Bassoon and Clarinet Concertos by WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne

Bassoon and Clarinet Concertos

Format: CD
Label: Lawo Classics
UPC: 7090020180618
Catnr: LWC 1060
Release date: 21 February 2015
Notify when available

1 CD		Notify when available

Label
Lawo Classics

UPC
7090020180618

Catalogue number
LWC 1060

Release date
21 February 2015

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

We are proud to present WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne’s first release on the LAWO Classics label!
On this CD we hear the orchestra’s own soloists, Ole Kristian Dahl and Thorsten Johanns, playing Mozart’s first and last wind concertos, under the direction of conductors Karl Heinz Steffens and Eivind Aadland, respectively. The recordings were made during concerts in the Stadthalle in Wupperthal and the WDR concert hall in Cologne.

Artist(s)

Ole Kristian Dahl

Thorsten Johanns

WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln

The WDR Symphony Orchestra defines the musical landscape of Nordrhein- Westfalen in an extraordinary way – through its subscription series in the Cologne Philharmonie and the Funkhaus Wallrafplatz as well as through its partnerships with the bigger concert venues and festivals of the region. Tours abroad and award- winning album productions underline the orchestra’s international significance as an outstanding representative of the German orchestral scene.
Recordings of the performances of the orchestra led by its chief conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste reach a large audience, both through the radio and television broadcasts of WDR and through digital media dissemination. The WDR Symphony Orchestra moreover has significantly contributed to the dissemination of classical music through its education programs.
During the 2017/2018 season, the WDR Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 70th birthday. After its foundation in 1947, the orchestra initially worked together with remarkable guest conductors. From 1964 onwards it developed long-term relations with the chief conductors Christoph von Dohnányi, Gary Bertini and Semyon Bychkov. Under their guidance, the orchestra developed a specialism in fields such as Gustav Mahler’s symphonies, as well as the performance of works by Dimitri Shostakovich, Richard Strauss, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner. The orchestra has frequently toured through Europe, the US and Asia, and has made several live and studio productions.
Since the beginning of the 2010/2011 season, Jukka-Pekka Saraste has been engaged as chief conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra. The Finnish maestro put the music of his countryman Jean Sibelius in the limelight and created a Brahms cycle that was hailed far beyond the region. Other important accents of Saraste’s chief conductorship are European national Romanticism and the classical Modernists. Numerous first performances of commissioned works made contribution to the history of music and to the support of contemporary music. Great composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Luciano Berio, Hans Werner Henze, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Mauricio Kagel, Wolfgang Rihm, Jörg Widmann and Krysztof Penderecki performed their works with WDR Symphony Orchestra.

less

Composer(s)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose actual name is Joannes Chrysotomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a composer, pianist, violinist and conductor from the classical period, born in Salzburg. Mozart was a child prodigy. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. Along with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart is considered to be one of the most influential composers of all of music's history. Within the classical tradition, he was able to develop new musical concepts which left an everlasting impression on all the composers that came after him. Together with Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven he is part of the First Viennese School. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position. From 1763 he traveled with his family through all of Europe for three years and from 1769 he traveled to Italy and France with his father Leopold after which he took residence in Paris. On July 3rd, 1778, his mother passed away and after a short stay in Munich with the Weber family, his father urged him to return to Salzburg, where he was once again hired by the Bishop. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death.

less