Romantic Chamber Music on Period Instruments
929358
Johannes Brahms (1833 &#8211; 1897), Trio in E Flat Major for Piano, Violin and Horn, Op. 40 (written in 1865);
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 &#8211; 1827): Sonata in F Major for Horn and Piano, Op. 17 (written in 1800);
Nikolaus von Krufft (1779 &#8211; 1818): Sonata in F Major for Horn and Piano (written approx. 1800).
Performed by: Lowell Greer, natural horn; Steven Lubin, pianoforte and fortepiano; and Stephanie Chase, violin.
Recorded in December, 1990, at the State University of New York at Purchase.
Harmonia Mundi. Re-released in 2001 as HCX 3957037 as part of the Classical Express series. Total time: 64'45".

This recording brings together three American musicians whom I greatly admire, and if I award the CD four stars instead of five (as most other reviewers have done and in contrast to the enthusiastic encomiums of &#8220;Gramophone&#8221; magazine), then that should not in any way be interpreted as deprecating the amazing musicianship to be heard here. My reasons for deducting a star are firstly, that I don't feel that either the music (in particular the Brahms, the longest piece on the disc) nor the sound of the horns used here (all French-manufactured and particularly well-suited to the repertoire) can quite match up to the sheer magnificence and beauty heard on Lowell Greer's recording of Mozart's Horn Concertos (ASIN: B000056F7K). Well, of course Brahms and Beethoven are not Mozart, so this is just a subjective judgement coming from someone who loves 18th century music. The second reason for awarding four stars instead of five is that the engineering, the recorded audio sound, although certainly excellent, is not quite up to the standard of many other Harmonia Mundi recordings, with a little hissing and some occasional mechanical noise on the right stereo channel interfering a little with the listening pleasure. But having said all that, this is indeed a wonderful recording. The Brahms' piece benefits greatly from period instruments, with Steven Lubin here playing a Boesendoerfer pianoforte made around 1854 in Vienna, and I also cherished the violin playing of Stephanie Chase, particularly in the Scherzo: Allegro and the Finale: Allegro con brio. As a whole, however, the Brahms is an acquired taste, and it is perhaps symptomatic that the author of the accompanying notes quotes at length a contemporary critique in which the dark quality of Brahms' music is lambasted and the suggestion made that Brahms ought, in fact, to have used a clarinet instead of a horn. The Beethoven and the rare von Krufft pieces (with just a historic horn and a fortepiano) were light relief in comparison, with, to my mind, the Beethoven being head and shoulders better than either of the other two pieces. But &#8220;chacun a son gout&#8221;!
2317791
I can't disagree with the previous reviewer ("Hexameron"), but I'll give it one more star than he does.  This is a well-played and well-recorded disc of very pleasant chamber music by an accomplished group.  As he notes, these are not-particularly adventurous late 19th Century pieces, written 20 years apart, and they're in the Mendelssohn-Brahms line rather than the Liszt-Wagner. so they fall easily on the ear.  I would be happy to hear such performances in concert, and, as a not-very-sophisticated listener, I don't mind hearing derivative works, whether "Baroque," "Classical," or "Romantic," as long as they are well-wrought, which these fluent pieces certainly are.  If you like Brahms, you'll like this, although in Brahms, there's almost always more going on, and the textures are usually fuller and the musical development more adventurous. For all that, there's much to enjoy here.
619506
These are several small ensemble pieces, nicely executed, and very pleasant background music for relaxation or reading a book.  There is always something worthwhile in anything Haydn.
4549639
This is a series of musical letters two composers have written to one another.  It is meant to be played with two adjoining pianos. The "letters" build on common themes, all in moods that are at once romantic and minimalist.  I liked most of the letters at first, and over time I have grown to love some of the letters.  A few are overly repetitive and not that interesting melodically.  As a whole, it is a very good piece. The nice thing about the digital recording is that the tracks are separate and one can cease listening to the few so-so tracks if you care to.

I believe these are played by the composers.  I have heard two versions online where I thought the pianism was a little better, but the sound was too reverberant and the pianos did not seem like the best. So this is a good choice.

I wish a few duo-pianists would record this -- and for me the dream team would be Val Lisitsa and Gryaznov. (Lisitsa's husband, an excellent pianist, seem to have retired from public playing.)
605942
Lovely chamber music pieces! Good variety and playability. Has become my groups standard gig music.
1300754
A Mozart contemporary, this composer was as important to astronomy/cosmology as Mozart was to music.  Good period pieces.  Fine production.  Worth the price, but it's not Mozart.
2600870
I am not a big fan of romantic music which this seems to be. Some of the compositions are pleasant
1962897
I am a period instrument enthusiast; I'm not going to get into that discussion. All I know is that this is one of the first recordings of classical music I've bought and it's still my favorite in my collection. The playing is very exciting, the phrasing is meticulous and very audible to the listener. You can never go wrong with Harmonia Mundi for recording quality; the sound is really exquisite. I personally tend not to like the sound Andrew Manze gets out of his baroque violin; sometimes it sounds nasally and constrained. However, this CD is a nice exception. Generally, his playing sounds more like a normal violinist, without any of the covered sound I'm used to. The Academy of Ancient Music playing is pristinely clean, and pristinely in tune, especially on some of the slower movements in which intonation is more risky. My favorite movements are the rollicking 5th movement Allegro of the 5th concerto, the noble, poignant 1st movement Larghetto of the 2nd concerto, and the tuneful, catchy, dancing 4th movement Allegro of the 4th concerto. If you are a fan of high baroque music, particularly the baroque concerto grosso, these two discs will excite you day after day, month after month, year after year. Bravo AAM, Andrew Manze and Harmonia Mundi for another wonderful production!
2401086
As a friend of Berlioz and a member of Schumanns Davidsbndler, Stephen Heller (1813-1888) was at the forefront of early Romanticism. He is best known for his studies, no doubt still played by many piano students today. With this recording we get three large-scale works atypical of Heller, whose output groans from the weight of character pieces and etudes. However, it makes sense that Heller also composed so many variations because he was a miniaturist and each variation is like its own miniature.

For me, the 21 Variations on a Theme of Beethoven (1872) is the highlight of this recording. It is a gargantuan specimen and 38 minutes of continuous music. Hellers choice of theme is from the Andante of the Appassionata, which is so familiar to most of us that listening to these variations is a pleasure. It is easy to hear what Heller is doing when he tweaks the motives, supplies counter melodies, changes accents, and adds filigree while the harmonic outline is intact. Even though this work was written in the 1870s, the style is pure Parisian salon circa 1839. The variations run a substantial gamut of texture, mood, density, and technical difficulty: from light scherzo and bravura treatment to Schumannesque poetry and Mendelssohnian songs without words. What strikes me about these variations is Hellers imagination at the keyboard; he is a master at exploiting sonorities, registers, and dynamics. At one point Heller combines the Andante theme with the rondo theme from the Appassionatas 3rd movement in a manner Godowsky would later employ in his Chopin studies.

The Variations on a Polish Theme op. 5 (1829) is, by the standards of the time, an exciting and competent virtuoso showpiece. All the accoutrements are there: pearly runs and scales, bel canto lines, brilliant flourishes and embellishments, and bravura showmanship. Some variations reveal a degree of depth, looking to Schubert or transforming the theme into a charming music box-like melody. Its a fun and inoffensive romp. Hellers Theme de Paganini varie (1829)written at the age of 16has a deficit of maturity and quality not surprising for an op. 1. The theme is taken from the finale of Paganinis Violin Concerto No. 1: a simple march put through the rigors of salon glitter with an upbeat Mozartian spirit. I think it is the weakest of the three works; theres too much naivety and forced charm.

Biliana Tzinlikova plays with all the expressive and technical abilities you could ask for. Every phrase and figuration is clean. Her finger velocity in the bravura passages leave an impression and her cantabile touch in the gentler moments is exquisite.

Bottom line: Hellers 21 Variations on a Theme of Beethoven (the Andante from op. 57) is highly engaging and inventive, a fusion of brilliant concert writing and early German Romanticism. Recommended if you like Schumann, Chopin, and Henselt.
1418398
Lynn Ren Bayley, Fanfare Magazine

On the face of it, the task Tomasz Lis has set for himself in this CD seems elementary: just play the Impromptus of these three Romantic composers. Yet the challenge is to make each of them sound somewhat different, since they were of different nationalities and, thus, different aesthetic approaches, even though the Polish Chopin adopted the musical style of his later homeland, France.
Interestingly, Lis approaches all of these impromptus, regardless of era, composer, or nationality, in pretty much the same vein, as Impressionistic works to be given moody and colorful readings. He eschews a rich, deep-in-the-keys approach in favor of a remarkable lightness of touch. One is scarcely aware of a pianist on this disc; it almost sounds as if the piano is playing itself. This in itself marks his interpretations as not only highly sensitive but also engaging and communicative. Moreover, his approach to rhythm is relatively straightforward, with slight modifications to tempo matching the mood of his coloristic effects.

Thus the Viennese Schubert emerges here with great attention to the construction of the pieces, though his approach is not as dynamic as that of Artur Schnabel. Liss approach also works well in the famous Chopin Fantaisie-Impromptu, where he is able to make a sensible transition from the dramatic opening to the more romantic (small r) famous tune that follows. His use of rubato is sensitive but not overdone; thus it makes an impression without drawing attention to itself. The other Chopin impromptus have a nice general feeling of warmth and light about them, often exploring the feelings of the chord changes with unusual sensitivity.

Lis brings the same feeling and structural integrity to the impromptus of Faur, which are probably the least well known on this set. Interestingly, I found them to be more melodious than the Schubert pieces, at least insofar as creating tunes is concerned, and Lis works them deftly into the overall structure of each piece.

This debut recording marks Lis as a sensitive and elegant pianist. It remains to be seen how his approach will work in the larger-scaled music of other composers, but he is surely off to a fine start.
2238408
Here is the consummate oboeist, Holliger, playing the richness of late Baroque concerto for oboe.
Holliger aptly serves these compositions with his senitive phrasing and tone.  Backed ably by unidentified strings and continuo, the selections from Marcello, Sammartini, Albiononi, Lotti and Cimarosa are marvelous.
This is monumental collection and performance of oboe concertos of this period.  Especially fond of Allegro from Albinoni's Concerto in G minor and Affettuoso from Lotti's Cocerto in A.
1498723
The piano was where Schoenberg worked out his compositional problems.  Op. 11 was one of his first free atonal pieces and Op. 23 contains his first serial movement.  It is not fair to dismiss these pieces as merely  experimental.  It is true that they are more difficult to listen to than  Schoenberg's orchestral or chamber music because there is no element of  timbre- whereas in the third of Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra we  can enjoy the tone color of the shifting orchestral texture, when listening  to his piano music one is forced to concentrate on the pitches themselves.  However, there is still a way  into this music, even for the novice.  To my  ears, Pollini takes care above all to show how these pieces are an  extension of the 19th century romantic tradition.  There is, especially in  op. 11 and op. 19 a genuinely romantic aesthetic.  Even in  such a hermetic  piece as Op. 25, Pollini's intentions cannot be questioned.  And, of course,  his technique is everywhere flawless.
793175
There are two trios recorded on this CD, the Brahms C Major, Op. 87 (recorded in June of 1952 at the Prades Festival) and the Mendelssohn D Minor, Op. 49 (recorded in November of 1961 at the White House). We generally hear Brahms chamber music performed in a brash, emphatic style but here it is played in a restrained and loving way. I listened to another Casals performance of this work recorded at the 1955 Prades festival (with Menuhin and Istomin) and found the approach similar.
The Mendelssohn is simply beautiful, a performance befitting this very special occasion. Did Casals ever play anything at anytime that was ever less than inspired and inspiring?
The sound on this recording shows it's age but takes nothing away from one's pleasure.
1659790
The album contains five of the nine symphonies C.P.E Bach wrote while living in Berlin (1738-1768). A booklet note tells us that audiences of the day tended to judge the worth of a composition on its degree of novelty, and "the widespread acclaim that C.P.E. Bach won all over Europe was due in large measure to his originality and wealth of invention." In the words of musicologist Jan LaRue, "Once a Bach symphony has got under way in the usual fashion, some intriguing detail may 'crop up' any moment: a forbidden dissonance, a mighty thunderclap, a headlong rush downwards, an abrupt change of tempo or a surprising modulation." And so it goes with the five symphonies on Maestro Haenchen's disc.

The works included are the Symphony in E flat, Wq179 (H654); Symphony in F, Wq181 (H656); Symphony in C, Wq174 (H649); Symphony in F, Wq175 (H650); and Symphony in E minor, Wq178 (H653). Haenchen and his chamber orchestra play the works on modern instruments, but they provide sparkling performances--buoyant, breezy, and well judged.

I suppose I would have liked hearing these works played on period instruments; I've gotten used to such things over time. Still, given the modern instruments employed, it's quite pleasurable, and, of course, listeners who don't like period instruments will find it exactly right. The sound of the ensemble is smooth, elegant, and refined, whereas period instruments would have given the sound a slightly rougher, more-rustic quality.

That said, Maestro Haenchen's performances of these little three-movement symphonies are lively and invigorating, providing much charm in the process. They bustle with good cheer, vitality, and brilliant playing. There is nothing lax about the slow movements, either; indeed, if anything, Haenchen takes them a tad too quickly for my taste. But he is imaginative, keeping Bach's invention foremost in mind, and sometimes that requires a fairly vigorous and flexible tempo.

In the Symphony in F (H656), for instance, the last of the Berlin symphonies Bach wrote, Haenchen pounces on every contrast and every turbulent characteristic he can find, emphasizing them with zest. In the Andante, he maintains a strong forward momentum, and in the concluding Allegro assai he provides a welcome sense of fun.

And so it goes. I can't say I really loved any of these symphonies, despite Bach's attempts at doing daring things for his day and the critical acclaim he received. The music continues to sound rather too much the same to me, a bit too formulaic. (H650 sounds the most modern, "modern" for the times in any case.) Nevertheless, I can't imagine this music being any better played than it is here, unless maybe, as I've said, the orchestra had played it on period instruments.

The C.P.E. Bach Chamber Orchestra made the recording for the Capriccio label at Christuskirche Berlin in March 1985, with producer Heinz Wegner and recording engineer Hartmut Kolbach taking care of the technical details. Brilliant Classics reissued the disc in 2014. The orchestral sound seems a tad bright, but there's no questioning its clarity, openness, and air. I liked how well the detail and definition come through, and I enjoyed hearing the ensemble's scope and depth and dimensionality, even if it comes at the expense of some small degree of natural warmth.

John J. Puccio
Classical Candor
4776364
Boult modelled these accounts on Steinbach's Meiningen performances of the turn of the century, which he heard in London. He went for smooth, full sounds with a medium-sized orchestra, not an 'authentic' approach with a  little band. With very distinguished soloists - David Munrow, Raymond  Leppard, Valda Aveling, Rodney Friend - and lovely rhythmic spring and  pointing, these are most enjoyable performances with the possible exception of No.  6, which sounds not heavy (none of this does) but a little muddy, with all  those violas. The price is right, though, and the works sound very  beautiful and alive.
566898
I have to say that I frequently really enjoy "period" instrument performances.  This recordings uses baroque sounding instruments.  I have found that listening to "original instrument performances" to be interesting and sometimes really exhilarating.  I noticed that so many of the earlier attempts at "original instrument" performances sounded scrappy, scratchy, and kind "sharp" sounding.  They were interesting, but I was not willing to put my modern instrument recordings to the wayside.

This set of performances kind of remind performances by the earlier performers of period instrument performances.  It does not sound scrappy or quite as extreme as Rheinhard Goebbel's performances, but it does not sound as refined as the Festetics.  I am not sure if I like the Quartette Mosaiques on Astree.  I prefer a subtler approach, but with the leaner sounding instruments that allow the listener to hear so clearly the textures in the composition.

From what I have read, it does not appear that we really know how these period performances would have sounded when they were being played by the composers and musicians of that time.  The current crop of musicians seem to make the best educated approximation of what it must have sounded like.  While I would tend to believe that modern musicians are probably technically more expert players than the musicians of 200-400 years ago,I cannot believe that the gifted musicians of the time were not capable of phenomenal virtuoso playing as well as playing of great beauty and subtlety with the instruments of the day.  They were used to the qualities and limitations of those instruments.  In short, I wish that these performances were more subtle.  I would say that I preferred the Solomon Quartet's playing on Hyperion to these.

Having said that, I am glad that I have these performances to listen to.  The price is wonderful.  It probably took Amazon 6-7 weeks to get this set.  The sound is really quite exhilaratin.  If you are interested, get them now.  I would be surprised if they are not out of print in the near future.
3356251
Ned Rorem (b. 1923) is one of our most distinguished composers, perhaps best known for his songs; certainly he is one of the finest composers we have when it comes to word-setting. But this disc is given over to chamber works, and a fine disc it is; it features the British chamber group Fibonacci Series, which consists of seven instrumentalists (led by violinist Jonathan Carney, brother of the American String Quartet's second violinist, Laurie Carney).
"End of Summer" (for clarinet, violin and piano (1985), in three movements: Capriccio, Fantasy, Mazurka) starts with a declamatory cadenza for unaccompanied violin that seems to be notifying us that an important announcement is about to be made. But shortly after the clarinet and piano enter we are taken to a world of pastiche (and of memory) that includes old hymns, children's songs, snippets of faux-Satie. In the 'Fantasy' we enter an autumnal mood, with some late Brahmsian use of the clarinet, in which there seems to be rueful recollection of times past. 'Mazurka' is a lively old-fashioned folk-dance, alternately contrasted with an elegant waltz. Toward the end two dances jostle for primacy and finally disappear into thin air. "End of Summer" is a delightful suite that deserves some real popularity.
"Book of Hours" (flute and harp, 1975) is a collection of eight pieces reflecting each of the canonical hours designated for daily prayer. 'Matins' opens quietly and at mid-way reverses itself (a palindrome) to end as it began; it is echoed in the final 'Compline.' 'Lauds' is a vigorous eye-opener (Lauds comes at sunrise). 'Prime' (6am) is a dreamlike meditation of harp glissandi with flute wheeling above. 'Terce' (Mid-Morning) is for mostly unaccompanied flute that begins meditatively but then soars into the stratosphere, ending with coruscating glints of sunlight. 'Sext' (Noon) has note-bending swoons on the flute with reassuring chords from the harp - a crisis of faith with support coming from an older member of the monastic community? 'Nones' (Mid-afternoon) has spashes of discordant flute and harp chords alternating with calming common chords and simple melodies. 'Vesper' (Evening) is a reversal of the process in 'Lauds.' And finally 'Compline' ends as 'Matins' began. This is a superbly atmospheric suite superbly realized by flutist Anna Noakes and harpist Gillian Tingay.
"Bright Music" (for flute, two violins, cello and piano, 1987) has five movements whose titles are descriptive of the music they contain: Fandango, Pierrot, Dance-Song-Dance, Another Dream, and Chopin. Rorem has said 'Fandango' was inspired by the image of 'rat inside a can'! Certainly it runs and scrabbles in fandango rhythm. 'Pierrot' is a melancholy clown reportedly inspired by images from Picasso's early 'blue period.' 'Dance-Song-Dance,' is just what it says - a frenetic dance (with whirling piano, plucked strings and screaming flute) - followed by a simple, pensive song which the dance interrupts for a frantic finish. 'Another Dream', the longest section at eight minutes, opens with an yearning cello solo eventually joined by distant chiming on the piano. One by one the other instruments enter, all singing trancelike songs. There is a modest climax before the music again recedes into its initial dream.  The brief finale, 'Chopin,' is a virtuosic gloss on the 'wind in the graveyard' finale of Chopin's B-flat minor piano
sonata.
This is a terrific issue with potent and engaging music played superbly. The sound is clear, truthful and rich.