Resound Beethoven

The Orchester Wiener Akademie and its conductor Martin Haselböck continue their RESOUND Beethoven series. The aim of this project is to record the complete Beethoven symphonies on period instruments in the venues where they were first performed, scrupulously respecting the layout of the orchestra 200 years ago, and also that of the chorus, which at that time was positioned in front of the orchestra.

The Orchester Wiener Akademie and its conductor Martin Haselböck continue the Resound Beethoven series, performed on period instruments and scrupulously respecting the orchestral layout of 200 years ago. Volume 7 is devoted to the Fourth Symphony, and the Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major Op. 58, first performed in 1807. The recording took place in the Palais Lobkowitz in Vienna, in the venue of their premiere in March 1807. The concerto is performed by the Austrian pianist Gottlieb Wallisch, who was also performing on the previous volume.

Theatre Music - the dialogue in the service of great poetry - is the focus of this recording. We have already been able to perform Egmont with several renowned actors. That the part of the narrator is here taken by Herbert Föttinger, currently the director of the theatre for which Beethoven himself wrote music, is beautifully fitting. Christopher Hampton has modeled the combined texts of Goethe and Grillparzer into his poetic English translation. It fills us with great joy and gratitude that John Malkovich - with whom we have already had the pleasure of collaborating for several years - has taken on the part of the narrator in the English version.

The Orchester Wiener Akademie and its conductor Martin Haselböck continue their Resound Beethoven series. The aim of this series is to record the complete Beethoven symphonies on period instruments in the venues where they were first performed, scrupulously respecting the layout of the orchestra used 200 years ago. Volume 4 is devoted to the Symphony No. 3, “Eroica” and the Septet op.20. The recording took place in May 2016 in the Eroica Saal at the Palais Lobkowitz, where each symphony was premiered in 1804 and 1807, in private performances.

Now regarded as one of the greatest violin concertos of the nineteenth century, Beethoven’s Concerto in D major did not enjoy the success it deserved during the composer’s lifetime. It was not until almost forty years later, with the rediscovery of the work by Felix Mendelssohn and the exceptional virtuoso Joseph Joachim, that it was finally recognised as a masterpiece. An admirer of Beethoven, Franz Liszt, who made many fine transcriptions of other composers’ music during his career, orchestrated the Andante cantabile from the “Archduke” Trio, which he incorporated into a Cantata for the inauguration of the Beethoven Monument in Bonn. In recording these superb pieces, the Orchester Wiener Akademie and Martin Haselböck continue their “Resound” adventure in the company of violinist Benjamin Schmid.

The Pacifica Quartet address the more intimate side of Dimitri Shostakovich, particularly his quartets composed in the fateful years in the Soviet Union, 1952-1960. In 1948, Shostakovich, along with Prokofiev and Miaskovsky, had been excoriated as “formalists” incapable of direct communication with “the people.” Shostakovich, however, employed the string quartet medium as means of personal expression relatively unhampered by “political correctness.”……

Gary Lemco @ Audiophile Audition

Not one person in a hundred knows how to be silent and listen, no, nor even to conceive what such a thing means. Yes, only then can you detect, beyond the fatuous clamour, the silence of which the universe is made.–Samuel Beckett, Molloy