Norbert Bartl

These "double bass quartets" of Franz Anton Hoffmeister, a Viennese composer and publisher well known to both Mozart and Beethoven, are not written simply for one member each of the string family from violin to double bass; the bass is explicitly conceived of as a replacement for the first violin. That might seem an awkward order, but the charm of the music resides in the variety of elegant solutions Hoffmeister finds for the problems this configuration causes.

Soprano saxophone player Sascha Armbruster, oboe player Kelsey Maiorano, clarinetist Toshiko Sakakibara, trumpeter Jens Bracher, trombonist Stephen Menotti and tuba player Janne Jakobsen gather together and record the compositions written by Norbert Moslang. “Patterns” is a new record on “Bocian” label – this album is a mix of academic avant-garde, experimental music, free improvisation and avant-garde jazz. The musicians join together different kinds of motions, expressions, styles and passions to create a rich and original sound.

Giovanni Battista Martini may be one of the best-known personalities in the history of music, generally referred to as 'Padre Martini'. His fame is mainly due to his theoretical writings and the fact that he was the teacher of famous composers like Johann Christian Bach, André Ernest Modeste Grétry, Niccolò Jommelli and Mozart. Very few people know his own compositions.

In the lineup of promising music geniuses whose lives were cut short, Norbert Burgmüller (1810-1836) is an imposing figure. During his lifetime, he made an impression on Mendelssohn and found an ardent champion in Schumann, who proclaimed "After Franz Schubert's early death, no other death could cause more grief than that of Burgmüller." He studied composition with Louis Spohr, who left a mark on the four string quartets. Three of them were completed while Burgmüller was still a student, but nothing in them suggests juvenilia. These are serious works steeped in a post-Beethoven outlook. While drawing upon Spohr's classicism and 'quatuor brillant' style, they look forward to early Romanticism and have lyrical qualities akin to Schubert.

In seinem ‚Entwurf-Katalog’ verzeichnete Joseph Haydn ab 1765 sieben Orgelkonzerte. Sein eigener Organistendienst beim Fürsten Esterházy, den er an der Eisenstädter Schlosskirche versah, bot ihm die Möglichkeit, Orgelkonzerte aufzuführen. Gleichwohl blieben seine Orgelkonzerte Nischenrepertoire, denn die Symphonie war mehr und mehr auf dem Vormarsch und Haydn selbst hat bekanntlich ungleich mehr Symphonien als Orgelkonzerte komponiert. In seinem Katalog findet sich zudem auch die Bezeichnung ‚Cembalo’, was die Aufführung dieser Konzerte im weltlichen Rahmen außerhalb der Kirche möglich machte. Renommierte Organist Norbert Düchtel an der Johann-Philipp-Seuffert-Orgel aus dem Jahr 1756 in der Wallfahrtskirche Maria Limbach den Orgelkonzerten Joseph Haydns gewidmet. Das L’arpa festante Barockorchester München stellt den soliden Orchesterapparat.

In the lineup of promising music geniuses whose lives were cut short, Norbert Burgmüller (1810-1836) is an imposing figure. During his lifetime, he made an impression on Mendelssohn and found an ardent champion in Schumann, who proclaimed "After Franz Schubert's early death, no other death could cause more grief than that of Burgmüller." He studied composition with Louis Spohr, who left a mark on the four string quartets. Three of them were completed while Burgmüller was still a student, but nothing in them suggests juvenilia. These are serious and beautiful works steeped in a post-Beethoven outlook. All of them are in minor keys, and while drawing upon Spohr, they look forward to early Romanticism and have lyrical qualities akin to Schubert.

This is the first recording of Norbert Burgmüller’s symphonic legacy. This little-known composer studied with Spohr and Hauptmann and his compositions were endorsed by Schumann and Brahms.