Airboss II (1998)

Siegbert Rampe is a master of baroque style and of Froberger's in particular. This wonderful composer's music benefits greatly from a player's insight and sensitivity, and it gets these in full measure in this set. Rampe uses an agreeably cosmopolitan variety of harpsichords here, the lion's share being played on three beautiful instruments by Ruckers of Antwerp, Miklis of Prague and Bergaños of Spain.

The four Mozart flute quartets make up a nicely tidy CD, and the Nash Ensemble's neat and pointed playing make it an enjoyable one too. Philippa Davies is a pleasure to listen to, clean and unusually even in tone, a tone which is round and full but not in the least watery; lively and rhythmic in her articulation. And the string players give firm, indeed sturdy support.

Jeno Jando hasn't recorded Haydn's Sonatas in numerical order, so Volume 8 brings us a group of relatively early works. These pieces don't have the personality or inventiveness of Haydn's late Sonatas, but they do have charm and grace and a few ideas of their own. They aren't the pieces to start off your Haydn Sonata collection with, but when you do get to them you will find them most pleasant companions. Although Jando seems to be recording the entire classical period literature for Naxos, he takes an individual approach to each of these works and plays them with plenty of personality, never trying to bring more to the music than it contains. The performances and finely- recorded sound are very satisfying.

Originally two separate albums recorded in the late days of stereo LPs, this two-disc set of Bach's works for harpsichord was released together for less than the price of a single LP. But even at twice the price of the original LPs, these performances would be worth purchasing for two reasons. First, the harpsichordist is Gustav Leonhardt, and while there are surely more virtuosic harpsichordists in the world, there are few finer musicians and fewer still finer souls.

Vivaldi's many cello concertos are performed here with consummate taste and superb musicality by Roel Dieltiens and the Ensemble Explorations. Dieltiens plays with a rich tone and a light touch and his robust virtuosity and enthusiastic sympathy for the music are irresistible. The seven members of the Ensemble Explorations – five strings plus lute or guitar and organ or harpsichord – play with a sense of cooperation, which leaves this music sounding as concertos from the period should, which is to say more like chamber music.

Johann David Heinichen - Dresden Wind Concertos
Fiori Musicali / Thomas Albert
EAC+LOG+CUE | WV: 272 MB | Full Artwork: 62 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: CPO # 999 637-2 | Country/Year: Germany 1998
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque

"A few years ago, the name of Johann David Heinichen came out of the blue as a wonderful surprise. Baroque music lovers around the world were amazed to discover an obscure composer who, in his best works, was second to none–easily comparable to Vivaldi in terms of originality, rhythmic exuberance, and boundless imagination. (…) The Fiori Musicali ensemble, on period instruments, plays with enthusiasm and poetic commitment. The virtuosity may not be as extreme as that of Concerto Köln, but each performance reaches a perfect balance between expressive ardor and precision–a quality mirrored by the accurate and natural sonics of the Radio Bremen engineers." ~classicstoday

Alongside Willie Mae Ford Smith, Sister Rosetta Tharpe is widely acclaimed among the greatest Sanctified gospel singers of her generation; a flamboyant performer whose music often flirted with the blues and swing, she was also one of the most controversial talents of her day, shocking purists with her leap into the secular market – by playing nightclubs and theaters, she not only pushed spiritual music into the mainstream, but in the process also helped pioneer the rise of pop-gospel…

Five Piano Concertos and the Piano Sonata No. 32, opus 111, recorded in stereo in 1962 and 1964, respectively, by Wilhelm Kempff [1895-1991] and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Ferdinand Leitner [1912-96]. The sonata, the composer’s last, is certainly more than a mere filler, from the opening hesitancy of the ‘Allegro con brio ed appassionato’ to the extended closing section of the second movement.