What becomes of a one-hit wonder when their hit drops off the charts? Oblivion. That’s sort of what happened to Arnold Krug. A contemporary of Brahms, Krug won the Stelzner Competition for chamber music in 1896. Instrument builder Alfred Stelzner had created two new stringed instruments, a violetta (midway between a viola and cello), and cellone (between […]
Chamber music
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Ensemble Il Demetrio deliver thoughtful performances of Tartini
The liner notes lay out the problems with these Giuseppe Tartini works. In the late 1760s, the term a Quattro (in 4 parts) was somewhat vague. Did Tartini intend his Sonate a Quattro to be played with only four string instruments, as a proto-string quartet? And what about the role of the harpsichord, tacitly a […]
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Reinecke String Quartets – authentically Romantic
The five surviving string quartets of Carl Reinecke describe an arc. His two earliest quartets were discarded and lost, but his first published quartet appears in 1845 at the start of his career. The last was completed in 1909, a year before his death. Reinecke studied with both Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann. The influence […]
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Woldemar Bargiel – String Quartets Fall Between Mendelssohn and Brahms
Even in his lifetime, Woldemar Bargiel never quite escaped the shadow of his half-sister and his brother-in-law — Clara and Robert Schumann. At an early point in his career, Schumann rated Bargeil’s chamber music higher than that of newcomer Johannes Brahms. The rankings soon changed. Nevertheless, Bargiel was a talented composer, carefully crafting and refining […]
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Tasmin Little Plays Exceptional Music by Exceptional Women
Tasmin Little presents a solid program of late-Romantic violin works. As always, her performances let the emotional content of this music blossom forth in beauty. Little has done other outstanding recordings of this repertoire (her Brahms album springs to mind). She seems to have a natural affinity of the late-Romantic style. Oh – and all […]
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Telemann Wind Quintets, Vol. 1 – Pleasantly tuneful
Let’s be clear: the wind ensemble of Telemann’s time was vastly different than the ones we have today. Clarinets, metal flutes, valved brass instruments, and percussion were later additions to the ensemble. The lineup of L’Orfeo Bläserensemble is one Telemann was familiar with: two oboe d’amore, two F horns, and bassoon. Lute and cembalo provide […]
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Judith Shatin retrospective concert – insights and thrills
The audience for Hearing Things: Music by Judith Shatin heard some exciting music in Old Cabell Hall on April 6, 2019. The retrospective concert was part of Shatin Music Month. Shatin founded the Virginia Center for Computer Music in 1987 and guided its growth through her retirement. The concert included works created at the Center, as well as some that didn’t use […]
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Paul Lansky: The Long and Short of It
This release features three intimate chamber works by Paul Lansky. All are fairly recent, composed after Lansky’s transition to a more tonal style. “The Long and Short of It” is the most recent work, completed in 2015. This wind quintet is based on a section of Mozart’s Serenade for Winds, K. 361. Lansky uses the […]
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Daniel del Pino and Habemus Quartet – Contemporary and Consonant
This release is the result of an international competition for consonant chamber music. The works are all set in a tonal framework, but there’s nothing trite or conventional about them. These are all compositions of substance. Andreas Foivos Apostolou’s “Metamorphoses for Piano Solo” starts off the program. This Grecian composer’s work uses polyrhythms and chord […]