SACD
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Label: ACCENT SACD 24187 Our Price: $24.25 Quantity in Basket: none Cassations in G major (KV 63) & B major (KV 99/63a); Divertimento in D major KV 205 (167a) Sigiswald Kuijken, direction The cassations KV 63 and 99 composed by Mozart at the age of thirteen (!) are among his earliest serenades and show already the genius. The Salzburg audience obviously enjoyed this music, so, until 1799 quite a few, written for festive occasions, followed. One of them was Divertimento KV 205 written for the Antretter family. Strangely these works are little known in spite of the fact that they are true “jewels”. The cover shows the front of the house in Salzburg where Mozart was born. |
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Label: AMATI SACD 2301/3 Our Price: $57.00 Quantity in Basket: none “Singspiel” in Two Acts in the Original 1791 Version Vienna Knaben des Tölzer Knabenchors Chor und Orchester La Petite Bande/Sigiswald Kuijken |
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Label: BIS SACD 1263 Our Price: $19.25 Quantity in Basket: none WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART: Concerto in A major for Clarinet and Orchestra, KV622 (1791); Clarinet Quintet in A major, KV581 (1789). Martin Frost, basset clarinet/clarinet; Amsterdam Sinfonietta conducted by Peter Oundjian; Vertavo String Quartet. Mozart and Martin Frost make an irresistible pair. Here they present the Clarinet Concerto and the Clarinet Quintet - two unparalleled peaks of the clarinet repertoire - in performances of total commitment and exquisite beauty. A "true desert-island" disc. Martin Frost needs no introduction to BIS enthusiasts nor to the critics. "With extremely fine recording, marvelous solo playing and a real symbiosis between soloist and conductor, this triptych will be hard to surpass" was how Gramophone summarized his recordings of the "Benny Goodman" concertos (Copland, Hindemith, Arnold). Today Martin Frost is, quite simply, one of the leading exponents of his instrument and sought-after all over the world. A final proof of this - if such a thing was needed - is that he this year was chosen by BBC Radio 3 to participate in the BBC New Generation Artists scheme. As with all great musicians Martin Frost's playing simply compels one to listen. Not that one needs much compelling, for Mozart's Clarinet Concerto must surely count as the greatest concerto ever written for a wind instrument and the Quintet is non-pareil chamber music. But like the great musician that he is, Martin Frost makes one listen afresh, makes one discover new aspects of the "familiar" music. He is helped in this by the choice of partners. The Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, whose Mendelssohn recordings for BIS were so enthusiastically received, seem totally at one with the soloist while the understanding between the Vertavo Quartet and Martin Frost is particularly evident in the cut and thrust of the quintet. The SACD recording - allowing a surround sound option for those with the required set-up - really does benefit the music. The range of pianissimo (and below) colors that Martin Frost conjures up is miraculous and is beautifully reproduced by this disc. Indeed one is reminded by the claims made by a critic of Mozart's time on hearing the great Anton Stadler perform the concerto. 'You deserve my thanks, brave virtuoso! I would never have thought that a clarinet could imitate a human voice as effectively as the way you play it. For your instrument has such a soft and attractive tone that it is irresistible to anyone who has a heart.' (The cadenzas recorded on this disc were not heard at the time, for they are Martin Frost's own!) This is a winner of a disc - an hour of pure bliss for the connoisseur and a splendid introduction to classical music for the inexperienced. |
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Label: BIS SACD 1529 Our Price: $19.25 Quantity in Basket: none Schon lacht der holde Frühling, KV580; Ch’io mi scordi di te? KV505*; Nehmt meinen Dank, KV383; Deh vieni non tardar (from Le nozze di Figaro, KV492);Lungi da te, mio bene (from Mitridate, Rè di Ponto, KV87); Un moto di gioia, KV579, (from Le nozze di Figaro); Exsultate, jubilate, KV165; Come scoglio (from Così fan tutte, KV588);Ruhe sanft mein holdes Leben (from Zaide, KV344) Swedish Chamber Orchestra/Sebastian Weigle Mozart wrote many of the arias on this disc for specific performers, among them his wife Constanze’s two sisters Aloysia Lange and Josepha Hofer (the first Queen of the Night), the English soprano Nancy Storace and Adriana Ferrarese (whose impressive vocal range he put to the test in Fiordiligi’s aria Come scoglio). Here Swedish soprano Miah Persson, on her first solo disc with orchestra, has collected a number of Mozartian gems (including Exsultate, jubilate - actually composed for Venanzio Rauzzini, the star castrato of the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan.) Purity, sweetness and impeccable grace are words that have been used by reviewers to describe Miah Persson’s voice, and with such qualities it is no wonder that her reputation as a Mozart singer is growing. During the 2005/2006 season she is performing no less than three of the operatic roles represented on this disc. According to the reviews, her interpretation of Susanna’s Deh vieni non tardar made the audience at Covent Garden hold their breath; she recently made her début at Glyndebourne as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and in the coming Salzburg production of Mitridate she will perform the role of Prince Sifare, taking a deeply felt farewell from his beloved with the aria Lungi da te. Another farewell scene is played out in the extended concert aria Ch’io mi scordi di te - this one taking place in real life. Intended for Nancy Storace - who had been the first Susanna in the Marriage of Figaro - it was composed for the singer’s farewell concert in 1787, before her return to England. The aria includes an extended piano part, performed at the concert in question by Mozart himself, and has been interpreted as his musical declaration of love for the singer. Here it is the young Russian pianist Yevgeny Sudbin - whose recently released Scarlatti and Rachmaninov recitals on BIS have been highly praised - who joins Miah Persson and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in this portrayal of two lovers at the moment of their parting. |
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Label: BIS SACD 1539 Our Price: $19.25 Quantity in Basket: none Concerto in G major for flute and orchestra, KV 313; Andante in C major for flute and orchestra, KV 315; Concerto in C major for flute, harp and orchestra, KV 299; Rondo in D major for flute and orchestra, KV Anh.184; Concerto in D major for flute and orchestra, KV 314 (Cadenzas by Kalevi Aho) When the greater part of the program on this disc was released as the BIS 2005 Catalogue Disc, the response was electrifying. Sharon Bezaly was described as ‘God’s gift to the flute’ in The Times (UK), and a quote from the review in BBC Music Magazine is representative: ‘Bezaly's exquisite, technically immaculate, compelling playing sets new standards in this repertoire, as do Kalevi Aho's stunning cadenzas, composed especially for this recording.’ Other reviewers agreed, and the disc received top marks in Le Monde de la Musique, Crescendo, Musica and other magazines as well as on radio stations and web sites such as Classics Today. This staggeringly successful title - 145 000 copies sold worldwide! - is now made available again with the important inclusion of a newly made recording of the Concerto for Flute and Harp. At a session in October 2007, we reunited the performers and recording crew of the 2005 disc in the original venue, with the addition of the eminent harpist Julie Palloc as co-soloist. Furthermore, Finnish composer Kalevi Aho again provided the cadenzas for the work, as he had for the other concertos on the disc. The result is not to be missed - a 24 carat, complete collection of all Mozart’s works for flute and orchestra, on a hybrid SACD with the extremely generous playing time of 81 minutes and 52 seconds! |
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Label: BIS SACD 1618 Our Price: $19.25 Quantity in Basket: none Concerto in E flat major for two pianos, KV365; Concerto in F major for three pianos, KV242 (‘Lodron Concerto’); Concerto in E flat major for two pianos, KV365 – version with clarinets, trumpets & timpani Haydn Sinfonietta Wien; Manfred Huss, direction and fortepiano There is only a limited number of works for two or more solo instruments with orchestra. One reason may be that the concerto genre in the 19th century became the stomping ground of the great virtuosi of the day, and the works themselves vehicles for the great and unique talent of one, special performer – not two, or three. Mozart, however, was evidently attracted by the sinfonia concertante genre and created some of the finest examples of it, such as the Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola and the Concerto for Flute and Harp, as well as his two concertos for more than one piano. The ‘Lodron Concerto’ for three pianos was composed in 1776 for Countess Lodron and her daughters. It is Mozart’s third piano concerto and the young man’s irrepressible sense of fun is obvious: in his liner notes conductor and pianist Manfred Huss calls the concerto ‘a true musical joke, in which the musical line is divided between the three players quite arbitrarily; one piano continues what another has started and the third will conclude. The listener hardly notices the humour, however, as the music sounds quite “normal”, and only the pianists know (and the score shows) what Mozart is up to.’ When the composer three years later returns to the task of writing for more than one piano, the result is quite different. The Concerto in E flat major KV 365, composed for Mozart himself and his sister Nannerl, is according to Huss ‘in many respects Mozart’s first ‘big’ piano concerto. It is the first in which we find the very characteristic intertwining of the woodwind and the piano part, accomplished very effectively and virtuosically.’ Mozart seems to have been fond of the work, so fond that for a later performance he added clarinets, trumpets and timpani to the orchestra. Both versions of the score are found on the present recording, played by Alexei Lubimov and Ronald Brautigam, two of today’s finest performers on the fortepiano. |
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Label: BIS SACD 1646 Our Price: $19.25 Quantity in Basket: none SYMPHONY NO 1 (1931-35); SYMPHONY NO 2 (1957-60) Rarely appearing together on disc, William Walton’s two symphonies are separated by some 25 years. The First Symphony was composed after his dazzling early success, beginning with Façade and culminating in two scores written before Walton reached the age of thirty: the Viola Concerto and the oratorio Belshazzar’s Feast. After this, composition became more difficult, and progress on the symphony was tortuous and protracted. Nevertheless, the work has a strikingly positive tone – perhaps in celebration of the victory over the many demons and difficulties that had attended its creation. Twenty-two years later, in 1957, the musical world was a very different place, but Walton’s response was not to seek solace in reflective nostalgia. It is rather as if he conceived the Second Symphony as a follow-up to his terse and bubbly Partita for orchestra, building on the confidence that the success of that score had given the always self-doubting composer. Owain Arwel Hughes, who conducts the present recording, first made his name with an electrifying televised performance of Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast which received a notable accolade from the composer. During his distinguished career Hughes has recorded a number of discs for BIS, including a complete cycles of the 13 symphonies of Vagn Holmboe. In the French magazine Répertoire his 3-disc series of Rachmaninov’s symphonies was described as ‘the great modern Rachmaninov cycle’, while the reviewer in International Record Review stated that ‘Hughes is the first conductor to convince me that the First Symphony is on a par with its two successors.’ On this recording he brings Walton across the English Channel and conducts one of the leading French orchestras, Orchestre National de Lille, for their first appearance on the BIS label. |
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Label: BIS SACD 1871 Our Price: $19.25 Quantity in Basket: none Traditional: Gjendines Bådnlåt; Jeg lagde mig så sildig; Jesus din søte forening å smake; Nådigste Jesus / Jesus styr du mine tankar; Med Jesus vil eg fara; Bruremarsj fra Valsøyfjord; Gjermund Larsen: Polonese; Gropen; Solbønn; Solistvals; Eivind Groven: Margjit Hjukse, Op.48; Eivind Buene: Allsang The Norwegian Soloists' Choir (Det Norske Solistkor) / Grete Pedersen, conductor Berit Opheim Versto, folk singer; Gjermund Larsen, fiddle / hardanger fiddle More than a century ago, the rhythms and harmonies of Edvard Grieg’s music enchanted a whole world. What Grieg himself readily admitted was that these rhythms and harmonies had been absorbed during his journeys along fjords and across mountains, and his encounters with fiddlers and folk singers – such as the dairy-maid Gjendine Slaalien, whose ‘bådnlåt’ (lullaby) Grieg turned into a piano piece. But although the most famous, Grieg is only one of many Norwegian composers who have found folk music a deep and decisive source of inspiration. Combining traditional folk songs with recent compositions springing from folk music, the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir on the present disc makes a compelling case for the powerful hold that this music has over the country’s cultural life, in performances that easily makes one understand why! The choir’s conductor, Grete Pedersen, has a constant eye open for the immediacy of folk music, but also its melancholy which, as she writes in her own introduction, ‘always shines through, whether the tune is a wedding march or a lullaby, and whether it accompanies a religious song or a tale of a maiden abducted by trolls.’ The choir’s previous recording for BIS was a programme of Grieg’s choral works, described as ‘a performance of breathtaking beauty’ in Le Monde de la Musique, and ‘a reference recording, the likes of which one doesn’t encounter every day’ on website klassik.com. Already on that disc the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir explored the music’s roots in folk music, and going a step further in this direction, Grete Pedersen has now invited one of Norway’s most respected folk singers, Berit Opheim Versto, and the fiddler and composer Gjermund Larsen to join her and the choir on their journey through ‘the intricate landscape of folk music’. |
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Label: COVIELLO SACD 30607 Our Price: $24.75 Quantity in Basket: none Coronation Mass KV 317; Exsultate Jubilate KV 165; Vesperae Solemnes de Confessore KV 339; Ave Verum Corpus KV 618 Choir of the “vocapella” Symphony Orchestra Aachen/Marcus Bosch Mozart's Coronation Mass was so called since it was performed for the coronation of Kaiser Leopold II, in Frankfurt 1790. However, like most sacral compositions, the mass was written during Mozart's time in Salzburg and was first performed in Salzburg cathedral on Easter Sunday 1779. This most important of days for the church explains the grand instrumentation, with oboes, horns, trumpets and timpani. Mozart also fulfilled his duties to Salzburg's Archbishop in a brilliant way with Vesperae solemnes de confessore and Exsultate jubilate. His motet, Ave verum corpus, from the year of his death, 1791, and probably his most popular choral work today, achieves highest perfection on the smallest of scales, combining simple expression with complex modulation. Marcus Bosch, the Aachen Symphony Orchestra and the choir “vocapella” perform Mozart's sacral works in the acoustically imposing Aachen cathedral on this hybrid SACD. |
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Label: COVIELLO SACD 50712 Our Price: $24.75 Quantity in Basket: none Cosi fan tutte (arr. Tarkmann): Overture; Terzettino: Soave sia il vento; Aria: Un aura amorosa Don Giovanni (arr. Triebensee/Tarkmann): Overture; Duettino: La ci darem la mano; Canzonetta: Deh vieni alla finestra; Finale und Höllenfahrt: Ah signor – per carita Le nozze di Figaro (arr. Wendt/Tarkmann): Overture; Aria: Porgi amor; Cherubin-Arietta: Voi che sapete; Finale Scena ultima La Clemenza di Tito (arr. Tarkmann): Overture; Ara Sextus: Parto, parto; Rondo Vitellia: Non piu di fiori Die Zuaberflote (arr. Heidenreich/Tarkmann): Overture; Arie: Alles fühlt der Liebe Freuden; Arie: Der Hölle Rache; Finale For almost two hundred years, one could hardly ever hear them, in Mozart's time, harmony musicians were a popular substitute for large complicated works, particularly opera, when the spatial and financial requirements for a "proper" performance couldn't be met. Arrangements for wind ensemble were particularly popular and made then contemporary music available to a wider audience- hearing live opera and symphonies was only possible for a small number of people. In the 19th century, harmony musicians were derided as an emergency solution and were slowly forgotten. Unfairly, as we know today, and as this new SACD from the wind principals of the Bremen Kammerphilharmonie clearly demonstrates. The drama of a large Mozart opera "en miniature" focuses on the fundamental, yet is no less fascinating than the original. |
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Label: CYBELE SACD 060303 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none WILLEM TANKE (*1959) Meditations for Lent (2002) Meditations for a lent is the result of a research that I carried out for the World Music Research Group of Codarts, University of Professional Arts Education. This research was called The Art of Doing Nothing, took place from 2004 till 2006 and was related to my activities as head of the theory department and professor of improvisation at Rotterdam Conservatoire. In particular, Meditations for a lent has been produced with an eye to the seminar Organ music in the 21st century, organized by Codarts in 2007. The organ-playing of J. S. Bach, who could achieve an extraordinarily powerful musical expression with very small movements of the hands and feet, according to one of his contemporaries, was the starting-point for the research. During my study and afterwards, this helped me form a picture of the ideal way of playing the organ and an attitude towards musicianship, which I later called The Art of Doing Nothing. With an eye to great composers who were also known for their improvisations on the organ, such as - besides J.S. Bach - Sweelinck and Messiaen, The Art of Doing Nothing aimed at improving mental and physical conditions for musicianship, by creating a good balance between performing, improvising and composing, with the help of analysis and research. For the instruction of students, the following text has been used: At the beginning there is silence, leading towards a good performing attitude, with a calm, concentrated mind, a relaxed body and steady breathing from the lower stomach. With this attitude, a useful musical idea, or “invention”, emerges from improvisation. A second “invention” can be added to provide contrast or to enhance the structure. Then the improvisation, played repeatedly from the sketches, slowly crystallizes into a composition. This process could last several days, weeks, months or even years, the sketches becoming increasingly detailed. Ultimately each piece may be entirely composed or still permit some improvisation. All the pieces of Meditations for a lent have evolved in this manner. |
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Label: CYBELE SACD 261101 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none String Quartet No. 1, Op. 2 (1970); String Quartet No. 4 (1980/81); String Quartet No. 5 “ohne Titel” (1983); String Quartet No. 8 (1987/88) The string quartet takes a prominent place among Wolfgang Rihm’s immense output. Already in his earliest compositional phase, at the age of 14, 15, 16, Rihm, born in Karlsruhe in 1952, wrote his first quartets, although the scores of these works were not published. In 1970 he published his First String Quartet, which was given the opus number 2. This piece, whose tonal language is akin to that of the Second Viennese School with an orientation toward twelve-tone structure and with a predominance of sevenths, ninths and tritones, has a texture which is at times quite thinned out and which then suddenly breaks apart all together: “as if suddenly destroyed: eradicated” is written above measure 109 in the score, after which the final five bars continue, bearing the marking: “tense!”. Fermata rests, hesitating echos of previous material and the abruptly erupting last chord. Following the Second String Quartet, also written in 1970 and bearing the marking opus 10, and the Third String Quartet, “im innersten” (with utmost intimacy), which was written in 1976, Rihm in the Winter of 1980/81 turned his attention to his Fourth String Quartet, in three movements: I. “agitato, allegro alla marcia, allegro ma non troppo; II. “con moto, allegro andante, allegro molto”; III. “adagio”. Rihm noted, “it is at once a straggler and at the same time a hint of things to come”(2). On the one hand it condenses the confrontation with tradition which was addressed in the first three quartets and is reminiscent of works such as the late Beethoven Quartets, of Mahler, of Shostakovitch and of Janacek’s Second Quartet, “Intimate Letters” (1928). On the other hand however, it also anticipates aspects which later became the subsequent quartets. For example, the first bar of the Eighth String Quartet, followed by a general pause, echoes the softly floating final repetitions in the viola and cello from Rihm’s Fourth Quartet. Also Rihm’s Fifth through Seventh Quartets seem to be drawn from the Fourth, although the music of the later quartets employs more fissured textures and is more gestural than its older relatives. Nonetheless, the Fourth Quartet is not merely a transitional piece or a hinge-composition, but a work with its own integrity and which in addition is a turbulent piece with many riddles which only in the future will (perhaps?) be unrivalled. |
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Label: CYBELE SACD 860201 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none Meissner Tedeum (Reperformance 1997) Meissner Tedeum (Premiere 1968) SACD ONLY Whether the political situation at the time of its creation is inherent in every work of art can hardly be proven. However, to assume that it is indeed so may offer far-reaching and in many ways undreamt-of perspectives. After all, aesthetic objects do not just come out of the blue. They are documents and records of their time, regardless of whether they are capable of telling us a good many things even after years, decades or even centuries have passed. Their potential of meaning anyhow often unfolds in retrospect only, when historical events and connections appear clearer than apparently possible during that particular period of contemporary history. However, to conclude from this fact that art cannot be correctly understood at the time of its creation - a rather popular conclusion -, and that the artist is ahead of his contemporaries because he is an artist, would be fateful and demands an objection. In 1939, composer Edgard Varèse said: "Contrary to prevailing opinion, the artist is never ahead of his own time, but simply the only one who is not late." When Wolfgang Hufschmidt wrote the MEISSNER TEDEUM in 1967 and 1968, a work commissioned by the International Heinrich Schütz Association on the occasion of the millennial anniversary of the Meissen cathedral (Saxony), both he and writer Günter Grass were concerned with an inter-German dialogue. Grass wrote a counter-text to the traditional Te Deum text (in Martin Luther's translation) for the composition. An antiphonal principle. It is not only noticeable on the text level - the older is sung by the choir, the younger by a vocal ensemble - but also works as a constant underlying working concept for the MEISSNER TEDEUM. Hufschmidt's original intention was to let the two vocal groups rehearse their parts separately and only bring them together for the first performance in the Meissen cathedral. An ensemble from the Federal Republic of Germany was to interpret Grass' text; the "Meissen Church Choir 1961" was to work with Luther's text. Politics thwarted this idea. The MEISSNER TEDEUM was the target of repeated attacks anyway, and the first performance scheduled for 25 May 1968 was jeopardized several times. |
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Label: FARAO SACD 108048 Our Price: $19.25 Quantity in Basket: none Chorgemeinschaft Neubeuern Orchester der Klang Verwaltung/Enoch zu Guttenberg Recorded at Farao Studio, Munich, October 2005 The Requiem is W.A.Mozart’s last composition. He died before he could finish it. In July 1771 Mozart received from a secretive messenger the commission to compose a Requiem mass. Mozart worked intensively, passionately, and with all his energy on this lucrative commission. It was at this time that Mozart contracted a fell disease. Showing signs of pain and suffering, Mozart is said to have spoken of death and to have been convinced that it was his own Requiem that he was working on. Little did he know that it was for Count Franz Walsegg von Stuppach that he was working, who wished to create a memorial to his late wife. On December 5th, 1791 whilst working on the Requiem, Mozart died of rheumatic fever. Mozart’s wife, plagued by financial worries commissioned Franz Xaver Süssmayr, a pupil and assistant of Mozart, to finish the score. |
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Label: LUDI MUSICI SACD 001 Our Price: $38.00 Quantity in Basket: none WORLD PREMIERE!!! 6 SONATES UR FORTE PIANO AVEC ACCOMPAGNEMENT D’UN VIOLON KV 301 – 306 Sonata in F major KV 301; Sonata in E flat major KV 302; Sonata in C major KV 303; Sonata in E minor KV 304; Sonata in A major KV 305; Sonata in D major KV 306 Marieke Spaans (b. 1972) has a reputation as harpsichordist on many European concert platforms. She strives for the maximum in musical expression and dialogue, combined with a thorough knowledge of early music practice. The result is a sparkling performance, full of spontaneity and deep emotions, driven by a boundless passion for the music of the 17th and 18th century. She studied harpsichord at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam with Gustav Leonhardt, where in 1997 she received her Concert and Teaching diplomas. Besides her harpsichord studies she studied organ and church music with Pieter van Dijk, Hans van Nieuwkoop and Wolfgang Zerer. She attended many master-classes by renowned musicians such as Jos van Immerseel, Lars-Ulrik Mortensen, Luigi Tagliavini and Michael Radulescu, and is currently concentrating on fortepiano. Baroque violinist Anton Steck is a highly - regarded soloist, recognized as a leader in his area of specialization and well- known in international circles. His reputation has long been established as an outstanding interpreter who combines expressive intensity and technical perfection which result in passionate performances of his chosen repertoire. Beginning with the study of the modern violin under the tutelage of Jörg-Wolfgang Jahn in Karlsruhe, Anton Steck commenced a new phase in his musical development when he took up the baroque violin and furthered his studies with Reinhard Goebel, the director of the prominent ensemble "Musica Antiqua Köln." (2 CDs) |
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