Kremer Harnoncourt

Filmed in Vienna's Grosser Musikvereinssaal in the early 1980s, this fabled rendering of Mozart's complete violin concertos appears on DVD for the first time. Premier violinist Gidon Kremer unites with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Wiener Philharmoniker in a tribute to the musical genius Harnoncourt deems "the most Romantic composer of all".

Gidon Kremer and Harnoncourt imbue the Violin Concerto with intellectual strength and Romantic warmth.

Gidon Kremer offers one of his most commanding performances, both polished and full of flair, magnetically spontaneous from first to last. Rarely do you hear such consistently pure tone in this work and the orchestral writing too is superbly realised. It has become customary to treat the long first movement as expansively as possible but Kremer takes a more urgent view, and after his thoughtful and dedicated, slightly understated reading of the slow movement, he and Harnoncourt round the performance off magically with a finale that skips along the more infectiously thanks to light, clean articulation and textures. Traditional performances seem heavyweight by comparison.

One of the great violinists of our day, Gidon Kremer is someone I always want to hear. I am not so sure about his chamber orchestra however. One might say he leads and they follow. There is punctuality and alertness, and the set is not without moments when you feel everyone is listening to each other and involved in an integrated endeavour. Yet moments they are, unsustained, and the all-purpose vigour predominating in the outer movements, contrasted with a vaguely songful quality in the middle ones, leaves me longing for more subtlety and range.

Gidon Kremer's technical brilliance, inward but passionate playing, and commitment to both new works and new interpretations of old works have made him one of the most respected violinists in the world today.

Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer's 2000 release Eight Seasons is a conceptual masterwork. Kremer, long known for his skillful interpretations of Astor Piazzolla's Argentinean tangos, had the brilliant idea of matching four of the Latin master's tone poems of the seasons in his native Buenos Aires with Antonio Vivaldi's conceptually similar masterpiece "The Four Seasons," alternating seasons between the two works. Besides the conceptual perfection of the idea, the performances are exquisite. Kremer and his conservatory orchestra, the Kremerata Baltica, do a particularly masterful job with the Vivaldi, avoiding the ornate bloat that affects so many recordings of this work. Their performances are brisk and to-the-point, with bright tempos that add a vitality not often found in this rather shopworn old standard. As always, Kremer's solos in the Piazzolla works are absolutely superb, with the dramatic flourishes of the massed string section providing startling counterpoint, especially on the breathtaking "Verano Porteno". Eight Seasons is a truly remarkable work by an underrated performer.

This recording of one of Beethoven's most melodious scores has been a favorite of mine since it first appeared in vinyl many years ago. It has long been superseded in popularity perhaps even critical acclaim by Kremer's later, grander, more conventional effort with Harnoncourt conducting on Teldec. Philips, to my knowledge, never saw fit to re-issue it on CD; it is now beind done so, under license by Arkiv, though preserving the Philips artwork but not the notes. The sound retains the warmth and clarity of the original, bright early-digital recording.

This generous coupling of Brahms’s two concertos for stringed instruments has become relatively common in the age of CD thanks to compilations like the Philips disc of Szeryng and Starker‚ analogue recordings dating from the early 1970s. Modern digital recordings expressly designed for issue in coupling are much rarer‚ the Teldec issue of Kremer and Clemens Hagen being the most notable one.

The classic music station Catalonia Música celebrates its 30th anniversary. This 3CD edition brings together thirty years of history, not only of the station but also of other musical events that have taken place over these years, as well as news from other areas, which have as much to do with the art as with everyday life. As a musical memory, it offers a collage of headlines that summarizes three decades: each record includes ten years: from May 10, 1987 to May 10, 2017. The listener will travel through more than thirty large-format recordings. historical value, accompanied by some of the most reputable interpreters and directors: Pablo Casals, José Cura, Joyce DiDonato, Angela Gheorghiu, Henryk Gorecki, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Herbert von Karajan, Rafael Kubelik, Alicia de Larrocha, Sir Neville Marriner, Yehudi Menuhin, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Riccardo Muti, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Mstislav Rostropovich, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Mark Turner, among others.