The influential critic Karl Flodin commented after the premiere of Sibelius’ Second Symphony: “A symphonic poem the like of Sibelius’ Second Symphony has never been heard before, it’s something rarely heard in the genre of modern symphony. The more you listen to this brilliant work, the more powerful its contours seem, the deeper its soul appears and the more striking become the clues which hint at an understanding of this composition.” OehmsClassics has found the perfect partners for this recording with Dmitrij Kitajenko and the Gurzenich Orchestra Cologne and has complimented Sebelius’ Second Symphony with two delightful short pieces by Edvard Grieg. The Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne is one of Germany’s leading orchestras and can look back on a great tradition. Since 1986 the ensemble’s home has been at the Kölner Philharmonie, where it presents about 50 concerts annually, simultaneously giving over 160 performances a year at the Cologne Opera.

Victoria and Her Hussar is a rare pearl of the glamorous revue-operetta that is not often presented. Even in Mörbisch, this piece could only be heard twice: in 1960 and most recently in 1973, over forty years ago with Johannes Heesters, amongst others.

October 2011 marked the 100th anniversary of the Hamburg premiere of Mahler’s Second Symphony. This release features music recorded from the previous year with the Hamburg Philharmonic under the direction of Simone Young. Michaela Kaune and Dagmar Pecková appear as the soloists, performing with the NDR Choir and the Latvia State Choir in an impressive interpretation of Mahler’s Second.

REVIEWS:

Hugely impressive, a must for all Mahlerians...the heroine of the hour is Simone Young.

Mahler’s Resurrection has been much recorded in recent years, so much so that new versions prompt one to groan inwardly and mutter: ‘Not another one’. Such ubiquity has its price, for any newcomer has to be something out of the ordinary if it’s to have any impact. Of recent releases David Zinman (Sony-BMG), Jonathan Nott (Tudor) and James Levine (Orfeo) definitely belong in this category; Vladimir Jurowski (LPO) and Markus Stenz (Oehms) manifestly don’t. And now Oehms are taking another bite out of the cherry, with the Hamburg orchestra led by their chief conductor Simone Young.

But does this strategy pay off? First impressions are highly favorable; Young adopts sensible speeds and a generally spacious approach that really lets the music breathe. As for the orchestra, they play like a group of chamber musicians, each miraculous contribution dovetailing neatly with the next. Textures have a shot-silk quality that’s especially attractive, putting Oehms’ Super Audio efforts for Stenz to shame. And climaxes are superbly judged as well, expanding without any sense of strain; as for the soundstage, it’s as broad as it is deep, perspective natural and timbres vividly registered.

This lightness of touch – not to be confused with lightweight – is such a relief after the heavy-handedness of some rivals, especially in the affectionate phrasing of the Andante. Young doesn’t dawdle, the music as fleet-footed as one could wish for, the silken strings lifting Mahler’s lovely tunes and really making them sing. There’s little of the tugging and misjudged tempo relationships that mar so many readings of this symphony; that tends to underline this conductor’s unwavering sense of clarity and purpose, qualities that I yearn for – but don’t always find – in this glorious work.

This tautness of conception and ensemble continues in the Scherzo...As for the woodwinds, they’re alert and idiomatic, the lower brass growling with the best of them. But it’s the liquidity of rhythm that’s most telling here. Young presses on without ever seeming rushed or perfunctory. Indeed, that’s another aspect of this performance that demands a mention; none of Mahler’s quirkier passages is ignored or sidelined. The music is in a constant – and intoxicating – state of efflorescence. This really is Mahler playing of the highest order, magnificently recorded

Young builds and maintains tension throughout. The sudden eruptions are entirely expected and, more important, suitably scaled. Just sample the outburst at 8:04; it’s massive without being ponderous or overdriven. Moreover, it’s not as histrionic as some, which fits in well with Young’s clear-eyed view of this score. I know Klaus Tennstedt’s recently released live Resurrection has its devotees, but its extreme soul-baring strikes me as self-serving and, ultimately, self-defeating. While the LPO play this music as if to the manner born, the Hamburg playing is more sharply characterized. They’re precise but not at all pedantic, every nuance and instrumental strand is uncovered in the most easeful way.

...the cataclysm that follows is truly thunderous, Young dimming the lights as it were, so that when the Resurrection motif appears it glows beautifully in the inky darkness. It’s an effective piece of theatre that works this time round. Although the passages that follow aren’t as broad as they can be, they’re alive with incident and chockful of detail. This really is a most impressive recording, every bit as immersive as Nott’s Super Audio disc. Indeed, the crack of timps here is just as arresting as it is on the high-tech Tudor one; oh, and I’d love to know what tam-tams the Hamburg band use, as they pack a mighty shimmer.

Young presses on, but there’s so much in which to revel – helped by the fact that the orchestra keeps its composure throughout – that one isn’t aware of just how swift she is from this point on. It’s incredibly exciting, the offstage contributions rather distant but just audible above the hike in ambient noise.

Again one can only marvel at the subtle instrumental and vocal shading the engineers extract from this acoustic. It’s a pity the soloists aren’t ideally secure, but what a heart-racing sense of anticipation Young conjures here - what trembling inexorability, that throwaway harp figure like the rending of a veil. Although the organ isn’t very prominent the tam-tams are simply stunning, the closing pages as death-defiant as ever.

What a glorious coda to this double centenary, with its hits and misses, and what a triumph for Oehms[.] But the heroine of the hour is Simone Young who, while no stranger to these symphonies, here confirms her Mahlerian credentials in a most emphatic fashion. Despite one or two minor caveats, this Resurrection belongs in the select company of recent issues from Zinman, Nott and Levine, all of whom bring something memorable to this oft-played score. Hugely impressive, a must for all Mahlerians.

-- Dan Morgan, MusicWeb International

Since its foundation in 2013, the Berliner Operngruppe has made a name for itself with Berlin premieres such as Donizetti's Deux Hommes et une Femme and Betly and other operatic rarities. This album is a recording of the world premiere of Donizetti's opera Dalinda from the Konzerthaus Berlin on 14 May 2023, the opera that emerged from the censorship and plagiarism confusion surrounding Lucrezia Borgia, but which did not withstand the censorship either and disappeared unperformed until it was found a few years ago by the musicologist Eleonora Di Cintio.

Bach’s The Art of Fugue offers us profoundly sensual music, magnificent, poetic, colorful, thrilling, meditative, temperamental, intended for the ears of all times and deeply human.” That’s how the quartett itself characterizes Bach’s masterpiece and opposes Stefano Pierini’s Cantai un tempo (dopo una lettura di Monteverdi) to the magnum opus which was especially composed for the delian::quartett. The namesake of the delian::quartett is the Greek god Apollo who was worshipped as god of the fine arts, the muses and especially music, and also named Delian after his place of birth, the island of Delos. “What is outstanding about this Quartet”, stated the Hessian Broadcasting Company in October 2008, “is, firstly, the absolutely vibrant, personal coloring of their interpretations and the ability to also spontaneously react with interest to what the public shows, to absorb their vibrations and energies and transform them into music. This makes every concert a unique experience.”

”His Mozart combines the clarity of Christian Zacharias with the refined nuances of Alfred Brendel and the warm sound of Daniel Barenboim.“ This was the verdict in the 5/2015 issue of Fono Forum, which in the next issue promptly awarded the star for the Album of the Month to William Youn for Volume 2 of his edition with Mozart’s piano sonatas. OehmsClassics is proud to have completed this cycle with an exceptional artist, and to be presenting all five volumes here in one spectacular set. The award-winning pianist William Youn has been described by critics as a “genuine poet” with “sovereign, bravura technique of touch”. After early studies in Korea and in the USA, William again changed continents to study at the Hanover University of Music and at the Piano Academy Lake Como, where he worked regularly with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Dmitri Bashkirov, Andreas Staier, William Grant Naboré and Menahem Pressler. Based now in his adopted hometown of Munich, Germany, William performs internationally from Berlin via Seoul to New York with major orchestras

This illustrious fifteen disc set packs together some of the most famous and best loved operettas to have ever graced a stage. These tracks were all recorded at the Morbisch Lake Festival between 1996 and 2015. Present day opera stars sing the leading roles, including Martina Serafin, Silvana Dussman, and Dagmar Schellenberger. Since 1957 the Morbisch Lake Festival has been drawing listeners to its operettas and musicals. Held at the Neusiedler See National Park, the music is draped against the natural background of Lake Neusiedl. Herbert Alsen began the festival, where 1200 audience members watched the premiere of “The Gypsy Baron.” The festival has grown over the last half century and now boasts 220,000 visitors.

The present recording especially concentrates on works by Johann Sebastian Bach in minor keys; these are contrasted by four works in major keys. The general perception is that minor key works frequently emanate a certain sadness as their fundamental emotion. Bach, on the other hand, repeatedly develops in his minor key compositions-particularly in the organ works- an unsurpassed elegance out of the melancholy depths, as Joseph Kelemen impressively proves at the Treutmann Organ of the Grauhof Monastery Church. Joseph Klemen completed his studies in organ, harpsichord, and choral conducting at the Academy of Music in his native city of Budapest, the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and the Academy of the Arts in Bremen. He has been active as a church musician in Southern Germany since 1986. With a strong commitment to historical performance practice, he is considered by specialists to be an authority on German organ music of the 17th century and the organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Chicaquicha – this is the name of the indigenous peoples who used to live in the area where today’s city of Zipaquirá, Colombia is, and where Andres Villamil was born in 1976. He studied classical guitar with Gentil Montaña, Sonia Diaz and Roberto Aussel at the ALAC music academy and the Universidad Nacional conservatory, both in Bogotá, as well as at the Academy of Music and Dance in Cologne. In 1998 he won First Prize as soloist in the IDCT competition “Intérpretes del Próximo Milenio” in Bogotá. In 2004, a First Prize at the international “Voice and Guitar” competition with the Duo Ymaya in Germany followed. In addition to his classical training, Andres Villamil concentrates on the music of his home continent, South America. This program, his debut CD, pays homage to the music of his country. He selected original compositions for guitar as well as his own arrangements of Colombian songs and instrumental pieces. The program ends with four of his own works.

The celebrated Bruckner cycle by the Hamburg Philharmonic under Simone Young saw its completion during the 2014–15 season. On 30 August 2014, this mature, practiced Brucknerian orchestra recorded Bruckner’s radiant Seventh Symphony in the Laeiszhalle, heard live on this CD. With the beauty of its themes and its moving homage to Bruckner‘s great, intimidating model, Wagner, this Symphony - ranking among the composer’s finest orchestral statements - offers a particularly impressive listening experience.

REVIEWS:

The most apposite word I can apply to Simone Young's approach to Bruckner is 'fluidity.' She allows the lyrical melodies of the first two movements to unfold naturally and with a good sense of structural cohesion.

-- BBC Music Magazine

I enjoyed this performance very much. I also liked the sound on this SACD which has presence and definition. There’s a good front-to-back perspective and all sections of the orchestra have been well served by the engineers. In particular the brass, so important in Bruckner’s sound-world, register very satisfyingly yet never excessively.

-- MusicWeb International

This is one of those performances where you feel from the opening phrases that everything is just right. The music soars, yet has all the heft and depth one could want. Orchestral balances are excellent… Above all, the spirit of Bruckner, often felt in the concert hall but so elusive in recordings, is present. This is a glorious Bruckner Seventh.

-- Fanfare

Sweelinck composed his keyboard music (as much as we know of it today) only after 1605, rather late in his career. The works that have been handed down to us have the eff ect of a summing-up, a written resume of his improvisatory and pedagogical activity. These works, about 60 in number, were widely distributed during his time and much appreciated by colleagues. This recording presents a representative cross-section of his oeuvre for keyboard music played on the organ.

The 13 Barcarolles of Fauré, composed over the course of almost four decades (1882-1921), are highly representative of his piano oeuvre and are considered his most characteristic works. They reflect his separation from the romantic idiom of Chopin and Mendelssohn, in particular, and his progress towards an independent musical language in which he achieved a successful harmonious reconciliation between tradition and the modernism that was emerging at the time. Michael Endres recorded these pieces for OehmsClassics at WDR in Cologne in May 2017. The German pianist performs worldwide as a soloist and chamber music partner. He gained a Master’s degree at the Juilliard School in New York under Jacob Lateiner and studied with Peter Feuchtwanger in London. He has won several prestigious prizes at festivals and competitions, and his discography consists of 29 albums which have also been awarded.

To have the Romanian-German pianist Herbert Schuch’s complete Oehms discography collected into a single box set provides a valuable overview of this brilliantly talented performer who balances superb technique with the ability to find the essence of the composition. With a primary emphasis on the Romantic era, Schuch never falls into sentimental tropes in his interpretations. As noted in the Frankfurter Allegmeine Zeitung ,“The bright young Romanian-German pianist Herbert Schuch is building his career with marvellous consistency. This is demonstrated less by vain, flashy solo appearances than an ever deeper fathoming of individual works.”