Kristian Bezuidenhout / Pablo Heras-Casado / Freiburger Barockochester BEETHOVEN Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 5 "Emperor"

                                                   PIANO CONCERTOS NOS. 2 & 5

Freiburger Barockorchester / Gottfried von der Goltz CORELLI Concerti Grossi - Sinfonia Santa Beatrice d'Este

Violinist Gottfried von der Goltz at the head of the Freiburger Barockorchester performs Corelli's Concerti Grossi, true hits of the baroque repertoire. Recorded by specialists, the programme abounds of life and bursts with colours. The various playing intentions clearly enlighten the different instrumental levels and the vivid dialogue between tutti and solists. The enlarged continuo features a rich palette: lute, harp, harpsichord and organ are holding up the strings joined – o surprise – by winds! Oboe, bassoon, trombone and trumpet still enhance the dramatic dimension of these thrilling pieces. Gottfried von der Goltz himself sought for all the clues that may provide evidence for the presence of the additional timbres. These passionate musicians release a brand new Corelli, pioneer in orchestral music. An exciting rediscovery!

Jean-Guihen Queyras ROBERT SCHUMANN

The idea for this CD project arose during a tour on which we performed Robert Schumann’s Trio op.80. As passionate admirers of the composer, we conceived the desire to place his works for piano, violin, and cello in a broader context and to illuminate them mutually in order to allow listeners to gain a deeper understanding of his music. We soon agreed to play the pieces for this recording on a historical piano and stringed instruments with gut strings, using orchestral forces to match. Thanks to this, we expected our playing to be better balanced, better articulated, and more open-minded. 

Pablo Heras-Casado and the Freiburger Barockorchester sprang spontaneously to mind as the ideal partners for a project of this kind. And indeed they took up our idea enthusiastically and were keen and irreplaceable fellow-conspirators in the world of Schumann. 

Our shared journey into the magical world of this incomparable composer will remain with us as an exceptionally intense, happy, and fulfilling experience. (Isabelle Faust / Alexander Melnikov / Jean-Guihen Queyras)

Hille Perl / Freiburger Barockochester CONCERTI

The last decades of my life I had the privilege to travel the world playing concerts and recording CDs due to the loyalty of the audience, who has granted us the honour of coming to our concerts, of buying our CDs and thus made it possible for us to keep playing our music.  I feel deeply grateful to each one of you out there for participating in this incredible trip. I feel responsibility towards the past and the future to keep this kind of music alive and participate in my way in the cultural wealth that history has provided for us. It is important to have contents that are totally void of monetary relevance, such as music, which is as fleeting as smoke and as eternal as the skies. (Hille Perl)

Hille Perl is one of today's most brilliant and versatile gambists. She delivers excellent performances of Abel's solo pieces and is an engaging soloist in the concertos. Her cadenzas are technically impressive but especially stylish. The collaboration with the Freiburger Barockorchester is immaculate, and the result is a compelling disc of some of the best music for her instrument from the mid-18th century. I liked her performance of the Graun concerto more than that of Vittorio Ghielmi of another of his concertos. There is no lack of drama here, but there is also elegance and refinement, something I sorely missed in Ghielmi's recording. 

If your are a gamba aficionado, don't miss this disc. (Johan van Veen)

Isabelle Faust / Freiburger Barockorchester / Pablo Heras-Casado MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto - Symphony No. 5 - The Hebrides

After the mystical ‘Hebrides’ Overture and the masterly ‘Reformation’ Symphony, Mendelssohn embarked on his second violin concerto. After a long gestation in which he polished the orchestration and meticulously revised the solo part, the work was finally premiered in Leipzig in 1845. From David to Joachim, virtuosos honed the violin part with the composer over successive revivals, leaving to posterity traces of their playing style: fingering, bowing and score markings. This precious heritage has been scrutinised by Isabelle, as she did for her Brahms Violin Concerto recording, as a previously unexploited expressive resource. Isabelle Faust, accompanied by the Freiburger Barockorchester, in top form, under the direction of Pablo Heras-Casado, offers us a miracle of purity and lyricism in a freshly-minted interpretation that fulfils Mendelssohn’s promise of ‘a concerto to make the angels rejoice in heaven’! (Presto Classical)

Freiburger Barockorchester / Gottfried von der Goltz W.A. MOZART The Last Concertos

This recording is the last of the triptych of CDs that the Freiburger Barockorchester has devoted to Mozart's concertos. His final instrumental work, the Clarinet Concerto, was written just a few months after the last Piano Concerto, No. 27 in 1791. In both cases, the performers have gone back to the original manuscripts to unearth the details of Mozart's own performing practice. If his markings are followed precisely, as here, it is possible to rediscover his fascinating variety of sonic perspectives.

Lorenzo Coppola completed his diploma in Classical clarinet under the guidance of Eric Hoeprich at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Since then he has been one of the most sought-after clarinettists in the field of historical performance practice. He has played with such ensembles as La Petite Bande, Les Arts Florissants, the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Orchestra of the 18th Century and the Freiburger Barockorchester. Lorenzo Coppola also performs chamber repertoire with Ensemble Zefiro, Ensemble Philidor, the Académie Sainte-Cécile, Harmonie Bohémienne and Düsseldorfer Hofmusik.

Undoubtedly one of the most prominent keyboard performers in the world, Andreas Staier embarked upon a solo career in 1986 and, since then, his indisputable musical mastery has made its mark on the interpretation of Baroque, Classical and Romantic repertoire. He has formed a highly successful trio with violinist Daniel Sepec and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras; they have recently recorded their first CD, of Beethoven, for harmonia mundi. His extensive discography has won critical praise from the international press, whether for BMG,Teldec or hm for whom he has released his last five recordings: Mozart's Sonatas in two CDs; Haydn concertos with the Freiburger Barockorchester; Hamburg 1734, with the German harpsichordist Christine Schornsheim; and, more recently, Beethoven's sonatas for violin and piano, with Daniel Sepec performing on Beethoven's own instrument. In February 2007, and again with Christine Schornsheim,Andreas Staier released a cd dedicated to a very special instrument: the Stein 'vis-à-vis’.

Freiburger Barockochester / Petra Müllejans W.A. MOZART Wind Concertos

Light, sprightly, and delightful, the Freiburger Barockochester's disc coupling Mozart's First and Fourth horn concertos with his oboe and bassoon concertos is oodles of fun. Old timers, longing for the mellow tone of Dennis Brain, might object to hornist Teunis van der Zwart's metallic tone, but they certainly couldn't complain about his glorious technique or his vivacious sense of humor, a vital element in Mozart's horn concertos. And old timers might likewise complain that oboist Katharina Arfken's tone is perhaps too lean and bassoonist Donna Agrell's tone is possibly too pungent compared with, say, the warm, round tone of soloists from the Wiener Philharmoniker, but here, too, they surely couldn't protest that they can't play the heck out of the pieces -- and sound like they're having a rollicking good time doing it, too. Backed by the very dry but very colorful and very skillful Freiburger Barockochester under the direction of Petra Müllejans, this disc might not please everyone, but it will thrill anyone with a tolerance for period instruments and an interest in these standard repertoire works. Recorded in 2006 in the Paulus-Saal in Freiburg by Martin Sauer, Harmonia Mundi's digital sound is clean and close, though a smidgen on the loud side in tuttis. (James Leonard)

Freiburger Barockorchester / Gottfried von der Goltz W.A. MOZART Concertante alla Harpa e Flauto

With a few major exceptions, most of Mozart's works are tied to specific situations and locales. That being the case, it's surprising that more recordings haven't been devoted to works he wrote in a certain place and at a certain time. One learns a lot from hearing all his Masonic pieces at one time, for example. And this disc, which offers a slice of Mozart's music from his 1778 visit to Paris, makes a satisfying whole -- and along the way makes a strong case for Mozart's authorship of the disputed Symphonie concertante for flute, oboe, horn, bassoon, and orchestra, K. 297b, presented here in an adaptation by Robert D. Levin of a later and probably spurious version with a clarinet. The symphonie concertante was a genre of French origin, and the example here fits with the rest of the ingratiating, abundantly lyrical, slight but absolutely seductive music Mozart wrote in Paris. The Freiburg Barockorchester and leader Gottfried von der Goltz also offer the two versions of the middle movement of the Symphony No. 31, "Paris", the second provided by Mozart as a replacement after a concert series director protested that the original contained too many modulations. This offers an unusual insight into Mozart's creative processes as he worked to meet the needs of patrons who did not fully understand his music. Check out the delightful Concerto for flute, harp, and orchestra, K. 299, for an example of the basic approach of this period-instrument German group in this music: in place of the high spirits most performers infuse into this concerto, von der Goltz draws on the influence of ballet in Parisian musical life -- a field into which Mozart himself ventured with his curiously titled ballet Les petits riens (The Little Nothings). This is very graceful but rather restrained Mozart. Still, it avoids the cold quality that many Baroque-oriented groups have when performing Mozart, and the program is an unusually worthwhile one.