2 Cellos

Bereits das erste Album von Reinhard Goebels Aufnahmeprojekt "Beethovens Welt" mit Violinkonzerten von Franz Clement (1780-1842) erhielt große Beachtung und exzellente Rezensionen weltweit. Die Welt am Sonntag widmete dem Komponisten sogar zwei Seiten als herausragende Entdeckung und urteilte abschließend: "Wenn die Entdeckung Beethoven-Zeitgenossen, die sich gerade Goebel fürs Beethoven-Jahr auf die Fahnen geschrieben hat, so weitergeht, wird es ein feines Jahr." Auch SWR2 lobte das Projekt: "Reinhard Goebel verspricht nach diesen beiden Violinkonzerten von Clement noch weitere spannende Erkundungen aus Beethovens Welt."

“Archangels” for eight cellos. It begins with several of the cellos playing a scratchy, jumpy rhythmic riff; their lines hovering above, other instruments slide around, making spectral sounds. The music evolves into thick, shifting clouds, like celestial wailing. A second movement seems like a cosmic dance in which a four-squared pulse is constantly broken up by syncopations.

Vivaldi wrote an astonishing 500 concertos during his lifetime, of which 27 were composed for solo cello. At the time, the instrument was in its infancy, and it was unusual for great composers to write works specifically for solo cello. Indeed, none of the concertos were published during Vivaldi’s lifetime: they had been written specially for his young female students at the Ospedale della Pietà, where the composer was employed in Venice, and were therefore not widely known. However, Vivaldi clearly saw the potential in the new instrument, otherwise he would not have gone on to write so much material for it; after the violin and bassoon, it is his third most popular solo concerto instrument.

The miracle is not that each succeeding disc of Vivaldi concertos by Europa Galante led by Fabio Biondi is as brilliant as the preceding discs. The miracle is not that for each succeeding disc that Biondi finds more first-rate Vivaldi concertos. The miracle is that, with so many gracefully charming, elegantly witty, and delightfully diverse concertos to chose from, that only Vivaldi's Four Seasons have become the musical wallpaper of elevators and airlines throughout the world.