Jean-Baptiste Dupont WIDOR Symphony 8

 

SYMPHONY 8

 

Franziska Pietsch / Josu de Solaun SHOSTAKOVICH - STRAUSS

SHOSTAKOVICH - STRAUSS

 

Jacques Thibaud String Trio MOZART Complete String Trios

COMPLETE STRING TRIOS

Franziska Pietsch / Detlev Eisinger SZYMANOWSKI & FRANCK Works for Violin & Piano

WORKS FOR VIOLIN & PIANO

Franziska Pietsch / Josu de Solaun FANTASQUE

FAURÉ | DEBUSSY | RAVEL | POULENC

Franziska Pietsch WORKS FOR SOLO VIOLIN

At first glance, Franziska Pietsch’s career seems to have been a fairy tale of good fortune. Born into a musical family in East Berlin – both her parents were violinists – she was celebrated as a child prodigy. Under the tutelage of Prof. Werner Scholz from Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Hochschule for Music, Pietsch began at a young age to win contests such as the Bach Competition in Leipzig and made her debut at Berlin’s Comic Opera at the age of eleven. There followed a number of years in the “Virtuoso Circus”, as she calls it in hindsight. She performed the violin concertos of Bruch, Lalo, Sibelius, and Paganini with the finest orchestras in East Germany; at the age of 12, she made her first recordings for the East German Radio (including Sarasate’s Gypsy Airs). But this fairy tale ended abruptly in 1984 when her father defected to West Germany during a concert tour. Two years would pass before his family was allowed to join him, and these two years would change the course of Franziska Pietsch’s life. From one day to the next, she was on her own, as all state-sponsored studies and scholarships were suspended. 

“And so, at the age of 14, I was forced to ask myself a number of truly fundamental questions. Why do I want to be a musician? What does music really mean? What do I want to do with my life?” Franziska Pietsch found answers in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. For an entire year, with no instruction whatsoever, she devoted herself exclusively to Bach’s solo works, distancing herself quite consciously from the “circus” life of a child prodigy. 

“Bach was my salvation, my healing. I suddenly became aware that great music is able to convey messages that live for centuries, in which I can discover my own soul and give voice to it.” After moving to West Germany in 1986, she continued on this path, supported by her teacher and mentor Prof. Ulf Hoelscher. She completed her years of study with the legendary violin teacher Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School in New York.

Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Solo Violin and Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonatas Op. 27 are the most significant works for solo violin after J.S. Bach. Both Bartók and Ysaÿe continually refer back to the great model whilst preserving their originality. Prokofiev wrote his Solo Sonata Op. 115 for ambitious violin students; short and crisp, with class and spirit. (Franziska Pietsch)

Quartetto di Cremona BEETHOVEN Complete string Quartets

The celebrated recording of the Complete Beethoven String Quartets with the Quartetto di Cremona is now once again available. This edition makes available all the composers string quartets, alongside his String Quintet No. 29 (the only original work by Beethoven with this scoring), in the highest quality. such warm playing; such perfection what a glory this is. (The Herald) The Cremonas Beethoven project hurtles towards an exciting climax. (The Strad) During the past eighteen years the Quartetto di Cremona has matured into a string quartet of international renown and has acquired an excellent national and international reputation. Having for many years performed at the great international halls, it is often considered as the successor to the famous Quartetto Italiano. The musical style of the Quartetto di Cremona is marked by a fruitful tension between Italian and German-Austrian influences. Following their academic studies the players continued their training with Piero Farulli of the Quartetto Italiano. He strongly favored intuitive playing and a fervent, emotional, romantic, and Italian approach to music. Afterwards the musicians pursued their studies with Hatto Beyerle of the Alban Berg Quartet. He represented a clear, classical German-Austrian style. Both teachers significantly influenced the quartet, and the players naturally combine both poles, mixing enthusiasm with a sense of musical architecture.

Christoph Schickedanz JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Sei solo à Violino senza Basso accompagnato

Musical depth, perfect form: Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin are a miracle of timelessness allowing many interpretations. Christoph Schickedanz presents his own independent reading between the poles of a “traditional” and a “historically informed” view of Bach.

​"On one stave, for a small instrument, this man writes an entire world of the deepest thoughts and the most powerful feelings." These are the words of Johannes Brahms, who venerated Johann Sebastian Bach's six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, a miracle of musical timelessness and expressive depth. Violinists approach this music with a sense of awe; they study it for their entire lives and yet never feel absolutely to be able to do it justice. They present the ultimate challenge, a life task. Schickedanz' understanding of these works has grown out of musical practice - an independent reading between the poles of a "traditional" and a "historically informed" view of Bach. To his mind, the violin is only the medium for which these works were conceived: "There is absolutely no need for this music to be played on certain instruments in order to achieve a 'correct' interpretation."

Elina Vähälä / Niek De Groot DUOS FOR VIOLIN AND DOUBLE BASS

Dutch double bassist Niek de Groot is one of today's leading soloists. Originally a trumpet-player he started playing the double-bass at 18. Within an unusually short time he became principal bass with several European ensembles, including a 10 year tenure as first solo-bass with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

After his formal studies he further developed his skills at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada. Niek's playing has benefited a great deal also from attending masterclasses with eminent cellists Frans Helmerson, Lluìs Claret, Laurence Lesser and in collaborations with Leonard Bernstein, György Sebök and Mstislav Rostropovich. 

Since 2006 Niek de Groot has dedicated himself entirely to chamber music and solo performances. He performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician at the best known concerthalls and music festivals. A new well received solo CD for NIMBUS was released in 2015. The first volume of the Hoffmeister solo-quartets and Rossini sonatas for BIS-records was released in 2017. The second volume will arrive later in 2018. A new recording with contemporary violin/bass Duos for AUDITE is on the market since February 2018.  His repertoire includes a great deal of contemporary music and he has worked closely with composers such as Kurtág, Stockhausen, Saariaho, Vasks and Gubaidulina.

​For this recording, Finnish violinist Elina Vähälä and Dutch double bass player Niek de Groot have chosen and performed seven pieces, composed by six Europeans and one Korean. When a violin and a double bass come together, two sound spheres collide: particularly in recent times, many renowned composers have been inspired to create highly original realisations of such encounters.

Franziska Pietsch / Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin / Cristian Macelaru PROKOFIEV Violin Concertos

The violinist Franziska Pietsch, the “Anne-Sophie Mutter of East Germany”  

(W Dulisch)  

Stupendous stage presence, supreme musicianship and outstanding instrumental prowess; transformation of political repression to a personal musical success: the violinist Franziska Pietsch cuts her own path, away from the standard soloistic career. From promising star of the GDR with a burgeoning solo career to boycott, via a new beginning, chamber music and leading orchestras back to being a soloist, now enriched by a transformed understanding of her own role: with this recording of the Prokofiev Violin Concertos, Franziska Pietsch has come full circle. Thanks to her intensive engagement with chamber music and her experience as a concert master, Franziska Pietsch’s performances as a soloist are not only world­class, but also characterised by an exceptional sense of chamber­like intimacy. 

Born in East Berlin, she received her first violin lessons from her father at the age of five. She made her debut at the Komische Oper Berlin aged eleven, after which she regularly performed as a soloist alongside renowned orchestras of the Eastern Bloc. She entered the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler as a junior student, where she studied with Werner Scholz. As an emerging talent, she enjoyed special state support until her father escaped to the West in 1984. Two years of reprisals by the regime followed, heavily influencing Franziska Pietsch’s understanding of music: deprived of any possibility of playing concerts or taking lessons, her chosen path towards hope – against desperation, refusal, fear and despotism – led inwards. Music became the only language in which she was able to express herself freely and which gave her the necessary strength to withstand external circumstances, continuing to hope for freedom. These were the origins of the intensity and artistic depth which characterise Franziska Pietsch’s playing to the present day.  (Excerpt from the liner Notes)

Swiss Piano Trio EDUARD FRANCK Piano Trios

This is the second disc from the Audite label of piano trios by the German composer and virtuoso pianist, Eduard Franck. Given the high quality of the music, it's surprising so little of it has previously been recorded. Of the three pieces on this program, there is one other version of the Piano Trio Op. 22 on the Naxos label. The Piano Trio Op. 53 and the Piano Trio (1835) are both appearing here as world premiere recordings. 

Eduard Franck (1817-1893) was about a generation older than Johannes Brahms. He was an extraordinarily gifted pianist, in demand across Europe, but as a composer, was very little known. One reason for this was the exacting high standards to which Franck held himself for his work; most of his compositions were not published until shortly before his death. 

Most scholars consider Franck's best work to be found among his chamber pieces. The list of compositions in this genre is quite extensive, including five violin sonatas, five piano trios, two piano quintets, a piano sextet, three string quartets, two string sextets, a string quintet and two cello sonatas.

There is a rather understated beauty to this music, which is masterful in many respects - formally, melodically and for the composer's vibrant musical imagination. It is difficult to imagine any listener who enjoys Romantic chamber music not enjoying this, and if you do, you may want to seek out the earlier Audite release of Franck's piano trios (ADT 92567) containing the trios Opp. 11 and 58. The remarkable Swiss Piano Trio performs with the impeccable technique, sensitive musicality and homogeneity of sound and approach that set them among the finest such ensembles performing today.

Liana Gourdjia / Katia Skanavi STRAVINSKY

Since I remember myself, there were sounds of violin and piano. I must have been present during hundreds of hours of scrupulous work, when my grandmother was teaching my sister the violin, long before being aware of what it all really meant. Music was all around me. My mother played the piano. Often the violin students of The Moscow Conservatory came to rehearse chez nous, and that is how I became familiar with every microscopic detail of most violin pieces she had accompanied. My mother loved accompanying, she made everyone feel confident, even in most treacherous passages. We knew she would always wait, or, in any case, do just the right thing in order to support a player. Masterful accompanists are hard to come by; they must be cherished.

It was Spring of 1986 when I was taken to my sister’s violin lesson. At that time The Soviet Union was still in the “high achievement” phase in the arts. The promising talents were screened in rigorous exams and were selected or rejected for The Central Music School or The Gnessin School in Moscow, to study with the best and the toughest and, later, win International Competitions. The school’s vestibule is often in y thoughts, where the often-not-so-friendly-mothers were waiting for their little musicians to take them home. I was “chosen” at my sister’s lesson as someone gifted as I sang themes from the Mendelssohn Concerto she was playing, and was told that I shall be a violinist.

Laura Ruiz Ferreres / Mandelring Quartett JOHANNES BRAHMS The Complete Chamber Music for Clarinet

Audite's 2013 double-SACD of Johannes Brahms' complete works for clarinet is an attractive presentation of the artistry of Laura Ruiz Ferreres, one of the Europe's leading clarinetists. Ruiz Ferreres is accompanied by pianist Christoph Berner in the Clarinet Sonatas No. 1 and No. 2, Op. 120, and she also joins Berner and cellist Danjulo Ishizaka in the Trio in A minor, Op. 114; for the Quintet in B minor, Op. 115, she performs with the Mandelring Quartet. Ruiz Ferreres' polished technique and limpid tone are brilliantly showcased in these audiophile recordings, and while she naturally comes to the foreground as the soloist in the two sonatas, she is on equal terms with her partners in the trio and the quintet. Shifting easily between carrying the melodic line and being one voice among others, Ruiz Ferreres always puts herself at the service of the music and never forces her presence. Thanks to the remarkable details, textures, and dimensions of the super audio format, there's no need for her to compete with the other musicians, because the reproduction captures all the instruments with credible tone colors and a good sense of their placement, though some passages seem to be a bit soft and recessed. Fans of Brahms' late chamber music will appreciate the clarinet's warmth, the burnished tone of the strings, and the introspective mood of the interpretations. (Blair Sanderson)

Franziska Pietsch / Detlev Eisinger PROKOFIEV Works for Violin & Piano

Prokofiev's works reflect facets of Franziska Pietsch's own biography to a significant degree. As an emerging talent in the GDR, she enjoyed special state support; her musical training was thus initially shaped by the Eastern European school, bringing Prokofiev's music close to her heart. His two Violin Sonatas appear as two contrasting poles within his oeuvre - her life has also moved between extremes. The state support led to early success in the GDR. However, her father's escape to the West in 1984 was followed by two years of reprisals by the regime, intensively shaping Franziska Pietsch's understanding of music: deprived of any possibility of playing concerts or taking lessons, her chosen path towards hope - against desperation, refusal, fear and despotism - led inwards. Music became the only language in which she was able to express herself freely and which gave her the necessary strength to withstand external circumstances, continuing to hope for freedom. These were the origins of the intensity and artistic depth which characterise Franziska Pietsch's playing to the present day.

The two Violin Sonatas, written largely between 1938 and 1946 after Prokofiev's return to the Soviet Union, could not be more contrary: No 1 in F minor, Prokofiev's "Appassionata", is a tragic piece, whilst No 2 in D major, originally conceived for flute and piano, is predominantly joyful and serene. Prokofiev arranged it himself, with David Oistrakh advising him. The reworked version of the Cinq mélodies, composed in 1919/20 for voice (without text) and piano accompaniment, was also produced by Prokofiev himself. These chamber works expose three intrinsic aspects of his artistry: his ability to create a seamless, emotionally intense melodic line; his often concealed tragic side; and his classicist inclination. (Audite)

Elisso Bolkvadze PROKOFIEV Piano Sonata No. 2 - SCHUBERT Impromptus D 899

Until now, the Georgian pianist Elisso Bolkvadze has recorded primarily for the Sony Classical Infinity Digital and Cascavelle labels. On her latest release, for Audite, she makes a number of highly original interpretative choices. Her approach to the opening of Prokofiev’s 1912 Second Sonata is redolent of Scriabin – plush, full - sounding and rife with detail. The rhythmic vitality of the Scherzo becomes waylaid by explorations of colouristic ornament and the misty haze enveloping the slow movement feels more French than Russian. The moto perpetuo of the finale rattles along at a splendid clip until it too is bogged down in an expressively overgrown contrasting section. In place of Prokofiev’s brightly unambiguous colours and rhythmic élan vital , we encounter over - stuffed decor and aching expressivity. The Schubert Impromptus are prevailingly lyrical, though the rhetorical eloquence and emotional urgency of each is diminished by indecisive rhythmic underpinning. For all its admirably vivid contrasts, the C minor Impromptu seems to wander, uncertain of its ultimate goal. The E flat Impromptu comes off as more notey than fleet, while the abandon of its contrasting section is impeded by undue focus on inner voices. The golden melody of the beloved G flat major threatens to come untethered and float into the ether for lack of an adequately anchoring bass. Throughout the disc, Bolkvadze’s undeniably sensitive playing moves note to note. We are invited to admire each tree, if not each individual leaf, heedless of the magnificent forest surrounding us. Combined with a certain stylistic ambiguity with regard to both composers, the result lacks a strong personal stamp, prompting the question of just how fully Bolkvadze inhabits the music she plays. (Gramophone)

Annie Fischer SCHUMANN Piano Concerto - Leon Fleisher BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 2

Two pearls of pianism: Annie Fischer in a sensitive, chamber-like and exceptionally poetic reading of the Schumann Piano Concerto – one of her favourite pieces. Leon Fleisher, a few months before he was to lose the use of his right hand (recovering it only in old age), with Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto in an inspirationally bright and crystal clear tone.

The eighth disc in the series "LUCERNE FESTIVAL Historic Performances" is dedicated to two piano icons: in 1960 and 1962, with two years between them, Hungarian-born Annie Fischer and the American Leon Fleisher made their debuts at LUCERNE FESTIVAL. Released here for the first time in their entirety, these live recordings document them at the peak of their art.

Sviatoslav Richter called her a "brilliant musician", accrediting her with "great breath and true depth". András Schiff acknowledged: "I have never heard more poetic playing in my life." Annie Fischer, born in Budapest in 1914, gave public performances even as a child, winning the International Liszt Competition in 1930 and after that, except during the war, touring worldwide. Nonetheless, she tends to be rated as an insider's tip, not least because she left behind only a handful of studio recordings. That makes live recordings such as this, released for the first time, all the more precious: at her only performance in Lucerne in summer 1960, Annie Fischer realised a sensitive, chamber-like and exceptionally poetic reading of the Schumann Piano Concerto with which she "garnered unusually fervent success", according to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. She found congenial musical partners in Carlo Maria Giulini and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Leon Fleisher made his Lucerne debut in 1962 at the age of thirty-four: on the peak of his rapid career which had - as had been the case with Annie Fischer - catapulted him into musical life while he was still a child. However, only a few months after his Lucerne performance - released for the first time in its entirety - he developed "focal dystonia", making the use of his right hand impossible. During the following decades, Fleisher became a specialist of the left-handed repertoire until, in his old age, he was once again able to play with both hands, thanks to new medical treatments. In Lucerne, he presented himself with one of his party pieces - Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto, which he played with an elegant and transparent tone. The Swiss Festival Orchestra was conducted by George Szell, with whom he had made a studio recording of the concerto one year previously - an interesting comparison. The second half of this concert, Brahms' First Symphony, is already available in this series of "LUCERNE FESTIVAL Historic Performances" and has been awarded the "Diapason d'Or" as well as a nomination for the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA)