R. Schumann: Kreisleriana, Abegg Variations & 3 Romanzen

C. Loewe: Lieder & Balladen, Vol. 21

Jozef Koffler earned a firm place in music history as one of the first Polish and European twelve-tone composers. Born in Stryj, he returned to his home region in 1924 after his education in Vienna and settled in Lemberg, where he was active not only a composer but also as a charismatic teacher and music journalist. The investigation of Koffler's oeuvre has shown that he adopted Schonberg's method of composition with twelve interrelated tones and applied it in a most highly creative manner, often modifying its strict rules in order to achieve the desired artistic result. The piano works and String Trio, Op. 10 presented on this album offer expressive testimony to Koffler's originality. The album concludes wtih Johannes Schollhorn's Spur, a work composed in 2003 and dedicated to Koffler. Here a contemporary composer turns to the traces left behind by Koffler: with creative imagination and sensibility he engages, as it were, in his own play with the original material, whcih, sometimes more strongly, other times more suggestively, manifests itself in the new contents.

Fibich: Nevesta messinská, Op. 18

Our Reger Edition now again continues on its way, following three releases accompanied by rave reviews from the critics. klassik-heute wrote in 2015, "In this so very sumptuous music Gerhard Weinberger turns enthusing technical virtuosity into an audio event. We can eagerly look forward to the other volumes of this complete recording and already certify that this edition will do an outstanding job of initially introducing the Reger beginner to his organ cosmos." And Musik & Theater opined in 2016, "These albums rank with the best currently available recordings in the field of Reger’s organ music." The focus of this album is formed by Reger’s op. 57, to which he added the adjective "Symphonic," thereby making it absolutely clear that this work would represent a high point not only in his own organ oeuvre but also in the whole of the organ literature. In his op. 145 collection published in early 1916 – first designated as the "Seven Organ Pieces" in posthumous editions – all the pieces have in common the quotation of chorales corresponding in content to the particular work title. The Introduction and (above all) the Passacaglia in F minor are surely the most outstanding numbers among the twelve pieces constituting his Monologues op. 63.

This new release contains salon music of the greatest elegance by an anonymous author. The pieces here are contained in the Dresden Collection- a collection which preserves the repertoire of the eighteenth-century Dresden court ensemble. Les Amis de Philippe interprets these works beautifully, and is conducted by Ludger Remy.

“When it comes to serving music through pianistic brilliance…tone and interpretive intelligence, then Michael Korstick is in his element.” (FonoForum) Among critics and informed citizens of the piano world, this Köln native enjoys considerable renown as one of Germany’s leading pianists. Mr. Korstick has proven to be an individual interpreter, creating new benchmark recordings, whether in works of unknown composers or the standard literature, He won the 2005 Echo-Klassik prize in the category Solo Recording of the Year for this rerelease of Schubert’s B flat major Sonata, D960.

Regina is indeed a very unusual opera by Albert Lortzing: A romantic political 'liberation opera' in which the main characters are workers that go on strike and sing for their freedom. This is the first recording of the original version.

Kinkel: An Imaginary Voyage Through Europe — 32 Songs

We continue our astonishing Bruckner cycle with the rarely performed 2nd Symphony. As in the case in the 1st, Venzago has chosen a top orchestra of relatively small instrumental dimensions. 'After the many new recordings of the Bruckner symphonies, finally an interpretation that genuinely exhibits character and in a very musical way offers the listener the opportunity to complement his picture of Bruckner'(Pizzicato 3/12).

Franz Lehár’s operetta ‘Wo die Lerche singt’ concerns a young country girl who falls for a painter, leaves her fiancé to follow the painter to the city where she meets his real mistress and ends up realizing she’d be better off back in the country. The grand finale of Act I with the palotas of the harvest chorus rank with the most electrifying music Lehár ever penned. This production occurred in conjunction with recent performances of this operetta in Bad Ischl during the Lehár Festival.

Pizzicato 9/12: “Venzago’s courage to interpret Bruckner more romantically than post-romantically makes sense because the 2nd symphony suddenly develops a life of its own and enthuses the listener with its own stylistic musicality. This is certainly one of the best recordings of this composition!”

Like that of his teacher Schütz, Weckmann’s music exhibits an unusually intensive word-tone interrelation (above all in vocal music) and in its contrapuntal complexity with tonal dissonances verges on the limits of harmony. + No use at all was made of the modern electric bellows motor; instead the muscle power of two calcants was used to operate the organ’s historical bellows unit. The flexible wind supply, wind-force factor, and corresponding noises produced by the bellows result in a vivid sound picture meeting the requirements of historical authenticity.

With Paroli (originally entitled Frau Denise), a variation on the Figaro theme of the amorous misadventures of a duped, married nobleman set near Paris during the late 18th c., Leo Fall (1873-1925) succeeded in producing a captivating one-act chamber play that was neither operetta nor opera – even though it does have its share of reminiscences of fairy-tale operas, stylistic quotations of the rococo, discreet leitmotivic technique, and polished ensemble pieces. A prodigious operetta composer, Leo Fall was considered a true rival to Franz Lehár at the turn of the 20th c.

• Anton Bruckner died before completing work on the fourth and final movenment of his 9th symphony. • Conductor Mario Venzago's ongoing complete Bruckner symphony cycle has provoked vehement pro and contra critical reaction. • The Bern Symphony's history dates back more than 125 years.