Classical Music

COMPLETE WORKS FOR ORGAN V: 9

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

SINFONIE NR. 4 G-DUR

Volume 6 of the Gunter Raphael Edition, released as a double album, includes Raphael's entire chamber music oeuvre featuring the flute. The ten pieces, of varying character, can be divided into three creative periods. Most of them belong to the "transitional period" and the key development of his style since the 1930s. In his early and late stylistic periods, the composer only rarely used the flute as a chamber music instrument. Three of the works are recorded here for the very first time, among them the highly original Triptychon Maria for alto, flute, violin, viola and cello written by Raphael in 1943 for the birth of his second daughter Maria Christine using medieval lyrics.

CANTICUM SACRUM

V2: COMPLETE WORKS FOR ORGAN

V6: COMPLETE WORKS FOR ORGAN

KAMMERMUSIK NACH 1946

JUBILOSO - CHAMBER MUSIC FOR W

Classical Music

ORGELN IN SACHSEN 4

The great Baroque organ of the Jakobikirche in Stralsund, whose original housing we can still see today, was built by Christian Gottlieb Richter of Stettin in 1741. From 1779 until 1783, Ernst Marx from Berlin built a new instrument reusing many components from the old organ, and this happened again when Friedrich Albert Daniel Mehmel from Stralsund built another new organ from 1870 until 1877. In 1945, the Jakobikirche was hit by a bomb on the southwestern corner of the side isle. As a result of the damage, the church sanctuary could be accessed. The organ was robbed of almost all of its metal pipes and was seriously damaged in all areas. Now the Dresden-based organ workshop of Kristian Wegscheider, also of Dresden, was commissioned to build a new, three-manual organ with 51 voices, consistently using the production methods and timbral aesthetics of the 18th century. It can be said that this organ is both a new and old instrument because its conception and artisanal production of today is based on models of the best organs of the 18th century. As part of the restoration of the organ, which began in 2017 and was completed in 2020, the case was completely restored and reconstructed in its old dimensions and structure with all of the old wood carvings as well. The idea for the program of this release – the first one recorded at the new organ – was to choose repertoire of the time of Johann Sebastian Bach and the generation of his teachers and pupils especially suited to the new instrument and to present it with as many compositional forms and registers of the organ as possible. The Chorale Variations by Daniel Magnus Gronau are recorded here for the very first time.

Johann Sebastian Bach was only known to have travelled north. His meetings with the organists and composers Georg Böhm (Lüneburg) and Johann Adam Reinken (Hamburg) must have left a lasting mark on him. When he stayed in Lübeck to study the organ art of Dietrich Buxtehude, he of course wanted to visit the organs in the town churches as well, and so we can take it for sure that he also got to know the instruments at St. Jakobi.What was it about Northern German music that fascinated Bach? In contrast to his Thuringian home, Hamburg, Lübeck and many other cities in the north of Germany developed a culture of organ music. In toccatas and preludes, a stylus phantasticus unfolded, and the organ builders Scherer, Stellwagen and Schnitger with their pedal works created the opportunity to lend the bass fundamental its own splendid sound. Also, in the genre of organ chorales, Franz Tunder and Dietrich Buxtehude from Lübeck had developed new expansive forms leading to long chorale fantasies – a special source of inspiration for Bach. The release at hand offers a collection of Bach’s organ works with influences from Northern Germany. Arvid Gast plays both historical organs at St. Jakobi Lübeck: the three-manual Stellwagen Organ built in 1637 and the four-manual Great Organ where in the current disposition many historical stops from the 16th and 17th centuries are included.

It is a well-known story: The hero Hercules (Greek: Herakles) is walking in the Cithaeron mountains when he suddenly encounters two female figures at a fork in the path, Voluptas (Pleasure) and Virtus (Virtue). Both attempt to win the young demigod for themselves. At the end of their courtship, Hercules joins with virtue and dedicates himself to her ideals. The virtue aspect of this story from ancient mythology also made it a popular subject in the Christian world. In this way, on 5 September 1733 in Leipzig, Johann Sebastian Bach performed his Dramma per musica “Lasst uns sorgen, lasst uns wachen” BWV 213 for the eleventh birthday of the Saxon crown prince Friedrich Christian with his Collegium musicum. In summer 1750, 17 years after Bach and directly before his last trip to Germany, George Frideric Handel worked with the subject in London – the result being “The Choice of Hercules” HWV 69.Handel and Bach were born around four weeks apart and 150 km apart from one another in distance, but they never encountered one another in person. By linking both “Hercules” works to a pasticcio (pastiche), we have now created a virtual encounter between the two composers for today’s listeners. The pasticcio practice was a popular method in Bach and Handel’s time, particularly in opera, to bring together various pieces of music, preferably also from several composers, to create a new work. The fact that several languages were sung during a performance did not undermine its effect and popularity. In Clemens Flämig’s “Hercules” pasticcio too, there are English texts alongside German ones. The result can be heard on the double album at hand which was released within the series “haendeliana hallensis”.

JUBILEE EDITION 2015 ? SONGS &

In 2016, the musical world commemorates the centenary anniversary of Max Reger’s death. With the exception of opera, Reger composed in all musical genres and for various instrumentations. While he is frequently remembered for his organ music, it was his chamber music, which Reger concentrated on the longest- right up until his final composition, the Clarinet Quintet, Op. 146. To promote Reger’s music, it is necessary to bring young musicians in contact with it. Thus, there was born a unique project in cooperation between querstand label and University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig. 25 students have rehearsed chamber music works by Reger together with their internationally renowned teachers and recorded them at the University. The result is this release. This release provides an interesting insight into a part of Reger’s catalogue that can only rarely be heard today. Particularly notable is the inclusion of some rare cello works by Julius Klengel, a Reger colleague at the Leipzig conservatory and interpreter of Reger’s works, some of which were dedicated to him.

The W�ldner organ of the Halle Cathedral is one of the most important sound monuments of Central German organ building from around 1850. Completed in 1851 in the Halle workshop of Friedrich Wilhelm W�ldner and his son August Ferdinand W�ldner, then leading organ builder in the region at that time, represents the instrument as Early Romanesque document, on the one hand, the classic tradition of organ building, as it has remained alive in Saxon and Thuringia since the era of Silbermann, Hildebrandt and Trosts well into the 19th century. On the other hand, the original sound concept of the instrument made it possible to hear those "new tones" at an early stage, which were built in the middle of the century in the famous monumental organs by masters such as Ladegast (in Merseburg Cathedral), Schulze (in Halberstadt Cathedral) and Reubke (in Magdeburg Cathedral) in completely different, namely cathedral-like dimensions. Although significantly smaller than the Merseburg cathedral organ (the only surviving one of the three mentioned), the Halle instrument - as the largest and most multifaceted organ of the W�ldner workshop - is nevertheless committed to a monumental sound idea and is therefore one of the most important witnesses to the art of organ building of this era. In the 20th century, the cathedral organ suffered several extremely disadvantageous sonic falsifications in the neo-baroque style. A restoration, which is committed to the goal of regaining the sound image of 1851, has therefore long been one of the most important concerns of organ monument preservation in Saxony-Anhalt and was placed in the hands of the Wegscheider organ workshop. The work took place from 2017 to 2018. The present album is the first recording after the restoration has been completed and impressively shows the possibilities of the instrument. It plays Michael Beauty, who as Merseburg cathedral organist has extensive experience with this type of organ.

Johann Sebastian Bach's works, known today as cello suites, intonate a polyphony that arises from the virtuosity of an instrumentalist - a complex play of intimation and execution, of foreground and background, reverberation and reverberation, hatching and large arches. And instructions for musicians whose redemption is not uncommon for them. The circumstances surrounding the creation of BWV 1007 - 1012 are hardly known, which means that there is an uncertain source at the beginning. It makes an authentic interpretation of the musical text impossible from the outset, and the right to be true to text cannot be maintained either: there is no autograph handwriting of the suites, which opens up a spectrum of new works, which above all harbors chances and suggests that the Suites have not necessarily been written for a specific instrument. The attraction for instrumentalists lies in balancing intention and interpretation. The renowned flutist Paul Meisen has pointed out the surprisingly natural playability of the cello suites by the flute. His former master class student Sabine Kittel, now solo flutist at the Saxon State Orchestra in Dresden, shows this potential here in a comprehensive way. The double album recorded in the Emmauskirche Dresden-Kaditz and the Jakobuskirche Freital-Pesterwitz is supplemented by the Partita in A minor BWV 1013.

Often universal organs have the problem that they are not particularly well suited to either baroque or symphonic music. However, Daniel Kern's organ at Frauenkirche Dresden is a shining example of a very successful bridge between the different organ traditions. When choosing an instrument for this recording of Anton�n Dvor�k's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" in Pascal Kaufmann's transcription for four-handed organ, the standard was to have good drawing abilities of the characteristic 8' and 4' basic stops. Thanks to the diversity of the pipe scales, on the one hand in the style of Gottfried and Andreas Silbermann, and on the other hand reminiscent of Cavaill�-Coll (France, 19th Century), there is a sufficiently large selection on the Kern organ. The very dynamic swell pedal with French reed stops and the setterboards with modern standards allow the players to keep the symphony lively with a total of over 400 different registrations. Two more works round off the release at hand: the Humoreske op. 101/7 by Anton�n Dvor�k in a transcription for (two-handed) organ by Edwin Lemare and "Der Heilige Franziskus von Paula auf den Wogen schreitend" S175 by Franz Liszt, also as four-handed transcription by Pascal Kaufmann - a work that once again illustrates the multifaceted nature of the Kern organ beautifully. The brothers Markus and Pascal Kaufmann come from Lichtenstein (Saxony). Their training pathways included studying together at the Dresden College of Music "Carl Maria von Weber" and the Hochschule f�r Kirchenmusik in Dresden. Pascal Kaufmann worked as assistant for Frauenkirche organist Samuel Kummer and is currently church musician in Augustusburg (Saxony) while Markus Kaufmann is working as Cathedral organist in Quedlinburg. The recordings for the album at hand were supported by Frauenkirche Foundation.

Günter Raphael was an extremely versatile and fruitful composer. He left behind numerous symphonic works, solo concerts, oratorios (requiem), solo songs, sacred and secular choral music, organ works and a particularly extensive chamber music oeuvre. His work is characterized by the constant creative engagement with tradition. In the course of time he found his style of distinctive idiosyncrasy, the lush sound and the polyphony equally committed. His music radiates a strong concentration, not least due to Raphael's eminent counterpoint and joy in memorable melody combined with rhythmic diversity and a clear sense of form. This seventh part of Günter Raphael Edition offers an insight into Günter Raphael's string quartet work, the composer created ten works in this genre, but only released four of them for publication. The idea for concert performances and recordings of the Raphael string quartets and the associated stay of the Australian Acacia Quartet in Berlin in spring 2017 came about due to the long-standing friendship between the first violinist Lisa Stewart and the founder of the Christine Raphael Foundation Fredrik Pachla, who are based in Cologne studied, and the quartet's long-standing interest in Günter Raphael's music. After intensive preparation in Australia, a stay of several weeks in Europe was realized. The first concerts in Sydney delighted audiences and musicians alike, and after further concerts in Berlin the present recording was made with three of Günter Raphael's string quartets: two early works and his last work of this genre, composed after the Second World War.

This album is Alon Sariel's personal homage to Rembrandt van Rijn - the world of arts is celebrating the 350th anniversary of the death of the great painter in 2019. As a lute player, the Dutch Golden Age has drawn Alon Sariel's attention for a while now. Perhaps because these musical pearls are hardly ever played and certainly are not regarded within what became standard repertoire for the instrument. A large part of this project was originally lute music, as the lute was without doubt the most popular instrument in the Dutch Golden Age. We see that in the paintings: Around twenty-five per cent of musical paintings show a lute. Sariel did however add a few instruments into this project, instruments which were as well very common in the Dutch Golden Age, like different viols and recorders. Through the arrangements to be found on this album, this lute music becomes even more colorful. There's also quite some amount of free improvisation in Sariel's arrangements, as improvisation was a very important element in the music of the time, and also today's musicians follow their own imagination driven by Rembrandt's paintings. While rehearsing and recording this music with Concerto Foscari, the musicians often spoke about colors, trying to get a darker or brighter sound etc., that's when they noticed that a lot of the musical terminology actually comes from the visual world, from paintings. The moment where painters try to visualize music could therefore be a very fascinating one. As if they try to "freeze" music into some-thing eternal, which has a longer life than simply a chord on the lute. What Alon Sariel aimed to do in this album is to "de-frost" those moments and, above all, to create the "soundtrack" of the Dutch Golden Age. Two of the pieces are receiving their first modern recording: Louys de Moy's "L'Italiana & Spagnolet" and the Allemande by Constantijn Huygens.

DER PHILOSOPH ALS KOMPONIST