Siesta Ensemble & Ovidio Gimenez Bassoon Delights

Ensemble Blumina - Previn / Francaix / Poulenc: Trios for oboe, bassoon and piano
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 177 MB | Full Artwork: 108 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Scene" # 903 1827-6 | Country/Year: Germany 2013
Genre: Classical | Style: Early 20th Century, Contemporary

"The first thing to say about this splendid new CD from MDG is that the sound quality is quite simply stunning. My usual prerequisite for any recording is to feel that I am in the same room as the performers. This present disc makes me think I am sitting amongst the trio. Every detail, every nuance, of these three intricate works is crystal clear. That is before I consider the stunning playing by the Ensemble Blumina. (…) This is a recording to treasure." ~musicweb-international

Hindemith's writing combines the great contrapuntal sense of Bach with a mastery of modern harmony. These three pieces, with very unusual instrumental combinations, showcase some of his best writing with a fantastic performance from a world class ensemble.

Bohuslav Martinu - Ensemble Villa Musica - Chamber Music
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 248 MB | Full Artwork: 88 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Gold" # 304 0774-3 | Country/Year: Germany 1998
Genre: Classical | Style: Early 20th Century

…Ensemble Villa Musica was founded in 1990 when a group of principal players from several of Germany's major orchestras assembled for master classes in Mainz under the state-sponsored Villa Musica foundation. The players decided to form the group with no limitations in repertory, but with a focus on neglected masterworks of the past. Most of the members retained their posts in orchestras and/or on the faculties of universities or music schools. The ensemble's leader since its founding has been clarinetist Ulf Rodenhäuser…

Born in 1994, bassoonist Mathis Stier not only won second prize at the 2019 ARD Competition, but was also awarded the coveted Audience Prize. Mathis Stier has a natural affinity with the music of the 18th century and the three works which he has chosen for his ALPHA debut demonstrate its principal characteristics: Baroque, Empfindsamkeit / Sturm und Drang and Viennese Classicism. The composers J.S. Bach, Johann Wilhelm Hertel and W.A. Mozart represent three generations: father, son and grandson. The conventions of each previous generation are questioned, musical boundaries are broken down and new paths are taken, until the generational revolt finds its way back to more conventional channels. This is how Mathis Stier describes the phenomenon: "Musically, the Mozart Concerto represents the classical bassoon and is probably the best-known work in the original literature. Hertel's concerto, on the other hand, is unusual and fairly unknown even among bassoonists. It deserves to be more widely known, however, because it is an exceedingly remarkable and idiosyncratic piece.

Bohuslav Martinu - Ensemble Villa Musica - Chamber Music
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 248 MB | Full Artwork: 88 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Gold" # 304 0774-3 | Country/Year: Germany 1998
Genre: Classical | Style: Early 20th Century

…Ensemble Villa Musica was founded in 1990 when a group of principal players from several of Germany's major orchestras assembled for master classes in Mainz under the state-sponsored Villa Musica foundation. The players decided to form the group with no limitations in repertory, but with a focus on neglected masterworks of the past. Most of the members retained their posts in orchestras and/or on the faculties of universities or music schools. The ensemble's leader since its founding has been clarinetist Ulf Rodenhäuser…

Ferdinand Ries must have made a strong impression as a pianist. Beethoven, a gifted pianist in his own right, even entrusted the premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 3 to Ries. The two had known each other since their days together in Bonn, when Riess parents took the half-orphan Ludwig into their family. Ries was Beethovens right-hand man in Vienna, and what he learned from his great model, who was fourteen years his senior, is impressively demonstrated by the Franz Ensemble on its debut album: brilliant virtuosity meets Classical form, and tradition appears in new guise for a very special anticipation of the 250th anniversary of Beethovens birth!