Sunday, January 22, 2017

Mozart violin concerto's on authentic instruments

A while ago I encountered an exiting CD from Italian violinist and conductor Fabio Biondi on Spotify. Mozart’s first three violin concerto’s on authentic instruments, including continuo, a sparkling and tingling fortepiano! Fiery playing, also, noted in the reviews I found online from the Gramophone and Classicstoday website. Suddenly, Mozart’s strum und drang is not very far away from the Mannheimers like Stamitz, Richter or Mysliveček. For variety I have interwoven the concertos with several famous serenades, like the Nachtmusik and Musical joke, played by Jordi Savall and the Les concert des nations.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Tracks 01 to 04
Serenade In G, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik KV 525 
Les concert des nations, Jordi Savall, conductor

Tracks 05 to 07
Violin Concerto No.2 in D major K.211
Europa Galante, Fabio Bondi violinsolo and conductor

Tracks 08 to 11
Ein Musikalischer Spaß KV 522 
Les concert des nations, Jordi Savall, conductor

Tracks 12 to 14
Violin Concerto No.2 in D major K.211
Europa Galante, Fabio Bondi violinsolo and conductor

Tracks 15 to 17
Serenade In D, Serenata Notturna KV 239 
Les concert des nations, Jordi Savall, conductor

Tracks 18 to 20
Violin Concerto No.3 in G major K.216
Europa Galante, Fabio Bondi violinsolo and conductor

Tracks 20 to 23
Notturno In D Für Vier Orchester KV 286 
Les concert des nations, Jordi Savall, conductor




(Spotify webversion link)



Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Benny Goodman plays Mozart, live 1956 Berkshire Festival and Copland

There was a mini-controversy this week in the Netherlands, when Dutch classical PBS Radio 4 asked listeners if they mind that some programs would now be playing Jazz within, or in stead of, classical music. A small social media storm was the consequence. In the end, the manager of Radio 4 announced on Twitter that around 50% was against, 25% was pro and 25% undecided.

I thought I would turn it around, this week. Here is a Jazz icon playing classical music;
Clarinetist Benny Goodman plays Mozart and Copeland, re-issued on the German “jube” label.

Enjoy! :-)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Clarinet quintet in A-Major, KV 581 (1789)
Boston Symphony string quartet:
1st Violine - Richard Burgin
2nd Violine - Alfred Krips
Viola - Joseph De Pasquale
Cello - Samuel Mayes
Clarinet - Benny Goodman

Recorded during Berkshire Festival 1956, program of that festival scanned and put online @ http://worldcat.org/digitalarchive/content/server15982.contentdm.oclc.org/BSYMO/PROG/TRUSVolume14/Pub412_1954-1956_TWD_1956_Con04.pdf 

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
Concerto For Clarinet And String Orchestra (With Piano & Harp, 1947 rev 1949)
Jacques Orchestra
Conductor - Aaron Copeland
Clarinet - Benny Goodman
Recorded May 31, 1951
Live on the festival of Britain 






The original program, July 11th, 1956



Sunday, January 8, 2017

Luther 2017 on Spotify, with a 1878 German oratorio by Ludwig Meinardus

Ever heard of the “Baader-Mainhoff phenomenon”, also called the “frequency illusion”?
I was searching for recordings of Italian cellist Enrico Mainardi on Spotify, but obviously misspelled his name, as the only *hit* was the German composer Ludwig Meinardus. CPO had recorded his oratorio “Luther in Worms” and I started to listen *and kept listening*. Although the style for 1878, the year it was composed, is a tad conservative, the music is fluent, dramatic and gripping. 

Then, suddenly, almost every magazine I opened had some sort of advertisement for an activity of 
“2017, the Marten Luther year” and it seemed the frequency illusion was doing it’s job :-) 

The JPC website wrote about this recording:

The Magnificently Scored Oratorio »Luther in Worms«

The Reformer Martin Luther is being honored in numerous events and publications during the Luther Decade and in preparation for the celebration of the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. So this month cpo too is presenting the oratorio Luther in Worms by Ludwig Meinardus in a recording from the Twenty-Second Knechtsteden Festival. Hermann Max performs Meinardus' lavishly scored and operatic principal work with the renowned Concerto Köln orchestra and a choice ensemble of vocalists. After Ludwig Meinardus had prevailed against his parents' opposition to his pursuit of a musician's career and had been harshly rebuffed by judgments pronounced by Schumann and Mendelssohn, he joined a pietistic revival movement in which nationalism went hand in hand with Protestantism. Nevertheless, his principal work does not go over into empty bombast and heroic posing but holds in store many musical refinements, including those characterizing Luther's person in particular. Meinardus himself termed his work an »ideal drama, « by which he meant a strongly operatic design including spatial effects (fanfares sounding from towers, knights approaching on horseback, and proclamations shouted by imperial heralds). The oratorio is divided into two parts; the first is entitled »The Journey to Worms« and the second »Before the Emperor and the Empire.« Following the performance klassik. com wrote: »Meinardus calls for considerable performance forces. Along with a full orchestra, these are seven soloists, a mixed choir in various formations extending to a double choir, and (actually) a boys' choir. The Rheinische Kantorei rose to the challenge in a mixed choir, ensembles for women and men, and a formation extending to a triple choir and thus once again conveyed to the eyes and the ears what an ideal choral sound should be with respect to balance and articulation. Hermann Max sovereignly guided the greatly expanded Concerto Köln with brisk tempi through all the difficulties of the score.

Hope you will like this serendipity found recording just as interesting as I did :-)


Ludwig Meinardus (1827-1896)

Luther In Worms, Oratorio, written in 1878
Act 1: Die Fahrt Nach Worms
Act 2: Vor Kaiser Und Reich

Soprano   [Katarina] – Catalina Bertucci
Tenor   [Justus Jonas] – Clemens Löschmann
Tenor   [Kaiser Karl V.] – Corby Welch
Alto [Marta] – Annette Gutjahr
Bass  [Georg Von Frundsberg] – Ansgar Eimann
Bass [Glapio / Kurfürst Friedrich Der Weise] – Markus Flaig
Bass   [Luther] – Matthias Vieweg
Bass   [Ulrich Von Hutten] – Clemens Heidrich
Chorus – Rheinische Kantorei
Conductor – Hermann Max
Orchestra – Concerto Köln




(Spotify Webplayer link)