With his Third Symphony, Sibelius began a process of innovation that was to culminate in his Seventh and final symphony. He discarded the conventional structure of a symphony, and into each work condensed a unique aura that evokes beauty, mystery, colour and light together with his love of his Finnish homeland.
Following the two volumes of the Guide des Instruments, RICERCAR goes further into the knowledge of several instruments and their specific repertoire. It was in 1817 that the instrument maker Halary invented this instrument whose low register prefigures the tuba. Integrated into the orchestra by Berlioz, the ophicleide was also used in church to accompany the plainchant and quite present in military bands. But it also benefitted from a solo repertoire in the concerto genre as well as in chamber music. Patrick Wibart impresses with his total mastery of the instrument and the flexibility of his playing. To be discovered imperatively.
The fifth CD boxed set, Vol. V, from the series The RIAS Amadeus Quartet Recordings is dedicated to nineteenth-century Romantic composers. This six-volume edition presents exclusively first releases on CD. The Amadeus Quartet included a wider repertoire in the broadcasting studio than in the recording studio. Works by Edvard Grieg and Robert Schumann interpreted by the Amadeus Quartet can be heard here for the first time on CD. And five works in this edition represent novel repertoire that the Amadeus Quartet never recorded on LP: Dvorák's Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81, Grieg's String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 27, Mendelssohn's String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 12, as well as Schumann's String Quartet in A Major, Op. 41, No. 3 and Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 44.
The story of how Mozart fell in love with the young singer Aloysia Weber, was dumped, and then married her younger sister Constanze is well known. The fact that a third sister, Josepha, figured in Mozart's career (and that the youngest sister, Sophia, remembered Mozart from her childhood) is less commonly appreciated. French soprano Sabine Devieilhe steps into the roles of Aloysia, Constanze, and Josepha here, making clear that all three must have been among the strongest sopranos of their time. She doesn't really try to differentiate among the voices of the three (which are at any rate unknowable), but all of them got powerhouse arias.