Romantic Dynamics

The outstanding young German pianist Joseph Moog makes his debut on ONYX with a superb disc of two great Russian piano concertos that have had very different fates.

Pieter Wispelwey and his gut-string cello partner for a second time with Paolo Giacometti in a programme of Chopin and Mendelssohn. But there is a another great musical figure on this disc – the cellist and composer Karl Davidoff, who studied with Moscheles and Mendelssohn’s violinist and composer friend Ferdinand David. Davidoff’s brilliant arrangements of the Chopin Waltzes Op. 64 form a sparkling interlude between Mendelssohn’s brilliant 2nd sonata, and Chopin’s late and great sonata for cello and piano.

Robert Schumann - Piano Quartets
Trio Parnassus / Hariolf Schlichtig
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 233 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Gold" # 903 1414-6 | Country/Year: Germany 2006
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

This Super Audio compact disc from the independent German label Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm label (MDG) features the prolific Trio Parnassus in their thirtieth release for the label. Augmented by violist Hariolf Schlichtig, Parnassus perform not only Robert Schumann’s renowned Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op. 47 from 1842, but also his youthful C minor Piano Quartet, a hidden gem composed thirteen years earlier. Until recently the C minor score was thought to be unplayable, however, this is the first recording in Joachim Draheim’s new, and as yet unpublished, edition…

Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 8 WAB 108 (Version 1890) in C minor
Beethoven Orchester Bonn / Stefan Blunier
2xSACD | SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 4,62 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 1,34 | Full Artwork
Label/Cat#: MDG "Live" # 937 1713-6 | Country/Year: Germany 2011 | 5% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Orchestral

"Even though Stefan Blunier's 2011 recording of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 in C minor is a lot to digest, timed at over 88 minutes and stretched almost to the breaking point, this is a deeply compelling performance and an impressive recording that deserves all the time listeners devote to it. (…) MDG's natural, unprocessed sound is a great aid to capturing the orchestra's subtle dynamics, and the live recording has very few extraneous sounds. Highly recommended." ~AMG

Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 8 WAB 108 (Version 1890) in C minor
Beethoven Orchester Bonn / Stefan Blunier
2xSACD | EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 331 MB | Full Artwork: 98 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Live" # 937 1713-6 | Country/Year: Germany 2011
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Orchestral

"Even though Stefan Blunier's 2011 recording of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 in C minor is a lot to digest, timed at over 88 minutes and stretched almost to the breaking point, this is a deeply compelling performance and an impressive recording that deserves all the time listeners devote to it. (…) MDG's natural, unprocessed sound is a great aid to capturing the orchestra's subtle dynamics, and the live recording has very few extraneous sounds. Highly recommended." ~AMG

Yannick Nezet-Seguin & Chamber Orchestra of Europe - Schumann: The Symphonies (2014) [2CD] {Deutsche Grammophon}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 521 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 313 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 11 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Deutsche Grammophon | 479 2437
Classical / Romantic / Symphony

As Yannick Nézet-Séguin continues to explore the Romantic symphonic repertoire, it becomes increasingly apparent that he has a strong affinity for German composers, something not readily guessed of this Canadian maestro. There might be an underlying connection between his recordings of the symphonies of Anton Bruckner, for which he has received considerable attention and acclaim, and this 2014 Deutsche Grammophon album of the four symphonies of Robert Schumann, which shows Nézet-Séguin as a strong advocate for this somewhat discounted symphonist.

Robert Schumann - Piano Quartet op.47 / Piano Quintet op.44
Alexander Melnikov / Jerusalem Quartet
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 233 MB | Full Artwork: 106 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Harmonia Mundi # HMC 902122 | Country/Year: France 2012
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Piano

"These performances are notable for the blending of piano and strings into impeccably balanced textures. It’s an approach that’s better suited to the subtle Piano Quartet, a masterwork that owes much to classical models, than to the Piano Quintet. (…) These highly recommendable performances (…) join many other polished, modern accounts such as Takács/Hamelin and Mandelring/Le Guay that have been praised in these pages…" ~Fanfare

Anton Bruckner - Sinfonie 0 "Annulierte" & 00 "Stundensinfonie"
Sinfonieorchester Aachen / Marcus Bosch
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 312 MB | Full Artwork: 72 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Coviello Classics # COV 31315 | Country/Year: Germany 2013
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Early 20th Century

"…A box set of the entire cycle was issued at around the same time as this release. Although Bosch’s fast tempos might make some of the individual movements less attractive, I suspect that, in its entirety, the cycle will be well worthwhile, especially for the sheer drama he draws from this music, the quality of the orchestra, and of the recorded soundscape, both from the acoustic itself and the SACD engineering. Of the individual discs, the early symphonies deserve the highest recommendation, the Second Symphony in particular, but also this, although chiefly for the Zero Symphony, by far the finest of the two compositions on the disc." ~Fanfare