In his later stage works, Franz Lehar replaced the happy ending usual for the genre with a bittersweet conclusion filled with painful doubts. In contrast, the ending of the operetta Schon ist die Welt, premiered in 1930, is unsurpassed in it's clarity. Crown Prince Georg and Princess Elisabeth, who were arranged to be married by his father and her aunt respectively, do not want to go through with the arrangement, but end up together in a mountain hut without having met before. They fall in love and realise in the end that the world is quite beautiful after all. Lehar pulls out all the stops of his artistry in this piece. The modern dances and inextinguishable melodies are surprising and he again proves himself to be a master of skilful recycling by bringing the second act of a once dismal story to a new, brilliant life. A highlight of the 2023 Bad Ischl Lehar Festival!
German Gents is a phenomenon among vocal ensembles, the four singers perfectly translate all styles and genres - and already reach their fans with a following of over 500k on their social media?. Their album will contain a mix of traditional German and international Christmas songs, complemented by timeless classics in A-cappella style. The masterful performance of festive melodies reflects both the serene contemplation and the joyful spirit of the season. The recording is produced in perfect audio quality with a festive sound?.
Who doesn't know this loveable master of light entertainment? asked an admiring critic in 1925, when Berlin composer and publisher Siegfried Translateur celebrated his 50th birthday. Although this rhetorical question does not likely garner even a nominal response today, 150 years after his birth, concert halls were once filled with thunderous applause. The man from Upper Silesia did well for himself with his compositions, not to mention that his student work Wiener Praterleben had just become the hymn of Berlin's Six Day Race and had been transformed to the "Sportspalastwalzer". When Reinhold Franz Habisch aka "Krucke" whistled, the "Nudeltopp" boiled over. But Translateur is so much more. He knows what flowers are dreaming of, he takes a stroll through the big city, waltzes jauntily through life - a charming proponent of a silver era that never really went away.
Schubert, Brahms et al: Heimat - 500 Years of Song / Behle, German Hornsound
Prospero Classical
CD
$31.99Oct 21, 2022
The present release is a stunning 2-album collection with songs, lieder and pieces referring to the topic "Heimat"; all pieces arranged for tenor and horn quartet.
The tenor Daniel Behle is equally successful in the concert, Lied and opera genres and is making a name for himself as a composer as well. His extensive repertoire ranges from Baroque masterpieces, Classical and Romantic works to compositions of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Founded in 2010 by four graduates of the French horn class of Christian Lampert at the State University of Music and the Performing Arts Stuttgart, German Hornsound has earned a strong international reputation based on its exceptional profile. With their new concert formats and creative program concepts they have debuted at nearly all music festivals in German-speaking Europe over the past few years.
T he Strauss family was one of music's greatest dynasties. In this glittering disc, we hear such classics as the Radetzky March of Johann Strauss I, and his son, Johann Strauss II's overture to Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron), one of the enduring masterpieces of the Viennese concert repertoire. The irresistibly exciting Unter Donner und Blitz (Thunder and Lightning) offers thunderous delight, whilst Ander schenen blauen Donau (On the Beautiful Blue Danube) is one of the most unforgettable melodies ever written. Strauss the Elder's second son, Josef, was an outstanding composer in his own right, as demonstrated by the frenzy of excitement that is the Jokey-Polka (Jockey-Polka). After positions as Chief Conductor of Prague State Opera and First Permanent Conductor of Leipzig Opera, Johannes Wildner was the General Music Director of the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia (Germany) for ten years from 1997. His years of experience as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra have given his conducting a distinctive stamp.
Bergman: Persona / Harfouch, Lithman, Machens, Grötzinger, Bergmann
Naxos AudioVisual
DVD
$26.99Mar 11, 2022
The celebrated actor Elisabet Vogler has fallen silent. She doesn't speak anymore. Together with her nurse Alma the two unequal women spend a carefree summer - until the situation between them shifts. Where is the line between one's own identity and assigned roles? How is it possible to slip into a different life? Director Anna Bergmann raises questions about power, trust and role images and shows an excellent adaption of Ingmar Bergman's experimental film "Corinna Harfouch renders her roles believable and compelling." (New York Times)
'Just Dance the Steps' is a personal portrait of the Dutch choreographer Hans Van Manen in the run-up to his 90th birthday. For over five years director Willem Aerts followed and observed this internationally acclaimed master of contemporary ballet during his life and work at Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam, in the studio of the Ballett am Rhein in Du¨sseldorf and at Nederlands Dans Theater in The Hague. This powerful tribute and inspirational portrayal looks back at van Manen's remarkable artistic legacy, and documents a life that remains inseparable from dance and choreography.
One of the key German composers before Bach with over 500 surviving individual pieces, Heinrich Schütz mainly composed church music. Credited with bringing the Italian style to Germany, he continued its evolution from the Renaissance into the early Baroque. Despite living most of his long life in Germany, Schütz made two trips to Venice in his twenties. The first was between 1609 and 1613, during which he studied under Giovanni Gabrieli. The second trip occurred in the late 1620s, possibly to meet and study under Monteverdi. These visits significantly influenced Schütz’s music as he blended the ornate and theatrical Venetian style with the more subdued Lutheran tradition. This album explores his solo cantatas alongside examples of the brilliant and virtuosic Venetian-style instrumental music.
Emmerich Kálmán: Countess Maritza. “When the evening falls, when the sun sets, when the song of the violin is heard from the puszta …” or “I too was once a fine csárdás cavalier.” The operetta and the Munich Radio Orchestra – now that is a passionate relationship that has grown over many years. Now we are releasing one of the most performed works in German-speaking Europe: Emmerich Kálmán’s successful operetta (with which he rounded off the dozen) Gräfin Mariza (Countess Maritza), which according to the German Music Information Center in 2016 was No. 10 on the operetta hit list. For the conductor’s job the Munich Radio Orchestra once again sought out a proven operetta specialist: Ernst Theis. The work tells the story of a countess who amidst much confusion finds her true love in an impoverished count. The music with hits like “Komm mit nach Varazdin,” “Komm Zigan, spiel mir was vor!,” and “Wo wohnt die Liebe?” made the operetta famous and a favorite with the public.
Pianist Helen Davies is the daughter of a Bohemian mother and Anglo-German father and her family has always been acutely aware of their European heritage. Connections was conceived during the COVID-19 UK lockdown in March 2020. Much of the music on this recording was created by German composers, hence the decision to focus on that link, recording music which they felt connected them back to some of their familial roots. Music is an international language, unaffected by boundaries and this is celebrated in this recording. The inclusion of the little Rondo by the British composer Arnold Cooke embodies this continental link: Cooke studied composition with the German composer Paul Hindemith who had a strong influence on his style and whose musical language can be clearly heard in Cooke's short composition. In keeping with the connections theme, Laurence Davies uses a German horn, an Alexander model 103 made in Mainz for this recording.
Johann Strauß's Die Fledermaus (The Bat) has been part of the Bayerische Staatsoper's repertoire since 1895 and has always been performed there by star-studded casts. In December 2023, the curtain rose on a spectacular new production of this piece. Director Barrie Kosky gave the "operetta of all operettas" a new look: a society, an entire city dances towards the abyss in a colourful, lavish set (stage design: Rebecca Ringst, costumes: Klaus Bruns). The setting is Vienna, the city of the golden operetta era, where Die Fledermaus premiered in 1874. A volcano boils beneath the glamour of feather boas and tutus. Not only for Gabriel von Eisenstein, the bat's revenge becomes a nightmare when, during a glittering masked ball at the residence of Prince Orlofsky, a fake marquis and a fake chevalier, an alleged Hungarian countess and plenty of budding artists meet for a raucous party. Glasses are clinking, relationships are shaken, there are lies, there is love, and dancing (choreography: Otto Pichler). The people celebrate while they still can, true to the motto: "Happy is the one who forgets...". General Music Director Vladimir Jurowski - in his third new Munich production together with Barrie Kosky - brings new aspects of the score to the fore. Diana Damrau makes her role debut as Rosalinde, Georg Nigl interprets her husband Gabriel von Eisenstein, Katharina Konradi appears as Adele and Martin Winkler as Frank; other roles feature Markus Bruck (Dr. Falke), Sean Panikkar (Alfred), Kevin Conners (Dr. Blind) and Miriam Neumaier (Ida). The actor Franz Josef Strohmeier and the tap dancer Max Pollak, among others, play the six-fold frog.
This release concludes the CPO exploration of the song oeuvre of Johannes Brahms. Time of course has taken nothing away from the enduringly high value of the song interpretations by top artists like Juliane Banse, Ingeborg Danz, Andreas Schmidt, Christoph Prégardien, and others. Already the sheer quantity of twenty duets and twenty-seven quartets as well as the eighteen Liebeslieder-Walzer and fifteen Neue Liebeslieder-Walzer still mostly designed as vocal quartets clearly demonstrate that settings for more than one solo voice have an important place in Brahms’s lied oeuvre. Although the quartets in principle were written for ensembles of soloists, from the very beginning choral performance for presentation in the concert hall formed an alternative that at least was tolerated by the composer. While Brahms himself could not decide about the ideal ensemble dimensions, solo or choral, for the two series of Liebeslieder-Walzer, for the Quartets op. 64 he even expressly reckoned with the possibility, as he stated to his publisher, that the settings “occasionally would be sung by a little choir.” Things were different with the duets: they belonged to the core inventory of middle-class home performance in the nineteenth century and were even more strongly anchored there than the solo lied beginning in the 1850s, when the increasing number of lieder recitals meant that this song form more frequently found its way to the concert hall.
When Johann Hermann Schein became Kantor at the church of Saint Thomas in Leipzig in 1616, he had, on the one hand, to satisfy the liturgical demands of his Lutheran parish and, on the other, compose music that was truly contemporary, sensible to the new style coming out of Italy. Schein exploited the new possibilities brought by the basso continuo, demonstrated his mastery of musical rhetoric and wrote extremely ambitious music of great expressive force. The instrumentation calls for instruments such as the cornet, trombone and dulcian, Schein drawing his musicians from the forces of the Stadtpfeiffer and Ratsmusiker, guilds of instrumentalists attached to the City of Leipzig since the 15th century. For this musical portrait of Schein, one of the greatest German composers of the 17th century and one of J. S. Bachs most talented predecessors, InAlto presents an itinerary to the sources of the German cantata and testimony to the extraordinary tradition of city musicians perpetuated over the centuries. In addition to Scheins music, this heritage is represented here by Johann Schelle, Gottfried Reiche and J. S. Bach.
Diana Damrau and Jonas Kaufmann, reigning stars of opera, are also consummate interpreters of song. In early 2018, with master pianist Helmut Deutsch, they performed Hugo Wolf's multi-faceted Italienisches Liederbuch in 12 cities around Europe. "One couldn't ask for more," wrote the Telegraph after their London concert, which took place two days before this live recording was made in the German city of Essen. - Acclaimed as the "leading coloratura soprano in the world" (New York Sun), Diana Damrau continues to amaze audiences with her unique voice and arresting stage presence. A regular guest at the most renowned opera companies and concert halls, she was awarded the titleBayerische Kammersangerinin 2007 and named "Best Female Singer" at the 2014International Opera Awards.
Pianist Natalia Ehwald's debut album on Prospero Classical is dedicated entirely to the composer Franz Schubert. In addition to a selection of his (mainly early) landler and waltzes, the artist has chosen the late piano sonatas in A major, D664, and B flat major, D960. Both sonatas are characterised by their profound emotionality and unusual and pioneering harmonies. Particularly noteworthy is the fusion of lyrical melodies with complex structural elements that emphasise Schubert's singular mastery. They also show a remarkable development in form and expression, making them a high point in Schubert's oeuvre.
Joseph Haas' Christmas Liederspiel, Christnacht, combines Bavarian and Tyrol folk tunes into an oratorio. His Marian Hymns based primarily on texts from the 13th to the 18th centuries. The composers of the other various carols on this release are either pupils or contemporaries of Haas.
Musica viva KALITZKE AND FERRARI Johannes Kalitzke: Zeitkapsel - Totentanz fur großes Orchester ("Time Capsule - Dance of Death for large orchestra") Luc Ferrari: Histoire du Plaisir et de la Desolation ("A Story of Pleasure and Desolation") On November 10, 2023, Johannes Kalitzke presented himself in a double role as conductor and composer ("the one makes you want the other") in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz with the world premiere of his Zeitkapsel - Totentanz for large orchestra ("Time Capsule - Dance of Death for large orchestra"), commissioned by musica viva, as well as with Luc Ferrari's Histoire du Plaisir et de la Desolation, a sonic search for "new sensuality". - Both compositions can be experienced in this CD live recording of the musica viva concert. Johannes Kalitzke (born 1959) is a renowned German conductor and composer. Zeitkapsel - Totentanz for large orchestra was commissioned by Bavarian Radio's musica viva in 2022-2023. The world premiere documented on this CD took place on November 10, 2023 in Munich. Sebastian Schottke was responsible for the sound direction. Representing time capsules in the material sense, the orchestral piece contains musical artifacts from different times and cultures that were rediscovered at a later date and that characterise the sonic context of the piece, above all the first ever acoustic recording in history: a recording of sound waves on wax paper from 1860. Fragments of it can be heard at the end of the piece, like a revelation. Histoire du Plaisir et de la Desolation for orchestra by Luc Ferrari (1929-2005) was written in 1979-1981 as a Radio France commission for the Orchestre National de France, and was premiered in Paris in 1982 by that orchestra under the direction of Michael Luig. Orchestral music is not necessarily what one associates with the name Luc Ferrari. The composer, who died young, became known primarily as an exponent of musique concrete, opening up new creative paths in his use of tape technology. His sonic quest leads from the promising opening movement Harmonie du diable to the double-edged nature of pleasure (Plaisir-Desir), only to fail brilliantly with the "rupture of all logic" in the final Ronde de la desolation. ? Johannes Kalitzke conducts the world premiere of his orchestral piece Zeitkapsel - Totentanz for large orchestra; live recording from the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz as part of Bavarian Radio's musica viva concert series ? He also conducts the impressive and rarely performed orchestral piece Histoire du Plaisir et de la Desolation by the French composer and sound artist Luc Ferrari ? The conductor and composer Kalitzke conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Johannes Kalitzke, conductor
This 2012 Frankfurt Opera production of Richard Wagner’s second of four “Ring” operas, Die Walküre, features the Frankfurter Opern und Museumsorchester led by conductor Sebastian Weigle. The cast of singers includes Frank van Aken as Siegmund, Amber Wagner as Sieglinde, Susan Bullock as Brünnhilde, Terje Stensvold as Wotan, Ain Anger as Hunding and Martina Dike as Fricka. Mr. Weigle is the General Music Director of Frankfurt Opera, a position he’s held since 2008/9.
![Bizet, G.: Carmen [Opera] (Highlights) (Sung in German)](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/1400943.jpg?v=1786737584&width=400)
