Ludwig Schupmann

As a matter of fact, this is your parents' Schubert lieder recital. Back in the '60s, when you were up in your bedroom listening the Beatles on your portable record player, your mom and dad were downstairs listening to Christa Ludwig on the console housed in the hutch. And while they wished you'd turn your music down, you wished they'd turn down their music down.

Recorded live in 1983, Alfred Brendel's third go-round with these works drastically improves on his previous Beethoven concerto cycles. He finds a calmer, more direct route to the Emperor Concerto, although the Fourth's first movement is still pock-marked with finicky phrase adjustments that pull focus from the music's poetic arcs. Levine provides sympathetic and alert support, yet is much more than a mere deferential accompanist.

Christa Ludwig was a German dramatic mezzo-soprano, distinguished for her performances of opera, Lieder, oratorio, and other major religious works like masses and passions, and solos contained in symphonic literature. Her career spanned from the late 1940s until the early 1990s. She is widely recognised as one of the most significant and distinguished singers of the 20th century.

Like Mozart, Brahms was a bit uncomfortable writing string quartets, where the desire to maintain an absolutely democratic discourse among the participants often led to overly dense textures and rhythmic heaviness. The extra viola part offered by the quintet medium, however, allowed both composers to relax a bit and write music with the richness of texture they both loved, without forcing. These two works really don't seem to get the attention that they deserve, either on recordings or in concert, but they are both vintage Brahms. Fortunately, Naxos seems to be dedicated to a complete survey of the chamber music of the great composers, and they are working with a very fine stable of artists.

Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679–1745) is one of the most enigmatic figures in the history of Baroque music. Very little is known of his early years, where he studied and who taught him. Born in a village to the south of Prague, he later travelled to Dresden where he joined the court of the Elector of Saxony, Friedrich August I. His position at the court was a lowly one, but he nonetheless composed many works there and his output of church music was particularly prolific.

Christa Ludwig was a German dramatic mezzo-soprano, distinguished for her performances of opera, Lieder, oratorio, and other major religious works like masses and passions, and solos contained in symphonic literature. Her career spanned from the late 1940s until the early 1990s. She is widely recognised as one of the most significant and distinguished singers of the 20th century.

All of Fasch's music that I've heard is extremely attractive and pleasurable to listen to without being shallow. Many have said that he sounds similar to Telemann. I disagree. His harmonies are richer and more masculine without sounding plodding, and he has an excellent command of melody. He uses the woodwinds in these suites very cleverly, inserting very rich sounding interjections between the tutti sections. The suite for double orchestra is a wonderful example of his lushness of sound.