Spider's Egg is a sextet put together by Brasilian guitar player Pedro Martins specifically for the 50th edition of the SWR NewJazz Meeting. For five days the six young, internationally renowned musicians, who come from very different geographical places and stylistic directions, exchanged ideas. They experimented in the SWR studios and developed a concert program that they then presented in three concerts in Germany and recorded for the present release. Pedro Martins,​ Brazilian musical prodigy, and winner of The 2015 Montreux Guitar Competition is well known for his collaborations with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Yaron Herman, David Binney, Jacob Collier, and Genevieve Artadi (Knower), as well as Brazilian jazz greats ​Hamilton de Holanda, ​Gabriel Grossi, and Léo Gandelman.

Here we present a new installment in the complete recording cycle of Dvor�k's Symphonic Works with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, containing not only the symphonies but also rarely recorded opera ouvertures of the Czech composer. The new chief conductor of the orchestra, Finnish maestro Pietari Inkinen, continues the Dvor�k Cycle begun under the baton of Karel Mark Chichon. In September 2017 Pietari Inkinen became Chief Conductor of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbruecken. Inkinen is also Chief Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, a post he has held since the beginning of the 16-17 season. He has also been Chief Conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra since 2015. Also an accomplished violin soloist, Inkinen studied at the Cologne Music Academy with Zakhar Bron, winning various awards and prizes for his solo work, before taking further studies in conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He continues to enjoy play-directing and performing chamber music with his regular musical partners.

Following the 5-album box set of Claudio Arrau's solo recitals, this new installment focuses on his SWR recordings of piano concertos. The recorded works belong to Arrau’s most favorites and are now being released for the first time. These are stirring interpretations full of controlled virtuosity. Claudio Arrau León was a Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning the baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. A child prodigy, he could read music before he could read words. “His sound is amazing, and it is entirely his own… no one else has it exactly that way. His devotion… is extraordinary. He ennobles that music in a way no one else in the world can.” (Sir Colin Davis)

This is a re-release of the SWRmusic bestseller 93.164, containing Mahler's Symphony No.4 - one of his most famous and beloved works, here conducted by Roger Norrington, famous for his "Stuttgart Sound." Though it was writing in 1899 and 1900, Mahler's Symphony No. 4 incorporates a song that was originally written in 1892, "Das himmlische Leben." The song presents a child's vision of heaven, and it is sung by a soprano in the work's fourth and final movement. Sir Roger Norrington was born in Oxford, and comes from a musical University family. He was a talented boy soprano, studying the violin from the age of ten and singing from the age of seventeen. He read English Literature at Cambridge University, and spent several years as an amateur violinist, tenor singer, and conductor, before attending the Royal College of Music as a postgraduate student of conducting, studying with Sir Adrian Boult. Norrington's work on scores, orchestral sound and size, seating and playing style has had a growing effect on the perception of 18th- and 19th- century orchestral music. He is in great demand as a guest conductor for symphony orchestras worldwide, working regularly with orchestras in Berlin, Vienna, Leipzig, Salzburg, Amsterdam, Paris, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and London.

Anton Bruckner's Sixth Symphony from 1881 and Karl Amadeus Hartmann's Sixth Symphony from 1953 are examples of Romantic and late-Romantic compositions of rare expressiveness. Bruckner's music ranges between the poles of intimacy and triumph, Hartmann's between melancholy and apocalyptic vision. This is a re-release of the SWRmusic bestseller 93.051 which features the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg with conductor Ferdinand Leitner. Ferdinand Leitner studied at the Music School in his home city under Fritz Schreker and Julius Pr�wer from 1926 to 1931, as well as receiving instruction from Artur Schnabel and Karl Muck. Leitner became known mainly as an opera conductor. He promoted 20th-century German opera, especially the works of Carl Orff and Karl-Amadeus Hartmann. His premieres include the operas Oedipus the King by Carl Orff (1959), Don Juan und Faust (1950) as well as Hamlet (1980), both by Hermannn Reutter. He succeeded Erich Kleiber as conductor of the German operas at the Teatro Col�n in Buenos Aires in 1956. From 1969 to 1984, he was senior musical director of the Z�rich Opera and from 1976 to 1980 principal conductor of the Residence Orchestra in The Hague at the same time. From 1988, he was principal guest conductor of the RAI Symphony Orchestra in Turin.

A 2019 New York Times Gift Guide Selection

This is the second release ever of Henzes famous Oratorio, after the release of the general rehearsal for the world's first premiere from 1968 by Deutsche Grammophon. Excellent sound technique, first class singers and orchestra (conducted by none other than Peter Eötvös) as well as a booklet containing detailed liner notes and the libretto contribute in making this album a very important testimony about the music of the 20th century. Henze wrote the Oratorio as a Requiem for Che Guevara and set it to a text by Ernst Schnabel. It tells the story of the French frigate Meduse, which ran aground off the west coast of Africa in 1816, immortalized in the painting of the same name by Theodore Gericault. The work employs a large orchestra, a speaker, a soprano, a baritone, and choruses. In the course of a performance, the chorus members move from left side of the stage, “the Side of the Living,” to the right side, “the Side of the Dead.”

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REVIEWS:

Looking for that special something for that special someone this holiday?

Flowers? Those die.

Jewelry? Too bougie.

A day at the spa? Namaste!

An hour-long modernist requiem on the death of Che Guevara featuring a head of snakes, sung/spoken/sprechtimme’d IN GERMAN? Dear, you are so generous. I cannot possibly repay the kindness.

– New York Times 2019 Gift Guide

Anyone who wants to know Henze or know him better would be well-served and enlivened by this one. And it would be a valuable addition to the confirmed Henze fan's library. Recommended.

– Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review

Lola Bobesco: an admirable and great musician whose name is nowadays not as well-known as that of other important violinists of the 20th century. This might be attributed to the fact that you had to experience her live, on stage, where she was especially convincing. Her compelling and lively playing as well as the way she efficiently dealt with the kinetic energy of music made her audience listen with rapt attention. This is an extensive release which features Lola Bobesco. It contains three albums featuring violin concertos from the Baroque to the 20th century. Some of the recordings featured here are being released for the first time.

This is the first of four releases that feature the SWR recordings of Friedrich Gulda. All recordings on this album are being released here for the first time. The recording of the "Inner Circle" on album 7 is to date the only one of Guldas jazz ensemble. The series contains, among solo repertoire and concerts, also compositions by Freidrich Gulda himself. The whole series is thus an extensive documentation of Guldas music universe. Friedrich Gulda began his career in music studying at the Vienna Music Academy. He went on to win first prize at the 1946 Geneva International Music Competition, and made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1950. While most renowned for his Mozart and Beethoven interpretations, he is also remembered for his free improvisation and jazz interests.

This is the first album of Pietari Inkinen as chief conductor of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie. Inkinen, as well as Lise Lindstrom and Stefan Vinke who are already known as highly experienced Wagner performers. Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen took up his position as Principal Conductor of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie in September 2017. He is also the principal conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, and the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele. As guest conductor he has been on the podium with many well-known orchestras, including the Berlin Staatskapelle, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and others. Inkinen is not only a successful conductor, but also a successful violinist. He studied under Zakhar Bron at Cologne Music College before continuing his education as a conductor at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

This is a new installment in the SWR Vokalensemble's country series. It contains excellent performances of rarely performed and recorded choral works. The SWR Vokalensemble is among the best choirs in the world. The accompanying booklet contains the Japanese texts of the works. In it's more than 2000-year history Japan has developed it's own, independent music, whose principal means of expression are single tones and tonal color, which is used in quite a broad spectrum, including sounds. References to nature and it's sounds is another aspect of great significance. This album presents a selection of choral works which were composed after 1950, at a time when a lot of Japanese composers began to free themselves from European and American music as their model and started to develop individual styles. In doing so, they also used elements of Japan's musical tradition and integrated them into their own musical language in various ways.

When Brooklyn-born, NYC native Kenny Werner came on stage for his concert in Stuttgart in 1992, he had just begun experimenting with the possibilities of solo piano programs. Over time he grew into the role of a high-quality craftsman who drew his strength not from the struggle for innovation, but from the elegance and finesse with which he incorporated the pianistic possibilities of the keyboard tradition into his music. In artistic self-understanding he was one step ahead of his era.

Werner’s advanced position was also evident in the repertoire that he brought with him to the studio room of the SDR (Süddeutscher Rundfunk) in Stuttgart on 10 June 1992. Most of the compositions were standards associated with the “Great American Songbook”, which he took as a starting point for letting his own creativity play on familiar melodies and forms. It didn’t interest Werner to have the material fall apart in the postmodern fashion typical of the time. On the contrary, for him it was about the perfection of an interior design of the songs, which allowed him to savor the freedom within the set frame of classical jazz patterns. The evening in Stuttgart thus becomes a link in the canon of Werner’s style.

Born in Brooklyn, NY on November 19, 1951 and then growing up in Oceanside, Long Island, Kenny Werner began playing and performing at a young age, first recording on television at the age of 11. Although he studied classical piano as a child, he enjoyed playing anything he heard on the radio. In high school and his first years of college he attended the Manhattan School of Music as a classical piano major. His natural instinct for improvisation led Kenny to the Berklee School of Music in 1970. There he sought tutelage of the renowned piano teacher Madame Chaloff. Her gracious wisdom and inspiration became a driving force in Kenny’s conception: A music conscious of its spiritual intent and essence. From Boston, Kenny traveled to Brazil with the saxophonist Victor Assis Brasil. There he met Victor’s twin brother, Brazilian pianist Joao Assis Brasil. He studied with Joao, who provided another piece of the puzzle for Kenny’s conception that would lead to Effortless Mastery, his landmark opus on how to allow the master musician from within to manifest. Kenny Werner has been a world-class pianist and composer for over forty years. His prolific output of compositions, recordings and publications continue to impact audiences around the world.

This is a re-release of an SWRmusic bestseller. The recording was the very first one of the original version of Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle, realized using the critical new edition based on Rossini’s autograph score published in 1991 by Carus. Gioachino Rossini's Petite messe solennelle (Little solemn mass) was written in 1863, possibly at the request of Count Alexis Pillet-Will for his wife Louise to whom it is dedicated. The composer, who had retired from composing operas more than 30 years before, described it as "the last of my péchés de vieillesse" (sins of old age). The extended work is a missa solemnis, but Rossini labeled it, not without irony, petite (little). He scored it originally for twelve singers, four of them soloists, two pianos and harmonium. The mass was first performed on 14 March 1864 at the couple's new home in Paris. Rossini later produced an orchestral version, including an additional movement, a setting of the hymn "O salutaris hostia" as a soprano aria. This version of the mass was not performed during his lifetime because he could not obtain permission to perform it with female singers in a church. It was first performed three months after his death, at the Salle Ventadour in Paris by the company of the Théâtre-Italien on 24 February 1869.

This is a re-release of an SWRmusic bestseller. The SWR Vokalensemble, for many years counted among the top international ensembles for contemporary music, performs here with its chief conductor Marcus Creed one of the most important works in the a cappella repertoire: Rachmaninoff's All-Night-Vigil op.37. The piece consists of settings of texts taken from the Russian Orthodox All-night vigil ceremony. It has been praised as Rachmaninoff's finest achievement and "the greatest musical achievement of the Russian Orthodox Church.” It was one of Rachmaninoff's two favorite compositions along with The Bells, and the composer requested that its fifth movement (Nunc Dimittis) be sung at his funeral.

This is the 8th installment in the SWR CLASSIC series dedicated to Fritz Wunderlich. It contains never before released recordings as well as rarely performed repertoire worth discovering, brilliantly sung by one of the most talented tenors of all times. The esteemed German tenor, Fritz Wunderlich was no doubt enveloped in music at an early age. Urged to pursue classical voice training by theater people who heard him singing as they passed the bakery where he worked, the young Wunderlich was granted a scholarship to the Freiburg Music Academy in Breisgau by the town fathers. He studied there from 1950 to 1955, also studying the classical horn, which explains his almost supernatural breath control. After playing Tamino in a 1955 student production of W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Fritz Wunderlich was engaged by the Wurttemberg State Opera in Stuttgart. His first professional role was as Ulrich Eislinger in Die Meistersinger. When he was called to play Tamino for an ailing Josef Traxel, Stuttgart had a new star and Fritz Wunderlich's short but amazing career had begun. During the remaining decade of his life Fritz Wunderlich gained the highest respect as a W.A. Mozart singer, lending lyrical brilliance to J.S. Bach, Schubert and Gustav Mahler and melodic tenderness to Bel Canto and light opera roles. Following such greats as Tauber and Schmidt, Wunderlich also devoted a good part of his time to the beautiful songs of such composers as Strauss, Lehár, Kálmán and Fall.

This release is a new installment in the SWR Classics Edition dedicated to Hand Rosbaud. It offers the chance to enjoy two renowned pianists - Nikita Magaloff and Hans Richter-Haaser, with Hans Rosbaud providing authoritative orchestral accompaniment. Gramophone recently remarked that Rosbaud "was one of the unsung heroes of mid-20th-century music, who... gave thoroughly rehearsed and assimilated performances and premieres of the widest possible range of music". In Fanfare, Peter J. Rabinowitz pointed to range of his sympathies, claiming it was "greater than that of just about any of his contemporaries except perhaps Bernstein, Scherchen, and Stokowski. Rosbaud is best remembered, probably, for his Mahler, his Bruckner, his work with the Second Vienna School... and especially his commitment to the post-war avant-garde..."