For his new CD "Music is the best consolation", trumpeter Joachim K. Schäfer uses a quote by Martin Luther as the title. And the choice of music is also comforting: baroque concertos - mostly in major key - by Telemann, Albinoni, Vivaldi and others, interspersed with Bach chorale arrangements. He has chosen the organist Matthias Eisenberg as his virtuoso accompanist, and the two of them have chosen the Grünlichtenberg church for their recording, where there is a romantic organ by Christian Friedrich Göthel from 1867. This is not only a beautiful historical instrument, it is also in the Romantic tuning on concert pitch a = 432 Hertz. Joachim K. Schäfer is a great advocate of this lower tuning, as it was common in the 19th century (today's tuning to 440 hertz and even higher was only developed in the 20th century to bring more brilliance and tonal sharpness to the orchestra). In Schäfer's opinion, the lower tuning corresponds much more to the natural vibration conditions found in nature - the instruments sound better and the listeners also react with a much greater sense of well-being.

Three extraordinary musical personalities from several nations meet and let the string trio literature blossom in multi-layered sound and intelligent dialogue. When the Leipzig String Trio was founded, violinist Adrian Iliescu, violist Atilla Aldemir and cellist Rodin Moldovan were already internationally successful soloists who had won multiple awards. Their chamber music passion brought them together in 2019. After several joint concerts and chamber music festivals, their first CD is now available, whose repertoire selection (Ernst von Dohnányi, String Trio "Serenade" C major, Op.10 - Jean Françaix, String Trio - Johann Sebastian Bach, Chaconne for solo violin, arrangement for string trio by András von Tòszeghi - Jean Sibelius, String Trio in g minor, JS 210 and George Enescu, Aubade C major, demonstrates the artistic maturity and virtuosity of this ensemble.

Three nights of recording this album are behind me. This time has brought me even closer to the instrument of the organ-building company Hermann Eule in the Cathedral of St. Petri in my home town of Bautzen, which has been well known to me since my early childhood. The mystical atmosphere and soul of the house of God are especially palpable at night, when everything is silent and dark outside. The focus of my programme is Johann Sebastian Bach, who is an important guide and inspirer for me. Seb. Bach is for me the beginning and end of all music; on him rests and is based all true progress!" - this quote by Max Reger runs as a common thread through my programme for the recording. The important Leipzig Thomaskantor was also an important creative source for Karl Straube, Max Reger and Franz Liszt. Each of the pieces on this CD finds its own reference to the work and person of the Baroque master: from late Romantic arrangements of Bach works by Karl Straube and Max Reger, to a work by Franz Liszt that quotes thematic motifs from Bach works, to Max Reger's monumental composition on the tone letters B-A-C-H, all the compositions revolve around the person and work of Johann Sebastian Bach. I go in search of the musical expression of the 19th century and trace compositions and interpretations from this period. Numerous recordings on the historic Sauer and Walcker organs already document the tonal and musical influences of the late Romantic period on the way music was made. The Eule organ in Bautzen's St. Peter's Cathedral, with its broad sound spectrum and numerous fundamental voices, offers an instrument directly suited to this repertoire. Already Karl Straube, who performed the organ recording on 8 March 1910, was particularly impressed by the mild intonation of the sound body. The recording is my personal gift on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversaries of Karl Straube and Max Reger, which will be celebrated on 06 January 2023 and 09 March 2023 respectively. The programme revels in Bach interpretations around 1900, the heyday of symphonic organ art. In this epoch, not only were new compositions specifically geared to the instruments of the time created in the field of organ music, but existing works were also arranged. The listener embarks on a journey into the past and experiences with Romantic ears a 100-year-old reception history of Johann Sebastian Bach's music. Each of the recorded works refers in its own way to Johann Sebastian Bach, whose figure and name inspired Karl Straube, Max Reger and Franz Liszt to create new, contemporary late Romantic works."

The new organ system in Mainz Cathedral, inaugurated in August 2022, is internationally unparalleled in terms of its conception, construction, innovation, quality of craftsmanship and tonal nobility: an absolute centenary project of organ building for the thousand-year-old Mainz Cathedral! The present programme, some of which was produced as a live SACD (stereo and 5.1 surround), was assembled on the basis of the works performed at the inaugural concerts. At its centre is the nearly 30-minute organ sonata in C minor "Der 94. Psalm" by the Liszt pupil Julius Reubke. Cathedral organist Daniel Beckmann, a decisive contributor to the concept of the new instrument, brilliantly demonstrates the new possibilities of this fascinating cathedral organ.

Surrounded by a certain air of mystery and revered as a relic, The Art of Fugue is roundly praised for its complex, mathematical nature. However, these works are also movingly lyrical, and deserve to be enjoyed for their pure beauty, just as one enjoys the rhythms and sounds in the words of a poem, regardless of form and sometimes even meaning. Following the last version of J.S. Bach's autograph manuscript, New Collegium champions in "Lemniscate" the reconciliation and celebration of all these aspects, bringing to the fore both the cerebral brilliance as well as the emotive intensity of this iconic masterpiece, allowing it to be both light and profound. The rich instrumentation of woodwinds, brass, strings and harpsichord allows for expressive characters to be exaggerated, hints at other musical styles, and paints diverse atmospheres, infusing fantasy and life into these twenty fugues and canons.

Performances originally recorded 2002-2010. Recordings originally released 2007-2011. - ArkivMusic

An outstanding collection of J.S. Bach’s greatest large scale works are presented on this 10-CD set. Conductor Jos van Veldhoven and the Netherlands Bach Society perform the St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Magnificat, Christmas Oratorio and the Mass in B Minor. Jos van Veldhoven was the artistic director of the Netherlands Bach Society from 1983 until 2018. The recordings of the present box set were originally released separately on Channel Classics Records between 2007 and 2011. Each release received rave reviews, celebrating both the performances and recording quality. International Record Review praised their St. Matthew Passion for being “An absolute must-have for lovers of this music (…) as a glorious, life-affirming and utterly irresistible piece of music-making, this is in a league of its own. If any recording warrants the 'Outstanding' tag, this does.”

Camille El Bacha is a pianist, composer and improviser. His father is the pianist Abdel Rahman El Bacha, and they often perform together as a duo, but Camille charts his own path between classical, film and electronic music, with his group Leone Jadis. He launches our ‘Piano Stories’ series with a programme entitled ‘Lumen’, which he presents as a ‘constellation of preludes and improvisations’. His own compositions resonate with the preludes of Bach and Chopin, taken from the two books of The Well-tempered Clavier and the Twenty-four Preludes op. 28 respectively. Camille El Bacha invites us on a journey where styles and periods merge into a single artistic impulse: ‘At the piano, I move almost unconsciously from interpretation to composition or improvisation. A Chopin prelude can inspire me to improvise, which can then lead to a new written piece.’

With this CD begins the publication of the complete Bach's organ works by the Italian organist Massimiliano Sanca. The compositions that have been selected for this first CD are pieces of different character: austere and severe nature works – and works that describe the serenity and peace. The Prelude and Fugue BWV 546, Fantasy and Fugue BWV 537, Prelude and Fugue BWV 549, Chorale BWV 658,“represent”, through the music, suffering, pain and difficulties of humanity in a cosmic sense; on the other hand, the Chorales BWV 676 in the Trio and BWV 676 Manualiter, Chorale BWV 668, Fugue on the Magnificat BWV 733 are works that describe the serenity and peace of God’s kingdom with Mary, his mother, and the angels, as expressed in the Holy Scriptures.

As a result in this recording everything converges, once again with the Bach music, into a profound union between human and divine nature, and in fact between Heaven and Earth. Massimiliano Sanca plays on the beautiful organ made by Ilic Colzani in 2007 for of the Sanctuary of the "Madonna of Mangher" in Vallio Terme (Brescia, Italy).

Cellist Adam Mital is a prizewinner of numerous competitions, including the Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig, Germany, and the International Adam Cello Competition in Christchurch, New Zealand. He has now poured his experience as a soloist and chamber musician into a CD released by GENUIN, which brings together three of Johann Sebastian Bach's brilliant suites for solo cello. With a wink of his eye, the brilliant musician Adam Mital gives us another highly virtuosic composition of his own for solo cello. In doing so, he follows the established, centuries-old tradition of the composer being inseparable from the performer: a highly inspiring musical unity!

Bach’s St John Passion is like an eternal cry into the void, carrying the essence of western, protestant answers to the fundamental questions in life in music. Our wrongdoings on Earth contrasted with higher moral principles. Nowhere else does it crystallize into music more profoundly and beautifully than in this immortal manifestation of Bach’s genius.

1723 marked the beginning of a new era: Johann Sebastian Bach was appointed Thomaskantor in Leipzig and was about to leave his mark on German music history like hardly any other composer. But first, Georg Philipp Telemann, the actual preferred candidate, needed to withdraw from his appointment in favor of Hamburg. Christoph Graupner, the jury's next choice, was unable to take up the post because he didn't receive approval from his employer in Darmstadt. It's hard to believe that Bach was only the third choice!

Immerse yourself in the fascinating application process and slip into the role of the jury!
The OPUS-KLASSIK award-winning ensemble Ælbgut presents an exciting compilation of the three composers' specially prepared trial cantatas. For this, they are working together for the first time with the young baroque specialists from Capella Jenensis.

Listen to the premiere recording of Graupner's "Lobet den Herrn" as well as Telemann's previously unpublished cantata "Ich muß auf den Bergen weinen und heulen" – a true rediscovery. Which candidate would you have chosen?

Jan Schulmeister is young and promising pianist. He has been playing piano since the age of five. To this day, he has over 30 victories and special awards from national and international competitions. He also regularly performs solo concerts in both Czech and foreign countries. Now he presents his new CD with recordings of compositions by Robert Schumann, Johann Sebastian Bach and other great composers.

He said about this CD: "I see this audio recording as a kind of transition from my "junior" recordings to future ones. I am sixteen years old, and in these years my sort of imaginary journey associated with courage to join my older, already mature colleagues, the masters of black and white keys, begins."

SOMM Recordings announces a double-disc set of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord brilliantly performed by two virtuosos of their instruments, Adrian Butterfield (violin) and Silas Wollston (harpsichord).

The selection of eight sonatas includes six works for violin and obbligato harpsichord (BWV 1014-1019), likely composed between 1720 and 1723 during Bach’s final years in Cöthen, and the later Violin Sonatas in G major (BWV 1021) from 1732, and early (though belatedly catalogued) E minor (BWV 1023) from around 1709. Bonus tracks include three alternative movements composed for the BWV 1019 Sonata in G major that illustrate the development of Bach’s thinking in relation to sonata form and intimate musical expression. These intricately designed sonatas also serve to reveal Bach’s innovative way of employing the harpsichord’s singing voice as an equal to the violin and are surely precursors to the rich sonata tradition that emerged in the 19th century.

Butterfield and Wollston’s erudite booklet notes place the sonatas within the context of Bach’s own musical inheritance and influences while arguing for their abiding appeal: “More than 300 years after their composition, they still sound excellent, give much joy and continue to tug at the listener’s heartstrings”.

Making his SOMM debut, Silas Wollston is partnered by Adrian Butterfield, whose previous releases for the label feature him alongside London Handel Players colleagues in Handel’s Complete Sonatas & Works for Violin and Continuo with Katherine Sharman (cello) and Laurence Cummings (harpsichord), described by Early Music Review as “required listening” (SOMMCD 068); the Seven Trio Sonatas, Op.5, judged “assured and surprisingly lyrical” by Gramophone (SOMMCD 044); and Geminiani’s Complete Sonatas, Op.1 (SOMMCD 248-2), featuring performances that International Record Review declared “want for nothing in terms of technical brilliance and musical integrity”.

Superstar violinist Anne Akiko Meyers’ imagination and ingenuity knows no bounds. Her idea to persuade leading living composer Morten Lauridsen to transform his choral masterpiece, O Magnum Mysterium, into a work for violin and choir is a masterstroke. Teaming up with conductor Grant Gershon – who first collaborated with Anne as chamber musicians over 40 years ago – and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, for whom Lauridsen was their first Composer in Residence, Anne rounds out this 4-track EP with three other arrangements for violin and chorus of ever-popular works by J.S. Bach.

Reference Recordings is proud to present a very special new release! Entitled Le Dolce Sirene to represent the all-women force of Bach Aria Soloists, this exciting new album includes works by Monteverdi, Handel, Mendelssohn and Bach, alongside a new transcription by BAS of Cecilia McDowall’s song cycle Four Shakespeare Songs. Hailed for producing “the most surprising and brilliantly innovative collaborations in Kansas City,” Bach Aria Soloists delivers each year their acclaimed concert series presenting the genius and relevance of Johann Sebastian Bach, his contemporaries, and those he inspired.

REVIEWS:

The Kansas City-based Bach Aria Soloists make their recording debut on Reference Recordings with a lovely album of Monteverdi, Bach, Handel and Mendelssohn, complemented by Cecilia McDowall and concluding with their own improvisation on La folia. Recorded with the label’s trademark sweet and clear perfection, ‘Le dolce sirene’ achieves that audiophile miracle, sounding even better on speakers than on headphones.

Most of the music is rich in conventional beauty, from Sarah Tannehill Anderson, luscious in Monteverdi and resplendent in Handel’s ‘Rejoice greatly’, to Elizabeth Suh Lane and her continuo mates illuminating Bach’s G major Violin Sonata from 1734. By contrast McDowall’s Four Shakespeare Songs use intriguingly skewed, modern notions of romantic beauty and sudden sweeps of song perfectly timed, voiced and sung to explore different aspects of love. ‘First Rehearse’ on its own, Titania’s blessing of the lovers, is a magical tour de force.

As Steven Ledbetter’s notes explain, the performers adopted the same practice for their La folia as those from about 1700, ornamenting and elaborating a basic framework that ‘appears constantly renewed’. According to founding artistic director Lane, the group’s name is a nod to the famed Bach Aria Group and in fact, she assured me, the Group’s last violinist Daniel Phillips gave ‘his full blessing, really excited that we were starting such an organisation!’

The album was recorded at Village Presbyterian Church in a suburb of Kansas City, where Elisa Williams Bickers proved with the Allegro con brio from Mendelssohn’s Fourth Organ Sonata how powerfully and inspirationally the Richards, Fowkes & Co three-manual mechanical action instrument installed in 2016 could speak.

-- Gramophone