Markus Eichenlaub, Speyer's cathedral organist, is one of the most distinguished representatives of his field. At the Cavaille-Coll organ of the Cathedral Santa María la Réal in the Basque Azcoitia, he dedicates himself to works by Joseph Guy Ropartz. The student of Massenet and Dubois, whose oeuvre is almost forgotten today, was one of the most interesting protagonists of the rich French organ romantics.

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.

After Joseph Callaerts (titular organist from 1891 to 1901), Gustaaf Brees (from 1901 to 1926), Alex Paepen (from 1926 to 1962) and Stanislas Deriemaeker (from 1962 to 2002), Peter Van de Velde is the fifth titular organist of the romantic Schyven organ of Antwerp Cathedral. Peter Van de Velde, born in 1972, began his organ studies as an autodidact at the age of nine. At twelve he became organist of the village church of Doel in East Flanders. He received his first music lessons at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts. There he was awarded a first prize for aural training and the highest distinction in the organ category. Peter Van de Velde continued his studies at the Royal Flemish Music Conservatory in Antwerp, where he won several first prizes and a soloist diploma in 1996. He was the last student of Stanislas Deriemaeker. During his studies, and also afterwards, he participated in numerous master classes for organ and improvisation. On this recording he presents several transcriptions for organ by the composer C�sar Franck.

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.

The cathedral organist Daniel Beckmann from Mainz has assembled original organ works by Schumann and works for the pedal piano, which the composer worked intensively on in Dresden in 1845. The instrument used was built in 1836 by Bernhard Dreymann for St. Ignaziuskirche in Mainz and represents very well the upheaval in German organ building away from the baroque tradition and towards the romanticism. Daniel Beckmann was appointed as the principal organist at the age of 29 at Mainz Cathedral by Cardinal Lehmann in 2010. In this capacity he is responsible for the liturgical and non- liturgical organ music in the cathedral. Prof. Beckmann initiated the Internationaler Orgelsommer, an international organ festival and the monthly Orgelmatin�e. Currently, his focus is on the major renovation of the cathedral organs. In 2014, Daniel Beckmann started teaching an international organ class at the Mainz School of Music, an integral part of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. An active concert activity has led him to well-known organ and music festivals in Germany and abroad. Daniel Beckmann has been awarded several prestigious prizes: the 1st prize at the International Organ Competition of Saint-Maurice (Switzerland/2009), a scholarship of the "Deutscher Musikwettbewerb" (Berlin/2005), the membership of the 50th National Selection of Young Artists of the "Deutscher Musikrat", the Kulturpreis des Kreises Olpe 2011 (cultural award of his home county Olpe) and the nomination as first "Mainzer Stadtmusiker" (2016).

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.

Classical Music

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.

The fact that the British Reger contemporary Frederick William Holloway (1873-1954) has today unjustly largely fallen into oblivion may not least be due to the abrupt end of his activity at London's 'Crystal Palace', where he worked as a resident organist: on November 30, 1936, Holloway's musical sphere of activity was completely destroyed by a fire, the organ and probably also part of his music was destroyed by the flames. The surviving works bear witness to an unmistakable affinity with the French organ aesthetics of the late 19th century. On this recording Markus Eichenlaub plays an original English, three-manual Nelson organ from 1904. Since 2010 Markus Eichenlaub has been responsible for the entire liturgical and concert organ music in the world's largest Romanesque cathedral, the cathedral of Speyer. In addition, he coordinates the cathedral's musical activities on the bishopric level as the diocesan church music director.

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

Harpsichord friends had to wait a long time for this fourth album and the conclusion of the complete harpsichord works of Louis Couperin (a fifth organ volume is still in preparation). On the fantastic original “Velen” Ruckers harpsichord, recorded in a church on the Lower Rhine, Bob van Aspern shows with his inimitably flexible and colorful playing why this repertoire is so loved by connoisseurs. The musical proximity to Johann Jacob Froberger and the Parisian colleagues is not only to be heard, but also described and elucidated by Bob van Aspern in the as always comprehensive booklet – even several works by Parisian “guest composers” are included as in the previous volumes.

Hieronymus Praetorius stands at the beginning of the North German organ school and is an important representative of the German-Venetian school, not least with his vocal works. His organ music is particularly interesting and appealing because it has not yet undergone the development of the "Amsterdam-Hamburg Sweelinck School" and therefore many performance-practical aspects are not yet clearly outlined. This raises a number of performance-practical questions, not least concerning the choice of registrations, to which Léon Berben would like to provide an answer with this recording. The choice of the two historic organs from Langwarden (1650) and Lemgo (1613) - two instruments ideally suited for 16th century music, of which there are hardly any recordings so far - complete the impression of an absolutely sound new recording.

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.

Classical Music

The Wurzburg cathedral organist Stefan Schmidt studied with Daniel Roth and in this previously unpublished recording from 2002 proves himself to be an extremely sensitive yet technically virtuoso interpreter of Cesar Franck's famous Douze Pieces. The organ of St Peter's in Dusseldorf, built in 2001 by the Gockel company, where he worked as organist for several years, was designed without compromise according to the French symphonic model and is therefore ideally suited for this repertoire as one of the few such instruments on the right bank of the Rhine.

This double album juxtaposes Franz Liszt's greatest works for organ with organ arrangements of works by his friend and later son-in-law, Richard Wagner. "Lamento e Trionfo" is actually the subtitle of Liszt's second symphonic poem, 'Tasso' S.96, but this motto characterizes the moods in the compositions united on this album so perfectly that the young concert organist St�phane Mottoul chose it as the album title. The instrument featured here is one of the largest organs in Switzerland. It was built in 1862 by Friedrich Haas for the Lucerne Hofkirche and gained international reputation. Franz Liszt knew the instrument and also played it during his visits to Richard Wagner at his nearby country estate in Triebschen, where Wagner lived from 1866 to 1872. The fascinating spatial impression created by the organ's divisions distributed throughout the church is reproduced particularly well by the 5.1 surround recording of these two hybrid SACDs. Even in the room itself, the effect is not as vivid.

The Saint-Sulpice Church in Paris is home to one of the world's most famous organs, and the list of titulaires who have worked there includes such well-known composers as Charles-Marie Widor, Marcel Dupr�, and, of course, Daniel Roth. Since the latter's retirement at the end of 2022, 34-year-old Karol Mossakowski, born in Torun (Poland) and a graduate of the Paris National Conservatory, has been continuing the glorious tradition of composers and organists at this church. This recording was produced in stereo and 5.1 multichannel versions in order to reproduce the sound experience in the room as realistically as possible.

Internationally acclaimed concert organist Zuzana Ferjencikova, who is currently working on a complete recording of Jean Guillou's organ works for AEOLUS, can be heard on her new album "Legendes" with her own transcriptions of works by Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, and Liszt. The centerpieces are Beethoven's Grande Sonate Pathetique and Liszt's second legend of St. Francis, as well as Ferjencikova's fascinating arrangement of the aria "Tristis est anima mea" from his oratorio "Christus." The Seifert instrument used for the recording is at the heart of the numerous musical activities of "Orgelwelten Ratingen" and, thanks to it's tonal diversity, is extremely versatile. The new SACD (stereo and 5.1 multichannel surround) reproduces the sound of the instrument, distributed in several locations in the room, in all it's multidimensionality with remarkable plasticity. Die international gefragte Konzertorganistin Zuzana Ferjencikova, die bei AEOLUS an einer Gesamtaufnahme der Orgelwerke von Jean Guillou arbeitet, ist auf ihrem neuen Album "Legendes" mit ihren eignenen Transkriptionen von Werken Beethovens, Mozarts, Schumanns und Liszts zu horen. I'm Zentrum stehen dabei vor Beethovens Grande Sonate Pathetique und Liszts zweite Franziskuslegende sowie Ferjencikovas faszinierende Bearbeitung der Arie "Tristis est anima mea" aus dessen Oratorium "Christus". Das fur die Aufnahme verwendete Instrument der Firma Seifert steht i'm Zentrum der zahlreichen musikalischen Aktivitaten der "Orgelwelten Ratingen" und ist Dank seiner Klangfarbenvielfalt extrem vielseitig einsetzbar. Die neue SACD (Stereo und 5.1 Multichannel Surround) gibt den Klang des an mehreren Orten i'm Raum verteilten Instrumentes in seiner Mehrdimensionalitat au�erst plastisch wieder.

Under the motto "Dancing Organ," Czech organist Michael Bartek has compiled a varied program of dance pieces from different eras, including original compositions and some virtuoso transcriptions. In addition to popular works, there are also a few surprises to discover. This is performed on "his" Kuhn organ in the Richterswil Church near Zurich. For this SACD, the sound has been optimally captured in stereo and 5.1 surround sound. Unter dem Motto "Dancing Organ" hat der tchechische Organist Michael Bartek ein vielseitiges Programm von Tanzstucken verschiedener Epochen - Originalkompositionen und teils virtuose Transkriptionen - zusammengestellt. Neben popularen Werken gibt es auch so manche uberraschung zu entdecken. Als Instrument dient ihm "seine" Kuhn-Orgel in der Richterswiler Kirche, nahe Zurich. Fur diese SACD wurde der Klang optimal als Stereo- und auch als 5.1 Surround-Aufnahme eingefangen.

Leon Berben plays Weckmann's organ work.

The highly acclaimed Karg-Elert edition on AEOLUS is being supplemented by another series: for the ninth series, the monumental E.F. Walcker organ (1927) from the Hans-Sachs-Haus in Gelsenkirchen was once again found to be an ideal instrument for Karg-Elert's sensational late cycles, which has been completely restored in the St. Antoniuskirche Papenburg since 2018. The SACD with Elke Volker is the first recording of this instrument in it's new location, where it's fascinating sound comes into it's own better than in the dry acoustics of the former concert hall.

The young organist Mona Hartmann (*1994) is currently enjoying a stellar career and has already won numerous national and international competitions. For Chaconne 1927, the musician chose the Walcker organ built in 1927 in St. Antonius in Papenburg. The form of the chaconne runs through the entire album as a leitmotif: It's principle of variation, like that of the passacaglia, allows the Walcker organ with it's 89 stops to be presented in countless, ever-changing sound combinations like no other genre.