Isabelle Faust (violin), Bernhard Forck, (violin), Xenia Loeffler (oboe)Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Harmonia Mundi · HMM90233536 · 2 hours 23 minutes
Bach’s violin concertos sit at this beautiful intersection of intellectual architecture and pure melodic joy, and Isabelle Faust understands both sides of that equation completely. Her tone here is lean without ever feeling cold, and in the slow movement of the E major Concerto especially, she finds a kind of singing eloquence that just stops you in your tracks. The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin plays with that characteristic period-instrument clarity, making every contrapuntal line feel inevitable rather than effortful.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 15th March 2019
- Gramophone Magazine — April 2019 — Editor’s Choice
- BBC Music Magazine — June 2019 — Concerto Choice
- Building a Library — November 2019 — Also Recommended
“Faust’s tone is both lean and exquisitely sweet, combined with consistent stylistic elegance which reaches the heights of eloquence in the slow movement of the E major Concerto.”
— BBC Music Magazine, Concerto Choice
Xenia Löffler (oboe)Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Harmonia Mundi · HMM902601 · 63 minutes
C.P.E. Bach wrote for the oboe like he was trying to make it nervous — sudden mood swings, dramatic silences, melodies that lurch beautifully between elegance and restlessness. Xenia Löffler leans right into that emotional volatility, bringing a real improvisatory feeling to the slow movements that makes you feel like she’s inventing the phrases on the spot. The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin keeps pace with her every shift, and the whole thing moves with an energy that feels genuinely alive.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — January 2020 — Editor’s Choice
- Gramophone Awards — 2020 — Shortlisted – Concerto
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2020
“Löffler is one of the most accomplished baroque oboists around and her performances never disappoints my ears. Her easy virtuosity in outer movements and expressive delicacy in the centrally-placed…”
— BBC Music Magazine, March 2020,4 out of 5 stars
Xenia Loffler (oboe), Akademie Fur Alte Musik Berlin, Bernhard Forck
Pentatone · PTC5187059 · 64 minutes
Few composers understood the art of dazzle quite like the Mozart who arrived in Paris in 1778, desperate to impress a glittering, fickle audience — and the Paris Symphony still crackles with that ambition nearly 250 years later. Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and Bernhard Forck bring a wonderful clarity to the textures here, letting you hear exactly how Mozart engineered those crowd-pleasing moments without making the whole thing feel calculated. Xenia Löffler’s playing in the Oboe Concerto is the real bonus, warm and conversational in a way that reminds you Mozart wrote for actual people he liked, not just abstract instruments.
Awards:
- BBC Music Magazine — December 2023 — Orchestral Choice
- International Classical Music Awards — 2024 — Nominated – Assorted Programs
“The excellent period instrument Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin treat [the Paris Symphony] with due sophistication and restraint…The Akademie’s great clarity in this recording gives a frequently…”
— BBC Music Magazine, December 2023,4 out of 5 stars(Performance) /5 out of 5 stars(Recording)
Xenia Löffler (oboe), Sebastian Hess (cello)Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Harmonia Mundi · HMC901996 · 53 minutes
Johann Platti’s concerti grossi take Corelli’s famous Op. 6 set as their starting point and then gleefully wander somewhere altogether stranger — the harmonies are richer, the textures more surprising, and there’s a restless Italianate energy that keeps pulling the music forward. Xenia Löffler’s oboe playing here is luminous, threading through the ensemble with real personality rather than just decorating the surface. The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin bring exactly the kind of rhythmic vitality and collective intimacy this music needs to feel alive rather than merely polished.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 19th January 2009
“I find these versions the most daring, and most satisfying… The music is gorgeous.”
— Early Music Review, October 2013
Xenia Löffler (oboe), Flóra Fábri, Vittorio Ghielmi (viola da gamba), Katharina Litschig, Daniel Deuter, Györgyi Farkas, Christian Beuse, Michael Bosch, Julia Scheerer
Accent · ACC24406 · 61 minutes
Bach’s writing for oboe sits in this fascinating middle space — intimate but never small, ornamented but always purposeful — and Xenia Löffler navigates that tension with real intelligence here. The ensemble around her, with Vittorio Ghielmi’s viola da gamba adding that characteristic warmth and woody depth, makes the textures feel genuinely conversational rather than just accompanied.
“The arrangements are well done and the playing of all those involved is top class. This disc is a delight from start to finish.”
— MusicWeb International
