Romantic

Various Artists - 101 Romantic Classics (2016) {6CD Box Set Decca 478 4006 rel 2012}
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© 2012, 2016 Decca Music | 478 4006
Classical

Classical music captures the spirit of romance like no other music and this charming collection of perennial favorites includes music from the most romantic of composers - Chopin, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Puccini and many more. The set is themed for every romantic mood, with the first two discs devoted to the stirring passion of orchestral music, the second two to the intimacy of solo piano music, and the last two to the wide-ranging emotions of opera. Includes music from three works written for the greatest love story ever told, Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet, with music from Tchaikovskys overture, Prokofievs ballet and the main theme from the soundtrack to Franco Zeffirellis film, by Nino Rota. Recordings from some of the world s greatest artists including Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland, Sir Georg Solti, Herbert von Karajan, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Radu Lupu, Nigel Kennedy and Bryn Terfel.

This unique collection features a representative selection of early Romantic piano quintets, ranging from the astronomically popular Trout Quintet by Schubert to lesser known works from Hummel, Ries, Cramer, Limmer, Dussek, and Onslow.

Emma Kirkby, doyenne of the Early Music scene, here shows that she's just as comfortable in music of a more recent vintage. Amy Beach was a woman ahead of her time, performing as solo pianist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra by the age of 18. The same year (1885), she married Henry Beach and, no longer able to perform publicly (it would have gone against her social status), she instead settled down to composing. And delightful stuff it is, too, as Kirkby and friends demonstrate in this charming recital. A number of the songs add violin, cello, or both to the piano and voice combination. "Ecstasy," for instance, has a most effective violin part that is an ideal foil to the purity of Kirkby's voice. Other highlights include the Schumannesque Browning Songs and the amiable Shakespeare Songs (the last of which, "Fairy Lullaby," is irresistible). The final item here, "Elle et moi," is an upbeat little number that suits Kirkby's lithe soprano to perfection. Occasionally, in some of the more lushly textured songs, such as "A Mirage" and "Stella Viatoris," perhaps a fuller voice would have been preferable, but then sample "Chanson d'amour" (written when Beach was only 21 and with a wonderful cello part in addition to the piano) and try to imagine it being better sung. The purely instrumental items are played with unfailing sensitivity and elegance. The Romance is straight out of the salon, while the much later Piano Trio (though actually based on early material) packs plenty of emotion and variety into its 14 minutes. The recording is exemplary, as are the concise notes and texts and translations.

The name of David Popper generally is known only to cellists, all of whom have had to struggle through his book of Etudes. The rest of the world's exposure to his music most likely consists of the Hungarian Rhapsody and one or two other showpieces, which usually are performed with just cello and piano. This disc of no less than nine different pieces shows Popper to be a gifted Romantic melodist and skilled orchestrator. Popper was pretty much the Rostropovich of the 19th century, and he wrote these works to show off his own virtuoso talents. Maria Kliegel is nearly always up to the challenges these works present, however extreme, and it is a treat to hear them performed with the originally-intended full orchestral accompaniment.

Much of the Romantic Violin Concerto series on the Hyperion label has focused on forgotten composers, but the present release involves little-known concertos by major composers. The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 8, by Richard Strauss was written when the composer was 17 and is a competent if rather overlong essay in the virtuoso German tradition running back to Ludwig Spohr. Ferruccio Busoni's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35a, although Busoni was in his thirties when the work was premiered in 1897, might also be called an early work; the characteristic influences from Bach and Liszt (and the mixture of the two) are not yet present.

EMI's 50 Best Romantic Classics is loosely organized by regions, with the first disc devoted to French music, the second to Scandinavian and Eastern European classics, and the third to music from Italy and Spain. This arrangement is quite practical for beginners, who may appreciate the music's recognizable national styles before grasping more historical or theoretical aspects. Yet some understanding is needed of the term romantic, for not all of the music included in this collection fits within the Romantic era (roughly, the 19th century, with some overlapping of the early years of the 20th).

Great classical repertoire, discoveries, chamber music, concert literature at the very highest level: violinist Renaud Capuçon inspires as a soloist in all areas. He celebrated the power of world harmony with Bach's concertos and the modern counterpart by Peteris Vasks, allowed styles to communicate with each other with the concertos by Beethoven and Korngold as well as Brahms and Berg, and ensured one of the most high-profile large-scale chamber music projects of recent years with a complete recording of the Beethoven sonatas. He is now continuing on this path - alongside the young, multi-award-winning Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili.

Antonin Dvorák's Piano Quartet No. 2 is one of the greatest chamber works of the 19th century (as are many of Dvorák's chamber compositions). Written in 1889 at the request of his publisher Simrock, it is a big, bold work filled with the Czech master's trademark melodic fecundity, harmonic richness, and rhythmic vitality. The first movement is a soaring, outdoor allegro with an assertively optimistic main theme accented by Czech contours and Dvorák's love of mixing major and minor modes. The Lento movement's wistful main theme is played with a perfect mixture of passion and poise by cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The music alternates between passages of drama and delicacy in this, one of Dvorák's finest slow movements in any medium. The Scherzo's stately waltz is contrasted by a lively, up-tempo Czech country dance. The finale is a high-stepping, high-spirited allegro with a strong rhythmic pulse that relaxes for the beautifully lyrical second subject.

Portuguese virtuoso Artur Pizarro makes a welcome return to the Romantic Piano Concerto series with the outpourings of two brilliant pianist-composers. Their names may not be familiar to listeners today. The Brazilian Henrique Oswald and the Portuguese Alfredo Napoleão were born in the same year, less than three months apart, when Schumann, Brahms and Liszt were alive and Chopin recently deceased. Both were of mixed European heritage: Oswald with a Swiss-German father and Italian mother, Napoleão with an Italian father and Portuguese mother. Both were child prodigies who became widely travelled concert pianists, pedagogues and composers. In 1868 Oswald gave his ‘farewell recital’ and left Rio de Janeiro to study in Europe; Napoleão went to Brazil.

The Munich Philharmonic have arguably given more performances of Anton Bruckner’s music than any other orchestra. A great number of Bruckner recordings led by the many legendary conductors that have worked with the Munich Philharmonic are stored in the historical archive of the MPHIL Label including magnificent pieces with Sergiu Celibidache, Christian Thielemann, Rudolf Kempe, Günter Wand and Oswald Kabasta.