Bamert

Matthias Bamert’s survey of music by Mozart’s contemporaries continues with this elegant programme of Cannabich Symphonies. Harmonically conservative, lavishly scored, and full of the mannerist crescendi and rising figures the Mannheim Orchestra was famous for, these are fascinating examples of the style gallant. Though Cannabich had found his way to sonata form in the G major symphony, something of Telemann’s programmatic writing hangs over the Symphony in A major, while baroque affects are yet more keenly felt in the D major Symphony. The London Mozart Players’ pristine sound and careful phrasing is highly enjoyable throughout.

Imitating Haydn symphonies became a European speciality in the last three decades of the 18th century. Literally hundreds were written, by composers from Carlos Baguer in Catalonia to Joseph Martin Kraus in Sweden. Dozens were published under Haydn’s name. It was no wonder that even a cultivated listener in Paris (the centre of the music publishing world at that time) would have found it difficult in 1790 to define Haydn’s symphonic style. Antonio Rosetti (born Franz Anton Rösler in German-speaking Bohemia – it was better business to sport an Italian name) lived from c1750 to 1792 and began to write popular and successful neo-Haydn symphonies in about 1773, when he entered the service of the Prince of Oettingen-Wallerstein in Germany. He remained there until 1789, when he became Kapellmeister to the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

At a time when Schoenberg and Stravinsky were thought of as opposite poles, Roberto Gerhard was combining the density of the one with the dynamism of the other in a wholly personal synthesis. You can hear this in the Piano Concerto's mood swings from the dark and brooding to, in the finale, a Spanish take-off that Chabrier would have thought off the wall. Gerhard's 1960s music is in-your-face modernism that holds you in its grasp, embracing sound with an enthusiasm that remains inspirational today. Listen to the tape part of the Third Symphony–a cut-and-paste job that trounces most of the computer-music generation in its imagination and feeling for what's possible. Epithalamion features material originally intended for, of all things, Lindsay Anderson's film This Sporting Life. Not that its impact is any less than coherent; the percussion writing alone has a fantasy that will keep you entranced. Well prepared performances, superbly recorded. This is still music of the future.

Swiss composer Frank Martin was a curious character. The son of a Protestant pastor, he combined French and German influences in typically Swiss fashion, but also tonality, atonality, and an enlivening dose of jazz. He lived a long and productive life, composed his own Requiem Mass (which he actually got to perform and record to make sure he'd got it right), and then conveniently died. This swinging concerto shows the jazz influence right at the start, where each of the solos introduces itself in what sounds like an improvised jam session. Of course the whole thing's composed with typical precision (Swiss, like in watches, right?), but it's still one of the most entertaining of this century's "group" concertos.

Another superb addition to Matthias Bamert's splendid series of recordings with the BBC Philharmonic of the orchestral music of Ernst von Dohnányi, this 2004 disc brings together three concerted works from the composer's early years in Tallahassee, FL. But although they were composed between 1946 and 1952, the Piano Concerto No. 2, the Violin Concerton No. 2, and the Concertino for harp and chamber orchestra all sound as if they could have been written between 1896 and 1914 in Budapest, Hungary: although war and fascism had driven Dohnányi from his place and time, it did not drive from him his place and time. Indeed, the works on this disc are just as tuneful and romantic as Dohnányi's earlier works and anyone who enjoyed them will enjoy these.

Franz Krommer (1759-1831) was a prolific and very good composer, whose music is now being resuscitated with great and deserved success. It was difficult to be a composer in Vienna at the same time as Beethoven and Schubert, and most of their contemporaries have not survived the pressure. But Krommer managed to retain his personality and originality, becoming the last official director of chamber music and court composer to the Habsburg court under the conservative Emperor Francis I. The first of the two symphonies was published in 1803. Among its many interesting features is a haunting litde trio in the form of a waltz. The second work is much later, with four horns and three trombones, and is in C minor, but ending in the major. In both works, Krommer's knowledge of, and predilection for, the wind instruments is notable. The two works were well worth recording, especially with such felicitous performances and bright, pleasing recorded sound.

Matthias Bamert’s Contemporaries of Mozart project is one of Chandos’ longest-running and most successful recording series. Mozart’s unquestionable genius has tended to eclipse the work of many otherwise excellent composers who were writing at the same time as he. Often successful in their day, many of these composers fell into neglect over subsequent decades and were in some cases almost forgotten. Matthias Bamert has shown just how rich this area of the repertoire is, and each of his CDs received superb critical acclaim.

The best-selling Contemporaries of Mozart series is one of Chandos’ longest-running recording projects and we are delighted to add a selection of symphonies by the Salzburg composer Leopold Mozart to the collection. Conducted by Matthias Bamert and the London Mozart Players, the broad range of Leopold’s symphonic style is on clear display in the charming symphonies recorded here. All the works are recorded for the first time.

Mathias Bamert's 'Contemporaries of Mozart' series now tackles Wesley, an English composer chiefly remembered for his sacred music but who was also quite a dab hand at orchestral writing as is evidenced here. These five symphonies are full of colour and imagination and resemble Ditterdorsf's 'Ovid' Symphonies for their range of flair and advanced orchestration. The Sinfonia obligato' contains a delightfully melodious Andante con moto which although lasting just three minutes is remarkable for what it manages to contain. The Symphony in A major has its final movement marked as Brillante, a strange term but fully in keeping with the boisterous nature of the music.

Richard Hol (1824-1904) was a leading figure in Dutch music during the 19th century. The son of an Amsterdam milkman, he graduated from the Royal Music School in 1844 and went on to become a nationally famous composer, conductor, organist, pianist, and teacher. Hol composed a large body of choral and vocal music, an opera, and a comparatively small number of orchestral works, including four symphonies. Both symphonies on this disc bear the influence of mid-19th-century German composers (particularly Schumann and Mendelssohn), but Hol’s own voice is readily discernible.