There have been rare CD recordings exclusively dedicated to the organ works by Flor Peeters in recent years. Therefore, our new SACD-release with Peter Van de Velde playing the symphonic Schyven Organ (1891) of Antwerp Cathedral, is dedicated to the grand organ works of this main protagonist of the Belgian organ tradition in the 20th Century. The symphonic Pierre Schyven organ is an ideal instrument for Flor Peeters's large scale works. During his lifetime the composer even premiered some of his works on this organ. Peter Van de Velde, the titular organist of the Antwerp cathedral, choose a wise program across the entire compositional works by Flor Peeters, starting with the early Symphonic Fantasy op.13 and ending with the paraphrase of Salve Regina op.123. Between the monumental works he inserts some of the beautiful Chorale preludes from op.68 to complement the program in an excellent manner.

The Flanders Recorder Quartet is going to finish its career in 2018. While this news has spread quickly among the recorder aficionados and created a huge interest in their final world tour, this famous ensemble again released a unique record. This release is an anthology of five hundred years of music history in a nutshell, combining the intimate sonority of old masterpieces with a touch of jazz by contemporary composers. But in contrast to previous recordings, the quartet has chosen from the substantial pile of five-voice music that music literature has been spoiled with and invited a revered colleague to join its ranks: Saskia Coolen. This is not only a masterful overview of music history, but a fitting overview of an impressive and influential career.

The Rosary Sonatas not only deal with mysteries, they are themselves a mystery. With this violin cycle made up of fifteen sonatas and a solo passacaglia, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber created one of the most interesting works in the entire violin repertoire. Even today, the work is not completely decrypted in terms of its significance in assignment of the sonatas to the sacred Christian mysteries. The composer carries the scordatura technique to the extreme. This technique utilizes the tuning of the violin’s four strings to intervals other than the usual, and in this way demands constant concentration from the performer. For French violinist Helene Schmitt, the Rosary Sonatas are not merely a violinistic extreme sport. For her, this work is a musical act of faith. In this performance, a sonic cosmos opens up within the sonatas, singing, speaking, whispering, and even roaring from hardly audible sound to pure heavy metal. The listener will not cease to be astonished. Helene Schmitt’s full devotion to this music is apparent. Her continuo group, which is made up of internationally known performers, provides just the right support and timbres.

Throughout his life, Johann Sebastian Bach arranged and parodied his own and other composers' works. This openness to the practice of transcription, which has been demonstrated in so many ways, encourages the composer to venture into new instrumentations even in modern times. This is what the baroque violinist Annegret Siedel and the organist Ute Gremmel-Geuchen practice here with great joy in experimentation. Particularly exciting are, for example, the famous Toccata and Fugue BWV 565 in the presumed original version for violin solo as well as organ arrangements of some individual movements of the choral motet Jesu, meine Freude BWV 227. Of course, both also play together, for example in the Trio Sonata in E minor BWV 528.

With this SACD Aeolus is once more presenting world premier recordings.

In the music world the name of the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco is mostly known for his numerous compositions for guitar. The fact that he also wrote a good hour of excellent organ music is proved by our new release with the Italian artist Livia Mazzanti. It is interesting to see that the composer wrote music for the organ for the first time only after his emigration in the USA - as an Italian Jew he felt constrained to leave country under the Mussolini dictatorship. It was when he received a Christmas card from his friend Edward Power-Biggs in 1952 that Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco had the idea of composing a miniature Fanfare for organ based on the letters of the organist’s rather unusual name. This fanfare in six bars, was played by Power Biggs and broadcast on the radio. Power-Biggs encouraged him to work out this fragment to an entire composition.

Thus originated as the first organ work Introduction, Aria and Fugue. By the way, you can listen to this fanfare on this website (sound sample 1). The extensive booklet to our SACD informs about the backgrounds and the origin of the remaining works (for instance music for the synagogue, two experimental serial works as well as other free pieces) and other biographical details.

Without Livia's painstaking efforts, this innovative new recording would not have been possible. She alone did all the hard work of rediscovering and preparing this music for performance. Among other things, she perfected an innovative registration for all these pieces in the years leading up to the recording itself. We must thank her for her attentive, sensitive reading of these unfairly neglected works, bringing them back from obscurity with her tireless devotion to Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s witty compositions. Her musical intelligence and poetic imagination mean she is a peerless, bold, yet demanding performer.

In the Art of the Fugue, his last great work, Bach brings to bear all conceivable contrapuntal artistry and inventiveness, and sets the result in a planned architectural layout. The new recording was made by Samuel Kummer on the magnificent Baroque organ of the Wenzelskirche in Naumburg, built in 1746 by Zacharias Hildebrandt, at whose acceptance Bach had been present as an expert. Never before has this instrument been captured so convincingly in terms of sound, and for the first time the sound of the organ can now be enjoyed in a multi-channel surround recording.

Flanders Recorder Duo: The name of the ensemble rightly suggests that it emerged from the Flanders Recorder Quartet, which ended its incredibly successful international stage career in 2018. Already the FRQ amazed with the expressiveness of its "only" 4 recorders. The Flanders Recorder Duo now takes this to the extreme. Really only two musicians are to be heard here, but often one hardly believes this when listening to the debut album, which is simply called "FR2". A highlight is certainly the world premiere of a suite by Vaughan Williams. But the other performances from various eras also give listeners plenty of opportunity to enjoy and be amazed.

For the first time the large clavicytherium of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Nuremberg) – a kind of vertical harpsichord built by an anonymous German master during the late sixteenth century – is recorded here on album. The present instrument is undoubtedly a pinnacle of the art of instrument making, with unusual timbres and an astonishingly complex action. Bernhard Klapprott, a former pupil of Bob van Asperen and today Professor of Harpsichord in Weimar, has selected appropriate music for this rare instrument: to be heard are delicate polyphonic works as well as full-voiced adaptations of popular songs of the time by South-German composers such as Hassler, Erbach, Paix, and Staden. The unique instrument and the special repertoire are described in detail in the extensive booklet. In addition, Bernhard Klapprott explains the special background of the historical ornamentation employed.

Léon Berben can be considered a master of his trade on the harpsichord and organ. Furthermore, his extensive knowledge of music history and historical performance practice make him one of the leading figures of his generation in the "early music" scene. His repertoire includes keyboard works from 1550 to 1790 and he also co-authored the encyclopedia "Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.” Intensive study of sources and constant research work give the art of interpretation of Léon Berben a special status. His solo recordings on historical organs and harpsichords have been highly praised by the specialist press and have received several awards, including the "Diapason d'Or", the "Choc" of "Le Monde de la Musique" and the quarterly “Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.” On his latest recording he plays the complete organ works by Matthias Weckmann.

REVIEW:

The perfect marriage of instrument and music – Weckmann belongs to the pre-Bach north German school and his colourful music is brought thrillingly to life here on two 17th-century German organs.

– BBC Music Magazine

Soprano Theresa Nelles and cathedral organist Winfried Bönig invite us to an atmospheric Christmas Eve in Cologne Cathedral and present a varied programme of Romantic works from various countries: music for the feast that goes straight to the heart. The great acoustics of Cologne Cathedral have been deliberately captured on this audiophile SACD. Born in Cologne, Theresa Nelles has had close ties with Cologne Cathedral since childhood, not only emotionally but also musically. During her 10 years of choir membership in the girls' choir at Cologne Cathedral, she already received her first solo tasks, was also the singer of a jazz band of the so called Cathedral-music for a long time and, after her High school graduation, studied singing at the Cologne Academy of Music with Prof. Mechthild Georg and in Rome at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia. Engagements take the singer to festivals at home and abroad, such as the Festival Internazionale di Musica e Arte Sacra in Italy, Switzerland, South Tyrol, Russia, the International Handel Festival in Göttingen, the Beethoven Festival Bonn, the Brühl Castle Concerts, to opera houses such as Krefeld/ Mönchengladbach, Koblenz, Gelsenkirchen, the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, the Cologne and Essen Philharmonics and, last but not least, regularly to large churches, always particularly fond of the local cathedral.

Traditional music from Ireland, England and Scotland touches our hearts in a way that is very special and somehow magical. On this album, "Spirit and Pleasure" shows excerpts from the musical world of the 17th & 18th century in Ireland, Scotland and England: old pieces that were only passed down orally, new music in the traditional style, composers who are assigned to the "courtly-bourgeois" music, discovered the charm of these melodies, provided them with basso continuo and variations and published them among others in London, the musical center of England. The album title "Good taste" is derived from the "Treatise of Good Taste in the Art of Music" by Francesco Geminiani.