ARS PRODUKTION SACD

	BOULANGER; SAINT-SAENS;ET Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38045 Our Price: $24.25 Quantity in Basket: none
FRENCH PIANO TRIOS LILI BOULANGER (1893 – 1918): D’un soir triste; D’un matin de Printemps (1918) CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS (1835 – 1921): Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 92 (1892) GABRIEL FAURE (1845 – 1924): Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120 (1923) 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 playing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, followed by invitations for concerts at the Cité de la Musique in Paris and Wigmore Hall London. “The music and personalities of the sisters Lili and Nadia Boulanger impress us so deeply that we named ourselves after them. Because of this one of our special concerns is the promotion of Lili Boulanger’s compositions for piano trio … Our interest in the lives of the sisters Boulanger inevitably led us to Gabriel Fauré, who significantly influenced the artistic development of both. His trio fascinated us from the beginning with its singularly sweet musical language. By way of Gabriel Fauré we came to Camille Saint-Saëns and his second piano trio, as impressive as it is unusual. Because of the mentor-pupil relationship between the three composers we found it attractive to perform their works in one combined program.” (Boulanger Trio)
	FELIX MENDELSSOHN Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38047 Our Price: $24.25 Quantity in Basket: none
FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY (1809 – 1847) – COMPLETE ORGAN WORKS, VOLUME 2 Drei Präludien und Fugen Op. 37: Präludium und Fuge in C minor No. 1; Präludium und Fuge in G major No. 2; Präludium und Fuge in D minor No. 3 Andante (Trio)in F major (1844); Fughetta (Allegro moderato) in A major (1827/1842); Allegro B-Dur (1844); Fuge (Lento) f-Moll (1839); Sonate in D major, Op. 65,5; Allegro in D minor (1844); Fuge in E minor (1839); Sonate in B flat major, Op. 65,4 Martin Schmeding plays on the Engelhardt organ in St. Pancratius Bockenem 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 (ARS 38046, vol. 1) 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.
	JOSEPH HAYDN Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38057 Our Price: $24.25 Quantity in Basket: none
JOSEPH HAYDN (1732 – 1809) – CONCERTOS FOR KEYBOARD Concerto in D major, Hob. XVIII:11 Concerto in G major, Hob. XVIII:9 Concerto in D major, Hob. XVIII:2 Divertimento (Quintet) in E flat major for piano, 2 horns, violin & cello, Hob. XIV:1 Caspar Frantz, piano Soloists’ Ensemble Kaleidoskop Since his debut at the Rheingau Music Festival, Caspar Frantz has become one of the most successful young pianists in Germany. Born in Kiel in 1980, he regularly gives concerts both in Germany and internationally, for instance at the festivals of Ravinia, Montreux, Schleswig-Holstein, and the Beethovenfest in Bonn. With the cellist Julian Arp he forms a duo which has been awarded multiple prizes (Mendelssohn Competition, Premio Vittorio Gui, German Music Competition), and his chamber music partners also include Chloe Hanslip, Rainer Kussmaul and Bryn Terfel. An important stimulus was provided by his intensive work with Elisabeth Leonskaja, as well as master classes with Maria João Pires and György Kurtag. The Soloists’ Ensemble Kaleidoskop, founded in 2006, is a young Berlin-based chamber orchestra on a mission to transform the traditional concert experience. As well as their excellent musical qualifications, it is above all the musicians’ openness, personal engagement and willingness to take risks that gives the ensemble its character. Its core is a string orchestra of fourteen musicians to which guest musicians may be added as the program requires. The ensemble members’ varied areas of expertise range from historical performance practice to contemporary repertoire. In June 2008 the Soloists’ Ensemble Kaleidoskop’s first CD was released by Sony with new works by the Italian cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima (b. 1962). In spring 2009 the ensemble could be seen and heard in the Neues Museum in Berlin working alongside the dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests and Vocal Consort Berlin in the production “Dialogue 09”.
	JOSEPH HAYDN Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38061 Our Price: $24.25 Quantity in Basket: none
JOSEPH HAYDN (1732 – 1809) – LONDON SYMPHONIES, VOLUME 1 Symphony No. 93 in D major, Hob. I:93 Symphony No. 95 in C minor, Hob. I:95 Symphony No. 96 in D major, Hob. I:96 “Miracle” Cappella Coloniensis/Bruno Weil Including Bonus-CD (38 min.) 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. Haydn is represented in many of his 22 recordings released on the Sony Classical label. His recording with the Canadian ensemble Tafelmusik of the "Paris" Symphonies by Haydn won the MIDEM Cannes Classical award in 1996 (in the category for 17th and 18th century orchestral music). Bruno 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.
	PIETRO TORRI (ca. 1650 – 1737) – “LA BAVIERA” MUSICAL HOMAGE TO THE WITTELSBACH PRINCE KARL ALBRECHT Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38001 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
La Baviera, Festserenata (1726) La Publica Felicità, Componimento poetico per musica per introdurre et accompagnare un Carosello Zur Hochzeit von Karl Albrecht mit Maria Amalia (1722) Egloga Pastorale, Serenata per Musica in Applauso del Glorioso Nome dell´ Altezza Serenissima Elettorale di Carlo Alberto (1726) Susanne Bernhard, soprano; Heidi Meier, soprano; Martin Oro, alto; Tom Allen, tenor; Martin Bruns, baritone Neue Hofkapelle München/Christoph Hammer “Pomp and Ceremony” was the title of an exhibition of the Bavarian Department for State Palaces during 2002. The exhibition was accompanied by a thematically related concert series highlighting works of Bavarian court composers active during the 17th and 18th centuries. Many works performed in this series were heard for the first time since their premieres several hundred years ago. The opening concert took place on September 7, 2002 in the Kaiser Hall of the Munich Residence, featuring works paying homage to Elector Karl Albrecht. This CD is a live recording of that concert. The allegorical serenade La Baviera by Pietro Torri praises the skill of the new Elector Karl Albrecht and his future fame through the baroque figures Fama, the Isar river, and the personification of Bavaria: Viva Carlo. La pubica felicità had already been written as tournament music in 1722 for the wedding of Karl Albrecht and Maria Amalia, daughter of the Kaiser in Vienna. Torri had composed an opera for this festive occasion as well. The attribution of Egloga pastorale from 1726 is not entirely certain; its handwriting makes it likely to be a work of kapellmeister Bernabei which was commissioned by Princess Maria Amalia for Karl Albrecht’s name day. These works have also been edited and performed using autographs from the Bavarian State Library.
	SAINT-SAENS; LALO; SARASATE Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38002 Our Price: $24.25 Quantity in Basket: none
CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS (1835 – 1921): Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 33 VICTOR ANTOINE EDOUARD LALO (1823 – 1892): Cello Concerto in D minor PABLO DE SARASATE (1844 - 1908): Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20 (first recording for cello and orchestra) Kerstin Feltz, cello Vogtland Philharmonie Greiz, Reichenbach/Doron Salomon
	DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1909-1975) Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38003 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
Sonata for Violoncello & Piano Op.40 Sonata for Viola & Piano Op.147 (Version for Cello & Piano) Friedrich Kleinhapl, violoncello Andreas Woyke, piano Because of my emotional relationship to music and cello-playing, with a particular stress an beauty of sound, I always felt at home with the romantic style. But working an Bach’s Solo Suites showed me the limits of this relationship, as Bach’s music requires a more analytical approach. Through the encounter with Claudia Abbado in the Gustav Mahler Orchestra I started to give my attention to twentieth-century music. This music represented far me a totally new made of expression which was emotionally incomprehensible and required mare technical thinking. Eventually, my conceptions of sound and aesthetic also reached their limits. Because of the ever increasing offers to play new works by contemporary composers, new techniques were needed, which totally contradicted my ideas of what a cello should sound like. And I felt their effects. The result of all these efforts and develo0pments was an increasing interest far the new and the other and the wish far expressiveness and richness of colour. Dmitry Shostakovich’s music appears to me to combine all these energies. For me, the overflowing richness of his expressive world is a reflection of the whole spectrum of the mental components that make man what he is: from absolute ecstasy to complete apathy, from extreme fear of death to wild exuberance, from humour and irony to sarcasm and from deep tenderness to brutality. - Friedrich Kleinhapl
	EDVARD GRIEG (1843 – 1907) – TRANSCRIPTIONS FOR ORGAN Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38004 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
From Holberg-Suite, Op. 40: Praludium, Sarabande, Gavotte, Air & Rigaudon From “Lyric Pieces”: Abend im Hochgebirge, Op. 68/4; Zug der Zwerge, Op. 54/3; Hochzeitstag auf Troldhaugen, Op. 65/6 & An der Wiege, Op. 68/5 Sonata in E minor, Op. 7 Peer-Gynt-Suite No. 1, Op. 46 Martin Schmeding, organ Few composers attained during their lifetime a popularity comparable to that of Edvard Grieg. Numerous arrangements of his most famous works, for example the “Peer Gynt Suite” or the “Lyric Pieces”, have made his music accessible to a large audience. Despite this general recognition Grieg was plagued throughout his life by self-doubts. He found it difficult to accept that his genius and creativity lay in small forms, written in a classical-romantic musical language coloured by Norwegian influences and skilfully exploited, rather than in symphonic dimensions. On top of these musical difficulties came problems with his health and his private life. Moulded by a conservative bourgeois family and a conventional musical education at the Leipzig Conservatory, Grieg rejected a revolutionary attitude to musical development, such as can be found for example in the compositions of his contemporary Richard Strauss. He nevertheless found in his central works his very own formal and sonorous solutions. Grieg saw himself – contrary to great masters like Bach, Mozart and Beethoven – as a composer of his time writing for the contemporary audience. The constant popularity of some of his works surely testifies with hindsight to the quality of his inspiration and lets the epithet “Master of the Miniature” appear in a positive light. Because of the secular content of most of the works by Edvard Grieg, an arrangement for organ does not at first suggest itself. Nevertheless the musical structure and extremely varied coloration of numerous pieces make them adequately portrayable, with great technical and sonorous charm, by the “King of the instruments”. - Martin Schmeding
	PALESTRINA; LISZT; GRIEG; NEGLIA; DVORAK Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38005 Our Price: $24.25 Quantity in Basket: none
GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA (1525 – 1594): O Rex gloriae, Chorsatz für stimmig gemischten Chor FRANZ LISZT (1811 – 1866): Salve Regina, Motet EDVARD GRIEG (1843 – 1907): Ave, maris stella, Motet FRANCESCO PAOLO NEGLIA (1874 – 1932): Ave Maria, Motette für 4-8 stimmig gemischten Chor ANTONIN DVORAK (1841 – 1904): Mass in D major for Choir and Organ, Op. 86 OSKAR GOTTLIEB BLARR (*1926): Der Aaronitsche Segen für 4-5 stimmig gemischtne chor Jugendkantorei Hösel/Toralf Hildebrandt Norbert Düchtel, organ
	CELLO COCKTAIL 2 Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38007 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER HANDY (1873 – 1958): St. Louis Blues HAROLD ARLEN (1905 – 1986): Somewhere Over The Rainbow PERCY MAYFIELD (1920 -1984): Hit The Road, Jack DUKE ELLINGTON (1899 – 1974): It Don't Mean A Thing JOSEPH EASTBURN (1837 – 1918): Little Brown Jug THEO MACKEBEN (1897 – 1953): Nur nicht aus Liebe weinen ENNIO MORRICONE (*1928)/JOHAN DE MEY: A Moment for Morricone ENRIQUE FRANCINI (1916 – 1978): La vi llegar FRIEDRICH HOLLAENDER (1896 – 1976): Guck doch nicht immer nach dem Tangogeiger hin FREDERICK LOEWE (1901 – 1988): I Could Have Danced All Night WERNER RICHARD HEYMANN (1896 – 1961): Liebling, mein Herz lässt Dich grüßen HARRO STEFFEN (*1920): Tanz mal wieder Bossa-Nova LEONELLO CASUCCI (1885 – 1975): Schöner Gigolo, Armer Gigolo ANTON PROFES (1896 – 1976): Am Sonntag will mein Süßer mit mir Segeln geh'n SCOTT JOPLIN (1868 – 1917): Wall Street Rag CHARLES CHAPLIN (1889 – 1977): Bathtub Nonsense HERBERT GRONEMEYER (*1976): Mambo GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898 – 1937): The Man I love; Embraceable you; I Got Rhythm EMMERICH KALMAN (1882 – 1953): Weißt Du es noch NIKOLAUS BRODSZKY (1905 – 1958): Be My Love TRADITION: Loch Lomond; Irish Blessing Berliner Cellharmoniker: David Drost, Alexander Kahl, Andreas Kipp, Rouven Schirmer Since its founding in 1994, Berliner Cellharmoniker has been able to successfully establish itself in the international music-scene. The ensemble has won various competi¬tions including the “Charles Hennen” Chamber Music Competition (the Netherlands) and the Violoncello Ensemble Competition in Beauvais (France) – and has also been distinguished with the EMCY (European Union of Music Competi¬tions for Youth) special prize “Dancing Angel”, the special prize from the city of Beauvais as well as the European Foundation for Culture’s promising young artist prize “Pro Europa”. This success has led to several radio and television appearances in addition to numerous guest performances at renowned concerts or well-known music festivals, such as the Rheingau Music Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad. Berliner Celiharmoniker’s extensive re¬pertoire ranges from classical works and virtuoso pieces to Avantgarde and uniquely interpreted own arrangements from film scores, easy listening, pop and jazz of which the latter can be heard on this CD. The quarte¬t’s special attention to contemporary music has inspired several composers to compose their own pieces especially for the ensemble. To give you the feeling that you are u part ofthe ensemble and completely surrounded by the four Cellharmoniker, this CD has been re¬corded in the SACD (Super Audio CD) format for play back on a SACD-compatible device. When playing back on a conventional CD player, the music will be reproduced in high-quality stereo sound.
	CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS (1835 – 1921) – WORKS FOR PIANO DUO, VOLUME 1 Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38008 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
Variations sur un thème de Beethoven for 2 pianos, Op. 35 (1874) Introduction et Rondo capriccioso for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 28 (1863) – version for 2 pianos by Claude Debussy (1889) “Le Rouet d’Omphale”Symphonische Dichtung für Orchester, Op. 31 (1871) – version for 2 pianos (1877) “Marche heroïque” für Orchester, Op. 34 (1871) – version fro 2 pianos (1871) “Suite algérienne” for Orchestra, Op. 60 (1880) – version for piano 2 hands by Gabriel Faure (1880) Scherzo in B major for 2 pianos, Op. 87 (1890) Vilija Poskute & Tomas Daukantas After getting the diplomas at the music academy in Vilnius the two Lithuanian pianists Vilija Poskute and Tomas Daukantas decided to continue their studies in Switzerland. Since 1999 they are living in Winterthur/Switzerland. At the college of music in Zurich/Winterthur they received their concert diplomas and afterwards the ensemble diploma with honour. In 2000 the two pianists decided to work together as a piano duo on two pianos or one piano four hands. This cooperation was very successful, they won the following international competitions: 2001 – winners of the International Franz Schubert competition for piano duo in the Czech Republic, 2002 – winners of Concorso Palma d’Oro Liguria and 1st prize Concorso Internazionale di Musica Citta di Pavia and Concorso Internazionale Camillo Togni Brescia as well as Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Zurich, 2003 – winners of the International chamber music competition Verona promotion price ORPHEUS-concerts, 2004 – 1st prize Concorso Pianistico Internazionale Repubblica di San Marino. Both pianists visited master classes among others with Rudolf Buchbinder, Hans-Peter and Volker Stenzl, Yaara Tal and Andreas Groethuysen. Concerts in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic, England, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Lithuania, and the USA.
	“PEARL OF PASSION” Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38009 Our Price: $24.25 Quantity in Basket: none
“PEARL OF PASSION” IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882 – 1971): Duo Concertant for Violin and Piano WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756 – 1791): Adagio KV 261 EFREM ZIMBALIST (1889 – 1985): Fantasie über “Der5 Goldene Hahn” von Rimski-Korsakov PABLO DE SARASATE (1844 – 1908): Playera RICHARD STRAUSS (1864 – 1949): Sonata in E flat major for Violin and Piano, Op. 18 Mira Tujakbajewa, violin Nino Gurevich, piano
	BOLERO NIGHT - UP TO 24 HANDS Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38010 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
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.
	ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810 – 1856) – COMPLETE WORKS FOR PEDAL PIANO Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38011 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
Studies for the Pedal piano, Op.56 Sketches the Pedal piano, Op.58 Six Fugues on the Name BACH, Op.60 Canon D major, Op.124/2 Martin Schmeding, pedal piano (historical instrument by Pleyel) The year 1844 marked a turning-point in Schumann’s life: a severe mental crisis, together with a complete physical breakdown, temporarily brought his creativity to a standstill. He abandoned, after ten years of activity, the editorial post of the “Neue Zeitschrift für Musik”, which he had created, and moved with his family from Leipzig to Dresden. During the following year, in his new abode, his health only gradually improved. The fact that Schumann, at that time, together with his wife Clara, dedicated himself with genuine enthusiasm to contrapuntal studies, might indeed be viewed as a special measure of self-therapy, a method of mental discipline. The products of this “fugue passion" as he himself called it, were a series of works in austere style, which also testify to his deep veneration for Johann Sebastian Bach, a veneration certainly dating from the early years when he analysed the “Well-tempered Clavier” or copied out the “Art of fugue” for studying purposes. The pieces presented on this CD, besides the “Four fugues” op. 72 for piano, belong to this series of works: the “Six Fugues on the name of BACH” for the piano or the organ op. 60, the “Studies” op. 56 and the “Sketches” op. 58. The first recording of all these works on a pedal piano made by Pleyel solves most of the acoustic problems which forcibly arise from the now frequently practised interpretation of op. 56 and 58 on the organ. It also lets the BACH fugues, originally conceived for the organ, appear in a new light. The unique significance of these three works, which blend the spirit of Bach with the advanced tonal language of the romantic period in an ideal way, without any historicizing academic strictness or boredom, will thus perhaps be more clearly discernible.
	FRANZ SCHMIDT (1874 – 1939) – COMPLETE WORKS FOR ORGAN, VOLUME 1 Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38012 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
Chaconne in C sharp minor Four Short Chorale Preludes Variations & Fugue on an Original Theme in D major Martin Schmeding, organ (Sauer organ of St Petri Cathedral, Bremen) Martin Schmeding, born 1975 in Minden/Westphalia, studied at the College of Music and Drama in Hanover, at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule in Düsseldorf. His organ teachers included Ulrich Bremsteller, Lajos Rovatkay and Jean Boyer, and he also attended master classes with Ludger Lohmann, Martin Haselböck, Andrea Marcon, Hans-Ola Ericsson, Michael Radulescu and Harald Vogel. He won a scholarship in 1995 from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes. After eight first prizes at national level in the German young people's competition "Jugend musiziert" he went on to win prizes at many other competitions, including the following: Mendelssohn Bartholdy (Berlin), Pachelbel (Nürnberg), Böhm (Lüneburg), Deutscher Musikwettbewerb (Berlin), European Young Organists (Ljubljana) and Musica Antiqua (Bruges). He was a finalist in the 1999 ARD Competition in Munich. 1999 also saw the Land of Lower Saxony award him its Bursary for Arts and Culture. He was Kantor and organist of the Nazareth-Kirche in Hanover from 1997 to 1999, leaving Hanover to succeed Oswald Gottlieb Blarr as Church Music Director of the Neanderkirche in Düsseldorf.