La Passion Lemieux

This special project features the finest opera arias recorded by Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux for Naïve, ranging from Vivaldi, Handel and Mozart to Saint-Saëns, Massenet and Berlioz. It gathers tracks from 6 recordings released between 2003 and 2012, resulting from collaborations with some of the finest orchestras of the time: Il Complesso Barocco, Ensemble Matheus, Les Violons du Roy, Orchestre National de France. Only one motto for Marie-Nicole: passion!

Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4

“The expressive power Jurowski brings to both symphonies derives in large measure from the plasticity of his articulation of the musical line. Such plasticity might seem mannered were it not for the strong sense of forward momentum which informs his conducting here.” --Gramophone Magazine, March 2014

“There are plenty of good things in this new Carmina...Graf's tempos are also excellent - he draws a wider range of moods and colouration from this piece than most conductors...The choral passages are intelligently prepared and sung...Kennedy's roasted swan is one of the best you'll find.” --BBC Music Magazine, July 2014 ****

Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 were recorded live in concert at Royal Festival Hall in 2010 and 2011, receiving press reviews including ‘a performance of colossal proportions’ (The Guardian, No. 4).

In the Third, sweeping string melodies and autumnal colours interwoven with his recurring musical motto of ‘free but joyful’ create one of the composer’s most personal works. In the Fourth, Brahms looked back to his idols Bach and Beethoven for inspiration, creating a masterpiece whose extraordinary passacaglia finale – based on a Bach cantata – seems to sum up the composer’s symphonic mastery.

Madetoja: Symphony No. 2

“If you're new to Madetoja this is a good place to start; if you already possess the alternative versions...these are still worth investigating.” --Gramophone Magazine, April 2013

“These Madetoja scores are conducted with sharp insight and unfaltering authority. Under Storgårds’ baton the impeccably prepared Helsinki Philharmonic exhibit their commitment to the music. The playing glows with expressive force and a palpable sense of concentration.” --MusicWeb International, 21st May 2013

“Perhaps Sibelius's finest contemporary...It's vividly performed.” --BBC Music Magazine, June 2013 ****

Bach: Cello Sonatas

Bach wrote these sonatas, some of whose music presents a reworking of earlier trio compositions, for a partnership of viola da gamba and harpsichord. The G major and D major works adopt the four-movement sonata da chiesa scheme, whilst the G minor, organized more along the lines of a concerto, is in three movements. The harpsichord is treated as a concertante instrument almost throughout, whilst the viola da gamba writing reflects the virtuoso position which the instrument had reached in late-baroque German music. These are absorbingly interesting and emotionally satisfying works which reach their high-water mark in the expansive and very beautiful Sonata in G minor, BWV1029.

Most of the recordings on the market are performances on the instruments which Bach specifically asked for, but intelligent and expressive readings recently came from Yo-Yo Ma and Kenneth Cooper on CBS. Here is another which takes us a step, but a big step further from Bach's own sound-picture. Let me say at once that the playing of both artists is highly accomplished and is a true partnership throughout. The DG engineers have been careful not to give either instrument undue prominence over the other and that ensures both textural clarity and musical sense. Mischa Maisky is a fine a technician with an unerring ear for intonation and a good sense of phrase. Martha Argerich's Bach playing probably needs little in the way of introduction from me—her recording of the C minor Partita, BWV826, is one of the finest by a pianist that I am acquainted with (DG 2531 088, 3/80—nla).

In this new release there is a comparable stylistic assurance, clarity in articulation and liveliness of temperament though I find the result less satisfying and less convincing. The fault is not entirely hers for my chief reservation rests with the character of the piano itself. It's too plummy for my ear and that quality is emphasized by a somewhat hollow acoustic too far removed from a chamber ambience; but I found, also, that chords are apt to sound heavy in the slow movements and that the way they are broken up at cadences is stylistically unconvincing. My feeling is that, in the end, these sonatas do not work well on a piano but there will be many, perhaps, who disagree and they will not be disappointed by the Maisky/Argerich partnership.

As I said earlier, there is some splendid music-making here, but I hope prospective investors hitherto unacquainted with these pieces will not be deterred from hearing them played on the instruments for which Bach wrote them. There is a world of difference between the end results of two such disparate sonorities.'

--Gramophone Magazine. Date: 1/1986

Tanzmusik um 1600

In the 1590s Michael Praetorius settled in Wolfenbüttel as organist to Duke Heinrich Julius of Brunswick Wolfenbüttel and was later appointed court Kapellmeister. In 1613 he moved temporarily to Dresden, at the request of the Elector of Saxony, returning to Wolfenbüttel in 1616 although continuing to undertake other work, not least in the reorganisation of musical establishments. His writings on music include the important Syntagma musicum, the second volume of which gives useful information on the musical instruments of his time. Instrumental music by Michael Praetorius is confined to his collection of dances, Terpsichore. A set of organ chorales is included in the seventh book of Musae Sioniae.

Music for Trumpet: Brandt & Böhme

During the early twentieth century Oskar Böhme and Vassily Brandt stood for the high educational level of German musicians in the leading orchestras of St. Petersburg and Moscow. The two solo trumpeters were welcome teachers at the Russian conservatories and also succeeded in making names for themselves with their own compositions. Wolfgang Bauer and his ensemble colleagues have recorded some of their works with the pianist Oliver Triendl.

A critic said of Vassily (Willy) Brandt, “Nobody is like him in power, beauty, and lyric-dramatic playing.” Brandt was such a virtuoso master on his instrument that he immediately received a post in Moscow’s Bolshoi Orchestra. His études belong to the standard repertoire of each and every trumpeter, and his Country Pictures fascinatingly blend Russian folk melodies and the German trumpet quartet tradition.

During his three decades in St. Petersburg Oskar Böhme was the principal trumpeter of the Royal Court Opera and a teacher and composer who performed breakneck virtuoso pieces in his concerts and wrote easy-to-play character pieces that quickly gained popularity. The Wind Sextet recorded here also demonstrates his mastery of chamber-musical form.

Wolfgang Bauer, one of the world’s leading trumpeters, is distinguished by his effortlessly supple tone. The ensemble founded by him is no less ambitious than Bauer himself, whose recordings of the concertos of Joseph and Michael Haydn and Johann Christian and Johann Wilhelm Hertel have brought him outstanding international reviews and this year’s Echo-Klassik prize.

Hindemith: Der Schwanendreher, Konzertmuzik

In a BBC Radio 3 ''Building a Library'' feature which I did two years ago, Blomstedt's Decca recording of the Mathis der Maler Symphony was then, and has remained, an obvious first choice. He seems to have an instinct for pacing and weighting Hindemith. Take this new Nobilissima Visione: there's momentum and energy in the second movement's central fugato (both of which flag in the recent Tortelier version on Chandos) with incisive timpani, quite different from the heavy-weight wrestling match of the composer's own recording (EMI, 5/58—nla). Or the rondo (from 3'40'') in the first movement where some may find Blomstedt a little fast,

I personally warm to its balletic grace and shape at this flowing tempo (closer to the score's marking than most)—the piece is, after all, a 'choreographic legend'.

This Concert Music is quite simply the finest we have had on disc to date. I made a similar claim for Bernstein (DG) in 1991, but his very broad manner for the opening, his lachrymose treatment of the second movement's central langsam, and steep rits. won't be to all tastes. The San Francisco strings negotiate their challenging tasks with the sort of confidence and lack of strain that give the impression of greater accuracy than usual, and the balance between brass and strings is near perfect. There is a wide dynamic and expressive range here, but no exaggeration; to name but one of many highlights, the sehr breit second section of the first movement finally opens out to stunning effect.

That range, at times, seems comparatively narrow in Der Schwanendreher (Hindemith's third viola concerto which, like Mathis, uses songs from the Altdeutsches Liederbuch), with a performance that respects its modest forces and gestures. Geraldine Walther is balanced 'from the desks' (except that there are no orchestral violas or violins in this concerto) and plays with gentle expressiveness in the slow movement, and a light touch in the finale. Blomstedt tailors his accompaniment to match, and the result has all the intimacy and clarity of chamber music. For more traditional display you will have to turn to the two Daniels (Benyamini and Barenboim) on DG—a fine performance saddled with Steinberg's glossy but often coarse and uncaring Boston recordings of Mathis and the Concert Music.'

-- John Steane, Gramophone [4/1993]