Abbado brings so much drama, atmosphere and occasional darkness to this work. The Vienna Philharmonic is as fine as one would expect, delivering all that Abbado requires of them. [...] This is a wonderful tribute to a much missed musician as well as an example of the treasures that the Lucerne Festival and Audite have in store.

„Das verbindende Element ist natürlich die Improvisation. Der Organist in der Kirche hat ja auch häufig improvisatorische Aufgaben. Meistens macht er das allerdings alleine. Da ist das Zusammenspiel mit einem Duopartner natürlich eine gewisse Herausforderung und ein ganz neuer Aspekt. Unser Ziel dabei ist es, eine eigene Klangfarbe zu entwickeln.“

Diese wunderschöne Live-Performance unter Claudio Abbado wird durch überzeugendes Remastering zu einem Klanggenuss. Ich kann diese CD mit ihrem hervorragenden Sound sehr empfehlen. Diese historische Aufnahme ist ein Zeugnis von Claudio Abbados Musikästhetik!!

With this latest release from German label Audite we now have all of Eduard Franck's extant piano trios available on disc and what a rewarding experience it has been getting to know this unduly neglected music. Violinist Christine Edinger – who has been a stalwart of the Franck revival throughout Audite's recordings of both the composer's chamber music and some of his orchestral music – Is absent here, the music being performed by the Swiss Piano Trio, a relatively young group which has already distinguished itself in recordings of Mendelssohn and the Schumanns (Robert and Clara): happily, the high standards of musicianship that have marked Audite's survey of Franck's oeuvre are maintained in this new release.

There are three trios here, all of them more concise than the two already recorded by Audite, and to all intents and purposes they hail from across his career – the earliest in E major (1835) was only recently published for the first time, the second (also in E major) was published in 1859, while the final work in D major is dated 1886 on its manuscript, though the booklet writer warns us that the high opus number (Op.53) was assigned by Franck's son, Richard, after the composer's death and that the trio cannot definitively be confirmed as "a late work" (there is a hiatus of two decades during which Eduard Franck seemingly lost interest in publishing any of his compositions). In a sense none of this is of great import – Franck seemingly found his personal voice early on in his creative career and took no interest in the more radical musical developments of the Romantic period.

Of the works here, only the trio of 1835 could possibly be said to stand out from the remainder of Franck's chamber music stylistically and then only in minor details: the piano part is a dominant presence, as in so much chamber music of the 1820s and 1830s, and the work's relatively small scale (it plays for around 20 minutes in total, half the duration of the trios Audite previously recorded by Franck*) is perhaps a sign of the young composer's inexperience at handling extended musical structures (the booklet surmises that this trio was written as a direct result of the lessons with Mendelssohn that commenced in 1834). In other respects, however, it already foreshadows many of the characteristics of his mature music – his melodic fecundity, such as in the uplifting primary theme of the opening 'Allegro' that plays an important role throughout the movement; his very personal warmth of expression, a marked harmonic bitter-sweet quality that is quite distinct from the respective idioms of Schumann or Mendelssohn, for example, two composers who were surely formative influences on his style; and, of course, the verve and sense of forward momentum he brings to his faster movements – the persistently bubbling piano writing already mentioned contributes much to the graceful flow of the music here and the scherzo is typically vivacious and engaging (and, furthermore, remarkable for the economic use of thematic material in achieving this).

With the remaining two trios we have mature Franck – the slightly more extended opening movements of both trios and the greater emotional range they display are evidence surely of his increased experience and increased confidence in using what seems (on the evidence of his chamber output as a whole) to have been an innate gift for handling sonata form. That of the Op.22 trio is designated 'Allegro moderato con espressione', which accounts for the cantabile quality of the primary theme but he also introduces more animated – more light-hearted, perhaps? – material and it is testament to his talents that he melds these contrasting elements into a convincing whole. The 'Andante con moto' here and the 'Andante' of the D major trio, Op.53, are movements of considerable ardour (the heartfelt writing for the strings, for example, in that of Op.22 or the comparable lyricism in the 'Andante' of Op.53) and poetry – listen to his striking use of the piano's lower registers at the close of the D major's 'Andante' (and one might also draw attention in that respect to the haunting interplay of violin and cello in the trio-section of Op.22's scherzo).

With the E major trio, Op.22, we are in the unusual position of having a comparative recording for a major Eduard Franck work, this having been included on a Naxos disc of 2012 devoted to the composer's music**: I have to say that, much as I enjoyed getting to know the trio for the first time courtesy of the artists on that release – and there is no doubting their musicianship – the Swiss Piano Trio's performance will be the one I return to most often, as they seem to find more of the poetry in Franck's lyrical music without losing any momentum and have a lighter, more effervescent touch in the finale. I also have to say that I am inclined to agree with the reviewer of the Naxos release in that there is a slightly unpleasant, acid tone to Shmuel Ashkenasi's violin in that recording (though I should say that some other reviewers either don't seem to hear it or don't find it a problem).

The sound quality here, as I've come to expect from Audite, is impeccable – warm and natural and beautifully balanced. Combined with the polished and sympathetic musicianship on offer here from the Swiss Piano Trio, this disc is undoubtedly another feather in Audite's cap and yet another valuable addition to both the Eduard Franck discography and to our knowledge of German chamber music during the Romantic period.

Enthusiastically recommended – to confirmed admirers of the composer and general listener alike.

Abbado hatte zum 50. Geburtstag des Festivals dasselbe Programm dirigiert, mit dem sein großes Vorbild Toscanini es einst 1938 eröffnet hatte. Das Booklet zur CD informiert über Abbados vielfältiges Wirken in Luzern.

Opvallend is dat Wiebusch een opmerkelijk stukje affiniteit voor deze muziek bloot legt. Tempo, timbre, kleur en registraties, het klopt allemaal. Melancholie maar ook hilariteit en bitsheid wisselen zich continue en in rap tempo af. Wiebusch zorgt dat deze eclatante muziek niet onopgemerkt aan je voorbij gaat. Hulde!

Surgida a imitación de la Academy of Ancient Music londinense, la Sing-Akademie zu Berlin fue fundada en 1791 por Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch, clavecinista de la corte de Prusia e hijo del gran compositor Johann Friedrich Fasch, con el propósito de recuperar obras vocales y, en menor medida, instrumentales del pasado, especialmente del siglo XVIII. Gracias a esa labor, innumerables partituras de Johann Sebastian Bach, de su extensa familia y de otros músicos germanos quedaron convenientemente preservadas para la posteridad. Siglo y medio después de su creación, la Sing-Akademie también fue víctima de los rigores de la mayor tragedia vivida por la humanidad, la II Guerra Mundial. Para evitar su destrucción, los nazis decidieron trasladar todos los archivos a un castillo de Silesia, pero, a la conclusión del conflicto bélico, el Ejército Rojo se los apropió como botín y los escondió en el Conservatorio de Kiev, donde nadie se acordó de ellos durante décadas. Tras la caída del Muro de Berlín y con la aproximación de la independizada Ucrania a Occidente, las autoridades de aquel país acordaron en el año 2000 la devolución de los archivos de la Sing-Akademie a Alemania.

Desde entonces, la exhumación de obras de la Sing-Akademie ha sido incesante. Algunas son auténticos tesoros musicales, aunque la calidad de otras es bastante discutible. Entre las obras rescatadas figura una curiosa cantata en lengua italiana compuesta por Georg Philipp Telemann, intitulada Fortuna scherzosa, que es la que ha servido de inspiración para la elaboración de este disco. Todas las cantatas en el contenidas versan precisamente sobre los caprichos de la diosa Fortuna: esperanza, suerte, felicidad, amor y, claro está, sus antagónicos. Además de Telemann, en el programa participan Johann Philipp Krieger (uno de los compositores más prolíficos de la historia de la música, con más de dos mil cantatas como bagaje), Philipp Heinrich Erlebach (de quien en 2014 se conmemora el tercer centenario de su muerte) y el desconocidísimo Johann Ulich.

Precisamente lo más interesante del disco tiene que ver con Ulich. Nacido en 1677 en la muy luterana Wittenberg, fue organista en Zerbst, la ciudad en la que vio la luz Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch, el impulsor de la Sing-Akademie. En ella trabajo hasta 1722, cuando fue destituido de su cargo para que lo ocupara, oh caprichos del destino, Fasch padre. La cantata Ihr hellen Sterne des Glücks que aquí se incluye es una joya, en especial el aria que le da título. Sólo por ella ya es más que aconsejable la adquisición del disco. Pero no es el único motivo: el resto de las piezas merecen asimismo la pena, máxime porque han tenido la fortuna (jugando con el título del disco) de caer en manos de Ina Siedlaczek y de Hamburger Ratsmusik.

Siedlaczek es una soprano relativamente joven, que es ahora cuando empieza a descollar. La primera vez que la escuché fue el pasado mes de febrero, con motivo de la reseña de un disco que editó el sello CPO, Die Musik und ein guter Wein, el cual contenía obras de Johann Steffens. En él, con el acompañamiento instrumental de Hamburger Ratsmusik, el rol de Siedlaczek no pasaba de comprimario, a la sombra de Veronika Winter, pero ya se percibía con claridad la belleza con que la fortuna (jugamos de nuevo con el título del disco) ha dotado a su voz. Aquí, como protagonista del registro, Siedlaczek me ha parecido sencillamente deslumbrante. Influye mucho en ello la juiciosa labor de Hamburger Ratsmusik (Simone Eckert, viola da gamba; Ulrich Wedermeier, tiorba y Michael Fuerst, clave), que huye de cualquier tentación ostentativa y se limita a prestar el adecuado soporte a la cantante.

Ma a questo lavoro con testo italiano si affianca, come esordio dell'incisione, un corrispondente brano di Philipp Heinrich Erlebach con «Des Glückes Spiele», caratterizzato da un virtuosismo vocale che mette a bella prova le doti di Ina Siedlaczek qui accompagnata dall'Hamburger Ratmusik.

Zum 50. Geburtstag des Festivals 1988 musizierte Abbado mit dem Chamber Orchestra of Europe das Eröffnungsprogramm Toscaninis vor 50 Jahren, mit Beethovens Zweiter und Wagners „Siegfried-Idyll“ – ein bleibendes Dokument größter struktureller Klarheit und subtiler Klanglichkeit.

L’inachevée encore, en ouverture du disque d’enregistrements historiques inédits présenté par Audite en collaboration avec la manifestation. Alors que l’édition pascale du festival s’achève ce week-end, avec notamment Bernard Haitink et Andris Nelsons, il fait bon se plonger dans ces enregistrements tirés des archives du festival où la baguette sensuelle, intérieure, parfois métaphysique du maître fait des merveilles.