Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38039
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MAX BRUCH (1838 – 1920): Acht Stücke für Klarinette, Bratsche und Klavier oder Violin, Violoncello und Piano (1908/09)
FRANK MARTIN (1890 – 1974): Trio über irische Volksweisen für Violin, Violoncello und Piano (1925/26)
PAUL SCHOENFIELD (*1947): Café Music für Violin, Violoncello und Piano (1986)

Trio Panta Rhei: Gudrun Pagel, violin; Sonja Asselhofen, cello; Julia Vaisberg, piano

Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38040
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FRANZ KROMMER (1759 – 1831): Quartet in B flat major for bassoon, 2 violas and cello, Op. 46 No. 1; Quartet in E flat major for bassoon, 2 violas and cello, Op. 46 No. 2
JOHANN NEPOMUK HUMMEL (1778 – 1837): Trio in G major for 2 violas and cello

Jane Gower, bassoon; Quartet Island: Antoninette Lohmann, viola; Galina Zinchenko, viola; Jennifer Morsches, cello
Franz Krommer’s wind music dates from a golden age of wind music composition, a time where profound sentiments, intellectual discourse, and delicacy of expression in instrumental music was not seen to be the sole domain of strings or piano. As all of Krommer's superlative wind music, the quartets Op. 46 are highly instrumentally idiomatic and often virtuosic. They exploit the full three octave range of the period bassoon to dramatic effect, use a full palette of tonal colours and textures, and feature many different effects at which the bassoon excels; running staccato figures, wide intervallic leaps, as well as soaring tenor cantabile lines. The quartet Island was founded in 1999 in order to explore the unjustly neglected early 19th century repertoire for bassoon, violin, viola and cello, on the instruments of the era. Island has performed throughout Spain, France and the Netherlands, and featured extensively in the 2006 Flanders Festival. In 2008 the quartet makes its second tour for the Dutch Netwerk voor Oude Muziek. Its first CD recording of the Quartets of François Devienne, released on Centaur Records, is a première on historical instruments, as was the following, of the three Quartets, Op. 40, of Franz Danzi and the present recording.

Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38041
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SAMUEL BARBER (1910 – 1981): Agnus Dei: AARON COPLAND (1900 – 1990): Four Motets; ERIC WHITACRE (*1970): Lux Aurumque; Cloudburst; Water Night; PAUL J. CHRISTIANSEN (1937 – 1986): My song in the night; UWE UNGERER (*1969): The Rose; MOSES GEORGE HOGAN (1957 – 2003): The Battle of Jericho; I’m Gonna Sing ‘Til The Spirit Moves In My Heart; Elijah Rock; MORTEN JOHANNES LAURIDSEN (*1943): Sa Nuit d’Été; Sonet de la Noche; Sure On This Shining Night; CHARLES IVES (1874 – 1954): Lord God, Thy Sea is Mighty; Crossing The Bar; Variations on ‘America’

Amadeus Choir/Nicol Matt

There are almost a hundred years between the dates of birth of Charles Ives, 1874, and Eric Whitacre, born 1970, the youngest composer in this Kaleidoscope of American choral music. If someone takes a look at the standard works in music literature, there is hardly any American choral music to be found. The American works that can be perceived as approaching the traditions of western music do not appear to interest the specialist world in Europe. The story in concert halls and churches – as well as in recording studios – is quite different, however. Through the founding of many choirs, gospels and spirituals are more popular than ever and, on the programs of classical a cappella choirs, the works of Morten Lauridsen or Samuel Barber have already become classics. The Amadeus Choir is an ensemble of some 50 singers and was founded by Karl-Friedrich Beringer, conductor of the Windsbacher Knabenchor since 1978. In June 2001 Nicol Matt became musical director of the choir. The performance of world-reknown a cappella choir pieces and of choir-orchestra programs with famous solo singers and orchestras in conjunction with its high artistic and technical level made the Amadeus choir well known.

Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38043
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Tracks: Pirates of the Caribbean; Harry Potter; King Kong; Terminal; Star Wars; The Lord of the Rings; Gladiator; Schindler’s List; Jurassic Park; Forrest Gump; James Bond; The Flintstones

Vogtland Philharmonic Orchestra/Stefan Fraas
The Vogtland Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1992 as a joint project between the German states of Thuringia and Saxony, and is thereby unique in Germany. It was conceived as a continuation and development of more than 150 years of orchestral tradition in Vogtland. Continuity and versatility are important criteria in the Vogtland Philharmonic Orchestra’s engagements, with a particular commitment to the whole local area of Saxony-Thuringia. Guest appearances have taken “the region’s musical messengers” to all the important musical centers in Germany, as well as to Austria, Spain, Denmark, France, China, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and the USA. They give an unusually wide spectrum of different performances and concerts. Whether it be symphonic concerts, “Classics under the Stars”, concerts in historical costumes, prom concerts, or serenades at historic sites … there is almost no limit to their musical possibilities. In order to reach new audiences, the orchestra has successfully developed special projects such as “Philharmonic Rock” and the new recording “Sounds of Hollywood” with a fine selection of Hollywood blockbusters.

Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38046
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Präludium in C minor (1841); Allegro moderato maestoso in C major (1845); Thema (Andante) mit Variationen in D major (1844); Sonata in F minor, Op. 65,1; Sonata in C minor, Op. 65,2; Sonata in A major, Op. 65,3; Sonata in D minor, Op. 65,6; Variations sérieuses in D minor, Op. 54

Martin Schmeding plays the Kuhn-organ in the Essen Philharmonie
Unlike his contemporaries Schumann and Brahms, who were also interested in the organ, Felix Mendelssohn had at least occasionally had lessons on the instrument starting in his early youth, and later even performed as a celebrated concert organist. He gained a remarkable reputation for it, not least in England, where it led to the composition of the cycles Op. 37 and 65. For the current recordings made in Essen and Bockenem, the pieces selected to go with the preludes and fugues and the sonatas are from the composer’s mature period from c. 1827 and do not include sketches or material used in later pieces. Those earlier versions together with Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s youth works would be a subject for another recording. As the organist of the Dresden Kreuzkirche from 2002 until 2004, Martin Schmeding (b. 1975) worked in one of the most important cities for church music in Germany. After teaching positions in Hanover, Leipzig, Weimar and Dresden, he was appointed professor of organ at the Freiburg University of Music in 2004. He is also the head of the church music department.

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 38049
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JOSEF SCHELB (1894 – 1977) – COMPLETE WORKS FOR ORGAN SOLO
Orgelwerk I - Ruhig schwebend; Lebhaft; Ruhig; Bewegt
Orgelwerk II – Bewegt, Ruhige Achtel, Sehr lebhaft
Orgelwerk III - Ruhig gehend; Mäßig bewegt, etwas frei; Lebhaft
Orgelwerk IV – Fließend; Langsam; Bewegt
Orgelwerk V - Sehr breit; Lebhaft; Sehr ruhig; Bewegt

Martin Schmeding at the Schuke organ at St. Immanuel Church, Wuppertal
Josef Schelb (1894-1977) studied at the music conservatory in Geneva, Switzerland, with eminent composer and organist Otto Barblan and Liszt-pupil Bernhard Stavenhagen. After the First World War, Schelb taught piano and later composition and instrumentation at the music conservatory in Freiburg and at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe. From the mid-1950s onwards, he devoted himself increasingly to composition. Josef Schelb’s oeuvre comprises around 150 compositions of almost every category and combination of instruments. His compositions include piano works and chamber music, song cycles, sacred and secular cantatas, as well as over 20 symphonies and orchestral works, two ballets and three operas.
Josef Schelb’s organ works fall into the composer’s late period. Orgelwerk I was written in 1970, followed by four more works, Orgelwerk II-V, in 1974. The five Orgelwerke form a cycle in which the first and last works are structured in four movements after the Italian Sonata da chiesa, whereas the remaining three have three movements in varying order. Schelb’s musical language shows a wide range of influences, including impressionism, expressionism, twelve-tone music and atonality. Schelb’s compositions are marked by motivic transformations and polyphonic treatment.
His connection to the Rhaeto-Romanic cultural sphere is apparent in the style of his symphonic work, which is notable for its transparency and clarity. Schelb’s registration instructions follow the French model and are quasi-architectural in style; his use of Spaltklänge (split tones) in some passages shows his affinity to the neo-baroque movement.

Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38052
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Susan Owen; Bodo Brinkmann; Wilja Ernst-Mosuraitis; Christian Franz; Jayne Casselman; Hans Georg Moser; Lona Culmer-Schellbach; Inga Fischer; Petra Schmidt; Marisa Altmann-Althausen; Gundula Schneider; Jeanette Schäfer; Joke Kramer; Elisabeth Hau-Villebois

Orchester des Staatstheaters Kassel/Roberto Paternostro

Based on live performances June 1999, Kassel
GMD Roberto Paternostro pricked the listener’s ears with an exquisite orchestral texture, full of details without ever losing the dramatic line of the music. Christian Franz appeared as a heroic belcanto Siegmund … In Susan Owen’s Brunhild the youthful and dramatic side, very suitably, was still stronger than the heroic one. Beside Bodo Brinkmann as a Wotan with sallow timbre and accurate articulation Wilja Ernst-Mosuraitis appeared as Fricka with non hysterical sonority and an expressive nobel voice. - (Frankfurter Rundschau)
It always indicates courage as well as remarkable artistic abilitiy and efficiency of organisation and technique when a theatre decides to mount the great four-part work "The Ring of the Nibelung". If then a theatre also prepares to quasi "conserve" the fully developed results of these great efforts by producing a CD recording, then on the one hand a broader public than only the audience can take part in this specific interpretation, on the other hand it is presented as a matter of importance, as a document of theatre history. My best wishes for the success of this recording. - (Wolfgang Wagner)
(4 CDs for the price of 3)

Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38058
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FREDERIC CHOPIN (1810 – 1849) – PIANO CONCERTOS
Concerto No. 1 for Piano & Orchestra in E minor, Op. 11
Concerto No. 2 for Piano & Orchestra in F minor, Op. 21

William Youn, piano

Nürnberger Symphoniker/Friedemann Riehle
William Youn (b. 1982) has been recognized as one of the most promising and unique pianist of the young generation. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Youn began playing the piano at the age of six.
After his studies in Korea and at the Walnut Hill School in Boston, Youn went on to study in Hannover, Germany, where he finished his musical education. From 2006 to 2009, Youn was awarded a scholarship to study at the renowned International Piano Academy at Lake Como where he worked with musicians such as Andreas Staier and Menahem Pressler. Youn is a prize winner at international competitions such as the Cleveland International Competition, the Concorso Alessandro Casagrande, the Shanghai Piano Competition, and was a finalist at the Busoni Competition, and the Concours Reine Elisabeth, Brussels.
Since his debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of eleven, he has appeared regularly as a soloist with Orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra, the Staatsorchester Halle, the Belgian National Orchestra, and the Toronto Philharmonia, and has performed in world's most prestigious venues including the Lincoln Center (New York City), the Disney Hall (LA), the Palau de la Musica (Barcelona), and the Auditorio Nacional (Madrid).
Sony BMG Korea has released several recordings of him, including the Schumann Piano Concerto with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38059
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FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY (1809 – 1847) – PIANO TRIOS
Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 (1839)
Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66 (1844/45)
Trio in C minor for Pianoforte, Violin and Viola (1820)*
Romance sans paroles dédiée à Mlle. Lise Christiani, Op. 109 (1845)
Albumblatt für Julius Rietz (1843)

Alte Musik Köln

With Tobias Koch, piano
Alte Musik Köln is a period music ensemble founded in 2006. The members of the ensemble, successful Baroque and instrumental specialists in their own right, each contribute a unique element to a particularly wide-ranging and harmonious whole. The successors to Musica Antiqua Köln have already toured in Asia and North America. A further Asian tour will take them to Korea and Japan. The present CD marks the beginning of a long-term cooperation with the label ARS. On their first recording, Alte Musik Köln turn their attention to Felix Mendelssohn.
The well-known piano trios Op 49 and Op 66 represent the peak of Mendelssohn’s achievement in his relatively small output of chamber music; both trios are similar in structure and mood, beginning with a sombre and intense first movement, followed by a lyrical and melodic slow movement; the third movement is a fleeting and magical scherzo and ending with an energetic finale. In 1819 the ten-year-old Mendelssohn had begun taking music and composition lessons with Carl Friedrich Zelter in Berlin who made his pupils acquainted with the works of the Viennese “Classicists”. This immediately bore fruit in the form of a trio for piano, violin and viola in C minor, with its date of completion noted as 9.5.1820 and recorded here for the first time.

*FIRST RECORDING!!!

Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38062
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JOSEPH HAYDN (1732 – 1819) – LONDON SYMPHONIES, VOLUME 2
Symphony No. 94 in G major, Hob. I:94 "Surprise"
Symphony No. 97 in C major, Hob. I;97
Symphony No. 98 in B flat major, Hob. I:98

Cappella Coloniensis/Bruno Weil
Includes Bonus-CD with explanations of the works by Bruno Weil (in German) Bruno Weil is considered as one of the world's leading interpreter of Haydn symphonies. His recording with the Canadian ensemble Tafelmusik of the "Paris" Symphonies by Haydn won the MIDEM Cannes Classical award in 1996. Weil and Tafelmusik have also been awarded the German Echo Klassik Award as Orchestra of the Year in 1996 for their recording of Haydn's Missa Sancti Bernardi (Heiligmesse), and in 1997 Weil himself won the Echo Klassik Award as Conductor of the Year.
Cappella Coloniensis, founded in 1954, was the first orchestra in the world to make music according to historical performance practices. Amongst the important conductors that have stood in front of the orchestra are Ferdinand Leitner, William Christie and John Eliot Gardiner, to name only a few, and from 1997 increasingly often Bruno Weil. In 2003 the musicians of Cappella Coloniensis chose Weil as their artistic director.

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 38067
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RARE CHAMBER MUSIC, VOLUME 1
ERNST BACHRICH (1892 – 1942): Duo for violin & cello
ERNST TOCH (1887 – 1964): Divertimento for violin & cello, Op. 37 No. 1
EMANUEL MOOR (1863 – 1931): Suite for violin & violoncello, Op. 109
RUDOLF MOSER (1892 – 1960): Duo-Sonate for violin & cello, Op. 34 No. 2
ERWIN SCHULHOFF (1894 – 1942): Duo for violin & cello (1925)

Jansa Duo: Christine Rox, violin; Klaus-Dieter Brandt, cello
Jansa Duo was founded in 2006 by Christine Rox and Klaus-Dieter Brandt (both members of Alte Musik Köln, see also ARS 38059) in order to explore the astonishingly varied musical repertoire for violin and violoncello. The first half of the 20th century gave rise to important additions to the string duo repertoire by both distinguished as well as less well-known, sometime forgotten or persecuted composers. Some of these works are collected in this recording.
All pieces were written before the National Socialists came to power. They are precursors to the moderns as those that comprised the circle around Arnold Schoenberg. The composers, as well as the works themselves, have been neglected and forgotten. The most we can expect these days is to hear works by Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942) or Ernst Toch (1887-1964) once in a while.
The works on this CD record a notable development in duet playing. They place the highest demands on technical and ensemble playing and stretch the tonal possibilities of the string instruments’ high and lower register to the limits. At times, one may be reminded of the sound of a string quartet.

Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38068
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CELLO CONCERTOS & SINFONIAS
CHRISTIAN ERNST GRAF (1723 – 1804): Sinfonia I & III; Cello Concerto No. 1 in D major; Cello Concerto No. 2 in C major
CARL FRIEDRICH ABEL (1723 – 1787): Cello Concerto in C major

Klaus-Dieter Brandt, cello

L’arpa festante
The life and work of Christian Ernst Graf (1723-1804) remains largely unexplored – a striking fact given the outstanding quality of the works that have been re-discovered and recorded. Little is known about Christian Ernst’s life in his birth town Rudolstadt before he moved to the Netherlands.
In the 1750s, he became a composer at the court of Princess Anna van Hannover (1709–1759), widow of stadtholder Willem IV (1711–1751), and at the Court of His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange. Graf’s compositional idiom is characterized by an almost modern sensibility and inventiveness, both expressive and brilliant in style – qualities that are apparent in the two violoncello concertos presented on this SACD. Like Marin Marais in his viola da gamba pieces, Graf explored the virtuosic possibilities of the violoncello to its limits.
Founded in 1983 as one of the earliest German early music ensembles, L’arpa festante has developed an outstanding reputation. One of the ensemble’s main interests is the rediscovery and historically informed performance of forgotten works from the 17th Century and the Classical era as well as the symphonic and oratorio repertoire of the Romantic era.