• The Auryn Quartet perform Haydn's Op.55 quartets Nos. 1-3 (1788). • In its 30-year existence, the Auryn Quartet has not had a single change of personnel. • The Auryn Quartet have been exclusive Tacet recording artists since 2000. • Since 2003 the quartet has maintained a teaching position at the Music Academy in Detmold, Germany, where they are professors for chamber-music.

The Auryn Quartet’s Haydn cycle is now complete, and it is easily the finest available in terms of consistency of approach, technical excellence, and sonic superiority. The Op. 76 quartets have enjoyed many fine performances, and interpretively these newcomers might yield something in sheer finesse to the Tokyo Quartet version, but this is a purely personal judgment. First violinist Matthias Lingenfelder has a brief moment or two of precarious intonation in the first movement of the “Emperor” quartet, and in the scherzos there are some tiny rhythmic inflections that need to be lived with in order to determine how well their charm holds up (so far, so good).

In all other respects, these performances are outstanding. Op. 76 No. 6 is particularly impressive, and also typical of the high standards on offer throughout the series. The Fantasia is wonderfully eloquent in its purity and simplicity, and the finale, which can so often sound dry and mechanical, is actually phrased and shaped so that its lyrical impulse is always evident behind Haydn’s humorous “game of upbeats”. Tacet’s sonics throughout this entire series are unequalled for naturalness and warmth. Living with this cycle has been one of the most rewarding musical experiences of recent years. It deserves your support, and will reward your time with countless hours of listening pleasure.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

This was the first multi-channel recording in TACET Real Surround Sound, recorded in 2000. Prior to the microphone construction, the idea arose of selecting a special arrangement for each of the six Brandenburg Concertos in accordance with their scores. Despite the chosen locale’s excess reverberation, the recording was immediately convincing. "This is the high end in 2001", as Stereoplay concluded. The chosen tempi of Benjamin Hudson, the solos by Reinhold Friedrich (trumpet), the whole swing of this music and the multi-channel sound keeps the listener enrapt.

This TACET set achieves yet another level of excellence. Utilizing SACD five channel technology, the listener is presented differing instrumental placements for the various concertos. the effect is quite thrilling. The voices and counterpoint are so clear. It is as if you are inside of Bach's brain. And what a brain this is! Excitingly recommended! (Audiophile Audition)

We pay homage to a conscientious artist who has found a composer and a cause to champion. (Audiophile Audition)

• The Auryn Quartet perform Haydn's Op. 42 (1784), 77 (1799) and 103 (1803) quartets. The final volume of the fourteen volume project. • In its 30-year existence, the Auryn Quartet has not had a single change of personnel. • The Auryn Quartet have been exclusive Tacet recording artists since 2000. • Since 2003 the quartet has maintained a teaching position at the Music Academy in Detmold, Germany, where they are professors for chamber-music.

Blu-ray on TACET means: use like a simple CD player. Enjoy either stereo or 5.1 as desired; switch over with a simple button push. The representation of detail compared with those of other recordings is unmatched. And the love of these four musicians for Joseph Haydn is heard in each and every note. 'Once again, the Auryn Quartet shows itself to be the ideally matched partner for Haydn's world of thought... hardly another ensemble will be able to hold a candle to them.' (klassik-heute)

• The Auryn Quartet perform Haydn's Op. 2 quartets composed in the mid-1760's. • The Auryn Quartet has not had a single change of personnel in its 30-year existence. A most respected ensemble. • One of the first set of 5 audio Blu-ray discs from TACET. • The Blu-ray audio disc was mastered in 24 bit / 96 kHz resolution, both in stereo and in TACET Real 5.1 Standard Surround Sound. • The Blu-ray disc joins the TACET assortment as the fifth sound carrier alongside CD, LP, DVD audio and SACD.

These two wonderful quartets have been audiophile touchstones ever since the Amadeus Quartet (three of them, anyway) and Clifford Curzon recorded them for Decca in the 1950s. Those performances were full of personality, charm and fire, and the sound (at the time) seemed alive and rich in color (today, it sounds a little harsh and aggressive). Along the way there have been fine recordings by many illustrious ensembles, on both modern and original instruments, of which the best purely in terms of sound may have been the musically limpid RCA version with the Guarneri Quartet and Artur Rubinstein. Now, from the German audiophile label Tacet, comes a version that banishes the competition, combining the musical sparkle and sparkle of the early Decca version with the sumptuous sonic radiance of the RCA. The sound, in fact, is so clear and natural that it is like being in the room with the musicians. Operating at moderate speeds, the way the young Austrian pianist Markus Schirmer rolls out phrases as if they were pearls, the way he illuminates the music with a luminous inner elegance, and the way he occasionally adorns the music with ornaments of exceptional originality and delight, leaves no doubt that, for this one release at least, here is a major talent. This is not to say that the very excellent Gaede Trio takes a mere supporting role, for they play as gloriously as on their Tacet recordings of Mozart?s String Trio, KV 563, and their extremely gorgeous transcription of Bach?s Goldberg Variations. I reviewed the 44.1 CD version (numbered just plain 116), but it is hard to imagine anything more musically and sonically satisfying than this CD. Thomas Seedorf?s curious liner notes are quite endearing, especially in an English translation that seems like a gentle parody of German syntax. Ed.: I?ve just auditioned the surround DVD-A, and whether a listener would consider it more musically and sonically satisfying depends on how open they are to the alternative use of the acoustic space made by producer Andreas Spreer. He works from the idea that any sound-carrier is a synthetic product and feels that using the surround field to place the listener in the middle of the performance is more interesting and involving. Thus on the first of these quartets we have the viola at the center speaker, the piano on the right side, the violin on the left speaker and the cello on the left rear surround speaker. For the second quartet the violin/cello and the piano change places. Personally I?m beginning to get used to this, find it much more involving, and in fact find the standard frontal placement of instruments on other recordings a bit boring. But I can imagine some listeners might be freaked out. Laurence Vittes Total playing time: 54'51

This recording first appeared in 2006 in stereo on disc. It was highly praised everywhere, including in Spiegel magazine's cultural section, and was album of the month in Stereoplay. German weekly newspaper "junge Freiheit" wrote, "An exceptional work like this should only be recorded when the performers identify with it completely and utterly, or possibly even over-identify with it. If you want to have everything, you have to give everything." So why is this recording being released again now? Because of the sound.

What the legendary conductor always wanted more than anything was to be a composer. And what other works merely hint at is clearly obvious from this huge three-movement work, a child born of the pain of more than twenty years, a statement: Furtwe�ngler was a man of longing who wanted to outdo Wagner and Bruckner in tonality and the span of feeling. The Clarens Quintet turns this document into an experience. (Kultur-Spiegel)

A person is contemplating the meaninglessness of his existence. The despair over this and many other experiences results in a piece for five strings. Musicians love no other world-famous piece quite as dearly as Franz Schubert’s C major String Quintet, D956. This recording, featuring the Auryn Quartet and Christian Poltéra, received numerous prizes including the quarterly list of the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (prize of German record reviewers). It was first published on CD, LP and DVD-Audio and now also on Blu-ray Disc.

Founded by Matthias Jung in 1996, the Saxon Vocal Ensemble is one of the most highly esteemed ensembles in Germany and around the world. Performances of early music set new standards in stylistic assurance, precision of articulation, certainty of intonation, virtuosity and emotional depth. In time Mr. Jung and the ensemble incorporated Romantic music into their repertoire. Released in 2006 to rave reviews for performance and sound, Felix Mendelssohn’s complete songs for mixed a capella choir can now be heard anew on this Blu-ray audio disc release, in either stereo or multi-channel sound.

A discographical note: Volume 11 is actually the second installment issued in Christoph Ullrich’s projected complete Scarlatti sonata cycle. The pianist has sequenced each volume by sonata in numerical order. His initial release, Volume 1, contains sonatas 1 through 42; sonatas 358 through 387 are here on Volume 11; and Nos. 43 through 357 presumably will follow on Volumes 2 through 10.

The admirable qualities of Ullrich’s earlier Mozart and Schubert releases often inform his Scarlatti, starting with the rhythmic kick and well-turned ornaments in the two opening D major sonatas. Ullrich’s firm and deliberate F minor K. 365 proves equally rewarding alongside faster, lighter piano versions from Serge Babyan and Yevgeny Sudbin. However, Konstantin Scherbakov bests Ullrich’s K. 360 for linear independence.

Ullrich takes the E-flat K. 371 Allegro directive with a grain of salt, and employs changes of color and pace to illuminate the music’s unpredictable harmonic shifts, whereas Maurizio Baglini is fast, harder hitting, and just a few feet short of reckless. The adjacent B minor K. 376/377 pair are sensitively phrased, although Ullrich’s F major K. 378 seems a trifle prosaic next to Fou Ts’ong’s brighter, more unpredictably accented reading, while his relatively flat and generic K. 380 pales in comparison with individually gripping interpreters of this popular sonata such as Horowitz, Lipatti, and the unusually slow yet mesmerizing David Greilsammer.

Ullrich’s clear and shapely delineation of the F minor K. 386’s busy, toccata-like writing is perfectly fine on its own terms, but Christian Zacharias’ suppler touch elevates this approach to a higher level, albeit a few notches below Clara Haskil’s breathtakingly fast yet perfectly controlled 1950 Westminster recording. Though less striking on the surface than Mikhail Pletnev’s spiky, aggressive K. 387, Ullrich’s suaver, faster, and more graceful performance is easier to digest. In a nutshell, Ullrich’s Scarlatti is never less than good, if not so consistently outstanding as Carlo Grante’s ongoing Scarlatti cycle on Music & Arts.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Over the past half-century the transistor has transformed our world. No computer or household gadget would be possible without it these days. As regards audio technology, our question was: did anything get lost on the way, and if so, what? And: A CD made without a transistor - is that really possible? Let US take a look at the signal chain...