When the name Johann Nikolaus Forkel (1749-1818) is mentioned today, we think above all of the first life story of the great Johann Sebastian Bach, which we owe to the industrious, witty man from Upper Franconia. Experts also recognize him as the "founder of musicology as a modern academic discipline", which, according to a widespread prejudice, would be associated with a lack of any creativity of his own. But far from it: Forkel, who was a professor in Gottingen for many years, left behind an impressive oeuvre, including the four piano concertos recorded here for the first time, which, although they are entirely within the classical genre, contain a great deal of delightful music that is expressively touching in the slow movements. Tobias Koch, one of the outstanding specialists for historical keyboard instruments, and the Kolner Akademie under Michael Alexander Willens perform.

Roland Wilson has a remarkable talent for handling the music of the 16th and 17th centuries. His impressive reconstruction of Heinrich Schutz's Dafne, the first German opera, remains well remembered. His current work will undoubtedly find it's place alongside it: This is how the grand Festive Mass may have sounded, with which all of Venice in 1631 celebrated the end of a plague epidemic that had claimed a third of the population. The Doge fulfilled his vow and commissioned the construction of the Santa Maria della Salute church. The Serenissima Repubblica rejoiced, and Claudio Monteverdi provided music whose splendor was hardly to be surpassed. Among other things, he used "slide trumpets", which allowed for extraordinary tones: they can be seen in old paintings and are heard - reconstructed - in this recording. This is how a republic once expressed it's gratitude.

The symphonic oeuvre of the Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz has never before been recorded in its entirety "from one source", so that the series beginning here represents a pioneering act. The Third Symphony for large symphony orchestra was written in early 1952 and the monumental and pathetic music shows a hitherto unknown face of the composer. One of its characteristics is the use of large instrumental blocks, although fragments also appear that hint at the lighter expressivity of the neoclassical tradition. It is a masterfully constructed work and the overt formal schemes of the Classical period are complemented by the subtle use of elements that were characteristic of music between the wars - in particular the timbres of the French tradition. Nevertheless, this work is not about setting new accents. The same applies to the Fourth Symphony. The orchestra of this work from 1953 is larger than in the previous symphony - among other things, English horn, E-flat and bass clarinet, contrabassoon and harp are now also called for. In both works, the composer achieved an excellent balance between the music of the past (form referring to tradition) and new sources of inspiration (folklore) as well as a new approach to traditional elements (rhythm). As a result, she managed to reconcile the autonomous, artistic qualities of her music with the expectations of the cultural policy of the time. We are very happy to have found congenial interpreters for this project, which sets new standards in the WDR Symphony Orchestra and the Polish conductor Lukasz Borowicz.

As the founding father of Finnish music, Jean Sibelius is the measure of all things to such an extent that an outside observer may easily miss the abundance of talented masters who also practiced the art of composition quite successfully in the land of a thousand lakes. One of them was Erkki Melartin. Not ten years younger than the composer of Finlandia, he also left us a significant oeuvre that repeatedly begs a comparison to his older colleague - of course, it is a comparison whose results are subject to debate. To be fair, we can discover a phrase here or there that reminds us of Sibelius; occasionally, some of Mahler's vocabulary may have sneaked in as well; but the persona whose legacy is six mighty symphonies has blazed his own independent trail away from the Romantic tradition, leading us relentlessly to an unheard cosmos.

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.

A bundled release will have some risks and side effects compared to successive releases of a series of works. Here one can proceed cautiously from album to album, preparing oneself for what is to come and comparing the new material with alternative recordings. In contrast, the 'complete package' demands exclusive listening, which may result in astonishing discoveries and entirely new insights - as Lena Neudauer and Paul Rivinius demonstrate here with their Beethoven violin sonatas. How much Schubert and Schumann are not hidden in these works? Where does the "Rage over a lost penny" come into play? Is swing really a child of the 20th century? Why does a precise, light accent balance out every rough one? After more than four hours of music, the duo has painted a conclusive portrait. Those who wish may make comparisons

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!

Johann David Heinichen German Sacred Cantatas Johann David Heinichen studied law in Leipzig, became associated with Telemann's circle and just as he, attracted so much attention with his Protestant sacred music that a trip to Italy lasting several years was granted to him to further broaden his musical horizons. In 1716, he was ultimately appointed court conductor at the Dresden court of August the Strong - a position that Johann Sebastian Bach, two years his junior, would have been pleased to obtain. The works on this recording include Heinichen's "Protestant" creative period, where more than two dozen German sacred cantatas of colourful design and expression have survived - from serious chorale movements to lyrical and picturesque settings that are not always completely "devotional".

When someone goes on a journey, they have stories to tell. When the travelers are talented musicians with an open ear for foreign sounds, they will not just tell whimsical stories but will want to transform the impressions they receive into their own creations. This was the case with Cornelis Schuyt (pronounced S-chr-o-it), son of an organist. Born seven years before William Shakespeare in Leiden, the Netherlands, he had the opportunity to visit the land of blooming lemons, and the musical inspirations he brought back apparently stayed with him. Throughout his life, he composed four volumes of enchanting madrigals and published a collection of Padouanas and Gagliardes of breathtaking beauty. Manfred Cordes and the Weser-Renaissance ensemble present a successful mix of vocal and instrumental pieces you will want to hold onto.

Georg Philipp Telemann Inauguration Cantatas 1721 On 21 September 1721, Georg Philipp Telemann, the newly installed cantor of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg, directed his first regular sacred music service. At the same time, he presented the faithful with a set program. A cantata was performed both before and after the sermon. At the conclusion of the service, an excerpt from a work to be performed later in it's entirety was presented - a "cliffhanger" whose continuation was undoubtedly highly anticipated by the congregation in light of the variety of music on offer. The Hamburger Ratsmusik revives this historic inaugural service here, and Simone Eckert breaks up the already extremely varied sequence of works by including four viola da gamba fantasias to complete the twelve works begun on earlier productions.

William Smethergell's oeuvre presents an intriguing challenge. Since little more is known of his life than his birth date and the fact that he worked as an organist at two London churches and as a violist at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, we must form our impression of him solely through his music. That impression is certainly favorable-at least if we go by the two sets of six overtures published as Op. 2 (1778) and Op. 5 (1780): "Brilliantly scored, richly orchestrated works-ingenious, lively, and full of variety, bearing witness to Smethergell's great melodic inventiveness," was the verdict of klassik-heute on Op. 5 (CD 555 540-2), which Douglas Bostock and the Southwest German Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim introduced to us in 2023. The same ensemble now completes the dozen with the equally attractive Op. 2, a collection widely admired in late 18th-century London and beyond, and is now winning new friends.

From today's perspective, Florian Leopold Gaßmann (1729-1774) falls into one of those time gaps that, like black holes in the universe of art, threaten to swallow up everything that cannot be easily assigned to an era in retrospect. And this despite the fact that the German from Bohemia was anything but a minor master of music notation during his lifetime and for several decades thereafter, both in Italy, where he began his actual career, and in Austria, where shortly before his untimely death he was appointed imperial court conductor: his operas were in such demand on both sides of the Alps that Gaßmann really did not have to worry about making a living, and his instrumental music was also distributed widely, mostly in the form of copies.

This production cleverly combines the two main areas of his activity, for the two quintets for oboe and strings recorded here are arrangements of some particularly popular arias from the successful opera Amor und Psyche, while other light music undoubtedly belonged to the "occasional works" that the "court and chamber composer" of Joseph II. These are all extremely beautiful-sounding, imaginative and varied creations, which are coming to life under the umbrella of the now legendary master oboist Lájos Lencsés and, thanks to their colorfulness, will no longer have to fear a black hole.

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.

Repertoire expansion for the Christmas season In the 18th century, "well-stocked" church music was a natural tradition throughout central Germany: church services were embellished along the ecclesiastical year with cantatas appropriate to the liturgy for the glory of God, but also for the joy and "spiritual edification" of the visitors. From this treasure of hitherto unknown Christmas music, four cantatas by Ernst Wilhelm Wolf are presented for the first time on this recording. Wolf worked as court kapellmeister in Weimar, and the fact that Goethe rejected him as "self-indulgent" should not prevent us from admiring him as a very important composer of the transition. Musically, Wolf was greatly influenced by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in the empfindsamer Stil and by the works of the Berlin Kapellmeister Carl Heinrich Graun. He was also a prolific composer whose works were received with admiration by his contemporaries. The four cantatas show elements of the early classical and sensitive styles; the cantata choruses are often homophonic and songlike, polyphonic sections rather rare. All the cantatas prove to be individually conceived works that testify to the composer's mastery. Beautiful sounding arias, the naturalness of their expression and the dramatic compression in the individual movements are still convincing today. At the same time, the cantatas bear witness to the high quality of Protestant church music in the period after Johann Sebastian Bach and illustrate the high value of music within the liturgy. Today they can be a welcome addition to the repertoire for the Christmas season.

On the path to true faith and it's practice to please God, there have been regular heated debates over the role of music. Reactionaries repeatedly closed the lid on excessive cheer. This was also the case in the Netherlands of the 17th century. The reformist spirit of the Frenchman John Calvin led to an almost complete ban of music during worship services, despite the fact that the psalms of David ("Sing unto the Lord") provide unassailable proof to the contrary. Shortly before 1600, the great Dutch composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck discovered how these psalms could be, and were permitted to be, set to new music. The "Orpheus of Amsterdam" succeeded in transforming imposed restrictions into acoustic wonders. Our small selection of psalms, alternating with several organ works, proves once again the victory of the spirit over heavy subject matter

The Tubicinatores gedanenses (trumpeters from Gdansk) and their "associated string players" (Arcus adiuncti) lead us directly into the intellectual heart of the Viennese imperial court with a program that splendidly depicts the grandeur that characterized Danube metropolis 300 years ago. A truly gigantic ensemble, for which no less than six court composers wrote music, alongside the successive majesties Joseph I and Charles VI, who themselves creatively engaged in the realm of music and produced remarkable works: this was a scene that sent not only artistic but also unmistakable political signals into the world.�Hence, the resounding instrumentation was reserved solely for the highest echelons: the virtuosic art of trumpets and drums was simply not meant for subjects.

First the discovery of his works in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, then the new edition of the chamber music works in the Kammermusikverlag from 2020 and finally the contact to the three performers / inside who had great interest to record these works. So, finally, with these first recordings, about 160 years after the composition of these works, one can have a listening impression of the chamber music of Berthold Damcke: a German composer, pianist, conductor, music educator and critic, and newspaper correspondent. Born in Hanover, he first studied theology and later music in Frankfurt am Main. in 1845 Damcke went to St. Petersburg. From 1859 he lived and worked in Paris, where he was active as a correspondent, among other things. The 2 piano trios at the center of this production are works that were very much heard in Paris at the time, or in its salons. The Revue et Gazette described the music as "the best chamber music". Liszt spoke of Damcke as one of the most sought-after composition teachers in Paris. Berlioz called him a "great musician, an artist." The recorded works are worth rediscovering and performing.

Telemann remains a paradox: The deeper one delves into his oeuvre, the more boundless his legacy seems - like entering a mysterious treasure trove where the eyes gradually adjust to the wealth amassed within, yet never fully grasp it's true extent. The sheer abundance of his orchestral works and concertos seems to grow exponentially with each new publication. When previously lost compositions unexpectedly resurface - such as these six overtures from 1736, of which only a single printed copy had survived - we are left speechless. Suddenly, an exquisite assortment unfolds before us, featuring "classical" Baroque dance forms interspersed with exotic elements such as the Polonaise and Murky, imaginative character sketches, and various fashionable pieces, all presented in a kaleidoscope of colors. How effortlessly time flies by!

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)

Affecting Passions by Heinichen. The Passion music Johann David Heinichen wrote for the Dresden court is a document of cultural and confessional openness of the Saxon residence, and his two Italian oratorios heard here are surrogates of large-scale Passion music. "Come? S'imbruna il ciel" - composed in 1728 - is the latest of the sepolcri, his other Passion "L'aride tempie ignude" the first of the sepolcri to survive from Heinichen in Dresden. Both texts are by Stefano Pallavicino, who had been active at the Dresden court since 1719. In the first-mentioned Passion, the meditation on the Passion event recurs to the experience of the earthquake that, according to biblical accounts, occurred immediately after the death of Jesus. The description of the violent natural events gives Mary the Mother of God, John (Jesus' favorite disciple), and Mary Magdalene an opportunity to reflect on their relationship to the Crucified. Different aspects of affection and love are thematized. The meditation on the Passion event in the second-named Passion is designed as an allegorical play of death (Morte) and hope (Speranza), divine love (Amor divino) and penance (Poenitenza), and follows an easily comprehensible dramaturgy. The affinity to opera seria is evident in both passions not only in the arrangement of the pieces. The keys, gestures and instrumentation also correspond to the models familiar from baroque musical theater. Full of affect!

The Venetian Barbara Strozzi did not have to emancipate herself in order to be recognized as an artist and composer. And this, despite the fact that she-the illegitimate daughter of a maid and her lord-should, according to common estimation, have been happy to have amounted to "anything" at all. However, her father, himself a writer and full of wit in the true sense of the word, adopted her and ensured that she received a proper education. The rest was all down to this exceptionally talented young girl herself. The worthy student of the famous Francesco Cavalli could even afford to publish her works under her own name. She was a fixture in the cultural life of her city, which obviously took great pleasure in the extraordinarily emotional worlds of this intimate music. Listen and enjoy!

In our series "Music from Wolfenbüttel Castle," the sixth concert in the series featured and recorded parallel settings of sacred works by Michael Praetorius and Heinrich Schütz. One does not immediately think of counting the great Dresden composer Heinrich Schütz among the kapellmeisters at the Wolfenbüttel court, and yet he was officially engaged there as "Capellmeister von Haus aus" from 1655 until at least 1666. Michael Praetorius, however, had long since died around this time. By juxtaposing compositions with identical texts (so-called parallel settings) by Praetorius and Schütz, this album makes it possible to compare the styles of these two "heroes of music history". This is particularly appealing inasmuch as the stylistic upheaval at the beginning of the 17th century, which originated in Italy, falls into the creative period of both composers, and it is revealing to observe in what way the new developments influenced the oeuvre of both masters. At the same time, the works of both composers with identical texts are not exactly numerous, which is related to the fact that Praetorius turned to the arrangement of Protestant church hymns to a particularly strong degree, a genre that either interested Schütz little, or that his position at the Dresden court did not offer any occasion to serve.

At long last, CPO is able to release Auguste Fauchard’s complete organ works in these congenial interpretations by Friedhelm Flamme.

Fauchard was highly successful as a student in Paris, where Vincent d’Indy was his composition teacher and André Marchal and Louis Vierne were his organ teachers. Vierne had the greatest influence on Fauchard the composer. Four symphonies representing the highest compositional standards and the most demanding playing technique form the heart of Fauchard’s organ oeuvre, and in them we repeatedly catch glimpses of his Vierne's model.

Boris Godunov - but not by Mussorgsky! The story of how Johann Mattheson's political comedy "Boris Goudenow" came into being reads in large parts more exciting than many a mystery script: written in 1710 for the Hamburg Opera at the Gänsemarkt, the work was suddenly withdrawn by the composer. The score fell into oblivion, eventually ended up in the Hamburg City Library, and was long considered lost after World War II. It was not until the end of the 20th century that the opera was tracked down in Armenia and returned to Hamburg, where the premiere finally took place in 2005 after a delay of almost 300 years.

The place of action is the Moscow Kremlin. The opera's plot revolves around the story of how the Russian prince Boris Goudenov rises to power through intrigue and becomes Russian tsar. The new Innsbruck production, under the musical direction of renowned Italian harpsichordist and conductor Andrea Marchiol, makes this baroque gem resound anew.

It's already a tradition: at the opening of the Innsbruck Festival there's a baroque opera rediscovery. This time it is "L' Idalma overo Chi dura la vince" - "Idalma, or Whoever perseveres wins" by Bernardo Pasquini. Competing against Alessandro Scarlatti, Pasqini composed his "Idalma" in the Roman Carnival of 1680. It is about marital fidelity and steadfast love: themes that were already a favorite of Italian noble houses in the 17th century, and Bernardo Pasquini was, after all, in the service of the Roman Borghese family for over forty years. Together with Giovanna Barbati, conductor and artistic director of the Festwochen Alessandro de Marchi has created a new version of the work, which has been forgotten for some 350 years, based on the composer's own handwriting. This version dispenses with lengthy musical repetitions and instead scores with a fireworks display of affects: brilliant arias full of expressivity and power, instrumental richness, sweeping ensembles and a sensitive musical design that takes full account of the permanent change of affects and dramatic situations.