PRD 250 140

Two arrangements: one, undertaken by Gustav Mahler and revealed in 1984, of the most famous of Schubert’s 15 quartets, ‘Death and the Maiden’, of which he completed only the second movement Andante, which he in fact conducted in concert. Nowadays, such an expansion charms like the transfer of Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht or Berg’s Lyric Suite to orchestra; the other, attempted many times, finally achieves a soloist-orchestra balance that preserves the Arpeggione‘s divertissement nature. Gaspar Cassadó proposed a version for large symphony orchestra that is somewhat overwhelming in relation to the simplicity of the original text. The present version for cello and strings, of which this is the first recording, offers a viewpoint both concertante and da camera that shows the purity, fraternal élan and timeless character of the cello’s melody to best advantage.

PRD/DSD 250 246

Erwin SCHULHOFF : 8 June 1894 (Prague) - 18 August 1942 (KZ Weissenburg, Bavaria)

In 1926, Schulhoff was at the peak of his glory, his neo-Classical writing has succeeded in blending expressiveness, a playful nature, Bohemian poetics and innovative jazz influences: a clear picture of degenerate music according Goebbels, ten years later..

PRD/DSD 250 203

PRD 250 089

An original pairing of composers who were compatriots and friends and who imposed on the international level the Romantic Norwegian school in Europe in the years 1872-1900. Grieg’s career as a pianist was more modest then Svendsen the violinist’s, and the latter also outshone him as a conductor, imposing his own compositions (symphonies, Norwegian Rhapsodies…) along with Beethoven, Mendelssohn… and Wagner in Europe. A century later, the audience of the composer of Peer Gynt is universal, whereas Svendsen’s oeuvre remains confined to Scandinavian concert halls. This is the first modern recording of his Octet, a youthful score enlivened by its borrowings from folklore and imperious as to the application of the rules of the Leipzig school, which provided his education. A juxtaposition of names that was self-evident more than a century ago!

PRD/DSD 250 074

Scores from the dawn and inestimable maturity of a master of the orchestra and German opera, from Salome to Rosenkavalier. In his youth (1881-86), he left chamber music worthy of a young prodigy and, in 1940, bequeathed a final page of magic and deadly charm : the Sextet-overture to Capriccio. Their juxtaposition illustrates the art of a post-romantic composer initially listening to Beethovern, Schumann, Brahms before becoming the untiring bard of feminity, agressive with Salome, then of infinite subtlety in the ‘conversations in music’ of his last operas.

PRD/DSD 250 275

To musicologist Antony Beaumont we owe the resurrection of these youthful scores by Zemlinsky, pianist-composer beginning in the fascination or even disturbing influence of Brahms, just like Korngold and the young Schönberg. We discover a short (unfinished?) and stunning masterpiece of chamber music with voice on the first twenty lines of a morbid, mystical poem by Richard Dehmel. Probably written shortly before Transfigured Night, Schönberg's famous sextet, in less than eight minutes it reaches emotional incandescence...

PRD/DSD 250 284

The young Kinsky Trio continues the tradition of the Czech chamber music school: that of the Suk and Guarneri Trios as much as that of the famous quartets: the Vlach and Smetana yesterday, today the Zemlinsky… and Pražák. Under the leadership of Pavel Hůla, primarius of the latter, these ‘sins of youth’ again reveal their spontaneity and native Russian lyricism, souvenirs of afternoons of chamber music in which Borodin, an amateur cellist, participated in Saint Petersburg and Europe.

PRD/DSD 250 288

Pierrot lunaire, the scandalous 'Red Mass' with its bloody host, stems from a musical art in which Viennese cabaret, Neapolitan and oriental antecedents and German Jewish humour blend with stable, clearly audible Sprechgesang (speech-song) in a musical framework that serves as stage director and means of dramatic expression. It simultaneously proposes a literal text of immediate impact and its humorous and even ironic antithesis. Same outline with the Suite Op.29, which is serial but with jazzy counterpoint !

PRD DSD 250 276

Stravinsky’s ongoing Russian inspiration, clad in the opulence of Rimsky-Korsakov’s orchestration in 1910 and then moving towards a more dodecaphonic writing (1966, Requiem Canticles), not forgetting the consumate Noces - ‘not a ballet but a divertissement…in two parts‘ (to quote the composer). A unique blend of earthy rusticity, profound humanity and religious faith.

PRD/DSD 350'057     (2CD)