Future Releases

These recordings of Mozart’s String Quartets (some of his final ones) KV 499 and KV 589, made in 1961 at the Sofiensaal in Vienna, have historic significance, as the last gasp of a Viennese style of string playing in Mozart which stemmed from before World War II. Otto Strasser (1901–96), Willi Boskovsky (1909–91), his exact contemporary Emanuel Brabec (1909–98) and Rudolf Streng (1915–88) had all studied with luminaries of the orchestra from the era when Arnold Rosé, Franz Mairecker and Julius Stwertka led the violins, Ernst Moravec the violas and Friedrich Buxbaum the cellos. Strasser studied with Stwertka, Streng with both Moravec and Barylli’s teacher Mairecker, Brabec with Buxbaum. Strasser joined the Philharmonic in 1922, Boskovsky in 1932 and Brabec in 1938. All four played in the old relaxed way in which the tone was carried as if on the breath, with easeful portamento and legato, like the singing of a bel canto specialist. To hear Brabec’s airborne legato in the Larghetto of KV 589 is to experience a style which can no longer be duplicated. This issue is part of a survey of the Vienna Philharmonic Quartet’s discography for Decca, now reissued on Eloquence. Both quartets are released internationally on CD for the first time.

In the final years of his brief life, Franz Schubert wrote some of the greatest chamber music in the literature. Yet these masterpieces, including three string quartets and a string quintet, remained virtually unknown for a quarter of a century after his birth. It was only when Josef Hellmesberger began his subscription quartet concerts at the Wiener Musikverein in 1849 that Schubert’s true stature began to be appreciated, so that people no longer saw him as a kind of amiable Biedermeier figure, scribbling songs on table napkins or scraps of paper, but as a major composer. This 2CD set, issued as part of a survey of the Vienna Philharmonic Quartet’s Decca recordings, include the familiar ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet, the little ‘Quartettsatz’ and the sublime String Quintet (with cellist Richard Harand). These recordings have historic significance, as the last gasp of a Viennese style of string playing in Schubert which stemmed from before World War II. All, except for D.810, make their first international appearance on CD. This recording of the String Quintet was, incidentally, chosen by Sir Colin Davis as a chosen recording on BBC’s Desert Island Discs.

Mozart’s final four quartets have a sublime quality. Two of these appear here, and the classic recording of KV575 receives its first international appearance on CD. Over the years Rainer Küchl became the VPO’s first concertmaster and his quartet has evolved to a point where only he remains from the four who recorded back in 1975. These youthful performances, well recorded by Decca and quite modern in style show a full awareness of the Viennese tradition.

Looking back at Tristan und Isolde twenty years after its composition, Wagner told his wife Cosima: ‘My model was Romeo and Juliet – nothing but duets!’ He was invoking Bellini’s opera I Capuleti e i Montecchi, which he had conducted many times as a young man. Indeed, there had been much in the Italian master’s legacy that had impressed the young Wagner, including the ‘long, long, long melodies’ that Verdi described, and the technique of melodic sequence in which a phrase is repeated with rising pitch and heightened effect. The erotic potential of such procedures is famously exploited in the ‘night of love’ in Act II of Tristan und Isolde. And while this might well claim to be Wagner’s best-known duet, this innovative 2CD set, compiled by Australia’s Wagner expert Peter Bassett (who also contributes the notes) brings together a collection of dialogues, musical conversations and duets from the major Wagner operas.

The recordings are among the finest ever made. The singers are a Who’s Who of great names from the sixties, seventies and eighties – Fischer-Dieskau, Janowitz, Vickers, Thomas, Price, Kollo… with conductors like Karajan, Kleiber and Jochum directing these revelatory performances. The breadth and diversity of the emotion on this double album is matched by the generous playing times: more than two hours and forty minutes of music on a 2CD set.

Excerpts from Wagner operas have, on countless occasions, been transcribed for piano. A fairly long list of transcribers could be made, starting with Joseph Rubinstein, the first transcriber of an extract from Parsifal, going on through Bülow to Brassin, then from Carl Tausig to August Stradal, to speak only of those who were pupils of Liszt. It is an established fact that Liszt, the greatest master of transcription and paraphrase, made very little use of Wagner’s works. In this highly-regarded recording, once more appearing on CD, the transcription honours are shared between Liszt and Kocsis.

With the latter Beethoven broke new ground in exploring the potential of the symphony, both in terms of its subject matter and its qualities as descriptive music. The title of each movement outlines what is being portrayed, and in the case of the bird-calls at the end of the second movement, Beethoven made a point of instructing his copyist to include the names of the birds (nightingale, quail, cuckoo) in the score!Many, many recordings have been made of Beethoven’s popular ‘Pastoral’ symphony but one sometimes overlooked is Ashkenazy’s ideally-paced, picturesque and oh-so-lyrical account of this great work. It is coupled with two of the composer’s most popular overtures – Egmont and Leonore No.3.

This is the next release in the critically acclaimed series of recordings taken from the Piano festival in Ruhr. This 3CD set features music which can be categorised by country. The 3CDs are entitled ‘France’ with music by Ravel and Debussy, ‘America’ with music by Gershwin and Earl Wild, and ‘New Music’ with music by John Cage, Philip Glass and York Holler.

This is an orchestra to reckon with: stemming from the geographical triangle between Linz, Salzburg and Passau, the ISO is made up of young, committed musicians from the Innviertel region and their musical friends from all over the world. The soloist is MATTHIAS SCHORN, Principal Clarinet of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and renowned for his talent.

Once again Frieder Bernius lives up to his name as the rediscoverer of unknown masterpieces from the Romantic era. Just in time for the Franz Ignaz Danzi's 250th anniversary, and together with the Kammerchor Stuttgart and the Hofkapelle Stuttgart he has snatched Danzi's opera Der Berggeist from an undeserved oblivion.

This opera, first performed in Karlsruhe in 1813 – exactly 200 years ago – based on the folkloric tale of Rübezahl, is an especially notable contribution to early Romantic opera in Germany.

Freider Bernius conducting the forces of the Stuttgart Chamber Choir are well documented and critically acclaimed, and this new recording is a welcome addition to the catalogue.

The name Otto Nicolai is most closely associated with his opera The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Less well known, on the other hand, is his extensive output of sacred music, which includes a cappella works and choral works with orchestra. As Mendelssohn's successor as artistic director of the Berlin Cathedral, with the Mass in D major Nicolai composed a sacred work well worth discovering.

It is an important contribution to church music of the 19th century. In addition to this festive mass with orchestral accompaniment, the chamber choir CONSONO under Harald Jers also presents several other choral works which with their varied scorings, some a cappella, some with instrumental accompaniment.

All these works show the diversity of Nicolai's sacred compositions.