SACDs - Schubert

World-famous tenor Christoph Prégardien continues his series of recordings for Challenge Classics of Schubert song-cycles, with what many consider to be the composer’s greatest work in the genre “Winterreise”. As with the previous critically acclaimed release of “Die Schone Mullerin” the pianist on this hybrid SACD is Michael Gees.

Christoph Prégardien has made almost 200 recordings for all the major labels, amongst which are several for Challenge Classics. These include recordings released in 2008 of Schubert’s “Die Schone Mullerin” with Michael Gees, (CC72292), which was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice, and the same composer’s “Schwanengesang” with Andreas Staier (CC72302). Prégardien and Gees also released the award winning ‘Between Life and Death’ in 2009, which featured songs and arias by composers including Mahler, Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Brahms, and Mozart.

This recording of Winterreise is also available on DVD and Blu-ray, featuring a studio performance of the cycle, and a documentary with artist interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of the studio recording process.

This is ‘Vivere’. Not exactly a cheerful disc - all three compositions refer in various ways to death. This is reflected in the key (D minor is the key of death), in the opposite number of the Maiden, and finally even literally, in the fact that cellist Geneviève 'dies' before the end of the album. For us, however, to record this dramatic repertoire is to offer an ode to life. ‘Vivere’ - for by listening to this sombre music one realises how wonderful life can be. Performed by the Ragazze Quartet, four young women in the midst of life. The Ragazze Quartet is a young, Dutch string quartet, remarkable for its musical enthusiasm, talent, versatility and presentation. Its versatility in particular is unusual within the world of chamber music.

The quartet collaborates with and performs alongside composers, other musicians - classical or otherwise - and artists working in a variety of disciplines. In such projects the Ragazze Quartet always operates from its classical music core, while attempting to attain the ultimate crossover. The different disciplines are approached entirely equally, but in so doing they complement and elevate one another.

The quartet followed the two-year full-time curriculum of the Dutch String Quartet Academy (NSKA). There the members attended masterclasses directed by leading musicians from the international string quartet world, as well as lessons from their regular teachers Stefan Metz and Marc Danel. After completing the academy course the quartet was coached for a year by Luc Marie Aguera, violinist in the Quatuor Ysaye; this was made possible by the Dutch Kersjes Foundation.

Tabea Zimmermann and Kirill Gerstein return to the studio to record the follow-up to their highly praised first duo album. The new disc includes spellbinding performances of three late works by significant 19th century composers: Brahms mature Sonata in F minor, Schubert‘s melancholic Arpeggione sonata, and Franck‘s splendid Sonata in A major, all masterly performed on viola. This new disc explores three works by major 19th-Century figures, each written during the composers’ final years. All three works on the new recording were originally composed for an instrument other than viola.

One of Brahms’ final chamber works, the dramatic Sonata in F minor, was intended for clarinet, though Brahms himself adapted the work to the range and technical possibilities of the viola. Also near the end of his life was Franz Schubert when he wrote his superb 'Arpeggione' sonata. The work was commissioned by a friend of the composer’s, who requested a sonata for a new kind of instrument: the arpeggione, a hybrid between the cello and the guitar. Written just four years before his death, César Franck’s A major sonata is also beloved by cellists but has been rarely heard from violists.

Tabea Zimmermann is one of the leading contemporary viola players worldwide. Awarded the Echo Klassik as Instrumentalist of the Year in 2010, Zimmermann has recently been Artist in Residence at the Cologne and Luxemburg Philharmony, as well as the Kunstfest Weimar, Bozar Festival Brussels and the Elbphilharmonie Konzerte in Hamburg. Of her recent disc of Bach and Reger solo suites, Gramophone wrote: “here is playing full of warmth, of depth, of meditation and of full maturity … gorgeous.”

Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein has quickly proven to be one of today’s most intriguing young musicians. Recipient of the 2010 Gilmore Artist Award, Gerstein’s solo release on myrios classics, featuring music by Schumann and Liszt, was played, according to The New York Times, “with exquisite technique, refined musicianship and engrossing imagination”, and was shortlisted by the NY Times’ Holiday Gift Guide as one of the 25 best classical recordings of 2010. This SACD release from myrios classics is available from harmonia mundi UK on January 14, 2013, as is the back catalogue.

A juxtaposition of the first and second Grande Sonates for pianoforte of 1825, one a melancholic, intimate effusion that does not smile; the other, brimming with frothy joy close to a stylised Tyrolienne, then a refined Ländler whose emotional invention heralds Bruckner, followed by a moderato as light as it is timeless in its innocent, inalterable gaiety. A portrait such as only Richter the painter knew how to compose.

June 14, 1956 (D 850), consists of previously released material by PRAGA PR254031 (P) 1994, CDM 78726/7 (P) 1993 agreed by Svjatoslav Richter in Paris in 1993.

Richter conquered Paris with these Schubert scores. The last and immense Piano Sonata No.21 in B flat major, D960 (1828) stayed a long time in his repertoire chasing the 'small' sonatas. He captures the brillant ambiguity of this series of exclamations, more a cycle of impromptus than a real sonata pace Beethoven; its strict architecture opposing its instinctive imaginativeness. Richter exudes overwhelming charm over an isolated Impromptu before respecting the post-Mozartian baroque approach in the 1819 'small' A major Sonata D 664.

Recorded September 24 1972 [D960], June 10 1956, June 10-11 1962. Previously available as PR254032 [1994], CDM78726/7 [1993]