This live recording of Strauss’s Metamorphosen and Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony marks the birth on record of the ‘Sinfonia Grange au Lac’, an orchestra created in July 2018 on the occasion of the Rencontres Musicales d’Évian, the prestigious festival created by Mstislav Rostropovich in 1985 and revived since 2014. A musical ambassador intended to promote the excellence of its parent festival worldwide, the Sinfonia Grange au Lac consists of musicians from leading European orchestras (in Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig, London, Lucerne, Munich, Paris, Salzburg, Valencia and Vienna) as well as existing groups such as the Trio Karénine and the Quatuor Ébène. And it was a stroke of genius to manage to secure the services of Esa-Pekka Salonen.
The ensemble KLANGKOLLEKTIV WIEN as newly founded orchestral body in the Austrian cultural landscape has already with their first Schubert recording (Gramola 99180) been met with an enthusiastic reception. The unique approach of the musicians with conductor and sound designer Rémy Ballot to get to the bottom of the works of Viennese classical music and to reveal their inner logic, leads to a new understanding of orchestra. Gramola now publishes a concert recording of the Vorstadt premiere in Viennas Penzing district with Beethovens Symphony No. 3 Eroica as well as the Egmont Overture for the Beethoven year 2020 (250th anniversary of his birth). The musicians gathering within KLANGKOLLEKTIV WIEN feel the need to interpret the works of their professional everyday life out-side of the music business in a different way for themselves and the public.
Schumann’s String Quartets have been waiting for a talented young group to bring a fresh voice to the few familiar ones already in the catalog. The Eroica Quartet isn’t exactly young anymore (the group started in 1993), but it certainly brings a new perspective to these works. The Melos on DG (in a two-disc box with the Brahms Quartets) and the Quartetto Itialiano on Philips have been the benchmarks for years, but this recording definitely can be placed alongside them. The players of Eroica are period performance enthusiasts, and their clear, vibrant sound certainly revitalizes the music–which represents a burst of creative energy from Schumann. He wrote these pieces within weeks of his beloved Clara’s return from a long tour, and his joy (and the mental stability she provided him) is evident throughout.