Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38010
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MAURICE RAVEL (1875 – 1937): Bolero for 4 pianos 16 hands (arr. Werner Genuit)
ARAM KHATCHATURIAN (1903 – 1978): Sabre Dance from “Gayaneh” for 2 pianos 8 hands (arr. Raffi Kharajanyan)
FRANZ LISZT (1811 – 1886): Grand Galop chromatique for 2 pianos 8 hands (arr. Johann van Vegh)
THOMAS TUREK: Thermal-Tango for 1 piano 8 hands
EDOUARD A. THUILLIER (1841 – 1913): Bolero-brillant for 1 pianos 6 hands
ALBERT LAVIGNAC (1846 – 1916): Galop-Marche for 1 piano 12 hands (arr. Christoph Sischka)
GIOVANNI BATTISTA PAGNONCELLI (1835 – 1906): Ballata e bizzaria for 2 pianos 12 hands
GABRIEL VAN CALT (late 19th cent.): Bolero-Fanfare for 1 piano 8 hands
PAOLO CANONICA (1846 – 1902): Polka concertata, Op. 190 for 2 piano 16 hands
CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS (1835 – 1921): Introduction & Marche royale du Lion: Final (from Carnival of the Animals) for 2 pianos 12 hands
ALEXANDER YOSSIFOV (*1940): Danza archaiqua for 2 pianos 24 hands

Melanie Bähr, Dina El-Leisy, Noriko Ishikawa-Kratzer, Raffi Kharajanyan, Manfred Kratzer, Nora Novik, Aki Oya-Pampus, Christoph Sischka, Eriko Takezawa, Marc Tritschler, Thomas Turek, Gisela Wilcken, pianists
Bolero Night – the theme for a very special concert event taking place on May 22nd, 2004: The 12 Pianists played Boleros and other dances in the Kurhaus Bad Herrenalb simultaneously on up to four grand pianos, while the pieces to be played on only one or two pianos demanded an intricate choreography of the 12 “key artists”. The present SACD gives you the chance to enjoy a unique sound experience at home along with photographs illustrating the visual part of the event.
Experiences with extraordinary concert events we have had in abundance, as the year 2005 will witness the already 5th International Piano Duo Festival in Bad Herrenalb. Since 2000, the Black Forest Town has seen not less than 36 piano duos representing so to speak a “Who’s who” of the piano scene. Moreover, several piano ensembles joined in and the “ordinary” four hands were supported by up to 20 more hands on these occasions.
The 12 Pianists date back to a formation of 1989 from which emerged the steady ensemble Piano4te. With the assistance of guest artists they formed a group of twelve with changing line-up. Starting-point was the arrangement of Albert Lavignac’s Galop-Marche for twelve pianists at one piano by Christoph Sischka, resulting in an entry in Guinness World Records 2002 (German Edition). The record attempt took place during the 1st International Piano Duo Festival in Bad Herrenalb. Besides assembling “most pianists at one piano”, the same concert saw the performance of the longest piece for four grand pianos, eight hands and was also mentioned in the book.

Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38048
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ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810 – 1856): Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 110 (1846)
CLARA SCHUMANN (1819 – 1896): Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17 (1852)
WOLFGANG RIHM (*1952): Fremde Szene III (1983/84)

Boulanger Trio: Karla Haltenwanger, piano; Birgit Erz, violin; Ilona Kindt, cello
The Boulanger Trio has thrilled audiences and critics alike with its lively, subtle and passionate performances. It was formed in Hamburg in 2006, and just months later, in September 2007, the Boulanger Trio won the 4th Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition. Recently the ensemble has performed at the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg and Heidelberger Frühling festival. In April 2008 the trio celebrated its debut at the Berlin Philharmonie, followed by invitations for concerts at the Cité de la Musique in Paris and Wigmore Hall London.
“At the beginning of 2006, when we began to work on the program for our first concert together as a piano trio, we immediately came under the spell of Wolfgang Rihm’s Fremde Szene III – a title which refers to Robert Schumann and his last piano trio – and the intensity of working on this piece quickly brought us closer together. Because of this it was logical to combine Rihm’s trio in our programming with Robert Schumann’s op. 110, especially because the complexity and layering of both pieces is equally fascinating. Robert Schumann is bound up inseparably with Clara Schumann, whom we placed at her husband’s side with her Piano Trio in g minor op.17.” (Boulanger Trio)
"To be interpreted like this is the greatest dream of every composer." (Wolfgang Rihm in a letter to the Boulanger Trio)

Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38065
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BAROQUE IN POLAND – CHURCH AND COURT MUSIC
MARCIN MIELCZEWSKI (1590 – 1651): Canzona prima a 2 (for 2 Violins & B.c.)
MACIEJ WRONOWICZ (ca. 1645 – ca. 1700): “In dulci iubilo” Concerto a 3 (for Soprano, 2 Violins & B.c.)
ADAM JARZEBSKI (1590 – 1648): “Berlinesa” Concerto a 3 (for 2 Violins, Viola da gamba & B.c.)
JAN PODBIELSKI (17th cent.): Preludium (Harpsichord solo)
STANISLAW SYLWESTER SZARZYNSKI (ca. 1670 – 1713): “Jesu spes mea” Concerto a 2 (for Soprano, 2 Violins & B.c.); Sonata a due violini con basso pro organo
ANTONI MILWID (1755 – 1837): Cantata “Semper mi Jesu” (for Soprano, Violin & B.c.)
KASPAR FORSTER, JR. (1616 – 1673): Sonata in G (for 2 Violins, Viola da gamba & B.c.)
GIOVANNI BATTISTA LUPARINI (ca. 1700 – 1775): Cantata “In martirio crudele” (for Soprano, 2 Violins & B.c.)
ANON. (17th cent.): Canzona primi toni (from: “Warschauer Orgeltabulatur”)

Ensemble Alla Polacca
2010 – the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth – may be an opportunity to bring to light also little known gems of 17th and 18th century Polish music. These pieces, written by Polish composers and foreign composers living in Poland, deserve much greater attention. At the beginning of the 17th century Poland was a powerful state and was very open to new ideas from all artistic directions. The baroque aesthetic, which came from Italy, quickly established itself through "imported" composers and musicians working at Polish courts and in the churches.
Alla Polacca was formed by three musicians who studied chamber music together at Cologne University of Music under artists of such distinction as Konrad Junghänel, Barbara Schlick and Kai Wessel. The ensemble’s core members are Iwona Leœniowska-Lubowicz (soprano), Paulina Kilarska (harpsichord, organ) and Stanis³aw Gojny (theorbo, archlute and baroque guitar), all of whom have many years of experience in the field of early music interpretation.

Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38066
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BLECH AUS DEM WESTEN (BRASS FROM THE WEST) – VERY BRITISH
WILLIAM BYRD (1543): The Earl of Oxford’s March (arr. by Elgar Howarth)
RAYMOND EUGENE PREMRU (1934 – 1998): Five Movements from Divertimento
GORDON LANGFORD (*1930): London Miniatures
TRADITIONAL: Londonderry Air (arr. by John Iveson)
JIM PARKER (*1934): A Londoner in New York (Part 2)
LED ZEPPELIN: Stairway to Heaven (arr. by Bruce Collings)
EDWARD ELGAR (1857 – 1934): Enigma Variation 9 ‘Nimrod’ (arr. by Roger Harvey)

wes10brass
A new ensemble from Western Germany. Brass from the West. Wes10brass.
Ten brass players from the orchestras of North Rhine-Westphalia are serious about ... their decision to have fun! With music from many periods and styles, Romantic, Jazz and Modern.
Wes10brass introduce themselves on Brass from the West – very British with a brass players’ homage to England, the Empire, plum pudding and the famous fog.
Blazing brass, very British.

Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38076
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Georg Friederic Handel (1685-1759): Duetto IX ‘Concervate, raddopiate’ HWV 185; Kantate ‘Solitudini care, amata liberata’ HWV 163; Duetto X ‘Tanti strali al sen mi scocchi´ HWV 187
Charles Babell (c.1636-1716): 8me suite in C minor for solo Harpsichord
Agostino Steffani (1654-1728): Duetto “Vuol il ciel ch’io sia legato”; Duetto ‘O care catene ch´il piede stringete’
Nicolaus Adam Strungk (1640-1700): Lieder aus “Leucoleons Galamelite”; Capricio della chiesa für solo Organ
Georg Philipp Telemann: Sonata in E minor for Viola da gamba

ARTISTS: Ensemble alla Polacca: Iwona Lesniowska, soprano; Franz Vizthum, countertenor; Paulina Kilarska, harpsichord & organ; Petr Wagner, viola da gamba
(2 SACD)

Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38085
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LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770 – 1827): Sonatas for Cello and Piano, Op.102 no 1 & 2; Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op.96 (arr. for Cello)

ARTISTS: Andreas Woyke, cello; Friedrich Kleinhapl, cello

Friedrich Kleinhapl burst upon the scene in 2007 performing with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, who described him as one of a new generation. Kleinhapl also performed with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Munich Symphony Orchestra and, the Prague Symphony Orchestra. He performs as a solo artist and chamber musician in many European cities as well as in the United States and Canada, South America and China. He has given concerts at many famous arenas and concert halls and been on the bill at many international music festivals such as the Salzburg Festival.

Label: COVIELLO SACD 30507
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WILLIAM WALTON (1902 – 1983): Concerto for Viola & Orchestra (1962)
SALLY BEAMISH (*1956): Concerto for Viola & Orchestra No. 1 (1995)
BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913- 1976): “Lachrymae” (on a Dowland song)

Tatjana Masurenko, viola
NDR Radiophilharmonie (Philharmonic Orchestra of the Northern German Radio)
Garry Walker, conductor
On this hybrid SACD the well-known violist Tatjana Masurenko demonstrates more facets of her wide-ranging musical and virtuosic qualities by performing three twentieth-century British works for viola and orchestra. The compositions, recorded with the NDR Radio Philharmonia of Hanover under Garry Walker, form an arch from the late Romantic era to the modern day: William Walton's Viola Concerto, written in its original version in 1928/29, experienced an erratic editorial history before finally being published in its final form in 2002. In her Viola Concerto of 1995 Sally Beamish has movingly set the story of Peter's denial of Christ from the New Testament. The source of inspiration for Benjamin Britten was a retrospective look at the late Renaissance: he took John Dowland's song of lamentation If my Complaints could passions move in 1950 as the basis for a complex series of variations.

Label: COVIELLO SACD 50710
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ASKELL MASSON (*1953): Shadows – concerto for solo trumpet & brass quintet; OTTORINO RESPIGHI (1879 – 1936): Suite from “Antiche Danze ed Arie” (arr. Matthias Gromer); OSKAR BOHME (1870 – 1938): Brass Sextet, Op. 30; DANIEL SCHNYDER (*1961): Brass Quintet; 3 pieces from “Little songbook” for soloist & brass quintet

Reinhold Friedrich, trumpet
Mannheim Brass Quintet

They compensate for an entire orchestra: It only takes six brilliant brass players to merge symphonic depth with soloistic brilliance. On this new SACD by the Mannheim Brass Quintett, established among the leading brass ensembles for many years now, Reinhold Friedrich appears as their celebrated guest – with the solo trumpet and the nowadays rarely heard and technically highly challenging cornet, he provides an alluring contrast to the perfectly balanced ensemble tone. The program reflects the variety of music history of the last century: Works from 1906 to 2003 draw back on the renaissance, late romantic splendor, sharply accentuated jazz rhythms and the sophisticated tonality of contemporary music. The technical and musical challenges could not be more diverse – and are mastered by these six top musicians with remarkable, almost nonchalant bravery.

REVIEW - AUDIOPHILE AUDITION

This is a very appropriate title for the enhancement of the brass quintet sound which hi-res surround can bring to it. The Mannheim Brass is one of the leading German brass quintets and is made up of soloists from the orchestras of various European opera houses. They were founded in 1990 and like most brass quintets have a very wide repertory, encompassing early music to jazz and avantgarde.

Respighi’s suite blended renaissance and baroque music themes with a late-romantic style in his orchestral work. It may seem surprising to hear it transferred to an all-brass ensemble, but this arrangement by Matthias Gromer works beautifully. Oskar Bohme was a composer of early in the 20th century who specialized in music for brass instruments. His Sextet features a cornet solo in its second movement, here played by Reinhold Friedrich, the leader of the ensemble. Swiss composer Daniel Schnyder regularly transitions between classical music and jazz in both his composing and performing as a saxist and flutist. His quintet puts jazz and Latin music in contrast to a European framework of harmony and polyphony, and the selections from his Songbook are three light little movements with a sort of jazz chamber music feeling to them.

If this album is to your liking, you should check out the quintet’s earlier Coviello SACD, “Boundless.” Switching between the stereo and surround options of this SACD makes one wonder why anyone would invest in one of the several super-high-end two-channel-only SACD players. - John Sunier

Label: COVIELLO SACD 51004
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Bennewitz Quartet
(winner of the 1st prize “Premio Paolo Borciani” in 2008)

Label: COVIELLO SACD 60703
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ERKKI-SVEN TUUR (*1959): Architectonics II for clarinet, bass clarinet & piano (1986/2000); ANDREAS SORG (*1959): Höllental for 2 bass clarinets and piano (2000); ELLIOTT SHARP (*1951): Howlin’ At The Wolfgang for basset horn, bass clarinet and piano (2005); GERHARD MULLER-HORNBACH (*1951): Verblassende Schatten for clarinet in A, basset horn in Es and piano; PATRIK BISHAY (*1975): About Eve for clarinet, bass clarinet and piano (2004); GARY KULESHA (*1954): Mysterium Coniunctionis for clarinet, bass clarinet & piano (1980)

Bärmann trio: Sven van der Kuip, clarinet, basset horn, bass clarinet; Ulrich Büsing, bass clarinet & basset horn; John Noel Attard, piano
Felix Mendelssohn was a fan of this particular tone color: a trio with two clarinets (or related instruments, such as the basset horn) and piano has its own aura of the mysterious with its deep resonances. With contemporary compositions – partly written under the ensembles own initiative – the Bärmann Trio has continued the fascinating Romantic tradition. The compositions go in different directions however. Impressions of Black Forest landscapes are the theme, architecture made audible, disappearing shadows, the- for almost all composers- compulsory discourse on Mozart, on the biblical Eve, even on philosophical mysteries. The works, written between 1980 and 2005, once again demonstrate the aesthetic and continual variety of composers today for the Coviello Contemporary label.

Label: CYBELE SACD 860501
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Claudia Barainsky, soprano; David Pittman-Jennings, bass
Tschechischer Philharmonischer Chor Brno (Choir I)
Slowakischer Philharmonischer Chor (Choir II); EuropaChorAkademie (Choir III)
Eric Vloeimans Quintet (Jazz Quintet); Jan Hage, organ; Joào Rafael, live electronics
Holland Symfonia Orchesra/Bernhard Kontarsky
The Requiem for a young poet, a lingual for speakers, soprano and bass soli, three choirs, orchestra, jazz combo, organ, and electronic sounds, to texts from various poets, features and news reports, is a late masterpiece of its composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918-1970). In the piece, Zimmermann, one of Germany's leading composers of the post-World War II era, arrives at a totality: a summation of his own biography and also a summation of the intellectual situation of his (life)time, the 50 or so years between the October Revolution and the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet troops. The "Requiem", written principally between 1967 and 1969, is the sprawling realisation of a grand oratorio project which had preoccupied Zimmermann since the mid-1950s, as well as the most intense incarnation of his "pluralistic" way of musical thinking. At the time of its première, the "Requiem" could be compared to no other work. In our age, when cross-boundary explorations are quite familiar to us and many works no longer neatly fit into the categories of "oratorio", "cantata" or "radio art", Zimmermann's "lingual" seems all the more relevant. In an introductory text written for the première of his "Requiem", the composer emphasized that while working on the piece, he had not thought in terms of cultivating a concrete artistic personality, but rather in imagining how the young poet himself would present to listeners the preceding fifty years and all of its multiplicity, seen from his own intellectual, historical and linguistic perspective - and thus ours. Zimmermann arrived at the decision to use his own life span as the foundation of his "Requiem" at a rather late stage in the process and after varied earlier drafts. Although the composer listed the years of composition as 1967 to 1969, the "Requiem" should be seen in the context of larger thematic concerns which Zimmermann had been developing for some fifteen years and which found expression in many works leading up to, and stretching beyond, the "Requiem". For this SACD recording, Zimmermann's own recommendation for the spatial distribution of the 250 or so participants was followed, which means that the three choirs were arranged in front of the auditorium (choir I), on the left respectively on the right (choir III) and behind the auditorium (choir II). The eight-track tape compiled by Zimmermann in 1969 has been painstakingly restored, so that the recordings of Papandreou, Hitler, Ribbentrop, and all others are again heard as they should be. The eight channels of sound heard on this SACD recording of the concert on 23 June 2005 in the Concertgebouw Haarlem (The Netherlands), were reproduced per the composer's intentions, via eight loudspeakers arranged throughout the hall. This SACD is the first surround sound recording of the Zimmermann "Requiem". Owners of a home theatre system can thus enjoy the "Requiem" even outside the concert hall, as Zimmermann had originally conceived.

Label: FARAO SACD 108019
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SAMUEL BARBER: First Symphony In One Movement, Op. 9; ROBERT SCHUMANN: Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120 - Das Bayerische Staatsorchester/Wolfgang Sawallisch - Live recording: Munich Opera Festival, July 21, 2003 (SUPER AUDIO CD/HYBRID)

Label: HUGAROTON SACD 32516
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Forty-Four Duos for two violins (1931- 32, BB 104, Sz 98); “From Gyergyo” for furulya (peasant flute) & piano (1907, BB 45a, Sz 35); Hungarian Folktunes for violin & piano from For Children, Vol. 1-2 (arr. by Joseph Szigeti)(1926, BB 53add); Hungarian Folksongs for violin & piano from For Children, Vol. 1-2 (arr. by Tivadar Orszagh & Bela Bartok)(1934, BB 109, Sz 42)

Barnabas Kelemen, Katalin Kokas, violins; Zoltan Juhgasz, furulya; Zoltan Kocsis, piano
The arranging of folksongs seems inseparable from the name of Bartók. Yet at the beginning of his career he could scarcely have imagined that a defining element of his oeuvre would be peasant music – what is more, peasant music experienced directly, albeit studied with scholarly tools and rigor. Even after becoming involved with arranging folksongs, in his oeuvre he carefully and consistently separated them from his larger scale, or as he often called them, ‘original’ works.

Label: NEOS SACD 10933
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BRUNO MADERNA (1920 – 1973) – COMPLETE WORKS FOR ORCHESTRA, VOLUME 1
Composizione No. 1 for orchestra (1948–1949)
Composizione No. 2 for orchestra (1950)
Studi per “Il Processo” di Franz Kafka for speaker, soprano and orchestra (1950)
Improvvisazione No. 1 for orchestra (1952); Improvvisazione No. 2 for orchestra (1953)

Michael Quast, speaker; Claudia Barainsky, soprano

hr-Sinfonieorchester/Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra/Arturo Tamayo
Everything must be looked at again: Bruno Maderna followed this post-war maxim in his choice of simple “work-shop” titles. Composition, practice, improvisation – this meant the greatest amount of freedom possible, but it was also his way of recognizing how to realize polyphony, logic and flexibility of thought. Towards floating and transparent forms, which move beyond their own boundaries and question themselves.
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of its foundation, the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, along with the conductor Arturo Tamayo, has recorded the entire orchestral music of Bruno Maderna. Amongst the early works is a vocal composition, one which was valued highly by Maderna’s friend and pupil Luigi Nono: a study on the “Process” fragment by Franz Kafka, in the present recording with the characteristic voices of Michael Quast and Claudia Barainsky.

Label: NEOS SACD 10934
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BRUNO MADERNA (1920 – 1973) – COMPLETE WORKS FOR ORCHESTRA, VOLUME 2
Composizione in tre tempi (1954)
Concerto per flauto e orchestre (1954)

Thaddeus Watson, flute
Aria for soprano, flute and orchestra (1964)

Claudia Barainsky, soprano; Sebastian Wittiber, flute
Dimensioni III for flute and orchestra (1962-1963)

Clara Andrada de la Calle, flute/piccolo
Stele per Diotima for orchestra (1966)

Alejandro Rutkauskas, violin; Jochen Tschabrun, clarinet; Ulrich Büsing, bass clarinet; John MacDonald, horn

hr-Sinfonieorchester/Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra/Arturo Tamayo
At the centre of the second part of our Maderna edition are concertante works many of which formed the building blocks for the opera “Hyperion”. Conductor Arturo Tamayo was able to draw all instrumental soloists from the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra: in the Hölderlin “aria” and flute concertos with Thaddeus Watson, Sebastian Wittiber and Clara Andrada de la Calle, in the “Stele per Diotima” with concert master Alejandro Rutkauskas as well as Jochen Tschabrun (clarinet), Ulrich Büsing (bass clarinet) and John MacDonald (horn). One main theme of the works remains the way the individual is torn between rebellion and resigna-tion, reflected in the words from the “Thalia” fragment, sung here by Claudia Barainsky: “I question the stars…the day, and the night, but they do not answer…”