Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie

This Mass was not performed in Schubert’s lifetime, but was performed in Alservorstädt parish church in 1829, in accordance with the composer’s wishes. Frieder Bernius has directed his Stuttgart Chamber Choir at the same high level of excellence for over 25 years.

"Whenever a violin repertory piece needs revitalising, there’s one simple solution. Hire Janine Jansen to play it" THE TIMES

Dutch violin star Janine Jansen brings together the great concerto by Beethoven and the rarely heard concerto by Benjamin Britten.

"Two of the greatest concertos ever written" Janine Jansen

Janine records these concerti with two different orchestras to fully explore two very different sound worlds; the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (Beethoven) and the London Symphony Orchestra (Britten).

Janine has loved and championed the Britten concerto since she first played it nearly ten years ago, and performed both these concerti with conductor Paavo Järvi many times, both in Europe and the US.

The recording of the Beethoven concerto follows the acclaimed Beethoven Symphony cycle form the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Paavo Järvi.

Grammy Award-winning conductor Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen continue their spectacular Beethoven cycle on RCA Red Seal with the release of Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 5 and 1. The cycle will be completed in 2009.

Järvi’s conducting career is going from strength to strength; as well as being Artistic Director of the Deutsch Kammerphilharmonie Bremen; Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, he is also the newly-named Music Director of L’Orchestre de Paris (beginning in 2010).

This collection of Bach concertos is the French pianist David Fray’s second recording for Virgin Classics. His first, with its thought-provoking juxtaposition of Bach and Boulez, was released in May 2007 and in April 2008 brought him the Best Newcomer Award from BBC Music Magazine. The recital also prompted Gramophone to speak of his: “unselfregarding mastery and musical maturity,” and the “intimate, poetic spell” cast by his Bach with its “gorgeous tone and ravishingly shaded trills.” The New York Times found it a “superbly played and thoughtful program … In both Bach and Boulez, Mr. Fray displays an articulate touch, splendid command of shadings and nimble finger work. The youthful freshness of the performances is especially appealing. Mr. Fray is not intimidated by either giant … He brings a fluid sense of rhythm and much sparkle to Bach's D major Partita … [the] account of Bach's D minor French Suite is also captivating,” while the “playful, crystalline and wondrously delicate account” of Boulez’s 12 Notations” was summarised as “breathtaking”.

2008 has been an important year for Fray, bringing his New York debut, his marriage (in July) and a documentary about him by distinguished filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon. Now comes this collection of four of Bach’s six concertos for keyboard, with Fray directing the Bremen-based Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie from the piano.

The Austro-German repertoire in general is of great importance to the pianist, whose personal heritage includes Czech, Polish, Spanish, French, Finnish and Jewish strands. He has said that: 'If, over my life, I can play all the works of Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Haydn, Brahms and Schumann, then I shall be very happy!” but describes Bach as “a pinnacle; both a beginning and an end”.

‘Fray’s debut is marked by an imaginative collation, Bach and Boulez, played with vibrant imagination. He pushes the boundaries but resists the merely quirky. Impeccable technique allows him to speak from the heart with deceptive ease.’ BBC Music Magazine

Alison Balsom’s fourth CD for EMI Classics features Franz Joseph Haydn and Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s evergreen trumpet concertos, coupled with concertos by Johann Baptist Georg Neruda and Giuseppe Torelli. Balsom also directs Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

The Haydn Trumpet Concerto is arguably the most popular work for the instrument as well as one of the composer’s best known compositions, a favourite of performers and audiences alike for its wonderful melodic invention and challenging virtuosity. Reviewing Alison’s performance with the Milwaukee Symphony in March of this year, the Journal Sentinel wrote, “Alison Balsom's details of attack, release, dynamics and timbre polished Haydn's … Trumpet Concerto into an exquisite little gem. …This concerto … has its moments of brilliant bugling. More often, though, it [shows the short-lived keyed trumpet] capable of a refined sort of expression …. Balsom excelled at both facets of the concerto. She snapped off staccato 16ths with ease and signal calls with clarion purity and power. And she shaped and colored Haydn's gentle, lyrical lines with the grace and warmth of a really good Mozartean mezzo.”

Jonathan Freeman-Attwood’s CD booklet note describes the notoriously-difficult-to-play ‘natural’ trumpet of the Renaissance and Baroque periods and the development of the ‘keyed’ trumpet by the Viennese court trumpeter Anton Weidinger in the 1790s, which inspired the concerto masterpieces by Haydn and Hummel performed on this disc.

The enticing melodic possibilities of Weidinger’s “keyed” trumpet, and indeed the artistry of Weidinger himself, moved Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), then at the height of his powers, to compose his concerto in E-flat for trumpet & orchestra. His last purely orchestral work, the concerto is a “gloriously ebullient and concise masterpiece in which the composer […] conceives a highly distinctive palette to thrust the trumpet into a brave new world.” Interestingly, it was not premiered until 1800, four years after its completion, possibly because Weidinger needed time to master its technical challenges.

Also composed for Weidinger was the Concerto in E Major (often performed, as here, in E-flat) by Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837), prodigy, student of Mozart and, later, of Haydn. Hummel composed his trumpet concerto in 1803 and Weidinger premiered it the following year for members of the Esterházy court. The composer was subsequently appointed music director there, on Haydn’s recommendation and likely helped by the success of his trumpet concerto. The concerto, “a more expansive work [than Haydn’s, takes the modified trumpet] a stage further in variety of idiomatic figuration and harmonic adventure.”

The Concerto in D by Giuseppe Torelli (1658-1709) was composed for the “natural” trumpet and likely performed on feast days in the San Petronio Basilica. The concerto for hunting horn and strings in E-flat by the Czech composer Johann Baptist Neruda (c1707-c1780) was probably written in the 1760s and is an example of a charming, traditional work of its era.