Toshiyuki Shibata - Sonatas Fantasias - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Sing Leaf - Not Earth [VINYL LP] UK - Import date 10/02/2020

This recording brings together two late masterworks by Brahms the Op. 120 Clarinet Sonatas and the Op. 117 Intermezzi for piano, written in the tranquil setting of Bad Ischl. The sonatas, full of tenderness and quiet intensity, were composed for clarinetist Richard Muhlfeld, whose warm, lyrical playing reignited Brahms's desire to compose after a period of silence. This is music of dialogue, not declaration. Nicola Boud and Anthony Romaniuk perform on instruments close to those Brahms and Muhlfeld would have known a replica of Muhlfeld's 19th-century boxwoodclarinet and an 1875 Steinway piano. These choices bring a soft, transparent quality to the sound, inviting a more intimate listening experience. Expressive tools of 19th-century performance rubato, flexibility, arpeggiation, are used not as effects, but as natural extensions of the music's emotional landscape.Brahms once called the Op. 117 Intermezzi Inchthree lullabies of my grief.Inch These restrained yet luminous pieces distil his late style into elegiac monologues, offering quiet spaces where time feels suspended. Together, these warm, reflective and deeply emotional works offer a glimpse into Brahms' final years.

After a life dedicated to music, especially of his hometown Dresden and Saxony, world-renown trumpeter Ludwig Güttler concludes his career around his 80th birthday in 2023. It is hard to overestimate his musical, political and social role in Dresden, but also the impact he had on musical research of the Saxonian court, the development of the Corno da Caccia and any other field he touched in his comprehensive life. This edition is devoted to the headline, the motto he found, that constitutes his firm belief In all that I do, I am guided by the Lord's counsel. He who can accomplish all and owns all, in all things He must, if they are to succeed, give me advice and counsel. The album features not only a meaningful selection of his extensive catalogue but also 5 completely new recordings from the world-famous Dresden Frauenkirche, in which rebuilding he partook such a vital role. It is therefore logical that the DVD features - for the first time on a physical medium - the festive Gala Concert for the Inauguration of this very house of God, where he leads his own Virtuosi Saxoniae and the Vocal Ensemble Saxony in Hasse's InchUltimaInch Mass.