Schumann: Adagio and Allegro in A flat major, Op. 70

This collection provides a complete account of Robert Schumann’s works for viola and piano. Schumann was a real innovator, who would often explore new instrumental combinations, sometimes bringing neglected or forgotten instruments back into the limelight. The works on this recording show just how many different moods the composer could evoke using the unusual combination of viola and piano, from the changeable nature of the Fantasiestücke Op.73 and the array of emotions portrayed in the Märchenbilder Op.113 to the passion of the Adagio and Allegro Op.70 and finally the intricacies of the Märchenerzählungen Op.132, with a little help from the clarinet.

The successful partnership of violist Lorenzo Falconi and pianist Sara Bacchini has been described by acclaimed performer, Pier Narciso Masi, as ‘a real Duo, in the most complete sense of the word. Their profound understanding of chamber music is supported by considerable talent, sensitivity and personality, and they are great communicators.’ They are joined for the recording by clarinettist Darlo Goracci.

Late in the 1840s, Schumann entered a chamber music phase. It was, it is said, motivated partly by financial reasons – creating a body of chamber works that could be played by talented amateurs in their own homes. Many of the works on this disc date from 1849. Significantly, for collectors, one of these – the Andante and Variations – receives its first release on CD and marks Vladimir Ashkenazy’s first recording of chamber music for Decca. The same sessions also included duo piano recordings with Malcolm Frager, from which the Study in Canon Form emanates. Other notable duo collaborations on this disc include Rostropovich and Britten (Fünf Stücke im Volkston), Holliger and Brendel (Drei Romanzen, Abendlied) and Ashkenazy with Tuckwell in the 1974 (Adagio and Allegro) and with Franklin Cohen in 1990 (Fantasiestücke).

In 1849 Schumann, like Debussy and Poulenc before him, spent some time writing music for wind instruments. This album celebrates the complete compositions of these works from 1849.

Among Schumann’s inspired late chamber works is a collection of music for more unusual instruments, composed in a concentrated flurry of creativity between 1849 and 1853 and written specifically for particular players, and it is to these exquisite short works that the world-famous Nash Ensemble turns its impeccable collective musicianship.

While Schumann modelled his music specifically to the timbres of the instruments he wrote for—piano, violin, horn, clarinet and oboe—he also arranged these pieces for alternative instruments with an eye to maximizing sales. Here, however, the soloists from The Nash Ensemble present the works in their original scoring in what are bound to be definitive performances—the delicious Fantasiestücke for clarinet, and the fiery and lyrical Märchenbilder, which feature star British viola player Lawrence Power. Other delights include the Adagio and Allegro for horn, a brilliant showpiece, the Violin Sonata No 1, Drei Romanzen for oboe and piano and the Märchenerzählungen for clarinet, viola and piano.

Despite his love of the cello’s rich sonority and immense lyrical expressivity, Robert Schumann composed few works for that instrument, a situation frequently rectified, as here, by effective arrangements. Less well known, yet among her most successful compositions, are Clara Schumann’s exquisite Romances. A pupil of Rostropovich and winner of the First Prize and Gold Medal at the Third Tchaikovsky InternationalCompetition, Karine Georgian enjoys an international career as a performer and teacher. Dutch pianist Jan Willem Nelleke’s exceptional qualities as a duo partner have been widely recognised. “Everything Georgian plays is presented with the most succulent, glowing tone, the phrasing boundlessly ample.” Financial Times

The cheapest, most attractively presented and most comprehensive single disc (78 minutes) of Dennis Brain in today’s market.

Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Dittersdorf, Dukas and an excerpt from the Hoffnung Music Festival, 1956.

Newly re-mastered.

‘He was innately musical in a way which defies description or analysis. He shaped phrases with an instinctive rightness that seemed inevitable. Technical problems did not exist for him. He had tamed the most notoriously intractable of all instruments to be his obedient servant and raised it again to sing the song the sirens sang.’ Walter Legge

Jan Vogler is an international and award-winning artist. He won the 2006 European Cultural Prize for his contribution to the cultural community of Germany and the 2002 Echo Award for Best Instrumentalist. Gramophone Magazine praised his ‘spiraling virtuosity’.

Beethoven was most distressed when he discovered that of all his recent compositions, it was his Septet that was gaining greatest favour by Viennese audiences. He considered it somewhat unworthy of himself! Yet, the music continues to endure and this marvellous recording is now coupled on CD with the more intimate Serenade as well as Schumann's Adagio and Allegro for horn and piano. All recordings are released internationally on CD for the first time.

"(Septet) ...if it is to be attacked with seemingly youthful vigour, then clearly the Melos Ensemble are the players willing and able to do it..." Gramophone.

Schumann’s treatment of the cello opens up a special dimension. Because Schumann was originally a pianist and composed for the instrument he is usually seen in the light of that instrument. In fact, he also played the cello and so was familiar with the instrument’s technique and character. He even fell back on the cello when his hopes of becoming the Paganini of the piano were dashed as a young man.

The Decca Ansermet Legacy on Eloquence continues to garner the highest plaudits from publications all around the world and the latest batch presents the maestro’s recordings of four key Austro-German Romantics: Schubert, Weber, Mendelssohn and Schumann. This 2-CD set brings together all of Ansermet’s Schumann recordings for Decca.

Ansermet’s Schumann is generally unforced and relaxed, with all but the Piano and Cello Concertos making their first international appearance on CD. In the Piano Concerto – a live radio broadcast recording with Lipatti, newly remastered for this release – Lipatti seems to drive the orchestra to new levels of excitement.

As with many of the (relatively few) concertante works Ansermet recorded, the soloists are drawn from the orchestra – as is the case with Edmund Leloir, principal horn of the OSR from 1952-77, for the Adagio and Allegro, originally for horn and piano and, for this recording, orchestrated by Ansermet. Maurice Gendron, soloist in the Cello Concerto, was one of Jacqueline du Pré’s teachers. The Schumann concerto was one of his specialties; he frequently played it when he was invited to appear with orchestras.

“Gendron's performance is instinct with poetry, and, with Ansermet, he achieves a lucidity of expression which is very taking … artistic integrity and understanding which is utterly remarkable” Gramophone

[Schumann's' Symphony No 1] “…a wonderfully light and graceful performance” Gramophone

[Lipatti's Schumann] “…a deeply moving performance. Lipatti plays con amore, almost as if aware the opportunity might never come again” Gramophone