On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Jewish Music Series - edited by Joel Rubin and Rita Ottens - Wergo publishes with "Di Eybike Mame" the first CD anthology of recordings featuring women of the Yiddish stage. This carefully edited production with the rare 78 rpm recordings documents the enormous variety of music present during the period 1890-1930, from folksong to music hall and vaudeville, liturgical song to operetta and musical comedy. The booklet includes a detailed essay on Yiddish theater music and the role of women in Yiddish popular song. Despite prohibitions in traditional Judaism against the singing of women in the presence of men, biblical figures such as Miriam and Deborah stand for a female contribution to music within Jewish history. In the 20th century, singers like Sophie Kurtzer, Shaindele and Batsheva dedicated themselves to the Jewish liturgy. Ironically known as "khazntes" (lit. "cantors' wives"), they were compelled to practice their art outside of the synagogue on vaudeville stages and remained exceptions to the rule - despite a stylistic closeness to the great male cantors such as Yossele Rosenblatt and Gershon Sirota. Yiddish popular songs depicted a great variety of women's roles, including not only deceived girls, deserted wives and long-suffering mothers, but also suffragettes, adulteresses and eccentric spinsters. It's stars - often singer, actress, dancer and impresario all rolled up into one - charmed the Jewish world from Warsaw to Buenos Aires and played an important role in the expansion of gender roles. The singer and actress Bertha Kalish from Lemberg was compared favorably to the great actress Sarah Bernhardt, and Regina Prager's voice could have held it's own with that of a Wagnerian heroine. Isa Kremer set new standards with her art song interpretations of Yiddish folksongs, the tomboyish Molly Picon wrote her own lyrics, and melodramatic Jennie Goldstein managed her own theater at the age of 16. Even today one encounters the odd 80 year-old retiree who is still enraptured by the sex appeal of Nellie Casman.

Aneinu! - Moshe "Moussa" Berlin, Israel's foremost klezmer clarinetist, plays with his ensemble from the repertoire of the hasidic-orthodox klezmer tradition. The recordings were made by ethnomusicologist Joel Rubin in a yeshiva (a Jewish institution for Torah study and the study of Talmud) during the ceremony celebrating the end of the holiday Simchat Torah. They show the vital role that the music of the "klezmorim" and the ecstatic singing of "nigunim" (melodies of spiritual elevation) play among orthodox Jews, displaying at the same time a microcosm of the variety of ethnic and cultural influences to be found in the musical traditions of Israel today.

Heinrich Poos is - as a composer - known primarily for his vocal music; as a scholar he is known for numerous studies of works from the entire range of modern music (from the 16th to the 20th century) and as editor of the two-volume "Chormusik und Analyse". This excellently presented CD grants an intimate look into his multifaceted work for choir.

The music of Bali is group music par excellence, that is, there is no soloist to be accompanied, but at most soloistic instruments that nevertheless fulfill a particular musical function within the whole. Gamelan semar pagulingan belongs to the group of court gamelan forms that originated in the fifteenth century. The repertoire of this recording is taken from two different categories: Pengaw� is an instrumental piece from the semar pagulingan repertoire, in which the trompong (a melody instrument with thirteen small tuned bossed gongs) is used. The other pieces on the CD are taken from the l�gong repertoire, music played for ceremonial occasions, sometimes with dancing, using two gend�r (gend�r telulas with thirteen bronze keys) as melody instruments. The CD was awarded the Quarterly German Record Critics' Award!

Wolfgang Rihm is a real phenomenon: his overwhelming creative energy was already present during his childhood. He began composing when he was only 11 years old, long before his studies at the Hochschule fur Musik in Karlsruhe where he successfully passed the state examination in composition and music theory. The current album featuring string quartets and quintets presents works from the early and late stages of his compositional oeuvre. Rihm composed the String Quartet in G minor as a 14-year-old schoolboy. The youthful work displays a close proximity to early Beethoven who at that time stood very m uch under the influence of Haydn. Stylistically, this quartet also shows many similarities to the String Quartet 1968 written a few years later. The ''Epilog'' for string quintet which forges a link with the late works of Schubert was composed 45 years later. Despite its affinity with Schubert's Romanticism, the composition is clearly contemporary in style, not least due to its advanced playing techniques. ''Geste zu Vedova'' is a homage to the Venezuelan artist Emilio Vedova (1919-2006). This music is a percussive and block-like reaction to the kinesis and energy of the artist's creative approach to his works which made such a profound impression on Rihm.

In Madagascar - the fourth biggest island of the world - there is no such thing like "folklore", but only an unbroken and pulsating tradition always open for changes which contains an almost incredible variety of musical forms of expression. The vocal music of the deep South of Madagaskar had a formative influence on the musicians Ricky and Mbasalala. In general, they both play with their own groups, mostly with instrumental accompaniment. The two musicians got to know each other at a meeting in the German Institute of Arts in Antananarivo, the Cercle Germano-Malagasy, and developed the idea for a first joint concert - this CD documents the results: infectious and perfect a cappella songs of own and traditional compositions. Ricky originates from a village near the jungle in the South-East of Madagascar. He intensively devoted himself to the traditional music of his homeland; many of his texts focus on mythical and mystical elements. The preoccupation with European music theory and jazz widened his vocal repertoire considerably. Ricky's modulations from the medium voice range up to head ranges are striking. The homeland of the musician Mbasalala is Androy in the deep South of Madagascar. The Antandroy ("those who come from the thorns") have an almost mystical relationship with their animals and they play an important role in religious rites. All these elements are to be found in Mbasalala's songs in which connection the a cappella singing in the tradition of the Antandroy enjoys the maximum of respect. Mbasalala masters it to perfection. The CD was awarded the Quarterly German Record Critics' Award.

The piano cycles played by Herbert Henck on this double CD - Hymns from a Great Temple, Dances and Chants of the Seids (accompanied by Trilok Gurtu on the daff), Seekers of the Truth, and Melody for the Enneagram - are a collaboration between the mystic Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann. It is a unique document of cultural history and spirituality.

the Negotiation of Context by the native Icelander David Brynjar Franzson is a set of three independent pieces. Each of the three pieces is assembled from various sounds and contexts on top of a topography of pre-existing programs: the history of the instruments, the social dynamics of the performers, and the means of presentation of the piece. The listener is presented with a series of materials that embody how performers play with or against each other. In "the Negotiation of Context (A)" the piano and the pump organ explore the similarities and differences between each other and extend their own sounds into each other's domain. The relationship between the performers is explored through mimicry and opposition - the performers both playing as one and playing alone. "the Negotiation of Context (B)"expands the performance dynamic established in "the Negotiation of Context (A)"through the relationship of two pairs of identical instruments: two pianos and two modified bass drums. The performers mimic each other's sounds and actions. This occurs both across instruments - fusing the sounds of the pianos with the sounds of the modified bass drums - as well as within instruments - fusing each of the two instrumental pairs into one. In "the Negotiation of Context (C)", one performer plays on the keyboard of the piano while a second performer touches the strings of the instrument with fingers and metal slides. The actions of one performer extend the actions of the other. Only through the combined actions of the two performers is a given sound produced.

'Qawwali', ecstatic Sufi song from Pakistan, is a tradition of music over eight hundred years old, deeply rooted in the Islamic Sufi tradition and first made widely accessible to a Western audience by artists such as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the Sabri Brothers. With the ensembles Bahauddin Qutbuddin Qawwal and Asif Ali Khan Manzoor Hussain Santoo Khan Qawwal, "Flight of the Soul" presents rarely heard traditional sounds of this mystic, rousing music. - This is the last recording with the meanwhile passed-away qawwali master, Qutbuddin!

The music of the Fairy Tale Trio is a unique mixture characterized by jazz, improvisation and folk music of the Balkan. It is the ancient Bulgarian folksong forming the basis of this music - an interplay between the sophisticated sound of the wooden kaval, the saxophone's expressivity as well as the rhythms of the big drum tupan. Actually, the three musicians are influenced by very different musical styles. The basic idea for this project was the intention to connect the various styles and kinds of Bulgarian folk music - an experiment resulting in a profound interference of thoughts, eras and roots. For the audience this is a journey into an imaginary world of sounds. Theodosii Spassov integrates the virtuosity of his playing the kaval, a Bulgarian wooden flute, into the indo-jazz-rock of a Trilok Gurtu. Together with the Russian saxophone player Anatoly Vapirov and the percussionist Stoyan Yankoulov, he celebrates a kind of music beyond all stylistic dogmas and clich�s, far away from orthodox definitions of Bulgarian folk music.

Cage composed his Number Pieces during the last six years of his life. Their titles indicate the number of performers or parts. Their notation is based on fixed and flexible "time brackets." the fixed brackets show when a musician should begin and end a pitch or tonal event. With the flexible brackets, the interpreter decides, within a predetermined time frame, when an instrument enters and when it falls silent. This disc featuring pianist Sabine Liebner explores two of Cage's late masterworks.

In a commentary on the group of works called "Tradition", Dieter Schnebel writes that he wishes to track down what is urgent and lively in the time-honoured forms and contexts of the past and lead them to a new present and future in a dynamic way. As one of the most significant works in which that is displayed with great clarity, the "Missa" stands out from Schnebel's oeuvre. "Missa" has got an ecumenical and political character: elements of every kind of Christian church music - and also music of the synagogue - are incorporated into it. Over and above this it acquires a specific connection with Berlin: in memory of the "Bekennende Kirche" [confessing church] in particular of Martin Niemoller, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth and the first performance (1988) took place in the Church of Jesus Christ in Dahlem, where Martin Niemoller once preached and which was once the centre of the church resistance movement against the Nazis. "Missa" ends with the "Dona nobis pacem" in a multi-lingual cry for peace - rebellion and unfulfilled plea in one. This production received the quarterly German Record Critics' Award!

Live recording of the piano recital for the eightieth birthday of composer Hans Otte that Philipp Vandr� and Elmar Schrammel presented at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart. A selection of John Cage's "Sonatas and Interludes" for prepared piano was interwoven with selections from Hans Otte's piano cycles "Das Buch der Kl�nge" (The book of sounds) and "Stundenbuch" (Book of hours). This concert experiment, conceived by Ingo Ahmels, paid quiet homage to the "beautiful piano sound" also found in twentieth-century music, within which Occidental (Otte) and Oriental (Cage) worlds of thought find their way to contrasting commonalities.

Wergo's Studio reihe series CD reissues continue with a classic recording of Stravinsky's last ballet, Agon, performed by the Sinfonie Orchester des Sedwestfunks, Baden-Baden conducted by Hans Rosbaud and originally released on LP in 1964. Agon was written.

This portrait CD presents works by the composer Daniel Smutny who was born in Mannheim in 1976: “To me, composing means integrating various heterogeneities and seeing what comes out as intermediate space, as friction”. Smutny reshuffles the history of music; his allusions are like branding irons searing the listener's memory, like reminiscences jammed together higgledy-piggledy like interlocked hinges. His “Symphony” is the expression of what Smutny the composer pursues obsessively: romantic considerations, calculated expression with recourse to music history, to tonal complexities, with the rich pathos, however, becoming frozen. In Smutny's “Divertimento di 'Ferne Nahe'”, the breaks constitute the formally structuring principle between direct allusions to Beethoven, Schubert, Varese and Zimmermann: “'Ferne Nahe' (distant proximity) is a detailed and experimental study of interpersonal modes of behaviour in a world striving for perfection and maximisation, of the mental dynamics between four figures representing human characteristics, of love and the loneliness of modernity.” (Smutny) “Piano Sonata” invites the listener to look for its characteristic style poised between Chopin, Skriabin or Rakhmaninov. On closer examination, however, it becomes apparent that assumption, association, allusion are all shattered in the course of comparison. Smutny composed “String Quartet” as Beethoven, if you like, who adopted the language of Brahms und Janacek, in order to gallop alongside the fissured edifices and unsystematic twists of Wolfgang Rihm. The CD ends with the vocal composition “Velouria (II)”.