Label: BAYER SACD 100326
Our Price: $38.00
Quantity in Basket: none
Aria with 30 Variations, BWV 988 “Goldberg Variations”

Burkard Schliessmann, piano
In his new Bayer SACD recording of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” noted German pianist Burkard Schliessmann makes the modern concert grand ring with the richness and power of Bach’s great keyboard masterwork. In the words of former New York Times cirtic Harold C. Schonberg, “Schliessmann’s playing is representative of the best of the modern school.” (2 CDs)

Label: BAYER SACD 100328
Our Price: $19.00
Quantity in Basket: none
String Quartet No. 8, Op. 110 (arranged for String Orchestra by R. Barshai)
String Quartet No. 10, Op. 118 (arranged for String Orchestra by R. Barshai)

Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn/Ruben Gazarian
Dmitri Shostakovich (1905-1975) turned to the genre of the string quartet in 1938. The string quartet became his expressive medium for compassion and sorrow, rage and despair, as well as for compositional examples of economy, for the most extreme limitation of the means with the greatest heightening of expression and drama. Shostakovich wrote his eighth string quartet C-Minor Op. 110 in just three days between the 12th and 14th of July 1960 in Dresden. He also spoke of it as an “autobiographical quartet“: As in his symphonies, the object of the expressed despair is ultimately also the situation in his own country, which had severely influenced his own path in life through the terror, persecution and repression. His tenth string quartet, A Flat Major Op. 118, was created just four years later and is also distinguished by tragedy and satire. Rudolf Barshai, one of Shostakovich’s fellow students, arranged these two string quartets for string orchestra. Since then, they have been known as Chamber Symphony Op. 110a and Op. 118a. Shostakovich was familiar with these versions of his quartet and authorised them.

Label: BAYER SACD 100348
Our Price: $19.00
Quantity in Basket: none
FREDERIC CHOPIN: Ballades in G minor Op. 23, F major Op. 38, A flat major Op. 47, F minor Op. 52; Fantaisie in F minor Op. 59; Barcarolle in F sharp major Op. 60; Polonaise-Fantaisie in A flat major Op. 61. Burkard Schliessmann, piano. Burkard Schliessmann, who completed his musical studies as a pupil in the master-class of Herbert Seidel, Shura Cherkassky, Bruno Leonardo Gelber and Poldi Mildner, is regarded as one of the influential pianists of the modern era. He has received numerous prizes and awards of merits for his interpretations. The concerts he gave in the USA, Japan and at European festivals including Paris, the Munich summer piano festival, the Frankfurt festival and the Mallorca/Valldemossa Chopin festival were all received with similar acclaim from the public and critics alike. Famous critics have had no hesitation in placing him alongside the finest pianists: "This is the most imaginative playing one has heard yet on the level of Richter, Michelangeli, Serkin, Wild, Gould - the highest order of artistry" wrote the "High Performance Review" in the USA. When he is working on a piece of music, Burkard Schliessmann always has Hegel in mind: "art isn't all about a pleasant or useful musical mechanism, but about laying bare the truth". After an initial, seemingly improvised phase, Schliessmann explores the smallest of structures, whilst at the same time conducting a rigorous analysis of the independent interfaces between the various parameters - melody, rhythm and harmony. The individual sound is always the carrier of the whole - suffused with its own identity, interpreted through the personality of the performer. In addition to this "parameter polyphony", Schliessmann always takes into consideration philosophy, literature, sociology, history of art and the natural sciences in his works. Underlying this analytical process is a profound understanding of musical composition and contemporary history. Thus Schliessmann is able to free himself from the background so carefully studied and bring to his work, thanks to an intuitive knowledge of these complex relationships, a fresh, almost improvised artistic interpretation, and this is all the listener perceives... (SACD-HYBRID)

Label: BAYER SACD 100352
Our Price: $19.00
Quantity in Basket: none
ANDREAS HAMMERSCHMIDT (1611-1675): Machet die Tore weit
GIOVANNI CROCE (1557-1609): Veni Domine
GIOVANNI GABRIELI (1555-1612): Benedixisti
JOHANNES ECCARD (1553-1611): Übers Gebirg' Maria geht;
JOSQUIN DE PREZ (1450?-1521): Et incarnatus est
MICHAEL PRAETORIUS (1571-1621): Der Morgenstern ist aufgedrungen;
ANTON BRUCKNER (1824-1896): Ave Maria/Virga Jesse;
HANS LEO HAßBLER (1564-1612): Verbum caro factum est - Weihnachtsmotette; Angelus ad pastores ait - Motette für zwei 4-stimmige Chöre
JAN PIETERSZOON SWEELINCK (1562-1621): Hodie Christus natus est - Weihnachtsmotette
JOHANNES ECCARD (1553-1611): Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her; Ich lag in tiefer Todesnacht
GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA (1525-1594): Dies sanctificatus
SAMUEL SCHEIDT (1587-1654): O Jesulein zart

Regensburger Domspatzen/Theobald Schrems
“One of the most famous choirs in the world... wrote Pope Paul VI in 1976, when he congratulated the “Regensburger Domspatzen” on their millennium anniversary. In many successful concerts they have won the hearts of their audiences all over the world. Through many CD recordings and their presence in the media the singing sparrows” from Regenburg have become famous - far beyond the borders of Regensburg and Germany. Its a very special thing to be a Domspatz; in later years every former Domspatz will always enjoy remembering the many impressions and unforgettable events in and around this school. The Regensburger Domspatzen (Regensburg Cathedral Choir) play a very important role in the cultural life of Regensburg and have long become one of the most famous attractions of their home town. Due to the many concert tours all over the world they are called ‘the singing ambassadors of the city”. They often travel to the USA, to Canada and to Japan as well as to Taiwan and South Korea. Of course, the Regensburger Domspatzen are at home in all European countries, too. They look just as smart in their dark blue suits, which they wear in concerts as they do in their red and white liturgical gowns worn during the services in the Cathedral of St Peter. The choir’s repertoire comprises music from 16th century chorale to contemporary music. SACD SUPER AUDIO/HYBRID

Label: BAYER SACD 100371
Our Price: $19.00
Quantity in Basket: none
Béla Bartók (1881-1945): Divertimento for String Orchestra Sz 1131
Leos Janacek(1854-1928): Suite for String Orchestra
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957): Impromptu after Op. 5 no 5 & 6 for String Orchestra
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976): Simple Symphony, Op. 4

Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra of Heilbronn
Ruben Gazarian, conductor

The Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra of Heilbronn has been praised as a great bastion of culture for the past 50 years and their new recording Simply Strings presents important 20th Century works for string orchestra.

Label: BAYER SACD 100380
Our Price: $19.00
Quantity in Basket: none
“Souvenir de Florence” for 2 Violins, 2 Violas & 2 Cellos, Op. 70; Serenade for String Orchestra in C major, Op. 48

Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn/Ruben Gazarian
Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence stands out by virtue of its voice leading, which treats all six voices as equal and independent. How difficult and new this course of action seemed to the composer himself was expressed in a letter to his brother Modest: “I’m writing under unusual pressure. I am having difficulties not because of a lack of ideas, but rather as a result of a form that is new to me. I need six independent and simultaneously similar voices. That is unbelievably difficult.” Nevertheless, he was able to announce in July 1890, after a few weeks: “What a sextet – and what a fugue at the end – it’s a pleasure! Terrible, how satisfied I am with myself... I’m becoming more and more captivated by it…” In getting this new Sextet into full swing, the lead conductor of the “Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn”, Ruben Gazarian, deliberately renounced using the contrabass (the contrabass would double the 2nd cello and unnaturally strengthen this voice), in order to more closely approximate the composer’s intention of creating an internal balance between the six voices, and to allow the subtle interaction of individual voices. Tchaikovsky himself treasured his Serenade for String orchestra a lot, “Because this child is my youngest child, and because in truth, it’s not bad, and anyway, I have fallen terribly in love with the serenade and can hardly wait for its world premiere.” The St. Petersburg Russian Music Society performed the work on October 30, 880. Tchaikovsky himself conducted this work on his numerous international concert tours.

Label: BAYER SACD 800855
Our Price: $19.00
Quantity in Basket: none
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART: Requiem K 626 (fragment)
HANS GEORG PFLUGER: Memento mori (1995)

Petra Labitzke, soprano; MarionEckstein, alto; Johannes Kaleschke, tenor; Michael Nagy, bass
Wurttemberg Chamber Choir
Choir of the “Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst” Stuttgart
Wurttemberg Philharmonic Reutlingen/Dieter Kurz

Hans Georg Pflüger wrote his Requiem in the clear understanding of making a final statement. When the work was commissioned by the town of Bietigheim and his close friend, the parish priest Josef Diemer, we had serious discussions about Mozart’s Requiem. During these weeks when composing, he was a different person; even more serious than his usual serious self. He read voraciously, especially Trakl. When we listened to the Verdi Requiem together, he said to me: “Only an opera composer can create such turbulences”. Since he didn’t do too bad a job himself, the reverse conclusion, that he would have been a great opera composer, is allowed. All too soon the work became his requiem and then only a short time later that also of his benefactor, Josef Diemer. “Memento Mori 1995”, as the piece is correctly titled, is undoubtedly the culmination point of Hans Georg Pflüger’s vocal production, as well as being a distinctive work in the long tradition of requiem compositions. The musical quotes are his recognition of a long continuing music tradition in which he always understood himself to be an active furthering part. The orchestration, the function of the winds, the embedding of the choir voices and the arrangement of the solos, together generate great emotional strength, vividly impacting sound and moving depth of expression.