Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne

This release completes Christian Zacharias’ prizewinning complete recording of Mozart’s piano concertos. The Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and Zacharias have generated enchanting perfomances through their intimate dialogue.

The fresh and youthful Schumann wrote the Spring Symphony, the sound of which nobody can better convey than Christian Zacharias with his vital and agile Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. This latest release concludes its highly welcome new SACD recording of Schumann’s symphonies.

The outstanding Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich recorded these concertos in Switzerland in 1959, when she was only 18 years old. This CD also includes a 1957 perfomance of Liszt’s Etude de concert No.2 “La leggierezza”

We are only just beginning to rediscover the works of Louis Spohr (1784-1859), who was not only a composer, but also a virtuoso violinist, possibly the greatest conductor of his time, and a renowned teacher – a man who played a leading role in musical life in Germany in the nineteenth century. His works – almost three hundred, covering many genres – bear the mark of Viennese Classicism, but his harmonic research announces the advent of the Romantic period.

Ten or so of his compositions require the clarinet, including four concertos, belonging to two different periods in his life. Wishing to be as faithful as possible to the original works for this recording on the Alpha label, the clarinettist and conductor Paul Meyer approached the Internationale Louis Spohr Gesellschaft in Kassel, which possesses the original manuscripts of the Fourth Concerto, the sketches for nos. 3 and 4, and copies of the manuscripts of nos. 1 to 3.

This magnificent performance by Paul Meyer, soloist and conductor, with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, gives us an opportunity to discover (or rediscover) these very fine works.

Christian Zacharias follows on from his outstanding interpretations of Schumann’s Piano Concertos with this release. The Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne is a trim ensemble that impressively conveys Schumann’s relation to the classical composers.

Christian Zacharias continues his successful series with his inimitable interpretations. The recording of K503 appears for the first time as a SACD, offering listeners the opportunity for fascinating musical comparison with previous releases.

The conductor and patron Paul Sacher influenced the course of twentieth – century music as did few other figures, and we owe a whole host of works by masters great and minor to his astute art of commissioning the right works at the right time. While Varess and Dutilleux, both represented on this wonderful collected works disc, owed much to him, the most famous artistic relationship was with Bartok, whose Divertimento for strings was composed at Sacher’s holiday house.

Christian Zacharias is both soloist and conductor in this successful series. His partnership with MDG has yielded outstanding productions in every respect. He has won two Echo Klassic Prizes and has been selected as Artist of the Year by international music critics. He and his ensemble communicate all the vibrancy of this music.