Jan Vogler

Jan Vogler – Kabeláč: Cello Sonata, Op. 9 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 21:23 minutes | 420 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Capriccio

The former’s turbulent emotional climate foreshadows some of the darker symphonies to come (such as the Third) and contrasts superbly with Kabelac’s rarely heard work. This piece is quite a discovery, a tightly structured and melodically appealing effort from a very fine composer known almost exclusively for the two orchestral works (Mystery of Time and Hamlet Improvisation) recorded by Ancerl and the Czech Philharmonic. Like the Mystery of Time, the sonata includes a passacaglia, which Kabelac executes with impressive gravity and not a shred of formal stiffness.

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Jan Vogler – The Dvorak Album (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:11:48 minutes | 1,70 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical – Sony Music

“The Dvorák Album” highlights Antonín Dvorák’s chamber music in its diversity and musical richness. Jan Vogler, cellist and artistic director of the Moritzburg Festival, selected chamber music works from different periods of Dvorák’s creation and recorded them with excellent young musicians: American violinist Chad Hoopes, Kevin Zhu, violist Matthew Lipman, pianists Tiffany Poon and Juho Pohjonen. The album includes Dvorák’s expressive waltz of the Terzetto Scherzo in C major, opus 74, whose original and unusual formation on this recording has been adapted for piano, cello and violin. The famous Piano Trio n° 4 in E minor op. 90 “Dumky” and the seventh piece of his Humorous piano circle op. 101 are also among the works presented. The program also includes the Piano Quartet n° 2 in E major, Op. 87, rarely performed, which is characterized by unusual sound images, in which the piano blends perfectly with the strings, making it possible to compare it with the mentor and composer whom Dvorák deeply admired, namely Johannes Brahms. Jan Vogler has adapted Dvorak’s “Songs my mother taught me” for cello, taken from the Gypsy Songs Op. 55, specially written for the Bohemian tenor Gustav Walter, and whose narration revolves around songs transmitted by mothers to their children for generations.
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Jan Vogler – Brahms, Rihm, Harbison: Double Concertos (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:32 minutes | 1,46 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Sony Classical

The cellist Jan Vogler, who lives in New York and Dresden, has recorded three Double concertos for violin, cello and orchestra with his wife, the outstanding violinist Mira Wang, with the renowned Royal Scottish National Orchestra under direction of Peter Oundjian. Brahms’ famous Double concerto captivates with wonderfully sweeping melodies, romantic sounds, eloquent solos and great orchestral sound. The English press wrote about one of the previous concerts: “”Vogler, in particular, treated his solo sections like an operatic recitative, even in the faster Vivace sections of the finale, and Wang, his wife, matched him both in virtuosity and in beauty of tone. The highlight, however, was the opening of the slow movement, which produced sensational legato tone, soloists and orchestra slotting into one another like concentric circles, and creating a sound like molten chocolate. The American composer John Harbison (born 1938), whose cello concerto premiered by Yo-Yo Ma has already caused a sensation, composed the Double concerto for the Boston Symphony Orchestra commissioned by the Friends of the Dresden Festival. The highly praised world premiere with Jan Vogler and Mira Wang took place on April 8th 2010 in Boston under the direction of Carlos Kalmar. Now this colorful, dynamic work full of glittering virtuosity can be heard for the first time in a recording. The German composer Wolfgang Rihm (born 1953) is considered one of the most important composers of our time. His “”Duo Concerto””, performed at Carnegie Hall in New York by Jan Vogler and Mira Wang with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in 2015, completes this fascinating new recording of three Double concerts with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
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Jan Vogler – Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme & Souvenir de Florence (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:12:31 minutes | 751 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Sony Classical

Cellist Jan Vogler could have used the Pezzo Capriccioso, Op. 62, in this group of pieces by Tchaikovsky; unlike the two short pieces here. There are also a fragmentary Tchaikovsky Cello Concerto and a Gaspar Cassadó “Tchaikovsky cello concerto” from 1940, arranged from piano pieces. But rather than try to collect every last scrap of Tchaikovsky’s cello music, Vogler pursues a course that leads to a more coherent program: the use of the cello in a variety of works that explore the lighter, Mozartian side of Tchaikovsky’s output. At the center of the program are the Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33, Tchaikovsky’s largest work for cello and orchestra. Vogler plays a hybrid between Tchaikovsky’s original and the commonly played version by cellist William Fitzenhagen; he reintroduces Tchaikovsky’s original finale in the middle of the work (sample track 7). This might not be an ideal solution in all cases, but it lightens the piece and fits with the rest of the program. The unusual item on a solo cello release is the Sextet for strings in D minor, Op. 70 (“Souvenir de Florence”), but this breezy work is an ideal complement to the Variations. Each of these larger works is introduced by an arrangement; the version of the Sérénade Mélancolique in B flat minor, Op. 26, is by Vogler himself, and you could easily imagine it entering the repertory. The Frankfurt Radio Symphony and Moritzburg Festival Ensemble hew to Vogler’s light, almost easygoing tone, and the result is a satisfying Tchaikovsky recital.
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Jan Vogler – Songbook (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:21 minutes | 1,08 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical

Vogler’s passion for the Songbook project comes to the fore the moment he speaks about it. “In our age, when all the key classical works have been recorded numberless times, a new album should convey a message and present something new.” In this case, the “newness” is an ardent plea for a combination of instruments that may seem puzzling at first glance, and was long underappreciated, but which, on close listening, unveils a wealth of delights.
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Jan Vogler – Muhly/Helbig/Long: Three Continents, Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 2 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:02:24 minutes | 631 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Sony Classical

German Cellist Jan Vogler’s new album features two modern cello concertos. The first is the world premiere recording of the cello concerto “Three Continents” by Nico Muhly (*1981), Sven Helbig (*1968) and Zhou Long (*1953). Three Continents Cello Concerto is a unique collaborative work celebrating the sheer diversity of three composers from three different continents (USA, Germany, China) and almost three different generations. Each movement of the concerto takes a different view of the role of the soloist: Muhly’s Cello Cycles uses the large orchestra to striking effect to create a soundscape full of color. Rather than spotlighting the soloist, this movement features the cello as part of the texture very much as in a Baroque concerto grosso. By contrast, Helbig’s Aria opens with a series of atmospheric chords cycling through the lower strings of the cello and highlights the beautiful singing qualities of the instrument. Long’s lively final movement, Tipsy Poet, has a more narrative structure based on a well-known Chinese poem and features evocations of Chinese instruments in a colorful soundscape. The result is a fascinating contrasting whole, celebrating musical styles across a vast cultural space. This piece was world-premiered by Jan Vogler with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra (WDR), conducted by Cristian M celaru at the Dresden Music Festival 2019. The second cello concerto on the album is the Cello Concerto No. 2 by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 1975). Jan Vogler recorded the Cello Concerto No. 2 by Shostakovich with the orchestra of Mariinsky Theater St. Petersburg under Valery Gergiev also during the Dresden Music Festival 2019. Their concerts received great critical acclaim. “Jan Vogler sings with his instrument, full of happiness and enthusiasm, it seems, with admirably flawless technique. One notices how much he is with the music, how he is absorbed in it, how he almost seems to be grown together with his cello.” (rbb Kulturradio)
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Jan Vogler – Lalo, Casals: Cello Concertos (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:28 minutes | 1023 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical

The Moritzburg Festival Orchestra and cellist Jan Vogler will release on March 3rd, 2023 the world premiere recording of the cello concerto in F major by Enrique Casals (1892–1982) – a quite unknown work – as well as the cello concerto in D minor by Édouard Lalo together with SONY Classical. The recording was made in October 2022 under the direction of the orchestra’s chief conductor Josep Caballé Domenech in the Lukaskirche in Dresden at the occasion of the festival’s 30th anniversary.
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