“The Paganini violin concertos are above all else an exhibition of artistic effects. But when they are played, as Ingolf Turban does, with all piquant bravado and wit and taste, then they are musical fun … He played the concertos with a very taut and steely tone which was able to elicit a smile, even considering the indescribable wizardry of technique. One could not miss hearing how Paganini understood Rossini´s artistry with song He had fused some of this artistry into the parts for violin, as was brought out by Ingolf Turban through his ever elegant, glitteringly clear, and supremely singing production of tone. And to top it all, Turban´s playing of Paganini lacked neither a drew-like fresh fantasy of sound nor an extraordinarily playful vigor. And thus one could enjoy these concertos of that satanic violinist enveloped by legend.” We naturally listen to music today differently from the public of Paganini´s time. But we must be aware of the circumstances of that time, and have an ear for relationships. The need is all the more for a rational stance that is equally joyful and anxious. Smiling is only one aspect of Paganini. When our senses fade while facing the bravura, so do our hearing and sight dim before the tremendous plunges that this music conceals within itself, from heaven to earth and then out again to the infinite. The only comparison can be with Chopin at the piano. He performed such plunges, from so soft as to be barely audible to abrupt change of touch. There is eloquent testimony that bears this out. Ingolf Turban, in his attempt to revive the characteristics of happening for the Paganini concertos wants to do justice to both of these dimensions.

It was a debut that will long be remembered. It was in October 2006 that Yannick Nezet-Seguin first conducted the Dresden Staatskapelle, which with its invitations to younger conductors in particular was increasingly emerging “as a talent scout for the next generation of baton-wielders” (German daily Die Welt). The 31-year-old newcoming, whose very name was a tonguetwister for most, had hitherto attracted the most attention in his native Canada; since 2000 he had been directing the Orchestre Metropolitain, little brother of the Orchestre Symphonique in his birthplace of Montreal. After debuts with orchestras in Toulouse, Goteborg and Birmingham, he was now in the Semperoper, standing for the first time in his life before one of Europe’s long-established, tradition-steeped orchestras. Nezet-Seguin was no disappointment. In fact, he was just the opposite. Straight away at rehearsals, it was obvious that this young man knew exactly what he wanted in works by Britten, Ravel and Shostakovich; in concerts, he was in full command of musicians and audience alike with his energetic and precise conducting manner, his sens of sound and rhythmic structures. Word soon got around that news of “the Great Canadian Conductor for whom this country’s classical music buffs have been waiting” (Toronto Star) was more than a mere marketing device. And people believed him when he admitted that conducting had been “like a vocation” for him ever since he was ten years old. “Today I have the feeling that I am living the dream I had as a little boy,” he confessed.

This new release is the eleventh volume in Profil's Semperoper Edition, and features Johann Adolf Hasse's three-act opera Attilio Regolo. Attilio Regolo is an Italian-language opera seria by Johann Adolph Hasse based on the story of Marcus Atilius Regulus, a Roman general taken prisoner in Carthage, who elects death rather than ransom. Metastasio wrote the libretto in 1740 for the birthday of the emperor Charles VI but the illness, then death, of the emperor prevented the libretto being set to music at the time. Hasse's opera was performed in Dresden in 1750. The role of Regolo was taken by the castrato Domenico Annibale, while Attilia was composed for Hasse's wife Faustina Bordoni. Frieder Bernius leads an all-star cast for this interpretation of the rarely performed work.

The works on this release were performed in the Dresden Staatskapelle’s second symphony concert of the 2002/2003 season on September 29 and 30 and October 2, 2002. It was Bernard Haitink’s first subscription concert as Principal Conductor of the orchestra, after he had spontaneously declared his willingness to take over this position and support the Staatskapelle in the difficult situation that had arisen following the sudden death of Giuseppe Sinopoli the previous year. It still seems a stroke of luck for Dresden, and in particular for its orchestra, that it could find a personality of such international standing who had a deep understanding both of the Staatskapelle’s great tradition and of its special character and thus was uniquely qualified to maintain and enhance its high artistic level, its individual sound and its worldwide reputation. Orchestra and conductor had known each other since 1989 from recordings and concerts at home and abroad. This then was the beginning of a sustained, if all too short, period of continuous work togheter, which wonderfully met the highest expectations “at home” and on tour in Europe and the Far East.

Gerd Schaller, who has made a name for himself by discovering unknown works and versions by Herbeck's contemporaries like Bruckner and Supp� has now discovered Herbeck's completely forgotten Great Mass in E minor almost 150 years after it was premiered. Like Bruckner's Mass in E minor, the work eschews fanciful and secular-seeming (operatic) solo vocal parts and consists solely of impressive and dignified sacred choruses that vary between simple melody and eruptive Romantic harmony. The work reverts to structures from past eras, in line with the 19th c. revival movement, which championed the qualities of early choral melody, Palestrina's polyphony and Bach's fugal tradition.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Includes work(s) for guitar by various composers. Soloist: Oleg Timofeyev.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The Ninth is an unusual symphony. The scheme of two slow outer movements and two fast ones in the middle is not in accordance with tradition. The keys of the four movements - D major, C major, A minor, D flat major - are at best vaguely related; nor did Mahler specify the key of the Ninth Symphony. The free, open form of the individual movements with their broadly arching structures is also confusing. Adorno once remarked that one must listen to this symphony "from the bottom to the top", ignoring formal expectations and concentrating on the individual motifs which develop, "as with a narrative when one does not know how it ends." Certain commentators have seen a novel-like structure in Mahler's symphonies, and a narrative model must be applied to the Ninth in particular - one that ends openly and uncertainly instead of affirmatively in a recapitulation

Pianist Ekaterina Livintseva writes of this new release of Rachmaninov works: “Sometimes we are afraid to grasp something that exists deep within ourselves. Human beings are afraid of revealing their emotions, they are scared of hurting themselves and becoming defenseless. That is how the unspoken emerges: a secret, a depth which accompanies us throughout our lives. The most important thing about Rachmaninov’s music for me is the fact that is exposes the soul. The emotions in his oeuvre are so clear and true- there is no way of disguising oneself there. When you play Rachmaninov you have to answer questions that you would not normally have dared to pose. In that situation a musician needs to be brave and, in a way, “pure of heart.” Only then does the music make sense. A depth emerges. The depth of the unspoken.” Ekaterina Livintseva is called “The Pianist of The Arctic Circle.” She began playing piano when she was four years old, and began her education at the Children’s Music School in Anadyr. She later studied at the Maimonides Classical Piano Academy, the College of Music and Dance in Cologne, and the College of Music in Wurzburg. She performs across the globe, and her prior recordings have received gleaming reviews.

Recorded between 1955 and 1961, Vladimir Sofronitsky's performances of the piano sonatas of Alexander Scriabin are collected in this twofer and are nearly complete, except for his partial recording of the Sonata No. 1 in F minor, of which only the final movement is provided, and the absence of the Piano Sonata No. 7. For his time, Sofronitsky was the leading Russian interpreter of Scriabin, and his interpretations were impressive for their brilliant virtuosity and volatile expressive power. Yet these dynamic performances ...range from murky, boxy sound to outright distortion, and the volume levels are severely out of balance, especially in the bonus 1951 recording of Heinrich Neuhaus playing the Sonata No. 1, an odd way to redress the missing Sofronitsky movements. Furthermore, Sviatoslav Richter's live 1964 performance of the Sonata No. 7 is included, which, with the Neuhaus, allows Profil to claim the set is complete. Because the value of these recordings is almost entirely in their historical significance, rather than for sound quality or ease of enjoyment, they are recommended for Scriabin specialists and fans of Sofronitsky who don't already have them, but few others. - All Music Guide

The legendary Vienna Mozart Ensemble which came into being in the early years after World War II will forever be associated with the name of the Austrian conductor Josef Krips (1902–1974). Born in Vienna, he studied music there under Felix Weingartner, was principal violinist in the Volksoper orchestra, then Weingartner's assistant. He took posts as concertmaster in Aussig, then Dortmund and Karlsruhe, where he was appointed General Music Director in 1926 before returning to Vienna, where in 1933 he was given the post of conductor at the Vienna State Opera. He left the country of his birth again in 1938 after the Anschluss, but in Belgrade he was prohibited from working after intervention by the Nazis. At the end of the war, Krips returned to Vienna and immediately became actively involved in the reconstruction of cultural life in the city on the Danube. His artistic and organizational skills were in demand in post-war Austria when it came to re-establishing the Salzburg Festival. In 1950 he found himself under suspicion of engaging in Communist activities and went to London, where he was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra until 1954; he returned to Vienna in 1955 and was later principal conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. From 1968 onwards he conducted regularly at the Vienna State Opera, and in 1970 he succeeded Wolfgang Sawallisch as principal conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. For many, Krips was the most knowledgeable Mozart conductor of his time, and the composer's works are the main focus of this edition, though he is also featured here as a highly respected partner to top-flight concert soloists including Artur Rubinstein, Mischa Elman, Clifford Curzon, Edwin Fischer and Isaac Stern.

Secret Places is a hypnotic journey to the core of your soul, a musical picture book that lures the listener to the very depths of his or her powers of imagination. The works sketch unique contours with what seem like melodic brush strokes- each bar a step into unknown territory. Pulsating, fragile, poignant, wild too, dancing and full of joie de vivre. All of the compositions are recorded here for the first time in this form and all but "Hammers" by Nils Frahm were written for the Crossover Composition Award 2015. The Twiolins draw big audiences to concert halls worldwide as pioneers of the new "Progressive Classical Music" movement, whose trademark is unique repertoire for two violins- tonally sophisticated, employing outstanding harmonics and singularly dramatic effects.

Aside from some smaller piano pieces, the String Quartet in F major is the only remaining composition by Theofil Richter, father of pianist Sviatoslav Richter, who preserved the manuscript. In this work, Theofil Richter presented his compositional mastery in the sophisticated genre of the string quartet. Felix Blumenfeld's String Quartet Op. 26 in F major (1898) captured first prize of the St. Petersburg Chamber Music Society (Russia). This powerful piece is characterized by a wealth of melodic imagination. The Odessa String Quartet gives these works their world premiere recordings.

Lorin Maazel (1930–2014) was perhaps the most interesting musician of his time. The very number of his engagements as Principal Conductor made him exceptional. After studying piano, violin, harmony, counterpoint and composition, and making his first appearances as a youthful conductor in the USA, where his family had moved from France in 1932, he played the violin in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and studied philosophy, economics, literature, French and Russian in his spare time. He went to Italy on a scholarship in the early 1950s, was repeatedly engaged – often by broadcasting stations – as a conductor, was the first American and at the same time the youngest conductor at the Bayreuth Festival when he conducted Lohengrin there in 1960, made his BBC concert debut with Mahler’s Second Symphony in London and directed the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Berlin as its Principal Conductor (1964-75), was appointed General Music Director of the city’s Deutsche Oper (1965-71), then headed the Cleveland Orchestra (1972-82), the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1988-96), Orchestre National de France (1988-90) and finally from 1993 the Symphony Orchestra of Bavarian Radio. He made his New York Met debut with Don Giovanni (1962) and debuted at the Salzburg Festival with The Marriage of Figaro (1963). He made a memorable appearance in London in 1988 when in a single day he performed all nine Beethoven symphonies with three different orchestras in aid of charity.

On her third solo release, Miki Aoki features works by the members of Les Six, a group of early 20th century French composers who were blazing their own trail. The music of Francis Poulenc is what's really touched Miki's heart. Ever since she was invited to play his Violin Sonata about eight years ago, she's been obsessed with his unique character. "It's got this humor and irony." - Miki Aoki

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Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The four symphonies of Johannes Brahms give emphasis to his significance as a composer more than any other works he wrote. He struggled for a long time before producing his first symphonic work – with Beethoven’s larger-than-life example before his eyes, the “giant”, whom he could hear marching behind him, as he once quipped. It took Brahms twenty years to complete his first symphony in 1876 – at the age of 43 – and another eight for the three further symphonies. All four of these historic works are presented on this release from Jukka-Pekka Saraste and the WDR Sinfonieorchester. In the more than sixty years of its existence, the WDR Symphony Orchestra of Cologna has established itself as one of the most important European radio orchestras. Stylistic versatility is the special trademark of the WDR Symphony Orchestra. Jukka-Pekka Saraste became principal conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra at the beginning of the 2010/2011 season. The orchestra and conductor can already look back at many years of working successfully together.