Label: FARAO SACD 108080
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Anja Harteros; Vesselina Kasarova; Veronica Cangemi; Sonia Prina; John Mark Ainsley; Christopher Purves; Deborah York
Bavarian State Orchestra/Ivor Bolton
The festival premiere of ALCINA at the Prinzregententheater on July 17th, 2005 was, like so many other premieres of baroque operas, a highlight of the Munich opera season. Who does not like to think back to "Poppea", "Rinaldo" or, needless to say, "Giulio Cesare". The production featured Anja Harteros and Vesselina Kasarova, two superstars of the international opera scene. Under the approved direction of Ivor Bolton, the entire ensemble was celebrated by the audience with standing ovations, and no less euphoric was the echo in the press!
" …Vesselina Kasarova’s restrained, mourning voice is so heartbreaking that the audience of Prinzregententheater wished themselves to be back in the lovely woods with Ruggiero…" - Münchner Merkur
"Ivor Bolton and the Bavarian State Orchestra are well attuned to one another, and present their approved Handel, not plump in a baroque fashion, but rather muscular, who has become the trademark of the Munich Handel renaissance." - Neue Zürcher Zeitung - (3 CDs)

Label: MUSICAPHON SACD 56860
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*FIRST RECORDING!!!
Huguette Dreyfus, harpsichord; Deutsch Bachsolisten/Martin Stephani
Stage Music to “Knight Bluebeard” by Ludwig Tieck*
Katharina Wingen, soprano; Stefan Livland, tenor
Neubrandenburger Philharmonie/Stefan Malzew
In 2008 we celebrate the centenary of Hugo Distler, one of the most important German composers of the 20th century. Right at the start of the Distler-year Musicaphon brings a first recording: The stage music to the play „Knight Bluebeard" by Ludwig Tieck, composed by Distler in 1940 using material from his harpsichord concerto he had created five years earlier. Therefore it makes sense to combine both works on one CD. Moreover the elder recording of the harpsichord concerto with Huguette Dreyfus was not available for a long time but counts as the reference recording of that work until today. Besides the interesting use of musical material from the harpsichord concerto the stage music to “Knight Bluebeard” is meaningful for several reasons. Firstly this work should be the opener for Distler to the world of the opera (which did not work resulting from circumstances Distler had no influence in), and secondly it bears (and shows) subtile political resistance. "Bluebeard" was recorded live at the first performance in Neubrandenburg 2002. Both recordings are not originally multi-channel but were brushed up to a convincing virtual multi-channel basis (Harpsichord Concerto directly from analog to DSD, Bluebeard from PCM to DSD).

Label: MUSICAPHON SACD 56866
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FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797 – 1828): Overture in D major D 590 “Italian Style”; JOSEPH HAYDN (1732 – 1809): Symphony No. 45 in F sharp minor “Farewell”; WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756 – 1791): Serenade in D major KV 320 “Posthornserenade”

Emsland Ensemble: Tino Plener, clarinet; Bernhard Wesenick, bassoon; Holger Nießing, horn; Rüdiger Spuck, violin I; Annika Wahlström, violin II; Boris Bardenhagen, viola; Olaf Nießing, cello; Markus Kröll, double-bass
Easy listening, famous works are here to be heard in a new sound. Not only in surround, but also played by a smaller ensemble. The Emsland Ensemble plays arrangements of masterworks by the Vienna Masters in its classical octet formation (woodwinds with horn and string quintet). About the arrangers: Andreas N. Tarkmann was born in Hannover in 1956. Next to activities as oboist and piano accompanist, composer and conductor in the field of theatre music, he is particularly known as arranger. In cooperation with the ensembles Albert-Schweitzer, Linos, Villa-Musica, Aulos, Scharoun, hr-brass, the brass of the Berlin Philharmonics, the wind soloists of the German Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sabine Meyer Wind-Ensemble as well as radio stations he created numerous wind settings and harmony music. Tarkmann in addition writes cadences and flourish’s (among others for the clarinet concerts of Carl and Johann Stamitz, which were awarded with an Echo-Klassik-prize in the recording with Sabine Meyer 1994) and reconstructs and orchestrate compositions. Ulf-Guido Schaefer is solo clarinetist of the NDR radio philharmonic orchestra Hannover as well as member of the Ma’alot-Quintett, the Ensemble Acht and the Arte Ensemble. Schaefer acted as a soloist with outstanding orchestras and played for example the concerts of Mozart, von Weber and Nielsen under conductors as Paavo Berglund, Heinrich Schiff and Eiji Oue.

Label: MUSICAPHON SACD 56870
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Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1 in F major, Op. 5 No. 1; Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 2 in G minor, Op. 5 No. 2; Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 3 in A major, Op. 69; Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 4 in C major, Op. 102 No. 1; Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 5 in D major, Op. 102 No. 2; Variations (12) for Cello and Piano in F major on "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen", Op. 66; Variations (12) for Cello and Piano in G major on a theme by Handel, WoO 45; Variations (7) for Cello and Piano on Mozart's "Bei Männern", WoO 46

Martin Rummel, cello; Gerda Guttenberg, piano
It is my deep conviction that these pieces cannot be put together within a short time, which has unfortunately become more and more common in today’s concert life. A cellist has a recital with a pianist, they meet – best case scenario – a few days before the concert for rehearsals, and then go to play. These Beethoven pieces are, however, duo works in the best sense of the word; there must be a profound unity between cellist and pianist. This unity goes much further than the imagination of the sound and goes into questions of playing technique that are hardly raised in romantic pieces. I am lucky enough to concertize with most outstanding pianists, but rarely dare to play Beethoven with such “fleeting acquaintances”. Unfortunately I hardly ever hear CD recordings or concerts that convince me of the opposite. – Martin Rummel (2 CDs)

Label: MUSICAPHON SACD 56880
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SCOTTISH AND OTHER SONGS
JOSEPH HAYDN (1732 – 1809): Bannocks o’ barleymeal; Es weiden meine Schafe; Fließ leise mein Bächlein; O can you sew cushions; Green grow the rashes; Heimkehr; Johnie; Rose weiß Rose rot; Ständchen; Trio in D minor, Hob. XV:23
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770 – 1827): To the Blackbird; The lovely lass of Inverness; Bonnie laddie highland laddie; The sweetest lad was Jamie; The Elfin Fairies; Since Greybeards inform us; La Gondoletta; Bolero; Tyroler: Der töpperte Hecht; Tyroler: Wenn I in der Früh aufsten’

Daniela Bechly, soprano

Trio Karios:Solveigh Rose, violin; Bettina Barbara Bertsch, cello; Christiane Behn, piano
The Enlightenment period set out to make all knowledge and power of the people accessible to every citizen, against the resistance of the dictators. The years between 1730 and 1800 saw an emancipation of the people, which we have to thank for a concentration of knowledge, reasoning, feelings and actions. We also have a lot to be grateful, when it comes to the area of music, for this great production of collections. Even in Scotland people were endeavoring to compile a wide collection of the island’s folklore. At the time of the Scottish Enlightenment numerous publishers and editors were competing against each other with their volumes of Scottish, Irish and Welsh songs. The most profiled on amongst them became George Thomson (1757-1851) from Edinburgh. He was the most industrious collector and for more than 50 years the main supplier for collections of Scottish songs. He was successful in engaging Haydn and later on Beethoven to support him in elaboration (and composing new melodies on the basis of the folk melodies) of the collected material. Some of the results of this work are presented here by Daniela Bechly, Hamburgian by birth but domiciled in England since 1993 (from 1987 to 1993 she was engaged at the Deutsche Oper Berlin) in combination with the Trio Kairos – three young Hamburgian musicians who had a very successful debut on Musicaphon with their recording of “Piano Trios of the 1920s” (M 56872).

Label: MUSICAPHON SACD 56886
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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART: Bassoon Concerto in B flat major KV 191; Violin Concerto No. 1 in B flat major KV 207
JOSEPH HAYDN: Symphony A (Hob.I:107); Symphony B (Hob.I:108)

Sergio Azzolini, bassoon; Freidemann Wezel, violin and director
Ensemble “Il capriccio”
The works selected for inclusion here each share a common feature; they represent the earliest efforts by two foremost masters of the Classical period in the genre of Concerto and Symphony. We have here two of Mozart’s earliest essays in solo concerto form, while from Haydn, whose prodigious output of symphonies number from 1 to 104, there are an additional early pair that have come to light in comparatively recent times. A special feature of these performances is that a bassoon has been used to double the bass-line throughout – and that uniquely it is from this instrument that they are all directed. These days many recordings that purport to have been made on ‘original instruments’ have in fact been made on modern reproductions. On this record we can savour the sound of an authentic ‘period’ instrument built around the turn of the 18th and 19th century by Kaspar Tauber (1758 - 1831), a distinguished maker active in Vienna from before 1794; some thirty of his bassoons and contrabassoons are preserved today. These performances will be found to demonstrate how the addition of a ‘period’ bassoon to the orchestral tutti will unobtrusively lend a subtle element of body and clarity to the bass line.

Label: MUSICAPHON SACD 56889
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GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL: Sonata in F major HWV 363a; Sonata in C minor HWV 366; Sonata in B flat major HWV 357; Sonata in G minor HWV 364
JOHANN SIGISMUND WEISS: Sonata in E flat major; Sonata in G minor; Sonata in B flat major

Concert Royal Köln: Karla Schröter, baroque oboe; Rainer Johannsen, baroque bassoon; Robert Nikolayczik, viol/cello; Yamato Hasumi, arciliuto; Thomas Synofzik, harpsichord/organ
Why should things be more fair in musical history than elsewhere? Here, too, the wall that stands between fame and obscurity is very thin and, moreover, rather arbitrarily erected. But it can be unsurmountably high. Coincidences, small vicissitudes of life can decide between success and failure in the eyes of posterity. The composers whose works we find on this recording are prime examples of this. On the one hand, George Frideric Handel, the cosmopolitan, widely known composer, chapel master to His Majesty, the King of England, and director of the Royal Academy of Music, who hardly needs any further introduction, and, on the other hand, Johann Sigismund Weiss. Who? The name Weiss only brings to mind Sylvius Leopold, the famous lutenist at the Dresden court, acquainted with Bach – this was the older brother of our Weiss. He, too, was a professional musician, and, as his works show, one who was entirely on a par with his brother, indeed even with Handel – but he never became famous. He was born ca. 1690 in Breslau, and died in Mannheim in 1737. We hardly know anything about his life and work. From 1708 to 1718, he was lutenist of the Electoral Palatinate court chapel in Düsseldorf, subsequently – until 1723 – he held the same position in Mannheim. There he advanced to court Kapellmeister. But his path should cross with that of Handel.

Label: MUSICAPHON SACD 56890
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LOUIS FERDINAND VON PREUßEN (1772 - 1806): Quartet in E flat major, Op. 5
FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY (1809 - 1847): Quartet No. 2 in F minor, Op. 2

Valentin Klavierquartett:
Inka von Puttkamer, violin; Isabel Lhotzky, piano; Minako Uno, viola; Hanno Kuhns, cello
Eleven Years of the Valentin Piano Quartet. The notification of the award of a chamber music scholarship reached the four Hamburg music students on 14 February 1996. Out of joy and thankfulness, this very special Valentine’s Day has been immortalized in the ensemble’s name. Honored with the Masefield Scholarship of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation, the Valenin Piano Quartet has appeared at home and abroad since the year of its founding. The invitation in 2000 to the Flanders Festival in Brussels was a particularly great honor. In the meantime, the Valentin Piano Quartet has established itself as a top ensemble through appearances at prestigious festivals, such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the “Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker,” and the “Schlosskonzerte Elmau.” The Valentin Piano Quartet’s debut CD with works by W.A. Mozart and Richard Strauss has been broadcast by numerous radio stations and acclaimed by the critics.

Label: MUSICAPHON SACD 56891
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Tanja Aspelmeier; Lisa Tjalve; Theresa Nelles; Benoît Haler; Markus Auerbach; Raimonds Spogis
Kammerchor Würzburg
Concert Royal Köln/Sylvie Kraus & Matthias Beckert
First recording of an Opera pasticcio by Handel compiled from his own compositions, and including arias by Francesco Araja. A pasticcio is an opera in which arias from older pieces are put together to make up a new piece. This practice, which might seem strange to us today, was entirely common in the eighteenth century. One took the text of an older opera and inserted, in place of the original arias, pieces that fit best to the current cast of singers and through which the greatest possible popular success could be achieved. In this way, it was possible to hear music by many different composers during one opera performance. In London, George Frideric Handel, too, attempted on a number of occasions to offer such pasticci alongside his original compositions. Giove in Argo, occupies a very special position that distinguishes it from all of Handel’s other musico-dramatic works. - (2 CDs)
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING!!!

Label: MUSICAPHON SACD 56901
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ROLF LIEBERMANN (1910 – 1999): “Furioso” für Orchester; RICHARD STRAUSS (1864 – 1949): Metamorphosen, Studie für 23 Solostreicher; ARTHUR HONEGGER (1892 – 1955): Sinfonie (“Symphonie liturgique”)

Philharmonisches Orchester der Hansestadt Lübeck/Roman Brogli-Sacher
In 1966, Theodor W. Adorno qualified his meanwhile familiar and frequently discussed maxim about the impossibility of writing poetry after the Second World War: “Perennial suffering has as much right to expression as the tortured have to scream; hence it may have been wrong to say that no poem could be written after Auschwitz”. Just as writers could no longer trust the language, composers also had to search for new paths. The three works presented here constitute an exception, since their musical language picks up the threads of tradition and employs these means to react to the events of the war. Postwar Sounds. Switzerland. - At first glance, three words that can only be reconciled with difficulty. To be sure, Switzerland did not participate in the Second World War, but, in the truest sense of the word, it stood right in the middle of it - above all geographically. It therefore became a safe harbor for many refugees, but at times also turned back refugees who were not classified as “politically persecuted”. In the 1990s, the Bergier Report critically examined Switzerland's role during this period. Nevertheless, the focus of this recording is not politics, but rather the people, or to put it another way: Swiss artists and those who have a relation to this country, for example, Richard Strauss, who after the Second World War emigrated to Switzerland for several years. Two compositions are by Swiss-born composers, while Richard Strauss' Metamorphoses was written during the final days of the war at the instigation of the Swiss conductor and patron of the arts Paul Sacher, to whom Strauss dedicated the work.

Label: MUSICAPHON SACD 56905
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LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918 – 1990): Westside Story (arr. Andreas Hilner); HAROLD ARLEN (1905 – 1986): Over the Rainbow (arr. Sebastian Pottmeier); FREDERICK LOEWE (1901 – 1988): Scenes from “My Fair Lady” (arr. S. Pottmeier); GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898 – 1937): Selections from “Porgy and Bess” (arr. Bill Holcombe)

Linos Sacophon Quartett
Thorsten Blumberg, percussion
For the present recording, the Linos Saxophone Quartet has put together a kaleidoscope-like program of classic “popular songs” that allows a many-layered musical glance into the Broadway careers of the greatest and most famous American composers of the past hundred years, presented here in fresh and jazzy arrangements for Saxophone Quartet. For over twenty years, the Linos Saxophone Quartet has been a permanent feature on the German musical scene. After a brilliant start with first prizes at national and international music competitions, the quartet has made a excellent name for itself through its many years of concert activity at home and abroad. Every appearance is an experience, whether in New York, in Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory, or at one of the major German music festivals. Thorsten Blumberg studied at the Cologne College of Music. After engagements with the Radio Symphonic Band Leipzig and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, he has been percussionist and assistant solo timpanist of the WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne since 2002. After Impression (M 56861), the present recording is the second release by the Linos Saxophone Quartet on Musicaphon.

Label: MUSICAPHON SACD 56908
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ARTHUR HONEGGER (1892 – 1955): Sinfonie; RAFFAELE D’ALESSANDRO (1911 – 1959): Concerto for Bassoon and String Orchestra, Op. 75; MAURICE RAVEL (1875 – 1937): Alborada del Gracioso; IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882 – 1971): L’oiseau de feu (The Firebird), Suite for Orchestra (1919)

Jakob Meyer, bassoon
Lübeck Philharmonic/Roman Brogli-Sacher
Besides a splendid interpretation of Honegger‘s first symphony and Stravinsky‘s L‘oiseau de feu the present program of the Lübeck Philharmonic in it‘s centenary year offers a highlight with Raffaele d‘Alessandro‘s seldom performed bassoon concerto. The composer, who was born on 17 March 1911 in St. Gallen, learned violin and took piano and organ lessons. For his music studies he moved to Zurich in 1932, but was primarily self-taught. In 1933 he earned a diploma in piano and organ. He continued his training until 1937 in Paris with Marcel Dupré and Nadia Boulanger, among others. From 1940 d’Alessandro lived in Lausanne, where he gave piano and organ concerts and dedicated himself to composing. From 1950 he earned his living exclusively from composition commissions and concerts, which time and again put him in a difficult financial situation. He died impoverished on 17 March 1959. Commissioned by Paul Sacher, Raffaele d’Alessandro’s Concerto for Bassoon and String Orchestra, op. 75, was composed in Lausanne between 25 February and 16 March 1956. The preliminary sketch shows that the individual movements were conceived in the order: Sonata, Arioso, Rondo, Cadenza. Suggestions by two French bassoonists – Raymond Castellon in Lausanne and Henri Bouchet in Basel – were largely integrated into the solo part. Several short sections were even left to the orchestra in order to give the soloist a breather. The premiere took place on 22 February 1957 in Basel, with Henri Bouchet as the soloist, and Paul Sacher conducting the Basel Chamber Orchestra.

Label: MUSICAPHON SACD 56909
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RICHARD STRAUSS (1864 – 1949): Don Juan, Op. 20; Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28
IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882 – 1971): La Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring)

Philharmonisches Orchester der Hansestadt Lübeck/Roman Brogli-Sacher
Successes and failures have been boundled on this SACD by Lübeck Philharmonic conducted by his chief conductor Brogli-Sacher. Richard Strauss, only 25 years old, had great success with his second tone-poem Don Juan, starting right away at the premiere of the work. Afterwards the young composer became a strong and respected member of German musical life. And also the second tone-poem performed at this concert live recorded made it‘s way. Humor is not a trait overly frequent in classical music (which is often denoted as „serious music“). But it is this trait which made Till Eulenspiegel to great success right from the start. Completely different things went with Igor Stravinsky‘s Le Sacre du Printemps, today one of his most played and most popular works. The legendary world premiere of the ballet in May 1913 in Paris – referred to by a newspaper as “Le massacre du Printemps” – really became a scandal with the vocal reaction of the crowd escalating to insults and acts of violence, leaves us wondering to which point the audience’s protest was a reaction to the music. One year later however a concert performance led the piece to success – Stravinsky remembers: “After the scandal at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the concert meant a glorious rehabilitation. The hall was crowded. The audience, no longer being distracted by scenic pictures, listened to my work in focused concentration and greeted it with an enthusiasm that moved me very much and I that I had not been expecting. Some critics, having disliked The Rite one year before, frankly admitted they had been wrong. I had won over the audience, and understandably this granted me profound and persistent satisfaction.”

Label: MUSICAPHON SACD 56920
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ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810 – 1856): SYMPHONY NOS. 2 AND 4 (LÜBECK PHILHARMONIC LIVE VOL. 7)

PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRAOF HANSESTADT LÜBECK, ROMAN BROGLI-SACHER

This 7th volume of the Lübeck Philharmonic Series celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great composer Robert Schumann. It features the Schumann’s second and fourth symphonies conducted by Roman Brogli-Sacher.

Label: MUSICAPHON SACD 56924
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William Babell (ca. 1690-1723): 12 Sonatas for Oboe and Basso Continuo

ARTISTS: Concert Royal Köln

The London violinist, harpsichordist and composer William Babell received his initial musical training from his father. He had further lessons with Johann Christoph Pepusch. In 1718, Babell accepted the position of organist at All Hallows, Bread Street, until his premature death at the age of thirty-three. Babell composed sonatas for violin and flute with basso continuo, and specialized in arrangements for keyboard instruments of arias from well-known operas of the time. With these, he earned a reputation throughout Europe. Johann Mattheson, Handel’s boyhood friend, opined that Babell had surpassed Handel as an organ virtuoso. Even the music historian Sir John Hawkins admired Babell’s virtuosity; he ascertained that Babell’s works could be adequately played only by a very few artists other than the composer himself. Handel considered Babell’s transcription from Handel’s opera Rinaldo to be the standard for his virtuoso harpsichord playing.