Shortly before Christmas, when more than 25,000 people flock to the stadium for the big Advent concert and hundreds of thousands of TV viewers take their seats in their living rooms, that's when Christmas really begins for many Dresdeners. What began in 2015 as part of the celebrations for the anniversary of the world-famous Dresdner Kreuzchor has now become one of the biggest and most beautiful Christmas events in Germany: flanked by stars from the international music world, one of the best boys' choirs in the world presents the most famous Christmas melodies in classical and modern arrangements. The new album captures the unique atmosphere of this special event on double album and brings it into the living room. The album features long term acquaintances of the Adventskonzert as well as new musical partners of the Kreuzchor: In a duet with the choir, rock legend Peter Maffay enchants with his Tabaluga hit "Nessaja - Ich wollte nie erwachsen sein" ("Nessaja - I never wanted to be grown up"), while Finnish star soprano Camilla Nylund brings the atmosphere of Scandinavian Christmas to Germany. Tenor Klaus Florian Vogt, at home on all stages of the world and also a guest on the album, is featured with "O holy Night" and "Adeste fidelis". Musical and soul accents are set by Sabrina Weckerlin, who adds another facet to the special genre mix. The same goes for Finnish trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth and her very own Christmas sound. The Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke, read by Samuel Koch, rounds off the new studio album.

For his new album, Ludwig Güttler has put together what he considers the most beautiful and contemplative Christmas songs. The great trumpet player reminisces about Christmas in his homeland, the Ore Mountains in Saxony, Germany. "Christmas in the Ore Mountains is something very special. Due to the mining tradition, it is a celebration of light. If you imagine how a miner, centuries ago, got up early in the morning when it was still dark and attended the morning service, then went down the shaft and came home from work when it was already dark, then, like this worker, you develop a longing for the light. Today it is hard to understand, when we illuminate everything around us with electric light – and too often we overshoot the mark, if we think of the global problem of light pollution. I associate the Christmas of my childhood with a reality shining through with light and thoughts like: What do I give to whom? And even more: what do I get? When I was five, my grandmother gave me an accordion. A treasure, packed in a simple cardboard box. In terms of my being and continuing to practice on the instrument, its contents were the most lasting gift I ever received." Sächsische Weihnacht ("Saxon Christmas") contains 36 tracks and two encores, carefully collected from Güttler's concert program of recent years. It is all previously unreleased material by the great trumpeter, recorded together with his brass ensemble in various churches in Saxony, including the Frauenkirche in Dresden, the Marienkirche in Pirna and the church in Polditz.

With "O Nata Lux", The Zurich Chamber Singers under the baton of Christian Erny release an album of Christmas choral music that stands out from purely liturgical Christmas albums while at the same time focusing on the core of the Christmas message. A musically diverse album with motets and songs from five centuries. According to the famous German Christmas carol “Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen”, Jesus was born “in the cold midwinter, in the middle of the night”. The light that disperses the cold and darkness is a central topic of Christmastide art and music, and an element of many winter-time traditions the world over. At Christmas, Christians celebrate the redemption of mankind at a time of darkness, expressed through the imagery of light. With their new album entitled “O nata lux”, the Zurich Chamber Singers highlight this symbolism as it has been represented for many centuries in the western art music tradition.

Following the chronology of the Advent and Christmas season, the album ranges from Renaissance works by Osiander, Tallis and Praetorius to song settings by Bach, Holst and Britten and contemporary works by Marcus Paus (with marimba) and Rhiannon Randle. Her work commissioned in 2018 by the Zurich Chamber Singers, has close musical ties with Tallis’s work from over four hundred years earlier. Written in memory of her grandmother, Randle’s choral work is at times meditatively introverted, then again self-assured with consolation and confidence. Through the different tonal languages, the young Swiss ensemble illuminates the various aspects of the Advent and Christmas season. The range extends from the clear and haunting simplicity of a hymn to Brucknerian sonority and the interesting combination of deep marimba tremolos with the choir's wavy, effervescent chord layers.

On his new album "The Trumpets of Matthias Höfs" trumpeter Matthias Höfs gives an insight into his private trumpet collection. In the course of his career he has not only collected a large number of modern trumpets, but also historical models which he even partly reconstructed himself. "The gigantic variety of trumpet instruments has always fascinated me," says Höfs. "There is hardly any other instrument that is so versatile in sound and expression combined with this enormous dynamic range and possibilities". In cooperation with the Bremen wind instrument manufacturer Thein Brass, a treasure chest of over 30 different instruments has been collected over the years, which Matthias Höfs opens for this album. Meanwhile he plays exclusively on the trumpets he helped develop. "We are constantly trying to improve the intonation and trick the physics in the process, to test the sound characteristics of the most diverse materials and alloys and to make the instruments even easier to play. Every time it is like Christmas for me, when the instrument is then freshly shining and ready for the first concerts. For me it is a great luck to have these possibilities. When composers are interested in it and compose for special instruments, it's fantastic!"

On the album Starry Night, a new release from Berlin Classics, Alexej Gerassimez and the SIGNUM saxophone quartet explore new musical terrain. The unprecedented combination of percussion and saxophone quartet offers an innovative and inventive voyage in sound. Its focus is on infinity: it places familiar classics like Holsts The Planets alongside contemporary works like Gerassimezs own composition Rebirth. Starry Night shows off the five virtuosos in all their musical versatility and love of experimentation, as they journey through the cosmos and visit distant galaxies. In choosing the repertoire, the musicians took their inspiration from the great questions that have face humanity: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going to? Musically, the pieces lead us into deep space, but also into the depths of human subconsciousness into our dreams, fears and longings. A realm of contrasting experiences opens up, familiar and amazing, comforting and stimulating, romantic and other-worldly. Starry Night presents a many-faceted programme, including the composition Rebirth by Gerassimez and the commissioned work Connectome by New Zealand composer John Psathas, which explores three future scenarios for humankind in its three movements. Will the human race one day overcome its seemingly insoluble social problems, leave planet Earth and populate outer space? The arranged John Williams pieces Flying Theme from the film E.T. and Cantina Band from Star Wars are just as extra-terrestrial in their musical ambience. Further destinations on this journey into space embrace the heavenly bodies Uranus, Venus and Jupiter from Gustav Holsts suite The Planets. Debussys Clair de Lune brings Alexej Gerassimez and the SIGNUM saxophone quartet back to earth, from which they look up into the sky again at what they have just experienced.

Felix Klieser, on his new album Beyond Words, focuses on the language of music, the stories that it tells all without any words at all. He places the emphasis on the images that arise before our mind's eye when listening to the music, on the emotions triggered by the music. For Beyond Words the hornist has chosen various arias by Bach, Vivaldi, Handel and Gluck, each of which describes the various, self-contained musical worlds they encompass in a very individual manner. What is really important for his album however is not virtuosity, but tonal expression, according to Felix Klieser: 'It needs to be easy to put into action. The songfulness and the expressive range of sound should always be at the heart, always be the focus.' Listeners are being told a story that is open to any interpretation at all, and this allows them to immerse themselves in a purely musical world.

Music by Johannes Brahms for four hands would be nothing out of the ordinary as a recital programme given by the renowned Silver Garburg piano duo – but a concert featuring piano four hands with orchestra? The versatile Austrian composer and arranger Richard Dünser has arranged Brahms’s Piano Quartet op. 25 and dedicated the resultant work to his friends of many years Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg. This is a very special piece of music with an exciting genesis. True, there is already a version of the Piano Quartet op. 25 for orchestra by Arnold Schoenberg and Johannes Brahms composed a four-handed version himself, but not in the form of a piano concerto. So it was a special challenge for arranger Richard Dünser to prepare the work in a completely new and unfamiliar scoring, drawing on both the earlier versions in the process. “This is all absolutely nothing like a scientific or philological exercise; ultimately, I went to work on the original as if it was my own, and I had the courage to do things that a mere arranger would never dare do,” says Richard Dünser himself of his piece. “It was a stroke of luck at this premiere recording that I could be present and interact with the Silver Garburg Piano Duo and the Vienna Symphony, all of whom are perfectly at home with music in the Classical-Romantic tradition and with my own music, so as to exchange concepts and ideas and feed the sum of this interaction into the recording.”

Eckart Runge and Jacques Ammon, who with their last album "Revolutionary Icons" already explored the field of tension between Beethoven and the rock/pop heroes Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse and David Bowie, now devote themselves to the baroque and jazz. A closer look reveals how many connections there are despite the 200 yeas in between and what bridges ca be built between the two styles: "Walking basso continuo", the joy of the spontaneous and the high art of improvisation. From Vivaldi to Amanti, from bach to Miles Davis and from Gluck to George Gershwin - an outstanding potpourri of the highest musical quality on cello and piano.

Pianist Luisa Imorde has a pattern in her releases: she frequently juxtaposes the repertoire of two composers. On her well received last album she presented works by Bach and Kapustin. Her newest release "Polychromie" contrasts the preludes by Couperin with pieces from Messiaen, pointing out the variety of colors within the music of these two different epochs. "Luisa Imorde couples a mature playing technique with an unbridled passion for the piece she is playing and the instrument she is playing it on, resulting in an auditory experience that kindles the spirit and sets the heart aflame" – said the Süddeutsche Zeitung of the young German pianist’s art.

On his latest album "Brahms, Schumann, Gade", the clarinet virtuoso and three-time ECHO Klassik winner Sebastian Manz dedicates himself to three absolute opera magna of the clarinet repertoire. The focus on the chamber music core repertoire makes this album project stand out clearly from the artist's previous discography. Without distractions or programmatic embellishments, Sebastian Manz completely serves the artistic content of these timeless masterpieces in this album. Sebastian Manz is accompanied on the piano by Herbert Schuch. Together they inspire with recordings in which one can hear that time and space have been left for spontaneous musical qualities. The thoughts and emotions of the performers thus come to the fore unfiltered. In addition, large-scale takes preserve the musical flow and their naturalness.

On their new album “Closer to Paradise” Spark, the Classical Band, form a unique partnership with the internationally acclaimed countertenor Valer Sabadus to produce, in musical form, a feeling of longing, that wonderful, painful yet bitter-sweet emotional state ’twixt melancholy and happiness. The spectrum of works ranges from the classical masters such as Antonio Vivaldi, Robert Schumann, Gabriel Fauré, Erik Satie and Kurt Weill through to French chansonnier Leo Ferré, Italian cantautore Lucio Dalla, American singer-songwriter Barry Manilow, British synth-rock-group Depeche Mode and the German cult band Rammstein. Rounded off with some compositions by the Spark musicians themselves, the pieces blend into an aural study of emotions, the fruit of an exciting musical collaboration and a consistently thrilling recording project. The archetype of happiness, a sanctuary of peace and harmony, the focus of our longings: the innovative chamber-music formation Spark quickly recognized Paradise as the central topic at the heart of this album. The works, specially arranged, re-worked, completely re-orientated, or even totally new, all underscore aspects of longing and rapture – thereby creating a link to a star singer with a vocal register that will take your breath away. Countertenor Valer Sabadus, a frequent performer on all the great stages around the world, turns premonition of out to be the perfect companion for Spark’s journey closer to paradise, whether when languishing in Vivaldi’s intoxicating aria Vedrò con mio diletto, sensing the powerful yet fragile death in Rammstein’s Seemann or yielding to the French insouciance of Youkali: Sabadus and Spark are a match made in heaven.

If there's one thing that makes Christmas what it is, it's festive music and uplifting melodies: "Festive Trumpets for Christmas" is the new Christmas album from Matthias Höfs, to be released by Berlin Classics on November 5. On this new album, the trumpeter joins his brass ensemble and organist Christian Schmitt in a wide-ranging program. The instruments of the musicians ring out in triumphal tones, brilliantly nuanced, capturing the joy and splendor of the Christmas festival. There are works by Albinoni, Handel, Vivaldi, Morales and Scheidt, along with arrangements by Peter Lawrence, Nikolaus Herman and Matthias Höfs himself. In this programme, Matthias Höfs appears with a variety of ensemble formations, whether with trumpet quartet, with horn, trombone and tuba, or with bassoon, harpsichord and organ - amply portraying the differing characteristics of the instruments and their richness of timbre. The sensitivity with which the musicians listen to one another, for fine shading of the interpretation, creates an atmosphere of touching intimacy, of concentration on the heart of the Christmas message: Unto us a child is born. Höfs aims to convey the German tradition as such, both in sound and style: "In the age of globalization, in which everything is geared to international exchange, I should like to make my contribution to the preservation of this typical sound and culture." The program reflects his wish.

Pianist Danae Dörken is embarking on a musical journey: on April 22, 2022, her new album "Odyssee" will be released by Berlin Classics. The repertoire is a varied selection and leads the listener through different eras. Among them are well-known classics by Franz Liszt or Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, but also works that the pianist associates with her Greek origins, for example by Manos Hatzidakis and Vangelis. "Odyssee" is about traveling, wandering and dreaming. "The Odyssey has fascinated me from a very young age. Even as a child, it was read to me as a bedtime story by my grandparents," Danae Dörken says. She knows the various stages of the journey inside out. "For me, it's a very current story. I think we're going through a modern odyssey. That's what I want to show with this album."

Following on from her debut album impressions, featuring chamber music for bassoon and piano, bassoon player Sophie Dervaux is poised to release her second album on the Berlin Classics label. This album marks two premieres: in addition to this being the very first recording of the Concerto no. 2 in C major for bassoon and orchestra by Johann Baptist Vanhal, Ms Dervaux performs as both soloist and conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg. The recording of Mozart’s Concerto in B flat major for bassoon and orchestra was the starting point for this present album. It is acknowledged to be one of the most important works ever written for the wind instrument: composed in the Viennese Classical style, sophisticated and nuanced- and the only bassoon concerto by Mozart to have survived. “The Concerto in B flat major forms the basis for many bassoonists’ repertoire,” Sophie Dervaux explains, “and for that reason I have long waited to record the work – it is an important step along my career path and I faced up to it with respect.” What can be paired on an album alongside a work that enjoys the huge significance of Mozart’s bassoon concerto? Sophie Dervaux has chosen two composers who were close to Mozart and who share a common history with him. Vanhal and Hummel, like Mozart, all left their mark on the musical history of Vienna- the city in which Sophie Dervaux, as solo bassoonist with the Vienna Philharmonic has chosen to make her home.

Similar to the outstanding recording of the Christmas Oratorio, this recording of the St. Matthew Passion, made in 1975, brings together a Who's Who of the Saxon music scene. In a unique collaboration of the Mauersberger brothers, who were at the same time the cantors of the Dresden Kreuzchor and the Thomanerchor Leipzig, they unite the two choirs rich in tradition with the great soloists of their time: from Adele Stolte and Annelies Burmeister to Theo Adam and Peter Schreier. Thomanerchor Leipzig boasts a tradition of more than 800 years in music and city history, a widely acknowledged contemporary reputation, and almost one hundred boys and young men with individual personalities and a common passion for music, framed by a unique future-oriented cultural and educational landscape. The Dresdner Kreuzchor is the boys' choir of the Kreuzkirche in Dresden, Germany. It has a seven-century history and a world-wide reputation. Today, the choir has about 150 members between the ages of 9 and 19, from Dresden and the surrounding region. The boys attend the Kreuzschule in Dresden. They are also called "Kruzianer".