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HANS BRONSART VON SCHELLENDORF
Oliver Triendl · Nina Karmon · Wen-Sinn Yang Staatskapelle Weimar Eugene Tzigane
Until recently, Bronsart von Schellendorf's career as a composer has been almost completely overlooked. But Liszt was aware of Bronsart’s prowess, referring to his orchestral work Frühlings-Fantasie as “beautiful and invaluable” and later declaring, “I value him as a character and a musician.” Even a cursory listen to the Piano Concerto reveals a composer working in ambitious dimensions and an extrovert musical language. Rich in melodic and emotional content, Bronsart’s piano writing gives ample opportunity for virtuoso display while delivering Bronsart’s musical arguments with power and precision. Bronsart's good friend Hans von Bülow, another pupil of Liszt, had toured the work from 1870 onwards. He took the concerto abroad, giving a concert in Manchester under the baton of Charles Hallé in 1877, by which time the work had secured a temporary foothold in the repertory.
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PAUL BEN-HAIM
Ofer Canetti · Andrei Gologan · Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen Friederike Kienle
Paul Ben-Haim ranks among those leading Israeli composers from his generation. Born Paul Frankenburger in Munich he studied composition with Friedrich Klose and served as an assistant conductor to both Bruno Walter and Hans Knappertsbusch. His extensive catalogue comprises works in all the primary genres apart from opera. Music for or with cello features prominently throughout Ben-Haim’s output. Following emigration, he increasingly advocated a specifically Jewish national expression while his own compositions favoured a late-Romantic vein redolent of – though by no means indebted (unlike other contemporaries) to – Ernest Bloch and frequently informed by Middle-Eastern overtones.
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L. Kashperova
Oliver Triendl Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin · Anna Skryleva
She was Igor Stravinsky's piano teacher and studied herself with Anton Rubinstein. But to this day, her compositions have remained in the shadow of the great male masters. A fate that many women of this era share with her. Although her oeuvre is nowhere near as comprehensive as that of her composing colleagues, these few works still demonstrate incredible talent, mature skill and a deeply romantic Russian sound language that is so typical of this time.
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Hindemith: Cardillac
Chor und Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper · Cornelius Meister
Paris is gripped by fear. A series of murders is leaving a bloody trail through the city. We are talking about E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "Das Fräulein von Scuderi," published in 1819 and often cited as one of the earliest German crime stories. And even though the story is set in the Paris of the time of Louis XIV, the work has a deeply romantic quality, driven by a fascination with genius, coupled with dark passions and terrible crimes. In 1925, Hindemith came into contact with the publicist and poet Ferdinand Lion. To Lion's libretto, influenced by New Objectivity, Paul Hindemith set music that, for all its modernity, consciously takes up historical forms and brings them into play in a neo-baroque manner. The highly acclaimed, star-studded series of performances by the Vienna State Opera is hereby released for the first time as a gripping live recording.
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Kurt Weill - Love Life (1948)
Quirijn de Lang · Stephanie Corley · Orchestra and Chorus of Opera North · James Holmes
As a concept musical, Love Life was a real trailblazer, inspiring musical theatre favourites of the 1960s, 70s and beyond from Cabaret and Chicago (originally subtitled ‘A Musical Vaudeville’) to Sondheim’s Company (told through a series of vignettes). It is “one of Weill’s best scores” (conductor Jim Holmes), a masterpiece of putting different musical styles together, “a compendium of American musical idioms, cunningly chosen so that they suit the dramatic material”. Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner teamed up in 1947, both riding high on recent successes (Street Scene for Weill, Brigadoon for Lerner) and looking for new projects. When Love Life premiered on Broadway in 1948, Weill called it “an entirely new form of theatre.” Stephen Sondheim denoted it as “a useful influence on my own work.”
