Poppe’s composition Fett for orchestra dates from 2018/19 and was commissioned by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and its artistic director Gustavo Dudamel, and "musica viva". Enno Poppe is one of the most important younger representatives of New Music. His composition I cannot remember anything for chorus, organ and orchestra, based on words by Marcel Beyer, was written between 2005 and 2015 as a commission for Bayerischer Rundfunk’s "musica viva". The first performance in Germany was recorded on May 8, 2015 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. The album edition of the “musica viva” series, founded in June 2000 to document the concert series that has existed since 1945, contains selected live recordings of “musica viva” concerts. An integral part of the edition is made up of concerts by the ensembles of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, guest recordings by international orchestras and ensembles, and also historical recordings. With two or three new releases per year, the main focus of the edition -which sees itself primarily as a series for composers –is mainly on portrait albums.

Brilliant Classics proudly presents 5 more titles in the exciting 5-album sets series: QUINTESSENCE, attractively priced compact box sets containing essential core classical repertoire in outstanding performances. Aimed at attracting both the discerning classical connoisseur and the classical newcomer it presents the pillars of classical music: Dvorák Complete Piano Music, Tchaikovsky Complete Ballets, J.S. Bach Famous Concertos, Handel Complete Organ Concertos and Locatelli Complete Violin Concertos. World class performers include Inna Poroshina, Igor Ruhadze, Christian Schmitt, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Pieter-Jan Belder, Musica Amphion, Erik Bosgraaf, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and others. The fresh and colorful artwork is eye-catching while the booklet contains liner notes in English. A great series at an unbeatable price! The present release features Christian Schmitt and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra performing Handel’s complete organ concertos.

Pietro Yon (1886-1943) played in what is widely regarded as one of the finest-ever performances of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, conducted at Carnegie Hall in 1935 by Arturo Toscanini. Yon was sharing the stage with the likes of Elizabeth Rethberg and Ezio Pinza; he had acquired a comparable celebrity within the organ world in his lifetime, having emigrated from Italy to the US at the age of 21, and become Organist of St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, the foremost seat of Catholicism in the US. A New York Times profile portrayed him as an adopted New Yorker who moved in high-society circles and enjoyed ragtime and vaudeville, and he welcomed the likes of Caruso and Toscanini to his home as friends. When he died in 1943, the world-famous conductor numbered among the 1300 mourners at St Patrick’s. Yon’s own music has a post-Romantic, mid-Atlantic flavour reflecting his background without belonging to a single ‘school’. Christmas in Settimo Vittone or Rapsodia Italiana draw on his Piedmontese heritage. The trio of large-scale organ sonatas occupying the third album emerge from the virtuoso tradition of 19th-century keyboard writing exemplified by Liszt and translated to the organ by French contemporaries such as Guilmant and Vierne. Album 1 is dedicated to a collection of 12 Divertimenti including not only the Italian-themed character pieces mentioned above but also an expansive ‘American Rhapsody’ – like a transatlantic version of Howells, perhaps, sharing its chromatic harmony with the music of Leo Sowerby – and shorter study-like pieces which exploit the full range of colours available on the organ of St Patrick’s which he had extensively renovated and updated to reflect changing tastes, rather as Pierre Cochereau did at Notre-Dame in Paris.

Internationally recognized organist Jung-A Lee performs an intimate recital on the great Walt Disney Concert Hall organ as a gift to Simon Woods (the new CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) and as a token of appreciation in honor of the orchestra's 100th Anniversary season. Jung-A's infectious and delightful sense of humor infuses her musical performance and repertoire choices. Jung-A Lee has performed in Europe, North America, and Asia as organist, pianist and conductor. She currently serves as organist at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach. In addition, she teaches at Biola University and Vanguard University. Lee is also the Artist-in-Residence for Pacific Chorale which is directed by Maestros John Alexander and Robert Istad. In 2009 she founded Music Mission International in order to promote organ music. She completed her Doctor of Musical Arts in Organ Performance from Boston University, and earned her Master of Music from Yale University with a full scholarship.

Max Drischner’s “Neobaroque” music is best understood when it is viewed in its context shaped by the youth music movement and the organ revival. Drischner composed most of his works for church performance in simple circumstances. He wanted to write appealing music that would reach »the people« and receive a positive response from its audiences – and even today his music attracts quite a few genuinely enthusiastic fans. The selection of compositions recorded here on a magnificent, richly colored symphonic organ consists of free pieces and pieces set to chorales that can also be played on small organs or in some cases even on the piano.

Among the free organ works, the impressive Passacaglia in E major occupies a special place in Drischner’s self-understanding because of his detailed comments on it and his suggestions for interpretation. Its title, Sonnen-Hymnus (Sun Hymn), owes to several factors: Drischner incorporates his experiences of sunrises in the mountains of his native Silesia into it and forms associations with creation hymns such as Psalm 104: 27-28 (verses with parallels in an ancient Egyptian hymn ascribed to the pharaoh Akhenaten) and St. Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Sun (“Cantico di Frate Sole,” 1224 / 25). Drischner renders this into music based on a theme of eight measures developed from an E major chord and cited a total of thirty-four times. It typically occurs in triple rhythm and is elaborated in registers, degrees of textural complexity, and forms of rhythmization. Drischner’s chordal doubling of the voices produces a hymnic character in the concluding part, and the registration with cimbelstern bells lends a special radiance to this segment.

Francisco Correa de Arauxo’s surviving music is contained entirely in his Facultad organica of 1626. Published in Alcala under the composer’s own direction, this constitutes one of the largest and most significant works in the entire history of the organ. His compositions embody a wide range of characteristics, some rational and well structured, others mystical and even eccentric. Correa no doubt intended his works to be played in meantone temperament- the normal tuning system at the time for organs, and the one heard on these recordings. Robert Bates is an award winning, internationally known recording artist, recitalist, composer, and a specialist in early French and Spanish Organ music. His recordings include “Viaticum,” containing eight of his own compositions as well as “Complete Organ Works of Jehan Titelouze.” His live performance for the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists is available as “In Recital at Lagerquist Hall.” Professor at the Moores School of Music, Houston, Texas, Professor Bates previously served as University Organist at Stanford University where he received his Ph.D. in Musicology.

Resonus Classics is proud to release the world premiere recording of Giles Swayne’s epic organ work Stations of the Cross with acclaimed organist Simon Nieminski. Recorded on the Matthew Copley organ of St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral in Edinburgh, this extensive solo work is at the pinnacle of virtuosic organ repertoire, with each of its fourteen movements representing an episode in the story of the Passion of Christ. Composed during autumn 2004 and early 2005, and one hour in length, Stations is one of the most significant and substantial organ works composed in recent times. Focusing on those human aspects of the Passion most important to Swayne, he has created an intensely powerful and descriptive work.

The second of three settings that can firmly be attributed to Durante, the G minor Requiem is dated 27 November 1738, by which time the composer was established as a senior figure in the vibrant and fast-moving culture of 18th-century Naples. Durante was a contemporary of Nicolo Porpora and Leonardo Leo, whose Salve Regina settings have been newly recorded on another recent Brilliant Classics album (96092) but they were better known as operatic composers; Durante’s fame and reputation rested then and now on his music for the church, which is noble without ponderousness, moving without sentimentality, elegant without triviality. Compared with other Neapolitans, Durante was not prolific; he strove instead, within the conventions of his age, to strike a popular tone with intimations of the sublime, and he did so by using startling dissonances, expressive use of dynamics, diminished chords and chromaticism. The G minor Requiem demonstrates all these features. It is scored for two four-part choirs, strings and two hunting horns used exclusively in the ‘Tuba mirum’. Even a casual glance at the score shows why Durante was greatly sought after as a counterpoint teacher and also why composers as different in as Pergolesi and Paisiello can be numbered among his pupils. Previous recordings have used large choirs, but performing the Requiem with small forces highlights the madrigalian qualities of Durante’s style, with an emphasis on solo rather than choral lines, as well as achieving much tighter ensemble and more precise intonation. Several of the soloists on this album also featured on the previous Brilliant Classics recording by the Astrarium Consort with their founder/director Carlo Centemeri, of motets by Giovanni Paolo Colonna (94647). ‘Soprano Francesca Cassinari has a particularly appealing sound (for me). Her clear, pure voice serves the music well… The Astrarium Consort has a good ensemble sound.’ (wtju.fm)

The penultimate volume of our edition featuring organ works of the Northern German Baroque focuses on the complete organ works of Jakob Praetorius the Younger and Paul Siefert. Hieronymus Praetorius, the organist at the Church of St. James in Hamburg, is regarded as the most important founding figure in the field of independent Northern German organ artistry. Three of his four songs, Jakob, Johann, and MIchael who already in 1604 had contributed a quarter of the eighty-four cantional settings to the renowned Hamburger Melodeyen Gesangbuch, is said to have developed a special form of fingering and pedal technique making it possible for the organist to assume a very relaxed sitting position and corresponding to his serious, sober, personal disposition. According to the music critic Johann Mattheson, Praetorius's works were "mroe serious" and "more forcefully elaborated" than those of his friend Scheidemann.

"My commitment to the present new recording is not only important because of advanced ensemble techniques, but also because I believe that with a cast of soloists, as in the sixteen-part Hora est, transparency of the polyphonic movement can be achieved that is not so readily feasible with larger forces. A prerequisite here is the existence of ensemble capabilities among vocal soloists, as we also need it for earlier music. In any case, the vocal works which are also particularly interesting to me among those Mendelssohn composed for the Sing-Akademie are those of stylistically ambiguous definition, in which the composer, inspired by the example of the old masters, looks for - and finds - his own path. Our conception of being able to cast soloists from a chorus, as in the Te Deum, is also influenced by this model." (Frieder Bernius)

In this live recording- the second in The Dale Warland Live series- selected works of two 20th century composers, one British and the other American, are performed with exquisite choral acumen. The program consists of Benjamin Britten’s acclaimed ‘A Ceremony of Carols’ and Daniel Pinkham’s ‘Christmas Cantata’ with brass and organ. In addition, Pinkham’s rarely performed ‘Company at the Creche’ is included with four other Christmas works. The distinguished career of choral composer and conductor Dale Warland spans more than six decades and has made a profound contribution to the music of our time. As conductor, composer and founder of the Grammy-nominated Dale Warland Singers, he is one of only three choral conductors inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.

This instrument revolutionizes organ building. The main organ in the church of St. Martin in Kassel, consecrated in 2017, already boasts numerous innovations; now the experimental organ, completed in 2021, turns the laws of organ building that have applied for centuries on their head. With a technically highly innovative trick, the traditional Rieger company has succeeded in having the wind flowing into the organ pipe controlled by the touch of the key, stop slide and bellows system. The new sound cosmos of swelling and dying tones that opens up inspires young composers to experiment, documented for the first time on a brand-new Super Audio album that presents both instruments as a convincing unit in overwhelming spatiality. The main organ in St. Martin's is also visually an eye-catcher: the facade is spread across the entire width of the nave, with tufts of artificial hair in front of its labia moving with every breath of wind. With two stops tuned in the middle tone, even the oldest organ music can be heard authentically, while a quarter-tone manual invites composers and audiences alike to embark on a journey of tonal discovery. St. Martin has been known for its innovative spirit for centuries, and Johann Sebastian Bach was drawn to Kassel in 1732 to examine the organ. Bach is both the beginning and the end of Manz's program, which is extraordinary in every respect, with Messiaën's Pentecost Mass at its center. Works by Cabezón, Praetorius, Böhm and de Grigny represent the Renaissance and Baroque, while pieces from Caspar Johannes Walter's composition class represent contemporary, youthful music. Otfried Büsing uses the entire spectrum, from delicately disappearing tones to the mighty quarter-tone cluster: a gigantic rush of sound!