatas are accordingly often performed by a trio of chamber musicians, but there is a special freshness and virtuosity to be savoured when they are played, as here and as originally intended, by a single organist. As Manuel Tomadin notes in his valuable booklet introduction, the six sonatas run the gamut of expressive feeling, from a gravity of pathos in the central Largo of the C minor Sonata No.2 to the irrepressible joy of the finale to the C major No.5. He has made these new recordings on an instrument with an excellent Bachian pedigree: the Bosch/Schnitger organ (1686/1720) of the Hervormde church in the Dutch town of Vollenhove, and the booklet includes a full specification for the instrument.
Brahms: Complete Organ Works / Robert Parkins
Robert Parkins hits the nail absolutely on the head. He paces each one perfectly, the second "Herzlich tut mich verlangen (No. 9) seems almost to float on air while "0 Welt, ich muss dich lassen" (No. 3) avoids any hint of self-indulgence in its heartfelt statement of impending death, Of course this excellent instrument helps. Registrations have to be subtle rather than obtrusive with a strong bias towards unadorned eight-foot tone. Parkins chooses his stops with care and sensitivity—the gentle caressing of a Tremulant throughout "Schmiicke dich, o liebe Seele" (No. 5) transforms a pleasant sound into a ravishing one.
The whole disc (the four early works fare equally well) is a significant addition to the recorded literature of both the organ and Brahms.
-- Gramophone [12/1994]
Lachner: Complete Organ Works / Innig
Spanning the greater part of the 19th century, Franz Lachner could count Schubert’s Viennese circle as friends, met Beethoven, and as a conductor he performed and promoted Wagner’s operas. His connection with the organ would have begun as a child, with music lessons from his father Anton, who was church organist in Rain am Lech. It was however late in life that he embarked on his trilogy of organ sonatas, modelling these pieces to a certain extent on the examples of Felix Mendelssohn, whose six organ sonatas Op.65 had been published in 1845.
Rudolf Innig however, in his own detailed and informative booklet notes, points out the differences between Lachner and Mendelssohn. The stately ‘predilection for elegiac-melancholy movements in moderated tempos’ recalling more often the piano music of Schubert, even though the harmonic language is in no way as experimental or far-reaching. There is a deal of enharmonic shifting and modulatory exploration, but rarely with a huge ‘wow’ factor or element of surprise. More ambitious in structure than the Sonata Op.175 is the Sonata Op.176, whose second and third movements are fused to form a ‘Fantasia with Fugue’, something which would be adopted by Lachner’s pupil Joseph Rheinberger. There are some dramatic gestures and a more searching air of chromaticism in this Fantasia, but there remains a reluctance to part with that sustained, rather religious feel, and one feels that perhaps a little more bravura might be welcome by this point. The music is beautifully crafted however, and one can easily revel in this lambent glow of warmly expressive organ sounds.
This is a good point at which to describe the organ used for this recording. Built in 1911, the instrument preserves the ideal organ sound as sought from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th, reflecting that warmly romantic sound for which Eberhard Friedrich Walcker (1794-1872) received just recognition. This is combined with a large sixteen stop swell, which gives just enough added weight and expressive potential to approach something akin to French symphonic models. Franz Lachner’s organ works demand considerable dynamic variety, and this instrument is a very good choice – not bowling the listener over with sonic fireworks, but carrying the composer’s detailed intentions with elegance and appropriate seriousness.
The third Sonata Op.177 is the shortest of the three, but by no means the lightest in musical content. A funereal opening Adagio sets the tone, and with each movement having a thematic or character relationship, this sonata has quite an organic feel, leading up to a final Andante whose ten variations lead up to the closest one gets to an apotheosis in these works. The additional variety of preludes and fugues on this CD are technically interesting and highly effective, without being works which are likely to shake your world to its foundations.
This is an enjoyable disc of works otherwise unavailable on recordings as far as I have been able to discover. MDG’s recording is very good indeed as usual, and while there might be those who might ask a little more lightness of touch from Rudolf Innig it would be hard to point to many places where the player has the opportunity for such frivolity. There is a nice added touch in the final repeat performance of the Fugue in E minor, but this time without the electric motor – the bellows being blown by hand. Speaking from experience, this is a harder job than it might sound: one has to be prepared for the extra ‘oomph’ required by denser passages, and it is a precarious balance sometimes between glorious teamwork and the whole thing collapsing like a dying set of bagpipes – something from which, for that evening at least, neither the player, the pumper or the audience are likely ever to recover.
Franz Lachner is a composer whose star is might possibly be on the rise - comparatively, with a recent release of his Requiem also to be found in the current catalogues. On the strength of this release there is certainly a good deal of pleasant music to be found from this direction, albeit not music which is likely to alter our perceptions of 19th century creativity to any huge extent.
-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International
Alfred Schnittke: Piano Music, Vol. 1
Andrea Gabrieli: Keyboard Music / Glen Wilson
Some of the most important forms of keyboard music have their origin in the 16th century, in particular the prelude, the toccata and the fugue. In Italy, in the mid-16th century, crucial developments in keyboard composing took place. Among the composers who were responsible for the evolution of keyboard music was Andrea Gabrieli. For that reason a disc which is completely devoted to his keyboard oeuvre is of great importance. It also sheds light on a part of Gabrieli's oeuvre which is not that well-known.
Andrea Gabrieli was born in Venice and was educated as an organist. In 1557 he applied for the position of organist of San Marco, as the successor to Girolamo Parabosco. He failed, and Claudio Merulo was appointed, who would then develop into one of the main musical personalities in Venice in the next 25 years. In the early 1560s Gabrieli came into contact with Orlandus Lassus. In 1562 Lassus' employer, Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria, went to Frankfurt to attend the coronation of Emperor Maximilian II. In his retinue were both Lassus and Gabrieli. But his heart apparently was in Venice. In 1566 he was appointed as organist of San Marco - alongside Merulo - and he resisted an attempt by Lassus to make him return to Bavaria to enter the service of Duke Albrecht. Little is known about him as a person, but in his liner-notes Glen Wilson includes a quotation which suggests Gabrieli was a demanding teacher.
This disc presents a survey of the various genres in vogue at the time. It doesn't include all genres to which Gabrieli contributed. Wilson has omitted that part of his oeuvre intended for the organ. Therefore the Intonazioni which were to be played before a vocal piece, indicating the pitch to the singers, are missing. Instead we get two preludes here, which also can be played at the organ. This kind of piece was originally improvised, and it doesn't surprise me that they were mostly not printed. That’s certainly thre case with the two played here which have both come down to us in manuscript. The other free form with improvisational origins is the toccata. Venice was the main centre of toccata writing, and Gabrieli played an important role in the development of this form. The two toccatas on this disc are in three contrasting sections.
The toccata has roots in the ricercar, one of the main forms of keyboard music at the time. Two types of ricercar are known in music history, the imitative and the non-imitative. The former is the kind of ricercar used in Italy and developed by Gabrieli into a piece on a single theme. In addition he deployed various techniques which were to become a standard part of the fugue in the baroque era, like inversion and diminution. Gabrieli also wrote ricercars on vocal subjects. The Ricercar sopra Pour ung plaisir is an example; it is based on a chanson by Thomas Crecquillon. Here he only uses themes from this chanson, unlike in the canzonas on vocal models, like the Canzona Frais et gaillard, again on a chanson by Crecquillon. In this the upper voice of the vocal original is treated according to the diminution technique which was so popular in Italy. Part of it involves the breaking up of the longer notes in fast passages and the addition of ornaments. The madrigals Anchor che col partire by Cipriano de Rore and Io mi son giovinetta by Domenico Ferrabosco are treated the same way. Lastly Wilson plays two independent pieces, the Ricercar arioso and the Canzon ariosa which may have a vocal character but are not based on vocal models.
The interest of this programme lies in the range of forms on display here. Moreover Wilson has ordered the pieces in such a way that there is a maximum of variety. That is also due to the alternating use of two different instruments. Most pieces are performed on a harpsichord, but it is nice to hear a spinet as well, which was a common instrument but is not often used in recordings. Both instruments are built after Venetian models of the 16th century. "Their soft iron single-stringing produces a more vocal sound than that usually associated with later types of Italian harpsichords", Glen Wilson states.
And he is right: the sound of the instruments suits the music very well. He is also an excellent guide through Gabrieli's oeuvre, and brings out the idiosyncracies of his music convincingly. He plays brilliantly but never in an exhibitionist way. The tempi are well-chosen, and the counterpoint is allowed to blossom.
Nobody interested in early keyboard music should miss this disc.
-- Johan van Veen, MusicWeb International
Pachelbel: Organ Works, Vol. 3
Bagatelles & Variations
Masaaki Suzuki plays Bach Organ Works, Vol. 2
Before releasing his first disc of Bach’s organ works, Masaaki Suzuki had recorded the composer’s complete sacred cantatas, as well as the large-scale choral works and much of the music for harpsichord. His achievements in these fields obscured the fact that Suzuki originally trained as an organist, and began working as such already at the age of twelve. So when Volume 1 of this series reached reviewers around the world, it was something of a revelation to many: the disc went on to be named Choice of the Month in BBC Music Magazine, Diapason d’Or in Diapason and Recording of the Month in Gramophone, which then went on to include it on its list of the ‘50 Greatest Bach Recordings’.
Volume 1 featured the celebrated Schnitger/Hinz organ of Groningen’s Martinikerk in the Netherlands. For this present instalment, Suzuki returned to more familiar ground – the chapel of the Kobe Shoin Women's University where the great majority of his recordings with Bach Collegium Japan have taken place. The chapel houses a French classical organ built in 1983 by Marc Garnier, and on it Suzuki performs a highly symmetrical programme with the large-scale chorale partita BWV 768 at its centre. The work is known as ‘Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig’, although the chorale text that it is structured upon most probably is that of ‘O Jesu, du edle Gabe’. On either side the partita is flanked by an arrangement by Bach of concertos by Vivaldi, and a chorale prelude on ‘Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier’. The disc opens and closes with a Prelude and Fugue, in G major and C major respectively.
-----
REVIEWS:
Suzuki makes extremely savvy use of his resources; the instrument's almost chamber-music-like clarity and intimacy of the results is most enjoyable. The recorded sound is unusually crisp and clear. Strongly and enthusiastically recommended.
– Fanfare
The life, vitality, affection and fun Suzuki brings to them will ensure they have a lasting place in the annals of Bach organ recordings.
– MusicWeb International
The remarkable harpsichordist/organist/conductor Masaaki Suzuki continues his recordings for BIS with this SACD of organ music of Bach played on the Marc Garnier organ of Shoin Chapel in Kobe, Japan. This is not a large cathedral organ. You won’t hear massive pedal notes, but these are excellent performances, beautifully and naturally recorded.
– Classical CD Review
Johann Gottlieb Graun, Carl Heinrich Graun: Trios For Violin Or Viola & Clavier
GRAUN Trios for Violin/Viola and Clavier: in A, GrWV C:XV:90 ; in B?, GrWV A:XV:16 ; in A, GrWV A:XV:13 ; in b, GrWV C:XV:92 • Les Amis de Philippe • CPO 777 633 (68:24)
One will probably notice in the title that I have not been specific as to which of the prolific Graun brother, Carl Heinrich or Johann Gottlieb, wrote these pieces. To make matters more complex, these works are part of a collection of chamber works found in a Dresden manuscript that has “trios” in the title, but these four works are in reality duo sonatas for either violin or viola and obbligato keyboard, here performed by conductor Ludger Rémy on the fortepiano. In untangling this Gordian knot, one should note that these works were originally trios (hence the retention of the designation), since what one presumes was their original form exists in other sources. As to who wrote them, the situation is even murkier (although there are of course only two possibilities, with a 50-50 chance of being correct), as the styles in these works are reflective of both men. My personal choice would be Johann Gottlieb Graun, based simply upon the fact that he favored the violin and viola in both concertante and solo works, but this is only the most cursory of guesses on my part based upon my own bias, and the third work, the second one in A Major, opens with a long keyboard introduction and a rather more virtuoso violin part that is quite reminiscent of Johann Quantz, and so I might be tempted to assign this one to Carl Heinrich.
Be all of this as it may, there is no doubt that the music represents solid compositional technique. For the most part, the bulk of the harmony is carried by the keyboard, while the violin (and viola) rarely traverse their ranges with the usual virtuoso leaps and bounds. The composer keeps his violin/viola in a solid middle range, opting for contrast and depth rather than display. Three of the four works are arranged in an old-fashioned order, with a slow movement followed by two faster ones, the last usually some sort of dance tempo derivative. There are emotional depths to be plumbed here, especially in the haunting fragmented theme of the second A-Major Trio, or the long, lyrical lines of the first movement of the B?-Trio. The composer can also be strict, as in the second movement fugue of the B-Minor Trio, which contrasts in its severity with the mysterious lament of the opening movement. There is more than a bit of C. P. E. Bach in the figuration of the third movement of the first A-Major Trio, with its neat vacillation between duplets and triplets in both parts. Both instruments in each trio are used as equal partners, and in the second movement of the first A-Major Trio, as well as the nice parallel thirds in sequence in the second trio in the same key, the sonorities are calculated to match, rather than being contrasting. These are the types of works that any reputable chamber musician of the time would find a delight to play, as players must cooperate intimately to make them work, and at the same time would be pleasing to the ears of their knowledgeable audiences.
Les amis de Philippe is conductor Ludger Rémy’s group of people whom he gathers around himself to perform such chamber works. Here, he uses violinist Anne Schumann and violist Eva Salonen, both of whom use a similar tone that is fairly rich and dark. This blends nicely with the softer sounds of the fortepiano, a choice made by Rémy that lends these works a slightly more modern (read, Classical era) interpretation. One might suggest that a harpsichord might have been more “authentic,” but I find that the textures speak better with the fortepiano. The original sources, of course, are generic, and there is nothing that would argue against Rémy’s choice. The only bobble I can detect is when Schumann’s violin enters into some of the upper registers; here there is an occasional scratch and squeal, which would probably be unremarkable had not Graun chosen to set most of the music for the violin/viola in the lower and middle portions of their range.
In short these trio arrangements function quite well on their own, and indeed demonstrate that whichever of the brothers wrote them was quite cognizant of how the music could unfold. These performances too render this disc a good addition to any collection of 18th-century chamber music. The playing is excellent and the musicality of the works shows that they are not just museum reference pieces, but real flesh and blood contributions to the sensitive style of the period. Recommended.
FANFARE: Bertil van Boer
Bach: Clavier-Ubung III
Cantilena Anglica Fortunae
Franck: Complete Organ Works / Hans-Eberhard Roß
FRANCK COMPLETE ORGAN WORKS • Hans-Eberhard Roß (org) • AUDITE 21413 (6 CDs: 411:46)
When it comes to the organ, I think it’s safe to say that César Franck is the most important composer since Bach, and here we have a survey of Franck’s organ music so complete that it would take an entire page to list the entire contents of these six discs in standard Fanfare headnote format. In fact, there’s not another collection in existence this complete—not Jean Guillou’s, Marie-Claire Alain’s, Anthony Newman’s, or anyone else’s—since whole discs full of items here are flagged as being premiere recordings, premiere recordings for organ, premiere complete recordings, or premiere complete recordings for organ. So, I have decided to describe the set’s contents on a disc-by-disc basis. Let me forewarn the reader, though, that this is a release dedicated to the doggedly determined among lovers of organ music in general and Franck’s organ music in particular.
Organist Hans-Eberhard Roß performs all 142 pieces on a single instrument, the Goll organ at St. Martin’s Church in Memmingen, Germany. I haven’t been able to find any detailed information on the organ builder, but the enclosed booklet gives the following specifications for the organ: built in 1998, it has four manuals plus pedal, controlling 62 registers. The recordings were made between 2004 and 2005 and were originally released in three two-disc sets in SACD. The boxed-up, six-disc set that came to me for review was on standard, two-channel CDs.
One criticism I will lodge about the presentation is this: the track listings for every piece give the date it was composed, the date it was published, and which of nine editions Roß uses. This last bit of information about the editions may be of interest to the musicologist or scholar studying Franck’s organ works, but more interesting to the general listener, I think, would have been a concordance of stops and registrations used for each piece, something I’ve seen in the notes to other organ recordings, and something that ought, I think, to be material to an undertaking of this seriousness.
Disc 1 starts off with a first-time recording of Pièce en mi bémol ; i.e., Piece in E?. Of course, you’d have to listen to it to know if it was major or minor, but I’ll save you the effort. It’s more or less both, opening with a chord progression that eerily anticipates the ear-curling pronouncement at the beginning of Poulenc’s Organ Concerto. This is followed by another early work, Pièce pour Grand Orgue . It’s not asterisked as a premiere recording but is nonetheless absent from current listings except for this version. Several more early works fill the first disc, all dating from between 1854 and 1856. There are five pieces by Franck originally written for harmonium and transcribed for organ by Louis Vierne, and this is their first time on record. Also a first on record is a first version of a Fantaisie in C Major. Its second version, apparently not a first on record, is also included on the disc. Roß, himself, has transcribed the harmonium piece, Quasi Marcia , op. 22, and plays it here for the first time on organ.
If it’s mainly a CD of Franck’s big organ hits you want, you would be happy with just disc 2. They’re all there in one place: the Fantaisie in C Major, op. 16, the Grand Pièce Symphonique , op. 17, the Prélude, Fugue, et Variation , op. 18, the Pastorale , op. 19, Prière , op. 20, and Final, op. 21.
Disc 3 contains no fewer than 39 short pieces collected under the heading of Posthumous Pieces for Harmonium or Organ with Pedal for L’Office Ordinaire . This spills over onto disc 4, which contains another seven pieces that are part of the same collection. The fourth disc is then filled out by Three Pieces for Grand Organ , a Petit Offertoire , and an Untitled piece, that last two of which were both originally for harmonium. The entire contents of discs 3 and 4, with the exception of the Three Pieces for Grand Organ , are flagged with three asterisks (***), referencing the fact that they are heard here for the first time complete on organ.
Disc 5 and almost all of disc 6 are occupied by Franck’s answer to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier , the sets of Pieces for Organ or Harmonium. The number seven must have held some mystical significance for Franck because there are nine sets of these pieces, each containing seven numbers, beginning with 7 Pieces in C Major and C Minor , progressing to 7 Pieces in D?-Major and C?-Minor , then to 7 Pieces in D Major and D Minor , which he subtitles, Pour le temps de Noël , and so on. The cycle stops after the 7 Pieces in A?-Major and G?-Minor , leaving the keys of A, B?, and B unexplored. There’s nothing mysterious or supernatural about the reason; Franck died before he was able to finish the project. The entirety of the Pieces for Organ or Harmonium is also thrice asterisked, meaning this is its first complete recording on organ. The final disc in the set concludes with the 3 Chorales for Grand Organ.
At first, I was a bit skeptical of how Franck’s organ music would sound on a modern, German-built instrument. It’s difficult to disassociate these works from the Cavaillé-Coll organs that inspired them. Much of this music, in fact, was composed during Franck’s tenure as organist and maître de chapelle at Sainte-Clotilde between 1858 and 1872. Of the three-manual plus pedal Cavaillé-Coll organ installed in the church, Franck is quoted as saying, “If you only knew how I love this instrument . . . it is so supple beneath my fingers and so obedient to all my thoughts.”
Concluding the 63-page booklet note by Martin Weyer (translated by Viola Scheffel) is a lengthy apologia in defense of playing these works on a Goll organ. The author twists himself in knots talking about the historical period-instrument movement and then tries to turn the argument on its head by explaining why this modern Goll instrument is an appropriate substitute for a Cavaillé-Coll organ and Franck’s music. “Upon hearing the instrument,” Weyer contends, “one will discover a lot of similarities to the sort of instrument that Franck found inspiring.” One could counter that many an organist has recorded Franck’s organ works on authentic Cavaillé-Coll instruments, and that if organist Hans-Eberhard Roß had betaken himself to France to make these recordings, he could have done likewise. But, as far as I’m concerned, the point is irrelevant. Roß is a consummately accomplished player who uses the richly variegated palette of the Goll organ to paint Franck’s pieces in an amazing array of tonal color combinations both bright and subtle, and the acoustic of Memmingen’s St. Martin church, perfectly captured by Audite’s engineers, is ideal. Franck and Cavaillé-Coll are nodding their heads in approval.
FANFARE: Jerry Dubins
Gardner: Complete Organ Music, Vol. 1 / Winpenny
The music of the English composer John Gardner (1917–2011) – basically tonal and always impeccably crafted – is characterised by rhythmic vivacity and harmonic immediacy. His musical fingerprints come from his love of jazz, Renaissance and Baroque procedures and his mastery of imitative counterpoint; his use of established musical forms invests them with a quirky and distinctive harmonic idiom. This first album of two collecting his entire output of organ music presents not only his sly humour but also the staggering contrapuntal craftsmanship of his fugue on a theme by Anton Bruckner – one of the monuments of recent British writing for the organ.
Gulda: Sinfonie in G - Heidelberger Hazztage 1971
Gulda's “Symphony in G“, presented on this album, was discovered in the SWR archive in the course of research for the release of all the recordings the Austrian pianist made for the German Southwest Broadcasting Corporation (SWR). Until now nobody actually knew that this work existed for there are no indications of Gulda being commissioned or of a specific occasion for which he might have composed this symphony. Therefore, one listens here to the world première of a piece which – apart from being recorded in the studio on 20 November 1970 – has never been performed in public. At the beginning of the 1970s Gulda gave concerts that exclusively featured his own compositions. This also applies to his performance at the Heidelberger Jazztage in 1971, released here for the first time digitally and on album. Almost all of Gulda's jazz works, though often based on classical forms, cannot be played without knowledge of improvisation so as to “keep them away from bunglers” (as the pianist himself put it). One of Gulda’s few compositions without improvisation to be heard here is No. IV from the ten-part piano cycle “Play Piano Play”. “Prelude and Fugue" was probably Gulda’s favourite work and was the last piece of Gulda’s performance in Heidelberg. An exception on this album is Fritz Pauer's "Etude.” In 1966 Fritz Pauer won a prize in the jazz competition Gulda had initiated and so Gulda decided to include this work in the Heidelberg concert from 1971.
Moszkowski: Orchestral Music, Vol. 3 / Hobson, Sinfonia Varsovia
DEDICATIONS
Bach, Chopin, Schumann: Tracing Bach / Tal
| Even during Bach's lifetime, the Well-Tempered Clavier enjoyed a legendary reputation, both among Bach's students and among connoisseurs and aficionados, and that has not changed to this day. The two-part cycle of 24 preludes and fugues each through all major and minor keys was composed almost 300 years ago and we are still amazed of the rich fund of forms and expressions. What tremendous radiance emanated from this cosmos in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries is demonstrated on the new solo album by pianist Yaara Tal. Yaara Tal selected ten fugues from different composers through 250 years of musical history and placed each of them alongside a prelude from the Well-Tempered Clavier. The selected fugues are by composers such as Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710–1784), Robert Schumann (1810–1856), Fréderic Chopin (1810–1849), Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837), the French brothers Charles Valentin (1813–1888) & Napoléon Alkan (1826–1906), the Russian composer Anton Arensky (1861–1910) and contemporary composer Reinhard Febel (*1952). The connecting points are as manifold as the fugues themselves; they enter into a fascinating dialogue with Bach. "The Bach prelude and the fugue, which may have come into the world 70 or 100 years later, complement each other beautifully and coherently, illuminating each other in a new and refreshing way," explains Yaara Tal. Several pieces on the album are world premiere recordings, including “Tempus fugit” by Reinhard Febel, which is composed for this particular project of Yaara Tal. With “Tracing Bach”, Yaara Tal creates ten new "Preludes & Fugues" pairs, a fascinating kaleidoscope of intertextual connections. |
Bach: Das Wohltemperierte Akkordeon / Miki
Pachelbel: Complete Keyboard Music / Stella
During his lifetime, Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706) was best known as an organ composer. He wrote more than two hundred pieces for the instrument, both liturgical and secular, and explored most of the genres that existed at the time. He is considered to be the apex of the 17th century’s south German organ school and generally one of the most important composers of the middle Baroque. His sphere of activity included central and southern Germany (modern Bavaria, Thuringia and Stuttgart), as well as important formative years in Vienna in his early 20s, during which he absorbed the Habsburg Empire’s dominant Italian and south German influences. The southern organ-builders’ emphasis on manual divisions is also apparent in much of Pachelbel’s liturgical organ music, which is relatively simple and written for manuals only. With this 13-disc set covering Pachelbel’s pivotal contributions to the chorale prelude, fugue and variation forms, internationally acclaimed organist Simone Stella adds another milestone to his already prolific discography of baroque keyboard music surveys on Brilliant Classics.
REVIEW:
The organ used here has much greater possibilities in variety of tonal colors, and Stella uses it to fine effect in the many fugues and chorale variations – and, it must be said, the music is in need of it. Pachelbel’s technique for toccatas is also consistent; based on pedal notes, the keyboard figurations of parallel 3rds, 6ths and 10ths predominate. Although not difficult to improvise, Pachelbel is always surprising in his modulatory shifts and textural changes.
-- Choir & Organ
Martini: Complete Organ Music / Tomadin
Giovanni Battista Martini (1706-1784) was born in Bologna, in that era part of the Papal States. His father, Antonio Maria Martini, a violinist, taught him the elements of music and the violin and he later learned singing and harpsichord playing and the art of counterpoint from Giacomo Antonio Perti. Having received his education in classics from the priests of the "Congregation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri”, he became a priest himself in 1722. In 1725, though only nineteen years old, he received the appointment of chapel-master at the Basilica of San Francesco in Bologna, where his compositions attracted attention. At the invitation of amateurs and professional friends he opened a school of composition at which several celebrated musicians were trained; as a teacher he consistently declared his preference for the traditions of the old Roman school of composition. Martini was a zealous collector of musical literature, and possessed an extensive musical library, estimated at 17,000 volumes. Among his many students was…Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who held him in high regard and always spoke fondly of him. “Padre” Martini, as he was called, wrote an immense oeuvre of more than 2500 works, many of them sacred vocal works. His keyboard works include more than 100 sonatas.
This new recording presents the complete organ works of Martini, consisting mainly of Sonatas, but also shorter pieces like fugues, toccatas and preludes. In his earlier works Martini adopted the style of his illustrious predecessors, the masters of Baroque counterpoint, later he wrote in a less learned, more elegant and “pleasant” style, according to the demands of his audience. Played on a variety of historic Italian organs from the 18th century by Manuel Tomadin, one of the foremost Italian organists of today, a scholar and passionate musician, with an impressive discography to his name.
REVIEW:
Scholar, bibliophile, musicologist, teacher, composer: the life of Giovanni Battista Martini was divided between faith and scores. After brilliant studies, he was admitted to orders at the Monastery of San Francesco in his native Bologna. He became chapel master at just nineteen years old. It was from there that he corresponded with luminaries of the time, where he taught for five decades without asking for remuneration, to students from all over Europe. A certain W.A. Mozart took lessons (a CD by Stefano Molardi from Divox paid tribute to this meeting). A selfless, affable, modest person - revered as such. And prolific: sacred music of course, but also symphonies, and numerous keyboard pages.
Until now, however, the discography had not panicked around the organ work of Padre Martini, sporadically included in the 18th century anthologies of gallant style. Few albums are entirely dedicated to him...As in his box sets covering works by Johann Ludwig Krebs, Hans Leo Hassler and Christian Erbach on the same label, Manuel Tomadin sees broad and dares long-distance running, total immersion: nothing less than an announced complete works edition, here a dozen hours on the clock; a treasure hunt. We do not know according to what criteria the works were distributed over the nine discs, but the fact remains that the allocation optimizes the timings (78'47, 75'15, 77'42, 79'32, 77'41 , 79'09, 75'23, 78'36, 75'41).
The two large collections of sonatas [Op. 2 and Op. 3] are there, except that the fifth of opus 3, dedicated to the harpsichord, does not appear...The rest provides a harvest of sweet Sonata sui flauti, Toccatas, Elevazioni, (simili) solemn Pieni, but also liturgical contributions...
...the exhaustive discovery turns out to be addictive...The recipes never tire (we salute here a certain genius for loquacity), the delicacies are renewed, especially as Manuel Tomadin chooses the registrations masterfully. Another incentive for immoderation in listening: the box set alternates locations from one disc to another. No less than nine historic organs from Northern Italy, including five by Gabriel Callido, all built at the end of the settecento except that of Val di Zoldo (1812, the last of this maker), and the Pescetti of Polcenigo, a bit earlier (1732). The distinguished plenitude of the Principals, the enchanting Flutes, the luscious basses, the verbose reeds which take us to the theater: we swoon, especially when the sound recordings flatter the ear like this.
...the desire for completeness did not compromise the care of the production, carried out over only sixteen months. Manuel Tomadin, who is known to be an expert in the less luminous and more austere regions of Northern Germany, here demonstrates a sonic imagination and a Latin volubility which do more than convince...his marathon approach does not prevent perfectionism or preciousness. In this regard, note that the last page of the booklet details the temperature and humidity of each session.
For this great euphonious work and its lively and colorful interpretation, this inexhaustible candy box erects a powerful bulwark against all gloom.
-- Crescendo
