Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds – Eastbound: Schumann, Dvorak, Schreker (Works for String Orchestra) (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:07:03 minutes | 675 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical
The Swiss chamber orchestra Festival Strings Lucerne recently attracted attention with its recording of Mozart’s “Haffner Serenade” and the highly acclaimed album “Femmes” by cellist Raphaela Gromes. For their new album “Eastbound”, Festival Strings Lucerne has selected a particularly interesting program under the direction of concertmaster Daniel Dodds.
Read moreYang Jing & Festival Strings Lucerne – Yang Jing: Works for String Quartet and Pipa (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:15:55 minutes | 1,36 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © NEOS Music
YANG Jing was born in China at a time when the so-called Cultural Revolution, which lasted from 1966 to 1976, had a major impact on her childhood. This wiped out all traditional, bourgeois culture to an extent that we can hardly believe even today. Mao’s wife Jiang Qing postulated that only proletarian art and literature was acceptable, which for her only really began in 1963, with everything created before that being regarded as reprehensible and decadent. As one of the four leading figures of the Cultural Revolution, which was later dubbed the Gang of Four, she was largely responsible for the attempt to erase China’s cultural heritage. Only so-called model plays, six Peking operas and two ballets, newly written for the purpose of public education, were permitted.
Read moreArabella Steinbacher, Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds – Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos. 3, 4 & 5 (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:08 minutes | 1,35 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone
Violinist Arabella Steinbacher studied her first Mozart Violin Concerto in G major at the age of eight. The legendary pianist Arthur Schnabel mentioned that the piano sonatas of Mozart are too easy for children yet too difficult for adults. In Steinbacher’s words: In Mozart one must always make sure that it’s powerful, but at the same time never sounds aggressive and that the sound always remains beautifully pure and almost angelic.
And since then the piece has become the underlying theme throughout her career. She played the piece during many important moments of her life. It was also the piece that got Arabella accepted as the youngest students of Ana Chumachenko when she was nine. Yet it never came to a CD recording while listeners regularly ask for it.
In making the recording Ms Steinbacher said,” I’m glad it can finally be recorded now. Mozart connects me to my childhood and it has opened many doors.”
Read moreFestival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds – Mozart: Haffner-Serenade KV 250 & Marsch KV 249 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:19 minutes | 1,18 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical – Sony Music
The serenade for orchestra in D major, K. 250 (248b), popularly known as the “Haffner Serenade”, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on the commission of Sigmund Haffner Junior in 1776. The serenade is undoubtedly a jewel among Mozart’s Salzburg compositions. The eight-movement work is Mozart’s most extensive serenade and also the one with the largest instrumentation, with 13 instruments. Yet it is almost forgotten, or overshadowed, by it’s famous Viennese counterpart, the Symphony in D major K. 385, the “Haffner Symphony”, commissioned by Leopold Mozart in the summer of 1781 for the nobilization of Johann Sigmund Haffner. The first and last movements of the serenade gain additional weight through slow introductions. The first minuet is remarkably witty. It is embedded in the concerto movements of the serenade and it is in a minor key against all tradition. This is a charming joke on the part of the composer, for the melody is by no means serious, but a minor variant of a folk song known today as “I’m Märzen der Bauer”. The virtuosic solo parts throughout the recording are played by conductor and violinist Daniel Dodds. An exclusive bonus track of this album is the world premiere recording of “Armonia con Capriccio” by Vicenzo Righini (1756 -1812) which has never been recorded in this particular version. The Italian Righini was contemporary of Mozart and a successful tenor, bandmaster and composer in his day. The track is a beautiful piece for violin and orchestra from his opera “Gerusalemme liberata ossia Armida al campo de’ franchi”.
Read moreArabella Steinbacher, Festival Strings Lucerne & Daniel Dodds – Mozart: Works for Violin & Orchestra (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:00:53 minutes | 2,18 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone
Arabella Steinbacher completes her Mozart cycle. After having recorded Mozart’s last three violin concertos in 2014, Arabella Steinbacher, the Festival Strings Lucerne and its leader Daniel Dodds now complete the cycle by presenting Mozart’s less well-known, but equally enchanting Violin Concertos No. 1 & No. 2, together with his Adagio in E Major and Rondos in C Major and in B-flat Major. Steinbacher plays the cadenzas by Wolfgang Schneiderhan, who co-founded the Festival Strings Lucerne in 1956. Another exciting aspect of this album is that she plays for the first time on the “Ex Benno Walter” Strad from 1718.
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