If this 2007 recording of Bach's Christmas Oratorio was the only one you were to hear, you would likely be well satisfied. Nikolaus Harnoncourt knows the work from long experience, his first recording dates from 1973, and he knows not only how to balance the soloists, chorus, and orchestra but how to balance the festive, the reflective, and the ...
If the orchestrally lush, star-studded recordings of Georg Solti represent one end of the Mozartian taste spectrum, then this 1999 Così fan tutte by René Jacobs, the Concerto Köln, and a less well known cast surely represents the other. In the pursuit of period authenticity, Jacobs employs a greatly downsized original-instrument ensemble, ...
Embodying the highest ideals of the Enlightenment, Die Jahreszeiten is surely Haydn's supreme masterpiece and the greatest secular choral-orchestral work of the second half of the eighteenth century. It's pantheism at its grandest and the pathetic fallacy at its most glorious, with the whole of nature given voices to sing God's praises. It's ...
Even 20 years ago, shelf space devoted to Bach's Christmas Oratorio was decidedly limited. The work was regarded as minor in comparison with Bach's Passion settings and other large choral pieces. For one thing, it isn't a "work" as today's listeners understand the term, but a linked set of six pieces intended for performance on six nights over the ...
There are those who enjoy hearing Brahms' two sets of Liebeslieder-Walzer performed by a choir and those who enjoy hearing them sung by a quartet, and rarely do the two factions agree. For the former, the rich tone, lush ensemble, and broad rhythms of Robert Shaw's 1992 Atlanta Chorus recording are the way to go. For the latter, only the unique ...
The songs of Schwanengesang were among Schubert's final compositions. He had completed two short sets of songs with texts by Ludwig Rellstab and Heinrich Heine, and after his death his publisher combined them with a final song set to a text by Johann Gabriel Seidl (perhaps to avoid the number of songs being 13) and called them Schubert's "Swansong ...
Paulus, Mendelssohn's two-hour oratorio, is rarely performed today, but during his lifetime it was his most popular work. Elijah is a richer and more musically mature work, and it has a more inherently dramatic story, so it's not surprising that it has eclipsed Paulus' popularity. Paulus demonstrates Mendelssohn admiration for the Passions of Bach ...
If the orchestrally lush, star-studded recordings of Georg Solti represent one end of the Mozartian taste spectrum, then this 1999 Così fan tutte by René Jacobs, the Concerto Köln, and a largely journeyman cast surely represents the other. In the pursuit of period authenticity, Jacobs employs a greatly downsized original-instrument ensemble, ...
Along with the identity of Beethoven's "Immortal Beloved" and the specifics of Franz Schubert's sexual proclivities, the possible love triangle between Robert and Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms has been one of the most chewed-over bits of tabloid musicology. Now, tenor Werner Güra and pianist Christoph Berner have developed a concert program ...
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