Mostrando postagens com marcador Hoffmeister. F (1754-1812). Mostrar todas as postagens
Mostrando postagens com marcador Hoffmeister. F (1754-1812). Mostrar todas as postagens
14.1.21
FRANZ ANTON HOFFMEISTER : Complete Works for Viola (2004) APE (image+.cue), lossless
Music publisher, friend, benefactor to Mozart, and respected composer Franz Anton Hoffmeister was a significant figure in late eighteenth century Vienna; his star did not fade until well into the nineteenth century, when he was eventually disparaged as a mediocrity. Yet Hoffmeister could have no better advocates than violist Ashan Pillai and conductor Christopher Hogwood, who have restored some of this composer's reputation in a delightful album of his complete works for viola. Pillai's idiomatic and sensitive solos and Hogwood's fastidious direction of the Gulbenkian Orchestra elevate the music to a high level of elegance and charm, and it becomes apparent from these performances that Hoffmeister was much better than his detractors claimed. The brilliantly virtuosic Concerto in D major has remained a staple of the violist's repertoire and is the most familiar piece here. However, the warmly lyrical Concerto in B flat deserves equal attention; its intimacy makes it a perfect foil for the more extroverted and flamboyant work. The Etudes (12) for solo viola, previously unrecorded, reflect both Hoffmeister's technical acumen and expressive depth, and Pillai, who clearly regards them as something more than studies, renders them with a Classicist's fine balance of skill and feeling. The sound quality is fine, with credible presence and natural resonance. by Blair Sanderson
21.8.20
HOFFMEISTER, C.P. STAMITZ : Viola Concertos (Victoria Chiang) (2010) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless
The concerto repertory for the viola is not large, and the Naxos label figures to do well among violists themselves with this trio of concertos from the late 18th century. The reason for the paucity of Classical-era viola concertos, at least, was that then as now there were few specialist viola virtuosos. The exception to the rule, however, was composer Carl Philipp Stamitz, whose Viola Concerto No. 1 in D major of 1773, heard here, is one of the standards of the repertory. Stamitz also apparently composed music for viola d'amore, which would be nice to hear sometime, but Baltimore-based violist Victoria Chiang and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra under Markand Thakar deliver a decent performance of the viola concerto here, with a feel for its most distinctive quality: its large, discursive structure. This concerto, composed in Mannheim, comes from a different world from Mozart's Vienna; in place of Viennese compactness there is a large orchestra (perhaps reflecting the continuing influence of the Mannheim school, although the work was apparently composed elsewhere) with which the viola carries on a surprising variety of dialogues. These include, at times, passages in which the solo viola is set against the divided violas of the orchestra, an effect of which Mozart would hardly have thought. The solo part itself includes multiple stops, harmonics, and passagework worthy of a true virtuoso; Chiang never lets you imagine the sweat. The two concertos by Vienna's Franz Anton Hoffmeister, generally known as the dedicatee of Mozart's String Quartet in D major, K. 499, have rarely been recorded; they're competent examples of the Mozartian style, with peppy melodies, but they're not on the level of the Stamitz concerto. The sound, from an auditorium at Baltimore's Goucher College, is pretty basic, and in general this release is oriented toward those with specialist interests, but the Stamitz performance is very fine. by James Manheim 
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An exploration of the traces left by Celtic music on its journey from European music into jazz. In "Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic," ...
