Strauss / Vircanto - Night & Dreams - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The Chaos String Quartet, named BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist for 2023-2025, was founded in 2019 based on the principles of chaos in art, science and philosophy. Having won such prestigious international competitions as ARD (2022), Bordeaux (2022), Bad Tolz (2023) and Haydn (2023), the ensemble is rapidly gaining prominence on the international stage, most notably performing at the Musikverein Vienna, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Bozar (Brussels) and Philharmonie de Paris. Other awards include prizes at the Heidelberg String Quartet Festival 2023, the Bartok World Competition 2021 and the International Premio V. E. Rimbotti in Italy 2020. In addition to it's classical concert activities, the quartet is dedicated to developing projects that make the quartet repertoire more accessible and open to a wider audience.The ensemble completed it's studies at the mdw, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, supervised by their mentor Prof. Johannes Meissl, and completed a postgraduate course at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole with the Cuarteto Casals. The young musicians received further important musical impulses from artists such as Eberhard Feltz, Andras Keller, Oliver Wille and Helmut Lachenmann.This is the ensemble's first CD on the tag of the mdw in Vienna, under the tag management of Solo Musica. Works by Joseph Haydn, Gyorgy Ligeti and Fanny Hensel were recorded.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold greatly revised the comic operetta A Night in Venice by Johann Strauss (Jr.) on the basis of the libretto version by Ernst Marischka. The original Straussian version initially rapidly made it's way around the world, with performances in the lands of the Danube monarchy as well as in Hamburg, Munich, and London and even in New York. Nevertheless, until the end of World War I it experienced only about five hundred performances, which means that it was clearly overshadowed by Die Fledermaus. Again and again the attempt was made to reinterpret the text with interventions revising it's content. Erich Wolfgang Korngold took an additional step in 1923, when he not only adapted the text but also changed the original instrumentation and integrated inserts into the work from other operettas by Strauss, for example, from Simplicius (1880). For several reasons Korngold's revised version was a success when it was performed at the Theater an der Wien on 25 October 1923 the stage set was lavish and magnificent, the new orchestration displayed tonal sophistication, and the great Richard Tauber was heard in the role of the Duke in quest of erotic adventures. A few years later Korngold's version made it's way to the stage of the Vienna State Opera.

Wagenseil Organ Concertos / Ullmann, Sensi, Piccolo Concerto Wien, Composer Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Performer Elisabeth Ullmann, Conductor Roberto Sensi, Orchestra/Ensemble Piccolo Concerto Wien, Number of Discs 1. Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777) is for Viennese musical life the pivotal point between the late Baroque and Viennese Classicism. His work, attributed to the pre-classical period, consists for the most part of keyboard music; after the harpsichord, the organ occupies second place in Wagenseil's works, and often the composer allows a choice of instrument. The four organ concertos brought together on this CD were concertos for 'connoisseurs and music lovers', which were printed by Walsh in London (the collection 'Six Concertos for the harpsichord or the organ'). The accompaniment for 'Two violins and a bass,' as it is called in the subtitle of the first London edition of 1765, indicates the kind of basso continuo the musicians of the Piccolo Concerto Wien provide cello, violone, lute, bassoon and harpsichord make up the colorful foundation over which Elisabeth Ullmann sets up her dialogue with the two violins. The concertos themselves are a good mixture of French, Italian and German styles, including the, at that time, avant-garde forms of the 'empfindsamer' and 'galant' styles. 'The playing of the soloist is technically correct, balanced, not mannered and for just this reason wins us over Ullmann does not try, through creative antics, to squeeze increased significance out of Wagenseil's pleasing works... The accompaniment of the Piccolo Concerto Wien fits the discreet approach of the soloist's playing, and pays attention to it's phrasing, tone and musical contact with the organ.