The opportunity to celebrate, in 2020, the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven alongside the 30th anniversary of German reunification is akin to a gift for a label that has been instrumental in preserving the recording heritage of the GDR, offering as it does the opportunity for a retrospective view and assessment of the past. This series with 10 new editions from the archive of ETERNA recordings includes audio productions from the early days of the label as well as later productions from the late 80s. Partly remastered from the original tapes and provided with the original covers, these historic-legendary recordings shine in new glamour. The present volume presents Lenore in its original 1805 version.

Together with the Berlin based Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Mari Kodama and her husband Kent Nagano have now completed the recording of all of Beethoven's piano concertos by jumping, as it were, back in time twice: the last element of this recording series that has spanned more than 13 years was Beethoven's concerto "number nought” WoO 4- personally edited by Mari Kodama from the autograph score. The original manuscript of this piano concerto is kept at the State Library in Berlin. This is not a completed score, because there is no orchestration. That said, Beethoven annotated the short score, especially in the first two movements, with indications as to which instrument was to play which part. The orchestra score which is available today was written in the early twentieth century based on those annotations. The only problem is "armed with the knowledge we now have acquired about the young Beethoven, we would perform this concerto quite differently in places," explain Mari Kodama and Kent Nagano in unison. They therefore present a very personal adaptation that emerged during rehearsal with the orchestra and at the recording sessions, and which reflects Kodama's and Nagano's individual image of Beethoven. They aim to make audible the exuberant freshness and urgent sense of awakening in the young, almost childlike Beethoven's writing shortly before his artistic powers were to burst forth, the joie de vivre and vital energy in a style that owes something to the playfulness of both Haydn and Mozart. That is Mari Kodama's intention, and she plays it in precisely such a versatile manner.

The opportunity to celebrate, in 2020, the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven alongside the 30th anniversary of German reunification is akin to a gift for a label that has been instrumental in preserving the recording heritage of the GDR, offering as it does the opportunity for a retrospective view and assessment of the past. This series with 10 new editions from the archive of ETERNA recordings includes audio productions from the early days of the label as well as later productions from the late 80s. Partly remastered from the original tapes and provided with the original covers, these historic-legendary recordings shine in new glamour. The present volume presents two of Beethoven’s piano sonatas performed by Peter Rosel.

The opportunity to celebrate, in 2020, the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven alongside the 30th anniversary of German reunification is akin to a gift for a label that has been instrumental in preserving the recording heritage of the GDR, offering as it does the opportunity for a retrospective view and assessment of the past. This series with 10 new editions from the archive of ETERNA recordings includes audio productions from the early days of the label as well as later productions from the late 80s. Partly remastered from the original tapes and provided with the original covers, these historic-legendary recordings shine in new glamour. The present volume presents the String Quartet in C-sharp Minor, op. 131 performed by the Suske Quartett.

Spark plays Baroque music. That sounds simple, but is in fact highly complex. That's because when an ensemble like Spark approaches a past era, that can only come about with a fresh new perspective, bold reorientation and lots of delight in experimentation. It is not for nothing that the ECHO Klassik prizewinning formation enjoys a reputation for blending the old and the new, tradition and innovation, the familiar and the unheard-of in a unique manner. Consequently, on their upcoming release "BE BAROQUE" the five exceptional musicians are not interested in simply arranging Baroque works for their formation. On the contrary: in their new arrangements they aim to highlight new aspects, intensify moods and awaken unforeseen associations. Baroque manners are assimilated, spun and transformed into the musical language of the 21st century. Based on a number of masterworks by Bach, Vivaldi, Handel and others, Spark creates its very own Baroque tableau whose color spectrum ranges from almost true-to-the-original reproduction through to a completely new composition.

BACH Orchestral Suites • Concerto Köln (period instruments) • BERLIN 0300061 BC (2 CDs: 85:59)


This release has no amazing revelations to offer—only exceptionally fine performances of this familiar and beloved music. Concerto Köln has no conductor, taking direction from members of the ensemble—Werner Matzke (cello) in BWV 1066, Cordula Breuer (the traverso soloist) in BWV 1067, and Sylvie Kraus (violin) in BWV 1068 and 1069—who evidently share a vision for these rather disparate scores. There is grandness in the overtures, vivacity in the dances, and carefree virtuosity in the flute suite, BWV 1067. And then there is the famous Air in BWV 1068, always an interlude of ineffable serenity, done to virtual perfection here. The orchestra varies in size. It’s a chamber ensemble in the most intimate suite, BWV 1067, but expands to 3-3-2-1-1 (plus winds) in BWV 1066 and to 4-4-3-2-1 (with woodwinds, trumpets, and timpani) in the others. The harpsichordist throughout is Gerald Hambitzer. I expect to return often and gratefully to these superior recordings.


Concerto Köln is not to be confused with Camerata Köln, Musica Antiqua Köln, the Köln Soloists Ensemble, or Kammerorchester Köln, all of which also have admirable recordings of Bach and/or Baroque repertory in their catalogs (all but the last played with period instruments). Do the good burghers of the cathedral city add some special ingredient to the Rhine water when it reaches their shores?


FANFARE: George Chien

On her most recent album, the pianist Claire Huangci made her first discographic foray into the chamber-music world of Ernest Chausson and Maurice Ravel. Her latest album creates a musical link almost back to the beginning of her professional career, to her highly acclaimed Scarlatti album, and proves yet again that she has a very close relationship with Baroque repertoire: with Johann Sebastian Bach’s varied and sparklingly virtuoso Toccatas she has taken ownership of a rarely heard collection of works, in which she presents the entire emotional spectrum of the young adult Bach. The album begins with the most famous toccata in music history, though it is not the sort of work we are used to hearing played on a solo piano recording. Ferruccio Busoni’s transcription of the world famous Bach D minor Toccata, which takes the work normally heard on a mighty Baroque organ and has it played in romanticized manner on a piano keyboard, provides a captivating start, seeming to blow the cobwebs out of the keys, and whets our appetite for the original Bach and all of his seven toccatas. All were written during Bach’s years in Weimar and bring him alive as a composer who is well versed in the serious art of Baroque counterpoint, yet contrasts this mastery with improvisational, virtuoso runs and dreamy slow passages.

Having garnered the ultimate accolades from a host of arts review pages for her premiere recording on the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie’s organ and on the double organ of the Taiwanese Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, concert organist Iveta Apkalna now presents her third release on the Berlin Classics label as a triple album. Triptychon spans three centuries and three religious confessions on one single organ: Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Liszt and Peteris Vasks can be heard on this, the first release of a recording played in Neubrandenburg’s Concert Church on the organ which she helped to develop and inaugurated. Apkalna opens the first altar panel with three works by her compatriot and personal friend: alongside Arvo Pärt, Peteris Vasks is the best known and most often played Baltic composer. “Latvia is Peteris Vasks and Peteris Vasks is Latvia,” explains the organist. “I hear the landscape of Latvia in his music, the far horizons of our flat country, the meadows and forests, birdsong and the sea. Peteris Vasks is undoubtedly a truly Latvian character, though he also breathes the ‘global air’. Otherwise people all around the world would not love his music.” Johann Sebastian Bach is at the heart of Iveta Apkalna’s triptych – just as he is central to the career of any organist. For her, his Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major BWV564, the Trio Sonata in D minor BWV527 and the six Schübler Chorales BWV645–650 represent the greatest possible stylistic, compositional and tonal variety backed up by personal motives. Franz Liszt, who achieved worldwide fame as a travelling virtuoso and visionary composer, was also a formidable organist who, towards the end of his career, took holy orders. His oeuvre too is close to Iveta Apkalna’s heart.

Pianist Luisa Imorde loves innovative combinations- following on from circus dances by Schumann and Widmann and the affair of honor between Woelfl and Beethoven, she now prepares to cast light on Johann Sebastian Bach and Nikolai Kapustin. This is an album whose spectrum ranges from Baroque counterpoint through to polyrhythmic jazz sounds. They could hardly be further apart: Bach and Kapustin lived 250 years apart and on two different continents. One is the indisputable supremo of European classical music, the other a Russian composer known only to a few aficionados in central Europe, someone who transforms musical jazz sequences into formal, classical structures. On Moon Rainbow they alternate. “There is no established listening convention for this. The result is a foundation of literally unheard sounds, which makes it possible to hear anew so to speak a familiar old piece by Bach in this new context,” explains Imorde.

Claire Huangci proves herself to be a vividly expressive interpreter of Chopin, the first since Artur Rubinstein to offer a complete cycle of the Nocturnes by Frédéric Chopin. During her background research work into Chopin’s oeuvre she repeatedly came across poems by French authors such as Charles Baudelaire, Victor Hugo and Tristan Corbière. She began to form associations and found a poem contemporary to each of Chopin’s nocturnes. You will find the links between poetry and music in the booklet. Claire Huangci herself explains: “They may add a further dimension to your listening pleasure, so that everyone can conjure up an image of what I see as I play. I do hope that these lovely verses will act as an impetus to allow listeners’ fantasy to take flight and to create their very own Chopin diary.” This approach is proof of Claire Huangci’s artistic maturity – an approach that will open up new avenues in our appreciation of Chopin. Frédéric Chopin was a special pioneer in Claire Huangci’s eyes. The child prodigy became acquainted with his works at a very young age and grew up with them. They were decisive to her personal development and artistic career, which took off at an early stage on an international level thanks to concert performances, arts grants and a host of awards. This resulted in a virtuoso life of short-distance and long-haul flights, juggling appearances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Osaka’s Symphony Hall or the Gewandhaus in Leipzig with life at home in Philadelphia. She has played with a host of orchestras including the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Stuttgart, the China Philharmonic Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony and the Moscow Radio Symphony. Accompanying her on her journey, so to speak, were not just her teachers, such as Eleanur Sokoloff, Gary Graffman and Arie Vardi, but the composer Frédéric Chopin: she owes her artistic breakthrough to his music. Time and again she has analysed, documented and profiled Chopin. Claire Huangci has brought together all of this experience and these insights on her new album, forming them into a “Chopin Diary”. The Nocturnes are the epitome of Chopin’s artistic work. They attest to the composer’s emotions on the cusp of the Romantic era and are simultaneously evidence of a restless life that hung between his artistic popularity, his dire state of health and an uncertain future. Composed in an atmosphere of domestic security, as night fell, they reflect his stimulating artistic day-to-day life. They are deemed to be perfect in form, combining all stylistically defining moods in a virtuosic form that to this day is unsurpassed. Some of the total of 21 Nocturnes form part of the standard repertoire for young pianists, yet Claire Huangci’s approach to them is a highly personal, unique one: “With her differentiated agogic approach and superior technique, Claire Huangci proved that she is now the most expressive Chopin performer of her generation", according to Gerd Kurat of the Südkurier newspaper. She rounds off the program with the Nocturne Oubliée and the Etude in C sharp minor, recorded together with cellist Tristan Cornut.

Bach & Piazzolla – two composers who really have nothing in common? The Austria-based Serbian accordionist Nikola Djoric has nevertheless brought them together on one album, creating a soundscape that is thoroughly unfamiliar in the context of Bach. Together with the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester (Chamber Orchestra Mannheim) under the baton of Hans-Peter Hoffmann, he has recorded Astor Piazzolla’s famous Concerto for bandoneón, “Aconcagua”, along with Bach’s Harpsichord Concertos Nos. 1 & 7. For him, there was one really important aspect in the realisation of this project: “We recorded this music using a score faithful to the original; nothing at all was changed, this is not a series of arrangements. I play the Bach and Piazzolla scores one-to-one on the accordion, which gives the listener to hear familiar works in different tone colours. Thanks to its ability to sing and its complexity, the instrument exudes an inimitable allure. Just imagine: a wind instrument that plays polyphonically whether the player is breathing in or out and creates the notes in the air, as it were; a keyboard instrument that can phrase notes in the way string players do with their bows, with two different manuals, over 500 notes, 20 stops and a musician who plays using all ten fingers and can breathe freely at the same time – that is the button accordion: it sings and breathes.”

On "Wanderlust," the new album on Berlin Classics, the Boulanger Trio explores romantic worlds of feeling, transports listeners to a wide variety of soundscapes, and takes hold of the musical walking stick. With a program that explores through different national schools of composition, they not only combine the great names of the 19th century on one album, but deliver an intelligently assembled soundtrack for a road trip. Founded in Hamburg in 2006 by Karla Haltenwanger (piano), Birgit Erz (violin) and Ilona Kindt (violoncello), the trio is now based in Berlin and Hamburg. In 2007 the ensemble won the 4th Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition in Norway, followed by the Rauhe Prize for Modern Chamber Music in 2008. The ensemble has received musical guidance from Hatto Beyerle, Menahem Pressler and Alfred Brendel.

The oboe is said to be one of the most complex instruments there is, not only for players but for those who compose music for it, too. As a performer and professor, Céline Moinet has studied almost every single piece for the oboe in recent years. Thus she knows all too well that not every composer has been able to handle and stage the instrument in their music in a way that truly does it justice. A few stand out from the crowd, and the musician has already devoted herself to them in detail in her past album projects, including Bach, Robert Schumann, Berio, and Britten, to name a few. On this album, Moinet turns her gaze towards her home country France, and to the composers whose work made her fall in love with the oboe as a young girl: Francis Poulenc (Oboe Sonata and Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano); Claude Debussy (Rapsodie and Andante from the Piano Trio); Maurice Ravel (Le Tombeau de Couperin); and Camille Saint-Saëns (Oboe Sonata).

On his new album “31” pianist Fabian Muller plays the late work of Franz Schubert- the piano sonatas no. 19-21 as well as Drei Klavierstucke D946. The idea behind this recording is to play the late works as a young person- in view of the fact that Schubert himself was a young man when he composed them. Muller plays the pieces lovingly, peaceful. Sad, but at the same time incredibly happy- and in his interpretations he likes to take liberties with the tempo and sometimes leaves out repetitions. “It’s important to take the composer seriously, but it’s also important not to overdo it. In the end, it often remains a mystery what the composer really wanted anyway. That’s why I have great confidence in making my own decisions,” Muller says.

What the largely unknown name of Georg Muffat may lack in dissemination and reputation, he makes p for in incredible variety, virtuosic power, and influence, especially on the development of instrumental music. The treasure trove of Muffat, which comes to light in particular in his sonata collection “Armonico Tributo,” is what the early music ensemble Concerto Copenhagen and its director Lars Ulrik Mortensen are taking to the discographic spearhead of their 30th anniversary in 2022. Concerto Copenhagen is one of Scandinavia’s most innovative and experimental baroque orchestras. Long known and celebrated beyond the borders of Denmark, the early music ensemble delights audiences throughout Europe with exciting border crossings between early and contemporary music.