cpo New Releases March 2017
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Festive Cantatas:
“Ich will dem Herrn lobsingen”,
Einführungsmusik Klefeker 1771, Wq deest / H 821b; „Wer sich rühmen will“,
Einführungsmusik Willerding 1787, Wq deest / H 821o; Monika Mauch, Margot
Oitzinger, Alt, Mirko Ludwig, Giullaume Olry Cantus Thuringia; Capella
Thuringia; Bernhard Klapprott
cpo 777 958-2, 1 CD
Festive Cantatas for the 300th Anniversary of C. P. E. Bach’s Birth The two
festive cantatas heard on this CD were first performed in modern times at the
St. Thomas Church in Leipzig on the occasion of the three hundredth
anniversary of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s birth on 8 March 2014 and recorded
especially for this release. The text of the first cantata is by Christian Wilhelm
Alers, a pastor highly esteemed throughout Northern Germany as an author of
religious texts who quite frequently collaborated with C. P. E. Bach and penned
the text of the magnificent Der Tag des Gerichts set by Telemann during his late
period. Bach’s finely nuanced instrumentation demanding high technical skill
from each and every interpreter reveals both solid compositional
craftsmanship and a sophisticated overall tonal plan. These skills mastered by
Bach during his Berlin period with his contributions to the symphonic genre
represent one of his greatest strengths as a composer, and he was the first to
introduce them to Hamburg’s church music. The instrumentation of this
cantata doubtless secures it a top position among the symphonic works of his
Hamburg years. In the second cantata Bach avails himself of a new tone of folk
and song character and designs the choral parts homophonically throughout.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
Romances (Selection)
The songs are sung in Russian. The booklet includes German and English
translations of the song texts.
Lieder op. 2,1; op. 2,2; op. 2,4;Op. 3,2; op. 3,4; op. 4,4;Op. 7,2; op. 7,3; op. 8,2;
Op. 27,1; op. 39, 1-4; op. 40,1-3;Op. 42,1-4; op. 43,1; op. 43,2;Op. 46,1; op.
46,2; op. 46,5;Op. 51,2-4; op. 55,1
Marina Prudenskaya, mezzo-soprano;Cord Garben, piano
cpo 777 783-2, 1 CD
Russian Song Miniatures
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov assumed a professorship in instrumentation and
composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1871 and was a member of
the young Russian school formed by »The Mighty Handful« along with
Balakirev, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, and Alexander Borodin. He dedicated
a great deal of time and energy to his duties as a teacher.
Nevertheless, he found the time to compose great operas and symphonic
poems. Although his songs are not very frequently performed, his songs with
piano accompaniment or, as the master himself termed them, the »romances,«
account for a substantial share of his overall oeuvre. Rimsky-Korsakov’s song
artistry is first and foremost a musical one. In the miniaturistic formats of his
romances he fundamentally endeavored to interrelate the poetic statement
and vocal interpretation. He was never interested in illuminating the darkest
and innermost corners of psychic labyrinths with the light of his artistry. The
mezzo-soprano Marina Prudenskaya, who was born in St. Petersburg,
interprets our selection of his songs in the original Russian. The booklet
includes German and English translations of the song texts.
Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787)
6 Symphonies op. VII,La Stagione Frankfurt
Michael Schneider
cpo 777 993-2, 1 CD
Abel Symphonies with La Stagione
Not even thirty years separated Carl Friedrich Abel’s Symphonies op. 7 from
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s last three symphonies and the Jupiter finale that
Johann Christian Bach would hail as a »triumph of new musical artistry«
already in 1803. The genre of the symphony had quickly developed into one of
the most magnificent genres for musical statements. What makes Abel’s
symphonies so unique among those of his contemporaries is not their first
movements in what was later known as the »sonata form« or their last
movements, which without exception are formed, usually in rondo structure,
by dances of folk character like fast contredanses and minuets, but rather their
slow middle movements, mostly with the heading »Andante« and frequently
»sempre piano« in dynamics, which speak a new and thoroughly individual
musical language. Here we are referring not primarily to the examples of the
style galant or empfindsamer Stil found in the Symphonies in G major and C
major but to the absolutely »hymnic« movements of song character scored
exclusively for strings like those in the Symphonies in B flat major and F major.
Their almost »proto-Elgarian« tone has what it takes to stir human hearts!
Julius Röntgen (1855-1932)
Symphony No. 9 “The Bitonal”;
Serenade in E major; Symphony No. 21 in A minor
cpo 777 120-2, 1 CD
Julius Röntgen’s Bitonal Symphony
This month our extensive and successful Röntgen edition continues with a new
symphonic production – and with works once again demonstrating that
Röntgen was the most highly imaginative composer in Holland during the
second half of the nineteenth century. During the last year of his life the archromanticist Röntgen experimented with tonality and composed his »bitonal«
Symphony No. 9, which was not published during his lifetime. It remains open
to debate whether the symphony is really bitonal, but at least we can say that
it plays with bitonality. In the first episode (»Lento e
mesto«) the keys are only remotely related. Nowhere do they permit their
contributions to be heard simultaneously. Sometimes the bitonality melts like
snow in the sun. With every gesture a tonal center is in evidence. Now and
again various instrumental groups carefully send on their chords, which have
no intention of coming together or getting too close. In his bitonal masterpiece
Röntgen has his own, honest, »unmodern« language triumph over what in the
end is a somewhat insubstantial play with bitonality. An absolutely rewarding
listening experience! The CD also includes his Symphony No. 21, a work based
on a chromatic, arpeggiated, mainly descending melody of three 6/4 measures,
and a Serenade performed on only one occasion but praised by the critics
above all because of its masterful orchestration.
Niels W. Gade (1817-1890)
Chamber Works Vol. 3: String Octet op. 17 in F major; Unfinished String
Quartet in F major; String Quartet Movement in A minor;
Ensemble MidtVest; The Danish String Quartet
cpo 555 077-2, 1 CD
Gade’s Complex Chamber Music Vol. 3
»We welcome the fact that cpo has now taken up Gade’s chamber music: it is
wonderfully written and does not deserve to disappear into the footnotes of
music history writing. The MidVest Ensemble completely dedicates itself to
Gade and on this perfectly balanced recording performs the works with an
open naturalness displaying his music in a highly favorable light.« This is what
FonoForum wrote in 2016 about Vol. 2 of our Gade recording series based on
the new historical-critical complete edition of his works. The compositional
history of many of these works is long and complicated because Gade often
submitted his earlier works to later revisions. However, the little information
we have about the composition of his Octet enables us to sketch the following
picture: Gade began his work on it at the very latest in early 1848.
Mendelssohn had died on 4 November 1847. In its style, overall form, and in
various details Gade’s octet shares some elements with Mendelssohn’s octet. It
is highly probable that Gade wanted to honor his late friend and colleague in
this work, which prescribes the same instruments as the young Mendelssohn’s
work from 1825.
Alexandre Tansman (1897-1986)
Ballet Music: Sextuor (Ballet-bouffe 1923);
Bric à brac (Ballet en 3 tableaux, 1935)
Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Lukasz Borowicz (Sextuor); Wojciech
Michniewski
cpo 777 987-2, 1 CD
Ballet Music by Alexander Tansman
The stage had fascinated Alexander Tansman ever since his youth. One
example is the music for Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, which was performed at the
Polish Theater in £ódŸ in 1916. Alexandre Arnoux wrote the librettos for the
ballets Sextuor and Bric à brac. The atmosphere of his novella Sextuor recalls E.
T. A. Hoffmann’s romantic narratives. It is the dramatic love story of the
passion shared by a violin and a violoncello for a flute.
The actors are various musical instruments, and Tansman believed that here he
had found ideal material for a ballet. And so it was: the work composed in 1923
was performed with great international success and made the young composer
famous. Although he suffered a great loss when his mother died in 1935,
Tansman found the strength to write a larger theatrical work. The result was
the ballet Bric à brac. The director of the Grand Opéra in Paris wanted this
ballet set between stalls of wood and corrugated iron at a flea market near the
Porte de Clignancourt for a premiere during the 1939/40 season. However, the
outbreak of World War II thwarted these plans. After long negotiations the
work finally premiered on 30 November 1958.
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
The Grand Concertos for mixed instruments Vol. 4:
Concerto TWV 52:c1;Concerto TWV 53:D2; Concerto TWV 54:F1;
Concerto TWV 44:41; Concerto TWV 53:e1La
Stagione Frankfurt; Michael Schneider
cpo 777 892-2, 1 CD
Telemann’s Grand Concertos Vol. 4
The press has registered »stylistically flawless and tonally beautiful
interpretations« and »listening experiences producing a lasting echo.« And the
concertos forming the program on Vol. 4 of our recording of Telemann’s
concertos with mixed solo instruments (»avec plusieurs instruments«) once
again display a high compositional level and Telemann’s often-mentioned
»mixed style« with multifaceted motivic designs and wide-ranging harmonic
developments. The wealth of pithy thematic inventions and the extremely
subtle motivic connections developed in the movements can hardly be
described exhaustively. The short middle movement of the Concerto TWV
44:41 merits special mention and carries through a modulatory process
distinguished by special refinement. Telemann’s creed was: when melodic
invention is exhausted, then one must pursue new harmonic paths. And he was
true to his word: unusual harmonic courses of events in which the
compositional-technical limits are tested or even transgressed are
characteristic of Telemann’s compositional style in all the genres, straight
through to his late oeuvre.