Peter Schreier - Wolf: Morike-Lieder - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Thanks to recordings such as this one, the figure of Johann Wilhelm Wilms (1772-1847) is increasingly coming into focus and prominence as a notable contemporary of Beethoven who deserves better than his previous obscurity. In 1807, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung described the Wilms as 'one of the most ingenious, spirited, and best educated artists' of his generation a judgment borne out by the this trio of high-spirited chamber works. Born near Cologne, only two years after and some 60 km distant from Beethoven, Wilms made his career in Amsterdam as both performer (on flute and piano) and composer, inviting further parallels. His tenuous foothold on posterity has depended until recently for being known as the composer of the Dutch national anthem. His style may be more notable for fluency and charm than depth, but this album traverses his own expressive journey from the elegant Classical manners of an early piano trio to the intimations of Romanticism and melancholy in the second of his piano quartets. Though the piano quartets of Wilms have been recorded before, this is the first-ever recording made on instruments of the period, and the inclusion of the piano trio makes it a generous coupling and a perfect introduction to an original voice in European music of the Classical era. Known together as the G.A.P. Ensemble, Emilio Percan, Aymat Fusté and Luca Quintavalle aim to build musical bridges between eras much as Wilms himself did, considered retrospectively. Their previous albums have been enthusiastically reviewed in Gramophone, Diapason and elsewhere. The recording was made in October 2021 in the studios of WDR radio in Cologne, presenting both composer and performers in a warmly attractive light. In 1807, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung described the composer Johann Wilhelm Wilms (1772-1847) as Inchone of the most ingenious, spirited, and best educated

Alpha and the Festival of Aix-en-Provence continue their Young Talents series, in which Laureates of the Académie of the Aix Festival are each accorded an album. The American baritone John Chest enjoys a brilliant career that has already led him to Glyndebourne Festival and the BBC Proms. In partnership with the Brazilian pianist Marcelo Amaral, he presents Die schöne Magelone by Johannes Brahms. Among all the wealth of Lieder that Brahms composed, this is his only real song cycle. Brahms had known these popular tales since his childhood, but it was thanks to Schumann that he discovered the novel published in 1797 by Ludwig Tieck, entitled The Love Story of the Fair Magelone and Count Peter of Provence. The work is representative of the poetic, idealized reinvention of the Middle Ages so characteristic of German romanticism stories of star-crossed love, that usually end happily. InchWhat strikes the listener most of all is the song cycle's epic scale - it is a veritable pocket opera, supported by pianistic writing of great complexity,Inch writes Timothée Picard in the essay accompanying this . The album's artwork is an original design by Maia Flore, a laurate photographer of the HSBC Foundation her poetic universe has already featured in the preceding number of the series, 'Black is the colour' (Alpha 384).

In memory of the great tenor Peter Schreier,Berlin Classics released a reiussue of the 4-CDbox InchVom Knabenalt zum lyrischen TenorInch,which was originally released in 1995. The CDbox contains recordings of lieder, opera arias,arias from cantatas and oratorios and alsofrom his time as a boy alto in the DresdnerKreuzchor. A cross section of the entire careerof a singer whose enormous talent wasalready discovered and supported in hischildhood by the former conductor of theDresdner Kreuzchor, Rudolf Mauersberger.Additionally the CDs are accompanied by ashort biography, which gives an excitingoverview of Peter Schreier's career stages.