#morninglistening: A Musical Offering

#morninglistening to #Bach’s #MusicalOffering on @outheremusic #EnsembleAurora #classical… https://t.co/XtLnb2HhlF pic.twitter.com/QafLimSpzR

— Jens F. Laurson (@ClassicalCritic) December 13, 2015

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Best Recordings of 2015 (#4)

Time for a review of classical CDs that were outstanding in 2014 . My lists for the previous years: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, (2011 – “Almost”), 2010, (2010 – “Almost”), 2009, (2009 – “Almost”), 2008, (2008 - "Almost") 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.

# 4 - New Release

Robert Schumann, Violin Concerto, Piano Trio No.3, Isabelle Faust (violin), Alexander Melnikov (piano), Jean Guihen Queyras (cello) / Freiburg Baroque Orchestra / Pablo Heras-Casado (conductor), Harmonia Mundi

Robert Schumann Violin Concerto, Piano Trio No.3 Isabelle Faust (violin), Alexander Melnikov (piano), Jean Guihen Queyras (cello) Freiburg Baroque Orchestra Pablo Heras-Casado (conductor) (Harmonia Mundi)

When this lineup of favorite artists: Violinist Isabelle Faust, cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, pianist Alexander Melnikov, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and conductor Pablo Heras-Casado were performing all of Schumann’s three concertos at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, I went. Twice. Twice I was amazed and stunned, and nearly moved to tears. It wasn’t the conducting by Pablo Heras’, at the time: Heavy-handed in an overture (not included on the subsequent recordings) and occasionally covering the soloists in the concertos. That issue is as if reversed on this disc, recorded in Berlin a few weeks and a few more concerts after I heard them. What remains on disc what so moved me in the first place: Above all the faint, otherworldly touches of Isabelle Faust in the middle movement of the Violin Concerto. They are breathtaking as the theme of Schumann’s Ghost-Variations flits through the picture. And just as stunning is the emergence out of this gorgeous but troubled netherworld of Schumann’s mind when the main theme comes back and is all the more invigorating and sunny-optimistic.

And that of a concerto that Clara Schumann, following violinist Joseph Joachim’s advice, suppressed. “Unplayable. Drab. Tiresomely repetitive. Awkward.” was their judgment. It’s half a miracle she didn’t burn it. Still performances remain rare. This disc might be the concerto’s best chance to change this! The Piano Concerto (on a subsequent release is more notably different from what we know, because of the original instrument (and historically researched tempo) approach, the violin concerto emerges as a minor miracle not because of performance ideology but simply due to the skill, vigor, and love with which it is played. The Piano Trio that the three musicians add on the disc is a stupendous bonus; the first in what might be the next touchstone set of three.

# 4 – Reissue

Michel Richard DeLalande, Symphonies Pour Les Soupers du Roy, La Simphonie du Marais / Hugo Reyne (conductor), Harmonia Mundi

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Perchance to Stream: Advent III Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio and online video from the week gone by. After clicking to an audio or video stream, you may need to press the "Play" button to start the broadcast. Some of these streams become unavailable after a few days.

• For the 150th birthday of Sibelius, Mikko Franck conducts an all-Finnish program with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and cellist Anssi Karttunen, with music by Joonas Kokkonen, Magnus Lindberg, Einojuhani Rautavaara, and Sibelius. [France Musique]


• Watch music of Zemlinsky and Richard Strauss performed by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada, and pianist Emanuel Ax. [ARTE]


• Listen to Erin Helyard conduct a performance of Andrė Grėtry's L'Amant Jaloux, with Sydney's Pinchgut Opera. [ABC Classic]


• The Wiener Philharmoniker, with conductor Christian Thielemann and pianist Yefim Bronfman, perform music by Weber, Liszt, and Tchaikovsky. [ORF | Part 2]


• Listen to a performance of Janacek's Vec Makropulos at the Wiener Staatsoper, conducted by Jakub Hrusa and starring Laura Aikin. [ORF]


• Cornelius Meister leads a performance of Britten's Peter Grimes at the Theater an der Wien, starring Joseph Kaiser (Peter Grimes) and Agneta Eichenholz (Ellen Orford). [ORF]


• Harpsichordist Olivier Baumont offers a portrait of Louis XIV's Versailles with music by Couperin, and Marcel Bozonnet reading excerpts from Saint-Simon's Mémoires. [Philharmonie de Paris]


• Symphonies by Schubert, Mozart, and Haydn performed by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, under Mariss Jansons, recorded last January. [ORF | Part 2]


• From Symphony Hall in Birmingham, the Helsinki Philharmonic and John Storgards play an all-Sibelius concert, including the seventh symphony. [BBC3]


• Ivor Bolton leads a performance of Handel's oratorio Saul, with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Iestyn Davies, Lucy Crowe, and other soloists, recorded last July at the Glyndebourne Festival. [ORF]


• From the Barbican Hall, Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Richard Strauss's Alpine Symphony, plus Colin Currie in Switch, a new percussion concerto by Andrew Norman, and Hovhaness's second symphony. [BBC3]


• Riccardo Muti leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy, plus music by Tchaikovsky and Schubert. [CSO]


• The Takács Quartet plays music by Schumann, Britten, and Dvorak, in a concert at the Auditorium du Louvre from 2012. [France Musique]


• The English Concert performs Christmas music by Dandrieu, Charpentier, and Stradella for the Spitalfields Music Winter Festival. [BBC3]


• Michelle DeYoung and Simon O'Neill join the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra for Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. [ABC Classic]


• The Orchestre National de Belgique plays a concert devoted to the music of Prokofiev, with violinist Julia Fischer. [RTBF]


• At the helm of the Orchestre National de France, Christoph Eschenbach conducts music by Saint-Saens, Connesson, and Berlioz with Vincent Warnier and Mathieu Dufour. [France Musique]


• From last June, a concert by the Grazer Philharmonisches Orchester, under Dirk Kaftan, with Mozart's C major piano concerto, with pianist Kit Armstrong, and Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie. [ORF]


• Philippe Herreweghe leads a performance of Bach's B Minor Mass, with Collegium Vocale Gent, Dorothee Mields and other soloists, recorded last year at the Edinburgh Festival. [ORF]


• Bass Günther Groissböck and pianist Gerold Huber perform Schubert's Winterreise, recorded last month at the Schloss Rothschild in Waidhofen an der Ybbs. [ORF]


• Have another listen to the performance of Verdi's Macbeth from the Wiener Staatsoper, starring George Petean (Macbeth), Ferrucio Furlanetto (Banquo), and Tatiana Serjan (Lady Macbeth). [RTBF]


• Maxim Vengerov plays a recital to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Melbourne's Musica Viva series. [ABC Classic]


• Adrien Perruchon leads pianist Javier Perianes and the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris in music of Schumann, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. [France Musique]


• Laurence Equilbey conducts the BBC National Chorus and Orchestra of Wales in Handel's Messiah, recorded at St. David's Hall, Cardiff. [BBC3]


• The Hallé play music by Mendelssohn and Brahms, and Lars Vogt joins them in Schumann's Piano Concerto, recorded at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. [BBC3]


• Pianist Bertrand Chamayou plays a recital of music by Franz Liszt, Claude Debussy, and Camille Saint-Saëns at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, recorded in 2012. [France Musique]


• The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, under Daniel Barenboim, performs the last three Mozart symphonies at the United Nations in Geneva. [France Musique]

Dip Your Ears, No. 211 (Wilhelm Friedemann Done Right)

W.F.Bach, Harpsichord Concertos & Symphonies, M.Gratton / Il Convito Mirare

Seniormost Junior Bach

One of the choices for Best Recordings of 2015.

It’s a well-known fact that but for August the Strong and Johann Sebastian Bach, Saxons would have been extinct as a people hundreds of years ago. As they would say in these two households: Issue is no issue! Rough estimates of the time count up to 492 children of Bach’s, that master of the grand organ. Maybe a couple less, but at least 20. One of them, the eldest son and going by the family nickname of “Nummer Zwei”, was Wilhelm Friedemann. It’s little wonder that with whatever public attention there can be, divided by so many composer-kids, and with their father such a towering genius, there’s less historic room in the limelight for that letter-soup of Bach-sons (never mind other relatives!) who also composed: C.P.E., G.H., J.C., J.C.F., J.G.… and our W.F. at hand.

Of the four sons that composed seriously and lastingly, Wilhelm Friedemann probably ranks behind Carl Philipp Emanuel (the “Hamburg Bach”) and Johann Christian (the “London Bach”), but ahead of the “Bückenburg Bach”, Johann Christoph Friedrich. He ended up best known not for his own output but for his father’s keyboard instruction-manual, the “Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach”. Well, you’d never know him to be overshadowed, listening to this release!

This is, now in all seriousness, a staggeringly terrific collection of W.F.Bach harpsichord concertos and sinfonias that sheds all nonsense prejudice I have about galant style works. The Il Convito ensemble and director-soloist Maude Gratton play with such panache, there’s not a second’s time to question if this music is anything but great. It doesn’t sound like it sits uncomfortably between styles with which we are familiar, it simply rocks. Bad Willy is depicted in accounts that one may have read second-hand descriptions of as a capricious, frittering man, unsuccessfully trying to escape his father’s shadow. It’s bound to be inaccurate to some degree, but there’ll be truth to it, too. Just compare his excellent portrait by Friedrich Georg Weitsch, which shows a flamboyantly rakish W.F., wearing a hat with such a coy attitude, you can see the feather in that cap, although it’s not even depicted. Now compare that to Thomas Gainsborough’s portrait of the youngest Bach son, Johann Christian, which is equally excellent and couldn’t be more different, with the serious, collected, confident young man shown. It makes the stories of W.F. as a socially maladroit, wildly talented virtuoso and reluctant pioneer of free-lance musicianship quite believable.

I have yet to develop more keener ears for his music to determine with any accuracy the stylistic changes from his earlier – 1730s – to his later – 1770s – works on this disc, but since I’ll plop this one into the player many, many more times, I am confident that I will eventually. The liner notes are very enjoyable and well translated from French into English and German. All in all one of the very happy surprises on my desk, this year.

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This review was also published on MusicWeb International.

Things I Liked in 2015: Music, Film, Books

Here are some gift ideas from the CDs, DVDs, and books I enjoyed this year, in no particular order. Jens has already offered his thoughts on the best recordings of the year. When you buy through the links provided on these pages, Ionarts receives a cut at no extra cost to you -- so you are actually giving two gifts at once.

RECORDINGS
Sibelius, Music for the Theater, 6 vols., Turku Philharmonic, L. Segerstam (Naxos)

[Buy from Amazon]

Leif Segerstam is recording all of Sibelius's music for the theater with his new band, the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra. Currently it numbers six discs, and it is all quite wonderful. Some of these pieces are better known than others, but many are tiny fragments one never hears. Sibelius's best-known incidental music is likely that for Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande, a gloomy musical setting for that murky Symbolist play. The set came to my attention because of the most recent volume, devoted to the longer score for Scaramouche. This delightful set of movements is for chamber orchestra, mostly woodwinds and strings, joined by four horns and piano, but Sibelius creates a wonderful tapestry of sound with these limited forces. [READ REVIEW]
--Vol. 1 | Vol. 2 | Vol. 3 | Vol. 4 | Vol. 5 | Vol. 6--

Haydn, Symphonies, Vol. 2, Il Giardino Armonico, G. Antonini (Alpha)

[Buy from Amazon]

Any good recording of Joseph Haydn's symphonies is welcome at Ionarts, where the Austrian composer's music is a matter of faith. Last year the Alpha label and the Joseph Haydn Stiftung Basel inaugurated the Haydn 2032 project, for which Giovanni Antonini will record all of Haydn's 107 symphonies, divided between his period-instrument ensemble Il Giardino Armonico and the Kammerorchester Basel, in time for the 300th anniversary of the composer's birth, in 2032. Antonini worked with the former group on the first two releases in the series, and it puts its crisp and lightly balanced sound to excellent effect in these relatively early symphonies. In an unusual but value-enhancing way Antonini has included, on each disc of three symphonies each so far, a less-known work by one of Haydn's contemporaries. [READ REVIEW]

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#morninglistening: Respighi and other Acapella Christmas Goodies

#morninglistening to #acapella #christmas goodness ☆ incl. #Sandstrom, #Kaminski, #Laurids… https://t.co/LuALpBQgT3 pic.twitter.com/ceRdEqhJRp

— Jens F. Laurson (@ClassicalCritic) December 11, 2015

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Best Recordings of 2015 (#5)

Time for a review of classical CDs that were outstanding in 2014 . My lists for the previous years: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, (2011 – “Almost”), 2010, (2010 – “Almost”), 2009, (2009 – “Almost”), 2008, (2008 - "Almost") 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.

# 5 - New Release

J.Ritter von Herbeck, Great Mass in E minor, Philharmonie Festiva, Philharmonic Chorus Munich, Gerd Schaller (conductor), Profil

Johann von Herbeck, Great Mass Philharmonie Festiva, Philharmonic Chorus Munich, Gerd Schaller (Profil)

I wasn’t entirely sure if “Johann Ritter von Herbeck” mightn’t perhaps a made-up composer like his colleague Otto Jägermeier, so out of nowhere came this absolutely gorgeous, maybe slightly faceless, conventional, but highly impressive “Great Mass”. There are contemporary references to him, though; including Eduard Hanslick’s who thought it the best church music since Schubert’s. I’m inclined to agree and am just as impressed with the work and performance. And if there were any remaining doubts as to him having been a real person and composer, they are now eviscerated as I stumbled across his considerable grave on Vienna’ Central Cemetery.

This Grand Mass for chorus, organ, and orchestra is sacred gorgeousness of vast proportions. It is noble, unassuming, highly accessible, simple yet refined and easier to appreciate than Bruckner’s masses. With plenty in it that we like from Rheinberger, aforementioned Bruckner, and even Brahms, this Mass is obviously composed by someone who knew what choruses need and how to write effectively for them. When I sang masses in cold cathedrals as a kid, I should have loved to pipe these tunes. Misspending my time in concert halls now, I should love to hear such a work there. Or on this very well recorded, sumptuous-sounding CD. Only the choice of the cover betrays an amateurish side to the project: A half exploded pink alien lady with fake eye-lashes is random nonsense without aesthetic merit and nearly kept me from resisting the CD, unheard. Don’t make the same mistake: The contents are positively uplifting!

# 5 – Reissue

L.v.Beethoven, Complete Piano Sonatas, Maurizio Pollini, DG

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Philadelphia Orchestra's Fabulous 'Firebird' at Strathmore

Rachmaninoff, Variations, D. Trifonov, Philadelphia Orchestra, Y. Nézet-Séguin (Deutsche Grammophon, 2015) Vieuxtemps, Violin Concerto No. 4, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, P. Järvi (Deutsche Grammophon, 2015)

Perhaps it was the news that just hours before Monday evening’s concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra at Strathmore -- presented by Washington Performing Arts -- the ensemble, its music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Daniil Trifonov had been nominated for a Grammy for best classical solo performance. (Actually, it was just one of two Grammy nods for Nézet-Séguin and Trifonov.) Or maybe it was the thrill of performing to a sold-out house on the road. Either way, the Philadelphians and Nézet-Séguin leapt into an energetic rendition of Georges Bizet’s Suite No. 1 from Carmen (arr. Hoffman), the conductor gesticulating wildly on the podium, the players providing lots of volume and music flying by, ending with the Toreadors moving so quickly they’d have had little trouble outrunning their bulls. Yet even at that speed the orchestra, particularly its famed string sections, moved as one marvelous, precise instrument. This aspect of Nézet-Séguin’s group would return repeatedly during a night that featured much more satisfying interpretations than the bustling Bizet.

Next, all eyes turned to violin soloist Hillary Hahn. By the end of the four-movement Violin Concerto No. 4 in D minor, op. 31, of Henri Vieuxtemps, a contemporary of Bizet, it was clear that Hahn remains a virtuoso performer and Nézet-Séguin’s reputation as an excellent collaborator is warranted. Less clear, though, is why the Vieuxtemps, written in 1849-50, isn’t better known. The concerto, which Berlioz called “a magnificent symphony with principal violin,” contains large orchestral passages without soloist and extended room for the soloist to shine unaccompanied. Its Scherzo is a playful vivace that Hahn and Nézet-Séguin clearly enjoyed, and the Finale marziale is similarly spirited. While there were a few rough patches for the orchestra, Hahn’s technique and tone were flawless throughout. Best, of course, was the sense that soloist, orchestra and conductor were completely in synch interpretively.

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