Search - Georg Philipp Telemann, Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin, Maurice Steger :: Telemann: Blockflöten-Werke

Wonderful recording

Benjamin D. Matis | NYC | 07/05/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I heard this one in Tower Music (where the price was almost the same) the other day. The ensemble playing is extremely good- I own a brandenberg cti. set by this group- and I think they are both exciting, historically informed and extremely virtuosic.



The recorder playing is very nice although nothing extraordinary. His playing is very nice, but so is Petri (I think she is superior) and for that matter, Philip Pickett (another wonderful recording of the a minor suite).



Worth it just for the orchestra and for two of Telemann's finest and most accessable works- Wassermusik and the A minor suite."

A New Reference Recording

Thomas Grewel | Berlin | 08/07/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"HIGHEST RATINGS



If you enjoy baroque music that serves as a vehicle for some frankly insane virtuosity (and who doesn't?), then this disc will have you cheering. Maurice Steger plays the meanest recorder you will find anywhere, and while music for this instrument isn't usually regarded as the acme of excitement for thrill-seekers, Steger and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin deliver blockbuster performances of all three works. From the Suite in A minor, check out Les Plaisirs or Réjouissance (the second and fourth movements, respectively), where the swift tempos, perky accents, and million-notes-a-minute recorder embellishments produce positively jaw-dropping feats of musical acrobatics. Or try the final Tempo di Minuet of the C major concerto, where the lively underlying pulse serves as a rhythmic scaffolding for the effortless abandon of Steger's intricate melodic traceries.



Telemann's famous Overture "Hamburger Ebb und Flut" isn't a concertante piece as such, but the performance here is just as ebullient. Der stürmende Aeolus has real programmatic vividness, with every detail of the colorful orchestration (two transverse flutes, two recorders, two oboes, bassoon, strings, and continuo) adding character to the textural mix. And it's not all "sound and fury". The lovely Sarabande (Thetis asleep) and Loure (Neptune in love) are as gentle as thistledown, and one of the particular joys of Steger's contribution in his two solo works is his fullness of tone in legato passages. There's none of that "authentic" baroque hollowness to his timbre, and his intonation is preternaturally accurate in both fast and slow music. Harmonia Mundi's impeccable engineering provides the finishing touch on a disc that must count as one of the most amazing and enjoyable baroque recitals of this or any other year. david hurwitz"

Virtuoso Recorder: A new reference recording

Bettina Borsani | 02/06/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I wrote that I would be avoiding recordings this year, but while driving and searching for the traffic report, I happened onto some samples from a recording by the Swiss recorder player Maurice Steger and was staggered. It was gutsy, animated, sometimes even over-the-top playing; it was detail- rich and those details were always musical. The repertoire is two concertos and an overture by Telemann, a composer whose music is too often played simply for its abundant charm. These performances chucked the charm and went for genuine shock and awe (we know all about fake shock and awe nowadays; this is the real thing). While the sound design of the recording may have enhanced this impression, Steger's playing with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin achieved a dynamism that forces me, at least, to totally reasess what the recorder can and might be able to do. Long before its forced enlistment into school and summer camp service, the recorder was one of the first instruments to be associated with a large body of notated music at a virtuoso level. While occulted a bit in the 19th century, a huge repertoire was composed for the instrument in the 20th century, and (IMO) the most successful were among works associated with Frans Brüggen, the trio Sour Cream, or the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet. There are an amazing number of good recorder players out there today, and composers should take advantage of this. But I'll go out on a limb and say that Steger's playing suggests a substantially different take on the character of the instrument, and potentially, a new point of orientation for composing some sophisticated music.



The three pieces on offer here (the A minor suite for recorder and strings, the C major recorder concerto and the "Hamburger Ebb und Flut" overture) are arguably potboilers, but they're given new life here in remarkably warm and energetic performances by the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin and the excellent recorder soloist Maurice Steger. I approached the A minor suite, in particular, with something close to bored resignation, and was surprised and delighted by this ensemble's ability to revive my interest in that familiar piece. Very highly recommended. (RA)

CD Hotlist USA, Juli 2006"