Dorothy Howell (1898-1982)

Piano Concerto in D minor

Moderato marcato - Andante con moto e tranquillo - Allegro moderato

Danny Driver, piano
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Rebecca Miller, conductor

Dorothy Gertrude Howell (1898 – 1982) was an English composer and pianist. Howell was born in Birmingham, grew up in Handsworth, and received a convent education. She received private composition lessons from Granville Bantock before beginning her studies at the Royal Academy of Music, aged 15. Her teachers there included John Blackwood McEwen and Tobias Matthay. Howell achieved fame with her symphonic poem Lamia (inspired by the Keats poem) which Sir Henry Wood premiered at The Proms on 10 September 1919. Wood directed Lamia again that same week, on 13 September 1919. He subsequently conducted Lamia again in the 1921, 1923, 1924, 1926, 1930 and 1940 Proms seasons, but in subsequent years Lamia was neglected, until its revival in the 2010 season of The Proms. It received a centenary performance at the Proms in 2019. Howell dedicated Lamia on its 1921 publication to Wood. Among other compositions by Howell, Wood conducted Koong Shee in 1921, her Piano Concerto in 1923 and 1927 with the composer herself as pianist on both occasions, and The Rock in 1928. He was scheduled to conduct the first performance of Three Divertissements in 1940, but the concert was cancelled owing to The Blitz. Her Air, Variations & Finale for oboe, violin & piano (1949) can be obtained from June Emerson Wind Music (E620). Three Divertissements, Howell's last known orchestral work, did not receive its premiere until the 1950 Elgar Festival in Malvern. Howell won the Cobbett Prize in 1921 for her Phantasy for violin and piano. She received the nickname of the "English Strauss" in her lifetime. Wood attempted to recruit Howell to his conducting class at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in 1923, but she instead became a teacher at the RAM in 1924. During World War II, she served with the Women's Land Army. She taught at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire from 1950–57. She retired from the RAM in 1970, and after her retirement, continued to teach students privately. She died in Malvern, aged 83.

Max d'Ollone (1875-1959)

String Quartet in D Major

I. Molto allegro 0:00​
II. Adagio 5:50
III. Scherzo: Allegro 12:21​
IV. Finale: Allegro 17:14

Quatour Athenaeum-Enesco

Maximilien-Paul-Marie-Félix d'Ollone (1875 – 1959) was a 20th-century French composer. Born in Besançon, d'Ollone started composing very early, entering the Paris Conservatoire at 6, winning many prizes, receiving the encouragement of Gounod, Saint-Saëns, Massenet, Thomas and Delibes. His teachers at the Conservatoire were Lavignac, Massenet, Gédalge and Lenepveu; he won the Prix de Rome in 1897. He was director of music in Angers, professor at the Paris Conservatoire and director of the Opéra-Comique. His work was part of the music event in the art competition at the 1912 Summer Olympics. In 1932 he wrote three important articles for Le Ménestrel (29 July, 9 and 16 December) arguing for a more populist approach to composition. D'Ollone produced a number of song cycles (including "Les Chants d'Ailleurs"; " Les Chants d'Exil"; "Impressions d'Automne"), which demonstrate a considerable mastery of the French mélodie. There are several works for orchestra, solo instrument and orchestra, and piano works.

Louis Théodore Gouvy (1819-1898)

Symphony No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 9

I. Allegro maestoso 0:00​​
II. Scherzo: Allegro 10:23​​
III. Andante con moto 15:25​
IV. Finale: Allegro con brio - Moderato assai e maestoso 23:20​

Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern
Jacques Mercier, conductor

Louis Théodore Gouvy (1819 – 1898) was a French/German composer. Gouvy was born into a French-speaking family in the village of Goffontaine, in the Sarre, a region on the France-Prussia border (now Saarbrücken-Schafbrücke, Germany). Because this region fell under Prussian control shortly before his birth, Théodore Gouvy could not attain French citizenship until the age of 32. He began piano lessons with a private tutor at the age of eight, and was educated in France—Sarreguemines, then Metz—developing a keen interest in Classical Greek culture and in modern languages—not only German, which he spoke fluently, but English and Italian as well. In 1837 he went to Paris to study law, continuing his piano lessons with a pupil of the pianist and composer Henri Herz (1803–1888) and became friendly with Adolphe Adam. This led to further music studies in Paris and Berlin. Unable to pursue music instruction at the Conservatoire de Paris, he took up private courses. Gouvy was a man of two cultures, divided between France and Germany, from which he drew his inspiration, his characteristics and his force. While to a certain extent he was known and recognized in his lifetime, he fell into obscurity following his death. Gouvy, drawn toward pure instrumental music as opposed to opera, set himself the unenviable task of becoming a French symphonist. It was unenviable because the French, and especially the Parisians, throughout most of the 19th century were opera-mad and not particularly interested in pure instrumental music. It was this disdain for instrumental music in general which led to Gouvy living the last third of his life almost entirely in Germany where he was much appreciated. During his lifetime, his compositions, and especially his chamber music, were held in high regard and often performed in those countries (Germany, Austria, England, Scandinavia, and Russia) where chamber music mattered. But in France, he never achieved real acclaim. Gouvy was universally acknowledged for being a master of form and for his deft sense of instrumental timbre. Mendelssohn and Schumann were his models and his music developed along the lines one might have expected of those men had they lived longer. Virtually all of his works show that he was a gifted melodist whose music is a joy to hear. Musicians of the first rank such as Johannes Brahms, Carl Reinecke, and Joseph Joachim, who were familiar with Gouvy's music, held it in high regard. Berlioz's favorable reviews had little effect, and Gouvy's music continued to be neglected until the end of the 20th century. In 1994, his Requiem, with its vigorous Dies iræ, was revived by the Lorraine Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Jacques Houtmann (who recorded a CD of the work, which appeared the K617 label). Stylistically the composition owes something to Mendelssohn, something to Gounod, and something to Verdi, but remains quietly original despite these influences. Although his work comprises more than two hundred compositions, including 90 opuses published in his lifetime, it largely remains ignored. In particular, he wrote twenty-four compositions for a full orchestra, including nine symphonies, as well as overtures and variations. Chamber music comprises a large portion of Gouvy's work and accounts in particular for four sonatas in duet form, five trios, eleven quartets, seven quintets, an enormous piano repertoire — for two and four hands — and for two pianos, several scores for wind instrument ensembles, as well as many melodies and Lieder. We also know of five great dramatic cantatas (Aslega, Œdipe à Colone, Iphigénie en Tauride, Électre, and Polyxène), two operas (Le Cid and Mateo Falcone) as well as some large religious works, including a Requiem, a Stabat Mater, a Messe brève, and the cantata Golgotha. Gouvy was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1894 on the death of Anton Rubinstein, and to the König-Preussische Akademie in Berlin in 1895. He died in Leipzig on 21 April 1898.

Théodore Dubois (1837-1924)

Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor

I. Allegro 0:00
II. Adagio con sentimento profondissimo 11:35
III. Allegro vivo, scherzando 18:10
IV. Con molta fantasia: Allegro, Moto del No.1 - Vivo,
Mouvement del No.3 (Allegro vivo, scherzando) - Adagio, Mouvement del No.2 -
Allegro, Moto del No.1 - Allegro con fuoco 20:48

Cédric Tiberghien, piano
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Manze, conductor

François-Clément Théodore Dubois (1837 – 1924) was a French composer, organist and music teacher. Dubois was born in Rosnay in Marne. He studied first under Louis Fanart (the choirmaster at Reims Cathedral) and later at the Paris Conservatoire under Ambroise Thomas. He won the Prix de Rome in 1861. In 1868, he became choirmaster at the Church of the Madeleine, and in 1871 took over from César Franck as choirmaster at the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde. In 1877, Dubois returned to the Church of the Madeleine, succeeding Camille Saint-Saëns as organist there. From 1871 he taught at the Paris Conservatoire, where his pupils included Pierre de Bréville, Guillaume Couture, Gabrielle Ferrari, Gustave Doret, Paul Dukas, Achille Fortier, Xavier Leroux, Albéric Magnard, Édouard Risler, Guy Ropartz, Spyridon Samaras, and Florent Schmitt. Dubois was director of the Conservatoire from 1896 (succeeding Thomas on the latter's death) to 1905, continuing his predecessor's intransigently conservative regime. The music of Auber, Halévy and especially Meyerbeer was regarded as the correct model for students, and old French music such as that of Rameau and modern music, including that of Wagner were kept rigorously out of the curriculum. Dubois was unremittingly hostile to Maurice Ravel who, when a Conservatoire student, did not conform to the faculty's anti-modernism, and in 1902 Dubois unavailingly forbade Conservatoire students to attend performances of Debussy's ground-breaking new opera, Pelléas et Mélisande. In June 1905 he was forced to bring his planned retirement forward after a public scandal caused by the faculty's blatant attempt to stop Ravel winning the Prix de Rome. Gabriel Fauré was appointed to succeed Dubois as director, with a brief from the French government to modernise the institution. Although he wrote many religious works, Dubois had considerable hopes for a successful career in opera. His fascination with Near-Eastern subjects led to the composition to his first staged work, La guzla de l'émir, and his first four-act opera, Aben-Hamet, which broke no new ground. His other large-scale opera, Xavière, is a wildly dramatic tale set in the rural Auvergne. The story revolves around a widowed mother who plots to kill her daughter, Xavière, with the help of her fiancé's father to gain the daughter's inheritance. However, Xavière survives the attack with the help of a priest, and the opera finishes with a conventional happy ending. The music of Dubois also includes ballets, oratorios and three symphonies. His best known work is the oratorio Les sept paroles du Christ ("The Seven Last Words of Christ" [1867]), which continues to be given an occasional airing; his Toccata in G (1889), for the organ, is a recital staple, by no means solely in France. The rest of his large output has almost entirely disappeared from view. He has had a more lasting influence in teaching, with his theoretical works Traité de contrepoint et de fugue (on counterpoint and fugue) and Traité d'harmonie théorique et pratique (on harmony) still being sometimes used today.

Christian Barnekow (1837-1913)

Piano Trio in F-sharp minor, Op. 1

I. Allegro 0:00
II. Andante con moto 6:23
III. Vivace 12:36
IV. Allegro con brio 16:02

Eskar Trio

Christian Barnekow (1837-1913) was a Danish composer. He studied piano and organ in Copenhagen and composed mainly chamber music in the Romantic Period. He died in Frederiksberg, Denmark.

Zygmunt Stojowski (1870-1946)

Concertstück for Cello and Orchestra in D Major, Op. 31

I. Allegro vivace - Calando - A tempo, quasi cadenza - Poco sostenuto 0:00​
II. Andante sostenuto 8:12​
III. Allegro come prima - Allegro assai 11:25​

Tomasz Strahl, cello
The Orchestra of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic
Peter Santa, conductor

Zygmunt Denis Antoni Jordan de Stojowski (1870-1946) was a Polish pianist and composer. He was born on May 4, 1870 near the city of Kielce. Stojowski began his musical training with his mother, and with Polish composer Władysław Żeleński. In Kraków, as a seventeen-year-old student, he made his debut as a concert pianist performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the local orchestra. At the age of eighteen he moved to Paris and studied piano with Louis Diémer and composition with Léo Delibes. Two years later at the Paris Conservatoire, he would win first prizes in piano performance, counterpoint and fugue. According to Stojowski, however, in a December 1901 interview that appeared in a Warsaw magazine, the teachers who had the most profound influence on him as a musician were the Polish violinist-composer Wladyslaw Gorski and pianist-composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Stojowski's music was found worthy enough to be included in the first concert of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, on 5 November 1901. His Symphony in D minor, Op. 21, which was featured in that first concert conducted by Emil Młynarski, had won first prize (1000 rubles) in a Paderewski Music Competition in Leipzig on 9 July 1898. Besides having his symphony performed at that first prestigious concert, Stojowski appeared as a recitalist in December and again as the soloist in Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 4 in January 1902.
In October 1905, Stojowski sailed on the SS Moltke to the USA on the invitation of Frank Damrosch, founder and director of the newly formed Institute of Musical Art, to head the institute's piano department; he was recommended for the position by pianist Harold Bauer and cellist Pablo Casals. New York became his home for the rest of his life. The institute would later merge in 1924 with the Juilliard Graduate School to form the Juilliard School, where Stojowski would also teach during the summers of 1932 and 1940-46. In New York, he was acclaimed as a great composer, pianist and pedagogue, and had the distinction of being the first Polish composer to have an entire concert devoted to his music performed by the New York Philharmonic. After six years of teaching at the Institute of Musical Art, Stojowski then headed the piano department at the Von Ende School of Music until 1917. Finally, due to the large number of students who wished to work with him, he opened his own 'Stojowski Studios' at his four-story brownstone home at 150 West 76th Street in Manhattan. Among Stojowski's pupils were Mischa Levitzki, Alfred Newman, Antonia Brico, Arthur Loesser, and Oscar Levant. Here, together with his Peruvian-born wife, Luisa Morales-Macedo, the pianist/composer not only taught until the end of the 1930s, but also raised what he called his three best compositions: his sons, Alfred (1919), Henry (1921) and Ignace (1923–1984). He died on November 5, 1946 in New York City.

Franz Lachner (1803-1890)

Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 52 'Passionata'

I. Andante - Allegro 0:00
II. Andante con moto 20:42
III. Menuetto: Allegro 36:07
IV. Finale: Allegro 46:54

Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice
Paul Robinson, conductor

Franz Paul Lachner (1803 – 1890) was a German composer and conductor. Lachner was born in Rain am Lech to a musical family (his brothers Ignaz, Theodor and Vinzenz also became musicians). He studied music with Simon Sechter and Maximilian, the Abbé Stadler. He conducted at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna. In 1834, he became Kapellmeister at Mannheim. As a result of composers' aesthetic comparisons of Beethoven's symphonic output with efforts afterwards, in 1835, there was a competition in Vienna for the best new symphony sponsored by Tobias Haslinger of the music publishing firm with no fewer than 57 entries. Lachner received first prize with his 5th Symphony Sinfonia passionata, or Preis-Symphonie and became royal Kapellmeister at Munich, becoming a major figure in its musical life, conducting at the opera and various concerts and festivals. His career there came to a sudden end in 1864 after Richard Wagner's disciple Hans von Bülow took over Lachner's duties. Lachner remained officially in his post on extended leave for a few years until his contract expired.

Stanyslav Lyudkevych (1879-1979)

Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor

I. Largo sostenuto - Allegro non troppo, ben ritmico - Molto serioso, cantabile - Allegro agitato - Poco adagio, Maestoso - Allegro capriccioso - Presto giocoso 0:00
II. Molto lento cantabile 16:58
III. Presto giocoso 23:47

Maria Krushelnitskaya, piano
Lviv State Philharmonic Orchestra
Demyan Pelehaty, conductor

Stanyslav Pylypovych Lyudkevych (1879 – 1979 in Lviv) was a Ukrainian composer, theorist, teacher, and musical activist. He was the People's Artist of the USSR in 1969. He earned a Ph.D. in musicology in Vienna, 1908. His name may alternatively be spelled as Stanislaw Ludkiewicz (Polish) or Stanislav Filipovich Ludkevich (Russian). Lyudkevych was born in 1879 in Jarosław in present-day Poland. He is a former student of the Lviv Academic Gymnasium. From 1898 to 1907 Lyudkevych studied philosophy in the Lviv University. Although he initially learned music theory privately from his mother who was a pianist, Lyudkevych studied with Mieczyslaw Soltys in Lviv and with O. Tsemlinsky and H. Hredener in Vienna. From 1901, Lyudkevych worked as a teacher in Lviv and Przemyśl. From 1905 to 1907, Lyudkevych was an editor of the magazine "Artistic Bulletin". He was one of the organizers of the higher musical institute in Lviv named after Mykola Lysenko, in 1910—1915 he was its director, and from 1919, teacher of theoretical disciplines and inspector of legal entities. He worked with the choirs Boyan, Bandurist, Surma. In 1936, Lyudkevych became head of the musicological commission of the Shevchenko Scientific Society. In 1939-72, he was a professor in the institute named after Mykola Lysenko. He died on September 10, 1979 in Lviv.

August Enna (1859-1939)

Violin Concerto in D Major

I. Moderato - Lento - Vivo 0:00
II. Andante - Grazioso - Andante lento 9:15
III. Allegro scherzoso 18:46

Kathrin Rabus, violin
NDR Radiophilharmonie
Hermann Bäumer, conductor

August Enna (1859 – 1939) was a Danish composer, known mainly for his operas. Enna was born in Nakskov, Lolland, Denmark, but his ethnic origins lay in the town of Enna in Sicily. His first major success as a composer was The Witch (1892), which was followed by several popular operas, songs, two symphonies (in D minor and E major), and a violin concerto. Strongly influenced by Wagner's music, he was himself an influence on Danish composers, such as Carl Nielsen. August Enna also wrote piano music.

Alfredo Casella (1883-1947)

Serenade in C Major for Small Orchestra, Op. 46b

I. Marcia: Allegro vivace e ritmico 0:00
II. Notturno: Lento, grave 4:38
III. Gavotta: Vivacissimo e spiritoso 10:59
IV. Cavatina: Adagio molto e sentimentale ma senza parodia 13:29
V. Finale: Vivacissimo alla Napolitana 20:19

Bolzano-Trento Haydn Orchestra
Alun Francis, conductor

Alfredo Casella (1883 – 1947) was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor. Casella was born in Turin, the son of Maria (née Uordino) and Carlo Casella. His family included many musicians: his grandfather, a friend of Paganini's, was first cello in the San Carlo Theatre in Lisbon and eventually became soloist in the Royal Chapel in Turin. Alfredo's father, Carlo, was also a professional cellist, as were Carlo's brothers Cesare and Gioacchino; his mother was a pianist, who gave the boy his first music lessons. Alfredo entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1896 to study piano under Louis Diémer and composition under Gabriel Fauré; in these classes, George Enescu and Maurice Ravel were among his fellow students. During his Parisian period, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Manuel de Falla were acquaintances, and he was also in contact with Ferruccio Busoni, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. Casella developed a deep admiration for Debussy's output after hearing Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune in 1898, but pursued a more romantic vein (stemming from Strauss and Mahler) in his own writing of this period, rather than turning to impressionism. His first symphony of 1905 is from this time, and it is with this work that Casella made his debut as a conductor when he led the symphony's premiere in Monte Carlo in 1908. Back in Italy during World War I, he began teaching piano at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome. From 1927 to 1929 Casella was the principal conductor of the Boston Pops, where he was succeeded by Arthur Fiedler. He was one of the best-known Italian piano virtuosos of his generation and together with Arturo Bonucci (cello) and Alberto Poltronieri (violin) he formed the Trio Italiano in 1930. This group played to great acclaim in Europe and America. His stature as a pianist and his work with the trio gave rise to some of his best-known compositions, including A Notte Alta, the Sonatina, Nove Pezzi, and the Six Studies, Op. 70, for piano. For the trio to play on tour, he wrote the Sonata a Tre and the Triple Concerto. Casella had his biggest success with the ballet La Giara, set to a scenario by Luigi Pirandello; other notable works include Italia, the Concerto Romano (commissioned by Rodman Wanamaker and premiered at the Wanamaker Auditorium in New York with the organ and Wanamaker collection of rare string instruments), Partita and Scarlattiana for piano and orchestra, the Violin and Cello Concerti, Paganiniana, and the Concerto for Piano, Strings, Timpani and Percussion. Amongst his chamber works, both Cello Sonatas are played with some frequency, as is the very beautiful late Harp Sonata, and the music for flute and piano. Casella also made live-recording player piano music rolls for the Aeolian Duo-Art system, all of which survive today and can be heard. In 1923, together with Gabriele D'Annunzio and Gian Francesco Malipiero from Venice, he founded an association to promote the spread of modern Italian music, the "Corporation of the New Music." The resurrection of Antonio Vivaldi's works in the 20th century is mostly thanks to the efforts of Casella, who in 1939 organised the now historic Vivaldi Week, in which the poet Ezra Pound was also involved. Since then Vivaldi's compositions have enjoyed almost universal success and the advent of historically informed performance has only strengthened his position. In 1947 the Venetian businessman Antonio Fanna founded the Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi, with the composer Malipiero as its artistic director, with the purpose of promoting Vivaldi's music and putting out new editions of his works. Casella's work on behalf of his Italian Baroque musical ancestors put him at the centre of the early 20th-century Neoclassical revival in music and influenced his own compositions profoundly. His editions of Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven's piano works, along with many others, proved extremely influential on the musical taste and performance style of Italian players in the following generations. The generazione dell'ottanta ("generation of '80"), including Casella himself, Malipiero, Respighi, Pizzetti, and Alfano — all composers born around 1880, the post-Puccini generation — concentrated on writing instrumental works. He died in Rome.

Carl Czerny (1791-1857)

Piano Trio No. 4 in A minor, Op. 289

I. Allegro con brio 0:00​
II. Scherzo: Presto 11:12​
III. Adagio 15:34
IV. Rondo: Allegro capriccioso e vivace 21:13

Göbel-Trio Berlin

Carl Czerny ( 1791 – 1857) was an Austrian composer, teacher, and pianist of Czech origin whose vast musical production amounted to over a thousand works. His books of studies for the piano are still widely used in piano teaching. Czerny was born in Vienna (Leopoldstadt) and was baptized in St. Leopold parish. His parents were of Czech origin; his mother was Moravian. His parents spoke the Czech language with him. Czerny came from a musical family: his grandfather was a violinist at Nymburk, near Prague, and his father, Wenzel, was an oboist, organist and pianist. When Czerny was six months old, his father took a job as a piano teacher at a Polish manor and the family moved to Poland, where they lived until the third partition of Poland prompted the family to return to Vienna in 1795. A child prodigy, Czerny began playing piano at age three and composing at age seven. His first piano teacher was his father, who taught him mainly Bach, Haydn and Mozart. He began performing piano recitals in his parents' home. Czerny made his first public performance in 1800 playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor. In 1801, Wenzel Krumpholz, a Czech composer and violinist, scheduled a presentation for Czerny at the home of Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven asked Czerny to play his Pathétique Sonata and Adelaide. Beethoven was impressed with the 10-year-old and accepted him as a pupil. Czerny remained under Beethoven's tutelage until 1804 and sporadically thereafter. He particularly admired Beethoven's facility at improvisation, his expertise at fingering, the rapidity of his scales and trills, and his restrained demeanour while performing. Czerny's autobiography and letters give many important references to Beethoven during this period. Czerny was the first to report symptoms of Beethoven's deafness, years before the matter became public: "I also noticed with that visual quickness peculiar to children that he had cotton which seemed to have been steeped in a yellowish liquid, in his ears." Czerny was selected by Beethoven for the premiere of the latter's Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1806 and, at the age of 21, in February 1812, Czerny gave the Vienna premiere of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor". Czerny wrote that his musical memory enabled him to play all the Beethoven works by heart without exception and, during the years 1804–1805, he used to play these works in this manner at Prince Lichnowsky's palace once or twice a week, with the Prince calling out only the desired opus numbers. Czerny maintained a relationship with Beethoven throughout his life, and also gave piano lessons to Beethoven's nephew Carl. At the age of fifteen, Czerny began a very successful teaching career. Basing his method on the teaching of Beethoven and Muzio Clementi, Czerny taught up to twelve lessons a day in the homes of Viennese nobility. His 'star' pupils included Theodor Döhler, Stephen Heller, Sigismond Thalberg, Leopoldine Blahetka and Ninette de Belleville. Franz Liszt became Czerny's most famous pupil. He trained the child with the works of Beethoven, Clementi, Ignaz Moscheles and Johann Sebastian Bach. The Liszt family lived in the same street in Vienna as Czerny, who was so impressed by the boy that he taught him free of charge. Liszt was later to repay this confidence by introducing the music of Czerny at many of his Paris recitals. Shortly before Liszt's Vienna concert of 13 April 1823 (his final concert of that season), Czerny arranged, with some difficulty (as Beethoven increasingly disliked child prodigies) the introduction of Liszt to Beethoven. Beethoven was sufficiently impressed with the young Liszt to give him a kiss on the forehead. Liszt remained close to Czerny, and in 1852 his Études d'exécution transcendente were published with a dedication to Czerny. Czerny left Vienna only to make trips to Italy, France (in 1837, when he was assisted by Liszt) and England. After 1840, Czerny devoted himself exclusively to composition. He wrote a large number of piano solo exercises for the development of the pianistic technique (Gradus ad Parnassum), designed to cover from the first lessons for children up to the needs of the most advanced virtuoso. Czerny died in Vienna at the age of 66.

Ricardo Castro Herrera (1864-1907)

Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 22

I. Allegro moderato 0:00
II. Andante 7:19
III. Polonaise: Allegro 15:29

Rodolfo Ritter, piano
San Luis Potosí Symphony Orchestra
José Luis Zapata, conductor

Ricardo Castro Herrera (Rafael de la Santísima Trinidad Castro Herrera) (7 February 1864, Hacienda de santa Bárbara, Durango -- 27 November 1907, Mexico City) was a Mexican concert pianist and composer, considered the last romantic of the time of Porfirio Díaz. Castro's father, Vicente Castro, was a deputy congressman; his mother was María de Jesús Herrera. Castro began his music education with Pedro H. Ceniseros. In 1879 his family moved to Mexico City where the boy entered the National Conservatory of Music and studied piano with Juan Salvatierra and Julio Ituarte, He studied harmony and counterpoint with Melesio Morales. He finished all his studies just in 5 years, half of the usual 10. He graduated in 1883. Castro began his musical career as a concert pianist and composer before finishing his studies. In 1882, he won two prizes. At 19, Castro finished his First Symphony in C Minor; the symphony was premiered in 1988, 81 years after his death. In 1883 the Government of Mexico chose some of Castro's works to send to Venezuela for the Simon Bolivar centenary and later in 1884 he made a concert tour through United States. Castro received a scholarship from the Government of Mexico and went to Europe from 1903 to 1906 to give master classes in conservatories in Paris, Brussels, Rome, Milan and Leipzig. He published in Paris many Mexican dances for piano in the Habanera style. He studied with Teresa Carreño while in Europe. When he returned to Mexico he was appointed music director of the National Conservatory of Music by Justo Sierra and kept that work until he died of pneumonia in November,1907. Castro's music for piano tends to be very colourful and sentimental with a kind of virtuosity in the style of Liszt. He often connects many musical themes in brilliant passages of virtuosity. The Cello Concerto in C minor is the first work in its genre by a Mexican composer. It was composed around 1895, and premiered by Marix Loevensohn in Paris at the Salle Erard in 1903. However, it wasn't heard in Mexico until 1981, when Carlos Prieto played it at the Sala Nezahualcoyotl with Jorge Velazco conducting the Mineria Orchestra.

Gaspar Cassadó (1897-1966)

Cello Concerto in D minor

I. Allegro non troppo 0:00​
II. Andante con variazioni e Allegro finale: Andante con sentimento austero - Allegro ritmico e piuttosto moderato 13:22​

Johannes Goritzki, cello
Radio Orchestra Lugano
Urs Schneider, conductor

Gaspar Cassadó i Moreu (1897 - 1966) was a Spanish cellist and composer of the early 20th century. He was born in Barcelona to a church musician father, Joaquim Cassadó, and began taking cello lessons at age seven. When he was nine, he played in a recital where Pablo Casals was in the audience; Casals immediately offered to teach him. The city of Barcelona awarded him a scholarship so that he could study with Casals in Paris. He was also the author of several notable musical hoaxes, notably the "Toccata" that he attributed to Frescobaldi. The personal papers of Cassadó's father are preserved in the Biblioteca de Catalunya. Gaspar's own papers, along with those of his wife, the pianist Chieko Hara, are preserved at the Tamagawa University Museum of Education.

Alberto Curci (1886-1973)

Violin Concerto No. 3 in G minor, Op. 33

1. Allegro appasionato 0:00
2. Andante cantabile 6:27
3. Allegro 12:16

Franco Gulli, violin
Studio Orchestra
Franco Capuana, conductor

Alberto Curci (1886 - 1973) was born in Naples, (the chief town of region Campania, Italy), and studied violin with the Master A.Ferni. In 1904 he graduated from the Neapolitan "San Pietro a Majella" Conservatory. The following year he went to Berlin to specialize under the guidance of Joseph Joachim and soon he began a swift and brilliant career, giving concerts for several years in the main European towns, the Dutch Indies and the East. On his return to Italy, Alberto devoted himself to the didactic career and he gained, owing to competitions, the violin teaching posts in Palermo and in Parma. Afterwards, Francesco Cilea, director of the "San Pietro a Majella" Conservatory of Naples, appointed him full professor of violin, without competition. Since then, Alberto spent 40 years moulding a crowd of remarkable violinists, both teachers and concert artists, including Aldo Pavanelli and Angelo Gaudino. In 1919, Alberto, with his brother Alfredo and the Master Oreste de Rubertis, set up a very noble initiative: the establishment of the "Friends of Music" Association, which was subsidized for patronage purposes by the "Curci Musical House". Among the pianists who were invited by the institution there were: Eugène D'Albert, Wihelm Bachaus, Artur Schnabel, Carlo Zecchi, Edwin Fischer, Walter Gieseking, Leonid Kreutzer, Leopold Godowski, Alexander Borowski, Alfredo Casella, Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco, Ernesto Consolo, Alfred Cortot, Arthur Rubinstein, Rudolff Serkin. Among the violinists: Carl Flesch, Ferenc von Vecscey, Arrigo Serato, Fritz Kreisler, Adolph Busch, Mario Corti, Remy Principe, Jascha Heifetz, Florizel von Reuter, Gioconda de Vito. Among the cellists: Arnold Földesy, Arturo Bonucci, Julius Doktor, Emmanuel Feuermann, Gaspar Cassadò, and among the groups: the Busch Quartet, the Budapest Quartet, the Consolo-Serato-Bonucci Trio.

Sir Frederic Hymen Cowen (1852-1935)

Symphony No. 5 in F Major

I. Molto sostenuto e maestoso - Allegro, poco tranquillo 0:00
II. Allegretto, quasi allegro 14:27
III. Adagio, molto sostenuto 20:12
IV. Allegro con fuoco, ma deciso 31:58

BBC Concert Orchestra
John Andrews, conductor

Sir Frederic Hymen Cowen (1852 – 1935), was a British pianist, conductor and composer. Cowen was born Hymen Frederick Cohen at 90 Duke Street, Kingston, Jamaica, the fifth and last child of Frederick Augustus Cohen and Emily Cohen née Davis. At the age of four years Frederic was brought to England, where his father became treasurer to the opera at Her Majesty's Opera, now Her Majesty's Theatre, and private secretary to William Humble Ward, 11th Lord Ward (1817–1885). The family initially lived at 11 Warwick Crescent, London, in the area known as Little Venice. His first teacher was Henry Russell, and his first published composition, Minna-waltz, appeared when he was only six years old. He produced his first published operetta, Garibaldi, at the age of eight. With the help of the Earl of Dudley, he studied the piano with Julius Benedict, and composition with John Goss. His first public appearance as a pianist was as an accompanist in one of his own early songs sung by Mrs Drayton at a concert in Brighton in the early 1860s. His first genuine public recital was given on 17 December 1863 at the Bijou Theatre of the old Her Majesty's Opera House, and in the following year he performed Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto in D minor at a concert given at Dudley House, Park Lane, the London home of the Earl of Dudley. At the same venue a year later he premiered his Pianoforte Trio in A major with Joseph Joachim playing the violin part. By the Autumn of 1865 it was the judgment of his instructors, Julius Benedict and John Goss, that they could do little more to further his musical education and recommended that he study in Germany. By coincidence the second competition for the Mendelssohn Scholarship was due to be held that gave its winner three years of tuition at the Leipzig Conservatorium. Cowen attended the examination and won the prize, but his parents intervened, as they were not prepared to give up control of him, as stipulated by the terms of the prize. Instead, they agreed to send him to the same institution, but as an independent student. Charles Swinnerton Heap was awarded the prize in his place. At Leipzig, overseen by Ernst Friedrich Eduard Richter, Cowen studied under Moritz Hauptmann (harmony and counterpoint), Ignaz Moscheles (piano), Carl Reinecke (composition) and Ferdinand David (ensemble work).[1] He also came into contact with Salomon Jadassohn and Ernst Wenzel, and took some private piano lessons with Louis Plaidy. Cowen's fellow students and companions in Leipzig included Swinnerton Heap, Johan Svendsen, Oscar Beringer and Stephen Adams. Returning home on the outbreak of the Austro-Prussian War, he appeared as a composer for the orchestra in an Overture in D minor played at Alfred Mellon's Promenade Concerts at Covent Garden on 8 September 1866. In the following autumn he went to Berlin, where he studied composition under Friedrich Kiel and Carl Taubert, and took piano lessons from Carl Tausig, enrolling at the academy created by Julius Stern, known as the Stern'sches Konservatorium. A symphony (his first in C minor) and a piano concerto (in A minor) were given in St. James's Hall on 9 December 1869, and from that moment Cowen began to be recognised as primarily a composer, his talents as a pianist being subordinate, although his public appearances were numerous for some time afterwards. Cowen's career, both as composer and conductor, is now almost forgotten. Although he regarded himself primarily as a symphonist, he was most successful in lighter orchestral pieces when treating fantastic or fairy subjects, where his gifts for graceful melody and colourful orchestration are shown to best advantage. Whether in his cantatas for female voices, his charming Sleeping Beauty, his Water Lily or his pretty overture, The Butterfly's Ball (1901), he succeeds in finding graceful expression for the poetical idea. His dance music, such as is to be found in various orchestral suites, is refined, original and admirably instrumented. Much of his more serious music is commendable rather than inspired and seldom successful in portraying the graver aspects of emotion. Indeed, his choral works, written for the numerous musical festivals around Victorian and Edwardian Britain, typify the public taste of his time. Of his 300 or so songs, they encompass everything from the popular ballad to the high art song, the latter of which led him to be described as the 'English Schubert' in 1898. Indeed, the vogue of his semi-sacred songs has been widespread.

Bernhard Henrik Crusell (1775-1838)

Overture to The Little Slave Girl (Pieni orjatar)

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Osmo Vänskä, conductor

Bernhard Henrik Crusell (1775 – 1838) was a Swedish-Finnish clarinetist, composer and translator, "the most significant and internationally best-known Finnish-born classical composer and indeed, — the outstanding Finnish composer before Sibelius". Crusell was born in Uusikaupunki (Swedish: Nystad), Finland, into a poor family of bookbinders. His grandfather, Bernhard Kruselius had learned the trade of bookbinding in Turku and Stockholm, then settled in Pori where he fathered nine children, including Crusell's father Jakob, who also became a bookbinder. In 1765, after Jakob completed his apprenticeship, he moved to Uusikaupunki and married Helena Ylander, but she died about one year later. In 1769 he married Margaretha Messman. The couple had four children, but Bernhard was the only one who lived to become an adult. Later in life Crusell described this period of his life, writing in the third person: In his little town of birth there was only one person who had an active interest in music: a shop assistant who could be heard in the evenings playing the flute for his own amusement. One night, the four-year-old Berndt was sitting in the street, leaning against a wall, on top of the world with admiration for the sweet melodies. His parents, who had been looking for their son for a long time, scolded him severely, but this could not stop the boy from returning to his favourite spot the next evening. This time he got a beating for his disobedience, but as it was to no avail, they left him to his "craze", confident that he would come back home as soon as the flute went silent... When Crusell was eight, the family moved to Perttula, the rural village of Nurmijärvi about 23 miles north of Helsinki. His innate interest in music continued, and he learned to play a friend's clarinet by ear. He soon began to receive training from a member of the Nyland regimental band. In 1788, when he was thirteen, another family friend, aware of the young man's natural ability, took him to see Major O. Wallenstjerna at Sveaborg (Finnish: Viapori). Sveaborg was a Swedish fortress built on six islands just off the coast of Helsinki. The educated officers of the fort had significant influence on the culture and politics of the city. Wallenstjerna, impressed with Crusell's playing, recruited him as a volunteer member of the Sveaborg military band and gave him a place to live with his own family. Crusell received an education at Sveaborg and excelled in music and languages. In 1791 Wallenstjerna transferred to Stockholm and Crusell went with him. Although Crusell spent most of the rest of his life in Sweden, he always considered himself a Finn. In his final years in a letter to Runeberg he called himself a "finsk landsman" (a Finn). He also maintained his travel diaries in Finnish.

Friedrich Kiel (1821-1885)

Piano Concerto in B-flat Major, Op. 30

I. Allegro maestoso e con spirito 0:00​
II. Notturno: Adagio con moto 14:34​
III. Allegro vivace 19:35

Martin Roscoe, piano
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins, conductor
Friedrich Kiel (1821 – 1885) was a German composer and music teacher. Writing of the chamber music of Friedrich Kiel, the famous scholar and critic Wilhelm Altmann notes that it was Kiel’s extreme modesty which kept him and his exceptional works from receiving the consideration they deserved. After mentioning Johannes Brahms and others, Altmann writes, “He produced a number of chamber works, which . . . need fear no comparison.” Kiel was born in Bad Laasphe, Puderbach. He was taught the rudiments of music and received his first piano lessons from his father, but was in large part self-taught. Something of a prodigy, he played the piano almost without instruction at the age of six, and by his thirteenth year he had composed much music. Kiel eventually came to the attention of Prince Albrecht Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, a great music lover. Through the Prince's efforts, Kiel was allowed to study violin with the concertmaster of the Prince’s fine orchestra with which he later performed as a soloist. Kiel was also given theory lessons from the renowned flautist Kaspar Kummer. By 1840, the eighteen-year-old Kiel was court conductor and the music teacher to the prince’s children. Two years later, Louis Spohr heard him and arranged for a scholarship which allowed Kiel to study in Berlin with the renowned theorist and teacher Siegfried Dehn. In Berlin, Kiel eventually became sought after as an instructor. In 1866, he received a teaching position at the prestigious Stern conservatory, where he taught composition and was elevated to a professorship three years later. In 1870 he joined the faculty of the newly founded Hochschule für Musik which was shortly thereafter considered one of the finest music schools in Germany. Kiel's hobby was mountaineering and at age 60, he climbed Europe's second highest peak, the Monte Rosa, on the Swiss-Italian border. In September 1883 he was involved in a traffic accident with a coach. His injuries eventually forced him to retire shortly before his death in September 1885.

Carl Gottlieb Reissiger (1798-1859)

Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 25

I. Moderato - Allegro passionato 0:00
II. Andante quasi allegretto 7:30
III. Capriccio: Allegro molto 13:04
IV. Finale: Allegro non troppo 16:33

Pablo Casals Trio: Larry Graham, piano; Oswald Lehnert, violin; Jurgen de Lemos, cello

Carl Gottlieb Reißiger (1798 -1859) was a German Kapellmeister and composer. Reißiger attended the Thomasschule zu Leipzig and was the pupil of Johann Gottfried Schicht and Peter von Winter. In 1821, he followed the example of the young Beethoven and went to Vienna to study with Antonio Salieri and also studied theology at the University of Leipzig. Reißiger continued his musical studies in France and Italy in 1824, under the sponsorship of the Prussian Ministry of Cultural Affairs. After working for two years as the musical director of the Dresden Opera, he succeeded Carl Maria von Weber as the Kapellmeister of the Dresden Court in 1828, and would hold this office until his death in 1859. A famous piece known as Weber's Last Waltz was actually written by Reißiger (one of his opus 26 Danses brillantes) and is mentioned in Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) as one of Roderick Usher's favorite pieces of music; it is also the title of a 1912 film. Reißiger left behind an extensive oeuvre that was distinguished above all by his vocal music, which included nine operas, one oratorio, nine Latin masses and another four in German, as well as sixty lieder. Besides his own works, he also won fame for conducting the premiere of Wagner's opera Rienzi in 1842. Reißiger's most successful compositions were the operas Didone, Der Ahnenschatz, Libella, Die Felsenmühle, and Adèle de Foix, and the melodrama Yelva. His great masses, composed for Catholic services at Court, carry rich melodies and warm feeling. The same can be said of his hymns, motets, and lieder, which have been included in many collections, as well as of his oratorio David. In addition, Reißiger wrote and published various forms of orchestral and chamber music. While these works revealed his skill and inventiveness, they fell out of taste after his death. One of his leading pupils was Hermann Berens. He was a good friend of Joachim Raff during the latter's years in Dresden.

Louise Farrenc (1804-1875)

Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 36

I. Adagio - Allegro 0:00​
II. Adagio cantabile 12:02​
III. Scherzo: Vivace 20:08
IV. Finale: Allegro 27:46

Solistes Européens, Luxembourg
Christoph König, conductor

Louise Farrenc (1804 - 1875) was a French composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher. Born Jeanne-Louise Dumont in Paris, she was the daughter of Jacques-Edme Dumont, a successful sculptor, and sister to Auguste Dumont. Farrenc enjoyed a considerable reputation during her own lifetime, as a composer, a performer and a teacher. She began piano studies at an early age with Cecile Soria, a former student of Muzio Clementi. When it became clear she had the ability to become a professional pianist she was given lessons by such masters as Ignaz Moscheles and Johann Nepomuk Hummel, and, given the talent she showed as a composer, her parents decided to let her, in 1819 at the age of fifteen, study composition with Anton Reicha, the composition teacher at the Conservatoire, although it is unclear if the young Louise Dumont followed his classes there, since at that time the composition class was open only to men. In 1821 she married Aristide Farrenc, a flute student ten years her senior, who performed at some of the concerts regularly given at the artists' colony of the Sorbonne, where Louise's family lived. Following her marriage, she interrupted her studies to give concerts throughout France with her husband. He, however, soon grew tired of the concert life and, with her help, opened a publishing house in Paris, which, as Éditions Farrenc, became one of France’s leading music publishers for nearly 40 years. In Paris, Farrenc returned to her studies with Reicha, after which she reembarked on a concert career, briefly interrupted in 1826 when she gave birth to a daughter, Victorine, who also became a concert pianist but who died in 1859 aged thirty-three. In the 1830s Farrenc gained considerable fame as a performer and her reputation was such that in 1842 she was appointed to the permanent position of Professor of Piano at the Paris Conservatory, a position she held for thirty years and one which was among the most prestigious in Europe. Accounts of the time record that she was an excellent instructor with many of her students graduating with Premier Prix and becoming professional musicians. Despite this, Farrenc was paid less than her male counterparts for nearly a decade. Only after the triumphant premiere of her nonet, at which the famous violinist Joseph Joachim took part, did she demand and receive equal pay. Beside her teaching and performing career, she also produced and edited an influential book, Le Trésor des Pianistes, about early music performance style, and was twice awarded the Prix Chartier of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, in 1861 and 1869. Farrenc died in Paris.

Ferdinand Thieriot (1838-1919)

Piano Quintet in D Major, Op. 20

I. Allegro con spirito 0:00​
II. Adagio 11:15​
III. Scherzo: Presto 19:42​
IV. Allegro con moto 27:28​

Hamburg Chamber Players

Ferdinand Thieriot (April 7, 1838 – July 31, 1919) was a German cellist and Romantic period composer. He was born in Hamburg. He was a pupil of Eduard Marxsen in Altona and belonged to the circle of musicians around Johannes Brahms, who was also a pupil of Marxsen. Later, Thieriot was a pupil of Josef Rheinberger in Munich. A close, friendly relationship connected him with his teachers all his life. Thieriot was married to a publisher’s daughter (Ernst Berens, Hamburg), Else Berens. The marriage remained childless. He worked as a music teacher and musical director in Hamburg, Ansbach, Leipzig (1867) and Glogau (1868-1870). Later Brahms recommended Thieriot for the position of “Artistic Director” of the Styrian Music Association in Graz (1870-1885). The composer always received high praise in concert reviews: “… and met with a warm and friendly reception by the audience and deservedly so. … Excellent work, clarity and good taste regarding the instrumentation; employment of dignified motives full of character … Enrichment of the concert repertoire.” From March 1902 onwards, Thieriot had his home again in Hamburg where he lived until his death. (Performances of his works in concerts at the Hamburg Philharmonic and Singing Academy as well as in Leipzig where he obtained a post in 1897 at the Directorium of the Bach Gesellschaft in Leipzig). Thieriot's chamber music constitutes a great part of his total output and is judged to be among his finest compositions. He is known to have composed 4 piano trios: Opp.14, 45, 47 & 90, 13 string quartets, only two of which have been published, 2 Octets (Op.78 for 4 violins, 2 violas and 2 cellos and Op.62 for 2 violins, viola, cello, bass, clarinet, horn, and bassoon) a quartet for flute and string trio Op.84, a quintet for piano and winds Op.80, a quintet for piano and string quartet Op.20 and several instrumental sonatas. In addition to the above, several unpublished compositions remain in manuscript awaiting publication. Wilhelm Altmann, one of the most influential and perceptive chamber music critics of all time, writing of Thieriot's chamber music, states: "Thieriot's chamber music is without exception noble and pure. He writes with perfect command of form and expression." He died in his hometown of Hamburg.

Friedrich Gernsheim (1839-1916)

Piano Concerto in C minor, Op. 16

I. Allegro 0:00​
II. Larghetto 11:15​
III. Rondo: Allegro 20:25​

Oliver Triendl, piano
Nurnberg Sinfoniker
Radislaw Szulc, conductor

Friedrich Gernsheim was born in Worms. He was given his first musical training at home under his mother's care, then starting from the age of seven under Worms' musical director, Louis Liebe, a former pupil of Louis Spohr. His father, a prominent Jewish physician, moved the family to Frankfurt am Main in the aftermath of the year of revolutions, 1848, where he studied with Edward Rosenhain, brother of Jakob Rosenhain. He made his first public appearance as a concert pianist in 1850 and toured for two seasons, then settled with his family in Leipzig, where he studied piano with Ignaz Moscheles from 1852. He spent the years 1855–1860 in Paris, meeting Gioachino Rossini, Édouard Lalo and Camille Saint-Saëns. His travels afterwards took him to Saarbrücken, where in 1861 he took the conductor post vacated by Hermann Levi; to Cologne, where in 1865 Ferdinand Hiller appointed him to the staff of the Conservatory (his pupils there included Engelbert Humperdinck and Carl Lachmund); he then served as musical director of the Philharmonic Society of Rotterdam, 1874-1890. In the latter year he became a teacher at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, and in 1897 moved there to teach at the Prussian Academy of Arts, where he was elected to the senate in 1897. In 1877 he married Helene Hernsheim from Karlsruhe. Gernsheim was a prolific composer, especially of orchestral, chamber and instrumental music, and songs. Some of his works tend to Jewish subject-matter, notably the Third Symphony on the legend of the Song of Miriam. His earlier works show the influence of Schumann, and from 1868, when he first became friendly with Brahms, a Brahmsian influence is very palpable. Gernsheim's four symphonies (the first of which was written before the publication of Brahms' First Symphony) are an interesting example of the reception of Brahmsian style by a sympathetic and talented contemporary. Gernsheim's last works, most notably his Zu einem Drama (1902), show him moving away from that into something more personal. He died in Berlin.

Charles-Louis Hanssens (1802-1871)

Clarinet Concertino No. 2 in C minor

I. Allegro agitato 0:00​
II. Andantino 4:04​
III. Allegretto 8:10​

Eddy Vanoosthuyse, clarinet
Slovak Sinfonietta, Zilina
Herman Engels, conductor

Charles-Louis Hanssens (1802 - 1871) was a Belgian composer. The nephew of Charles-Louis-Joseph Hanssens , he became, at the age of ten, second cello at the National Theater of Amsterdam. In 1822 he became its conductor. In 1824, he went to Brussels where he settled after a few stays in Holland, Ghent and Paris. It was in 1848 that he received the post of musical director of the Théâtre de la Monnaie. It was about 1850 that Charles-Louis Hanssens made contact with Richard Wagner and made plans to perform Lohengrin in Brussels. The plan was realized in 1870 and marked the beginning of the craze of Belgian composers for the "music of the future". According to François-Joseph Fétis, his "inflexible conscience did not compromise with the fancies of fashion". Hanssens composed 8 operas, including The Siege of Calais (1861) and Marie de Brabant, 15 ballets, choral music, a Requiem (1837), symphonic, concertante, and chamber music. He was not very anxious to publish his works. He also created a pension fund, "the Association of Artists-Musicians". He received his initiation to Freemasonry at the Ghent Lodge of "La Felicite Bienfaisante". Then, in 1862, he joined " The true friends of union and progress united " in Brussels.

The city of the orchestra in this performance is Zilina, as in the description, not Zilma, as in the video.

Jenő Hubay (1857-1937)

Violin Concerto No. 2 in E Major, Op. 90

I. Allegro con fuoco 0:00
II. Larghetto 11:10
III. Allegro non troppo​ 18:12

Hagai Shaham, violin
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins, conductor

Jenő Hubay (1858-1937), also known by his German name Eugen Huber, was a Hungarian violinist, composer and music teacher. He was born into a German family of musicians in Pest, Hungary., and adopted the Hungarian version of his name, Jenő Hubay, in his twenties, while living in the French-speaking world. Hubay was trained in violin and music by his father, Karl, concertmaster of the Hungarian National Opera House and a teacher at the Budapest College of Music. He gave his début public performance playing a concerto at the age of eleven. At the age of thirteen, Hubay began studies in Berlin. He remained there for five years, receiving instruction from Joseph Joachim. In 1878, following the advice of Franz Liszt, he made his début in Paris, which was a great success. Sitting in the audience was Henri Vieuxtemps, with whom Hubay formed an intimate friendship and from whom he also received instruction. In 1882 Hubay was employed at the Brussels music institute as the head of the department of violin studies. Returning to Hungary in 1886, he succeeded his father as head of the Liszt Academy. That same year, he established the Budapest Quartet with fellow teacher, cellist David Popper. Hubay's main pupils, aside from Joseph Szigeti and André Gertler, included Eugene Ormandy—who later turned to conducting—and Eugene Lehner. He also taught many female violinists such as Stefi Geyer, Bartók's first love, to whom he dedicated his first violin concerto; Jelly d'Arányi, Joachim's niece, who was successful in England and France and who collaborated on Maurice Ravel's Tzigane; and Ilona Fehér. Other pupils included Franz von Vecsey, Emil Telmányi, Carl von Garaguly, Zoltán Székely, Gerhard Taschner, Barnabás von Géczy, Ede Zathureczky and the Italian Wanda Luzzato. As a soloist, Hubay gained the praise of Vieuxtemps, Johannes Brahms and many others. As a chamber musician, he formed two string quartets, one while he was in Brussels and one with David Popper during his Budapest (Budapest Quartet) years. With Popper, he performed chamber music on more than one occasion with Brahms, including the premiere of Brahms's Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor, Op. 101. Among his earliest recordings are ten-inch acoustic discs, dating from 1910, on which he was accompanied by the composer Zsigmond Vincze. Hubay composed four violin concertos and a very large number of encore pieces. His concertos incorporate themes from Hungarian gypsy music, and his "gentle breeze" pieces, which share features of the compositional style of his chamber music partner, David Popper, continue the tradition of the German romantics such as Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann. Hubay's output also contains several operas, including The Venus of Milo, The Violin-Maker of Cremona, The Mask and Anna Karenina (after Leo Tolstoy). The opening of The Venus of Milo is based on whole tone scales and archaisms that perhaps are meant to suggest the ancient setting.

Adolf von Henselt (1814-1889)

Piano Concerto in F minor, Op. 16

I. Allegro patetico - Religioso - Reprise 0:00
II Largetto 13:43
III. Allegro agitato 21:49

Marc-André Hamelin, piano
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins, conductor

Georg Martin Adolf von Henselt (1814 – 1889) was a German composer and virtuoso pianist. Henselt was born at Schwabach, in Bavaria. At the age of three he began to learn the violin, and at five the piano under Josephe von Flad (1778-1843), who had trained in composition with Franz Danzi, Abbé (George Joseph) Vogler, Joseph Graetz and studied piano with Franz Lauska (who later coached Meyerbeer, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn). His concert debut was at the Odeon in Munich, where he played the opening Allegro to one of Mozart’s C Major concertos, a free fantasy with variations on a theme from Weber’s Der Freischütz, and a rondo by Kalkbrenner. It was through Flad’s influence with Ludwig I of Bavaria that Henselt was provided the financial means to undertake further study with Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) in Weimar in 1832 for some months. Later that year, he went to Vienna, where, besides studying composition under Simon Sechter (the later teacher of Anton Bruckner), he was successful as a concert pianist. In 1836, to improve his health, he made a prolonged tour through the chief German towns. In 1837, he settled at Breslau, where he had married Rosalie Vogel—but the following year migrated to Saint Petersburg, where previous visits made him welcome. He became court pianist and inspector of musical studies in the Imperial Institute of Female Education, and was ennobled in 1876. Henselt usually spent summer holidays in Germany. In 1852, and again in 1867, he visited England, though in the latter year he made no public appearance. Saint Petersburg was his home nearly until his death from cardiac disease during a stay at Warmbrunn, Germany (now in Poland). To some ears, Henselt's playing combined Franz Liszt's sonority with Hummel's smoothness. It was full of poetry, remarkable for his use of extended chords and technique. His cantabile playing was highly regarded. "Find out the secret of Henselt's hands," Liszt told his pupils. Once he commented on the lengths Henselt took to achieve his famous legato, saying, "I could have had velvet paws like that if I had wanted to." Henselt's influence on the next generation of Russian pianists was immense. Henselt's playing and teaching greatly influenced the Russian school of music, developing from seeds planted by John Field. Sergei Rachmaninoff held him in very great esteem, and considered him one of his most important influences. He excelled in his own works and in those of Carl Maria von Weber and Frédéric Chopin. His Piano Concerto in F minor, Op. 16 was once frequently played in Europe, and of his many valuable studies, the Étude in F-sharp major Si oiseau j'étais, was very popular. At one time Henselt was second to Anton Rubinstein in the direction of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. However, despite his relatively long life, Henselt ceased nearly all composition by the age of thirty. The reasons are unclear. Chronic stage fright, bordering on paranoia, caused him to withdraw from concert appearances by age thirty-three.

Piano Quintet No. 2 in F major, Op. 44

1. Allegro moderato (0:00)
2. Commodo (11:25)
3. Sostenuto (15:35)
4. Risoluto, irato e con impeto (23:53)

Oliver Triendl, piano
Carmina Quartett

Paul Juon (1872 – 1940) was a Russian-born Swiss composer. He was born in Moscow, where his father was an insurance official. His parents were Swiss, and he attended a German Primary school in Moscow. In 1889, he entered the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied violin with Jan Hřímalý and composition with Anton Arensky and Sergei Taneyev. He completed his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, under Woldemar Bargiel. His first (privately) printed works, two Romanzen (lieder) appeared in 1894, the year he began studies with Bargiel. During his time in Berlin he was a composition professor, employed by Joseph Joachim; his students included Hans Chemin-Petit, Werner Richard Heymann, Nikos Skalkottas, Henry Jolles, Pancho Vladigerov, Philipp Jarnach, Heinrich Kaminski, Lauri Ikonen, Max Trapp, Heino Kaski, Yrjö Kilpinen, Gerhart von Westerman, Hans Moltkau, Giannis Konstantinidis, Wilhelm Guttmann, Stefan Wolpe, Nicolas Nabokov and Gunnar Johansen. He was twice married: He married his first wife in Katharina Schalchalova, married in 1896, and had three children: Ina, Aja, Ralf. Katharina died in 1911. In 1912, he married to Marie Hegner-Günthert (called Armande) and together they also had three children: Stella, Irsa and Rémi. He dedicated his Mysterien, Op 59 to Armande in 1928. His younger brother was the painter Konstantin Yuon.[4]He retired to Switzerland in 1934, and died in Vevey.