Reaching the heart of new music – this is what drives organist Wolfgang Kogert: “It is incredibly inspiring for me to know the people who created these compositions. As a result their music reaches me in a much more comprehensive way.” A great number of works have been premiered by Wolfgang Kogert and were dedicated to him trusting in his respectful approach, virtuosity and meticulousness. He spares no effort in visiting composers for joint rehearsals at their working place and in doing so he has gained a well-based overview of musicians from many countries, generations and styles over the past fifteen years. The internationally sought-after musician and teacher at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg has also observed that “music and composer often seem to form a unit – finding it’s expression in the whole personality, in the habitus, in the use of language and of course in the rehearsal work.”

For his album “Horizon” the Viennese-born organist of the traditional court chapel in his home-town has found a coherent series of pieces, a collection that has grown gradually. Without placing a work in the center these compositions created around the year 2000 are (in his view) successful examples of the diversity of today’s music and the tonal possibilities offered by the organ as an instrument. Wolfgang Kogert must find two criteria fulfilled when dealing with a composition: emotion and inspiration. “Does the piece evoke strong emotions in me at first glance and does it inspire me long term in the sense that this music won’t let me go?” With the exception of “Péan IV” by Jean-Pierre Leguay, all works are premiere recordings. In order to ensure the greatest possible authenticity, the performer worked in close artistic exchange with all composers throughout the entire process of creating the album.

With Handel‘s Music to the Royal Fireworks, adapted for four trumpets, timpani and organ, the first recording of an unusually successful series started that has grown in the meantime to seven productions: festive trumpet sound with the Pfeiffer trumpet consort. Pfeiffer-Trompeten-Consort (The Pfeiffer Trumpet Consort = PTC) was founded by the brothers Joachim, Martin, and Harald Pfeiffer in 1985. They were soon joined by Dale Marrs, who has decisively put his stamp on the musical style of the group. Mathias Muller, tympanist, joined in 1992. Through Peter Schumann, organist, the group's musical home has always been the Heiliggeistkirche (Church of the Holy Spirit) in Heidelberg, Germany. Most of the works performed by the Pfeiffer-Trompeten-Consort, famous, as well as less-well-known pieces, are presented in new, festive arrangements, most of which (with the exception of a few original compositions) have been revised and adapted by members of the ensemble. These arrangements are unique in their style. It is always easy to recognize the concern for combining Baroque trumpet artistry with modern playing techniques. In addition to the original trumpet parts, the Pfeiffer-Trompeten-Consort tries to include as many of the other instrumental parts as possible, and thus to consider the musical compositions in their entirety. The possibilities of modem trumpets combined with the splendid sound of the instruments transform familiar compositions into a new listening experience.

Nobody has here a lasting place. This line from the spoken text of the Totentanz (Dance of Death) op. 12, No. 2 could serve as the motto for many of Distler’s sacred works. In particular, the motets of the “Geistli che Chormusik” (Sacred Choral Music) op. 12 deal pre dominantly with man’s transiency and his hope for salvation. Only three pieces, not included on the present re cording, deal with other themes. What significance does this all too familiar look at the here after, this “solicitation” for an escape from life have for us? Is this turning away from the world to be emulated, considering that it was set to music by someone who suffered badly from periodically recurring bouts of mental distress, by someone who was unable to deal with the political pressures in a time “in which God has apparently relinquished his power to the Evil One” (Distler), and in the end broke under the strain of this life? That it was not just a matter of inspiring hope in some thing unreachably distant can be seen in the text he wrote for his oratorio “Die Weltalter”: “The human being, in spite of all his faults, at the bottom of his heart still good and strong, summons the arms of the gods... Thus, humanity was saved once again from its imminent down fall through the mercy of the powers above, in that they granted mortals insight into the necessity of an unconditional reconciliation of human beings among them selves, between mankind and all living creatures, and above all between mankind and God.”

Quite by chance Georg Philipp Telemann became godfather for the title of this album. In the year of his 250th anniversary, the Pfeiffer Trumpet Consort concentrated on the oeuvre of one of the most prolific composers of music history. A variety of his compositions are still unpublished until today, an incentive for us to perform works which have never before been heard in this way. Telemann was an outspoken friend of the trumpet, who used this instrument in many of his pieces- whether it be his spiritual and secular oratorios, cantatas, orchestral works, chamber music, or solo concerts. Another special attraction for the ensemble was the adaption of music of the English renaissance originally written for keyboard instruments, which we consider suitable to present here with trumpets, organ, and timpani in an all new sound. Splendid arrangements emerged, giving the listener the chance to discover the richness of this centuries-old music in a new and entertaining way. The Pfeiffer Trumpet Consort presents with this album a varied program with many unknown treasures, making an important contribution to the Telemann Year.