$8.99
Sold by music on Tradebit
The world's largest download marketplace
3,250,955 satisfied buyers
The world's largest download marketplace
3,250,955 satisfied buyers
MP3 Kathleen Scheide and Zofie Vokalkova - W. A. Mozart in Prague
14 MP3 Songs
CLASSICAL: Traditional, CLASSICAL: Orchestral
Details:
As ensemble Due Solisti, Vokalkova and Scheide have toured the Czech Republic, Germany, and the United States. Vokalkova teaches at the Prague Conservatory; Scheide at Henderson State University. Each maintains an active solo career, with additional recodings on the HLM, OHS and Raven labels.
There is some irony attached to playing works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791) on flute and organ. Mozart created a number of sublime masterpieces for the flute, an instrument he loathed. The organ, which he seems to have viewed as a vehicle for improvisation, remained always his favorite instrumnet, yet he left no significant compositions for it. Most of the pieces presented in this recording have been arranged by Dr. Scheide. Cognoscenti will find these transcriptions logical as well as beautiful.
Dutch HLM recording. Notes in English and French.
REVIEW FROM JULY 2004 DIAPASON, pp. 12-13
W. A. Mozart in Prague. Zofie Vokálková, flute; Kathleen Scheide, organ. Recorded in St. Wenceslas Church,
Prague. HLM Classics CD HLMC 004.
Sometimes a good recording can be overlooked simply because at first sight it seems to obscure for anyone to take any
notice of it. W. A. Mozart in Prague is a good example of this, consisting as it does of a bunch of relatively obscure Mozart
pieces, transcribed for solo flute and accompanied on a little-known one-manual organ in Prague. Do not let its apparent
obscurity put you off, however, for this CD is an absolute gem.
Both performers are college professors -- Mrs. Vokálková-Srámková at the Prague Conservatory in the Czech Republic,
and Dr. Scheide at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. The organ used in the recording is a one-manual and
pedal instrument of thirteen ranks, built around the turn of the twentieth century. The church in which it is situated -- St.
Wenceslas, Prague -- has a good acoustic, with a reverberation period, I would say, of two or three seconds. The instrument
has a pleasant though gentle chorus from 8'' Principal to 3-rank Mixture,together with some interesting strings, including a rare
two-rank 4'' Wox [sic] Angelica. At one or two points it is difficult to know that the flute is not being accompanied by a real
string orchestra. The flutes -- an 8'' Kryt (= Czech for Gedeckt) and a 4'' Flétna -- are the perfect foil to Mrs.
Vokálková-Srámková''s flute-playing, having a slightly gentler tone and a slightly quintier timbre that contrasts well with the solo
instrument. Unlikely as it might at first seem, it would be difficult to conceive of a better instrument on which to have made this
recording. Dr. Scheide is therefore to be congratulated not only on her impeccable organ playing, but for having found an
outstanding flute player to accompany, for having found the ideal organ to accompany on, and for having produced many of the
quite wonderful transcriptions that are to be found on this CD.
The combination of flute and organ is an interesting one for Mozart, as the CD leaflet notes. The organ -- the "King of
Instruments" -- was Mozart''s favorite instrument, but he almost invariably improvised on the organ, and pretty much all of what
he played on the instrument in now lost. On the other hand, Mozart loathed and despised the flute, yet some of his finest
surviving compositions were written for it. One of my favorite Mozart work s is the Concertante for Flute and Harp (KV
299) -- and this in spite of the fact that he hated both instruments!
Mozart did not actually leave any compositions for flute and organ, which is why all the works on this CD are transcriptions.
The CD commences with the Sonata in B-flat, which was originally written by Mozart at the age of eight for "clavecin" and
flute or violin, and was dedicated to Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III of England. Next follows the Andante in F,
originally written for a rather screechy little two-rank clock-organ. This is one of the better-known works on the CD -- at least
to me.
Despite the title of the CD -- W. A. Mozart in Prague -- the recording includes three minuets from Der Morgen und der
Abend by Mozart''s father Leopold. These were also originally written for a mechanical clock-organ -- although in this case for
the very grand one at the Hohensalzburg Fortress. After this it is back to Wolfgang Amadeus with the Andante in C, originally
a work for flute and orchestra. Another interesting work is the Rondo in C, first published as a piece for violin and orchestra.
Zofie Vokálková-Srámková then gets a rest from her flute playing while Dr. Scheide plays the Sonata in B-flat on the organ
alone. Once again this is a piece originally written for mechanical clock-organ, though Mozart then published it as a piano duet,
now transcribed back once more by Dr. Scheide for the organ. The solo flute returns in the Adagio in C, originally written for
the celebrated eighteenth-century blind musician Marianne Kirchgässner to perform on the glass armonica. In this piece
Kathleen Scheide makes very effective use of the tremolo in her accompaniment. The final piece on the CD is probably the
best-known piece found here, the Andante and Fugue in A minor-Major. This fugue, surely one of Mozart''s finest, is a fitting
end to the CD.
My advice is to save this compact disc for moments of depression. It is a recording to lift the spirits, and nobody could
possibly feel sad while listening to it. I thoroughly recommend it.
-- John L. Speller, St. Louis, Missouri
REVIEW FROM THE AMERICAN ORGANIST, JUNE 2005, p. 79
W. A. MOZART IN PRAGUE. ofie Vokálková, flute, and Kathleen Scheide, organ. I/11 Zizkov organ (ca. 1900), St. Wenceslas Church, Prague. HLM Recordings HLMC-0004. This pair, who tour extensively as Due Solisti, here present both Wolfgang and Leopold Mozart''s works. The ensemble is closely recorded, and there is a true sense of "presence." For a small instrument and a modest organ, both the flute and the organ loom large sonically. Registration is, however, tasteful, as is the entire performance. Balance is carefully preserved throughout. All of the pieces are transcriptions, since Mozart wrote no original pieces for flute and organ. It is fortunate that both of these performers are active faculty members; it is assured that their talents will be entrusted to others and thus to a degree preserved. This is elegant chamber music at its best, and for Mozartians especially, this collection is highly desirable.
Paul Aldridge
File Data