Friedrich Ladegast was one of the most important organ builders during the 2nd half of the 19th century. Especially with his first large organ at Merseburg Cathedral, he set the benchmark for organ building and at the same time influenced the further development of organ music: Franz Liszt and his "adlatus" Alexander Winterberger immediately recognized the new symphonic options of the organ sound and therefore with their new works established a basis for using the organ in a new symphonic manner. This development saw it's peak half a century later in Max Reger's monumental organ works and found a parallel development in France where the French symphonic organ concept was based on the organs by Aristide Cavaille-Coll. Friedrich Ladegast was born in 1818 in Hochhermsdorf, therefore the musical world has just celebrated his 200th birthday. This marks the occasion for the release of two albums on the Querstand label which contain the programs of the first concerts played at two of the greatest Ladegast Organs: the above-mentioned in Merseburg Cathedral and the organ at Schwerin Cathedral.

In 1596, the Wasungen-born Melchior Vulpius was called to Weimar as the cantor, music and Latin teacher at the municipal school and the St. Peter and Paul Parish Church (Stadtkirche). Thus he became the highest ranking Ernestine church musician and the expectations of him were equally high. Within some years, he created a considerable repertoire, which he published from 1602 onwards. He released a new collection almost every year until his early death in 1615 aged 45. Many of these collections found their way to the cantorial library in the little Saxon town of Waldheim where they were preserved until today. Since 2002, this musical heritage has been investigated and gradually made accessible to the public once more. Waldheim’s cantor Rene Michael Roder and Capella Daleminzia directed by him now release a series with the complete works by Vulpius. This release is the second volume in the series, and contains the motets for eight to thirteen parts of the Cantiones Sacrae I, thus completing the recording of Vulpius’ first published collection of works. The nine-part motet “Surrexit pastor bonus” for Easter Monday is the only one in this collection to be sung by four choirs and contains another special feature. While Choir 1 sings the Latin text, the Choirs 2, 3, and 4 contrast this with hymn in German language. Furthermore, the choirs should be placed in a quadrophonic manner if possible.

If, at the beginning of the 1600s, it was the English who were acknowledged to be experts and virtuosos of the viola da gamba, then it was the French who surpassed them by the middle of the century. They, in turn, had to share this status with the gambists working at German courts towards the end of the century, if not cede it to them. At that time, Johann Schenck, August Kuhnel and Conrad Hoffler were well known to the musical world as gamba virtuosos and masters of their trade. But up against the lasting public relation campaign of the Sun King, whose brilliance also made his musicians, in particular, the court gambists Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray, famous far beyond the borders of the countries and centuries, the gambists working at the comparatively small German courts back then were powerless. Although their surviving works are no less elegant, virtuosic and idiomatic than their French counterparts, the fame of the creators of these musical works of art has faded- making it high time to put an end to this imbalance and give three great gambists and their exceptional masterpieces the attention they deserve.

A live recording of Bruckner's most beloved symphony

The organ works are played on the Renaissance organ (around 1580) in the Silver Chapel of Innsbruck court church. Around that a colourful program of typical sacred music of that time.

A ride through the tunes with music from the Baroque to the Modern Era

Typical music of the late 18th century. Stilistic between late baroque and early classicism; this wonderful entertaining music was recorded catching the pure sound of the concert room in Schloss Kochberg

The instrument used for this recording stands in the focus. It's the Scherer-Bunting-organ in the St Nicolai Church in Molln, northern Germany. Presented with an interesting program of baroque and late baroque music

Especially the Romantic Suite belongs to Reger's most beloved orchestral works. Here to be heard in a live recording.

Contemporary music for flute and organ. Evelin Degen plays flutes from from alto to bass

Freiberg has always been an important cultural location. Already shortly after its foundation in the twelfth century; as the result of important discoveries of silver ore; culture and music were documented and integral parts of urban life. Freiberg was the second Saxon city to have a band of town waits from which various musical groups were later to evolve. The town’s prosperity also made possible the building of large hall churches of which the Cathedral St. Mary numbers even today among the region’s most important cultural monuments.

The late 19th century saw the expansion of the Neustadt; the German district of Strasbourg; recently listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Built during the same period; the three historic organs chosen for the complete recording of Johannes Brahms’ organ chorales are the precious witnesses to a time of exceptional artistic luxuriance. The three Fin de siècle composers whose works were additionally selected by Jean-Michel Douiller revive Brahms’s sonorous world as they breathe life into these three instruments: Ernest Chausson; Max Reger; and Gustav Busch. The works by Chausson and Busch are recorded for the very first time on the CD at hand.

Joyful Christmas from the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus

Chamber music for violin and harpsichord resp. Harpsichord alone performed in the Bachhaus which now is used as a Bach museum

The release at hand presents musical portraits of two influential composers of the Baroque era through a selection from their oeuvre for violin and harpsichord: Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644 – 1709) and Georg Muffat (1653 – 1704). Their first meeting in Salzburg was unfortunately not documented. However, it is known that both talents arrived with differing previous musical experiences before spending years in the service of the Archdiocese of Salzburg. Thanks to economic growth and financial strength in this sovereign Catholic principality, all the arts, including music, enjoyed considerable support. Like in all other Baroque centers, music was an integral part of courtly representation, and in Salzburg, it also became an important channel of communication for the Counter-Reformation.

A fabulous violinist, Biber preferred his favorite instrument in his compositions and wrote two sonata collections that belong to the basic repertoire of Baroque solo literature: the “Rosenkranz” or “Mystery” sonatas (c. 1674) and the Violin Sonatas (1681). Two pieces from each of these collections can be heard on the album at hand, rounded off with a passacaglia from Georg Muffat’s collection “Apparatus Musico-Organisticus”, which holds as much significance for Baroque keyboard literature as Biber’s collections for the violin mentioned above, and last but not least a unique piece: Muffat’s only surviving violin sonata. The instruments that meet in this recording come from two worlds: Flóra Fábri performs on a harpsichord built in 2015 by Detmar Hungerberg according to Italian models; the violin played by Dóra Szilágyi was built in 1765 by Sebastian Klotz in Mittenwald.

On the CD at hand; Hannes Pohlit plays the debut recording of the complete cycle. It contains lyrical and dramatical fantasies on tango standards like “El Día Que Me Quieras”; “Por Una Cabeza” and “Sus Ojos Se Cerraron” as well as complex showpieces which due to their virtuosity remind one of Liszt’s “Mephisto Waltz” or opera fantasies. The album is a homage both to the emotional world of the sung classical tango as well as to the exalted romantic salon. It presents the Blüthner Aliquot grand piano as a symphonic instrument and Hannes Pohlit as a versatile stylistic composer as well as a technically superior pianist.

This 2-album set presents the Mitteldeutsche Kammerphilharmonie, led by Jan Michael Horstmann, performing works by previously ostracized composers. The Lichterfeld Foundation of Petra and Ralph-Robert Lichterfeld is committed to ensuring that works by composers who were ostracized find their place in current concert programming. Their project "EchoSpore" lists registers of these composers, yet today many people are unaware of them. To ensure that the rediscovery of these hidden musical gems is not left to a single concert experience, the Mitteldeutsche Kammerphilharmonie has added works by previously "ostracized" composers to each of its "Festliche cammerphilharmonische Concerte" (Festive Chamber Philharmonic Concerts).

This debut album of Austrian violinist Nina Pohn presents seven of the sonatas from Codex 726 of the Vienna Minorite Convent (Nos. 81 to 87), all of which are premiere recordings apart from Nos. 82 and 87. Johann Jakob Walther is the author of Sonata No. 83, and Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber of Sonata No. 84; the other sonatas are anonymous. In light of Biber's outstanding role in the history of scordatura on the violin, it is remarkable that no scordatura is included in Sonata No. 84. Here, scordatura is only required in the anonymous sonatas No. 81 in A major and No. 85 in A minor. These recordings took place in the church St. Anna in Steinbruch (Upper Austria). Its historical, single manual organ, built in 1726 by the Linz organ builder Josef Richter, is perfectly suited for this music. In the context of historical performance techniques, four of the seven sonatas were recorded with the violin resting below the collar bone. That said, all were performed using the early baroque bow grip.