Nino Rota - Chamber Music

Kremerata Musica

Anna Maria Pammer: soprano
Felix Renggli: flute
Sharon Bezaly: flute
Markus Deuter: oboe
Heinz Holliger: oboe
Bernhard Zachhuber: clarinet
Elmar Schmid: clarinet
Radovan Vlatkovic: horn
Volker Altmann: horn
Klaus Thunemann: bassoon
Lorelei Dowling: bassoon
Maria Graf: harp
Hanna Weinmeister: violin
Gidon Kremer: violin
Gérard Caussé: viola
Firmiam Lermer: viola
Howard Penny: cello
Erich Hehenberger: double bass
Alena Chernushenko: piano
Mascha Smirnov: piano
Marino Formenti: piano
Oleg Maisenberg: piano
Hagen Quartet: string quartet


Lossless: Ape (img + cue + log) = 241 mb
Lossy: Mp3 (lame "preset standard") = 97 mb
Artwork @ 300dpi = 20 mb

Total playing time: 71:52
Recorded 1996 | Released 1997

Recording:
1996, Lockenhaus Festival, Austria (recorded live)

BIS-CD-870

Track listing:
1. Piccola Offerta Musicale for wind quintet (1943)
2. Sarabanda e Toccata per Arpa (1945) - 1 Sarabanda
3. Sarabanda e Toccata per Arpa (1945) - 2 Toccata
4. Trio per flauto, Violino e Pianoforte (1958) - 1 Allegro ma non troppo
5. Trio per flauto, Violino e Pianoforte (1958) - 2 Andante sostenuto
6. Trio per flauto, Violino e Pianoforte (1958) - 3 Allegro vivace con spirito
7. Ippolito gioca per Pianoforte (1930)
8. Il Presepio for soprano and string quartet (1958)
9. Catilena (1971)
10. Intermezzo per Viola e Pianoforte
11. Puccettino nella giungla (1971)
12. Nonetto (1959) - 1 Allegro
13. Nonetto (1959) - 2 Andante
14. Nonetto (1959) - 3 Allegro con spirito
15. Nonetto (1959) - 4 Canzone con Variazioni
16. Nonetto (1959) - 5 Vivacissimo

Reviews:
Gramophone
As with other composers who have made a big reputation with film scores (Rósza and Alwyn, to take but two examples), Nino Rota's numerous other compositions - concertos, oratorios, ballets and operas, including the entertaining Italian Straw Hat and Two Shy People - have tended to be overlooked; and these recordings from Gidon Kremer's festival last year in the little Austrian town of Lockenhaus provide an interesting focus on his chamber-music output. He was not a profound composer nor an avant-gardist, but contented himself with writing music skilfully crafted and immediately accessible, sometimes lapsing into the merely facile but, at its best, concise and tonally adventurous, with refreshingly clean, economical textures and disclosing a gift for long-breathed lines.
The most substantial work here is the Nonet, which Rota revised over a period of nearly two decades until 1977. The first and third of its five movements are characterized by a cheeky cheerfulness; the ingenious and engaging variations that constitute the fourth movement provide a showcase for each of the instruments in the ensemble. Also enjoyable is the earlier Trio, especially its finale, largely a brilliant moto perpetuo: its first movement is boisterously busy, with reflective interludes, its central Andante revealing pensive contrapuntal lines, though with a disturbed middle section that suggests some sense of frustration. Working backwards chronologically, the Intermezzo for viola is predominantly melancholy, with ong melodic contours, but with a diversity of mood; and the ternary Little Musical Offering (dedicated to Rota's teacher Casella) is both charming and effervescent: it is not only the wind quintet scoring that makes me think of the French school, Jean Françaix in particular. This work - like everything else on this disc, indeed - is expertly played, and the recording throughout is exemplary. (A pity about a cougher in the 17-year-old's piece for soprano and string quartet: otherwise there's no suspicion that an audience was present.)

Click here to preview
Click here to download

Haydn - The Seven Last Words From The Cross

Gidon Kremer: violin
Kathrin Rabus: violin
Gerard Caussé: viola
Ko Iwasaki: violoncello

Lossless: Ape (img + cue + log) = 269 mb
Lossy: Mp3 (lame "preset standard") = 92 mb
Scans @ 300dpi = 12 mb

Total playing time: 67:02

Recorded: July 1981, Loenen a/d Vecht, The Netherlands

Released: 1981, Philips 412 878-2

Track listing:
1. Introduction (Maestoso ed adagio)
2. I: Largo - "Pater, dimitte illis; non enim sciunt, quid faciunt"
3. II: Grave e cantabile - "Amen dico tibi: hodie mecum eris in paradiso"
4. III: Grave - "Mulier, ecce filius tuus, et tu, ecce mater tua!"
5. IV: Largo - "Eli, Eli, lama asabthani?"
6. V: Adagio - "Sitio"
7. VI: Lento - "Consumatum est"
8. VII: Largo - "Pater, in tuas manus commendo spiritum meum"

Reviews:
Gramophone 1983
Haydn wrote his orchestral setting for The Seven Last Words of our Saviour on the Cross in 1786, in response to a request from a canon of Cádiz. As the composer himself said, some 15 years later: "The effect in performance was not a little enhanced by the following circumstances. The walls, windows and pillars of the church were hung with black cloth, and only one large lamp hanging from the centre of the roof broke the solemn blackness... After a short service the bishop ascended the pulpit, pronounced the first of the seven words (or sentences) and delivered a discourse thereon. This ended, he left the pulpit, and prostrated himself before the altar. The interval was filled by music. The bishop then in like manner pronounced the second word, then the third, and so on, the orchestra following on the conclusion of each discourse. My composition was subject to these conditions, and it was no easy task to compose seven adagios lasting ten minutes each, and to succeed one another without fatiguing the listeners; indeed, I found it quite impossible to confine myself to the appointed limits."

Haydn made a string quartet arrangement in 1787, and gave his blessing to a piano arrangement published by Artaria in the same year; he also made a choral version in 1796 with words adapted by Baron van Swieten. I am convinced that this latter version (of which no recording is at present available) is the most effective of the four unless the music is heard in circumstances similar to those of the original Spanish performance, for, despite the poignant beauty of the separate movements as instrumental pieces, the listener undeniably runs some risk of fatigue when hearing them in close succession, without some aural or visual relief. The string quartet version was made for domestic use, and for the enjoyment of the players rather than of a captive audience; and of the various recordings of the work by a string quartet the most successful one remains, to my mind, that by the Aeolian Quartet, in which the movements are separated by a selection of poems beautifully delivered by Sir Peter Pears (Decca HDNV82, 9/77). That much said, I have nothing but the highest praise for this vividly recorded new Philips digital version, which features playing of great sensitivity and finesse, and which, with all repeats observed, has a total playing time of appreciably more than one hour.

Gramophone 1986
This is one of those beautifully realized recreations of a small group playing in a largish room at which the Philips producer/engineers excel. Details are not given as to who was responsible for this example but, eyes closed, one can picture each player, sense their effort, respond to their emotion and feel the elan when a little bit of 'business' comes off. I would not recommend taking in the whole 67 minutes at one go, but this is certainly a disc to come back to. Note the fine sounding viola.

Click here to download

Beethoven - The Violin Sonatas [Kremer]

Gidon Kremer: violin
Martha Argerich: piano

Lossless: Ape (img + cue) = 962 mb
Lossy: n.a.
Artwork included

This post is kindly provided by dulcisruby! A big thank you!

Click here to download

ALSO ON THIS BLOG:
Click here to download the Perlman/Ashkenazy version
Click here to download the Grumiaux/Haskil version