See Siang Wong FANTASIA

 

FANTASIA

 

Ikuyo Nakamichi CHOPIN Waltzes

 

WALTZES

Frankfurt Radio Symphony / Andrés Orozco-Estrada RICHARD WAGNER Overtures & Preludes

Energy, elegance and spirit - this is what especially distinguishes Andrés Orozco-Estrada as a musician. In 2014/15, he took over the position as Chief Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and became Music Director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. In the 2020/21 season he becomes also Principal Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Medellín (Colombia), Andrés Orozco-Estrada began his musical studies on the violin. At the age of 15 he received his first conducting lessons and in 1997 he moved to Vienna in order to study at the University of Music and Performing Arts with Uroš Lajovic, himself a pupil of the legendary Hans Swarowsky. Orozco-Estrada lives in Vienna.

Sebastian Bohren / Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Andrew Litton MENDELSSOHN - BRITTEN Violin Concertos

Sebastian Bohren constantly continues on his way – and does it well. He carefully chooses his broad, varied repertoire and masterfully brings it to sound. Whether solo, in a chamber ensemble or with a large orchestra, whether musical rarities or established milestones: his playing arouses the enthusiasm of audiences and critics alike! 

On the new album, Sebastian Bohren now devotes himself to violin concertos by two great composers: one of them is a repertoire piece par excellence, whereas the other, despite the undoubted genius of its creator, is rarely heard. Together with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andrew Litton, Sebastian Bohren has recorded violin concertos by Felix Mendelssohn and Benjamin Britten; Tchaikovsky’s graceful Sérénade mélancolique completes the program.

Stradivari-Quartett SCHUBERT String Quartet G Major - String Quartet Movements

In its playing the Stradivari Quartet seeks only optimal results. As such, it resembles its namesake in the field of instrument making. Stradivarius may even be said to provide the Quartet’s framework. Its leader plays the Stradivarius “aurea” violin of 1715, while the violoncellist’s instrument, the “Suggia”, dates from 1717. The Quartet’s two other instruments are the “Ex-Wannamaker Hart” violin that was made by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini in 1767 and a viola from Hendrick Willems workshop dating from 1690. 

Just as the sound of these italian and Belgian instruments blends to perfection, so the playing of the four musicians from Switzerland, China, and Poland creates a uniquely harmonious impression.

Ran Jia SCHUBERT

The young Chinese pianist Ran Jia gained international attention for her extraordinary interpretative abilities for the piano work of Franz Schubert.
Tan Dun praised her as a “piano poet with dramatic skill in music making.”

For her recording of Schubert Sonatas D 960 and D 664 for the French label Artalinna she was awarded with a Choc Classica in December 2015. Her interpretation was called equal to the famous Schubert recordings by Kempff, Lupu and Richter. “An astonishing album and a name to remember!”

A special milestone in the 2016/2017 season will be her Berlin debut with the complete Schubert sonatas in the Philharmonic Chamber Music Hall, that Ran Jia will play on four evenings within ten days. Other important appearances include the MDR Sinfonieorchester and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale RAI, as well as Rheingau Music Festival, where she will give her recital debut.

Other highlights of the current season will be her debuts with China Philharmonic Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, led by Chung Myung-Whun.

Her most recent appearances include her debut at La Roque d’Antheron International Piano Festival in August, at the National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing, concerts at the Shanghai International Piano Festival and the “MISA” Summer Festival in Shanghai, China, recital debut in the sold out Kumho Art Hall in Seoul, Korea and her debut as part of the Albert concert series in Freiburg. She also debuted recently with Hong Kong Philharmonic, Bruckner Orchester Linz, English Chamber Orchestra, Jenaer Philharmonic Orchestra and Würzburg Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2008 Ran Jia gave her European recital debut when she was 19 years old with a pure Schubert program at the Klavierfestival Ruhr and was enthusiastically celebrated by the audience and critics: with this pianist the structures and sounds flow naturally on its own…Tremendous.”

Sebastian Bohren / CHAARTS Chamber Artists EQUAL

A singular combination of Beethoven's only violin concerto with Schumann's "Fantasy For Violin & Orchestra" Op. 131. The Fantasy was lauded at its premiere but today it is rarely seen on concert programs. In a letter dated June 2nd, 1853 and accompanied by a score of Beethoven's Violin Concerto - the link to our recording -, Joachim requested Schumann to write a Fantasy for the violin. A few months later in September, within a few short days, Schumann had sketched the Fantasy and sent it to Joachim for review. Joachim performed the Fantasy at the Schumann's home on September 28th and premiered it in Düsseldorf on October 27th with the orchestra under the baton of Schumann himself. The following year, on January 21st, Joachim performed the Fantasy again. On the same program, Schumann's wife Clara also performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto in E-flat major. It would be the last time Schumann heard both of them perform.

French composer Jean Françaix (1912-1997) has been an admirer of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's genius. He arranged Mozarts Quintet K. 452 for four woodwind instruments and piano for oboe, horn, clarinet, bassoon and string quintet. This particular version allows all the soloists from CHAARTS, to showcase their individuals skills.

With his sensitive and expressive playing, 27 year old Swiss violinist Sebastian Bohren ranks among the most promising talents of his generation. The musician has given solo performances in the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Munich Residenz, the Tonhalle Zurich and the KKL Lucerne. He has played with orchestras such as the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Zürich, Chamber Aartists, Lucerne Chamber Orchestra, and the St. Petersburg State Orchestra. Sebastian Bohren plays a Stradivarius (King George 1710) generously lent to him by the Habisreutinger Foundation.

Olga Scheps SATIE

May 17th sees Erik Satie's 150th anniversary and ECHO-Klassik Award winning pianist Olga Scheps presents the only new studio recording of his most beautiful piano solo works for the Satie celebrations 2016. Erik Satie is among the most popular composers worldwide, his most famous piano pieces such as „Gymnopédie No. 1” or “Je te veux” are instantly recognisable, having be used constantly in motion picture soundtracks and TV ads. As a special Bonus Olga Scheps recorded “Gentle Threat” by Chilly Gonzales, whom she frequently works together with on stage. Olga Scheps was born in Moscow in 1986, the daughter of two pianists, and discovered the instrument for herself at the age of four. She began studying the piano more intensively after her family moved to Germany in 1992. At an early age she had already developed her own unique style of keyboard playing, which combines intense emotiveness and powerful expressivity with extraordinary pianistic technique. Among those who discovered these talents was Alfred Brendel, who has encouraged Olga Scheps since she was fifteen. Olga Scheps has already recorded 5 albums for RCA Red Seal. All her recordings ranked high within the German Classical Charts and were highly praised by the press. Her debut album 'Chopin' immediately won the prestigious ECHO Klassik Award in 2010. (Presto Classical)

Nikolaus Harnoncourt / Wiener Philharmoniker BRAHMS Ein Deutsches Requiem

Widely respected as a pioneer in the field of early music who employed original instruments in performances of Baroque and Classical music, Nikolaus Harnoncourt is also admired for his insightful interpretations of 19th century music. His 2007 recording with the Vienna Philharmonic of Johannes Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem is characteristic of his handling of the Romantic repertoire, insofar as he clearly knows the best scholarship on performance style, yet neither makes authenticity a fetish nor lets expression suffer through an obsession with period practice. The sound of the orchestra is quite modern and full, and there is no attempt to make the strings play with minimal vibrato or to make the ensemble seem reduced in size or altered in the seating arrangement, unlike some historically informed performances. Furthermore, Harnoncourt's tempos are conventional, and the pacing is steady and even on the slow and reverent side, so his approach shows that he is far from doctrinaire in his choices and doesn't always follow a revisionist approach. The singing by the Arnold Schoenberg Choir is quite rich and smoothly blended, and the solos by soprano Genia Kühmeier and baritone Thomas Hampson are warm and expressive. Overall, the sound of the recording is fine, though RCA's microphone placement seems a little distant and soft-focused, so some of the details in the counterpoint seem hazy. (Blair Sanderson)

Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016) / Wiener Philharmoniker ANTON BRUCKNER Symphony No. 9

Anyone who loves Bruckner's music will want to hear this recording since it contains the Finale of his Symphony No. 9, the music which, according to Bruckner's musical executors, never existed except in the mind of the dying composer. But while that story fooled generations of conductors into performing a three-movement version of the Ninth, musicologists have long known that most of the Finale existed in score and sketch at Bruckner's death. But what the musicologists knew to be true has been almost completely ignored until this recording. Almost completely ignored because there have been three previous recordings of Ninth's Finale over the past 20 years and all of them are far more compelling than this one by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Vienna Philharmonic. For one thing, all the other recordings of the Finales have been completed with the bits that Bruckner didn't finish filled in, while Harnoncourt's recordings only have the bits that Bruckner finished and interpolates a lecture to describe what's missing. While this may be musicologically more accurate, in performance it is at best disruptive, at worst dull. For another thing, all the other Finales are performed with the overwhelming need to compel belief in the Finale while Harnoncourt himself seems unconvinced of its merits. But then, Harnoncourt's recording of the three completed movements are just as unconvincing. In Harnoncourt's performance, his opening movement alternates long stretches of quiet tedium with short bursts of loud bombast, his Scherzo alternates long stretches of loud hammering with short bursts of quiet inanity, and his Adagio alternates long stretches of loud, painfully dissonant music with shot bursts of louder, more painfully dissonant music. Harnoncourt's recording doesn't make a case for a four-movement Ninth; it doesn't even make a case for a three-movement Ninth. (James Leonard)

Olga Scheps / Stuttgarter Kammerorchester / Matthias Foremny CHOPIN Piano Concertos

Along with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Matthias Formeny Olga Scheps creates a harmonious and complex atmosphere, as it could be possible possible with a small orchestra.The accompaniment by the small ensemble condenses the effect of the piano and flatters without degenerating into decorative padding, as it is often heard in the criticism of the orchestration.

But the biggest compliment deserves Olga Scheps.She fully lives up to a Standard as superb Chopin performer with this recording, which was created in Stuttgart SWR Radio Studios. Her tone clear and sparkling in this highly romantic oeuvre, of which the second one especially, which was created erlier to the E minor Concerto, however is notorious for his technically intricate passages. 

She copes all tripping hazards with pianistic finesse and concentrates fully on the introspection of this voluptuous dreamy work. With its lightweight, vocal tone she satifies the audience with the introverted passages as well as with the dance driven ones. And then she follows the final traces of the third set with a noble virtuosity rather than crude sensationalism of impetuous passion of the young Chopin, who has already published this concert at the age of 19, in the seemingly endless runs, she visualizes her obviously great performance as a Chopin interpreter. (Birgit Schlinger)

Olga Scheps SCHUBERT

"Scheps showed the ability to create her own Schubert-Version. On one point you can sense her great sense of orchestrating it on point. On the other point you can sense her ability to give her own personal note to it. You can sense, the amount of effort she put in through every note she encounters." (NDR online) 

"Olga Scheps has the ability to show sense in all shades of darkness. Her poise in playing the piano, is presented through a total control of her mastery. She is on point as far as the interpretation goes. The message is sent. The “Kuperlwieser Walzer” is her key play, as far as giving you that Good-Night-Vibe. In her own personal way she is able to present As-Pur-Impromptu D 935. Every change of vibration is shown, where emotion of warmth and cold is felt at the same time. With her competence and intelligence and the mastery of her craft, we should be more than excited about her 4th Studio Album." (Rondo)

Olga Scheps RUSSIAN ALBUM

"In Olga Scheps Russian Album she excellently captures the emotion of melancholy, magically showcases sadness and being reserved. You can feel the emotion of slight world pain and the suffering of the soul, like at the beginning of Mili Balakirevs “Au Jardin” (…). Once the main subject of the play  Glinkas/Balakirevs “Lerche” comes into play your ears will widen: Sorrow, and the emotion of saying goodbye is felt throughout her mastery of playing the piano, without being old-fashioned. A Schepstrademark is her way of playing Rachmaninows g-Moll-Prelude: Effortless, also not showcasing her true capabilities she goes through this prelude. Overall a great Cover of the matter, being focused on presenting the play in its true fashion, which is not being boasting and a certain reservedness." (Fono Forum)

"Scheps shows masterfully how to present the emotions of sadness and pain in her Russian album. The tears will be following her play, that’s what is the result of her mastery. Her album is a well-put program that opens up many doors of emotion. (NDR online)

Olga Scheps CHOPIN

"The debut album of the 24 year old russian pianist phenom Olga Scheps is one of the best and can be included in Chopins birthday. Just the different emotions, shadows and skills are displayed in her album. Amazing." (Stern)

"Olga Scheps play the g-moll-Ballad with a sense of a feminine side and on-point technical skills. A fine tuned 'Walzer', two sensible 'Nocturnes', two 'Mazurken' and a different 'Etüden'." (Die Welt)

"The FAZ named Olga Scheps the new star in Chopin-Heaven. Her current studio album just is a indicator to her success. She is a master of her craft and makes it look effortless, combined with passion and emotion." (Kölnische Rundscha)

Olga Scheps VOCALISE

ECHO Klassik award winner Olga Scheps has quickly earned her standing among the established and sought-after pianists of her generation with her individual and characteristic musicality, her captivating stage presence, her scintillating sound and her warm touch. What especially sets her apart from others is her remarkable ability to enthrall her audiences by recounting musical narratives in her interpretations.

Olga Scheps was born in Moscow in 1986 and came to Germany at the age of six. She lives in Cologne and studies with Pavel Gililov at Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. Further studies have led her to Arie Vardi and Dmitrij Bashkirov. Moreover, for nearly ten years now, she has received significant artistic impulses from Alfred Brendel.

An exclusive artist of SONYClassical/RCA, Olga Scheps’ debut CD “Chopin” was released in January 2010; she received the ECHO Klassik award as “Newcomer of the Year” in October 2010. She released her second album with works by Russian composers in the autumn of 2010. In September 2012, Olga Scheps presented her most recent album “Schubert”.

Olga Scheps frequently performs recitals in venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Great Hall of the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Munich’s Prinzregententheater, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Musikverein Wien, and Cologne’s Philharmonie.

She has worked with renowned orchestras, such as the NDR Sinfonieorchester, the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, the Münchner Symphoniker, the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra. Her 2012/13 concert season includes tours with the Staatskapelle Weimar as well as the State Symphony Capella of Russia.

Since her debut at the Ruhr Piano Festival in 2007, Olga Scheps has been a regular guest at various prominent festivals, such as the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Kissinger Sommer, Heidelberger Frühling, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Rheingau Musik Festival, and the Hitzacker Summer Music Festival. Her recital at the Ruhr Piano Festival in May 2009 was recorded and published in the “Edition Piano Festival Ruhr” in cooperation with the Fono Forum magazine.

Olga Scheps also is an ardent chamber musician. She regularly collaborates with colleagues such as the violinists Daniel Hope and Erik Schumann, the cellists Adrian Brendel, Alban Gerhardt and Jan Vogler, as well as with the violist Nils Mönkemeyer.

TV reports in the German newscast “heute journal“ (ZDF), “Capriccio“ (BR Bavarian Public Radio & Television), Arte, 3Sat, and NDR North German Public Radio & Television have quickly fostered her publicity among a broader audience. As an ambassador for classical music, she is especially passionate about addressing a younger audience.

Olga Scheps is a fellowship holder at the “Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben” and the “German National Merit Foundation ”.

Anne Akiko Meyers / André-Michel Schub THE AMERICAN ALBUM

RCA Victor's The American Album is the most daring and ambitious program undertaken by violinist Anne Akiko Meyers for RCA Victor and features some of the most challenging and invigorating music to be found among her early playing. The showpiece here is Meyers' rendering of Charles Ives' Sonata No. 4 "Children's Day at the Camp Meeting," in which she transits seamlessly from the elementary, student-like playing at the opening through the fierce transcendentalism in the middle section to the whimsical, scherzo-like final movement. Meyers' playing matches Ives' rub-your-head-while-you-pat-your-tummy requirements without losing her sense of line or even tonal beauty. Both of these elements are very much in play in Aaron Copland's Nocturne, an early piece combined in a set of two along with Copland's quaint Ukulele Lullaby, but held out separately here; Meyers exercises supreme poise and control over the whole movement. Her reading of Copland's Sonata for violin and piano likewise emphasizes continuity and tonal beauty, but when she needs to throw off fireworks, such as in the Allegro section of the first movement, you can practically see them sparkle. Walter Piston's neo-classic Sonatina for violin & piano -- intended for, but interchangeable with a harpsichord accompaniment -- is equal parts rugged Americana and puff pastry, and Meyers interlocks with accompanist André-Michel Schub and pulls it off with aplomb. Blues, composed by respected Indiana University professor and jazz musician David Baker, provides Meyers a chance to show off some soulfulness in material in more of a let-your-hair-down mode than the more serious and rigorous fare found elsewhere on the disc. 

The packaging of this CD should not deter the listener from enjoying what was an extraordinarily brave program for a young, major-label artist want to say something about American music minus all the flag waving and bombast. Folks, never mind the cover; it's what's inside Anne Akiko Meyers' The American Album that counts. (Dave Lewis)

Olli Mustonen BEETHOVEN Diabelli Variations

This is, no doubt about it, an alternative view of the Diabelli Variations. It starts with what sounds like an intentionally parodistic view of the theme, with manically pecking staccatos in the right hand and predictable surges in the left, rather in the manner of an overenthusiastic amateur. Soon, however, it’s apparent that this kind of thing is going to be the norm; it’s simply Olli Mustonen’s natural, iconoclastic mode of delivery. Imagine someone playing on a heated keyboard with sore fingertips, and you’ll have some idea of his habitual clipped articulation and almost paranoid reluctance to sustain chords and melodic notes for their full notated value. That’s quite effective for the subdued bouncing chords of Var. 2 or the burbling bass figuration in Var. 3, and it’s interesting to hear, say, the dolce e teneramente of Var. 8 menaced by proto-Brahmsian fulminations in the left hand. Var. 25 is another winner: never mind the legato, feel the leggermente. All too often though, Mustonen only succeeds in evoking a world of punk-haircut grotesques. Var. 5 struts in a goose-step, the silences in Var. 13 are perversely non-witty, Var. 18 snatches at phrases like a nervous bird, and so on. Var. 33 is yet another tease; and I’m talking about that sublimely transfigured Tempo di menuetto.
Creative friction between composer and interpreter is all well and good, and certainly more interesting than slavish adherence to the text. But I feel that flights of fancy of the kind the young Finn is fabulously equipped to offer work best from a more humane basis. Remove that and you create mere freakishness. For some, Mustonen’s world-class clarity and agility may override such objections, and others may be able to detect a Gouldian alternative agenda I’ve completely missed. For myself I felt I could have been listening to a fine pianist who for some reason despised the Diabelli Variations and wanted to send them up. Of the many fine available versions, Kovacevich’s continues to give me the greatest satisfaction.
The five C major and minor short pieces work quite well as an appendix, though with a possible 33 minutes to fill, it might have been even more fun simply to make a clean sweep of Beethoven’s C major piano miscellanea. Recording quality is superb. (Gramophone)