Freiburger Barockorchester / Gottfried von der Goltz MOZART Youth Symphonies

It is true that images have the power to keep a trace of the past. Gottfried von der Goltz and the Freiburger Barockorchestra prove with this recording that music too conceals the secret of the memory deep within. Though rarely played, much less recorded, Mozart’s youth symphonies bear the reminiscence of the child the composer used to be, as well as including the seeds of his future masterpieces.

With this album The Freiburger Barockorchester fulfil the portrait of the brilliant composer, whose influences lie in these symphonies and contredanses, as well as his musical tastes: from the G minor tonality that we hear in the Symphony K. 22 to the aria Non piu andrai that can be heard in the first Contredanse - the music of the young Mozart echoes to the elder.

Conducted by Gottfried von der Goltz, expert of the repertoire, the orchestra offers a genuine performance and interpretation, delivering the last piece of the Mozart puzzle.

Gottfried von der Goltz TELEMANN Frankfurt Sonatas

Gottfried von der Goltz, first violin and conductor of the first-rate Freiburger Barockorchester comes back with a new album dedicated to the violin sonatas of a young - and already brilliant - Telemann. Rarely recorded, these works show a very surprising form as they allow the musician total freedom of expression and ornamentation. These features demonstrate also the unique creative inventiveness already in germ in Telemann’s music.

Telemann, a deep connoisseur of French an Italian tastes, puts a great delicacy in these sonatas (Francfort, 1715) as he deploys a quite outstanding melodic line and announces the galant style to come. With this release, Gottfried von der Goltz stands as an expert in Telemann as he provides an interpretation that reflects the main features of his works: vibrant and subtle.

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!

Gottfried von der Goltz JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Sonatas & Partitas

The Konzertmeister of the Freiburger Barockorchester, Gottfried von der Goltz, finally records the masterpiece of the repertoire for solo violin: Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas.

Nicolas Bartholomée’s sound recording conveys the authentic and powerfull interpretation of violinist Gottfried von der Goltz, the specialist of baroque repertoire. Each intention of his play, which was long matured and constantly serves the message of Bach, is faithfully highlighted.

A new version, incredibly human of this musical monument!

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 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.

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Ed Spanjaard / Christianne Stotijn MICHEL VAN DER AA Spaces of Blank - Mask - Imprint

The three works on this first CD by Disquiet Media, composer, film-maker and director Michel van der Aa’s own multimedia label, together constitute a stylistic cross-section of a genre that, with its refined musical expression of conceptual first principles, has quickly gained ground both nationally and internationally. They demonstrate the scope of a vision of ‘music about music’, in which as an object of study the human being, musician or not, is just as important as musical ideas. When Van der Aa says he is not a composer of notes, he means he is not only concerned with the creative dialogue with forms and musical languages but also with the theatrical aspects of music-making, perceived with the detachment of the principled outsider who constantly asks himself what and how he sees and hears.

His attention is directed primarily to the physical and social facets of music-making: producing sound, the musician as a recreative individual, relationships between musicians, ensemble structure and the interpretative ritual per se, which in his case consistently assumes theatrical forms because human beings form the active centre point. No less essential are the aural and visual perceptions of the listener, with whom the composer plays a peculiarly serious cat-and-mouse game. Van der Aa imperceptibly transforms acoustic sounds into electronic ones, or manipulates them beyond recognition by electronic means, thus creating a sound universe that arouses a permanent state of wonder: what am I hearing, what is meant by this?

As in One, the opera After Life and The Book of Disquiet centre on characters that, thrown upon themselves, are faced with the question who they are and how they relate to their world. It is probably clear by now that only a blurred distinction exists between Van der Aa’s concert and theatre music. The solitary soprano in Here [in circles] and Here [to be found] struggles on the concert podium with the same issues as the protagonist in One: whither, wherefore? Despite their thematic material, the same holds true for the three works on this CD. Imprint, for Baroque orchestra, is seemingly the most musicianly, the ensemble piece Mask as an essay about the relationship between form and sound the most conceptual, and the song cycle Space of Blank the most dramatic, but the common denominators stand out. They deal with the lone wolf and his relationship – or absence of it – to his biotope. (Bas van Putten)