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Kapsperger: Intavolatura Di Chitarrone - Theorbo Music / Nordberg

BIS

SACD

$21.99 Aug 02, 2019

At the end of the 16th century, the pursuit of greater, more vivid expressivity dominated music-making all across Italy, taking madrigals and other vocal ensemble forms as its starting point but soon going on to explore the possibilities offered by solo singing. For some decades the theorbo (or chitarone, as it was also called) was regarded as the ideal instrument for accompanying singers, but as a leading exponent of the instrument Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger soon also established it as a solo instrument in its own right. Of German descent, Kapsperger published his first book of solo pieces for the theorbo in 1604 and went on to enjoy a successful career in Rome, contributing to the monumental cultural programme of Pope Urban VIII. There he moved in intellectual circles, particularly that of the scientist Galileo Galilei. During the 1630s things became quiet for Kapsperger, possibly a side effect of Galilei’s conviction for heresy in 1633. Not until 1640 did his last known volume of theorbo pieces appear, the number four in its title indicating that two books have been lost. A particularly attractive aspect of Kapsperger’s music for the theorbo is the marked contrasts between dramatic and impetuous toccatas, straightforward, ‘no-nonsense’ passacaglias and rhythmically refined but simply constructed dance movements such as galliards. These are here all made to sound under the fingers of Jonas Nordberg, sought-after as soloist as well as ensemble musician, performing on a wide range of plucked instruments including the lute, guitar and theorbo. On BIS he has previously appeared on the acclaimed album Heroines with soprano Ruby Hughes and in chamber works with recorder player Dan Laurin.

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Kapsperger: Intavolatura Di Chitarrone - Theorbo Music / Nordberg
BIS Aug 2019
SACD
$21.99

Brahms: A German Requiem (1871 London version)

Naxos

$19.99 Sep 13, 2019

Brahms' fascination with music of the 16th to the 18th centuries was nurtured during his appointment in Vienna as conductor of the Singakademie. His own choral compositions had gradually moved from an almost pastiche Renaissance style towards a fully mature, Romantic approach, culminating in his large-scale choral masterpiece Ein deutsches Requiem. This performance is sung in a new English translation prepared by Lara Hoggard that fits the original German declamation and with the piano four-hands accompaniment written by Brahms himself.

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Brahms: A German Requiem (1871 London version)
Naxos Sep 2019
CD
$19.99

GERMAN WIND QUINTETS
Crystal Records Sep 2013
Blu-Ray
$20.99

Weber / Helmchen, Prohaska, Eschenbach, Berlin Concert House Orchestra

Alpha

$20.99 May 28, 2021

200 years ago, on May 26th 1821, today's Berlin Concert Hall was inaugurated as “Königliches Schauspielhaus”. Destroyed as “Preußisches Staatstheater” during World War II, the building, located in eastern Berlin, was rebuilt during GDR times and reopened as “Konzerthaus” in 1984. The premiere of Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz on June 18th 1821 was a highlight of the opening year. The work became his most popular opera and one of the key works of the 19th century. A few days later, the composer (who died at the age of only 40 in 1826), had another piece premiered at the “Königliches Schauspielhaus”: his brilliant Concert Piece for Piano and Orchestra op.79.

This year the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, with its principal conductor Christoph Eschenbach, will be celebrating these historic events. Weber holds a special place in the life of the great German conductor and pianist, as Der Freischütz was the first opera he saw at the age of ten. Eschenbach is being joined in this program, which combines overtures, arias and the famous concert piece, by two artists who reside at the Konzerthaus Berlin and are also Alpha artists: soprano Anna Prohaska and pianist Martin Helmchen.

REVIEW:

Martin Helmchen gives real substance to the Konzertstück by incorporating the profusion of flashy runs and roulades into long-breathed, expressive phrases, and also in the way he renders details exquisitely yet without exaggeration. Eschenbach and the orchestra deserve credit, too, for they match Helmchen's deft touch and broad colour palette. Note, too, how the strings' spectral tone immediately sets the frightful scene Aennchen paints in her Act 3 Romanze. Soprano Anna Prohaska is a marvellous storyteller, although it's her viscous legato that impresses most.

– Gramophone

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Weber / Helmchen, Prohaska, Eschenbach, Berlin Concert House Orchestra
Alpha May 2021
CD
$20.99

Zimmermann, U.: Schuhu Und Die Fliegende Prinzessin (Der) [O
Berlin Classics May 2002
CD
$18.99

Bohm: Complete Organ Works / Friedhelm Flamme

CPO

SACD

$36.99 Jan 31, 2012

Organ Works of the North German Baroque featuring Flamme’s interpretation of Boehm’s complete organ oeuvre on the Creutzburg organ in the Church of St. Cyriacus in Duderstadt. Bohm, born in Thuringia, was 24 years older than Bach and the organist at St. John’s Church in Luneburg when the young Bach was residing there. Even if documents for a pupil-teacher relationship are lacking, the presence of the highly talented young musician in this town cannot have escaped Bohm’s notice.

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Bohm: Complete Organ Works / Friedhelm Flamme
CPO Jan 2012
SACD
$36.99

Schauensee: Eine Engelberger Talhochzeit

Relief

$33.99 Oct 20, 2023

As of 2023, most of the multitude of manuscripts documenting the extensive oeuvre of the Lucerne-born composer Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer von Schauensee are missing, if not lost forever. For this reason, there is no official catalogue of his works. His opera Die Engelbergische Talhochzeit (the Engelberg valley wedding) was reconstructed and edited by Hans Vogt and Hans Visscher van Gaasbeck in 1935. Acts one and two were performed as an incomplete work under the baton of Hans Vogt during the Swiss National Exhibition in Zurich in 1939. Sometime later, the third act was discovered in the music library of the Benedictine Abbey of St Andrew in Sarnen, following which Hans Vogt arranged the complete opera for a radio broadcast.

This arrangement was recorded under his direction on December 10, 1958, and broadcast for the first time by Radio Basel on April 5, 1959. The opera went on to be performed in various concert halls throughout German-speaking Switzerland. In 1974, Armin Brunner directed the opera at a studio in Zurich for a DRS television broadcast, though significant cuts were made in the recording. In 1982, Talhochzeit was performed by the Zurich Opera at Stadthof 11 (now Theater 11) in Zurich and subsequently on a tour of various Swiss venues.

Performances at the tradition-steeped Kantonsschule Obwalden grammar school in Sarnen in April 2015 (celebrating the 400-year history of the local abbey) and at the Kursaal hall of the Kempinski Palace hotel in Engelberg (marking the 200th anniversary of the accession of Engelberg to the canton of Obwalden) were the first since 1781 to feature the full composition with all its roles and complete text. The sole complete recording of the work is featured on this CD and so is released here for the first time. The bonus tracks on the second CD are likewise without precedent on disc.

Meyer von Schauensee composed a number of small-scale vocal works. The one presented here is titled Modetorheiten – eine Fastnachtsoperette (roughly: fashion fads – a Shrovetide operetta). This work lasts 30 minutes and seems to have been written for some occasion during the locally celebrated Shrovetide carnival of "Fastnacht”.

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Schauensee: Eine Engelberger Talhochzeit
Relief Oct 2023
CD
$33.99

Flor: 10 Suites for Harpsichord

Brilliant Classics

$12.99 Sep 04, 2026

Christian Flor (1626-1697) was a German Baroque composer and organist whose work reflects the stylistic transition between early and high Baroque music in northern Europe. Although not as widely known today as some of his contemporaries, Flor held important musical positions during his lifetime, serving as an organist and contributing to the rich liturgical and instrumental traditions of 17th-century Germany. Among his surviving works, Flor's ten suites for harpsichord stand out as a significant contribution to the development of the Baroque suite. These suites follow the typical structure of the time, generally consisting of a sequence of dance movements such as allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue. Each movement contrasts in tempo and character, creating a balanced and varied musical experience within a unified tonal framework. Flor's writing for harpsichord is notable for it's clarity and elegance. Rather than focusing on virtuosic display, his suites emphasize melodic development, harmonic richness, and rhythmic vitality. This approach makes his music both accessible and expressive, while his use of ornamentation is tasteful and idiomatic, enhancing the musical line without overwhelming it. The ten suites also illustrate the broader European influences present in German Baroque music. Elements of French dance style and Italian melodic expressiveness can be found throughout, showing Flor's awareness of international trends. At the same time, his music retains a distinctly German contrapuntal sensibility. Played on the harpsichord by Simone Pierini. Born in Rome in 1996, Pierini began studying music at the age of eight. Aged eighteen, he graduated in piano at S. Cecilia Conservatory of Music, Rome, with highest honors. He afterwards grew interest in historically informed piano practice, attending masterclasses led by Alexei Lubimov, Andreas Staier, Tobias Koch, Stefano Fiuzzi. Subsequently, his interest about historical keyboards in general grew further, and he began studying harpsichord and basso continuo with such teachers as Andrea Coen and Giovanni Togni. His recordings with music by Cherubini (BC96246), the complete piano sonatas by Helene de Montgeroult (BC96247) and the complete Piano Sonatas by Cramer were very positively received by the press. Classic FM nominated him as one of the 30 best musicians under 30 in 2024.

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Flor: 10 Suites for Harpsichord
Brilliant Classics Sep 2026
CD
$12.99

Korngold: Das wunder der Heliane / Albrecht, Berlin German Opera [Blu-ray]

Naxos AudioVisual

Blu-Ray

$40.99 Jun 14, 2019

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Erich Wolfgang Korngold regarded Das Wunder der Heliane as his greatest work, but the opera has been neglected since its premiere in 1927. This 2018 production from the Deutsche Oper Berlin features the American soprano Sara Jakubiak as Heliane, and the American tenor Brian Jagde as The Stranger in the award-winning director Christof Loy’s acclaimed staging. The Orchestra and Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin deliver the large forces required for this hyper-Romantic opera, under the baton of Dutch National Opera’s chief conductor Marc Albrecht.

-----

REVIEWS:

Das Wunder der Heliane is Korngold’s most extravagant stage work and one that he considered to be his greatest score. Written for a huge ensemble, masterfully used, the music possesses voluptuous sweep and hyper-Romanticism. Its intensity is emphasised through an intoxicating array of effects, propulsive rhythms and glorious vocal lyricism, its arc of climaxes building from one act to another. This revelatory new Berlin staging in 2018 enjoyed an unprecedented 20-minute ovation at its premiere.

– Opera Lounge

The performance is conducted with all the necessary full-blooded fervour by Marc Albrecht, and Korngold’s score emerges in all its richly chromatic, glittering tonality and overheated intensity.

– Telegraph (UK)

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Korngold: Das wunder der Heliane / Albrecht, Berlin German Opera [Blu-ray]
Naxos AudioVisual Jun 2019
Blu-Ray
$40.99

COMPLETE RECORDINGS ON DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON

ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA

$76.99 Aug 22, 2025

'Karajan's producer' on the podium - the complete recordings of Otto Gerdes for Deutsche Grammophon, including previously unpublished material and displaying some of the most thrilling versions of orchestral masterpieces to be recorded. Reviews for these recordings reached for superlatives: "a stunning disc from first moment to last" (Brahms 4); "Luminous sound" (Eugene Onegin); "rather sweeps the field" (Dvorak 9); "silence[s] all criticism" (Tannhauser); "Trenchant interpretation" (Wagner Symphony in C). The 1961-62 cycle of Beethoven symphonies conducted by Herbert von Karajan is still celebrated for it's technical as well as musical excellence. The recording producer was Otto Gerdes, who had joined DG in 1956 after working as a producer for Eterna in the former East Germany. He had trained as a conductor under Hermann Abendroth in his home city of Cologne and continued to conduct opera and concerts in Germany and Italy through the 1950s and 60s. A notorious confrontation with Karajan led to Gerdes resuming his full-time career as a conductor, which led to a complete recording of Wagner's Tannhauser for DG, and the first stereo version of the composer's early Symphony in C. Tannhauser was cast with singers in their prime - Birgit Nilsson, Wolfgang Windgassen and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau - and German-language highlights of Eugene Onegin and Otello featured Fritz Wunderlich (as Lensky) and Fischer-Dieskau (as Otello). In the early 1960s, Gerdes made three 'test recordings' with the Berlin Philharmonic: The Fourth Symphony of Brahms, the 'New World' by Dvorak and a collection of Wagner preludes. When released on LP, the symphonies were enthusiastically received for their old-school ebb and flow and Romantic intensity of expression. The Wagner recordings show Gerdes in full command of 'Karajan's orchestra'. The complete album of Hugo Wolf's orchestral music is released on CD in it's entirety for this first time, recorded live at the Musikverein in Vienna in 1968. This features Thomas Stewart and Evelyn Lear in the composer's own orchestrations of his Lieder, as well as the Italian Serenade, and the rarely heard but enthralling tone-poem Penthesilea which shows Wolf at his most passionately inspired. Additionally, there is a whole disc of previously unpublished material - overtures, ballet music and intermezzi. Compiled together for the first time in an 'Original Jackets' box, the DG recordings of Otto Gerdes pay tribute to a forgotten but significant figure in the recording world of the 1960s. The eventful story of Gerdes's career is told in a new essay by Peter Quantrill, and all the recordings have been newly remastered.

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COMPLETE RECORDINGS ON DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON
ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA Aug 2025
CD
$76.99

Aurora Germanica

Château de Versailles Spectacles

$17.84 ~~$20.99~~ Save 15% Sep 18, 2026

Long before Bach's genius came to the fore, a line of intrepid minds patiently paved the way for the dawn of the Baroque violin in the Holy Roman Empire, lifting it out of the shadow of the voice to establish it as a commanding solo instrument. From the contrapuntal rigour of Samuel Capricornus to the theatrical brilliance of Biber, via the elegance of Krieger, Schmelzer, Westhoff, and Vilsmayr, this album unfolds an evolving Germanic musical landscape. With infinite delicacy, Louise Ayrton unearths these forgotten roots and celebrates these visionaries, who laid the foundations for the violin to finally become the absolute master of it's own musical narrative.

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Aurora Germanica
Château de Versailles Spectacles Sep 2026
CD
~~$20.99~~ $17.84

Moving Times

Double Moon Records

$14.99 Jul 18, 2025

There are good reasons why the names of all those involved in this album are listed as equal partners. "Moving Times" is the result of real teamwork and is the first production of a newly formed group in which everyone acts on an equal footing. This is not self-evident, because singer Esther Kaiser and guitarist Axel Fischbacher represent two established big names in the German jazz scene, who have been independently leading their own bands for many years and have released a large number of their own albums. The two belong to different generations while bassist Genevieve O'Driscoll and drummer/vibraphonist Michael Knippschild represent another one. That means three generations, two women and two men, and it fits as if there were nothing more normal in the world.

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Moving Times
Double Moon Records Jul 2025
CD
$14.99

Christmas Cantatas from Central Germany, Vol. 2 / Jung, Batzdorfer Hofkapelle

CPO

$18.99 Jan 21, 2022

The Sächsisches Vocalensemble under Matthias Jung has now recorded its second selection of Christmas gems for cpo from one of the most important collections of Lutheran church music, the St. Augustin School in Grimma, Saxony. The focus: festive, magnificent church cantatas (most of them including Christmas trumpet splendor) by composers from Central Germany who were famous musicians and held prominent posts during the years before and after 1700. To name only a few: Johann Schelle, Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, and Johann Rosenmüller, as well as composers such as Christian Liebe or Gottfried Vogel who are no longer remembered today but whose music brings wonder to modern listeners.

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Christmas Cantatas from Central Germany, Vol. 2 / Jung, Batzdorfer Hofkapelle
CPO Jan 2022
CD
$18.99

Bohemian Legacy

Challenge Classics

$16.99 Feb 06, 2026

The album Bohemian Legacy by Trio 258 is a heartfelt tribute to three generations of Czech composers - Bedrich Smetana, Antonin Dvorak, and Josef Suk - whose music embodies the soul of Bohemian culture. The program begins with Smetana's Piano Trio in G minor, a deeply personal and tragic work written in the wake of his daughter's death, where raw grief intertwines with Bohemian folk melodies and a sense of resilience. Dvorak's Piano Trio No. 3 in F minor follows, showcasing his synthesis of Bohemian lyricism and Germanic symphonic structure, combining folk-inspired dance rhythms with Brahmsian complexity. The album concludes with Suk's Elegy in D-flat Major, dedicated to poet Julius Zeyer and inspired by his poem Vysehrad, a reflective and nostalgic ode to Prague's cultural and spiritual heritage. Together, these works form a tapestry of national identity, friendship, and artistic lineage - an exploration of emotion, beauty, and belonging through music. In their liner notes, Trio 258 (Lestari Scholtes, Eduardo Paredes Crespo, and Leonard Besseling) emphasize the importance of language, nature, and folk tradition in shaping Czech music. They describe their interpretive process as an "immensely valuable journey," seeking to find their own voice while honoring the composers' intentions. Through this album, the trio not only presents technically accomplished performances but also reflects on the Bohemian spirit - one that fuses melancholy and vitality, individuality and tradition. Their recording is both a musical homage and a personal exploration of how the language of music can bridge generations, resonating with the timeless ideals of freedom, emotion, and national identity

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Bohemian Legacy
Challenge Classics Feb 2026
CD
$16.99

Mix & Match

Stölzel, Telemann at al: German Baroque Trumpet Concertos / Reiner, Interpreti Veneziani

Naxos

$19.99 Nov 11, 2022

Baroque works for oboe have long been fertile ground for transcription to the trumpet and there are several examples here of this refashioning. The sequence of concertos and sonatas include examples from Handel’s Italian years, and from Johann Gottfried Stolzel, who was strongly influenced by Vivaldi. Telemann’s marvelously inventive Concerto in D Major is performed on the modern flugelhorn. In addition, there is the only known surviving work from Johann Michael Fasch, younger brother of the more famous Johann Friedrich.

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Stölzel, Telemann at al: German Baroque Trumpet Concertos / Reiner, Interpreti Veneziani
Naxos Nov 2022
CD
$19.99

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Brahms: The Symphonies, Haydn Variations & 8 Hungarian Dance
Urania Records Nov 2013
CD
~~$42.99~~ $21.48

FRUHLINGS ERWACHEN
Cyprés Records Jan 2009
CD + DVD
$40.99

Bernstein, L.: Symphonic Dances / Strauss, R.: Der Rosenkava
Azica Records Sep 1997
CD
$18.99

Musical Journey: Germany - Bavarian Lakes And Schloss Herrenchiemsee

Naxos AudioVisual

DVD

$13.99 Mar 30, 2010

GERMANY

The Places

Bavaria has a place of its own in Germany, both geographically and culturally. The tour stars with the Alpine lake known as Königssee and explores the surrounding landscape, including the Berchtesgaden National Park and the gardens of Ludwig II's answer to Versailles, his grandiose Schloss Herrenchiemsee. The tour ends with the Chiemsee, its islands and its tranquil waters.

The Music

The music for the tour is by Johannes Brahms and his colleague and collaborator, the violinist Joseph Joachim. Brahms' Second Symphony, which accompanies the earlier parts of the tour, was described by some contemporaries as Brahms' Pastoral Symphony and provides, in its generally cheerful serenity, an apt accompaniment to views of the Bavarian countryside. Joachim's Overture In memoriam Heinrich von Kleist, written probably in the same year as Brahms' symphony, 1877, commemorates the centenary of the birth of the great German writer.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 50 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

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Musical Journey: Germany - Bavarian Lakes And Schloss Herrenchiemsee
Naxos AudioVisual Mar 2010
DVD
$13.99

Telemann: Twelve Fantasias for Solo Flute

Resonus Classics

$18.99 Jun 16, 2023

Georg Philipp Telemann was one of the most successful and wealthiest German Baroque composers and his Twelve Fantasias for solo flute, TWV 40:2–13 were written between 1727 and 1732. The pieces are given a systematic structure with the pieces in alphabetical order by key, A to G, major and minor. In these solo Fantasias, Telemann combines secular and sacred music using a variety of forms. Solemn courtly dances and rhythmic central European country dances engage in dialogue with pieces that are more akin to the serious and strictly polyphonic musical tradition of the Catholic Mass. Finnish flautist Sami Junnonen performs on a modern Japanese Muramatsu flute, hand-crafted in twenty-four carat gold in the 2000s.

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Telemann: Twelve Fantasias for Solo Flute
Resonus Classics Jun 2023
CD
$18.99

QUARTET CHOREOGRAPHY

Metier

DVD

$13.49 ~~$26.99~~ Save 50% Sep 17, 2007

One of the foremost British ensembles, the Kreutzer specializes in new music and has already made many recordings for Metier and other labels. This superb film is not only the record of brilliant performances of major modern quartets and fine entertainment, it is also a valuable and rewarding tool for observing how the players of an ensemble communicate and interact, especially in works like that of Lutoslawski which allow performers a degree of choice. Above all it is a demonstration that music very often should be seen as well as heard. This disc is universal-play (Region 0) and double sided PAL/NTSC so will play in any country.

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QUARTET CHOREOGRAPHY
Metier Sep 2007
DVD
~~$26.99~~ $13.49

Walter: Geystliches Gesangk Buchleyn / Cordes, Weser-Renaissance Bremen

CPO

$18.99 Jan 07, 2022

A new era in church music dawned with the creation of German-language sacred songs functioning as the counterpart to Latin Gregorian chant. The WESER-RENAISSANCE ensemble under its experienced conductor Manfred Cordes is now presenting a colorful selection of the most beautiful hymn settings from the Wittenberg first edition of 1524-25. The Urkantor Johann Walter was a close associate of Martin Luther and the founding father of the important institutional and artistic tradition of the Protestant cantorate. In his music Walter followed the model of the German tenor song, a genre important in the development of German music history and of secular orientation in its principal variant. The melody is in the tenor part of the song settings, all of them in four parts, and in formal respects differs only slightly from the monophonic tradition. With his Gesangk Buchleyn Walter marked the beginning of the significant tradition of Protestant chorale settings that would reach its artistic high point in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

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Walter: Geystliches Gesangk Buchleyn / Cordes, Weser-Renaissance Bremen
CPO Jan 2022
CD
$18.99

Nyabole - Singing On the Way To the Dancing Ground (Recorded

Wergo

$24.99 May 01, 2003

Nyabole - Singing on the Way to the Dancing Ground "Look here, the customs of our fathers keep us warm." The men of the Hamar, a south Ethiopian people, still tell of the great deeds of their ancestors, from whom they have inherited their heroic will and strong personality. The music of the Hamar is varied: the word painting of the mouth bow, the sound of the flute, the interplay of voice and lyre stand alongside running songs, leaping dances, and war songs. The recordings were made between 1970 and 1976 by the field researcher and ethnologist Ivo Strecker and - after having been published on LP in 1977 - were awarded the annual German Record Critics' Award, in 1981. This edition not only presents a general introduction to the music of the Hamar, but it also provides us with the social, psychological and historical contexts of the music in the sense of an ethnography of communication and performance. Events that take place at the periphery of a musical performance may be important to help one understand it. This is why an edition of the present kind is only possible with the help of experiences such as those which Ivo Strecker was able to accumulate during his long periods of intensive field research as a participant and observer among the Hamar. This CD set includes a very extensive and richly illustrated booklet.

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Nyabole - Singing On the Way To the Dancing Ground (Recorded
Wergo May 2003
CD
$24.99

SCHUMANN: Romances and Ballads
SWR May 2000
CD
$20.99

Lortzing: Der Wildschutz / Klee, Hornik, Soffel

Brilliant Classics

$17.99 May 27, 2014

Albert Lortzing was familiar with the stage from his earliest years, for both his parents were actors, and by the age of 18 he too was engaged as both an actor and singer. His career was anything but stable, however; a competent composer, he divided his time between precarious kapellmeister positions – including a stint at the Theater an der Wien – and having to revert to acting in order to support himself. He died impoverished and unhappy in 1851, a few months after securing his third kapellmeister post.

Today he is best remembered for his Singspiel Der Wildschütz, a masterpiece of writing and whose libretto the composer himself fashioned from Kotzebue’s comedy Der Rehbock, oder Die schuldlosen Schuld bewußten, which had been published earlier in 1816. Kotzebue’s work is a whirlwind of character disguise, a piece whose titillating coquetry touches firmly on frivolity but manages to evade full-scale immorality, and Lortzing also added small touches of his own to the story – including the character of the majordomo Pancratius, whose role has traditionally been performed in Saxon dialect. The enduring appeal of Der Wildschütz, however, clearly rests on the score, with Lortzing’s lightness of touch, his memorable and catchy tunes, and the vivid characterisation of comic situations lending his music a charm that appears as fresh as ever. An ardent admirer of Mozart, it is in Der Wildschütz, more than in any other of his operas, that Lortzing succeeded in writing at least a few numbers that are reminiscent of the great composer. This applies particularly to his carefully wrought ensemble passages, which greatly outweigh the arias in terms of number and of which the much-admired Billiards Scene (Act 2) is surely the greatest.

Lortzing’s operas were the most-performed in Germany for about 150 years, and from listening to Der Wildschütz it is easy to understand why. Recorded in the early ‘80s and bringing together many of Germany’s top singers of the period, this version remains one of the finest to date. ‘Edith Mathis is a delightful Baroness and Doris Soffel nicely characterises the Sophocles-besotted Countess…’, while ‘Georgine Resick sings a charming Gretchen, warm but with a will of her own.’ (Gramophone)

Other information:
- Recorded 1980–1982.
- Reissue of one of the gems of the East Germany archive recordings of Berlin Classics: Der Wildschütz by Albert Lortzing.
- Lortzing’s operas were extremely popular in their time, due to their good humour and wit, the memorable tunes and the general romantic nature feeling.
- A star studded cast of the best German voices of the time: Edith Mathis, Doris Soffel, Peter Schreier, Hans Sotin, Gottfried Hornik, and the magnificent Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by Bernhard Klee. - Contains detailed notes on the music and plot synopsis.
- German Libretto available for download

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Lortzing: Der Wildschutz / Klee, Hornik, Soffel
Brilliant Classics May 2014
CD
$17.99