MOZART: Quintet in E flat, K. 614. Quintet in , K. 593.
Auryn Quartet
TACET SACD S 225 TT: 63:29
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SATIE: Piano Music
Noriko Ogawa, piano
BIS SACD 2225 TT: 75:2
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SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Concerto No. 2, Op. 126. MARTINU: Cello Concerto No. 2
Christian Poltéra, cello. Berlin Deutsches Symphonie-Ofrchester / Gilbert Varga, cond.
BIS SACD 2257 TT: 64:16
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The Auryn Quartet was founded in 1981 and is now recognized as one of the major ensembles of their kind. For years they have recorded for TACET, and their catalog includes all of the Beethoven and Haydn quartets and numerous other works, many of which reuire a fifth artist. On this new release, that artist is violist Nobuko Imai for these two Mozart quintets. Elegant performances, and the performer's beautiful sounds have been wonderfuly captured by the TACET engineers. An accompanying diagram shows that the first violin is front left, the first viola front right, second viola front center, second violin left rear, and cello right rear. Yo9u must hear this in surround sound—the effet is uncommonoly natural and pleasing. Thank youk, again, TACET!

A few months ago, this site praised Noriko Ogawa's first disk of piano music of Eric Satie (REVIEW). Now we have the second release in this series, again played on an 1890 Érard Grand Piano. There are 50 tracks of miniatures, all sensitively played and beautifully reforded. Of course this series has keen competition from the budget-priced Decca Jean-Yves Thibaudet aset of Satie's complete piano music (REVIEW).

Swiss-born Chrisrtian Poltéra is one of the busiest cellists of our time. His schedule is filled with recitals and solo appearances, and he has made numerous recordings. He has recorded most of the standard cello concertos as well as seldom-heard works by Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Hindemith, Dutilleux, Schoeck, Honegger, Barber, , Martin and Toch. Now we have this fine release of Shostakovich and Martinu Each composer wrote two concertos for the instrument, and the first is best-known. The Shostakovich was written in 1966 for Rostropovich, and is less flamboyant than the first. The finale has a mysterious soft conclusion punctuated by gentle percussion. This is a fascinating work that deserves more attention. The Martinu is highly melodic but it is easy to understand why is it is seldom performed. Both concertos are played with exemplary tone quality and virtuosity. Recordings were made February 2016 in Jesus-Christus-Kirke in Berlin. Audio is excellent. A fine release!

R.E.B. (July 2017)

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