Description

When she recorded Bach’s great set of variations in Basel’s Hans Huber Hall, Anastasia Voltchok was keen to play right through the work only twice on one and the same day. A high degree of concentration and vital energy are the preconditions for such a bold undertaking, to say nothing of the most thorough preparation and years of experience on the concert podium. The advantages of avoiding short takes are self-evident: constant tension over long stretches and organic transitions from one variation to the next in terms of tempo, dynamics and continuity of expression. She prefers to avoid long pauses between the groups of variations, though she feels that it is advisable to take time to catch her breath before the start of the second half of the work (from Var. 16, marked “Ouverture”). Time and again the multi-awardwinning Moscow-born pianist engaged with this demanding set of variations, practising them intensely and finally playing them repeatedly in the concert hall. She believes it is vital to have studied as many of Bach’s works as possible prior to such an involvement. Above all, The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Partitas helped to open up this world to her. Bach has already written out the ornaments in detail and she has no wish to try to outdo the composer by improvising additional ornaments of her own. Nor does she regard it as indispensably necessary to observe all of the repeats. Anastasia Voltchok, who studied with Evgeny Malinin and Larissa Dedova in Moscow, with Rudolf Buchbinder in Basel and with Santiago Rodriguez in Maryland and who has now chosen to live in Switzerland, prefers to allow herself to be guided by the spirit of the moment. Of course, the repeat is essential in Var. 25, this extended minor-key threnody that explores rarely plumbed depths of anguish. But do we not find humour – quite unexpectedly – in the famous Quodlibet of Var. 30? No, argues Anastasia Voltchok, it is not humour that occurs here but a lovingly fashioned high point of the work to which all that has gone before it has been ineluctably leading. The Aria that is then heard once again is like someone returning home after a long absence.

Description

Apart from the early Baroque ricercari and didactic works like the études and capriccios of composers such as Duport, Dotzauer and Piatti, the repertoire for solo cello up to the Romantic period comprises only two works: Johann Sebastian Bach’s Six Suites BWV 1007-1012 (c. 1720) and Max Reger’s Three Suites op. 131c of 1914. While numerous works for solo cello have been written since Hindemith and Kodály, they are all clearly orientated around twentieth-century tonal language.

This CD presents the first recording of two original, very different and thus far unknown Romantic works for solo cello: Julius Klengel’s Suite in D minor op. 56 and Hugo Becker’s Fantastic Suite from the life of the woodland gnome op. 14. Both of these early twentieth century works represent the two leading cellists’ discovery of composing late in life. Like Paul Tortelier’s strongly Bach-oriented Suite in D minor, they are important additions to the cello repertoire. This year we celebrate with both composers anniversaries: Hugo Becker (150. year of birth) and Paul Tortelier (100. year of birth).

Markus Wagner has won prizes at several national and international competitions, including first prize at the Felix Mottl Competition in Munich in 1989, the Arts Bursary of the city of Augsburg in 1991, a medal at the Maria Canals Concours International de Musique in Barcelona in 1991 and a diploma at the Concours International d’Exécution musicale in Viña
del Mar, Chile in 1991.

In 1991 Markus Wagner became one of the youngest lecturers in Germany to be appointed to hold a cello major class at the Leopold Mozart Conservatory in Augsburg. After his appointment as professor in 2001, he moved to the Nürnberg College of Music in 2007.

Description

The dream of many classical musicians is to record as a soloist with an extraordinary orchestra such as the English Chamber Orchestra. Mine came true thanks to Verena and Hans-Ulrich’s invitation and I could not be happier! This privilege, together with the fact that I could chose the repertoire and the recording team made it even more fascinating and special. The list of pieces that I love to play is quite long, and making the selection was both interesting and challenging. I did not want to have only one theme or period in musical history, but rather a selection of pieces that I enjoy playing the most from our beautiful repertoire. I started from the beginning (or almost..) with Vivaldi..how could I ‘escape’ Mozart? And Villa-Lobos? I wanted it to be a journey through the bassoon – ‘the unknown soloist’ – repertoire. And Elgar? And the Françaix which had never been recorded with string orchestra? The ‘chamber music’ nature of the pieces led me to record without a conductor and to share leadership with the great Stephanie Gonley, ECO’s concertmaster. (Rui Lopes)

The project was a great challenge, due to the difficulty of the pieces, but thanks to our amazing producer Andrew Keener we really had fun with it. I hope you’ll enjoy this journey “Through Time”.

Although Rui Lopes only began studying the bassoon at eighteen, his musical temperament and virtuosity were quickly recognized and received many awards, including first prize in the prestigious Estoril International Competition. One of the most promising bassoonists of his generation, he shares his great passion for music with concert audiences all over the world.

Description

It is very difficult to find another composer whose uncompromising approach to his work created such an overwhelming impression on both his contemporaries and following generations. Ludwig van Beethoven leaves no-one untouched and is perhaps even more relevant in our modern, ephemeral society, in which there is seldom time to reflect. It therefore seems important and natural to us to present our version of these fantastic works.
Beethoven’s five cello sonatas are the quintessence of his personality and work: they exemplify creative development in an unparalleled manner.

We begin with the F major Sonata, marked by almost supernatural virtuosity in the typical spirit of Viennese Classicism. Our programme proceeds with the profound and powerful G minor Sonata, the A major Sonata with its much more lyrical subject matter, the C major Sonata with its concentrated musical material and vision of the future, and finally confronts the vast dimensions of the D major Sonata, with its magical slow movement and the final movement in the form of a wild fugue whose uncompromising ending might be the answer to the proposal in the F major Sonata.

We, Maja Weber, cello, and Per Lundberg, piano, have been playing chamber music together for more than twenty years, mostly in piano quartets and quintets. The idea of forming a duo was a natural consequence of our work together, and it was together that we chose the name “Duo Leonore”. We have always shared a strong need for artistic expression – and that, like many other things in our society, is something that has hardly changed since Beethoven’s time. We find our mutual musical passion reflected most especially in his music. That is perhaps because of Beethoven’s uncompromising belief in the power of music. Leonore, the heroine of his opera Fidelio, symbolizes Beethoven’s aesthetics for us: her humanism, personal readiness to make sacrifices and courage ultimately lead to triumph.

Description

Eva Lind’s appearances have taken her to the leading opera houses in Milan (La Scala), Paris (Theatre des Champs Elysées), London (Royal Albert Hall), New York (Carnegie Hall), Berlin (Staatsoper), Stockholm (Opera House), Buenos Aires (Teatro Colòn), Madrid (La Zarzuela), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Shanghai, Hongkong, Bejing, Tokyo, Osaka and many others as well as at the Festivals of Salzburg and Arena di Verona.

Eva Lind has shared the stage with the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, José Carreras and Alfredo Kraus. She has become a favourite of conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Sir Georg Solti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir André Previn, Sir Neville Marriner, Daniel Barenboim, Jeffrey Tate and Seiji Ozawa.

Symphonies overwhelm me, operas impress me. Yet the small form of the French art song can be just as exciting and fascinating. It has therefore been my dearest wish for many years to devote a CD to the gems of French song in their finest settings. I have here selected four of the greatest French composers, all of them masters of these musical miniatures. Each of these composers is unique in his own way. Massenet composed incredibly emotional Romantic tone-paintings; Fauré was second to none in composing songs that provide special kaleidoscopic insight into personal inner worlds; Debussy’s finesse elegantly transformed poetry into music and finally Satie’s visionary musical ideas and splendidly bizarre humour made him a pioneer of surrealism. These songs are extremely condensed masterpieces – some introvert and timid, some explosively Romantic. (Eva Lind)

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Description

On this disk you will find our own versions of some well known pop-rock, folk and classical tunes and a couple of our own compositions. When making an instrumental arrangement of a song the challenge is that you lose the lyrics which change and are only left with the melody that is always the same. There are only a few songs such as Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody that have enough musical material to keep an instrumental version sound interesting. That is why in most arrangements we added our own musical ideas which we hope make well known songs appear fresh and original. We like turning things upside down so don’t be surprised to hear a baroque style intro into “Sweet home Alabama” or some guitar percussion and rock-style improvisations in “Vivaldi Stormed”. (Katona Twins)

The Katona Twins effortlessly transfer from strictly classical, into more popular musical genres. They have given recitals in the major concert venues throughout the world and as the soloists of the “Night of the Proms” they performed live to half a million people in arenas across Europe.

The twins have won over ten international prizes at major competitions in New York, London, Germany, France and Hungary and were artists in residence in San Francisco.