Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Some 40 years ago, following a decades-long precipitous drop in reputation and performance frequency of his once-heralded 19th c. Grand Operas, a Giacomo Meyerbeer revival or reassessment of him and these works took hold, which also arose with his other œuvre, including his 83 art songs, 25 of which are presented here by soprano Andrea Chudak and German-Kazakh pianist and conductor Andreas Schulz. With a knack for lilting melodies and the occasional rousing tune, Meyerbeer was equally at home with a fast gallop tempo, sentimental romances as well as little waltzes.

This double album brings together 38 songs by Giacomo Meyerbeer, making it the most comprehensive collection of such recordings to date. Best known for his operas, Giacomo Meyerbeer is remembered as perhaps the most successful stage composer of the nineteenth century. His grand opera style was achieved by merging German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. Besides his operas, he wrote around 50 other songs, many of which are gathered on this release. Performing these works are soprano Andrea Chudak, tenor Julian Rohde, and bass Tobias Hagge, joined by pianist Alexandra Rossman.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Mikl�s R�zsa's dynamic score for the film El Cid transcribed and played on a Klais pipe organ in L�on Cathedral in Spain by Phillip Pelster.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Great piano composers did not confine themselves to writing piano sonatas. Many of them wrote dances, too: minuets, sarabandes, gavottes and particularly waltzes. The tradition of great composers writing and arranging dances starts with Bach and Rameau, encompasses Mozart, Schubert, Brahms and Tchaikovsky and ends with Maurice Ravel, Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, whose Waltz No. 2 is regularly played on German classical radio stations. The only problem was that these dances were too easy for the virtuoso pianists, which is why some of these artists turned unassuming minuets waltzes and polkas into glittering virtuosic pieces which could be played only by professional pianists. One of the greatest pianists of all time was also a great arranger of music, Leopold Godowsky. This American virtuoso of Polish extraction arranged hundreds of pieces by other composers, especially works by Chopin and the waltz king Johann Strauss, and turned them into sparkling studies and encores, that test the technique and stamina of even the most accomplished player. The Viennese pianist and Beethoven pupil Carl Czerny, for generations the specter of all piano students and today remembered for his etudes, is also the composer of a charming arrangement of Franz Schubert’s bittersweet mourning waltz. Catherine Gordeladze, a native of Tiflis, Georgia, today lives and works out of Frankfurt, Germany. Ms. Gordeladze studied the piano in her native Georgia, Frankfurt and Weimar and is the winner of prestigious prizes and competitions. She has been playing with renowned orchestras in major concert venues all over the world. The artist gives piano recitals in many countries and is also much sought after as a chamber music partner. In her award-winning albums, which have been praised by critics and the public alike, the pianist concentrates on challenging virtuoso pieces apart from the mainstream repertoire.

Soprano and producer Andrea Chudak has been interpreting Ave Maria settings for over 15 years. During this time, a large collection of more than 200 compositions from all eras of music history was created; composers even wrote new works for her and dedicated them to her. In any case, the compilation of 68 selected Ave Maria presented is a spotlight-like overview of a repertoire that is hard to grasp in its entirety, from Gregorian chant to arrangements by successful alley-makers and ambiguous salon pieces to occasional works by composers who succeed in other genres and contemporary pieces for today’s liturgical practice. With these new compositions, the millennium-old tradition is given new facets that open up very individual interpretations.