Andras Schiff J.S. BACH Goldberg Variations BWV 988

Among recordings of Bach's monumental "Goldberg Variations" on the piano, András Schiff's 1982 set is justly famous. Unlike so many discs that have been issued in tired series designated "legendary recordings" or some other such term, this one fully lives up to the billing with its incredible delineation of Bach's contrapuntal lines. You hear every note, every hidden piece of the inner clockwork of each variation. Sample variation 14, with its trills erupting sharply from each line like spring flowers blooming with freakishly rapid intensity -- nobody else has ever given this variation such a glittering quality. Even as Schiff uses the full resources of the piano, with lots of pedal and thoroughly unidiomatic crescendos, he articulates every note Bach wrote. Schiff sets himself technical challenges and then surmounts them. Beginning with the opening Aria he sets a blistering pace -- one that may seem too fast, especially in the slow variations, to those raised on Glenn Gould's dreamy readings. But listen to the high-wire act Schiff performs in the canonic variation 21. The intensity is ramped up by the fact that Schiff often barely pauses between variations; one idea follows another, from both Bach and Schiff, with breakneck speed.

Yet sometimes he does pause. This brings the listener to another aspect of Schiff's bravura performance. Even as he seems, unlike Gould, to shun the interposition of a performer's ego between the listener and the work, he is actually superimposing a new grouping of the variations upon Bach's own. The nine canons (one at each interval from a unison to a ninth) interspersed among the variations seem naturally to conclude groups of three, just as fugues come after preludes in the Bachian scheme of things. In Schiff's reading, however, the canons often seem to serve an introductory function. Hear the pair of variations 9 and 10, which Schiff makes into a unique two-part contrapuntal structure, bearing down in the fughetta, variation 10, and constantly raising the dynamic level as it proceeds to create a subsidiary climax. Afterwards comes a long pause. The concept sounds risky in the extreme, but Schiff has the discipline and logic to pull it off. Other pairs embedded in the larger structure of the work are just as unexpected, and just as brilliantly executed.

All in all, this is a performance of the "Goldberg Variations" that you have to hear to believe. Is Schiff, to some extent, building castles in the air and leaving Bach's music below? Perhaps -- but what could be more beautiful than a castle in the air surveying the landscape of the "Goldberg Variations"? This performance certainly has the whirlwind, racing-ahead-of-you quality that the efforts of supremely talented young artists sometimes evince, but, equally certainly, it is one of the landmark classical recordings of the last quarter of the twentieth century. (James Manheim)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)

Aria mit verschiedenen Veränderungen (Goldberg-Variationen) BWV 988

1) Aria

Variato 1. a 1 Clav.

Variato 2. a 1 Clav.

Variato 3. Canone all'Unisono. a Clav.

Variato 4. a 1 Clav.

Variato 5. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav. [11:41]

2) Variato 6. Canone alla Seconda. a Clav.

Variato 7. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav.

Variato 8. a 2 Clav.

Variato 9. Canone alla Terza. a 1 Clav.

Variato 10. Fughetta a 1 Clav. [7:43]

3) Variato 11. a 2 Clav.

Variato 12. Canone alla Quarta. a 1 Clav.

Variato 13. a 2 Clav.

Variato 14. a 2 Clav.

Variato 15. Canone alla Quinta. a 1 Clav. [14:02]

4) Variato 16. Ouverture. a 1 Clav.

Variato 17. a 2 Clav.

Variato 18. Canone alla Sexta. a 1 Clav.

Variato 19. a 1 Clav.

Variato 20. a 2 Clav. [9:18]

5) Variato 21. Canone alla Settima. a 2 Clav.

Variato 22. a 1 Clav.

Variato 23. a 2 Clav.

Variato 24. Canone all'Ottava. a 1 Clav.

Variato 25. a 2 Clav. [15:31]

6) Variato 26. a 2 Clav.

Variato 27. Canone alla Nona. a 2 Clav

Variato 28. a 2 Clav.

Variato 29. a 1 ô vero 2 Clav.

Variato 30. Quodlibet. a 1 Clav.

Aria [14:00]

Andras Schiff, piano

1986 The Decca Record Company Limited, London

1 CD DDD

417 116 - 2 LH

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BRAHMS Symphonie No. 1

Brahms composed this work between 1855 and 1876. Otto Dessoff led a "tryout" first performance in Karlsruhe, Germany, on November 4, 1876. At Düsseldorf in 1854-1856 — where he helped Clara Schumann with her seven children while terminally mad Robert, her husband, wasted away in an asylum — the young Brahms undertook on two separate occasions to sketch a symphony. By the end of 1858, one set of sketches had been assimilated into the First Piano Concerto, that gargantuan "serious" piece with Baroque underpinnings, in the tradition of Beethoven's Grosse Fuge and "Hammerklavier" Sonata. Sketches for a C major Allegro movement, in sonata form and 6/8 time, were saved for subsequent expansion and development. When, in 1862, he showed the results to now-widowed Clara, she expressed admiration but also concern that it ended too abruptly. For the next 12 years, Brahms kept this music close at hand. Finally, in 1874, he willed himself to complete the First Symphony that friends and admirers (beginning with Schumann in 1853, shortly after their first meeting) had been urging him to compose.
He polished the Allegro of 1855-1862, now in C minor, then wrote a solemn introduction hinting at themes already 12-20 years old. These included a recurring motto of three ascending semitones, repeated in the slow movement. Having created a horse to pull the cart, Brahms addressed the middle movements: one slow (Andante moderato, in E major, then C sharp minor), the other quasi-scherzoid (Un poco allegretto e grazioso, pleasant and graceful, in A flat, F minor, and finally B major), respectively in triple and duple meters. Certain kinds of performance can make the central movements sound out-of-place, which is not meant, however, to impugn their intrinsic quality. Both exemplify a master of musical art in his time, who had reached a rarefied synthesis of conflicting creative forces. Their substance and style bespeak maturity no less than the monumental finale created to trump them. There an ominous preface in C minor leads to a C major Allegro non troppo ma con brio (not too quickly but spiritedly), which remains in 4/4 time until a climactic alla-breve acceleration into the coda.
Brahms' decade of residence in Vienna had smoothed as well as ripened him: the middle movements could be called Schubertian, by way of Schumann. The finale, however, pays homage to the Germany's Baroque masters: Scheidt, Froberger, Buxtehude, Bach, and expatriated Handel. Simultaneously it honors the symphonic architectonics of Beethoven without regressing. Although he belonged to the generation that succeeded Chopin and Schumann, Brahms liberated music as much as they from the traditional Germanic tyrannies of bar-lines, four- and eight-bar phrasing, downbeat accents, and rhythmic squareness. While none of the music by his colleagues sounded richer (not even Bruckner's with augmented winds and brass), Brahms achieved his ends with astonishingly simple means — the basic Beethoven orchestra, sans bass drum, cymbals, or piccolo — plain to the point of abstemiousness on paper, but inimitably sonorous in performance. (Roger Dettmer)

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68
1) I: Un poco sostenuto - Allegro (16:58)
2) II: Andante sostenuto (8:45)
3) III: Un poco allegretto e grazioso (4:45)
4) IV: Adagio - Più andante - Allegro non tropo ma con brio (16:00)
5) Tragic Overture, Op. 81 (12:17)
6) Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 (10:09)

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Eugen Jochum

1977 Original sound recording made by EMI Records Ltd. This compilation and digital remastering 1989 by EMI Records Ltd.
1 CD ADD
CDZ 62604 2

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Gustavo Dudamel LA Philharmonic BERLIOZ Symphonie Fantastique

1830. Paris. Hector Berlioz, aged 26, is experiencing even more intense shocks to his psyche than is normally the case in the anything but placid life of the arch-Romantic composer. “I have just been plunged into an endless, insatiable passion,” he wrote to his friend Humbert Ferrand. “She is still in London, and yet I feel her near.” The “she” was Harriet Smithson, an Irish Shakespearean actress of reportedly modest professional endowments but considerable personal magnetism.

Smithson, after a period of indifference, which worked its way up to mild curiosity, then qualified interest and presumably a stage well beyond, married her wild-eyed suitor in 1833. The union proved stormy and ultimately intolerable to both parties. (The fact that she never learned to speak more than minimal French and he never learned English may have caused some misunderstandings.) Berlioz was initially, when still a Smithson observer rather than an intimate, “paralyzed by passion” (his words) for her. He was beginning “a great symphony” when the fit of passion overtook him and froze all creativity.
Smithson’s arrival in Paris a few weeks later occasioned a thaw and work began on the first version of the Symphonie fantastique, completed in April of 1830.
The premiere had been scheduled, long before the work’s conclusion, to take place in May. But the score was still incomplete when the fatal date approached. Thus, the composer “worked in a frenzy” (again, his words), borrowing bits from his other scores and leaving in portions he had planned to revise later. (Herbert Glass)

Hector Berlioz (1803 - 1869)
Symphonie fantastique, Op.14
1) 1. Rêveries. Passions (Largo - Allegro agitato ed appassionato assai) [14:57]
2) 2. Un bal (Valse: Allegro non troppo) [6:40]
3) 3. Scène aux champs (Adagio) [17:59]
4) 4. Marche au supplice (Allegretto non troppo) [6:39]
5) 5. Songe d'une nuit du Sabbat (Larghetto - Allegro - Ronde du Sabbat: Poco meno mosso) [9:43]
6) Upbeat Live - pre-concert lecture [4:53]

Los Angeles Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel

2008 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
1 CD DDD
477 7822 6 GHD

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MAHLER Symphonie No. 2

Pierre Boulez's ever-illuminating Mahler cycle, which began in the mid-1990s, has saved the composer's grand vocal-orchestral works for last, ticking off in recent years the Third and Fourth Symphonies, Das Lied von der Erde, and now the Second Symphony, with its exalted choral culmination. (The only remaining work is the Eighth, the most "vocal" of all.) You'd expect this conductor to feel more of an affinity for the bleak modernism of a work like Mahler's Ninth, compared to the epic Romanticism that pervades the monumental "Resurrection" Symphony, but Boulez has clearly come to terms with this score, which receives a spectacularly dramatic performance here. The Vienna Philharmonic, as always, contributes a full-bodied orchestral luster to Mahler's music, and Boulez elicits a special vehemence from the orchestra in the moments of crisis -- the opening movement's development section and the traumatic climax of the Scherzo. In the symphony's second half, however, it's the singers' superb contributions that impress most: Michelle DeYoung has just the "earth mother" type of alto voice that "O röschen rot!" calls for, and when she's joined by soprano Christine Schäfer's soaring soprano and the Vienna Singverein, the finale goes over the top, just as it must. Refuting yet again the idea that this conductor values clinical precision over expression, Boulez gives in to the sublime grandeur of Mahler's rhetoric and serves up one of the most viscerally exciting of the Second Symphony's recent recordings. (Scott Paulin)

Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911)
Symphony No.2 in C minor - "Resurrection"
1) 1. Allegro maestoso. Mit durchaus ernstem und feierlichem Ausdruck [20:55]
2) 2. Andante moderato. Sehr gemächlich [9:17]
3) 3. Scherzo: In ruhig fliessender Bewegung [9:27]
4) 4. "O Röschen rot! Der Mensch liegt in grösster Not!" (Sehr feierlich aber schlicht) Text from Des Knaben Wunderhorn: "Urlicht" [5:36]
5) 5. Im Tempo des Scherzo - Langsam misterioso [35:22]

Christine Schäfer
Michelle DeYoung
Wiener Philharmoniker
Pierre Boulez
Wiener Singverein
Johannes Prinz

2006 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
1 CD DDD
477 6004 7 GH

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Gil Shaham / Göran Söllscher PAGANINI FOR TWO

A glance in Grove will reveal, if you didn't know it already, that Paganini wrote a great deal of guitar music both with and without the violin, bringing together the two instruments he played so well. Paganini played these works with the guitarist/violinist Luigi L.egnani who, it is said, finally protested that he always had the easy guitar parts, whilst Paganini enjoyed the violinistic limelight.
However, when Paganini produced his Grand Sonata and gave the violin part to Legnani the roles were doubly reversed; the violin plays such a minor role that it is usually omitted from performances; I can recollect only one other (now deleted) recording in which it appears! As a violinist was to hand he plays his part here, from which you may judge what is (not) lost when it is omitted. The guitar parts in the Six Sonatas, op. 3 are of student level—Segovia refused many invitations to play them—and could benefit from revision, as those in Opp. II and 17, adapted from the original piano parts, firmly suggest. The Sonata concerto/a finds the two instruments on a more even playing field, with the guitar often leading the way. This is not the music of Paganini wearing his devil's cloak but I would have liked a little more emotional fire and bite than is present in these polished and expressive performances. They are nevertheless clearly recorded, well annotated, and welcome. (JD, Gramophone, April 1994)

Nicolo Paganini (1782 - 1840)
Sonata concertata M.S. 2 per chitarra e violino in A major
1 Allegro spiritoso [7:50]
2 Adagio, assai espressivo [3:42]
3 Rondeau. Allegretto con brio, scherzando [2:40]
Sei sonate M.S. 27 (op.3) per violino e chitarra
Sonata n.1 - in A major
4 Larghetto [2:00]
5 Presto Variato - Variazione [1:18]
Sonata n.4 - in A minor
6 Andante largo [3:01]
7 Allegretto [1:27]
Sonata n.6 - in E minor
8 Andante [2:32]
9 Allegro vivo e spiritoso - Minore [1:51]
10 Grand Sonata M.S.3 per chitarra e violino - in A major [4:30]
Centone di sonate M.S.112 per violino e chitarra - Lettera A:
Sonata n.2 - in D major
11 Adagio cantabile [2:49]
12 Rondoncino. Andantino, Tempo di Polacca - Minore [4:10]
Sonata n.4 - in A major
13 Adagio cantabile [2:39]
14 Rondo. Andantino. Allegretto - Minore - Maggiore [5:51]
Cantabile M.S.109 - in D major
15 per violino e chitarra (pianoforte)
Sonata a preghiera M.S.23 - in F minor per violino IV corda e chitarra
16 1. Introduction. Allegro [2:46]
17 2. Thème. Tempo alla Marcia - [1:08]
18 Var. I - [0:58]
19 Var. II. Vigoroso - [1:13]
20 Var. III. [0:33]
21 3. Finale [0:31]
Allegro vivace a movimento perpetuo M.S.72 (op.11) in C major
22 per violino e chitarra [3:16]

Gil Shaham
Göran Söllscher

1993 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
1 CD DDD
437 8372 9 GH

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Anne-Sophie Mutter MOZART The Violin Sonatas

Anne-Sophie Mutter's celebration of the Mozart anniversary year has already offered extraordinary rewards: not only the complete violin concertos but also an album of piano trios that revealed those lesser-known works in their full magnitude. Mutter's "Mozart Project" concludes here with the most ambitious release of the bunch. While she excludes Mozart's juvenilia and other marginal works, Mutter and Lambert Orkis tackle the composer's mature violin sonatas, 16 in all, composed between 1778 and 1788. One of Mozart's achievements was to confer a true equality upon the two musicians -- previous "Sonatas for Piano and Violin" tended to be showcases primarily for the keyboard. When the piano does take the lead here, as in the variation movements that conclude the G Major Sonata, K. 379, and the F Major Sonata, K. 547, Orkis comes to the fore with a delicacy of carefully considered phrasing. But equal partnership or no, it's inevitably the violinist that we've really come to hear, and Mutter's excellence more than justifies her devotion to Mozart; not a note passes that hasn't been examined for its expressive potential, yet these performances are also marked by a robust warmth and wit. It's difficult to isolate highlights from these four discs -- which forego chronology to program a series of individually satisfying recitals -- but the Sonata in E-flat Major, K. 380, is wondrously captivating, especially in its rapt slow movement, and Mutter's self-professed fondness for the B-flat Major Sonata, K. 454, is apparent in the spirit and vigor of her playing. True, there's an almost daunting amount of music here, but wherever you choose to dip in, you won't regret a moment of it. (Scott Paulin)

CD 1:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
Sonata for Piano and Violin in F, K.376
1) 1. Allegro [4:49]
2) 2. Andante [6:16]
3) 3. Rondo (Allegretto grazioso) [5:53]
Sonata for Piano and Violin in E flat, K.302
4) 1. Allegro [5:07]
5) 2. Rondeau (Andante grazioso) [6:58]
Sonata for Piano and Violin in G, K.379
6) 1. Adagio - Allegro [7:34]
7) 2. Thema. Andantino cantabile - Var.I-V -Allegretto [9:18]
Sonata for Piano and Violin in B flat, K.454
8) 1. Largo - Allegro [6:59]
9) 2. Andante [8:31]
10) 3. Allegretto [6:38]

CD 2:
Sonata for Piano and Violin in A, K.305
1) 1. Allegro di molto [4:55]
2) 2. Tema con variazioni: Tema - Var. I/VI [9:49]
Sonata for Piano and Violin in B flat, K.378
3) 1. Allegro moderato [8:47]
4) 2. Andantino sostenuto e cantabile [6:40]
5) 3. Rondo (Allegro) [4:03]
Sonata for Piano and Violin in G, K.301
6) 1. Allegro con spirito [7:56]
7) 2. Allegro [5:23]
Sonata for Piano and Violin in E flat, K.481
8) 1. Molto allegro [7:04]
9) 2. Adagio [8:19]
10) 3. Allegretto (con variazioni) [7:04]

CD 3:
Sonata for Piano and Violin in C, K.296
1) 1. Allegro vivace [6:11]
2) 2. Andante sostenuto [5:31]
3) 3. Rondo (Allegro) [3:57]
Sonata for Piano and Violin in E flat, K.380
4) 1. Allegro [6:34]
5) 2. Andante con moto [9:05]
6) 3. Rondeau (Allegro) [4:28]
Sonata for Piano and Violin in F, "für Anfänger", K.547
7) 1. Andantino cantabile [4:10]
8) 2. Allegro [4:21]
9) 3. Tema (Andante) con variazioni [8:03]
Sonata for Piano and Violin in D, K.306
10) 1. Allegro con spirito [7:23]
11) 2. Andantino cantabile [6:04]
12) 3. Allegretto [6:53]

CD 4:
Sonata for Piano and Violin in C, K.303
1) 1. Adagio - Molto allegro [4:50]
2) 2. Tempo di minuetto [4:54]
Sonata for Piano and Violin in F, K.377
3) 1. Allegro [3:53]
4) 2. Tema (Andante) con variazioni [8:50]
5) 3. Tempo di menuetto [6:07]
Sonata for Piano and Violin in E minor, K.304
6) 1. Allegro [8:15]
7) 2. Tempo di minuetto [6:06]
Sonata for Piano and Violin in A, K.526
8) 1. Allegro molto [6:28]
9) 2. Andante [7:33]
10) 3. Presto [6:50]

Anne-Sophie Mutter
Lambert Orkis

2006 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
4 Compact Discs DDD
477 6318 5 GH 4

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Maria João Pires CHOPIN

Maria-João Pires' Chopin recital is not characterized by super-virtuoso, hyper-emotional playing, but her approach is deeply musical and profoundly expressive. Pires has put together an ingenious program, ranging from Chopin's masterful "B minor Piano Sonata" to the soulful "G minor Cello Sonata," and including the final sets of nocturnes, mazurkas and waltzes, as well as the magnificent "Polonaise-Fantaisie in A flat major." Throughout, Pires' playing is exemplary. Her technique is impeccable -- nary a note goes awry even in the "B minor Sonata"'s Molto vivace Scherzo -- but this is the least of her successes. More important is her balance of the composer's lyrical melodies with his chromatic harmonies, so that the expressivity of the melody is supported and enhanced, but never overshadowed by the intensity of the harmonies. Most important is Pires' uncanny ability to use phrasing and rubato without compromising the underlying rhythmic pulse of the music. The effortlessly flowing "C sharp minor Waltz, Op. 64/2," or the achingly beautiful "Mazurka in F minor, Op. 68/4," are fine examples of Pires' approach to Chopin. Cellist Pavel Gomziakov's ardent but restrained reading of the "Cello Sonata" ideally fits with Pires' playing. As always with this pianist, Deutsche Grammophon's sound is transparent and present. (James Leonard)

CD 1:
Frédéric Chopin (1810 - 1849)
Piano Sonata No.3 in B minor, Op.58
1) 1. Allegro maestoso [13:42]
2) 2. Scherzo (Molto vivace) [2:43]
3) 3. Largo [10:23]
4) 4. Finale (Presto non tanto) [5:48]
Deux Nocturnes, Op.62
5) 1. Nocturne in B (Andante) [7:25]
6) 2. Nocturne in E (Lento) [6:30]
Mazurka No.36 in A minor Op.59 No.1
7) Moderato [3:22]
8) Mazurka No.37 in A flat Op.59 No.2 [2:42]
9) Mazurka No.38 in F sharp minor Op.59 No.3 [3:36]

CD 2:
1) Polonaise No. 7 In A Flat Major, Op. 61 "Fantaisie" [14:03] 2) Mazurka No.39 in B Op.63 No.1 [2:05]
Mazurka No.40 in F minor Op.63 No.2
3) Lento [2:08]
Mazurka No.41 in C sharp minor Op.63 No.3
4) Allegretto [2:06]
Waltz No.6 in D flat, Op.64 No.1 -"Minute"
5) Molto vivace [1:57]
Waltz No.7 in C sharp minor, Op.64 No.2
6) Tempo giusto [3:16]
Waltz No.8 in A flat, Op.64 No.3
7) Moderato [3:31]
8) Mazurka No.45 in G minor Op.67 No.2 [1:38]
9) Mazurka No.47 in A minor Op.67 No.4 [2:26]
Cello Sonata in G minor, Op.65
10) 1. Allegro moderato [17:10]
11) 2. Scherzo (Allegro con brio) [5:36]
12) 3. Largo [3:56]
13) 4. Finale (Allegro) [7:12]
14) Mazurka No.51 in F minor Op.68 No.4 [2:31]

Maria João Pires
Pavel Gomziakov

2009 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
2 Compact Discs DDD
477 7483 9 GH2

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Lise de la Salle MOZART / PROKOFIEV

" Close your eyes and try to imagine a succession of tableaux...

First of all, three very different Mozartian worlds. A profound Mozart, sad and resigned, against a dark, heavy sky, in the rondo: a work from the end of his life, announcing Schumann or Schubert, a radical change from the classical form to which Mozart has accustomed us. Then make room for a more cheerful scene with the sonata, written by a nineteen-year-old Mozart, impulsive and brimming with hope. Here, the main challenge to the performer is to achieve a coherent evolution in these three movements, when the finale is astonishingly long in relation to the overall structure of the sonata itself; it is imperative not to lose the listener's attention! The variations on the well-known theme 'Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman', written on commission, show us a Mozart full of wit and humour: a real little gem, too often unfairly denigrated.
Imagine a series of vignettes featuring a young girl: now mocking, now laughing, now sorrowful. Mozart multiplies the use of compositional devices, with rhythmic delays and harmonic shifts, while conserving a breathtaking simplicity of style. He is enjoying himself, delighting in his skill.
Now imagine three utterly dissimilar worlds, created by Sergey Prokofiev. A youthful work influenced by the industrial era, by its implacably harsh, pitiless mentality: the Toccata. Close your eyes and imagine armoured tanks crushing everything in their path, an inflexible power and strength wholly devoid of humanity. In the second part of this work, Prokofiev adds sudden smacks, little slaps, ending on an explosion.
The essential difficult for the pianist confronted with this technically daunting piece is to play it in the image of the work itself, that is to say quite unwaveringly, thus becoming in his or her turn an implacable performer. In Sonata no.3, on the other hand, you may imagine folksongs resounding in the Russian countryside, a lively, rhythmic ballad; then a flawless blue horizon stretching as far as the eye can see in the Moderato. A bare steppe landscape under a pure sky, sometimes a few wisps of fog, a wintry atmosphere. Finally, plunge into the universe of the ballet with the six excerpts from Romeo and Juliet (selected from the complete set of ten in order to keep to the logic of the concert hall which is so important to me), imagining Rudolf Nureyev's famous choreography under this music. Behind a certain tension and an almost destructive willpower, an animality ('Montagues and Capulets'), sense the power of human feelings of love ('Romeo bids Juliet farewell'). Here is the ideal illustration of a musical voyage in which we can find the soul of the story note for note in the music.
Mozart and Prokofiev composed these piano works with a fascinating clarity and precision which never excludes lyricism. Their extremely classical style, with its limpid melodic line, evolves from bar to bar; a great lyrical impulse, a broad phrase in which the music takes on a more carnal aspect, then we return to the initial precision. These are two very special and touching musical voyages." (Lise de la Salle)

CD 1:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
1) Rondò in La Minore, K. 511
Piano Sonata in Re Maggiore, K. 284
2) Allegro
3) Rondo en Polonaise: Andante
4) Thema: Andante
5) Variation I
6) Variation II
7) Variation III
8) Variation IV
9) Variation V
10) Variation VI
11) Variation VII
12) Variation VIII
13) Variation IX
14) Variation X
15) Variation XI: Adagio Cantabile
16) Variation XII: Allegro
Dodici Variazioni in Do Maggiore Su "Ah: Vous Dirai-Je, Maman", K. 265
17) Thema
18) Variation I
19) Variation II
20) Variation III
21) Variation IV
22) Variation V
23) Variation VI
24) Variation VII
25) Variation VIII
26) Variation IX
27) Variation X
28) Variation XI
29) Variation XII

CD 2:
Serge Prokofiev (1891-1953)
1) Toccata, Op. 11
2) Piano Sonata No. 3 in Re Minore, Op. 28
From Romeo & Juliet, Op. 75
3) Juliet the Young Lady
4) Minuet
5) Masks
6) The Montagues and Capulets
7) Mercutio
8) Romeo Bids Juliet Farewell

2007 naïve
2 Compact Discs DDD

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Magdalena Kožená VIVALDI

In 1737 Vivaldi described himself in a letter as a “freelance entrepreneur"; yes, the composer of The Four Seasons, famous music even then, thought of himself first and foremost not as the violin virtuoso and pioneer of the solo concerto we know him as today, but as a man of the stage. And indeed, from the time of his first opera, Ottone in villa, produced in Vicenza in 1713, through to the final visit to Vienna in 1740-41 on which he died, he was one of northern Italy's busiest opera composers, mounting performances of his own works at the Sant'Angelo opera house in his native Venice, and travelling for productions in cities such as Rome, Florence, Milan, Mantua and Verona, as well as further afield to Vienna and Prague. He claimed (probably with some exaggeration) to have composed 94 operas, yet they failed to outlive him (fewer than 30 survive intact today), and it has only been in the last decade that his dramatic music has begun to make itself known to the modern listener, thanks to increased numbers of recordings and occasional staged productions.

For Magdalena Kožená, too, there was a discovery to be made when it was suggested that she and the Venice Baroque Orchestra follow up their first recording together (of Handel) with a selection of arias from Vivaldi's operas. “Andrea Marcon and the Venice Baroque have this music in their blood", she says, “and did some amazing things with it that I wasn't expecting. There is one aria, for example, 'Forse, o caro, in questi accenti', from Farnace, which, when they started playing it, made me immediately feel like I was in a gondola on a night-ride in Venice. It had that kind of magic about it.

"Magdalena Kožená admits to being drawn to this gentler side of Vivaldi's art, though for many people the first impression of his vocal music is of a dazzling virtuoso difficulty imported from his instrumental style and showing a fearsome disregard for the human weaknesses of singers. “Those pyrotechnics are always a nice challenge for me", says Kožená, “but I didn't put so many of those arias in, even though ones like 'Armatae face' (Juditha triumphans) or 'Nel profondo' (Orlando furioso) are masterpieces. They're fun to do, because it's a bit like the Olympics or something - you're wondering if you're going to make it or not.

"With Vivaldi's slow arias the challenge is rather one of simplicity, how to make something vital out of the often spare textures. “It's about the atmosphere of the moment", Magdalena Kožená explains. “They're rather impressionistic. You need to find one special mood and not worry about the meaning of each individual word; you have to get used to the idea of staying with that one mood for a while. It's very zen in that way, very calming. I like to listen to Vivaldi on a grey day because it's soothing and puts you more at one with nature."

It is hard not to make the obvious comparison here with Handel: Magdalena Kožená insists that while Vivaldi does not offer the same kind of emotional punch, that is not the point. “When I did the Handel recording there was huge drama. Handel really needs big extremes. But that wouldn't suit Vivaldi's music at all. It would be destroyed if you did too much to it. It's like Murano glass; if you do just one thing wrong it suddenly loses its magical perfection. Of course, you can't say that it's not emotional, but it's like in yoga when you're told to concentrate on one thing and be happy with it. Normally in music, as in other things, I like to look for huge contrasts, but I don't think that's right for Vivaldi. Even though these slow pieces are also opera arias with stories behind them, you have to find a single serene emotion in them and hold on to it. That's much more difficult than the virtuoso bit."

Magdalena Kožená says that she spent many hours choosing the arias for this programme, picking numbers from both the soprano and alto ranges which she felt showcased the variety of Vivaldi's approaches, a job made easier by their relative lack of familiarity. “I really felt free to choose the best music, because there were no old favourites that had to be included - there are no Vivaldi 'hits'!" Even so, she has a clear favourite among them in “Gelido in ogni vena" from Farnace. “It's a stunning masterpiece, absolutely out of this world. And it's one aria where it so happens that there is a lot of theatre. It's the moment when a father discovers that he has unknowingly given the command for his son to be killed, and now he's completely frozen with horror." Vivaldi's response seems to have been a highly personal one too: with the text describing the singer's blood running cold, he borrows music from the chilling opening movement of the “Winter" from The Four Seasons.

Vivaldi opera recital discs are still a rare commodity, so any one of them is likely to be something of a journey into unknown territory. For Magdalena Kožená, however, the pleasure of discovery was enhanced by working with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, especially as, with no opportunity to perform these arias in concert before the recording, there was no time for the interpretations to become stale. “I was a bit scared about that, but I knew we would have a fantastic time making music together, and anyway, as Andrea said, it would probably be better that way as we would find a fantastic connection by doing things 'in the moment', keeping things fresh and spontaneous. He was right!" (Lindsay Kemp)

Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741)
Tito Manlio
Act 3
1) "Sonno, se pur sei sonno" [2:55]
Juditha Triumphans, R.644
Pars altera
2) "Armatae face" [3:23]
La verità in cimento
Act 1
3) Solo quella guancia bella [2:58]
Il Farnace
Act 2
4) Gelido in ogni vena [9:24]
Arsilda Regina di Ponto R.700 (1716)
Act 3
5) Tornar voglio al primo ardore [4:15]
Orlando furioso RV 728
Act 1
6) Sol da te, mio dolce amore [9:32]
Ottone in Villa
Act 2
7) Misero spirto mio [4:35]
Orlando furioso RV 728
Act 1
8) Nel profondo [4:08]
Il Farnace
Act 3
9) Forse o caro in questi accenti [7:23]
La verità in cimento
Act 3
10) Cara sorte di chi nata [4:26]
Griselda - dramma per musica
Act 1
11) Ho il cor già lacero [4:31]
L'incoronazione di Dario, R.719
Act 2
12) Non mi lusinga vana speranza [5:51]
L'Orlando Finto Pazzo
Act 3
13) Lo stridor, l'orror [4:13]
14 Anderò, volerò, griderò [1:56]
L'Olimpiade
Act 1
15) Mentre dormi, Amor formenti [7:57]

Magdalena Kozená
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Andrea Marcon

2009 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
1 CD DDD
477 8096 0 AH

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SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Quintet - Trio No. 1 - 5 Pieces

Many composers have discovered that the combination of piano, violin and cello is notoriously difficult to balance, and have struggled with the problem of giving full scope to each instrument without drowning the cello in its lower register, or letting the piano dominate the ensemble. Shostakovich, who had a perfect ear for instrumental textures, enjoyed confronting such challenges and composed two true piano trios at the beginning and middle of his career, and one piano trio with soprano (the Alexander Blok Romances) at the end. The three could hardly be more different in sound, texture and general effect.

The C minor Piano Trio was only published after Shostakovich’s death. He began it in August 1923 in the Crimea, where he was convalescing, and completed it soon afterwards in Petrograd. He dedicated the piece (which he also called Poème) to Tatyana Glivenko, an early love. It was first performed by the composer and two of his friends in December: Shostakovich’s younger sister recalled that they practised in a cinema and their sessions often doubled as an accompaniment to silent films. We can only imagine what the audience thought. The Trio comes from the time when Shostakovich was just seventeen, clearly the most brilliant student at the Petrograd Conservatory, and beginning to collect ideas for the symphony which three years later would bring him widespread attention in Russia and eventually international fame. It was a period when he was experimenting with a number of different musical approaches and in this work he was obviously determined to avoid any reference to a nineteenth-century piano trio sound. Shostakovich was a child of the revolution (however ironically he may have viewed it) and wanted to compose original music for an original society. The Trio is a compact work in a single movement, but containing a wide variety of tempos and musical characters in its well-crafted span.

The stimulus to write his Piano Quintet came to Shostakovich from the musicians of the Beethoven String Quartet, who had asked him for a work which they could all play together. It was his first major composition after the Sixth Symphony; he worked on it during the summer of 1940 and gave the first performance with the Beethoven Quartet in Moscow on 23 November that year. Shostakovich would certainly have been aware that he was composing in a medium which presents huge problems of balance and texture, and which even the most devoted composers of chamber music in the twentieth century have tended to ignore. That he so completely overcame these problems indicates not only the seriousness with which he approached the task, but more significantly the originality and inventiveness of his aural imagination: once this music has been heard, it is unthinkable to imagine it played by any other combination of instruments. The work is scored very economically; the full quintet is rarely employed (apart from in the frantic Scherzo) and the wide range of instrumental effects includes such expedients as frequently having the piano play at the very top or very bottom of its register, making a musical virtue of its notorious inability to blend well with stringed instruments.
The Prelude establishes three expressive areas — dramatic rhetoric, neo-classical dance rhythms and intense lyricism — and announces the scale on which the Quintet will evolve. Its themes are all found embryonically in this Prelude, and all of the subsequent movements quote from its first few bars in the most subtly different contexts. Unlike so many other Russian composers who have fought shy of extended counterpoint, Shostakovich demonstrates in the second movement how natural a means of expression it is for him, and how much emotional charge can be generated by the traditional scholarly devices associated with fugue. Nothing could be less scholarly in its impact, however, than the ensuing Scherzo, cheerfully poised between spiky wit and downright bad manners. It is something of a shock when the Intermezzo reestablishes seriousness. Despite its title, this is no lightweight interlude but a deep expression of the sombre currents which run through the Quintet. The formal weight of a sonata structure is reserved for the Finale. Its development section climaxes in an impassioned reference to the Prelude, but the recapitulation is surprisingly condensed, and the clownish second subject has barely re-appeared before the music thins out and brings itself to a close with a wryly conventional gesture. (Andrew Huth)

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

1) Applause [0.20]
2) Piano Trio No.1 in C Minor, op.8 [11.33]
Five Pieces for 2 violins and piano
3) I Prelude [2.44]
4) II Gavotte [1.38]
5) III Elegy [2.49]
6) IV Waltz [1.50]
7) V Polka [1.33]
Piano Quintet in G minor, op.57
8) I Prelude [4.21]
9) II Fugue [10.20]
10) III Scherzo [3.13]
11) IV Intermezzo – [6.52]
12) V Finale [7.19]
13) Applause [0.38]

Julian Rachlin, violin I

Janine Jansen, violin II

Yuri Bashmet, viola
Mischa Maisky, cello

Itamar Golan, piano

2007 Onyx

1 CD DDD

4026

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Gustavo Dudamel LA Philharmonic BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra

At the beginning of 1943, while he was delivering a series of lectures on folk music at Harvard University, Béla Bartók’s already fragile health took a drastic downturn, necessitating a battery of medical examinations. When these proved inconclusive, “the Harvard people persuaded me to go through another examination,” the composer wrote, “led by a doctor highly appreciated by them and at their expense. This had a certain result as an X-ray showed some trouble in the lungs which they believed to be [tuberculosis] and greeted with great joy: ‘at last we have the real cause!’ (I was less joyful at hearing this news.)”

After the composer returned to his home in New York, ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), “somehow got interested in my case,” he continues, “and decided to cure me at their expense…. They sent me to their doctors who again took me to a hospital. The new X-rays, however, showed a lesser degree of lung trouble... maybe not tuberculosis at all!... So, we have the same story again, doctors don’t know the real cause of my illness.”

While in the New York hospital, however, he was visited by Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston Symphony, who – at the behest of two of Bartók’s fellow Hungarian expatriates, violinist Joseph Szigeti and conductor Fritz Reiner – came with a commission for a work in memory of his recently deceased wife, Natalie Koussevitzky. Bartók accepted and produced the Concerto for Orchestra, his last completed work save for the Sonata for Solo Violin of 1944.

It was shortly after the meeting with Koussevitzky that leukemia, which was to prove fatal two years hence, was diagnosed; but the composer was kept in the dark. A wise decision, as it turned out, since during the subsequent months he regained strength and, obviously, creativity.

The score was written in only two months at the health resort of Saranac Lake in upstate New York and completed on October 8, 1943. The first performance, an enormous success with audience and critics, was given by the Boston Symphony under Koussevitzky on December 1, 1944.

The composer, in Boston for the premiere with his wife, Ditta Pásztory, reported: “We went there for the rehearsals and performances – after having obtained the grudgingly granted permission of my doctor for this trip.... The performance was excellent. Koussevitzky says it is the ‘best orchestra piece of the last 25 years’ (including the works of his idol, Shostakovich!).”

Bartók provided the following brief program note for the occasion:

“The general mood of the work represents, apart from the jesting second movement, a gradual transition from the sternness of the first movement and the lugubrious deathsong of the third, to the life-assertion of the last one... The title of this symphony-like orchestral work is explained by its tendency to treat the single orchestral instruments in a concertant or soloistic manner. The ‘virtuoso’ treatment appears, for instance, in the fugato sections of the development of the first movement (brass instruments), or in the perpetuum mobile-like passage of the principal theme in the last movement (strings), and especially in the second movement, in which pairs of instruments consecutively appear with brilliant passages.” (Herbert Glass)

Béla Bartók (1881 - 1945)

Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116
1) Introduction: Allegro non troppo
2) Giuoco delle coppie: Allegretto scherzando
3) Elegia: Andante non troppo
4) Intermezzo interrotto: Allegretto
5) Finale: Presto

L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra

Gustavo Dudamel

2007 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg

1 CD DDD

DG Concerts

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AN DIE MUSIK Das 4D-Konzert

...The development of digital technology revolutionized the record industry. The new medium of the compact disc made it possible to achieve brilliant sound without the surface noise associated with older recordings. Deutsche Grammophon was the first to enter the market, when Herbert von Karajan recorded Richard Strauss's "Eine Alpensinfonie" with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1981 - the first classical work to find its way on to compact disc.

"Everything else is gaslight" was Karajan's unambiguous verdict on digital recordings. His vote of approval became the battle cry in a worldwide campaign to promote the new medium. Only when it had won widespread acceptance with lovers of classical music could the compact disc embark on its triumphal progress through the world of pop music, too. Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft has always used the best and most advanced recording techniques and in doing so has followed the lead given by its founder, Emile Berliner, whose two inventions of the gramophone and the disc proved the decisive breakthrough in the mass production of sound equipment. Further stages in this development were the change from acid-etched zinc plates to wax recordings in 1901, the introduction of the shellac disc and, in 1922, the introduction of the "father-mother-son" process for matrix production.

In 1925 the development of electrical recording meant that the entire repertoire had to be recorded all over again - by no means the last time that this was to happen. High fidelity, stereophonic sound and magnetic tape were further milestones in the development of audio technology.

The next great leap forward in the history of recording technology was the introduction of digital recording, which has now helped to establish the compact disc as the leading sound storage medium. Once again, the complete repertoire has been recorded, thereby giving a new generation of artists a chance to preserve their performances for posterity. Deutsche Grammophon has refined this technology with its state-of-the-art 4D Audio Recording system. At the same time, high-tech developments such as 24-bit Surround Technology and Original-Image Bit-Processing are invariably placed in the service of the music and musicians.

All these innovations have been used by Deutsche Grammophon to ensure that works and performances are recorded and reproduced in the most natural way possible. In the process, an understanding of music is as indispensable as technical know-how. Already in the 1950s, Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft acknowledged the importance of the role of the Tonmeister or balance engineer by recognizing it as a distinct profession. Initiatives in this area were led by the producer Erich Thienhaus, who, in 1946, had helped to set up the Tonmeister-Institut in Detmold, Germany. Here balance engineers are professionally trained both in classical music and in acoustics and electrical engineering.

Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft has always used the best and most advanced recording techniques and in doing so has followed the lead given by its founder, Emile Berliner, whose two inventions of the gramophone and the disc proved the decisive breakthrough in the mass production of sound equipment. Further stages in this development were the change from acid-etched zinc plates to wax recordings in 1901, the introduction of the shellac disc and, in 1922, the introduction of the "father-mother-son" process for matrix production.

In 1925 the development of electrical recording meant that the entire repertoire had to be recorded all over again - by no means the last time that this was to happen. High fidelity, stereophonic sound and magnetic tape were further milestones in the development of audio technology.

Excerpts from:
Carl Orff (1895-1982)
Carmina Burana
1) O Fortuna [2:45]
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Symphony No. 5
2) 4th movement: Adagietto [9:45]
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
3) An die Musik [2:36]
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
The Nutcracker (Suite)
4) Waltz of the Flowers [6:26]
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Lyric Pieces
5) Wedding Day at Troldhaugen [5:13]
Richard Strauss [1864-1949]
Vier letzte Lieder
6) Im Abendrot [7:44]
Maurice Ravel [1875-1937]
Rapsodie espagnole
7) Habanera [3:28]
8) Feria [6:41]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart [1756-1791]
Le nozze di Figaro
9) Cavatina: "Se vuol ballare, signor Contino" (Act I) [2:28]
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
A Midsummer Night's Dream
10) Wedding March [5:08]
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Donna, che in ciel di tanta luce splendi HWV 233
11) Aria with chorus: "Maria, salute e speme" [4:41]
Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805)
String Quintet op. 11 (13) no. 5
12) Menuet (arr.: Mischa Maisky) [3:55]
Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)
Ruslan and Ludmila
13) Overture [4:43]
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
L'Oiseau de feu
14) Danse Infernale du roi Kachtcheï [3:54]
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Die Walküre
15) Walkürenritt (Act III) [4:48]


1994 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
1 CD DDD
445 809-2 GB


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THANKS TO OUR FRIEND FLAMEWOLF WHO KINDLY PROVIDED THIS ALBUM FROM HIS PERSONAL COLLECTION