Anne Sofie von Otter / Thomas Quasthoff SCHUBERT Lieder with Orchestra

Schubert wrote very few songs with orchestral accompaniment (one of the few, taken from incidental music to von Chézy's play Rosamunde, begins this disc). Indeed, it was not until later in the 19th century that the orchestral song became a popular genre. Yet Schubert's songs are so highly revered that a good number of composers have taken it upon themselves to realize the orchestral richness and color suggested by their piano parts. This fascinating program demonstrates the variety of approaches composers have taken over the years, from the conservative, dark-hued garb of Max Reger's versions to the opulent, foppish finery of Jacques Offenbach's. Some of the most successful -- and unobtrusive -- realizations are by Brahms, which is interesting considering that Brahms seemed to prefer piano accompaniment for his own lieder. And then there's Benjamin Britten, who gives us "Die Forelle" (The Trout) as if it were by Mahler. But perhaps the biggest surprise on the disc is that Reger's orchestration of "Erlkönig," for all its essential modesty, is wilder and more dramatic than Liszt's. One may find some of the orchestrations more effective than others, but there is no doubt about the performances by mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and baritone Thomas Quasthoff; they are simply beyond reproach. Claudio Abbado elicits warm, sensitive support from the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. A disc to savor. (Andrew Farach-Colton)

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)
1) Romance from Rosamunde, D.797 No.3b : Der Vollmond strahlt [3:16]
Die Forelle, D.550 (Op.32)
2) Orchestrated by Benjamin Britten [2:20]
"Jäger, ruhe von der Jagd!" Ellens Gesang II, D.838
3) Orchestrated by Johannes Brahms [3:07]
Gretchen am Spinnrade, D.118
4) Orchestrated by Max Reger [3:27]
An Sylvia, D.891 (Op.106/4)
5) Orchestrated by Anonymus [2:59]
Im Abendrot, D.799
6) Orchestrated by Max Reger [3:44]
Nacht und Träume, D.827
7) Orchestrated by Max Reger [3:45]
Gruppe aus dem Tartarus, D.583(Op.24/1)
8) Orchestrated by Max Reger [3:04]
Erlkönig, D. 328 (Op.1)
9) Orchestrated by Hector Berlioz [4:02]
Die junge Nonne, D.828
10) Orchestrated by Franz Liszt [4:46]
Die schöne Müllerin, D.795
Orchestrated by Anton Webern
11) Tränenregen [4:17]
Winterreise, D.911
Orchestrated by Anton Webern
12) Der Wegweiser [3:57]
Du bist die Ruh', D.776 (Op.59/3)
13) Orchestrated by Anton Webern [3:49]
Schwanengesang, D.957
Orchestrated by Anton Webern
14) Ihr Bild [2:16]
Prometheus, D674
15) Orchestrated by Max Reger [5:17]
Memnon, D. 541
16) Orchestrated by Johannes Brahms [3:51]
An Schwager Kronos, D. 369
17) Orchestrated by Johannes Brahms [3:05]
An die Musik, D.547 (Op.88/4)
18) Orchestrated by Max Reger [2:25]
Erlkönig, D. 328 (Op.1)
19) Orchestrated by Max Reger [3:59]
Geheimes, D719 (Goethe)
20) Orchestrated by Johannes Brahms [1:40]
Schwanengesang, D.957
Orchestrated by Jacques Offenbach as "La Sérénade de Schubert"
21) Ständchen [3:35]

Anne Sofie von Otter
Thomas Quasthoff

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Claudio Abbado

2003 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg

1 CD DDD

471 5862 GH

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Krystian Zimerman RACHMANINOV Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

A year without a recording by the vital, ever-youthful Krystian Zimerman is a year lost – and his previous recording for DG was in 1999. Given the calibre of his Rachmaninov, I pray there will not be a similar hiatus. In an interview in the disc booklet Zimerman says ‘you don’t play these concertos, you live them’; and there, surely, is the key to his raffish virtuosity, burning ardour and commitment.
The catalogue may bulge with recordings of both concertos and yet the verve and poetry of these performances somehow forbid comparison, even at the most exalted level. Zimerman claims that Rachmaninov says everything there is to say about the First Concerto in his own performance. Yet unforgettable as that performance is, I feel that had Rachmaninov heard Zimerman his admiration could have turned to envy. Zimerman opens in a blaze of rhetorical glory, before skittering through the first Vivace with the sort of winged brilliance that will reduce lesser pianists to despair. The cadenza is overwhelming and at 4'36" in the central Andante’s starry ascent his rubato tugs painfully at the heartstrings. In the finale, too, every one of Rachmaninov’s teeming notes is pin-pointed, despite a dizzying tempo, with diamond-like clarity.
The Second Concerto also burns and coruscates in all its first heat. A romantic to his fingertips, Zimerman inflects one familiar theme after another with a yearning, bittersweet intensity that he equates in his interview with first love. Hear him at 6'52" and ask yourself when you last heard this melody played with such a rapt sense of inwardness. Every page is alive with a sense of wonder at Rachmaninov’s genius. Seiji Ozawa and the Boston orchestra are ideal partners and DG’s sound and balance are fully worthy of this memorable release. (Bryce Morrison)

Sergey Vasil'yevich Rachmaninov (1873 - 1943)
Piano Concerto No.1 in F sharp minor, Op.1
1) 1. Vivace [12:22]
2) 2. Andante [6:42]
3) 3. Allegro vivace [7:28]
Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.18
4) 1. Moderato [11:46]
5) 2. Adagio sostenuto [12:15]
6) 3. Allegro scherzando [11:34]

Krystian Zimerman
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Seiji Ozawa

2004 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
1 CD DDD
459 6432 GH

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Anne Sofie von Otter BACH

It was with Bach that Anne Sofie von Otter made her very first solo appearances when she performed the alto arias in the St. John Passion in Stockholm. But by then, as she has explained, the experience gained as a chorister in the Stockholm Bach Choir had already had a fundamental and enduring influence on her approach to the composer. “The conductor of the Bach Choir at that time was very dynamic: he was on fire for this music, and I became on fire for it as well. Then Nikolaus Harnoncourt came up to conduct the Bach motets, and that was also a marvellous experience. Harnoncourt was revolutionizing the performance of Baroque and Viennese Classical works - spring-cleaning tempos and phrasing and using original instruments to shed the old woolly sounds of a Romantic orchestra and make the music vibrant again. It was an exciting time for young people like me who gathered around the gramophone and listened eagerly to his new recordings of Monteverdi, Bach and Mozart. Harnoncourt really was my main influence in Bach."

“In the first ten years of my career I sang a lot of Bach," the singer adds, “but after that I purposely put his music and oratorio aside, because there was so much else to explore, especially opera. So this disc is like coming back full circle." Her concept for the recording and the repertoire she has chosen for it date back to the autumn of 2007. “I borrowed discs of every single Bach cantata, listened to them all, and made notes. It was wonderful to discover new arias, but rather than have a solo vocal recital I decided to break it up with purely instrumental movements. I'd known Lars Ulrik Mortensen for a long time, though we hadn't seen a lot of each other recently, and suddenly this name 'Concerto Copenhagen' appeared on the horizon; I heard them on the radio, and I thought: 'What a wonderful ensemble!' Sure enough, Lars Ulrik was the leader of this great ensemble, so when the idea of the Bach recording came up I thought: 'Why don't I ask Concerto Copenhagen?' I cut down the original list, Lars Ulrik added new ideas, and we had a fantastic time making this recording." As for instrumentation: “Bach often puts the alto voice together with the oboe, so that choice was given, and the sound of the Baroque oboe is one I love." (Kenneth Chalmers)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
Cantata No.54: "Widerstehe doch der Sünde", BWV54
1) Widerstehe doch der Sünde [6:17]
Cantata, BWV 197 "Gott ist unsere Zuversicht"
2 Aria: Schläfert aller Sorgen Kummer [7:54]
Cantata, BWV99
3) 5. Aria-Duet: Wenn des Kreuzes Bitterkeiten [2:50]
St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244
Part Two
4) No.47 Aria (Alto): "Erbarme dich, mein Gott" [6:17]
Cantata No.30 "Freue dich, erlöste Schar", BWV 30
5) 5. Aria: Kommt, ihr angefocht'nen Sünder [4:12]
Cantata No.35 "Geist und Seele wird verwirret", BWV 35
6) 1. Sinfonia [5:17]
Cantata: "Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten" BWV 74
7) 7. Aria: Nichts kann mich erretten [5:30]
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen Cantata, BWV 12
8) Sinfonia [2:19]
Mass in B minor, BWV 232
Kyrie: No.1 Kyrie eleison
9) Agnus Dei [5:33]
Magnificat in D Major, BWV 243
10) Aria (Duet): "Et misericordia" [3:28]
Cantata, BWV 60 "O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort"
11) 1. Duett: O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort / Herr, ich warte [4:05]
Cantata, BWV117
12) 1. Sei Lob und Ehr dem höchsten Gut [3:20]

Anne Sofie von Otter

Baroque Concerto Copenhagen

Lars Ulrik Mortensen

2009 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
ARCHIV Produktion
1 CD DDD
477 7467 AH
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Rolando Villazón OPERA RECITAL

It's starting to become an annual event: This is the third Rolando Villazón recital album in as many years, and like its predecessors it stakes an early claim as one the year's top vocal albums. While the tenor's first two discs were more narrowly focused -- one on Italian opera ariasfrom bel canto to verismo, the other on French arias by Gounod and Massenet -- this one casts a wider net, gathering up some chestnuts that didn't find their way onto the earlier discs ("Recondita armonia" from Tosca, the "Flower Song" from Carmen) and also branching out into German and Russian opera. There are also some of those arias that we only ever hear on an album like this -- Cilea's "Amor ti vieta," Flotow's "Ach, so fromm" -- but Villazón is naturally at his most powerful in the excerpts from roles he has sung with great success on stage, most notably the two highlights from Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann that open the program, and also the "Flower Song." These convey the intensity not only of the tenor's singing, but also of his acting, precisely the combination that places him atop the heap of the younger generation of opera stars. If the program looks a bit scattered on paper, Villazón's performances more than justify the choices, which are bound together by the skill and artistry with which he wields his dramatic vocal power. There's no longer any need to mention the name of a certain distinguished tenor to whom he's often been compared; Villazón's unique skill is on display here, and he's quickly become one of the essential talents in the opera world of the 21st century. (Scott Paulin)

Les Contes d'Hoffmann
1) Il était une fois à la cour d'Eisenach (Legend of Kleinsach) [5:70]
2) Allons! courage et confiance [3:12]
Tosca
3) Recondita armonia [2:43]
Cavalleria Rusticana
4) Mamma, quel vino è generoso [3:58]
Fedora
5) Amor ti vieta [1:50]
Martha
6) Ach so fromm [2:59]
Alessandro Stradella
7) Jungfrau Maria [3:23]
Eugene Onegin
8) Kuda, kuda, kuda vi udalilis [6:22]
Der Rosenkavalier Op. 59
9) Di rigori armato il seno (Ein Sänger) [2:24]
Un ballo in maschera
10) Ma se m'è forza perderti (Riccardo) [5:19]
Don Pasquale
11) Com' è gentil [3:31]
La Favorita
12) Spirto gentil [4:25]
Carmen
13) La fleur que tu m'avais jetée (José) [4:21]
Les Pêcheurs de Perles
14) 'A celle voix quel trouble agitait tout mon être...Je crois entendre encore' [4:59]
15) Ernani: Odi il voto...sprezzo la vita (Ernani/chor) [7:34]


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Anne-Sophie Mutter BERG: Violin Concerto / RIHM: Time Chant

A violinist as successful as Anne-Sophie Mutter doesn't have to play any modern music at all; she could have a phenomenally successful career playing only the accepted masterworks. But Mutter's enthusiasm for the new and unusual pervades all of her work, so that even in standard fare her interpretations have a feeling of that thrill of discovery. On this recording she plays the beautiful Violin Concerto (1935) by Alban Berg and a work from 1992, "Gesungen Zeit" (Time Chant), by Wolfgang Rihm. Berg's Concerto was written as a memorial to a young girl and bears the subtitle, "To the memory of an angel." Dense, difficult, and suffused with sadness, it richly repays repeated listening. Echoes of tonal music hover like ghosts, particularly in the final movement, where Berg quotes a chorale melody by Bach. Rihm, on the other hand, dispenses entirely with traditional melodies and all musical models from the past. He creates a new language, at once lyrical and fragmentary, lithe and fragile. Mutter's persuasive advocacy makes both works accessible for any listener with eager ears and an open mind. (Andrew Farach-Colton)

Alban Berg (1885 - 1935)
Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel"
1) 1. Andante - Allegro [11:31]
2) 2. Allegro - Adagio [16:12]

Wolfgang Rihm (1952 - )
"Gesungene Zeit" 1991/92 - Music for violin and orchestra
3) 1. Beginning: quasi senza [14:27]
4) 2. Takt 179: meno mosso [9:56]

Anne-Sophie Mutter
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
James Levine

1992 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
1 CD DDD
437 0932 GH

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Anne-Sophie Mutter MENDELSSOHN / BRAHMS Violin Concertos

Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto is another one of those popular favorites whose originality and perfection are taken for granted. Although it's in three distinct movements, Mendelssohn attempted to create the impression of a concise, unbroken whole -- one of the first concertos so constructed. But within the tight structure, the music also offers a variety of moods: The first movement is lyrical and melancholy, the second movement is a sweet, slow song, and the finale is a sparkling and feather-light display of virtuosity. Brahms's Violin Concerto is pitched at a higher level of emotional intensity. The young German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter doesn't really get to show off as she does in the last movement of the Mendelssohn, but this music requires a musician with impeccable technique and the ability to keep the melodic line tautly strung. Mutter has technique to burn, a gorgeous, glamorous sound, and phenomenal musical maturity -- especially considering that she was barely out of her teens when these recordings were made. (Andrew Farach-Colton)

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847)
Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64
1) 1. Allegro molto appassionato [14:00]
2) 2. Andante [9:25]
3) 3. Allegro non troppo - Allegro molto vivace [7:07]

Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897)
Violin Concerto in D, Op.77
4) 1. Allegro non troppo - Cadenza: Joseph Joachim [22:02]
5) 2. Adagio [9:42]
6) 3. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace - Poco più presto [8:34]

Anne-Sophie Mutter
Berliner Philharmoniker
Herbert von Karajan

1994 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
1 CD DDD
445 5152 GMA

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Anne-Sophie Mutter TCHAIKOVSKY / KORNGOLD Violin Concertos

Neither of the works on the present recording had the easiest of entries into the world. Each was written with one soloist in mind, but premièred by another; and both suffered at the hands of spiteful critics. Tchaikovsky wrote his Violin Concerto in the wake of his disastrous marriage and a suicide attempt. Travelling abroad to recover his equilibrium, he missed the première in Moscow of his Fourth Symphony in February 1878. A few months later, he found himself in Switzerland, at Clarens on Lake Geneva, where the arrival of a former student, the violinist Yosif Kotek, encouraged him to begin work on a violin concerto.

Tchaikovsky completed the piece within a month, dedicating it to the famous St. Petersburg violinist and teacher Leopold Auer, who, however, declared the piece unplayable. It was nearly three years before another soloist, Adolph Brodsky, gave the work's première with the Vienna Philharmonic and Hans Richter, in December 1881, when it received a notably venomous review from the Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick. Tchaikovsky, Hanslick wrote, was "not an ordinary talent, but rather an overblown one, obsessed with genius and with no discrimination or taste... Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto confronts us for the first time with the ghastly possibility that there can be music that stinks to the ear."
The review was a masterpiece of small-minded musical invective. In comparison, Erich Korngold might have felt that he got off lightly when, after a New York performance of his Violin Concerto, one local critic coined the cruel witticism that has dogged the composer's music ever since: that it was "more corn than gold". Like Tchaikovsky, Korngold had written his concerto (begun in 1937, completed and revised in 1945) for another renowned soloist, in his case Bronislaw Huberman. Although Huberman expected to give the work's première, its first interpreter was Jascha Heifetz, who performed it with the St. Louis Symphony under Vladimir Golschmann in 1947.(Nick Kimberley)

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)
Violin Concerto in D, Op.35
1) 1. Allegro moderato [18:26]
2) 2. Canzonetta: Andante - attacca: [6:58]
3) 3. Finale (Allegro vivacissimo) [9:30]
Anne-Sophie Mutter
Wiener Philharmoniker
André Previn

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 - 1957)
Violin Concerto in D major, Op.35
4) 1. Moderato nobile [8:40]
5) 2. Romance: Andante [7:58]
6) 3. Finale: Allegro assai vivace [7:08]
Anne-Sophie Mutter
London Symphony Orchestra
André Previn

2004 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
1 CD DDD
474 5152

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Magdalena Kožená HANDEL Italian Cantatas

Handel's experiences in various Italian centres during the first decade of the 18th century must have had a considerable effect on the young composer, still in his early 20s. Although no permanent career in Italy resulted from it, this "Italian period” saw the establishment of his mature musical style and produced a repertory of remarkable compositions. Florence, Rome, Naples and Venice provided quite distinct musical opportunities. Rome was a special case because opera was the subject of a Papal ban during Handel's time there: he indeed experienced the force of Papal censorship directly in 1708 when the Marquis (later Prince) Ruspoli was commanded to replace the female singer for the role of Mary Magdalene by a castrato at the second (private) performance of La Resurrezione. Handel's operas from this period were therefore written for performance at Florence and Venice. As he was subsequently to make Italian opera the foundation of his career, it is easy to assume that Handel found musical life in Rome frustrating and unsatisfactory, but this is contradicted by the music itself: his Roman cantatas in Italian and church works in Latin show the same vigour and quality as his operas composed elsewhere.

Marc Minkowski and Magdalena Kozená have already proven in last year's release of Handel's Roman Motets that they are a winning combination. Here they deliver a passionate and impressive account of three Italian Cantatas, full of excitement and refreshing ideas.

George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759)
Il deliro amoroso "Da quel giorno fatale"
1) Sonata (Introduzione) [4:44]
2) Recitativo "Da quel giorno fatale" [0:55]
3) Aria "Un pensiero voli in ciel" [8:24]
4) Recitativo "Ma fermati pensier" [1:14]
5) Aria "Per te lasciai la luce" [7:36]
6) Non ti bastava, ingrato [0:59]
7) Aria "Lascia omai"/Recitativo "Ma siamo" [5:29]
8) Entree [2:06]
9) Arietta e Recitativo "In queste amene piagge" [2:35]
La Lucrezia "O Numi eterni", Cantata HWV 145
10) Recitativo "O Numi eterni" [1:01]
11) Aria "Giù superbo del mio affanno" [5:20]
12) Recitativo "Mai voi, forse nel cielo" [0:44]
13) Aria "Il suol che preme" [2:50]
14) Recitativo "Ah! che ancor"/Furioso [1:28]
15) Arioso "Alla salma infedel" [3:00]
16) Recitativo "A voi, a voi padre" [0:54]
17) Arioso "Già nel seno"/Furioso [1:37]
Il consiglio "Tra le fiamme", Cantata HWV 170
18) Aria "Tra le fiamme tu scherzi"/Recitativo [6:35]
19) Aria "Pien di nuove"/Recitativo [4:17]
20) Aria "Voli per l'aria"/Recitativo [2:52]
21) Aria "Tra le fiamme" - Da capo/A [2:30]

Magdalena Kozená
Les Musiciens du Louvre
Marc Minkowski

2000 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
1 CD DDD
ARCHIV Produktion
469 0652 AH


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Magdalena Kožená LOVE SONGS

"I must admit to a purely selfish motive guiding my choice of music for this programme: the songs in the album that you hold in your hands are especially dear to my heart."
Following a number of appearances for Archiv Produktion, Magdalena Kozená last November signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon under which this disc is her début recital album on the Yellow Label.
For her début release of Bach arias on Archiv Produktion the young Czech mezzo-soprano has been widely praised as an enormous talent with outstanding qualities. Diapason (France) wrote: "With such richness in the timbre of her voice, she exhibits an exceptionally profound emotion for such a young age." Repertoire (France) wrote: "No one should doubt that in a few years one will remember with emotion this as the recital that allowed us to discover Magdalena Kozená."
For this first recital album, Magdalena Kozená has made a charming selection of songs by her fellow countrymen: Dvorak, Janacek and Martinu.
The recording of the four "Songs for a Friend of My Country" by Martinu is a world-première. The manuscript of this previously unknown song-cycle was discovered only in 1996 in the south of France.

Antonín Dvorák (1841 - 1904)
Písne milostné (Love Songs), Op.83
1) 1. O, nasi lásce nekvete (Oh, our love does not bloom) [1:50]
2) 2. V tak mnohém srdci mrtvo jest (Death dwells in so many a heart) [2:18]
3) 3. Kol domu se tedn potácím ( Now I stumble past the house) [1:27]
4) 4. Já vím, ze v sladke nadeji (I know that in sweet hope) [2:04]
5) 5. Nad krajem vévodí lehky spánek (Gentle slumber reigns over the countryside) [1:39]
6) 6. Zde v lese u potoka (Here in the forest by a brook) [1:58]
7) 7. V té sladké moci ocí tvych (In the sweet power of your eyes) [1:42]
8) 8. p duse drahá, jedinká (Oh, dear matchless soul) [1:38]
Bohuslav Martinu (1890 - 1959)
Novy Spalícek (New Spalicek / Miniatures)
9) 1. Bohatá milá (The Rich Sweetheart) [1:11]
10) 2. Opusteny mily (The Forsaken Lover) [1:07]
11) 3. Touha (Longing) [0:56]
12) 4. Zwedavé dievca (The Inquisitive Girl) [0:54]
13) 5. Veselé dievca (The Cheerful Girl) [0:27]
14) 6. Smutny mily (The Unhappy Lover) [2:26]
15) 7. Prosba (The Request) [1:26]
16) 8. Vysoká veza (The tall tower) [0:57]
Ctyri písne na texty moravské lidové poezie (Songs for a Friend of My Country)
17) 1. Konícky na ouhore (Ponies on the Fallow Land) [0:52]
18) 2. Ztaceny pantoflícek (The Lost Little Slipper) [0:43]
19) 3. Písen nábozná (A Religious Song) [1:52]
20) 4. Pozvání (An Invitaion) [0:57]
Antonín Dvorák (1841 - 1904)
Ctvero písní op.2 (Four Songs) na slova Gust. Pflegra-Moravského op. 2
21) 1. Vy vroucí písne ( You heartfelt songs) [2:20]
22) 2. O byl to krásny zlaty sen (Oh, that was a beautiful, golden dream) [2:07]
23) 3. Mé srdce casto (In pain, my heart often broods) [3:05]
24) 4. Na horách ticho (Silence on the mountains) [1:15]
Bohuslav Martinu (1890 - 1959)
25) Ukolébavka (Lullaby) [4:34]
Pisnicky na jednu stránku (Songs on one page)
26) 1. Rosicka (Dew) [0:58]
27) 2. Otevrení sloveckem (Unlocking with a single word) [0:32]
28) 3. Cesta k milé (Journey to the Beloved) [1:23]
29) 4. Chodnícek (The Footpath) [0:31]
30) 5. U mamenky (At Motherns) [1:12]
31) 6. Sen panny Marie (The Virgin Maryns Dream) [1:33]
32) 7. Rozmaryn (Rosemary) [1:03]
Nové slovenské písne (New Slovak Songs)
33) 2. Povedz ze mi, povedz (So tell me) [2:33]
34) 8. Mala som já rukávce (I had a blouse) [1:15]
Leos Janácek (1854 - 1928)
Moravská lidová poesie v písních (Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs)
35) 17. Komu kytka (Who Is the Posy For?) [1:29]
36) 5. Obrázek milého (A Loverns Picture) [0:53]
37) 19. Pérecko (Little Posy) [1:24]
38) 16. Stálost (Constancy) [1:05]
39) Láska (Love) [1:16]
40) 38. Loucení (Parting) [1:25]
41) 18. Konícky milého) [0:57]
Antonín Dvorák (1841 - 1904)
42) Dobrú noc, má mila (Good night, my darling) V náradním tónu (In Folk Tone) [3:38]

Magdalena Kozená
Graham Johnson

2000 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
1 CD DDD
463 4722 GH

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Magdalena Kožená FRENCH ARIAS

The Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená has, in a short period of time, become a leading light among the younger generation of concert and opera singers. She has established a formidable reputation as a Baroque and Classical specialist, having recorded a Bach aria recital for Archiv and taking part in Marc Minkowski's complete recordings of Gluck's Armide, Rameau's Dardanus, and a couple of Handel discs: Roman liturgical music, including the popular Dixit Dominus, and a selection of rarely recorded Italian cantatas. Although her first release on the Yellow Label was an album of songs by composers from her native country - Dvorák, Janácek, and Martinù - her first opera recital, coupling Mozart and Gluck with their contemporary and Kožená's compatriot Josef Myslivecek, may have reinforced the specialist image, so it was clearly time for a new departure. When I met her in London recently, I asked her why French opera?

"Well, the record company wanted something a bit more modern than the Baroque and Classical repertoire I'd already been doing, and 19th-century Italian opera is not really for me. I would love to do another Czech record, but most of the operas need big Slavonic, almost Wagnerian soprano voices, so unfortunately there is nothing for me there either. So a French disc seemed like a good idea and, in a way, this is a step in the direction of French roles. I don't just want to be typecast as only a Baroque singer. I want to show people that I can do other things. Maybe it's hard to imagine if you have only heard me in Handel or a Liederabend."

At the beginning of her career at the opera house in Brno, Kožená's first roles were Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan tutte and Isabella in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri - a part she now thinks is too low for a voice which is edging towards the soprano repertoire - and there was little opportunity for her to sing French music. That changed when she met Minkowski, who, apart from his vast knowledge of the Baroque repertoire, has a deep affection for French opera and operetta: in the theatre he has already conducted works as various as Boïeldieu's La Dame blanche, Offenbach's Orphée aux Enfers, and Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (he chose Kožená as the heroine of both his stage production in Leipzig and a concert performance at the Opéra Comique for the opera's 100th anniversary in 2002).

Daniel François Esprit Auber (1782 - 1871)
Le Domino noir
1) Je suis sauvée enfin - Ah! quelle nuit - Flamme vengeresse [6:30]
Charles Gounod (1818 - 1893)
Cinq Mars
2) Nuit resplendissante [5:27]
Roméo et Juliette
3) Depuis hier je cherche en vain mon maître [3:45]
Jules Massenet (1842 - 1912)
Cléopatre
4) "J'ai versé le poison dans cette coupe d'or" [3:59]
Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901)
Don Carlos
5) Choeur et Scène: "Sous ces bois au feuillage immense" [3:32]
6) Chanson du Voile: "Au palais des fées" [4:23]
Hector Berlioz (1803 - 1869)
La Damnation de Faust, Op.24
7) Le roi de Thulé (Chanson gothique). "Autrefois un roi de Thulé" [5:03]
Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937)
L'heure espagnole, Comédie en un acte
8) Oh! la pitoyable aventure! (Scenes XVII-XIX) [3:15]
Jules Massenet (1842 - 1912)
Don Quichotte
9) Lorsque le temps d'amour a fui - Par fortune - Alza! Alza! Ne pensons qu'au plaisier [6:46]
Ambroise Charles Louis Thomas (1811 - 1896)
Mignon
10) Connais-tu le pays? [5:25]
François-Adrien Boiëldieu (1775 - 1834)
La Dame blanche
11) Chut! Chut! écoutons [4:23]
Charles Gounod (1818 - 1893)
Sapho - opera in 3 Acts
12) Où suis-je?...O ma lyre immortelle [7:19]
Jacques Offenbach (1819 - 1880)
Les Contes d'Hoffmann
13) Voyez - la sous son éventail [3:54]
Jules Massenet (1842 - 1912)
Cendrillon - opera in 4 acts
14) Ah! que mes soeurs sont heureuses! [8:50]
Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875)
Carmen
15) Chanson: "Les tringles des sistres tintaient" [4:19]

2003 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg

1 CD DDD

474 2142 GH

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PASSWORD: elhenry.MusicIsTheKey

Magdalena Kožená LE BELLE IMMAGINI

Cautious without being hesitant, self-confident with no trace of presumption, she's become a star in the briefest time with her "exceptionally musical mezzo-soprano, sweet and tangy in its timbre" (said the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel). Music is her world, singing her language. Magdalena Kožená, Deutsche Grammophon's beautiful exclusive artist, is already being confronted with the torments of having to choose - both in the international opera and concert scene and in the studios of the Yellow Label. She began her recording career in 1997 with Bach arias, followed it in 2000 with an album of songs by her compatriots Dvorák, Janácek and Martinu - which recently received the coveted Gramophone Award - and one of Handel's Italian cantatas, and now she's set herself on the trail of a late-18th-century Bohemian composer with the tongue-twisting name of Myslivecek. "Czech music lovers know Myslivecek's symphonies very well indeed. And musicologists have even unearthed his long-forgotten operas. Of course, he's nowhere near as popular as Mozart," Magdalena Kožená adds, "but there have already been performances at the National Theatre in Prague and the Brno Opera!"

Myslivecek is therefore celebrating a sort of modern premiere outside his native land in Magdalena Kožená's latest album. And that's saying something: the Bohemian composer who lived in Italy, and whose music stands clearly between Gluck and Mozart, could hardly have wished for a more committed advocate than the Czech mezzo. "With all their italianità, one hears Slavic echoes in his melodies. At a time when most composers wrote à la mode, that lent him a special distinction and earned him the nickname Il divino boemo." And that is just how he sounds - divine, with a hint of Bohemia about him. "But in comparison with the other two composers on the new album - Gluck and Mozart - he naturally has the most traditional style," the singer concedes, "although, like the other two, he made a real contribution to the reform of Baroque opera."

Mozart, Gluck, Myslivecek: the three composers brought together here weren't just contemporaries; they also shared in Prague a geographical point of reference. Myslivecek and Gluck studied in the "Golden City" on the Moldau, and Mozart celebrated some of his greatest triumphs there. There were also personal connections, for example the moving story of Mozart's visit to the sickbed of Myslivecek in a Munich sanatorium, about which he wrote to his father in such consternation. In fact, Myslivecek is mentioned frequently in Mozart's correspondence, and he was a close friend of Wolfgang Amadeus and Leopold Mozart for many years, ever since their first encounter in Bologna in 1770. (Myslivecek's oratorio Abramo ed Isacco was even attributed to Mozart by scholars at one time!) Gluck and Mozart not only both spent their final years in Vienna, but also set - some 40 years apart - the same text by the famous librettist Metastasio: La clemenza di Tito. Magdalena Kozená compares Mozart's opera, which incidentally had its premiere in 1791 at the National Theatre in Prague, with Gluck's version, now utterly and unjustly neglected; and - lo and behold! - Gluck passes the exam with highest honours. (Stanislav Bohadlo)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
La clemenza di Tito, K.621
1) "Parto, ma tu ben mio" [5:57]
Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714 - 1787)
Paride ed Elena
2) "Le belle immagini" [3:43]
Josef Myslivecek (1737 - 1781)
Abramo ed Isacco Oratorio (Isacco figura del Redentore)
3 Qui per pietà mi dice - Deh! Parlate, parlate [6:02]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
Le nozze di Figaro, K.492
4) "Voi che sapete" [2:50]
Josef Myslivecek (1737 - 1781)
Antigona
5) Sarò qual è il torrente [7:33]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
Idomeneo, re di Creta, K.366
6) Ah, qual gelido orror - Il padre adorato [3:21]
Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714 - 1787)
Paride ed Elena
7) "O del mio dolce ardor" [2:47]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
Lucio Silla, K.135
8 "Dunque sperar poss'io"/"Il tenero momento" [9:33]
La finta giardiniera, K.196
9) Va pure ad altri in braccio [3:06]
Josef Myslivecek (1737 - 1781)
L'Olimpiade
10) Dunque Licida ingrato - Più non si trovano [4:40]
Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714 - 1787)
La Clemenza di Tito (Wq. 16)
11) Se mai senti spirarti sul volto [8:41]
Josef Myslivecek (1737 - 1781)
L'Olimpiade
12) Che non mi disse [3:15]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
La clemenza di Tito, K.621
13) "Deh per questo istante solo" [6:38]
Magdalena Kožená

Prague Philharmonia

Michel Swierczewski

2001 Deutsche Grammophon Gmbh, Hamburg

1 CD DDD

471 3342 GH

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PASSWORD: elhenry.MusicIsTheKey

Monteverdi VESPRO DELLA BEATA VERGINE

In 1610, Claudio Monteverdi published his Missa...ac Vespere for feasts of the Blessed Virgin. Its dedication to Pope Paul V and its ambitious scope suggest that the composer was looking to expand his horizons beyond his current position as master of the court chamber music to Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga of Mantua. The Mass, which parodies a motet (“In illo tempore”) by the long-dead Franco-Flemish composer Nicholas Gombert, is in what would have been recognized as an “old” contrapuntal style typical of the musical Renaissance. However, we usually, if perhaps wrongly, tend to associate the Vespers with the flamboyant musical Baroque.

Vespers is the principle evening service of the Office, and in early 17th-century Italy on special feasts it was often celebrated with large-scale music. The format is laid down by the liturgy: an introit, five psalms each framed by a plainsong antiphon, a hymn, and the Magnificat (again framed by an antiphon), plus other versicles and responses. The bigger churches, especially those with significant musical resources, would usually treat Vespers as an opportunity to combine voices and instruments, plainchant with polyphony, and large-scale psalm settings for the cappella with smaller-scale motets for one, two, or three voices, organ music or instrumental sonatas. These motets and sonatas could stand apart or could substitute for one of the two statements of an antiphon; in either case, they provided further opportunity for affective or meditative music. The 1610 print provides the basic materials for such a celebration, if not quite in the manner one might expect.

Monteverdi’s Vespers has also played a significant role in the early-music revival of the past century, often being regarded as a test piece challenging ensembles large and small to prove their mettle. As a result, it has become hard to separate modern myths from early 17th-century realities. Paul McCreesh has a strong sense of both, and a powerful vision of what we might still learn about the greatest piece of sacred music of its time.

CD 1:
Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643)
Vespro della Beata Vergine
1) Domine ad adiuvandum a 6 [1:51]
2) Antiphona ad Psalmum 109: Missus est Angelus Gabriel [0:35]
3) Psalmus I: Dixit Dominus a 6 [7:05]
4) Nigra sum a 1 [3:18]
5) Antiphona ad Psalmum 112: Ave Maria gratia plena [0:40]
6) Psalmus II: Laudate, pueri Dominum a 8 [5:47]
Giovanni Paolo Cima (1570 - 1622)
7) Canzon quarta: La Pace [1:36]
Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643)
Vespro della Beata Vergine
8) Antiphona ad Psalmum 121: Ne timeas Maria [0:50]
9) Psalmus III: Laetatus sum a 6 [6:25]
Ercole Pasquini (circa 1550 - )
10) Toccata [1:45]
Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643)
Vespro della Beata Vergine
11) Antiphona ad Psalmum 126: Dabit ei Dominus [0:46]
12) Psalmus IV: Nisi Dominus a 10 [4:23]
Adriano Banchieri (1568 - 1634)
L'organo suonarino
13) Organ: Dialogo secondo [1:10]
Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643)
Vespro della Beata Vergine
14) Antiphona ad Psalmum 147: Ecce ancilla Domini [0:38]
15) Psalmus V: Lauda Jerusalem a 7 [4:03]
16) Pulchra es a 2 [4:05]

CD 2:
Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643)
Vespro della Beata Vergine
1) Antiphona ad "Ave Maris stella": Ecce virgo concipiet [0:30]
2) Ave maris stella a 8 [9:28]
3) Versicle after "Ave maris stella": Ave Maria gratia plena [0:15]
4) Antiphona ad Magnificat: Spiritus sanctus in te descendet [0:42]
5) Magnificat I a 7 - Magnificat anima mea [0:34]
6) Magnificat I a 7 - Et exultavit [1:03]
7) Magnificat I a 7 - Quia respexit [1:48]
8) Magnificat I a 7 - Quia fecit [1:08]
9) Magnificat I a 7 - Et misericordia [2:14]
10) Magnificat I a 7 - Fecit potentiam [0:58]
11) Magnificat I a 7 - Deposuit potentes [2:25]
12) Magnificat I a 7 - Esurientes implevit [1:26]
13) Magnificat I a 7 - Suscepit Israel [1:25]
14) Magnificat I a 7 - Sicut locutus est [0:47]
15) Magnificat I a 7 - Gloria Patri et Filio [2:37]
16) Magnificat I a 7 - Sicut erat in principio [1:35]
17) Sonata sopra Sancta Maria a 1 [6:39]
18) Post Magnificat: Dominus vobiscum - Deus qui de beatae Mariae virginis [0:57]
19) Ante Duo Seraphim: Dominus vobiscum - Alleluia [0:47]
20) Duo seraphim a 3 [5:42]
21) Fidelium animae [0:17]
James Johnstone
22) Free Improvisation [0:48]
Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643)
Vespro della Beata Vergine
23) Audi coelum a 8 [8:15]
24) Conclusio: Divinum auxilium [0:29]

Gabrieli Consort
Gabrieli Players
Paul McCreesh

2006 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
2 CD DDD
477 6147 AH2

You can download here: CD One / CD Two

PASSWORD: elhenry.MusicIsTheKey

Anne Sofie von Otter HANDEL Marian Cantatas & Arias

In his notes to this recording, the conductor Reinhard Goebel draws attention to the final item, the cantata Il pianto di Maria, partly as ''the major work in this issue'', partly as not being by Handel at all. Though its attribution has long been suspect on stylistic grounds, as stated in Grove, the identification of the composer as Giovanni Battista Farrandini is a very recent piece of work, that of four scholars whose findings were published in the Gottingen Handel-Beitrage only this year. Goebel instances a number of characteristics as Handelian, the dramatically abrupt ending with a recitativo accompagnato for example. But much else is really somewhat crude, or at least musically simple-minded, as when a ''relentless drumming bass'' persists throughout the aria which is described as the ''musical emotional heart of the work''. Ferrandini, an admired composer in the mid-eighteenth century, was the writer of numerous operas and cantatas, none of them represented in the current record catalogues. The Marian cantata whose misattribution has secured him a place at last suggests that he may not deserve the oblivion into which he has nevertheless understandably fallen.
Of the others, Haec est regina virginum, a courtly aria with instantly memorable melody, has been recorded previously by Emma Kirkby. Ah! che troppo ineguali and its fine B minor aria belong to the same period (the autograph is dated 1708) and are thought to be part of a larger cantata imploring the Virgin to bring peace out of the War of the Spanish Succession. Donna, che in ciel di tanta luce splendi is a full-length cantata and the masterpiece in this recital. The introductory Sinfonia captures attention imperatively with its grandeur and turbulence. Then the succession of recitatives and arias, unfailingly alive with dramatic imagination, provides superb opportunities for the singer, all of which are taken here with well-grounded eagerness.
The singing is indeed admirable in beauty of tone, technical accomplishment and vividness of expression. Von Otter is a fine witness in support of Goebel's belief that as the castrati are extinct we do better with a female soprano than with a falsettist (that is his term for the alternative), and we should not require her to sound like a boy. I can accept all that. What I can't be doing with is all this lurching of the string players on their original instruments: all these hairpins, opening out, thrust forward then pulled back again till the notion of standing upright and moving evenly has become a dim memory. The very first bars of all will illustrate: the thought of them makes me sea-sick.' (Gramophone 7/1994)

George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759)
1) Haec est Regina virginum [4:45]
Ah! che troppo ineguali HWV 230
2) Recitativo: "Ah! che troppo ineguali" [1:02]
3) Aria / Adagio: "O del ciel Maria regina" [9:20]
Donna, che in ciel di tanta luce splendi HWV 233
4) Introduzione [4:09]
5) (Recitativo:) "Donna, che in ciel di tanta luce splendi" [1:01]
6) (Aria:) "Vacillò, per terror del primo errore" [6:00]
7) (Recitativo accompagnato:) "Torna immobile in grembo" [1:43]
8) (Aria) Adagio: "Tu sei la bella serena stella" [8:13]
9) (Recitativo:) "Pur nella via che resta" [0:37]
10) (Aria) Allegro: "Sorga pure dall'orrido averno" [2:39]
11) (Recitativo:) "Dunque a te diamo lodi" [0:42]
12 (Aria con coro:) "Maria, salute e speme" [4:42]
Il pianto di Maria: "Giunta l'ora fatal" HWV 234
13) (Recitativo:) "Giunta l'ora fatal dal ciel prescritta" [2:08]
14) Cavatina: "Se d'un Dio fui fatta Madre" [3:35]
15) (Recitativo accopmpagnato:) "Ah me infelice!" & Cavatina da capo [5:37]
16) (Recitativo:) "Ahimè ch'Egli già esclama ad alta voce" [1:09]
17) (Aria:) "Sventurati miei sospiri" [7:26]
18) (Recitativo accompagnato:) "Sì disse la gran Madre" [2:14]
19) (Aria:) "Pari all'amor immenso" [8:09]
20) (Recitativo accompagnato:) "Or se per grande orror tremò la terra" [0:53]

Anne Sofie von Otter
Musica Antiqua Köln
Reinhard Goebel

1994 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg

1 CD DDD

439 8662 AH

ARCHIV Produktion

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