Zemlinsky Eschenbach

All things Mozart have been said and done, you’d think. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. On a daily basis new findings are added to the research portfolio, not only with regards to the famous Salzburgian’s life – hasn’t that been dissected to death? – but also about each and every one of his compositions, continuously getting reframed, analyzed and compared. The exegesis of the Mozartverse is a full-time job to many. The works on this recording alone raise a bunch of questions of which several remain unanswered.

The three works by Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky that Christoph Eschenbach and the Philadelphia Orchestra perform on this Ondine twofer are usually found as filler pieces on other albums, often coupled with one or another of the symphonies or concertos, so this combination is a bit out of the ordinary. The fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet and the symphonic fantasy Francesca da Rimini are often paired and work fairly well together because of the similarity of their stormy Romantic music and tragic subjects, even though Romeo and Juliet is plainly the superior piece of the two. But the Serenade for strings is possibly Tchaikovsky's most Classically balanced work, and it stands in stark contrast to the other selections for its cool beauty and elegance.

It's the late Vier ernste Gesänge, Op. 121, that get the big print on the cover of this release by the awe-inspiring baritone Matthias Goerne, but actually the music on the album falls into a neat early-middle-late classification scheme. The group of middle-period settings of poetry by Heinrich Heine doesn't even get graphics on the cover, but these are fascinating. Brahms wrote a lot of songs, but you couldn't do better than the selection and performances here for a cornerstone collection item. Beyond the sheer beauty of Goerne's voice is an ability to shift gears to match how Brahms' style evolved. If you want to hear his real slashing, operatic high notes, check out the Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 32, settings of poems by the minor poets Georg Friedrich Daumer and Karl August Graf von Platen. These rather overwrought texts add up to a kind of slimmed-down Winterreise, and they catch the spirit of the still-young Brahms with his strong passions, elegantly controlled. The Heine settings, which come from several different sets of lieder, are not that often heard and are in some ways the most compelling of the group here.

This Albert Roussel disc couples the Second Symphony with one of the composer's most popular pieces, the complete ballet music for Bacchus et Ariane. It is the first in a cycle of three releases featuring the four symphonies and two ballets by the French composer, performed by the Orchestre de Paris and Christoph Eschenbach.

200 years ago, on May 26th 1821, today's Berlin Concert Hall was inaugurated as “Königliches Schauspielhaus”. Destroyed as “Preußisches Staatstheater” during World War II, the building, located in eastern Berlin, was rebuilt during GDR times and reopened as “Konzerthaus” in 1984. The premiere of Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz on June 18th 1821 was a highlight of the opening year. The work became his most popular opera and one of the key works of the 19th century. A few days later, the composer (who died at the age of only 40 in 1826), had another piece premiered at the “Königliches Schauspielhaus”: his brilliant Concert Piece for Piano and Orchestra op.79.