Music clearly fascinated the great Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516); his sketches and paintings are peppered with closely observed depictions of music-making and musical instruments. Bosch, a native of 's-Hertogenbosch in the Duchy of Brabant, was a life-long brother of the city's Brotherhood of Our Illustrious Lady, a large and prestigious organization for which sacred music was an essential and highly-valued part of its devotional life. Every Wednesday Bosch could gather with his Confraternity brothers in their opulent chapel in the church of St. John the Evangelist to celebrate a votive Mass in honour of the Blessed Virgin. This recording aims to capture a sense of the devotional soundscape that Bosch experienced throughout his life as a member of this music-loving Marian brotherhood. Instead of the frightening cacophony conjured by the artist's vision of Hell, we encounter here the joy and serenity of the weekly Marian votive Mass liturgy. We have chosen the Missa Cum jocunditate by Pierre de la Rue (c.1452-1518), who was not only the most renowned composer of the Habsburg-Burgundian court but also an external member of the brotherhood from the early 1490s until his death in 1518. Indeed, La Rue may well have had occasion to meet Bosch during these years. Cappella Pratensis sings from the original notation, reading from scale copies of the confraternity's manuscripts of plainsong and polyphony, and adopts the Brabant pronunciation of Latin those singers surely employed. They also read together from one large music book, like the men portrayed in the Singers in the Egg sketch attributed to Bosch

Five hundred years ago no one would have had to argue long about the image and significance of Nuremberg. The city was the intersection of numerous trade routes, housed the imperial regalia, was the germ cell of German humanism. A musical tour through what was then the centre of Europe –Dominique Visse and the Capella della Torre are embarking on no less a venture on this CD. They takes us back to an epoch around 1500, a date always regarded as the heyday of the free imperial city. The musical tour goes on down from the castle to the spacious Marktplatz and further, Visse and his Capella della Torre take the listener by the hand...

"Renaissance Music in Perfection"- RBB Kulturradio "Finally one realises why the shawm was considered a "royal instrument" in Renaissance times." - NDR Kulturradio

"Marvellous the excellent wind players of Capella de la Torre." - Tiroler Tageszeitung

"Capella de la Torre shows on the highest level how instruments can be used in the interpretation of Renaissance Music."- Toccata

"The level of the group can be without any doubt be compared with the ensembles of Jordi Savall."- NDR Kulturradio

The tradition of adapting other composers’ works was a common convention in the early 18th century; adopting a piece by another composer was regarded as a sign of the highest esteem for fellow composers. As he grew older, Bach practiced this frequently for his own works. He arranged concertos written in Köthen for other ensembles in Leipzig, adapted Weimar cantatas to suit Leipzig conditions, and transformed chamber music into orchestral music (and vice versa). This CD by the Elbipolis Baroque Orchestra of Hamburg features five works by Johann Sebastian Bach, recorded in orchestral arrangements specially created by Jörg Jacobi, as well as the presumed original version of the Overture in B minor (BWV 1067) in a reconstruction by Werner Breig.

An ideal introduction to Telemann's orchestral music, the Oboe Concertos and Orchestral Suites are the most meaningful part of the composer's orchestral output. This is the first release on Challenge Classics by the well-established Bach Concentus ensemble.

A luxurious edition of Arabella, the last collaboration between Strauss and von Hofmannstahl, in a 3-CD set with gorgeous 200-page book and featuring a super-cast of Straussian singers! The Dutch National Opera is the largest opera company in the Netherlands. Under the leadership of artistic director Pierre Audi, DNO has grown into one of the most important and pioneering opera companies in Europe. Jacquelyn Wagner (Arabella) studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Oakland University in Michigan. She has won numerous international competitions. In the 2013 2014 season, she debuted in the role of Arabella in Minneapolis. She has also made her debut in Carnegie Hall, where she performed Diemut in Feuersnot with the American Symphony Orchestra.

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REVIEW:

Irresistibly moving … brings out the very best in this work …well worth hearing.

-Gramophone

The poems and songs of the Gruuthuse Manuscript originated in Bruges around 1400, and the collection is named after the later owner, Lodewijk van Gruuthuse. The songs form the most well-known part of the collection: love songs, bawdy songs and drinking songs. The Gruuthuse Manuscript contains the largest collection of Dutch language songs from the medieval period, and it is the largest collection of songs with music notation. The form of the songs also attests to the fact that these songs were intended for connoisseurs. The poet uses forms fixes, the canonized forms of French songs of the late medieval times: ballades, rondeaus and virelais, and the wide variety of the forms used is remarkable. Instrumentalists have been around all over Europe during the 15th century, but musical manuscripts unambiguously showing a repertoire for instrumental ensembles from that period are scarce. The instrumental repertoire on this album contains arrangements and polyphonic ensemble pieces from about 1450-1470. The arrangements are either instrumental versions based on pre-existing polyphonic models or arranged monophonic tenors.

Also available on standard DVD

Christoph Prégardien is a world-famous tenor, well known for his almost 200 recordings for all the major labels. Michael Gees is an acclaimed pianist and composer/improviser, best known for his duo performances with Prégardien.

Also available on Blu-ray

Christoph Prégardien is a world-famous tenor, well known for his almost 200 recordings for all the major labels. Michael Gees is an acclaimed pianist and composer/improviser, best known for his duo performances with Prégardien.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

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A superb, satisfying Schwanengesang that’s up there with the greatest

There are singers who seek to imbue Schubert Lieder with more gravitas, often accompanied by a sense of the world about to end. Christoph Prégardien is not of that ilk. For him, it seems, Schubert was a life-affirming optimist. In this world you can endure the slings and arrows and still be certain that the future will be better. So this marvellous Schwanengesang is essentially a honey-toned, sunny experience.

-- Gramophone [4/2009]

This selection received the 2009 MIDEM Classical Award in the Vocal Recitals category.
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

This thoroughly modern view of Die Schatzgräber is only the opera’s second recording (the first was in 1989). Composed during World War I with the hope of a better future, Schreker’s operas reflect the situation of the early 20th century. Although the composer enjoyed amazing success during his lifetime, he was nearly forgotten after the end of World War II.

The three works on this release span a period of fifteen years- years in which the young Schumann suffered forcible separation from his beloved Clara, followed by their marriage and a brief period of relative calm, to the increasing bouts of mental instability which were to close him off from the world around him until his death. The piano Fantasiestucke op. 111 was composed in 1851 during atime of deteriorating mental health and increasing disillusionment with his post as Music Director of the Dusseldorf Music Society. In contrast to the youthfully extroverted Fantasiestucke op. 12 of 1837, these three untitled pieces are “of a serious and passionate character,” as Clara described them. The Fantasie in C major op. 17 is one of Schumann’s most powerful large-scale piano works, composed during the bitter period of his enforced separation from Clara. Schumann completed his cycle of nine forest piano miniatures, Waldszenen, in 1849, while struggling with increasing bouts of mental instability and depression. Each piece is headed by a descriptive title. These masterly tone paintings display Schumann’s genius in creating miniature images consummate in expression, characterization and mood. Critics have praised Einav Yarden’s previous recordings for Challenge Classics: “She pairs Beethoven with Stravinsky to striking effect, merging that unlikely couple with imagination and exceptionally vivid playing.” (The Washington Post) “Yarden plays a wonderfully exuberant, vibrant Haydn, glowing, transparent, adventurous, at times intimately chamber-music-like, at times grand and orchestral. A voice for Haydn!” (Fono Forum)

Includes work(s) by Baron Wenzel Ludwig von Radolt. Ensemble: Ars Antiqua Austria. Conductor: Gunar Letzbor.

The Dutch composer Robin de Raaff has four symphonies to his name. Will De Raaff follow in the footsteps of tradition, or will he give the name, the form, a new meaning, a new direction? His symphonies have little to do with the classical concept. Of course, his love for composing was partly derived from the symphonies of composers such as Brahms, Mahler, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and even Bernstein, but De Raaf is too much of a constructivist to write a symphony in the classical sense of the word. De Raaff became more and more convinced there was something to be gained in the concertante form, the orchestra and the soloist, the individual and the crowd. He shies away from prescribed forms and developments, a recapitulated theme followed by various movements with different characters. The symphony, the orchestral apparatus sounding together, telling its story for a period of at least twenty minutes, is what he took as his starting point. Working from there, this led to a reinterpretation of the symphonic form. De Raaff’s Second and Fourth Symphonies are the result of a reinterpretation of works for a soloist or soloist group with accompaniment. They are a revision of the material, reminiscent of the way in which Pierre Boulez let Incises for piano grow into Sur incises for ensemble and how Luciano Berio recomposed a number of his Sequenzas into Chemins.

For their debut album on Challenge Classics, La Sfera Armoniosa and its artistic director have chosen orchestral music and arias from the operas by Henry Purcell. La Sfera Armoniosa, founded in 1992, is a Dutch Baroque ensemble and orchestra specializing in the performance of music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Artistic director Mike Fentross writes: “I was really moved when I heard my orchestra playing the opening bars of Purcell. I heard a sound that was quite different to what I knew from other present-day baroque orchestras. Was this sound closer to that of Purcell’s own orchestra, a sound that he may have had in mind when composing this wondrous music? In the very first chat I had about this project with Lidewij van der Voort, our new concertmaster, we talked about the modern adaptations that are often (and understandably) applied to baroque instruments nowadays, and about the possibility of going back to authentic strings (completely bare gut) and a 17th century bow hold (the French grip) for this Purcell project. As it happens, I’d had a similar conversation not long before that with Lidewei de Sterck, our principal oboist, about authentic reeds (scraped from the inside) and with Graham Nicholson, about 17th century trumpets (natural trumpets with no fingerholes). These aspects, seemingly just details, have a major impact not just on the sound but also the way of playing and therefore on the way we interpret the music. We all felt the need to record this album with these ‘experimental’ instruments. An orchestral sound with so much transparency and color, a way of playing with such narrative power!”