Last June Audite celebrated ist fortieth birthday. Based in Detmold, Germany, this label has built up a remarkable catalogue of carefully remastered historical recordings, especially from German broadcast archives, using radio tapes. The anniversary was an appropriate time for Audite to introduce a new series if historical recordings – The Lucerne Festival Historic Performances, in cooperation with the famous Swiss festival, which was founded in 1938. The series started with three outstanding concert recordings of artists including Clara Haskil, Otto Klemperer, Robert Casadesus, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Isaac Stern, Ernest Ansermet, Lorin Maazel and George Szell. The latest release is dedicated “in memoriam” to Claudio Abbado, who died on 20 January at the age of 80. Abbado was closely connected with the Lucerne Festival for nearly five decades, and he was responsible for the revival of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, which immediately became one of the best symphony orchestras of the world under his baton. Some live performances on DVD are impressive in showing Abbado’s highly sensitive musi making with this orchestra. A new CD from Audite couples Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished”, played by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 and Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, recorded at the Lucerne Festival of 1978 and 1988. These are impressive live performances that should not be missed by all who admire this great conductor (Φ 95.627).

String Quartet enthusiasts will be interested in Audite’s Volume 2 of RIAS’ recordings of the Amadeus Quartet. The new two-disc set is dedicated to Schubert, the Quartets No. 9 , 10 and 13-15, all recorded at the Siemensvilla in Berlin between 1950 and 1964. Schubert was always at the centre of the Amadeus’s repertoire, and its performances of this composer set a standard for others in those days (two discs; Φ 21.428). Piano enthusiasts will seck a two-disc set profiling the American pianist Julius Katchen. Katchen, who died in 1969 at the early age of 42, was especially known as an interpreter of Brahms and Liszt. These recordings were taped in two sessions in Berlin in 1962 and 1964. They are of special interest because some of the works played are new to the pianist’s discography – Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor, WoO80, Chopin’s Ballade, Op. 47, the Nocturenes Op. 9 No. 1 and Op. 27 No. 2 and Berceuse, Op. 57 as well as the Liszt Sonata in B minor, works in which Katchen demonstrates his qualities as a sensitive poet and virtuoso par excellence (two discs; Φ 21.419). […]

Last June Audite celebrated ist fortieth birthday. Based in Detmold, Germany, this label has built up a remarkable catalogue of carefully remastered historical recordings, especially from German broadcast archives, using radio tapes. The anniversary was an appropriate time for Audite to introduce a new series if historical recordings – The Lucerne Festival Historic Performances, in cooperation with the famous Swiss festival, which was founded in 1938. The series started with three outstanding concert recordings of artists including Clara Haskil, Otto Klemperer, Robert Casadesus, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Isaac Stern, Ernest Ansermet, Lorin Maazel and George Szell. The latest release is dedicated “in memoriam” to Claudio Abbado, who died on 20 January at the age of 80. Abbado was closely connected with the Lucerne Festival for nearly five decades, and he was responsible for the revival of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, which immediately became one of the best symphony orchestras of the world under his baton. Some live performances on DVD are impressive in showing Abbado’s highly sensitive musi making with this orchestra. A new CD from Audite couples Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished”, played by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 and Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, recorded at the Lucerne Festival of 1978 and 1988. These are impressive live performances that should not be missed by all who admire this great conductor (Φ 95.627).

String Quartet enthusiasts will be interested in Audite’s Volume 2 of RIAS’ recordings of the Amadeus Quartet. The new two-disc set is dedicated to Schubert, the Quartets No. 9 , 10 and 13-15, all recorded at the Siemensvilla in Berlin between 1950 and 1964. Schubert was always at the centre of the Amadeus’s repertoire, and its performances of this composer set a standard for others in those days (two discs; Φ 21.428). Piano enthusiasts will seck a two-disc set profiling the American pianist Julius Katchen. Katchen, who died in 1969 at the early age of 42, was especially known as an interpreter of Brahms and Liszt. These recordings were taped in two sessions in Berlin in 1962 and 1964. They are of special interest because some of the works played are new to the pianist’s discography – Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor, WoO80, Chopin’s Ballade, Op. 47, the Nocturenes Op. 9 No. 1 and Op. 27 No. 2 and Berceuse, Op. 57 as well as the Liszt Sonata in B minor, works in which Katchen demonstrates his qualities as a sensitive poet and virtuoso par excellence (two discs; Φ 21.419). […]

Last June Audite celebrated ist fortieth birthday. Based in Detmold, Germany, this label has built up a remarkable catalogue of carefully remastered historical recordings, especially from German broadcast archives, using radio tapes. The anniversary was an appropriate time for Audite to introduce a new series if historical recordings – The Lucerne Festival Historic Performances, in cooperation with the famous Swiss festival, which was founded in 1938. The series started with three outstanding concert recordings of artists including Clara Haskil, Otto Klemperer, Robert Casadesus, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Isaac Stern, Ernest Ansermet, Lorin Maazel and George Szell. The latest release is dedicated “in memoriam” to Claudio Abbado, who died on 20 January at the age of 80. Abbado was closely connected with the Lucerne Festival for nearly five decades, and he was responsible for the revival of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, which immediately became one of the best symphony orchestras of the world under his baton. Some live performances on DVD are impressive in showing Abbado’s highly sensitive musi making with this orchestra. A new CD from Audite couples Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished”, played by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 and Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, recorded at the Lucerne Festival of 1978 and 1988. These are impressive live performances that should not be missed by all who admire this great conductor (Φ 95.627).

String Quartet enthusiasts will be interested in Audite’s Volume 2 of RIAS’ recordings of the Amadeus Quartet. The new two-disc set is dedicated to Schubert, the Quartets No. 9 , 10 and 13-15, all recorded at the Siemensvilla in Berlin between 1950 and 1964. Schubert was always at the centre of the Amadeus’s repertoire, and its performances of this composer set a standard for others in those days (two discs; Φ 21.428). Piano enthusiasts will seck a two-disc set profiling the American pianist Julius Katchen. Katchen, who died in 1969 at the early age of 42, was especially known as an interpreter of Brahms and Liszt. These recordings were taped in two sessions in Berlin in 1962 and 1964. They are of special interest because some of the works played are new to the pianist’s discography – Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor, WoO80, Chopin’s Ballade, Op. 47, the Nocturenes Op. 9 No. 1 and Op. 27 No. 2 and Berceuse, Op. 57 as well as the Liszt Sonata in B minor, works in which Katchen demonstrates his qualities as a sensitive poet and virtuoso par excellence (two discs; Φ 21.419). […]

Audite have figured in my Recordings of the Year before, and it was with great regret that I had to eliminate their aptly titled Polychoral Splendour in favour of their even finer Music for Two Organs. Johannes Strobl and David Blunden play this music with undisguised pleasure and a sure sense of style; as for the acoustic of the Abbey Church of Muri, it’s never sounded so glorious.

Both emusic.com and myself, having missed out on earlier volumes, have entered this series via the side door, as it were. Nor have my MusicWeb International colleagues reviewed any of the earlier volumes, it seems, though they have been generally welcomed elsewhere.

My only serious reservation about this fine third volume concerns the inclusion of the Octet – wonderful music, but so popular that you may well already have one or more very good recordings. Not a problem if you don’t mind acquiring another fine recording, but bear in mind the almost-complete set of Mendelssohn’s works for string quartet – all six numbered works – from the Cherubini Quartet on a budget 3-CD EMI set – review – and the even more complete Henschel Quartet on Arte Nova – review. The Arte Nova set is available only as a download, in 320kb/s mp3 from sainsburysentertainment.co.uk: the CDs are on offer for as much as £109.60 as I write.

In the past few issues I have criticized several performances of the Poulenc sonata by fine flutists because they were superficial and too driven. I asked whether anyone finds the magic and mystery in its first movement that I do, wondering whether times have passed me by, even though I’m under 40. Now I have found someone who feels the same way about this piece. At the end of the first movement, her interpretation was enough to bring tears to my eyes, though the tone Poulenc creates is wistful, not tragic. I can’t imagine someone else could get this more right. The performance decisions in II are illuminating too, but I would like more force in the piano part to contribute to the climactic moments. After the gloom and drama of first two movements, the cheer of the final one is welcome and necessary.

The Hindemith sonata has all the playfulness and wonder Hindemith wrote into it, and the end of I actually sounds world-weary. The slow, expressive section that happens twice lags and disturbs the mood rather than fitting into it, but most flutists like it very slow.

The slow movement of the Muczynski sonata is marked Andante, and I doubt that most people would consider a tempo this slow a valid andante. The slow tempo does serve the movement’s gravity. Otherwise, this is a thoughtful performance marked by unexpected touches.

Her sound is like Carol Wincenc’s, but in a better way. Wincenc often sounded disheveled and overdone; Heinzmann sounds relaxed and expressive. Everything is very precise without seeming fussed over. The recorded sound is full, and there is a wonderful ring at the end of the Poulenc and after cutoffs in the cadenza of the Dutilleux.

This is standard flute repertory, and these performances are as good as or better than anyone else’s.

Unlike too many off-the-air transcriptions, this concert of 5 March 1963 is of compelling interest. It was part of a radio series devoted to musicians new to Berlin, a category that included the 18-year-old Jacqueline Du Pre, who gives a lithe and strong performance of the Schumann concerto. Her great abilities are already palpably present.

The Argentinean pianist Bruno Leonardo Gelber (b. 1941) is less well known. I imagine that listeners in 1963 might have been able to predict what the future held in store for them, for while Gelber plays with great heart and obviously pleased the Berlin audience, he lacks the last degree of manual dexterity that is so obvious in Du Pre’s performance.

The conductor, Gerd Albrecht (b. 1935), was also making his Berlin debut and acquits himself with honors; he would go on to become a politically controversial conductor of the Czech Philharmonic in the 1990s. Setting all the history aside, I believe anyone coming to this recording blind would enjoy the gripping spontaneity one looks for in undiluted concert performances of familiar classics.

These two concertos recorded at the Lucerne Festival in 1959 and 1957 are a study in contrasts. Mozart’s D-minor Concerto was a specialty of Clara Haskil, and while this performance might be described as thoughtful it is finally subverted by Klemperer’s dragging tempos. The liner notes describe it as Arcadian; the adjective somnolent also comes to mind.

The Beethoven concerto is another story: Mitropoulos is at his most propulsive (which is saying much), setting Casadesus on fire. His characteristic elegance and tonal beauty is still there, but the notes cascade forth with a most uncharacteristic abandon. While both pianists were well along in years when these recordings were made, Casadesus is altogether more supple.

These are from 1962 (Brahms) and 1969 (Dvorak, with the Czech orchestra). George Szell’s Dvorak is always great, and there’s plenty of vitality in his Brahms. The Czech orchestra with Szell is a winning combination, though he manages to make the Cleveland Orchestra sound utterly Czech in his two recordings of the Dvorak with them. In fact, those recordings are so good that if you have either you need not bother with this one. Here the sound is too close-up; even a little irritating. That applies to both symphonies. There is no warmth at all.

And I don’t like the Lucerne clarinet and flute soloists. Their sound is hard and brittle. So this is for people who can’t get the Cleveland recordings.

This is listed as Volume 3, but we are not sure what happened to Volume 2. Volume 1 was Peer Gynt and such, and we reviewed it very enthusiastically (Sept/Oct 2011).

I am less enthusiastic about this installment. After all, Beecham recorded the Old Norwegian Romance and In Autumn and it’s hard to beat Beecham at anything or even match him. And Arthur Fiedler did a glorious recording of the Lyric Suite that makes this one sound earnest and plodding.

Well, one may feel that this young conductor takes the music more seriously. It’s heritage to him, after all. But heaviness and ploddingness (is that a word?) are the result. The sound is, as usual with Audite and this orchestra, quite beautiful. But sweetness and flow seem in small supply.