Spohr: Piano Chamber Music

On this CD:

1. Piano Trio in G minor, Op.142
Composed by Louis Spohr

2. Faust, romantic opera, WoO51
Composed by Louis Spohr

3. Sonata for violin & harp in A flat major, Op.115
Composed by Louis Spohr

4. Piano Trio in F major, Op.123
Composed by Louis Spohr

Tracks:

Fantasia In C Minor, Op. 35: Adagio molto - Allegretto
Sonata No. 2 In E Flat: 1. Allegro assai
Sonata No. 2 In E Flat: 2. Romance. Adagio non tanto
Sonata No. 2 In E Flat: 3. Rondeau. Allegretto
Suite bergamasque: Clair de lune
Ten Pieces, Op.12: No.7 Prelude
Sonata per arpa: 1. Allegro vivace
Sonata per arpa: 2. Sarabande. Grave, solenne
Sonata per arpa: 3. Finale. Tempo di marcia, vivo e festoso
Sicilienne variee
Contemplation: Andante religioso
Jazz Band: Fouguesement
Impromptu, Op. 68: Allegro molto moderato

Customer Reviews:

Soothing music.......2007-07-17

I listen to this music before I fall asleep, it is so beautiful and calming after a long busy day, I fall asleep to the notes of the harp. I think my dreams are even affected in a good way. I recommend this for anyone who has trouble sleeping.

The selections are wonderful and the harpist is amazing.

SOMETHING TO HARP ABOUT!!!.......2000-10-27

Here's a quality potpourri waiting to be listened to. Romantic and modern. Unknown and immediately familiar. Sonatas. Sundries. Reductions of piano works. Something for everyone who loves music, a beautifully and cogently blended mix played with sublime grace and appeal by harpist Naoko Yoshino, supported by a warmly detailed sound image.

In her hands, repertoire staples, such as the Spohr and Rosetti, remain charming still and though one may cavil a bit at the inclusion of the requisite "Clair de lune" of Debussy (or, I suppose, it could have been "The Girl With the Flaxen Hair," instead), this, too, pleases. Newer delights include the beautiful Casella Sonata for Harp, Prokofiev's "Prelude," Renie's "Andante religioso," and Damase's "Sicilienne." Then, of course, there's the gorgeous Faure "Impromptu."

THE HEALING HARP. A better name for this gracious compilation doesn't exist, and it offers an immediate way to relax, unwind or merely contemplate. There's something so peaceful about the resonance of the harp, so therapeutic, so calming; it makes the worries of this modern day frenzy slough off.

Naoko Yoshino has the magic touch.

[Running time: 69:02]

THE MOST RELAXING HARP RECORDING EVER!.......1999-08-14

If you like relaxing classical music this is a must! Mrs Yoshino is a master of the Harp. I wish that more music from her were available.

Average customer rating:

Romantic Music for Flute and Harp

Manufacturer: Marco Polo
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Duets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000045SO
Release Date: 1992-12-16

Tracks:

Andante with Var in F
Var on a Theme of Rossini
Intro and Var on an English Theme
Son
Son in c

Average customer rating:

Duos for Flute & Harp

Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Duets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Classical Music | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music

Classical Instrumental Music | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music

Opera & Vocal | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music
ASIN: B0000027TK
Release Date: 1992-02-25

Tracks:

Variations 'Early Morning'
Berceuse For Violin & Piano, Op. 16
Sonata For Flute & Harp In F Major: Allegro (moderato)
Sonata For Flute & Harp In F Major: Romanze
Sonata For Flute & Harp In F Major: Tempo di minuetto (en Rondo)
Andante With Variations For Harp & Viola
Greensleeves
Sonata Concertante For Harp & Violin In E-flat, Op. 113: Allegro brillante
Sonata Concertante For Harp & Violin In E-flat, Op. 113: Adagio
Sonata Concertante For Harp & Violin In E-flat, Op. 113: Rondo Allegretto
Entr'acte For Flute & Harp
Romance For Flute & Orchestra, Op. 37
Casilda Fantasie For Flute & Harp

Average customer rating:

Klarinettenquintette

Manufacturer: Orfeo
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quintets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Sextets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000059B9
Release Date: 1995-12-12

Leise flehen meine Lieder (Silently My Songs Pray)

Average customer rating:

Leise flehen meine Lieder (Silently My Songs Pray)

Manufacturer: Musicaphon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Compilations | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000PUB3Q0
Release Date: 2007-05-29

Average customer rating:

A master clarinetist
Really Great Clarinet Playing

Spohr: Clarinet Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

Manufacturer: Hyperion UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Brahms: Clarinet Sonatas & Trio [Hybrid SACD]
Mozart and Beethoven: Clarinet Concertos
Weber: Clarinet Concertos Nos. 1 & 2; Grand Duo Concertante; Concertino
Dvorák: Legends
Bruch: Works for Clarinet & Viola

ASIN: B0007XTNWQ
Release Date: 2005-05-10

Customer Reviews:

A master clarinetist.......2005-08-04

Michael Collins does the pieces justice. He sails through the technically difficult passages with ease and uses the most beautiful legato playing I've heard in the two slow movements. I also own his cd of the Mozart Concerto and Beethoven's Violin Concerto transposed for clarinet, which is equally if not more impressive. Bravo!

Really Great Clarinet Playing.......2005-07-31

This CD is some of the best Clarinet playing I have ever heard. If you enjoy listening to the Clarinet or you play the Clarinet, this is a really good CD to hear what the instrument can do and what it is supposed to sound like. If you like this CD you should pick up Collins playing the Beethoven Violin Concerto transposed for Clarinet. That CD also has the Mozart Clarinet Concerto being played on a basset clarinet and is worth getting no matter what type of music you enjoy.

Average customer rating:

New Age Harp: Old Age Music

Manufacturer: Legacy
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | New Age | Styles | Music

Meditation | New Age | Styles | Music

General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music

4-for-3 New Age | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000002NSW
Release Date: 1994-09-27

Tracks:

Fantasy, Op.35
Three Romances
Two Etudes
Nocturne
Hachas And Pavane
Seguidillas
Italian Song With Vars
Tento
Sonatina: Allegro & Tempo Di Menuetto
Caprice

Average customer rating:

Spohr: Quintet Op.52/Octet Op.32

Manufacturer: Orfeo
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Octets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000059E5
Release Date: 1996-11-19

Average customer rating:

a voice teacher and early music fan
Astonishing, moving, spectacular music
Other reviewers seem to have crong CD!!
A revelation!
Amazing operatic transcriptions

Liszt at the Opera II

Manufacturer: Hyperion UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Fantasies | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Liszt at the Opera, Vol 4
Liszt at the Opera III
Liszt at the Opera: Operatic Fantasies, Paraphrases, and Transcriptions, Vol. VI (Complete Music for Solo Piano, Vol. 54)
Liszt at the Opera: Operatic Fantasies, Paraphrases, and Transcriptions, Vol. I (Complete Music for Solo Piano, Vol. 6)
Liszt Transcriptions of Berlioz, Chopin, Saint-Saëns

ASIN: B000002ZQT
Release Date: 1993-11-19

Customer Reviews:

a voice teacher and early music fan.......2007-01-04

Francisco de Penalosa (1470-1528). His music is most preserved in Hispanic or Portuguese manuscripts. It is reasonable to suppose that the considerable body of his music, six masses,six Magnificats,sets of Lamentations, various mass movements, Office hymns and a variety of motets date mainly from an active composing period of some twenty years in Aragonese court circle.
These motets, some with liturgical texts(for example:'Pater noster' and 'Ave regina'), others devotional like'Adoro te',extraliturgical funerary, such as 'Versa est in luctum','over-the-top' late medieval hyperbole (O Domina sanctissima), exaggerated bloodiness (Precor te), all 22 of them, have not a note of lively rejoicing. Yet, within each, even the very few that are a little dull and awkward, there is a tremendous variety.The textures and the sonorities , the mixtures of sharp declamation,soft slow chords and soaring melismas ,are varied endlessly and mixed from piece to piece within an individual motet.
This recording is recommended as an anthology to be sampled rather than always heard end to end.
The Pro Cantione Antiqua, with its all male voices, to my thinking ,is the best group possible for recording this type of music. Bruno Turner has done a superb job of pulling this all together. The singers are skilled having excellent diction, beautiful tone quality, perfect harmonic balance and proper emotional investment. The group is comprised of the following outstanding singers: Michael Chance ,Timothy Penrose(countertenors)-James Griffett, Ian Partridge (tenors)-Stephen Roberts (baritone) and Michael George, Adrian Peacock (basses).

Astonishing, moving, spectacular music.......2006-08-20

Leslie Howard has done it again: he's unveiled and championed some of Liszt's best music, his operatic fantasies and transcriptions. And Howard's repertoire here, combined with Hyperion's outstanding recording quality has made for a miraculous CD. I do not embellish my words when I say the music here is some of the richest and finest of Liszt's. Obviously, much of it is music material from other composers, but there are works here that remain clearly as originally conceived and compiled as if they were the sole products of Liszt's mind.

The first CD in this two-disc set is probably the most substantial and powerful showcase of Liszt's most complex and mature efforts with the operatic fantasy as a form. The Illustrations du Prophete from Meyerbeer's opera is an epic three movement work that propels through so many technical eventualities and musical ideas; it is exhilarating, impressive, dramatic and superb music for the piano. Although I'm not at all familiar with Meyerbeer's operas, it's still evident how successful the music becomes through the piano. Howard explains it himself how ingenius the treatment of Meyerbeer's themes are. What becomes noticeable after I began listening to it over and over is the growth and mutation that Liszt puts the themes through, so that the music is almost Liszt's own conception; it's not just borrowed from another composer to use as a basis for a fantasy. The entire three movement fantasy is 40 minutes long (!) and delivers such stirring and memorable music, it will invite repeated listenings.

The masterpiece here which surely deserves a revival today is the Fantasie and Fugue on a theme from Meyerbeer's Le Prophete, known as the "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam." This colossal and monumental work of art, again in three movements and played on two pianos, is one of the greatest and most original compositions Liszt has crafted from another composer's music material. He transforms Meyerbeer's themes to create the most electrifying, beautiful, and staggering piano work I've heard since the Sonata in B minor. The first movement is the heaviest and most breathtaking sound I've heard on two pianos. It's a fuse between Bach on steroids and Liszt on cocaine with its combination of phenomenal counterpoint and virtuosic flare; easily superior to any Busoni or Godowsky effort.

The Adagio that follows is the most tranquil and exquisite music of such angelic beauty; it moves me like only something from late Beethoven would. It's hard to believe what Liszt is capable of creating on the piano. Just previously he roared with clamor and rage in the fantasy, and now this tender and delicate adagio floats into the air with such warmth. At times the music becomes a Romantic ballade, and then all of a sudden like an introspective hymn. This is the precusor to Liszt's later endeavors to create the softest and most sublime piano music. Just when you become seduced and expect even more heavenly moments, Liszt says, "nuh-uh" and crashes fortissimo into the most formidable and hair-raising fugue of the entire Romantic piano. It simply must be heard to be believed.

The music on the second CD evokes just as much enthusiasm from me. The Donizetti transcription/paraphrase have much to offer with the sonorities and emotions that come through on the piano. However, the majority of music on this second CD consists of Wagner transcriptions, but they all have their merits and unique moments. The Pilgrim's Chorus is a sure crowd-pleaser. Liszt's fantasy on Mosonyi's Szep Ilonka is another note-worthy piece here with a cheerful and energetic roller-coaster ride of music. It would be daft to remark on each piece but I felt it necessary to espouse how tremendous and amazing the first CD is, not to mention the surprises and impressive tributes to Wagner found on the second CD.

Bottom line: This is another milestone in Leslie Howard's recordings of Liszt: profound and mesmerizing music that has remained hidden from connoiseurs and amateurs alike. Treat yourself to some of Liszt's most extraordinary music here; you won't find something like this anywhere else. Howard is on a mission to revive those forgotten masterpieces of Liszt just like Ronald Smith did with Charles Valentin Alkan.

Other reviewers seem to have crong CD!!.......2005-01-13

This is a beautiful CD but has nothing to do with pianists and Liszt, as the other two commentators seem to suggest. I suspect this is a misfire in Amazon's system. Be assured that these are beautiful works (Penalosa's dates are c1470-1528) movingly performed by Bruno Turner and his Pro Cantione Antiqua. Obtain and enjoy!

A revelation!.......2002-04-25

I find that the most interesting and impressive work in this compilation is the Fantasy and Fugue on the "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam" chorale, which (like me) you may already have known in its version for organ. I was surprised by the grandeur it retains in the piano 4-hand version presented here. As Leslie Howard writes in the accompanying notes, it truly is one of Liszt's finest efforts, really in the same class as the B Minor Sonata. Playing and recording quality reflect the same high standards you will find in all of Howard's Liszt series on Hyperion.

Amazing operatic transcriptions.......2000-01-13

The first disc is dedicated to Meyerbeer. Needless to say, Meyerbeer himself was quite impressed. The last track features two piano players. The second disc is distinguished by Liszt's great Wagner transcriptions--the Parsifal is more of a fantasy on that opera, and it's marvelous, as are the other pieces. A really enjoyable set of transcriptions, played superbly by Leslie Howard.

Spohr: Clarinet Concertos Nos. 2 and 4; Fantasia and Variations, Op. 81

Average customer rating:

Pretty good, not great, but worth having
Good material played badly
Well played, not a classic
Comfortable and Nice

Spohr: Clarinet Concertos Nos. 2 and 4; Fantasia and Variations, Op. 81

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quintets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

4-for-3 Classical | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music

4-for-3 All Music | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Spohr: Clarinet Concertos Nos. 1 & 3
Stamitz: Clarinet Concertos, Vol. 1
Stamitz:Clarinet Concertos Vol. 2
Crussell: Clarinet Concertos
Spohr: Double Quartets

ASIN: B0000013WE
Release Date: 1995-03-21

Tracks:

Clarinet Concerto No. 2 In E Flat Major, Op. 57: Allegro
Clarinet Concerto No. 2 In E Flat Major, Op. 57: Adagio
Clarinet Concerto No. 2 In E Flat Major, Op. 57: Rondo alla Polacca
Clarinet Concerto No. 4 In E Minor: Allegro vivace
Clarinet Concerto No. 4 In E Minor: Larghetto
Clarinet Concerto No. 4 In E Minor: Rondo al Espagnol
Fantasia And Variations On A Theme Of Danzi, Op. 81

Customer Reviews:

Pretty good, not great, but worth having.......2004-09-02

I agree with some of the reviewers, but not with one in particular. As an ex-semiprofessional clarinetist, my opinion is that Ottensamer is very good, as good as anyone around these days. The Spohr concertos are nice easy listening (uncomplicated), but they don't hold a candle to those by Carl von Weber. So for seven bucks, this is worth having, but there's even better stuff out there by Ottensamer.

Good material played badly.......2002-06-29

The works by Louis Spohr featured on this recording are not standard works for clarinet, which is very refreshing. One can only hear the Mozart Concerto so many times before wondering if anyone else composed anything of note. These works are quite interesting and fun to hear as well as to play. However, the performance is mediocre at best. When listening to the recording, one begins to wonder where one measure ends and the next begins. Even with a score, it is difficult to find any semblance of a steady beat. The expressive quality of the playing is also somewhat lacking, partially because the technical aspects (including tempo) are quite weak. While this recording offers the opportunity to become aquainted with different material for the clarinet, it does not provide a good representation of the true musical quality of the pieces.

Well played, not a classic.......1999-09-23

The recording is clear and spacious, with the clarinet well placed in the overall aural pictures. Ottensamer plays impressively well whilst not conveying the full emotional impact of Spohr's work. The pieces themselves are well constructed with mellow adagios and lively conclusions. Wildner directs the Slovakian orchestras with purpose and the players respond to this. Not sure why, but it still does not move me overly. Perhaps they are not great concerto works.

Comfortable and Nice.......1999-03-11

This recording of L. Spohr's clarinet concertos is very well apt and competent, to be sure, but the fundamental shortcoming is that the works by Spohr are not particularly impressive themselves. Ottensamer, the clarinetist, is technically very beautiful and an all-around wonderful clarinetist with an enviable talent. If you want some relaxing background music for rading, or writing, this is pretty well, but for deep passionate music, keep at it.

Music Review:

Music Review

music review

Music Review

Like This Like That [Import]

Shostakovich: Suite sur des sonnets de Michel-Ange, Op. 145

The Long Day Closes

Ultimate Kenny G

Total Harmonic Distortion [Import]

Sangre de Rey

Spirit of Power: Inspirational Hits of Gospel

Spilled Drinks Can Lead To Chaos And Mass Destruction

Suroit Salut La Bolduc [Import]

The Golden Age of Light Music: The 1950s, Vol. 2 - Midnight Matinee

The Gift

Scotland: Orkneys and Arran

Room with a View Too [Import]

Classical Masterpieces of the Millennium: Mozart

Inolvidable