GREAT MAESTROS
MOZART Vol X & XI
KALLE RANDALU − piano, conductor NEEME JÄRVI
ESTONIAN NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Brand new!

Vol X

	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	Piano Concerto No 22 in E-flat, KV 482
1		Allegro	14:07
2		Andante	9:20
3		Allegro	13:47
	Richard Strauss	Le burgeois gentilhomme, Op 60
4		Ouverture	4:16
5		Minuet	1:38
6		The Fencing Master	1:54
7		Entry and Dance of the Tailors	5:34
		Lully’s Minuet	2:18
9		Courante	2:37
10		Entry of Cléonte	3:51
11		Intermezzo	3:05
12		The Dinner	11:13

 Mozart. Piano Concerto No 22, Movement III, Allegro, fragment, 2 min 51 sec, mp3, 320 Kbps
 R. Strauss. Le burgeois gentilhomme, The Fencing Master, fragment, 1 min 43 sec, mp3, 320 Kbps

Vol XI

	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	Piano Concerto No 23 in A major,
1		Allegro	11:32
2		Adagio	6:19
3		Allegro assai	9:38
	Johannes Brahms	Piano Quartet No 1 in G minor
4		Allegro	12:52
5		Intermezzo: Allegro ma non troppo − Trio: Animato	8:18
6		Andante con moto	9:10
7		Rondo alla Zingarese: Presto	10:06
8	Peeter Vähi	Encore: To the Mother	4:38

 Mozart. Piano Concerto No 23, Movement I, Allegro, fragment, 3 min 25 sec, mp3, 320 Kbps
 Vähi. To the Mother, fragment, 3 min 8 sec, mp3, 320 Kbps

   

Performed by:
Kalle Randalu, piano (Vol X #1−3, Vol XI #1−3) 
Orchestral solos by Mihkel Peäske, flute; Indrek Vau, trumpet; Age Juurikas, piano; Triin Ruubel, violin; Pärt Tarvas, cello (Vol X #4–12); Guido Gualandi, oboe (Vol XI #8)
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, concertmasters Arvo Leibur (Vol X #1−3, Vol XI), Triin Ruubel (Vol X #4–12)
Neeme Järvi, conductor

Recorded live 2015−2018 in Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn
Engineered and mastered by Tanel Klesment
Liner notes by Kaisa Luik
Booklet edited by Tiina Jokinen
Cover artworks by Heinz Valk
Design by Mart Kivisild
Produced by Peeter Vähi

ERP 10619 and ERP 10719
© 2017 ERSO, ERP (Tallinn)

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The Piano Concerto No 22 in E-flat major marks the busiest and most fruitful period in Mozart’s life. He was at the height of his success as a composer and pianist in Vienna and there was no lack of work nor ideas. The piano concerto as a genre became the ideal synthesis of his two main sources of income − composing and performing. After all, he wrote music mainly for himself and knew therefore exactly how to best highlight his skills as a pianist.
The Piano Concerto No 22 was completed on Dec 16th, 1785, as Mozart marked in his catalogue of works Verzeichnüß aller meiner Werke. Presumably the first performance of the piece was given between the acts of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf's oratorio Esther at the annual charity concert of Vienna’s Tonkünstler-Societät on Dec 22nd and 23rd, 1785. The premiere was a success − in the report of the two concerts in the newspaper Wiener Zeitung the favourable reception the concerto received is not mentioned “since praise is superfluous in view of the deserved fame of this master”. This is further confirmed by Leopold Mozart in his letter from Jan 1786 to Nannerl, where he expresses surprise that a call was made for the slow movement to be repeated. /.../

Based on Molière’s play of the same name, Le bourgeois gentilhomme, Op 60 by Richard Strauss (widely known in German as Der Bürger als Edelmann) is an orchestral suite composed on the incidental music for the play by Hugo von Hofmannstahl. The latter had an idea to simplify and shorten the plot of Molière’s Le bourgeois gentilhomme and serving it as a prologue to then a one-act chamber opera Ariadne auf Naxos.
The first performance of this new stage project took place at the Court Theatre in Stuttgart on Oct 25th, 1912. However, it became apparent already during the premiere that the ambitious idea had some weak spots. First, fitting a play and an opera into one night was quite expensive and rather time consuming, but the evening was further prolonged by the nearly hour-long reception held by the King of Württemberg between the play and the opera. Secondly, as Strauss himself remarked: “a public that goes to the theatre does not want to hear an opera, and vice versa”. Following the unsuccessful premiere of the night, Strauss and Hofmannsthal revised the work and separated the play and the opera from each other. On Dec 25th, 1917, Strauss completed the orchestral suite based on most of the music from the play. The suite was premiered in Berlin on Apr 9th, 1918 under the direction of the composer himself. /.../

Mozart spent the last decade of his life as a freelance composer and pianist. The first years following his move from Salzburg also mark the busiest and most fruitful period of his life. Out of his 27 piano concertos, he composed 15 of them during those first four years (1782−1786), while also maintaining his regular schedule of performing and teaching.
The Piano Concerto in A major is a true example of Mozart’s hectic life at the time. It was completed on Mar 2nd, 1786, according to Mozart’s own catalogue Verzeichnüß aller meiner Werke. This was only a month after the one-act comic opera, Der Schauspieldirektor, just three weeks before the Piano Concerto No 24 in C minor and two months prior to the premiere of his opera, Le nozze di Figaro. Although the exact date and place of the first performance is not documented, Mozart probably performed the A major concerto at one of the Vienna Lenten concerts a few days after finishing it. /.../

Johannes Brahms composed his Piano Quartet No 1, Op 25 in 1861 as a 28-year old young man. Having just moved from his hometown into the nearby peaceful Hamm, his life was bright, spending his days sketching new compositions and making music in the evenings with young disciples.
Almost for decades later and less than a month before his death, Brahms met the 22-year old Arnold Schönberg, who had just completed his first string quartet. This meeting made a lasting impression on Schönberg, who thought of Brahms as his musical ancestor. /.../

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The grand man of Estonian music, Maestro Neeme Järvi − a conductor “from God” − is probably the best known Estonian musician in the world beside Arvo Pärt. It is almost impossible to fully sum up the long and prolific career of one of the most sought after conductors of our time. /.../
Having served as chief conductor of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra from 1963 to 1979, he took a difficult decision in 1980 and emigrated from the artistically oppressive USSR to the West where he made it his mission to introduce Estonian music to the world. He has conducted works by Rudolf Tobias, Artur Kapp, Arvo Pärt, Eino Tamberg, Veljo Tormis, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Peeter Vähi and other Estonian composers − but first and foremost by Eduard Tubin with whom he closely collaborated artistically.

Kalle Randalu is an internationally sought-after pianist from Estonia. He has studied under Prof Bruno Lukk in the Tallinn Conservatoire and in the Moscow Conservatoire under Prof Lev Vlassenko. He is a laureate of several international piano contests, among others prizes from the International Robert Schumann Contest in Zwickau (1981), the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (1982) and First Prize from the ARD International Music Competition in Munich (1985). /.../
Kalle Randalu has released numerous CDs. A sensational success were the seven volumes of the complete Hindemith sonatas with Ensemble Villa Musica, which have repeatedly received prizes, including the Classical Award in France and the Klassik-Echo Prize in Germany. Latest recordings feature Marginalia by Jaan Rääts (2014, ERP), various piano works by Brahms on a double-CD and three volumes of chamber music by Schumann.

The history of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (known in Estonian as Eesti Riiklik Sümfooniaorkester or ERSO) dates back to 1926 and is connected to the birth of the national broadcasting. Today, it is the longest continually operating professional orchestra of its kind in the country. There are more than 100 musicians playing in the orchestra.
Chief conductor and artistic director Neeme Järvi has led ERSO since 2010, while Paavo Järvi has been its artistic advisor since 2002, and Olari Elts its principal guest conductor since 2007. The orchestra’s previous principal conductors have been Olav Roots (1939−1944), Paul Karp (1944−1950), Roman Matsov (1950−1963), Neeme Järvi (1963−1979), Peeter Lilje (1980−1990), Leo Krämer (1991−1993), Arvo Volmer (1993−2001) and Nikolai Alexeev (2001−2010). /.../

More detailed info in Estonian and English in CD-booklets.

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Distribution in Estonia by ERSO (phone +372 6 147787, fax +372 6 313133, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) and Easy-Living Music ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ); worldwide distribution by Note 1 Music, Naxos, amazon.com

See also other recordings of the Great Maestros series:Great Maestros Vol I-V, Great Maestros Vol VI, Great Maestros. OSR. Neeme Järvi

See other releases by ERP with Estonian National Symphony Orchesta, Kalle Randalu and / or Neeme Järvi: 100 Years of Estonian Symphony, In the Mystical Land of Kaydara, Toivo Nahkur. Neeme Järvi & ENSO, Marginalia

See also other orchestral records produced by ERP: Paavo Järvi, Ad patrem meum, Resurrection of Mozart, Joy and Sorrow Unmasked, Pure Handel, A Chant of Bamboo, Artist Chagall, Bassoon Concertos, Musica Triste, Nordic Legends, Somnium boreale, The Hand of God, Tubin, Wagner. Strauss. Seeger