Columbus: Dramatic Cantata for Soloists, Male Choir, Mixed Choir, and Full Orchestra op. 11, which celebrated its premiere at the Graz Music Society Concert Hall on 4 December 1870, is an extraordinary work within Heinrich von Herzogenberg’s oeuvre as a whole and differs greatly from many other compositions by him. During his younger years Herzogenberg was very much attracted to Wagner and the “New German” style – which also had an impact on his Columbus. He designed his musical occupation with this subject in an innovative manner, producing a work that is a combination of the stage and concert genres. Like Wagner, he wrote the libretto himself and did so while following the model provided by the typical four-part sequence of a drama with a presentation, an intensification, a climactic or turning point, and a resolution. After the successful premiere a review appeared in the Grazer Tagespost that is all the more interesting insofar as it was penned by Friedrich Hausegger, a member of the “progressive camp.” If we think merely of Herzogenberg as the Brahms emulator of his middle and later creative phases, then Hausegger’s words correct our one-sided picture of the composer: “We were most pleasantly surprised by his Columbus. With it the composer proved not only that he can assemble little elements, perhaps ones formed in imitation, to produce a well-formed whole but also that he can draw on impressive resources, that he is able to master a significant subject with a bold and sure hand.” Unlike his later practice with his model Brahms, in his Columbus Herzogenberg did not end up following Wagner to the extreme stylistically. However, it is precisely his thoroughly independent as well as inspired musical treatment of this subject that is a source of special fascination.

Johann Rosenm�ller compiled an impressive oeuvre of more than two hundred vocal and instrumental works. On the occasion of this composer's four hundredth birthday, the Ensemble 1684 is presenting a CD with a cross section of his music including the world-premiere recordings of four of his large-dimensioned concertos. Rosenm�ller's post as a teacher at the St. Thomas School introduced him to an exciting musical and academic environment that greatly stimulated him. Very early he displayed his talent for absorbing artistic and cultural influences. The St. Thomas cantor Tobias Michael and the Dresden court music director Heinrich Sch�tz were of particular significance here. The new Italian concerto models with which Sch�tz had become acquainted during his second stay in Venice were above all a source of inspiration for Rosenm�ller, who very soon also began experimenting with them. A masterful compositional craftsman and contrapuntist of Sch�tzian stamp!

This release includes new works written by Peteris Vasks (b. 1946), internationally the most well-known composer from Latvia, performed by his compatriots, the Latvian Radio Choir and Sinfonietta Riga under the direction of Sigvards Klava. During the years both the choir and the orchestra have collaborated extensively with the composer and premiered several works by him, including Da pacem, Domine which was premiered as a part of Peteris Vasks' 70th anniversary concert in 2016. This album is the third album dedicated to works by Vasks by the Latvian Radio Choir and Sigvards Klava on Ondine. Three works included on this album were written in 2016: Da pacem, Domine is according to the composer, a powerful “cry of desperation for our times, a prayer for our mad world. I believe that music strengthens our faith, love and soul.” Mein Herr und mein Gott is a work inspired by a solemn meditation written by a 15th century Swiss mystic Nicholas of Flüe, also known as Brother Klaus. The lyrics of Laudate Dominum, the title piece of the album, consist of only one sentence which is repeated by the choir. The choral texture of the work alternates with majestic organ episodes. The remaining two works in the album are based on texts by Mother Teresa.

At the Center of All Things brings together the expressive, early-music influenced string quartets of Stanley Grill with the intense, visceral sound of the Diderot Quartet’s gut-stringed instruments. A composer for whom the string quartet is the perfect medium to express, in a modern idiom, his passion for the contemplative aspects of Renaissance vocal music, the album includes three of Stanley Grill’s many string quartets: American landscapes, Lonely Voices and the title track, At the Center of All Things. Raised in New York City, Stanley Grill has spent a lifetime composing music as an act of translation, trying to understand the world and convey that understanding in musical terms. Two main themes carry through in his work- music composed as a reflection of the physical world and music composed to inspire and promote world peace. These themes are at the heart of all three works included on At the Center of All Things. The unique sound that emerges from the Diderot Quartet’s period instruments is ideal for these three introspective and intensely personal works. On this album, the Diderot gives a brilliant, evocative performance that perfectly captures the nature of the composer’s work- music that is completely contemporary while simultaneously looking back in time to the beauty and harmony of early vocal music.

Richard Strauss composed a career total of more than two hundred songs, most of them for a high female voice. The master repeatedlyw as inspired by sopranos, and the fact that he married one of these ladies, Pauline de Ahna, is proof of his intimate association with this wonderful art. Maria Bengtsson's fine selection from all his compositional periods demonstrates the versatility of Straussian composition, and in Sarah Tysman she has a piano partner whose subtle interpretations far transcend mere accompaniment. Commenting, illustrating, harmonizing- Strauss indeed assigns very important tasks to the piano. In "Morgen!" it is more the case that the voice accompanies the piano; thunder and storm are experienced in "Schlechtes Wetter"; and in "Standchen" we can even feel the youth's jittery nerves. The writer's shout verging on bitonality at the end of "Fur funfzehn Pfennige" shows what undiscovered possibilities lie in store in traditional harmony; of course, until the end of his long life, Strauss rejected all atonal advances. Maria Bengtsson meets these challenges with the natural magnificence of a virtuoso also schooled on Strauss's theatrical oeuvre. And her teamwork with Sarah Tysman can be experienced in impressive transparency above all in this meticulously produced album.

Franz Schmidt was ''the most musical man in Vienna'' - this is what Gustav Mahler had to say about his fellow composer, who, unlike him, is almost completely forgotten today. Stefan Blunier has rediscovered this late-romantic master and now with the mighty forces of the Beethoven Orchestra of Bonn presents Schmidt's Symphony No. 2 together with Richard Strauss's Festival Prelude composed during the same year for the opening of Vienna's Konzerthaus. Schmidt played in a string quartet with Arnold Schonberg, but the tonal idioms of the two composers could not have been more different. While Schonberg very early bade farewell to major-minor harmony and later turned to twelve-tone music, Schmidt remained true to tonality until the end of his life. After the Austrian Anschluss this commitment brought him dubious distinctions from the Nazis - which of course did not help him after the fall of the ''Thousand-Year Reich.'' Schmidt calls for a gigantic orchestra for his second symphony. However, sheer volume is a concern only in a few passages. He instead emphasizes kaleidoscopic color shifts produced in what is often an instrumentation reminiscent of chamber music. Behind it all there is a masterfully composed texture with overlapping themes and variations resulting in a cyclical work structure with a systematic logic.

“Sing a new song unto the Lord!” What motto could be more fitting for this debut by the BachWerkVokal? Framed by Bach’s festive New Year’s Day Cantata and his double-choral motet on Psalm 98, this recording by the instrumentally and vocally multifaceted Salzburg ensemble presents works by Buxtehude, Telemann, and Handel – and as a special treat two previously undiscovered solutions to Mozart’s Puzzle Canon on the same text. Along with this premiere, two other recording firsts enrich this meticulously produced Super Audio album. Telemann’s cantata has never been released in recorded form- which is not at all understandable in view of his interpretation rendering the text with absolutely onomatopoetic Baroque splendor. Now the ocean surges, now the streams of water jubilate, and the harps, trumpets, and drums mentioned in the psalm also make themselves heard. Gordon Safari, the ensemble’s founder, has completed the Cantata BWV 190, a work transmitted in fragmentary form. This versatile conductor is now presenting this festive work for the first time. Truly a “new song!” As we gather from Buxtehude’s Latin psalm setting, both Handel and Bach learned from him. His Novum!-The Lord! seems to have been tailor-made for the BachWerkVokal. The remarkable room impression of this three-dimensional recording shines with Baroque splendor even in the secular setting of the home- and lends Bach’s double-choral motets the radiance of a live performance.

Composed when Napoleon's armies were striding across Europe, Simon Mayr's highly charged opera I Cherusci is set in ancient Germania in the time of Christ's birth, it's narrative focusing on the perils of the captured slave girl Tusnelda who has been chosen for a sacrificial ritual. The universal themes of Freedom and patriotism in this pioneering tale of familial bonds, romance, jealousy and desperate misadventure would later attract the likes of Beethoven and Verdi. This world premiere recording of I Cherusci uses period instruments, presenting it as it would have been heard in 1808. The Simon Mayr Chorus was founded in 2003. The repertoire of the choir includes works from the 16th to the 20th century. A special emphasis is laid on authentic historical performance and on the promotion of music by Simon Mayr at the highest cultural level. Concerto de Bassus is an international ensemble engaging young musicians in historical performances of music from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Many members of the ensemble are outstanding students or graduates of the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater, with wind instruments constructed on historical principles. The ensemble takes it's name from the fundamental element of Baroque music: the Bassus.

When Friedrich Wilhelm Markull died at the age of seventy-one in 1887, posthumous tributes honored him as a “most highly knowledgeable musician and a most highly outstanding organist and composer for the church, school, and salon and of classical orchestral works.” For more than fifty years Markull had played a significant role in Danzig’s music culture. It was in a very dismal state when he began his activity there, but he built it up ex nihilo and brought it to a great flourishing. Andrzej Szadejko has chosen a first attractive selection from Markull’s countless organ compositions and recorded these works on the historic Bucholz organ at the Church of St. Nicholas in Stralsung- a welcome continuation of the very promisingly inaugurated Musica Baltica series. Markull made his musical debut as a child prodigy and was appointed to the post of principal organist at St. Mary’s Church in Danzig. Its organ with three manuals and over fifty stops offered everything that the Northern German romantic musical heart desired. In 1945 St. Mary’s Church was destroyed along with Danzig’s entire city center. Fortunately, however, the sound typical of early romanticism has been preserved for today’s listeners in the lavishly restored Stralsund organ. The many small-format compositions accounting for a large part of Markull’s oeuvre in particular profit from these circumstances. Many of them must have found use during religious services, and among them we find chorale preludes and settings, postludes, and trios. The interpretive markings ranging from “Slow without dragging” through “Lively with a very flowing recital” to “Fiery and animated” are typically romantic and make for a delightfully varied listening experience.

As a performer on the hautboy, Giuseppe Sammartini, 'Londinese', was undoubtedly the greatest that the world had ever known. He contrived to produce such a tone as approached the nearest to that of the human voice. His Concerti grossi and his later sets of Concertos have a breadth of invention and sureness of purpose second only the music of Handel. (General History of the Science and Practice of Music, 1776). This album presents neglected works by the lesser-known, younger brother of Giovanni Battista Sammartini, Giuseppe Sammartini.

Anton Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 is one of classical music's all-time greatest hits. It was composed and premiered in New Yok in 1893, which is why - but not only why - it is known as the ''New World Symphony.'' On this recording, which also includes the first cycle on the equally popular Slavonic Dances, the Piano Duo Trenkner / Speidel once again demonstrates the great advantages and fascinating rhythmic verve offered by reductions for piano four hands. Trimmed of the comfortable and sumptuous sound of the large orchestra, Dvorak's genial treatment of motives of Bohemian folk character shines in even greater glory. However, not a single one of these motives is genuine folk music. Both in the United States and in his native Bohemia, Dvorak occupied himself very thoroughly with traditional music, including African American spirituals and Native American songs. He then invented his own melodies of the same character and was very successful - as the famous main theme of the second movement demonstrates; its melancholy feeling goes straight to the heart! Dvorak also thought out the Slavonic Dances completely on his own and so very precisely hit just the right tone that research has repeatedly been conducted to determine the precise origins of this music. The constant shifts of tempo and rhythmic modifications represent a genuine challenge for a pian oduo but are no problem at all for Evelinde trenkner and Sontraud Speidel, who draw on many years of joint performance experience. While Dvorak only later prepared the version of the Slavonic Dances for piano four hands, he produced the keyboard version of his ninth symphony at about the same time as its premiere. Since he repeatedly ranges quite far from the orchestral version, it does not involve a piano reduction in the usual sense. The result, a genuine piece of music for piano duo.

Beethoven’s Piano Sonata op. 106, the “Hammerklavier Sonata,” is regarded as the most complex and demanding piece among the complex and demanding works from his late period. It was not until Franz Liszt, decades after Beethoven’s death, that a pianist was able to master this sonata’s madcap technical challenges. The version for string quartet prepared by David Plylar, a curator at the Library of Congress, was initially intended as a guide through the structural thicket of this gigantic opus. In this rendering by the Leipzig String Quartet, however, it also turns out to be an extremely revealing expansion of our musical horizons. The extended polyphonic passages quite naturally profit from the new opportunities offered by ensemble playing: the canon at the beginning of the development section in the first movement or the mighty fugue in the finale. Beethoven calls for the use of all eighty-eight piano keys, which at the time was a sensational demand. The extreme registers are also represented in the quartet version. Only a top ensemble like the Leipzig String Quartet has the magic and mastery it takes to bring its gigantic leaps, flageolet chords, and intricate harmonic relations to the concert stage. Two transcriptions by Beethoven’s contemporary enrich the program. Along with the Gewandhaus violist Peter Michael Borck, the quartet members present Beethoven’s third attempt to write an overture for his opera Leonore. At the very latest when Borck reaches for the famous offstage trumpet, the last skeptic will become a firm believer in the quintet’s symphonic qualities. The considerably trimmer final version of the Fidelio overture impressively rounds off this extraordinary project.

Vyacheslav Artyomov is considered by many to be Russia’s greatest living composer. His music is deep, ultimately spiritual and brilliantly crafted, with influences from the Russian symphonic tradition colored by Mahler, Scriabin, Honegger and Messiaen to name a few – but melded into a unique voice. The Divine Art Artyomov Retrospective is a mix of new recordings and former Melodiya releases. This is the eighth instalment, containing three orchestral works, with an over-arching sorrowful cast – remembering, like his Requiem, the suffering of the Russian peoples under Soviet rule (and for In Memoriam, a tribute to the composer’s mother), and all typifying Artyomov’s true genius as a truly individual composer who can make thoroughly modern music listenable and demanding further regular hearings. Three fine orchestras and conductors, and superb soloists, provide a rich and satisfying program of substantial modern orchestral music.

This new release from Divine Art is a selection of tracks from the Burkard Schliessmann album ‘Chronological Chopin’ which won a silver medal at the Global Music Awards 2017 as well as glowing reviews from music critics the world over. An audiophile collection recorded and mastered at 24-bit quality, this is a very rare opportunity to obtain new recordings of Chopin’s masterpieces in the best sound and by a compelling interpreter. German pianist Burkard Schliessmann is a performer with a passion and vision – to seek out and interpret the forms, colors and textures, indeed the soul and expression: the poetic impact, of works we believe have already been fully explored. His previous recordings have received worldwide acclaim - “Schliessmann is too good a pianist for anyone to pass on this” – American Record Guide; “without equal” – Fanfare. Chopin is above all his composer of choice to whom he has devoted endless hours of study and appreciation.

Kammermusik 1958'': for tenor, guitar and eight solo instruments, on the hymn ''In lovely business'' by Friedrich Holderlin, is one of Hans Werner Henze's most scintillating creations. Featuring a wide-ranging tenor part, a virtuosic solo guitar and brilliant contributions by the instruments Schubert chose for his great Octet, this masterpiece imaginatively confronts the mannered style of the Darmstadt school. In ''lovely blueness'' the emphasis is on ''blueness'' - but not only when lovely. The Mediterranean light and the nostalgia for Greek Antiquity give this music a special place in the composer's output: to the element of euphony, of consonance in its widest sense are added grittier sounds and sharper contrasts, as befits the hymn's heavily symbolic content. - ''The idea for 'Neue Volkslieder und Hirtengesange' is closely linked to my activity as cultural animator during the Eighties in the Steiermark. At the time I had made a nice collection of sketches on Styrian folklore and composed songs for an amateur play. From this material I have now assembled this small chamber music in folksong style, hoping to capture some of the atmosphere, of the mood of this melancholy landscape, like a dream or a painful memory''.

This recording of “The Bis” by Georges Athanasiades is a joyful album, a Serenade rich in delightful and popular melodies. This soundtrack of emotions displays a liberated Queen of instruments. Born in 1929 in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, Georges Athanasiades’ father who was himself a pianist and choir leader initiated him into music. After completing his classical and theological studies, followed by the study of German literature and musicology at the Universities of Heidelberg and Freiburg, Breisgau, he distinguished himself as organist at the Conservatory of Lausanne, where he received the highest diplomas. A Canon of Abbey Saint-Maurice in Switzerland, a priest since 1952 and longtime professor at the Lycee there, he is titular organist in the Basilica, which possesses a remarkable instrument- the same one heard on this outstanding recording.

Brilliant Japanese pianist Mariko Terashi has loved the music of the baroque since a very early age. This new album presents her beautifully warm yet virtuosic playing on a modern piano of classics by three composers central to the development of baroque keyboard music: the French masters Couperin and Rameau, and the Portuguese Carlos de Seixas. This is truly a superlative concert program. This album was released to great success in Japan only (Nami Records) in 2016, and it is now receiving it's global release. Mariko Terashi studied in France and has lived in the UK since 1995 where she enjoys an active concert career as soloist and chamber musician. She is particularly interested in piano adaptations of harpsichord music of the 17th and 18th centuries and has been described as 'offering fresh insights into the music' and displaying 'tremendous emotional depth'.

The 'sheer visual sophistication' of Annabel Arden's Barbiere serves 'a triumphant celebration of Rossini's musical genius', featuring de Niese's 'powerfully sung' Rosina, Burger's 'gale-force' Figaro and Stayton's 'pure and mellifluous' Almaviva - a leading trio 'musically and dramatically beyond compare' (The Independet - 5 stars). Contributing to the 'ensemble precision', the rest of the cast includes a 'scene-stealing' Berta in Kelly, a 'suavely unctuous' Basilio from Stamboglis and Corbelli's Bartolo, 'an object lesson in comic understatement' (The Guardian). With Enrique Mazzola at the helm of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, 'the score bubbles along on a Puckish current of merry mischief' (The Telegraph

After Telemann had composed the “French Cycle,” he wrote his annual cycle for 1716/17 in the Italian style, the other style then current in the music world. This style is characterized by the “konzertierendes Prinzip,” that is, by the seemingly playful and relaxed but nonetheless finely organized treatment of motifs and themes manifesting itself in the instrumental concerto but also in the great opera aria. Telemann’s cycle in which he employed the stylistic elements developed in Italy was therefore termed the “Concerten-Jahrgang” and sometimes even the “Italian Cycle.” In 1716/17 Telemann composed and performed the church compositions from Advent to the Third Day of Pentecost. The second half of the annual cycle extending from Trinity Sunday to the end of the church year followed in 1719/20. The present release brings together four compositions, two from the first half of the annual cycle and two from the subsequently composed second half. The “konzertierendes Prinzip” is developed in different ways in each piece. This performance with the Mannheimer Hofkapelle and Ex Tempore under Florian Heyerick was one of the highlights of the Telemann Festival Days in 2016.

Gilbert Rowland is one of Europe's most senior and accomplished exponents of the harpsichord. Following his critically acclaimed 6-album series of the Harpischord Suites of Handel for Divine Art, he moved to the Athene imprint specializing now in baroque music and 'period' instruments for his well received album of Suites by Johann Mattheson. This 2-album set is the first volume in a projected complete survey of the Harpsichord Suites by Johann Jakob Froberger, whose organ and harpsichord music is individual in nature and ground breaking - he was one of the first composers to settle the 'dance-movement' style of Suite taken up by Couperin, Bach, and Handel among many others. There are 12 Suites in this collection. Gilbert Rowland plays a 2 manual French style harpsichord made by Andrew Wooderson after an instrument by Goemans (Paris, 1750).

During the third concert in our series "Music from Wolfenbüttel Castle" in 2017, sacred compositions from the Opus Novum of Daniel Selichius were presented and recorded. Selichius was born in Wittenberg in 1581 and succeeded Michael Praetorius as court chapel master in Wolfenbüttel during 1621-26. His oeuvre includes the twenty-four sacred concertos of his Opus Novum of Sacred Latin and German Concertos and Psalms of David. This collection published in Wolfenbüttel in 1624 was one of the earliest printed collections of fully dimensioned sacred concertos in Protestant Germany. For these concertos we once again have obtained the services of the Weser-Renaissance Ensemble of Bremen under its conductor Prof. Dr. Manfred Cordes. This ensemble specializes in early music and over the decades has produced interpretations of Baroque music regarded as exemplary in this field.

Along with Wilhelm Stenhammar and Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, Hugo Alfvén surely ranks with the leading composers of Swedish late romanticism. In the country of his birth he made a name for himself above all with his compositions inspired by Swedish folklore, one of which, Midsommarvaka, his most famous work, is heard on Vol. 1 of our new edition of his complete symphonic works. It is both astonishing and impressive that Alfvén, who previously had composed nothing more than a few piano pieces, songs, and chamber works, suddenly came forward in 1897 with a full-length symphony of some forty minutes in length. This highly regarded Symphony No. 1 exhibits very finely nuanced tone colors, and with it he immediately became known as a capable and experienced composer. Alfvén composed Drapa, a monumental, magnificent, and festive work with the subtitle “King Oscar II in memoriam,” for a gala event at the Royal College of Music and conducted its premiere on 18 October 1908. For our ambitious project we have secured the support of the German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin and Lukasz Borowicz – one of Germany’s best orchestras and one of today’s most promising young conductors.

Friedrich Gernsheim’s chamber music figures significantly in his extensive oeuvre, where it occupies a position next to his symphonic music. Along with his works scored for piano and his diverse sonatas, it is above all in the genre of the string quartet that Gernsheim achieved great merit. On Vol. 1 of our complete recording the Diogenes Quartet interprets his first and third quartets. It is primarily in the latter work that he demonstrates his masterful command of compositional technique. The first movement requires performers with a firm metrical feel; agogic insertions occasion the blurring of time structures. The last movement is a variation movement and again a masterpiece, and after a lento it leads to a powerful and sonorous conclusion. Once you’ve heard these string quartets, you’ll wonder why after the leaden years prior to the war and then after it this genius never again returned to the concert halls. Why was there no Gernsheim revival, when Mendelssohn and Mahler revivals took place in German concert halls? Our four previously released albums and these quartets by this composer demonstrate that quality could not have been the reason for his exclusion.

Lars Vogt continues his Ondine recordings with a new cycle of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos. Conducting the Royal Nothern Sinfonia from the keyboard Lars Vogt shows the brilliance and the beauty of these two majestic works of the classic piano concerto literature.

Beethoven made an early reputation for himself as a keyboard player. Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 5 feature two opposite sides in Beethoven’s career: the 1st concerto is a masterpiece by a young composer in his 20s who is already looking into new dimensions of musical expression. Although it was his first published piano concerto Beethoven had already made serious attemps in the genre – large part of the material to his 2nd concerto also predate the 1st concerto.

The 5th concerto, commonly known as the Emperor concerto, was written between his 6th and 7th Symphonies when Vienna was under Napoleon’s occupation. During bombardment Beethoven, now 39 and increasingly deaf, had sheltered in the cellar of his brother, covering his head with a pillow against the noise of the cannons. Beethoven dedicated the work to Archduke Rudolph who had fled the city. Despite of its joyful, optimistic and hopeful character, occasionally echoes of war disrupt the work creating a strong impact. The work was premiered two years later in November 1811.

Lars Vogt was appointed the first ever “Pianist in Residence” by the Berlin Philharmonic in 2003/04 and enjoys a high profile as a soloist and chamber musician. His debut solo recording on Ondine with Bach’s Goldberg Variations (ODE 1273-2) was released in August 2015 and has been a major critical success. The album’s tracks have also been streamed online over 6 million times. Lars Vogt started his tenure as Music Director of the Royal Northern Sinfonia in September 2015.

Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky came behind Prokofiev and Shostakovich and along with Khachaturian in the “Big Four” of Soviet music. Following the releases of Kabalevsky’s four symphonies, his complete works for piano and orchestra and the two cello concertos, CPO now presents the composer’s music for solo piano. This release includes the three piano sonatas and the two important rondos while a future release will feature the complete preludes. There is also a short set of Three Rondos Op. 30 but as these pieces are nothing more than short and easy transcriptions from Kabalevsky’s opera “Colas Breugnon” they are not included here. Few careers are so closely linked to the recording medium as that of the pianist Michael Korstick. Among critics and experts in the piano world the Cologne-born Korstick has long enjoyed renown as one of the leading German pianists. Critics repeatedly emphasize the outstanding balance maintained by him between brilliant virtuosity and musical introspection, so richly informed by his striking personality and by his uncompromising faithfulness to the works he performs.