Carl Sunders

Carl Vine has been firmly established as one of Australia’s leading composers for some years now although in the U.K. his name may be most familiar to many for his orchestral work, Descent, which figured as a finalist in the very first Masterprize competition several years ago.

Outside Germany, the name Weimar tends to evoke mixed feelings and pictures of German history of the last hundred years. Within Germany, Weimar means a town in the state of Thuringia arguably saturated with the “Deutsche Kultur” of the “Weimarer Klassik”, the legendary Bauhaus, and finally the life and work of Franz Liszt and his son in law Richard Wagner. In Weimar Richard Wagner began composing the first part of his RING-cycle, “Das Rheingold”. In 2008 the Nationaltheater Weimar started a new production of this unique tetralogy. The conductor is Carl St.Clair, a former student of Leonard Bernstein. With Michael Schulz’ fine and highly intelligent staging this new “Ring” production becomes an outstanding document of contemporary opera theatre.

Apart from Grieg, no Scandinavian composer has written for the piano with more individuality and insight than Nielsen. Right from the very outset of his Five Piano Pieces, Op. 3, there is no doubt that his is an individual voice. The first emerges from a Schumannesque innocence to speak with personal accents, but all five are strong on humour and character. Nielsen’s greatest piano music is clustered into a period of four years (1916-20) with his final thoughts in the medium, the Three Pieces, Op. 59 of 1928 being composed in the immediate proximity of his Clarinet Concerto, music that already breathes the air of other planets. With the exception of Leif Ove Andsnes, no pianist of international standing has championed it on record, and apart from John Ogdon and John McCabe it has been the almost exclusive preserve of Nordic artists. True, the American scholar Mina Miller, who edited the autographs for the Hansen edition, recorded a complete survey in 1995 – also for Hyperion. But although Schnabel was the dedicatee of the Suite, Op. 45, he never broke a lance for it on the international scene. The Suite is not only Nielsen’s greatest keyboard work but arguably the mightiest ever written in Scandinavia. Martin Roscoe is right inside this music and guides us through its marvels with great subtlety and authority.

Seine Bekanntheit im heutigen Musikleben verdankt Carl Stamitz hauptsächlich auch seinen Klarinettenkonzerten, die sowohl ästhetisch als auch gattungs- und musikhistorisch von nicht zu unterschätzender Bedeutung sind. Obwohl die genaue Anzahl seiner Klarinettenkonzerte nach derzeitigem Forschungsstand nicht zweifelsohne gesichert ist, werden ihm insgesamt 11 Klarinettenkonzerte zugeordnet, die vermutlich zwischen 1770 und 1790 entstanden sind. In der kompositorischen Behandlung der Klarinette bei Carl Stamitz zeigt sich, dass er versuchte die virtuose Seite der Klarinette auszuschöpfen, sie aber vornehmlich als Gesangsinstrument erkannte.

Carl Stamitz (1745-1805) - with his father Johann Wenzel aka Jan Vaclav and his brother Anton one of the founders and developers of the so-called "Mannheim School", so essential in the growth of the classical symphony - belongs to that throng of composers from the classical era that my have met with great success and popularity during their lifetime, but are now viewed as "minor" ones, dwarfed by the shadows of Haydn and Mozart, and then Beethoven.

Der Tod Jesu of Carl Heinrich Graun (1704–59), completed in 1755, was for decades the musical mainstay of Passiontide services (a position now held by Bach’s and St. John Passions), being performed by the Berlin Singakademie virtually every Good Friday until 1884. Unlike the passions of Bach, Schütz, and other predecessors, Graun’s work does not set any texts of Scripture. Instead, in line with burgeoning Enlightenment sensibilities, the entire libretto by Carl Wilhelm Ramler (1725–98) is written in the exalted style of impassioned poetic declamation common to opera libretti of the era, in supposed imitation of Greek tragedy. At less than half the length of the Bach passions, and musically far less complex, with dignified and attractive arias composed in a style somewhat akin to those of Handel’s Messiah , it remains winsome even today, and its enduring popularity is readily comprehended.

this recording of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana was authorized by the composer himself. It follows, therefore, that the present recording met with the high requirements of the composer himself and so represents an unusual collector's item. Orff intended not just to copy the medieval lyrics but to express the mood of that era. His highly rhythmic compositional style reflects the archaic character of the vocal line. The listener experiences not only the vital primordial pulse of the music in this thrilling interpretation but also the mystery of Fate through the tender lyrical passages. Orff's homage to wine, women and song of the Middle Ages, closely bound up with spring and love, is supported by balanced and precise sound technology. The listener is spirited away to the musical world of Carmina Burana by this recording.

Drummer Carl Allen welcomed some of "The Young Lions" to his Atlantic CD, including altoist Vincent Herring, Teodross Avery on tenor, and trumpeter Marcus Printup. The music, essentially modern mainstream jazz circa 1967, is comprised mostly of Allen's originals. Printup sounds like a mixture of Freddie Hubbard and Wynton Marsalis, Herring is content to emulate Cannonball Adderley, and Avery looks toward early John Coltrane; in other words the soloists are generally pretty derivative. Despite that fault, the performances (which have colorful guest appearances from tenor-saxophonist George Coleman and trombonist Steve Turre) are generally enjoyable and hard-swinging.

The importance of the Stamitz family in the development of 18th century European musical thought is well known; perhaps more well known than its actual music. And this is understandable since every member of the family seemed to focus not so much on breaking compositional ground, but on teaching, performance, or even some other interest peripheral to music. For instance Carl’s father Johann is remembered today primarily as the founding conductor of the legendary Mannheim Court Orchestra, a collective renowned for rigorously training the most promising young musicians of the day. In the family tradition, Carl studied with his father in Mannheim and performed as a second violinist with the orchestra, though eventually he left because the competition there became too intense.

Carl Seemann (8 May 1910 − 26 November 1983) was a German church musician, pianist, piano teacher and director of the Musikhochschule Freiburg.