Martin Haselbock

Orchester Wiener Akademie, Martin Haselböck – Liszt: Legends of the Saints, Vol. 2 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:20:50 minutes | 1,43 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté

“In this second volume of “Legends of the Saints”, the Orchester Wiener Akademie, under the direction of conductor and organist Martin Haselböck, continues its recording of Liszt’s mystical works. During the frequent religious periods of his life, the composer turned his attention to the lives of great martyrs and saints, who provided him with an entire body of work. These works, including two previously unreleased recordings of Jeanne d’arc au bûcher, Die heilige Caecilia and the Salve Polonia from the oratorio St Stanislaus, are performed here by the Wiener Akademie and a magnificent vocal cast (Sunhae Im, Stephanie Houtzeel and Sofia Vinnik as well as Thomas Hampson), whose timbres blend with the organ, harmonium, piano and harp to reveal the inexhaustible genius of Liszt’s work.”

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Orchester Wiener Akademie & Martin Haselböck – Beethoven: Symphonies 5 & 6 (Resound Collection, Vol.8) (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:20:14 minutes | 1,41 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics

The Orchester Wiener Akademie and its conductor Martin Haselböck continue the “Resound Beethoven” series, performed on period instruments and scrupulously respecting the orchestral layouts of 200 years ago. Volume 8, the last volume of the series, is devoted to two emblematic works, both of them dedicated jointly to Prince Franz Joseph Maximilian Lobkowitz and Count Andreas Kirillovich Razumovsky: Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6. Each of these symphonies has a name attached to it. While the Fifth Symphony is sometimes called the ‘Fate’ Symphony for more or less determined reasons, Beethoven himself named ‘Pastoral’ the Sixth, thus pursuing the venerable tradition of the musical pastorale while conferring a new dimension on it.

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Orchester Wiener Akademie, Martin Haselbock – Beethoven: Symphonies 1 & 2 (Resound Collection) (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:44 minutes | 1009 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics

The Re-Sound Beethoven collection brings the symphonies of Beethoven back to the locations of their Viennese premieres. Four of the six venues where first performances of one or more of the nine symphonies were held still exist today, as do the eight Viennese halls and theaters where the composer’s orchestral works were performed in his lifetime. The orchestral forces of the Wiener Akademie corresponds in size and instrumentarium to those used by the composer. The producer Stephan Reh strives to reproduce the specific acoustical qualities of each room.

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Martin Haselbock, Orchester Wiener Akademie – Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:22 minutes | 1,24 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CPO

Franz Liszt’s 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies were originally composed for piano, though there are six orchestral transcriptions that correspond to Nos. 14, 2, 6, 12, 5, and 9 of the keyboard versions. They were arranged for orchestra by Franz Doppler, though Liszt participated in their scoring, and they have become enormously popular, especially the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, which has been used frequently in film and television. One problem with the orchestral versions is the loss of virtuosic sparkle and the giddy showmanship that made the piano originals so charming and effective, and while the orchestration is functional and competent, Liszt was not as brilliant in writing for the orchestra as he was for his own instrument. Even so, these performances by Liszt authority Martin Haselböck and the Wiener Akademie Orchester have considerable verve and appeal, and where these pieces lack technical flashiness, their infectious melodies carry them all the way. Hasselböck has been active in re-creating the sound of the orchestras Liszt knew in Weimar, and to the extent that this ensemble is of the size and instrumentation of the period, it achieves similar results to recordings on NCA of Liszt’s symphonic poems. The sound is smaller and more intimate than that of a modern symphony orchestra, and the textures are leaner, but Hasselböck and his players are convincing in their re-creation of a 19th century Hungarian orchestra. CPO’s reproduction is crisp and dry, so the instruments have a slightly raw edge.

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Orchester Wiener Akademie, Martin Haselböck – Liszt: Faust Symphony, S. 108 (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:20 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics

The Faust Symphony undoubtedly constitutes one of the principal works of Liszt’s Weimar period,if not indeed his orchestral masterpiece. Liszt had become acquainted with Goethe’s poem Faust in 1830, in the French translation of Grard de Nerval. He began composing the work in the 1840s, after a visit to the Goethe House in Weimar. Its first performance was arranged for September 1857, to mark the centenary of Grand Duke Carl August and the erection of a statue to Goethe and Schiller. On this occasion Liszt rounded the work off by adding a tenor solo and chorus at the end. The premiere took place on 5 September.This musical transposition of the poem is performed here by Orchester Wiener Akademie under Martin Haselbck, and follows their recording of Liszt’s transcriptions of works by Schubert, released in 2015 (Alpha 471).In parallel with this, the Viennese period-instrument orchestra is also continuing its Resound Beethoven project, the recording of the complete symphonies at the venues of their first performances.

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Orchester Wiener Akademie, Martin Haselböck – Liszt: Legends of the Saints, Vol. 1 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:48 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Aparté

Liszt’s predestination for sacred music doubtless stemmed from his childhood, when he had close ties to Catholicism through his father. He went on to compose many works expressing the virtues of various saints, and to those works Martin Haselböck and the Orchester Wiener Akademie are devoting a series of recordings.

The first volume features St Cecilia, with Cantantibus organis, St Francis of Assisi, with La prédication aux oiseaux (the first of his Deux Légendes for orchestra) and the Cantico del Sol di Francesco d’Assisi, and also St Francis of Paola, with St François de Paule marchant sur les flots (Deux Légendes, no. 2) and An den heiligen Franziskus von Paula.

While bearing little resemblance to Liszt’s secular compositions, these works are equally impressive in their beauty and refinement. This recording, while providing us with a fine opportunity to witness once again the composer’s admirable skills, highlights an aspect of Liszt’s work that is all too often forgotten.
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Orchester Wiener Akademie, Martin Haselböck – Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 ‘Eroica’; Septet, Op. 20 – Beethoven Resound, Vol. 4 (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:30:13 minutes | 825 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Alpha Classics

The Orchester Wiener Akademie and its conductor Martin Haselbck continue their Resound Beethoven series. The aim of this series is to record the complete Beethoven symphonies on period instruments in the venues where they were first performed, scrupulously respecting the layout of the orchestra used 200 years ago. Volume 4 is devoted to the Symphony No. 3, “Eroica” and the Septet op.20. The recording took place in May 2016 in the Eroica Saal at the Palais Lobkowitz, where each symphony was premiered in 1804 and 1807, in private performances.
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Orchester Wiener Akademie, Martin Haselböck – Beethoven: Symphony 7 & Wellington’s Victory – Beethoven Resound, Vol. 2 (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:53 minutes | 1,14 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Alpha Classics

It was shortly before his forty-third birthday that Beethoven hit the jackpot. On the podium of the Great Hall of Vienna University, he conducted a spectacular charity event with a star-studded cast from the very top drawer. On that date, 8 December 1813, the success was so great that the concert had to be repeated four days later. For this event, Beethoven had taken an entertainment specialist on board: Johann Nepomuk Mlzel, ‘k. k. Hofmechanicus’ (Mechanic to the Imperial and Royal Court) by trade, an inventor as talented as he was crafty. From late summer to autumn 1813, assisted by Mlzel, Beethoven was engaged in the composition of Wellingtons Sieg (Wellington’s Victory).
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Orchester Wiener Akademie, Martin Haselböck – Beethoven: Symphonies 1 & 2 – Beethoven Resound, Vol. 1 (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:44 minutes | 1010 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Alpha Classics

The Re-Sound Beethoven collection brings the symphonies of Beethoven back to the locations of their Viennese premieres. Four of the six venues where first performances of one or more of the nine symphonies were held still exist today, as do the eight Viennese halls and theatres where the composer’s orchestral works were performed in his lifetime. The orchestral forces of the Wiener Akademie corresponds in size and instrumentarium to those used by the composer. The producer Stephan Reh strives to reproduce the specific acoustical qualities of each room.
(more…)