The artistry of Holliger (b1939) prompted Evelyn Rothwell (Lady Barbirolli) to call him 'The Paganini of the oboe' Holliger's mastery of the oboe ranges over a vast expanse of repertoire, from the baroque to contemporary – Bach to Berio and Zelenka to Zimmermann. His style is notable for its flexibility, agility, integrity and ability to communicate convincingly across the wide range of repertoire he performs. Holliger has done much to champion the oboe music of composers such as Zelenka and Krommer, and has also had over 100 works composed for him by composers including Berio, Carter, Henze, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Penderecki and Stockhausen.
The history of the Russian chamber ensemble of the middle of the 20th century, in all possibility, did not know a more intricate yet remarkable brilliant group of musicians than the celebrated trio of Emil Gilels. Leonid Kogan and Mstislav Rostropovich. All to different in their essence were these three artistic individualities – these three virtuosos, spoilt children of fortune, who were brought together at various stages of disclosure of their outstanding talents. At that, there was not a great difference between their respective ages – Gilels was born in 1916, Kogan was born in 1924 and Rostropovich was born in 1927. Nonetheless, whereas Gilels was already able to reconsider and revise in many ways his principles of work, departing further and further from a pure demonstration of capabilities of his breathtaking technique, Rostropovich and Kogan were still passing through their lengthy period of thrill over their virtuosic powers, affecting their audiences in a straightforward manner.
A stunning collection of some of the greatest sacred music ever written. From the great Lamentations of Byrd, Tallis and Palestrina, the listener is taken on a remarkable spiritual journey through Bach’s great St Matthew Passion, Purcell’s moving and bleak funeral music for Queen Mary, and Handel radiant Messiah. Pergolesi’s masterful setting of the Stabat Mater and Telemann’s Passions-Oratorium are also to be found here, along with Haydn’s Stabat Mater and his dark and intense masterpiece Die sieben letzen Worte, or The Seven Last Words of our Saviour from the Cross. Finally, Allegri’s hauntingly beautiful Miserere opens this collection – a work that was copied from memory after one hearing by the child Mozart. Prior to that moment the work had only been heard in the Vatican.
As with most of Haydn’s masses, the Missa Cellensis is more well known by its alias,“Cäcilienmesse” (Cecilia Mass), rather than by its original name. Joseph Haydn began work on the mass in 1766, when he assumed the position as Music Director for the princely Court of Esterházy. With its unusually large orchestra and a duration of almost one hour, this composition is the longest and most extensive of Haydn’s masses. Haydn followed the traditional structure by setting the parts of the Ordinary in individual movements, in which the text is interpreted through the use of variety and contrast in scoring and compositional technique. For quite some time now, Jos van Immerseel and his Ensemble Anima Eterna have enjoyed an outstanding reputation for presenting their unique and special type of historical performance practice: For the present recording they employed Vienna wind instruments and the string instruments are modeled on instruments from the Viennese classical period.
These must be the least well known of Haydn’s later quartets, poorly represented over the years in recital programmes and on disc, yet they show Haydn at the height of his powers. When he first came to London in 1791 his string quartets proved popular items in his public concerts; back in Vienna preparing for his second London visit, he designed these new works especially for public performance, with attention-grabbing opening gestures and brilliant concertante writing for all four instruments. The set’s third quartet is particularly strong – the far-reaching developments of its first movement’s main theme remind one of the great Salomon symphonies, as does the picturesque Andante with variations.
Alison Balsom’s fourth CD for EMI Classics features Franz Joseph Haydn and Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s evergreen trumpet concertos, coupled with concertos by Johann Baptist Georg Neruda and Giuseppe Torelli. Balsom also directs Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.
Haydn’s late masterpiece, The Creation/Die Schöpfung has always existed in two versions, one in English and one in German. Loosely based on Milton’s Paradise Lost version of the creation story, the libretto had actually been offered to Handel, who never got around to setting it. Johann Salomon, the impresario, passed it to Haydn in 1794. Haydn was interested but apparently did not feel confident enough in his English to set the work in its original format.