Wunderkinder unter sich: this could be the title of this album, which combines three works by two arch-romantic composers. While one of the two, Ernst von Dohnanyi, still needs a committed plea in practically all areas of his work because he is still overshadowed by his younger, more advanced compatriot Bela Bartok, the other, Richard Strauss, has no need for intercession insofar as he has conquered the world with his symphonic poems and his operas; his chamber music, on the other hand, is still worthy of his eloquent commitment - especially the large-scale violin sonata, in which the 23-year-old already seems to breathe the spicy air of Don Juan and Der Rosenkavalier. It is understandable that violinist Hellen Weiss, violist Wen Xiao Zheng, cellist Gabriel Schwabe and pianist Paul Rivinius enjoy the tasks they have set themselves to the full

Franz Schubert's song cycle from Die Schone Mullerin as a premiere recording? Anyone who wanted to claim this in view of the international discographic landscape would undoubtedly have to reckon with a storm of indignation. Unless, that is, the release announced as a world premiere had something unprecedented to offer - and the present production certainly does: instead of the original and endlessly performed version for voice and piano, cpo offers an all-round successful hypothesis here: The accompaniment, if one can even call the instrumental part that, is provided by Ensemble acht, which has been celebrating success for many years in the line-up of Schubert's octet, and the star tenor Klaus Florian Vogt sings about the twenty stages of the enamored miller, who in the end goes into the water out of disappointment... The extended sound palette is the work of the equally accomplished and sensitive arranger and composer Andreas N. Tarkmann, who has illuminated the romantic nuances of the colorful piano part with an almost poignant feel for the poetic drama. A world premiere!

This third release marks the end of the recording of all the orchestral works written by Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz over the course of her not exactly long life. And once again, the WDR Symphony Orchestra under Lukasz Borowicz unfolds a representative range that extends from the phenomenal artist's early neoclassical works to her late phase, in which tonal innovations were at the forefront of her creative work, without losing the indispensable communication with the audience. As a world premiere recording, this album contains the composer's first symphony, while the early Polish Overture and the late In una parte, with which Grazyna Bacewicz created a final "sonoristic" marvel in 1967, two years before her death, can also be heard as concert hall rarities.

In the last decade of his life, Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) worked as a church musician in his hometown of Nuremberg. In this capacity, he was extremely productive, even by the standards of the time: he set the Magnificat, the Virgin Mary's hymn of praise to the greatness of the Lord, who chose her to be the mother of the Savior, almost a dozen times for Protestant vespers services. And he did so with admirable creative imagination and a feeling for instrumental colors that still has an immediate effect today: as in the first episode of this series, we are confronted here with a full-bodied, pithy life that by no means perceives the world as a vale of tears. The Himlische Cantorey, under its founder, conductor, and tenor Jan Kobow, once again lives up to its name.

REVIEW:

The Himlische Cantorey is the perfect advocate of Pachelbel’s oeuvre. The ensemble is impeccable, and the solo contributions of the individual singers are indeed impressive. Veronika Winter is the ideal interpreter of ‘Mein Fleisch,’ and Joel Frederiksen delivers an incisive performance of ‘Ach Herr, wie ist meiner Feinde so viel.’ Veronika Skpulik needs to be mentioned for her highly impressive interpretations of the obbligato violin parts.

— musica Dei donum (Johan van Veen)

The Croatian composer Boris Papandopulo (1906-1991) has had a home in our catalog for a number of years. Until now, it was mainly concertante works and chamber music involving the piano that allowed us to hear an astonishingly idiosyncratic personality, even in his (relatively rare) use of modern compositional techniques. Now cpo is enriching the multifaceted profile of this striking artist with the release of the string quartets, which reflect practically the entire creative life span of the man from Zagreb: Folkloristic influences, the inevitabilities of the socialist-realist doctrine, the experiments with the compositional achievements of the West - all this combines to form a great musical "documentary film", in which the extremely expressive Clarinet Quintet, composed during wartime, and the concise, playful Guitar Quartet also play no insignificant role.

In her own words, Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) had been gifted by nature with a "small, invisible engine" that allowed her to do in ten minutes what others needed an hour for. This inner drive can be demonstrated in all areas of this Polish artist's life. She was an excellent violinist from an early age, had success as a writer and wrote her first compositions as a teenager - all at a dizzying pace and yet the quality of her works are not superficial in the least. This new release by cpo is the second in a series of her complete symphonic works. After presenting her Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4, works from the early 1950s, Lukasz Borowicz and the WDR Symphony Orchestra perform more examples of Bacewicz's wealth of expression. These include the neoclassical outbursts of the Overture (1943) and the Second Symphony (1951), the sophisticated, already strongly timbre-oriented Variations for Orchestra (1957) and the Tre movimenti, in which Grazyna Bacewicz had achieved her "late" style - the so-called "sonorism", in which the colour of sound plays an essential structural role. After these "three movements", the "small engine" ran for almost another four years - this phenomenal musician had completed everything faster than the others. Her invisible drive can still be heard here today.

Unlike his namesake Harry, Cypriani Potter did not learn his craft at Hogwarts, but with renowned British composers and then put the finishing touches to his music in Vienna - above all with Ludwig van Beethoven, who undoubtedly taught him some particularly effective tricks. In any case, there is an unmistakable magic in his works: at times it is delightful melodies, at others dramatic energy build-ups or rhythmically urgent episodes that give his music such an appeal that it is worth recording all of his surviving symphonies (nine, after all) and garnishing them with a few smaller pieces - in the present program, for example, with the Overture to Shakespeare's Tempest and with the original Concertante for piano and four strings on the popular theme La Follia, which Potter animates to a veritable outburst of temperament.

We know relatively little about the composer and church musician Paul Ignaz Liechtenauer. His father was an organ builder and organist in Vienna, and Liechtenauer himself served as Kapellmeister in Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein until 1711. By 1715, he had taken up the position of organist at the Cathedral of Osnabruck, soon after assuming the title of "Capellmeister" and gaining a reputation for his liturgical music that was widely acclaimed. Four of the six masses he published in 1741 as Opus 2 are now featured on the latest CD by the Kolner Akademie, which, under the direction of it's founder, Michael Alexander Willens, once again astonishes us. There is a touch of local patriotism in this release: classic production osnabruck is located less than ten kilometers from the high church where the composer served for over 40 years.

A new name appears in our collection of rarities: Richard Ro�ler, born in 1880 in Riga, the Latvian capital, trained at the Berlin Music Academy and later highly esteemed there as a professor of piano from 1918 to 1953, was one of those late-Romantic composers deeply influenced by Johannes Brahms. Unlike his Hungarian contemporary Bela Bartok, Ro�ler remained steadfastly loyal to the worldview of his great role model. When he realized, around 40, that aesthetic developments were passing him by, he limited his output to a few occasional pieces. This is all the more regrettable, as the two newly recorded works here reveal a significant and profound talent capable of creating distinctive characters using traditional musical means.

Following the first volume in this series, which charted Franz Schreker's developmental path up to the success of his dance-pantomime�Der Geburtstag der Infantin�(The Birthday of the Infanta; 777 702-2), this second album focuses primarily on the triumphant years that followed the premiere of his opera�Der ferne Klang�(The Distant Sound) in 1912. The�Vorspiel zu einem Drama (Prelude to a Drama) from 1914 and the�Chamber Symphony, composed in 1916, are among the gems of musical Jugendstil (Art Nouveau). Originating as offshoots of contemporary stage projects, these two captivating works display a mastery of sound, harmony, and melody that was unparalleled at the time. The�Four Small Pieces for Large Orchestra�(1931), which separate these older "siblings" on this recording, speak in a new language. These abstract contributions to film music, presented as a compact and multifaceted concert suite, hint at powerful new directions - plans that, sadly, Franz Schreker could never fully realize.

Nine operas, around 70 symphonies, nearly four dozen string quartets alongside other works of chamber music, and a substantial number of concertos as well as vocal compositions, both sacred and secular: there's no doubt Franz Anton Hoffmeister, as a publisher, knew exactly what connoisseurs and lovers of music enjoyed playing. He was also never short on musical ideas of his own when it came to meeting the tastes of the late 18th century. Two years older than Mozart, Hoffmeister is widely regarded as one of the "most remarkable, skilled, and prolific composers of sophisticated, artful entertainment music" - a reputation clearly demonstrated in this production. It blends elegant and soulful hunting themes, virtuosic passages for two accomplished horn players, and smooth, pleasing orchestral sounds into classical delights.

When Francesco Bartolomeo Conti came to Vienna in 1701, aged just twenty, he quickly found employment as a theorbo player in the imperial court chapel. His virtuoso skills with the plucked instruments of the time must have been considerable and would have been enough to secure him a good living. But Conti was also a remarkably creative spirit who, on his death in 1732, left behind an impressive quantity of stage works, some of which were widely performed - not least thanks to their original, imaginative instrumentation and their immense variety of expression, ranging from the drastically comic to filigree, vocal-instrumental dialogues and thus encompassing the whole world of "affects". Led by the soprano and harpist Hana Blazikova and the countertenor Valer Sabadus, flanked by the ensemble nuovo aspetto under the direction of theorbist Michael Ducker, this production presents a small musical anthology whose fascinating content is just 300 years old.

The composer of the chamber music presented here belongs to the large group of musical talents who left the Bohemian groves and meadows to find a place for themselves in the German-speaking world. Georg Druschetzky (1745-1819) chose a military career, became a well-known timpani virtuoso and soon came to the attention of the Hungarian nobility, who appreciated his virtuoso and administrative skills as much as his original creativity. Especially in the field of chamber music for wind instruments, this contemporary of Haydn and Mozart was an inexhaustible source of pleasure. Without rebelling against the great classical forms, Druschetzky knows how to constantly surprise his audience with a subtle refinement that is virtually written on the historical instruments of the Grundmann Quartet around oboist Eduard Wesly. As on the first album, the four of them are completely in their element.

Only few connoisseurs can say without hesitation who preceded Heinrich Schutz as Dresden's Court Conductor. The man's name was Rogier Michael who was born in Mons (Belgium) and was one of the last representatives of the Franco-Flemish school of vocal polyphony, that was sought after throughout Europe. In the meantime, Italy was setting the tone and older composers had to rethink their ways. Michaels succeeded in doing so. Among other things, his catalogue of works, which is not exactly huge, includes an innovative Weihnachtshistorie (1602), which was performed at the Dresden court for 50 (!) years - an all the more astonishing occurrence, as this music is by no means ostentatious. Combining the devotional purity with appropriate contemporary vocal and instrumental movements, a clear simplicity emerges. And so the Christmas Vespers of 1624, which the Ensemble Polyharmonique presents here, is still enchanting today.

Ino was the wife of Athamas and thus the daughter-in-law of Aeolus, the god of the winds. For reasons that are not entirely clear, she incurred the resentment of Hera, the wife of the gods, who confused Athamas to such an extent that he shot one of his own sons and also wanted to kill the second - whereupon Ino threw herself into the sea with her offspring. In the end, mother and daughter are transformed into maritime deities. When Georg Philipp Telemann set this material to music, he was already well past eighty; musically, however, he exploded like a young man with a bright future ahead of him. The Ino of our new recording comes from the ranks of the Boston Early Music Festival: Amanda Forsythe, most recently celebrated as the irresistible "Serva Padrona", opens an aria recital with this demanding role, which portrays the opera composer Telemann from monodrama to lively comedy and looks ahead to upcoming productions.