Castle Classics Kraus, Joseph Martin (German 1756-1792)

J M Kraus: Complete Piano Music - Ronald Brautigam, piano

Label - BIS

Cat. No. - BISCD1319

Including Sonata in E major (VB196); Sonata in E flat major (VB195); Rondo in F major (VB191); Scherzo con variazioni (VB193); Swedish Dance (VB192); Zwey neue Kuriose Menuetten (VB190); Larghetto (VB194)

This disc documents the complete solo piano music of Josef Martin Kraus, an almost exact contemporary of Mozart.

This parallel has led to Kraus being labelled 'the Swedish Mozart' (in spite of his German origins) but Kraus was a highly original composer in his own right. Indeed Haydn, who Kraus met in Vienna in 1782, remembered him much later as 'one of the greatest geniuses I have met', lamenting his demise as 'an irreplaceable loss to our art.'

First and foremost a composer of operas and orchestral music, Kraus only wrote a small amount of works for the piano, ranging from incidental pieces such as the Swedish Dance, an idealized imitation of folk music, and the Two Curious Minuets (probably written as a musical dig at Johann Nikolaus Forkel, known to posterity mainly for his biography of J.S. Bach) to the two ambitious Sonatas.

The various facets of this intriguing composer are demonstrated here by Ronald Brautigam, whose recordings of the complete solo piano works by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven (an ongoing cycle) on the fortepiano has received high acclaim worldwide: "Brautigam finds more colour in the fortepiano than any other player I have heard", "one of the most discerning Haydn pianists around" and "an artist fully in tune with the both the composer and his idiom" are just some of the comments made by reviewers.
Price: £13.50 (Including VAT at 15%)

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J M Kraus: Symphonies. Olympie Overture - Swedish Chamber Orchestra; Petter Sundkvist, conductor

Label - Naxos

Cat. No. - 8553734

Including Olympie Overture, VB29; Symphony in E flat-major, VB144; Symphony in C-major, VB139; Symphony in C-minor, VB142

"The performances here are full of life and strongly committed" - Gramophone

"On this new CD we are given excellent performances and a lucid recording of three superb symphonies" - BBC Music Magazine
Price: £5.75 (Including VAT at 15%)

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J M Kraus: Violin Concerto - Takako Nishizaki, violin; New Zealand Symphony Orchestra; Uwe Grodd, conductor

Label - Naxos

Cat. No. - 8570334

Including Violin Concerto in C major, VB 151 with cadenzas by Bertil van Boer; Olympie: Incidental Music, VB 33; Azire: Ballet Music, VB 18

World Première Recordings

Price: £5.75 (Including VAT at 15%)

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J M Kraus: Ballet Music - Swedish Chamber Orchestra; Petter Sundkvist, conductor

Label - Naxos

Cat. No. - 8557498

Including Pantomime in D (VB 37); Fiskarena (The Fishermen) (VB 40); Pantomime in G (VB 38); Ballet Music for Gluck's Armide (VB 39)

Price: £5.75 (Including VAT at 15%)

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J M Kraus: Sinfonias - Swedish Chamber Orchestra; Petter Sundkvist, conductor

Label - Naxos

Cat. No. - 8554472

Including Symphony in C major, VB 138, "Violin obligato"; Symphony in F major, VB 130; Symphony in A major, VB 128; Sinfonia buffa, VB 129

"[Kraus's] music presents many strikingly original touches and some 14 of his symphonies survive. This is Volume 2, elegantly played by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. An attractive alternative to music of 18th century Vienna."- Sunday Tribune, Dublin (Ian Fox), August 29, 1999

Pick of 1999

- Classic FM, Jan 2000

"The Swedish CO has good style under Petter Sundkvist's alert direction, the sound comes through with crystal clarity, and the disc offers incredible value. One anticipates Vols. 3 and 4 with impatience."- Robert Dearling, Hi-Fi News & Record Reivew
Price: £5.75 (Including VAT at 15%)

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J M Kraus: Sinfonias Vol.3 - Swedish Chamber Orchestra; Petter Sundkvist, conductor

Label - Naxos

Cat. No. - 8554777

Including Sinfonia in C sharp minor, VB 140; Symphony in C minor, VB 148, "Symphonie funebre"; Overture in D minor, VB 147; Symphony in E minor, VB 141

These sterling performances further unmask a composer whose musical thought and execution of it are clearly on a par with those of his better-known contemporaries." - Fanfare (Robert Emmett) March / April 2001
Price: £5.75 (Including VAT at 15%)

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J M Kraus: Symphonies Vol. 4 - Swedish Chamber Orchestra; Petter Sundkvist, conductor

Label - Naxos

Cat. No. - 8555305

Including Sinfonia per la Chiesa in D major VB146; Symphony in F major VB145; Symphony in D major VB143; Symphony in E-flat major VB144; Riksdagsmarsch VB154
Price: £5.75 (Including VAT at 15%)

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J M Kraus: Complete German Songs - Birgid Steinberger, soprano; Martin Hummel, baritone; Glen Wilson, piano

Label - Naxos

Cat. No. - 8557452

Including An das Klavier; Die Henne; Schweizer Rundgesang; Anselmuccio; Die Mutter bei der Wiege; Der Mann im Lehnstuhl; An - als ihm - die - starb; Das Rosenband; Der Abschied; Die Welt nach Rousseau; Daphne am Bach; An mein Mädchen; Ein Lied um Regen; An den Wind I; An den Wind II; Das schwarze Lieschen aus Kastilien; Der nordische Witwer; Ein Wiegenlied; Ich bin vergnügt; Hans und Hanne; An eine deutsche Jüngling; Ein Wiegenlied; Rheinweinlied; Gesundheit

An almost exact contemporary of Mozart, Kraus spent his entire adult life in Sweden, where he composed prolifically in all forms, including numerous operas set to Swedish texts.

Kraus's German songs reflect his earlier years at Göttingen University, his association with the young poets of the Göttinger Hainbund and his interest in the popular work of Matthias Claudius.
Price: £5.75 (Including VAT at 15%)

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J M Kraus: String Quartets - Salagon Quartet

Label - Carus

Cat. No. - CARUS83194

Including String Quartet in E major; String Quartet in C minor; String Quartet in G major; String Quartet in B flat major; G minor

World premiere recordings

Kraus was born in the same year as Mozart in 1756 and died just one year after his great contemporary. Despite the obvious, negative comparisons, in all the essential aspects of his creative output Kraus proves to be a composer of great originality, which is clearly evident in his string quartets. The Salagon Quartet is an ensemble of four experienced and dedicated chamber musicians who have performed throughout the world.
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J M Kraus: Complete Works for Fortepiano - Mario Martinoli (fortepiano Granziera, after Andreas Stein, ca.1782)

Label - Stradivarius

Cat. No. - STR33697

Including Sonata VB196, Five Choral Preludes VB197, Rondo VB191, Theme & Variations VB193, Svensk Dansk VB192, Larghetto VB194, Sonata VB195, 2 New Serious minuets VB190

Although German-born, Joseph Martin Kraus was one of the most important composers in eighteenth-century Sweden. Almost an exact contemporary of Mozart, tuberculosis ensured that Kraus outlived him by only a year. His influence was immense not just as a composer, but as innovative conductor and enlightened teacher. He composed a number of orchestral and chamber works but he was especially renowned for his operas, which used Swedish libretti. He marked the assassination of his patron, Gustavus III (the basis of Verdi's opera Un ballo in maschera), with a Symphonie funèbre and a Begravingskantate. The works for pianoforte comprise a fairly limited number of compositions: nonetheless Kraus was quite clearly a composer with a profound technical knowledge of his instrument and was thoroughly at home with the forms and language of late eighteenth-century piano composition. His central work for piano is the monumental Sonata in E major, which contains all the main characteristics of Kraus' music: a predominance of dark tone-colours and minor keys employed for dramatic effect
Price: £13.50 (Including VAT at 15%)

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J M Kraus: Complete Piano Music - Sonatas - Jacques Despres, piano

Label - Naxos

Cat. No. - 8555771

Including Zwei neue kuriose Minuetten, VB 190; Swedish Dance, VB 192; Sonata in E major, VB 196; Sonata in E flat major, VB 195; Scherzo con variazioni, VB 193; Rondo in F major, VB 191; Larghetto, VB 194
Price: £5.75 (Including VAT at 15%)

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