Konradin Kreutzer wrote his opera "Der Taucher" for the Stuttgart court theatre. Many years after the Stuttgart premiere in 1813, Kreutzer reworked the work for Vienna. Subsequently, this version was always performed. A recording of the original version is now available for the first time. Under the direction of Frieder Bernius, the Kammerchor and Hofkapelle Stuttgart perform this operatic rarity together with Sarah Wegener and Philipp Mathmann (both soprano). After 200 years, a composer whose trademarks are catchy, lyrical melodies and colorful instrumentation will be brought to life once again.
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde for Tenor, Baritone & Piano / Gerhaher, Beczala, Huber
Sony Masterworks
CD
$11.98May 05, 2023
Christian Gerhaher’s new recording of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in a version with piano featuring tenor Piotr Beczala and pianist Gerold Huber.
"This recording of Das Lied von der Erde does not represent a preliminary stage in Mahler’s compositional process but stands alongside it as its equal. […] The piano version of Das Lied von der Erde is more daring and at the same time more intimate, forcing the singers to sing in a different, more subtly nuanced, way than they would with an orchestra, while listeners are obliged to listen more intently and to prolong the abstract sound in their imaginations until it acquires the rhetorical colour that is implied by Mahler’s music."
Arnold Schönberg founded the Society for Musical Private Performances in November 1918 “to give Arnold Schoenberg the opportunity personally to carry out his intention of providing artists and art lovers with a veritable and precise knowledge of Modern Music”, as Alban Berg described in a leaflet in 1919. Chamber music, solo pieces and songs saw performance, and to a great extent, properly arranged for the available means, original large-scale orchestral works of topical and artistic high-quality were also produced. In the autumn of 1921, Schönberg embarked on an arrangement of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, which, however, he broke off in the middle of the first movement. The continuation was to be taken over by Webern, but this did not happen, evidently as a consequence of the end of the society. It was only in 1982/83 that the German composer, conductor and musicologist Rainer Riehn (b. 1941) was prepared to continue what had been begun.
The one hundredth anniversary marking the death of Max Reger (1873-1916) is to be commemorated in 2016. In response to this occasion, OehmsClassics has presented and will continue to present yearly a single four-disc box set of Reger's extensive output of organ music during the years 2013-2016 in a co-production with the Bavarian Broadcasting Company (BR Klassik) in order to pay tribute to this magnificent Bavarian composer. Bernhard Buttmann, director of church music at Nürnberg's St. Sebald cathedral knows and plays the works of Reger to a degree paralleled by few contemporary organists.
Heinrich Schütz composed his last work, a monumental setting of Psalm 119, in 1671 at the age of 86, complemented by a setting of Psalm 100, and a setting of the German Magnificat. This group of works, known as the “Schwanengesang”, or “swansong”, is a highly personal musical declaration, distinguished by its elegance and spiritual depth. As part of the Schütz Complete Recording, the Dresdner Kammerchor conducted by Hans-Christoph Rademann has again made a recording which sets new standards, presenting both the sung and the expressive elements of the composition in exemplary fashion. This recording of the fragmentary-surviving Schwanengesang is based on a new edition of the music by Werner Breig, published in November 2017 as part of the Stuttgart Schütz Edition. In many passages it suggests other approaches to reconstruction from the version published in 1984, and so approaches the Schwanengesang in a completely different way.
Listening to these works is synonymous with pure joy: Graupner's expressive chromaticism, the uncommonly manifold instrumental color artistry in the arias, and the most highly proficient application of the Baroque doctrine of the affections are enchanting and gripping. All of this is more immediately understandable and emotionally more heartfelt than the works of Bach. This is what klassik-heute. Com wrote following the release of our Vol. 2 with the Passion cantatas of Christoph Graupner. And now - for the Passion season - we are releasing Vol. 3. Once again the instrumentation has been designed with great variety, and it is here that the key to Graupner's personal style is to be found: he captivates listeners not so much with impressive, highly memorable »melodies« but with intensive playing with the various tone colors made available to him by the court chapel members and their instruments on each particular occasion. For all their individuality and rich variety, however, the cantatas are linked together: the three works for Quinquagesima, Passion Sunday, and Holy Thursday presented here adhere to the formal structure with seven numbers as a rule most frequently employed by Graupner. Their design is largely symmetrical, with framing choral numbers and one soprano aria and one bass aria. These cantatas have in common a contrast principle assigned central importance and employed on a textual and dramatic level as well as in the musical design. It is precisely here that Graupner's original background as an opera composer is reflected, a circumstance that had enabled him to gather experience with pronounced dramaturgical oppositions.
Telemann: Cantatas and Fantasias / Pahn, Laake, Held, Lohff
Haenssler Classic
CD
$20.99Feb 04, 2022
Every Sunday Telemann had to perform a church cantata and several Passion recitals, as well as one Passion oratorio every year. For the festive season he was required to deliver a composition for each and every holy day. In the 15 years he was there, during which he also directed the opera, he composed about 20 operas, as well as other music for large ensembles. In spite of his immense productivity, the quality of his work remained unaffected, and he was still able to create beautiful gems such as the Moral Cantatas and the solos for baroque flute, violin and viol. The cantatas served the musical cultivation of the Hamburg bourgeoisie and reflected a contemporary concern; the improvement of morals and the search for the joys of life as a consequence of modesty, reason, tolerance and a moral rectitude with regard to other people, in the sense of the philosophy of Enlightenment.
Schubert: Impromptus D. 899; Drei Klavierstucke D. 946; Allegretto in C minor D. 915
Gramola Records
CD
$24.99Jan 12, 2024
Ingrid Marsoner dedicates her latest recording to Franz Schubert’s late piano works and contrasts the “Four Impromptus D 899” with the more intimate and much less frequently performed “Three Piano Pieces D 946”. The Impromptus D 899 were composed in 1827, around a year before Schubert’s death and close in time to the “Winterreise” D 911. The composer was in a particularly gloomy mood at the time and it was certainly no coincidence that he chose such distant keys as G-flat major for the third piece, in keeping with the eerily moving beauty of these works. The “Three Piano Pieces, D 946” were composed in 1828, the year of Franz Schubert’s death. They were not published during his lifetime and were only discovered and published by Johannes Brahms. At the end of his life, Franz Schubert studied counterpoint intensively and even attended a lesson with Simon Sechter, Vienna’s first music theory teacher. In the middle section of the first piano piece in particular, one can discover a surprising polyphony for the composer. The CD concludes with the Allegretto in C minor D 915, also composed shortly before his death at the age of 31.
Kalman: Die Bajadere / Daumm, Bonynge, WDR Funkhausorchester
CPO
CD
$36.99Feb 24, 2017
The Bayadere celebrated its premiere in Vienna in December, 1921. A few months later, in February, 1922, the Metropoltheater in Berlin staged this operetta by Emmerich Kalman. His music brings together Hungarian folk melodies and the Viennese waltz, displays operatic and melodramatic elements, and illustrates the American dance rhythms of its times. In addition, it offers exotic tone colors like those of the tarogato and specific rhythms designed to satisfy the longing for the faraway, foreign India. These ingredients came with the guarantee of musical success. This work numbers among the genuine highlights in the Hungarian composer Kalman's oepretta oeuvre. In 2014, the WDR presented a concert performance of The Bayadere and then went on to produce this work in the studio. The great Richard Bonynge opened the operetta's vibrant introduction with plenty of energy and stormy drive, astonishing for this world-renowned Australian conductor who is now in his seventies. The elegant, slender gentleman with a full head of white hair who has always loved the operetta and whose discography includes many recordings in this field led the WDR Orchestra and the WDR Chorus with precisely trimmed conductor's gestures, so that here Emmerich Kalman's famous Bayadere experienced the right interpretation.
On his fourth recording in two years, tenor Daniel Behle performs Strauss’ lieder: “I am a lyrical Tenor and as such, one just gets introduced to the Schöne Müllerin, later to the Dichterliebe and eventually to the Winterreise (although I allow myself more time for that one) in the course of one’s studies. At the moment I am quite happy to have opened another page besides the lightly lyrical: to dip into the late romantic era and to discover the outgoing, active and hands-on aspects of the period.”
Creating excitement is the aim of this effective music with it's trombone attacks, bell tolls and horrors, sentimental cantilenas, sweet love duets and the famous overture: never was there the least doubt that Sebastian Weigle with the Frankfurt ensemble would succeed in bringing these off. With Rienzi, Oehms Classics now presents the last of the three operas attributed to the youthful years of Richard Wagner.
Lieder sur Wienhacht - Cornelius, Haas, Reger, Wolf / Schreier
Berlin Classics
CD
$20.99Nov 12, 2021
Peter Schreier is one of the legendary tenors of the twentieth century. Throughout his 60-year career and even after his passing, he has been celebrated by listeners, friends and colleagues, especially as Bach interpreter and Lied singer. To celebrate the Christmas holiday, he devoted himself to a selection of carols by the four great song masters of the late Romantic period: Peter Cornelius (1824- 1874), Joseph Haas (1879-1960), Max Reger (8173-1916), and Hugo Wolf (1860- 1903). From well-balanced, melodic and, above all, singable tunes to challenging piano parts, they offer a wide variety of emotional statements and subtle detail, not least through the interpretation of these two sensitive artists.
Wagner's immense imagination reveals itself in the composer's 16-hour Ring cycle, being able to fully captivate worldwide audiences since it's complete performance in 1876 in Bayreuth. Christian Thielemann's conducting of "Velvety sound of unmatched beauty" (The Guardian) leads an extremely sophisticated production, with Tcherniakov's stage that meets the highest technical standards, evolved in ever new, impressive spaces. "Gotterdammerung" is the concluding chapter of Wagner's monumental four-part opus, which he conceived in the light of the revolution of 1848/49 and completed in 1874 after numerous attempts and a long interruption. In many ways, the thematic and musical threads are intertwined in a highly artistic and complex manner. "Tcherniakov, as usual, manages details on a level rarely seen in opera." (The New York Times)
Heinichen: Two Passion Oratorios / Willens, Kölner Akademie
CPO
CD
$18.99Jun 03, 2022
Affecting Passions by Heinichen. The Passion music Johann David Heinichen wrote for the Dresden court is a document of cultural and confessional openness of the Saxon residence, and his two Italian oratorios heard here are surrogates of large-scale Passion music. "Come? S'imbruna il ciel" - composed in 1728 - is the latest of the sepolcri, his other Passion "L'aride tempie ignude" the first of the sepolcri to survive from Heinichen in Dresden. Both texts are by Stefano Pallavicino, who had been active at the Dresden court since 1719. In the first-mentioned Passion, the meditation on the Passion event recurs to the experience of the earthquake that, according to biblical accounts, occurred immediately after the death of Jesus. The description of the violent natural events gives Mary the Mother of God, John (Jesus' favorite disciple), and Mary Magdalene an opportunity to reflect on their relationship to the Crucified. Different aspects of affection and love are thematized. The meditation on the Passion event in the second-named Passion is designed as an allegorical play of death (Morte) and hope (Speranza), divine love (Amor divino) and penance (Poenitenza), and follows an easily comprehensible dramaturgy. The affinity to opera seria is evident in both passions not only in the arrangement of the pieces. The keys, gestures and instrumentation also correspond to the models familiar from baroque musical theater. Full of affect!
Around the central work of the CD, the "Friedenskonzert" by Daan Manneke, Gudrun Sidonie Otto, soprano, and the cathedral organist of the Basel Minster, Andreas Liebig, present a very multifaceted and expressive programme. The "Friedenskonzert" is part of the Baseler Psalms, which were commissioned for the millennium celebrations of the Basel Minster. In the programme, it is framed by two chorale arrangements on the Lutheran chorale "Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir", one by Johann Sebastian Bach, the other by Max Reger. Furthermore, Gudrun Sidonie Otto sings two extremely demanding works, "Aus den Visionen der Hildegard von Bingen" by Sofia Gubaidulina and "Djamila Boupachà" by Luigi Nono. The whole programme is framed by two of the most important works of organ music, Bach's Fantasia et Fuga g-minor, BWV 542 and the organ sonata "Der 94. Psalm" by Julius Reubke, both masterly played at the organ of the Basel Minster by Andreas Liebig.
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