Classical Music

Classical Music

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensembles: Rastatt Vocal Ensemble, Les Favorites. Conductor: Holger Speck. Soloists: Antonia Bourvé, Gundula Schneider, Sabine Czinczel, Marcus Ullmann, Jens Hamann, Romano Giefer.

The Oratorio de Noël of Camille Saint-Saëns is an important and enriching part of the repertoire. This ten-movement work is presented by an unusual ensemble: The vocal part, with string quintet and organ accompaniment, is augmented by the special sonorous effect of a harp, which lends a special atmosphere to the piece. This atmosphere – evoked through gentle harmonies, straightforward choral settings and the almost chamber music-like use of the orchestra – is interrupted by only a few dramatic passages. The resulting tensions lead to the engaging charm of this work, which also explains the worldwide success of the oratorio.
The Vocalensemble Rastatt, Les Favorites and the organist Romano Giefer under the baton of Holger Speck show, with their distinct interpretation, that the concept of the “Christmas oratorio” encompasses many more impressive facets than is often assumed. - Carus-Verlag

During his lifetime Hans Fahrmann was known as "the Richard Strauss of the organ." Today the compositions of this composer and organist, who was born in 1860 in Beicha, Saxony, are largely unknown. Frieder Bernius has now devoted himself to Fahrmann's sacred vocal works and has found the SWR Vokalensemble to be the ideal partner for these late romantic a cappella works. The motets, whose demanding harmonies also demand professional ensembles, are now available on album for the first time. The SWR vocal ensemble has mastered this challenge brilliantly. For Frieder Bernius, a conductor always on the lookout for exciting choral literature, Fahrmann's compositions represent "an indispensable and very welcome enrichment of the late romantic repertoire." How true!

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

In his will, Christoph Graupner (1683-1760) decreed that every single one of his compositions should be destroyed after his death. It is quite unimaginable that the composer’s last will should have been carried out! Fortunately, posterity preserved the musical memorial, and so today we find his musical legacy in the library of the ‘Darmstädter Hofkapelle’. To date, very little of Graupner’s extensive vocal oeuvre has been recorded, and thus the Anton-Webern-Chor Freiburg together with the Ensemble Concerto Grosso conducted by Hans Michael Beuerle present imaginative baroque vocal music recorded for the first time. A program of four passion cantatas was selected from the enormous body of Graupner cantatas – altogether 1414 sacred cantatas grouped in 46 annual cantata volumes are extant!

Classical Music

Classical Music

Kay Johannsen is a firmly established figure in Stuttgart musical life. His concert series “Bach:vokal” in the Stiftskirche – performances of the complete sacred works of J. S. Bach – enjoys recognition nationwide. Johannsen, however, is not only a successful conductor and church musician, he is also a productive and highly-regarded composer, as his new album “Sunrise” demonstrates. It includes works for organ solo and for organ and orchestra. The German organist, harpsichordist, conductor and choir-master, Kay Johannsen, studied in Freiburg and Boston through scholarships awarded to him by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes and the Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation, New York. He has won a number of prizes at national and international organ competitions, but winning first prize at the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb in 1988 was decisive for his career. Since 1994 Kay Johannsen has been the choir-master and organist at the Stiftskirche of Stuttgart, where he founded the Stuttgarter Kantorei and Ensemble 94. He also founded the solistenensemble stimmkunst in 2003.

For more than 20 years choral conductor and musicologist Clytus Gottwald has been transcribing piano-accompanied Lieder and instrumental works for a cappella choir. On this CD, transcriptions of works by Schumann, Liszt, Nietzsche, Ravel and Debussy are presented in an interpretation by the Chamber Choir Saarbrucken and it's conductor Prof. Georg Grun.

Classical Music

Classical Music