Edition Lockenhaus (Box Set)

First releases:
Strauss, R: Metamorphosen Kremerata Baltica, Simon Rattle
Messiaen: 3 Petites liturgies de la Presence Divine Kremerata Baltica, Roman Kofman

Reissues:
Caplet: Conte fantastique
Franck, C: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 14
Janacek: String Quartet No. 1
Poulenc: Fleurs; Mon cadavre est doux comme un gant
Schulhoff: String Sextet; Duo for violin & cello; Cinq études de jazz, WV 81
Shostakovich: Fragments from the music to the 'Maxim' trilogy; Barrel-organ Waltz & Romance from The Gadfly; Two pieces for string octet, Op. 11; String Quartets No. 14 in F sharp major, Op. 142 & No. 13 in B flat minor, Op. 138
Stravinsky: Three Dances from The Soldier's Tale

Gidon Kremer, Julius Berger, Eduard Brunner, Khatia Buniatishvili, Gérard Caussé, Thomas Demenga, David Geringas, Irena Grafenauer, Hagen Quartet, Philip Hirschhorn, Heinz Holliger, Kim Kashkashian, Aloys Kontarsky, Robert Levin, Oleg Maisenberg, Boris Pergamenschikov, Alexander Rabinovich, James Tocco, Thomas Zehetmair & Tabea Zimmermann

ECM New Series 2190-94 5 CDs (476 4509)

- - a young musicians’ festival; some of the very greatest have appeared there, alongside Gidon Kremer, early in their careers - -

The annual fortnight's Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival was established by Gidon Kremer & Pastor Herowitsch in the Austrian state of Burgenland and is a rare oasis in professional musical life - something like is UK's Prussia Cove seminar in Cornwall - IMS Prussia Cove - a cultural oasis.

The repertoire at Lockenhaus is remote from standard concert programmes, the musicians play in varied combinations, everything is explored spontaneously, there is no advance programme...

The results in this celebratory issue of live performances, selected here from "an enormous number of tapes" are truly revelatory, and were captured from the beginning by Manfred Eicher's recording team to highest standard.

Planned sampling led me on to listen to the whole collection straight through, with quite unusual delight.

The juxtapositions between and within the individual discs are revelatory and you will all encounter great music which has escaped the regular chamber music repertoire and you have likely missed.

How many of you really know all the Shostakovich quartets; if not, No 13 will astonish you, and you'll wonder why it isn't played as often as some of the earlier ones? Likewise for two great chamber works of Schulhoff - see our Music in Terezin. And, as a gentle reminder of Manfred Eicher's other enthusiasm, the set finishes with Schulhoff's delightful Cinq études de jazz.

Peter Grahame Woolf

See also our articles and reviews links at Horizons Touched