THE TRUMPETS OF MATTHIAS HÖFS

 

THE TRUMPETS OF MATTHIAS HÖFS

 

Martin Fröst / Concerto Köln VIVALDI

                                                                      VIVALDI

Benjamin Appl / Concerto Köln BACH

Although a tad weak at the bottom end of the register, Appl’s lightish baritone, with its ravishing bloom, is well suited to Bach, and this is a thoughtful programme, enhanced by fine playing on period instruments by Concerto Köln, not least in the instrumental movements that break up the recital. (The Sunday Times)

Midori Seiler / Concerto Köln VIVALDI: La Venezia di Anna Maria

Her life reads like the classic Baroque success story: brought up motherless in a Venetian orphanage, maturing into an "unparalleled violin virtuosa", treated as an equal by Antonio Vivaldi: Anna Maria dal Violin. Midori Seiler and Concerto Köln depict the life of this exceptional woman in "La Venezia di Anna Maria".

All her life long, Anna Maria (born 1696, died 1782) lived and worked in the Ospedale della Pietà. The Venetian orphanage for girls did more than just offer a home and a refuge to girls abandoned by their mothers. It was a school, a musical conservatory and a tourist attraction at the same time, a flourishing part of the city-state’s economy in which Anna Maria rapidly rose to stardom. Defying conventional expectations, the orphanage provided the springboard and proved the perfect setting for a career otherwise denied a female orphan in 18th-century Italy. As maestro di concerto of the Ospedale, Antonio Vivaldi took Anna Maria under his wing. Starting out as her mentor and teacher, he eventually wrote over two dozen Concerti per Anna Maria. She for her part brilliantly mastered the violin and a host of other instruments, and was praised as the "veritable embodiment of all that is good and beautiful", as a creature "ascending into Paradise". Before long everyone was demanding to hear her and it is largely thanks to her that Vivaldi's instrumental concertos blossomed as they did. Baroque specialist Midori Seiler and her congenial partner Concerto Köln offer a virtuoso portrayal of this artistic teamwork between Anna Maria and Vivaldi. Anna Maria noted in her "performance book" a large number of the concertos she played in the Chiesa dell'Ospedale. They have luckily survived and so these 160 sheets of music bear her handwriting in more senses than one. We see not only the notes as she transcribed them, but her own ornaments. And they shed light on how she and her contemporaries played the violin, opening a musical door from the present day into the Venice of nearly three centuries ago.
This album is the record of a fruitful collaboration: Antonio Vivaldi and Anna Maria – Midori Seiler and Concerto Köln – Midori Seiler and Anna Maria. As an equally virtuosic female violinist, Midori Seiler is the ideal candidate to challenge and emulate her Baroque predecessor. As a member of Berlin’s Akademie für Alte Musik, Seiler was a part of the ensemble’s international breakthrough, from 2005 to 2014 directing from the leader's desk. After a period as Professor at the Salzburg Mozarteum University she returned to Germany in 2017 as Professor at the Franz Liszt College of Music in Weimar. Holder of the Saxon Mozart Prize, she has enjoyed a long partnership with Concerto Köln. The orchestra has been one of the leading ensembles in the field of historical performance practice for more than 30 years, and as EU Cultural Ambassador 2012 is one of North Rhine-Westphalia’s claims to musical fame.
Four of the Concerti per Anna Maria have been selected for this album, together with one concerto each by Vivaldi's contemporaries Galuppi and Albinoni. On "La Venezia di Anna Maria", exceptional readings by Midori Seiler and Concerto Köln shed unique light on Venice as a flourishing centre of the arts at the height of its musical prowess.

Julia Lezhneva / Concerto Köln / Mikhail Antonenko CARL HEINRICH GRAUN Opera Arias

Julia Lezhneva is one of the leading artists of her generation. The young Russian soprano with the voice of ”angelic beauty” (The New York Times), “pure tone” (Opernwelt) & “flawless technique” (Guardian) brings “unforgettable spiritual expression” & “perfect artistry” (Guardian) performing worldwide. Her international career skyrocketed when she created a sensation at the Classical Brit Awards at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2010, singing Rossini’s Fra il padre at the invitation of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. 

Born December 5 1989 in a family of geophysicists on Sakhalin Island, she began playing piano and singing at the age of five. She graduated from the Gretchaninov Music School and continued her vocal and piano studies at the Moscow Conservatory Academic Music College.. At 17 she came to int attention winning the 6th Elena Obraztsova Opera Singers Competition 2007, and next year shared the concert stage with Juan Diego Flórez at the opening of the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. 

World-premiere Decca album is OUT!

Julia Lezhneva discovers arias written by forgotten genius for the greatest singers of the time – Giovanna Astrua, GIovanna Gasparini and castrato Antonio Uberti detto ‘Porporino’.

She is partnered by Concerto Köln and conductor Mikhail Antonenko.

Giuliano Carmignola / Concerto Köln BACH Violin Concertos

Giuliano Carmignola, we’re informed on the back of this CD’s case, ‘seeks to cast fresh light upon these much-loved masterpieces by imbuing them with all the joyfulness of his Venetian sound’. You could say this is as much a warning as it is a USP: if you like your Bach monumental and solemn, Carmingnola’s folky exuberance and springy bow may feel like too much of his personality foisted on the music. But with an open mind, it’s impossible not to enjoy this disc. It achieves exactly what it proudly sets out to, eagerly assisted by the twinkle-toed Concerto Köln.

It includes the two ubiquitous violin concertos (A minor and E major), the double concerto in D minor (with Carmignola well matched by Mayumi Hirasaki, stepping up from within the ensemble), plus two convincing new reconstructions of concertos which, though probably originally written for violin, survive only in harpsichord concerto versions (the G minor BWV 1056 and D minor BWV 1052). At over 70 minutes of music, it goes a fair way towards justifying its premium price.

If it is the fast movements which show off Carmignola’s pizzazz, he also has plenty of sweetly lyrical qualities to bring in the Largos and Adagios – the merest smidge of vibrato at the ends of long notes, everything else achieved by subtle phrase shaping and that nimble bowing arm. (Kimon Daltas, editor of Classical Music magazine)

Pablo Heras-Casado / Concerto Köln EL MAESTRO FARINELLI

 Quickly becoming known as one of the most exciting conductors of his generation, Pablo Heras-Casado is set to make his album debut, El Maestro Farinelli, on the recently re-launched label, Archiv Produktion for Deutsche Grammophon. Available May 27, 2014, this new album marks Heras-Casado’s return to his core repertoire and musical heritage, performing instrumental and vocal music associated with Farinelli, the legendary 18th-century castrato singer who served as impresario and court musician to the kings of Spain.

With El Maestro Farinelli, Archiv Produktion offered Heras-Casado the opportunity to choose what music to conduct from the Farinelli period, focusing on neglected operas where many orchestral scores had been destroyed in a palace fire in the 19-century and ultimately those that survived had to be transcribed by hand. This album features a rare world premiere of eight recordings with some arias sung by noted countertenor Bejun Mehta as well as including the works of Baroque composers like Hasse, Porpora and Jomelli, which Farinelli presented during his time as concert master in Madrid and Aranjuez.

Enjoying a diverse conducting career thus far, Pablo Heras-Casado has encompassed the great symphonic and operatic repertoire, historically-informed performance, cutting-edge contemporary scores, and has already developed a special rapport with a number of soloists, orchestras and opera houses.

Patricia Petibon AMOUREUSES Mozart / Haydn / Gluck

Barbarina and Susanna, Armida and Zaide, Giunia and Iphigénie: these complex portraits of several different kinds of women provide the theme for French soprano Patricia Petibon’s debut recital for Deutsche Grammophon. Above all, however, they are portraits of women in love. The range of emotions and situations could hardly be greater, extending from the first innocent thrill of love to despair and feminine guile to the end of love, attended by anger and even hatred. “It’s a musical and vocal approach”, she explains, “but also a theatrical and dramaturgical one. Amoureuses depicts various characters who may in fact represent no more than facets of a single figure. On the one hand, we have Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro, a character of great purity who could even be described as angelic, while on the other hand we have the Queen of Night in Die Zauberflöte, a mature woman who once knew love but who has now lost her way and who loves only herself and power.” It goes without saying that such contrasts, emotions and passions demand a response that goes far beyond mere beautiful singing. Patricia Petibon uses vocal colours and shadings, risking extremes of expression and emotion and exploiting her voice’s fullest potential in order to reveal the countless facets of these roles. “If the text demands a certain sharpness, harshness or roughness, then vocally, too, I choose to go down this particular path. What I do not want is aesthetic homogeneity and superficial beauty”, she describes her approach to the music. She owes this search for the artistic truth to two great conductors above all. “I come from two different schools: those of Nikolaus Harnoncourt and William Christie; both have strongly influenced me and have taught me to interpret music in my own, highly distinctive way and to be true to myself and to others.” (Excerpts from the booklet text accompanying the album)