Clarinet, Horn

The foremost Czech clarinettist of her generation, Ludmila Peterková, chose to tackle in this her latest project a repertoire from the creative legacy of German and Italian Romantic composers, works that are not widely known and yet proved to offer surprisingly attractive listening material. Apart from Peterková's totally accomplished, sonically flawless performance, the album's other great asset is the presence on its tracks of the basset horn, an instrument that has completely disappeared from modern-time music, reintroduced here in two numbers by France's young and talented NicolasBaldeyrou.

Three resounding cheers for the appearance on CD at last of the three Thea Musgrave concertos. In these single-movement works of the late 1960s and early ’70s, the Scottish-born composer made effective use both of her flexible mixture of rhythmic and free-time music and of her distinctive vein of instrumental drama: in the Concerto for Orchestra with the principal clarinettist standing up to lead a revolt against the conductor’s beat; in the …..

Anthony Burton @ classical-music.com

1990 von Dozentinnen und Dozenten der Stiftung Villa Musica Rheinland-Pfalz gegründet, hat sich das Ensemble Villa Musica einen Namen als führende Kammermusikvereinigung gemacht. Was die Fachpresse immer wieder mit Erstaunen registriert, ist die Vielfalt in Besetzung und Repertoire des Ensembles. Rund 20 der renommiertesten Instrumentalisten Deutschlands haben sich unter dem Spiritus rector Ulf Rodenhäuser zusammengefunden. Sie alle sind heute solistisch, kammermusikalisch und als Professorinnen und Professoren an den großen deutschen Musikhochschulen tätig, nachdem sie lange Jahre an den ersten Pulten der renommiertesten deutschen Orchester wirkten oder noch heute wirken.

One year after the 200th anniversary of Mozart’s death, American musicologist Pamela Poulin was rummaging through the archives of the Latvian Academic Library in Riga and came upon announcements and programs for three concerts given in Riga in 1794 by Mozart’s friend, fellow Freemason, and clarinet virtuoso Anton Stadler. The programs also included an engraving of what Stadler termed an Inventions Klarinette. This led to the discovery of several basset clarinets and basset horns in various European collections. These instruments are fashioned from boxwood with brass keys and are virtually identical to that shown in the engraving on the concert program.