The present release pays tribute to Kurt Redel. Redel studied conducting and flute at the Breslau Conservatory. In 1938, when he was still quite young, he received a professorship for flute at the Salzburg Mozarteum. In 1941 he joined the Bavarian State Orchestra in munich as solo flautist. From 1946 to 1956 he was professor of flute at the Hochschule fur Musik Detmold. In 1952 Redel founded the Kammerorchester Pro Arte Munchen in Munich, with which he gave numerous concerts worldwide and made award-winning recordings, especially with works by Bach, Telemann, Haydn, and Mozart. For twenty years he directed the Easter Festival of Lourdes in France, which he also founded. He received numerous awards, including the Grand Prix du Disque, the Prix Orphee of the Paris Opera, and the German Federal Merit Class Prize.

The cover may clue you in that you're not getting a conventional recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons here, but just in case that doesn't do the job, this is, in the words of violinist Roby Lakatos (who writes his own utterly distinctive notes), "Vivaldi alla Gypsy." This involves not only a cimbalom but, in some sections, wholesale rewriting of Vivaldi's score (the central movement of "Winter" brings the biggest departure). Lakatos says that he made the album because his label wanted him to record a classical repertory work, but the links between the gypsy tradition and the classics is centuries old, and Lakatos comes from a musical family that taught Franz Liszt back in the day. Lakatos is undoubtedly an exciting and dynamic player. One might object that the logic in when he sticks to the score and when he takes it merely as a stimulus to new music-making is not entirely clear. Moreover, Lakatos frames the Four Seasons with a pair of works by Kálmán Céski, whom he calls "my brother in soul." These are intended to situate the Four Seasons in history, but they proceed from dreamy choral sounds to rock and jazz accents, and it's not clear how they're supposed to do that. The program is so eclectic that it is in danger of not hanging together, and it concludes, to boot, with a vocally overdubbed Ave Maria by Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia that Lakatos calls "a return to Paradise, a tribute to the divine." Wild as it all sounds, there's an exuberance that keeps you listening. And the basic idea of a gypsy Four Seasons is indeed perfectly reasonable. Probably not a major entry in the Vivaldi canon, but certainly of great interest for those interested in the great tradition of gypsy music. - James Manheim, AllMusic Gudie

This double album brings together 38 songs by Giacomo Meyerbeer, making it the most comprehensive collection of such recordings to date. Best known for his operas, Giacomo Meyerbeer is remembered as perhaps the most successful stage composer of the nineteenth century. His grand opera style was achieved by merging German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. Besides his operas, he wrote around 50 other songs, many of which are gathered on this release. Performing these works are soprano Andrea Chudak, tenor Julian Rohde, and bass Tobias Hagge, joined by pianist Alexandra Rossman.

Karel Mark Chichon was Principal Conductor of the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Saarbrucken Kaiserslautern from 2011 to 2017; the programmes he presented during his seasons there were celebrated by the public and lauded by the critics in equal measure. One magnificent result of this period is the present recording with works by Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and de Falla. All are ballets whose rhythms made an enormously modern, almost revolutionary effect at the time; the dancers had quite a lot to learn about how to coordinate their movements to this music. For more than ten years now, the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra has been an integral part of the German orchestral music scene which is like no other in the world. The orchestra was created following the merger of the Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Radio Orchestra Kaiserslautern. As one of the ARD radio symphony orchestras, it performs at the orchestra’s resident locations in Saarbrucken and Kaiserslautern as well as participating in the Saarlandischer Rundfunk and the Sudwestrundfunk cultural programmes or giving concerts on the SR/SWR an dARTE television channels.

The ensemble "Die Freitagsakademie" was founded in Bern 1993. The name originates from one of the first establishments of middle-class music life in the Berlin of the 18th century: the FREITAGSAKADEMIEN, founded by Johann Gottlieb Janitsch in 1738. The Berlin society met regularly to make music together in a semi-public or private setting. The Freitagsakademien enjoyed an outstanding reputation and attracted musicians of the most varied origins.

With its roots in Egyptian and Mesopotamian love poetry and fertility rites, the Song of Songs is the greatest pæan to human love in ancient literature. Its verses describe a love song from man to woman to man, flitting between lover and beloved in a mosaic of iridescent, enigmatic imagery familiar from its co-option into Judaeo-Christian religious traditions and a millennium of European musical settings. Re-reading teh Songs as literature today seems only to emphasize its sharpness and extremity: the inexhaustible overabundance of metaphor and its patchwork construction give it a decidedly modern edge. I designed a set of pieces with a variety of vocal orchestrations, each channelling the canon's intrinsic momentum in different ways: creating proliferating, growing textures, or shifting densities of sound like passing clouds, or folding the canon back on itself into more static or circling formations. I collated the texts from all over the poem, often bringing together related phrases that appear in different chapters of the Song. Each piece takes a nature-image from its text as a basis for its structure and overall character. I imagine each piece as taking place in real-time, like an unedited film. In that time the steady-state textures change gradually: the sun increasingly catches the leaves of teh plans over the eight minutes of the first piece; the wind rises and falls across the span of the second piece, and in the last there are slight, unpredictable fluctuations of gently rustling foliage. - James Weeks

The old instruments of the Stadtpfeiffer were replaced by French-styled oboes and bassoons in German courts and cities at the beginning of the 18th century. These became the bandes de hautbois to which trumpets were added, the combination becoming the basis of the military band. After the marches and the parades, however, these musicians were also invited to take part in the court's formal entertainments. It was for these circumstances that Georg Philipp Telemann and his contemporaries created a completely new type of repertoire that was linked to the French and Italian genres of the Suite and the Concerto. Hunting horns were also added to the ensemble at certain moments. This is the repertoire that Eolus tackles here, with total respect for the characteristic techniques of horn and trumpet harmonics; others have attempted to conquer this repertoire by completely unhistorical performance practices.

Florilegium Portense – this is the title of a collection of sacred motets from Italy, Germany and the Franco-Flemish region, first printed in Leipzig in 1618. It contains motets by the most famous composers of the time in Europe, such as Hieronymus and Michael Praetorius, Hans Leo Hassler, Orlando di Lasso, and Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli. Its dissemination was so successful that almost all church choirs, school choirs and court orchestras between Eisenach and Breslau came into contact with it. The motets were compiled by Sethus Calvisius, the cantor of Schulpforte and later Thomaskantor of Leipzig, and edited by Erhard Bodenschatz, his successor in Schulpforte. Exactly 400 years after going to press, the Vocal Concert Dresden and the Cappella Sagittariana under the direction of Peter Kopp honor this important cultural monument with a recording of selected motets and hymns, including several premiere recordings.

An agreeable musician, clever, sociable, a shaper of verse, a man of wit whose sallies were greatly appreciated and whose fertile pen was guaranteed to turn out another volume of works every month, Boismortier was the perfect man of his time, courteous, cultured and able to adapt to his surroundings. In this, their first recording, Le Petit Trianon have chosen pieces from his immense body of work that felicitously blend the sonorities of the flute, violin, bassoon, cello and harpsichord.

Beethoven repeatedly described the Missa solemnis as his greatest work, intended to affect and move people. His labor on the composition was long and intense; the work is not regarded as the most important mass setting of the 19th century in vain. In terms of its scope and musical demands, it reaches far beyond what is liturgically usual – not without reason did the premiere take place in a concert hall. The Kammerchor Stuttgart and the Hofkapelle Stuttgart under the leadership of Frieder Bernius master the challenges of the Missa with bravura. All the sonorous groups work together intensively, creating an organic and homogeneous flow of interpretation. The young quartet of soloists Johanna Winkel, Sophie Harmsen, Sebastian Kohlhepp and Arttu Kataja complement the ensembles.

The Choirs of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, with their director Edward Wickham, have collaborated once again for this album of Renaissance motets and hymns in praise of St Catharine - one of the most ubiquitous and beloved saints of the Middle Ages who also lends her name to the college (founded in 1473) where both groups are resident. This diverse programme spans a century in which the cult of St Catharine was at it's height, representing the prayers and exhortations of pious communities towards a saint who might represent their interests in the court of heaven. St Catharine's College lies at the historic centre of Cambridge and at the heart of the University's distinguished musical tradition. Founded in 1473, there has been a choir associated with the college for over a hundred years. The mixed student choir currently consists of around 24 undergraduate and graduate members, augmented by former choristers from the Girls' Choir; and sings regular services in the college's eighteenth century chapel.

No eighteenth-century composer was so adept at so many musical styles as Georg Philipp Telemann. Telemann's versatility and inventiveness kept his musical style avant-garde during his entire life. He was not only praised by his contemporaries but was highly respected by the next generation: his fame was immense. Therefore New Collegium, one of the promising ensembles of the younger generation, has chosen for their first album on the Ramée label to show Telemann the chameleon, the breadth of his musical palette. Some of the pieces will undoubtedly sound familiar; others, such as the Italianate Trio for violin and cello obbligato, or the pastoral Trio for two violins in scordatura, will surely be delightful, new surprises for many. Coming in and out of disguise with Telemann’s chameleonic notes we often find ourselves wondering: is this truly music by just one composer, not six?

This album brings together eight composers with very diverse works. Only upon closer examination do we perceive the connections between pairs of works on the recording, though each time of a different kind. We thus have the Beethoven/Brahms duo- the model and emulator, both firmly rooted in the German musical tradition; Suk-Martinu- the teacher and pupil, each also influenced by Eastern European folk music; Faure/Elgar- two representatives of late Romantic tone painting in Western Europe; and finally, Popper/Ginzel-two cellist-composers who know and take delight in every subtlety of their instrument. Reiner Ginzel studied with the eminent teacher Professor Karl Grosch, a student of the legendary cellist Julius Klengel. He perfected his abilities taking part in various master courses, and during this period was a prizewinner of national and international competition. After several years as solo cellist in the most renowned German orchestras, he was called to the University of Music and Theatre in Munich as professor. He is also a member of the German String Trio with which he has produced more than 30 albums. Annette Weisbrod, Swiss pianist brought up in England, is at present one of the most eminent musicians in Switzerland. Concerts as soloists, chamber musician and accompanist have taken her all over the world, from Europe to America, from Chile to China, and she has done several world tours, Radio broadcasts and over 4 dozen records to testify to her range and versatility.

Baptiste Romain, director of the ensemble Le Miroir de Musique, has just been appointed professor at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. To mark this occasion, he enriches the 'Instruments' series on the Ricercar label with a recital devoted to the medieval vielle (bowed fiddle): troubadour songs and dances and polyphonic compositions from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries illustrate the various stages in the evolution of this instrument, the ancestor of the violin. After general musical studies focusing on violin and composition at the CNR Rueil-Malmaison, Baptiste Romain chose to specialize in the musical repertoire of the Middle Ages and Renaisance by practicing the bow vielle and bagpipes. After training at the Center for Medieval Music in Paris, notably with Marco Horvat, he studied at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, with Randall Cook, Dominique Vellard and Crawford Young, while regularly practicing ensemble music with Pierre Hamon at the National Conservatory of Lyon. He received his violin soloist diploma from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in 2008.

The Ensemble Santenay invites us on an enthralling journey through the French Ars Subtilior repertory of the fourteenth century. These pieces with their often esoteric texts are presented here as a genuine sound project. Just as works of art are framed with the greatest care, the musicians have devised sound frames for the compositions on this album, in order to introduce them, link them with each other, take them further than usual, and above all make sure our ears and our consciousness are alert at the moment when the art makes its appearance. These sonic atmospheres are realized with the aid of sounds produced by instruments, scraps of pieces of music, sometiems a single voice.

After the success of their album of music by Franceco Cavalli, the Cappella Mediterranea and Mariana Flores now present a programme devoted entirely to works for solo voice by Claudio Monteverdi, from the famous Lamento d’Arianna to the sublime (and much less well known) Voglio da vita uscir. Mariana Flores embodies here the most touching personalities of this section of Monteverdi’s output. Argentinean soprano Mariana Flores studied singing at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Since then she has lived and worked in Basel. She regularly sings early operas and vocal literature alongside fine ensembles like the Cappella Mediterranea. The ensemble Cappella Mediterranea was founded in 2005 by the Argentinian conductor Leonardo García-Alarcón. As its name indicates, the ensemble originally arose from a passion for the music of the Mediterranean basin, and aimed to propose a different approach to Baroque music of the Latin tradition. With more than forty-five concerts each year, the ensemble explores the madrigal, the polyphonic motet and opera, a mixture of genres that has molded a unique style characterized by an exceptionally close rapport between the conductor and his musicians.

In the time of Madame de Pompadour, the hurdy-gurdy, like the musette, enjoyed a great success. It was considered to be on a level with other instruments and, as can be seen in various paintings, was highly regarded by the ladies of the aristocracy. Several books of instruction for the instrument were published, one of which was Michel Corrette's La belle vielleuse; virtuoso players such as Danguy and Dupuits extended its playing techniques to their limits. The instrument's charm was sung by various poets whose words were then set as cantatas. The unknown works that constitute this recording place it firmly in the French court of the time with its stylized pastoral diversions.

Igor Stravinsky’s later stage works Mavra (1922), Oedipus Rex (1927/28) or The Rake’s Progress (1951) are more than matched by his early “lyrical fairy tale in three acts” Le Rossignol, which occupies a special place – due to its brevity at scarcely 45 minutes. It is also unusual for the fairy-tale subject matter, based on a story called The Nightingale by Hans Christian Andersen; for its language – the original was Danish, this recording features the Russian version, yet it was premiered in French in Paris in 1914; and for its style, especially since there was a significant gap in time between the composition of the first and the other two acts, a fact that the composer was admittedly able to justify from a point of view of the shaping of the plot, since the cold atmosphere of the Chinese emperor’s royal household required a quite different musical approach to that of the beginning and end of the tale. The emperor, who is first enchanted by the bird’s song, then banishes the real thing when visiting emissaries present him with a mechanical nightingale which he names “first singer”. When the emperor later falls ill, the nightingale returns to sing to him, and saves his life.

When the ORFEO label was established in Munich forty years ago, surely no one with the music scene back then would have predicted that the record company would develop into a firmly established player on the classical music market. One of the label’s main priorities in the early years was vocal music, with opera rarities top of the list and since the mid 1980s the re-use of historic tape recordings. Big names featured on the label’s own productions, while ORFEO also developed into a talent factory by discovering and nurturing young artist. This “ORFEO 40th Anniversary” 2-album sampler well reflects these two sides of the label by combining highlight tracks of historical recordings with today’s global stars.

When orchestras became larger and larger, instrumentations more and more refined, and sound impressions louder and louder, Robert Fuchs composed . . . string quartets. Working in what is certainly the most intellectual musical genre, he had ears for intimate personal statements, while the music business had eyes mostly for showy spectacles. The Minguet Quartet, now a sought-after ensemble, once rescued Fuchs’s four quartets from decades of neglect when it was as aspiring young formation; the newly released special edition even today makes for true listening pleasure. The namesake of the Quartet is Pablo Minguet, a Spanish philosopher of the 18th century who attempted, in his writings, to facilitate access to the fine arts for all sectors of the population – and this idea is a chief artistic concern of the Minguet Quartet particularly while touring for concerts around the whole world. The passionate and intelligent interpretations of the Minguet Quartet always ensure inspiring listening experiences – “for the joy in sound and expression with which the ensemble makes the works speak enlivens even the smallest detail”. (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)

When the ORFEO label was established in Munich forty years ago, surely no one with the music scene back then would have predicted that the record company would develop into a firmly established player on the classical music market. One of the label’s main priorities in the early years was vocal music, with opera rarities top of the list and since the mid 1980s the re-use of historic tape recordings. Big names featured on the label’s own productions, while ORFEO also developed into a talent factory by discovering and nurturing young artist. This “Legendary Conductors” 10 album set for the anniversary of 40 years of ORFEO label history presents a selection of outstanding recordings with legendary conductors in the true sense of the word.

From the middle of the sixteenth century the reputation for excellence of the composers of Northern Germany was well established. Given dynamism by commercial exchanges thanks to the bustling activity of the port of Hamburg notably, the cities of the Hanseatic League welcomed many foreign workers, their customs inspiring the artistes of the Germanic tradition. At the end of the seventeenth century, Hamburg was a free city sheltered from war, a refuge for artistes and for great fortunes. It was then the most cosmopolitan city in Germany and its population included a great number of merchants, bankers, diplomats and senators, so many men who were rich and who had the time necessary for enjoying music and for encouraging this flourishing art. As close friends, Johann Adam Reinken, Dietrich Buxtehude – both admired by Bach – and Johann Theile belonged to the circle of contrapuntists of Northern Germany, finding inspiration, however, in the monodic stile nuovo of Italy, championing the idea that music should be at the service of the drama. This musical circle, both professional and friendly, met frequently at Abendmusiken, or musical evenings, created in 1646 in Lübeck by Franz Tunder, organist of the Marienkirche who was to be succeeded by Buxtehude. Organists, great improvisors, the music of the four composers of this programme often comprises suites of short movements in each of which occur identical or related harmonic and melodic elements, characteristics of improvisation and peculiar to the stylus phantasticus, a musical movement dear to composers of this period. For their second album for muso, the Ensemble Stravaganza returns to its favorite repertory to offer a release that is virtuosic, lyrical, richly sonorous and colorful, and is performed with astonishing naturalness.

The instrumentation indications printed on the scores of 18th century violin sonatas were numerous and varied. However, the renewal of baroque performance over recent decades has imposed the uniformity of a continuo bass played on harpsichord and cello, despite the celebrated ‘o’ of Corelli and many of his pupils in: violoncello o cembalo. Though the use of the harpsichord is not to be called into question, other practices were common, particularly in the case of the violin sonatas. And it was unquestionably Tartini and his contemporaries who pushed a new practice to the forefront from the 1740s onwards: to perform the music of these great violinists-composers with an accompaniment of solo cello, which, far from being incidental, has a major role in the score. Other works of this programme render justice to the cello as a solo instrument, fully equal to the violin, with the first veritable duets for both instruments, something very much in vogue in the classical period. This musical itinerary of duets and sonatas for violin and cello offers a new experience, one that is varied and fascinating, with works of great beauty. Yet David Plantier and Annabelle Luis also show us a new sound image: the fullness of only two instruments of the same family is surprising, whilst the infinite colours and the uncommon pliability presented by this combination reveal unforgettable moments of music.

The Swiss composer �mile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) is best remembered for his development of Eurhythmics, which teaches the appreciation of music through movement. The buoyant miniatures recorded here document his fascination with dance, including a flirtation with jazz and ragtime, although the apparent innocence of the music conceals a striking degree of metrical and rhythmic complexity, cast in a style that owes something to Debussy and Faur� - animated by the blithe spirit of Chabrier. Xavier Par�s, a native of Barcelona, and Patricia Seiffert, from Fribourg, in Switzerland, have their own concert careers but both also teach at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva.

Almost nothing is known about François Dufaut (ca.1604 - ca.1672): we neither know when and where he was born nor do we know the time and place of his demise. Over the centuries, his reputation as a lutenist, who has also composed and developed an independent style, has been maintained. André Henrich sets out to search for this mysterious figure in music history. André Henrich was born in Oberwesel/Germany. In 2000 he graduated from the Musikhochschule in Cologne, where he had studied with Konrad Junghänel. He now performs internationally as a soloist and continuo player on the lute, the theorbo and the baroque guitar. He currently teaches lute and theorbo at the conservatory of Saint-Maur-des-Fosses.