All five string trios by Ludwig van Beethoven were composed before 1798, i.e. before he composed his String Quartets Op.18. To understand the string trios as their preliminary studies would be to misjudge their true meaning. The complete recording of the Trio Ostertag shows how masterfully Beethoven was able to solve the delicate proportions of sound resulting from the instrumentation. Trio Ostertag consists of violinist Christian Ostertag, violist Katrin Melcher, and cellist Martin Ostertag.

The Blue Chamber Quartet recording George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue could just have easily come at the beginning of their career, as the ensemble, founded 2005, and Gershwin’s compositions from 1923/24 share a similar approach: the connection between classical music in the broadest sense with elements of jazz. + This can also be seen in the other works on this recording, particularly those of Leonard Bernstein, Mark Glentworth and Allen Shawn, that the Blue Chamber Quartet play in their very own way. “… an ear-opening classical crossover quartet.” (Audiophile Audition – USA)

This album recording, curated by violinist Marie Schreer, is based on notions of origin and belonging-geographically, emotionally, and linguistically. It is centred around three new works by Marie Schreer, Aaron Holloway-Nahum, and Ashkan Behzadi, as well as a new poem by Taher Adel. According to The Strad, German violinist Marie Schreer, who lives in the UK, is "a master of various musical genres," a compelling interpreter of new works, and a prominent representative of the Western classical tradition.

Gates presents the Riot Ensemble at the peak of contemporary ensemble performance. The album brings together works by Eric Skytterholm Egan, Eden Lonsdale, Kaija Saariaho, and Bernhard Gander, exploring the tension between order and chaos, structure and excess, historical reference and radical present. Riot Ensemble, one of the world's leading contemporary music ensembles, is renowned for it's precision, stylistic versatility, and close collaboration with living composers. Kaija Saariaho's Gates from her ballet MAA opens a space of fluid transitions, transforming Baroque sonata models into overlapping timbral clouds. In contrast, Bernhard Gander's (2005) channels raw, physical energy inspired by rock, yet retains a structural link to Baroque principles of excess. Gates is an album of thresholds: between past and present, ritual and corporeality, control and collapse. The Riot Ensemble renders these tensions audible with a blend of analytical clarity and visceral immediacy.

With Missa Iste Confessor Domini, the Musurgia Ensemble presents a fascinating journey into the music of the 16th century, taken directly from the historical manuscripts of the Santa Cruz monastery in Coimbra, Portugal. The focus is on the mass of the same name, which comes from the choir book P-Cug MM 2 - one of Portugal's most important musical sources from this period. This manuscript, probably produced shortly after 1530 in 's-Hertogenbosch, contains eleven masses by renowned Franco-Flemish composers. The program is complemented by colorful instrumental works from other Coimbra manuscripts. João Francisco Tavora, renowned recorder player and artistic director of the Musurgia Ensemble, draws on his many years of experience with Portuguese Renaissance and Baroque music. After studying in Porto and Leipzig, he has toured international stages as a soloist and ensemble musician and has made numerous recordings.

From chorales to folkloristic songs; classical lieder to large-scale oratorios, and embracing the secular and the sacred, the Christmas season vocal music has long been omnipresent within the musical traditions of the holiday season. Ensemble Vokalzeit presents a collection that highlights the multiplicity of traditions that are woven within this season of transformation and celebration.

Classical Music

Classical Music

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Classical Music

In Baroque works, everything had it's meaning: The shapes and proportions of musical works often did not come about by chance, but were based on symbolically charged numbers - whether from geometry, mythology or architecture. Bach was a great friend of this numerical symbolism, and his colleagues Barriere, Forqueray and Couperin also often had hidden extra-musical interpretive levels. This new release from Wunderkammer explores these composers and the symbolism they tucked into their compositions. Wunderkammer is an ensemble founded by Sarah Perl, Mira Lange, Martin Seemann and Peter Uehling in Berlin. With infinite curiosity and the building blocks of inspiration, knowledge, and affection, Wunderkammer sets out to further explore the music of the baroque and thus preserve it for us all. With their instruments harpsichord/organ, cello, and viola da gamba, they form a stable basis for bringing the music of the 17th and 18th centuries to chamber music.

Even in the 17th century critics called it a "forced art", and indeed, even for many professionals today it is not easy to understand scordatura as an intuitive way of playing the violin. But when composers master the art of retuned strings to perfection, completely new sound experiences are possible. Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber was without question one of the greatest in this field, and so his seven sonatas recorded here actually offer "artful vocal harmonies", as the Latin title promises. In each sonata, Biber prescribes different, sometimes considerably deviating from the usual tunings - the result is sometimes considerably more, sometimes considerably less tension on the strings, which leads to a completely new tonal differentiation of the apparently so familiar string instruments. The ensemble "Der musikalische Garten" presents this technically and musically perfect.

In search of the fulfillment of their desires, a runaway chicken and a runaway dog realize more and more that the greatest happiness lies in their friendship. Charlotte Perrey and Rudolph Schacher have set the charming story of Lorenz Pauli's Fed und Feder to children's music for large orchestra, soprano and tenor - the Argovia Philharmonic thus begins a new series for young listeners aged five and upwards. The Swiss ensemble Argovia Philharmonic was founded in 1963. Since then they have grown into a nationally established professional orchestra. In addition to it's own concert series at home, the Argovia Philharmonic also regularly performs abroad, including in the Tonhalle Zurich. It is also the home orchestra at the Schloss Hallwyl Opera House, which occurs every three years.

Founded in 2011 by the four young American musicians Jonathan Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum and Terry Sweeney, the percussion ensemble Sandbox Percussion was born out of a love for chamber music and the pure joy of making music together. One of their principles is a long-term and close collaboration with composers to whom they commission works. Their first album on COVIELLO thus not only represents the first nine years of their successful work as a percussion ensemble, but also revolves around four composers whose music and the resulting close relationship have turned the artists into the musicians they are today.

The composer and arranger Willi März knows the characteristics of the tuba and knows how to stage it effectively. The Divertimento with harp and orchestra, for example, presents itself sometimes light-footedly, then again lyrically expressive and surprises with the tuba's flexibility. Again and again the tuba enters into dialogue with the harp, whereby this apparently so contradictory duo complements each other perfectly. The artistic range of Willi Maerz’ works encompasses both quality light music and sophisticated art music. It includes numerous compositions for smaller ensembles, music for big bands and wind orchestra and up to full symphony orchestra. All his compositions and arrangements– independent of instrumentation – are catchy and characterized by rich harmonies and sound, classical compositional technique.

In what ways can music commemorate a catastrophe? This is the question posed by Adam Swayne in his program for this album, conceived on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and featuring works by three American composers dealing with the events and aftermath of that horrific day. Adam Swayne works with a vast range of musical media and styles that go beyond conventional labelling. He is just as at home giving a solo piano recital or conducting an orchestra as he is organizing musical installations in art galleries or composing for amateur ensembles. He takes an inclusive, informative and innovative approach to music-making and has gained a large audience for his work.

Spain, as so often, went it's own way: the 19th century was characterized by a music oriented towards national traditions; in contrast to Central Europe, there were less great symphonies and operas but rather numerous songs with the classical accompanying instrument of the guitar. This, of course, says nothing about the compositional quality - two of the great exponents of Spanish music of that time, Enrique Granados and Manuel de Falla - who of course also composed symphonic music - served this genre with numerous treasures that excellently combine folkloristic melodies and compositional sophistication. Their two cycles Doce tonadillas en estilo antiguo and Siete canciones populares españolas both show a very individual personal style, which inspired the world-famous and multiple award-winning soprano Nuria Rial to a fascinating vocal cosmos off the usual paths.

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

Barcelona, 2003. Five recorder students almost blow their teacher away. “This sounds so good,” he says, “you have to keep playing together.” That’s what they do. Hailing from four different countries, they continue to visit each other after their studies. They buy an insanely beautiful set of Renaissance instruments, they mold their sound, and they start looking and keep looking. Today B-Five has become one of the best recorder ensembles in the world. Their organic sound, their superior craftsmanship, but especially their intense musicality, convince the press and public everywhere. Renaissance consort music is at the heart of B-Five’s artistic soul. But just as often, B-Five takes on contemporary works composed to match their beautiful flutes. The players of B-Five set the standard for what a recorder ensemble can be concert after concert. Unique and intimate. Often melancholy, sometimes light-hearted and always deeply moving. On their latest recording B-Five present pavans and almaines by Alfonso Ferrabosco I & II.

Giuseppe Verdi's second opera Un giorno di regno is one of the composer's least known works. The premiere in Milan in 1840 was a failure, which Verdi said was due to his own personal circumstances: During the creative process two of his children and his first wife died within two months. Despite the rather weak libretto, the stage work has its merits and captivates, for example, with fresh, catchy melodies that, although they cannot deny the influence of Rossini and Donizetti, are by no means imitative. Only in this opera does Verdi combine his renowned depth of musical characterization with the turbulent entanglements of opera buffa. Un giorno di regno offers an especially light-hearted Verdi experience. This recording of the two-at opera was taken live and features Cappella Aquileia, the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno, and conductor Marcus Bosch alongside a stunning list of soloists.

Since the Atéa Quintet won the Nielsen competition in Copenhagen in 2015, the ensemble became one of the most sought-after chamber music ensembles in England. All five musicians themselves are excellent soloists, but together their music always sounds as if from a single entity. On their first release for COVIELLO, works by Taffanel, Bozza, Francaix and others are heard. The Atéa Quintet is the foremost British Wind Quintet of their generation. As the Associate Ensemble in Residence at the Birmingham Conservatoire and Quintet in Residence at the Purcell School, they mentor some of the finest up and coming musicians in the country. Since its formation in 2009, the Atéa Quintet has performed in some of the finest halls in the world. Highlights include a critically acclaimed Friday night recital at the Wigmore Hall, performances at the Cheltenham, Brighton and Lake District Summer Festivals and concerts in St. Martin in the Fields, Bridgewater Hall and St. Johns Smith Square. Brought together by their communal love of wind chamer music, members of the Atea Quintet have individually received several prizes in international competitions and played with all of the country’s leading orchestras.

There is hardly any other major work in the history of music where there are as many secrets about it's genesis as in Mozart's Requiem: from the ominous masked client to the repeated criticism of the completion of the fragment by Mozart's pupil Süßmayr (which has nevertheless established itself as a common version in concert life) to the speculation that the composer knew that he was writing his own requiem mass. The source situation is confusing, perhaps there were other "completers" besides Süßmayr working at the mass, which the widow Constanze wanted to publish as one of Mozart's alone. Some stylistic breaks in the common version that are untypical of Mozart reinforce the doubts. After a thorough study of sources and comparative stylistic analyses, Michael Ostrzyga now presents a carefully corrected version, which brings him closer to the "most probable compositional solutions for November/December 1791" that Mozart would probably have chosen. Chorwerk Ruhr presents a first reference recording.

Julia Bartha writes of her new release: "Thorsten Encke has created a wonderful collection of extremely associative and clearly defined character pieces with his Aprèsludes. The multi-layered music fires the imagination and is a rewarding challenge for listeners and pianists alike. I very much enjoyed working on these pieces; they are not only a real pleasure to play, but also take me on a wonderful journey on which I can encounter Debussy. From D'autre part via Ombres-tristesse, Un beau brin de fille, Monsieur Croche-Double Croche and Cloches up to the impetuosity of Bateau-ivre we are repeatedly confronted with extreme opposites. Spontaneity and freedom are juxtaposed by mechanical severity. Individual motifs from Debussy's Préludes flash up. The subtlest pianissimo passages, tender glissandos and bell-like sounds are 'pushed aside' in the next movement by brusque martellato chord clusters, and the consistent utilization of the sostenuto pedal leaves behind vibrant traces of sound. An intensely individual music, which perpetuates Debussy's concept of new tonal aesthetics in our time." First prize-winner of the 'Jugend musiziert' competition, finalist at the Clara-Haskil Competition in Vevey/Switzerland, and prize-winner at the Gian Battista Viotti International Music Competition in Vercelli, Julia Bartha achieved the leap on to major podiums of the German-speaking and wider international world at an early age. She has appeared at numerous festivals, and her unique profile as a concert pianist is highlighted by the refreshingly unconventional ways in which she bridges the gap between different forms of artistic expression.

But now faith, hope, love,... but love is the greatest among them. The Bible quotation has always inspired artists. The ensemble Wunderkammer draws it's well-known, idiosyncratic musical conclusions from this: German sacred vocal works of the 17th century are juxtaposed with sonatas by Dario Castello (before 1600 - around 1658), each of which interprets the quotation in it's own way. Wunderkammer was founded in Berlin in 2014 by Sarah Perl (bass viol/violone), Mira Lange (harpsichord), Martin Seemann (cello) and Peter Uehling (harpsichord/organ). Together the musicians dedicate themselves to chamber music of the 17th and 18th century whose Old Masters they explore over and over with boundless curiosity, and to the interpretation of contemporary compositions. The ensemble also works in various orchestra formations, such as in the recording of J.S. Bach's Markus-Passion BWV 247. The musicians also perform with renowned ensembles.

No other master equaled him in tone; the sweetness and singing of his violin sound; his fine and elegant taste; his perfection in tempo and intonation (...)". What contemporaries attest to the violin playing of Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762) applies without restriction to his compositions, which are still far too little known. He attached less importance to virtuoso effects à la Vivaldi, but rather to the "melodic grace and adornment" à la Corelli, so much appreciated in his adopted country England. Some of the delicate chamber music treasures are presented here by the Ensemble Apollo's Cabinet.