Commonwealth Boomerang (skrzydå‚a w Miniaturze 24)

Lennart Smidt is a pianist, composer, improviser, producer based in Berlin.

Lennart Smidt is a pianist, composer, improviser, producer based in Berlin.

Franz Xaver Mozart, who studied with Salieri and Hummel, was a composer-pianist like his father, Wolfgang Amadeus, but inevitably laboured under the weight of huge expectation.

Franz Xaver Mozart, who studied with Salieri and Hummel, was a composer-pianist like his father, Wolfgang Amadeus, but inevitably laboured under the weight of huge expectation.

Symphony No. 8 in E-Flat Major, symphony by Gustav Mahler, known as “Symphony of a Thousand” for the great number of performers required, vastly more than were needed for any other symphony to that time.

This album is a late recording by the legendary Thomas Beecham. Much like some of his contemporaries (such as John Barbirolli), Beecham enjoyed composing witty pastiches and transcribing the old masters.

Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir a cappella is one of the repertoire’s most widely performed monuments, and Valentin Villard’s Mass for six voices could well follow in its footsteps.

This tenth volume of violin concertos marks the return of Julien Chauvin and his Concert de la Loge to the Vivaldi Edition, with works linked to Pisendel, a major musical figure in the court of Dresden in the 18th century. Julien Chauvin and his Concert de la Loge released a hugely successful volume of Vivaldi concertos with a theatrical theme in 2020.

Chamber music was a crucial element in Enescu’s output and these two works, separated by seven years, represent very different phases of his compositional development. The large-scale Piano Quartet No. 1 marks the climax of his early maturity. The Piano Trio in A minor, however, was unknown until 1965 and represents a more transitional stage – a compact but intricately expressive work with an animated and compelling sequence of variations at its heart.