Stanislaw Moniuszko is considered the father of Polish national opera, and one of the country’s most important composers of the mid-19th Century. This release features his two string quartets. It also has a piano quintet by Juliusz Zarebski, one of Poland’s leading composers of the late 19th Century. The members of the Plawner Quintet have […]
CPO
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Sympathetic performance of Felix Woyrsch Third Symphony
This is the second release in CPO’s Felix Woyrsch symphonic cycle. Woyrsch, active in the early part of the 20th Century, was a Keeper of the Flame. Like his friend Johannes Brahms, Woyrsch wanted to work within established classical music forms. But like Brahms, Woyrsch didn’t perfectly preserve past forms. Rather, he stretched them in […]
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Early Telemann cantatas still show great skill
This release features three Georg Philipp Telemann works for countertenor. More precisely, it presents three early works by Telemman (for countertenor). Not that I could hear much difference. Telemann in his twenties was already a skilled composer. There are no awkward moments in any of these works. And while his style grew in complexity, these pieces benefit […]
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Homilius Christmas Cantatas beat the rush
This release had me scratching my head. Why was an album of Advent and Christmas music released in February? Most folks (even me) have our Christmas decorations dismantled and packed away for another year. Of course, these cantatas by Gottfried August Homilius don’t really have a Christmassy sound. Homilius wrote in the empfindsamer style, which supplanted the […]
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Deutsche Radio Philharmonie and Hermann Baumer deliver with early Strauss
Both scores in this release were written in 1893. Richard Strauss was just nineteen, but already an experienced composer. Both also use Beethoven works as their models, and in some parts, their style. The concert piece uses the Coreolon overture. It’s considered the least successful of the two works. The structural flaws mentioned in the liner […]
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Reznicek Symphonic Suites Blend Old and New
Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek was primarily an opera composer. Two of the three suites in the release have their origins on the stage. Nevertheless, they show that Reznicek was quite comfortable writing for the concert hall. The Karneval Suite “in an older style” was extracted from Reznicek’s two-act opera Gondoliere des Dogen. The drama’s set in the […]
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Friedrich Gernsheim string quartet cycle off to a solid start
The musical influences of Friedrich Gernshiem are easy to hear; Robert Schumann, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Johannes Brahms. The latter is perhaps the strongest. Gernsheim was a friend and colleague of the famous composer. Like Brahms, Gernsheim only wrote a handful of string quartets. The Diogenes Quartett launches a traversal of those five works with this […]
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Raphael Wallfisch continues concerto cycle with Ben-Haim, Korngold, and Bloch
This installment of Raphael Wallfisch’s innovative series features three very different composers. “Cello Concertos by Jewish Composers in Exile” is in its fourth volume. All three composers were Jewish, and all were forced from their homes. But not every work on this album is a concerto (sort of). The outlier is Ernest Bloch, represented by […]
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Elisaveta Blumina perceptively performs Weinberg sonatas
This is the third Weinberg recording from pianist Elisaveta Blumina on CPO, and her first as a soloist. Blumina’s sympathetic (and informed) performances get to the heart of Weinberg’s music. Weinberg suffered great emotional trauma, and it’s released in his music. To me, Weinberg’s Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 8 in A minor almost sounds […]