Father and son Kantorow in Saint-Saens

Having watched the semi-finals of the Queen Elisabeth violin competition in Brussels, I noticed that the conductor there was Jean-Jacques Kantorow. As he was a solo-violinist for many years, he was a perfect accompanist for all the candidates in that contest. Almost at the same time someone attended me to a new CD by his piano playing son Alexandre Kantorow, who performed three of the five piano concerto’s bij Saint-Saens. Very fine performances and the not so often recorded third receives the best and most convincing performance I have ever heard! I thought it would be a nice idea to combine Jean-Jacques Kantorow’s recording of violin works by Saint-Saens with the new recording of him and his son.

Track 01-03 Piano Concerto No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 29 (1869)

Track 04-06 Violin Concerto No.3 in B minor, Op.61 (1880)

Track 07-08 Piano Concerto No.4 in C minor, Op. 44 (1875)

Track 09 Caprice d’après l’Étude en forme de Valse, Op.52 (for violin and orchestra, 1872)

Track 10 Caprice andalous, Op.122 (for violin and orchestra, 1904)

Track 11 Prélude from ‘Le déluge’, Op.45 (1875)

Track 12-14 Piano Concerto No.5 in F major, Op. 103, ‘L’Égyptien’ (1896)

Tapiola Sinfonietta

Alexandre Kantorow, piano (Tracks 01-03, 07-08 and12-14)

Jean-Jacques Kantorow, violin (Tracks 04-06, 09,10 and 11)

Jean-Jacques Kantorow, conductor (Tracks 01-03, 07-08 and 12-14)

Kees Bakels, conductor (Tracks 04-06, 09,10 and 11)

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/0Bjw0wmeA0ZiA1YAlr85xZ?si=Pr-D2kAPSsqNUSu7gMrasw (Spotify Webplayer link)

Do we need another Brahms cycle...?

“Oh, why do we need the X’st cycle of… (fill in)” is an often heard complain when people discuss a symphony or concerto cycle by a well known composer. In the days that CD boxes were 20 to 50 euro’s, I could understand that criticism, but with Spotify, a well played, well recorded cycle is often very much welcomed by me. Especially when as well played as this Brahms cycle by the WDR symphony orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste. Symphony no’s 1 and 3 already caught my attention around Christmas 2017, when I found them on Spotify and a while ago I discovered that the complete cycle was online. Just listen for yourself. Fine music making, new details and musicians who really put their heart in this music. 

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Track 01-04 Symphony no 1 in C minor, Op. 68 (1855-1876)

Track 05-08 Symphony No. 2 In D Major Op. 73 (1877)

Track 09-12 Symphony no 3 in F major, Op. 90 (1883)

Track 13-16 Symphony No. 4 In E Minor Op. 98 (1885)

Track 17-26 Variationen über Ein Thema von Haydn Op. 56a (1873)

Track 27 Academic Festival Overture Op. 80 (1880)

Track 28 Tragic Overture, Op. 81 (1880)

WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln

Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0JMHX9AWOjfWmkVN7lUEqg?si=e656aead67a64098 (if you want the weblink for this playlist)

Jukka-Pekka Saraste

The early days of the Marco Polo label

Belgian composer Charles Auguste de Bériot had a successful career, but a rather sad life. After difficulties getting his new style of violin playing accepted in the 1820’s, he enjoyed succes with his many violin concerto’s. He declined an offer to lecture in Paris, but started to teach in Brussels, where he founded the Belgian violin school, where his pupil Henri Vieuxtemps and Eugene Ysaye are the best known examples of. After a couple of years he lost his eyesight and became blind. His left arm was paralyzed and cut off (!) to relief him from the pain. Brrr….

Of his concerto’s, no 7 and no 9 are played most often, but I have a weak spot for no 8, composed in 1856. 

Anton Rubinstein (no relation to the pianist) was one of the most important Russian composers and pianists, according to the 19th century critics. Yet he was outshined by his pupil Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky. Both men had a rocky relationship, but always stayed in touch, or went to parties together, as this unique 1890 phonograph recording shows. Nope, not a hoax, in the house of Julius Block Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky can be heard speaking and whistling (!).

Anton Rubinstein’s last symphony, his Symphony no 6 was written in 1886. 

Alexander Borodin wrote his piano quintet in Italy, 1862, when his fiancee, the pianist Yekaterina Protopopova, was there for the recovery of a disease. The 28 year composer would meet with Balakirev soon after the couple returned and this fine quintet was the last work of his early period. 

Charles-Auguste de Bériot (1802-1870)

Tracks 01-02 Violin Concerto No. 8 in D major, Op. 99 (1856)

Takako Nishizaki, violin

RTBF Symphony Orchestra; Alfred Walter; 

Rec: 14 to 19 July 1986;

Anton Rubinstein (1824- 1894)

Tracks 03-06 Symphony No. 6 in A Minor, Op. 111 (1886)

Philharmonic Hungarica

Gilbert Varga, conductor

Recorded in Marl, FRG from 16th to 18th July, 1986

Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)

Tracks 07-09 Quintet in C Minor for Two Violins, Viola, Cello and Piano (1862)

Ilona Prunyi, piano

New Budapest Quartet

Recorded 1991

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/4MMt2Z15PCn0yFvZJxKju8?si=mWKZMckCSPCyCWGOtpw4Mg (Webplayer link)

Remember the days when you went broke buying full-price CD’s?

A closet full of CD’s. Full price CD’s, all bought around 1995. That is what I saw in a house in Leiden, the Netherlands. At 22 euro per CD, this collection costed the owner tens of thousands of Euro’s. And now all sold for one euro per CD, only 20 years later…

And I remembered that as a student I bought 2 CD boxes that made me broke at that time. 99 Dutch guilders (around 45 euro) for a double CD with Messiaen and 88 guilders for Mahler 7. 

And now, for 10 euro per month, I can share these CD’s (and many, many more) with you.

Much has changed…

Fine performances, by the way. The Dutch composer Diepenbrock was a close friend of Mahler and Richard Strauss, who met each other regular.

Odd enough, the 1976 Quatuor pour la fin du temps with siegfried Palm and Aloys Kontarsky was replaced in the re-issue of my original 1987 CD with the 1969 performance below. But that groundbreaking record is a good replacement. 

Hope you will enjoy this cheap playlist ;-)

Alphons Diepenbrock (1862-1921)

Track 01 Im grossen Schweigen (1905)

Håkan Hagegård, Baritone

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Track 02-06 Symphony no 7 in e minor (1904-1905)

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Riccardo Chailly, conductor

Rec 1994

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)

Track 07-16 Turangalîla-Symphonie (1946-48)

Peter Donohoe, Piano 

Tristan Murail, Ondes Martenot

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra 

Simon Rattle, conductor

Rec 1986

Track 17-24 Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1940)

Gervase de Peyer, Clarinet

William Pleeth, Cello 

Erich Gruenberg, Violin

Michel Béroff, Piano

Rec 1969

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/1dj8pgp2ipCCNzDZq1toGz?si=n63RWn5VTCey0a-O8WaCXg

My copy of Mahler 7

The first Youtube prodigy has grown up. Aimi Kobayashi plays Chopin and Liszt.

In 2006, youtube was a novelty, and one of the early viral video’s was Mozart’s 26th piano concerto, played by the then 11 year old Aimi Kobayashi. The original video has been deleted (after millions of views), but a copy was uploaded later on. 

And now, 12 years later, Aimi has her first CD for Warner classics. The Chopin might be just a bit too Rachmaninovesque, but I urge you to listen to tracks 8 and 9, Liszt. 

The big Après une lecture du Dante is refined and well balanced and the overplayed Liebesträume receives on of the best performances I know. 

Nice to hear the first Youtube prodigy grown up now…! 

Frédéric Chopin: 

Tracks 01-04 Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35 

Franz Liszt:

Années de pèlerinage, 2ème année, Italie S. 161

Track 05  No. 4, Sonetto 47 del Petrarca 
Track 06  No. 5, Sonetto 104 del Petrarca 
Track 07  No. 6, Sonetto 123 del Petrarca 
Track 08  No. 7, Après une lecture du Dante (Fantasia quai sonata)

Track 09  Liebesträume S. 541: No. 3 in A-Flat Major, "O lieb so lang' du lieben kannst”

Aimi Kobayashi, Piano

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/1BXu6utOGyliIbUd7PBK3f?si=nxbUpICaSTayjP6bAIH34A (Webplayer link)

Aimi and fans...

Anja Harteros in Strauss, Brahms and Beethoven

Sometimes you have these CD’s that are only half successful. When soprano Anja Harteros started a 2009 recital with Haydn (too big), Beethoven (ok), Schubert (slow and unimpressive), and Schumann (missing the mark) I thought this was a wasted opportunity. But then, the night, a Richard Strauss song from 1885 and everything fell in to place… The voice fitted, the interpretation was spot on and the remainder of the CD glued me to the loudspeakers. I combined the successful part of the recital with a glorious 2009 recording of Strauss four last songs, live, with Mariss Jansons as conductor. The bonus is the two Beethoven songs from the recital, more opera arias than songs here, but a fine finish to this vocal playlist. 

Hope you will enjoy it a well…!

Richard Strauss

Track 01 Lieder, Op. 10: no 3, Die Nacht (1885)

Track 02 Lieder, Op. 37: no 3, Meinem Kinde (1897) 

Track 03 Lieder, Op. 39: no 4, Befreit (1897-8)

Track 04 Lieder, Op. 10: no 8, Allerseelen (1885)

Johannes Brahms 

Track 05 Lieder, Op. 59: no 8, Dein blaues Auge (1873)

Track 06 Lieder, Op.  3: no 1, Liebestreu (1853)

Track 07 Lieder, Op. 57: no 2, Wenn du nur zuweilen lächelst (1871)

Track 08 Lieder, Op. 96: no 1, Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht (1884)

Track 09 Lieder, Op. 49: no 2, An ein Veilchen (1868)

Track 10 Lieder, Op. 43: no 1, Von ewiger Liebe (1864)

Wolfram Rieger, Piano, 

Anja Harteros, Soprano

Rec 2009

Richard Strauss

Tracks 11-14 Vier letzte Lieder (1949)

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

Mariss Jansons

Anja Harteros, soprano

Rec Philharmonie im Gasteig, Munich 25-27 March 2009

Ludwig van Beethoven

Track 15 An die Hoffnung, Op. 94 (ca 1815)

Track 16 Zärtliche Liebe, WoO 123 "Ich liebe dich" (1794-5)

Wolfram Rieger, Piano, 

Anja Harteros, Soprano

Rec 2009

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/1PKdmB3n1BefD2wIeEKQW1?si=Qt_2h2cZSB2rtBYMGltClQ (Webplayer link)

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 

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)