Richard Stamp STRAUSS - COPLAND

 

STRAUSS - COPLAND

Lars Vogt / Royal Northern Sinfonia BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 2 - Handel Variations

                                   PIANO CONCERTO No. 2 - HANDEL VARIATIONS

Lars Vogt / Royal Northern Sinfonia BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 1 - Four Ballades

Lars Vogt continues his series of concerto recordings with the Royal Northern Sinfonia with this new recording of Johannes Brahms’ (1833–1897) First Piano Concerto together with Four Ballades (Op. 10) for solo piano. As in previous albums, Lars Vogt conducts from the keyboard. The evolution of Brahms’ 1st Piano Concerto took several steps. Originally conceived to become a Sonata for Two Pianos through orchestration it was developed into a four-movement Symphony until reaching into its final form of a Piano Concerto in three movements. During the process, which lasted from 1854 to 1856, some movements were also discarded and replaced by new material. This music is packed with much drama. No wonder since these years were particularly tumultuous in Brahms’ personal life: it was during this period when his great mentor Robert Schumann was sent into an asylum and ultimately died. It was also time when Brahms formed a close, lifelong friendship to Clara Schumann. Some of these feelings might well be echoed in the peaceful 2nd movement, Adagio. Brahms’ Four Ballades, Op. 10 are works written in 1854 by a young composer barely in his 20s, yet these pieces are technically mature and profound in such a manner that they could even be compared to his final piano opuses. Lars Vogt was appointed the first ever “Pianist in Residence” by the Berlin Philharmonic in 2003/04 and enjoys a high profile as a soloist and chamber musician. His debut solo recording on Ondine with Bach’s Goldberg Variations was released in August 2015 and has been a major critical success. Lars Vogt started his tenure as Music Director of the Royal Northern Sinfonia in September 2015. Lars Vogt was nominated for Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award in 2017. His recordings of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 4 together with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and an album of Dvorak’s Piano Trios received Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice in May 2018 and in December 2018. His most recent album on Ondine featuring four Mozart’s Piano Sonatas (ODE13182) was also chosen Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice in July 2019.

Paul Neubauer / Joshua Roman / Royal Northern Sinfonia / Rebecca Miller AARON JAY KERNIS Dreamsongs - Three Concertos

While Dreamsongs is a concerto for cello and chamber orchestra, it doesn’t take on the forms of older concerti. Rather than the almost ubiquitous three movement layout—Fast-Slow-Fast—it has only two movements, both of which mix slow and fast with dramatic and lyrical sections. The first, 'Floating Dreamsongs' is mostly slow and airy, and is built as a group of continuously developing variations on the intimate music from its opening and 1st variation with strings, harp and vibraphone. The consonant harmonies become spooked and furtive, building into tremulous marimba and vibraphone rolls with large orchestra chords, and only much later returns to a mostly peaceful character.

Much of the 2nd movement, 'Kora Song', is inspired by music of the African kora, a plucked gourd almost similar in sound to the harp and pizzicato cello combination that opens the movement and is often featured in it. I don’t know of many cello pieces that concentrate on pizzicato playing as much as this movement, and the playing style was developed in close collaboration with the soloist. The music frequently changes direction and features a number of cello cadenzas of smaller and larger size, sometimes with the West African djembe drum. Overall it has a gentle exuberance and is lighter in tone and more energetic than in the opening movement.

Dreamsongs is written for the generous and virtuosic playing of cellist Joshua Roman, who I’ve known for a number of years, and has been my neighbor in New York City until recently. It is dedicated to him. It was co-commissioned for him by the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, Ohio, and the Bellingham Festival in Washington State.

Sarah Beth Briggs / Royal Northern Sinfonia / Kenneth Woods GÁL Concerto for Piano & Orchestra MOZART Piano Concerto No. 22 K. 482

The Austrian Jewish composer Hans Gál fled Vienna in 1938 for England and then Scotland, then learned that both his aunt and his sister had committed suicide to avoid being sent to Auschwitz. He himself spent time in a British internment camp for enemy aliens. Through these events he maintained a consistent personal style that tended toward optimism, and his Piano Concerto, Op. 57, recorded here for the first time, is a fine example. It is Mozartian without being neoclassic, putting essentially Romantic melodies together in clean, distinct units and adding a bit of chromatic harmony. It's as if Carl Maria von Weber had written his piano music at the beginning of the 20th century instead of the beginning of the 19th. Sample the last movement (track 3), where a very Mozartian mixture of high spirits and melancholy reigns. The Royal Northern Sinfonia under Kenneth Woods and pianist Sarah Beth Briggs are quietly sensitive in the complex ensemble work. The Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat major, K. 482, fills out the program in an unusually satisfying way, and Avie gets exactly the right lucid sound, working in Sage Gateshead's Hall One in North East England. Marvelous music by a composer who is benefiting from a well-deserved revival. (James Manheim)

Lars Vogt / Christian Tetzlaff / Tanja Tetzlaff / Royal Northern Sinfonia BEETHOVEN Triple Concerto - Piano Concerto No. 3

Lars Vogt continues his cycle of Beethovens Piano Concertos with the Royal Northern Sinfonia. On this second volume, the recording also includes Beethovens Triple Concerto where Lars Vogt is joined together with his longtime artistic partners Christian Tetzlaff and Tanja Tetzlaff. Vogts recordings of chamber music with the trio have gathered astonishing reviews and recording awards, including a Grammy nomination for the recording of Brahms Piano Trios (ODE 1271-2D). Beethovens Triple Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Cello in C major, Op. 56 is a work radiant with joy, described by many as a concerto for piano trio and orchestra. The work, completed in 1803, has standed unrivaled in its genre. Beethovens Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 is a slightly earlier work and it was premiered together with his Symphony No. 2 in a concert in 1804. It has been noted that the theme in the first movement of the concerto is possibly a quotation from Mozarts Piano Concerto No. 24 written in the same key, and the both works do ressemble each other in formal, rhythmic, and thematic aspects. C minor key is also a key in which Beethoven wrote many of his most important works, including the 5th Symphony, the Pathétique Sonata and Piano Sonata, Op. 111. Lars Vogt was appointed the first ever 'Pianist in Residence' by the Berlin Philharmonic in 2003/04 and enjoys a high profile as a soloist and chamber musician. His debut solo recording on Ondine with Bachs Goldberg Variations (ODE 1273-2) was released in August 2015 and has been a major critical success. The albums tracks have also been streamed online over 6 million times. Lars Vogt started his tenure as Music Director of the Royal Northern Sinfonia in September 2015. In June 2017 Lars Vogt was nominated for Gramophone's Artist of the Year 2017 Award.

Juliette Bausor / Royal Northern Sinfonia / Jaime Martin MOZART - NIELSEN Flute Concertos

Widely recognised as one of Britain’s leading flute players, Juliette Bausor began her studies with Anna Pope at the junior department of the Royal Academy of Music and Purcell School of Music, before going on to study with Philippa Davies, Paul Edmund Davies and Samuel Coles at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She continued her tuition at the Conservatoire Nationale Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris, with Sophie Cherrier and Vincent Lucas.

Following international success in competitions, including early recognition in reaching the televised Concerto Final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year and winning the Gold Medal in both the Shell LSO Competition and the Royal Over-Seas League Competition, Juliette has appeared as a concerto soloist with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Academy of St Martins in the Fields, European Union Chamber Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia and London Mozart Players, with conductors including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Thomas Zehetmair, Mario Venzago and Sir Neville Marriner. Success on an international scale is reflected in tours around Europe and beyond, to Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Australia and New Zealand.