The fruits of a long-term collaboration: "Kapellmeister" literally means "master of the chapel choir". The term designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians and today represents the bond, spanning many years, between an orchestra and conductor. It stands for implicit trust between musicians and compelling musical conviction. This expansive release features recordings by some of the finest German conductors, including Herbert Blomstedt, Herbert Kegel, Otmar Suitner, Kurt Sanderling, and Kurt Masur.

For many years little or no information was available about the composer who had written the 19th century’s most interesting trumpet concerto in Romantic style. Born into a family of musicians near Dresden in 1870, Oskar Böhme studied in Germany and Hungary and then emigrated to Russia, where he even changed his nationality in order to improve his chances of a place in one of the great orchestras. Despite his efforts to perfect integration into Russian society, his German origins proved fateful when the Bolsheviks seized power.

With this album Matthias Höfs aims to shed light on a composer and musician that has been in the dark. He presents a rare recording – his third recording with The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen – with beautiful, expressive and romantic music.

Frederic Anthony Rzewski was one of the essential contemporary US composers; the first anniversary of his death is approaching. The Dresden pianist Benyamin Nuss impressively and virtuosically presents three of Rzewski's most famous works on 2 albums. Nuss starts the album with the four movements of the "North American Ballads" and takes you directly into the composer's sound universe. These pieces tell of the nation's workers, the downtrodden and oppressed, and illustrate Rzewski's view of the United States of his time. The second work of the double album, "Mayn Yingele", was written on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Reich Pogrom Night and expressed the pain of a shift worker of that time. Rzewksi's best-known work "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!" closes the album with 36 variations on a Chilean resistance song. Echoes of Brecht and Eisler's classic "solidarity song" enter the score, and various styles are woven throughout. Across the album, Nuss impressively demonstrates the technical precision and dedication with which he has fully immersed himself in Rzewski's works, making "Unite!" one of the most challenging recordings of his entire discography.

Renaissance polyphony and contemporary sound clouds orbit around vocal late Romanticists like satellites. The Zurich Chamber Singers, conducted by Christian Erny, unearth a special narrative drama. Starting with Anton Bruckner, they turn their attention to Palestrina as a point of reference. At the same time, they cast a spotlight back on the work of the Austrian vocal innovator through three contemporary works. A comprehensive selection of Bruckner's Latin motets combine here with chosen works by Palestrina and three world premiere recordings of the Stuttgart composer Burkhard Kinzler’s commissioned works.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina may have been one of Bruckner’s musical inspirations and historical references, as he, albeit some three hundred years Bruckner’s senior, was continuously celebrated in music history for centuries after his death. Bruckner’s Catholic faith – supremely profound, and at times unhappy – is inherent to almost all of his compositions. The composer is sometimes said not to have managed to write a single secular piece, including his symphonies. In this album, the Zurich Chamber Singers focus on Bruckner’s Latin motets and choose to consider them something of a musical prayer book and personal diary of the composer. Bruckner, who suffered from severe self-doubts throughout his life, composed motets for almost his entire life. Although in varying intervals and with considerably less public attention than other of his works, Bruckner was dedicated to the composition of motets with admirable regularity. Therefore, these pieces allow a singular access to Bruckner’s musical development and personality, as well as his religious psyche. In this program Anton Bruckner’s motets are presented in a careful sequence combining them with works by Palestrina and Burkhard Kinzler. The latter feature as a commentary that both hearkens back ‘ad fontes’ and towards the twenty-first-century present.

“Perhaps Mozart sings more, but Haydn speaks, he chatters, he rejoices and talks about the really important things in life.” After Matthias Kirschnereit’s exploration with the Radio Hesse Symphony Orchestra of the middle ground between the Classical and Romantic eras in works by Hummel, Weber and Mendelssohn, the pianist now turns to Papa Haydn. And that means he is entering the terrain, somewhat neglected even now, of the great Austrian’s piano concertos. All nine keyboard concertos that were definitely written by Haydn are now being released with Matthias Kirschnereit and the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra of Heilbronn, which he directs from the instrument. The recording is a co-production with Deutschlandfunk Kultur. Haydn’s “concertos for keyboard instruments”, which are collected in Section XVIII of the Hoboken catalogue, were surely written for a variety of instruments. Pieces originally intended for fortepiano, harpsichord or even organ come to life in the hands of Matthias Kirschnereit on a modern Steinway concert grand. “Here and there I even take the liberty of intervening in the score and – as Joseph Haydn might have done, I trust – I use little ornaments, scales, embellishments and octave sequences to make the whole thing sound even more contemporary,” says the professor at Rostock’s University of Music and Drama. His feeling for Haydn’s keyboard language is particularly evident in the cadenzas. They are not given by Haydn in the original score, giving the soloist the opportunity to turn composer for his complete edition of the concertos. He has arranged them in the true spirit of Haydn, quoting his role model, who would surely have relished the exercise, to his heart’s content.

Newcomer Tassilo Probst releases his first album with duo partner Maxim Lando. The young violinist ventures into truly virtuoso repertoire and presents three sonatas for violin and piano by Béla Bartók, George Enescu, and Joseph Achron - the latter is a world premiere recording.

"I love all kinds of music, including Beethoven or Brahms sonatas, of course. But for my first recording, I liked to record unknown sonatas!", explains Probst in an interview with Malte Hemmerich. The young musician has already made a name for himself in the classical music scene. "Tassilo is an outstanding violinist and musician, with a strong will, unique sound and impressive mastery of the instrument," reports Daniel Hope, with whom both Tassilo Probst and Maxim Lando have been guests a few times.

Classical Music

Andreas Scholl writes of his new release The Family Songbook: “When my wife Tamar first introduced me to her family in Israel, her aunt Etui took the initiative and invited all her children and the rest of the family to a Shabbat dinner. That way, her niece's new boyfriend was able to get to know the whole family. I took the Shklarskys straight to my heart; at that first meeting we laughed so much, ate so much and such good food, and I was welcomed to the family with open arms. Music plays a big role with the Shklarsky family, just as it does with my family in Kiedrich. Everyone sings or plays an instrument, and after the meal, we all went down to the music room in the basement, where there is a piano and there are various guitars and electric guitars too. Since that first Shabbat dinner we have met up many times in Ramat Gan and about two years ago, after a few glasses of wonderful red wine from the Golan Heights, the idea came to me of making a recording with the Shklarskys which would capture the atmosphere and the joy of making music together and would bring future generations of our families closer together.”

Die schöne Müllerin:

"Lorenz is a baritone I have long admired. His earlier offerings for Capriccio, in particular his Winterreise ((CD) 10 162/3, 2/88), are on the highest level of interpretation, and his account of the earlier cycle is in a similar category of achievement. Once again his light, mellifluous, tenor-like baritone frequently reminds me of Fischer-Dieskau, but in this cycle, where the older singer could sound a shade overbearing for the youth being portrayed, Lorenz perfectly suggests the boy's ardour, idealism, hesitancy and eventual sorrow—a wonderful naturalness arises from his performance. His phrasing is exemplary in every respect, as is his diction and attack. ''Ungeduld'' is fervent without being pulled about. The strophic songs are finely varied. ''Pause'' has just the right sense of doubt and emptiness. The angry imprecations against the hunter are properly peremptory and alertly coordinated with Shetler's pointed playing. Then, in the last five songs, Lorenz and his partner create just the right feeling of sorrowing combined with a death-wish. ..Lorenz overall is vocally faultless, interpretatively true and unaffected. The recording leaves nothing to be desired."
Alan Blyth, Gramophone review from original release, Capriccio 10220

Schwanengesang

"Lorenz is, on the strength of this record, an interpreter of the highest calibre. Strongly reminiscent in tone and style of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and in that respect different from Olaf Bar, he is no mere clone of that distinguished artist. His voice, if I judge aright from this recorded evidence, is not so large as his predecessor's, but it has the same range and scrupulous control of dynamics.

The interpretation has many similarities with Fischer-Dieskau's. ''Aufenthalt'' is taken at the same deliberate, perhaps too deliberate pace. ''Der Atlas'' is almost too forceful, ''Am Meer'' is sung in a firm, exquisite mezza voce, ''Die Stadt'' in a haunting, veiled manner. ''Der Doppelganger'' has suitable awe and terror. But Lorenz can be different from his mentor. Often his somewhat lighter voice is better attuned to the task in hand, as in ''Liebesbotschaft'' and ''Das Fischermadchen'' and he signs off with a nicely airy ''Taubenpost''. In general, there is less resort to verbal emphasis, yet points are unerringly made. In sum, Lorenz seems to have encompassed Fischer-Dieskau's all-consuming influence while not being entirely dominated by it.

Norman Shetler, without being quite in the Moore class nor so perceptive as Brendel in Fischer-Dieskau's more recent, less satisfactory Philips reading, is never outclassed. Indeed, his rather less individual style is more of a piece with his partner's approach. The recording is admirably natural and evenly balanced. All in all, this is an interpretation that would be an asset to any collection, particularly one that does not already include Fischer-Dieskau's DG version with Moore."
-- Alan Blyth, Gramophone Review from original release, Capriccio 10097

Classical Music

Includes work(s) by various composers.

Classical Music

Although no stranger to repose the abiding impression left by this music is of flames licking at its heels. It looks back to late Mozart (40, 41) and forward to the wondrously gifted Méhul and beyond to Beethoven's Eroica and even Brahms and Berwald.

Rigel was born in Wertheim and studied in Germany with Jommelli and Richter. In 1767 he moved to Paris which he made his home. He was a well-loved figure in the French capital with symphonies, oratorios and concertos flowing in abundance. The French Revolution drew a number of politically suitable works from him. He was a leading teacher at the newly established Paris Conservatoire. The life story is nicely outlined by Benoît Dratwicki in the integral liner-note.

Rigel’s twenty-plus symphonies vied in Paris with those of Gossec and Leduc. The symphonies represented here range in duration from 10:03 to 15:33. The Fourth is full of enthralling detail. Rigel adopts the orchestral style familiar to us from early Beethoven and Mozart but there are many original touches. This is impetuous music - a child of the buffeting storm with gruff horns and a cauldron of classical conflict. The Seventh starts imperially emphatic. It is at times reminiscent of Beethoven's Seventh and the Great Ludwig’s bull-in-a-classical-china-shop manner. Even so this elbows-out approach is tempered by the kindly harpsichord continuo so noticeably absent from the Fourth. The Eighth is full of charming touches including seductive wind solos and surprisingly ear-tickling dynamic contrasts. Its central slow movement shows the mulch from which Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique grew. Number 14 has a startlingly inventive apple-pure pizzicato middle movement and a really Mozartean sense of peaceful repose. The gallant finale races along with chasseur horns. The Tenth Symphony combines dignity and exuberance which bridges the exhilaration of the Mozart K364 Sinfonia Concertante, the London Symphonies of Haydn and, in the finale, the Rossini overtures.

These outstanding performances are resonantly recorded, delightful in their range of physical impact and rippling with life. I hope there will be Rigel sequels.

- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

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