Peter Damm, who is one of the 20th century’s leading horn players, has built up an impressive discography in the course of the last three decades. These naturally focus upon his instrument: the horn. The present Edition brings together many of his recordings for the Eterna label. It illustrates the history of horn music through a large and varied repertoire such as is only rarely to be encountered. From chamber music to the great horn concertos, from the music of the 17th century to twentieth-century works, the spectrum is immense. Peter Damm was born in Meiningen (Thuringia) in 1937. After learning the horn at the College of Music in Weimar he began his artistic career in 1957 as solo hornist with the Gera municipal orchestra. In 1959, Damm was appointed solo horn with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, which at that time was making numerous Gramophone recordings. Damm’s first solo recording was in 1961 with the Gewandhaus horn quartet, playing Robert Schumann’s Konzertstück op. 86 for four horns under the baton of Franz Konwitschny; he first appeared on a chamber-music recording in 1964. In 1969 Damm was appointed solo hornist with the Staatskapelle Dresden. His cantabile style of playing placed Damm firmly in the Dresden tradition and became the hallmark of the Dresden wind section for almost forty years. During those years in Dresden Peter Damm was involved in more than 100 studio recordings with the Sächsische Staatskapelle. Famous international conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Herbert Blomstedt, Bernard Haitink and Giuseppe Sinopoli were fascinated by Damm’s horn playing at first hearing. Peter Damm would always champion new music and the rediscovery of forgotten works from all eras in his work as a soloist on record releases. This applied in particular to the works of the Dresden court composers. Peter Damm celebrates his 80th Birthday on July 27th, 2017.

Virtuoso repertoire, brilliantly arranged: Dominik Wagner releases his Bottesini album "Revolution of Bass" on Berlin Classics. The debut-album presents, the solo Double Bass Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor as well as two duets with Benjamin Schmid on violin and Jeremias Fliedl on cello. Additionally some Bonustracks featuring soprano and piano. The musicians will be accompanied by the W�rttemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn under Emmanuel Tjeknavorian - a great wish of Dominik Wagner, who played the first concert together with Tjeknavorian ten years ago and has been close friends with him ever since.

Jürnjakob Timm was for many decades Principal Solo Cellist with the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig and is today a member of the Gewandhaus Quartet. The cellist has performed as soloist with orchestras in Germany, other European countries, Japan, South America and the USA. In the course of numerous concert tours with the Gewandhaus Orchestra he played cello concertos of the Classical, Romantic and modern eras under the baton of Kurt Masur. The present recording was the first orchestra recording by Jürnjakob Timm for the classical Eterna label. Together with Kurt Masur, the Gewandhaus Orchestra’s director for many years, he recorded two standard works for cello and orchestra in the Paul Gerhardt Church in Leipzig in 1983: Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A minor and Tchaikovsky’s famous Rococo Variations. December 2015 was marked by the death of the long-serving Principal Conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra and artist of world renown Kurt Masur. “He won over his critics in the course of his long life as a personality distinguished by his bearing, which surpassed music, and as a conductor whose ever more finely nuanced pragmatism of interpretation made the language of the orchestra intelligible, comprehensible, tangible. He was thus a maestro with the human touch, who could move people profoundly.” (Ralf Dombrowski, Der Spiegel)

The title "Bach Organ Landscapes" heralds a new complete recording of Bach's organ works, to be released over the next few years. The project is planned round ten historic organ builders who played a part in the life of Johann Sebastian Bach. No other instrument merges space with sound so strongly as the organ. The more closely we study the history of music, moreover, the more we appreciate the key role of regional developments: certain organ builders and composers created instruments and composed organ works that in their totality form "organ landscapes". And so we had to travel to the world of those organists. Bach's musical contribution to organ literature cannot be overestimated. It is a resounding testimony to his roots in an equally resounding landscape, which he himself shaped through his work as an organ expert and with organ builders. With two double albums from Ansbach and Waltershausen, J�rg Halubek invites you to join him on this journey. In Waltershausen, Bach's visionary composition "Dritter Theil der Clavier �bung" is combined with Tobias Heinrich Gottfried Trost's Providence in organ building. Johann Christoph Wiegleb went one step further in Ansbach, whose organ from 1738 is made to sound in countless different colors by the Leipzig choral arrangements. J�rg Halubek studied church music, organ and harpsichord in Stuttgart and Freiburg with Jon Laukvik and Robert Hill. At the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, he specialized in period performance practice with Jesper Christensen and Andrea Marcon. He won first prize in the 2014 International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig in the Organ category.

Günther Herbig knew the Berlin Symphony Orchestra well, even before being made Principal Conductor in 1977 of what is now the Konzerthaus orchestra. He had deputized in that post from 1966 to 1972. Solo flautist Richard Waage, an orchestra member from 1961 to 2002, also valued the work ethic of his Principal Conductor – notably when it came to the execution of solo parts. “With Herbig things were ‘more open’, when you had worked your way into a certain context, than with other conductors. He allowed you more freedom.” On one occasion when he had the opportunity to see Herbig’s conducting score, he was impressed by how every harmonic step was marked, so that the score bore traces of a musicological analysis. Solo flautist Richard Waage, an orchestra member from 1961 to 2002, also valued the work ethic of his Principal Conductor – notably when it came to the execution of solo parts. “With Herbig things were ‘more open’, when you had worked your way into a certain context, than with other conductors. He allowed you more freedom. You could offer more as an individual. I liked that a lot.” On one occasion when he had the opportunity to see Herbig’s conducting score, he was impressed by how every harmonic step was marked, so that the score bore traces of a musicological analysis. “This was the mathematical impulse” characteristic, he judged, of Herbig’s way of working. This architectural, formally structured approach to the music fitted well with the recording technique of those days, which did not allow breakdown into such small steps as today. Arches of tension thus sound more plausible, because there are fewer pieces to put together. “When you have long takes, of course that makes it all more organic,” concludes Richard Waage. It will surely have been these working conditions and the conductor’s specific style that made it possible, even in such an unpretentious piece as the Pavane, “to bring out the character of mourning”, which so moved Jürgen Kögel and other participants. This recording contains Ravel’s symphonic works La Valse, Ma Mère l'Oye, Pavane pour une infante défunte and last but not least the famous Bolero.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Apart from his high-profile concert activities, Franz Konwitschny was inseparably associated with the foundation and development of the new Eterna label. Between 1959 and 1961 Eterna issued all Beethoven’s and Schumann’s symphonies in the then innovative stereo format. Like all of Konwitschny’s late recordings, these gramophone records are now sought-after collector’s items that offer interpretations of lasting significance. One such notable document of the great maestro is the present recording of Johannes Brahms’s First Symphony, made in June 1962 only weeks before Konwitschny’s death. The producer of this recording, Dieter-Gerhardt Worm, praises “the coherence and euphony of the interpretation. Konwitschny does nothing subjectively, he interprets the work. When I played Konwitschny the recording in hospital before his last concert tour, tears of joy rolled down his face.” Worm, who worked on most of Konwitschny’s recordings as a young production manager for the Eterna label, remembers the focused studio work and the immense artistic importance of the conductor: “As a conductor, he was always one of the greatest for me. What he did as a Bruckner conductor, for instance, was incredible. Konwitschny was more than a musician to whom one could say anything; he was someone who knew instinctively how to apply what he had learnt and integrate it into his conducting gestures.”

Classical Music

Much has been said about Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg Concertos- and yet there is always more to be said. Il Gusto Barocco is a south German period performance think tank and it's take on the Brandenburg Concertos is a breath of fresh air, combining a nose for historical rarities with musical dare and ensemble sound with soloist flair. Featuring the rarely heard piccolo violin, the performance is play-conducted and spear-headed by J�rg Halubek, whose prior releases include Bach Organ Landscapes, which was extraordinarily well-received. Long term cooperation with the ensemble and Berlin Classics featuring Bach's works for different chamber ensembles.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music