Originally issued on the 2LP set Nativity in 1976, this classic Vox recording is a fine example of Robert Shaw’s expertise as a choral conductor. The album features a selection of carols, choral works and orchestral Christmas favourites performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Produced by the legendary Elite Recordings team of Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz, and newly remastered from the original analogue tapes in high-definition.

Imagining how Bach himself might have transformed the Goldberg Variations for a chamber group, Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque present a pioneering new arrangement of the Goldberg Variations by Chad Kelly. Employing a variety of instrumental combinations from a typical Bach ensemble of single strings, oboe, flute, bassoon, and harpsichord, these newly-crafted Goldbergs illuminate exquisite responses to the various historical genres inherent in Bach’s scores.

This beloved masterpiece was composed through a period of personal tumult for Bach; two unsuccessful job applications, the premature death of his son Gottfried, and criticism of his music in a prominent Hamburg publication. Bach’s outpouring of beauty in the Goldberg Variations has long captured audience’s imaginations - Chad Kelly, Rachel Podger, and her fleet Brecon Baroque preserve the work’s exquisite intricacy whilst adding breadth, texture and color to its emotional backdrop. This revisioning of Bach’s Goldberg Variations is a perfect transformation of the work for the modern era.

With the present programme we want to explore the history of the German Lied throughout a period spanning some 800 years, from that first light of dawn represented by the earliest music scored with modern notation - courtly love songs by Walther von der Vogelweide (1170-1230) and Oswald von Wolkenstein (1377-1445) - down to such present-day emissaries of the Lied tradition as Aribert Reimann and Wolfgang Rihm. In between we find: J.S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Hensel, Wolf, Berg, and Eisler.

I see that we had met in Bach’s profound italianness, in the singing of the melodies that danced in counterpoint, in the rhythmic undulation of his writing. Although in the manuscripts the three Sonatas for Viola da Gamba are accompanied by the harpsichord, we imagined the Viola da Gamba conversing with different keyboard instruments that Bach had at his disposal: a copy of a Mietke harpsichord, a copy of a Silbermann fortepiano and the organ built by Gottfried Silbermann in 1753.

A superb, collector’s-item vinyl transfer for a recent and widely acclaimed recording of Bach’s nocturnal meditations. When Piano Classics released this recording of the Goldberg Variations on CD in 2022, critics praised its natural phrasing and unobtrusively skilful and sensitive response to the technical demands made by Bach in his most virtuosic piece of keyboard writing.

According to Fanfare magazine, the playing of Klára Würtz ‘has limpid clarity, and rhythmic firmness and exactitude; her articulation is clean and nimble (she has a cleaner trill than Perahia), and her voicing of different lines is splendidly balanced. Her rapid playing is vigorous, her slower playing has calm repose. Her interpretive outlook has spirit and vivacity, but also a total sense of confidence and security, the kind of integrity that needs no ostentatious display to make its mark of absolute rightness... Perahia now has a pianistic rival on my shelf; strongly recommended.’ Reviewers elsewhere were hardly less enthusiastic. ‘Cards on the table, what Würtz’s Goldbergs offer is calm appreciation of the music’s manifold beauties,’ according to Rob Cowan in Gramophone. ‘Her pianism sidesteps overt display or affectedness in favour of purely musical values... This for me is truly great piano playing, a direct route to the soul with no tiresome diversions along the way.’ Vinyl collectors can now enjoy this superb recording in a new transfer made for analogue at the Edel factory in Hamburg, which specialises in collector’s print LP editions such as this one.

The heavy-grade vinyl has exemplary quiet surfaces, and the Dutch church acoustics of the original recording gain a rounded, luminous quality which ideally complements Klára Würtz’s pianism. The set is issued as a 2LP gatefold with booklet notes on the inner sleeve.

The album "Inner Spaces" is the third album of the Istanbul-born pianist Serra Tavsanli. With great certainty one can claim that it is her most personal album. With the works by Johann Sebastian Bach recorded here, she not only presents a masterful interpretation on a modern grand piano, but also connects the music with her own history and origins. In doing so, she reveals her innermost self and provides insight into very personal spaces of thought.

Based on the initials B A C H, Serra Tavsanli has selected the pieces that match the key. Even more, because in the album's booklet she writes: "Pieces that for me stand for different concepts that make up being human and play a role in all traditions and religions. B (Partita in B flat major) symbolizes faith; A (Partita in A minor) stands for hope. C (Toccata in C minor) represents love. B (French Overture in B minor) symbolizes our present. With this selection, the pianist takes her audience directly into her emotional worlds, into her "Inner Spaces".

Serra Tavsanli has ventured deeply into the world of Bach and is completely absorbed in it while playing. In a certain way, she also intentionally makes herself vulnerable. Her playing is narrative, it opens up associative spaces and is at the same time effortless, yet completely uncompromising. In the booklet she writes: "I was suddenly there, where everything succeeds, where it is safe and free. A place that is accessible to everyone, and where origin, religion, skin color or gender no longer play a role. A place where we are not alone." Serra Tavsanli decided to share her insights and experiences, which made her become an exceptional pianist, with her audience. At concerts, she likes to recite texts that she wrote in collaboration with cultural manager and Bach specialist Folkert Uhde to give the works even more context, but also to bring them into our time.

"As an artist, I want to open this place to everyone, to share with anyone and everyone the experience that fear becomes strength, that paralysis becomes strength. A place of hope, of freedom, of doing well. A place where no one is excluded," Serra Tavsanli describes her concern. With this recording, she will certainly succeed in this.

Thomas Goetschel and Yvonne Ritter have been making music together for many years and share a great passion for early music. When they work together on works, an exact historically informed reading is the basis for lively and modern interpretations. Both play chamber and orchestral music from the Renaissance to the Classical period in various ensembles. The beauty, depth and diversity of Johann Sebastian Bach's three sonatas for harpsichord and viola da gamba fascinate them equally. This fascination, together with the instruments suitable for the repertoire - harpsichord after Johann Heinrich Gräbner Dresden 1774 and seven-string bass viol attributed to Johann Christian Hoffmann Leipzig around 1720 - are the inspiration for this recording.

It was literally "highly virtuosic" when the great composers of the 18th century brought together solo soprano and clarino trumpet in glorious praise of God. Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata "Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen" is a prominent example of this. That his courtly colleagues Jan Dismas Zelenka in Dresden and Christoph Graupner in Darmstadt were just as imaginative and effective when composing for their best interpreters is demonstrated by the ensemble Harmonie Universelle with Magdalene Harer (soprano) and Hannes Rux (trumpet) in the breathtaking solo parts.

In Johann Sebastian Bach's vast oeuvre of cantatas, his dialogue cantatas occupy a very special position: as if in a personal dialogue, the 'Christian soul' (soprano) and 'Christ' (bass) enter into a dialogue, which Bach sets to music with the highest emotional power, almost like in an opera. Bach refers to the words of Martin Luther, according to whom "faith unites the soul with Christ as a bride with her bridegroom", and thus ties in with the medieval idea of bridal mysticism. And so this dialogue becomes a spiritual "love duet", as it were, which Miriam Feuersinger and Klaus Mertens - both of whom are among the great Bach interpreters of our time - interpret here in the most intimate way.

The two cantatas "Ich geh und suche mit Verlangen" BWV 49 and "Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen" BWV 32 are complemented by Christoph Graupner's Oboe Concerto in C major GWV 302, performed by oboist Elisabeth Grümmer.

While pursuing its constant search for music to study and rediscover, Zefiro undertook another important challenge by recording, in 2017 and 2015 respectively, the Brandenburg Concertos and Overtures, two pinnacles of the 18th-century instrumental literature. For this project Alfredo Bernardini waited until he could count on a select band of musicians who were not only in a perfect symbiosis of spirit and intent, but also equipped with the indispensable virtuosity and long-standing familiarity with the works. Thanks to the historical insight and human energy displayed by the ensemble, the interpretative results are both vivid and profoundly moving.

The recordings acquired not only prestigious awards such as Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice, Diapason d’or, Choc de Classica and Toccata’s CD of the month, but also specific acknowledgements for Overtures nos. 3 (France Musique) and 4 (SRF 2 Kultur), judged to be the best-ever versions. After being out of the catalogue for some time, they are now gathered together for the first time in an elegant box set.

As the progenitor of a style whose influence more or less came to define the instrumental music of the High Baroque, Arcangelo Corelli (1653 - 1713) occupies a position in music history as unenviable as it is to his great credit. Just what made Corelli’s style seem strikingly novel to his contemporaries is a tricky question. To be sure, his standardization and popularization of certain formal tropes – most notably the succession of movement types in Sonate da Camera and Sonate da Chiesa – was a significant part of what his followers considered the ‘Corellian’ manner.

But Corelli’s actual compositional style, his way of organizing musical thoughts into phrases and motives, is fundamentally derived from the expressive capabilities of his chosen instrument, the violin. Certain melodic patterns used to modulate and to effect sequences (e.g., chains of sevenths and fifths) basically derive from specificities of violin technique that amplify an instrument with origins primarily in dance music into one that in Corelli’s hands, could imitate the rise and fall of the sung and spoken human voice. This tension between idiomatically instrumental techniques and the evocation of the voice is the defining characteristic of Corelli’s style throughout all his surviving works and would establish the “Roman School” as the supreme measure of musical taste for generations.

For this exploration of the 18th century’s Corelli Craze, the dynamic star trio of Mahan Esfahani, Hille Perl and Michala Petri unite to trace the Roman’s influence, (sometimes in name only...) on the musical legacies of Bach, Händel and Telemann, and of course two works from the pen of the celebrated Italian Master, himself. Gramophone about the Petri/Perl/Esfahani Trio’s Bach recording: “While the tonal and expressive range of the recorder, viol and harpsichord may appear constrained in comparison to, say, flute, cello and piano, in the hands of foremost players such as these, even a relatively lightweight work such as the C major Sonata, BWV1033, comes over as the ideal demonstration of a particular facet of the composer’s style and the performers’ abilities.”

A similar magical world as the optical one, which is met when looking into and turning a kaleidoscope, is reflected acoustically in this program, in which the Mobilis Saxophone Quartet shows very different and yet equally overflowing facets of the classical saxophone. The arc places great names of music history next to one of the most important composers for the early history of the saxophone in the 20th century and one of the current works by a prominent Austrian of our time.

The instruments perform almost in the manner of an organ with J. S. Bach’s presumeably most popular organ work, the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, in a colorful orchestral style with the Fledermaus Ouverture by Johann Strauss, in the manner of a chamber music string quartet with the Saxophone Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 109 by Alexander Glasunov and in a spectral, quasi-electronic manner with the Saxophone Quartet by Georg Friedrich Haas. Soprano saxophonist and ensemble founder Michael Krenn: “With this colorful mix, we want to express our passion for all kinds of musical styles and reach listeners with diverse musical backgrounds. The title seems fitting to us because one should have a kaleidoscopic listening experience, surprised by the different sounds and fragments of music history.”

This album already carries the intention in its title: "A Tribute to Bach" is meant to be a deep bow by the world-renowned recorder player Maurice Steger to the great master of the music world; Johann Sebastian Bach. For his Bach project; Maurice Steger has chosen six compositions that follow six different musical genres and placed the recorder at the forefront of solo instrumentation. In doing so; he places himself in the tradition of Bach himself; who has been proven to have repeatedly undertaken new instrumentations for his works in the course of his life. The result in terms of sound is fascinating: Bach becomes a convincing recorder player through Maurice Steger's interpretation.

The present double CD is a selection from fifty years of recording. They are recordings of Johann Brower's work as organist, harpsichordist, conductor and orchestra leader. This CD is released on the occasion of his eightieth birthday.

Also available: Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1 / Zimmermann

Since the mid-1980s, Frank Peter Zimmermann has earned recognition as one of the world’s leading violinists, admired not only for his technical skill and interpretive intelligence, but also for his versatility in a wide-ranging repertoire. His extensive discography ranges from Bach concertos and Beethoven sonatas to works by composers such as Martinu, Ligeti, Magnus Lindberg and Brett Dean. He waited until the fourth decade of his career, however, to take on Bach’s Sei solo a Violino senza Basso accompagnato, the six sonatas and partitas for solo violin. The first disc (BIS-2577) dedicated to this absolute pinnacle in the repertoire for the instrument was released in February 2022 to great critical acclaim. Now comes the much-awaited conclusion to this collection. Zimmermann compares these works to ‘a mighty tree, which protects me and crushes me at the same time’, the music giving him hope and strength at the same time as it confronts him with his limits as a violinist. On this new release, he now offers us the Sonata No. 1 in G minor, as well as the B minor Partita No. 1 and the Sonata No. 3 in C major.