Salzburg

The unmistakable sound of Viennese dance, entertainment and operetta music can be experienced in very special interpretations by the Salzburg Wind Philharmonic under the direction of its chief conductor Hansjorg Angerer. The album contains works by Johann Strauss father & son, Josef & Eduard Strauss, Joseph Lanner, Carl Michael Ziehrer, Franz von Suppe, Karl Komzak jun., Julius Fucik, Franz Lehar, Anton Rosenkranz, Jaroslav Labsky and Josef Hellmesberger jun.

The Salzburg Wind Philharmonic with its principal conductor Hansjörg Angerer conquers highest musical peaks following the motto “From the mountains” and makes the romanticism of the countryside, hunting cries as well as Alpine storms become a unique sound experience.

The Salzburg Wind Philharmonic with its principal conductor Hansjörg Angerer conquers highest musical peaks following the motto “From the mountains” and makes the romanticism of the countryside, hunting cries as well as Alpine storms become a unique sound experience.

On these two CDs the Salzburg Wind Philharmonic with its principal conductor Hansjörg Angerer presents symphonic wind music of the highest sophistication – largely pieces well known from the usual symphonic concert repertoire. The extraordinary range of works extends from Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio, to Weber’s Der Freischütz, Johann Strauss’s Blue Danube Waltz to Rossini’s Clarinet Concerto (with Wenzel Fuchs as soloist) and Holst’s ‘Jupiter’ from The Planets.

To mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Johann Strauss, the Salzburg Wind Philharmonic under its principal conductor Hansjörg Angerer celebrates the occasion not only with incomparable waltzes, which express the composer’s extraordinary ingenuity, imagination and endless inspiration, but also with the entire variety of typical Viennese dance music, all composed by the ‘Waltz King’.

On these two CDs the Salzburg Wind Philharmonic with its principal conductor Hansjörg Angerer presents symphonic wind music of the highest sophistication – largely pieces well known from the usual symphonic concert repertoire.

The ensemble of soloists of the Salzburg Wind Philharmonic devotes this CD to Francis Poulenc’s chamber music works for winds. Poulenc – a member of the Parisian group of composers known as Les Six – was particularly fond of woodwind instruments which corresponded with the tradition of his homeland and he created some of the most beautiful works written for wind chamber music. This ranges from the youthful Trio to late works dedicated to Arthur Honegger, such as his Clarinet Sonata, the Flute Sonata and Horn Elegy, and to the entertaining sextet, a declaration of love for his home town of Paris.

Beethoven as he’s never been heard before! The Salzburg Wind Philharmonic under its principal conductor Hansjörg Angerer present a completely new sound in works which are amongst the most well-known in classical music: Beethoven’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies. He composed them in parallel and gave the first performances of each in one of his academy concerts. The two symphonies can now be heard in unusual versions for symphonic winds. The Salzburg Wind Philharmonic thereby makes a musical statement which brings to mind important historic aspects of the Beethoven period as well as taking account of special instrumental demands. Beethoven’s symphonies are an obvious choice for performance in symphonic wind form.

For the 13th volume in the ‘Next Generation Mozart Soloists’ series, Georgian pianist Giorgi Gigashvili, who has already released a highly acclaimed debut album (Alpha 930), has agreed to tackle the early piano concertos of the very young Mozart: "these works already reveal his brilliance in melody, elegance and charm. Paradoxically, the main difficulty for the performer lies in the transparency of these works: every single note is exposed, which requires absolute clarity and precision".

Geza Anda Since his death in 1976 at the age of 55, Géza Anda's considerable reputation has faded somewhat from view. But in his heyday he was widely regarded as a transcendent pianist, possessed of a natural technique that gave his performances an intimate quality, even when he was scaling the Himalayan heights of his signature Brahms B flat major concerto. It was with that work that he made his debut in 1939 in Budapest under Willem Mengelberg. Anda was born in 1921 in Budapest; after studying with Imre Stefaniai and Imre Keeri-Szanto, he became a piano pupil of Ernst von Dohnányi at the Royal Music Academy.