Solo Musica
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Sonatae e Variacie
Bach, Dayer, Jaz, Westhoff & Ysaÿe: Echo of Bach / Raatz
One of the most fascinating challenges that any violinist can face is the repertoire for solo violin. In this genre of music, both the musician and the listener can encounter polyphonic masterpieces performed with minimal means - with only four strings. These pieces often carry as much emotional and musical meaning as works composed for a large orchestra. This rarely represented category in musical literature has always excited the artist Agata-Maria Raatz. She wondered how Bach managed to create such a remarkably complex and demanding harmonic as well as formal structure in his sonatas and partitas for solo violin, which are considered timeless masterpieces of extraordinary brilliance in every detail. Where did he draw his inspiration from? What music did he listen to? And who was he as a person? Bach was not only a genius, but also a human being. Monuments created to honour personalities of genius often obscure their humanity, which encompasses not only the outstanding and special, but also the mundane and prosaic of life.
The album "Echo of BACH" is her personal exploration through the history of solo music for violin, tracing its origins from the early Baroque period to the present. It is a musical journey centred on J. S. Bach, an inspiration to many generations of composers. On this unique path, the great master not only inspires, but is also influenced by the works of other musicians. Among them is a composer who might have been a guidepost for Bach on his musical path. It is the composer and violinist Jean Paul von Westhoff. Bach was 18 years old at the time, while Westhoff died only two years later at the age of 49. The probability is high that they met at that time and the young Bach became familiar with Westhoff's work. For her album she has chosen the Suite No. 5 in D minor. In addition to a piece composed by the artist especially for this CD under the pseudonym Clara Jaz, we also find the work "Cette âme a six ailes tout comme les Séraphins" (This soul has six wings like the Seraphim) composed by the Swiss composer Xavier Dayer especially for Agata-Maria Raatz.
Unity
Five of the best brass players in the world united in a chamber music ensemble: The Reinhold Friedrich Brass Quintett was founded in 2022 and presents here its first CD, UNITY.
For this brass quintet's lifelong dream, world-renowned trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich has brought together the best players in their respective fields, musicians who not only get along extremely well with one another in a musical sense but also on a personal level. In their playing, one can feel their mutual appreciation and their joy in making music together, and, coupled with their unique technical and musical skills, as well as their chamber music experience, this enables the musicians to merge into a single unit.
The players that form this top-class quintet come together from a variety of European countries: Jeroen Berwaerts hails from Belgium and as a former principal trumpeter of the NDR Symphony Orchestra is a much-sought-after soloist who now teaches at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. The Dane, Lasse Mauritzen, who was knighted to the Order of Dannebrog by Queen Margarethe II, is first principal horn of the Copenhagen-based Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra (DRSO). Although Ian Bousfield is British, he now lives in Switzerland and is accustomed to performing around the world as a former principal trombonist with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as being a soloist and a conductor. Fundamental to the quintet is the Norwegian Thomas Røisland, who now lives in Sweden and is principal tuba in the DRSO, as well as playing in other renowned European orchestras.These five musicians are united by their desire to set new standards in brass chamber music for their audiences and to present premiere recordings and commission arrangements of classics that have not yet been recorded at a world-class level.
Bach: Inner Spaces / Tavsanli
The album "Inner Spaces" is the third album of the Istanbul-born pianist Serra Tavsanli. With great certainty one can claim that it is her most personal album. With the works by Johann Sebastian Bach recorded here, she not only presents a masterful interpretation on a modern grand piano, but also connects the music with her own history and origins. In doing so, she reveals her innermost self and provides insight into very personal spaces of thought.
Based on the initials B A C H, Serra Tavsanli has selected the pieces that match the key. Even more, because in the album's booklet she writes: "Pieces that for me stand for different concepts that make up being human and play a role in all traditions and religions. B (Partita in B flat major) symbolizes faith; A (Partita in A minor) stands for hope. C (Toccata in C minor) represents love. B (French Overture in B minor) symbolizes our present. With this selection, the pianist takes her audience directly into her emotional worlds, into her "Inner Spaces".
Serra Tavsanli has ventured deeply into the world of Bach and is completely absorbed in it while playing. In a certain way, she also intentionally makes herself vulnerable. Her playing is narrative, it opens up associative spaces and is at the same time effortless, yet completely uncompromising. In the booklet she writes: "I was suddenly there, where everything succeeds, where it is safe and free. A place that is accessible to everyone, and where origin, religion, skin color or gender no longer play a role. A place where we are not alone." Serra Tavsanli decided to share her insights and experiences, which made her become an exceptional pianist, with her audience. At concerts, she likes to recite texts that she wrote in collaboration with cultural manager and Bach specialist Folkert Uhde to give the works even more context, but also to bring them into our time.
"As an artist, I want to open this place to everyone, to share with anyone and everyone the experience that fear becomes strength, that paralysis becomes strength. A place of hope, of freedom, of doing well. A place where no one is excluded," Serra Tavsanli describes her concern. With this recording, she will certainly succeed in this.
Bartók, Berg, Kodály & Schumann: Schwarze Erde - Art Songs / Scheurle, Hornig
In the 20th Century, as new song forms emerged worldwide, including genres like jazz, rock, and pop, the classical art song of the 19th Century gradually lost popularity. A singer, a piano, poems of love and death, and a romantic tonal language: the leading art form of the bourgeois salon increasingly became a musical niche for lovers and aficionados. The heyday of the European art song, which began in the middle of the 18th century, came to an end at the beginning of the 20th century.
However, composers Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály took a different path: they renewed the art song by returning it to its folk origins. The most fascinating aspect of their work was not just their painstaking ethnomusicological field research. While they preserved Hungarian folk music, recording (as best they could at the time) and notating this music, they also allowed it to inspire their own compositions.
At a time when many musicians appropriated folk music for political reasons, Bartók and Kodály created genuine folk art that did not pander or simplify, but spoke of feelings that directly touched its listeners.
Nocturne / Noll, Kiehr, Orea-Sanchez, Wiedmer, Huang, Carillier
This CD recording is the result of a succession of different moments of musical happiness and the encounter between the solo harpist of the Basel Symphony Orchestra, Aurelie Noll, and two exceptional musicians. María Cristina Kiehr and Yolena Orea-Sanchez (violoncello) have put their talent and artistic sensitivity at the service of this wonderful repertoire. The special sound of the harp creates a kind of new relief here and lends this unusual album its special charm. The program includes works by Reynaldo Hahn, Tchaikovsky, Manuel de Falla and Gabriel Faure. One highlight is certainly the new composition for soprano, cello and harp by Swiss composer Silvan Loher, whose delicate and impressionistic musical style fits wonderfully into this project. Soprano María Cristina Kiehr, born in Tandil, Argentina, is a specialist in "early music". The South American cellist Yolena Orea-Sanchez is a permanent member of the Basel Symphony Orchestra, as is the harpist Noll. She can be heard regularly at numerous European music festivals with the Trio Anthilia (violin, cello and piano), which she co-founded.
Ruedi: Organ Works on Metzler Organs - Herr der Winde
This CD recording not only represents a complete show of organ works composed and played by Sally Jo Rüedi during the last 20 years. It also presents four outstanding organs built during the same period by Metzler Orgelbau AG of Dietikon ZH (Switzerland). Each of these four organs, and of course the room in which they are located, has its own unique sound personality, which the artist has chosen for these recordings to match the character of each composition. One of the main sources of inspiration for this comprehensive release was an encounter with the wind-dynamic organ of the Stadtkirche Biel and the discovery of its many sound possibilities, which it offers to the performing artist and the composer. It is the first organ in the world to combine such a wind-dynamic work with a traditional large church organ. The title piece of this CD, "Kotura – Herr der Winde", is a direct result of the artist's first encounter with this wonderful organ. From the first moment Sally Jo Rüedi was captivated by the ethereal sounds of the wind-dynamic stops and sound effects. Experimenting with these possibilities was as if a floodgate of natural sounds opened up and unfolded in a wave of sonic expression in the church - a true "breeze". Freed from the confines of definable tonal steps, the music is enlivened by a wild creative freedom. It was only after the composer heard the first recording of the first round of improvisations on that magical winter evening that she realised the artistic possibilities that came with this organ. Sally Jo Rüedi was born in England and is organist of the Reformed Churches of Nidau, Oberwil bei Büren, Büren an der Aare and of the Christ Catholic Franziskanerkirche in Solothurn, Switzerland. She is active as a composer and songwriter and has written music for organ, piano, voices and chamber music as well as turning her attention to songwriting. Her music for the song Bright World was performed at the opening of the UN World Summit for the Information Society.
Carpathian Tales
Schneider: The Art of Trumpet / Friedrich
The trumpet can be traced back for almost 4000 years in many cultures and more than any other musical instrument it is surrounded by the aura of something special: it was the signal giver at ritual, religious, military or royal state occasions. The sound of the trumpet is still ambivalent today: even where it presents itself as sweet, it always resonates with a near-death shaking that can also become infernal and violent at any time. This sound remains connected with cosmic, divine or at least princely royal attitude. Reinhold Friedrich is one of the most uncompromising artists in this field. He is one of the world's leading trumpeters - sometimes celebrated in the press as the "Trumpet God" - and impresses with a breathtaking variety of repertoire: whether classical valve trumpet, whether the high piccolo trumpet, natural trumpet, historical keyed trumpet, whether with the Jewish shofar or the softer flugelhorn, - his playing always becomes that event which is then able to provoke reactions ranging from goose bumps to a mental flight of fancy. Whether a complex score of new music, whether baroque music and virtuoso classical music or "just" a little melody of folk music: Reinhold Friedrich always knows how to create with his playing that overwhelming presence of “Now!", which characterizes the trumpet so uniquely... He is joined by equally exposed masters of their craft: solo trumpeter Hannes Läubin, long associated with Reinhold Friedrich as an equal duo partner and friend, and "Grisha" Gregory Ahss, whose violin playing displays a similar stylistic breadth ranging from classical virtuosity to melodically heart-warming emotionality. This distinctive sound college is rounded off by the Munich Symphony Orchestra / Münchner Symphoniker, conducted by Martín Baeza-Rubio, which is as colorful as it is sensitive.
Passion for Ukraine: Art Songs & Folk Arrangements / Belkyna, Petrychenko
The Ukrainian folk song is unquestionably a unique phenomenon. No nation in history has amassed such a wealth of songs as those created by the Ukrainian people. UNESCO has an impressive audio library of folk songs from all over the world. The Ukrainian contribution amounts to some 15,500 songs and is far and away the biggest collection in the library. Folk music in the Ukrainian language originated in the 9th century at the time when Kyivan Rus was founded; the authors of the texts of most songs have long since been forgotten. Over the years, many composers researched and arranged them, principally for voice and piano, and transformed them into “Romances”, art songs, like German Lieder. The program includes 15 songs: three romances by four composers and three folk songs. Each work has accompanied the artist's life in one way or another, so it has a special meaning for Lena Belkina.
Many of the works on this album are being recorded for the first time – and this is a great opportunity to discover Ukrainian music, its character, its temperament, its melodic language and the influence of time upon it. The program is emotional and multi-faceted and would not have sounded so authentic without the pianist Violina Petrychenko. She is making Ukrainian piano music known around the world, recording composers like Kosenko, Revutskyi, Barvinskyi and other artists little known in the wider world. This duet is a union of opposites that are brought together to complement one another, to reflect personal strength and passion for music. The artists united by a common goal – showing Ukrainian art full of love for their country to the whole world.
Beethoven, Clementi & Nageli: Hans Georg Nageli's World / Biesemans
The first part of the Douze Toccates by Hans Georg Nägeli was published in Zurich in 1808; there was no second part. On the title page, the composer conceals himself behind an “éditeur” of the same name. Prominent status, on the other hand, is given to the Répertoire des Clavecinistes, a series that ran from 1803 to 1805 in which Nägeli published a total of 15 volumes with works by Clementi, Steibelt, Dussek, Beethoven and others. The choice of “auteurs”, whose works he included in the Répertoire and to whom he dedicated the Toccates, reveals Nägeli’s view of the latest developments in music for the keyboard. Clementi and Beethoven in particular stand out for him as representatives of an era in which “contrapuntal writing is interwoven with artful display by the pianist”, as he writes in the “Announcement” of the Répertoire in the musical press. It is his aim that the Toccates should be understood as an observation on this turning-point in music history. There are therefore good reasons to combine Nägeli’s Toccates with works by Clementi and Beethoven on this release. Nägeli’s pieces enter into a historical context that is an integral part of the Toccates as aesthetic objects, not mere surroundings to them. We hear Nägeli’s pieces in Nägeli’s musical world and Nägeli’s musical world in the pieces. The musical portfolio of Els Biesemans has many aspects to it. After studying piano, organ and chamber music at the Lemmens-Institut in Leuven, Els Biesemans specialized in the varied keyboard styles of the 18th and 19th centuries at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. With a repertoire ranging from medieval music to the modern era, Els Biesemans is the recipient of numerous international awards.
Mozart Made in Salzburg
Liszt: Piano Transcriptions of Schubert & Wagner / Diatkine
Enescu: Impressions d'enfance / Ketler, Bezrodny, Apap, Ensemble Raro
Grieg & Ragnarsson: Nordlicht
Eberl: Rediscovered - 3 String quartets, Op.13 / casalQuartett
Inspiration Populaire
Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin & Vladigerov: Slavic Heart / Petrova
Daxer: Was ich Dir noch sagen wollte…Ungeschriebene Briefe / Müller, Daxer
At a certain age, one would like to reflect a bit publicly on the past! says the man who is known to the general public through his role as the lovable policeman Michi Mohr from the TV series "Rosenheim Cops". And that's what musician and actor Max Müller does - acoustically! On an album together with a book he has written twelve "unwritten letters". To twelve people to whom he "still wanted to say something". Clear, unambiguous and - with a twinkle in his eye! He is musically accompanied by the harpist Elisabeth Daxer with specially composed pieces.
Schubert: Lebensfreude - Overtures / Schellenberger, German Symphony Orchestra Berlin
Ewig Dein Mozart - Lieder und Briefe eines Komponisten
Enjoy the dramaturgical charm of "Ewig Dein Mozart" and simply surrender to the artist's "approach" to the genius Mozart. Because our generation would also be poorer by an infinite without Mozart. Max Mueller studied acting and singing at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna as well as with Edith Nordegg, Charlotte Grubenmann and Kammersänger Walter Berry. Performance engagements have taken him to such prestigious venues as the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, Wiener Metropol, Theatre de la Bastille, Paris, and many more. With the album "Ewig Dein Mozart" Max Müller also impressively presents himself as a singer in Germany. He combines letters from the composer with selected songs, which he "reads with delicious wit and interprets with emotional depth" (Prof. Gerda Fröhlich, Artistic Director Carinthischer Sommer) The press wrote about his concert of the same name: “You wouldn't want to believe that you can turn every Mozart song into a little scenic experience. Max Müller taught his audience better than that!”
