Bach Beethoven

The Karajan Official Remastered Edition comprises 13 box sets containing official remasterings of the finest recordings the Austrian conductor made for EMI between 1946 and 1984, which are now a jewel of the Warner Classics catalog. This 5-CD box of recordings made in Vienna and London brings together supreme choral and vocal works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, and Strauss, performed by soloists of the stature of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Kathleen Ferrier, Christa Ludwig, Nicolai Gedda, and Hans Hotter.

Ron Adelaar is a Dutch-based pianist and composer of neoclassical, meditative piano compositions. Besides that he is A&R manager at Andante Piano, sublabel of Disruptive Records run by his son Ivo Adelaar. Ron had an early introduction to piano music, as he started his career at the age of 13 by playing the organ and piano at several churches in his hometown Amersfoort (The Netherlands), all together with his father Ton Adelaar who played the flute. After that, and now for already 37 years, Ron is a pianist and conductor of a choir in Amersfoort. His passion has always been to create his own contemporary compositions and share it with others. Because of the technical possibilities these days he’s finally able to share his own piano compositions with the rest of the world, all recorded in his home piano studio. Ron’s neoclassical piano compositions contribute to relax, meditate or to maintain concentration and focus during work.

From the Notes:These recordings document the serious side of one of Eastern Europe's most characteristic violin virtuosos - a man whose very name, Arnold Rosé, conjures up a vision of the last days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and a legendary period in the history of the Vienna Philharmonic. For more than half a century Rosé was at the center of music life in Vienna - and even then, it took Hitler's Anschluss of 1938 to displace him. Rosé's destiny was intimately bound up with the two most controversial figures in Viennese music at the turn of the century, Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg; and he represented the final glory of the 19th-centrury Viennese string style with Fritz Kreisler, a crucial 12 years younger, so soon overthrew."

written by Tully Potter

Maurizio Pollini is an Italian pianist. He is known for performances of compositions by Beethoven, Chopin and Debussy, among others. He has also championed and performed works by contemporary composers such as Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, George Benjamin, Roberto Carnevale, Gianluca Cascioli and Bruno Maderna. Works composed for him include Luigi Nono's … sofferte onde serene …, Giacomo Manzoni's Masse: omaggio a Edgard Varèse and Salvatore Sciarrino's Fifth Sonata.

Bach's gamba sonatas, not as famous as his solo-cello suites, receive an audaciously imaginative presentation on an 18th-century violoncello piccolo that captures the extraordinary beauties of the music as few others have done. The resulting flow of music, as if the sonatas and their curious companions (arrangements of other Bach) were one continuous reflection, is hypnotic in its appeal. The lighter, more agile tones of the violoncello piccolo, meanwhile, make what often sounds dense on the modern cello fantastic and poetical by turns.

From the notes: …" For more than half a century Rosé was at the center of musical life in Vienna - and even then, it took Hitler's Anschluss of 1938 to displace him. Rosé's destiny was intimately bound up with the two most controversial figures in Viennese music at the turn of the century, Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenber; and he represented the final glory of the 19th-century Viennese string style which Fritz Kreisler, a crucial 12 years younger, so soon overthrew…"

"In 1881 he was made leader of the Vienna Court Opera and two years later founded his quartet which was considered - not least by Brahms - superior to Hellmesberger's. Rosé, who wed Mahler's sister Justine in 1902 (his cellist brother Eduard was already married to the composer's youngest sister Emma), played Goldmark and other contemporary composers as well as the Classics. From 1888 to 1896 he led the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and when his own organization appeared in concert as the Vienna Philharmonic, he was the leader…."

This new release opens with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bachs Symphony in F major, Wq. 183/3. This symphony belongs to a group of four Orchestral Symphonies with Twelve Obbligato Parts, which were commissioned by an unidentified patron in 1775. Next, this release presents Joseph Haydns Symphony No. 39. This work is the first of Haydns minor key symphonies and is associated with his Sturm und Drang period. Finally, Beethovens Symphony No. 1 in C major rounds out this release. The work was dedicated to an early patron of Beethoven, Baron Gottfried van Swieten. This work is a clear indication of Haydns influence on Beethoven.

Pianist Alexei Lubimov performs all the works on this new recording on the Pianino / Upright piano Pleyel, 1843, Chopin's Piano. "I wanted to imagine how Classical repertoire could have sounded when interpreted by Chopin and his pupils on a Pleyel pianino in the composer's study-salon in Parisat home, with no audience. The Pleyel pianino dictated the manner of performing works by Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, using its magic to transform their works into musical images of Chopin's world. I wanted to imagine, to grasp that hypnotic 'Chopinisation' of the great pre-Chopin composers.