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Ein großer Zyklus kommt zum Abschluss. Nach den Sinfonien, Konzerten und Konzertstücken stehen in der letzten Folge der nahezu rundweg beeindruckenden Schumann-Einspielungen die Ouvertüren auf dem Programm. Das in Detmold beheimatete Label "audite" hat auch damit wieder einmal einen Coup gelandet. Konnte Heinz Holliger mit dem WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln schon zuvor besonders bei den Sinfonien überzeugen (bei den konzertierenden Solisten war der wählenden Hand das Glück nicht immer hold), wird hier nun für ein noch immer unbekanntes Repertoire eine Lanze gebrochen. Denn dass Schumann sich neben der genialen Manfred-Ouvertüre gerade in seinem Spätwerk intensiv mit der an großen Schauspielen orientierten Konzertouvertüre schöpferisch auseinandergesetzt hat, dürfte noch immer weithin unbekannt sein. Die Stücke sind im Konzertsaal wahre Raritäten und auf CD kaum einmal in der verdienten Qualität anzutreffen.

Holliger aber sind anscheinend gerade diese Partituren ans Herz gewachsen – so ausgeglichen und wirklich als große Werke gespielt habe ich sie noch nicht gehört. Und sie zeigen Schumann im vollen Besitz seiner Fertigkeiten. Wer noch immer von angeblichen Problemen bei der Instrumentation spricht, sollte eher von Problemen der jeweiligen Interpretation sprechen (einer meiner persönlichen Favoriten ist und bleibt die Ouvertüre zu "Julius Cäsar"). Der für Schumann charakteristische, kompakte Klang kommt jedenfalls dem Sinfonieorchester des WDR entgegen, das schon fünf der Kompositionen 2010 eingespielt und sich den "Manfred" wie auch die frühe, unvollständig gebliebene Zwickauer Sinfonie in g-Moll nun für das Finale aufgespart hat – nicht als Supplement, sondern als geniale Vorschau auf das, was noch kommen sollte. So gespielt wirken die beiden Sätze denn auch nicht als philologische Kuriositäten, sondern künstlerisch berechtigt. Aus Holligers Nähe zu Schumann ist hier mit kühlem Kopf etwas Erstrangiges erwachsen.

An interesting Paul Kletzki release from Audite reproduces a 1946 concert performance of an interpretation that may be familiar to some readers as a set of five Columbia 78s, namely Brahms Fourth Symphony played by the Swiss Festival Orchestra (or Lucerne Festival Orchestra as we commonly know it nowadays). The actual recording sessions lasted until September 7, which was also the day of an additional concert – given in aid of charity – which is what is reproduced here. Kletzki's performance is refreshingly bright-textured, with careful though never cautious handling of the first movement's many dialogic episodes, a warm-hearted Andante moderato, a bracing scherzo and a finale that although indulgently appreciative of the flute solo keeps a firm grip on the passacaglia structure. I loved it, though the transfer engineers have been a little over-zealous in their efforts to reduce surface noise. The same concert included Schubert's Unfinished, played without its first-movement repeat but very sensitively interpreted, and a dramatic account of Beethoven's Overture Leonore No 3. I've not heard many Kletzki performances that leave as strong an impression as the Brahms. There is no applause.

With this sixth and final volume in his series of the 'Complete Symphonic Works', Heinz Holliger mops up the remaining segment of Schumann's orchestral output. That's all six of his overtures: operatic (Genoveva), quasi-operatic (Faust Scenes), Shakespearean (Julius Caesar), Byronesque (Manfred) and German Romantic (Schiller's The Bride of Messina and a delightfully loopy response to Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea, complete with a plethora of piped renditions of the Marseilleise). To fill up the disc there's Schumann's first attempt at a symphony, the two movements of a work in G minor that's now most commonly known as the 'Zwickau' Symphony.

That makes Holliger's the most complete cycle of the orchestral works to have arrived in ages. Dausgaard's three single discs (BIS) took in all the symphonic works (including both versions of the Fourth Symphony) along with the six overtures, while Gardiner's triple-set, on period instruments, dispensed with the overtures but included the wonderful Konzertstück for four horns and orchestra. If and when Holliger's six full-price discs come out in a budget-price box, that'll make this easily one of the most attractive collections of this music.

For those less bothered about such notions of completeness, other attractions include Holliger's clear-sighted interpretations, revealed in sound that is focused without being over-analytical. Perhaps the youthful 'Zwickau' piece and the much later concert overtures can't boast the winning melodies that make the greatest of Schumann's works stand out but they display all the composer's motivic skills and his development of the Beethovenian model in his own Romantic language, and offer valuable alternative lights on his orchestral career.

fein timbriert und konturiert werden die meditativen Momente der prominent besetzten Vokalsoli. [...] Grandios hinwieder die hier beigefügten Kirchensonaten von Bertali, Biber und Schmelzer mit dem prächtigen Ensemble Cornets Noirs: ein instrumentaler Paradiesgarten.

Gegensätzlicher können zwei Violinsonaten eines Komponisten nicht sein: die erste tragisch, die zweite ausgelassen. Sie stehen beispielhaft für die beiden Pole im Schaffen Prokofieffs. Die Geigerin Franziska Pietsch spielt beide Werke mit großer Intensität und Sensibilität, die hohen technischen Anforderungen meistert sie souverän. Einfühlsam begleitet von Detlev Eisinger, gelingen ihr die leisen Gänsehaut-Steilen ebenso beeindruckend wie die auftrumpfenden Kehraus-Passagen. Passend ergänzt wird das Programm von den kantablen Cinq melodies. Eine ausgesprochen sorgfältige und inspirierte Produktion, die auch klangtechnisch vollkommen überzeugt.

In der Reihe spektakulärer Surround-Produktionen mit den Ensembles unter Johannes Strobl trägt eine den Titel "Polychoral Splendour"; der würde auch gut zur Aufnahme der Missa von Georg Muffat (1653-1704) passen. Allerdings: Die CD gibt nur eine eindimensionale Idee davon, was in dieser Einspielung wirklich los ist. Sofern also eine gute Surround-Anlage mit Netzwerk-Player bereitsteht: auf der Seite www.audite.de die 5.1-Version downloaden und ein akustisches Wunder erleben. Was die Musikerinnen und Musiker in der Klosterkirche Muri in der Schweiz hier bieten, ist ein mehrchöriger Hörrausch, von dem man gar nicht genug bekommen kann.

Bei Audite ist ein kompletter Streichquartettzyklus von Beethoven im Entstehen, und schon jetzt kann gesagt werden, dass er neue Maßstäbe setzt und in seiner strukturellen Klarheit, aristokratischen Eleganz, gediegenen Sanglichkeit und klanglichen Rafinesse schwer zu überbieten sein wird.

Of Prokofiev’s three chamber works for violin and piano, only the first sonata was originally conceived for the violin, and that work took eight years to complete. The second sonata was completed before the first, because it is a transcription, organized by David Oistrakh, of Prokofiev’s Flute Sonata. The Cinq mélodies were written in California in 1920 as vocalises for mezzosoprano, only to be turned into a popular violin work several years later, in Paris.

Prokofiev, the pianist, did not play the violin, which explains some of the enthusiasm for transcribing his earlier works. His slow progress on the first sonata seems in part to have been from political shock at Stalin’s great purge, launched shortly after Prokofiev’s return to Russia. In addition, the composer kept putting it aside for bigger commissions, such as the opera, War and Peace.

Even after the first public performance in 1946, Prokofiev continued to alter the score. He was unsatisfied with the sober performance by Oistrakh and Lev Oberin. Prokofiev kept inserting dynamic markings so that their interpretation (“like two old professors”) would not establish a standard. Yet at Prokofiev’s 1953 funeral, it was Oistrakh who played the first and third movements, which were deemed to be among the few pieces in the composer’s legacy which were not fundamentally happy and optimistic.

Franziska Pietsch is a German violinist, once a prodigy in the German Democratic Republic. She and Detlev Eisinger offer big-boned and fully engaged readings of these works. Prokofiev set the dark tone for the first sonata by describing the violin’s muted runs in the first and last movements as an “autumn evening wind blowing across a neglected cemetery grave.” Pietsch and Eisinger are appropriately disquieting, with dramatic gestures and technical assurance.

Alina Ibragimova and Steven Osborne recorded the same works for Hyperion in 2014, to much praise. Both recordings are quite excellent, but they differ in which Russian composer is imagined to be Prokofiev’s musical cousin. Ibragimova and Osborne place Prokofiev in proximity to Stravinsky’s aesthetic world, stressing the cool, detached neoclassical elements that exist in both sonatas. In contrast, Pietsch and Eisinger’s Prokofiev seems closer to Shostakovich, with anxiety never far beneath the surface. Their performances are less tightly controlled, more boisterous, urgent, and energetic. Thus the Andante of the first sonata soars serenely in Ibragamova’s hands, but unsettles a bit in Pietsch. The final Allegrissimo at times sounds merry for Ibragamova but darker and harsher for Pietsch. Both performances give enormous pleasure, but each is shaped by a different conception of the music.

The Cinq mélodies are more than filler, but are well-played but light-weight companions to the pair of violin sonatas.

The recording has a slightly cavernous, churchly sound. Why do music producers imagine that empty churches offer a happy location for recording chamber music? But as with many audio complaints, this one ceases to be an issue after listening for a few minutes and entering the sound-world of two outstanding performers. The music is recorded up close, with lots of power.

My Musicweb International colleague David Barker reviewed Volume 2 of this five-disc series in December 2015 (who knows, maybe even concurrently with the Swiss Trio recording the Variations presented here). If five discs seems a lot of space, it is because they are making their survey into Beethoven’s works for piano trio as comprehensive as possible, and including not only the Triple Concerto, but also the Trio, Op. 38, the original arrangement of the Septet, Op. 20. There is a lot going for Volume 3, not least the rather interesting premise that the Swiss Piano Trio (Schweizer Klaviertrio) has used Czerny’s Errinerungen an Beethoven (Reminiscences of Beethoven, Vienna, 1842) as an inspiration for their interpretations, particularly the chapter “On the correct performance of Beethoven’s complete works with piano accompaniment.”

Perhaps as an extension of this informed approach, the booklet notes on the works themselves are remarkably detailed. Such attention to detail extends to the performances themselves, all of them caught in a fabulous, perfectly-placed recording.

The Piano Trio, Op. 1/3, in Beethoven’s favourite C minor key, is a major four-movement statement which holds in place of a slow movement an “Andante cantabile con variazioni,” which actually here is the highlight of the performance. The five variations are expertly characterised, and they are not afraid of internalising. Sighing phrases are deliciously done; the group is not afraid of drama, also. And excellent programming, to boot, in that this prefigures the larger set of Variations to follow (Op. 44). The Menuetto has its more restless moments (deliberately coming across as a touch off-centre), but it has its beauties, also, not least the feather touch of pianist Martin Lucas Staub in the rapid upward-reaching gestures. The finale’s strong outbursts of energy are perfectly judged.

Beethoven’s Variation sets always hold much interest as well as delight, and Op. 44 is no exception. The E flat major theme is simple and bare-boned, given out in mezzo-staccato and in octaves, primed for exploration, and the succeeding 14 Variations include much eloquence from the present performers, not least from Sébastien Singer’s cello. Finally, the Piano Trio No. 6 of 1808, also in E flat. The skeletal Poco sostenuto opening is taken at a very flowing tempo, following Czerny, and enables the Allegro ma non troppo main body of the movement to emerge naturally. The allegro itself holds some lovely sighing gestures, while the second movement Allegretto holds some real grit. The ensuing Allegro ma no troppo is a dream, with a terrific sense of flow; the finale feels perfectly calculated here, from its baseline tempo through its exploration of the varying terrain. No mere throwaway finale, this movement balances the depth of the first movement. The Swiss Piano trio gives a remarkably satisfying account of this rewarding piece.

A lovely release, one that shows the dynamism of thee works. Collectors will doubtless have their favourites in this repertoire, for many it will be the Beaux Arts Trio, although I hold a particular affection for Kempff with Szeryng and Fournier on DG in the two main Trios.