Wolfgang Schneiderhan – Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 4, Violin Concerto No. 5 (1961/2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Wolfgang Schneiderhan – Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 4, Violin Concerto No. 5 (1961/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 49:54 minutes | 543 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd.

Supplementary to his legendary Beethoven cycles for Decca are Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt’s recordings for Philips, Mercury, Deutsche Grammophon and Accord. They date from 1944 (Sutermeister) to 1972, when he made his last recording, fittingly by Mozart (Die Gärtnerin aus Liebe) a composer whom he revered above all: “We are too intimate friends … I can’t even explain what it is I feel when I listen to his music, that makes my eyes damp and my breath catch. … At the end of my life I should like to dissolve myself completely in Mozart’s music.”

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Wolfgang Schneiderhan – Stravinsky: Violin Concerto; Violin Sonata No. 2 (1963/2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Wolfgang Schneiderhan – Stravinsky: Violin Concerto; Violin Sonata No. 2 (1963/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 43:46 minutes | 469 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd.

A Czech maestro in his element: the complete Philips and Deutsche Grammophon albums of Karel Ancerl collected as a single edition to mark the 50th anniversary of his death (3 July 1973). Karel Ancerl made most of his recordings behind the Iron Curtain for the Supraphon label, as chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic between 1950 and 1968. However, as the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra began to tour abroad, Ancerl’s own reputation rose with them, and he accepted invitations to lead orchestras across Europe and the US.

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Wolfgang Schneiderhan – Beethoven: Triple Concerto in C Major, Op. 56; Brahms: Double Concerto in A Minor, Op. 102 (2005/2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Wolfgang Schneiderhan – Beethoven: Triple Concerto in C Major, Op. 56; Brahms: Double Concerto in A Minor, Op. 102 (2005/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:11:24 minutes | 1,35 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

As a “wunderkind” he sat on Pietro Mascagni’s lap, he accompanied the “Dying Swan” danced by the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, and Fritz Kreisler confessed to the young violinist that he did not know what else to teach him. “No one places Schneiderhan in the company of Kreisler, Heifetz, Huberman, Szigeti or Stern, yet he was as ‘complete’ a violinist as any of them, maybe even more so”, wrote the English critic Tully Potter. Wolfgang Schneiderhan’s playing was noble, balanced and sober, but at the same time intense, heartfelt and fetching. Artistic distance and immediacy of expression were not opposites for him. He attached great importance to reliable musical scores and placed himself at the service of the music – qualities that would later become important for historical performance practice. In short, a fascinating artist to be rediscovered.

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Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Irmgard Seefried, Paul Hindemith, Ferdinand Leitner, Bernard Haitink – Lucerne Festival Historic Performances Vol. X – Wolfgang Schneiderhan plays Mozart, Henze & Martin (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Irmgard Seefried, Paul Hindemith, Ferdinand Leitner, Bernard Haitink – Lucerne Festival Historic Performances Vol. X – Wolfgang Schneiderhan plays Mozart, Henze & Martin (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:05:04 minutes | 408 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Audite Musikproduktion

In the spotlight of this latest volume in Audite’s Lucerne Festival edition is the Austrian violinist Wolfgang Schneiderhan (1915-2002). He was one of several artists who made an outstanding contribution to the Festival over the years since its inauguration in 1938. He first appeared there in 1949, and went on to make annual visits most years until 1985. His trio, in which he was joined by the pianist Edwin Fischer and the cellist Enrico Mainardi, appeared there several times. Schneiderhan also gave master-classes at Lucerne. The attraction of the present release is that it features three recordings revealing the diversity of the violinist’s work at the Festival. All are broadcast performances, culled from the archives of Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF).

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Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Rudolf Baumgartner, Wolfgang Schneiderhan – Vivaldi & Tartini: Concerti del settecento (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Rudolf Baumgartner, Wolfgang Schneiderhan – Vivaldi & Tartini: Concerti del settecento (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:01:23 minutes | 541 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jube Classic

The idea of a world-class Lucerne Festival Orchestra of its own goes back to Arturo Toscanini, who in 1938 united celebrated virtuosos of their time into an elite sound body with the legendary “Concert de Gala”. 65 Years later, the conductor Claudio Abbado and festival Director Michael Haefliger followed up on this birth of the festival and founded the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, which presented itself to the public for the first time in August 2003. Since 2016, Riccardo Chailly, an Italian, has again been the chief conductor of this unique orchestra. In addition, a guest conductor is invited every summer to offer the audience an additional musical perspective.

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Géza Anda, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Pierre Fournier, Janos Starker, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Ferenc Fricsay – Beethoven: Triple Concerto / Brahms: Double Concerto (1961/1962/2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Géza Anda, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Pierre Fournier, Janos Starker, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Ferenc Fricsay - Beethoven: Triple Concerto / Brahms: Double Concerto (1961/1962/2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

Géza Anda, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Pierre Fournier, Janos Starker, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Ferenc Fricsay – Beethoven: Triple Concerto / Brahms: Double Concerto (1961/1962/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:11:24 minutes | 1,35 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Fricsay conducts concertos by Beethoven and Brahms: Friendship is the connecting link between the two works here. Beethoven is thought to have written his Triple Concerto in 1803 – 04 for his favorite pupil, the Archduke Rudolph. Brahms composed his Double Concerto in 1887 as a peace offering, to heal a breach with his friend the violinist Joseph Joachim. It seems to have done the trick; and it was canny of Brahms, who conducted the first performance (Cologne, October 1887), to have the cellist of the Joachim Quartet, Robert Hausmann, sharing solo hon- ours – it would have been difficult for Brahms and Joachim to have a row with a third party present. I do not know how friendly the soloists on these two famous recordings were, but I recall what a strong “house style” manated from Deutsche Grammophon productions in the 1950s and early 1960s.
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Wolfgang Schneiderhan – Beethoven: Complete Violin Sonatas (2005/2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Wolfgang Schneiderhan – Beethoven: Complete Violin Sonatas (2005/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 03:38:50 minutes | 7,95 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

When Beethoven published his first violin sonatas, there was much criticism. They are unplayable, full of technical hurdles and impossible to overcome by amateur musicians who in the 19th century still quite naturally bought notes of newly composed music. Decades later, Robert Schumann recorded with a wink: “like a sky sun, the name Beethoven has unfolded, while the reviewer shrinks into a dull nettle in a little attic.”Today, in 2020, the 250th anniversary of the founding of the company. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Viennese classic, there is no longer any doubt about the extraordinary rank of the violin sonatas. They are regarded as beacons of outstanding chamber music. Trained on Mozart’s model, entertaining, with lyrical sensitivity and with many dance interludes, Beethoven modernized the Genre of the violin sonata by incorporating his personal feelings, his inner struggles and outbursts of temperament into the music.

The ten violin sonatas demand everything from the soloist. The piano ranks on the same level as the violin. Not infrequently, the two instruments find themselves in a kind of struggle and musically depict the harrowing drama in Beethoven’s soul life. But Beethoven’s wit, his sparkling humour and his ironic tendencies are also reflected in the lively dialogues of the instruments.

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