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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Daniel Müller-Schott plays Britten & Prokofiev
Following his recording of Britten’s Cello Suites, Daniel Müller-Schott is now exploring other areas of the repertoire opened up by the legendary Mstislav Rostropovich. The Symphony for Cello and Orchestra was the first major work after the Cello Sonata of 1961 that Britten was inspired to compose when an ailing Rostropovich wrote to him to claim that only “the doctor in Aldeburgh” could bring him “back to life by composing a brilliant cello concerto”. For Daniel Müller-Schott, who spent a year studying with Rostropovich, it is very much the work’s classical four-movement design that represents a challenge that is especially rewarding for the listener, with its interplay between chamber-like ensemble and symphonic rivalry with the orchestra. In the WDR Symphony Orchestra of Cologne under its principal conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste, the cellist has found like-minded partners eminently capable of bringing out the clear thematic structure of the work, including its expressionistic climaxes and its interplay between stasis and motion, all of which are traced by soloist and orchestra with breathtaking brilliance. The same is true of Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto in E minor for cello and orchestra, a piece that the composer repeatedly revised and which was taken up again by Rostropovich after Prokofiev’s death and introduced to international audiences. Daniel Müller-Schott follows in his mentor’s footsteps, demonstrating both his agility and sovereign command of every register of his instrument, mastering the changes of register and enormously difficult intervals with awesome ease. Particularly captivating is the vast range of contrasts in all three movements of the piece, which begins by striking a cantabile note reminiscent of the sound world of Prokofiev’s ballet 'Romeo and Juliet' and ending in a neoclassical set of variations of the final movement, which culminates in a positively playful dance. So irresistible is the dominant brilliance that one would like to hear both Prokofiev’s 'Symphony-Concerto' and Britten’s 'Symphony for Cello and Orchestra' performed far more frequently in the concert hall. “These two 'symphony' concertos are hellishly demanding and Daniel Müller-Schott is more than equal to the task...A protege of Rostropovich, he's also well qualified to plumb their expressive depths. Yet my enthusiasm for this recording is qualified. The hectic, driven quality of his approach can become relentless...The Prokofiev Symphony-Concerto comes over best in a heroic if slightly one-dimensional performance.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2013 *** “[Müller-Schott and Saraste are] inclined to approach the work as a standard romantic concerto. The tone is rich and warm, the orchestral sound founded on the strings, with wind and brass more distant. Müller-Schott makes the music sing...Saraste backs him up wholeheratedly, though the WDR Symphony Orchestra's very decent playing is short on rhythmic cut-and-thrust.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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To be the dedicatee of a work by Benjamin Britten was a much coveted honour among 20th-century classical musicians. And for an artist to be the dedicatee of a whole series of works, then the musician in question – unless he happened to be Peter Pears – must have felt exceptionally blessed. Britten’s three Cello Suites are an example of such an exception. They were written over a period of barely a decade for Mstislav Rostropovich, and it was he who gave them their first performances. They are generally regarded as three of the greatest and finest challenges ever to be set a cellist. Daniel Müller-Schott, who had an opportunity to study with Rostropovich, faces up to this challenge with great enthusiasm and superior musicianship. The First Suite contains stylistic and formal reminiscences of the Baroque, and Daniel Müller-Schott brings to it great nobility of tone, just as he refuses to be discouraged from striking a note of genuine emotion in the Canto passages. That his artistry is also underpinned by astute analytical skills is clear from the rigour that he brings to the part-writing in the fugue and concluding Moto perpetuo. This ability to maintain an overview of a piece also pays dividends in the Second Suite, with its rhythmically and thematically carefully balanced design, including the final Chaconne – a form whose climactic possibilities Britten had already exploited to supreme effect when writing for the full orchestra in his opera Peter Grimes. In the final movement of the Second Cello Suite the composer had no hesitation in placing similar demands on a single instrument. It is almost a foregone conclusion that a performer capable of rising to this not inconsiderable challenge will also shine in the third and last of these suites. At the time of its first performance in 1974, Britten was already too ill to fulfil his promise to write six such suites. Daniel Müller-Schott captures the work’s valedictory character, with its reminiscences of Russian folksongs and the Hymn to the Departed, bringing a keen eye for detail to the writing and not only pin-pointing all its musical beauties but revealing the ways in which those beauties are refracted through the composer’s elegiac lens. Rarely can 20th-century works have been so atmospherically interpreted. “Muller-Schott has all the technical resources at his deposal, and opens the First Suite with just the right weight and poise...what Schott brings to all the Suites is a sharpness and power reminiscent of Rostropovich himself...this is an impressive set.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2011 **** “Müller-Schott lays with honeyed and burnished tone through the three works. The gorgeous, mourning long notes of the First Suite's Lamento show his blemishless technique...The beauty of his sound makes the Shostakovich Suite No. 2 heroic, the Declamato like a RADA-trained town-crier and the Ciaconna a smooth, mesmerising snake.” Classic FM Magazine, October 2011 **** “For their consistently high technical standards and imagination, Müller-Schott's performances are as recommendable as any among recent recordings.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2011 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Beethoven - Cello Sonatas Volume 2
The mercurial partnership of Angela Hewitt and Daniel Müller-Schott brought overwhelming intensity and emotional gravitas’ to a first disc of Beethoven’s cello sonatas. Here in a second volume they present two more of these groundbreaking masterpieces, together with the composer’s homages to Mozart and Handel—works which are equally important additions to the cello repertoire. Hewitt’s characteristic digital dexterity and deep understanding of the classical style and Müller-Schott’s vibrant playing combine to create performances of great energy and sensitivity that will delight their many fans. In a fascinating booklet note, Daniel Müller-Schott explores the evolution of Beethoven’s works for cello from a musician’s perspective, describing their revolutionary power and demonstrating the composer’s multifarious imagination [‘Mannigfachphantastische’]. “Müller-Schott is certainly one of the finest cellists before the public today, and this is his core native repertory. The performances have the winning freshness of rediscovery.” Sunday Times, 14th March 2010 “Müller-Schott and Hewitt deliver strong and committed performances characterised by great attention to detail and wonderful musical interaction...both players maximising the degree of tonal variety without any recourse to exaggerated mannerism.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2010 ***** “the two players instinctively click and the music comes across with vibrancy, sensitivity and a galvanising unanimity of purpose.” The Telegraph, 24th March 2010 ***** “These performances are strongly characterised, clearly etched and full of life and drama...In short, these are striking, accomplished, highly individual performances.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Beethoven - Cello Sonatas Volume 1
Angela Hewitt has taken time out from her impossibly busy solo concert schedule (including her stunningly successful Bach World Tour) to record a dazzling chamber disc with one of the greatest young cellists of today. Daniel Müller-Schott’s rise to fame has been well documented in the world’s press. His fastidious, clean-lined, yet energetic playing is the perfect foil for Angela’s particular artistry. In their first Hyperion CD together, they present Volume 1 of Beethoven’s complete cello sonatas. Beethoven’s first three cello sonatas astonished his contemporaries with their dramatically innovative qualities. Before he wrote them, there were virtually no works in which the cello fully broke away from its subservient role of basso continuo to become an equal partner to the piano. They are works of extraordinary breadth and grandeur. Writing of the Sonata in A major Op 69, the two artists explain that ‘the dialogue between the two instruments reaches perfection, and demands the highest level of communication and expressiveness’. This is surely achieved in this splendid recording. ‘Daniel Müller-Schott is a fast rising star in the cello firmament. His approach is fastidious and full-blooded, marked by emotional generosity kept in bounds by innate good taste and a winsome freshness’ (Vancouver Sun) ‘The magnetic young German cellist Daniel Müller-Schott administered a dose of adrenaline with a compelling performance of Haydn’s Concerto in C. Mr Müller-Schott, a fearless player with technique to burn, made child’s play of the work’s difficulties. But even more impressive were his gorgeous, plush tone and his meticulous attention to expression. He did not slather on vibrato but applied fine gradations, or none at all, to shape phrases graciously’ (The New York Times) “These performances are full of interesting ideas: there's rarely a bar without a subtle bend somewhere along the line and yet the various allegros are sparky in the best sense of the term, rhythmically crisp and alert, especially the rondo finale of the G minor Sonata, which is deliciously pointed by Hewitt.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2008 “…Daniel Müller-Schott and Angela Hewitt's… respond with imagination and flexibility to Beethoven's mercurial changes of mood, one moment tender and reflective, then bold and dynamic…” BBC Music Magazine, December 2008 **** “Müller-Schott’s playing is strong and vibrant … Hewitt brings her characteristic digital dexterity and sparkling articulation to bear … the performances certainly make one look forward to their second disc” International Record Review “The dynamic duo find overwhelming intensity in this music, in a performance packed with detail and emotional gravitas” Classic FM Magazine “Daniel Müller-Schott and Angela Hewitt give Beethoven's first three cello sonatas a nimble and colourful outing. Their musical 'dress' sense is immaculate, with never so much as a quaver out of place, no hint of ungainliness or aggression and a cultivated sound world which, whether presented singly or in duet, is consistently smooth. Their duo engagement is compelling and their repertoire of gestures – vivid dynamics, tiny instances of expressive rubato, suspended breathing and so on – is exceedingly broad. Sometimes the reverie might be considered a little overplayed. At the opening of the A major Third Sonata's brief Adagio third movement Hewitt's dreamily sculpted phrasing verges on sounding Chopinesque, though poetic in effect and poignantly responded to by Müller- Schott.
These performances are full of interesting ideas: there's rarely a bar without a subtle bend somewhere along the line and yet the various allegros are sparky in the best sense of the term, rhythmically crisp and alert, especially the rondo finale of the G minor Sonata, which is deliciously pointed by Hewitt. Those in search of a more overtly masculine approach to Beethoven would probably be better off elsewhere but Müller-Schott and Hewitt provide a bright, decorative antidote to their more austere rivals. The recorded sound is beautifully balanced.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “it is musical matchmaking at its best. With Hewitt's controlled elegance and emotional penetration, and Muller-Schott’s expressiveness and technical virtuosity, the pair separately and together represents the perfect balance of head and heart in performance.” Charlotte Gardner, bbc.co.uk, 28th November 2008 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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“The partnership of Julia Fischer and Yakov Kreizberg… really comes into its own in the symphonic proportions of Brahms's Violin Concerto. From Fischer's opening imposing entry, it's clear that Kreizberg and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra are at one with her every nuance and tempo fluctuation - dramatic, fiery and impetuous at first but then beautifully lyrical and introverted in the second idea. ...the Double Concerto... Fischer and her partner Daniel Müller-Schott are absolutely on the same musical wavelength delivering a blisteringly intense performance supported by outstandingly responsive playing from the Netherlands Philharmonic.” BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2007 ***** “…Julia Fischer offers this ideal Brahms coupling in strong and sympathetic readings, joined in the Double Concerto by her brilliant young compatriot cellist, Daniel Müller-Schott. Her performance never feels self-conscious or too studied and her range of tone and dynamic is extreme, bringing pianissimi of breathtaking delicacy. ...in the finale she lets the tempo relax just enough to allow a persuasive spring in the rhythms, bringing out the Hungarian dance flavour.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2007 “..the Double Concerto one of the most beautiful and idiomatic readings on disc in recent years.” Sunday Times **** “
Others offer tauter and brisker accounts of the first movement but Fischer amply justifies her spacious and flexible speeds in the feeling of spontaneity. Her performance never feels selfconscious or too studied and her range of tone and dynamic is extreme, bringing pianissimi of breathtaking delicacy. Fischer's slow movement, too, is expansive while in the finale she lets the tempo relax just enough to allow a persuasive spring in the rhythms, bringing out the Hungarian dance flavour.
The Double Concerto is not nearly as expansive: no doubt the influence of Müller-Schott was important here as the cello takes the lead in introducing each theme, with the cellist matching his partner in warmth and brilliance. Fischer and Müller-Schott are relaxed and easily lyrical in the slow movement, brilliant and thrusting in the finale. An outstanding disc which stands high on the list of this perfect coupling.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Mendelssohn - Piano Trios
“…The three superb musicians on this new recording, all in their twenties, face the hefty competition easily by playing with an irresistible spontaneity. They approach these works as interior high dramas; contested between melancholy and ecstasy…they play with an unassailable precision.” Alan Kozinn, The New York Times “It's good to hear these great works played with full ardour by such a talented group of young musicians.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2006 **** “Chamber music with star players doesn't always work: lack of rehearsal time or oversized egos can often lead to performances high on surface glitz but low on understanding. Not here though: these young artists, already making waves in their individual careers, give us a recording of Mendelssohn's delectable piano trios that sparkles and fizzes from the outset.
The opening of the D minor Trio No 1 is a touch simpler than the Florestan's recent acclaimed reading but its urgency sweeps you along. They are particularly fine in the scherzi of both trios, with delightful portamenti in the D minor which seem to say 'look how easy this is'. In the finale, the new trio set off at a dancing pace; the Florestan are a touch steadier, which makes for an even more explosive contrast as the movement hots up.
The C minor Trio has long lived in the shadow of the D minor. It's darker, slower to reveal its secrets. The new version fully captures its ruggedness, the way that melodies are hewn from the musical material, rather than simply emerging complete as in No 1. The only real quibble is their spacious tempo for the second movement, a Venetian gondola song in all but name. It's played with great tenderness but does seem rather over-extended.
All in all, this new recording is irresistible, with the three players caught in a wholly natural ambience. It's always a good sign when you don't want to stop playing a disc long enough to write about it.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “…these young artists, already making waves in their individual careers, give us a recording of Mendelssohn's delectable piano trios that sparkles and fizzes from the outset. They are particularly fine in the scherzi of both trios, with delightful portamenti in the D minor which seem to say "look how easy this is".” Gramophone Magazine, October 2006  CD Review
Critics Disc of the Year - December 2007 |
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| |  | Mendelssohn - Works for Cello & Piano
Chamber music is an intimate genre, that we know. But in the case of Felix Mendelssohn’s cello works, it was also family-inspired. His younger brother Paul was obviously a good cellist, and it was to him that Felix dedicated his two cello sonatas and his Variations concertantes Op. 17. Daniel-Müller-Schott presents all three works here, accompanied by Jonathan Gilad at the piano. The playful virtuosity of the Variations, modelled after Mozart and Beethoven, inspires the duo to virtuosic brilliance, be it in the passionate eruptions in the seventh variation or the superb, subtle coda as it fades away. The First Cello Sonata is also light and airy, and the Müller-Schott/Gilad duo savour its prevailingly cheerful, merry mood. The grace and passion that Mendelssohn’s contemporaries already admired in him are here to be found throughout. In the Second Sonata, we find the most beautiful melodies alongside moments of drama and sound colours that seem not so far removed from the world of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Müller-Schott and Gilad here pull out all the stops. Orfeo also offer two shorter works for the same instruments: an ‘Assai tranquillo’ in B minor and a ‘Song without words’ in D major Op. 109 that is graceful in its outer sections, more agitated in the middle. These frame two song arrangements by Daniel Müller-Schott, wholly Mendelssohnian in style: two works of melancholic, cantabile melodic lines that ‘sing’ beautifully even without the words of Heine or Lenau. “The Cello Sonata No 1 in B flat major is given a compelling performance. The exceptionally gifted young cellist Daniel Müller-Schott is partnered by the effervescent, imaginative piano playing of Jonathan Gilad on a disc that never fails to charm and excite.” The Telegraph, 16th July 2010 ***** “These two gifted musicians bring clean lines, vivacity, finesse and youthful spirit to the two sonatas and concert variations, and their performances are hugely enjoyable...both Müller-Schott and Gilad are hugely impressive, and communicate with spontaneous and virile warmth” BBC Music Magazine, September 2010 **** “Müller-Schott attacks the music with conviction, effectively softening both bow-pressure and dynamics at just the right moment, enjoying the music's drive and lyricism. Jonathan Gilad is an athletic accompanist, the roulade of notes assigned to the piano securely within his fleet fingers” International Record Review, October 2010 “Müller-Schott and Gilad seamlessly integrate even the most variegated of thematic gestures, making each movement seem like an unusually satisfying, organic whole...Mendelssohn cello discs don't come much better than this beautifully recorded recital” Classic FM Magazine, December 2010 **** | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Daniel Müller-Schott plays Cello Concertos
On his latest CD, Daniel Müller-Schott devotes himself to the cello's Romantic and late-Romantic solo concerto repertoire. It is a voyage of exploration that offers things both known and worthy of (re )discovery. After the Classical period, the cello fell out of fashion as a concertante instrument.When that changed again in the mid-19th century, it fascinated composers more than ever, and this in turn had an impact on their creative muse. For Robert Schumann, to be sure, the composition of his Cello Concerto was bound up with major disappointments - he himself did not live to hear its world première. But the concerto's interplay between soloist and orchestra is exciting, as are its contrasts between discretion and impulsiveness, and it is today well-loved by both audiences and interpreters and a firm feature in the repertoire. The dramatic aspect of the music comes as much to the fore here as it does in our recording of the Concerto by Schumann's contemporary Robert Volkmann. It is considerably less popular than Schumann's, but it thrives on singing, melodic themes and their sophisticated elaboration.These two concertos are complemented by two shorter pieces: Max Bruch's Kol Nidrei after Old Hebrew melodies, whose rich musical spectrum is savoured uninhibitedly and to the full by Daniel Müller-Schott, Christoph Eschenbach and the NDR Symphony Orchestra.Then there is the Romance in F Major for cello and orchestra by Richard Strauss, who despite his youth (he wrote it when 19) already offers us a hint of the originality of his later tone poems. “Daniel Müller-Schott's mellow cello timbre and emotional sensibility are key factors in this warmhearted disc of four Romantic works...Even in the familiar pieces, Müller-Schott opens up fresh vistas of tonal shading and sincere expression...His phrasing is long-breathed, the paragraphs of music articulated with elegance and a restrained passion.” The Telegraph, 25th November 2009 “…really fine performance of Volkmann's Cello Concerto, a virtuoso showpiece in the grand manner, condensed into a fluid single movement form. Daniel Müller-Schott is a characterful advocate of the work, finding the fun in it and sharing this with Christoph Eschenbach and the orchestra in much delightful interplay. It's fiendishly difficult but Schott jumps through all its hoops with effortless panache.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2010 **** | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Shostakovich - Cello Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Even though both the First Cello Concerto Op. 107 of 1959 and the Second Cello Concerto Op.126 of 1966 were written after Stalin's death in 1953, the threat of Soviet dictatorship and censorship continues to be palpable. With the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Yakov Kreizberg, Daniel Müller-Schott offers an exemplary interpretation of both concertos that also does justice to the peculiarities and details of their instrumentation, notably in the second movement of the Second Concerto, in which Shostakovich uses a popular song from the time of the Russian Revolution to produce a grotesque dance with dissonant fanfares. No less typical of Shostakovich are the reminiscences of composers such as Mussorgsky and the set of variations in the final movement of the Op. 126 Concerto, written at a time when the composer was already marked out by death, a piece described by Daniel Müller-Schott as "perhaps the most emotionally multilayered of all cello concertos", the abrupt ending of which is as disturbing as it is profoundly moving. “As Daniel Müller-Schott intimates in his own perceptive booklet note for this release, the two Shostakovich cello concertos, although separated by just seven years, inhabit very different worlds. Müller-Schott reflects this in his cello-playing: where No 1 still has an element of post-Stalinist optimism about it, to No 2 he brings home the desperation of the composer's situation, beset with heart and neurological illness.
The soloist is set well forward in the aural picture, which emphasises Müller-Schott's eloquent tone and expression, but Yakov Kreizberg and his orchestra play their own part, with particularly vivid percussion in the Second Concerto. A gripping disc.” Matthew Rye, The Telegraph, 28th June 2008 “Müller-Schott manages the singular trick of keeping his cello tone rich and gorgeous without lessening the music’s ability to stab the heart. Listen to his lonely eloquence as he climbs up the first concerto’s second movement, and the eerie shiverings at its peak, when cello harmonics join hands with the celesta in an unearthly duet. The second concerto receives an equally febrile performance.” The Times, 27th June 2008 **** “The dark-hued and deeply introspective Second remains an elusive, enigmatic work, and it's Daniel Müller-Schott's masterly performance of that which makes this disc especially impressive. Müller-Schott studied the two concertos with Rostropovich, but his tempi for the second are much slower than his teacher's so that the work's sombre subtext - the soloist as the creative artist, pitted against the repression of the Soviet state represented by the orchestra - is impossible to ignore with a finale that ends, like Shostakovich's 15th Symphony, with the death rattle of ticking percussion. Yakov Kreizberg and the Bavarian Radio Symphony provide outstanding support.” The Guardian, 18th July 2008 **** (on the Second Concerto) “From the very outset, there's a real sense of urgency about the performance, Müller-Schott's razor-sharp articulation in the outer movements managing to combine rhythmic incisiveness with highly charged delivery. The orchestra under Yakov Kreizberg provide superb support throughout. If anything the Second Concerto is even more impressive.” BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2008 ***** “With roughly a dozen single-disc couplings of the two Shostakovich cello concertos available on CD, a new one needs a sharp profile in order to gain visibility. Müller-Schott and his supporting team have most of the obvious credentials: technique and temperament in abundance, finely judged tempi, and excellent recorded balance and perspective, the soloist placed a little further forward than in some versions, but not distractingly so. They bring dash, drive and discipline to the fast movements, and soulfulness to the slow ones. But the trick with Shostakovich is to combine those things with weight of tone and flashes of personal expression, so that the drama of the individual caught up in the machinations of larger forces gains life-or-death significance.
How that is achieved is a matter for debate and legitimate disagreement. For all Mischa Maisky's special touches of romantic eloquence, he comes up with some bizarre technical fudges in the big cadenzas, while Heinrich Schiff is far more direct but so fast and furious in the first movement of the E flat First Concerto that it loses as much in stoical defiance as it gains in physical excitement. Müller-Schott's tempi and characterisation are more central, and as a modern alternative to Rostropovich they take the lead, also because there are a number of telling passages in Kreizberg's accompaniments.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010  BBC Music Magazine
Disc of the month - August 2008 |
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| |  | Schubert: String Quintet & String Quartet No. 10
Profil are proud to present their latest release; a collaboration between Daniel Müller-Schott and the Vogler Quartet of string music played to the highest standard. Classics Today have praised Müller-Schott for his “awesome virtuoso brilliance” and The Guardian rate the Vogler Quartet “in the highest category of contemporary string quartets.” On a previous release The Guardian also wrote: “They play with a wonderful expressive ease and warmth and possess the unteachable knack of being able to communicate everything they do directly and unaffectedly. Their performances are marvels of eloquent phrasing and subtle co-ordination, instinctive music-making of the very highest class.” | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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Gramophone Magazine
