How and why Johann Melchior Molter came to Karlsruhe is one of the secrets of his otherwise well-documented life. Molter was a "perfect capellmeister" in the sense of the eponymous famous treatise of the Hamburg music scholar Johann Mattheson. In his early years, Molter became familiar with the style of French music of his time; in Italy, where he drew it a second time during his time in Eisenach, he became acquainted with the current Italian style. Stylistic versatility was the craftsmanship with which Molter moved in all major genres. Although large parts of his vocal works are lost or were destroyed during the Second World War, the surviving cantatas and other works for vocal Molter as a composer, who knew exactly how the human voice comes to it's best advantage. In contrast, the manuscripts of many of Molter's instrumental works have been handed down in large numbers. In addition to about 170 symphonies, solo concertos for various instruments are the largest group of works within Molter's instrumental works. Most of these concerts may have been written for virtuoso court musicians in Karlsruhe and Eisenach and have been performed within the framework of court music practice. All concerts are documents of a Kapellmeister, who mastered the compositional standards of his time on a very high level. That Molter occupies an important place in the history of the instrumental concert, he owes the fact that he was one of the first composers who composed concertos for the clarinet. This instrument was invented at the beginning of the 18th century by Johann Christoph Denner, but it did not prevail until the end of the 18th century in the orchestras. This production commemorates (for the 300th birthday of Karlsruhe) the most important composer of the fan city.

Depending on the point of view, one can regard Barrios’s romantic compositions as being from another time or ageless. As is well known, the development of music in the first half of the twentieth century took an entirely different direction, especially in Europe. Barrios did not follow this path. He deserves credit for transferring, with hitherto unknown techniques, the romantic style of a Frédéric Chopin to the guitar. Romanticism and the influence of South-American folklore are combined in a congenial manner in his music. He was one of the first composers to exploit the guitar’s musical expressiveness in a manner that went far beyond that of the works of Francisco Tárrega. And last but not least, he left behind some of the most beautiful tremolo compositions in the entire guitar repertoire. There are innumerable virtuoso works by Barrios. The performer on the present recording has a particular predilection for Barrios’s lyrical, poetic works. Melodic inventiveness, fascinating harmonies, and ideal realization on the instrument are combined here in masterpieces of the guitar literature. Maximilian Mangold is regarded “as one of today’s artistically most interesting German guitarists” (Fono Forum). As a sought-after soloist, he gives numerous concerts at home and abroad, and is a just as versatile chamber musician in duos with harp, flute, violin, piano, harpsichord, fortepiano, flauto traverso, and narrator, in trio with flute and viola, and with the Vlach String Quartet Prague. Mangold has an extraordinarily extensive repertoire that is also documented on 22 recordings that have been enthusiastically acclaimed by the critics and praised as reference recordings.

Johannes Martin Doemming, born on 30 September 1703 in Spiez (Thuringia), was employed at the court of Bentheim-Tecklenburg (County of Limburg) under Prince Moritz Casimir. In addition to free board and lodging, he received the not particularly high sum of 40 Reichsthalers annually. He had to take care of the entire musical life at the court, composed himself, conducted the rehearsals and concerts, and produced extensive musical material. Our recording of works by Johannes Martin Doemming is a broad cross-section of his work. In the case of the instrumental concerti, the winds are the main focus, flutes and oboe or oboe d'amore. Stylistically, we find in Doemming a range ranging from Buxtehude (cantata) over the high baroque to the sensitivity, almost in the style of a Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Here interpreted by the Ensemble Concert Royal K�ln, already (twice) honored for it's recordings of works by Johann Wilhelm Hertel and Johann Georg Linike with an ECHO Klassik.

Jimi Oh-Havenith was born in 1960 in Seoul, Korea. At the age of six, she received her first piano lessons. At the age of ten her vocation was determined- concert pianist. From 1972 to 1978 she attended the High School of Music and Art in Seoul, from 1979 she studied music at Seoul National University. In 1980, Jimi Oh-Havenith continued her studies at the Cologne Conservatory with Prof. Aloys Kontarsky and graduated in 1984 with a diploma. Already during her studies she played concerts in Germany and abroad. In addition to her concert career as a soloist, she played as a piano duo with her then husband Prof. Raymund Havenith, with which she recorded for radio and album recordings. Jimi Oh-Havenith taught at the University of Mainz and the University of Music and Performing Arts, Frankfurt am Main.

“In the first thirty years of my career, I never wanted to play the Goldberg Variations. I had a strong relationship to Bach – singing mathematics – but did not feel any desire to contribute a further interpretation of this well-beloved work. This changed only when I decided to support the musical education in my son’s school. The aria from the Goldberg Variations was one of the first subjects, and the more I dedicated myself to the aria, the more I felt: this piece is a gold mine of vitality. This recording is the end point of a ten-year-long, personal healing process. For me, this is a reason for great joy – and a moment of hope, the hope that this music brings the listeners as much healing and comprehension as it gave me.” (Jimin Oh-Havenith) Jimin Oh-Havenith’s piano playing is characterized by an exceptional sonority and faithful-ness to the text. Her warm sound, which is always embedded within the rhythmic structure, lets the music come alive in all its richness. The synchronicity of sound and rhythm, not arbitrary changes in tempo and dynamics, inform the clarity of her interpretation, as in, for example, her recording of Beethoven’s op. 111, his last sonata. Jimin Oh-Havenith was born in Seoul, South Korea. In 1979 she began piano studies with Jin-Woo Chung at the Seoul National University. From 1981 to 1984 she continued her studies with Aloys Kontarsky at the Cologne College of Music. In addition to her concert activities as a soloist and radio and recordings, she also performed in a piano duo with her late husband Raymund Havenith (†1993). Jimin Oh-Havenith taught at the Mainz College of Music and at the College of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main. Since 2013 she has again been active as a soloist.

At the end of the 19th century leading French composers were enthusiastically writing violin sonatas, cello sonatas, piano trios, quartets and quintets. It seems, however, that the viola was left behind. It was for example found suitable for chamber music with other strings, and sometimes for potpourris based on well-known melodies, but not as a serious solo instrument with piano. This was at least the case in France, as in Central Europe it had gradually gained popularity since Mendelssohn and Schumann. When we look at the list of French viola sonatas written before 1910, it is noticeable that this contains virtually no well-known composer's names. Furthermore, many a viola sonata from that time was originally composed for cello. Only in the 20th century the viola was respected as a veritable chamber music instrument. This album shows four representative examples of this repertoire showing the typical French stile of Modernism which developed so differently from the stile in Germany.

The fourth and final album of the complete recordings of the piano works by Franz Xaver Mozart also offers an interesting insight into the work of Leopold Mozart and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, grandfather and father. It includes early works by Franz Xaver, the Diabelli Variations from 1824 and two of the last compositions- Leopold composed the four short dance movements in the “Galanten style,” and The Praambulum is one of the few notated examples of WA Mozart’s art of improvisation. Susanne von Laun has recorded the works of the three Mozarts, most of which can be heard on album for the first time, on an original instrument from 1812, on which Franz Xaver could also have made music. It is a fortepiano by Joseph Brodmann, built in Vienna in 1812, from the Beurmann collection

Chamber Music by one of the great composers of the 20th century performed by an extraordinary ensemble. Trio Martinu was formed at the Prague Conservatory in 1990. It's current lineup has remained unchanged since 1993. Under the guidance of Antonin Kohout at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, the ensemble developed and embarked on a trajectory paved with success and awards, including at the international competition at Trapani, Italy; the International contest of chamber ensembles at Heerlen, the Netherlands, in 1992 and 1995. From 1996, the ensemble studied for two years at the Vienna Hochschule fur Musik under Michael Schnitzler, a member of the Haydn Trio. In 1995 the ensemble received the annual Award of the Czech Chamber Music Society attached to the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. All three members of the Trio Martinu are outstanding soloists and record regularly for the Czech Radio. Pavel Safarik and Jaroslav Matejka have been engaged in the Prague Symphony Orchestra as assistant leaders for many years, and Petr Jirikovsky, as well as his solo performances and conducting activities, teaches piano at the Prague Conservatory.

To this day Gustav Mahler understands how to make others tremble. The dispatchers and managers of the finance departments of orchestras, whose artistic directors would like to put a Mahler Symphony on the program again. Trembling, because it is clear: that will be expensive again in view of the often gigantic, often also exotic instruments that Mahler has used for his refined sound effects. Again and again it has rained colleagues of the master to transform his symphonies to small formats. Where, from an artistic point of view, the main thing was to try to solve the content of the opulent packaging, so to speak, without distorting the musical message. And so the Austrian composer and conductor Erwin Stein, a Schoenberg pupil, created in 1921 a chamber music version of the 4th Symphony for woodwinds, string quintet, percussion, harmonium and piano. The music of Mahler, and in particular the Symphony No. 4, bathing in a very romantic light, in an extremely fiery and at the same time serene setting, almost classically situated between the monumental symphonies No. 3 and No. 5, left much more than any others to a revision. The work interpreted in this form provides new insights and experiences and proves once again that beauty and the poetic and expressive meaning of a masterpiece can be rediscovered infinitely new.

Royal... noble sound in a courtly context is a short description of the music of the famous renaissance lutenist John Dowland, which is the focus of Stefan Koim's second album. On the one hand, compositions by Dowland are presented; compositions that represent an impressive combination of heart, mind and intellect from the pen of a worldly musician of the 16th century. On the other side are the two important modern compositions by Benjamin Britten and Hans Werner Henze, which refer in their works to Dowland and the lute music of the Elizabethan era. Explicitly, this is done in Britten's Nocturnal, a variation on John Dowland's Air Come heavy sleep, whose original form untypically appears only at the very end of the composition. Rather implicitly, the reference to Hans Werner Henze, who drew inspiration for his London-based cycle Royal Winter Music in the works of the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare, is known to be a contemporary of Dowland. Unimaginable, therefore, that he did not also have Dowland's lute music in his ear when writing his work for solo guitar... And so the compositions collected on this album should especially draw attention to two things: the still fascinating sound of a time that is often called the "golden age" of English History is described as well as the 400 years of still inspiring potential of this music for the music of modern times.

The sound of the unusual combination of clarinet, viol and piano fascinated many great composers. The merger of dark, noble and sensual tones with brilliant, virtuosic and melodic expression allows this ensemble to produce varied and diverse soundscapes and to abduct the listener into unusual lyrical spheres. Konstantin Selheim is among the most sought-after instrumentalists of his generation. After studying violin at Hannover University of Music and Theater, in 1996 he began viola studies with Volker Worliizsch and Hartmut Rohde. He has been strongly influenced by Tabea Zimmermann, Rainer Moog, and Yuri Bashmet. The pianist Katharina Sellheim shows a remarkable musical versatility. She gets engaged as a soloist, chamber musician, and accompanist regularly. She gives recitals in the important musical centers of Europe, such as Vienna Berlin, and Paris, as well as cities worldwide. Hungarian-born Lazlo Kuti grew up in a musical family and began playing in a brass ensemble as a child. He went on to study at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz. He is a winner of the Concertino Praga International Music Competition, and performed as a young soloist in Prague, Vienna, Graz, and Japan.

Merk: 20 Etudes for cello solo, Op. 11 (ed. M. Rummel)

“For Several Friends“ - a high-baroque chamber music collection by Matthew Locke - was the inspiration for the title of this album, on which a colorful bouquet of German and English chamber music from the 18th century has been compiled. After the cultural life in England had almost come to a standstill in the years of the civil war from 1642 to 1649, it came to a new bloom by the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II in the year 1660. The courtly music ensembles Chapel Royal, Royal Music, The King‘s Band and The Queen‘s Band have been reinstated, and a lively musical life has also sprung up in London. Annette John performs in Germany and abroad, among others with the ensembles Weser-Renaissance, Orlando di Lasso, Concerto Palatino, Concerto Brandenburg, Oh-Ton Oldenburg, the Hanoverian Court Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Boston Early Music Festival, the Bremen Council Music and the Hamburger Council Music. She is interested in both old and new music. She is a lecturer at the University of Oldenburg. Since 1995 Susanne Peuker has devoted herself to freelance teaching and concert activities. As a soloist and as a sought-after chamber music partner, her concert tours took her all over Germany and Europe. She is a permanent member of various ensembles: in addition to the musical Tafelkonfekt Fortunes Musicke, Musical Delight and Musical Playground, but also in ensembles such as Weser Renaissance, North German Baroque Collegium, Elbipolis, Capella Cantorum, Saxon Vocalensemble and the Philharmonic Bremen

Tchaikovsky’s The Voyevode was first performed on November 18, 1891 in Moscow in a concert under the direction of Alexander Siloti. Although the dances were enthusiastically received, the symphonic ballad was a complete failure. The next day, the composer destroyed the score. However, Siloti still had the orchestral parts, thus making it possible to reconstruct the score after Tchaikovsky’s death. In 1882 Milij Balakirev encouraged Tchaikovsky to consider the possibilities of the “Manfred” narrative. Over three years, Tchaikovsky worked to set this story to music. He completed the score on October 4, 1885. The work was a grandiose success, and the composer was enthusiastically acclaimed.

Johann Sebastian Bach‘s Chaconne, the last movement of the Partita No. 2 in D minor, is considered to be the most overwhelming piece ever written for violin solo. The richness of impression can’t be surpassed. The virtuoso polyphonic play developed here on “only“ four strings – on the violin, which is regarded above all as a melody instrument – let ask for the history of this phenomenon, the development and the testimonies for polyphonic violin playing between 1670 and 1720. During this period the Passacaglia by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber – the first extensive set of variations handed down to us – and the suite in A major by Johann Paul Westhoff, the first printed cyclic composition for solo violin, had their origin. Bach‘s Chaconne is part of the carefully written manuscript in which Bach put together three sonatas and three partitas: “Sei Solo. a Violino senza Basso accompagnato”. Prerequisite for the composition of these works is a profound experience as a violin player. Of course, one wonders wherefrom Johann Sebastian Bach got his knowledge and looks primarily at his family. He received musical education firstly by his father Johann Ambrosius Bach (1645-1695), the head of Eisenach city musicians, who also served as court musician and was a respected violinist. After his death the just ten-year-old older was taken in by his brother Johann Christoph (1671-1721), organist at St. Michael‘s Church in Ohrdruff, who continued to teach him. In nearby Eisenach, the uncle Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703) was organist at the Georgenkirche. When fifteen-year-old Johann Sebastian attended the Michaelisschule in Lüneburg for two years, he almost certainly had contact with Hamburg, Lübeck and Celle and the musical life there. In these cities over generations musicians acted in the “Ratsmusik”, who played the violin excellently. Virtuoso violin playing was at home in northern Germany.