Canadian Brass - J.S. Bach ~ The Art of Fugue

The Art of the Fugue represents Johann Sebastian Bach's last musical gift to the world, standing as a thorough investigation of contrapuntal art through fugal style and technique. Bach had become musically "old-fashioned" within his lifetime, and, indeed, the year of his death is used to mark the end of the Baroque era. The Art of the Fugue can be said to comprehen­sively sum up an art form on which much of Bach's life's work had been based.

Two basic sources were available for developing the Canadian Brass' performing edition of The Art of the Fugue: first, copies of the original manuscript in Bach's own hand and, second, editions based on the first published edition (posthumous) of 1750. For clarity, the numbering system of the first published version has been maintained for this recording, but the performing order corresponds more closely to the original autograph version.

The Art of the Fugue uses a single D-minor subject or theme as its basis, clearly stated and answered at the opening of Contrapunctus I. Then begins a fascinating journey through all the possible techniques that Bach was able to call upon to treat this subject and other companion subjects fugally. The Art of the Fugue contains four "simple" fugues (I, II, III, IV), three stretto fugues (V, VI, VII), two double fugues (IX, X), two triple fugues (VIII, XI), and two "mirror" fugues (XII, XIII). The last fugue of the set (XIV) was to have been a quadruple fugue. Having already introduced three themes, the third of which was his own signature BACH (in German nomenclature B = B-flat and H = B natural), he was about to crown this last fugue with the main D-minor theme. However, illnesses from which he never recovered required him to abandon this work in order to dictate his last work: "Vor deinen Thron tret' ich hiermit." Although modern research

argues several other chronological possibilities, tradition seems to demand inclusion of this famous chorale prelude. Recording Bach's The Art of the Fugue heralds the coming of age for the

Brass Quintet medium. Brass can quite justifiably perform this work because of Bach's intentional avoidance in indicating specific instruments of his era to perform it. Thusly, The Art of the Fugue transcends mere time boundaries and becomes the cornerstone of an enduring repertory for a wide variety of instruments, including brass.

The Canadian Brass began its investigation of The Art of the Fugue in 1970. This led to a radio concert for the Canadian Broadcasting Corpora­tion, giving the group the opportunity to work intensively with the well-known Toronto Bach authority Reginald Godden. In 1976 the Brass had the first of many meetings with the legendary Glenn Gould. It was during these meetings that The Art of the Fugue was first conceived as a recording project. From Glenn's insight and advice, the Brass was encouraged to bring this project to fruition. It was producer James Mallinson's great love of The Art of the Fugue and his high regard for Arthur Frackenpohl's transcription that provided critical momentum.

The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080

tracks

01. Contrapunctus I.Andante Sostenuto (2:43)

02. Contrapunctus III.Andante Espressivo e Dolce (2:21)

03. Contrapunctus II.Allegro Moderato e Ritmico (2:44)

04. Contrapunctus IV.Allegro Moderato (3:35)

05. Contrapunctus V.Allegro Energico (2:21)

06. Contrapunctus IX.Vivace (3:14)

07. Contrapunctus X.Allegro Moderato (3:06)

08. Contrapunctus VI.Andante Ritmico (3:34)

09. Contrapunctus VII.Larghetto Maestoso (2:45)

10. Contrapunctus VIII.Allegro (4:52)

11. Contrapunctus XI.Allegro Moderato (4:33)

12. Contrapunctus XII.(Rectus), Lento (2:21)

13. Contrapunctus XII.(Inversus), Lento (2:20)

14. Contrapunctus XIII.(Rectus), Allegro Spiritoso (2:25)

15. Contrapunctus XIII.(Inversus), Allegro Spiritoso (2:28)

16. Contrapunctus XIV.Maestoso (unfinished) (7:07)

17. Contrapunctus XIVb.Chorale prelude: "Vor deinen Thron tret' ich hiermit (4:05)

Contrapunctus IX.Vivace

Contrapunctus XIII.(Inversus), Allegro Spiritoso

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ~ Flute and Harp Concerto / Basson Concerto

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Concerto In B flat for bassoon and orchestra, K191/186e Concerto in G for flute and orchestra, K313/285c Andante in C for flute and orchestra, K315/285e Concerto in C for flute, harp and orchestra, K299/297c

Apart from his unique endowment with taste and technique, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was fortunate also in another respect: he was lucky enough to have lived in an age not only of philosophical, but also of stylistic enlightenment. Succeeding generations have fixed on particular aspects of his art and blown them up, usually out of all proportion. But there are many Mozart’s and many styles, each individual style governed by its own laws according to the requirements of each individual work. Our age's obsession, still, with the 'daemonic' aspects of Mozart's music has tended to obscure the many other facets of his genius.
The Concerto in 8 flat for bassoon and orchestra, K191/186e, illustrates to perfection one fascinating technical aspect of Mozart's creativity: his ability to think himself into the character of a particular voice or instrument and to allow the music to arise out of the nature of the means to hand. The unknown recipient of this sunny, tuneful work, completed in Salzburg in June 1774, was no doubt delighted by the opportunities provided for showing off the instrument's particular capabilities. In the opening Allegro, cantabile melodic writing blends effortlessly with rapid scale passages, repeated-note phrases and great leaps - the latter also a feature of solo vocal music, especially of opera seria arias or those of a mock seria cast. Indeed, humor is never far away here: particularly captivating is the bassoon's perfectly poised counterpoint to the 'second subject' given out by the first violins.
A more tender note is struck by the slow movement, which has the singular marking 'Andante ma adagio'. Such a poetic melodic outpouring - enhanced by the muted strings, and all the more telling for its brevity - makes one feel most keenly the loss of the handful of bassoon concertos that Mozart was believed to have composed but whose existence has not been substantiated. As in the Concertone for two violins, K190/186E, dated only four days before the concerto, Mozart concludes with a minuet-rondo finale, whose loose-limbed decorative structure acts as a perfect foil, both emotionally and technically, to the preceding movements.

The Academy of Ancient Music 
The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) is a period-instrument orchestra based in Cambridge, England. Founded by harpsichordist Christopher Hogwood in 1973, it was named after a previous organisation of the same name of the 18th century. The musicians play on either original instruments or modern copies of instruments from the period of time the music was composed. They generally play Baroque and Classical music, though they have also played some new compositions for baroque orchestra in recent years.
The original Academy of Ancient Music was founded in London, England in 1726 for the purpose of studying and performing "old" music — defined initially as anything composed at least a century earlier. This soon grew to include more contemporary composers, including William Croft, Michael Christian Festing, Maurice Greene, Bernard Gates, Giovanni Bononcini, Senesino, Nicola Haym, Francesco Geminiani, Pier Francesco Tosi, John Ernest Galliard, Charles Dieupart, Jean-Baptiste Loeillet and Giuseppe Riva. Handel was never a member, although the society studied and performed his music as well as their own, and that of other composers of the day. Directors of the organization included Johann Christoph Pepusch (from 1735 onward), Benjamin Cooke and Samuel Arnold (from 1789 onwards).

tracks
01. Flute and Harp Concerto C major, K299 - I Allegro (10:49)
02. Flute and Harp Concerto C major, K299 - II Andantino (8:26)
03. Flute and Harp Concerto C major, K299 - III Rondeau (9:45)
04. Andante for flute and orchestra C major, K315 - C-Dur (5:39)
05. Bassoon Concerto B flat major K191 - I Allegro (6:04)
06. Bassoon Concerto B flat major K191 - II Andante ma adagio (5:36)
07. Bassoon Concerto B flat major K191 - III Rondo: Tempo di Menuetto (4:08)
08. Flute Concerto No 1 G major, K313 - I Allegro maestoso (8:21)
09. Flute Concerto No 1 G major, K313 - II Adagio ma non troppo (8:24)
10. Flute Concerto No 1 G major, K313 - III Rondo: Tempo di Menuetto (7:37)

Andante for flute and orchestra C major, K315 - C-Dur

Bassoon Concerto B flat major K191 - III Rondo: Tempo di Menuetto

Michala Petri ~ Blockflötenkonzerte / Recorder Concertos

In the history of European music, the recorder - a very early wind instrument - achieved its fullest potential during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. At that time, the models that were built included not only recorders corresponding to the registers of the human voice -soprano, alto, tenor, and bass - but also instruments in a number of intermediate, higher, and lower registers. The recorder was in general use in chamber and orchestral music, especially in Germany and England. From about 1700 on it encountered a strong rival in the transverse flute, whose more rounded and versatile tone suited the susceptibilities of the emergent Rococo period, and after 1750 it was ousted for many years from usual instrumental ensembles. For this reason it had only a limited opportunity to participate as a soloist in the concertante forms which had evolved in Italy. Even so, of the 16 flute concertos that Vivaldi wrote in all, six alone are for the recorder, three of these being for the sopranino. His Concerto in C does not merely sound idiomatic (by no means a foregone conclusion in music of that time), but also shows a sense of humor. There is much wit and high spirit in the way that the solo instrument, chirping inimitably in its highest register, is given extremely virtuosic material in the quick outer movements. Various concertos with occasional recorder solos as well as recorder concertos proper have also come down to us from the two Sammartini brothers, Giovanni Battista and Giuseppe. Giuseppe's concertos are relatively conservative in construction and combine polyphonic writing in the older manner with modern stylistic elements akin to those of the early Classical sinfonia.
Telemann wrote more than 20 concertos for the recorder, besides frequently using the instrument for prominent solo passages in his concerti grossi. A particularly bold venture was a double concerto in which he had the recorder and the transverse flute play together as equal partners. Italian influence is unmistakable in most of his concertos, but he was also thoroughly conversant with the modern manner of his day. Handel used the recorder in his chamber music and sometimes too in his operatic works for characterization or pictorial effect. His only concerto for the instrument

MICHALA PETRI

Born in Copenhagen, Michala Petri studied at the Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik und Theater in Hanover from 1969 until 1976. She made her first professional appearance with the Danish radio in 1964 at the age of eight and her debut as a soloist with orchestra in 1969 at the Tivoli. Since then she has given hundreds of concerts in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, West and East Germany, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, and Great Britain, many of them with her own trio, formed in 1969. Everywhere critics and public have acclaimed her astonishing virtuosity in a repertoire ranging from the early Baroque to Berio's "Gesti." Several leading Scandinavian composers have also written works specially for her. She received the Danish Critics' Prize of Honor in 1976 and the Nordring Radio Prize in 1977, and has twice been awarded the Jacob Gade Prize, in 1969 and 1975.

tracks
01. Vivaldi - Concerto in C-Major, RV 443 - I. Allegro (3:53)
02. Vivaldi - Concerto in C-Major, RV 443 - II. Largo (3:54)
03. Vivaldi - Concerto in C-Major, RV 443 - III. Allegro molto (2:56)
04. Sammartini - Concerto in F-Majore - I. Allegro (3:38)
05. Sammartini - Concerto in F-Majore - II. Siciliano (5:06)
06. Sammartini - Concerto in F-Majore - III. Allegro assai (3:53)
07. Telemann - Concerto in C-Majore - I. Allegretto (3:38)
08. Telemann - Concerto in C-Majore - II. Allegro (3:17)
09. Telemann - Concerto in C-Majore - III. Andante (4:24)
10. Telemann - Concerto in C-Majore - IV. Tempo di minuet (4:03)
11. Haendel - Concerto in F-Major - Op. 4#5, HWV 29 - I. Larghetto - Allegro (3:55)
12. Haendel - Concerto in F-Major - Op. 4#5, HWV 29 - II. Alla siciliana - Presto (3:42)
mp3, 320kbps, artwork

Vivaldi - Concerto in C-Major, RV 443 - I. Allegro

Leonard Bernstein and New York Philharmonic - Handel ~ Messiah (highlights)

Messiah is unquestionably Handel's most popular work and has been called by the German musicologist Hugo Leichtentritt "one of those mysterious marvels of great art that appear but once in a century!' George Bernard Shaw, as a music critic in the last decade of the nineteenth century wrote "My favorite oratorio is the Messiah, with which I have spent many of the hours which others give to Shakespeare, or Scott, or Dickens." These highlights from Messiah are offered, in the words of Leonard Bernstein, "in the spirit of deep love for the music and reverence for its textual significance.

tracks

01. Air - Every valley shall be exaulted (3:31)
02. Chorus - And the Glory of the Lord (3:08)
03. Chorus - And He shall purify (2:40)
04. Air - O thou that tellest good tidings to zion (5:26)
05. Chorus - For unto us a Child is born (3:56)
06. Air - He shall feed His flock (6:42)
07. Chorus - Lift up your heads (3:09)
08. Chorus - Hallelujah! (4:49)
09. Air - I know my redeemer liveth (8:08)
10. Air - The trumpet shall sound (4:01)
11. Chorus: Worthy is the Lamb - Blessing and honour - Amen (7:17)

Chorus - And the Glory of the Lord

Radetzky Marsch ~ Herbert von Karajan

tracks
1. Johann Strauss (Vater) - Radetzky-Marsch op. 228 (2:28)
2. Josef Strauss - Sphärenklänge op. 235 (9:51)
3. Johann Strauss - Perpetuum Mobile op. 257 (2:55)
4. Josef Strauss - Delirien-Walzer op. 212 (9:44)
5. Johann Strauss - G'schichten aus dem Wienerwald op. 325 (13:14)
6. Johann Strauss - "Die Fledermaus" : Quadrille op. 363 (5:11)
7. Johann Strauss - Wiener Blut op. 354 (8:53)
8. Johann Strauss - Napoleon-Marsch op. 156 (1:46)

Johann Strauss - Perpetuum Mobile

Vladimir Ashkenazy ~ Rachmaninov Transcriptions

Although he has recorded almost all of Rachmaninov's music, Vladimir Ashkenazy is not a pianist one would expect to be attracted to the composer's transcriptions--or to play them as well as he does on this disc. Ashkenazy has a deserved reputation for sobriety, seriousness, and faithfulness to the composer's texts. These qualities do not usually accord with a taste for transcriptions, which celebrate the resources of the piano and the legerdemain of the virtuoso. But time seems to have softened Ashkenazy's puritanism. It's hard to think of anyone--save the composer himself--who has ever played so many of these transcriptions so well. In Rachmaninov's arrangement of the Scherzo from Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Ashkenazy attacks the famously difficult passages--with their crossed hands, thick chords, and awkwardly positioned repeated notes--and achieves results superior to those of pianists who are considered specialists in this kind of literature. The energy, delicacy, and transparency of his interpretation make Bolet's sound labored and Wild's heavy-handed. Ashkenazy's approach to these pieces resembles Rachmaninov's: lean, swift, and unsentimental. His performance of the transcription of Tchaikovsky's song "Lullaby," for example, moves at a dry-eyed pace and with a disciplined rhythm similar to that heard on the composer's own recording. But unsentimental does not mean lack of feeling. In this piece, and elsewhere on the disc, Ashkenazy surpasses his peers in capturing Rachmaninov's poignancy and passion, as well as his nostalgia for the Russia he would never see again.

tracks

01. J.S. Bach Partita in E major for solo violinI. Preludio (3:31)

02. J.S. Bach Partita in E major for solo violinII. Gavotte (2:41)

03. J.S. Bach Partita in E major for solo violinIII. Gigue (1:40)

04. Schubert WohinDie schöne Müllerin (2:47)

05. Mendelssohn ScherzoA Midsummer Night's Dream (4:25)

06. BizetMinuetL'Arlésienne Suite No.1 (3:03)

07. Mussorgsky HopakSorochintsy Fair (1:38)

08. Rimsky-Korsakov Flight of the Bumblebee (1:16)

09. Tchaikovsky Lullaby, Op.16 No.1 (4:03)

10. Polka de W.R.after Franz BehrScherzpolka (3:44)

11. Rachmaninov Lilacs, Op.21 No.5 (2:21)

12. Rachmaninov Daisies, Op.38 No.3 (2:23)

13. Fritz Kreisler Liebesleid (4:16)

14. Fritz KreislerLiebesfreud (5:50)

15. Rachmaninov Six Morceaux, Op.11 for piano, four hands I. Barcarolle (6:07)

16. Rachmaninov Six Morceaux, Op.11 for piano, four hands II. Scherzo (3:09)

17. Rachmaninov Six Morceaux, Op.11 for piano, four hands III. Thème russe (4:27)

18. Rachmaninov Six Morceaux, Op.11 for piano, four hands IV. Valse (4:10)

19. Rachmaninov Six Morceaux, Op.11 for piano, four hands V. Romance (3:28)

20. Rachmaninov Six Morceaux, Op.11 for piano, four hands VI. Slava (5:11)

21. Rachmaninov Waltzfor piano, six hands (1:23)

22. Rachmaninov Romancefor piano, six hands (3:53)

23. Rachmaninov Italian Polkafor piano, four hands, and trumpet (1:47)

24. Rachmaninov The Star-Spangled BannerJohn Smith, transc. Rachmaninov (1:24)

 J.S. Bach Partita in E major for solo violinI. Preludio

Mendelssohn ScherzoA Midsummer Night's Dream

Franz Schubert ~ Trout Quintet - Trio Notturno

The Trout Quintet is the popular name for the Piano Quintet in A major by Franz Schubert. In Otto Erich Deutsch's catalogue of Schubert's works, it is D. 667. The work was composed in 1819,when Schubert was only 22 years old; it was not published, however, until 1829, a year after his death.

Rather than the usual piano quintet lineup of piano and string quartet, Schubert's piece is written for piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass. The composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel had rearranged his own Septet for the same instrumentation, and the Trout was actually written for a group of musicians coming together to play Hummel's work.

The piece is known as the Trout because the fourth movement is a set of variations on Schubert's earlier Lied "Die Forelle" (The Trout). Apparently, the quintet was written for Sylvester Paumgartner, of Steyr in Upper Austria, a wealthy music patron and amateur cellist, who also suggested that Schubert include a set of variations on the Lied. Sets of variations on melodies from his Lieder are found in four other works by Schubert: the Death and the Maiden Quartet, the "Trockne Blumen" Variations for Flute and Piano (D. 802), the Wanderer Fantasy, and the Fantasia in C major for Violin and Piano (D. 934, on "Sei mir gegrüßt").

The rising sextuplet figure from the song's accompaniment is used as a unifying motif throughout the quintet, and related figures appear in four out of the five movements - all but the Scherzo. As in the song, the figure is usually introduced by the piano, ascending.

Compared to other major chamber works by Schubert, such as the last three string quartets and the string quintet, the Trout Quintet is a leisurely work, characterized by lower structural coherence, especially in its outer movements and the Andante. These movements contain unusually long repetitions of previously stated material, perhaps transposed, with little or no structural reworking aimed at generating an overall unified dramatic design ("mechanical" in Martin Chusid's words).

The importance of the piece stems mainly from the use of an original and innovative harmonic language, rich in mediants and chromaticism, and from the timbral characteristics of the piece. As regards the latter, the Trout Quintet has a unique sonority among other chamber works for piano and strings, due mainly to the piano part, which for substantial sections of the piece concentrates on the highest register of the instrument, with both hands playing the same melodic line an octave apart. Such writing occurs also in other chamber works by Schubert, such as the piano trios, but to a much lesser extent, and is characteristic of Schubert's works for piano four-hands, one of his most personal musical genres. Such timbral writing may have influenced the works of Romantic composers such as Frédéric Chopin, who admired Schubert's music for piano four-hands

tracks

1. Allegro Vivace (14:31)

2. Andante (7:01)

3. Scherzo; Presto (4:25)

4. Theme and Variations (8:06)

5. Allegro giusto (7:03)

6. Trio "Notturno" (9:21)

Theme and Variations