My Jan Vogler

The ‘Prelude’ here is again a song arrangement – ‘Songs my mother taught me’, in which ( joined by the pianist Juho Pohjonen) Vogler pours out smooth, warm tone with unindulgent restraint…The focus, however, is on two of Dvořák’s great chamber works, in performances that conjure up the spirit of the Moritzburg Festival, where Vogler is director.

The survival of classical music may hinge on its ability to appear prominently outside the standard venues of concert halls and recording studios, thereby reaching a much larger audience of listeners who might otherwise never be treated to the masterworks of the canonical repertoire. New York-based ensemble the Knights seeks to do that by coupling its impressively broad repertoire (ranging from classical to jazz to world music) with a desire to play in locations where one might not expect to see an orchestra.

Berlin Classics' 2000 recording of Jan Vogler performing Haydn's cello concertos with Ludwig Güttler and the Virtuosi Saxoniae was first released in 2001 and reappeared in 2009 with a different cover and a lower price, but otherwise unchanged. Vogler's performances are bright and alert, with vivacious allegros and soulful adagios; Güttler's accompaniments are sweet and simpatico; the Virtuosi Saxoniae players live up to their name, and Berlin Classics' digital sound is clear, yet evocative.

If you're someone who enjoys eating dessert first – or for that matter just eating dessert and skipping the rest of the meal – then this album is likely to satisfy you. Jan Vogler's admittedly highly personal selection of short works for cello and chamber orchestra is filled with many of the syrupy, sometimes saccharin standards of the cello repertoire.

These head notes take some explaining. Leave Me Alone is presented twice: the original song, sung by Angelika Kirchschlager, plus a version for cello and piano played by Jan Vogler. In the op. 55 Gypsy Songs, she sings Nos. 2, 5, and 6, while he plays the other four. Ms Kirchschlager sings both Stephen Foster ballads; Wilt Thou Be Gone, Love? includes a cello solo, as well. Pianist Helmut Deutsch accompanies it all.

Having received all major recording industry prizes of the world many times, as well as the Siemens Special Prize, the Buxtehude Prize of the City of Lübeck and the Special Prize of North-Rhine Westphalia, Goebel has still remained the leading outsider in the area of “Early Music” – always looking for new acoustic worlds, shocking new ways of interpreting standard repertoire and uncomfortable programs far off the beaten track of “top-40 classic programming”. Reinhard Goebel began studying violin at the age of 12. He became interested exclusively in “Early Music” at a young age, but was forced to proceed through a classic- modern program of study by the German conservatory system.