MOZART: PIANO CONCERTOS; BEETHOVEN: CHORAL FANTASY - FOLDES (2 CDS)
MOZART: PIANO CONCERTOS; BEETHOVEN: CHORAL FANTASY - FOLDES (2 CDS)
FORMAT (CD, LP, DVD?)
FORMAT (CD, LP, DVD?)
Describing his experience as a youth in Hungary hearing Bruno Walter play and conduct a Mozart concerto, the Hungarian pianist, Andor Foldes, stated that all in attendance ‘were happy, so obviously happy, in the service of a higher power – Mozart’s spirit’. His own fidelity to the spirit as well as the letter of music from the Classical era was happily captured on record over the best part of two decades by Deutsche Grammophon.
The pianist’s ‘craftsman-like approach’ to Beethoven was warmly appreciated in Gramophone (March 2018) by Rob Cowan, reviewing two Eloquence albums of sonatas and variations (482 7053 & 482 5854), who noted how Foldes seems ‘absolutely at home in the recording studio … His playing is a pleasure to listen to on its own terms, rather like enjoying the precise workings of a meticulously engineered watch movement.’
These qualities of precision and transparency are, it could be argued, still more germane to the performance of Mozart. The earliest recording presented in this collection is the 1954 account of the G major Concerto KV 453 which reveals to perfection Foldes’s singing sonority and seamless legato; his crystalline trills, fluid arpeggios and deftly-defined finger-work in the first movement are particularly beguiling. His 1963 reading of the Concerto No. 25 in C major KV 503 features beautifully burnished lines and attentive balance between melodic and harmonic elements, the interplay between orchestra and soloist being remarkably cohesive.
Mark Ainley’s booklet essay documents a rehearsal where Foldes encouraged his musicians to ‘put a little smile on the face of the music’ in the Concerto KV 467, surely the sunniest and most untroubled of the mature concertos or so it seems in this 1957 recording. In all the concertos he receives richly textured support from the Berliner Philharmoniker who are also on hand for the substantial ‘bonus’ of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, making this album an essential complement to the Eloquence reissue of the composer’s First and Fifth Concertos (482 7048).
‘The solo playing, the singing and the orchestral playing are all in the highest degree sensitive, and they are all given every chance by a first-class recording. In particular, the piano comes off well.’ Gramophone, April 1956 (Beethoven)
‘Among the better recordings of these masterworks … [Foldes] is favoured with excellent orchestral support and generally first-rate recording.’ High Fidelity, July 1958 (Concertos K453, K467)
CD 1
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Concerto No. 10 in E flat major for Two Pianos & Orchestra, KV 365
Carl Seemann, piano I
Andor Foldes, piano II
Berliner Philharmoniker
Fritz Lehmann
Piano Concerto No. 15 in B flat major, KV 450*
Berliner Philharmoniker
Leopold Ludwig
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, KV 467*
Berliner Philharmoniker
Paul Schmitz
CD 2
Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, KV 453*
Berliner Philharmoniker
Fritz Lehmann
Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, KV 503*
Berliner Philharmoniker
Leopold Ludwig
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Fantasia in C minor for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 80*
RIAS Kammerchor
Berliner Motettenchor
Berliner Philharmoniker
Fritz Lehmann
Andor Foldes, piano
BIG SPRING CLEARANCE SALE
-
A Treasury of English Keyboard Music - Gerald Gifford
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
AMERICAN CLARINET (Reich: New York Counterpoint; Carter: Clarinet Concerto; Adams: Gnarly Buttons; Sandroff: Tephillah)
Regular price €8,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Amor de Lohn: The Distant Love Of The Troubadors - Martin Best Ensemble
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
AVE REX ANGELORUM: CAROLS AND MUSIC TRACING THE JOURNEY FROM CHRIST THE KING TO EPIPHANY: CHOIR OF KEBLE COLLEGE, OXFORD
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Bach Family: Chamber Music For Two Flutes
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
BACH: 6 Brandenburg Concertos (1953 Aldeburgh Festival Opening Concert) - Britten, English Chamber Orchestra (2 CDs)
Regular price €9,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
BACH: 6 Partitas, BWV 825 - 830 - GUSTAV LEONHARDT (2 CDs)
Regular price €9,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
BACH: Brandenburg Concertos 1-4 - ACADEMY OF ST MARTIN in THE FIELDS, SIR NEVILLE MARRINER
Regular price €8,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Bach: Complete Works For Organ, Vol. 10 - Kevin Bowyer (2 CDs)
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Bach: Keyboard Concertos BWV 1053-1058 - Nick van Bloss, English Chamber Orchestra
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Bach: Mass In B Minor, BWV 232 - SCHWARZKOPF / KARAJAN / VIENNA PHILHARMONIC (2 CDs)
Regular price €9,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Bach: The Partitas BWV 825-830 - Virginia Black, piano (2 CDs)
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Bach: Works For Harpsichord - Richard Lester (2 CDs)
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Balanchine's Jewels - MARIINSKY BALLET AND ORCHESTRA (Blu-Ray)
Regular price €9,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Beethoven: Complete Sonatas For Violin & Piano and Cello & Piano - PAUL TORTELIER, CHRISTIAN FERRAS, ERIC HEIDSIECK, PIERRE BARBIZET (5 CDS)
Regular price €14,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Beethoven: String Quartets Op. 18/3, Op. 18/5 & Op. 135 - ARTEMIS QUARTET
Regular price €7,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Beethoven: Symphonies 1, 2, 3 & 8 - WOLFGANG SAWALLISCH, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (2 CDs)
Regular price €9,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Beethoven: Symphonies 4 & 6 - SIMON RATTLE, VIENNA PHILARMONIC
Regular price €8,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Beethoven: Two Romances; Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto; Schubert: Konzertstuck: RONALD THOMAS, BOURNEMOUTH SINFONIETTA
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Beethoven: Variations For Piano - JOHN OGDON, EMIL GILELS
Regular price €8,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per