Label: BIS SACD 1611
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Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats, BWV42; Ihr werdet weinen und heulen, BWV103; Es ist euch gut, daß ich hingehe, BWV108; Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden, BWV6

Yukari Nonoshita, soprano; Robin Blaze, counter-tenor; James Gilchrist, tenor; Dominik Wörner, bass
Bach Collegium Japan/Masaaki Suzuki
Four cantatas written for services during April 1725 make up the program of this disc. Just before Easter that same year, Bach had put an end to his projected chorale cantata cycle, originally planned to span the entire church year. These particular cantatas did not have a direct association with the gospel passage for the days in question; instead they used specific hymns as their starting point. Probably for extra-musical reasons – possibly the non-availability of the librettist – this cycle broke off before the church year was completed. Instead, with Bleib bei uns (Abide with us, BWV 6), Bach returned to the conventional type of cantata. All four cantatas on the present disc deal with the interplay between the resurrected Christ and his disciples: Christ's first appearance in front of two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus (BWV 6), his visit to a meeting of the disciples, held in secret for fear of persecution (BWV 42), and his words of parting as he prepares to join his Father (BWV 103 and 108). Joy, fear and sadness, the various and conflicting emotions inherent in the subject matter, are painted in Bach's incomparable musical language, and transmitted in these performances by Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki. Among the soloists, Yukari Nonoshita and Robin Blaze are well-known to the followers of this series, while James Gilchrist and Domink Wörner both appear in it for the second time. For this particular disc, Bach Collegium Japan are visited by Dan Laurin, who performs the virtuosic flauto piccolo part in BWV 103, and Dmitry Badiarov, who plays his own, unique reconstruction of a violoncello piccolo in BWV 6.

Label: EBS SACD 6141
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Symphony No. 1 in E flat major, Op. 28 (1868); Symphony No. 2 in F minor, Op. 36 (1870); Symphony No. 3 in E major, Op. 51 (1882, rev. 1886); Concerto for Violin & Orchestra No. 2 in D minor, Op. 44 (1877); Concert piece for Violin & Orchestra in F sharp minor, Op. 84 (1911); Swedish Dances, Op. 63 (1892)

Ursula Schoch, violin
New Philharmonic Westfalen/Johannes Wildner
A photograph from the 1890s: The eyes behind tiny steel-rimmed glasses are reduced to critical observation slits, and the whole physiognomy is subjugated by one big sorrow line between the eyebrows – this is not a perfectly contented person. Even with the luxuriant growth of his beard Max Bruch’s face does not give the impression of a good-natured and easy-going person. On the contrary: here ¡s someone who seems to be struggling with a hard lot, maybe the peculiar fate of belonging to the group of "one opus”- composers who are severely wronged by posterity; reducing him to being the author of just one classical hit and ignoring the rest of his work. It is one of the goals of this and similar productions to contribute to the revision of the traditional image of Max Bruch, for until quite recently he was only known for "the” violin concerto, and even the fact that he contributed three works to the genre has passed virtually unnoticed. (3 CDs) - PREMIERE RECORDING ON SACD!!!

Label: EBS SACD 6142
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Serenade for Violin & Orchestra, Op. 75; Romance for Violin & Orchestra, Op. 42; Suite for Great Orchestra after Russian Folk Music, Op. 79b

Ursula Schoch, violin
New Philharmonic Westfalen/Theo Wolters
According to his own self-assessment in a letter to the publisher Simrock, Max Bruch belonged “...to the few who, apart from Brahms, still perpetuate the true nature of organic music”. Two key ideas in that statement deserve closer scrutiny – the word “still” conceals a pessimistic – outlook which combines personal disappointment and a criticism of the times while his idea of the “true nature of organic music” confronts the much-hated avant-garde music with a positive model of which he saw himself and Brahms as representative and moralistic pioneers. "Where may the dreadful products of Messrs R. Strauss, Reger and their cohorts be in fifty years?” Even though Bruch does not seem to have had clairvoyant powers on that score, we do find a surprisingly realistic assessment in other matters. His bitterness when he acknowledged himself being remembered as the author of a single classical hit – the violin concerto – was apparent in his 1907 note: “Brahms has been dead for ten years, but his work is still being taken to pieces. However, I predict that he will be more and more appreciated over the years, whereas I will only be known for my violin concerto in G Minor. It seems I never wrote for the public taste – my artistic conscience did not allow that. I always wrote good music, but a music which sold easily. There was never a reason to discuss my music.”

Label: EBS SACD 6143
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Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in G minor
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 3 in D minor

Torsten Janicke, violin
Gurzenich Orchestra Cologne/Markus Stenz

Max Bruch’s violin concertos are pervaded by simple, romantic beauty, which appears so natural that we forget the great artistic skill required to create it. Writing for an instrument, which can express best in flowing melody, Bruch speaks in languorous, romantic tones, subjugating virtuosity to a minor role. It is music not of the intellect, but of the heart, thankful for the sensitive performer, who has here a composition, which he cannot only impress his audience, but also touch them. The timbre and technique of the virtuoso Joseph Joachim, the leading violinist in the circle around Schumann and Brahms, were the decisive factors for the composition of the solo part and its technical execution in almost all of Max Bruch’s violin works. Nearly all of the composers of the late nineteenth century oriented themselves on Joachim, much as earlier composers had taken Paganini or Spohr as ideals for their violin works.

Label: EBS SACD 6144
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Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor

Wurttemberg Philharmonic Reutlingen/Norichika Iimori

Label: EBS SACD 6147
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Concerto for Violoncello & Orchestra in A minor (Arr. of the Concerto for Violin, Cello & Orchestra in A minor, Op. 102)
Concerto for Violin, Cello & Orchestra in A minor, Op. 102

Ursula Schoch, violin; Julius Berger, cello
New Philharmonic Westfalen/Johnnes Wildner
The recording of this version of the double concerto as a solo concerto answers the question in several ways: It is not a reconstruction of the first version, but an arrangement, however one which is not concerned about legitimacy: It stands in a tradition which was never a question of validity, but rather the wish to adapt existing compositions to new situations of performance. The question about the value is obsolete in regard of the achievement of such an arrangement above and beyond the original. Julius Berger, the soloist of this recording, sums it up as follows: „In this version we look at a well known painting with a different incidence of light, so to speak. You hear well known music in a new way, in an unusual tone, without changes in the structure, but enriched by surprising shades of color.” Cord Garben set out in different ways to weave the substance of the violin part into the new score. The woodwinds take a significant part in this: Several prominent solos formerly played by the violin are turned into solos for the flute, the oboe or the clarinet. At times solo-strings from the orchestra intervene, but above all it is the solo-cello which takes over responsibility for most of which was formerly the violin’s task. To the same extent in which the dialogic principle loses importance, the unity of the thematic material becomes the focus of the listener’s attention. (2 SACDs)

Label: EBS SACD 6150
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Symphony No. 1 in D major “Der Titan” (original version with andante “Blumine”)

Neue Philharmonie Westfalen/Heiko Mathias Förster
Mahler’s music always deals with truth, adorned or unadorned, with what is going on in the world in all its extremes – from harsh reality with its abysses of filth and misery to the highest peaks of an intellect which designs visions of the “ideal world”. The “Mahler principle” becomes evident in his first Symphony, which is provocative, yet overwhelming and shattering at the same time. If you want to understand all of this provocativeness in the “First” you have to know the historic setting of its origins in the years 1884 to 1888: Brahms was composing his fourth Symphony, Bruckner and Dvorak their respective eight Symphonies and Tchaikovsky his fifth Symphony. Mahler’s “First” is radically different in many respects. This symphony opens the door onto a whole new symphonic world in the gallery of ingenious pioneering symphonic newcomers in musical history. Mahlers “First” initially had five movements. Between the first and the second movements of the version in which the symphony is mostly performed nowadays there as originally an andante, called “Blumine”. It seems it was the Viennese publisher Josef Weinberger, the first publisher of the score, who later cut this “Blumine” movement form the symphony as he thought the music too sentimental.

Label: EBS SACD 6153
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Concerto for Violin, Piano & Orchestra in D minor
Concerto for Violin & Orchestra in E minor, Op. 64

Ursula Schoch, violin; Nina Tichman, piano
Neue Philharmonie Westfalen/Theo Wolters
Ursula Schoch was born in Ludwigsburg in 1971 and received her first violin lessons at the age of four. After finishing school she studied at the Cologne academy of music with Prof. Saschko Gawriloff between 1992 and 1998, when she took her final exam. In addition to her solo studies she has studied chamber music with the famous Viennese Alban Berg-Quartet. Ursula Schoch has won several first prizes in the “Jugend musiziert” competition, in both chamber music and solo violin. In 1992 she won the first prize in a competition of the “Deutsche Musikrat”, which opened the door to an international career for her. In 1990 she made her debut as a soloist with the orchestra of the Ludwigsburg festival, where she recorded Mozart’s violin concertos D major KV 218 and KV 271a. Since then Ursula Schoch has been invited to numerous festivals and has toured the European continent as well as Japan, central Asia, the USA and Africa. Ursula Schoch was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Claudio Abbado for three years. In 2000 she was appointed leader of the violins by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. Together with the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia Ursula Schoch already produced three highly regarded CD-recordings.

Label: EBS SACD 6156
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JOSEF STRAUSS (1827 - 1870): Sphärenklänge; Harlekin; Eingesendet; Vorwärts; JOHANN STRAUSS I (1804 - 1849): Radetzky-Marsch; JOHANN STRAUSS II (1825 - 1899): Luzifer; Du und Du; Fledermaus-Quadrille; Tik Tak; Kaiserwalzer; EDUARD STRAUSS (1835 - 1916): Carmen-Quadrille; JOHANN STRAUSS III (1866 - 1939): Schlau-Schlau

Neue Philharmonie Westfalen/Neiko Mathias Förster
Whereas all the representatives of the Viennese classical period were “immigrants”, the members of the Strauss family were “native” citizens. Johann Strauss senior, son of an innkeeper, became a member of Johann Lanner’s orchestra as a viola player at the age of fifteen. In 1825 he founded his own orchestra and soon became the musical darling of Viennese audiences. He toured all of Austria and performed in London and Paris as early as 1837. In 1835 he received, like his son many years later, the title of a “Hofballmusikdirektor”. Among his 250 compositions there are quadrilles and polkas as well as waltzes and marches, however, his most famous piece has always been the “Radetzky March”. The “Radetzky March” by Johann Strauss sen., seen from a modern point of view, is a less than pacifistic dedication to the K&K (“imperial and royal”) military and one of its most successful protagonists, the general Josef Wenzel Radetzky. In modern times this march celebrates its peaceful triumph in the concert halls of the whole world.