Max Bruch

A double-CD of Romantic Violin Concertos celebrating the art of Ruggiero Ricci, this set includes the first international release on CD of the Ricci/Boult 1952 recording of the Beethoven. Boult characterised it as ‘perhaps the most thoughtful concerto, the one which needs for the violinist to be a great man as well as a great player’. Indeed it is a thoughtful and poised reading from both soloist and conductor, coupled with classic accounts of the Mendelssohn, Bruch and Dvorak. The booklet notes by Tully Potter include a biography of Ricci and (sometimes wry!) comments by the violinist himself on the recordings.

[Beethoven] “I do not think we are likely to get a better recording for a long while” Gramophone

[Bruch] "Ricci gives very good performances indeed of both concertos; caught out nowhere, even on the margin of intonation, by their technical demands in the outer movements, he manages also to communicate both poetry and impulse to the slow movements." Gramophone

All the works in this stunning recording were composed in the same year, 1911. The CD includes Bruch’s Concerto for clarinet, viola and orchestra (Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège) as well as Eight pieces for clarinet, viola and piano.

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.

Sarah Chang has recorded the Brahms Violin Concerto with Kurt Masur and the Dresdner Philharmonie. Two decades after first learning the concerto, and following several years of studying the work with Kurt Masur, she felt the time was finally right to commit to disc one of the summits of a violinist’s recording career. EMI Classics is proud to release this recording, which couples the Brahms with the ever-popular Bruch G minor concerto.

“I’ve been working with Maestro Masur since I was about ten years old,” Chang said recently, “and I’ve gone through just about every concerto with him. He is like my musical godfather. From the time I was about 18, I would ask Maestro Masur every year if we could perform the Brahms concerto together, and every year he turned me down. Finally I stopped asking. And then, about three or four years ago, he pulled me aside and said he thought I was ready, that I could work with him [on it]. … The work requires so much emotional depth, so much stamina and a lot of musical knowledge, not just of your own line but of the orchestration. The greatest joy comes from treating it as a chamber music piece, from involving yourself in the wash of sound.”

“The Bruch G minor is one of my favourite concertos,” Chang continued. “I auditioned for Juilliard with the Bruch when I was about five and a half so it was also one of my first concertos. It is so beautiful; it has an incredibly dramatic side to it, but also the most luscious, glorious melodies that are unapologetically, heartbreakingly romantic.”

The concertos were recorded in two venues in Dresden, the Bruch in the Lucaskirche and the Brahms in the Kulturpalast concert hall. Both venues are “spectacular” but, with church bells from all the Dresden churches ringing at 12 noon every day, including during recording sessions, Sarah said, “I hope we’ll have a disc without church bells!”

Sarah Chang describes the Dresdner Philharmonie as “phenomenal, one of the most hard-working, passionate and really heart-warmingly chamber music-like ensembles. Every single take, every single minute that we worked together, everybody was giving 120% and that is really inspiring.” She reserves special praise for Kurt Masur: “He’s very passionate – and he demands excellence. At the end of the day, he’s there for the music and to deliver the best performance.” Kurt Masur conducted the Dresdner Philharmonie in 1954 and 1957, returning as Principal Conductor from 1967 to 1972. From 1970 to 1996, he held the post of Music Director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the so-called “Brahms orchestra.”

Johannes Brahms met the legendary violinist Joseph Joachim in 1853. Although both were about the same age, Joachim was already famous while Brahms was still unknown and struggling in the shadow of Beethoven’s genius. Twenty five years later, Brahms composed his only violin concerto for his dear friend. It was in D Major, the same key as Beethoven’s only violin concerto and, as he wrote it, Brahms called on Joachim for technical advice. The composer conducted the premiere in Leipzig on New Year’s Day 1879 with the Gewandhaus Orchestra with the work’s dedicatee as the soloist.

Max Bruch also had a close relationship with Joseph Joachim, who advised him on his G minor violin concerto and performed the premiere of its revised version in 1868. Both the Brahms and Bruch concertos have finales in gypsy style, paying tribute to Joachim’s Hungarian roots and both contain features of his playing, such as his grand theatrical manner, expressive legato lines and decorative melodic passagework.

Sarah Chang is recognised as one of today’s most captivating and gifted performers, possessed of astonishing musical insight, technical virtuosity and emotional range. She has recorded exclusively for EMI Classics from the beginning of her career and has produced a discography that includes the violin concertos of Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Dvorák, Paganini No. 1, Prokofiev No. 1, Shostakovich No. 1, Goldmark, Sibelius, Richard Strauss and Vieuxtemps No. 5 as well as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, Saint-Saëns’s Havanaise and Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and chamber music by Dvorák, Tchaikovsky, Franck, Ravel and Saint-Saëns.

“a flawless delivery, deep musical intelligence and barely contained expressive exuberance." (The Irish Times, Feb 2, 2009 on Sarah Chang’s performance of the Brahms violin concerto)

While Max Bruch’s first Violin Concerto is one of the most popular in the repertoire, his other two remain relatively unknown.

The second, dedicated to the virtuoso Pablo Sarasate, opens with a rhapsodic Adagio brimming with sublime melodies, its declamatory middle movement leading to a rhythmic finale.

In contrast, the third, from 1891, launches heroically, the soloist taking centre-stage in the lyrical Adagio middle movement, a perpetuum mobile rondo finale capping the work.

Maxim Fedotov’s recording of Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 can be heard on Naxos 8557689. His recording of the Scottish Fantasy is available on 8557395.

Pau Casals I Defilló or Pablo Casals as we was known throughout his glittering career was born on 29th December 1876 in El Vendrell in the Catalan part of Spain where his father was a parish choirmaster and organist. He taught Pablo singing, piano, violin, organ and how to compose. At six he heard a travelling musician playing a home-made cello and his father made him one. On hearing his first proper cello when he was eleven made him decide that this would be his instrument.

In 1888 he enrolled in the Municipal School of Music in Barcelona to study musical theory as well as piano and cello. Such was his remarkable progress that he gave a solo recital at the age of fourteen and graduated with honours two years later.

Albéniz, the great Spanish composer, heard him in a café trio and gave him a letter of introduction to the private secretary to María Cristina, the Queen Regent, in Madrid. He was duly granted a royal stipend to study composition at the Capital’s Music Conservatory and played at informal concerts in the palace. In 1895 he spent a year in Paris earning his living by playing second cello in the theatre orchestra of the Folies Marigny. He returned to Catalonia the following year and taught at the Music School.

In 1897 he appeared as soloist playing the Lalo Concerto with the Madrid Symphony Orchestra and the Queen awarded him the Order of Carlos III.

In 1899 he played at London’s Crystal Palace and for Queen Victoria at her summer residence, in November and December that year he was soloist at prestigious Lamoureux concerts in Paris to great public and critical acclaim. With the pianist Harold Bauer he toured Spain and the Netherlands in 1900/1, the United States in 1901/2 and South America in 1903. On 15th January 1904 he played at the White House for President Theodore Roosevelt and on 9th March he made his Carnegie Hall debut, playing Richard Strauss: Don Quixote under the baton of the composer.

In 1905 he moved to Paris where with the pianist Alfred Cortot and violinist Jacques Thibaud he established the famous trio which would last until 1934. The trio recorded Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Schumann in versions which, even today, are regarded as touchstones of greatness. He also recorded cello sonatas by Beethoven and Brahms as well as the cello concertos by Dvorák and Elgar together with Bruch’s Kol Nidrei. Arguably his greatest recording was made by himself alone: In three periods during the years 1936, 1938 and 1939 he committed to disc the six suites by Bach.

Besides being a master of the cello he was a conductor and created an orchestra in his native Catalonia – Orquesta Pau Casals, Barcelona – indeed Cortot conducted it when Thibaud and Casals were the soloists in the recording of the Brahms Concerto for Violin and Cello and orchestra.

He was also a composer and amongst his creations are works for chorus as well as for his instrument – the most famous being an arrangement of the Catalan folksong El cant dels ocells (“Song of the Birds”)

For such a great man who gave so much music to the world, alas, his life was blighted by cruel fate. In 1936 Civil War broke out in Spain and his orchestra ceased its activities. He settled in a village in France close to the border with Spain where he gave concerts to assist those who opposed the fascist junta. So fierce was his anger at Francisco Franco’s dictatorial regime that he refused to appear in countries that recognised it as the legitimate government, an embargo that he only broke once when he played at the White House in November 1961 at the invitation of President John F. Kennedy whom he admired.

Celebrations to mark the bicentenary of the death of Bach in Prades in Conflent (about 20 miles west of Perpignan) prompted him to resume his career as both cellist and conductor and he continued to lead these festivals until 1966. By this time he had been living in the country of his mother’s birth, Puerto Rico for 10 years and married for nine of those to a local student, Marta Montañez Martínez. Casals had been married once before; from 1906 and 1912 he was associated with Guilhermina Suggia, a talented young Portuguese cellist but, although she often referred to herself in concert programmes as Mme P. Casals, they never married. In 1914 he married the American singer Susan Metcalfe; they separated fourteen years later but did not divorce until 1957 when he married for the second time. Casals and his wife set up home in a house called “El Pesebre” in the town of Ceiba on the east coast of the island whilst the capital, San Juan, inaugurated the annual Casals Festival in the same year.

During the 1960s Casals gave many master classes throughout the world. His last major public engagement was to conduct one of his last works: Himne a les Nacions Unides (Hymn of the United Nations) on 24th October 1971, two months before his 95th birthday. He died in 1973 but in 1979 his remains were returned for burial at his birthplace in Catalonia having failed by two years to see the end of Franco and the return of democratic rule for which he had fought so hard. He was posthumously honoured by the new government with the issue of a commemorative postage stamp in honour of the centenary of his birth in 1976.

ADDITIONAL NOTE:

The Sardana (plural: Sardanes) is the national dance of Catalonia, which acquired its present form in the mid-19th century. It is danced in a circle to the music provided by a Cobla, a street band consisting of pipe and tabor, double bass, and a variety of wind instruments especially two types of Catalan shawm – the tiple (‘treble’) and tenora. They are double-reed instruments, being the forerunner of the modern oboe, yet keep the pirouette and the old steep bore gradient of the original designs dating from the 16th- and 17th-centuries but are otherwise brought up to date with keywork of the 19th-century type. Both are transposing instruments: the tiple is pitched in F (a fourth above the oboe); and the tenora is a fifth lower, in B flat, with a long metal bell for the second tenora player to be able to reach low notes, down to f# (sounding e).

Their penetrating but very expressive sounds are backed by five brass instruments and a double bass, while the leader of the band makes introductory flourishes on a small pipe and tabor – a memory of times early in the 19th century when this, with shawm and bagpipe, alone provided music for the dance. The dance itself may alternate between 2/4 and 6/8 time.

Being such a nationalist and supporter of Catalonia it is not surprising that Pablo Casals, together with his family and friends, should provide music and support for the continued performance of such a Cobla by directly overseeing this recording.