Gawlick / Hugo Wolf Quartett - Imagined Memories - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The Stradivari Quartet shines in this collection that rightfully elevates Mozart's Prussian Quartets, the last set of string quartets composed before his premature death. While the provenance of these quartets has been much debated over the years in some cases achieving the status of lore, what is indisputable is they originally were to include six quartets, but only three were published K575 in D major, K589 in B flat major and K590 in F major, written in 1789 and 1790. While never reaching the profile of Mozart's six InchHaydnInch quartets, there is a refined and transcendent quality these quartets are imbued with that in many ways was unprecedented in Mozart's oeuvre. Album Tracks 1. Allegretto 2. Andante 3. Menuetto. Allegretto 4. Allegretto 5. Allegro 6. Larghetto 7. Menuetto. Moderato 8. Allegro Assai 9. Allegro Moderato 10. Andante 11. Menuetto. Allegretto 12. Allegro

Ernst Wilhelm Wolf's contemporaries called him the InchWeimar Wolf,Inch a fitting tag, inasmuch as Weimar's musical environment greatly influenced the life of this teacher, concertmaster, and organist who advanced to the post of chapel master to Duchess Anna Amalia, a noted patron of the arts. Even though he was a thorn in the flesh for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany's prince of poets, he remained true to the court and his duchess over the decades. He even declined with thanks an offer from the King of Prussia, Frederick II, to succeed Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Berlin. However, the fact that Wolf highly valued Bach's empfindsamer Stil and the style of the Berlin chapel master Carl Heinrich Graun is clearly audible in his works. During recent years Wolf's instrumental music has attracted increasing attention. Now Michael Alexander Willens has recorded Wolf's oratorio Jesu, deine Passion will ich jetzt bedenken. In this work, like Graun in his Tod Jesu, the composer, who in 1756 was only a little over twenty, reflects on the Passion of Christ and relives it with deep emotion. An absolute masterpiece from the age of musical sensibility with arias of great melodic appeal that are guaranteed to leave no heart unmoved!

Seven years after their album, Debussy et le jazz, the artists of the Quatuor Debussy have conceived the idea of celebrating Ravel in three quite different ways. They have recorded a transcription by Alain Brunier of the French composer's famous Quartet, Ma mère l'Oye (the Mother Goose suite), as well as inviting vibraphone virtuoso Franck Tortiller to join in the fun by combining the original score of Le Tombeau de Couperin with jazz improvisations - an approach that Ravel, from all we know of him, would have greatly relished. Album Tracks 1. Ravel String Quartet in F Major, M. 35 I. Allegro Moderato - TRÈS Doux 2. Ravel String Quartet in F Major, M. 35 II. Assez Vif - TRÈS Rythmé 3. Ravel String Quartet in F Major, M. 35 III. TRÈS Lent 4. Ravel String Quartet in F Major, M. 35 IV. Vif Et Agité 5. Ravel Ma Mère L'oye, M. 60 (Arr. for String Quartet By Alain Brunier) I. Pavane de la Belle Au Bois Dormant (Lent) 6. Ravel Ma Mère L'oye, M. 60 (Arr. for String Quartet By Alain Brunier) II. Petit Poucet (TRÈS Modéré) 7. Ravel Ma Mère L'oye, M. 60 (Arr. for String Quartet By Alain Brunier) III. Laideronnette, Impératrice Des Pagodes (Mouvement de Marche) 8. Ravel Ma Mère L'oye, M. 60 (Arr. for String Quartet By Alain Brunier) IV. Les Entretiens de la Balle Et de la Bête (Mouvement de Valse TRÈS Modéré) 9. Ravel Ma Mère L'oye, M. 60 (Arr. for String Quartet By Alain Brunier) V. Le Jardin Féérique (Lent Et Grave) 10. Tortiller Les Danses de Ravel (After Le Tombeau de Couperin) I. Prélude 11. Tortiller Les Danses de Ravel (After Le Tombeau de Couperin) II. Forlane 12. Tortiller Les Danses de Ravel (After Le Tombeau de Couperin) III. Menuet 13. Tortiller Les Danses de Ravel (After Le Tombeau de Couperin) IV. Comme la Fugue 14. Tortiller Les Danses de Ravel (After Le Tombeau de Couperin) V. Rigaudon