Spotify classical music playlists: chamber

Showing posts with label chamber. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Classical music morning playlist

Good morning! Here is a one hour selection of chamber works spanning the Classical and early Romantic periods. We begin with Mozart's "Kegelstatt" Trio, composed playfully during a game of skittles and performed by the trio of Brymer, Kovacevich, and Ireland. Misty landscapes in John Field's pioneering Nocturnes. I selected three of them — two well before and one after Chopin composed his. Alice Sara Ott's recently recorded interpretations are on the playlist. Hummel's Cello Sonata, where cellist Bárta and pianist Milne converse with delicate eloquence across three movements, was actually one of the examples for Johannes Brahms' first cello sonata. The playlist concludes with Howard Shelly's sparkling rendition of Hummel's Rondo in E.

Open playlist in Spotify · 1 hour

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Trio in E♭, K. 498 · "Kegelstatt Trio"
Composed: 1786 · Recorded: December 1969

Jack Brymer (clarinet) · Stephen Bishop Kovacevich (piano) · Patrick Ireland (viola)

Track 01: Andante
Track 02: Menuetto
Track 03: Rondeaux (Allegretto)

John Field (1782–1832)

3 Piano Nocturnes
Alice Sara Ott, piano · Recorded: September 2024

Track 04: Nocturne No. 9 "Pastorale" in A major (1815)
Track 05: Nocturne No. 4 in A major (1817)
Track 06: Nocturne No. 14 in C major (1835)

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837)

Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 104 (1824)
Recorded: February 2005

Jiří Bárta (cello) · Hamish Milne (piano)

Track 07: Allegro Amabile e Grazioso
Track 08: Romanze: Un Poco Adagio e Con Espressione
Track 09: Rondo: Allegro Vivace Un Poco

Rondo in E, Op. 11 (1804)
Howard Shelley, piano · Recorded: 1999

Track 10: Rondo in E, Op. 11

Thursday, December 14, 2023

Hyperion's Hummel, the string quartets op. 30 by the Delmé quartet.

Recently, I bought a second-hand CD player. 😊 Although I had tossed out many items (they all went to the local radio station of the hospital in Delft), I still have enough albums that I enjoyed for a long time. Such as this Hyperion CD with the string quartets of Mozart’s pupil Johann Nepomuk Hummel. His opus 30 string quartets, composed around 1803, were a reaction to Beethoven’s opus 18 string quartets from 1801. The “own voice” of Hummel is especially notable in the menuettos of the quartets. Jumpy, unexpected twists and an own harmonic language (admired by Robert Schumann, no less) give these movements an unmistakable autograph by the composer. I hope you will enjoy these works as much as I did over the past years.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837)

-String Quartet In C Major, Op 30 No 1:

1 Adagio E Mesto – Allegro Ma Non Troppo

2 Menuetto: Allegro Assai

3 Adagio E Cantabile

4 Allegro Vivace

-String Quartet In G Major, Op 30 No 2:

5 Allegro Con Brio

6 Andante: Grazioso

7 Menuetto: Allegro Con Fuoco

8 Finale: Vivace 4:43

-String Quartet In E Flat Major, Op 30 No 3:

9 Allegro Con Spirito

10 Andante

11 Allemande E Alternativo

12 Finale: Presto

The Delmé quartet:

Violins – Galina Solodchin, John Trusler

Viola – John Underwood

Cello – Jonathan Williams

Recorded on 9–11 September 1991

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/58XPkmA6BoXImmnIfSqY6g?si=c1e3e8e8c1694e2b
(HTTP link to the playlist)

My cherished copy of this CD 😉

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Mozart Piano Trios on Spotify

You can exist as a chamber music ensemble for years (in the case of the Gryphon trio, 25 years!), make recordings that receive exuberant reviews in, let’s say the Gramophone Magazine:

“But if you want the complete Mozart trios, this new set matches the classic Beaux Arts in polish and sensitivity, and surpasses it in beauty of violin tone and, inevitably, in quality of recording”

Or, over the top exuberant reviews in, let’s say, Classics today:

“Specifically, what the Gryphon Trio brings to these pieces is flow–that sense of effortless forward momentum that characterizes all of Mozart’s (and just about everyone else’s, come to think of it) best work. (10 out of 10)

And still remain virtually unknown…

Is it because these players are from Canada? Or is it they are represented on a small label rather than the glam and marketing budget of a major label? Anyway, I came across these recordings on Spotify and was hooked. This is one of the finest set of Mozart chamber works I have encountered in a while. Artur Schnabel once famously said, “Mozart piano sonatas are too easy for children and too difficult for adults”. Well, the same counts for many of these works and the “naturalness” of playing by the Gryphon’s suits the music so well…!

Hope you will be inspired by these performances too!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Track 01- 03 Divertimento for Piano, Violin and Cello in B flat major, K 254 (1776)

Track 04- 12 Trio for Piano and Strings no 1 in G major, K 496 (1786)

Track 13- 15 Trio for Piano and Strings no 2 in B flat major, K 502 (1786)

Track 16- 18 Trio for Piano and Strings no 3 in E major, K 542 (1788)

Track 19- 21 Trio for Piano and Strings no 4 in C major, K 548 (1788)

Track 22- 30 Trio for Piano and Strings no 5 in G major, K 564 (1788)

Gryphon trio:

Annalee Patipata Nakoon, violin

Jamie Parker, piano

Roman Borys, cello

Recorded 2006.

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/6gEmDpC5hzT1FML2WCPGg9?si=aGEJhCHZR8W66kyRkceCxQ (Webplayer link)

Friday, March 2, 2018

Your name is Katalin Kertész? And you play violin? Then you must be related to…

…István Kertész! And yes she is.

But not István Kertész the conductor…! Of course the “is she related to” question popped in my mind, so I wrote a mail to the quartet’s website. The anewer revealed that she is related to a István Kertész, the primarius of the renown and pioneering Festetics Quartet. They were one of the first string quartets playing on “authentic instruments”, just like the Kertész Quartet, by the way. But what does these trivialities matter, the Kertész Quartet made a splendid recording of an unknown Bohemian composer named Wenzel Heinrich Veit. Fine music, compared in this review to Ludwig Spohr, but with enough own voice to be recommended by me. To fill the playlist I found two recordings by the Festetics Quartet that drew praise from Classics today (Haydn, Emperor quartet) and the Gramophone (Haydn’s last, unfinished d minor quartet from 1803) and fit nicely between the two Veit quartets. Hope you will like this playlist as much as I did the last couple of weeks ;-)

Wenzel Heinrich Veit (1806–64)

Tracks 01-04 Quartet No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 3 (1834)

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Tracks 05-08 Quartet No. 62 in C major, Op. 76, No. 3 in (1798)

Tracks 09-10 Quartet No. 68 in D minor, Op. 103 (1803)

Wenzel Heinrich Veit (1806–64)

Tracks 11-14 Quartet No. 2 in E Major, Op. 5 (1835)

Kertész Quartet (in the Veit quartets)

Katalin Kertész, Eleanor Harrison, violin

Nichola Blakey, viola;

Tatty Theo, cello

(on authentic instruments)

Festetics Quartet (in the Haydn quartets)

István Kertész, Petőfi Erika, violin

Péter Ligeti, viola

Rezsö Pertorini, cello

(on authentic instruments)

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/0YQ3Xp4jDR382kNAjlrMtc?si=SN5PQCHMTS6yvwlrlfyzzw (Webplayer link)

Kertész Quartet

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Lifelong friend of van Beethoven, Antonin Reicha (1770-1836)

Recently I have heard two CD’s from the “little” composer Antonín Rejcha (also known als Anton Reicha of Antoine Reicha 1770-1836, “lifelong friend of van Beethoven”) that took me by surprise. One with chamber music and one with piano works, that I found browsing through the BBC Music Magazine. Fine and original music, reminding me of Carl Philip Emanuel Bach in the keyboard works. The Quintet and quartet are part of a 3 CD box, with different performers, of which the first CD with Quartor Girard stands out. Coupled them together and *just listen*, I would say.

The music and performances gave me much pleasure :-)

Antonín Rejcha (1770-1836)

-Tracks 01-04 String Quintet (with two violas) in F Major, Op. 92 No. 1 (c 1819)

Quatuor Girard

Hugues Girard : Violin

Agathe Girard : Violin

Odon Girard : Viola

Lucie Girard : Cello

Tanguy Parisot (viola)

Antonín Rejcha (1770-1836)

-Track 05 Harmonie No.20 from Practische Beispiele (1803)

(Adagio Fantaisie 1. Un poco allegretto - Fantaisie 2. Allegro - Fantaisie 3. Allegretto - Fantaisie 4. Allegro vivace - Fantaisie 5. Adagio di molto - Fantaisie 6. Allegro)

-Tracks 06-08 Grande Sonate (c.1805) in C major

-Track 09 Capriccio No.7 from Practische Beispiele (1803)

(Allegro assai - Un poco più lento - Tempo I - Un poco più lento - Tempo I)

-Track 10-12 Sonata on a Theme of Mozart (c.1805) in F major

(Variations sur la 'Marche des Prêtres' du Second Acte de La Flûte enchantée de Mozart)

-Track 13 Fantaisie sur un seul accord

No.4 from Practische Beispiele (1803) Allegro - Presto - Tempo I - Tempo II

-Track 14 Étude, Op.97 No.1 in E minor

(from Étude dans le genre fugué pour le piano-forte [...] à l'usage des jeunes compositeurs (?1815-17))

Ivan Ilic piano

Antonín Rejcha (1770-1836)

-Tracks 15-18 String Quartet in E Major, Op. 95 No. 1 (1824)

Quatuor Girard

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/4yXXEqfdAkUhVX3XgryBwy?si=jtdFjmbfT-GVRPbnBLC_kQ

(Webplayer link)

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Another Milstein on the violin… Maria Milstein

This recital stupefied me. I started with the Saint-Saens sonata (track 5, try it yourself!) and immediately I wondered if this was an underrated masterpiece or that I witnessed a miraculous performance. After hearing the complete CD, I think it is the latter. Glorious tone, spectacular accuracy and thoughtful, electrifying performances. And no, she is NOT related to Nathan Milstein, but the granddaughter of Yakov (Yaakov) Milstein, musicologist, professor at the Moscow conservatory and lecturer of oa Bella Davidovich and Elisabeth Leonskaja…

The “theme” of recital CD seems to be music that is attached to Marcel Proust’s recherche du temps perdu, although it’s hard to find how and why that has been established. Nevermind, the playing is awesome, the program original. She is accompanied by her sister, Nathalia Milstein.

As an extra, an older recording by Maria Milstein and cellist Noelle Weidmann in rarely performed 1910 work by Saint-Saens.

Tracks 01-03 Gabriel Pierné - Sonate pour violon et piano en ré mineur opus 36 (1900)
Tracks 04 Reynaldo Hahn - À Chloris (1916)
Tracks 05-08 Camille Saint-Saëns - Sonate pour violon et piano n°1 en ré mineur opus 75 (1885)

Track 09 Reynaldo Hahn - 7 Chansons grises, no 5, L’Heure Exquise (1887-90)
Tracks 10-12 Claude Debussy - Sonate pour violon et piano (1916-7)
Maria Milstein, violin

Nathalia Milstein, piano

Rec 2017

Track 13 Camille Saint-Saëns: La muse et le poète violon, cello e Orchestre in mi minor, Op. 132 (1910)

Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège

Christian Arming

Noelle Weidmann (cello), Maria Milstein (violin)

Rec 2013

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/2Hrgs5MYMT25vQudRM558W (Webplayer link)

Nathalia and Maria Milstein

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Innovative classical music programming

Now here is some imaginative programming…!!! The string quartets of 19th century Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 20th century Sergei Prokofiev and 21st century Gabriel Prokofiev are combined on these three CD’s (of one big spotify playlist, to stay in 21st century terms ;-). The latter, Gabriel Prokofiev, is the grandson of Sergei Prokofiev, if you were asking… Performances by the Ruysdael quartet (who studied two years at the Berliner Hochschule with the Alban Berg quartet and did masterclasses with the Amadeus Quartett, Hagen Quartett and Quatuor Mosaïques) are exemplary.

The Strad was very positive about the first disc and all music writes about the third:

The Ruysdael Quartet approaches each of these compositions with an admirable level of intensity and commitment to detail. Their blended sound quality is especially enjoyable, with each instrument taking turns coming to the foreground at different points in the music. Overall tone of the quartet is dark and powerful, brilliantly balanced, and possessing an enviable palate of colors. Rhythmic precision, which is absolutely necessary for these works, is present in abundance. Virtually all other technical aspects of the performance are exceptional, save for some curious difficulties in intonation between first and second violins when playing in octaves. The majority of the playing, however, is at an extremely high level and coupled with the thoughtful programming and informative liner notes makes for a highly worthwhile disc.

And after hearing the playlist I wonder why these CD’s went by so unnoticed, actually. Anyway, here the are ad I hope you will enjoy them on Spotify!

Track 01-04 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — Quartet no. 1 op. 11 (1871)

Track 05-07 Sergei Prokofiev — Quartet no. 1 op. 50 (1930)

Track 08-11 Gabriel Prokofiev — Quartet no. 1 (2003)

Track 12-15 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky— Quartet no. 2 op. 22 (1874)

Track 16-18 Sergei Prokofiev — Quartet no. 2 op. 92 (1941)

Track 19-22 Gabriel Prokofiev — Quartet no. 2 (2006)

Track 23-26 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — Quartet no. 3 op. 30 (1875)

Track 27-30 Sergei Prokofiev — Sonata for 2 violins op. 56 (1932)

Track 31-35 Gabriel Prokofiev — Quartet nr. 3 (2010)

Ruysdael Quartet

Emi Ohi Resnick, violin

Joris Van Rijn, violin

Gijs Kramer, viola

Jeroen Den Herder, cello

Recorded between 2008 and 2010

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6qpU7Yq4L3NodfPByvaNHF?si=34a63f21bb6d4b9f

(Webplayer link)

Sergei and Gabriel Prokofiev

Friday, March 17, 2017

Quartetto Italiano early recordings 1946 1952 Italian quartet Debussy Boccherini Beethoven Mozart Haydn

Last year, in the same week as David Bowie, the last founder of the famous Italian Quartet “Quartetto Italiano” died; Elisa Pegreff, at the age of 93. Married to the first violinist (and rumored to have had an affair with all the other members) she stayed in the quartet from it’s formation in 1945 till disbandment in 1980. I was curious what the first recording of the quartet was and stumbled upon a box with the earliest recordings of the quartet. Even the 1946 78rpm set with “the reason” the quartet started in the first place, Debussy’s string quartet.

The sound of the earliest recordings is a bit harsh, but just sample track 07, the 1948 slow movement of the Luigi Boccherini quartet in D; what a breathtaking beauty in that recording. The metadata was (of course) not there on Spotify, so I gathered the recording information from several websites with discographical information. Enjoy the exploration of the early recordings of the Quartetto Italiano…!

-Track 01-04: Claude Debussy: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10

Conservatorio G.Verdi, Milano (Italia) - 14-20 march 1946

Issued on Telefunken 78rpm’s 1946

-Track 05: Leonardo Vinci: Gavotta da 6 Antiche Danze (from «12 Soli per Violino e Arpicordo»)

Conservatorio G.Verdi, Milano (Italia) 4 mai 1946

Issued on Telefunken 78rpm 1946

Lionello Forzanti plays the viola here, he was replaced by Piero Farulli in 1947

-Track 06-08: Luigi Boccherini: String Quartet in D major, Op. 8 No. 1, G 165

Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Roma (Italia) - 11 & 20 november 1948

Issued on Decca LXT 2680 in 1952

-Track 09-12: Franz Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in E flat major, Op. 64 No. 6 (Hob. III:64)

Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Roma (Italia) - 11 november 1948

Issued on Decca LXT 2680 in 1952

-Track 13-16: Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet in C major, Op. 59 No. 3 «Rasumovsky No. 3»

West Hampstead Studios, London - 28 november 1949

Issued on Decca LXT 2679 in 1952

-Track 17: Franz Schubert: Quartettsatz in C minor, D 703

West Hampstead Studios, London - 28 e 29 november 1949

Issued on Decca LXT 2679 in 1952

-Track 18-21: Robert Schumann: String Quartet in F major, Op. 41 No. 2

West Hampstead Studios, London - 27-29 november 1950

Issued on Decca LXT 2691 in 1952

-Track 22-25: Giuseppe Verdi: String Quartet in E minor

West Hampstead Studios, London - 24, 27-29 november 1950

Issued on Decca LXT 2691 in 1952

-Track 26-28: Giuseppe Tartini: Sonata a quattro in G major

Recorded live, Teatro Eliseo, Roma (Italia) - 29 gennaio 1951

-Track 29-32: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A major, K 581

Antoine de Bavier, Clarinet

West Hampstead Studios, London - 8-20 & 22 February 1952

Issued on Decca LXT 2698 in 1952

-Track 33-36: Franz Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in G major, Op. 77 No. 1 (Hob. III:81)

Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Roma (Italia) - 1-10 July 1952

Issued on Decca LXT 2811 in 1954

-Track 37-39: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: - String Quartet in D major, K 155