Anton Bagatov

The two concertos are distinguished by their classical musical language rich in ideas and their colorful instrumentation. Eberl's music radiates with a lightness similar to that of Mozart, which is why the later confusion about the authorship of their works comes as no surprise. The piano part has a glistening and brilliant sound, while the orchestra forms a richly instrumented accompaniment. The melodic invention and harmonic structure are of timeless beauty. " This is what klassik. Com wrote of the Vol. 1 featuring the piano concertos of Anton Eberl. Vol. 2 with his Concerto for Two Pianos op. 45, a work highly esteemed by his contemporaries, has a stylistic design adhering to the ideals of Viennese classicism and stands out for it's multifaceted instrumentation.

…but an interesting contrast is the other large-scale effort in the list—Rubinstein’s 2nd symphony (‘Ocean’). It’s significantly longer than ‘A Sea Symphony,’ but manages to avoid any feeling of excess. It moves purposefully, it isn’t carrying the baggage of verse, and it’s divided into seven individual movements, none of which are too big to be easily comprehended. Tuneful, dramatic, accessible, a delight from the first note to the last, it’s filled with musical devices which would be commandeered by film composers decades hence and I think Rubinstein deserves credit for a form of originality that scarcely anyone in his own day could have even recognized.

The Symphony No. 3 in A major Op. 56 (1855) makes a useful introduction to Anton Rubinstein's complete set of six. It's less inflated and rhetorical than its siblings, having a directness to its thematic material that's immediately appealing. And because No. 3 is abstract in content, and therefore far less reliant on descriptive effect than Rubinstein's later programmatic symphonies, the orchestration is more conservative–just pairs of woodwinds, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings.

Few Russian musicians in the second half of the nineteenth century could match the eminence of Anton Rubinstein. As a piano virtuoso he was internationally admired, as a progressive educator he had profound influence, and as a composer he was both significant and successful. The Symphony No. 6 in A minor, Op. 111 was his last symphony, composed in 1866, and fully revealing those qualities of grace and energy, as well as clever scoring, that make his works so appealing.

We remember Anton RUBINSTEIN as an outstanding pianist who rivalled, and even outshone, Liszt. He gave his first public concert when aged 10 and toured Scandinavia, Austria, Germany, London and Paris as a child virtuoso…
Symphony No. 1 in F Major is a charming and well-crafted work, written at a time when Rubinstein was in St Petersburg, being supported by the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, sister-in-law of the Tsar. The work has strong influences of Mendelssohn (who died three years previously) with a clear framework, memorable themes and dynamic rhythms. This symphony combines technical skill with romantic charm.

Anton Rubinstein was one of the towering figures of nineteenth-century music, a great piano virtuoso, conductor and influential teacher. The fifth of his six Symphonies is thoroughly Russian in its melodies, and is often compared to his student Tchaikovsky's First Symphony. The overture to Rubinstein's first opera Dmitry Donsky is based on a similarly national Russian theme, while Faust, written in Leipzig in 1854, is the sole surviving movement of an abandoned Faust symphony.

If you want to play games with your music-loving friends, put on this recording of the Octet and tell them it's a newly discovered work by Beethoven. Eventually they may catch on, but maybe not. Although Reicha's development is a bit more discursive than Beethoven's, the quality of this piece is amazingly high. The Quintet is on a smaller scale and a little more lightweight, but it's still a fine piece. For lovers of music in the late-classical style, this disc is a real find, and the Ensemble Carl Stamitz performs with a proper sense of its worth. A real sleeper.