The Mozartists

Ian Page, director

Matthew Truscott, leader

This series of ‘Sturm und Drang’ recordings incorporates iconic compositions by Mozart, Gluck and, above all, Joseph Haydn, but it also includes largely forgotten or neglected works by less familiar names. The music featured on this disc was all composed in the 1760s. It includes ballet and opera as well as symphonies, but is drawn together by the hallmarks of the remarkably visceral and dynamic style of music that we now call ‘Sturm und Drang’.

This is the first project in a seven-volume series exploring the ‘Sturm und Drang’ movement, which swept through all art forms in the between the early 1760s and 1780s. The purpose of this movement were to frighten and perturb through the use of wild and subjective emotional means of expression.

Istante Collective

Little things in odd shapes

Caroline Eidsten Dahl, Freithoff Ensemble

SONATA NORWEGICA

On “Sonata Norwegica” recorder player Caroline Eidsten Dahl and Ensemble Freithoff present three Norwegian composers and one who is Swedish: Johan Henrik Freithoff, Georg von Bertouch, Johan Daniel Berlin, and the Swede, Henrik Phillip Johnsen. The ensemble has selected music written in Norway and Sweden around 250 years ago, and it is virtuosic, ardent and original.

Does a clear definition of Norwegian baroque music exist? Can one hear that the compositions on this recording are from Norway and Scandinavia? We believe the answer to both questions must remain ‘no’. This music was composed a hundred years before National Romanticism’s clear definition of national character. Even so, there is little doubt that being outside the centre of things can lead to a certain originality, perhaps more or less deliberately from the side of the composer.

In spring 2007 Caroline Eidsten Dahl (b. 1980) was one of three winners of Concerts Norway’s international programme “Intro-klassisk”. Since then she has distinguished herself as a soloist and chamber musician and has toured in Russia, China, India, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Her debut album on the LAWO Classics label, “Blockbird — Norwegian Recorder Music” (LWC1069), has received glowing reviews. “Sonata Norwegica” is her second album with LAWO.

Ensemble Freithoff is: Christiane Eidsten Dahl, baroque violinist based in London; Kate Hearne, baroque cellist based in Helsingborg; and Vegard Lund on theorbo and baroque guitar.

Academy of Ancient Music

2015

Since 1727, JS Bach’s “Great Passion” has gripped the hearts and uplifted the minds of audiences all over the globe. Nearly three centuries after its premiere, the work has lost none of its power to evoke feelings of compassion for all those who suffer. Its mix of urgent story-telling, meditative arias and mighty choruses sets St Matthew’s account of Christ’s betrayal, trial and execution eloquently and emotionally.

Over the past 40 years the AAM has made over 300 recordings of baroque and classical music, winning Brit and Gramophone Awards along the way, however – remarkably – this is our first recording of the St Matthew Passion. With a superlative cast including James Gilchrist, Sarah Connolly, Thomas Hobbs, Elizabeth Watts, Christopher Maltman and Matthew Rose, and directed by Richard Egarr, this is a landmark project.

“Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music brought an unapologetically lush and dramatic performance to the Concertgebouw stage . . . There was nothing cold or academic about this interpretation – playing and singing at their very best, the Academy of Ancient Music gave us a humane, generous vision of this most justly beloved of works.” ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Bachtrack

Barokkanerne

2012

THE GROUND-BREAKING BACH

The period instrument ensemble Barokkanerne presents Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in a debut recording with LAWO Classics. Led by Alfredo Bernardini, the group performs ground-breaking symphonies and concertos of this ardent next-eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. The music spans more than 30 years of C.P.E. Bach’s life as a composer - from his engagement as court musician in Berlin to his last years as director of music in Hamburg. This is Sturm and Drang and Enlightenment at its fieriest. Reason and feelings are distilled in a contrast-laden musical universe - Empfindsamkeit, sensitivity - in which humans and things human are the new wine of the age.

Italian baroque oboe specialist Alfredo Bernardini, one of the world’s leading performers of early music, has garnered a number of international prizes for his many recordings. He is, among other things, the founder and artistic director of the ensemble ZEFIRO. Principal harpsichordist Christian Kjos is a sought-after performer who as a member of the quintet Ensemble Meridiana has won a number of prizes at international early music competitions. Barokkanerne, which debuted in the summer of 1989, has remained a Norwegian early music ensemble with an extensive concert schedule - including its own concert series in Oslo. The orchestra is a frequent guest at festivals throughout Norway and has been involved in a number of productions for Norwegian Radio and Television (NRK). The album was recorded in East Fredrikstad Church.

Norwegian Baroque Orchestra

2015
Johan Daniel Berlin & Johan Heinrich Berlin

World premiere recordings

Gottfried von der Goltz (leader and solo violin), Alexandra Opsahl (cornett)

Baltic-based Johan Daniel Berlin was an organist and mechanical inventor. Fascinating colours enhance some of his (and his son's) rather formulaic pre-Classical music. — BBC Music Magazine, January 2015