Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The viola until today oftentimes suffers from the dominance of her small sister, the violin. György Ligeti put it like this: "The violin leads, the viola remains in the shadows. But through the deep C string the viola has a unique dryness, compact, somewhat throaty with the smoky taste of wood, earth and tannin.” This wasn't always the case, and composers of the Baroque era highly esteemed the sound of the viola da braccio, before it was modernized to be technically more playable, yet at the cost of lacking the original sustained sound. Pandolfis Consort with Elzbieta Sajka-Bachler, viola, Matthias Krampe, harpsichord, Hermann Platzer, archlute and Günter Schagerl, cello commence on a journey to discover the typical darker, melancholic sound of the original viola. This album by the title “Imagination” features representative concerts, sonatas and fantasias by Georg Friedrich Handel, Georg Philip Telemann, Christian Podbielski, Michel Corrette, Christian Michael Wolff and Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach on period instruments

The beautiful “old Austrian” German and Yiddish and the natural mixing of the two languages in everyday life on many streets and quarters of the erstwhile imperial capital city of Vienna was the origin of an unmatched abundance of cultural goods, which suffered a sudden disruption through the Nazi terror regime. “Out of Sight”, the upcoming album of Viennese soprano Ethel Merhaut is dedicated to discovering long forgotten Viennese songs by Jewish composers (Egon Neumann, Fritz Spielmann, Walter Jurmann, Hermann Leopoldi) and evergreens of Yiddish popular music in the United States, disclosing the close ties between these genres. Internationally acclaimed musicians like Bela Koreny, piano, Julian Rachlin, Roby and Robert Lakatos, violins, Sarah McElravy, viola, Boris Adrianov, cello, Andreas Ottensamer, clarinet and Herwig Gradischnig, saxophone provide for unforgettable moments rife of emotion and musical enthusiasm.

Classical Music

Frederic Chopin counts among Johann Strauss Sr. and Joseph Lanner as one of the significant cofounders of the modern form of the waltz during the first half of the 19th century. In contrast to the orchestral variants, the contributions by Chopin – composed like most of his works for his own instrument, the piano – are suited rather for the concert than the dancing hall. With his debut album the young Bulgarian pianist Martin Ivanov, who already at an early age was critically acclaimed in numerous international competitions, presents the waltzes by Chopin. Although most of the waltzes are written in different major keys and therefore tend to convey a cheerful, bright and entertaining impression, a few are set in minor keys which allow a glimpse of that certain melancholy that is characteristic of Chopin’s oeuvre as a whole. Martin Ivnov was born in 1990 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria into a family of musicians and started to study piano at the age of just four. In the period between 2001 and 2009 he took part in 50 piano competitions in Bulgaria and abroad, always with great success, in particular at the following competitions: Young Virtuosos 2004, International Competition for Young Pianists Ettlingen 2004, Franz Schubert 2005, and LISMA Competition 2013.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Badura-Skoda has long been a symbol of the cultivation of Viennese classical music. The holder of the prestigious Paul Badura-Skoda is well-known around the world for his interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. With this release "The Other Badura" a light is shed on a elsser known part of this great Austrian pianist: At the beginning of his career, Badura-Skoda also enjoyed playing virtuoso "crowd pleasers", e.g. great piano works of the Romantic era, particularly of the Russian sphere. In the 1950's together with the renowned conductors Sir Adiran Boult, Artur Rodzinski and Hans Swarowsky he released very popular recordings of the piano concertos No. 1 in B minor, Op. 23 by Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, the concerto in C sharp major, Op. 30 by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov and the concerto No. 1 in E flat major by Franz Liszt. Badura-Skoda's teacher was Edwin Fischer; his discoverer, Wilhelm Furtwängler. His composer friend, Frank Martin, composed a piano concerto for him and he shared a long professional friendship with the great Russian violinist David Oistrach. Badura-Skoda has long been a symbol of the cultivation of Viennese classical music. The holder of the prestigious Bösendorfer-Ring, he is a celebrated guest at major international music festivals. Earlier in his life, Badura-Skoda collaborated wtih such renowned conductors as Hans Knappertsbusch, Herbert von Karajan, Georges Szell and Karl Böhm. He has also worked with Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Georg Solti and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, to name but a few.

In the form of the album >bzw< the third part of a trilogy that was begun in 2000 with “fis” and continued in 2001 with “Die Lilie”, is now available. In contrast to the first two recordings, which for the most part contained freely improvised music, >bzw< presents compositions by Peter N. Gruber in classic song form. The abbreviation >bzw< (respectively, or) allows considerable room for interpretation, also in a figurative sense. Alongside its usual meaning in everyday language it can also be read as “Beziehungsweise” (literally: relationship ways) or “Beziehungswaise” (relationship orphan). Nor can the possibility of biographical relationships be dismissed. And that relationships (Beziehungen) can also be shaped wisely (weise) is self-evident. In 2008 a start was made with recording the first bass tracks. This is motif material from music for double bass solo composed or improvised earlier for theatre and dance theatre productions. Patrick Dunst (saxophone, bass clarinet) and Denovaire (keyboards, esraj) developed this basis for improvised melodies further. Andy Manndorff (guitar) and Alfred Lang (trumpet) added overdubs in accordance with the composer’s wishes. The percussion – played by Billy Cobham student Reinhardt Winkler – was added as a last instrument in a most unorthodox manner.

Austrian pianist Senka Brankovic graduated from the Mozarteum in Salzburg and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where Hans Leygraf, Hans Petermandl and Heinz Medjimorec were among her teachers; she also holds teaching positions at the Berlin University of Arts as well as the Hochschule f�r Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. Her upcoming solo album focuses on the cosmos of Johannes Brahms. In addition to the 7 Fantasien, Op. 116 and 4 Klavierst�cke, Op. 119, Brankovic presents the Brahms-Variations Op. 57, written by composer Ivan Er�d, who is of Hungarian descent. Composed in 1990 and dedicated to his compatriot the pianist Andras Schiff, the work takes on a theme from the Intermezzo Op. 116 / No. VI and develops it into 13 stylistically diverse variations. Numerous other citations and nods to other composers are also here to be discovered, as movement headings like "(... The bird Arnold as prophet...)" or "Tempo di 'Radetzky Marsch'" indicate.

The pianist SoRyang, born in Korea and educated in Seoul, in Essen/Germany (as a pupil of the renowned pianist Detlef Kraus) and in Vienna/Austria, emerged far beyond Austria with her idea to popularize Classical piano music on historical places of big European cities. SoRyang performed worldwide with renowned orchestras, among them the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra Essen, the Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie, the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. She has recorded numerous CDs. In 2019 she performed together with the Tonk�nstler Orchester Nieder�sterreich under the baton of it's chief conductor Yutaka Sado (who earlier has been the assistant of Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa, and later has produced popular television programs for the understanding of Classical Music in Japan) in the impressing grand hall of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg/Germany. SoRyang played Tchaikovsky's famous piano concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor and as an encore Chopin's barnstorming last etude, Op. 25 No. 12. After the intermission Mahler's fifth symphony was played. The concert has been recorded for the present release.

Strings & Brass combines classic virtuosity with merciless groove, challenging compositions with colorful improvisations and absolute perfection with the innate musicality of folk music. The four musicians Florian Willeitner, Johannes Dickbauer, Matthias Bartolomey und Georg Breinschmid are tied beyond their classical training by the urge to discover new worlds. The string quartet with double bass without viola develops a totally distinct musical language ranging from jazz to pop and folk to blues. Strings & Bass - four exceptional musicians, everyone of them successful composers and artist who are spurring each other in this exciting formation. Florian Willeitner is a violinist, composer and arranger who has received numerous awards. Johannes Dickbauer is known for the breadth of his artistic range. Matthias Bartolomey plays in the Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera as well as teh Vienna Philharmonic. Georg Breinschmid is one of the leading Austrian jazz musicians on the international stage.