The material on this release by Finnish bassoonist Jaakko Luoma with the marvelous Tapiola Sinfonietta under Janne Nisonen may seem obscure enough to be aimed at bassoonists only. They will certainly find a valuable repertory here, but the album is of considerably wider interest. The only remotely familiar work is the Bassoon Concerto in B flat major, K. 191, by the young Mozart, an elegant work in the French style that receives a suitably bittersweet performance. The program opens with Hummel's Bassoon Concerto in F major, WoO 23, never published and rarely played since it was first composed. It shows Hummel in an unusually Mozartian mode, revealing its authorship mostly in the expansive first movement. The second half of the program contains the real find. Peter von Winter's single-movement Bassoon Concertino is an attractive, pleasingly operatic work by this Mannheim composer who, among other things, once wrote a sequel to The Magic Flute. The Bassoon Concerto of 1845 here, credited to Rossini, is of uncertain authorship, but it doesn't matter who wrote it: it's a virtuoso showpiece of the first order, and Luoma's clean rendering is worth the price of admission. Ondine gets fine sonic results from the acoustically superb Tapiola Concert Hall. Highly recommended. James Manheim
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837)
[1]-[3] Bassoon Concerto in F major, WoO 23
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
[4]-[6] Bassoon Concerto in B flat major, K191
Peter von Winter (1754–1825)
[7] Bassoon Concertino in C minor
Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868)
[8]-[10] Bassoon Concerto
Credits :
Jaakko Luoma - Bassoon
Tapiola Sinfonietta
Janne Nisonen - Concertmaster
17.8.24
MOZART • WINTER • HUMMEL • ROSSINI : Bassoon Concertos (Jaakko Luoma · Tapiola Sinfonietta · Janne Nisonen) (2019) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless
20.4.24
11.2.22
SPOHR, HUMMEL, BERWALD, KREUTZER, BEETHOVEN & SCHUBERT : Septets, Octets & Nonets (2006) 6CD | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless
In hard times, everyone is looking for the killer deal. In respect to wind chamber music of the early romantic period, one could hardly do better than with Brilliant Classics' Romantic Ensembles, a six-CD box set that contains much of the major wind literature from the first half of the nineteenth century. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, a fad in Europe for harmoniemusik -- groups of wind bands that usually played potpourris of operatic hits -- was current. Composers such as Hummel, Kreutzer, Spohr, Schubert, Berwald, and Beethoven here seized upon this format to express more complex and ambitious musical concepts. Beethoven's Septet in E flat, Op. 20, though not as highly regarded some of his symphonies in retrospect, played a major role in establishing Beethoven's reputation as a composer. The Schubert Octet in F, D. 803, and Berwald's Grand Septet in B flat were works that looked to Beethoven's as a kind of model; others represented here to some degree tap into the eighteenth century approach to harmoniemusik and forges something new and original out of it. The early nineteenth century was the most fruitful era of any concerning developments in the wind chamber format; as such groups merged into larger units and became more concerned with popular music, interest among composers in producing works like these began to flag in the latter half of the century.
One of the reasons this modest and innocuous-looking box is so desirable is the performances included. These are not just any groups performing these works, but top-flight ensembles -- The Berlin Philharmonic Octet, the Wiener Kammerensemble, and Britain's the Nash Ensemble. The reason that this can be marketed so cheaply is that all are older recordings, but most are at least digital and the performances are all first-rate. Brilliant Classics' Romantic Ensembles would make a lovely gift for a wind player, or someone specifically interested in wind ensemble music, and the modest asking price won't break the bank. by Uncle Dave Lewis
All Tracks & Credits
23.11.19
16.6.19
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