Classical Music

"•Released as part of a new series called ""The Choir Project, the Austrian LALÁ vocal ensemble delight audiences with their unique sound and refreshing, sensitive interpretations, whether they’re singing early music, classical, pop or folk song. • On their first recording, they take you through a history of music. • Schubert and Brahms are there, but also some EWF, a few Viennese songs as well as their own original compositions."

Classical Music

This CD is a delightful overview of the pieces and little melodies that Schumann produced with and for his girls and brings to life the spirit of the Schumann household.

Classical Music

In the "Concerti Opus 3" Handel prescribes the standard orchestra for the late Baroque era: two oboes, strings and a continuo group. However, we learn from the solo-tutti supplements and the court account books that the ensemble was in fact larger and more polyphonic than the original, simple manuscript and the subsequent modern score suggest: occasionally the number of bassoons was equal to that of the cellos, though they were only given solo parts when they were disengaged from the bass group of instruments. It was common practice too - not in C�then or Hamburg, it is true, but certainly in Dresden, Paris and London - for at least two if not three oboists to be assigned to each part, these being augmented by special instruments such as the old-style recorder and the new transverse flute, and after 1750 the Clarinet. The Concerto Opus 3, no. 1 requires a total of six obbligato wind instruments (two oboes, two recorders and two bassoons) and is therefore no "odd man out" composition, but rather reproduces fairly accurately the minimum range that an orchestra at Handel's disposal would have comprised: in the middle movement of the concerto, two ripieno oboists take up recorders, and then return to the fold as oboists afterwards.

One of Germany's largest and most important independent record labels, Hanssler Classic is renowned for having recorded every single piece of music written by J.S. Bach. Their 172-album set of the complete works of J.S. Bach performed by Helmuth Rilling and the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart was the first complete set of Bach's works to be released together on album. It won the prestigious 2001 Cannes Classical Award for best special edition and the 2000 Echo Classical award for Editorial Achievement. The present release is an exemplary showcase of each and every one of JS Bach’s Oratorios, recorded over the last four decades.

This album is a re-release of H�nssler Classic's celebrated Bach Ein Choralbuch series, which recorded all of the master composer's choral works. The present release features chorale settings for Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, and the Trinity. The Bach Collegium Stuttgart was founded in 1965 by Helmuth Rilling as the instrumental partner for the G�chinger Kantorei, and has been administered and funded by the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart since 1981. The group's complete recording of the sacred cantatas and oratorios of Johann Sebastian Bach, released during the composer's 300th anniversary year in 1985, raised it's profile as a leading Baroque music ensemble performing in a historically-informed style. Nevertheless, the Bach Collegium mainly performs on modern instruments. In this way, it can constantly expand it's repertoire and it is now a highly flexible orchestra which is capable of expertly performing works of all periods. Numerous recordings, particularly those on the Bachakademie's own label H�nssler Classic, including several premieres, illustrate the group's versatility.

This album is a re-release of H�nssler Classic's celebrated Bach Ein Choralbuch series, which recorded all of the master composer's choral works. The present release features Patience and Serenity, and Jesus Hymns. The Bach Collegium Stuttgart was founded in 1965 by Helmuth Rilling as the instrumental partner for the G�chinger Kantorei, and has been administered and funded by the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart since 1981. The group's complete recording of the sacred cantatas and oratorios of Johann Sebastian Bach, released during the composer's 300th anniversary year in 1985, raised it's profile as a leading Baroque music ensemble performing in a historically-informed style. Nevertheless, the Bach Collegium mainly performs on modern instruments. In this way, it can constantly expand it's repertoire and it is now a highly flexible orchestra which is capable of expertly performing works of all periods. Numerous recordings, particularly those on the Bachakademie's own label H�nssler Classic, including several premieres, illustrate the group's versatility.

This is the first volume in the Schubert String Quartets Project. “We take our name from a song of Franz Schubert. 2018. Summer in Italy. For the first time, the thought occurs to us to record Schubert’s string quartets. Not particularly imaginative, one could say. But we couldn’t shake it. Excitement overtook us, we were rapt. Euphoria. Soon the course was set: in 2028 the world will commemorate Schubert’s 200th year of death. We record all of the string quartet’s from his pen until then. A journey, a challenge. From the 13-year-old’s first work until the herculean, celebrated G major Quartet from his last year of life, 18 years later. Time was short for Schubert. He was, as his friend noted, “inhumanly industrious.” We begin. On every release, the Schubert quartets appear alongside a new work. In total we are commissioning six composers. The guidelines: Alinde. Nothing more. We met the first of our composers Thomas Kotcheff two years ago at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.“ (Alinde Quartett)

This album is a re-release of H�nssler Classic's celebrated Bach Ein Choralbuch series, which recorded all of the master composer's choral works. The present release features God's Trust, Kruez, Consolation, Justivication, Penance, and Evening. The Bach Collegium Stuttgart was founded in 1965 by Helmuth Rilling as the instrumental partner for the G�chinger Kantorei, and has been administered and funded by the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart since 1981. The group's complete recording of the sacred cantatas and oratorios of Johann Sebastian Bach, released during the composer's 300th anniversary year in 1985, raised it's profile as a leading Baroque music ensemble performing in a historically-informed style. Nevertheless, the Bach Collegium mainly performs on modern instruments. In this way, it can constantly expand it's repertoire and it is now a highly flexible orchestra which is capable of expertly performing works of all periods. Numerous recordings, particularly those on the Bachakademie's own label H�nssler Classic, including several premieres, illustrate the group's versatility.

Gerhard Oppitz' career opened up internationally in 1977 when he became the first German to win the coveted Artur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv. This achievement and quasi political event led to concert tours across Europe, Japan and the USA. In 1978, he recorded the first of many albums, and the same year was offered a post as professor at the Munich Musikhochschule. Initially concerned that this activity would clash with his concert engagements, he finally, in 1981, accepted to teach a master-class, becoming the youngest professor in the history of the Musikhochschule. Oppitz performs over eighty recitals and concerts a year, playing with the world's most prestigious orchestras. His discography stands at over 30 titles. On this release, he presents the entire piano works of Franz Schubert.

Solo lute music flourished in large parts of Europe in the first half of the 16th century. In Italy, it's most important early exponents were Francesco Spinacino, Joanambrosio Dalza, Vincenzo Capirola and Francesco da Milano. The leading lutenists in France were Albert de Rippe and Guillaume Morlaye. Germany's composers of unaccompanied lute music were Hans Judenk�nig, Hans Newsiedler and Hans Gerle. The second half of the century brought new composers to the fore: in Italy, Vincenzo Galilei, Giovanni Antonio Terzi and Simone Molinaro; in Germany, Hans Newsiedler's son Melchior above all. Across the Channel, the 1560s saw the birth of John Dowland, and other contributors to the golden age of the lute in England include John Johnson and Francis Cutting. Sixteenth-century Poland saw it's own flowering of lute music. The first record of it is the Krakow lute tablature by Mikolaj Strzeskowski (c.1530-1570) of about 1555 (now UKR-LV, 1400/1). It contains numerous dances and tablature accompaniments to chansons, madrigals and Polish songs. Arrangements of works by famous masters such as Crecquillon, Hofhaimer, Josquin des Prez and others found their place in it. In it's repertoire, this lute collection is typical of it's time. Almost the same works appeared in the manuscripts and printed editions of Pierre Phal�se (Louvain, Belgium, c.1570). At the same time, the manuscript contains hardly any original Polish lute music. That is an interesting phenomenon, and the Danzig lute manuscript, compiled at the start of the 17th century, again contains hardly any Polish works other than Polish dances. These are to be found in particular in the central European manuscripts and printed copies of Jean Baptiste Besard's "Thesaurus Harmonicus" (1603), Robert Dowland's "Varietie of Lute Lessons" (1610), the Schele Manuscript of Hamburg (1613-18) and in Lord Herbert of Cherbury his Lute book (c. 1620).

Fey’s interpretations of Haydn’s symphonies rank among the best in international critical acclaim. This 20th installment with the Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra balances historical performance practice while using modern strings and historical brass instruments.

Michael Rische is one of a group of musicians that is small even in international terms, who consistently enrich the music scene with their discoveries. This need not imply a contradiction to the standard repertoire. After recording compositions on the notes “B-A-C-H” from Johann Sebastian Bach to the present during the Bach anniversary year of 2000, Michael Rische has been working with growing success on reaffirming the nearly forgotten piano concertos by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel in the music scene. Since 2011, he has been causing a stir with his recordings so far, and the media have been enthusiastically commenting on his recordings, worldwide. During C.P.E. Bach’s anniversary year of 2014, there was a Europe-wide live broadcast by the MDR in Leipzig featuring two of his piano concertos.

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Selected excerpts of some previously released volumes inclued in this set:

C.P.E. Bach: Piano Concertos / Rische

: A ClassicsToday 10/10! The performances here are full of the enthusiasm of a new discovery. The minor-key concertos are marked by many of those eruptive gestures that make Emmanuel Bach's music so distinctive: abrupt pauses, strongly accented rhythms, tangy dissonance, and huge intervallic leaps. This is great music, and when performed sympathetically on modern instruments it sounds as fresh and new as the day it was written. It can stand toe to toe with anything that came later.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

C.P.E. Bach: Piano Concertos Wq 17, 43/4, 14 / Rische

A ClassicsToday 10/10! Rische plays all of this music with unaffected gusto, adapting the large sound of the modern piano to the scale of the music without any suggestion of inhibition, retaining a healthy range of tonal shading and touch. The Leipzig Chamber Orchestra matches him with playing of impressive precision.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)