Felix Mendelssohn

Over the last decades recordings by Quatuor Mosaïques of the string quartets of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, amongst others, have been considered by many critics to be benchmarks as far as performance is concerned. For the first time five CDs that represent some of the best of these have been gathered together in a set. The music includes Haydn’s opus 77, Mozart’s K464 and 465, Beethoven’s opus 18 nos. 1 and 4, Schubert’s D879 and 804, and Mendelssohn’s opus 12 and 13.

Until Mendelssohn’s 200th birthday in 2009, over a third of his songs were hardly known at all. When Breitkopf & Härtel published the last volume of the Mendelssohn Complete Edition, the public gained access to songs not even published during Mendelssohn’s lifetime. When you hear these treasures, you’ll be amazed that it took so long for these works to be unearthed.

Bill Ives leads the famed Choir of Magdalen College in this selection of choral favourites for Advent & Christmas. The music on this CD ranges from quiet reflection and anticipation to the excitement and celebration of the birth of Jesus and the coming of the Wise Men.

Released to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of Michael Rabin’s death on 19th January 1972 this collection brings together his finest recordings on EMI Classics in one comprehensive 6CD set.

Rabin was widely regarded as the finest virtuoso violinist of his generation and despite dying at the young age of 36 after suffering with a neurological illness his fame continues long after his death.

He was critically acclaimed for his performances and recordings of Paganini and included in the set are Rabin’s two recorded versions of the Paganini Violin Concerto No.1 in D Major Op. 6 from 1956 and 1960. He famously performed this work at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Dmitri Mitropolous at the age of 15 in November 1951. The full 24 Paganini Caprices for Solo Violin are also included in the set.

Displaying technical mastery with a maturity of interpretation that belied his years, Rabin’s bel canto playing style is shown in full force in this collection with excellent recordings of Bach, Wieniawski, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Debussy and Bruch.

This collection offers the listener a wonderful selection of violin repertoire with exquisite playing sure to delight any fan of the instrument.

On this disc the Watkins brothers, Huw and Paul, join forces to perform works by Felix Mendelssohn for cello and piano. The two Sonatas for Cello and Piano which Mendelssohn composed for his younger brother, a cellist, are characterised by a strong and complex undercurrent of feeling, and superb artistry. Recognised by Schumann as light and extremely tuneful examples of the genre, he suggested of the sonata in B flat major that it was ‘a sonata for the most refined family circle, to be enjoyed at its best, perhaps, after some poems by Goethe or Lord Byron’.

In his day, Mendelssohn’s name was strongly associated with the so-called Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without Words), a collection of charming and intimate miniatures for solo piano. Only on one occasion did Mendelssohn compose a work in this genre specifically for cello and piano: the poetic and lyrical Lied ohne Worte, Op. 109, recorded here, which he dedicated to Lisa Cristiani, one of the few women cellists of the time.

Huw Watkins is the pianist on this recording. A highly regarded performer of contemporary and twentieth-century works, he is also a composer in his own right, whose works have been commissioned, performed, and recorded by the likes of the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and Nash Ensemble. Paul Watkins, an exclusive Chandos artist and one of Britain’s foremost cellists, performs regularly with the major British orchestras and has made six appearances as a concerto soloist at the BBC Proms. A rapidly developing conductor, in 2009 he took up appointments as Music Director of the English Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra.

For Chandos the Watkins brothers have previously recorded a disc of Sonatas and Variations for Cello and Piano by Martinů (CHAN10602), of which Fanfare wrote: ‘The performances are superb. I particularly admire Paul Watkins’s unforced cello sound and the fluency and shapeliness of Huw Watkins’s piano playing.’

This CD features German star violinist Christian Tetzlaff with virtuoso Romantic concertos by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann.

The Mendelssohn Concerto is one of the most frequently performed violin concertos of all time, with an unfailing popularity among audiences.

Also included is Schumann’s more seldom recorded Fantasy for Violin and orchestra, which he completed shortly before writing the Concerto.

One of Schumann’s last significant compositions, the long-lost Violin Concerto saw its première performance only in 1937, and was hailed by Yehudi Menuhin as the “historically missing link of the violin literature.”

Christian Tetzlaff is accompanied on this recording by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra – whose Artist-in-Residence he became in 2008/09 – and their acclaimed music director Paavo Järvi.

This is the first CD in a series of releases featuring Christian Tetzlaff on the Ondine label.

Otto Klemperer (1885–1973) was widely regarded as one of the leading conductors of the 20th century along with his compatriots, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Bruno Walter. These performances date from 1955, a period when Klemperer was at his most authoritative, spending a number of seasons guest conducting in Cologne with great success. As a result, he became principal conductor of the Philharmonia in London in 1959 following the departure of Herbert von Karajan for Berlin.

Both Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream and Beethoven Symphony No.8 are sourced from the original WDR tapes and have been superbly remastered. They appear for the first time on CD.

The Mendelssohn performance, with its wonderful clarity, like the Beethoven Symphony No.8, is in general faster than the studio made recording in 1960.

Käthe Möller-Siepermann was a regular performer at Cologne Opera while Hanna Ludwig also performed there and at other houses in Germany as well as further afield. She retired in 1968 to pursue pedagogical and lecturing opportunities.

One of today’s most-admired singers, Diana Damrau, was a pupil of Ludwig’s.