OP x

Quatuor Mosaïques is among the leading original instrument or authentic performance string quartets. Its members were all part of the Concentus Musicus Wien, the pioneer original instruments group associated with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. In 1983 Christoph Coin, the cellist and viola da gamba player of the Concentus Musicus, founded Ensemble Mosaïques, a smaller group, inviting a number of his colleagues from Concentus Musicus to join. In 1985, four members of Ensemble Mosaïques formed the Quatuor Mosaïques, one of the first string quartets devoted to use of period instruments and authentic performance practices.

It is a sad irony of history that Tomaso Albinoni is universally known for a piece he never wrote. The average music lover, prompted by the word “Albinoni”, will normally answer: “Adagio!”. But the exceedingly famous Adagio, played at weddings and funerals, and heard in countless soundtracks, is in fact a fake realized by Italian musicologist Remo Giazotto in the twentieth century. Still, the fake Adagio has the undeniable merit of having attracted global attention on the figure of this Venetian baroque composer, who fully deserves to be numbered among the greatest musicians of his era. And this claim is not unsupported: we may in fact assume that a composer whose works were adopted as models by Johann Sebastian Bach had something to say. Bach in fact employed themes excerpted from Albinoni’s Opera I and built some of his finest Fugues on them; moreover, he also proposed Albinoni’s music to his students as a compositional model. In fact, we have Bach’s handwritten corrections on a pupil’s realization of the continuo part of an Albinoni Sonata.

A new recording of two major Reger cycles, by a fast-emerging British piano talent.

This new recording presents two pianistic masterworks by Max Reger: the Bach Variations Op. 81 and the cycle Traume am Kamin. Max Reger (1873-1916), hailed as "the last giant in music" by composer Paul Hindemith, occupies a commanding position in the late Romantic and early 2th-century German musical landscape. Reger's musical legacy marks a distinct bridge between the 19th-century Romantic tradition and the burgeoning complexities of the 2th century. Reger's music is defined by dense textures, chromatic harmonies, and meticulous contrapuntal craftsmanship. His compositions, characterized by a demanding technical prowess, require performers and listeners to engage intellectually.

A new recording of two major Reger cycles, by a fast-emerging British piano talent.

This new recording presents two pianistic masterworks by Max Reger: the Bach Variations Op. 81 and the cycle Traume am Kamin. Max Reger (1873-1916), hailed as "the last giant in music" by composer Paul Hindemith, occupies a commanding position in the late Romantic and early 2th-century German musical landscape. Reger's musical legacy marks a distinct bridge between the 19th-century Romantic tradition and the burgeoning complexities of the 2th century. Reger's music is defined by dense textures, chromatic harmonies, and meticulous contrapuntal craftsmanship. His compositions, characterized by a demanding technical prowess, require performers and listeners to engage intellectually.

Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart was the youngest of six children born to Wolfgang Amadeus and his wife Constanze. Franz Xaver’s style was early Romantic, with compositions that were highly regarded by his contemporaries Schubert and Schumann. The Polonaise mélancolique was an ideal medium for Franz Xaver’s expressive melodies, and with some pieces anticipating Chopin, the Op. 17 collection forms a satisfying and substantial cycle. All of these works helped to establish Franz Xaver Mozart throughout Europe as a formidable concert pianist and composer.