Mozart, Gran Partita Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Serenade in B flat for 13 Wind Instruments K361 'Gran partita'

Wind Soloists of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (on period instruments), directed by Anthony Halstead

Recorded 11-13 April 1997 in All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London

Cover CD of BBC Music Magazine Vol. VI No. 2 (October 1997)

OOP

Mozart & Contemporaries - Stadler Trio

Mozart & Contemporaries

Stadler Trio: Eric Hoeprich, Carles Riera and Albert Gumí
playing on three bassett horns by Theodor Lotz from around 1790

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Divertimento No. 2, KV 439b
Antonio Salieri - Excerpts from Palmira, Regina di Persia (arr. Anton Stadler)
Anton Stadler - Allemante, Masur and Allegretto
Georg Druschetzky - Allegro moderato, Menuetto (Allegretto), Andante, Allegretto (Scherzando) and Allegro
Vicente Martin i Soler - Excerpts from Una Cosa Rara
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Adagio KV 580a for clarinet and three bassett horns (fragment, completed by Franz Beyer; with Robert Sebesta)
Vojtech Nudera - Divertimento

Recorded in 1998 - OOP


(Long time no rip, I know. But the radio broadcasts weren't all that popular, and I had trouble finding an interesting woodwind CD that was out of print. Thanks to Bas for the inspiration!)

BTW, I had to take down a number of old links when RS limited its free storage space to 5 GB a while ago. Please feel free to ask for re-ups!

Dé Nederlander bestaat niet - Calefax

 

My favourite woodwind ensemble played an interesting programme last night in Amsterdam. The title translates as "The Dutchman doesn't exist", with emphasis on the first word. It is a quote from a speech a member of the royal family gave five years ago when she presented an official study about Dutch national identity. It probably wasn't meant as an overtly political statement at the time, but it seems to have become quite controversial. Anyway, this Dutch ensemble uses the phrase to celebrate the many foreign contributions to Dutch music over the centuries. Mostly, the contemporary pieces are original compositions and the older ones arrangements by members of Calefax.



Calefax Rietkwintet

    oboe: Oliver Boekhoorn
    clarinet: Ivar Berix
    alto saxophone: Raaf Hekkema
    bass clarinet: Jelte Althuis
    bassoon: Alban Wesly
 

Dé Nederlander bestaat niet

Pietro Locatelli (1695-1764) - Introduttione teatrale op. 4 no. 1
Klas Torstensson (b. 1951) - Prelude & Encores
Solage (late 14th century) - Fumeux Fume
Ron Ford (b. 1959) - Can vei la lauzeta mover
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621) - Fantasia chromatica
Johann Wilhelm Wilms (1772-1847) - Rondo from Sinfonia no. 4 in c minor, op. 23
Frank Martin (1890-1974) - Trois airs populaires Irlandaises
Graham Fitkin (b. 1963) - Compel
Willy Rex (for Willy Alberti, 1926-1985) - Als een wilde orchidee

Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, live broadcast on Radio 4 (NL), 22 November 2012

A few world premieres

For a change, I'd like to present a couple of recent live concerts, each of which contains at least one work that had its first public performance on this occasion. These are radio broadcasts.

Calefax Reed Quintet:
Oliver Boekhoorn - oboe
Ivar Berix - clarinet
Raaf Hekkema - altosax
Jelte Althuis - bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet
Alban Wesly - bassoon

with Ivo Janssen - piano

Theo Loevendie (*1930) - Ritorno (2012) (world premiere)
Hans Abrahamsen (*1952) - Walden (1978; revised version for reed quintet, 1995)
Klas Torstensson (*1951) - Prelude & Encores (2012) (world premiere)
Yannis Kyriakides (*1969) - Hypothetical Islands (2012) (world premiere)
Carola Bauckholt (*1959) - Zugvögel (2012) (premiered in Witten just a couple of weeks earlier)
Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997) - Three Studies for Player Piano (arr. Raaf Hekkema): nos 11, 3b, 7 (plus no. 3c as an encore)

Muziekgebouw aan't IJ, Amsterdam, 3 May 2012

* * *

Members of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern:
Grigory Mordashov - flute
Veit Stolzenberger - oboe
Rainer Müller-van Recum - clarinet
Benoit Gausse - horn
Guilhaume Santana - bassoon

Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) - La cheminée du roi René op. 205
Giulio Briccialdi (1818-1881) - Wind quintet no. 1 in D op. 124
Vito Žuraj (*1979) - Wind quintet (world premiere)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) - Fantasy in f KV 608 (arr. Wolfgang Sebastian Meyer)
Jean Françaix (1912-1997) - Wind quintet no. 1

HfM University of Music, Saarbrücken, 6 June 2012

Gambaro, Wind Quartets - Consortium Classicum

Vincent (Vincenzo) Gambaro (17??-18??):
Quatuor Concertant No.1 in E Flat Major
Quatuor Concertant No.2 in C Minor
Quatuor Concertant No.3 in F Major
Quatuor Concertant in E Flat Major (d'après compositions de Ludwig van Beethoven)

Consortium Classicum:
Sarah Willis (French Horn), Dieter Klöcker (Clarinet), Kornelia Brandkamp (Flute), Karl-Otto Hartmann (Bassoon)


"Wind bands proliferated throughout early 19th-century Europe, providing charming if largely undemanding light entertainment in noble households. These four of Gambaro’s 16 quartets, fluently played and very subtly balanced, are delightfully unpretentious yet with moments of witty and delightful invention."
George Pratt (BBC Music Magazine)


This CD appeared over a decade ago and stocks seem to be running very low now.

Shostakovich, Brumel, Ockeghem, ter Doest Calefax Reed Quintet

Ton ter Doest - Circusmuziek
Antoine Brumel - Motets "Languente Miseris" and "Nato Canunt Omnia"
Dmitry Shostakovich - Preludes & Fugues for piano Op. 87 No. 1 in C major, No. 4 in E minor, No. 7 in A major and No. 8 in F sharp minor
Johannes Ockeghem - Missa "Fors seulement" for 5 voices (Kyrie, Gloria & Credo only)

Calefax Reed Quintet:
Ivar Berix - Clarinet
Raaf Hekkema - Alto Sax
Lucas van Helsdingen - Alto and Soprano Sax, Bass Clarinet
Alban Wesly - Bassoon
Eduard Wesly - English Horn, Oboe

Out of print

Lessel, Sextets - Consortium Classicum

Franciszek Lessel (c.1780-1838)

Sextets for 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns & Double Bass
(Wind Sextets nos. 1, 3 and 4, all in E flat major)

Consortium Classicum

2007

This CD looks like it's about to go out of print. Better get it soon if you want it.


Said to have been Haydn's favourite pupil Franciszek Lessel has so far evaded a revival of his music. Dieter Klöcker, the director of Consortium Classicum, has assembled scores of the Wind Sextets from the manuscript parts that survive in the Vienna Conservatoire library.

The prospect of three wind sextets for two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns and double bass by an unknown composer whose productive life reached almost forty years into the nineteenth century may not fill you with transports of delight. In fact this is fresh and airy music. Lessel is quite startling at the start of Sextet No. 4 with the strangest dissonant grumble before sweeping the listener up into a typically effervescent Mozartean Allegro molto. This is succeeded by five movements which include a nonchalant Siciliano, a flighty Polonois and a grave Adagio. The shorter, three movement Sextet No. 3 begins with a heartbeat-pulsed Largo which serves as a prelude to a chasseur Allegro Vivace, a placid Adagio, a very brief Menuetto and a final cheery Rondo. By now we are no longer surprised by the bipartite structure of the first movement of the Sextet No. 1 with its serious introduction and bubblingly spirited Marriage of Figaro-style, Allegro con Spirito. It's all charming stuff with an elegantly pointed Menuetto and a winged Rondo Vivace complete with hunting-horn graces.

Pleasing additions to the harmoniemusik repertoire to join Consortium Classicum’s previous efforts for MDG in Süßmayr, Hummel, Weber and Cartellieri.

Rob Barnett (musicweb-international.com)