Tír Na HiFi

To finish off my Monday Mozart listening, String Quartet K387....





K387 is one of the first of the string quartets that Mozart dedicated to Haydn. These quartets were not written by Mozart as a commission but apparently primarily as an act of pure homage to Haydn who was apparently very taken with them. K387 is a wonderful work whose music sings out throughout the four movements; the melodies are beautiful. The playing by the Quatuor Mosaiques is of course incomparable.

Relistening to the Nielsen symphonies under Blomstedt and the SFSO:



last night it was No. 2. Most enjoyable.

Then the Mandelring Quartet in Janacek's Intimate Letters (viola version: they also offer a reconstction of the original viola d'amore version).



Really excellent! All my other versions are played by Czech quartets (Pavel Haas Quartet, older and younger Talich Quartets, Skampa Quartet), but this shows you don't have to be Czech!

Time to turn up the weirdness factor:



Schnittke's Faust Cantata. Hair-raising at times!

Finally a bit of Hasse and Vinci from Simone Kermes:

Tchaikovsky - Symphony No.6 Pathetique, The Tempest & Romeo and Juliet (Andrew Litton, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Virgin Classics)

Parry - Symphonic Variations & Concertstuck (Matthias Bamert, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Chandos)

Only Gunar Letzbor manages to record these things. Hochreither was a Salzburg born (1669) composer who may (no one knows for sure) have studied with Biber and Muffat. Only 21 compositions survive from him, and most of them were only first published in 2002, so his rediscovery is quite recent.
The Requiem and the Mass are typical Austrian Baroque. I couldn´t claim they are as good as Biber, but they are beautiful and certainly worth having, especially thanks to Letzbor´s efforts.
Excellent recording too.

Parry - From Death to Life & Elegy for Brahms (Matthias Bamert, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Chandos)

Mozart String Quartet K458....





Another one of Mozart’s string quartets dedicated to Haydn. K458 is nicknamed The Hunt because of the jaunting music of its first movement where the strings imitate the sound of the French Horn. Interestingly, this is apparently one of the few instrumental works where Mozart tried to describe some form of activity other than dance. The second movement Minuet is light but very gracious. The slow movement is simply gorgeous with beautiful melodies that are intense yet flow very freely. The final movement is also a light hearted, joyous affair that romps to a lovely conclusion.

Rachmaninoff - Symphonic Dances (Enrique Batiz, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Naxos)

J.S. Bach - Violin Concertos BWV 1041, 1042, 1043, 1060 (Andrew Manze/Rachel Podger, The Academy of Ancient Music, Harmonia Mundi)